HOT CABO FISHING Capt George landrum Fly Hooker Sportfishing [email protected] www.flyhooker.com CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR AUGUST 26-SEPT. 1, 2002 WEATHER: Most of the week we had clear and sunny skies with the highs up to the 100 degree mark and the lows in the low 80’s at night. Very typical Cabo weather for this time of year. We did have a bit of a sprinkle early in the morning on Wednesday as some low clouds moved through, but only enough to spot up the windshields. On Saturday afternoon you could see the cloud cover start to move in and on Sunday it was overcast with hints of rain. This is associated with Hurricane Hernan, which is to the southwest of us and moving northwest. The swells and breeze from this band of weather had the Port Captain close the port at noon on Sunday but it expected to be re-opened either Monday or Tuesday. ( Mystical Adventures Part I) WATER: As the week comes to an end we have a band of warm water reading up to 89 degrees stretching across the Cape. This band extends into the Pacific out to the San Jaime banks and is about 10-15 miles wide, starting from the shore. Outside this band the water drops to 83 degrees. The surface conditions on both the Sea of Cortez side and the Pacific side have been very good, with small swells and light chop all week. Starting Saturday we began to see some larger swells moving in, results of Hurricane Hernan, away to the southwest of us. Mystical Adventures Part III) BAIT: Most of the larger baits available this week were Caballito, though I heard some of the boats were able to get fresh Mackerel. No word on Sardinas again. The larger baits are the usual $2 per bait. (Mystical Adventures Part V) FISHING: BILLFISH: Lots of Striped Marlin out there! This week started out with a bang and just continued to roll, at least for the boats with clients. Many of the boats were getting multiple hook-ups on the Striped Marlin and often had three on at a time! Many anglers said not to toss bait to the ones they were seeing because it was taking up all their fishing time! Ouch! The largest concentration of the Striped Marlin were on the Pacific, just off shore about five miles and out at the San Jaime Banks, but there were enough of them scattered around that all the boats were getting shots. A few Blue Marlin are showing up in the catches also, but not in the numbers I thought there would be at this time of year. On Sunday there were a lot of bites from Blues reported, but that often happens this time of year as a Hurricane comes close. The bite was an even mix of live bait and lures for the Striped Marlin with no particular preference in color on the lures. (Rhythms Of Hope) YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Tuna bite dropped off a bit from the action last week but there were still quite a few of the football fish being found on the Sea of Cortez side of the Cape. Most of these fish were associated with Porpoise and were hitting on small 4” feathers. A few toads were caught by boats lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. (As) DORADO: Plenty of yellow flags were being flown from outriggers this week, sometimes it looked like there was a laundry competition going on! A few of the fish were small, in the 8-10 pound range, but most of them were a bit bigger, in the 15-25 category. There were a few of the giants caught as well and the larger fish were mainly hooked up on Marlin lures. 4” to 6” feathers and surface runners accounted for the majority of the fish but many of them were caught on live bait when a school was found. The action was spread out but seemed to be better on the Pacific side. (Final Truth Part I) WAHOO: This week is like last week on Wahoo. A few flags were flown but these fish were found while searching for other species. (Final Truth Part II) INSHORE: Repeat of last weeks fishing as far as the inshore bite goes, lots of Dorado, a few Marlin, some Roosterfish and Skipjack along with a medium bite on Snapper and Grouper. (Jig) NOTES: The fishing just continues to get better and better! Our only problem has been the lack of fishermen. Seems that it happens every year, as the fishing improves the weather gets warmer and muggier and fewer anglers visit. Oh well, the fish are here. If you can get away, now is the time to come on down. Hurricane Hernan will give us some large swells and overcast skies, but that is just for a few days, then back to the sunshine! This weeks music written to the great sound of Jean-Luc Ponty’s violin on the 1982 release “Mystical Adventures”, Atlantic Recording Corp. FLY HOOKER DAILY CATCH REPORTS “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR AUGUST 27, 2002 Today is the last of three days fishing for the Fortuanato family. John, Shirley and Nicholas all were on the boat today but Nicholas spent a lot of time sleeping, not unusual for a 2 year old. John was hoping to finish filling his coolers with fillets plus get a chance to hook Shirley up to a Marlin, and both these desires were fulfilled on this trip. Almost right away they hooked up a small Dorado that they released. A short while later they had a Striped Marlin estimated at 120 pounds hit on one of the lures and Shirley was on to her fish. Another one after that on live bait was number two for the day and that one was Johns fish. Number three was also on live bait, it was Shirley’s fish and was a double hook-up, one of a group of Marlin that Manuel spotted on the surface. Nicholas was a bit upset that both mom and Dad were too busy to pay attention to him, but he got over it as Juan took care of him. Later on another Striped Marlin was hooked up on lures and that made four for the day, one each on live bait and one each on lures for John and Shirley! The last fish of the trip was a nice 20 pound Dorado and that combined with all the fish they caught the first two days topped off the cooler for the trip home. Not a bad day, and they came in a little early because they were tired! The Fortunatos were great to have aboard the boat and we enjoyed the experience! Hope to see you guys again next year! “FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 1, 2002 Today’s trip is one which we donated to the Optimist Club for an auction fund raiser earlier this summer. The money raised is being used to build a daycare center out at Mesa Colorado to take care of very young children. Presently many families in the area have both mom and dad working, leaving the middle aged kids at home during the day to watch over the little ones. This day care center will allow the middle aged children to attend school instead, thereby increasing their chances of getting out of the poverty rut. Brent was the winning bidder on the one day trip on the “Fly Hooker” and waited until his friend Andy could come and visit from Florida before he booked the boat. The swells started to pick up a little bit yesterday due to Hurricane Hernan and the wind shifted a bit to the south last night, but it looked ok this morning. Juan and Manuel took the boat straight out to the south about five miles to start the trip. Almost right away Andy hooked up to a Dorado. After it was in the boat Manuel spotted a Marlin on the surface and tossed a bait at it, but no interest on the part of the fish. Then as they trolled to the north they picked up Dorado #’s 2, 3, 4, 5, and then 6. The next fish was a Marlin that struck a lure. Bret fought it a while but was pretty worn-out from the Dorado and the fish got away. Then it was Andy’s turn and his marlin was released after a fight of about 15 minutes. The water kept getting rougher and with plenty of Dorado fillets they decided to turn for the Marina. That’s was it for the day and as they were heading in they heard on the radio that the Port Captain was closing the port to outbound traffic for the day due to sea conditions. Perhaps it will open again tomorrow or on Tuesday. Until then, tight lines! Until Next Week, Tight Lines from George, Mary, Juan and Manuel, The “Fly Hooker” Crew