East Cape Dorado Shootout...trip report

We decided to enter our first BIG TIME fishing tournament, the East Cape Dorado Shootout put on by the Palmas De Cortez hotel in Los Barriles. We went down to the hotel to check out the prize we would be winning to be sure it would fit in the garage.


It soon became apparent that it wouldn't fit in the garage but we decided to go ahead and enter anyway and find a place to put it when we took it home.

Our team consisted of me, my lovely fishing partner Jill and our "ever present" mutt Cacawhate.

I was able to get a cruiser from Verdugo's on a last minute cancellation and set about preparing my gear and rigging a few "special lures". Cacawhate was really excited to be part of the team but that was before she knew what role she would play on the team.


So off we went with visions of giant dorado and and a 25ft panga on a buoy in front of our house. There were 139 boats entered in the tournament but our confidence level was high.


We climbed aboard the Deborah Lee and met our captain Hugo and first mate Armando. We got bait and took our place in the line up of boats. There was everything form a Bertram 50 to a 16' Boston Whaler with 4 big guys in it, you could cut the tension with a knife. Suddenly a flare was shot and we were off. We found ourselves in the middle of a 139 boat drag race. I don't know if anybody knew where they were going but it was ok as long as we were in front.




Well, we had a nice looong boat ride punctuated by a few exciting moments. We actually had to race away from marlin several times so that we didn't use any of our valuable fishing time on anything but dorado. We accidentally caught a nice 35lb wahoo but I did my best to get him quickly in the boat so that we didn't lose much time.

Since we didn't catch any qualifying fish we went ahead and let a marlin eat one of the lures. There were 3 of them together and Armando pitched out a ballyhoo bait to try for a double hook up which ended up in a tangled mess and an early "catch and release" for both marlin.


No hey problema, we didn't need no steenkin marlin anyway.

We got back to the dock and took the wahoo to the cleaning table where I realized that in all the excitement we hadn't taken a picture of it yet.


I know what you're thinking, anybody can show up at a cleaning table and get their picture taken with a fish. I promise I didn't do that.......this time.

Anyway, a great time was had by all even though we didn't win. I think the winning fish was 59lbs. We did manage to win a few goodies in the swag drawing at the banquet after the tournament. We can't wait to do it again next year.....dt

[Edited on 7-21-2009 by dtbushpilot]

[Edited on 7-21-2009 by dtbushpilot]

dtbushpilot, Thanks for the pictures and the fishing report.

Yes Shari, I had planned to donate the boat to Juan, how'd you know?

Cacawhate is the "fishing dog" now. Did you notice her new outfit in the second picture? I have to teach her not to swim back to the boat every time I cast her out.......dt

Fishing from the beach has been OK but nothing fantastic. It's been pretty warm so it's hard to get too motivated. I rode down the beach yesterday and chased 25lb roosters back and forth. It is really frustrating when they don't even acknowledge the lure. You have to cast to them when they are chasing something else to even have a chance. I do catch smaller ones pretty regularly, up to 10lbs but the big ones are almost impossible to catch without live bait......I did manage to get a 3rd degree sunburn though....dt

Give Mason a scratch for me...

Sorry about the burn... but we know who to blame for that.... those roosters that have your running up and down the beach
Damn, if I saw a 25# rooster I'd but on the chase on too. I just got a new 9' noodle rod and am using 6# test. A 10# rooster would be a great accomplishment. Worthy of some new stories. I guess if there were any 10# fish in my pond I wouldn't have down sized so much. nets
Mason says Thanks for the scratch, but take that sill harness of the peanut. The only thing you'll catch with a peanut is and elephant. Good luck reeling that in.

Russ, Careful! You're gonna get tagged as a negative troll if you keep telling it like it is. What nets? Honesty about the decline of the Sea of Cortez fisheries is a touchy subject. Somebody will just tell you how to fish, call you a dumb fisherman, etc. It's all about presentation.

Great report, Dave. Too bad about not winning the new boat. I'm stll jeallous about your fishing adventure though.

BTW cute photo of Jill as your new avatar. Don't ever change it!