MORE BIG TUNA! The big tuna were back this week in the East Cape and lot of them. The week started out with some very nice tuna in the 50-100 pound range, but as the week came to an end, we saw some monsters arrive. From Wednesday to Friday we say tuna come in weighing 120lbs., 130lbs., 165lbs., 170lbs., 180lbs., and the biggest of them all was landed by Richard Kingsmill of Mokelumne Hills, CA, weighing in at a whopping 224lbs. Needless to say, the tuna fishing is wide open. As is the dorado fishing, with boats coming in with limits on both tuna and dorado. The biggest dorado this week weighed in at 52lbs. with many medium size bulls as well. This week in the East Cape the Bisbee tournament took center stage, and it was an incredible tournament with lots of big Blue Marlin landed over the three day event. The first two days saw some nice blues in the 300-370 pound range, but on Friday the winning fish was weighed at approximately 450lbs. The award ceremony will be held tonight, so as of yet I do not have any results. I do know that our own Chucky Van Wormer landed a nice 119lb. yellowfin today while fishing in the Bisbee, but this was not enough to win the biggest tuna award.

Blues were not the only billfish being landed this week. There were over 80 Stripe Marlin and 60 Sailfish landed and released this week as well. In shore we are still seeing lots of medium size roosters, some nice sierras, and Jacks as well. It was another great week in the East Cape, and the best part about it is that the fishing is all happening about 2-3 miles from the hotel. One angler that I spoke with out of Playa Del Sol told me that his boat landed 15 tuna, 8 dorado, a stripe marlin and a sailfish all in one day, and he was back at the hotel before 2pm. Not a bad day on the water. If you don’t have plans to be down here this month, it’s not too late. Van Wormer Resorts is offering up some great August deals for last minute reservation and the fishing could not be better. Hope to see you down here soon. Until next week! Eddie

Fishing Report 7/23/10

The sixth annual Van Wormer Resorts East Cape Dorado Shoot Out was held last Saturday, July 17th and what an event it was. I’d like to personally thank each and every one of the participants for attending and making this the premier event in the East Cape for the sixth straight year. This years event saw 122 teams participate with close to 400 anglers bidding for the grand prize, a 2010 fully loaded 4x4 Honda Ridgeline courtesy of Honda of Los Cabos, plus thousands in cash. Third place went to Ray Figueroa from Reno, NV with a 49.1 lb. Dorado. Mr. Figueroa also won the $500 and $1,000 jackpots totaling $33,150.00. Second place went to Samir Manriquez from La Paz, B.C.S., Mexico with a 50.1 lb. Dorado. First place went to Edmundo Castro from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico with a 53.3 lb. Dorado. Mr. Castro not only won the Honda Ridgeline, but also won the $200 and $300 jackpots totaling $28,560. There were also nice prizes given to the angler with the largest Tuna and Wahoo. The biggest Tuna of the tournament was landed by Dennis Boelts weighing in at 56.7 lbs. The biggest Wahoo was landed by Manuel Mackliz weighing in at 47.5 lbs. There was a bigger Wahoo weighed that day, but came to the weigh station after it was closed. Jesus Aragon was given honorable mention award for his 56.6 lb. wahoo. Once again, a big thank you to all of the participants, sponsors and volunteers that made this event possible.

There was some pretty good fishing the rest of the week as well in the East Cape. We are still seeing an incredible yellowfin tuna bite, with tunas in the 50 lb. to 100 lb. still making there way to the dock every afternoon. The dorado bite picked up just in time for the Shoot Out and has been steadily getting better with each passing day. There were over 250 dorado landed this week between the four resorts, the biggest weighing in at 59 lbs., caught a few days after the Shoot Out. There is also a tremendous amount of marlin in the area right now. More than 10 large blues were landed this week with an average weight of approximately 400 lbs. The stripe marlin were also a big target this week with more than 50 landed and released. Closer to shore, the roosters, jacks and pargo were keeping the fisherman busy. There were more than 20 roosters, 12 pargos, and 20 jacks landed this week. We also saw the return of the sailfish this week. The sails had moved away when the water turned cold, but are starting to come back as the water warms. The day time highs are reaching the upper 90’s now and the water temperatures are in the high 70’s to low 80’s. That’s it for this week amigos!

