6 Dorado Caught and Kept
Date: Wednesday, October 11, 2023
Boat: Blue Sky – 43′ Riviera
Captain: Luis
Guests: David, Laura, Andrew, Jeff and Mike
Catch: 6 Dorado
Total Game Fish: 6
Kept: 6 Dorado
Released: 0
Charter Length: 5 Hours
Charter Time: 6:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Departure: 6:00 AM
Fishing Location: Offshore Cabo San Lucas
Trip Type: Private morning offshore fishing charter
Tackle / Dredge: Not confirmed in charter record
Water Temperature: Not confirmed in vessel record
Air Temperature Start → End: Approximately 73°F → upper 80s°F based on regional historical observations
Weather: Mostly clear to sunny; no recorded rainfall
Wind: Approximately 7.5 mph regional historical average
Wave Height / Period: Not confirmed from vessel record
Swell: Not confirmed from vessel record
Moon: Waning crescent, approximately 8% illuminated
Sunrise: Approximately 6:15 AM
Sunset: Approximately 5:58 PM
A Clear October Morning in Cabo Gives Fishing a Completely Different Feel
There are mornings when leaving the marina is almost as memorable as the first fish.
October 11, 2023 followed a period of unsettled weather around southern Baja, and the difference from the previous day was noticeable in the historical record. Rain had moved through the region, but Wednesday opened into considerably clearer conditions. David, Laura, Andrew, Jeff and Mike met the Blue Sky Cabo team for a 6:00 AM departure aboard the 43-foot Riviera Blue Sky, with Captain Luis running a five-hour morning charter.
At that hour, sunrise was just beginning to illuminate the horizon. The timing put the boat outside the marina during one of the most visually interesting portions of a Cabo morning, when the coastline gradually takes shape and the darker water begins reflecting the first real daylight.
There was also a practical advantage to starting early.
A five-hour charter does not offer unlimited time to search miles of ocean, so every hour matters. The boat needed to get into productive water, establish the fishing pattern and make the most of whatever opportunities developed before the scheduled 11:00 AM return.
On this particular morning, those opportunities came in the form of dorado.
Not one isolated fish, but enough activity to build the entire charter around the species.
By the time Blue Sky headed back toward the marina, six dorado had been caught and kept.
The number tells us that the morning was productive. The more interesting story is how well dorado fit the structure of this particular trip: five guests, five hours and enough action to keep the charter moving without needing a marathon run far offshore.
Dorado Bring Color and Speed to Fishing Outside Cabo
Few offshore species change the appearance of a fishing day as quickly as dorado.
Even anglers who have never seen one before tend to understand immediately that they are looking at something unusual. Their colors can range through brilliant greens, blues, yellows and golds, particularly when the fish is excited near the surface. The body shape is distinctive, the speed is obvious and their tendency to fight near the top of the water makes them one of the more visual game fish encountered around Cabo San Lucas.
That surface-oriented behavior is part of what makes a dorado encounter so entertaining for everyone aboard.
A marlin fight can become a long individual contest between one angler and one fish. Dorado often create a different type of energy. More than one fish may be present. Another rod can become active while the first angler is still fighting. The crew needs to pay attention not only to the hooked fish but also to what may be following nearby.
The entire cockpit can become involved quickly.
For a group of five, that is an excellent dynamic.
Nobody has to understand every technical aspect of offshore fishing to appreciate a brightly colored dorado moving across the surface behind the boat. The excitement is immediate, and when several fish are caught during the same morning, different guests have opportunities to participate rather than spending most of the trip watching one prolonged fight.
Six fish gave this charter that kind of depth.
Captain Luis Had Five Hours to Turn Cabo Conditions Into Productive Fishing
A five-hour charter rewards efficiency.
Captain Luis did not have the luxury of treating the first half of the morning as an extended scouting trip. With an 11:00 AM return scheduled, the objective was to get the 43-foot Riviera into productive water and begin creating opportunities as soon as practical.
