GORDO BANKS PANGAS
March 15th, 2026
This is always a busy week for the local population as they prepare for next week’s festivities. March 19th is the official San Jose del Cabo Day, and the city hosts a weeklong fiesta and carnival (rides, concerts, fishing tournament, off-road races, etc.) situated downtown. This makes for major congestion, as streets are blocked off and normal traffic routes are altered. Weather patterns are quickly turning around; springtime has definitely arrived. We are expecting daytime highs now of up to 87-88 degrees starting next week!
It was a challenging week for most boats. The tuna bite continues to be spotty throughout Vinorama, San Luis, and Iman. As we have seen in the previous weeks, some days were much better than others, with most bites coming later in the morning. We continue to target these tuna on live/dead sardines and strips of squid. The weight range for these tuna was anywhere from 10 to 50 pounds. On a good day, boats were able to land 1 or 2 tuna; some boats tried all morning and were not successful.
While looking for tuna throughout the areas of Vinorama to Iman, many boats were able to secure dinner by jigging for white Bonita. Some boats decided to focus a good portion of the morning on looking for bottom fish as well. Good areas this week for bottom were Cardon, La Fortuna, 25, Vinorama, Iman, and San Luis. Some boats even went the other direction towards Palmilla and Cerro Colorado. We did not see great numbers, though we did see quality fish brought in every day. On Saturday, we had 3 yellowtail in the 25-to-30-pound range. Within the mix of species, we also had a handful of amberjack, grouper, and snapper (mostly red and yellow, a couple of barred pargo).
The highlight of the week was more dorado action. While fishing for tuna or covering grounds trolling ballyhoo and lures/feathers, we saw good dorado numbers, most of them medium size in the range of 18 to 28 pounds. We even had a 40-pounder brought in this weekend. Not many wahoo to report yet, though a couple of them were brought in this weekend as well.
We are still hearing reports of tuna running with porpoise schools not too far from us. On a typical day (specially pangas or 1 engine boats) it is challenging to make this run as they can be spotted anywhere from 30 to 40 miles from the marina. On days where these schools were reported around the 30-mile mark, many pangas decided to make the run from the fishing grounds. Most boats landed quality size tuna, averaging 30 to 50 pounds. On Saturday, one of our pangas landed 5 of these tuna.
We continue to see an increase in inshore action, most specifically Sierra (Spanish mackerel). If live bait is available (sardines and caballito), there is also a good opportunity at a Rooster, Jack, or even dorado. Some nice dorado were also reported around the rock structures of our marina.
God Fishing, Brian
