Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report for Oct 28-Nov 3, 2002 CAPT. GEORGE LANDRUM “FLY HOOKER” SPORTFISHING [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 3, 2002 WEATHER: It sure was nice this week! Our nighttime lows were in the high 60’s and the daytime highs were in the low 90’s at the most. Quite a few days were windy until the end of the week but overall conditions were very nice. A scattering of clouds but no rain. It was nice not having to worry about a hurricane! (Have You Ever Seen The Rain) WATER: The Pacific side of the Cape was quite choppy until the end of the week and also a bit cooler than last week. The Sea of Cortez was rough on Monday when we had very strong winds come in from the southwest. It seems that the overall sea surface temperatures have dropped a couple of degrees since the last report and we are now getting Pacific temps in the high 70’s while the Sea of Cortez is showing mostly in the low 80’s. We still have a wrapping of warm water running offshore from the Cortez side out to the Pacific in the area of the San Jaime and the Golden Gate banks. South of the Cape this was causing a distinct temperature break of almost 4 degrees in a short distance. Good conditions but the water was rough! (Green River) BAIT: There were plenty of Caballito this week at the usual $2 per bait and there were Sardinas to be had also, but they were very expensive. A small scoop of the little guys cost $20, just a bit more than a big handful! Hope the price on these drops soon, then I might use some myself! (Someday Never Comes) FISHING: BILLFISH: This week was the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament and it lasted three days. I think the results may give you a good idea of the Billfish action. The minimum qualifying weight for Blue and Black Marlin was #300. One qualifying fish was caught during the three days, with 50 boats fishing. That fish weighed #322. A lot of small Blues and plenty of Striped Marlin were released and the top release team had five releases for the three days of fishing. There were some Sailfish caught at well. The big fish was caught at the 95 spot and the concentration by the tournament fleet may have skewed the showings a bit, but most of the releases came from the Cortez side. The non-tournament boats found plenty of Striped Marlin on the Pacific side this week, but with the waning moon, the bite was not red hot. Best results were had on live bait and the favorite lure colors getting bitten were in green/black and purple/black. (Long As I Can See The Light) YELLOWFIN TUNA: Since the Yellowfin Tuna move around so much I guess that I won’t be giving any secrets away if I let you know how this past weeks fishing for them was. If they stayed in one place maybe I’d keep quiet! This coming week is the W.O.N. Tuna Tournament! There were some large fish caught this week, and all of them were caught on Porpoise. my captains brother had a double hook-up while pulling lures past a small group of ten Porpoise and he was still fighting the fish after three hours. He ended up landing both fish, one at #180 and the bruiser at #320! Just a week too early! Most of the action has been either south of the Cape or west toward the San Jaime. I have not heard of anyone doing any chunking, but they may be keeping the results quiet if they are getting good action. There are smaller fish out there as well, but the Porpoise are still the key with them. Just because some large fish were caught does not mean there was a wide open bite. More boats skunked on the Tuna than hooked up. Even when we could see the Tuna jumping, it was being in the right place at the right time. I have my fingers crossed the fish remain in the area through this week and they start to bite better as the moon wanes. (I Put A Spell On You) DORADO: The lifeblood of the fleet this week were these acrobats of the sea. Most boats were flying at least one Dorado flag, and you did not have to go far to find them. Most of the fish were concentrated in the area within 5 miles of shore, and most of them were on the Pacific side. The key seemed to be finding the Frigate birds and staying under them if they were working. Once hooked up on a lure, dropping back live baits resulted in quite a few large fish, up to the 60 pound mark. Most of the fish were smaller, of course, but still nice size, in the 20 pound class. On the Pacific side, from the Cape up to Los Arcos, and on the Cortez side, all the way up to San Jose, so basically almost anywhere you went you could find the fish. (Sweet Hitch-Hiker) WAHOO: There were quite a few Wahoo caught this week, some of them very nice size fish! The largest caught in the Tournament was an 87 pounder, and there were many in the 30-40 pound class. Many more fish were lost than were landed though, because most of them were hooked up while looking for Marlin, and they bit right through the monofilament leaders. There did not seem to be any concentration of fish, but there was action off of almost all the points, most of it in water between 300 and 600 feet deep. (Fortunate Son) INSHORE: Inshore fishing offered quite a mixed bag this week. There are Sierra starting to show up, nothing big yet since most of them are in the 4-5 pound range. Along with the Sierra are Skipjack and Bonita with the occasional Houndfish tossed into the mix. Anglers casting into the rocks were finding decent Snapper and Grouper as well, but those dropping baits to the bottom were