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Exploring the East Cape
The East Cape is famous for the great sport fishing located just off shore. The mass majority of tourists who travel there are die-hard anglers. The several hotels located here offer some amenities such as great meals air-conditioned rooms, bars, swimming pools, etc. The night life, however, is quite subdued. After fighting a 300 pound marlin or a couple of 100 pound tuna in one day, most anglers prefer to sit around a palapa and exercise bragging rights before retiring for the evening. |
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(October 25, 1999) In this article and subsequent ones I will discuss some of the hotels located at the East Cape. The small town of Los Barriles is located in the area commonly referred to as the East Cape.
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The species of fish located in this area number greater than 80. The most sought after are blue marlin (largest on caught last year was over 1200 pounds), striped marlin, sailfish, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, roosterfish and dorado. There are some resident fish year around, especially sailfish and striped marlin; others seem to be in abundance during different seasons. Spring brings striped marlin and sails, summer roosterfish, dorado and tuna. Late summer and fall brings the blue marlin, bigger tuna, wahoo, along with the larger bull dorado. As every angler knows, fishing is fishing and one never knows what is out there chasing your lure or bait until you hear the world renowned cry of an excited angler: "Fish On!"
The Hotel Palmas de Cortez is located right on the beach with 52 air-conditioned rooms including standard rooms, suites, and condominiums. Room prices range from $55 per person (double occupancy) to $205 condominium (one to five persons). Standard rooms and suite prices include all meals (for condominiums, add $30 per person for meals to be included). The hotel staff, for the most part speak English, are extremely courteous and more than willing to help any way they can to make your trip enjoyable.
Meals at the Palmas are well prepared and include some buffets. Sit down dinners include soup, salad, main course, and dessert. In all the times I have taken groups to the Palmas I have heard numerous compliments about the meals. The Palmas is in the process of completing a new entrance driveway to add to its beauty. Boats are 28 foot to 32 foot fiberglass diesel powered, and range in price from $250 to $400 for a full 8 hour day of angling. Boats include a captain, deck hand and ice chest. Most boat captains and crews speak English; what words they lack in English they are able to convey by the universal language of hand signals! For the angler who prefers panga fishing, the Palmas offers super pangas for $220.00 a day. The Hotel Palmas de Cortez is a great place to stay; a great value for the price. The food is excellent and the rooms are neat and clean. On the drawback side there is no night life, telephones or TV in the rooms. For anglers, the Palmas offers fishing at its best with occasionally, no running time to get to the fish. The boats are well kept and staffed by experienced captains. Your catch is filleted and frozen for your return back to the U.S. Fishing Report for October 10 group trip Fishing for 3 days on 4 boats with 16 people Fishing for this time of the year was what one would consider somewhat slow for the East Cape. All conditions were ideal: no moon, lots of bait, calm seas and perfect water temperature. Day one: Medium sized schools of tuna in the 25 to 35 pound class were located just half hour north of the Hotel Palmas de Cortez. After a brief period of catching no fish, figured out the fish were leader shy and changed to 20-25 lb. leader and started catching tuna. All boats in my group averaged four to five tuna per boat. The bite slowed down to zero; went off looking for dorado. Lots of small dorado in the eight to ten pound range, occasional 15 pounders. Day two: Tuna bite became nonexistent! Some boats ran for tuna; the boat I was on ran for marlin. Our boat hooked up a blue marlin trolling a purple and black 14" Zuker. The pole was given to David Mitchell, of Sacramento, so he could catch his first-ever marlin. After an hour of exciting aerial display, the marlin became tail wrapped and died so we brought the fish to the boat. The marlin weighed 100 kilos (225 lbs.) Trolled again for approximately 15 minutes and hooked up another blue marlin which became unhooked after about a 10 minute fight. Although Rafael Acosta of Sacramento did not get the fish to the boat, he was still extremely excited over the short fight. The rest of the afternoon was spent trolling with no more hookups. The other three boats caught a few tuna and dorado. Very, very slow. Day three: Most boats took the long run (two hours) to Ceralvo Island searching for dorado and were not disappointed. Lots of dorado just west of the island to 25 pounds. One of our boats, the Schugg brothers from Fremont, decided to go for sail and marlin; hooked up and released three sailfish, hooked up and lost one blue marlin; for the Schuggs it was an exciting day of angling. Total tally for three days: Six sailfish to 90 lbs., 20 yellowfin tuna to 45 lbs., 26 dorado to 25 lbs., two wahoo lost at the boat. Lots of trigger fish which were running with the tuna. Other articles in the series:
Jim Roberts is co-owner of Cabo Fishing Tours and the article above is based on his own experience along with feedback from his clients. |
The hotel amenities include: two bars (one inside and one Palapa near the pool), fresh water swimming pool, an aviary comprised of fascinating, beautiful tropical birds, tennis court, racquet ball, quad runner rentals, snorkeling and more.
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