Historic Hurricane Odile Makes Landfall - September 15, 2014

Hurricane Odile made landfall on the shores of Cabo San Lucas late Sunday night as a category 3, almost category 4 hurricane. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Odile's center made landfall at about 9:45 p.m. PDT near Cabo San Lucas. It said at landfall, Odile had estimated wind speed of 125 mph, and an automated station near Cabo San Lucas reported sustained winds of 89 mph with a gust to 116 mph. This historic storm is the first hurricane to make a direct hit on Cabo San Lucas with maximum impact. Odile continues to march up the Baja peninsula while steadily weakening. News of flooding and wind damage are already being reported. We were all hoping that Odile would have taken the same path as Norbert, but that was not the case. Our thoughts and prayers go out to our family in Baja.

Nos vemos,

Marcos

East Cape Guides - On The Water Report - August 16, 2014

Hola Amigos,

We are definitely in the midst of an El Nino year. Weather has been a bit screwy with small storms moving through dumping rain on the now green hills of the East Cape. Water temps are very warm ranging from 86-88 with water over 90 degrees offshore. We fished through a 4 hour rainstorm and had a triple tuna bite going while being pelted by a downpour 200 meters off of Los Frailes. Fishing has been challenging at times but the tuna bite down at Frailes continues to produce 20-40lb. fish with a few larger tuna being landed further south. Our largest was 43lbs. landed off of Vinorama. We are also seeing more white bonito, which is great for sashimi. Dorado are being caught inside and south of Punta Arena with some larger fish being landed 8-12 miles offshore from La Ribera to Frailes. Billfish has slowed on the excellent blue marlin bite we had in July but the stripes and sails continue with a few shots everyday. Inshore bite is a mixed bag of jacks, pargo and a few amberjack. Overall the fishing has been up and down, but the bite continues everyday, some days better than others. I'm looking out at the Sea of Cortez right now and it is greasy calm with clear skies. Clients Dean Lawver, Larry Janos and Norm "The Fish Slayer" fished 6 days and filled their coolers with tuna to 43lbs., dorado to 37lbs. and C&Red multiple stripes and sails. Here are some photos from the week on the water...

Buena pesca,

Mark

Elephants and Pea Shooters

Here's side story with dedicated billfish angler, Dennis Kilroy. Dennis asked me to fish with him on the Mi Pistola. I offered to us my gear but he was clear he wanted to use his tackle for our day on the water. Dennis has a collection of vintage Penn gear, 30t and a 50tw internationals and Pen rods from the 70s. Most of these real were only half filled with 50lb. line. I scratched my head as we put out the spread, all top-of-the-line Black Barts, Zukers, etc. Dennis had mention that he landed and release a blue the day before and, "I asked on which rod?" He pointed to a vintage Penn Senator rod with a 30t International that must have been 40 years old, half filled with 50lb. braid and a short topshot of 50lb. mono. I then asked, "how long was the fight?" He replied five hours. Well, off to the grounds we went and sure enough we hooked into a 300lb. blue on the same rod. The photos tell the story of vintage light tackle on blue marlin...enjoy.

Pain

More pain

Pain

More pain

DONE!

The vintage rod

East Cape Guides Report - August 1, 2014

Well, we have had some high highs and low lows these last few weeks. The weather has be unseasonably wet for this time of year with green hills instead of dry desert. We did have a small chaotic chubasco come through last Wednesday blowing the fleet off the water. It only lasted a few hours but it hit just as the boats were leaving the dock and we were in the middle of it about 4 miles off of La Ribera. 50MPH winds, sideways rain, lightning, sick clients, it was a bit loco. All is calm now as water temps are warming up from last week in 86-88 degree range with 90+ degree water 40 miles offshore from the Terrafin reports. Fishing has been a mixed bag with a really great run of blue marlin last week, tuna from 30-60lbs. just south of Frailes and we found some footballs under the porpoise 40+ miles out. Dorado have been up and down with mostly small dodos coming to the dock and the occasional report of the large 40+lb. fish landed offshore. Striped marlin and sailfish have also been a moderate catch. Roosterfish have been landed and released in front of the Cabo Riviera and some larger units down at Frailes. It's looking like the bite is prime to ramp up soon.

Blue marlin on the hook

Bloody decks!

