Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report for Jan 20-26, 2003 Capt George Landrum Fly Hooker Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR JANUARY 20-26, 2003 WEATHER: We warmed up a little bit this week as our nighttime lows have been in the mid to low 60’s and the daytime highs up to 94. Sort of reminds us of summer! The winds have been almost non-existent and there was only lightly scattered clouds most of the week with the exception of Saturday as the northern edges of a system blew on through and brought us a fairly heavy haze in the afternoon. (When Tammy Does The Shimmy At The Fish Fry) WATER: Both the Pacific side and the Sea of Cortez side of the Cape were smooth this week with there being a fairly long spaced 6 foot swell on the Pacific side, but very little wind. Surface temperatures on the Pacific have remained in the 73-74 degree range and on the Cortez side it has been warmer with a gentle temperature break running between the 95, 1150 and Gordo Banks areas. The eastern, warm flow seems to be working it’s way slowly to the northeast and is in the 74-76 degree range. (Los Brazos del Mar) BAIT: Mostly Mackerel this week but there should be a few Caballito around, I just didn’t se any. The normal price of $2 each. Sardinas were reported as available from a few Pangas in the Chileno area at $25 a scoop, but I didn’t get a first hand look at them. (Bluegill Boogie) FISHING: BILLFISH: Good news! The bite turned back on as the moon waned and most boats were getting multiple shots a day at Striped Marlin ranging in size from 80-150 pounds. There were also a few Blues caught this week as well, and here I was going and thinking that the boys in blue suits were gone for the year, ha! There were several hot spots but there were fish scattered all over. On the San Jaime banks the Marlin were deep for the most part and boats soaking live bait at 100-150 feet deep were getting bit on a regular basis. On occasion the fish would push the bait to the surface and you had a quick shot at “combat” style fishing. There were a few Blues caught in the area of the Jaime. The area from 5 to 8 miles off the Arch to the lighthouse on the Pacific side produced a lot of fish and these were mostly tailing fish that bait could be cast to. On the 95 spot there seemed to be a group of fish that were feeding just down a little bit as the ones in this area seemed to show a preference for trolled lures, and often arrived in the patterns with no warning. As the week wore on the bite got better and I would guess that most boats had at least three or four shots a day and many boats were releasing that many. Unfortunately, a lot of fish were killed as well. (Breathin’ Room) YELLOWFIN TUNA: After the blowout we had on the full moon everyone had thought that the Yellowfin had left the area! Thank goodness that was not true, but they are still a bit scarce. One bright spot was the area about 15 miles out on the Cortez side, past the 95 spot. On Friday and Saturday there were a lot of porpoise in the area and a lot of decent Yellowfin mixed in as well. Most of the fish were in the 25-45 pound range, but one boat did get a toad that weighed 270 pounds! Smaller football fish were scattered on the Cortez coast just offshore but there were no indicators to them, just blind strikes. Best bets on the Tuna offshore were cedar plugs followed by feathers. The fish were moving very erratically and it was difficult to predict their path and drop down live bait, but it did work now and then. (The Only Time I Saw Him Smile) DORADO: Not the bright spot of the week but there are still fish out there. Some nice fish in the 30-50 pound class were found mixed in with the Porpoise and Yellowfin but for the most part the offshore fish were scattered and in the 20-30 pound range. There were some smaller fish inshore but you had to work hard for them. Drifting and setting up a chunk line worked for the boats that tried it, but the fish were still not thick. A few boats were able to find small concentrations of fish and limit out but they were exceptions. (Papa Was A Fishin’ Man) WAHOO: I heard that there were a few fish found on the San Jaime but they were cutting live baits up, or off, and very few of them were caught. There was a fish reported at 120 pounds found offshore and caught while trolling in the blind. Other than the few at the Jaime, there were very few fish produced this week. (Why’s Everybody Getting Bit Except Me?) INSHORE: Still some good Sierra fishing early in the morning and there have been schools of Bonita and Skipjack popping up now and then as well. A few smaller sized Roosterfish were reported from further north on the Sea of Cortez side but not in any numbers. Bottom fishing is just fair, with a scattering of Snapper and Grouper but few Amberjack or Yellowtail reported. Many of the Pangas have been going offshore for the Marlin, as they have been fairly close this week. (King Of The Surf) NOTES: The Gray Whales are coming through and almost every trip has had sightings of a few. The influx of Striped Marlin this week was one of the most wonderful things I have seen in a while and everyone has their fingers