Cabo Bite Report Capt. George Landrum Fly Hooker Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT MAY 9-15, 2004 WEATHER: All right, we do have the summer weather with the days in the high 80’s and low 90’s and the nights in the mid 70’s, but this week we also started out with spring winds! It seemed that every day at the beginning of the week the wind started blowing around 10 or 11 in the morning and blew all day and night, not letting up until around daybreak. At the end of the week it finally let up and this weekend it was very nice with just slight breezes. No rain, of course, but lots of sun! WATER: We started this week being wrapped with a band of cold water that came down the Pacific coast and decided to stay for a while. This water ran from 62-66 degrees and extended from that Pacific up by the Golden Gate to the Cortex up by Palmilla and off shore as far as 15 miles to the southwest of the Cape. The rest of the Pacific was an even 70 degrees while the Cortez had a warm 73-74 degree band of water about 15 miles out. At the end of the week the warm water on the Sea of Cortez side had managed to push the cold water back to the Pacific and we had that warm water only 10 miles off shore while there was a finger of water in the 77 degree ranged working its way toward us from up around Punta Gorda. The water displaced by the warm current worked its way out toward the San Jaime and Golden Gate banks and it was not until you got to them that the water got warmer than 67 degrees on the Pacific side. The surface conditions on the Pacific were pretty rough all week due to the steady winds, and the swells were fair sized, but the Sea of Cortez was not too bad in the mornings. BAIT: We have had a good mix of both Caballito and Mackerel this week, with most of the Caballito fairly small but with some nice big Mackerel available. The normal price at $2 per bait. FISHING: BILLFISH: While not as red-hot as last weeks bite, the Striped Marlin were still out there this week! Most of the action moved to either the San Jaime Banks, right along the eastern edge where there was a temperature break, the southern side of the 95 spot where the same thing occurred or up the Sea of Cortez toward the Gorda Banks and Punta Gorda. That cold water that came down the Pacific coast forced the fish out of the immediate area but they were still within range for a full day trip. Live bait was the favorite and either drifting with it or tossing it to tailing fish resulted in pretty good action. A few of the boats were able to get into the action and I saw as many as five Marlin flags on one boat for a day’s trip. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Almost a repeat of last weeks report as far as Yellowfin are concerned, but there was one day, Wednesday, when a school of nice fish showed up and a few were caught. For the most part the Yellowfin this week were small fish and there were not a lot of them. The nice fish showed up at the southern end of the San Jaime and there were four lucky boats there at the time. The largest fish that I actually saw caught was #141 and there were others in the 80-90 pound range hooked, but the Captains said there were a lot of big fish in the #150 to #250 range jumping clear of the water. They were feeding heavily on squid and it took time and patience to hook up. DORADO: Again, the report is the same as last weeks, with the Dorado being scattered around and not particularly concentrated. Finding floating debris was the key and there were some small kelp paddies on the Pacific side that had fish in the #15-#25 class under them. Live and cut bait worked well when the kelp was found. WAHOO: A few more flags were flying this week and there were some happy anglers as a fair bite on Wahoo in the 40 pound class happened at the inner and outer Gorda Banks. The best bite was early and it was around the tide change. Marauders and Marlin lures worked well, and dark colors seemed to out produce the bright ones. INSHORE: The cold water that wrapped around us had the Roosterfish bite drop off, but the Pargo took up the slack with some nice fish ranging from 15 to 30 pounds being found in among the rocks. Not much else was happening this week inshore except for an occasional bite by Yellowtail off the arch. Early in the morning or late in the afternoon on live bait seemed to be the best time and best bait. NOTES: A new computer and DSL instead of dial-up! Almost like Christmas for us, this makes such a difference. This weeks report was written to the music of ZZ Top on the 1985 Warner release “Afterburner”. Until next week, Tight lines! "Fly Hooker" Daily Catch Reports Capt George Landrum “Fly Hooker” Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com WEEKLY FISH COUNT STRIPED MARLIN: THREE FISH RELEASED (#120-#180) ONE FISH KEPT (#110) YELLOWFIN TUNA: TWO FISH KEPT (#5, #85) DORADO: ONE FISH KEPT ( #25) “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 11 MAY, 2004 Sanga, Charlie and Todd fished with us today. This is the first time Todd has fished with us and tomorrow it will be Sanga, Charlie and Christy with Todd coming back on Friday. Juan and Manuel took off to the Pacific side today and the water was a bit bouncy. Around the San Jaime area they found some small pieces of Kelp and were able to get some Dorado interested, but not enough so that they would eat. A couple of Striped Marlin were found as well and they were able to get Todd hooked up to his first Marlin ever! Sanga was still waiting for the Marlin to be pulled from the water in order to get a picture of it and that never happened, as Juan released the fish along the side of the boat. They came in flying a Marlin and a release flag, and with one happy guy! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 12 MAY, 2004 Sanga, Charlie and Christy today, and it ended up the Christy caught the fish that Todd had been hoping for! Charlie wanted some fish to be smoked and take home. He won’t kill a Marlin and for that I thank him, but anything else would do. Juan and Manuel returned tot eh Pacific side and worked the same area as yesterday hoping to get into the Dorado again. Instead they found a school of Yellowfin feeding hard. Just because they are feeding it does not mean they are willing to bite lures! These fish were chasing squid, and Juan was almost able to net a few that got chased under the boat. They worked the school hard for two hours and finally were able to get a double strike on small red feathers. Charlie got the first fish to the boat in just a few minutes, it was the easy one as it was small, about 5 pounds. Christy’s fish took a while longer, almost 25 minutes, and Juan estimated it at between #80 and #90, a very nice fish that produced some great fillets! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 13 MAY, 2004 Today we had three guys aboard the boat, Derrick, Eric and Rick. They were part of a larger group that totaled three boats. It was Juan’s day off so Manuel had his friend Mauricio fishing as deckhand. Manuel took off toward the Gorda Banks today and I guess it was the right choice. They did not see a lot offish, but everything they found bit! They ended the day releasing one Striped Marlin, having another one die on them and getting one 25 pound Dorado in the boat. Everyone got to catch a fish and the other boats did as well! A great day of fishing! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 14 MAY, 2004 It was Sanga, Charlie and Todd again today, and Juana and Manuel went up the Sea of Cortez toward the Gorda Banks one more time. More fish were seen today, and they had a few strikes that did not hook up, but they were able to get one Striped Marlin to the boat for a release! Thanks guys, we look forward to your coming to Cabo again!