Cabo San Lucas Fishig Report Feb 24-Mar 2, 2003 Capt George Landrum Fly Hooker Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 24-MARCH 2, 2003 WEATHER: Most of this week was partly cloudy with our highs in the low 80’s and lows on the mid to low 60’s. The clouds brought no rain with them but sure did bring strong afternoon and evening winds in the last half of the week. (Carry On) WATER: The Pacific side had rough conditions most of the week but there were a few days when it was good in the morning. When the winds started to blow from the west we had choppy conditions returning home after fishing for Marlin further up the Sea of Cortez, but conditions in the mornings were fine. Water temperatures around the Cape had been fairly consistent at 71-72 degreesearly in the week and there was warmer water to the south and east about 20 miles out , creeping farther away as the week progressed. As of Sunday, the warm water was 35+ miles distant and water nearer the Cape was in the 68-69 degree range. (Teach Your Children) BAIT: There was a very good mix of baits available this week, large and small Mackerel and small Caballito, all at the normal $2 each. Sardinas were there at $25 a scoop but you had to go up the Cortez side to Chileno to buy them. (Almost Cut My hair) FISHING: BILLFISH: This past week was one of the most outstanding weeks for Striped Marlin that we have seen for a long time. The type of fishing that was available to us was the kind you think about when someone says “wide open bite”! The Striped Marlin varied in size from 80 to 180 pounds and were very concentrated. When you were in the fish there were at least 50 boats in the area. Now, we have seen fishing concentrations like this at time at the Golden Gate Banks, but then you were deep dropping live bait. This week the fish were on the surface, attacking lures and eating live bait on the surface. And, you did not need to get roughed up on the Pacific side! The fish started out at a distance of 20 miles to the east at the beginning of the week and the concentration slowly moved to the east as the week progressed, possibly following the water temperature. It was not uncommon to catch and release 4-8 Striped Marlin a day, and have shots at several dozen and see even more. Multiple hookups, with three fish on at a time were common. One day only lures worked, the next day all they would touch was live bait, crazy fish changed their minds every day. As of Sunday the big concentration of fish is getting just out of reach, we are hoping they return soon! meanwhile there are still Marlin in the area, just not in such a confined area. (Helpless) YELLOWFIN TUNA: Football Tuna remained available to the south of the Cape all week long, you just had to be willing to put up with the choppy, sloppy water conditions to get to them. They were mixed in with porpoise and they ranged from 13 to 20 miles out. Most of the fish were in the 10-15 pound class but we did catch some that ran up to 35 pounds. There were fish caught in the blind in the same areas. Due to the water conditions and the excellent Marlin bite going on up the Sea of Cortez, there was little pressure on the Tuna so the bite remained good. Small feathers and cedar plugs worked well, as usual with green being a favored corlor. (Woodstock) DORADO: We did not see any massive schools of Dorado this week but there were some nice sized fish scattered around. There were fish with the Tuna and with the Marlin, but there seemed to be more Dorado available in close to the beach. The same small feathers that worked for the Tuna worked well for the Dorado and the favorite color we found was green! Frigate birds working an area were a good indicator as is normal. (Deja Vu) WAHOO: A few fish were caught this week but there were no concentrations, the fish were scattered and were an incidental catch. Most of them were smaller, in the 20-25 pound range and found in the same area as the Tuna and the Marlin. Guess where there is bait, there be fish! (Our House) INSHORE: Due to the afternoon winds the inshore fishing was a morning show and had a pretty mixed bag. There were a lot of Dorado caught as well as plenty of Sierra. Some of the Sierra were reported to be as big as 10 pounds. Yellowtail were hooked and landed, with more lost than not, and ranged in size from 8 to 15 pounds. A few Jack Crevalle and Amberjack came to live baits and there were Grouper and Snapper as well. Very few Roosterfish were reported this week, and those that were found were well up the Pacific coast. (4+20) NOTES: There were Swordfish reported hooked and lost in the same area as the Marlin were found and there were Swordfish found on the Pacific side as well, but none of them were hooked. Still seeing Whales out there and they seem to be increasing in numbers, at least last week they were. The fish of the week was “Striped Marlin”, there was no doubt about that. It was one of those weeks where you could have been sure of at least one Marlin every day if you wanted. This weeks report was written to the music of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young on the 1970 Atlantic release “Deja Vu”. If you are coming to Cabo, I will not turn away a donation of good music Cd’s, I am re-running a lot of what I have and am always looking for new misic! Until next week, Tight Lines from George, Mary, Juan and Manuel, the “Fly Hooker” crew! "Fly Hooker" Daily Fishing Reports Capt George Landrum Fly Hooker Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 24, 2002 Repeat clients John Ridella and his friends Fred, Bruce and Bob are fishing