Fishing Report 7/02/10
Fishing is seriously crazy right now. It is wide open in the East Cape! Roosters up to 50lbs., Tuna up to 200lbs., Pargo up to 60lbs., Wahoo up to 100lbs., Dorado up to 50lbs.(finally), Stripe Marlin, Blue Marlin, Cabrilla, Amber Jack, Jack Cravalle, trigger fish and squid. I can't tell you how many guests have come up to me and said that it's been the best fishing they've ever seen.
Now that the Dorado are finally starting to come in, the fishing in the East Cape feels right. This week was the first time since April that we saw dorado in the 35-50lb. range on a consistant basis. Most of the big dorado were landed south of Hotel Punta Colorada where the water is a bit warmer. This comes just in time, as the Dorado Shoot Out is only 15 days away. Jim Sammons of La Jolla Kayaks is in town this week with his group over at Hotel Punta Colorada. Jim reported catching his biggest roosterfish ever on a kayak at 50lbs. Jim said it was the fastest he's ever been pulled by a fish while on a kayak.
The biggest fish of the week was landed by Gary Elrod and Tom Reid of Reno, NV, who had a double hookup on two monster tunas on board the Fresh Catch. Gary's tuna weighed in at 204.8 lbs and is now the biggest of the year. Tom's tuna weighed in at 136lbs. You'd be hard pressed to find a better double hookup anywhere. The 204lb. tuna was landed using a Seeker Rod with a Penn International 50 wide reel. The monster tuna took a piece of chunck squid and put up a 1 ½ fight before giving in. These were not the only big tunas caught this week. We had tunas weighed in at 87lbs, 93lbs, 120lbs, 136lbs, 154lbs, 198lbs, and 204lbs, along with hundreds from 15-40lbs.

Fishing Report 6/25/10

KEEP´N IT REEL AT PALMAS DE CORTEZ

The 2010 Keep´n It Reel Fish and Chips tournament got under way today and what a day it was for everyone involved. 15 boats participated in this year’s tournament and every single one of them came back with some very nice yellowfin tuna. The third place tuna weighed in at 122lbs. The second place tuna weighed in at 133lbs. The winners of the 2010 KIR Fish and Chips tournament were Jack Wright, Troy Peterson, Kevin Chrisman and Jermy Galatio from the state of Washington, whose tuna weighed in at a whopping 143lbs. It took these guys only 45 minutes to bring in this monster while fishing aboard the Jen Wren with Captain Mark Rayer. Tomorrow the tournament will conclude with the always exciting no limit poker tournament at Hotel Palmas De Cortez.

It was all about the tuna this week in the East Cape. There was well over 500 yellowfin tuna landed this week ranging from football size to the biggest this week coming in today at 143lbs. There were approximately a dozen tuna that were weighed or estimated at over 100lbs this week and many more that came up just a few pounds short of the 100lb. mark. Once again there was quite a bit of sashimi being passed around the bar area this week. A special thank you goes out to Mrs. Saiki, who prepared some of the best sashimi I´ve ever had the pleasure of eating. Because of all the tuna that came in this week, Mrs. Saiki prepared enough sashimi for everyone at the hotel to enjoy. "Thank you for all your hard work Mrs. Saiki".

The tuna bite was fantastic, but let´s not forget about all the other species that were landed this week. After all this is the East Cape we´re talking about and the East Cape is known for year round marlin. There were plenty of stripe marlin to be had this week. For those fishermen who reached their limits on tuna, many went after striped and blue marlin with great success. There were over 200 marlin landed this week out of the three hotels. The wahoo are still around as well, with approximately 15 landed, and the biggest weighed in at 105lbs. The only down note to this report is the lack of dorado right now. Captains are seeing big schools of dorado, but everything that is being landed is too small to keep. We are seeing the occasional 20 to 30 pound dorado, but not in any great numbers at all.

