Tim Ekstrom shared his thoughts about the fading summer multi-day fishing season and the oncoming fall into winter transition, the one that will bring, at some point, contact with very large yellowfin tuna off the coast of southern Baja.

“Our 2013 summer offshore season segues into the fall without regret. By a wide margin this has been the best overall summer season, beginning in early June lasting all the way through the first few days in October, in many years; at least since 2004 or 2005. Between amazingly consistent, fantastic fishing for quality bluefin and yellowfin tuna offshore, and a harmonious tenor, the best ever in my recollection, spirits are rightly soaring.

“So we venture forth on this eight-day run pensive about all good things (and) intent upon maintaining the incredible roll Royal Star has been enjoying this summer season. The right place and time have converged with such consistency for us that I have to admit more than a little trepidation about an inevitable valley somewhere ahead; no one is immune to such corrections. It is transition time, though. Things have a way of changing quickly, especially as more of us head south and throw our efforts into the pool.”

Angler Winners

“The guys backed in early,” said the American Angler’s office report October 6, “with a nice catch of tuna, yellowtail and a few dorado. A huge thanks to Ken and to Wes for sponsoring the trip; we love you guys!
Congrats to jackpot winners:

1st place: Frank Hess 48.8lb bluefin tuna


2nd place: Chuck Kelman 44.8lb bft


3rd place: Kevin Coryell 44.6lb bft.”

Anybody Home?

“Today we ventured down to the lower banks,” wrote Excel skipper Mike Ramirez October 5. “There was very good sign of life: bait, birds, dorado and small tuna (5-10 pounds) not quite what we were hoping for, but it looks very promising for future trips. Tomorrow we will be on the Ridge looking to tag a few more wahoo.”

On October 6, Ramirez wrote: “Today we fished the Ridge. We had very good wahoo fishing. We were able to scratch away at the skinnies for most of the day. It was nice to get everyone at least one wahoo to take home. The weather is as good as it gets. We will be working our way up the line tonight and fishing for yellowtail tomorrow.”

Changes

“We left Friday the 4th on our annual Catchy Tackle 15 day," noted the report from Intrepid October 6, "with all our regulars and a few new guys to the trip and have been traveling down in very nice weather. Today we found a spot and had some very good fishing on 25 to 40-pound Yellowfin, nice grade Dorado, and a few Wahoo in the mix. If we were on a shorter trip it would have been a get-r-done type of stop as there were lots of Tuna to be had! Everyone caught what they wanted, the galley is all stocked up, the perfect stop for our adventure down south. We are getting all cleaned up for some Fresh Wahoo dinner!

“There have been some changes here at Intrepid Sportfishing. Please note that all reservations and inquiries about the Intrepid operation will be handled by Steve Hoffman at our office in San Diego. The address is 1403 Scott St. #205, San Diego, Ca. 92106...The phone number is 619.224.4088. The fax # is 619.224.4508. If you have any questions please contact the office or steve@fishintrepid.com.”

Fish-Off

“Weather continues to be good,” reported Royal Polaris October 6, “with sunny days, clear skies, with 8 to 12 knots of breeze. Our day started out early, with an early morning bite on quality Yellowtail up to 30 pounds. Once the sun came up, the bite was over. We pulled our anchor and headed west. We were in search of Yellowfin tuna. We would have many stops throughout the day, but nothing produced what we were looking for.

“So it was time for the first Bob Sands Crew fish-off. Not like combat fishing, this was totally different. The crew would get a ultra light fishing rod and a spinning reel filled with 10 pound test XXX Izorline. The first round was won by Ben, with Jonathan coming in a close second. The second round was won by Big "D", with Eddie coming in a close second. There was only one tackle failure. Kenny was fighting a ‘Baby Giant.’ When his rod could not take it any more, Kenny had to hand-line the fish to the boat. It was a fun day fishing on the Royal today.”

