Cabo San Lucas Fish Report for Oct 14-20- 2002 Capt George Landrum Fly Hooker Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR OCTOBER 14-20, 2002 WEATHER: We had a system come through the area during the middle of the week and it brought some cooler temperatures with it, as well as some fairly strong and steady northwest winds. The beginning of the week and end of the week saw nighttime lows in the mid 70’s while the middle of the week was in the mid 60’s. Daytime highs reflected this as well with midweek highs in the mid 80’s and the beginning and end of the week in the mid 90’s. No rain, as usual and only a scattering of clouds. (Young Thing) WATER: The strong northwest winds combined with a Pacific current to the south caused the warm water that had been extending out to the San Jaime Banks to disappear. Through Tuesday we still had a remnant of warm water along the shore where you could see a temperature break of 2-4 degrees. On Wednesday it started to disintegrate. This cooler (77-80 degree) water now extends to the south from Cabo Falso. Besides being cooler, it was also a lot rougher on the Pacific side. The Sea of Cortez remained warm with a hot spot in the high 80’s situated to the east of the outer Gorda Banks for most of the week. Surface conditions were fair in the mornings and rough in the afternoons as the winds kicked in. (Mountains Of Illinois) BAIT: Caballito was readily available most of the week but a few of the bait boats were able to come up with some Sardinas as well. Big baits at $2 each and the Sardinas at $25 a scoop. (After You’ve Gone) FISHING: BILLFISH: This week was the annual “Bisbee Black and Blue” tournament and there were 148 boats entered this year. With this kind of pressure focused on just billfish you know we learned where they were! One place was the hotspot outside the Gorda Banks. It seemed that most of the hookups that occurred were from boats in this area, and most of them were fooled with live bait (Skipjack or Bonito) slow trolled or drifted. It looked like a small city out there. At the start of the week there was a concentration of fish along the warm water boundary on the Pacific coast but they disappeared as the cold currents came into play. A lot of Striped Marlin were seen but the tournament boats avoided them if possible as they did not count. Plenty of smaller Blue and some Black Marlin were hooked up, these were fish in the 150-250 pound class, along with about 10 fish that were over 300 pounds. The 5th place Bisbee winner was #401, 1st place was #439. (Every Now And Then) YELLOWFIN TUNA: A couple of nice Yellowfin were caught by the tournament boats, including one fish of almost #250. The Yellowfin that were caught this week were smaller fish, in the Fly Hooker Daily Catch Report for Oct 14-20, 2002 “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR OCTOBER 14, 2002 All right, what’s up with these fish? This was the second day of fishing for the Ed Weise group and today they didn’t even hook up to a fish! Ed said that they saw 10 Striped Marlin and they got to toss bait, but none of the fish showed any interest. They did not even have a Dorado come in to the lure spread. Later in the trip they received information over the radio about a large pod of Dolphin that had some Tuna in them so they made a long run out, only to find that they got there at the tail end of the action. The Dolphin were moving away and the boats were leaving because the bite had stopped. All the fishing today was on the Pacific side and the water was rougher than yesterday, but no one got sick. Yesterday must have been because of all the travel! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 15 OCTOBER, 2002 Thank goodness! This morning Ed was saying “It can’t happen three time in a row!” as they got on the boat. He was right, today they caught their fish! With even rougher water today than the last two days, back to the Pacific side they went. A nice Wahoo was the first fish to the boat, and Jorge’s wife did a good job getting the swimming dinner in the fish box. It was a nice 30 pound fish and hit on a CD-18 Rapala. A little while later Ed tied into a Blue Marlin on a lure for a fight that lasted about 25 minutes before they were able to tag the #200 fish. Then it was Jorge’s turn and in about 15 minutes he was releasing a Striped Marlin of about 100 pounds, caught on a lure. Another Striped Marlin was lost as was a Dorado. No one got sick and they were able to get the Marlin they wanted! Ed, we sure are glad it finally worked out for you! Thanks, and we look forward to seeing you again next year! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 17 OCTOBER, 2002 A short report today. Six people on board, rough water, one Marlin hooked up, two people sick, short trip. Brevity. Ouch. Until next week Tight Lines from George, Mary, Juan and Manuel, The “Fly Hooker” Crew