Van Wormer Resorts Fishing Report 8/31/12

The week started out slow with not too many fish landed on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, but we finished very strong. Lots of tuna and dorado were caught by guests of Palmas De Cortez and Playa Del Sol the last three days. The great news is that the tuna have moved in closer and they are now only 5-10 miles south, southeast out from Palmas De Cortez. Most of the tuna were football size with a few reaching up to 35lbs. The dorado bite has improved quite a bit as well, with anglers landing dorado in the 30-50lb. range. The dorado have been to the south and north of the hotel, so it is pretty much wide open for tuna and dorado right now. With most anglers hitting the nearby tuna and dorado, not too many marlin have been landed. The El Tio landed a 150lb. striped marlin as it was coming into dock. The cruiser was inside the boat line, in between two boats that were anchored, when they spotted the fin. The hooked the fish and everyone on the dock watched as they fought the marlin for about 30 minutes. This was something you don't see every day. Anyway, that's it from down here on the East Cape. Don't forget about our September specials going on right now. Call 877-777-8862 for more details.

NEW Scentblazer Teasers

 I met Jessica at the Fred Hall Sportfishing show in Long Beach, CA. She showed me the Scentblazer product line and I was immediately interested in their teaser design. I'm a big fan of large teasers and I think they raise fish, period. I was also very interested because over the past eight or ten years I had built similar teasers out of PVC pipe, mylar tape, vinyl skirts. Basically, fancy chum tubes for trolling. The Scentblazer teaser for fit and finish made my teasers look crude in comparison. Their teaser is your classic bowling pin shape but with a two piece, polycarbonate body with a hollow bait chamber and large open grate at the back of the teaser.

 I rigged two of them up with about four feet of 650lb. Momoi Xhard leader and loaded them up with bait. The bait chamber worked perfectly with our local bullet and frigate tuna. You simply unscrew the head of the teaser, load your chum into the body and screw the two pieces together. We would remove the head (behind the pectoral fins) and tail, gut the bait, cut crosshatch slices in the body of the bait on both sides and insert into the teaser. The one detail I really liked about this teaser, unlike others on the market, was the fact that I could control the action of the teaser by adding or removing chum from the chamber. Less chum equaled more action. The teaser would buck, skitter on the surface and dive with a really erratic action with less chum. If it was packed down with bait, it would push lots of water throwing a huge smoke trail, head shake and still dig in even when the wind would come up in the afternoon. We've raised a couple blues on them this Summer but I think we are definitely going to raise some more this Fall.

Check them out at www.scentblazer.com.

Buena pesca,

Mark
EastCapeGuides.com

Van Wormer Resorts Fishing Report 8/10/12

Hola Amigos,
 
It was an excellent week of fishing down here on the East Cape. You could really feel things open up this week. August is known for being a great month of fishing. You get the Dorado, Tuna, Stripe Marlin and Roosters that you normally get early in the season, then add to it Sails, Blues and Wahoo. That is exactly what we saw happen this week. After a couple of weeks of so so fishing, the tuna and Dorado bite turned on at the same time. Boats were landing 8-12 Yellowfin up to 80# and they were less than 15 miles out for most. The same could be said about the Dorado. Early in the week it seemed like the hot spot was north about 30 miles near the Ocho Ocho. This is where the El Tio landed their monster Blue Marlin weighing in at 505lbs. Most boats were fishing Tuna and Dorado in that area when the El Tio hooked their Blue.

 Later in the week Mark Daugherty of East Cape Guides reported landing 6-10 Tuna and Dorado per boat right in front of Hotel Punta Colorada. Mark reported that he could really see things turning around this week and the fishing became wide open. He went on to report that there were big blues swimming with the schools of tuna, so anglers should be ready just incase one of these monsters hits their lure. We also saw an increase in the number of Wahoo landed and lost. Wahoo season generally starts in July and goes into November. The roosters were also out in big numbers. Most angers that targeted Roosters this week were rewarded with lots of opportunities ranging from 15-60lbs. Most of the strikes came from Lighthouse point to Cabo Riviera Marina. Some of the other species landed this week included Pargo, Bonita and Amber Jacks. That’s it for this week amigos. Check out the picture of the 200+ pound tuna landed on July 27th.

Sorry it’s so late, but I just had it emailed to me yesterday.

