Fishing Report Archives - 2005 2006 2007

Fishing Report! 12-11-06
Striped marlin and dorado continue to lead the way in terms of the offshore species here on the East Cape. Good numbers of stripers are around and susceptible to both trolled lures and pitched live bait. Primarily mackerel are available as bait. Average size for the mahi-mahi have dropped a bit from the huge fish we were seeing earlier in the fall (some 60-pounders were being caught!). Dorado now are in the 25-35 pound range, still a nice size. The yellowfin tuna schools have moved out of our area, which is typical for this time of year as the water temperatures cool from their 90-degree summer range into the low-70's. Our water temps are ranging from 72-78 degrees now. A few nice wahoo are being caught in the 40-pound range, and our biggest blue marlin of the fall weighed in at over 500 pounds.

Inshore, some sierra mackerel are in the vicinity of La Ribera, and a few roosterfish are still being caught, although the fish are small. Pargo and cabrilla snappers round out the inshore opportunities.

The resorts are gearing up for the holidays, at full capacity, with lots of guests enjoying the serenity of the East Cape during holiday vacation time, and fewer people traveling to our hotels specifically for the fishing. This gives us an opportunity to pull some of our fleet from the water in shifts for regular maintenance, equipment upgrades, and hull paintings. We're very excited for 2007, when we'll be putting the biggest sportfishing fleet in Mexico back in the water at fulll throttle (78 boats), with many of our most popular boats as clean and freshly painted as they have ever been! Cummins Marine, our power plant provider, really likes us since we've been ordering so many new engines for our fleet. This means faster boats, cleaner-burning engines, and more fishing fun than ever before will be in store for our guests in 2007!

Fishing Report! 11-9-06
The craziness of October is now behind us. October traditionally is our busiest month of the year, with several large groups participating in “fun” tournaments taking up large blocks of rooms. It wraps up a busy summer where we are fishing “wide open” every single day with the entire fleet on the water most days. We are so blessed with the tremendous bounty on the Sea of Cortez, and with the catch-and-release ethic entrenched with so many of our guests, the billfish populations remain incredibly consistent from season to season.

Striped marlin continue to lead the way with both numbers and tremendous average size. This has been a very good year for the stripers, and some days are still providing multiple hookups for some of the boats. More than a dozen striped marlin over 200# have been released in just the past few weeks, with many more from the 100-200# class also in the mix. Sailfish numbers have started to dwindle somewhat with cooling water temperatures, which are ranging from 74-80 degrees on our fishing grounds. Trolled lures are taking most of the fish, but with an abundance of mackeral, caballitos, and sardines available, a lot of bait-and-switch is going on with marlin and sails coming into the lure spread and then biting on a pitched live bait.

Several yellowfin tuna schools have been congregating in our waters as well, including a sizeable school just four miles north of Palmas de Cortez located just offshore from the “Tuna Slides”. Most of the fish are 10-30 pound size, but a few over 50 pounds also are being caught. Some good-sized bonita (blackfin) are mixed in, and the boats have scaled back to 20# test line for light tackle fun. Boats primarily are drift-fishing with live sardines and caballitos for most hookups.

The dorado fishing also has been very steady, and the fish are running big. A number have topped the scale at 60 pounds, but most are 30—40 pound fish. Dandy mahi mahi nonetheless! Trolled lures, fishing with live bait around flotsam, and sight-fishing for roaming fish are the productive methods for dorado right now.

Some smaller roosterfish, plenty of pargo (dogtooth snapper), and some cabrilla snapper round out the inshore fishing opportunities. The last blue marlin was caught and released a few days ago and estimated at 275 pounds. Black marlin have been absent this season, with just a few fish being spotted in the lure spreads during the past month.

Fishing Report! 10-5-06
We’ve taken a brief hiatus from the fishing reports in order to get caught up on some bigger issues in the past month! But we’re happy to report: fishing is fantastic here on the East Cape. Leading the way are excellent numbers of both yellowfin tuna and dorado, with anglers catching numbers of fish in all directions out from the resorts. Dorado probably are leading the way, with a stretch in the past few weeks where boats were catching a dozen or more fish per day. Average size is good as well, with many fish 20-40 pounds and some of the biggest bulls pushing the scales at 60+ pounds! These are huge mahi mahi! Fish are susceptible to trolled lures as well as live sardines chummed and presented on bait hooks. A lot of fish are being caught just a few miles offshore.

Yellowfin tuna numbers are steady and strong. Fish are ranging from schoolie size 10-pounders up to some 80+ pound bruisers. Trolled cedar plugs, hootchies, and feathers, along with some live bait tactics, are catching most of the tuna. Most of the tuna schools are being located around 20 miles offshore.

