Cabo San Lucas fishing Report for July 13-20, 2003 Capt George Landrum Fly Hooker Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR JULY 14 TO JULY 20, 2003 WEATHER: Not just warm, it has been darn hot and starting to get pretty humid as well. We are having nighttime lows in the high 70’s to low 80’s and daytime highs to the 100 degree mark. I am not sure what the humidity readings have been but it has not been a problem to break a sweat by not doing anything at all! We have had some cloud cover the past few days and there has been a bit of rain up in the mountains but only an occasional sprinkle in our area. (Calling Elvis) WATER: There has been a band of cool water along the coast where the temperatures have been around 77 to 78 degrees out to a distance of about three miles. Once past there it has warmed up to 83-84 degrees on the Sea of Cortez side. On the Pacific, the water has warmed up a bit and we are starting to get some nice blue conditions around the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks. The water in those areas has been in the low 80’s and it looks like summer is here. There has been almost no wind this week and the water conditions have reflected that. A low swell from the Northwest and a slight wind riffle in the morning has made it easy to see anything floating or breaking the surface. (On Every Street) BAIT: Mostly Mackerel and Mullet this week at the normal $2 per bait. (My Parties) FISHING: BILLFISH: Very little change this week on the Billfish, except there are a few more Blue Marlin being hooked up. The Striped Marlin are not quite as abundant as they were last week and while there are signs at some booths around the Marina stating that the Marlin fishing is “Hot! Hot! Hot!”, you would not be able to tell that by talking to the anglers and the Captains. Guess that some people just have to stretch the truth a bit to get business! There are Marlin out there and an occasional boat has come in with a couple of flags flying, but most of the boats have been lucky to get a good solid bite this week. The Blues have been located at the Gorda, 1150, 95 and due south of the Cape and the Striped Marlin seem to be concentrated closer to the beach and up on the Pacific side a ways. For a few days, dropping live bait at either Punta Ballena or off the lighthouse on the Pacific side worked well, as did slow trolling live bait in the same area, but that action died off. (When It Comes To You) YELLOWFIN TUNA: Looks like the Tuna are going to be the fish of the week! We have started to find some of the bigger Tuna in the Porpoise this week, just what I was wishing was going to happen. First few boats to the Porpoise were able to hook into fish that went as high as 150 pounds, with the fish getting smaller, then disappearing as more boats showed up. Most of the fish were found between 20 and 35 miles to the south and around the 95 and 1150 spots, mixed with the Porpoise. While there were football Tuna in the mix, the average seemed to be about 20-25 pounds, and there were quite a few fish in the 40-50 pound range as well. Large lures, large fish, small lures, small fish seemed to be the rule, with more action happening with the smaller lures. There were fish reported occasionally from other areas as well, but not consistently. This bite really started to take off at the end of the week, the beginning of the week was a bit slow. (Fade To Black) DORADO: A repeat of last weeks report, the Dorado are still scattered, and the bite continues to improve a bit. Bigger fish offshore, smaller fish inshore, live bait working well. (The Bug) WAHOO: Almost no Wahoo this week. I did see a few flags and talked to a few anglers who reported catching one, but there was no “bite” and everything reported was an incidental catch. (You And Your Friend) NEARSHORE: Some Roosterfish this week as well as the Jack Crevalle, but that was about it for big fish action inshore. A few nice bottom fish were caught since the water has been so nice, but there was little else happening inshore. With the water conditions so nice, a lot of the Pangas were heading up to 10 miles offshore, looking for action on the Pelagic fish. At the end of the week the Pangas were starting to find small Yellowfin Tuna and a lot of Skipjack just off the Arch. (Heavy Fuel) NOTES: The action has not been hot on any one species and as a matter of fact, has been pretty “lukewarm” overall. We are in a time of transition with the warm water moving in. There is a little bit of everything out there but not a lot of any one species, unless you happen to hit on one of the Tuna schools as the first boat. Another week or so and we