Cabo Bite Report Capt George Landrum Fly Hooker Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT MARCH 7-13, 2004 WEATHER: Partly cloudy skies at the beginning of the week slowly gave way to clear skies, but lots of wind as the week wound towards the end. On Wednesday the wind started to pick up and blew all day and night, gusting as high as 20 knots, and coming from the northwest. This continued for the rest of the week with the wind dying down here in town during the day, but still blowing at sea. Our night time lows ranged from 52 degrees to 62 degrees and our daytime highs were mostly in the mid 80’s. . WATER: The water temperatures this week ranged from 73 to 62 degrees, depending on the day and the area. We have had a wrap of cold water at the Cape, and it started coming in from the east on Monday. As the week progressed it bounced along the coast from San Jose and as of today, it has wrapped around and runs up to as far as the Golden Gate Bank. It has been followed by warmer water in the 71 degree area and that warm water now is as close as half way between San Jose and us. This cold water (in the low 60’s) only extend off shore about 10 miles. The defined warm/cold water break we had seen so strongly last week weakened and drifted farther to the south. BAIT: Almost all the bait this week was small Caballito and they were the normal $2 per bait. FISHING: BILLFISH: The Billfish bite this week was practically non existent, not at all the kind of action we had been expecting for the month. A few Striped Marlin were caught, as well as a few Swordfish, and of course there were more of both baited than caught, but the fish were scarce. Perhaps one boat in 20 came in flying a Billfish flag this week. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Fish of the month! maybe fish of the season as they are still there, only farther away. Many of the fish being caught are nice school fish, in the 25-40 pound class, but there have been a few a lot larger as well. The schools have been mixed, with large fish mixed in with the smaller ones. I have been in the Porpoise and marked fish around 40 pounds around 40-50 feet deep, and down below them have seen marks for fish that have to have been at lease 100 pounds, but they were holding at 80-100 feet. Trying everything in the book, it is still hard to get the big ones to bite, but the key has been patience. Eventually the fish will come up. Most of the fish this week were found between 25 and 40 miles to the south where the remnants of the temperature break are, but there have been fish closer, around the San Jaime, but the water has been very rough there. Best lures were small feathers, even for the bigger fish. A couple of Captains let me know that they had caught a couple of the bigger fish by dropping yo-yo’s to 120 feet when they were in the fish but they were not coming to the surface. Best colors for the yo-yo’s was white or blue/white. DORADO: A few boats were able to find small floating patches of Kelp and were able to get a good catch of Dorado off of them, but most of the fish are open water and striking on lures. Not a lot of them, but the sizes have been pretty good with averages at #25. Warmer water so that has meant a long way to travel, but then that has sort of been the story on all the fish this week! WAHOO: Like last week, there were Wahoo caught but not in large numbers. A large number of boats reported strikes from the razor gang but most of them shook loose or cut through mono leader. These were incidental fish and were not associated with anything in particular. INSHORE: The Yellowtail are still out there, but just as last week, you have to scratch to get fish. Live bait has been the ticket and this week the fish appeared to have moved from the arch to off of the lighthouse on the Pacific side. Sierra are still available and the bite was a little bit better than last weeks. There are reports of good Red Snapper fishing off of the beach up around Migrainos on the Pacific NOTES: If the warm water continues to move our way and the wind dies down, the fishing should turn on and be closer to home as well. I sure hope it happens! There are still Gray Whales around and we are seeing some every day close to shore. Our live music scene in Cabo took a turn for the worse this week as Tanga-Tanga was refused a permit for the normal Tuesday afternoon set. They were told that there would be no more permits issued due to noise problems. Whoa Nelly! What about the NoWhere Bar blasting out the canned music all afternoon and night across the marina, the noise from Squid Row all night long, the live Mariachis heard every night at 7 PM and the cars with boom box’s everywhere with the music cranked up so loud you can’t talk when driving next to the? Guess the music police are selective in their enforcement. If there are no more permits being issued for live outdoor music in Cabo San Lucas, where are they going to hold the jazz and Gospel concerts that have been advertised? One more nail in the coffin. So, I guess that the music I get here will be recorded like the disc I listened to for todays report. My ears were tickled by the sounds of “Los Bukis” on their 1992 release “Quireme” on Fonovisa records. 'Fly Hooker' Daily Catch Reports Capt. George Landrum "Fly Hooker" Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com WEEKLY FISH COUNT YELLOWFIN TUNA: THIRTEEN FISH KEPT (#15-#45) DORADO: TWO FISH KEPT (#25) “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 8 MARCH, 2004 Greg and Vicky Cuddahy were our anglers today and really were looking forward to getting into some fish. Of course it would have been nice to get a Marlin hooked up, but so far this year it has been really slow for the Billfish. No Marlin for them, but they were able to get some fish in the boat. Juan and Manuel took off to the west and ended up about 28 miles out, just past the San Jaime Bank. There they found blue water and lots of Porpoise. Guess what? Yep, there were Tuna in with those Porpoise! All in all they managed to get 5 Tuna between #25 and #40 into the box, and lost a couple more. Some good fillets to have smoked and frozen, plus some for a fresh fish dinner! We sure are glad you had a good time, and hope to see you again. “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 9 MARCH, 2004 Dan and LuAnne Foster fished on the “Fly Hooker” today, and the weather here sure was a lot better than the cold in Anchorage! The fishing was not as good as yesterday, and the wind started to pickup early, but they were able to get into the Tuna for a quadruple strike, getting all four fish into the boat. LuAnne started to feel queasy so they guys headed back towards the lighthouse where the water was a bit calmer. No more fish were found, but there was fresh fish for dinner and some to get smoked. Sorry that you got a bit sea sick LuAnne, but glad you had a good time! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 10 MARCH, 2004 The Onderick party chartered the “Fly Hooker” for a half day trip today. It was a late start s they left at 8 AM and the fish that the boat had been finding were more than 25 miles out, a little too far to go on a half day trip. The reason for the short trip was that three of the anglers had not been fishing before, and were not sure that they could handle more than that time at sea. Juan and Manuel did find porpoise close to home, around 12 miles out, and they worked them hard, trying almost everything they could think of. All they ended up getting was one hook-up on a Bonito, and it fell off when close to the boat. Nobody got sick though! Perhaps next time a full day will work for them, or the fish will be closer. “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 11 MARCH, 2004 Jim Pickens, his son Jason and friend Dr. Jack Thielen are fishing today and tomorrow with Juan and Manuel. Jim is an outfitter in the Wyoming/Montana area and asked if they needed would it be all right to stay out a little longer. No problem, just let Juan and Manuel know. Well, the wind had started to blow pretty good yesterday and it did not stop last night. The water was rough and the fish were far away. Juan and Manuel finally got into the fish when they were 33 miles to the south. Porpoise were there, and they go four Tuna, all of them around 25-40 pounds, and caught one #25 Dorado on a lure and another one the same size on live bait. It was a long, rough trip back but they came in with fish and flags flying. Our fingers are crossed that they have better luck, and better weather, tomorrow. “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 12 MARCH, 2004 Jim and Jason Pickens were back this morning, but Dr. Jack was not feeling well. In his place was Jarred Williams. Jim let us know this morning that he wanted to be back in at 1 PM as he had scheduled golf for the afternoon. No problem! Juan and Manuel went south again, but due to time constraints were only able to get 29 miles out before having to turn around and return. No fish were found and there were no strikes during the trip. Juan said that on the radio the fish were being caught 42 miles out, 10 miles further than yesterday, but the water was even more rough today than yesterday. I hope your golf game was better than the fishing! Thanks Jim, perhaps next time the fish will be closer and the water better!