Van Wormer Resorts Fishing Report

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!

Eddie Dalmau

Baja's Van Wormer Resorts

Fishing Report 7/09/10

The fishing in the East Cape cooled off a bit…literally! With water temperatures in the Sea of Cortez dropping into the mid 60's, fishing was a bit tougher than weeks past. We still saw plenty of Tuna, with the biggest coming in at a year's best 242lbs., but not in the quantities we saw last week. The 242lb. yellowfin was landed by long time guest Alan Gibbs of Folsom, CA. Dorado ran for warmer water and were also hard to come by this week. Only a few bulls were landed this week and must were caught down south were there was warmer water. The marlin and roosters didn't seem to mind the water turning over, as we had some nice roosters and marlin caught this week. The marlin seem to be gathering just off shore of the hotels approximately 10 miles straight out. We did see some nice blue and stripe marlin this week, with the biggest blue estimated at 400lbs. and the biggest stripe estimated at 170lbs. The monster Striped Marlin was landed by Leonard Jarrott from Santa Barbara, CA. The rooster fishing continues to be hot to the south of Hotel Punta Colorada. Most of the nice roosters landed this past week were either in front of the hotel or south towards Los Frailes. Some of the other species around this week included Pargo, Trigger Fish, Amber Jack, and Jack Cravalle.

The air temperature in the East Cape also came down a bit this week, with day time highs in the upper 80's and night time lows dropping into the upper 60's. Most of the captains I spoke with today told me that the water is turning once again and expect the water temperatures to be back to normal in a few days. With the biggest tournament of the year only a week away, let's hope they are right. That is all for this week amigos! Until next week…..Eddie Dalmau/Baja's Van Wormer Resorts.

This weeks picture:

Alan Gibbs from Folsom, CA with his 242# Yellowfin Tuna.

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.

This weeks picture:

Gary Elrod from Reno Nevada with is 204lb. Yellowfin Tuna

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. All in all it was another great week down here at Van Wormer Resorts. Hope to see many of you down here very soon. All the best! Eddie Dalmau/Van Wormer Resorts

This weeks pictures are the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place teams from the Keep´n It Reel Tournament. Congratulations to all!

Fishing Report 6/18/10

Hola Amigos,

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. Hope to see you all down here very soon. Until next week…Eddie Dalmau/Baja’s Van Wormer Resorts.

Today’s picture:

The Barish family from Corona California with two nice dorado caught on the "Mi Sueno" with captain Paco.

Fishing Report 6/11/10

Hola Amigos,

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.

Until next week!

Eddie Dalmau/Baja’s Van Wormer Resorts.

Fishing Report 6/4/10

Hola Amigos,

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.

We currently have three tournaments going on down here at Hotel Palmas De Cortez, so I expect to have some great news to report next week. The weather down here is a very comfortable 90 degrees in the day and dropping down to the upper 70’s at night. Water temperatures continue to be in the upper 70’s to low 80’s. It’s a great time to be down here, so if you haven’t made your plans to come down, it’s not too late. That’s it for this week my friends.

Until next week!

Eddie Dalmau/Baja’s Van Wormer Resorts.

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.

That's it for this week amigos!

Until next week......Eddie Dalmau/Baja's Van Wormer Resorts

Fishing Report 5/17/10

Hello Everyone,

I want to apologize for not getting a fishing report up in quite some time.  No excuses, so here is the latest from the East Cape.

Fishing this week has been on and off as it has been for the past few weeks.  The biggest problem has been the lack of sardinas in the area.  With very little bait fish in the area, the predator fish don't come in like we'd like them to.  Even with the small amount of bait in the water, we are still seeing a few small yellowfin tuna coming in.  Some guest have found tuna relatively close to the hotels about 20-25 miles out and others have gone out about 40-50 miles to find the schools of tuna.  Either way they are out there and our captains are finding them.  We are also seeing some dorado in the East Cape.  Even when fishing is tough, we can always count on the dorado to be there.  We are also seeing a few stripe marlin in the area, but not in the numbers that we are all accustomed to.  Inshore we are seeing some really nice size roosters up to 40lbs.  Mike Rieser of Baja Flyfishing Co. reported having some decent days on the beach with the roosters.  That's it for now amigos.  Expect things to get much better as we get later into May. 

Until next week....Eddie Dalmau/Baja's Van Wormer Resorts

Fishing Report 3/19/10

Hola Amigos,

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.  We hope to see many of you down on the East Cape this year.  Until Next week.......Eddie Dalmau/Van Wormer Resorts

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