8/29/08:   It has been an unbelievable year for dorado.  Every week when I compile my fishing report numbers, I’m am astonished at how consistent the dorado numbers have been.  This week was no exception!  They may not be as big as everyone would like, but they are out there in large numbers.  And that is not to say that you won’t come across the occasional 30-50 pound bull, but to be honest, the majority have been under 30lbs.  The other thing that has been really nice is that it doesn’t matter which way you go to catch them, because they are everywhere.  Jim Gallivan of Santa Clarita, CA  fished for three days out of Palmas De Cortez this past week and he told me over the phone that some boats would go south and others would go north in the morning, and that when they all came back in in the late afternoon, every boat would be flying between 1-20 dorado flags.  Jim went on to say that he was fortunate enough to land a nice 35lb. bull along with about 30 smaller dorado, 15 yellowfin tuna, and a sailfish to boot.
 

There were not too many billfish landed this week.  A few sails, but not the numbers we were seeing earlier in the season, but with all that dorado and tuna in the water, no one is complaining.  That’s it for this week amigos.  Saludos…..Eddie

8/22/08:   Hola amigos!  This weeks report will look a lot like last weeks.  Dorado and tuna were the species of the week once again.   Many anglers are hitting the tuna schools which this week were located about 8 miles from Punta Colorada to the south and near Punta Pescadero to the north.  Dorado were found just about every where you looked.  My co-worker Dusty Burns is currently fishing out of Hotel Palmas De Cortez and he reported to me that they got into a school of tuna about 8 miles east of Punta Colorada.  After getting there fill of tuna, they went closer to shore and landed 5 dorado right in front of Punta Colorada.  The tuna were in the 20 lb. range and the dorado were in the 25-35 lb. range.  Dusty also mentioned that most of the other boats that went out these past few days were bring in limits on both tuna and or dorado.

The billfish are still around with a few blue marlin, plenty of stripe marlin and sailfish.  The best spot this week for the billfish was a few miles directly out of Palmas De Cortez.  Dusty reported that one angler landed a 260 lb. blue marlin yesterday just about 7 miles out from Palmas De Cortez. 

The weather couldn’t be better, as the humidity levels have dropped a bit and the water temperature is right around 80 degrees.  This is a nice relief from the very humid conditions that a typical for this time of year.  There was even a small rain storm that hit the area today that was much needed due to the lack of rain fall in the East Cape.

That’s it for this week amigos!  Tuna and Dorado are wide open, so get yourself down to the East Cape and have at it.  Until next week!  Saludos…Eddie

8/15/08: Hola amigos! We had a pretty decent week in the East Cape. Not quite like the week we had last week, but a good number of fish landed. The tuna bite continues to be strong, although no real big boys to talk about. Most of the tuna that was brought in were football size or smaller, with the occasional 50-60 pounder. Boats found tuna schools to the north once again as close as Punta Pescadero and as far north as the 88 fathom. Others traveled to the south near Punta Colorada and further south near Cabo Pulmo to find some nice tuna schools.

The dorado continue to impress. Not so much with the amount of dorado caught, but with the size of dorado that we’ve seen the entire year. This week we saw some 30-50 pound dorado landed, which has been consistent with the entire year. It has really been a terrific year for nice size dorado. Please remember that if you do come across a small female dorado, think about returning it back to the ocean to fight another day. This practice will insure that we continue to have great dorado fishing for years to come. I’ve seen too many small fries come in this year that have no business being taken. I’m talking about as small as five pound female dorado, which will yield approximately 2 pounds of eatable fillets.

We are also seeing a small surge of sailfish this week, which is a good sign of things to come in the next few months. Sailfish seemed to be way down this year compared to other years, but within the last few weeks we are starting to see the numbers rise. Last year we had a great October and November for sailfish, and I have a felling that we may see a repeat of that this year.

Please remember to practice CPR (catch, photograph, and release) when ever possible. Specially on all billfish, as these beautiful species only breed one at a time. If we continue to practice this type of fishing, we will have the opportunity to enjoy great fishing for many years to come. Best of luck to those of you heading down to the East Cape next week. Until next week…..Saludos, Eddie

8/8/08: Hola amigos!  Well it was another great week of fishing on the Sea of Cortez.  We saw lots of yellowfin tuna and dorado, although most were football size or smaller.  We did however see a few big boys as well.  Dorado up to 57lbs. and tuna up to 75lbs.  Fishing was good to the north from Punta Pescadero to Cerralvo Island and to the south from Punta Colorada down to Boca Del Salado.  With limits being reached on tuna and dorado, we did not see very many marlin come in this week.  It appears as though most everyone headed for the tuna and dorado bite.

Palmas De Cortez hosted the 2008 Big Fish Round Up this week.  This is a yearly tournament put on by Richard Castaneda of Cass Tours.  Some of the major sponsors of this tournament included Daiwa, Braid Products, the El Cid Resorts, the Aires Fleet from Mazatlan, and Van Wormer Resorts.  We would like to congratulate Cass Tours on another extremely successful tournament.  We would also like to congratulate all of the participants who made this great tournament possible.  Here are some of the results from this years tournament.  Bill Dowling won the Biggest Tuna category with a nice 72.9lb. yellowfin.  Dan Richardson took second place with a 69lb. yellowfin, and third place went to Garret Lenz with a 52.7lb. yellowfin.  Dan Richardson also took first place in the Biggest Dorado category with a very nice 57.3lb. dorado.  Second place went to Willaim Cassell with a 56.6lb. dorado, and third place went to Chris Robbles with a 42lb. dorado.  Congratulations to all of you!

