Cabo San Lcuas Fishing Report Sept 7-14, 2003 Capt. George Landrum "Fly Hooker" Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO FISH REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 7-14, 2003 WEATHER: We have had just a wonderful week, lots of sun, a little bit of a breeze, a few clouds to cool things off and the temperatures have not been to high, mostly in the 90’s during the day and the low 80’s at night. If it was just about 5 degrees cooler and 10% less humid, it would be heaven! (Hot Cha) WATER: The green water we had after the storm has begun to vanish and the water is getting nice and blue again. On the Pacific side we are getting temperatures in the 80-81 degree range out past the Golden Gate and the San Jaime Banks, and the seas have remained at around 5 feet with a light chop of 1 foot or so. On the Sea Of Cortez the water has been 82 degrees just to the south of us and 84 degrees at the Gorda Banks. The water there has been great, nice and flat with just a slight wind ripple almost every day. (Reelin and Rockin) BAIT: Mostly Mackerel with a few Caballito and Mullet. The normal $2 per bait. (Roys Bluz) FISHING: BILLFISH: The Marlin have been close to home this week. Most of the action has taken place within 5 miles of the port and there have been both Blue Marlin and Black Marlin, as well as Striped Marlin caught. Most of the Blue and Blacks have been between 200 and 300 pounds and most of them have been caught on trolled lures. The boats that have tried soaking live bait for them have not had a lot of luck this week, it may be that the Marlin are striking out of anger instead of hunger as there are lots of squid around. The usual black/green lures and also lighter colors that imitate squid have both brought in fish. The Striped Marlin seem to cover a bit larger of an area but with the full moon we just had, the bite was a bit off on them. Of course, there are always exceptions! I know of one boat that had an exceptional day on Wednesday, the day of the full moon. The boat caught and released two Blue Marlin and two Striped Marlin! (Further On Up The Road) YELLOWFIN TUNA: Find the porpoise and you find the Tuna, that was the refrain of the week. There were porpoise almost everywhere, from the Pacific at the Golden Gate to the Gorda on the Cortez, and every time you got into them, there were fish. Of course the first couple of boats were the ones catching, but there were fish there even if you were boat number 25. At the end of the week the action moved close to home as there was a large pod of Porpoise found just 6 miles out, a nice short run! Almost all the fish this week were in the 25-40 pound class, but I did see a couple that were over 100 pounds brought in, and I heard of one that was over 200 pounds. These fish were not shy, and almost anything was working on them. (Can I Change My Mind) DORADO: It was sure nice to see the Dorado flags flying again! Some of the boats this week got really lucky and found schools of fish, most of it under some sort of floating debris. Both the Pacific and the Cortez were holding fish but there seemed to be a slightly higher concentration on the Cortez side, around 5 miles from shore. Bright lures and slow trolled live Mackerel accounted for most of the fish, and the sizes were ranging from 10-12 pounds to 30-35 pounds. Almost every boat found a Dorado or two, some found more, and there were a few boats that just had no luck at all. (I’m A Ram) WAHOO: Full moon means Wahoo, and that was what happened this past week. Just like last week, there were a lot of lures lost to the knife-jawed speed demons. Most of the fish were incidental catch while trolling for Marlin, but there seemed to be a few more fish caught around both the lighthouse points in 600 feet of water. Dark colored lures in close and light colored lures wayyyy back worked well this week. (I’m Evil) INSHORE: Jack Crevalle and Roosterfish were inshore kings this week, with the bottomfish performing as court jesters. Roosters were found on the Cortez side from La Laguna down to Missiones. Slow trolled Mullet were the ticket. The Jacks were concentrated on the Pacific side and almost any smaller baits were getting good results. Boats that stopped and dropped small live baits to the bottom or used cut bait were getting fair action on small Snapper and Grouper. I think a night trip for bottomfish during the full moon would produce some really good catches, but no one here will do it, sigh. NOTES: Last week I mentioned that you should check a companies refund policy before booking a boat, this week I would just like to remind everyone that without a deposit, there is no reserved day. It is amazing how many times I meet people walking around the Marina looking for a boat that I know for a fact is already out fishing. When asked when and how they booked the boat, most of them can only say that they e-mailed of phoned for a booking, but could not get a deposit made in time. Almost everyone says that either the Captain or the owner assured them that they had the boat, but I know that money talks, and unless it was a steady repeat client, the owner or Captain would fish someone who put up money rather than wait for a “maybe they will show up” client. That’s it for this week! This report was written with the help of my friend Charlie Albrecht, as he supplied a lot of new music for me. This particular report was written to the sounds of that guitar giant, the late Roy Buchanan, on his 1975 CD “Livestock”. Until