Cabo Fishign Report for May 6-12 George Landrum Fly Hooker Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR MAY 6-12, 2002 WEATHER: Our highs this week were in the mid to low 90’s and our lows were in the low 70’s, really nice weather for the week. From mid week to the end of the Saturday we were getting northwesterly winds in the late evening that were lasting until about 8am. No rain all week as is normal here. (I Just Want To Celebrate) WATER: Starting Monday we have had a balloon of cold water form between the cape and the San Jaime Banks. At first it was just a sliver of cold water in the 68 degree range and now it runs all the way from the coast to the banks. On Thursday there appeared to be a big temperature break running from the 1150 spot to the southeast where the east side had temps in the low 80’s and the west in the 77 degree range. It dissipated pretty quickly though and the entire Sea of Cortez side is now showing temps in the 76-77 degree range. Most of the week the surface conditions on the Pacific side have been a bit choppy but occasionally have laid down enough to make it a comfortable ride out to the San Jaime and the Golden Gate banks. On the Sea of Cortez side it has been a nice ride all week. (Day After Day) BAIT: There has been no problem getting either Caballito or Mackerel this week and the usual $2 per bait. This price has been from the bait Pangas. I am not sure on the availability of Sardinas this week. (Sooner Or Later) FISHING: BILLFISH: The bite was on this week for the Striped Marlin and many of the boats were able to get multiple releases. I often saw three or four flags flying. Most of the action was taking place to the south of the 95 spot and to the northwest of the lighthouse. The striped Marlin were biting on a mix of both baits and lures with the lures holding a slight majority. Favorite colors were either black/green or yellow/orange, either side of the spectrum! I did hear of several very small fish being caught, one around 30 pounds, but most of them were of average size, in the 120 pound class. (Get On The Good Foot) YELLOWFIN TUNA: This was a bright spot for Cabo early in the week, until the purse Seiners moved onto the San Jaime. The bank had been putting out really outstanding action on fish ranging from 25 to 80 pounds with most of them around 45 pounds. It was not uncommon to get 10-15 fish in a few hours, enough to wear your arms out! On Monday a purse seiner was seen out there but at the time he was trolling lures. Everyone knew he was just waiting for the sport boats to leave so he could set nets. On Tuesday there were three Seiners there and the bite had dropped off quite a bit. Wednesday and Thursday the bite was dead. There were a few other fish found mixed in with porpoise and for the boats that were able to find them they provided decent action on fish in the 24-40 pound class. At the San Jaime it seemed as if the most productive lures were dark colors, purple/black, red/black, etc. (All The Young Dudes) DORADO: The cold spot off of the lighthouse on the Pacific side put out plenty of Dorado this week and most of them were decent fish in the 20-35 pound range. Hooking one on lures and keeping it in the water was the key as often the school would follow the hooked fish in, offering the chance to live bait the other fish. There were also scattered fish on the Sea of Cortez side and on Saturday a nice school was found out to the south of the 95 spot and the first boats on the scene were able to get some good fish in the box. Again, live bait was the key to the action. (Baby Blue) WAHOO: Amazingly enough there are still Wahoo out there, but not in any concentration. Most of the fish have been blind strike while working something else but I think that has a lot to do with the attitude. I feel that if effort was concentrated on Wahoo the fishing could be fairly good. If there are fish out there then the traditional Wahoo hangouts should kick a few fish out on a consistent basis. The ones that have been caught have averaged 35-40 pounds and there has been no sign of any preferred colors or styles of lures. (Get Ready) INSHORE: The inshore action on the Sea of Cortez has been pretty slow but the Pacific continues to kick out some nice Sierra. Other than that it is slow. Just off the coast the action has been pretty good for Skipjack and Bonito with an occasional Dorado to sweeten the pot. (Come And Get It) NOTES: Looking back on the reports for the last two years it seems that every time the fishing gets good at one of the banks, it is only a few days, a week at the most, before the Purse Seiners show up. Unfortunately the enforcement of the laws is difficult for the authorities, as they lack the ability to keep any sustained surveillance in place locally, let alone the ability to apprehend any boat found setting nets within 50 miles of the coast. Sigh. Written to the music of the 70’s, a mix of artists instead of a single CD, Chicago, Badfinger, Sugarloaf, Rare