Cabo Bite Report for Aug 8-17, 2003 Capt George Landrum Fly Hooker Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR AUGUST 8 TO AUGUST 17, 2003 WEATHER: We are in that time of the year when things don’t change very much as far as how warm it gets, and the only excitement we get on the weather scene is if we happen to get a hurricane approaching. Thank goodness there is not one on the horizon! Our nights have been warm with the temperatures around 80 degrees and during the day the thermometer has been recording temperatures as high as 101 degrees. Warm and humid, the words for the week. We did have a bit of a breeze from the northwest and a few hours from the east, so it was not all bad, but if you went up the coast towards San Jose you got cooked. (Heat Wave) WATER: Pretty much smooth water everywhere, perhaps only a light chop on any one day. The temperature on the Sea of Cortez side have been showing as hot as 90 degrees, far too warm for me, but the area to the south and the Pacific coast have been just about perfect. We did have a band of cooler, 78 degree, greenish water along the Pacific coast on Thursday. This band extended out for about 10 miles and the water outside was about 81 degrees. On Friday it switched and became the warm band about 4 miles wide, with temperatures as high as 85 degrees and the water outside was around 81 degrees. Real strange. (Blue Bayou) BAIT: Mackerel and Mullet at the normal $2 per bait. (It’s So Easy) FISHING: BILLFISH: The Marlin bite remains a bit on the slow side but there have been some big ones taken. Several fish over 600 and 700 pounds have been weighed (I hope that they died during the fight and were not killed just to show off) and several others were tagged and released. These fish were all reported as Blue Marlin but there were reports of Black Marlin being hooked. Most of these big fish were found along the canyon edges on the Pacific side, but several large fish were also reported from the area of the 95 spot. Blue/Pink/Silver and Black/Green seemed to get regular mention by the Captains and crews that found Marlin that would bite. There were still a few Sailfish being found as well as Striped Marlin, but there were not any strong concentrations of them around. (Just One Look) YELLOWFIN TUNA: I never did get confirmation on the big Yellowfin Tuna reported last week, so it may have been just talk. The bite did die off this week as the Tuna either moved farther offshore or out of the area completely. A few boats have been flying Tuna Flags and they seem to have been the ones first to a pod of Porpoise, when the Tuna have been found the bite has been very short before the fish have gone down. Small feathers in dark colors worked well as did live bait. No concentrations of fish, as I said, but reports are that the fish that have been found have been to the south of the Cape, around 35 or more miles out. (Poor Poor Pitiful Me) DORADO: I think the Dorado have become the fish of the week this time. Not because they have been found in any large numbers, but because most of the boats have been able to get at least one of them during a trip. The fish have been averaging 15-20 pounds with a few beasts in the 60 pound and over bracket. All I can say about where they have been is they are where you find them. A scattered bite without any large concentrations was the norm for the week. The usual worked, as fish were found under Turtles and diving Frigates, but most of the fish were blind strikes. (Somewhere Out There) WAHOO: Very few Wahoo caught this week. (Hurt So Bad) NEARSHORE: Some Roosterfish and scattered bottomfish were found up and down the Pacific and Sea of Cortez by the boats working the shore. I saw a very large Grouper, in the 100 pound range, brought in by one boat. Most of the fish were much smaller than that and the special bait seemed to be small, live Mackerel, dropped to rocky areas in 40 to 120 feet of water. A mixed catch of Grouper and Pargo was the norm, with most of the fish under 10 pounds. Many of the Pangas went offshore in search of Marlin because the water was so smooth this week. (Adios) NOTES: Maybe the reason the Tuna bite dropped as much as it did is that they were worked so hard by all the Tuna Seiners that were here last week. Now the Seiners have moved on. They must be following the fish, or else they fished out our area for the time being. If you are coming down for a shot at a big Marlin, they are here. It just takes time on the water. Don’t expect to get a chance to tangle with one of the brutes on your first day out. I always recommend that people book at least 5 days of fishing in order to get a decent chance at a Blue Marlin, and even then sometimes nothing appears. But when it does, watch out! Make sure the boat you book has gear that will handle a big fish like that, it can be a once in a lifetime chance! Until next week, Tight lines! This weeks report was written to the wonderful sound of Linda Ronstadt on the 2002 Elektra release “The Very Best Of Linda Ronstadt”. Finally, song titles that match the notes! Enjoy! Fly Hooker daily Reports for Aug 10-17, 2003 “FLY HOOKER” WEEKLY FISH COUNT 1 Blue Marlin Released (#250 est.) “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR AUGUST 11-16, 2003 Instead of a fish report for this time frame, I am giving a little update on the work done to the boat. New bottom paint, replaced the old bronze shaft logs with fiberglass ones because the last time the port engine and