outcatching them. Again, the sizes were not large with most fish in the 3-5 pound range, but the action seemed to be consistent. Slow trolling live bait just off the beach in water where you could just see the bottom resulted in hooking up quite a few Roosterfish on the Sea of Cortez side. Again, no large fish with most of them in the 5-15 pound class, but the results were normally one or two Roosters per boat. Besides the normall inshore fish, there was also good action on the Dorado! (Up Around The Bend) NOTES: This week is the Tuna tournament and by everything we are seeing and hearing so far, it looks like a bruiser of a turnout! Of course this means there will be heavy pressure out there so luck will have a large part in winning. We have had many requests for bookings during the tournament days and have had difficulty finding any boats available since everyone seems to be competing in the tournament. If you are planning on coming to Cabo this week and picking up a last minute charter, good luck to you! Thats it for this week, and until next week, tight lines! This weeks music is Creedence Clearwater Revival in a 1991 release titled “Chronicals, the 20 greatest hits” released by Fantasy Records. Fly Hooker Daily Catch Reports for Oct 28-Nov 3, 2002 “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR OCTOBER 28, 2002 Our friends from Anchorage, Tim and Jill Lawrence, are back in Cabo again and are fishing aboard the “Fly Hooker” this week. Today they left with Juan and Manuel in search of meat fish to freeze and take home. They were looking for Dorado and Tuna. The search started just off of Cabo Falso and continued on up towards the Golden Gate area, but not quite all the way. The water was rough, just as it has been all week and around mid morning the wind switched and started to come from the southwest, making for very choppy conditions. Jill was the lucky angler for the day as she was woken from her nap by Tim so that she could fight the Striped Marlin, estimated at 100 pounds, that had come in on a lure but had eaten a live bait dropped back. being the angler she is, it did not take long to get the Marlin to boatside for the release. Later on they finally found the Dorado but could not get the fish to eat anything. No lure in the selection worked, they would not turn on to the live baits and cut bait was ignored. Sometimes it happens that way. maybe someone else had already worked that school earlier? Anyway, tomorrow is another day, hopefully a calmer one! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR OCTOBER 29, 2002 Tim and Jill’s second day of fishing saw an improvement in the water conditions as the wind died down and the size of the swells and chop decreased. That was a good thing because Tim needed the calmer water to fight his fish in! The first fish of the day was a small Dorado, so small that Tim said the lure was almost as large as the fish. That hookup came after the lures were in the water for about 10 minutes. The small Dorado was quickly released. 20 minutes after that, Manuel received a call on the radio from a friend informing him of a large pod of Porpoise that had popped up a short distance away. Pulling in the lines, they made a quick run to the area and reset the spread. This time they put out a purple/black Marauder in the short position and it was not in the water very long before it got nailed. Tim said that the fish came almost to the boat in the first 8 minutes and he did not think it was going to be a large fish, but then it took off on a run! After battling the fish for 20 minutes in stand-up gear, he elected to use the chair to finish the fight in. Another 20 minutes saw the fish to the side of the boat, where Juan gaffed and brought aboard the largest Yellowfin Tuna Tim has ever caught, estimated at #150’s! What made it even better for Tim was that the Yellowfin action was on his own outfit! They continued to work the area and the Porpoise but could not get another bite. Later on Jill hooked up to a Striped Marlin, estimated at 100 pounds. Tim got an up close and personal look at the fish as it neared the boat. Jill was battling the fish from the starboard side when it made a quick run under the boat and did a vertical jump about 2 feet from the port side, right nest to Tim! He said the fish actually hit the rod in the holder there with it pectoral fin and that the rod was about the only thing that kept it out of the boat. The fish made another giant run and then Jill had to fight it all over again. Juan and Manuel spent about 20 minutes reviving the Marlin along the boat before they released it. Later on they had another Dorado on for a ver short while, then they headed in, flying a Marlin, release, Yellowfin, Dorado and another release flag. A very nice day on the water with plenty of fish action! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR OCTOBER 30, 2002 The third day of fishing for Tim and Jill Lawrence saw then head out to the San Jaime Banks, where Juan had received reports of big Yellowfin, along with lots of Dorado and a few Wahoo. Today they found the Porpoise again but could not buy a strike from a Tuna. They found the current line where the Dorado had been caught yesterday and came up with nothing. Manuel spotted a Striped Marlin come up into the lures and Juan dropped back a live bait. The fish ate and they were hooked up! While that fish was being fought another one showed on the surface a short distance away. Tossing out another live Caballito, they hooked the second Marlin as well. Tim and Jill fought the double header for about 20 minutes and Juan directed the cockpit dance. Both fish were brought along the side of the boat to receive Billfish Foundation Tags and were released in very good shape. That was all the action for Today, but so far their fish total is pretty impressive. Tomorrow is a layday and then Tim and Jill are going to try it one more day on Friday. Keep reading to find out how they did! