Cabo San Lucas Bite Report for April 13-20, 2003 Capt George Landrum Fly Hooker Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT APRIL 14-20, 2003 WEATHER: Just like last week, we had mostly overcast skies this week, only no rain. We could not get a good sea surface shot due to the clouds. Our night time lows were in the high 60’s and daytime highs in the mid 80’s. Winds were from the northwest in the mornings with an occasional switch to the southeast or east in the afternoons, bringing in cool air off the ocean. (Fire and Rain) WATER: The water was a good, solid blue early in the week and started to get a bit of green in it on the Pacific side on Wednesday, but never got really discolored. The Pacific side of the Cape was pretty much a sheep farm all week long with swells in the 3-5 foot range but the wind chopping it out. The Cortez side had smaller swells and less wind chop but when the wind occasionally switched it got sloppy. Surface temperatures were in the 73-74 degree range for the most part with a warm area of 76 degrees moving in from the east. (Shower The People) BAIT: Caballito and some Mackerel were available at the usual $2 per bait and there was no problem finding them in the morning. (You’ve Got A Friend) FISHING: BILLFISH: As was the case last week, there are plenty of Striped Marlin out there but with the full moon they have not been biting quite as well as expected. Most boats are getting shots at fish but they have not been very hungry. There have been some Sailfish showing up in the catch recently as well and they are being found in the same area as teh Striped Marlin. Best locations have been around the 95 spot and lures in dark colors and live bait have had the most success. Hookups have been hard to come by for many of the boats but everyone is seeing fish. Hopefully as the moon wanes the bite will improve. A few Swordfish were found on the surface this week but I don’t know of anyone having the luck to hook one up. (Mexico) YELLOWFIN TUNA: For the third week in a row the Yellowfin have been the fish of the week! And they have been pretty much close at hand with many fish being caught around the 95 spot as well as south of the arches out to a distance of 15 miles. Blind strikes have resulted in many fish in the 15-20 pound class and spotting Dolphins feeding has led many anglers to fish in the 50+ pound range. A variety of lures in colors like green/black, red/orange and blue/purple have worked, as have cedar plugs and swimming plugs. (Steamroller) DORADO: Pretty much the same as last week....The Dorado have continued to bite this week and they are staying good size with an average fish being around 25 pounds. There are still not large numbers being found but they are quality fish. Most of these are being found around the 95 spot. Any floating object that has been in the water for a while has been holding fish as well. No specific lure was better this week but live bait was a sure bet when you found the Dorado. (Something In The Way She Moves) WAHOO: The bite on Wahoo picked up this week with many more boats reporting good size fish to 70 pounds. Lucky anglers tied into two or three fish on a trip, but that was not the average. One fish for every 6 boats was the ratio I worked out from the flags flying. The full moon helped improve the catch on Wahoo just as it hurt the success with Marlin. One to five miles offshore on the Cortez side seemed to be putting out a few more fish than other areas. (Golden Moments) INSHORE: The Yellowtail bite dropped of to almost nothing, as did the Sierra bite. Bottom fishing for Amberjack, Snapper and Grouper has been fair as long as the wind stayed down, with most of the fish in the 3-6 pound range, caught on cut bait such as squid and Skipjack Tuna. (Long Ago And Far Away) NOTES: Easter week in Cabo and things are nuts downtown. I’m getting out of town on Sunday and going fishing so I am writing this report Saturday evening. Check the daily report at my home site to see how it went! This weeks report written to the sweet sounds of James Taylor on the 1993 Warners compilation “The Best Of James Taylor”. Until next week, Tight Lines! Fly Hooker Daily Catch Reports for april 13-20, 2003 “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR APRIL 14, 2003 Our clients for today are friends of Mary’s cousin and they brought another couple with them, four people in all. This was their first time in Cabo and on our boat . The water was a little bit choppy but they managed to hang in there and ended the day with a nice Dorado for dinner. “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR APRIL 15, 2003 David and his new bride Angela were walking around the Marina yesterday when we started talking and they decided to go fishing with us on the “Fly Hooker” today. The water had calmed down since yesterday and Juan and Manuel were able to put them on to a Striped Marlin early in the day. David made short work of it and had it to the boat in about 20 minutes. They also caught a Tuna of about 20 pounds and a Dorado of the same size. A good day on the water for the honeymooners from Arizona. “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR APRIL 16, 2003 Mike Cope is fishing the second of two days today and he has Tony and Chris Marauto with him today. After blanking out on Sunday they were really hoping to get into the fish today. They did! A 40 pound Dorado, a couple more at 25 pounds and a 50 pound Wahoo put some meat in the cooler for them, a good change from the last trip. It also put a big smile on their faces! Thanks guys! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR APRIL 17, 2003 Stephane Van Den Bergh, his wife Georgina and daughter Louise have come all the way from France and fished today on the “Fly Hooker” with Juan and Manuel. Stephane has fished for Tuna in the Mediterranean between France and Spain but has never caught a Marlin as the waters where they are normally caught are to far away. He has brought two new reels with him in order to try and catch his fish. They are Penn Senator 4/0’s with left hand retrieve since he could not find any Shimano’s set up that way. Georgina and Louise spent the day on the bridge with Manuel and Juan stayed below to assist Stephane. He wanted to do it all him self so Juan was there as coach. They spotted tow Marlin and tossed bait on both. On the first fish Stephane tossed the bait out and had the reel in freespool with the clicker on as the fish ate the bait and started off. His thumb was not on the spool though and the clicker broke, resulting in complete freespool and a major backlash, placing his line between the spool flange and the sideplate. Yep, the fish broke off. The other Marlin refused to eat but everyone had a good time anyhow. Stephane wanted to fish with us again but we are already booked for the next few days. I hope he does well tomorrow with whoever he goes with! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR APRIL 18, 2003 Brian Niecamp has fished every Good Friday for the past six years with Juan and Manuel, except for last year when Juan decided to go on vacation (and his brother Juan filled in so I guess what I just wrote is not really true!). On this trip his friend John Dolack is with him again. They had an early start today as they were at the dock and waiting when we arrived. Juan and Manuel headed straight south off of the Solmar beach area and at a distance of 8 miles out found porpoise and birds. One Tuna weighed around 45 pounds and the rest were in the 15-20 pound class, but they found and caught 18 in all! They were the first boat there and the only one as well. The Tuna was exactly what they had been looking for and they left with smiles and their cooler full! The unfortunate thing was that after that, the steering on the boat broke and they had to come in. I refunded half of the charter fee since they had only been out a half day and Juan and Manuel spent the afternoon changing the helm and cable. “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR APRIL 19, 2003 Mike and Cathy Pilarski have fished this date with Juan and Manuel every year for the past 4 years and like Brian yesterday, last year was with Juan’s brother Juan. Juan and Manuel headed out to the 95 spot area after first trying straight south, in the area where they found the Tuna yesterday and blanking out. The water was a bit choppier since the wind had blown all night but the were able to hook into two nice Dorado, everyone said one was in the 40 pound class, and the other around 25 pounds. There were three Tuna in the 15-20 pound class as well so they had a bit of fish to fill their cooler with! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR APRIL 20, 2003 John D. had been wanting to share a trip, a long one, ever since reading about the one I went on with my webmaster two weeks ago. Today is Easter and it is the last full day of his trip to Cabo and lucky for him and myself I was able to talk a local resident (14 weeks) Randy into sharing a 12 hour day with him. Randy has not done this type of fishing before but John has been fishing for about 4 years, mostly on the long range boats out of San Diego. We finally left the marina at 6 A.M. (Randy went to the wrong dock and since it’s Easter, we had a bit of a wait to get a bait Panga to show up). My original idea was to head out on the Pacific side to the San Jaime banks to look for Tuna. The wind had not blown last night and I was hoping for good water but as we went past the lighthouse the swell got larger and we started to get some white caps out there. Knowing that it would not get any better in the next 15 miles, and noticing a few porpoise breaking water alongside the boat, I decided to change course and try an area 15 miles to the south of the lighthouse. It was just getting gray morning light when we set the lures but we did not have any action until 8:00 when we spotted a pair of Striped Marlin sleeping on the surface. Of course they were not hungry and went down when we turned around and pulled a live bait by them. Altering our course toward the 95 spot, we were about 4 miles to the west when we finally got the first fish in the boat. This was a 24 pound Tuna, one of two blind strikes. After getting the fish in the boat I did a few figure 8’s in the area but there was no more action. 20 minutes later and two miles from the 95mJohn reeled in a 13 pound Dorado and we re-set the lures. Just after putting the last line in, another Dorado struck, this time on the Marauder run on 400 pound mono leader. It took Randy a while to get this fish to the boat and I had John drop back a live bait as he worked on the fish. I gaffed the 23 pound Male and put it into the fish box and John reeled in the head of the Caballito he had dropped back. Wahoo cut! The lures went back into the water and we worded the area for a bit longer, getting only one more strike that did not hook up. We turned in toward the Gray Rock area for a few miles and then back out. A good strike on the long rigger got Randy back in the chair and as he was working that fish, another one was trying to eat the short rigger lure. It only took Randy about 5 minutes to get the 50 pound Sailfish that had struck to the boat and after a couple of pictures alongside the boat, the fish was tagged and released. Off in the distance I could see a couple of boats stopped and decided to go check them out. As we approached we could see the porpoise jumping and we ended up getting two Yellowfin in the 15 pound class off of them, but only after working them hard for about 90 minutes or more. The wind had started to blow and I turned us toward the Chileno area. !5 minutes after leaving the Porpoise we had a hard strike on the bridge rod and I handed it down to John. Knowing that Randy had been dreaming about catching a Marlin, he was nice enough to had it off to Randy, who will now be known as “Randy Reel and Puke”! He never let go of the rod, never let up on the pressure and did finally stop throwing up! It took him about 30 minutes to get the Striped Marlin, about 130 pounds of it and 9 feet long, to the boat. One eye had been punctured by the hook so we took the fish. Lures back in the water, we continued in toward the beach where I cleaned the fish as we drifted live bait. Sure enough, the chunk line we developed attracted a nice Dorado and John worked the fish hard, getting it to the boat twice before the knot attaching the leader to the line failed and the fish escaped. Oh well, that happens sometimes. We were supposed to be at the dock at 5 PM since John had a dinner date with his wife at 7:30 but we were an hour late. I hope she forgave him! It was a great day on the water and now Randy is hooked on fishing! Thanks for a great time, and we hope to see you again!