Cabo San Lucas Fish Report Capt. George Landrum "Fly Hooker" Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR 29 JULY-5 AUGUST 2001 WEATHER: We had a slight bit of overcast during the last few days of the week but most of it disappeared by Saturday afternoon. The rest of the week was sunny, hot and a bit humid, perfect for fishing! Really made you glad to get out on the ocean! Daytime temperatures were running in the 90’s all week and the evenings dropped into the 80’s, pretty normal for this time of year. The humidity stayed up in the mid 50% to low 60% for most of the week. No rain although for a while on Friday it looked as if we might get a little damp, instead we watched it rain and lightning up in the mountains. (New Country) WATER: The water temperatures on the Pacific side kept fluctuating all week. In the early part of the week the water went from 81 degrees one day to 76 the next and the fish had moved out. The Sea of Cortez side has remained fairly consistent at around 82-84 degrees, but I can see on the sea surface temperature maps that we might be headed for even higher temperatures soon. I hope that hot water stays away from us, I don’t want to be seeing the water at 89 degrees! The conditions themselves have been great on both side of the cape. Friday, Saturday and Sunday had the mid-day water on the Pacific a bit choppy, but nothing unfishable. The best bite over there was in the early morning anyway! (Fiddlin’ Around) BAIT: There has been no problem getting plenty of Caballito for live bait. I have not seen any Mackerel for the week but some of the boats are able to get a few now and then. Mullet are still available if you make arrangements ahead of them and I hear that a few of the boats have been able to get Sardinas once in a while. The normal prices are still $2 per bait except for the Sardinas and the prices are reported to be extremely variable for them, depends on how bad you want them I guess. (Diggy Diggy Lo) FISHING: BILLFISH: The Blue Marlin are appearing on a regular basis, I heard reports of a nice #700 pound plus being caught on Tuesday. Most of the boats are getting at least a strike a day on the Blues if they are in the right area, but there are still Striped Marlin around that are resulting in most of the Marlin catches. Strangely enough most of the fish have been found either on the Sea of Cortez side or due south of the cape, not many are being reported from the temperature breaks on the Pacific side. The Spindle beaks are still out there and each boat fishing seems to get a few a week. Favorite lures for all the billfish have been in the Mean Joe Green and Bleeding Mackerel patterns this week. Lures have been out-producing live baits by about 2-1. (The Devil Comes Back To Georgia) YELLOWFIN TUNA: This past week the Yellowfin bite dropped off from the hot action on big fish that we saw last week. The fish that were found were mostly in the 10-20 pound range and were found just offshore out to a distance of about 3 miles. Tuna feathers, Marauders and the old mainstay, cedar plugs were the best producers. (Sadness Darlin’ Waltz) DORADO: The action is starting to pick up for the showman of the sea! Finally we are finding concentrations of the fish and the bite has been pretty good. Hooking up to 8 or 10 a day has been pretty normal if you target them and a few of the fish have been in the 40-50 pound range. I have to admit that a lot of them have been under 10 pounds but the average seems to be 12-15 pounds. Trolling with lures to locate the fish first then tossing back a live bait for any followers has been producing well for most boats. A few are finding the fish trolling then getting a chum line going to attract any others in the area. There has been no particular color or lure that has worked better than others but the fishing has definitely been better on the Pacific side of the cape than on the Cortez side and the bite started out the first part of the week being better in the morning and by Saturday and Sunday had shifted to mid-day. (Gold Rush) WAHOO: I think if these fish had been targeted this week a boat could have done quite well, as it was there were quite a few Wahoo flags flying in the Marina. Most of these fish were caught out in the open in the blind while trolling for Marlin, but there seemed to be consistent action on the ledge off of the Lighthouse at Cabo Falso. Most of the fish were in the 30-40 pound class but a few were reported a lot smaller and a couple in the 60 pound range were reported as well. (Sally Johnson) INSHORE: The inshore action had been fairly good this week with quite a few Dorado being found, a nice selection of Tuna for the boats in the right place at the right time and there seems to have been in pick-up in the Jack Crevalle and Roosterfish action just off the beach. Most of the Pangas have been working water in the 100-300 foot depth range for the Tuna and Dorado and using Tuna Feathers for these fish. Live mullet has been the producer for the Jack Crevalle and Roosterfish. (Ain’t Misbehavin’) NOTES: Written while listening to some of the most awsome fiddle music I have ever heard. Mark O’Connor’s album “Heroes” has him playing duets with all the people who influenced him as he was learning his craft. They include Jean-Luc Ponty, Charlie Daniels, Johnny Gimble, Doug Kershaw, Vassar Clements, Buddy Spicher, Kenny Baker, Texas Shorty, Terry Morris, Benny Thomasson, Pinchus Zukerman, Stephane Grappelli, Byron Berline and L. Shankar. Unbelievable album! Warner Brothers Records, 1993. Until next week, Tight Lines! Capt. George Landrum “Fly