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 31 OCTOBER, 2002 Halloween eve and we have aboard the “Fly Hooker” three very nice people from North Carolina who aren’t scared. Their target for today is Dorado so Juan and Manuel decide to work about 2 miles off the beach on the Pacific side. They end up working all the way up to the Los Arcos and Migrianios areas and do find some fish. Most of them are scattered out, with no really concentrated schools. They end up with four nice size fish in the box and lose several more. The highlights of the trip were the two Striped Marlin that they hooked up while baiting for Dorado. These were the largest fish they had ever hooked up to but they were not able to keep them on the line. The water was not too rough early in the day but started to chop up a bit later on. Luckily it was a downhill ride home! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 1, 2002 Today is the last day of fishing for Tim and Jill Lawrence, their fourth day overall. Juan and Manuel go up to the lighthouse then head due south, looking for more of those big Tuna or possibly more Marlin. The water is pretty rough and they get bounced around a little and end up not finding any of the big fish, even though they end up 22 miles out. They do find Frigate birds working bait and hook up to a very large Dorado. Juan said that there was a large school of other fish following him in but unfortunately he came unbuttoned during the fight and went away. Changing over to smaller lures, they were able to get two nice fish, the largest in the 28-30 pound range, the other just a little bit smaller. That was it for the day and they were glad to get back to the dock. They also took us out to a fresh Dorado dinner at the Fish House restaurant! Thanks Tim and Jill! We always have a great time with you and look forward to seeing you again next year! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 2, 2002 Today we had Dick and Donna Merhman and their daughter and son-in-law Lynn and Mark James, along with friend Roy Knotts as the anglers aboard the “Fly Hooker”. Everyone has been to Cabo several times, but mostly to just relax and play golf. They have talked about fishing but were waiting for the right time. Mark had heard of us from Pat, up in Anchorage at Custom Rod and Tackle and decided that with those recommendations they would give us a try. The target for the day was Dorado, Tuna and Wahoo, and they would not turn down a shot at a Marlin if it happened. With that in mind Manuel and Hector (Juan’s day off) headed up the Pacific coast, staying within two to five miles of the beach. There was little wind chop but there were some good rollers today. Donna had a short hookup with a big Dorado. When they got in she talked about how beautiful the fish was as it jumped out of the water, then she saw the hook go flying out of it’s mouth. All in all they caught seven Dorado and lost several more. Mark said that they also had a chance to bait a Striped Marlin that was swimming on the surface but they could not get the fish to eat anything. Donna got sick and a few others were feeling queasy when they decided to return early. Pretty good fishing for 6 hours! Thanks, we were glad you got fish and it was nice meeting more people from Alaska. “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 3, 2002 Roger and Dorothy Salyer are fishing aboard the “Fly Hooker” again and again have brought their young son Kanyon with them. We asked Kanyon this morning what he wanted to catch and he said “A Black Marlin”. Well, that didn’t happen today. As a matter of fact, Kanyon got sick. But he was a trooper and hung with it all the way through the trip. Juan and Hector (Manuels day off) took off up the Pacific coast, into the same area the boat worked yesterday. They picked up several Dorado and lost several more fairly early in the day, then Juan got a call from a friend about a concentration of Striped Marlin in an area. He ran there but was only able to find one fish on the surface, and that one did not want to bite. While searching the area he got another call from a friend who had found a piece of wood that was holding Dorado. The friend had already caught ten fish there and was leaving so Juan ran to the wood. They hooked up to three Dorado right away using live bait and got two in the boat. Then the bite stopped. The Dorado were still there but would not eat. Quickly they found the reason! A very large shark was cruising around just under the surface. Hector rigged up a bait for the shark, hopping to get some action fighting it, but theshark bit the bait in half then refused anything else. Dorothy tried to give Kanyon her electronic wrist band to keep him from getting sick, but as soon as she took it off she became ill as well! On the wayback to the marina there was no more action and they ended up with four nice Dorado in the box. Good luck on Wednesday! Until next week, Tight Lines from George, Mary, Juan and Manuel, the “Fly Hooker” Crew