Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report for Nov 4-10, 2002 CAPT. GEORGE LANDRUM “FLY HOOKER” SPORTFISHING [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT NOVEMBER 4-11, 2002 WEATHER: Looks like we are in the fall season here as the weather is almost exactly the same as it was last week. Our nighttime lows are in the high 60’s and the daytime highs got up to the low 90’s once. Very comfortable and easy to live with! Of course we had no rain and only partly cloudy skies early in the week. (Baia) WATER: Water temperature was important this week and it seemed that almost everywhere you went the temperature stayed at just around 80-82 degrees. Earlier in the week there was a temp break to the southwest that ran southeast/northwest but as the week came to a close this break kept moving farther away. San Jaime bank was the only place that showed a good change all week long and the water there was 79-80 degrees. The surface conditions were good all week and only on Friday did we start to get a bit of wind and that disappeared overnight. (Desafinado) BAIT: Caballito and Sardinas, the same as last week. Caballito at $2 per bait and $20 for a small handful of Sardinas. There was no problem getting bait if you were early. (Samba Dees Days) FISHING: BILLFISH: There were Marlin out there, both Blues and Stripers, but the focus this week for almost all the boats were Tuna. Marlin were not targeted and to be honest, not really wanted. That may seem strange for Cabo, but this week was the big Tuna Tournament. There were Marlin found almost everywhere and some of the larger Blues were found around the 95 and 1150 spots and a few were found at Golden Gate Banks. Most of the Striped Marlin were found on the Pacific side and they were running in small packs. There was about a Marlin for every other boat this week with the average slightly higher on the non-tournament days. (O Pato) YELLOWFIN TUNA: The fish of the week and since there was so much effort put into finding them we have some good details. First off, it was a long run to find the fish and almost all the larger fish were found in the Dolphin. Runs to 40+ miles were the norm when heading out and there were a few boats that went as far as 60 miles. Dolphin action and live baits were the key. There were 154 boats in the two day tournament and 20 fish over 100 pounds were weighed, three of them were over 200 pounds. The largest fish was #256 and was caught at the San Jaime Bank on a live flying fish. Down the scale we saw fish at #224, #219, #182, #157 and 15 other fish in the 100-150 pound range. We quit counting the 35-60 pounders! As I said, live baits were the key as only one of the money fish was taken on a lure. You had to find the right kind of Dolphin and if you were one of the first ones, or if you stayed with them after other boats had left, you had a shot at a nice fish. Lures accounted for many fish and the favorites seemed to be Marauders and cedar plugs, followed by straight runners in purple/black. Samba Triste) DORADO: There were plenty of Dorado all week long and they were schooled up. If you caught one you usually caught more. Of course the key was to get one hooked up and right behind the boat, then the school would stay around long enough to get a few more hooked on live bait or chunks. Looking for frigate birds was a good key, as was seeing small showers of flying fish. The action was good at the San Jaime and on the Pacific close to the beach. Most of the fish were running 12-25 pounds. (Samba De Uma Nota So) WAHOO: With the number of boats we had out there working the banks this week there were a larger than normal number of Wahoo caught. The largest brought in for the tournament was 74 pounds and the second largest was 60 pounds. There were numbers of fish in the 40-50 pound class as well and most of these fish were taken on lures. (E Luxo So) INSHORE: There was good inshore action this week for Dorado and Skipjack, and the Sierra are starting to show up as well. Smaller Roosterfish are found every day and there have been fair catches of assorted bottom fish also. (Baia) NOTES: Now that tournament season is over for us things should return to normal. It sure is exciting but can wear you down quick! I have a new section on my web site called “Ask The Captain” that I have just gotten up, so if you have any questions fell free to ask. Now I have some time to devote to responding! The Tuna Tournament we just had was one of the best run operations I have ever been involved in and my hat is off to every one involved, thank you for a class operation and may there be many more to come. This weeks report was written at 5am to the sounds of Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd in their 1963 release titled “Jazz Samba”, recorded live in Pierce Hall, All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington D.C., February 13, 1962, Polygram Classics and Jazz, Verve Records. Oh yeah, sit back and enjoy! Until next week, tight lines! "Fly Hooker" Daily Catch Reports “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 4, 2002 Today we were supposed to have the Terry Matheson party our fishing and we did get them on the boat and out to the lighthouse. Thats when the port fuel pump went out. Sigh. Juan spent a lot of time trying to trace the problem and when he discovered what it was, they came back in. We found another boat for the Matheson group and they will be fishing again on Wednesday. So, today the port fuel pump was replaced, the oil changed and the saltwater pump impellers changed, getting ready for the Tuna tournament this week. Also, the section of the web site “Ask The Captain” is up and running (thanks Phil!) so if you have any questions about fishing in Cabo, or any fishing questions