Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report for July 1-7, 2002 Capt. George Landrum “Fly Hooker” Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR JULY 1-7, 2002 WEATHER: Finally nice weather! We have had daytime highs in the mid 80’s to low 90’s and nighttime lows in the mid 70’s! No need to wear a sweater in the evening and the humidity is not high so everything is perfect. Most of this week we had scattered high clouds over Cabo and some lower altitude clouds on the Pacific side. Afternoon winds from the northwest at 10-15 knots but almost nothing blowing in the mornings. (No Son Of Mine) WATER: Since the start of the week the temperature break on the Pacific side, the location of the 71 degree band, has slowly been receding to the west. It was almost within 5 miles of the coast for a while last week and now we need to go a long way to get to it. There is light blue water closer to home on the Pacific side but it doesn’t seem to hold the amount of fish as the 71 degree water. Due to the afternoon winds the water chops up considerably in the afternoon out there and it can be a bumpy ride back. Closer to shore up around the lighthouse the current line has some pretty choppy conditions as well, regardless of the time of day. On the Sea of Cortes side of the Cape we have been watching the approach of warm water, up in the high 70’s and low 80’s, all week long. It is now covering the Gorda Banks and the 1150 and 95 spots. Under usual conditions this is exactly what we are looking for, as there is a distinct temperature break in front of the warm water. However it seems that the warm water is an off-green color, at times almost pea soup or as one captain called it, “whale ka-ka” green. If and when it clears up the fishing should be great there, and the long run to the fish a thing of the past. There is clear water on the Cortez side but it is a long run to get out of the pea soup stuff, as long as 35 miles to the southeast. Guess that’s about as bad as the 30 mile run to the San Jaime! (Jesus He Knows Me) BAIT: Most of the bait this week has been Mackerel and Mullet, both of which are still selling for $2 each bait. Someone has said there are Sardinas around, but I have not been able to confirm that. (Driving The Last Spike) FISHING: BILLFISH: Marlin spots for the week have been to the west side of the San Jaime and to the southeast of the Cabrillo Seamount, both of them long runs. The bite has almost been 100% Striped Marlin and they have been urged to feed on a mix of both lures and live bait. For the live bait Mackerel have been preferred over Mullet and in lures a squid pink color on a straight running pusher has brought a lot of fish to the boats. Most of these Marlin are running 140 pounds, up a bit from the average size of 120 pounds. There have been quite a few fish approaching the magic 200 pound mark as well. Most of the fish have been found in small schools, not many of them have been singles and that has meant that there have been lots of multiple hook-ups. Yeah! (I Can’t Dance) YELLOWFIN TUNA: Most of the Yellowfin Tuna that have been caught this week have been football fish in the 8-20 pound class and almost every one of them has been caught out at the San Jaime bank. These have been non-associated fish, found by blind trolling instead of being with Dolphin or kelp pads. Fish this size have been eating almost anything put in front of them, from Mean Joe Green Marlin lures to cedar plugs, it hasn’t seemed to matter. A GPS comes in real handy with these schools since then you can plot the direction they are taking when you hook-up the second time. (Never A Time) DORADO: The majority of the Dorado caught this week were found in the direction of the San Jaime and Golden Gate Banks. The afternoon winds seem to have broken up most of the kelp pads that were in the area and the current has carried off a lot of the others but there are still fish under the ones remaining, as well and fish out in the open. The sizes have ranged from 6 pounds to 35 pounds with an occasional larger bull in the mix. Live bait, chunks, strips, iron and top water poppers have all found success on the pads with live bait accounting for the larger fish. On the Sea of Cortez there have not been as many Dorado caught but the average size has been 25 pounds with a few in the 40-50 pound range. Most of these have been caught on lures pulled for Striped Marlin and they have shown no preference in colors. (Dreaming While You Sleep) WAHOO: A few fish have been found under the kelp pads on the Pacific Banks but that has been about it as far as these speedsters are concerned. Maybe next week with the new moon the bite will improve! (Tell Me Why) INSHORE: Pacific side is cold and rough but has delivered some