That does not mean simply running offshore and putting lines in the water at a predetermined GPS coordinate.
Ocean conditions move.
Current lines shift. Floating debris travels. Bait relocates. Water that looked productive yesterday can become quiet overnight, while a different area may suddenly come alive.
Dorado are particularly associated with that constantly changing offshore environment.
They are opportunistic predators and can relate to floating structure, current edges and concentrations of bait. A productive area can therefore be surprisingly localized. A boat might travel through apparently empty water before finding one small section that suddenly contains the ingredients needed to attract fish.
That is where a captain’s observations become important.
Instead of viewing the ocean as one enormous uniform surface, an experienced crew looks for differences.
A subtle change in water color may matter. Birds may reveal bait below. Floating material deserves investigation. Surface disturbance can suggest activity that would be easy to overlook from a distance.
Finding those clues is part of the work.
Converting them into six dorado is the part guests remember.
Fishing for Dorado Around Cabo Often Starts With Finding Their Food
Dorado have a reputation for being aggressive, but aggression alone does not tell a captain where to find them.
Food does.
Offshore predators rarely spend their time randomly wandering an empty ocean. Their movements are closely tied to opportunities to feed, and that means locating bait is often one of the most important pieces of the puzzle.
Around Cabo, the offshore environment can concentrate life in surprisingly small areas.
Currents carry floating material. Baitfish use structure for protection. Birds begin working overhead. Predators arrive because the same area that offers cover to small fish creates feeding opportunities for larger ones.
Dorado are exceptionally well suited to exploiting those conditions.
They are fast, mobile and capable of appearing around floating objects that may seem insignificant to someone passing by. A small patch of debris or vegetation can become its own miniature ecosystem.
This is also why dorado fishing rewards alert crews.
The ocean does not necessarily provide a giant sign saying that fish are underneath.
Sometimes the clue is a bird.
Sometimes it is a flash of color.
Sometimes it is simply an area that looks different enough to deserve another pass.
Once the first dorado appears, the situation becomes even more interesting because these fish are not always alone.
The presence of one can suggest that others are nearby.
For guests, that possibility creates anticipation. A hooked fish may be the beginning of the action rather than the end of it.
Five Guests Give a Cabo Fishing Charter Its Own Social Rhythm
David, Laura, Andrew, Jeff and Mike were sharing Blue Sky rather than experiencing the day individually, and that changes the personality of a charter.
A fishing boat is a social space.
During the quiet periods, people talk, watch the coastline, enjoy the ride and wait to see what develops. Once a fish strikes, the atmosphere changes instantly. Attention moves toward the rod, the water and the angler.
Then the fish comes aboard and conversation starts again, except now everyone has something new to talk about.
With six dorado during a five-hour trip, that cycle repeated often enough to keep the morning moving.
The important part is not trying to manufacture a minute-by-minute story that was never recorded. We do not know which guest caught the first fish or who fought the largest one, and assigning those details after the fact would add fiction rather than substance.
What the historical record does tell us is enough.
Five people went offshore together.
They had five hours.
Captain Luis put them into dorado.
Six fish came back with the group.
That creates a natural story without embellishment.
October Keeps Cabo Warm While Fishing Moves Deeper Into the Fall Season
October occupies a particularly interesting position in the annual Cabo sportfishing calendar.
The intense summer period is beginning to transition toward fall, yet offshore water remains warm enough to support the pelagic species that make southern Baja such a diverse fishing destination.
Dorado fit naturally into that October picture.
Their presence can overlap with marlin and yellowfin tuna, giving anglers the possibility of encountering very different species during the same general period. The result can vary dramatically from day to day because the offshore environment is constantly moving.
That variability had already been evident around this date.
October 10 produced significant rain in the Cabo area. By October 11, historical regional observations show a much clearer and drier day, with temperatures around 73°F near the 6:00 AM departure and warming considerably as the morning progressed.