crossed that it will continue. If you come to Cabo for the fishing, please release any Marlin you catch, it is heartbreaking to see Marlin after Marlin come in on the transom of some of these so-called “sportfishing” boats, and the same boats time after time. Leave some for the future! This weeks report was written to the music of “The Dorados” on their 2000 Mahi-Mahi Records release, “Papa Was A Fishin’ Man”. "Fly Hooker" Daily Catch Reports for Jan 20-26, 2003 “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR JANUARY 20, 2003 Today was the second and last day of fishing for David and Teresa Fehr. This morning Teresa told Mary that her son had said that he wanted her to catch a shark. Too bad he didn’t say he wanted her to catch a Marlin! Juan and Manuel went out in the direction of the San Jaime Banks again and worked the east and south side of the area. By 9 am they had lost one big Dorado and caught one, then the action tapered off. Around 11 am Teresa hooked up to a Striped Marlin, hooked while they were slow trolling live bait and the fish made one good jump before coming off. They had a few other strikes but the fish were never identified. Manuel started working back towards the lighthouse as word got out that the action just offshore in the area was pretty good. About one minute after setting out live baits there, slow trolling again, a Hammerhead Shark pounced on one of the little lively Mackerels. Teresa fought the fish about halfway in and then David had to finish off the job. After still pictures and video, the fish was released. That was all the action for the day but everyone had fun! Thanks David and Teresa, and we hope to see David again in November! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 21 JANUARY, 2003 Bill Berg is in Cabo again, and again he is with friends Ron and Joe. They are escaping the 2 degree weather at home in Connecticut! Bill, Ron and Joe will be fishing for three days and this is the first of them. A Marlin for Ron would be nice, he is the only one not to catch a Marlin last year. Juan and Manuel started out the day just off the lighthouse and worked their way about 12 miles to the west before turning south. The picked up one nice Dorado of 30-35 pounds and lost another one right afterwards and a little later on lost another one. Must need to sharpen the hooks or something! The seas were rollers at up to 6 feet but there was very little wind chop. Nothing else happened on todays trip so we have to keep our fingers crossed that tomorrow will be better! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 22 JANUARY, 2003 The second day of fishing for Bill, Ron and Joe was a bit more productive than the first day and one of the reasons was that Ron managed to get a Marlin (finally!). They started the day off with a bang when they hooked up a Dorado just off the lighthouse on the Pacific side. That fish came off then another one hooked up. That fish came off as well and then a smaller Dorado attacked a lure and hooked itself. Joe had the honors of bringing dinner to the boat and it did not take him very long. With dinner out of the way they could begin the Marlin hunt. They continued offshore in a southwesterly direction about six miles and had a Wahoo attack one of the lures twice, but it didn’t hook up. Manuel then spotted three Marlin tailing a little way in the distance and gunned the boat to the spot. Juan made a long toss with a live bait and managed to get it in front of the fish. One of them was hungry and ate the bait. Ron settled in for the fight and after about 30 minutes had the fish close to the boat. The Marlin made one vertical jump right next to the boat and they guys could see blood streaming out the gill cover so the fish was taken instead of released. Ron had to deal with a pinion gear that was beginning to strip but managed to work the reel well in spite of the fact! Good going Ron, now what do you guys want to do tomorrow? “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 23 JANUARY, 2003 Bill, Ron and Joe decided that what they wanted to do today is catch more fish. It is Juan’s day off so our deckhand was Efrain, and the guys loved him. Once again the fishing was slow for us, but they were able to get two Dorado to the boat today, instead of the usual one! Besides the Dorado, the only other fish they hooked was a Striped Marlin. I believe it was Joe who got to fight the Marlin. The fish bit on a lure (mean joe green) off of the short rigger and it did not take much longer than 5 minutes to get him to the boat where he was tagged and released. Well, the guys did not catch a lot of fish but at least it was consistent, and much better than shoveling snow off the driveway in 2 degree weather! Thanks guys, we loved having you here once again. Until next time, Tight Lines! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 24 JANUARY, 2003 Tim Jewell is getting married in Cabo on Monday and has brought family and friends with him for the event. Being a fisherman, he just had to get in some time on the water while here, so he has booked the “Fly Hooker” for three days of fishing, fly fishing that is! Today and tomorrow we are taking out him and friends and on Wednesday it will be him and his new bride. Today we have Tim and his friends Bob, Jack and Jim. What we are really looking for is anything to get action from and I heard of some Tuna that were showing up just off of the lighthouse yesterday, plus there were a few Dorado in the area. If anyone had told me at the beginning of the trip what was going to happen, it would have been laughed off. We were out of the Marina by 6:45 and at 7:05 we were setting out two teasers, had a hookless live bait rigged up and were waiting for action. At 7:15 Juan and Manuel spotted a Marlin tailing on the surface and swung the boat over to it. The fish spotted the lures before we got there and was on them right away. We teased the fish to within 40 feet of the boat then I tossed out the live bait to try and get the fish closer. The Marlin was able to get the bait when only 20 feet from the boat and I thought it was all over then, but it was just an appetizer and he was back on the teasers in seconds. Tim was the man of the hour so he was the designated angler on the fish. A 13 weight rod with a Billy Pate Marlin reel and a blue/pink foam head popper were his weapons and on the first cast the fish was on the popper! We just loved to see that dorsal fin come zigzagging in on the fly! When the fish took the fly, Tim set the hook. Out popped the fly. Another cast and the same thing happened. As he cast for the third time I told him to wait until the fish had turned away before he tried to set the hook, that way he would have a chance to get the hook to the corner of the jaw. It worked and Tim was hooked up to a Marlin! The fish ran off about 50 yards of line then jumped twice, then it headed for the bottom. The drag was adjusted slightly and Tim just watched as line screamed off of the reel. It sure was a good thing there was 600 yards of backing on the reel as the fish did not slow down until half of it was gone. Then the fight started. After about 15 minutes Tim felt the pressure lessen and he was able to gain line rapidly, so fast that we all thought that the fish may have come off. No, it had just turned to swim at us and on a 1:1 retrieve ratio Tim could not gain line fast enough to keep up. Once the fish had settled down it was a give and take fight about 100 yards out. We had a moment then when it looked as if a Panga in the area was going to run over the line, but he turned away in time. Tim was able to work the fish to the boat and Juan grabbed the bill and I placed the tag. The fish was posed for a couple of pictures then released, tired but swimming strongly. From start to finish the fight lasted 50 minutes! 20 pound tippet and a 120 pound fish, way to go Tim! With that to get everyone pumped up the rest of the day went easily. We had three more shots at Marlin but could not get any of them teased close enough to get a fly out, and we had one Dorado come in on a teaser then leave. What a day though, lets hope tomorrow is as much fun! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 26 JANUARY, 2003 Today we have Tim, Neil, Jack and Bob aboard and the effort is going to be in a different direction. Instead of heading offshore we are going to try inshore stuff and see if we can get everyone hooked up to either Sierra, Dorado, Bonito, Skipjack or Jack Crevalle. We cruised up to Chileno beach and started to chunk in 100 feet of water. We worked the chunk line for almost an hour and saw bait getting crashed in close to the rocks, saw a 20 pound Dorado chase down a flying fish but did not get a strike. Just offshore a bit there were a bunch of birds working, as well as two Pangas so we headed out there to see what was going on. The birds were working over the top of a Sea Lion that was thrashing a large Sierra and the Pangas had hooked Sierra as well. We worked there but had no bites on the cast fly. The Sea Lion got done eating the Sierra and started to cruise around. One of the Pangas had an angler fighting a good Dorado by then and the Sea Lion decided that he liked the easy meal! There was a heck of a tussle for a while but the Sea Lion won and all the angler got back was the head! After that excitement we decided to try offshore again and went up where we had the action yesterday. Nothing doing for any of the boats in the area and all we had happen was the sighting of one Marlin on the surface that we could not get interested in anything we had to offer. We did get to see some Whales do a bunch of full breaches and spy-hopping as well as head stands but the fishing was slow. We went in and tried the rocks at the lighthouse with no luck then anxiety set in. All right, never mind the fly fishing, lets just get some fish. Out to the lighthouse ledge and deep dropping live baits. Three lines out and after feeding all the leftover chunks and chum to the pelicans and seagulls, boredom set in and it was decided to call it a day. After all, it’s Superbowl Sunday and we need to get ready for the game! Thanks guys, I know there were no fish today, but we sure tried! Perhaps Tim will have more luck on Wednesday! Until then, tight lines from George, Mary, Juan and Manuel, the “Fly Hooker” crew.