at all, please ask. Just go to www.flyhooker.com and click on the “Ask The Captain” button on the left side. I will be checking it on a daily basis. “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 5, 2002 Tim and Clare Johnson have been looking forward to the fishing trip today for some time. Tim is retired Air Force instead of Navy, but he’s an all right guy anyway! All Tim and Clare wanted to do was catch fish and it took Juan and Manuel a long time to make it happen. In fact, it almost didn’t happen at all! The water was in great condition and the boat trip was very nice, but it was starting to look like a wash out. As they began to pull in the lines, Juan called to tell us what time the boat was going to be in. Halfway through the phone call (all the way as it turned out) Juan hung up. A large Dorado had crashed a lure and they had a fight on their hands! It took a few minutes to subdue the fish and then Juan did a quick fillet job as they came in. The Dorado was estimated at 35 pounds and put up a good fight. At least Tim and Clare have some fresh fillets for dinner! Thanks guys, we look forward to seeing you again sometime next year. “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 6, 7 AND 8, 2002 I am combining all three days in one report since these are the same guys for the three days and it includes the W.O.N. Tuna Tournament on the 7 and 8th. Steve Emery, Don Tilly, Dale Schultz and Billy Dorsam are team #4 in the tournament and these guys are really looking forward to winning! They have brought a lot of their own gear to use and are experienced fishermen. The 6th is a day for pre-fishing the tournament, basically a chance to see how Juan and Manuel work, explain how they want to fish and see how everyone can meld together as a team. Hopefully they can get into some fish to give it a try, perhaps a big Tuna for the reality of it! It did not work quite that way however, as the pre-fishing day resulted in only a couple of Dorado. The reports were that the Tuan were out there, but that it was a long 40-50 mile run to the grounds, unless you worked the Pacific banks where there were a few fish showing up. On the 7th, the first day of the tournament, they worked the area of the San Jaime banks and Golden Gate. They saw big Tuna jumping but were unable to get them to bite. They ended up with a Striped Marlin tagged and released and managed to pull a bait away from another one before they had to waste time fighting it. On the 8th they headed up the same way and this time went up to Golden Gate Banks and stayed to work the area. They saw no Porpoise or Dolphin this day and were only able to get a 50 pound Wahoo, a nice fish but not big enough to win the Dorado/Wahoo category. They, along with a lot of others in the tournament, were disappointed at not getting a Tuna to weigh in, but they did have a good time. Thanks guys, and better luck next year! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 9, 2002 Roger Salyer and two of his buddies, Beu and ..... showed up at the boat this morning. They were missing the fourth person, a victim of the tequila virus common here in Cabo. As a matter of fact, it seemed that Beu might have gotten a pretty good case of it himself! They had already fished two days on another boat and had gotten their Marlin and a Wahoo. Today they wanted to get some meat to fill the cooler up so it was a search for Dorado. Juan was not feeling well and we had Abulito as deck hand. Manuel took the “Fly Hooker” up the Pacific coast to the area known as Los Arcos and there they found a school of Dorado. One was hooked on a lure and the others fell for live bait tossed back. A nice load of fillets was recovered from the five 20-25 pound fish they ended up with. Good going guys, we hope to see you again! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 10 NOVEMBER 2002 I had a chance today to fish with Al and Chris, from the desert states of New Mexico and Arizona. Normally these guys are golfers but decided to give fishing a shot on this trip. Abulito did not show up for work today, and it appeared from the conversations on the radio that he was not the only crew to be missing. Guess they had quite a party after the awards ceremony for the Tuna Tournament last night! Juan and I got underway and found from Al and Chris that they wanted to catch some fish so they had fillets to take home and they would not mind getting a shot at a Marlin if we happened upon one. Juan decided to go to the same area the boat had fished yesterday. Boy, once we got past the light house we had to slow down! It was a bit bouncy out there. Several shrimp trawlers had been picking through their tows and had been tossing the by-catch over the side, forming lines of small fish drifting down swell. We picked up one Dorado in one of these lines then continued on, getting wet all the way. Once we got to the Los Arcos area, we began to get strikes. We hooked one fish and got him to the boat then hooked a friend of his on a live bait dropped back. Both these fish ended up in the fish box. Later on Chris had a strike and hook-up to a large Bull Dorado and it took him a while to get the fish tired and turned to the boat. Juan said that there was a large school of other fish following him in and then of course, he shook the hook loose! We turned in, closer to the shore and started working our way back. We had one Wahoo strike and another Dorado strike and that was all the action for the day. I filleted one fish and Juan did the others and both Al and Chris were surprised by the number of fillets that came out of the three Dorado. All in all it was a good day and we hope to see both Al and Chris again! Until Next week, Tight Lines from George, Mary, Juan and Manuel, the “Fly Hooker” Crew!