Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report for Nov 2-8, 2003 Capt. George Landrum "Fly Hooker" Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 2 TO NOVEMBER 8, 2003 WEATHER: Our evening lows have been in the high 60’s to low 70’s while the day time highs have been in the mid to high 80’s. Great weather and the fact that the winds have been light all week just added to the comfort level while on the water. We had a slight overcast during the first half of the week with clearing skies at the end but received no rain. WATER: At the end of the week we had warm water in the 81-82 degree range up to three miles off shore on the Pacific side while the temperature farther off shore were in the 80-81 degrees. The Sea of Cortez had 82 degree water and this trend continued around the Cape until you reached an area 30 miles to the south. In this area the water temperatures boomed and over a very short distance went from 81 degrees to 84 degrees. Surface conditions were great all week long with just a bit of wind kicking up some chop in the late afternoons. There was a slight swell of 2-4 feet from the north west. BAIT: It was a very tough week to get bait for almost all the boats, at least the normal Caballito and Mackerel. The full moon made it difficult for the bait boats to catch the Caballito and the water is a little too warm for the Mackerel. There were plenty of Sardinas available at $20 a bucket. FISHING: BILLFISH: Once again action was slow on the Billfish this week, perhaps due to the coming full moon. There were Striped Marlin, Blue Marlin and Sailfish caught, but not in any great numbers. Almost all of the action seemed to be either just off the lighthouse on the Pacific side, at the 95 spot or up the Pacific coast past the Golden Gate Banks. Lures in darker colors for the Blue Marlin and Dorado colors seemed to work well for almost everything. YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Tuna fishing sure was not as good this week as we had been hoping. Last year when the tournament was held there were a lot of fish found that were over #100, this year there was just one and it weighed #176. There were fish out there and some of the boats reported getting into schools where you cold see the big fish jumping, but they would not eat. Most of the fish were found more than 15 miles out and some boats reported traveling as far as 70 miles from the Cape in search of the winning fish. As is normal, the first boat to a school had the best chance of getting bit, but even then the bites were slow to come. With few Caballito and Mackerel for bait most of the boats had to make do with catching small Skipjack for baits, or else just go with the Sardinas. Even boats using frozen baits such as squid and ballyhoo, brought in from the states, had a very hard time getting bit. Most of the fish were slightly larger than footballs, the 19th largest fish weighed in at just over 40 pounds. The Sardinas worked well on the fish in the football size up to about 35 pounds but most of the larger fish were caught on lures, and it seemed that as is normal, the darker colored feathers did well. DORADO: As was the case last week, the key to a good catch of Dorado was finding a piece of floating debris that held fish. Once you had that, then you needed to have live bait. Thank goodness that Dorado like Sardinas! Most of the Dorado action was on the Pacific side up in the warmer water towards Golden Gate banks and at the San Jaime. There were fish scattered around that were picked up as incidentals and there seemed to be more of them close in to the shore than there were off shore. WAHOO: There were some nice Wahoo caught this week and it was probably because there were a lot of boats working the areas where they like to feed, such as the edge of the banks! That is also a good area to concentrate for Yellowfin Tuna, so it is no surprise that there were Wahoo caught as well. I saw quite a few fish in the 40# and over category brought in by the boats in the Tournament and that is the where they were found. Many fish were lost due to cut off on mono leader. INSHORE: No change from last week. There was really not a lot happening inshore this week with the exception of the Dorado on live bait. I talked with a lot of people who had gone out on Pangas and who had gotten no fish, and talked to a few Captains who said that they were still catching the occasional Roosterfish and Jack Crevalle, but that yes, the inshore was slow. NOTES: Tuna Tournament week and things were a bit hectic in town! There were over 180 teams entered in the tournament and about half of them decided to pre-fish on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday were the big days and they were eventful. On day one, one team had a member have a heart attack and they got him picked up by helicopter, the report was that he was in good condition at the hospital. There was also a boat collision during the shotgun start and the report was a Glacier Bay catamaran went down, but the team members were all right and were picked up by another boat. The fishing was slow and the fish were far out. Some boats working way up on the Pacific side reported getting into fish in the #200 to #300 range, but there was no way anyone was getting bit by them. Most of the fish brought in were in the #30 and under class, the largest fish of the day was #86. Day two saw the fishing get even slower but it did produce the tournament winner of #176! Most of the boats entered in the tournament found fish, but the majority of them had no luck getting them to eat. Now that the tournaments are all over, maybe we can get back to some normal fishing! Thanks for reading