Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report Oct 19-26, 2003 Capt. George Landrum "Fly Hooker" Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO FISH REPORT FOR OCTOBER 19 TO OCTOBER 26, 2003 WEATHER: The week started out sunny and warm and ended up cloudy and warm. An overcast moved into the area on Friday afternoon giving us a relief from the glare on the water we had early in the week. Our daytime highs were in the mid 90’s and at night we did have as low as 74 degrees. The breezes were slight to non-existent until Friday afternoon and then we cooled off a bit as the winds blew from the west at 5-10 knots. (Swinging Doors) WATER: Again, the only significant temperature break in fishing distance for us has been out past the San Jaime and Golden Gate banks on the west side. There the water changes as much as three degrees over a few miles and the water is blue with a touch of green. On the Sea of Cortez side the water has been much warmer, as high as 89 degrees in a few areas such as the 1150 spot. The water has been cobalt blue but way to warm for good fishing with little sign of surface activity such as porpoise or flying fish. Surface conditions on both sides of the Cape have been great, with just slight swell and a good ripple from the light breeze. (Mama Tried) BAIT: This week there was no problem getting bait, and for a change there were Sardinas available as well. The bigger baits were Caballito and were the normal $2 per bait while the Sardinas were going for $20 a bucket. Many of the boats fishing the tournaments this week were catching their own live bait early in the morning at sun-up just off the lighthouse on the Pacific side. The baits were Skipjack Tuna, Blackfin Tuna and a few Frigate Mackerel. These fish were biting on Sardinas after you had chummed for a while and the bigger baits were caught on diamond jigs. (I’m A Lonesome Fugitive) FISHING: BILLFISH: Well, it took a while but the Blue Marlin finally made a showing on the last day of the Bisbee tournament with 4 fish over the #300 minimum boated and weighed. There were a lot more Striped Marlin caught and released and almost all of the action took place on the Pacific side of the Cape. The San Jaime area and inside between there, the Golden Gate and off the Lighthouse provided most of the fish. Live bait accounted for many of the Striped Marlin but almost every big Blue Marlin fell to a trolled lure. The big fish for the tournament was #565. The lighter colored lures seemed to do better on the Blue Marlin with two qualifying fish on the first day both falling for lures with lots of orange and the pattern was followed on the third day. On the second day no qualifying fish were brought in. (I Think I’ll Just Stay Here And Drink) YELLOWFIN TUNA: Tuna fishing was slow again this week with the fish mostly being found far offshore. Of course it is the new moon and the Tuna bite is normally slow during this moon phase anyway. Those boats willing to make the run sometimes found the fish and often did not, but when they did the action was good on fish ranging from 20 to 60 pounds. A few fish in the #150 class were caught as well and they fell for live bait pulled in front of the Porpoise. The smaller fish were eating cedar plugs and dark feathers, the normal call for the football and school fish. A few pods of Porpoise were found nearer to Cabo but they were worked very heavily. Sometimes Sardines were the key here as the fish would be shy on anything larger and the Sardinas when used both as chum and as a fly-lined bait brought the fish up and biting. (Branded Man) DORADO: Even with a few good pieces of floating debris around the Dorado were slow this week. We spotted and fished a large number of logs with only one of them having any fish around, and then there were just two. Inshore seemed to be where the action was on the Dorado and the Pacific side had more fish. Slow trolled live bait within a mile of the beach produced fish to 50 pounds with a few boats getting three or four in that size range. The rest of the time the Dorado were found while trolling lures and getting blind strikes. (My Friends Are Gonna Be Strangers) WAHOO: To give you an idea, day three of the tournament, when the fishing was better, produced only three Wahoo for 160 boats. (The Bottle Let Me Down) INSHORE: Nearshore the action was predictable on the Skipjack, Bonita and Jack Crevalle. There were Roosterfish in the 25 pound class found on the Pacific side as well and there were a few Sierra caught. Many anglers