The World Famous EL BUDSTER goes out fishing today. But does not catch anything. They go out in search of STRIPED MARLIN & YELLOWFIN TUNA but are unable to find any. They fished out from Cabo about 12 - 16 miles. The water temp. was 71 - 73 degrees.

The Marina El Cid Sportfishing Fleet from Puerto Morelos, continues to produce a wide variety mixed-bag catch for their anglers, week after week, and this week was no different. The report reflected another 12 specie catch for the boats that fished some 25 days in the area and reflected good action for the anglers that included 2 sailfish, 21 dorado, 38 Atlantic barracuda, 4 Spanish Mackerel, 29 Bonito, 8 blackfin tuna, 1 shark, 4 soapfish, 3 snapper, 5 amberjack, 18 triggerfish and 11 grouper. There is something exciting and special about fishing in the Caribbean that attracts the anglers from all parts of the globe and especially from the East Coast areas and we believe it is the incredible variety of catch opportunities that begin within a quarter-mile of the entrance to the Marina El Cid.

 PM Climate: Mostly cloudy days with fair mixes of sunshine and comfortable temperatures that ranged from 68 nights to 82 daytime highs.

Sea Conditions: Favorable water temperatures continue at a stable 81 degrees that stems from the coast line to the offshore waters. Light surface breezes from 5-15 mph and nearly flat calm season continue to entice the anglers.

Best Bait: The always available ballyhoo continues to be the bait of choice and is provided on a fresh caught daily basis.

According to Captain Temo Verboonen, the waters have rolled over and changed from the deep blue to a greenish, off-color, and moved offshore to 20 miles and beyond, discouraging the fish from biting the baits. He said the fish bite has slowed throughout the area for both, inshore and offshore action. The overall catches for the boats reflected a couple of marlin, a few sailfish and a few dorado, and until the water cleans, it's likely to be difficult fishing for the boats. There is still lots of fish showing up for the inshore boats but even those fish are being skittish and tend to spook to the deep on the feel of the approaching boat. Temo says you get 1 or 2 chances at the inshore fish before they spook and then, you have to wait for them to re-surface and try again. Most of the inshore fish are still the bonito, Sierra and jack crevalle and only an occasional roosterfish.

 IZ Climate: Sunny & warm days during the early week, then partly cloudy days but still warm with temps from 70 nights to 87 daytime highs.

 Sea Conditions: Mostly calm waters throughout the area with light and variable surface breezes and temps that ranged from 80 inshore to 83 offshore, and all with a greenish tint.

 Best Fishing Area: None was reported in any area with the fish being caught mostly outside the 20 mile mark.

Best Lure/Bait: Most of the offshore fish were taken on the rigged trolling baits and the inshore fish were best on live baits.

Bait Supply: Remains readily available for both, fresh rigging baits and live bait.

Mazatlan is having some excellent billfish action with the Pacific striped marlin and most of the boats are reporting multiple opportunities for the billfish on a daily basis. According to Fleet Manager, Gernonimo Cevallos, the boats are having 4-5 shots at billfish everyday but only about 20% of the billfish are interested in chasing the rigged baits with most of the fish just sinking out on the presentations. Still, it appears that the action will continue for awhile and it probably reflects some billfish movement from the Cabo San Lucas side, across to the mainland side. Charters have been considerably slow this past week and only reflected 4 offshore fishing days that resulted in 7 stripers and 1 mako shark for the angler efforts. The inshore fishing produced some good small game action and reflected 14 jack crevalle, 1 corvina, 1 striper, 25 white snapper, 16 red snapper and 35 perch for their 5 days fished.

 Mazatlan Climate: Partly cloudy days with light & variable surface breezes and temps that ranged from a cool 48 degrees at night to 81 daytime highs.

Sea Conditions: Overall, very good sea conditions that kept the area nearly flat calm with inshore temps at 70 degrees and rising to 74 degrees offshore, at about 20 miles or so and bluing up to good billfish waters. Best Fishing Area: The better billfish area is now about 20 mils out to the southwest of the Marina El Cid and outbound from there.

Best Bait/Lure: The rigged baits, slow trolled from the outriggers, were best for the billfish.

Bait Supply: Remained very good throughout the week for both, live bait and fresh dead baits for rigging.