the report, and see you next week! Fly Hooker Daily Catch Reports for Nov 2-8, 2003 Capt. George Landrum "Fly Hooker" Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com WEEKLY FISH COUNT STRIPED MARLIN: ONE TAGGED AND RELEASED (#150) DORADO: ONE KEPT (#50) YELLOWFIN TUNA: SIXTEEN KEPT (#5-#35) “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 2, 2003 We had two guys on the “Fly Hooker” today who were booked by another company and I cant remember their names, shame on me. They did have a good day fishing, even if the fish were scattered. They finally found Porpoise that had Yellowfin Tuna with them and were able to get hooked up to a nice one that Juan said would have gone an easy #50, but it pulled hook just below the boat. They did get another one hooked up that weighed right around #20, some nice fillets on that fish! A little later on they got a blind strike and were hooked up to a Dorado that was right around #50! A great fight and fillets for dinner! Not a lot of fish today but they were quality ones! Thanks guys, we are glad you enjoyed fishing with us! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 3, 2003 Terry Matheson was back in Cabo with a group of 18 people and got a few of them to fish with us today. We had four on our boat and four went on another boat. Juan and Manuel managed to get into the Tuna today on the Cortez side out toward the 1150 spot. A friend found the fish first and gave them a call. In came the lines and off they went. The Porpoise were working hard when the boat got there and the rods started going off, sometimes four lines at once. It was a hectic hour and terry said they could have filled the boat if they had wanted to, but they caught enough Yellowfin to 35 pounds that they were ready for something else, Marlin perhaps. The rest of the day was spent in an unsuccessful search for another species. They had a great time and we sure were glad to know that there were fish out there! Thanks Terry, we look forward to a repeat! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 5, 2003 Yesterday we turned down a charter in order to get the boat ready for the Western Outdoors Tuna Tournament, we don’t need any problems taking place when there is big money on the line for our clients. Well, our tournament team is supposed to be Tom and Ted Pianko, Mark Rangell and Gary Scherping. Tom and Mark are fishing today, Ted and Gary are supposed to arrive tonight and fish the tournament tomorrow. Being as this was a day to get used to the area and search out fish, Juan and Manuel decided to head back to the Cortez side and see if there were still Tuna around where they had found them a couple of days ago. They went as far as the 1,000 fathom line up to the northeast of the Gorda Banks and while they did see a few fish break water, they didn’t get any bites from the Tuna. Mark did get a chance to tangle with a Striped Marlin that they estimated at #150, and was able to tag and release the fish after about 30 minutes of fighting time. That was it for the day, we sure hope that the Tuna are biting tomorrow! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 6, 2003 This was the first day of the Tournament and unfortunately, Ted Pianko was not able to make it to Cabo. he is an attorney and a judge held him over for court. He is also the one who arranged everything and was bringing down all the personal gear the team was to use. He was also the fisherman of the group! What a sad story! Almost like being in the military! Anyway, Juan and Manuel had heard that there were some nice fish found yesterday up on the Pacific side of the Cape and decided to head up there today. Maybe the wrong decision since they found no fish that would bite. They did see Porpoise and Tuna Jumping, but no takers. The big fish for the day in the Tournament was #86, second place was #75 and third was #64, not big fish and easily beat if one of the nice ones had come along. We have our fingers crossed that they do better tomorrow! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 7, 2003 Tom, Mark and Gary were out again for the second day of the tournament and today Juan and Manuel decided to go back to the Cortez side, up past the Gordo Banks again. Juan said that the area they had been fishing on the Pacific side yesterday was too crowded and the fish were extremely boat shy, wanting to get into fish that did not have as much pressure put on them, they headed northeast. Wow, 37 miles out! They did find the fish, but were only able to get one little, tiny, baby Yellowfin to bite. The fish may have weighed 5 pounds, a perfect live bait for the Bisbee Marlin Tournament, but not even close to a winner for this one. One of the boats in the tournament was able to get a big fish and it weighed #176! Should have been us, darn it! Well, it was quite the experience, and we are sorry that Ted was not able to make it for the fishing. perhaps next year? Thanks guys! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 8, 2002 Once again we were booked by another company and took two guys out on the “Fly Hooker”. They were supposed to go on another boat, but it had a fresh water pump go out on one of the engines. These guys brought some of their own gear and we had Juan’s brother Juan on board, along with Manuel. Juan attached a big Rapalla to a length of #400 Mono and they used it while fishing. Manuel went up on the Pacific side, in the vicinity of Golden gate Banks. They only fish they saw and the only strike they had came on the Rapalla, but the Wahoo it attracted ended up biting through the #400 mono leader. No fish for the day, but it was nice on the water. We hope you have better luck on your next trip!