Steve Jensen with a big Sea of Cortez sailfish

Kyler Ostenberg with a 38lb. roosterfish

Cass Tours Fishing Report for the Cabo Area Ending July 6, 2014

Cabo San Lucas - Gaviota Fleet

The billfish bite fell off considerably this past week and for no apparent reason. Another bite was starting to develop above the Gorda Banks, toward Destiladares area, but overall, the billfish were scattered in all directions on the Sea of Cortez side of Cabo. High billfish boat for the week was the "Gaviota VIII", reflecting 3 sailfish for a single day, along with a single dorado, fishing the Herradura area, out front of Cabo San Lucas. The overall fish counts for a combined total of 17 days fished reflected 7 stripers released, 3 sailfish, (2 released) 18 dorado, 4 yellowfin tuna and 17 skipjack tuna.

Cabo Climate: Mostly cloudy days with sporadic periods of sunshine and temps that varied from 76-90 degrees. Tropical Storm, Douglas, provided a good rain on Wednesday night and Thursday and the possibility for more rain is likely for the next few days, albeit, predicted at about a 30% chance.

Sea Conditions: Pacific side, from the shoreline to 25 miles out, wrapping around Cabo San Lucas and up to Las Frailes, is all reflecting 84-85 degrees. Early in the week was a couple of rough and bumpy days that faded into surface breezes flowing mostly from the southerly directions that ranged from flat calm mornings to about 9 mph by afternoons.

Best Fishing Area: The better marlin bite was above the Gorda Banks that had just begun to develop. The Herradura area produced the sailfish for a single fishing day aboard the "Gaviota VIII"

Best Bait/Lure: Live bait was the best bet for the billfish but a few billfish were also taken on rigged ballyhoo baits and artificials.

Live Bait Supply: Remains excellent for caballitos at the $3.00 per bait rate and the frozen ballyhoo baits are still available at the same rate.

 

San Jose del Cabo

Light crowds of visitors have been greeted by tropical weather patterns as we start the new month of July. Very humid conditions now, created by the recent development of Tropical Storm Douglas, which followed a path off to the northwest. This system brought scattered moderate to heavy thundershowers across Southern Baja on Thursday morning, many outdoor activities were cancelled, including local sportfishing charters, though by mid-day skies had cleared and presently the forecast appears more favorable. This is now the season where it is hard to predict the weather more than a couple of days ahead of time.

Swells increased with this distant tropical disturbance, but diminished as the storm’s distance away increased. Ocean conditions were calm, with a rolling swell, no wind to speak of in recent days. Water temperatures were 80 degrees or warmer throughout the region and clean blue water was found close to shore.

Anglers were able to find a mix of caballito, moonfish, as well as some mullet on most days and there was reports of sardinas now schooling in the vicinity of Los Frailes and further north, so that is an optimistic sign. Most common species being found out of the San Jose del Cabo area have been school sized dorado, at times very abundant and other days a bit more scattered. Majority of these dorado were juvenile sized, particularly the ones found close to shore, a handful of larger dorado up to 20 pounds have been encountered further offshore. Anglers were having good success on the schooling fish while trolling with hoochie type lures and strip baits.

Only an occasional yellowfin tuna accounted for out of Puerto Los Cabos, though charters making the long haul from the East Cape, where they have been able to find live sardinas, have found decent action on tuna in the 15 to 30 pound class near the San Luis Bank, these fish want the sardinas and have been hard to entice on anything else.

Roosterfish were found patrolling the shoreline, though the action has been hit or miss, recent trend showed these jacks more active early in the day, so far we have not seen the epic bite that there was last season. Jack crevalle were numerous along the shoreline and a few sierra were found as well. Surf fishing anglers have reported some quality sized snook to over 40 pounds during the last few week period, these prized fish hit on various baitfish as well as a variety of artificial casting lures.

Near Iman, to the San Luis and Vinorama high spots there was good action early in the morning for red snapper (huachinango), with a mix of some amberjack, cabrilla, bonito and triggerfish. Anglers did well early in the day on yo-yo jigs, as well as drift fish whole and cut baits, though this action tampered way off as the sun rose higher in the sky. This was time when most charters were shifting attention to trolling offshore waters for possible dorado and billfish. There was a mix of sailfish, striped and blue marlin now on local grounds, though not in any significant numbers, as more bolito and skipjack begin to congregate on the local fishing grounds we expect action to become more consistent.

Still have not seen any big inshore run of dogtooth snapper, sporadic action only, though this is the month when this action can be at its best, before moving to offshore structure later on in the summer.

Local panga charter fleets launching out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 46 charters for the week, with anglers accountjng for a fish count of: 3 sailfish, 4 striped marlin, 3 yellowfin tuna, 26 bonito, 55 red snapper (huachinango), 13 amberjack, 18 roosterfish, 3 sierra, 225 dorado (many juveniles released), 10 cabrilla and 18 triggerfish.