Fishing Report 6/18/10

This fishing really turned on this week. The long awaited arrival of the dorado finally came, with over 350 dorado landed this week. We saw some nice 35-45 pound bulls, but most of the dorado were in the 10-20 pound range. The tuna bite continues to be the talk at the hotels, with most anglers catching limits each day. We did see a few tuna over 50 pounds, but most were football size. Lots of sashimi being passed around at the bar this week. There were also some really nice pargo caught this week in the 15-20 pound range. Wahoo have also been coming to the docks on a daily basis. Today I say three nice wahoo come in weighing in at 30-40 pounds. The marlin bite continues to be very good, but with most anglers concentrating on all the good eating fish, we didn’t see too many marlin flags flying. The captains did tell me this week that there are a lot of them out there as well as some big blues in the 300 to 500 pound range. The inshore bite continues to be red hot as well, with some really nice jacks in the 35lb. range, lady fish and roosterfish. Some of the other species we saw, but not in any great numbers include sailfish, cabrilla, mako shark and trigger fish. Water temperatures are pushing 80 degrees and the air temperature is now in the upper 80’s to low 90’s in the day with a night time low in the upper 70’s to low 80’s. The fishing is wide open my friends and it’s a great time to be down here in the East Cape. The weather is beautiful and the beers are ice cold, so make your reservations today.

06/11/2010

This week the fishing slowed down a bit down here in the East Cape. We are still seeing very good numbers on the yellowfin tuna, with a few boats catching up to 19 tunas per boat. The dorado fishing remains quite slow for this time of year, with only a few dorado coming in each day. The Marlin fishing was descent this week with quite a few stripe marlin being landed and quite a few that broke off. There was also a nice 400lb. blue marlin landed out of Playa Del Sol. Inshore, the roosters are still around and there have been some nice size roosters being caught from Buena Vista to Punta Colorada. The wahoo bite continues to be very good for this time of year, with another 8 wahoo landed this week. The winds played a big part in the substandard fishing this week that made for rough seas and tough fishing conditions. This is not typical for this time of year and caught most of us off guard. We do expect the winds to lay down next week and the fishing should pick up quite a bit.

Fishing Report 6/4/10

The fishing down here continues to get better as we head into the summer months. Each week the fishing has improved from the week before. This week was another great week for Tuna. We saw some nice size tuna ranging from 97 lbs. down to football size tuna. Most boats came back with plenty of tuna to fill their ice chest. One boat this week came back with 22 tunas in one day. The Rude Boy with captain Chuy on board had an outstanding day this past Sunday, landing 9 tuna (97 lbs., 84 lbs, 35 lbs., and on down) along with a 450 lb. blue marlin. This was truly an epic day on the water. The dorado fishing continues to be a bit slow, with approximately 15 dorados coming back to the docks each day. We expect that to change quickly as the dorado are our bread and butter down here in the East Cape. We are still seeing lots of Striped Marlin being caught and released, but with the great tuna bite, most anglers are not too concerned with landing marlin. The inshore fishing is holding up pretty well, with some nice roosters and lady fish being landed from the beach near Punta Colorada.


Fishing Report 5/28/10

BIG TUNA ARRIVE AT EAST CAPE, BAJA CALIFORNIA MEXICO!

On May 26th Michael Mohr, Robert Kope and Dell Simms, marine biologists from the Seattle area landed the biggest tuna so far this year weighing in at a whopping 187 pounds. Mohr and Kope took turns fighting the giant tuna which took them over 1 1/2 hours to land. While fighting the fish, their rod snapped in half and they had to hand line the fish in for the last 30 minutes. The tuna was hooked on a plain cedar plug.

The fishing seems to be picking up in the last few days. We have had boats come in with smaller tuna in the 15-35 lb. range. The largest dorado was also caught yesterday which weighed a good 50 lbs. All in all the dorado fishing has been a little slow for what we are use to here in the East Cape. We have seen quite a bit of striped marlin with some boat catching and releasing up to 7 marlin per day. The roosters have been picking up as well with many landed in the 25-35 lb. range with the larges this week weighing in at approximately 50 lbs. We've also had a few hammer head sharks as well as mako sharks this week, as well as pargo, cabrilla, wahoo, blue marlin, and pampano. The word I've been getting from the captains is that it looks like it is getting ready to bust wide open any day now.