For guests leaving the marina early, that would have made the first portion of the charter noticeably more comfortable than the heat expected later in the day.
It is one of the reasons morning departures remain popular.
Anglers get the benefit of early light, cooler air and a full block of fishing time before midday temperatures become more pronounced.
On October 11, the schedule also lined up perfectly with a productive dorado morning.
Improving Weather Around Cabo Lets Fishing Take Center Stage Again
The contrast between October 10 and October 11 is worth noting because it demonstrates how quickly conditions can change around the tip of Baja California Sur.
Historical Los Cabos records show significant rain on October 10, followed by no recorded rainfall on October 11. The latter day was described as predominantly clear and sunny, with regional wind around 12 km/h, or approximately 7.5 mph.
For a fishing charter, that change matters in several ways.
First, guests simply experience a different morning when the sky clears after unsettled weather. Visibility improves, the horizon opens and the offshore run feels different.
Second, changing weather can interact with the ocean in complicated ways. Wind, currents and previous storm activity can redistribute floating material and bait. That does not automatically make fishing better or worse, but it changes what captains are looking at.
Experienced crews avoid assuming yesterday’s pattern will still apply.
They start again.
That mindset is especially important after a weather event. The objective is not to fish a memory of where the bite used to be. It is to interpret what the ocean is showing today.
For Blue Sky, October 11 became a dorado day.
Dorado Give Cabo Visitors a Fishing Experience That Extends Beyond the Fight
Unlike marlin, which Blue Sky Cabo releases, dorado are among the game fish that can be kept.
All six dorado from this charter were retained.
That adds another dimension to the experience because the fishing day does not necessarily end when the boat reaches F Dock at IGY Marina.
For many visitors, enjoying fresh fish after a successful charter becomes part of the Cabo experience. The offshore catch can transition into dinner, allowing the group to continue talking about the morning while enjoying the species they spent several hours pursuing.
Dorado are particularly popular for that reason.
Their reputation extends well beyond sportfishing. The same fish that produces fast surface action offshore is also widely appreciated at the table.
That combination—visual appeal, energetic fighting style and food value—helps explain why dorado remain one of the most popular catches among visiting anglers.
They also work well for mixed-experience groups.
Someone does not need years of offshore fishing experience to understand the appeal of catching one. The fish provides enough speed and resistance to make the fight interesting, but the overall experience can still be approachable for a guest who does not fish regularly.
For a private group of five, that makes dorado an ideal species around which a morning can develop.
A 43-Foot Riviera Gives Fishing Groups Room to Enjoy Cabo Offshore Waters
The boat matters differently depending on the type of charter.
On October 11, the group was fishing aboard Blue Sky, a 43-foot Riviera.
For five guests, that size provides room to move around while still maintaining the cockpit environment of a serious sportfishing boat. That becomes particularly useful when several fish are encountered during the same morning.
Multiple anglers need space.
The crew needs room to work.
Guests who are not actively fighting a fish still need somewhere to watch without interfering with tackle or the person on the rod.
Those practical considerations are easy to overlook when choosing a charter purely from photographs.
Once the fishing starts, space becomes functional.
A larger platform also gives a group places to relax during the intervals between bites, which matters because offshore fishing naturally alternates between action and waiting.
That balance is part of the day.
The boat should work during the excitement and remain comfortable when the ocean becomes quiet.
For this five-person group, the Riviera was well matched to the trip.
Fishing Reports From Cabo Become More Valuable When They Preserve Ordinary Details
The most useful part of a historical fishing report is not always the biggest fish.
Sometimes it is the ordinary information.
The date.
The departure time.
The length of the charter.
The boat.
The captain.
The number and species caught.
Those details allow an angler researching Cabo years later to understand what actually happened rather than relying entirely on broad seasonal descriptions.
October 11 provides a good example.
Someone considering a five-hour October charter can see that a morning trip aboard a 43-foot Riviera produced six dorado for five guests.
That does not guarantee the same result.
