Cabo Bite Report Capt George Landrum Fly Hooker Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR JANUARY 18-24, 2003-04 WEATHER: Remember when I said we had two days of rain the week before last? Well, it is starting to seem like September as we received another heavy rainfall Friday night this week. Downtown streets flooded as we received about 1 1/2 to 2 inches of rain overnight. We had overcast skies starting on Wednesday but by the 24th the skies had cleared and we were back to sunshine. The wind was blowing pretty good during the cloudy days and the temperature never got above 75, but at the end of the week our night time lows were in the 60 degree area and the daytime highs had risen to around the low 80’s. WATER: The Pacific inshore remained cool and green this week and the inshore on the Sea of Cortez became that way as the California Current pushed the cool water around the tip of the Cape and up the coast. This water was 67 to 69 degrees and formed a large loop or eddy on the Sea of Cortez side that covered the area between the coast and out to the 1150 spot on a west to east run and from the 95 spot to the Gorda Banks on a south to north run. Off shore on the Pacific side the water remained in the 70-72 degree range with slightly warmer water 40 miles offshore. To the south of the Cape we had water 73 and 74 degrees only 15 miles out. The offshore warmer water was nice and blue. BAIT: Bait was easier to get this week than the past two week as almost all the bait boats had Mackerel available at the normal $2 per bait. FISHING BILLFISH: The Marlin bite started off slow this week as it ended slow last week, but the bite sure started to pickup during the middle of the week and then died again with the rain seeming to have had an effect on the fishing. The best Marlin action for the week was up the Sea of Cortez around the outside of the Gorda Banks. Boats were spotting as many as 20 Striped Marlin a day and getting the chance to toss bait at as many as 75% of the fish spotted. Most of the bites were on live bait. The fish were averaging 110 pounds but a few boats actually found fish as small as 25 pounds. There were also some late Blue Marlin in the area as many were spotted coming into the lure patterns and a few were hooked on live bait, mostly Skipjack Tuna and small Yellowfin. Some of the Blues were reported to be in the 500 pound class. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Some of the long range boats out of San Diego continued to work the San Jaime Banks this week but their results were not as good as the week before. For the local boats looking for Yellowfin Tuna, the best bet seemed to be to the south of the Jaime looking for the Porpoise. The fish that were found were not large ones, most of them averaged just 12 pounds, but they were there in quantity and there was always the chance for a big one to come busting in on the pattern. The largest fish I heard of this week from a local charter boat was only 80+ pounds, but that is still a nice fish! Dark colored lures, small feathers and live bait dropped back on the first jig strike seemed to work very well this week. For some reason, cedar plugs were not the happening item. The action on Tuna on the Sea of Cortez side of the Cape was much slower. Some decent fish were caught off the Gorda Banks by boats working chunk lines and drifting live bait deep, but the action was very sketchy, at best. DORADO: I think that I am going to be repeating myself a lot in the coming week on the status of the Dorado bite. There are still fish out there, and the best results have been either on the Pacific side at least three miles off shore where the water starts to warm up, or up the Sea of Cortez around and just outside of the Gorda Banks. Frigate bird action was one of the keys, as was being able to find floating debris. Most of the fish found close to shore were in the 12-15 pound class and the fish found a lot further out were larger, with some of them in the 60 pound range. Bright colored lures and live bait were the key. A lot of the fishermen were reporting that many of the Dorado were stuffed with squid, most of it about 12-16 inches long. WAHOO: There were Wahoo caught this week but the action was slow. There were fish caught on both the Pacific side of the Cape as well as the Cortez side and the action seemed to be best just outside the cool water line. There were quite a few bite-offs on slow trolled live bait and most of the fish that managed to get boated were caught on dark colored Marlin lures. Average size was around 40 pounds, with fish caught to 85+. IN SHORE: Once again Sierra were the fish of the week! Lots of them showing up and the Pangas as well as cruisers working inshore had a blast. If you were in the right place at the right time there were more than enough fish to keep everyone busy, but the bite pretty much stopped by 8:30 or 9 am. Best lures were small Rapallas 3” to 4” long in bright colors. Live bait worked even better but unless you had a stinger hooked in the tail you went through a lot of bait for very few hook-ups! There were a few Roosters caught as well, but I did not hear of any large ones. The bite was fair on Jack Crevalle and it is starting to get better on Snapper. Best action on the Sierra came from the Pacific side starting right at the arch. NOTES: We are still seeing whales out there, as well as lots of porpoise. The water has started to calm down at the end of the week, hopefully the good fishing action will return closer to Cabo. We don’t mind making 20+ mile runs to the fish, but it sure burns the fuel! We just checked with Dan Jacobs at World Publications and he says they have confirmed permits to hold the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament on October 19-23 with the fishing days being the 20-22. Guess the Bisbee Black and Blue is going to have to change their published dates? There is still a lot of time so don’t worry yet, just don’t make any final plans on boat reservations or hotel bookings for the tournaments without contacting the sponsors first. This weeks report was written to the music of my favorite guitarist, Ottmar Leibert with Luna Negra on the 1990 Higher Octave release “Nouveau Flamenco”. Get a copy, listen and enjoy! Until next week, tight