This weekend Philip Friedman of 976-TUNA will be at Palmas De Cortez with his very special guest Brian Shaw of the Los Angeles Lakers.  We will get a report from those guys at the end of next week to see how they did.  You can also get an up to the minute report on Philip and Brian’s trip by visiting their website at 976TUNA.com.

That is all for now amigos!  Best of luck to everyone heading down to the East Cape this week, and if you haven’t made you plans to visit up this year, it’s not too late.  We still have over three months of excellent fishing left, so we hope to see you down in the East Cape soon.  Thanks, Eddie

8/1/08:   Hola amigos!  Sorry for the absence of the fishing report for the last few weeks.  I was down in the East Cape for two weeks (working and playing).  I did not get a chance to post anything while I was down there, so I have some catching up to do.  As most of you know, the fishing is always great in the East Cape this time of the year.  But after talking to many of the locals and several captains on my last visit, I can honestly say that the fishing in the East Cape hasn’t been this good in over 20 years.  I know I’ve said this before, but I saw it first hand and I talk to many guest while I was there and they echoed my thoughts as well.

The tuna bite continues to impress with nearly 1000 tunas caught this week.  They are ranging from football size to 120 lbs.  Most of the ones I saw on my visit were in the football size range.  However, I did see some big ones in the 60-80 pound range as well.  Captains have been seeing tuna from Cerralvo Island to the north to Cabo Pulmo to the south and all points in between.  I landed 5 football size tuna right in front of Punta Pescadero, which is only a few miles north of hotel Palmas De Cortez.

The dorado fishing has been no stop this year.  Every week as been great for dorado, and big ones at that.  As most of you I’m sure have already read, Dax Morgan on board the Captain Morgan, won this years Dorado Shoot Out with an impressive 64.4 lb. bull.  Not only did Dax win the $30,000 VanDaiz Super Panga, but he was entered across the board in the optional jack pots and took home over $43,000 in cash.  Congratulations to Dax Morgan from all of us at Van Wormer Resorts. After the Dorado Shoot we continued to see some big dorado come in.  I personally saw three dorado well over 50 lbs. and many in the 25-45 pound range the week after the tournament.

The big blues have been the story for the last month and a half.  The day of the Dorado Shoot Out, Ken Megaard and his group caught a 530lb. blue aboard the 25’ super panga Splash.  This came just a few weeks after a 900. 800, 600 pound blue were caught.  It is nice to see the big blues come back strong as they have this year.  Most of the credit for that has to go to each one of you.  With everyone practicing CPR (catch, photograph, and release), this has really gone a long way in helping the blues make a come back, and we are seeing that pay off big time this year.  Keep it up! 

That is all for this week amigos.  If you haven’t made plans to come down and fish with us, it’s not too late.  We are heading into some of the best fishing months of the year and we have some great specials in August and September.  When you book a four night stay at any of the Van Wormer hotels, we will give you the fourth night free when you fish at least 2 days.  Give us a call and we’ll take care of all the arrangements.  Until next week…..Saludos, Eddie

7/11: Hola Amigos!  The target this week seemed to be yellowfin tuna.  With the schools of yellowfin moving closer to shore, many anglers took advantage as is apparent by the over 1,200 yellowfin landed.  The yellowfin have been mostly football size, with some nice size 60lb. to over 100lb. mixed in.  There were also some nice size blue marlin caught and released this week with the largest weighing in at over 400lbs.  Not as big as last weeks 900 pounder, but that’s not going to happen every week.  There are still quite a few Dorado in the area, but with the tuna bite going off like it did this week, the dorado numbers have fallen. 

The East Cape is gearing up for their largest tournament of the year, the 4th annual Van Wormer Resorts Dorado Shoot Out taking place on Saturday, July 19th.  With one of the lowest entry fees of any tournament, and the grand prize being a $35,000 Van Diaz Super Panga, it’s no surprise that there will be over 150 teams entered in this years tournament.  The team with the largest dorado on July 19th will walk away with a brand new boat.  Best of luck to all the teams, and we look forward to seeing you down at the East Cape.
Until next week….tight lines!  Eddie Dalmau

Then later in the week we had a run of monster size blue marlins.  On Thursday, John Walraven of Clovis, California landed a 898 pound blue marlin while fishing aboard a 22 foot super panga named Rude Baby with Captain Chuy Aguilar out of hotel Playa Del Sol.  This giant marlin took over 3 hours to land and died in the fight.  The marlin was landed near hotel Punta Colorada with 60lb. test and a 200lb. leader.

Then on Saturday, two more blues were landed out of hotel Punta Colorada.  One of the blues was estimated at 600 pounds. and was released to fight another day.  The second blue marlin weighed close to 800 pounds, but died in the fight.  Both of these blues were landed by guests fishing on cruisers out of hotel Punta Colorada.  As soon as I get more details on these two giants I will pass the information on to you.  This is a great sign to see such big fish so early in the season.

As if this was not enough great news, the yellowfin tuna numbers continue to rise, with over 700 yellowfin landed this week between all for Van Wormer Resorts.   I know I’ve said this before, but this is really turning out to be a year to remember.  Don’t miss out of what is turning out to be some of the best fishing in 20 years.  We hope to see you all down here real soon.

Eddie Dalmau/Van Wormer Resorts