Last week, we thought the billfish may have already turned the corner, rounding Cabo San Lucas, and headed up into the Sea of Cortez, but now, I think those thoughts were a bit premature given this weeks fishing report. However, it does reflect that the billfish are not holding in a concentrated area as they should be at this time of year. While the better billfish ara continued to be in the Golden Gate Bank area on the Pacific side, the boats also caught billfish on the 1150 fathom spot and Chileno on the Sea of Cortez side. Most all of the smaller game fish, dorado, tuna, etc, came from the Pacific side, once again. The overall combined fish counts for 23 days fished reflected 8 billfish, (7 released) 15 dorado, 5 yellowfin tuna, 11 skipjack tuna, 1 Sierra and 1 roosterfish.

 Cabo Climate: Sunny & warm during the early week. Then, partly cloudy days with temps from 56 nights to 81 daytime highs.

 Sea Conditions: Cooler waters moving throughout the area on both sides of Cabo. Pacific side has warmest temps from 5 miles above and outside the Golden Gate Bank and running southerly, down across the Jaime Bank and on, outside the 1000 curve, was all at about 70 degrees. This is about a 15 mile wide swath of warmer water. Everywhere else on both sides of the peninsula was in the 67-68 degree temps.

Best Fishing Area: Continues to be on the Pacific side in the Golden Gate Bank area.

Best Lure/Bait: Live bait was by far the best for the billfish. Live Bait Supply: A good week for bait. Mostly caballitos with a few mackerel.

BILLFISH: Normally in the cooler water, this week they Striped Marlin seem to have concentrated (if you can call it that) in the warmer water atop the San Jaime Bank and just offshore in the San Jose Canyon. Still not there in great numbers, and still very picky due to all the 15 inch squid they have been feeding on, it is tough to get them to bite. With patience and enough fish to present to, some of the boats managed to release as many as four fish during a charter, but most of them were happy to get one or two releases. One thing the presence of this size squid signifies is that sometime soon we should start seeing more Swordfish, as these squid are the perfect prey for them. They also seem to show up in the slightly green water so I expect the next one caught will be from outside the Gorda Banks.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: With the warm water on the Pacific side moving in closer to us the run to the fish has lessened, but that does not mean that running to the warm water will guarantee you Yellowfin. The fish are scattered out in the porpoise and not all the porpoise have tuna associated with them. As you can see it is a bit of a crap-shoot, but if you do manage to get into the fish there have been some nice ones to 60 pounds being caught. Of course those are the exception, most of the fish have been between 12 and 25 pounds with a decent number of them 20-40 pounds. On the Cortez side of the Cape the most and steadiest action has taken place up on the Inman bank area. Chumming with sardinas from a dead, quiet boat while using very light flouro-carbon leader as small as 20 pound test has resulted in quite a few hook-ups on fish to 80 pounds. The only problem has been weeding through all the Bonita and skip jack to get to the Yellowfin! On a positive note, this also allows you to start using chunks if you run out of sardinas.

While the sailfish bite slowed up this past week the overall variety increased to a 14 species mixed bag catch for the boats and provided some top notch action for the anglers. It was one of those weeks when the angler never knew what the next fish might be. Our report encompassed a total of 29 days fished that reflected 2 sailfish, 9 dorado 8 Spanish mackerel, 15 Atlantic barracuda, 47 bonito, 2 blackfin tuna, 2 king mackerel, 2 wahoo, 6 snapper, 7 amberjack, 2 banana fish, 6 soapfish, 19 grouper and 7 amberjack.

 PM Climate: Partly cloudy but warm and pleasant days with temps that ranged from 65 nights to 83 daytime highs. Sea Conditions: Mostly light & variable surface breezes this past week with temps that held right at 80 degrees throughout the area.

 Best Bait: The ever ready and ever lasting ballyhoo continue to be the bait of choice for this unique fishing area. Bait is used both skirted and unskirted, in the outriggers and down riggers, occasionally cut or slabbed, all depending on the species of fish, (surface or bottom).

Bait Supply: Always available for this area.

During the early part of the week, the sailfish were being enormously cooperative and it well for the anglers. We had a report from our Wyoming client, Mr. & Mrs. Mark Kordus, telling us that they had 10 sailfish releases for their 3 fishing days and added a nice 30 lb. dorado to their catch, too. However, as the week progressed, the fishing shut off and the sails, (while numerous sleepers were being reported throughout the area) were refusing to cooperate and were ignoring the rigged trolling baits. There was an occasional sailfish landed but a far cry from the weeks before when they were attacking everything being presented to them. The water conditions seem to be changing a little everyday and the blue water is moving a little farther offshore with each passing day. The inshore fishing continues to be strong and the jack crevalle bite for the bigger fish, (15-20 pounders) remains excellent, along with terrific catches on the Sierra, (Spanish mackerel) and bonito.

