Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report for July 8-14, 2002 Captain George Landrum “Fly Hooker” Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR 8-14 JULY, 2002 WEATHER: Oh, so nice this week! Nighttime lows in the high 70’s to low 80’s. We just used the air conditioner for the first time this year on Wednesday. Daytime it has been in the mid 90’s. Until Sunday we had been having clear skies, but the 14th was mostly cloudy in the afternoon. No rain of course! (Last Nite) WATER: Surface conditions have been excellent all week in all areas. The afternoons have presented a little chop on a few days but overall, very smooth and nice. The surface temperatures are picking up now and we are finally seeing warm water closer to home. On the Sea of Cortez side just east 25 miles we are reading temperatures in the high 70’s, go further out and you can reach 80 degrees. On the Pacific side these temperatures are still over 40 miles out but the area outside San Jaime Banks is giving us 76 degrees. Closer to home it is improving as well with the near-shore temperatures in the 72+ degree range. The water is getting bluer by the day. (Blues Bird) BAIT: Almost all Caballito this week, and good sized ones. The normal $2 per bait. (Song For Katie) FISHING: BILLFISH: The good news is that the Blue Marlin are showing up. There have been Blues caught every day this week. The average size has been 250-300 pounds but a few over 500 pounds have been hooked up. The Striped Marlin are out there as well. The bad news is that it is still a bit of a run to get to them, at least in the early part of the week We were looking at runs of 30 miles or more to get to the fish, both on the Pacific and the Sea of Cortez.. Later in the week they were a bit closer and hopefully this trend will continue. Live bait was working on the Striped Marlin and as normal, the Blue Marlin were going for lures. (Frenchman’s Flat) YELLOWFIN TUNA: Football fish when you could find them this week. These fish were mainly at the San Jaime but there were reports of a few 20+ pound fish south of the Gorda during the middle of the week. The Black Porpoise on the Sea of Cortez had all the inexperienced anglers excited thinking that they were going to get into the big Yellowfin, but those fish associate with the gray Dolphins, not the Porpoise. (Sleepwalk) DORADO: Bigger fish were found on the Sea of Cortez side in the same area the Marlin were found. That meant a long boat ride out and back. There were more fish, not many but a few more, on the Pacific side out at the Banks. The fish on the Pacific side were not as large, averaging 15 pounds as opposed to the Cortez average of 30 pounds. Lures were the way to go as the fish were not schooled up. (Upper Kern) WAHOO: Hit and miss this week. Most of the fish caught were found while targeting Marlin on the Cortez side. (10:00 P.M.) INSHORE: A few Sierra on the Cortez side of the Cape but for the most part the inshore Pangas have been targeting Grouper and Snapper. Up past San Jose around La Laguna there have been some nice Roosters starting to show up. Big swells have kept the water right on shore a bit stirred up. (You Gotta Get It While You Can) NOTES: If, from reading this weeks report, you get the idea that things were a bit slow this week, you are correct. Most boats were lucky to get a Marlin or a Dorado, some got both and a very few got more than one of each. Things appear to be getting better though, as the bite seems to be moving closer to the Cape each day and reports from the East Cape say things are good up there. As these fish move closer we should see some outstanding action. This weeks report written to the guitar music of Larry Carlton on his 1982 Warner release “Sleepwalk” Fly Hooker Daily Report “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 8 JULY, 2002 Our friend Tom has his clients aboard the “Fly Hooker” today and he has invited himself along as well. John has fished with Juan and Manuel before, catching 11 Tuna and a Dorado in February 2001. This is Todd’s first time with us. John has brought a bunch of his very nice and completely new equipment with him and would really like a chance to give it a workout. he has a new Shimano Tiagra 30LRS and two new Trinidad 30’s, all on matching Loomis rods. Along with these he had a good variety of lures to check out as well. Considering the tackle and the fact that action is the name of the game for today, Manuel and Juan decide that the San Jaime banks is the target today. There have been some football Tuna found out there and we might have a chance of finding a patch of Kelp holding Dorado. It is a two hour cruise out to the banks area we want to target and on the way out John and Juan set up John’s gear. Once in the area the big gear is set out and we start the hunt. There are twelve boats working the area of the San Jaime and during the first three hours we see only one of them hook up, and that is to a Marlin. After passing them and heading southwest we see two large whales ahead and veer towards them to get a little closer look. a few minutes after passing the closest one we have a Dorado come in on the bridge lure then try a few times on the short rigger lure. Manuel turns the boat around as Juan prepares a live bait to drop back. The bait is dropped into the lure pattern and we do a large circle around the area but there is no action. With the bait pulled in we start to troll again when Manuel lets me know that there is a little patch of Kelp ahead of us. I look and look but don’t see even a speck until about two minutes later, and then it is on the far limits of my sight. man, Manuel has eyes like an eagle! Juan wants to know if we are going