good Sierra and Red Snapper for those willing to get bounced around. The Sea of Cortez is finally delivering a few good sized Roosterfish but nothing like we have been expecting. Maybe as the water blues up the bite will get better, because the temperature is great! There have been a few small Dorado caught on both sides of the Cape as well in less than 100 feet of water, but not in any concentrations I have heard of. Living Forever) NOTES: If the Sea of Cortez water blues up then watch for the action to get red-hot. Reports of the fishing off of the East Cape have been great and soon these fish should be in our area as well! Meanwhile, we are going out this week a few times to have fun with the football Tuna and the Dorado on light gear, what a blast. And, if things go just right, a chance to get a tag into a Striped Marlin caught on the Penn 12T! This weeks music by “Genesis” on their 1991 Atlantic Recording CD “We Can’t Dance”. "Fly Hooker" Daily fishing Report for July 1-7, 2002 “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 3 JULY, 2002 Carlos, Manuel and Jen were our anglers today and they wanted to catch fish, any fish would do. Juan and his brother Porphillio were captain and crew today and Juan decided that for the best shot at a quantity and variety that they should head for the San Jaime Banks. The water was the right temperature out there and the color was good but the action was slow for our anglers. A large Bull Dorado that Juan estimated at 60+ pounds came in on one of the outrigger lures but did not pull the line from the clip. Another fish was lost along the boat, it was estimated at 30 pounds. They were able to put one Dorado in the box that weighed 30 pounds but that fish was found at the end of the trip. All in all the action for the “Fly Hooker” was slow today but every day is different, perhaps tomorrow will be better! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 4 JULY, 2002 Dr. Terry Frey and his wife Carolyn and the Dr.’s hygienist Sandy Mills and her husband Greg have been looking forward to this trip to Cabo for some time. They are fishing today and the 6th. The Dr. would love to catch a Marlin, but most important is to get some fish! Sandy is praying for Dorado! Since things are in the right condition out at the San Jaime Banks, that is where we decide to go. Right place, right time; that is the name of the fishing game! The wind blew all night long and the water is pretty choppy on the way out to the Banks. Midway there we smell hot oil and do some quick checks below deck. There is nothing obvious but we slow down a bit just in case. There is nothing leaking out of the engines and no sign of spilled oil from the transmissions. When we arrive at the banks we start a search and it looks as if all the boats are doing the same thing. We do see a purse seiner under tow by another seiner, and one of them has pumped their bilge’s and spilled a large quantity of fuel on the water. About two hours later, on the west side of the fuel spill, Juan spots several Striped Marlin tailing. I pin on a live bait and Juan takes us along side one of them. I cast the bait in front of the fish and everyone aboard is watching the bait get charged. All of a sudden the long rigger goes off with a snap of the release and a scream from the ratchet on the reel! The boat is gunned and the live bait ignored as the Dr. gets in the chair and patiently waits for the fish to jump during the first run. The rod has a good bend to it and in no time at all the fish has taken all 200 yards of top-shot and is into the backing. Dr. Frey gets several pumps in as the fish finishes it’s run then the line goes slack! The hook pulled loose but at least we have had a bit of excitement. All the lines are put back out and now everyone’s eyes are scanning the surface of the Pacific, looking for tale-tell signs of fish. In about 15 minutes there are 10 boats working the area and several of them hook-up also, but we have no more luck with the Marlin. Several miles away we get a triple strike from Yellowfin Tuna in the 10-15 pound range and get all of them into the boat! After bleeding the Tuna and setting the lines back out we make another pass in the area and this time all four lines get nailed, everyone gets to bring in a fish. I wish we had more time to spend here and we would put out the lighter gear so the fish could show their fighting ability, but it is a long way home and past time to go. As the lines are cleared the engines are revved up and we get up to the grand speed of 8 knots. It looks like the starboard transmission is shot so we come home using the power from just one engine, and it doesn’t like having to carry the load all by it’s self. We are back in the Marina at 4 PM with Tuna flags