By Pete Gray

 

Hard to believe it’s been 27 years since we started this fun tournament. In those years we have seen great fishing, slow fishing and ok fishing, but the fun is always a 10.  This year, fishing was very slow, but the fun was still a 10.

The advantage of the east cape and Palmas de Cortez is it is not all about the fishing.  The beautiful pool, beach, adjacent town of Los Barrilles, the surrounding mountain and coastline makes for plenty of distractions from fishing.  Still, fishing was the focus for our 50 anglers and 17 boats in our 2-day tournament.

The weather was a bit choppy in the afternoon Saturday but still very fishable.  Team “Go Ugly Early” came in with the largest dorado of the tournament at 17 pounds.  Dorado fishing was very good for most team, but size was small.  Team “ No Bananas” caught several dorado and came close to  the jackpot, but just missed.  There were some billfish, but not the normal quantity that we typically see in October.  There were a few wahoo caught by boats in the east cape, but none in our tournament.  There were some descent scores on small roosterfish too.  What was really missing was tuna.  Never in the 27-year history did we have no tuna in the tournament.  Chris from the East Cape Smoke house told me that the normal abundance of tuna has been missing since

early July.  May and June saw great tuna fishing, but then they were gone!

Eddie Dalmal from the Palmas de Cortez booking office made sure every

one was taken care of.  Bobby, Chuckie and Eddie Van Wormer were t

 

here to oversee things were right.  They printed great t- shirts for everyone, beautiful trophies and Dave from Statewide Stripes provided $500 cash for the largest dorado and $500 cash for the largest tuna.  Problem was, no tuna…so we put all the teams in a hat and drew a winner of the cash.  That was fun!

My crew and I rented ATV’s for 2 days and ran up to Punta Pescadero to snorkel and have lunch one day and the next went on a guided tour into the mountains and lunch in San Bortolo along with a refreshing dip in a oasis spring fed pool  with Alex from Can Doo ATV rentals.  If you want to do this, mention Let’s Talk Hookup and you get a special deal.  We fished Sunday and had a fun day catching dorado, cabrilla and pargo.  The next day we did a fabulous scuba dive at Cabo Pulmo.

The east cape is always a highlight to my travels.  Even though fishing was slow, it is all about the experience, the people and the beautiful resort and town.  Join us next October 6 to 11, 2022 for our 28th annual.  It is a very popular time of the year, so book your room, condo or boat soon.  Check vanwormerresorts.com or call 877-777-TUNA. I hope to see you next October in paradise!