Cabo Bite Report Capt George Landrum Fly Hooker Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT APRIL 18-24, 2004 WEATHER: We had wonderful weather this week as it was sunny all week long and the wind only started blowing after noon each day and almost every day had stopped by morning. The one exception was on the 21st when it continued to blow until 9 AM. Our daytime highs were in the low 90’s and night time lows reached down to the mid 60’s but most nights were around 70 degrees. WATER: The water on the Pacific side of the Cape has been cold, at least relative to the water on the Sea of Cortez side. It did not get to 70 degrees until you were well past the San Jaime Banks, and the water close to shore was as cold as 63 degrees. On the Sea of Cortez it was another matter as we had a finger of warm water, sometimes as warm as 77 degrees, push towards the Cape following the shore and extending out to around 12 miles. Once out past the 12 miles the water got a bit off color but remained fairly warm. The cold Pacific water continued to push in but upon meeting the warm water on the Cortez side it was forced to the south. BAIT: The normal $2 per bait for Caballito (most of them were small) with very few small Mackerel available. I did not hear of any Sardines making it down to Cabo from San Jose. FISHING: BILLFISH: The warm water returning to our area brought the Billfish with it! I heard reports of at least three Blue Marlin being caught this week, with the largest one at #480. On Thursday the Striped Marlin bite just seemed to explode with some boats getting shots at as many as 20 fish a day. The average seemed to be 10 fish a day (not caught, but seen and baited) with most boats able to get at least one to the side. The bite was in the warm water area of the Sea of Cortez, between the shore and out 10 miles, and from right in front of town all the way up the coast to the Punta Gorda area. Most of the bites seemed to occur on trolled lures, with the strikes on them out numbering the strikes on live bait by about 3 to 1. Most of the fish were in the #120 class. YELLOWFIN TUNA: If you read last weeks report, you remember me mentioning the Purse Seiners that have been hanging around. Well, they are still here. I was out on the water today and saw three of them under way just off the coast on the Cortez side, one of them was a super seiner carrying a helicopter on the roof. Besides those three, there were four more anchored off the beach in Cabo Bay. Now let me pose a question to you. If these boats are not legally allowed to fish within 50 miles of the coast, why do they stop and drift all day on the banks and the 95 spot? Do you think they may be waiting for the sport boats to leave so they can set their nets at night? That may be one of the reasons we are not seeing any Yellowfin much larger than 20 pounds, with the rare exception of an occasional 40-60 pound fish, and may also explain why the porpoise are behaving so strangely. All right, the Yellowfin this week were on the small side still, but they were still the fish of the week as almost all the charter boats were able to get a few of them on board, and a few boats absolutely loaded up on them. Early in the week just to the west of the San Jaime was a good area and then the bite shifted to due south of the Cape. Often in Porpoise, but just as often they were blind strikes. Contrary to what is usually the case, the best bitten lures this week were feathers in bright colors, Mexican Flag and Yellow/Green. Normally they bite best on dark colors. DORADO: There were not a lot of Dorado caught this week but it looks as if the bite should be picking up soon. A couple of days in a row there were kelp paddies found on both the Pacific (early in the week) and on the Cortez side (later in the week) and these paddies held decent numbers of Dorado to 25 pounds. There are still occasional fish being found in the blind in the warm water areas as well. WAHOO: Last week there were some Wahoo beginning to show and this week they came on strong. Not every boat caught them, but there were boats that were in the right place at the right time and did very will. One Captain I know got the fish of a lifetime when he hooked a Wahoo that weighed #120 as he was approaching a kelp paddy. He ended the day with 4 Wahoo, the other three were a pair of #40 fish and another one of around #70, and he lost several others! There were quite a few of the larger fish caught this week and the Gorda Banks as well as the points between Cabo and San Jose popped out fish as well. Oh, don’t forget the kelp paddies and the open ocean fish as well! Marauders and dark colored lures, mostly in blue/black and Petrelero worked well. INSHORE: No change from last week so here it is again. Slow fishing in rough water on the Pacific side, but those that could handle it found fair fishing up around the lighthouse on the Pacific and just off the Arches for Yellowtail to 25 pounds on live bait dropped deep and irons in white. There were also Sierra in the 4 to 8 pound range in the same area as well as right