Searchin’

“We travelled down to 200 miles to start our trip,” said Searcher’s report October 6. “We have hopes of finding some good-size yellowfin tuna and dorado today. The weather is great with sunny skies and calm seas. We are in 70-degree blue water. We found our first kelp paddie and it had a nice school of small yellowfin on it. We released a lot of small fish and kept a few better ones. Pictured is Jodie Escobedo (‘There she goes again!’) from Santa Monica and a good-size tuna. We also saved enough fish for a fresh yellowfin tuna dinner.”

Spirit’s Home

Annemarie Keating, office manager for the Spirit of Adventure, sent this information October 5:
"Bruce Davis' second group of this season brought in plenty of Bluefin and Yellowtail. The largest fish was caught by Gary Crossan, but it didn't qualify for the jackpot. The 162-pounder was de-tailed by a shark.

“Jackpot winner was Richard Cooper with a 75 lbs. Bluefin

Second place, charter master Bruce Davis' 69 pounder.

Third place went to Frank Carmarda with a 67-pound fish."

“The Jackpot picture is from right to left: Right: Richard Cooper, Center Bruce Davis, Left: Frank Camarda"
The second picture shows Gary Crossan with his 162-pound tailless Bluefin.”

Not Bad

“Last week, our Tailhunter anglers were catching triple and quadruple limits of dorado,” wrote Jonathan Roldan of the La Paz area fishing last week, “as fast as they could bait hooks, so the bar had been set pretty high! This week started like that but, as the week went on it tapered to only single and double limits. So, there was some disappointment. But hey, catching and releasing 10 or 15 dorado a day is NOT a bad day on the water!

“Most noticeably, this was for fishing out of La Paz where the pangas had to work a little harder to find and catch fish. For Las Arenas, limits were still the rule rather than the exception with some fast action most times and for most pangas although there were some blips here and there.

“Still, it’s a lot of fun, especially on light tackle to get into a voracious school of 10-15 pound dorado. Guys would tell me that they could see bigger bulls on the periphery of the marauding schools, but the younger bucks would zoom in so fast that the bigger fish had no chance at the hooks! But, we still did manange to get a few 20-40 pound fish every day.

“For Las Arenas, there is still no live bait to be had. But, that has not slowed the bite. What we’re doing is jumping into the squid holes in the morning and hauling up some of those giant squid. Using cut up squid for bait works just fine. The dorado don’t slow down at all.

“For La Paz, we’re still getting some mackerel and caballitos for bait since we go out earlier than some of the other fleets. So, we hook a few dozen of them. Then we go buy some sardines from the bait guys. After that, go jig up some bonito to use for cut-bait. That gives us two to four different varieties of bait to offer once we’re at the fishing grounds.

“For other species, the biggest comment is more for what we are NOT catching. Tuna just have not come to the party this year. That’s what most guys are asking since this is traditionally tuna time. We’re getting some wahoo and every day a few billfish are hooked and released most of the time. Many of the billfish are hooked while anglers are in the middle of a dorado frenzy and the marlin and sailfish show up to join the party by eating the chummed squid as well as feeding on the dorado themselves!

“Roosterfish are still along the beaches although no one much has been fishing for them since they’re not good eating and the dorado are so rampant. We’re also seeing a few more pargo and sierra as the waters are now starting to cool down.”

At The Ranch

Rancho Leonero posted a report for the week ending October 6:

“Water: 85 to 86 Clear flat early week, afternoon breezes Friday on.. Clean, clean blue water outside.

“Air: Cooling, it's starting to feel like fall, highs in the 80's, low 90's. Cool mornings and evenings. Very pleasant.

“Another stellar week of fishing!

“The Dorado bite improves every week. Bigger fish all anglers limiting. 30 to 40 pound bulls were common this week. The Yellowfin are moving further south, a long boat ride to Vinaramas and south to San Jose. Bigger fish this week, anglers taking the ride are limiting. Sailfish are around in good numbers. Anglers targeting billfish are for sure releasing at least one, most multiples. Not many Stripers around. A couple of Wahoo a day are hitting the cleaning table, no real size 20 to 30 pounds. The bottom fishing off La Ribera has been incredible, big Amberjack. Grouper, and Pargo are all biting aggressively. The Squid have been around now for the past couple of months. A good dependable bait source, and a lot of fun to catch. It takes some effort, the squid are in 300 feet of water.”