05/02/2010

The bite was comprised mainly of Sailfish and Striped Marlin with a few Dorado and Roosterfish mixed in. Environment-wise, last week saw air
temps range between 52-85. Meanwhile, the water temp saw a range of
about 69-77. The moon hit New on April 14th. Bait-wise, we've had a
nice cjoice of sardinas, ballyjoo, and some caballito.
More specifically, Sailfish led the way last week, followed up by
Striped Marlin as anglers reported said billfish action to the north
off Punta Pescadero (10 miles), and to the south off Punta Arena (6
miles). Ballyhoo and caballito reportedly did the trick there.
Anglers only managed to locate and land a handful of Dorado last week.
Those that were landed were reported to the north off Punta pedcadero
(2 miles), and to the south off Los Frailes (4 miles). Sardinas and
ballyhoo reportedly did the trick there.
Rounding out the report were a handful of Roosterfish, landed inshore
at Punta Pescadero (sardinas), as well as one Mako Shark, landed to the
south off Loa Ribera (6 miles) on a ballyhoo.

3/19/2010
FISHING SEASON:

As we head into the peak season of fishing down on the East Cape, the winds are starting to die down and boats are leaving the dock more frequently. We had a very good off season as fishing goes on the Sea of Cortez. Winter in the East Cape usually brings windsurfers and snow birds to the town of Los Barriles with very little fishing taking place because of the north winds that usually blow all winter. There are always a couple of days a week where the winds will lay down and the fishermen get their turn on the water. This winter fishermen enjoyed a very good Striped Marlin bite with over 200 landed over a three month period. The most abundant fish in the winter time is Sierra Mackerel, and this year was no exception. Most fishermen maxed out each day on Sierra and that means plenty of ceviche back at the hotel. There were also plenty of Dorado and Pargo this winter with a few football size Tuna and Roosterfish sprinkled in to the mix. This week the winds started to lay down and more and more boats are going out as more guests arrived in the East Cape. It was a good week for Stripe Marlin, Dorado, Pargo, Sierra and Roosters. We expect to see the fishing really pick up in the next few weeks as water temperatures continue to warm and the winds disappear. As we head into Spring time, we can expect to see Stripe Marlin, Dorado, Sierra, Roosters, Pargo, Cabrilla, Grouper, and Jacks invade the Sea of Cortez.
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10/9-10/15/2009

Another great week down here in the East Cape, with most boats coming back to the docks with lots of dorado. The dorado fishing continues to be to the north near the ocho ocho and to the south near Los Frailes. The yellowfin tuna slowed down a bit, but we are still seeing tuna down south near Los Frailes as well. The biggest tuna we saw this week weighed in at 54lbs. and the biggest dorado came in at approximately 45lbs. The big story continues to be what people around here are calling “The year of the wahoo”. Ask any captain in the East Cape and they will tell you that they have never seen the wahoo bite as good as it has been this year. A few boats this week came back with as many as four wahoo in one day and we saw over 30 wahoo this week. Water temperatures continue to average 85 degrees and the air temperature has been in the upper 80’s to low 90’s. We did have a few windy days this past week, and even some rain, but this did not have an impact on the fishing.

9/25-10/1

Hello everyone,

We had another great week in the East Cape, with the tuna and dorado bite still holding up. The numbers on both tuna and dorado came down a bit from the last three weeks, but we also had less boats going out, so that may have had something to do with it. We did see over 400 yellowfin tuna landed this week ranging in size from 15-80 pounds. Most of the tuna is still to the south near Cabo Pulmo and Los Frailes. The dorado bite continues to be excellent with over 400 dorado landed this week ranging in size from 12-50 pounds. We had a really good dorado bite to the north near Bahia de Los Suenos, and near the ocho ocho marker. We also saw a drop in the number of billfish landed with only 15 stripe marlin, 3 blue marlin and 9 sails landed this week. Some of the other species we saw this week included 6 wahoo, 3 pampano, 10 pargo, 3 amber jacks and over 100 giant squid.

9/12-9/18

It was another great week in the East Cape, with most boats still fishing the yellowfin and dorado. Once again, most boats came back to the dock with limits on dorado and tuna. The tuna bite continues to be to the south near Los Frailes, which is about 45 miles south of Palmas De Cortez. Anglers reported catching tuna on live sardines, cedar plugs and medium size marlin jigs. There was more medium size tuna caught this week than say football size. Most of the tuna this week were ranging in size from 30-60 pounds, with the biggest report at 195 pounds. The Dorado bite continues to be all around the East Cape with some anglers going to the north and others going to the south. Most dorado were landed using medium size marlin jigs, frozen ballyhoo, or mackerel. The dorado ranged in size from 15 to 40 pounds.