in the Cabo San Lucas Bay and up around El Tule. The favorite for good catches of Sierra seemed to be dark colored hootchies run deep with the use of a planer or down-rigger. Elsewhere the inshore action was slow with only a few fish found. NOTES: Lets see, hot topics of the week were the “Purse Seiners”, the great Wahoo bite and finally the Striped Marlin bite turning on. I already wrote about them in the report so I won’t go over it again. Let’s hope the bite continues on the Wahoo and the Marlin, and keep our fingers crossed that something will be done with the Seiners. A.....before I forget...be sure to get a fishing license when you are here if you plan to go fishing. The guys from Department of Fisheries have been boarding boats returning to the marina (accompanied by armed marines) and confiscating the rods and reels from boats where the anglers do not have licenses. I saw this with my own eyes this week. It is no longer difficult to get a license though, not the time draining and headache causing chore it used to be. Just go to the little office over by the main dock (ask anyone, they will tell you where it is) and pay the fee, they will issue it right there, right now! This weeks report was written to the music of my cats screaming for fresh Tuna, maybe next week I will put a CD on and drown them out! Until then, tight lines! "Fly Hooker" daily Catch reports Capt. George Landrum "Fly Hooker" Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com WEEKLY FISH COUNT STRIPED MARLIN: TWO FISH TAGGED AND RELEASED (#120 EACH) YELLOWFIN TUNA: 15 FISH KEPT (#8-#25) LOTS OF SMALL ONES RELEASED BONITA: 10 FISH KEPT (#15-#20) LOTS RELEASED DORADO: ONE FISH KEPT (#20+) “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 18 APRIL, 2004 Brad Meigs, his father-in-law Fred Tedtow (former charter captain on the east coast for 20 years, now a young 82 years of age) and Brads friends Brian and John fished aboard the “Fly Hooker” with Juan and myself today. It was Sunday and Manuels day off. The relief deckhand we normally use, Phillipe, never showed up and did not answer his phone, so I was the designated Deckhand! Not a bad deal since I seem to rarely get a chance to get out and fish now days. We headed south for 16 miles before we put lines in the water and we never saw a Porpoise the whole day out! Now I was worried, since almost all the fish the guys had been catching had been with the porpoise, but we seemed to do all right without them around, although we did not get as many Yellowfin as we would have liked to. In all, we only came up with three Yellowfin Tuna, the first fish of the day was one of them, and the smallest as well. That fish would have been lucky to push the scales to 8 pounds, but we kept him, the first fish of the day after all! As the trip went along we kept getting blind strikes, in the middle of nowhere and for no apparent reason we could figure out. Two more Yellowfin were hooked up and kept, both fish around 15 pounds. The bite on Bonita was steady as well and most of them were larger, stronger fish. A 20 pound Bonita puts up a heck of a fight, and if bled right away they are good eating as well! We kept about six of the Bonita and released about 10 or 12 more. Not a bad day on the water and I ran the Penn 12T as well, and the light tackle was a blast on the football fish! Thanks guys! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 19 APRIL, 2004 Fred Tedtow and Bob Gaede (Bob fished with us on Saturday, Fred fished with us yesterday) went out today with Juan and Manuel and were able to get into some Yellowfin. Early in the trip Bob hooked up with a Dorado that was around 20+ pounds and had a good time with that. Later they found the Porpoise and were able to get a few fish that were actually large enough to supply some decent fillets. I believe that they kept about six of the Yellowfin with the largest one being around 20 pounds, and they released a bunch more. Not a bad day on the water and two strangers got to know each other! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 20 APRIL, 2004 Alan McVey and his fiancée Laurie Kellogg were our anglers for the day, and Alan brought along a couple of his own rods and reels to use on football Tuna or Dorado. Manuel had a death in the family and had to leave last night for Ensenada so we needed a relief deckhand for the day, and possibly for the week, depending on how long he was going to be needed up there. Juan was able to get Bernardo on short notice, but since Bernardo has never worked our boat before and I don’t know him or how he is with people, I went along as well. We headed straight south for 4 miles before we put lines in the water, and not until we reached 4.5 miles did we have the first strike. The fish were close to the Cape for a change and there were Porpoise everywhere! None of the fish were really large, most of them footballs and only a few in the 15-20 pound class, but on Alan’s lighter rod and reel and on my Penn 12T everyone had a blast. On occasion we had five fish on at once! We ended up keeping 6 of the biggest Yellowfin and released at least nine more, as well as quite a few Bonita. A great time was had, and we saw lots of Porpoise, a couple of Turtles and a few seals! Laurie spotted a Striped Marlin before we did but the fish went down when we got close and did not take a bait. Thanks guys, we are glad you had a great time! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 21 APRIL, 2004 Warren Leisi, his wife, son and two daughters are return clients and they are all fishermen. They booked today and they have also reserved Monday for another trip out on the “Fly Hooker”. Juan and Bernardo decide that they should try and make it out to the San Jaime banks this morning since Juan’s brother had done very well on Yellowfin Tuna out there yesterday. Well, the wind blew all night long and really pushed up the swells and the chop, and it was still blowing this morning when they left. After about an hour they gave it up when people started to fall down in the cockpit due to the rough water. Juan turned downswell and came toward the 95 spot area and then after several hours had a report on the radio of a kelp paddy found about 5 miles past the 95 spot that had Wahoo and Dorado on it. Of course, everyone else heard the information on the radio as well so the “Fly Hooker” was about the 15th boat there! Even so, they were able to get bit by a Wahoo on live bait, but the ‘Hoo took the hook with him! A little later they also had a Dorado bite, but it did not hook up well and they lost the chance. That was it for the day, but Monday is another chance! Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the warm water stays close and the winds die down! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 22 APRIL, 2004 Paul Watts, his close friend from England named Steve and a buddy named Tom were our anglers on the “Fly Hooker” today. It was supposed to be a trip for Steve, since he had never caught a Marlin before, or any large saltwater fish for that matter. Paul was a little worried about getting into rough water since he is recovering from a broken rib, but the water was fairly calm. He did say that after the trip he felt as if he had spent 8 hours working out since every little movement of the boat brought him some pain. Juan and Bernardo Started out just outside of Punta Ballena and then worked their way offshore about 12 miles, then down around the Palmilla area and then back. There was a very brief fight with a Dorado estimated at 30 pounds, and Tom was the angler on that fish. That was early in the trip. As the day wore on they spotted more fish but were not able to get into any of them. Not until the last few hours were they able to find a fish that was hungry, and that fish bit on a dead Caballito rigged and run way back on the bridge rod. Again, Tom was the first angler to the rod and it took him around 15 minutes to bring the fish to the side of the boat for pictures and a release. That was all for the day for them, but it was a good day all in all, except for Paul and his ribs. Thanks guys, and Steve, perhaps you will have a chance to return to our area for another shot at a Striped Marlin one of these days. “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 24 APRIL, 2004 Kirt, Larry and their wives were our anglers aboard the “Fly Hooker” today for a half day trip. This was their first time to do any of this style of deep sea fishing, their previous experiences had been on the Oregon Coast out of Depoe Bay for rockfish and they were not really sure what to expect. Mary warned them to be sure and get plenty of sleep and stay away from excess consumption of Tequila the night before and they followed those instructions very well. When we met them at the dock this morning (they were there ahead of us!) we took them down to the boat and introduced them to Juan and his nephew. After the introductions and a quick explanation of what to expect they were on their way. Kirt and Larry had told us that they did not want to get into any rough water as they were not sure if the ladies would be able to handle it, and that was just fine as the fishing just off the coast on the Sea of Cortez has been going off for the last several days, and the water has been calm. Juan started off just outside of Cabo bay as there was a large pod of porpoise there. Let me make a long story short here. They ended up having seven Striped Marlin come up into the pattern. One they caught and released on a dead bait rigged behind a blue and white Islander lure, run wayyyyy back, another one they lost at the side of the boat when the line broke just before they were able to grab the leader, another one ate a live bait but came off after about a 5 minute fight. The other four fish just were window shopping and did not strike anything. The dead bait fish and the lure fish were a double header! They also caught and released a Skipjack Tuna. Not bad at all for a half day of fishing, huh? Congratulations all the way around, and we were happy to be able to get another boat for you to fish on for Monday since we are already booked. Have fun!