Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report for Sept 14-21, 2003 Capt. George Landrum "Fly Hooker" Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO FISH REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2003 WEATHER: Partly overcast at the beginning and completely overcast at the end of the week, we had humid air in the 90’s during the day and in the low 80’s at night. As I sit here early Sunday morning writing this report, we are unsure if the port will be opened this morning. Hurricane Marty seems to be heading at us and the latest update at 2AM showed that we may be on the strong side of the hurricane if we are lucky enough to miss the eye. Right now it is 280 miles to the southeast and heading at us. I guess the next report will start by stating that the week started up totally overcast with plenty of rain! WATER: Both sides of the Cape were in good shape this week with warm blue water everywhere. The Pacific had slightly larger swells and water in the 85 degree range, while on the Cortez side of the Cape the water was warmer at 85-88 degrees and a little calmer. There were no defined temperature breaks this week. BAIT: Bait could be difficult to find this week and it was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito at the normal $2 per bait. FISHING: BILLFISH: Once again the Marlin were close to home at the beginning of the week and as the week progressed they seemed to move further offshore. By the end of the week the concentration seemed to have moved to the area just to the east of the 95 spot. Just because you found the fish did not mean that you caught them however! Live bait was the key to the Striped Marlin, and luck seemed to be the key to catching a Blue! Many boats found no fish at all and a few had multiple catch days, right place at the right time. As the week ended I began to see more Sailfish flags being flown as well. YELLOWFIN TUNA: The number of Yellowfin being caught dropped off a little bit this week and the fish were a bit more scattered than last week. I do not know if they had anything to do with it, but there were lots of Purse Seiners sighted out there by the end of the week, of course they were not spotted setting nets during the day. The first few boats to the fish seemed to be able to get a Tuna or two this week, unlike last week where almost everyone was catching fish. Finding the porpoise was the key once again, and smaller, dark colored feathers worked well for them. Most of the fish were running 8-20 pounds with a few concentrations of 20-35 pounders found. I don’t know if anyone was able to get into a big fish this week. DORADO: The Dorado bite continued from last week and the key was finding either some kind of floating debris or finding working frigate birds. The first pass on one of these indicators while using lures often resulted in hooking up and then dropping back live bait brought in more fish. The fish averaged 15 pounds with occasional concentrations of 25 pounders found and an occasional larger fish to 60 pounds hooked up. I heard that one boat caught a fish of over 90 pounds but were not able to get the fish weighed on a certified scale, even though all the rest of the requirements for World Record applications had been met. WAHOO: The Wahoo bite dropped off as we went past the full moon, but there were still a few fish hooked, and more fish lost. An incidental catch, there was no specific area or concentration of fish to work. INSHORE: A few Roosterfish were found this week but that was just about it for the inshore fishing. Oh, Jack Crevalle as well. Not that there is anything wrong with these fish, they are very hard fighters! It’s just that you fished for them or else you occupied your time inshore trying to catch small bottomfish. NOTES: This week I will make a little note on tipping captains and crews. Yes, we are in Mexico, but no, this is not a cheap place to live. We always say it is like living in southern San Diego! Just like at home, the normal percentage is 10-15% of the cost of the service provided as long as the crew has tried hard to get you what you want. The captain and crew split the tip 50/50. If you receive excellent service and they really put you into the fish, tip a bit more. If you want to release all the Marlin but the crew ignores your wish, don’t tip them at all and let them know before you go out that this will be the case. If you are doing multiple days on the same boat, let the crew know what your procedure will be, either a tip at the end of each day or a tip at the end of the days booked. This avoids having them think you are “Charlie Cheap-O” at the end of the first day when there is no tip and then treating you poorly later on. Of course a good crew will not have this problem, but letting them know in advance sure helps. I hope all of you reading this weeks report take a chance to check out www.supertyphoon.com and see what Hurricane Marty looks like, and keep your fingers crossed for us! Until next week, Tight Lines! Obviously you all know we got hit by “Marty”. Everyone is doing fairly well. Alot still without power. For those they will have to wait for the Electric company to change transformers. A “little muddy” but the backhoes and dumptrucks are working long hours getting all the muck cleaned up. Should be good as new in a couple of days. A few broken windows around town, and lots of water, but not as bad as Julliette a couple years ago. We haven’t been to the beach yet, but rumor has it that Marty brought the sand back that Julliette took away.