flying and expectations that Saturday will provide a Marlin for Dr. Frey and a Dorado for Sandy. Meanwhile it’s time to replace the transmission, hopefully in time for tomorrows trip! “FLY HOOKER” FISH (NOT) REPORT FOR 5 JULY, 2002 Today the starboard transmission was replaced. No fishing. We had a wedding party scheduled with a total of four boats, the “Fly Hooker” was to be one of them. Two of the boats caught marlin, one of them three Marlin and the other one of them two Marlin. Each of these boats also got one Dorado. Another boat got three small Dorado and one medium Dorado and the fourth boat got three nice Dorado and five football Tuna. The fish were scattered all over the place. Oh well, we get a chance tomorrow! Everything is working fine on the boat now thanks to the mechanic. “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 6 JULY, 2002 Dr. Frey canceled today’s trip because everyone in his party has come down with a case of something related to bad food. We hope they recover quickly and get a chance to enjoy Cabo! “fly HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 7 JULY, 2002 Timothy Magee won today’s trip at a raffle on Friday night to raise money for “Casa Hogar”, the local orphans home we (the community) are trying to get built. He also won three great lures from “Hi-5 Lures” that I was happy to rig for him for today’s trip. Accompanying him is his friend Gerald (Gerry). These guys have fished together for years and Timothy (hereafter refereed to as Tim) has a house in the Pedregal (high end place) that he rents out on occasion. Anyway, we met at the dock at 6:15 and took off. Tim and Gerry don’t really have any interest in Marlin, Tim has caught enough and Gerry has a heart problem, so our focus is to be on Tuna and Dorado, good eating fish. Our original intention was to go out to the San Jaime Banks but the wind did not stop blowing all night and the reports from the boats that did make it there yesterday were the fish were sparse and the fishing slow. Amazing how things can change from one day to the next! With that in mind and a copy of the most recent sea surface temperatures in hand (“Terrafin” of course!) we decided instead to focus on the are to the immediate south of the Cape. The warm water had just pushed through there and hopefully the fish were following it. We got some nice bait on the way out of the marina and decided to set the line when we were only four miles out. The water was the right temperature and it looked pretty good as far as clarity and color were concerned. We set out all four of Tim’s new lures with the “Hi-5” black/green/silver on the bridge rod, the “Hi-5” Halloween on the short rigger, the “Hi-5” Angry Squid on the short corner and the Montana “Banana” on the long corner. We had our own lure on the long rigger. About 20 minutes after the lures were placed the “Hi-5” lure on the bridge rod got hit by a nice 22 pound Dorado. Tim was the angler designated for the first fish and got the fish to the boat in short order. Now we thought that it was going to be a great day, we had chosen the right place to fish and the water conditions were perfect! Unfortunately the rest of the day did not live up the start. The water conditions remained beautiful but the fish failed to show up. We did drop back a live bait to a Marlin that showed up in the pattern but failed to get a bite from him. Not until 12;30 did we see any action. At a distance of 6 miles from the Marina on a southeasterly course with the water reading 74 degrees, we saw another boat hooked up to a Marlin. I steered us in that direction and as we approached we spotted a tail sticking out of the water. We tossed bait but the fish would not eat. About a half mile away another boat was baiting a fish and then boats started to appear on the horizon. I am not sure if someone gave them a call on the radio or they were just on their way back to the Marina, but it got crowded in the area very fast. Zigzagging back and forth we finally managed to spot another Striped Marlin tailing. This one was a big fish and it was not scared of the boat. We followed it for almost 1 1/2 miles and presented bait to it over a dozen times, bait that was both live and dead. No interest! Finally I pulled the lures in front of it’s face twice before the fish went down. Sorry Gerry, guess it wasn’t meant to be for you today! Mary and I are looking forward to having dinner with you two this week and sharing that wonderful bottle of wine that Tim showed me! Thanks for the support of the “Casa Hogar”, the money is for a good cause! Unti8l Next week, Tight Lines form George Mary, Juan, Juan2 and Manuel, the “Fly Hooker” Crew. Today is Manuels first day back after breaking his arm in May. Sure glad to have him back!!!!!