Eddie Dalmau

Baja’s Van Wormer Resorts

Van Wormer Resorts Fishing Report 7/13/2012

Hola Amigos,

It was quite a week in the East Cape. This was definitely the week for variety. Of course we saw the usual tuna and dorado bite, with lots of small to medium size fish hitting the dock. I should mention that there was a tuna over 200lbs. caught next door at Martin Verdugo"s. Most of the tuna I saw were from 10 to 40 pounds and the same could be said for the dorado.

But enough about dorado and tuna. This truly was a great week for variety.  We found out that the IGFA 20# line class record had been broken by Jack Kautz of Lodi, CA with a giant 101lb. rooster caught near the Lighthouse. Then Robert Dykes from Orange Park Acres, CA landed another monster rooster which could be 90-100lbs. while fishing with Chuy on the Rude Boy. Along with the giant rooster landed by Robert, Lucinda Dykes from Cottage Grove, OR and Curtis from Ladera Ranch, CA landed roosters estimated at 35, 45, 50, 70, 80 and 100 pounds all within an hour and a half in front of Lighthouse point. Then we saw a monster Amber Jack landed which was estimated at over 60lbs. The Rude Boy also came back with a small grouper which we had not seen too many of this summer. Then later in the week the Gene Duchene group landed the first big wahoo of the season estimated at 40lb. while fishing on the Whiskey. 

 The billfish numbers continued to climb with quite a few Striped Marlin landed as well as a few sails. We even saw a handful of blues landed this week, the biggest weighed approximately 340lbs.

So in recapping this weeks fishing we had Dorado up to 40lbs, Yellowfin Tuna over 200lbs., Roosters up to 100lbs., Amber Jacks up to 60lbs., Blue Marlin up to 340lbs., sailfish, striped marlin, grouper, cabrilla, bonita, and trigger fish. This truly is what makes this fishery so unique. Variety is the spice of life! Next Saturday July 21st will be the 8th Annual Dorado Shoot Out. Hope to see many of you next week. 

Eddie Dalmau

Baja's Van Wormer Resorts

Van Wormer Resorts Fishing Report 7/6/12

 Hola Amigos,

Once again I must start by apologizing for missing last weeks report. I actually got to go out and fish last Friday and did not have enough time to write my weekly report. In case you were wondering, I went out on the Deluxe Cruiser El Tio and we had an incredible day on the water. Started the day off with a 30 mile run south near Los Frailes. There we spotted a pod of spotted dolphin which were holding tuna. The first few passes were unsuccessful, but on our fourth pass through the school, every line in the water was screaming line. It was on in a big way. My friend and Owner of East Cape Guides Mark Daugherty was the first one to put a fish in the boat. It was a nice 25lb. Yellowfin landed on a cedar plug. I was the second one to put a fish on the boat and it was a 20lb. Yellowfin caught on a cedar plug. My brother in-law Dave Mills was the last of us to bring up his tuna, but he was saving the best for last. It was a nice 35lb. Yellowfin also landed on a cedar plug. This turned out to be the biggest tuna landed that day as most were all football size and smaller. After landing about 10 yellowfin, we decided to run 20 miles from our location to the shark buoys which were holding dorado. We proceeded to land 10 dorado between the three of us, mostly on sardines and strips of Yellowfin once we ran out of sardines. It was an awesome trip and I can't thank the crew Ramon and Josue enough for taking good care of us.

This week the tuna seemed to disappear early in the week. We did however see some nice dorado up to 45lbs. and some really nice Roosters up to 60lbs. Bart Whelan of Monterey, CA landed a very nice rooster while fishing with Mark Daugherty of East Cape Guides. His fishing partner Greg Whelan of Long Beach, CA also landed a nice (but smaller) rooster (see pictures below). Then like we have seen in weeks past, the end of the week came and the tuna came back. Boats were coming back in with limits on tuna, mostly football with some tuna up to 50lbs. We are still seeing some nice dorado, although most have been in the 10-20lb. range. The marlin bite has picked up bite this week as well, with some boats landing 2 or 3 in a day. Most haven't been too interested in the billfish because there has been plenty of Tuna, Dorado and Roosters around. Some of the other species landed this week include Jacks, trigger fish, pargo and bonita. 

That's it for this week amigos! Until next week....

Eddie Dalmau/Baja's Van Wormer Resorts