Cabo Fishing Report for Mar 17-23, 2003 Capt George Landrum Fly Hooker Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR MARCH 17-23, 2003 WEATHER: Clear skies most of the week gave us good sea surface shots for both the Pacific and the Sea of Cortez. While the skies stayed mostly clear, the wind gave us problems at the beginning of the week. Monday and Tuesday were pretty much blown out for any offshore fishing, and so bad that on Monday evening I was really hoping that we would not have an offshore charter for Tuesday. Thank goodness that as predicted, the wind began to calm down on Tuesday evening and by Wednesday afternoon things were back to being comfortable. Our lows in the early morning have been in the low 60’s, with our daytime highs in the mid to high 80’s. (No Man’s Land) WATER: Very choppy surface conditions this week on the Sea of Cortez side of the Cape and on the Pacific side things were Victory at Sea. At least for the first three days of the week. Then the wind died down and we had much more comfortable fishing conditions. The Pacific side has seen cool water all week long , showing us temperatures in the 62-67 degree range with the cooler water during the first part of the week. It appears that the current down the Pacific coast at the beginning of the week had forced cooler water into the area. As the week wore on the current out of the Sea of Cortez took over and forced warmer (comparatively) water around the Cape and up the coast. Running from the Cape over to the Gordo Banks the water has been around 68 degrees pretty much anywhere you went and the warm water was not to be found until you got to the Punta Gorda area. (The Great Wall Of China) BAIT: Surprisingly enough, the most available bait this week was Caballito and they were mostly the large size. I say surprisingly because of the full moon conditions. The baits available have been the normal $2 per bait and I have not heard on the availability or cost of Sardines. (Blond Over Blue) FISHING: BILLFISH: Ouch! With the approach of the cold water from the California current the Marlin bite dropped off drastically. I did see a few flags flying and talked to a few anglers on the boats that caught fish and they all said that they had to go quite a way up the coast towards the Punta Gorda area before they found any fish. That is a long run but it paid off for a few boats. Striped Marlin were spotted free jumping and live baits slow trolled in the same area paid off as did trolling dark colored lures over the area. I would venture to guess that the success rate on Marlin this week was less then 15% and perhaps lower. As soon as the water warms up the bite should get much better, and don’t forget, the new moon is coming as well! (A Minor Variation) YELLOWFIN TUNA: WOW! The cold wind blown down from California, brought ALBACORE with the Yellowfin Tuna. Wednesday was the last day the wind blew really hard. There was numerous reports of the Albacore being caught both off the lighthouse and due east of the Cape, in the Sea of Cortez.. The Albacore were caught on dark colored feathers and a few boats were able to get as many as 15 fish. Most of the bite was on Wednesday and a few more fish were caught on Thursday but then the current from the Cortez pushed the cold waters further north up the Pacific coast. In the Sea of Cortez, there were also quite a few boats reporting catches of 60-80 LB Yellowfin, these fish were blind strikes with no Porpoise in the area. When bait was metered in a depth of about 50 feet it was time to watch out! A few of these fish went over 100 pounds and some of them fell victim to live bait and chunks. Later on in the week the fish shifted around and started to appear south of the Jaime Banks, apparently following the bait as it followed the temperature breaks. (Shades of Grey) DORADO: Not the fish of the week, the bite was off and the fish were scattered. On the Sea of Cortez side, they were catching the big 40-50 LB fish up past San Jose working out to 6 miles offshore, while on the Pacific side they were hooking up smaller 4-10 pound fish underneath a few of the small kelp fronds that worked their way down here through the cold water. (All About Soul) WAHOO: Not as a productive full moon as the last couple months. Probably because of the rougher waters, and boats not getting out as far. But I did see a few nice ones in the 40-50 LB range and a couple of them larger than that strike lures this week. They were scattered fish and an incidental catch. (The River Of Dreams) INSHORE: This was a nice week for boats working from the surf line to a mile offshore as there was quite a mix available. On the Pacific side, the Sierra continue to slowly work their way north and at the end of the week were being found in the Migrainios area. The problem here was that the water conditions were so nasty at the beginning of the week. Many of these fish were large ones, in the 8 pound range, and when they were found they bit aggressively. Off the Arches, there were a few days at the beginning of the week when Amberjack, Pargo, Red Snapper and a few Yellowtail supplied action. The rough water conditions early in the week forced almost all of the Pangas to work the inshore areas on the Sea of Cortez and at times it was a rough go with few fish biting. (Two Thousand Years) NOTES: Guess I pissed off someone again when I commented a while back that there were still stupidly large numbers of Striped Marlin coming in dead, tied off to the transoms of boats. I call it as I see it and tough if you don’t like it. You don’t need to kill the fish to get a mount and the meat ain’t all that great anyway. Some people are just ignorant and there is not a lot we can do to correct them that we are not doing already. What really jerks my chain is that the people who depend on the supply of Marlin for a living (sport