Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report Aug 24-31, 2003 Capt George Landrum Fly Hooker Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR AUGUST 23 TO AUGUST 30, 2003 WEATHER: Thank goodness that Hurricane Ignacio is gone! We received just enough rainfall from it that the desert was well watered and there was no heavy runoff. Just to the north in San Jose the rain came down harder and even further, up toward La Paz, they got up to 19 inches in 24 hours. The Port opened on the 25th at 10 am after the Port Captain decided the storm was past. Belaboring the obvious, the beginning of the week was cloudy with rain, the end of the week was sunny and dry. Lows in the high 70’s and highs in the mid 90’s. WATER: Rough water at the beginning of the week, but good enough to fish on when the Port opened. We did not receive any large storm swells. Once the wind went away the water was almost perfect. I say almost because there has been an area that has moved along the Sea of Cortez coast that has been very cold, as low as 68 degrees, and has been a dirty green color. This area has covered an easy 10 square miles and has moved from along the coast up at San Jose, along the coast to Cabo and has now eddied off to the southeast. It is slowly warming and is now in the high 70’s and moving away. There has been a very distinct debris line associated with it as well. On the Pacific side, the winds have left the water slightly choppy but there has been a very distinct temperature break running from just off the front of Cabo out past the San Jaime Bank with 81 degree water on the north side and 85 degree water on the south side. The break has been over a very short distance. BAIT: It was almost impossible to get any bait in the early part of the week and almost all of the boats went out baitless. A few of the Pangas were able to net a couple of Mullet and a few more caught some slipmouth (a bony snapper looking fish) and they were better than nothing, but not much. The big bait boat came in from the Mag Bay area on Thursday and unloaded into the receivers so everyone had fresh Mackerel on Friday. The bait had not cured yet and on Friday almost half the bait sold died within 4 hours. On Saturday the bait had settled down and very few of them died (other than from being eaten!). The price on all bait this week was the normal $2 per bait. FISHING: BILLFISH: We were not sure what kind of effect the Hurricane was going to have on the fishing but the effects did not last as long as we had feared. Marlin were being caught on the day the Captain re-opened the port and the bite just seemed to get a little better each day. Most of the fish were caught in the area of the temperature breaks and where there were color changes in the water. A great area this week for Striped Marlin was on the east edge of the cold water eddy in the Sea of Cortez and the Blues were scattered in there as well. Another area that seemed good was 24 miles to the south of the Cape where there were some reels spooled by big fish. The Pacific side lighthouse had fish 7 miles out and it was a mixed bag with both Striped and Blue Marlin as well as some Yellowfin Tuna. The Blue Marlin off the cold water eddy loved light colored lures as there were large numbers of big squid in the area. Live Mackerel on the Stripers was the ticket, but you had to toss to a lot of fish to get a bite. YELLOWFIN TUNA: East of the 95 Spot and west of the Pacific lighthouse were the Tuna locations this week. Past the 95 spot there were some larger fish found, with a few over #150, but most of them in the 36-60 pound class. The Pacific side fish were a bit smaller with many of them footballs but there were some nice 40 pounders in the mix. In both areas the fish were associated with Porpoise. Cedar plugs and feathers were the ticket. DORADO: The debris washed into the water by the Hurricane has begun to hold Dorado and there were a few boats that found good logs to work. The fish have been averaging 15 pounds but there have been a few nice 40+ pounders in the mix. Live bait worked around the debris was the way to go and a few boats did well getting chunk lines going in areas of debris. WAHOO: Most of the Wahoo action seemed to come from the Pacific side this week and it was from boats working the temperature break. The fish were not giants but most of them were in the 30 pound range. Marlin lures seemed to get lost on a regular basis as few boats were specifically looking for the fish. INSHORE: With the water inshore being cold and green, there was very little action. Most of the Pangas were working offshore since the water on the Cortez side was so nice. Jack Crevalle was the catch of the day for boats that insisted on trying the inshore opportunities. NOTES: Big Squid at the 1150 and 95 Spots this week were an opportunity many of the boats in the area could not pass up. The fish were running from 15 to 40 pounds. Not surprisingly, many of the Marlin caught in the area had Squid hanging from their mouths! White Iron worked vertically hooked many of the Squid, as did chunk bait. A few boats pulled off the concentration and started chunking with cut Squid and hooked into large Dorado. Here is a quick reminder for those of you looking to book a charter in Cabo (or anywhere else). I had a couple come to me this week complaining about a booking they had made with another company. They had booked a day when the port was closed by the Captain, and had booked the date a few months in advance. Upon finding that they were not going to be able to go fishing they asked about getting their 50% deposit refunded and were told to check their paperwork. The company would not offer any refund for any reason but instead offered to apply the deposit to another booking within the next year from the canceled trip. Wow, what if you are only able to get here every other year? Anyway, just a reminder, check out the refund policies before you book. This weeks report was written to the Surf Guitar Music of Dick Dale on his 1994 album “Unknown Territory”. A client of mine was nice enough to burn about 30 albums for me and bring them down, but since they are copies I don’t have all the information on them yet. I am working on it though! Thanks Charlie! Until next week, tight lines! Fly Hooker Daily Fishing Reports for Aug 24-31, 2003 “FLY HOOKER” WEEKLY FISH COUNT “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 24 AUGUST, 2003 Greg Kisling and his brother Todd were scheduled to fish today but since the port is still closed and there is a pretty good wind blowing, I think they are going to miss a day. Greg was supposed to fish today and then had to re-schedule a few things so it was a day for Todd. They are also supposed to fish tomorrow, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Greg’s goal is to catch a Blue Marlin. