Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report for Feb 19-Mar3 Capt George Landrum Fly Hooker Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 25-MARCH 3, 2002 WEATHER: We had a very unusual fog bank move into Cabo from the east on Monday and it lasted about an hour. Almost a solid wall that dropped the temperature by 10 degrees for a while. Monday afternoon the wind started and it blew hard through Tuesday then we just had it in the afternoons. By Saturday the wind disappeared and things got back to normal with a slightly overcast sky. Our daytime highs were in the high 70’s and the nighttime lows in the low 70’s with no rainfall all week. (Nebuchadnezzar) WATER: Rough conditions on the Pacific side and in the afternoons to the south. The water on the Sea of Cortez stayed nice all week. We had a large push of warm water come up from the southeast and the temperature in there was 72/74 degrees while the water out in front of the Cape remained very cold at 66/68 degrees. This warm water was between 15 and 25 miles out but there was not a sharply defined break. (Spiritual Awakening” BAIT: A mix of Mackerel and Caballito available all week at the normal $2 per bait. (The Governor) FISHING: BILLFISH: The warm water in the Sea of Cortez held a large number of Striped Marlin midweek with most of the boats finding up to 20+ fish tailing on the surface. Catches of 1-4 fish per boat were reported. That was on Wednesday, by Thursday they had moved off again and the catch dropped off. Still Marlin out there but not in the numbers from before. This area was about 20 miles out to the southeast and the bite started to shift a bit to the north. Most of the fish were caught on live bait and maybe a third of them were attracted to the lures first. Average size was 115 pounds with a few in the 150 pound range. (Deep In The Shed) YELLOWFIN TUNA: Close to home the Yellowfin bite dropped off a lot. Many of the flags flying on the outriggers were for some of the bomber Bonito that were being found offshore. The only report that I had of any large Yellowfin was of large 55-110 pound fins on the Pacific side 37 miles out. Bad water out and bad water back but the fish were reported to be biting, they were associated with Dolphin. The action on them was reported to have started on Wednesday and had lasted through Friday. Anywhere else it was only the occasional football Yellowfin. (Mysterious Interlude) DORADO: Every boat was coming in with at least one Dorado flag this week. The fish were not packed up but they were definitely temperature associated. The water in 70-72 degrees held the fish and they were scattered out. Sizes ranged from 10 to 30 pounds. One method that worked well for several boats was to catch a few of the Bonito and use them to start a chunk line. That brought any dorado in the area to the boat as long as you were able to keep the line going. (E. Dankworth) WAHOO: ? Oh well. NEARSHORE: The snapper bite was reported to have gotten better this week and there were more reports of Yellowtail off the Cape. Most of the Pangas were catching Bonito and Skipjack with an occasional stray Dorado tossed into the mix. NOTES: Humpback whales were out there this week, awesome to see playing and doing full breeches. It looks like the clouds that moved in on Saturday are burning off and there is no wind this morning! It may get crazy here real soon, Spring Break is on it’s way. Think I’d rather be out fishing! This weeks report was written to the jazz piano (Steinway) sounds of Marcus Roberts on his album “Deep In The Shed”, 1990, BMG Music. Fly Hooker Daily Catch Report “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 25 FEBRUARY 2002 Mike Hicks, his son Shawn and daughter Michelle and her boyfriend Mike were our anglers aboard the “Fly Hooker” today. Mike wanted the kids to get a chance to catch a fish bigger than 5 pounds and that was the goal of Juan and Manuel as they headed out of the marina. They headed west towards the area the Tuna had been found the last few days but this time they didn’t find any fish there. They turned the boat to the south and it was not until they were 32 miles to the south that they found any concentration of fish.. They ran into a pod of Dolphin that were working bait and that is where they found the Tuna. Every pass on the fish resulted in hookups and several times all the lines went off. The largest fish weighed 35 pounds and the average was 15. The kids had a blast and they even had a shot at a Striped Marlin on the way back. This fish ate a live bait that was tossed to it and then came down on the line after several jumps. They saw Whales, Dolphin, Seals, Sea Lions and Turtles on this trip also. No one got sick and they had a great trip! Thanks Mike, we look forward to seeing you again! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 27 FEBRUARY 2002 Glenn Witerski and his son Shawn and Glenn’s old friend Dean booked the “Fly Hooker” for today and tomorrow because they want to catch Marlin. Glenn fished with us two years ago and was looking forward to fishing with Juan and Manuel again. He was also nice enough to bring down some reel parts for me! Well, the wind blew like heck all afternoon yesterday and all last night so we figured that fishing on the Pacific side was out of the question for today. Instead, we checked out the temperature chart and decided to try an area about 20 miles to the east, there was a bulge of warm water moving in from the southeast that might hold fish. 15 miles out they found 72 degree water (near home it was 66 degrees) and that is where the fish were. During the day they spotted over 16 Striped Marlin Tailing on the surface and tossed bait to them. perhaps it was due to the full moon, but only one of them was hungry enough to bite. Shawn was the angler on that fish and it took him 20 minutes to work the fish close enough to the boat to allow Juan to get a tag placed. After pictures the fish was released to fight again. This fish was not into the air battles and most of the fight was down deep. The wind picked up about 10 am and it was a bit rough coming back in but the guys are looking forward to giving it another shot tomorrow! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 28 FEBRUARY 2002 This was the second day of fishing for Glenn, Shawn and Dean and the focus was Marlin once again. Juan and Manuel returned to the same area they had luck in yesterday but this time had to go further offshore to find fish. It seemed that the concentrations had moved. Today they went 30 miles out and only saw 4 Marlin the whole trip. Luckily one of them was hungry and it was Dean’s turn in the fighting position. This fish was a bit more active on the surface and put up some great jumps. Dean fought the fish for 20 minutes and then Juan was able to get a tag into it. The fish swam away healthy and ready to fight again another day. Way to go Dean! That was all the action for the day and we hope that next time Glenn will get his chance! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 1 MARCH 2001 Phil Gebbie and Don Moore are corporate pilots and fly a Grumman Fox 50 that has three engines, carries a bit over 15,000 pounds of fuel and develops 2,800 pounds of thrust per engine. Can you tell that I spent a bit of time with them? Phil and Don really wanted to catch a Marlin and we tried hard. We worked the same are as the fish were found in yesterday at the start but were only able to get two Dorado, then we headed north looking for a concentration. About 8 miles further on we finally found an area where there were some fish but then couldn’t get anything to bite. We tossed a bait at a tailing fish twice and got no response from it then a few minutes later gunned the boat and ran to an area where a Marlin had been free jumping and tossed a bait there. Again no hookup. We did that once more and that was our Marlin action for the day. Later we managed to hook into three large bomber Bonito that struck on Marlin lures and they were good for some excitement! The bite seemed slow for everyone today and then on the way in the wind started to howl! Every few minutes Manuel had to power down on a big choppy swell. It was a rough ride back! Thanks guys, we look forward to your next flight down and hope the fishing is a bit better then! Until Next Week Tight Lines from George, Mary, Juan and Manuel, the “Fly Hooker” Crew