YELLOWFIN TUNA BITING IN ALL DIRECTIONS
FOR EAST CAPE CHARTER FISHING BOATS

June 3, 2004, Chris Moyers, East Cape Smoke House, East Cape, Mexico:

Combined fleets including Hotel Palmas de Cortez, Hotel Playa del Sol, Hotel Punta Colorada:

Charters, 312. Anglers, 864. one blue marlin, 158 striped marlin, 107 dorado, 821 yellowfin tuna, 18 pargo, and eight wahoo.

The HOT streak continues mis amigos! East Cape fishing is absolutely going OFF! It slowed up just a bit on Thursday the 3rd, but that can easily be attributed to the full moon, as well as a bit of wind. We anticipate it picking right back up in the next few days. Heck, we're averaging close to a 790 yellowfin tuna count alone over that period. Better still, the Dorado numbers are starting to creep up too. Equally impressive is the East Cape Striped Marlin bite, which continued on a steady, consistent streak. In short, anglers are reporting a ton of fun down here on the East Cape!

Environment-wise, we saw East Cape air temps with a range of 71-92 last week, so yes we're staring to heat up down here in more ways than one. It's definitely starting to feel like summer. Our good amigos at Terrafin let us know that the water temp saw a range of 72-84. As of June 2nd, there was a cooler water front averaging between 72-77, which extended from south of the Gordo Banks on up to about Isla Cerralvo on a N-NE heading. It started at about 30 miles off San Jose and ended up about 60 miles off Isla Cerralvo. Otherwise, the water within about 30 miles of the shore for most East Cape locales averaged 78-83. It looks like there are some nice temp breaks between Punta Pescadero, on down to Los Frailes. Bait-wise, we've got sardines and caballito.

The Striped Marlin bite continues to impress with an East Cape angler catch rate of 18-25% over the last four weeks. Anglers reported success to the north off Punta Pescadero (shark buoys and 20-30 miles). To the south, there was action off Rancho Leonero (23-25 miles), La Ribera (7-15-25 miles), Punta Arena (30-35 miles), and Los Frailes (10-12 miles). Caballito and lures did the trick. Also landed on the billfish front was a Swordfish, caught about 37 miles off Los Barriles on a lure (see photo above). It's always nice to see a Swordie. Also caught was a Blue Marlin off La Ribera (32 miles).

The East Cape Dorado bite, although anything but stellar, continues to pick up with some real nice fish coming in. The angler catch rate over the last two weeks averaged 10-13%. Most Dodos are between 30-50 pounds. East Cape anglers reported success to the north off Punta Pescadero at the shark buoy stops, straight off Los Barriles (25-30 miles), as well as to the south off La Ribera (7-15 miles), Las Barracas (5-10 miles), and Cabo Pulmo (27-30 miles). Sardines, caballito, and lures did the trick.

Yellowfin Tuna are everywhere amigos! The angler catch rate over the last three weeks averaged between 75-95%. East Cape anglers are reporting some serious fun to the north off Punta Pescadero (28-30 miles), as well as to the south off La Ribera (30-33 miles) Punta Arena (33-42 miles), and Cabo Pulmo (29-32 miles). Caballito, sardines, hoochies and cedar plugs did the trick there.

Rounding out the report were several East Cape Wahoo landed mostly on lures between La Ribera (18 miles), and Punta Arena (12 miles). Also landed were a whole mess of Pargo, close in off Cerro Verde. Sardines did the trick there.