Earth, The Grass Roots, Mott the Hoople, James Brown, etc. "Fly Hooker" Daily Catch Reports for May 6-12 “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 6 MAY, 2002 Greg Wlazlowski is our angler on the “Fly Hooker” for today and tomorrow. Greg is from the state of New Jersey and is a dedicated fisherman. He works in sales and during the summer on the weekends works as crew on both party boats and charter boats. Greg has tried four times in other places to catch a Marlin but so far has had no success. The closest he came was on a trip to Hawaii when they had a strike from a Striped Marlin and another from a Spearfish, plus saw two other Striped Marlin in the lure pattern. Our fingers are crossed for him that this trip to Cabo will fulfill his need to catch a Striped Marlin! For the next month at least our crew on the boat will be Juan and his brother Juan. Manuel was a passenger in a car that wrecked on Saturday night and his left arm was broken above the elbow in two places. No one else was hurt but he will be out of commission for a while. Greg invited me to go along on this trip and against my better judgement (remembering the results last time I went with a client) I accepted the invite. Remember when a week ago the Tuna were biting at the San Jaime and then the bite shut off like someone had turned the tap? Well, yesterday the tap was turned back on according to the reports I had from a few of the guys so that is the direction we headed. The Marlin and Dorado action had been fair out to the west of the lighthouse so it was a good direction to go. We ran most of the way. Since we got underway at 6:15 we were half way there by the time most of the fleet got out. We started trolling about 5 miles short of the bank but it was not until we got there that any action took place, and then it just busted loose! Singles, doubles, triples, quads, Greg reeled the first Tuna, I got one, Juan got one, there was blood everywhere, the box was full and we had only been there for 30 minutes! The first four fish were the largest with the biggest one between 60-65 pounds and the other three around 60 pounds. We continued to fish and released the smaller ones. Our total after 2 hours was 15 Yellowfin! Almost every fish that we caught was hooked on a dark color lure, either Mean Joe Green or Red/Black or Silver/Black (Greg’s lure). Enough of the Tuna, it was time to focus on a Marlin or Dorado. While we were at the banks a purse seiner was spotted and everyone got all excited but he was pulling hooks on lines, not setting nets. Of course he was just waiting for the sport boats to leave that evening so he could net, but at least he was not being blatant about it. We started trolling back toward the lighthouse at 10am and about half way there started getting into a bit of action. A Marlin strike on a lure started it out but the fish did not stick and it would not eat a bait dropped back to it. A little while later Juan spotted three Marlin tailing on the surface just as I had opened a cold Pacifico. Juan gunned the boat to the fish as Juan pinned on a live bait. No action on the first toss but we could see the fish back in the swells, staying with us and lit up blue on the front edge of their pectoral fins! Juan cast the bait again and this time one of them spotted it and came in on the attack. A big splash and then a swirl and the fish was gone and the bait was still there. Time for a fresh bait! Out went a fresh one and this time there was no hesitation as the bait was engulfed. Juan waited for a count of 6 before putting the lever to strike and waiting for the line to come tight. Once it did he looked like he was in a logging contest trying to chop wood with that rod! The hook was set all right and Greg was in his harness for the stand-up fight of his life! The fish took off on a series of jumps and leaps that we wished we had a video camera for, awesome action! There were a total of four runs made by the fish, each one a little shorter and you could tell the fish was getting tired. Well, if the fish was, then so was Greg! After the third run he needed to use the chair to finish the fight. Greg is a strong guy, but working all the Tuna earlier had taken quite a bit of his energy! After 56 minutes he was able to get the tired Marlin where Juan could grab the leader, then the bill. I placed the tag in the fish and then we managed to get several pictures of the fish alongside the boat. The bait had been swallowed but the fish was not bleeding so Juan cut the leader and we watched as the 130 pound Striped Marlin swam away. Congratulations Greg, not a bad job on 40 pound test! With the targeted fish caught and plenty of other action for the day, it was Greg’s decision to hang it up for the day and we cruised in to the Marina. 45 minutes later Juan was putting the Marlin, release and Tuna flags up as we came in through the breakwater. Greg is going to try and talk his wife Chris into coming out on the trip tomorrow as he thinks the water today was calm enough that she would be able to enjoy the trip. We will keep our fingers crossed and let you know tomorrow! