Cabo Fishing Report for Sept 22-28, 2003 Capt. George Landrum "Fly Hooker" Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO FISH REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 22-28, 2003 WEATHER: Like I said last week, this week started with a solid overcast and lots of rain. The reason for this is the passing of Hurricane Marty right over the top of us. Nothing like an eye passage! The fact that the Hurricane sped up during the final approach saved us. As of the morning of the 21st the storm was reported to be moving in our direction at a slow 3-5 knots. When we had the eye pass over the top of us at 3 this morning it had a forward speed of 20 knots, and passed fairly quickly. A lot of rain and winds to 100mph caused some damage, mostly to the roads. As of today, the 28th, we are still digging out, but it is almost finished. The remainder of the week was very pleasant with daytime highs in the high 80’s and nighttime lows down to 70 degrees, mostly sunny skies and a few light breezes. WATER: After the Hurricane the water on the Pacific was green out to 10 miles and on the Sea of Cortez it was green out to 5 miles. Big swells but little to no chop for the remainder of the week. The Port was closed on Monday but re-opened Tuesday. The swells on the Pacific at the time were a solid 4-6 foot with a few larger, and a light 1-2 foot cross swell on top. South and west of the Cape the water temperature has been 81-82 degrees and to the east around the 1150 and 95 spots the water has been warmer, in the 84-85 degree range. BAIT: Bait was unavailable early in the week and it was not until Friday that anything respectable was to be had. Now we have no problem, and it is mostly Mackerel with a few Caballito mixed in, at the normal $2 per bait. FISHING: BILLFISH: There are still a lot of Sailfish being found and as the week progressed the Marlin bite turned on. Most of the fish have been Striped Marlin, but there have been a few Blues in the mix. Live bait was the key to getting bit on a regular basis, but a few fish were falling on artificials with dark colors in black/green and petrolero getting the nod for being the most attractive to the fish. The majority of the action on all fish this week seemed to occur to the south or the east with the areas east of the 95 spot kicking out quite a bit of action. Smaller lures pulled for Tuna got hit by Sailfish and they seemed to like the darker colors as well. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again, getting into the porpoise was the key, but not all the porpoise had fish on them. The fish were ranging from small 8 pound footballs to several fish reported over 200 pounds, but the majority of them seemed to be in the 20-35 pound class with an occasional fish kicked out that ran to 100 pounds. The usual lures worked, dark feathers and cedar plugs, and when the action was slow, a live bait dropped way back hooked an occasional nice sized fish. The biggest concentration of Tuna seemed to be to the south around the 1000 fathom line and an area just to the southeast of the San Jaime Banks. DORADO: The Dorado bite continued to improve as the floating debris brought into the ocean by Hurricane Marty began to attract and hold baitfish. On the Pacific side, out to 10 miles along the current line the action was steady on smaller fish to 15 pounds and further to the south where the currents collide the action was good on larger fish to 35 pounds around the same type of debris. Thank goodness that live bait became available as that was the key to getting a good catch, as opposed to just flying one flag. WAHOO: More Wahoo this week as the floating debris was holding the fish for a while. A lot of cut offs, but some of the fish were very respectable, in the 80-100 pound range. The key seemed to be getting there first, as they Wahoo usually beat the Dorado to the lures. INSHORE: The discolored water made inshore fishing almost impossible and the Pangas were focusing on working up to 10 miles offshore for Dorado. NOTES: We are almost back to normal now, with most of the cleanup completed. Thank goodness the Hurricane season is almost over! The past few weeks have been very stressful on everyone, both weather wise and fuel wise. The Marina is in the process of changing the fuel dock, putting in a new one that will accommodate more boats and more pumps. In the interim, we have had to deal with just three hoses delivering diesel, and at gravity feed speeds. That has meant long lines, with it not being uncommon at all for Captains and crew to be camped out overnight in line to get fuel. When gravity feed is at speeds in the 50 gallon per hour ranges, it takes a long time! The good news is that the new dock is supposed to be open this morning! Yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it! This weeks report was written to the music of “Genisis” in their 1973 release “Selling England By The Pound”. Thanks Charlie! Until next week, Tight Lines! Fly Hooker Daily Catch Reports for Sept 23 to 28, 2003 Capt. George Landrum "Fly Hooker" Sportfishing [email protected] WEEKLY FISH COUNT STRIPED MARLIN: 2 TAGGED AND RELEASED (80#, 120#) SAILFISH: 3 TAGGED AND RELEASED (60#, 70#, 80#) YELLOWFIN TUNA: 8 FISH KEPT (15-35#) WAHOO: 1 KEPT (80#) DORADO: 3 KEPT (15-35#) MAKO SHARK: 1 RELEASED (30#) “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 23, 2001 Joe and Mark Shemroske and their dad Lee are fishing today for the second day of the scheduled three, and they have their fingers crossed that the fishing is good after a Hurricane! I got to go with them on the trip so at least I can check it out myself! The Shemroskes were supposed to fish Sunday and Monday, but the Port Captain closed the port on Sunday due to the approach of Hurricane Marty and of course, no one was going anywhere Monday morning! Juan and Juan II had the boat ready to go this morning and we took it slow leaving the marina. There was a lot of trash in the water and we did not want to suck anything up into the engines. There