caught fish in the Marlin Capitol of the World) don’t care if there are fish around so that their children can follow in their footsteps and guide anglers to the thrill of their life. And yes, it happens all the time, unlike some people, I live here and check out the fishing situation every day, I don’t just hop on a soapbox and yell about something I only get a look at once every two months or so, when I need to check on my charter business. You want to fool yourself, go write your own report, maybe you can fool some folks some of the time, I won’t try. (Famous Last Words) Enough. ALBACORE!!!! Who would’a thunk! Talked to a lot of people about this and seems it was almost a once in a lifetime thing. Just goes to show that every day on the ocean holds a surprise. Still some Whales out there, and we are seeing Seals, Porpoise and Turtles as well. Just have to hope the fishing turns back on as the water warms up. This weeks report was written to the music of Billy Joel on his 1993 Sony Music release “River Of Dreams”, and powered by Easter Egg Malted Milk Balls supplied by our good friends David and Peggy Reese! Muchos Gracias! Until next week, best wishes and tight lines! "Fly Hooker" Daily Catch Report for Mar 17-23, 2003 “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 17 MARCH, 2003 Our good friend Dave Reese was the instigator of a kids outing for today. 5 kids between the ages of 5 and 14 out for a half day of fishing. The wind was supposed to lay down last night and instead it blew, and blew, and blew a little while longer. I called Dave at 5:30 and he said that he was thinking about the wind as he drank a cup of coffee on the balcony of his room and we agreed to postpone the trip to the 19th in the hope the wind would die down. Well, at 7 am the wind had dropped to nothing and the water inshore on the Sea of Cortez looked great so we made the call and the trip was back on. Juan and Manuel took the group out for Sierra and decided that the very best place at teh time was outside the beach on the Pacific between the arch and the lighthouse. It did not take long for three of the kids to start getting sick but when they were done, they were fine. Of course, Manuel was not so happy when he was the accidental receiver of someone’s breakfast, but hey, that’s all part of the job, and it washes off anyway, right? You know that green stuff that come out at the end? That is the glue that hold your toenails on to your toes! Sorry bout that, the kids loved hearing that though! The water was choppy and the total catch was 1 Sierra and four Pelicans. Avery (the only girl in the group) did not get sick and she caught the Sierra and two of the Pelicans! Way to go Avery! Davey also did not get sick, but that’s all right, he has experience! Dave decided that one more half day trip involving Avery and Davey was a good idea and it will happen on the 19th, hopefully the water will be better then! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 19 MARCH, 2003 Today is the half day trip with fisherwoman Avery, her dad Hayden and Dave Reese. Davey decided that he was going to stay on shore today. It was Avery’s day as she ended catching everything! 1 nice Sierra, one trigger fish and two Pelicans! All the fishing was in the same area and the water had calmed down a lot, but still it was a bit choppy. No one got sick and everyone had a good time, that’s what it’s all about! Sure hope we see you guys again soon, perhaps before the end of the year?! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 23 MARCH. 2003 John Trapp is a friend of a friend, Tim and Jill Lawrence, and lives in Anchorage, Alaska. He fished today with his friend Carl, from Chicago. They were supposed to be joined by one other guy, but he did not make it out of Denver (BRRRR!!!, thats why I live where it’s warm!). The target was Tuna, Dorado and Marlin. The result was four Skipjack (all released) and one Wahoo lost after the strike. We started off about 13 miles off the coast on the way to the San Jaime Banks. Some nice Yellowfin Tuna had been caught there yesterday and a few Marlin as well (in that cold, cold water) so that was the game plan. About 15 minutes after the lures had been set and after I had done a short briefing and explanation of the day’s fishing plan, we had a triple strike. The Skipjack were around 8-12 pounds and were a good warm up to what we thought was going to be an outstanding day. Well, things didn’t really take off, as a matter of fact, they did not take off at all. We spotted some small bait working on the surface and could not get anything out of them, spotted seals and turtles and there was nothing under or around them either. When we got 10 miles to the south of the Jaime Banks we saw a boat hooked up to a big Yellowfin Tuna, but the school was long gone. On the way back towards the Marina we had a Wahoo hit the Mean Joe Green lure on the bridge rod and at first I thought it was a Marlin. I mean, it was BIG! And it took LINE! Well, maybe I had just been hoping for a fish for so long it seemed to be a beast! The fish took about 50 yards of line, thrashed on the surface once and then came unbuttoned. We checked out the line and I still thought it had been a Marlin, then Juan pointed out the tooth marks on the leader and the cut skirt. Yep, no doubt, it was a Wahoo. Oh well, Juan said it was a large one and was probably over 80 pounds. Take that with a grain of salt, he is a fisherman, after all! We caught one more Skipjack, just outside the lighthouse and this one hit a dark feather on the light gear. 10 minutes, released and home we went. I sure wish we had hooked into one of those big Tunas, or at least kept the Wahoo hooked up, but we did our best and had a good time anyway! Thanks John and Carl! Until next week, Tight Lines from George, Mary, Juan and Manuel, the “Fly Hooker” crew.