Marlin action is down somewhat from the mid-summer boom. Striped marlin are still available, but not in consistent numbers, and from week to week the sailfish and stripers flipflop their catch rates. One week it seems the stripers are more prevalent; the following week the sailfish numbers exceed the marlin. A couple of blue marlin have started to show up, likely chasing tuna and other baitfish schools in our warm waters. Surface temperatures are in the mid-80’s right now. A few wahoo are around as well. Bait availability includes sardines, caballitos, and mackerel.

With excellent fishing for yellowfin tuna and dorado, and a few marlin thrown into the mix for good measure, it’s a fine time to be in the East Cape!

Fishing Report! 8-31-06
With water temperatures from 80-90 degrees, and air temps from the mid-70's at night to highs of close to 100 degrees during the daytime, it's a glorious time to be fishing on the East Cape. Mild offshore breezes and perfectly tropical conditions are making for yet another wonderful summer season here in the Baja!

Overall, fishing is excellent. It's hard to imagine, but catch rates for both yellowfin tuna and dorado have INCREASED in the past 7-10 days. We were already enjoying a phenomenal year for yellowfin numbers, and dorado have been exceptional as well, and now the fishing is even better. Huge schools of tuna are being located to the south off Cabo Pulmo and down to Los Frailes, 8-18 miles offshore. 20-50 pound fish are common, with boats experiencing multiple hookups on trolled hootchies and cedar plugs trolled through the school. Every rod pops at once! Occasional brutes in the 80-100 pound class are being caught as well. With so much action for numbers, no boats are venturing further into the Sea of Cortez to locate possible additional schools of tuna that might hold even bigger fish. We're still waiting for those 200-pound-plus monsters!

Dorado hookups are excellent. Numerous fish are in the area, sometimes in small schools of 3-5 fish but more typically individual adult fish that are coming into the spread to attack marlin lures. 25-45 pound fish are common, with a few over 50# being reported. Pitching live mackerel to fish spotted on the surface remains a favorite technique for the dorado also.

Striped marlin numbers are consistent, but we're starting to see signs of adult fish dispersing. Tagging studies prove that stripers from our region of the Pacific are wide roamers, covering many thousands of miles in the Pacific, and although thousands upon thousands of striped marlin congregate near the Baja Peninsula in spring to spawn, and some fish are around our area year-round, many adults disperse as well. Over 100 stripers were caught last week in the fleet, with the overwhelming majority of them being released. Many hundreds more were spotted on the surface tailing or jumping, or spit the hooks during the fight.

Sailfish numbers are down a little bit from earlier in August. We often don't see huge numbers of sails in the East Cape anyway; this year the fish are around but not overwhelming. A few blue marlin are being reported, and no black marlin have been hooked up in the past several weeks.

Little inshore action is being reported, but virtually no boats are targeting roosterfish, snapper, sierra, or other inshore species since the tuna bite is so wide open, along with the strong numbers of big dorado and plenty of striped marlin around.

Fishing's wide open, the action's fast and furious, and the weather's fantastic here on the East Cape!


Fishing Report! 8-26-06
One of the most consistent and memorable fishing years in recent memory continues here on the East Cape. Leading the way are the excellent number of yellowfin tuna, with huge schools of fish being located just a few miles offshore of Cabo Pulmo and points further south. Although the vast majority of fish are running 25-50 pounds, a number of fish over 100 pounds are being hooked as well. The action is steady, with most boats reporting multiple hookups throughout the morning (when the bite is a little better). Limits are common. The fish aren't really showing a preference for one bait over another--the tuna are biting on live sardines and mackerel, as well as trolled lures, feathers, and of course cedar plugs. Quadruple and quintuple hookups are common when passing through the school.

Likewise, dorado fishing remains excellent. Average size has come down a bit in recent weeks, with most fish in the 20-40 pound range. Every so often, a bruiser of 40- or even 50-pounds plus is showing up, but not with the regularity of a few weeks ago. Again, the fish are being found close-in, and are susceptible to trolled lures as well as pitched live baits mackerel and sardines. Many fish are being spotted roaming the surface and are being sight-fished.

Billfish also are consistent. Leading the pack (as usual) are good numbers of striped marlin 100-180 pounds as well as quite a few sailfish in the 100-pound-plus class. Trolled lures and live mackerel are taking most fish. Blue marlin are running small, at around 250-350 pounds, and less than fifty fish are being contacted by the fleet per week, but hookup percentage is excellent. Black marlin remain a rare species in the area indeed. Two reported blacks were seen in lure spreads last week. Anglers are enjoying short morning runs to all fish species, with many of the blue water species being contacted just a few miles out from traditional shore markers such as Punta Arena, La Rivera, Las Barracas, and Los Frailes to the south, and Punta Pescadero, Punta Perico, and Cerralvo Island to the north. Straight east right into the Sea of Cortez is just as productive.