IZ Climate: Mostly sunny & clear days with an occasional passing cloud and temps that ranged from 67 nights to 88 daytime highs, (picture perfect weather conditions).

Sea Conditions: The inshore water temps holding good at 80 degrees and rising to 81-82 in the offshore waters. Nearly flat-calm seas everywhere this past week and some minor clarity change that seems to have the fish moving a little farther offshore.

 Best Fishing Area: The offshore fishing during the first part of the week was 10-12 miles and has moved offshore to 15-18 miles as the week progressed.

Best Lure/Bait: Everything was working well in the early week and nothing worked well in the latter part of the week. While lots of fish being seen, they were just not at all interested in the baits.

Bait Supply: Excellent bait supply with plenty of live bait and fresh dead baits for all of the boats.

Mazatlan was also slow for the offshore fishing this past week and all the surface indicators from the prior week seemed to evaporate for no apparent reason. It is likely that the fish are now moving in and out of the warmer and cooler waters that were pushed in from the north. However, this trend may be on the changing mode as the offshore waters that the boats typically fish out to the south and southwest of the Marina El Cid, are pushing warmer waters back into the area. There is a huge area of 74-75 degree waters being pushed up against the cooler 70-71 degree waters, which may bode well for the coming week. The overall fish counts for the 11 offshore fishing days reflected 4 stripers and 10 yellowfin tuna. The inshore fishing was also down for the week and reflected 10 jack crevalle, (aka toro) 11 red snapper, 31 white snappers, 45 perch, 2 grouper, 21 barracuda and 6 Sierra for 7 days fished.

Mazatlan Climate: Partly cloudy during the early week and changing to sunny & nice days on Thursday, with temps from a cold 43 nights to 79 daytime highs.

 Sea Conditions: Light & variable northerly surface breezes, very little swell and overall, mostly calm waters with temps from 73 inshore and rising to 74-75 offshore. Best Fishing Area: No specific area was reported other than to mention the yellowffin tuna were caught running with the porpoise.

Best Lure/Bait: Rigged baits for the marlin and feathers, hoochies and cedar plugs for the tuna.

Bait Supply: Good supply of both, live bait and rigged baits available throughout the week.

It appears that the billfish may have filtered around the tip of Cabo San Lucas and started their move into the Sea of Cortez. At least that was what the fish report for this past week reflected and while it may be an anomaly, (the billfish move doesn't usually start until mid-February) we'll be looking forward to the report for the coming week just to see if the trend proves true. Overall, the fishing for the week was quite slow and for no apparent reason. This forced the boats to start looking around on the Sea of Cortez side that reflected a billfish on the 95 Fathom spot and another just above the Gorda Banks. The other two billfish were taken at Pozo De Cota on the Pacific side. While not a bonanza by a long shot, it is an indicator that the fish may be on the move. The overall fish counts for a total of 17 days fished reflected a combined total of 4 billfish released, 4 dorado, 17 yellowfin tuna, 10 skipjack tuna, 1 Sierra and 3 roosterfish.

 Cabo Climate: Partly cloudy days for the early week and then, sunny and clear days from Thursday, with temps that ranged from a cool 52 nights to 80 daytime highs.

 Sea Conditions: The Golden Gate Bank to Cabo Falso on the Pacific side was fairly stable at 69 degrees with the warmest water about 5 miles out to the southwest of the Jaime Bank at 71-72. From Cabo San Lucas to Los Frailes on the Sea of Cortez side, the temps ranged from 68-70.5 with the cooler waters closer to Cabo.

 Best Fishing Area: No specific area was reported. Best Lure/Bait: Billfish taken on presented live baits to billfish seen on the surface.

 Live Bait Supply: Mostly caballitos with a few mackerel in the bait mix.

 on the World Famous EL BUDSTER. Christopher Marshall from the United Kingdom catches four 20 lb. JACKRABELL. On the EL BUDSTER II. Jennifer Eroh from Worthington, PA catches six 5 lb. SIERRA MACKERAL. All the fish were caught at the Los Cabos Arches. The water temp. was 73 degrees.