Hooker” Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com "Fly Hooker" Daily Catch Report Capt. George Landrum "Fly Hooker" Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 29 JULY 2001 Today is the last of two days fishing for Mike and Cathy Pilarski and since they were able to get a Striped Marlin on the first trip this time they were looking for a little change. Fortunately the water on the Pacific side warmed up yesterday and there are fish in the area. Juan and Manuel worked the area from just off shore to 10 miles out looking for a supply of Dorado and were able to find a few fish that were interested in biting the lures. They were able to boat 4 Dorado in the 10-12 pound range and let several of them go that were much smaller. They also got lucky and in the area just outside the lighthouse had a strike from a Wahoo that they were able to land. It was not a large fish but at about 15 pounds did supply some nice fillets. With Marlin, Dorado and Wahoo fillets to take home they will make some people back there very happy! Thanks Mike and Catch, and until next time, Tight Lines! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 30 JULY 2001 Jeff and Barb Maloney along with their sons Sean and Brian were out today for round #2. Wanting action from the fish, Juan and Manuel took the “Fly Hooker” back to the same area that had been producing for the past two days. Unfortunately I had not been able to get a temperature chart for the day and when they got there they found that the water temperature had dropped by six degrees overnight. They spent most of the day searching for the warm water and the fish but were unable to get any action going. Sorry folks, I wish the action had been better for you today, I know you were looking forward to it! Until next time, Tight Lines! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 2 AUGUST 2001 Billy Nichols is back on the “Fly Hooker” and has his friends Hugh and Blake, along with Blake’s son Blake to accompany him. “Let’s have fun and catch some fish” is the order of the day so Juan and Manuel have their work cut out for them! They set out in the hope that the water off the Pacific side close in has warmed up and stayed in the area. The temperature map shows that it has but the map is from yesterday. Guess what, it stayed in the area and the had some good fishing action. Four nice Dorado were brought to the boat, the largest one weighed in at 42 pounds on the electric scale! Nice fish, and if I remember what they told me it was Blake Sr. or Billy that caught it. The reason I know it was not Hugh is that his claim to fame for the day was loosing a very nice Wahoo after 10 minutes into the fight! The other Dorado were not as large but still supplied some nice fillets. The also managed to farm four other Dorado and lost one Blue Marlin that was estimated at between 300 and 350 pounds. It sounded to me as if the Marlin was not hooked up for more than 15 minutes but I could be wrong. Everyone had a great time except Blake Jr., he got a little seasick and decided not to go tomorrow. Well, lets keep our fingers crossed that there are still fish out there! Until tomorrow, Tight Lines! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 3 AUGUST 2001 The guys took off this morning planning to work the Pacific side but about mid-day the wind picked up and they ended up finishing up on the Cortez side. Even so it was not a total waste. They managed to farm four Dorado early and due south of the cape they had a Turtle come up under one of the lures and get snagged in the neck. They backed down on the unfortunate thing and managed to remove the hook with little injury and watched as the Turtle paddled away as fast as it could go. Later in the trip they had a Striped Marlin come up on the lure run from the bridge rod and chase it for a while. Just as the live bait got back to it’s position the Marlin made a last swack at the lure and managed to get the hook in it’s bill long enough to make it shake it’s head, toss the lure and disappear. The day ended up with the tag and release of a nice 90 pound Pacific Sailfish. All in all quite a variety for one day even if none of the catch ended up in the fish box. Thanks guys! I hope that until we meet next time your lines remain tight whenever you go fishing! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 4 AUGUST 2001 Billy from England and Tim from New Jersey were the anglers on the “Fly Hooker” today, last minute charters coming down from L.A. after a business meeting. They are fairly experienced anglers and were just looking for a little fishing action. The boys worked the area off the lighthouse on the Pacific side all day and one of the first catches of the day was a beautiful Pacific Blue Marlin that was estimated at 350 pounds. Tim was able to best the beast after 55 minutes of fighting time and having almost 500 yards of line off the reel at one time. I was told that there was quite a bit of jumping from the fish and when it was brought to the side of the boat it was still in good shape. Juan placed a Billfish Foundation tag in it and released it. Staying in the same area meant staying in the choppy water but there was the hope of getting another one. Instead all they managed to get were two small Dorado. Asking how big the world record Blue Marlin was, they appeared disappointed at catching a fish that in comparison must have been “Just a baby”. Oh well, until you manage to get another Blue Marlin over #350 pounds, I wish you tight lines every fishing trip! Until next week, Tight lines from George, Mary, Juan and Manuel, The “Fly Hooker” Crew