It does provide a real reference point.
When hundreds of reports are accumulated over time, those reference points become increasingly valuable. They show that certain species recur during particular periods, but they also demonstrate how much day-to-day variation exists.
One report is a story.
A library of reports becomes fishing history.
That is why Blue Sky Cabo continues documenting individual charters rather than replacing them with a generic monthly statement saying the fishing is good.
Specificity has value.
The Best Cabo Fishing Stories Do Not Need Invented Drama
Six dorado in five hours is already a good story.
There is no need to add an imaginary double hookup, describe a giant bull dorado that was never measured or claim that every fish exploded spectacularly from the water.
Those details might sound exciting.
They would not be factual.
A fishing report becomes more useful when it distinguishes what is known from what is merely typical of the species.
We know six dorado were caught and kept.
We know David, Laura, Andrew, Jeff and Mike were aboard.
We know Captain Luis ran the charter on the 43-foot Riviera.
We know the boat left at 6:00 AM and the scheduled trip ended at 11:00 AM.
Historical weather information shows that the morning followed a rainy day but October 11 itself became clear and dry around Los Cabos.
That is enough factual material to create substance.
Where general information about dorado appears in this report, it is used to explain the species and the fishing environment rather than pretend we know exactly what happened during every minute of the charter.
That distinction matters.
Five Hours of Fishing Shows Why Cabo Charters Do Not Always Need to Be All Day
Longer charters provide obvious advantages.
More time means a captain can travel farther, explore additional fishing grounds and remain offshore through changing bite windows.
But not every group needs an eight- or ten-hour day.
A five-hour trip can be an excellent fit for visitors who want meaningful offshore fishing without committing their entire vacation day to the boat.
October 11 illustrates the potential.
Blue Sky left at 6:00 AM and returned at 11:00 AM. The group still experienced a legitimate offshore charter and finished with six dorado.
By late morning, they could be back at the marina with most of the day still available.
That flexibility is especially useful for families, couples traveling with friends or visitors balancing fishing with other Cabo activities.
The tradeoff is straightforward.
A shorter charter places more importance on efficiency and on what the ocean provides within a narrower window.
On this day, the window was enough.
Final Cabo Fishing Report Summary
October 11, 2023 offered David, Laura, Andrew, Jeff and Mike a straightforward example of why an early five-hour charter can work so well when the offshore conditions cooperate.
The group left Cabo San Lucas at 6:00 AM aboard the 43-foot Riviera Blue Sky with Captain Luis, beginning almost exactly as the sun was rising. Historical weather records show that the significant rain from the previous day had moved away, leaving a warmer, clearer and drier morning across Los Cabos.
That transition provided the setting.
Dorado provided the story.
Six fish were caught and kept before the charter concluded at 11:00 AM.
More importantly, the catch fit the group and the amount of time available. Five guests shared repeated offshore action without needing an all-day charter, and the fish they caught offered the combination that makes dorado such a popular Cabo species: speed, striking color, exciting surface-oriented fights and excellent table value.
There is no need to turn the morning into something it was not.
It was not a fabricated tournament battle or a record-setting expedition.
It was five people leaving the marina early, spending a productive morning on the Pacific and returning five hours later with six dorado.
Those are exactly the kinds of days worth preserving in a historical fishing archive because they show future visitors what real Cabo charters look like.
Some trips are remembered for one enormous fish.
Others are remembered because the action develops steadily, several people get involved and the group comes back to the marina knowing they made good use of every hour they had offshore.
October 11 belongs in the second category.
For Blue Sky Cabo Fishing and Tours, it adds another piece to the larger October fishing record—a morning when clearing weather, an early departure, Captain Luis and an active dorado bite came together aboard Blue Sky.
Blue Sky Cabo Fishing and Tours
Cell / WhatsApp: +1.480.635.2965
Website: Cabo Fishings
F Dock, IGY Marina, Cabo San Lucas, B.C.S., Mexico