Hurricane Ileana is 350 miles to the southeast and spinning out into the Pacific to the west northwest. Seas remain flat calm except for light afternoon heat breezes kicking up a 1-3 foot chop, and no high seas from Ileana are expected within 150 miles of our area. Water temperatures range from 80-90 degrees. We remain rainfree and HOT! Lovely summertime fishing weather, awesome cool drinks, an incredible fishing are here on the East Cape!

Fishing Report! 3-23-06
The fishing on Baja's East Cape has really cranked up in the past couple of weeks. Although the weather has been a little goofy, just like in the U.S., overall conditions are ideal. We've been experiencing a few days of north winds and cooler air temperatures--70 degrees--along with fingers of cooler northern Gulf of California waters also at about 70 degrees. This is keeping many of the pelagic gamefish to the south of the resorts, almost as if the water temperature gradients are having a damming effect.

It's about a 25-mile run south to find 73 degree water, and in this area the fish are congregating in huge numbers. Two weeks ago the run was closer to 40 miles. However, the extra drive time is well worth it, since, in the words of our captains, they are finding "mucho marlin royalos y dorado." Although this translates to "a lot of striped marlin and dorado," the general reaction from our guests has been "I can't believe how many fish I saw, there must have been a thousand marlin in just one area!!" The flags tell the tales. Because our boats hoist a variety of flags on the outriggers at day's end to highlight their catches, the results are obvious. Boats are catching and releasing 4-10 striped marlin per day when focusing on billfish; other boats targeting dorado and tuna are flying 2-10 flags each and bringing in coolers worth of tasty fillets. Each billfish caught is designated a blue flag, and each release a triangular red/white flag, so the marlin boats are flying 8-20 flags apiece--spectacular stuff. The yellow dorado flags and white tuna flags on other boats boasted similar fishing feats.

We're very excited about the ingrained catch-and-release ethic at our resorts. Very few guests choose to kill marlin, and our captains certainly discourage it. We do lose a few to hooking mortality, but in the past few weeks we are seeing a 12-to-1 up to 15-to-1 release/mortality ratio. The few fish we are losing are bleeding heavily at boatside and the captains have to make the call to take those fish. Remember that bleeding marlin often drop to depths of 100 meters or so very quickly, where the water pressure stems blood flow and allows the fish to recover, so unless the gills are badly damaged it's worth the effort to release the fish. The reason we have so many marlin is because of catch-and-release! Keep the dorado and tuna, which make far better table fare anyway. Instead of posing for a photo with a dead fish hanging on the chain, instead ask the captain to pull the fish up on the transom for a quick photo befoore release!

Congratulations go out to the Kohlhases from Virginia, Minnesota, first-time visitors to the Baja, who fished on "Don Antonio" and racked up seven striped marlin and one big sailfish on their first-ever big game fishing trip. Great day, folks, you're now spoiled for life! Wisconsinite Dave Gellatly successfully landed a 90# (yes, NINETY) pound wahoo, a feat made especially impressive since the crew was trolling for marlin hence the lures had no wire leaders attached. And how about Mark Arnesen, Ted Krause, and Steve Soukup, Minnesotans fishing on "El Borracho," who managed an exciting quadruple hookup of two 40# yellowfin tuna, one 35# dorado, and a 125# striped marlin when trolling through a huge yellowfin tuna school, and successfully landed all four fish (and three species) at the same time!

Tuna fishing has been very consistent in March. The best part is the nice average-size, with fish primarily in the 25-50 pound range. A few 60-pound-plus fish have been caught. Likewise the dorado, which are appearing more and more numerous every day, ranging in size from 20-40 pounds.

Inshore fishing is getting neglected because of the offshore bite, but anglers plying the waters near Punta Pescadero and the Tuna Slides to the North, as well as the region to the South known as Las Barracas, are finding plentiful snapper species, including some dogtooths. A few roosterfish have been reported in the surf near Punta Arena, but have not arrived in catchable numbers as of yet.

Thousands of porpoises are in the Sea of Cortez, and the gray and humpback whales are passing through as well. A significant amount of bait is present, from sardines to mackerel to flying fish to squid.

With daytime temps breaking 85 degrees and calming seas, the hot fishing the East Cape is famous for has arrived. Striped marlin, sailfish, tuna, and dorado are prevalent; bigger tuna, blue marlin, and black marlin won't be far behind. It's a fine time to experience Baja's East Cape!