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 7 MAY, 2002 All right, it’s Greg Wlazlowski’s second day of fishing on the “Fly Hooker” and today his wife Chris is coming along, and I am invited to go along also! I guess I was not a jinx yesterday. Greg had gotten his Marlin and today the request was for Dorado and Wahoo. Hey, all we can do is try! We started out running towards the San Jaime Banks again but just past the lighthouse we slowed down and started trolling. There were two reasons for this, both of them good ones. First, this is the area where we had all the action yesterday on the Marlin and Dorado and second, the wind did not die down last night and the water was just too rough to continue cruising. We put the lines out and started trolling while still 10 miles away from the banks. It was not long before Chris started to feel a bit sick so we got her up and watching the horizon, with the wind in her face and she felt a bit better. After about 45 minutes we had our first strike of the day and it was a nice Dorado of about 25 pounds. There were no other fish following it in but we tossed a live bait out just in case. A short while later Chris finally got the trouble out of her system and started to feel better! When we arrived at the San Jaime Banks there were 16 boats there working for the Tuna, and a few of them were managing to hook-up to fish. There were also three Purse Seiners hanging off on the horizon. The fish were very shy and the bite was not nearly as good as yesterday so almost all the Captains agreed that the Seiners must have been working the banks early in the morning. After about 30 minutes we got a decent strike and Greg went to work on the fish. If it had been a smaller one it would have been a fish for Chris, but this one turned out to be a very nice 40 pound Yellowfin. The action was very slow so later we decided to troll back and hope for some Dorado. About 15 minutes after leaving the banks we had a strike on the port rigger but did not see the fish. No hook-up but we still had plenty of time. 30 minutes later Juan spotted several frigate birds working flying fish and we ran over to the spot. Flying fish coming out of the water everywhere and the Dorado all lit up and chasing them. We quickly switched over all the lures to closer imitations of the size and colors of the baits. That didn’t work so we continued to try all the tricks in the book. Finally I could think of nothing else except to open the one beer left on the boat. Hey, it seems to work on occasion, just when you are all ready to relax and enjoy a cold one, the action happens! Sure enough, it worked this time! This fish was for Chris and we got her in the chair and it only took her about 5 minutes to get the fish behind the boat. We told her to stop reeling and just hold the fish there, we wanted to see if the Dorado had brought any friends with it! Sure enough, after several minutes here they came, working the swells towards the one already hooked up. Out went two live baits and both were struck fairly quickly. One came off right away but the other one stuck and Greg went to work on it. He brought the fish to the boat in about 5 minutes and we released a nice 15 pound female. one more female, this one about 20 pounds was hooked and released also, then the action stopped and we had Greg bring in the fish that Chris had been holding for us. After about 10 minutes he handed the rod to me, the fish was a stubborn one and had made a run just as he had taken the rod from Chris. I took over from him and it was another 10 minutes before I was able to get the fish to the boat. Chris kept ragging us about being macho males, it had only taken her 5 minutes to get the fish to the boat and here we were, fishing guys and neither of us could do the job! When the fish had made the run when Greg took the rod, the trailing hook had swung back and hooked the pectoral fin so we were working the fish in sideways. Anyway, after we got the fish to the boat and had seen what the situation was, Juan unhooked and released the 15 pound female. Out went the lures again and we were trolling. Whew, now for that beer I had opened, sure hoped it was still cool! As soon as I picked it up, slamo! Another fish on and this time it was a nice bull Dorado! This fish took Greg about 15 minutes to get to the boat and it was quickly placed in the box. Out go the lures again, I picked up the beer, got one swallow and slamo! again, this time on the starboard rigger! At first we were not sure what it was, it took line so fast we were almost sure it was a Marlin. The fish did not head down so it was not a Tuna and it did not jump so we ruled out a Marlin or Dorado. That left only one fish it could be and after the first run and we saw the rod tip bouncing as the fish shook it’s head, we knew that we had hooked