to work it with live bait and I decide that a pass with the lure is a better idea, at least for one pass, just in case there is a Wahoo around. This patch of Kelp is not very big, maybe 6’ in diameter but on the first pass we get hit on three lures. The closest lure is the largest fish and the other two come off right away anyway. Beforehand Tom drew the short straw and he is the first in the chair. It takes him a little while to get the fish to the boat and then we have him hold it there for a while trying to get another strike from anything that may be following. No other action happens so Juan gaffs the 40 pound Bull Dorado, a beautiful fish Tom! With the fish in the box after the pictures are taken we pull up to the Kelp and toss a couple of live baits in it’s direction. We can see a large school of Dorado swimming around down there but they are very shy, we only manage to catch one on chunk bait after an hour of effort. All right, that is not working so maybe we can get them to bite on lure again. Out go some small feathers on Johns gear and on the first pass we hook up two more Dorado, both of them in the 10 pound class. Another pass and we get strikes but nothing hooks up and after several more passes with no action we decide to leave and search for something else. Well, that is all the action we get for the day as it turns out, one nice big Bull and three smaller fish, a nice bunch of fillets and the conditions were just beautiful! A great day on the water with some great guys! Thanks for the company and we look forward to seeing you again! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 10 JULY, 2002 For today and tomorrow we have Dan Nieblas and his wife Barbara, their son Dan (Raz) and friend Tina as the anglers aboard the “Fly Hooker”. Dan and Raz are big, burly guys from Bakersfield, California and work as drilling rig supervisors. They have their own boat and are not novice fishermen! Dan let me know last night that they want to catch fish, any fish will do but they would really, really like to catch a Marlin for Tina, she has never hooked into a big fish. Juan and Manuel take this news in stride and promise that they will do their best to make it happen. This morning they checked out the surface temperature maps and decided to work outside about 15 miles or so on the Cortez side of the Cape. They started up at the 95 spot, just a bit to the east of there, then worked their way to the 1150 and on up to the south side of the outer Gorda Banks. The water was in great condition and they were reading temperatures ranging from 71 to 76 degrees. The first fish, Tina’s fish, came in on a lure run off of the long rigger. The fish made a swipe at that one, a purple/black slant head, then focused on the short rigger lure, one that was dressed in bright colors for Dorado. A good hookup happened and then Tina was tied on to her first big fish! Everyone was cheering her on as the fish did a number of runs and jumps. being her first fish she did require a bit of coaching and an occasional bit of assistance but she got the fish to the boat in about 28minutes. Juan tagged the fish and they released the estimated 130 pound Striped Marlin, watching it swim away to fight another day. This fish hooked up at around 9:30. There were several more fish that struck lures after that but none of them hooked up or stayed up to drop a bait back to. They worked their way north and eventually around 12:30 Manuel spotted a tailing fish in the distance. As he gunned the boat to intercept the fish Juan prepared a live bait to be tossed at it. If they managed to hook up this fish was to be fought by Raz. Manuel pulled abreast of the Marlin and Juan flung the bait at the fish. No interest! The Marlin kept swimming along, not even glancing at the live Caballito swimming off to the side. Juan reeled in the bait and tossed it again. Once again the bait was ignored. Reeling in the Caballito, this time Juan stunned the bait by throwing it against the deck of the boat and tried tossing it in front of the tailing Marlin one more time. Total disinterest from the Striped Marlin, but Juan was not done yet. he reeled in the bait and took it off the hook. He threw the stunned and barely wriggling bait in front to the Marlin and this time the Marlin noticed the bait and took it with no hesitation. Having gotten the Marlin attention, Juan pinned on another live bait and tossed it in front of the fish. Having just eaten one bait with no problems the Marlin did not hesitate to attack this morsel as well! Raz was in the chair in a flash and had the hook set in an instant! The Marlin did one small jump and from then on the fight was underwater. Now, this was on 40 pound line and Raz is a big guy, but after 15 minutes or so he was ready to cut the fish off! Tired, I guess that one word for it! He hung in there though, and only 10 minutes later, after a fight of 26 minutes, Juan was able to bill and tag the 140 pound Striped Marlin! Way to go Raz! As they worked their way back all eyes were peeled for another Marlin, after all, Dan wanted to catch one too! No such luck however, so everyone settled down to eat lunch. Barbara was having some of the peanuts and Dan told her they were called “ca-ca-juates” in Spanish. Now, early in their relationship Dan had been calling her a pet name in Spanish that he told her meant “beautiful dear” and then she found it meant “little skunk” so she has been very hesitant to accept his translation on anything Spanish since! She turned to Juan and held out a handful of peanuts and asked him what they were called. Juan looked at her a little askance, hesitated a second and then told her they were called “peanuts”, like she was a little crazy!!!!! Maybe that give you an idea of these guys and how come we like them so well! Anyway, there was no further action for the day but tomorrow starts early and you never know. Check out tomorrows report to see how Dan fared on his Marlin search! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 11 JULY, 2002 Today is supposed to be Dan Nieblas’s day to catch a Marlin. Raz and Tina caught theirs yesterday and Barbara says she is along to be the photographer. Juan and Manuel take the “Fly Hooker” back tot he area south of the Gorda Banks where they found the fish yesterday. Today is not quite as exciting however as there are no strikes on the lure during the trip. They did spot four Marlin tailing on the surface and were lucky to get one that was interested in the bait. The other fish just turned up their noses at the live Caballito. Juan tossed the bait at all the fish and when the one took the bait Dan set the hook and got into the fight. It took this big guy 30 minutes to subdue the Marlin and this fish was just like the one on the live bait yesterday. One jump and then the fight was underwater. Dan worked up blisters on the thumb and index finger of his right had during the fight but Juan managed to get the leader and place the tag in the fish, estimated at 140 pounds by Raz, 120 pounds by Dan and 130 pounds by Juan. There was no other action for the day but Barbara did not have to ask Juan what the word for peanuts was! Thanks guys, we loved having you on the boat and both Juan and Manuel think you are the best! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR JULY 12, 2002 Today our anglers are Dave Gilbertson and his friend Greg, both from Scottsdale, AZ. Dave is fishing with us again in October but this trip was pretty much a last minute decision. Dave is a flyfisherman and last year got a Striped Marlin of about 130 pounds on the fly. Last year the trip was in October, after hurricane Julliette and there was a lot of debris in the water. On that trip Greg got his introduction to salt water fly fishing and had a blast with the school Dorado. This trip is a chance for Greg to get a Striped Marlin under his belt, but on conventional gear. If that happens then Dave will get a chance for one on the fly rod. Dave has brought outfits ranging from 9 weight to 14 weight and I have brought my 15 weight aboard the boat. First objective is to get Greg hooked up to a Marlin and he has brought along a bit of his own gear to try it with. One of his outfits had lost the ceramic ring to the tip-top guide during shipping so the one he has to use is a Shimano TLD 15 loaded with 30 pound test matched to a Daiwa Eliminator boat rod. Guess what? Yep, they both stood up to the test later on in the day. But before that happened we spent a long time looking for fish. Around about 10am we were starting to think that we were not going to have any luck at all when a nice Bull Dorado struck on the port rigger. Greg was the assigned angler and in the chair he went. This was a nice fish and took him about 15 minutes to get to the boat. Once he had it about 20 feet out we had him hold it there, hoping for another fish to show up behind him. Juan tossed out a live bait but there was no interest, no followers at all. After a few minutes we decided to bring the fish in and get him in the box, then look for more action. Juan did a good job on the gaff and shortly we had a nice 40-45 pound Dorado in the fish box! All right, a bit of action to wake us up, now we had to find a Marlin. That happened around 11 am when Manuel spotted three Marlin tailing. He turned the boat as Juan tossed out a bait on Greg’s outfit and the smallest of the three fish turned and ate the live bait! Not a bad thing though, considering it was Greg’s first Marlin and it was on light gear. It took Greg about 25 minutes to get the fish to the side of the boat where Juan removed the hook and the fish was tagged. Approximately 80 pounds and the fish did a lot of nice acrobatics during the 5 runs that he made. Dave got about 10 minutes of the action on video and took a bunch of still on the digital camera. The lures went back out and we continued the search, but without any further sightings or action. Tomorrow they are going fishing inshore to see what they can get then taking off to the East Cape tomorrow afternoon for some more fishing action. Good luck guys, we hope there are a bunch of fish waiting for you there! We will see Dave again in October, and Greg, say hello to your neighbor Brad and his son Mike for us! (Mike got a 30 pound Roosterfish with us a short while ago!) “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 13 JULY, 2002 The John Hurych party of 5 are aboard the “Fly Hooker” today and they are hoping for some action, any type of action! They know that it has been slow this week but since we have been finding at least one nice fish per trip they have their hopes up. Juan and Manuel took the boat out to the same area they have been finding the fish, out about 30 miles and south of the Gorda Banks. The fishing was slow today and they had one knock-down on one of the rigger lures by a Bull Dorado that Juan said was very large, but everyone was sleeping so they did not see the fish (a bit too much partying last night!). later on in the morning they spotted a Marlin tailing on the surface and tossed a bait to it. The Marlin chased the bait under the boat and when they retrieved the bait and cast again the fish was not interested. That was the extent of the action they had today, but they are going again on the 15th, so hopefully we will have a bit of better news then. Until then, tight lines from George, Mary, Juan and Manuel, the “Fly Hooker” crew!