should be seeing a lot more action, and a lot more big fish! Fingers crossed please! This weeks report was written to the music of one of my favorite bands, and guitar player extraordinary, “Dire Straits” and Mark Knopfler on the 1991 Warner Brothers release, “On Every Street”. Until next week, Tight Lines! Fly Hooker Daily Fishing Reports for July 13-20, 2003 “FLY HOOKER” WEEKLY FISH COUNT Striped Marlin: One tagged and released (#120) Dorado: One taken (#45) Yellowfin Tuna: Five taken (10-45#) “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR JULY 18, 2003 Peter Simon booked the “Fly Hooker” for today to give a few guys here for a bachelor party a chance to do some fishing. Peter is a Fly Fisherman (note the capitol letters?) and brought his own gear just in case he got a chance to get some action on the 10 weight. Unfortunately it did not work out that he was able to get a chance to use his gear as you really need a target to cast at in order to do the “normal “ fly fishing. What happened instead was that we pulled a Marlin popper on the 13 weight rod and ended up hooking a #35 Yellowfin Tuna on the troll. Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself a bit here. The bachelor party consists of six guys, one of the arriving today while we were fishing and one of the guys not interested in doing any fishing at all. They rented a very nice house up in the “Pedregal” for the time here and Mary picked them up this morning. I went along since Peter wanted a chance to do some fly fishing. Juan and Manuel took us out for an hour to the South before we put lines in the water and about 45 minutes later we spotted some Porpoise out on the horizon. We were the first boat there and on the first pass we hooked up on three trolled lures on regular gear and also on the Marlin popper trolled on the fly rod. The first two Tuna to the boat were in the 20 pound class, the last one was a good #45 and gave us a great tussle at the side of the boat. Peter was on the Tuna hooked on the fly rod and it was about 10 minutes after we got the last fish on conventional gear in the boat that Juan was in position to get a gaff shot on Peters fish. The fish was just in range when it did a sudden dive down and forward, and as Manuel tried to adjust the boat, the fish dove. Juan grabbed the rod and pushed it as far down into the water as possible but the prop on the starboard engine ran against the fly line and the fish was cut off. We figured that fish at around 20-25 pounds and full of fight! About that time other boats were arriving in the area but there were no more fish caught for the next hour. We figured that the school had followed the lost fish into the depths. Late on while we were heading back Manuel spotted as big turtle on the surface and as we passed the spot, there were two large Dorado under the turtle. Right away Juan tossed out a live bait and we did a slow turn around the area. Surprisingly, it was not the live bait that got hit, it was the Marlin lure in “Mean Joe Green” color, moving at what had to be only two knots, off of the bridge rod that got hit. This was the Bull and it took about 25 minutes to get the fish to the boat before Juan was able to get the first gaff shot at the fish The fish struggled at the gaff for a minute then pulled loose and around two minutes later I was able to get the fish to the side of the boat for the second gaff shot. This time it took and the 45 pound Dorado was ours! Another pass on the spot with no results and we continued trolling in. About 10 miles from the Marina at 12:30, we had a Blue Marlin come up on the same lure the Dorado had hit, and this fish took about 100 yards of line and made one jump before the hook pulled loose. Quite the trip for a group of four bachelor, and these guys were plenty happy! Thanks guys, and we are hoping you did not spend too much money tonight while out on the town! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR JULY 19, 2003 I wish I remembered the names of the couple that fished today, but all I really know is that they fished yesterday on one of the fleet boats and got nada, zero, zip, and they did not really want to go another day. After explaining the difference between going out on a fleet boat and a boat owned by a small business, they decided to give it another try. They were glad they did as they tagged and released a Striped Marlin of 120 pounds (her first Marlin!) and brought two Yellowfin Tuna to the boat. It was a long day, but the water was nice and the saw so much sea life that they thought they were at “Sea World”! Thanks for the business and we were glad to make your trip one to remember!