 World Famous EL BUDSTER did not catch any fish today. Fishing on the EL BUDSTER II. Eric Atkinson from the United Kingdom catches and releases a 160 lb. BLUE MARLIN. It was caught on a lice Caballito. The fighting time was 1 hr. The marlin was caught 16 to 18 miles out from Cabo. The water temp. was 73 - 74 degrees

The World Famous EL BUDSTER goes out fishing today. But does not catch anything. They look for YELLOWFIN TUNA & STRIPED MARLIN. Are unable to find either. Better luck tomorrow. They fished 13 - 17 miles out. The water temp. was 77 degrees.

BILLFISH: Billfish finally picked up this week. The warm waters out by San Jaime Bank are holding marlin. A few boats are catching them. They have lots of squid to feed on, so you need to work them to take your bait.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Pretty much the same as last week, if this is what you want to target. Probably the fish of the week in terms of numbers, at least for the off-shore species, they were not the fish of the week in terms of size. Most of the fish found were football sized, and they were being very picky when it came to feeding. Scattered pods of Porpoise were found from just off the beach to 30 miles out on the Pacific side and one out of three held these smaller fish. The key to success was small hootchies, as small as two inches fished on 20 pound leader. With the fish ranging in size from 6 to 15 pounds you still got a good fight if you were using the lighter tackle, but if one of the very few fish in the 35 pound class happened to bite. Boats traveled up to 50 miles to the west trying to find larger fish in the warmer water but did not have any success.

Pleasant winter weather continues to attract moderate crowds of tourists, cloud cover giving way to warm sunshine, with highs into 80s and variable winds. Mid week there were strong gusts from the north, this created choppy seas and limited options for anglers, by Thursday and Friday conditions had settled. Water temperatures have averaged in the 70 to 72 degrees range. Good supplies of sardinas were found along the beach stretches north of Punta Gorda, there were also caballito, sardinetas and some mackerel available. 

The San Jose del Cabo fleet has been fishing areas from off of Red Hill towards Iman Bank, species such as dorado, skipjack, striped marlin, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, snapper, sierra and roosterfish are all being found in limited numbers. Dorado have been the more numerous, being found in smaller sized schools, ranging in sizes up to 25 pounds, though most of these fish were under 15 pounds, striking on trolling lures or baits, found close to shore, as well as on the offshore fishing grounds, though greatest concentrations were encountered within a couple miles of shore, this is where baitfish are more prevalent.

This past week we saw more striped marlin off of San Jose del Cabo, many billfish were seen free jumping as well as tailing in the swells, a percentage of these fish would strike on bait or lures, other times they were not interested. This is typically the time when the striped marlin start to shift from the Pacific Banks in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, following their food sources. It is the also the season when we see more mako sharks on these same fishing grounds. 

Yellowfin tuna activity has increased in recent days on the areas from the Gordo Banks to Iman, no great numbers of fish being hooked, but these fish are schooling in the area and are quality sized from 30 to 50 pounds, with fish to over 100 pounds also hooked into. There still is a heavy presence of skipjack that the yellowfin have to compete with and it varies from day to day as what time of day the tuna decide to feed, a bit more finicky in the cooler waters. Anglers were using sardinas and chunk bait from skipjack, drift fishing over the grounds, at times tuna would be seen on the surface, other times anglers had blind strikes. This is not the peak season for yellowfin tuna on the local fishing grounds, though at this time there is chance to catch a couple of nice specimens. Every year is a bit different, with global weather patterns, these days you really never know what might happen.

Anglers found other available options along the shoreline for sierra, weighing up to five pounds, hitting on baits, hoochies and rapalas. Also a few early season juvenile sized roosterfish in the area. Off the bottom, anglers found varying currents, but there were some improved pargo catches, a handful of cabrilla and bonito. We heard of yellowtail caught off of the Pacific and at East Cape, so we hope these jacks move into our range soon.

The combined panga fleet launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 57 charters for the past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 1 sailfish, 9 striped marlin, 5 mako shark, 212 dorado, 38 yellowfin tuna, 13 roosterfish, 125 sierra, 5 amberjack, 10 bonito, 14 cabrilla, 2 yellowtail, 3 dogtooth snapper, 12 barred pargo and 35 yellow pargo. 

Good Fishing, Eric