up a Wahoo! I was praying that the fish did not bit through the monofiliment leader and wishing that it had struck the Marauder we had running in the short position. Greg did a fine job on the fish, keeping constant tension on the line and eventually, after several runs, Juan was able to get the leader. He tried to gaff and leader at the same time, and do it without gloves. Guess what, yep, he had to let go of the leader. I put on the gloves and leadered the fish on the next approach and this time the gaff got sunk. After a couple of hard whacks on the head with the baseball bat the fish was brought into the boat and the high-5’s were exchanged! Request fulfilled again! Dorado and Wahoo in the boat as was asked for in the morning, plus a nice Tuna! All that was needed to round out the day was a Marlin and we would have a clean sweep. It was time to go in but we put out the lures anyway, determined to give it another 15 minutes, after all, I hadn’t had a chance to drink the beer yet! I guess maybe it only worked with cold beer though, because our luck ran out and we did not get a shot at a Marlin in the last 15 minutes. During the course of the day we had strikes from about 4 fish, but no hook-ups so never mind, we cranked in the lures and cruised on back to the Marina. Chris was a real trooper on the trip, never complaining and giving lots of encouragement to Greg. I really enjoyed fishing with you guys and look forward to doing it again! Thanks! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 9 MAY, 2002 Today and tomorrow we have Richard Colarassi and his friend Brian fishing aboard the “Fly Hooker”. They are from San Diego and are referred to us by one of the San Diego firemen who fished with us during the Tuna Tournament last year. Richard really wants to go home with a bunch of fillets in his cooler so Juan and Juan decided to go to the San Jaime Banks to give it a try, the fish are supposed to still be around, just a little line and boat shy. Well, that is the idea at least. Unfortunately they got off to very late start. When the port engine had been checked for oil and water and they attempted to start it, ohoh! Juan went home and got another starter and they finally left the marina around 7:45. The wind had been blowing all during the early morning hours and when they got to the lighthouse Brian made a command decision that the water was too rough and they should stay to the Sea of Cortez side. The water was a lot better but the fishing was very slow. Net results, 1 Striped Marlin strike, one Dorado in the boat and two others that tried to get hooked up but failed. Our fingers are crossed for better luck tomorrow since they plan to leave much earlier! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 10 APRIL, 2002 Richard and Brian left the Marina on the “Fly Hooker”at 6:10 this morning, much earlier than yesterday and their fishing results improved dramatically. Of course they fished a different area also! Leaving as early as they did they managed to get past the lighthouse before the wind picked up and the water was a bit better than yesterday. They trolled towards the San Jaime and hooked up to Dorado fairly quickly. Using one fish as a decoy they worked live baits back and managed to pickup another one most of the time. They kept up this pattern for the duration of the trip and the result was a nice catch of seven Dorado. There was one small fish between 10-12 pounds and the rest were between 20-35 pounds according to Juan. So two days fishing and 4 Dorado apiece. Not great fishing but not shabby either. By the way, these guys had all their own gear, very nice stuff! Thanks guys, we hope to see you again this year! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 11 MAY, 2002 Kevin and Kara Brown and their friends Alex and Julian came all the way from Texas to visit Cabo San Lucas and booked a trip on the “Fly Hooker” before they came down. They had fished with us two years ago and were looking for another good trip. Juan and our fill-in deckhand Chase headed out towards the 95 spot and a little south. Juan’s brother Juan could not work today since his wife was in the hospital having a baby boy! The guys worked the area hard and there were some fish there for them, but not a lot. Kara was the top-rod for the day with the tag and release of a Striped Marlin estimated at 120 pounds. After the fight, which she handled very well, she laid down and went to sleep, pooped out, no more energy! Good job Kara! Later in the morning a report came in over the radio of a large school of Dorado having been found a short distance away and Juan ran the boat over there. As is normal, by the time you hear about it over the radio it is too late and all they were able to get out of the school was one Dorado. That was the action for the day. A nice fishing trip with good water and a little bit of action. Until Next week, Tight Lines form George, Mary, Juan, Manuel and Brother Juan, The “Fly Hooker” Crew