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that this slow moving Hurricane keeps going north on the Sea of Cortez and allows us a shot and getting one for him! “ FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 25 AUGUST, 2003 Todd and I met in the morning at the Marina, hoping that the port would be open. Greg did not make it in due to cancelled flights, hopefully he will get in today. The wind was still gusting but it was not too bad at the Marina. No one was around and no boats were moving so we decided to call it a day and meet at 4 this afternoon, have a beer or two and talk about the fishing schedule. Got a call from a friend at 10 AM, the port Captain had opened the port and boats were going out, not many, but a few. Met with Todd at four, had received a call from Greg that he was coming in this afternoon so we left the Marina to meet him at the airport at 5:30 with the good news that the port had opened and we had seen some Marlin and Tuna flags flying on the boats that had gone out. “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 26 AUGUST, 2003 Manuel was not able to make it to town today due to massive amounts of water running through the arroyo between his home and town so it was Juan, myself, Greg and Todd today. With little clue of where the fish may have moved due to the storm, we decided to head out to the 95 spot first and if there was nothing there, go and try the area off the lighthouse on the Pacific side. We saw two other boats hook up all day long, saw two Striped Marlin jumping and one tailing fish. We were not able to get any live bait this morning, there were no bait boats out so we did not have much of a chance at the tailing fish. We did finally find a pod of Porpoise 10 miles from the arch, in front of the lighthouse, and they had a large school of Skipjack with then so we worked the area for three hours. We had one strike from a Skippy, we wanted one for a live bait, but the fish did not hook up and we kept on working. Nada, nothing, zero, zilch. It’s a good thing that Greg and Todd have a couple more days left! We arranged another boat for them tomorrow and will see them back on the “Fly Hooker” on Thursday, hopefully with better luck. At least now we know where the fish weren’t! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 27 AUGUST, 2003 Our friends Charlie and Skip Albrecht are fishing the “Fly Hooker” today and they will be fishing more days with us next week while here for two weeks. It was a long day on the water for them as they saw fish but could not get anything to bite. We all have our fingers crossed for better luck next week. “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 28 AUGUST, 2003 The second 12 hour day on the “Fly Hooker” for Greg and Todd. They saw fish but again, the bite was off for our boat. I know it had to be frustrating to be out there and seeing other boats hooking up but having no luck themselves. Our fingers and toes are now crossed and at least I know that the bad luck on the first day was not because I was on the boat! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 29 AUGUST, 2003 Finally their luck changed! On this, the last day of fishing for this trip, Greg and Todd finally got into fish, and they had a pretty good day of it. Juan and Manual worked the area just outside the 95 Spot and at 9:30 hooked up a Striped Marlin. First fish so Greg got the honors. At noon there was a strike on one of the outriggers and since it was the second fish of the day, Todd got the honors. This fish took him a while to get to the boat, and it was because he had hooked the fish that Greg had been looking for! About an hour and twenty minutes after hooking up, Todd managed to get the estimated #300 Blue Marlin to the side of the boat for a tag placement, quick picture and release! Good going Todd, and Greg got some great pictures of the fish in the air as well. At around 2 PM there was a Striped Marlin spotted on the surface that was willing to eat. Greg made short work of this small Stripy, estimated at 80 pounds, but half of the battle was in the air! The first fish of the day had a large squid sticking out of it’s mouth when brought to the boat, and the Blue Marlin hit a cream colored lure (sure looks like a squid color) and the fish were caught in a small area where a lot of other boats were fishing for squid, most of them from 15 to 40 pounds! Glad the jinx is off and maybe now the fishing will improve for the “Fly Hooker”. Thanks Greg and Todd, it was great spending time with fine people like you! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 30 AUGUST, 2003 This is the first of two days fishing for Paul and Pam Langham and they are really looking forward to it. They returned early, unfortunately, but the reason was they were out of beer! I thought that there had been almost a case of beer left over after yesterday’s trip, but I guess all the guys on the dock must have celebrated with Juan and Manuel about the Blue Marlin, because there were only six beers on the boat when it left this morning. My fault, I should have checked before it left. Paul says that beer is as necessary as water on a fishing trip, and I can’t say as I disagree with him. Well, they were in early, but they also caught fish! Paul and Pam each got a Striped Marlin, and the one that Pam got was much bigger than that of Paul. Pam’s was estimated by Juan and Manuel to be around #180, a real big one here is Cabo. Pauls fish was in the #120 class. Pam also got a small Dorado that weighed around 10 pounds. Great fishing, and we hope they have just as good of luck tomorrow, and I will be sure there is a case of beer on the boat in the morning! Until next weeks report, tight lines!