was no bait available (no surprise) and it was slow going for the first 5 miles as we went past the arch with swells to 8 feet and a nice 2 foot cross swell on top of that. It was not until we were at least 5 miles out that we were able to open the throttles and make any speed, and then the swells were still 4-6 feet and the water was green. Once we were 10 miles out the water turned blue and we started to troll. We had headed due south of the arch and finally at a distance of 17 miles we spotted Dolphin jumping. There was one other boat in the area and he stopped as we got there, hooked up to a tuna. On our first pass we had a triple header and everyone got a rod! Joe got his fish in, then Lee’s fish made another run and the line cut off on the swim step. I got Mark’s fish in the boat and Juan headed us back to the fish. Both of these fish were around 20-25 pounds, nice Tuna. On the next pass we hooked up again and since Lee had not gotten a fish in the boat, he got to fight this one. It took him a while, he really had to work on the fish and eventually I was able to get the gaff into the 35-40 pound Yellowfin. Way to go Lee, it’s not a Marlin, but still a nice Tuna! One more time around the fish and another hit, this time it was Mark’s turn. As he picked up the rod we had another boil on the short rigger and I started jigging the lure, taking another strike but could not hook the fish up. Mark’s fish was taking a long time and we were hoping that it was a big one, but when he was able to get the fish close, we could see that the Tuna had been snagged in the tail! No wonder it took so long! His fish was the smallest of the bunch and took the longest time to land! Four Tuna in the box, six boats now working the fish and they had gone down. It was time to go looking for something else and Juan worked us closer to shore and toward the Cortez side, as that is where he said a friend of his had found Sailfish and Marlin. Since these trips were for Lee, and to catch him a Marlin, that was fine with us. Time dragged on and the sea was empty. We all took a little nap and hours later we thought we had finally hooked into the Marlin we were looking for. The bridge rod went of and the line started singing off the reel as Juan II set the hook and passed the rod down. The fish slowed down right away and now we were not sure what we had on. Hoping it was a billfish, we got Lee in the chair and he set to work. About 15 minutes later we could see that what we had hooked up was a small Mako shark, about 30 pounds in size. The trailing hook had caught the fish in the mouth and the lead hook had snagged him on the side of the head. We were able to get the hooks out of him without injury and let him go, our fingers crossed that he would grow up into a bigger shark in the future! That was all the action we had for the day, no Marlin but better than getting skunked! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 24 SEPTEMBER, 2003 I was supposed to join Joe, Mark and Lee again today but apparently I ate something bad last night and ended up spending all day in bed with the cramps. Juan and Juan II went out to the same area we fished yesterday, then turned toward the 95 spot looking for a Marlin for Lee, but they had no action at all. Other boats in the area were able to get into fish but for some reason they did not like our lures today. I am sorry Lee, we really wanted for you to get your Marlin. I hope it will work out for you on your next trip, and hopefully it won’t be during a Hurricane! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 25 SEPTEMBER, 2003 Our friend Roger Arnold is back in Cabo, this time with his brother Doug, and they are fishing today, tomorrow and Sunday. Today was a rather good day, and one that I wish the Shemroske’s had a chance to experience. Juan and Manuel (the arroyo water dropped so he was able to get into town) headed due east of the 95 spot today and found fish. Not a bad trip as they were able to catch and release three Sailfish, a triple header, all on at once, and all on lures! Nice going! Later Doug spent a little bit of time getting a 80 pound Wahoo to the boat for Juan to gaff, and they were lucky as the hook fell out as soon as the gaff went in. What a lot of good eating meat on that fish! A little later they were able to round the day out with three Dorado, the largest one about 35 pounds, and lost one that was larger. What a great day! I hope tomorrow is as good for them! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 26 SEPTEMBER, 2003 The second day of fishing for Roger and Doug Arnold was not as spectacular as the first, but they did get to catch something different! A small Striped Marlin was quickly brought to the boat by Doug, the fish jumped six times then pretty much gave up. Juan tagged the fish and it was released. They were able to get into some Tuna today as well and ended up with four fish in the box, the largest about 35 pounds. Juan said that it seemed the fish had moved a little further to the south and west today so they are going to try just to the south of the San Jaime Banks tomorrow. “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 27 SEPTEMBER, 2003 Stavros Triant and his buddy Paul went fishing today and it was a long, very quiet trip. Juan and Manuel went to the south side of the San Jaime banks. They found Porpoise, and they could see Tuna jump occasionally but could not get a strike. One of the boats working the fish got lucky and hooked up, but that was the only one for all the boats there. It was not until they had pulled all the lines in the boat in preparation for the short cruise back to the Marina (they were only three miles out) the Manuel spotted a Striped Marlin finning downswell. Juan cast out a bait and the fish ate it! Paul was first up and after 15 minutes his arms were hurting and Stavros took over. Another 15 minutes went by and Juan was able to tag the fish and release it unharmed and alive. A last minute save, boy, it does not get any closer than that!