with us today and on the 27th. Today is to be a meat trip and on the 27th they want to go for Marlin. I did not have a lot of hope for Dorado and Tuna when we left this morning as the bite had really dropped off (so I assumed) since no one had been flying the white or yellow flags. We started off the morning slow trolling live Mackerel off of the lighthouse ledge on the Pacific side and had no action. We were watching a few boats inshore trying for Sierra and decided after talking to several of them on the radio that the action in there was just as slow. Several of those boats headed offshore instead and we changed to lures and continued up the Pacific side about two miles offshore, looking for birds or porpoise. About 45 minutes later we received a call on the radio that one of the boats we had been talking to earlier had found porpoise and were catching Yellowfin Tuna to 35 pounds. Reel in the lines and start the run to them! We cruised for more than an hour then saw them on the horizon. There had been only three boats working the fish and they had caught their fill and were leaving the area. Most of the other boats had headed up the Cortez around 25 miles to fish for Marlin so we had the fish to ourselves. For the next hour and a half we had a blast! Singles, doubles, triples, all five lines at once, big gear, small gear, we were doing the “tuna tango” in the cockpit! We finally had our fill and decided to look for some Dorado, we had managed to put 13 Yellowfin in the box and had released two small ones, we had also caught a couple of Bonita. On the way back towards the Marina we managed to hook into two nice Dorado, one about 35 pounds and the other about 25 pounds and had a quadruple strike on Yellowfin Tuna, no porpoise in sight! What a day! Now we just have to hope that the Marlin bite is still on when we go out on the 27th! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 25 FEBRUARY, 2003 Brad and Larry were last minute clients, literally. Another boat on the dock had broken down and we were available. Marlin were what they wanted so Juan and Manuel headed up the Sea of Cortez to the area 25 miles to the east where the action had been happening. Results were good! Two Marlin tagged and released, one that died and was kept, two other Marlin hooked and fought but lost and bait tossed to five others on the surface. Marlin everywhere! They trolled all the way back in since the wind had really kicked up. Two very happy anglers arrived back at the dock and said they were looking forward to going out again! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 26 FEBRUARY, 2003 Scott and Terese Lindquist along with their friends Jay and his wife Lucy were our anglers today and their aim was to catch some eating fish to take home, along with the chance to catch something larger than two pounds! Accordingly, Juan and Manuel took the boat to the area 12-17 miles to the south of the Arch, the area where the Tuna have been for the last few days. Almost the first thing that happened was sighting and tossing a live bait to a Marlin. The Marlin moved in and crushed the Mackerel with his mouth but did not swallow it. Juan reeled the bait in and replaced it with a Caballito and this time the bait was swallowed. The fight was about 25 minutes and the fish was released unharmed. They continued working a north/south pattern looking for porpoise that might be holding the Tuna but it was not until very late in the trip, around 12:30, that they received a call on the radio and they headed out a further 4 miles. Porpoise everywhere and they ended up limiting out with 20 Yellowfin Tuna, all between 10 and 25 pounds, and all caught in 45 minutes. About the time the found the fish, the wind started howling so it was a slow troll back to the Marina, with four happy anglers aboard! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 27 FEBRUARY, 2003 John, Bob, Fred and Bruce were out today for the second trip of the week and their target was Marlin. On Monday they caught enough Tuna and Dorado to feed the whole hotel and now they want a chance at a Marlin. As they left the slip we teased Juan and said they needed to catch a Marlin each! With the target indicated, Juan and Manuel headed east, way east. They ended up 29 miles out and at 11:30 I received a phone call that they had released three Striped Marlin so far and were fighting a fourth, and could I please bring more Billfish Foundation tags to the boat, as they were now out of stock. The fourth fish was released and they saw many more than they hooked up! A good day on the water and the wind did not start blowing today so the ride back was smooth! Thanks guys, we were glad to help make your vacation a great one! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 2 MARCH, 2003 Steve and Alice Berstler were our clients on the “Fly Hooker” today. They are fishing again on Wednesday as well. Today is Alice’s birthday and she has a birthday wish for a Roosterfish! Unfortunately we were unable to fullfill her wish. We tried though. We started the morning getting the best bait we could find for the Roosterfish. Ideally I would want Mullet, but there were not any available. Instead we got the second best bait, small Caballito, most of them about 6 inches in size. I also told the bait guys to put in one big Mackerel just in case we saw a Marlin. There were reports of Roosters being caught between 13 and 18 mile to the north on the Pacific side a few day ago and we headed in that direction to see what we could find. What we found was cold water, the warmest we got was 68.5 degrees. We