Cabo San Lcuas Fishing Report for June 30-July 6, 2003 Capt George Landrum Fly Hooker Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR JUNE 30 TO JULY 06, 2003 WEATHER: This week the weather was almost a repeat of last week with the wind blowing every afternoon again. Most of the wind was from either the southwest or west at 10-14 knots and started around noon and lasted until around 9 at night. Our daytime highs were up in the mid 90’s and our nighttime lows in the high 70’s. No clouds to speak of so no rain. It’s starting to get warm enough to use the air-conditioning! (Jamaican Winds) WATER: Again, almost a repeat of last weeks report with a concentration of cold water just off the Cape. Water temperatures to 67 degrees along the shore on the Pacific side and warming up to 73 or 74 degrees at the Golden Gate and San Jaime Banks. The water on the Pacific side has been rough due to the strong winds, at least the closest 15 miles has been rough, I’ve heard from private boaters that once you get past that, it gets pretty nice. Off the Cape the water has been 70-72 degrees out at least 20 miles, and you have had to go 35-40 miles south to get to 78 degree water. It is not smooth out there either! The best water conditions in terms of both calmness and temperatures has been n the Sea of Cortez, and the further North you go, the warmer it becomes. 74 degrees between the 95 and 1150 spots and over 79 degrees past the Gorda Banks towards Punta Gorda. Mornings have seen good water conditions out there but in the afternoons it has sometimes been a rough ride home it the wind is from the southwest. (Theme For A Rainy Day) BAIT: Mackerel and Caballito at the normal $2 per bait along with a good supply of Mullet. (Take You There) FISHING: BILLFISH: Scattered Striped Marlin within a 20 mile arc of Cabo San Lucas and a bit better concentration out at the Cabrillo Seamount and north of the Palmilla. The fish are not concentrated near to us right now, and the ones that are being found do not seem to be in an eating mode. A few boats are getting two fish a trip, most of the boats are tossing bait to four or five fish a trip and around 20% of them are getting bit. The cool water has not helped the bite on Blue Marlin, but there are some strikes being had. I had an angler report that he caught a 73 pound Swordfish on Wednesday out on the Pacific side of the Cape. (Midnight In San Juan) YELLOWFIN TUNA: Not many boats are finding the Tuna this week and the ones that have done well have been making 40+ mile runs to find the fish. Most of them have been footballs in the 10-15 pound class. Cedar plugs and dark feathers have been the ticket, and since not many boats have been in the areas the ones that are there have done very well. (Every Moment With You) DORADO: A few scattered fish were found close in off the Punta Ballena to Palmilla area and they were not large fish, mostly in the 10-15 pound range. Not until you got up to the Gorda Banks was there any good action on Dorado, and then it was still scattered. Once again, there was very good action a long ways from home as boats reported numbers of large fish past the Cabrillo Seamount. Unfortunately, that is beyond the range of most of the charter fleet here in Cabo unless you are willing to pop for a 1K trip, then it is still 2 hours out and two hours back, all cruising. Fish that were caught out there were in the 30-60 pound class and most of them were hooked on the troll. (Kissin’ On The Beach) WAHOO: The only fish I saw or had reported to me this week were ones found in that warm water outside the Cabrillo Seamount, and there were some good fish in the mix, up to 90 pounds. Elsewhere, the bite was not happening. (She Never Said Why) NEARSHORE: Slow inshore fishing this week as well, with most of the action being supplied by Jack Crevalle and a few Yellowtail reported as well. Slow trolled live bait for the Jacks, live bait dropped down mid water for the Yellowtail and a few nice Grouper for those dropping live bait to the bottom and bringing it up 10 feet. The Roosterfish closed their mouths this week, they are still there but the cool water got them off their feed. (Mobimientos Del Alma) NOTES: No predictions!!! But I really hope the warm water continues to come to us from the north on the Cortez side, we could certainly use it! As you can tell from the species report, the action this past week was taking place well offshore, and you needed a fast boat and a lot of time to get to it. Most of the fleet was not able to get to those areas so the overall catch was down and a lot of boats returned from a day of fishing having only seen a few Marlin to toss bait to. Wind, die down, Water, warm up, Fishing, turn on....this is my Mantra for the week! This weeks report was written to the smooth guitar sounds of Earl Klugh on his 1991 Warners release “Midnight in San Juan”. Fly Hooker Daily Reports for June 30 to July 6, 2003 “FLY HOOKER” WEEKLY FISH COUNT Striped Marlin: One tagged and released (#120) Dorado: Two taken (15-20#) Yellowfin Tuna: Two taken (10-12#) “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR JULY 1, 2003 Russell Wood and his wife were our anglers on the “Fly Hooker” today and we sure wish the fishing had been better. They had been waiting a long time for this trip but the weather and water did not care. The water was a bit choppy and there was not a lot of action from the fish. Basically, they got skunked. Juan and Manuel tried hard, that is for sure, but sometimes it doesn’t matter. Sorry Russell, we hope for better fishing next time! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR JULY 2, 2003 Greg and John are repeat clients from San Francisco and they are here on this trip with the families. This means that they need to return with some fish so everyone believes they went fishing! They went on a Panga yesterday and got a 20 pound Jack Crevalle and lost a Roosterfish and are hoping the offshore action will be better. They were originally scheduled for June 30 but we asked them if they were willing to put that trip off until today in the hope that conditions would get better. Well, the wind did die down on the evening of the 30th, so conditions have improved, but who knows about the fishing? Juan and Manuel ended up fishing 25 miles to the southeast and finally found some fish. Two small football Yellowfin, the largest around 12 pounds. Later on the hooked a very small (about 8 pound) Dorado and held it behind the boat until friends showed up! Then John and Greg were able to hook up a couple of larger 15 pound Dorado on their own gear and get them to the boat. Enough fish for the family dinner and a little action, not bad compared to what has been going on. Also, that made us the top boat on the dock for the day! Thanks guys, and it was nice of you to invite Tom along for the day, even if all he did was drink all the beer and eat all your lunch! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR JULY 3, 2003 Rick Anderson, his wife and son were our anglers today, and they were hoping for a big fish for the son. It seems that they have done quite a bit of offshore fishing, trying it almost everywhere they have gone on vacation and have yet to hook into something big for him. Well, this was not the trip that it was going to happen on either. Juan and Manuel tossed bait to one Marlin all day, that was it, and that fish did not want to eat. Rick’s wife slept most of the day and so did his son. I wish the fishing was better this week, but I can’t control it. Eventually you guys will find a big one, and I hope for your sake it’s soon! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR JULY 4, 2003 Happy 4th of July everyone! Today’s group of anglers was a last minute trip, and it is strange how things work out. Last evening we were listening to the group “Rhydim Forze”, our local reggae band and met “Maddy” who was walking around with the tip bucket for the group. She was very nice and we got to talking a bit and when she found out we had a charter boat she said that she wished that she had met us yesterday, as a group of her friends had already chartered a boat after going through one of the timeshare tours. Sigh, a day late again! Well, this morning Juan and Manuel were done working and cleaning on the “Fly Hooker” and were leaving the Marina at 8:30 when Juan noticed that his brother on the “No Problem” was having a problem. It turned out that they had blown a hydraulic steering fitting and needed another boat to take their group out. Not having a trip, Juan volunteered to take them on the “Fly Hooker”. I only remember two of the guys names, Kevin and Adam, and there were two others as well. Now, I did not learn any of this until they came in, but Kevin and Adam shared the honors with a tag and release on a 120 pound Striped Marlin. At least these guys got a fish! Now, it turns out that these were they guys that “Maddy” had been talking about last night! The group is from Denver where they are all bartenders, and they know our friends Rod and Karen, who had recommended the “Fly Hooker” and had given them one of our cards. Unfortunately they left the information at home so did not know how to contact us. Small world! By the way, on the 2nd, Kevin had jumped into the swimming pool at the private house they were staying at and had split open his head from just above the scalp line to the center of his skull, the stitches looked like Frankenstein stuff, and we joked that the scar would make him look like one of those guys on “Star Trek”! He still went out today and shared in the catch of the Marlin, and he was the only one to get sick, probably a bit concussed! Good folks, this group, and they invited Mary and I out to the house for dinner, but we had already made other plans. Thanks guys, it was great getting to meet you and we are glad you were able to hook into a “Big One”!