when fishing early in the morning were hooking into some nice Red Snapper in 60 feet of water around the points while using Sardinas fished about 5 feet off the bottom. (Workin’ Man Blues) NOTES: The Black and Blue Tournament is over. Day one had only two fish over the minimum qualifying weight of #300 brought in. The biggest was 412 pounds and took home around $330,000. Day two resulted in no qualifying fish so the money rolled over into day three. On the third day the biggest qualifier was #565 and was worth over $1,000,000, taking the money for the second and third day jackpots and the biggest fish award as well. There were few fish caught until the last day when the bite happened at the afternoon tide change. Next tournament coming up is the “For Pete’s Sake” charity tournament, then the “W.O.N. Tuna Tournament” in November. This weeks report was written to the country music of the great Merle Haggard on the C.D. “The Platinum Collection” released by Direct Source in 2002. Thanks for the music Dad! Until next week, Tight Lines! "Fly Hooker" Daily Catch Reports for Oct 19-26, 2003 Capt. George Landrum "Fly Hooker" Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com WEEKLY FISH COUNT BLUE MARLIN: 1 RELEASED (#250) STRIPED MARLIN: 3 RELEASED (110-150#) YELLOWFIN TUNA: 1 KEPT (#15) DORADO: 1 KEPT (#15) “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR OCTOBER 19, 2003 Tim and Jill Lawrence shared the “Fly Hooker” today with Tim and Marrissa Kyle. Tim and Marrissa were looking forward to the trip as this was their first experience on the Salt water, having some experience fishing inland waters. They wanted a chance to catch a fish “at least 300 pounds!”. Unfortunately Marrissa was sick as soon as Manual slowed the boat down after the 90 minute run to the fishing area. There were some porpoise there and Tun as well and Tim Kyle reeled in a Yellowfin of about 15 pounds and was very happy with his sore arm from that fish. Things were very slow after that and it was not until there was only a few miles to go before lines needed to come out of the water that the big fish hit. It was the turn for Tim Lawrence and it was a Blue Marlin. Tim worked the fish for 30 minutes, getting it to the boat several times only to have the fish take off on another run. Finally Juan was able to get the leader and as the fish made another try at a run the leader slipped through his hand and before he could release it the line slipped through and broke. Well, it counts as a legal catch, and a good workout for Tim! Thank goodness they got something other than just one Yellowfin. Thanks guys, sorry Marrissa, the Tuna sure was good grilled last night! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR OCTOBER 21, 22 AND 23, 2003 Tim and Jill fished these days and the fishing was pretty darn slow. Not just for us though, it was slow for everyone. The pressure brought on the fish and fishermen due to the tournaments going on was felt, that’s for sure! Well, on the 21st, Jill got a Striped Marlin and Tim got a Dorado, they worked an area way out to the west, around the Jaime Banks, but did not get any fish until they were almost home. On the 22nd they went out to the 1150 area. The water was too warm, but very blue, and they worked a pod of porpoise they found on the way back. They could see the Tuna jumping but could not get bit no matter what they tried. On the 23rd they worked the Pacific coast close to shore and had a nice boat ride, not even spotting a fish. Sorry guys, we really enjoyed your company and hope to see you here again soon! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 25 OCTOBER, 2003 Bob Deeter was our angler today. His wife Paula was supposed to go along but elected to stay at the resort today. Bob will be fishing the next two days with us as well. He really wanted to get some eating fish so Juan and Manuel worked Tuna about 6 miles off the coast on the Pacific side but could not get a bite,. They saw one other boat hook up but that was all. Whole trolling live bait in the porpoise they got bit by a Striped Marlin and Bob fought the fish for 20 minutes before the line broke. On the way back in they had a Blue Marlin strike one of the lures twice but it did not hook up. Also, they did get to fight another Striped Marlin that was tagged then released and after taking the lines out of the water and cruising in, Manuel spotted another fish that Bob was able to get to the boat for a tag and release after a 15 minute fight. Great fishing, and I am going tomorrow!