transmission were removed they were not re-aligned when replaced and we wore a hole in the side of the old bronze one, that caused us to take on a lot of water and also warped the shaft a bit so we got a lot of vibration. Both shafts were cut down by 2 3/4” and new packing sleeves installed. Shaft couplings turned and trued. New props. The rudders were removed and taken to a shop where they had bronze added to the shafts and were turned so the shafts were equal in diameter all the way through, no rudder rattle and smoother turning. New hardware for the rudders. Hull and topsides compounded and waxed and the binini tops re-sewn (next time we will have new tops), just have to save the money! A pretty busy week all in all. “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR AUGUST 17, 2003 Joe Antenucci, Joe Baron, Don Ridolfi and Rich Walters are our anglers for today and they will be fishing on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday as well. The idea is for them to get Marlin, at least for Joe Antenucci. That is the game plan for the day and that is what we set out to do. It was Juan and myself on the boat today. Manuel asked for Wednesday through Sunday off so he could travel with his baseball team for competition up and down the peninsula (got out of a lot of the dry dock work as well). Yesterday one of the boats had gotten a #600+ Blue Marlin 6 miles from the arch so we headed out toward the lighthouse on the Pacific side first. Oops, maybe not the first thing. The first thing was to take care of a problem at the fuel dock. As I went into the store to get our ice, the shaft on the port engine backed out of the coupling and all of a sudden we had no port propulsion. We determined the problem quickly and 30 minutes later Juan had everything re-attached and tightened and we were on our way. One of the little things that we did not pick up on during the sea trials yesterday when the boat returned to the water. Oh well, no harm done and just a little bit late. When we reached the area about four miles off of the lighthouse we put lines in the water. It was perfect Marlin water, 2-3 foot swells with lots of wind chop. At a distance of six miles offshore and eight miles for the arch, we had a look at our first fish. A Striped Marlin came up on the lure in the long position and followed it. Juan gunned the engines as I ran down and dropped a bait back. The fish disappeared and did not come back. That was at 8:45. I told the guys when we started this morning that the best time for the Blue Marlin was going to be between 10 AM and 2 PM and that dead on noon would be the best shot of the day, the tide would be about an hour and 15 minutes before high. Well, I was wrong because at 11:20 we had a Blue Marlin show up on the lure in the long position, off of the bridge rod. I was scanning the water when out of the side of my vision I caught the bridge rod beginning to bend. Then the reel gave a short scream. Juan was on it in a flash as I went down to drop back a live bait. I had the bait halfway back in the pattern when Juan yelled that it was a big Blue, not a Striped, so I reeled in the bait. The Blue struck at the lure four times, and each time missed. On the last shot, Juan had the rod tip raised and as the Blue came in behind the lure, he dropped the rod tip and let the lure right back into the Marlin’s mouth! Hook Up! We managed to get the rod passed down to Joe and he settled into the fight. Don had the video cameras going, needing to document the fish for friends and family back home. The only jump the Marlin did was just after Juan had set the hook, and the fish lunged from the water going from left to right across the pattern. Nice fish. Joe had steady pressure on the fish the whole time, not backing the drag off a bit. After ten minutes his fingers were getting tired of holding the rod with all the pressure on it and after 20 minutes had said he had enough, he was not able to hold onto the rod any longer. That was when I remembered that we had a belt harness on board. My fault entirely, I should have had it out from the beginning. We got Joe strapped into the harness and he was able to continue the fight. This fish never got more than 200 yards of line out, we never got into the backing on the reel. The last twenty minutes of the fight was all at a distance where we could occasionally see color. Joe went to low speed on the reel and I coached him on the short strokes and we finally got the fish close enough for me to get leader in hand . As soon as I had wraps with both hands I told Joe to back off on the drag and he did it. The fish held along the port side of the boat for 5 seconds, long enough to have tagged him had I three hands, then turned away from the boat, I was able to get him turned back and we had a great jump on leader at the back of the boat. The fish turned to the starboard side and as I followed it around the leader got hung up on the bait bag frame for a second. That was long enough to halt the fish short of clearing the boat and pulled him under. That is when the prop touched the leader and all of a sudden we had released the Marlin. Estimated at 250 pounds, it was a great 45 minute job by Joe! That was it for the day and we were lucky, as a lot of boats did not catch anything today. After watching Joe fight the Marlin, I am not sure if the other guys really want to catch their own Marlin or not, but we have three more day to do it in! Keep your fingers crossed for us!