We also saw an increase in the number of billfish that were landed this week. We saw some decent numbers on sailfish, stripe marlin and a few blue marlins as well. A few lucky anglers got into some wahoo, but only about 10 were landed this week.

Other than the great tuna and dorado bite, the big news this week was the return of the Humboldt squid. The squid can now be found right out in front of the Palmas De Cortez. You can actually see the boats from the hotel as they fish for the giant squids. Most anglers like to pull in a squid or two to start their morning as they make excellent bait.

This week the fishing in the East Cape, as one guest put it, “it was the best week of fishing I’ve every had in the 10years I’ve been coming down here”. The yellowfin tuna bite is wide open, with most boats coming back to the dock with limits. The tuna that I saw ranged in size from football size up to 200 pounds and many in the 50-90 pound range. The hot spot for tuna this week was south near Los Frailes, which is south of the Cabo Pulmo reef.

We also had an incredible week on dorado with over 1,000 dorado landed by guests at all 4 resorts. The dorado ranged in size from 15 to 30 pounds, with the occasional 40-50 pounder. Anglers reported dorado both to the north near the ocho ocho marker and to the south near the Los Frailes area.

We also saw a few wahoo this week, with approximately a dozen landed as big as 25 pounds. Since the tuna and dorado bite was so good this week, most anglers past on the opportunity for billfish, but we did see a few sailfish, stripe marlin and blue marlin this week. Many anglers reported seeing many more billfish than were landed, but said they really wanted to get to the tuna and dorado. Some of the other species we saw this week included rooster fish, pargo, and jacks, but not in any great numbers.

9/04/09

Hola Amigos, Well it was a close call, but the gods were smiling on the East Cape this time around. As Hurricane Jimena made its way up the Pacific and headed towards Cabo San Lucas, the worry was that it would find the warm waters of the Sea of Cortez and make land fall on the eastern seaboard of the Baja Peninsula. As luck would have it, Jimena stayed out in the Pacific as it worked its way up the Baja Peninsula and past the Los Cabos area. The East Cape received some much needed rain and a little wind, but not much else. The fleet of over 60 boats was pulled out of the water Sunday and Monday just incase the storm took a turn for the worse. By Wednesday afternoon, crews began working on returning boats to the water and fishing resumed on Thursday morning. The hotels are all fully operational and fishing has returned to its normal schedule.
For those guest that either weathered the storm or were able to make it down right after the storm past, the fishing could not have been better. As happens many times after a storm, the dorado fishing exploded. Most boats returned to the docks on Thursday and Friday with limits on dorado. Storms tend to leave lots of debris in the water as they pass through, and this is a magnet for schools of dorado. This was definitely the case with the passing of Jimena. We did see a few billfish come in but with the dorado bite being what it was, most anglers took advantage of the opportunity and filled their coolers with Mahi Mahi fillets. That’s about it for this week amigos. I’ll have a more complete fishing report next week, as fishing was limited this week.


Latest fishing report for East Cape -

What a difference a week makes! Fishing this week in the East Cape has really picked up compared to last week. The talk around the docks this week was about the BIG tuna. There were over 600 yellowfin tunas landed this week. Many were football size, but we did see quite a few in the 90-220 pound range. There was a nice tuna bite all week long directly in front of Playa Del Sol approximately 10-15 miles straight out to the East. This is where the Deluxe Cruiser “El Tio” landed a 179 pounder as well as a 220 pounder a few days later. One guest out of Punta Colorada landed a nice 90lb. yellowfin tuna just outside of Punta Colorada.

We also saw some nice size dorado come in this week. Guests staying at Hotel Punta Colorada enjoyed fishing a school of dorado that hung around all week approximately 1-2 miles offshore of the hotel. There were some nice 30-40 dorado taken from this school. Most of the boats from Playa Del Sol and Palmas De Cortez that came in with dorado were fishing to the south near Punta Colorada.
The marlin fishing remains a bit spotty, but we are seeing the numbers improving. This week we saw some nice 500 plus pound blue marlin, along with some nice striped marlin and sailfish. There were approximately 15 blue marlin landed, 42 striped marlin, and 64 sails. We also saw a few roosters this week but not as many as wee saw earlier in the year. Jacks, pargos, needle fish, and bonita were also boated in small numbers. Let’s hope that the fishing continues to improve and we see even better numbers next week.