next week, Tight Lines! "Fly Hooker" Daily Catch Reports for Sept 7-14, 2003 Capt. George Landrum "Fly Hooker" Sportfishing [email protected] WEEKLY FISH COUNT BLUE MARLIN: 2 RELEASED (#250, #300) DORADO: 3 KEPT (15-35#) YELLOWFIN TUNA: 6 KEPT (25-40#) “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 7, 2001 Today was the last day of fishing for Charlie and Skip Albrecht and they still needed to catch a Marlin. In order to determine if the cause of them not being successful yesterday was because of me being aboard or because Charlie had brought bananas yesterday, we decided that I would go for this last day and Charlie would leave the bananas at the room. I think that events proved that it was the bananas. Juan, his brother Juan II and myself were aboard the boat with Charlie and Skip as we left the marina at the normal time and today, instead of working the area just off the lighthouse on the Pacific side, we headed straight south for an hour before putting lines in the water. As the sun came up, we saw that we were in blue water with flying fish all around us! A really great sign, but it was also a bit rough. We were working in 4-5 foot seas with a 1-2 foot chop, fishable, but not very comfortable. All the lures were put out and we settled in to wait, constantly scanning the surrounding water for signs of a Marlin. Skip says he saw the fish as it’s head came out of the water, trying to get at the lure on the short rigger, the green/black straight runner. It was 8:25 in the morning and the fish knocked the line from the rigger clip, took a couple of yards on the strike and then let go of the lure. I was on it in a flash and dropped the lure back around 20 feet, hoping the fish would think that he had stunned his prey and that he would then have an easy meal. I did it twice, and on the second attempt, I came up tight as the drag lever was pushed back to strike position. The fish made one jump and then the fight was down and deep. Skip was in the chair and after 25 minutes, we finally got to see color in the deep. Another 5 minutes and Juan II had the leader in his hand and we had a legal catch. I placed the tag in the shoulder of the fish and then grabbed the bill. A ten minute thrashing ensued, and finally Juan II was able to get the hook removed from the hard, bony part of the upper jaw. We pulled the fish along the boat for a few minutes and then released him as he revived. Great job Skip, you should be getting a “Billfish Foundation” release certificate for your 250 pound Blue Marlin sometime soon! Charlie was up next, and as we continued to troll, we kept hoping that the next strike was going to be another Marlin. Well, the next one was a Dorado, the one after that was a Dorado as well. Nothing to sneeze at, as both fish were in the 30 pound range, but not quite what he had in mind . It was not until almost the end of the trip as we were working the area just off the lighthouse on the way home that the fish hit. It was a Striped Marlin that at first we thought might be a Wahoo, but as Charlie worked the fish, we could tell by it’s actions that he had a Marlin hooked up. The fish was within 20 feet of the boat when the hook pulled loose! We are sorry for you Charlie, but maybe it will happen for you next time! At least you are going home with a cooler or two full of fillets! Thanks guys, we hope you had a great time and look forward to seeing you again soon! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 12 SEPTEMBER, 2003 Billy Nicholas is back in Cabo and this time he has five other couples with him and Renata. Yesterday everyone went together on one boat for a full day of fishing, just to get the girls on the water. It was a long day but they were able to get one Dorado in the boat, enough fish for dinner. Today it is just a guys day, and Juan and Manuel were able to get them into some fish. It took a long run, almost 22 miles, before they got into the Tuna, and once there, they lost more fish than they caught. That was all right though, as the six fish they landed were all in the 25-40 pound class and provided plenty of fillets. There was only a little other action for them today as they had a Marlin try for the lure on the port rigger. It tried to eat the lure twice but did not hook up. The water was still a bit lumpy on the Pacific side. Billy is still looking for his first Marlin! They are going again tomorrow, and the girls are going on a separate boat, sort of a little competition! Biggest fish wins! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 13 SEPTEMBER, 2003 Just five of the guys showed up this morning, I guess one of them was not as good of a party guy as he thought! Knowing that the target of todays trip was to be Marlin, Juan and Manuel stayed close to the harbor, not getting more than 7 miles out. A small Dorado was the first fish of the day and the second fish was the one they had been looking for! Billy got in the chair on the Blue Marlin estimated at #300, and while the fish did an amazing number of jumps, it only took Billy 27 minutes to get it to the side of the boat. Juan was able to touch the leader to make it an official catch when the fish turned the other way and the hook came out! A legal catch, and one Billy can be proud of! Not only that, but it won them the competition! The girls were able to catch more fish and they ended up with 6 tuna, but the guys got the big one! Thanks to all of you, we enjoyed fishing with you and it was a real nice group that arrived.