lines! Fly Hooker Daily Fishing Reports Capt. George Landrum "Fly Hooker" Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com WEEKLY FISH COUNT STRIPED MARLIN: THREE FISH TAGGED AND RELEASED (#110-#135) DORADO: NINE FISH KEPT (#12-#35) YELLOWFIN TUNA: FIVE FISH KEPT (#10-#25) WAHOO: ONE FISH KEPT (#60) “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 19 JANUARY, 2004 Larry and Mary Heim along with a couple of friend fished with us several years ago and the day before yesterday we met them again while watching the conference play offs at Tanga-Tanga. They wanted to go fishing for a day and today was the day decided upon. Juan is on vacation so Manuel is fishing with Capt. Philipe Almanza working the deck. They headed out towards the south side of the San Jaime banks and worked the area pretty good. Larry really wanted to get some Dorado for dinner and he was first on the rotation as an angler. After reaching the area to be fished, the lines went in and less than 10 minutes later there was a strike! Larry was in the chair and it did not take him long to get the #15 Dorado to the boat where Philipe gaffed it and put it in the box. Success right off the bat. Things got a little slow then as everyone waited and hoped for more Dorado. It was not until around 9 am when a Striped Marlin was spotted, a bait was tossed and the fish hooked up. After a successful tag and release things were quiet again for the next 45 minutes. Then Manuel spotted Porpoise working and after a short fast run they were working the edge of the school. They managed to pick up three or four Yellowfin Tuna in the 10-15 pound class and several Bonita as well. That was all the action for the day but they returned with flags flying! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 22 JANUARY, 2004 Larry Heim talked things over with his buddies and they decided to go fishing for one more day! This morning Larry, Thom, Steve, Steve and R.J. left the marina on the “Fly Hooker” with Manuel and Philipe. The wind had started blowing last night as clouds started to move in and Manuel decided the fishing would be better up the Sea of Cortez towards the Gorda Banks area, and that was the right choice! They got into Porpoise and worked them hard, but were only able to get one Yellowfin out of them. The same area also gave up three nice Dorado. One more Dorado was lost. The exciting action was the hook-up of a Blue Marlin! The fish struck the lure run on the bridge rod and made a good run before jumping and coming down on the leader. The bill had chaffed the leader pretty good and the weight of the fish coming down on it finished the job. Tow of the guys, along with Manuel and Philipe saw the fish strike and jump and everyone swears the fish was over #500! Oh well, that happens with big fish sometimes! I said earlier the they had made the right choice in where to fish, the boats that went to the Pacific side or the area south of the Cape got beaten up by the wind and choppy water. Where the guys fished today the water was great! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 23 JANUARY, 2004 John Kelly and his friend Luke fished with us today. John also owns a 31 Bertram that he fishes out of Indian River, Maryland and found us through other 31 owners that have fished with us, on the 31bertram.com website. This was the first time he has fished for Striped Marlin and he was surprised at how we go about it. Manuel and Philipe went back to the area off the Gorda Banks that they had worked yesterday and this time they spotted over 11 Striped Marlin, getting a chance to toss bait at eight of them. John was amazed that the Marlin were just swimming along on top of the water like Sailfish! Out of the eight fish they tossed bait to, four of them bit and two of them hooked up solid. Both John and Luke were able to bring their fish to the boat within 30 minutes on #40 line, and both fish were tagged and released. When they tossed bait at one of the other Striped Marlin, the fish swam away but the bait was eaten by a Wahoo right away! Lucky for the guys, the Wahoo was hooked in the corner of the jaw and was not able to bite through the line. It took only 5 or 8 minutes to bring the #60 fish to the boat, where Philipe was able to get a gaff in it. A little later they were able to get a fair sized Dorado as well. John said that when the Blue Marlin showed up in the pattern and started knocking around lures, that was the kind of fishing he was used too, except that back home they have to run out 70 miles, leaving at three in the morning to get into the action! Here, they left at 6:30 and were back at 2:30 and had a blast! Of course, it was cloudy and there was a little bit of rain spitting now and then, and they did get drenched during one downpour, but they still had a good time. They are here on a company thing, and one of the options offered to them as an activity was fishing, so they have the boat booked for tomorrow as well! Check back and I will let you know how things went for them. “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 24 JANUARY, 2004 This was the second day for Jon and Larry and they had a late start. It rained heavily last night and the wind blew hard. Someone at the resort they were staying at told everyone that fishing for the day was cancelled so they slept in. Hey, if we call you and say it is cancelled, it is cancelled, but not until we say so, or the Port Captain closes the Port. The wind had died down this morning and the rain had stopped, the sun came out and it was beautiful! At 7 am Mary called John and roused him out of bed. At 7:30 he and Luke were at the boat and on their way. Once again Manuel and Philipe went to the area outside the Gorda Banks but the fishing was slower than that of yesterday, perhaps because of the rain, or maybe because the sun was out. They did get into the Dorado and managed to get four of them into the boat, with the largest fish being a Bull of about #40, a very nice fish. There was no action on the Marlin for them at all today. It is amazing how things can change day to day. Manuel had them back at the dock around 4pm and they enjoyed the trip, even though it was a choppy ride back! Thanks John, we are glad you had a chance to experience fishing in Cabo with us!