put in two live baits and one swimming lure (just in case there were Sierra around) when we reached La Margarite and we worked that whole stretch of beach without a strike from anything. The water was rough, cold and non-productive. I had been afraid that this might happen but we did try. Juan let me know that he felt any further attempts to catch Roosterfish in these conditions would be in vain so I discussed the situation with Alice and Steve. The decision was made that any action was better than no action so we pulled in the lines and scooted offshore. At a distance of 12 miles out we put one “Mean Joe Green” Hi-5 lure on the shotgun rod and an Ahi-P on the long rigger, along with two small green feathers on the short rigger and the short bait. There were birds working the area and the water was still pretty rough, but about 20 minutes after putting the lures in the water two line went off. I was in the head at the time so did not see the strikes, but we managed to get the two football (10 pound) Yellowfin in the fish box anyway. The lures were quickly reset and after 15 more minutes of trolling it was gently suggested by Steve that maybe I needed to go to the bathroom again! Hahahaha!!!! Funny guy! Anyway, around 15 minutes later I was eating my peanut-butter and jelly sandwich (fisherman’s food) when I thought I saw a fin dash between the rigger lures. I stared a minute and then I saw the bill and dorsal of a Marlin behind the Ahi-P on the long rigger. I yelled “Marlin” and ran to hook up the Mackerel to the bait rod. I was not watching what was happening as I pinned on the bait but I felt the surge of the engines as Juan tried to tease the fish and keep it from eating the lure. Once the bait was pinned on I dropped it back and the Marlin came in on it right away. It struck and I gave it until a count of 10 before I moved the drag lever to the strike position and waited for the line to come tight. As soon as it did I tried to set the hook but there was just an initial resistance and then the feel of a dead bait on the line. I reeled like crazy and the Marlin followed the bait back towards the boat. At about the original position the Marlin took the bait again and this time I let him swim off with it for 15 seconds (slow count this time). Advanced the drag lever, line came tight, tried to set the hook and nothing!! All over again, I worked the dead bait back to the boat and amazingly enough the Marlin followed it in! As soon as I saw the fish was still with the bait I let it back to free spool and this time felt that I had let the fish have the bait for 30 seconds (with a major amount of line gone off the reel) before I tried to set the hook. This time it worked! The hook was set and the rod was handed off to Steve. It was time to fight the fish and he was up to the task The fish never jumped during the first 15 minutes of the fight and seemed to come to the boat fairly quickly, causing Steve to ask it there was something wrong with it. We knew what had happened and told him that the fish was hooked in the corner of the jaw and was not hurt, just feeling the pressure! As soon as the fish got near the boat it took off on another run and this was to be repeated for the next hour. Steve was able to work the fish up to the boat twice in the first half hour and Edgar was able to touch the leader each time but not able to get a wrap on it. After about 15 minutes I asked Steve if he wanted to try and fight it stand-up style and brought out the fighting belt. The next 30 minutes were done standing up and by that time his back was starting to ache (shoveling all that snow back home did not help!) and he was in and out of the chair for the remainder of the fight. Finally the fish was worked close to the boat and Edgar was able to get a good grip on the leader. The tag was placed and the fish was photographed quickly and release! Steve had a blister on his thumb and stated that he had changed his mind about wanting to catch a Blue Marlin! Alice was able to get some great action on the video and then we re-set the lure and were off to try again. Around 30 minute after Steves 68 minute battle, Juan spotted another Marlin on the surface. Edgar pinned on one of our small Caballito baits and dropped it back in the pattern and the Marlin saw it. Alice was not sure that she wanted to battle a Marlin after seeing what Steve had gone through, but a fish was a fish and she was game. The marlin came in on the bait and we thought it had eaten it, but when Edgar tried to set the hook there was nothing there. The Marlin had picked the bait off the hook! We quickly pinned another one on and dropped the second bait back. We scanned the water looking for the Marlin to return and suddenly, there was a blue knife cutting through the water towards the bait. It was not the Marlin though, this was a Dorado, a nice female of about 20 pounds! You should have seen Her face when she knew that she was not in for a fight with a Marlin! It did not take her long to get the fish to the boat and then we had the ability to fly three flags when we came into the Marina. Edgar cleaned the fish and we turned towards home. As we worked our way in we had shots at two other Dorado but both of them failed to get hooked up very well. All to the good, as far as we were concerned! It had been a great day on the water, no Roosterfish, but steady action and some great memories! Thanks Steve and Alice, I just hope the fishing on Wednesday lives up to the promise that today has offered! Until Next week Tight Lines from George, Mary, Juan and Manuel, the “Fly Hooker” Crew!