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George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 23
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 05, 2007 - 6:50 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
February 26-March 4, 2007
WEATHER: The skies finally cleared up this week and the weather is getting warmer every day. Our daytime highs have reached into the low to mid 80’s and the nighttime lows have been in the mid 60’s for the most part. The winds have been shifting almost every day wit the majority of the time form the northwest but now and then coming from the southeast as well.
WATER: We had some great shots of the water temperatures at the end of the week and they changed a lot from what we were observing during the early part of the week. Up past Los Frailles on the Cortez side of the cape the water has been a cool 68 to 69 degrees and green, but as soon as you moved to the south, just to the north of the Gorda Banks, the water became blue and the temperature raised to 73 degrees. At the end of the week this warm water extended down the cape and across to the Pacific side but only ran up the Pacific coast in a band five miles from the beach for 40 miles. West of the warm water band the water dropped to 70 degrees and was slightly green.
BAIT: This week the bait was 90% Mackerel with 10% Caballito and they were the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Marlin fishing was really spotty this week. At the end of the week the high boats were coming in with two flags flying but most of the boats were bare on the outriggers. Out of 8 boats arriving back at the marina yesterday I saw three with Marlin flags but only one had two flags, the rest of the boats had been skunked. What action did occur happened just outside the Lighthouse on the Pacific side. A few fish were caught on lures and a few more on bait, but the fish were not really interested most of the time. Perhaps the full moon on Friday night had an effect on their feeding.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: This was another scarce species this week. A few fish were caught among scattered Porpoise well to the south. They averaged 15 pounds. There were also a few fish caught up at Gorda Banks about the same size, but I did hear rumors of one decent fish at 112 pounds coming off of chunks.
DORADO: One Dorado flag was flown for every 15 boats coming in yesterday; I guess that tells the tale.
WAHOO: I thought that the full moon would have brought in a few fish but perhaps the water is still too cool for them. Anyway, there were a few Wahoo strikes I heard of but I saw no fish landed.
INSHORE: A repeat of last week, and it looks like this was the way to fish for the past week, as almost all the action was inshore. Sierra, African Pompano, Yellowtail, Bonito, Skipjack, Jack Crevalle and an occasional Amberjack were the fish that were most commonly caught by anglers fishing from Pangas this week. Sierra were the inshore fish of the week as everyone was able to get good action from them using small hootchies in bright colors (green, a very bright green, was a favorite) as well as small Rapallas. Diamond jigs and iron slabs worked for the Yellowfin while cut bait was the ticket for good Pompano action. The Bonita, Skipjack and Jack Crevalle were all over dark colored hootchies trolled in water just a little farther off the beach.
NOTES: It was slow fishing this week here in Cabo, everyone was scratching hard to find fish. I hope it changes this coming week as I have quite a few trips on the books and I hate going for a boat ride. I realize that it happens, but it is always supposed to happen to someone else! With fingers crossed for the coming week, tight lines until the next posting. |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 22
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 26, 2007 - 8:13 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
February 19-25, 2007
WEATHER: Once again we had a partly cloudy week, but the skies did clear at the end. Our daytime highs were in the high 70’s and the nighttime lows in the low 60’s. No rain this week but it sure looked like it was going to on Tuesday!
WATER: Once the clouds cleared away at the end of the week we got a decent picture of the water temperatures. The Sea of Cortez stayed a pretty uniform 71 degrees all the way out past the Cabrillo Seamount and up past Punta Gorda. On the Pacific side there was warmer water, to 73 degrees, from the San Jaime bank and to the south. The Golden Gate Bank was at 71 degrees and close to shore on the Pacific and extending to the south-southeast of the Cape for at lest 40 miles was a five to ten mile wide band of green water at 68-70 degrees.
BAIT: Locally the only bait that I saw being sold was Mackerel and they were the usual $2 per bait. There were some Sardinas available up toward San Jose at the usual $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: For most of the week the Marlin action remained in the vicinity of the 95 Spot and the 1150 with most boats getting bit on live bait thrown to Marlin spotted on the surface. There were a couple of days early in the week when a concentration of feeding fish was found up close to the beach on the Pacific side but these fish moved out rapidly. Close to home there have been scattered tailing fish found but no heavy concentrations. The bite seemed to be early, if you got out a bit late there was nothing going on.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I had a couple of productive trips early in the week for Yellowfin and got into lots of porpoise that held Tuna on top of the San Jaime Banks and 10 miles to the west, at 32 miles out. Most of the fish were in the 25-pound class but we did get a couple of small 15 pound fish and a couple that went 45-50 pounds. The only lure that was consistent on them was the cedar plug, at least when the fish were marking deep on the depth sounder. When the fish popped up and started to boil they would hit anything. Later in the week a friend went and worked the same area and the fish had moved on. He said that the water was 73 degrees and blue but barren of life signs. Some boats were catching school tuna and footballs up around the Gorda Banks but that appeared to be a hit or miss thing as there were quite a few reports of boats only catching Bonita while using Sardinas for bait. A few boats caught a lot of these and then chunked them and were able to get a few of the Yellowfin to 40 pounds.
DORADO: There was no change this week in the Dorado report. Dorado continued to decline in numbers for almost everyone. There is always a lucky boat or two that manages to get onto a decent bite around floating debris and that happened to a couple of boats this week, but on the average it looked as if there were about two Dorado for every three boats. The action (what there was of it) was on the Cortez side of the Cape out around the 1150
WAHOO: A couple of boats reported getting bit off n trolling lures by Wahoo but I did not hear of anyone bringing any in.
INSHORE: Sierra, African Pompano, Yellowtail, Bonito, Skipjack, Jack Crevalle and an occasional Amberjack were the fish that were most commonly caught by anglers fishing from Pangas this week. Sierra were the inshore fish of the week as everyone was able to get good action from them using small hootchies in bright colors (green, a very bright green, was a favorite) as well as small Rapallas. Diamond jigs and iron slabs worked for the Yellowfin while cut bait was the ticket for good Pompano action. The Bonita, Skipjack and Jack Crevalle were all over dark colored hootchies trolled in water just a little farther off the beach.
NOTES: It appears that we are getting into that time of the year when the water becomes inconsistent in color and temperature. Normally that means that there will be Swordfish found on the surface so we are all hoping to start seeing a few of them soon. We were seeing large amounts of Humboldt Squid to 60 pounds feeding on red crab on the surface 10 miles offshore on the Pacific early in the week and caught a few. Great Calamari! Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Username: Captg
Post Number: 21
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 19, 2007 - 7:19 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
February 12-18, 2007
WEATHER: It was partly cloudy all week and we actually had just a bit of what some people might call rain on Saturday afternoon. If you are from the Pacific Northwest you would call it slight precipitation, but it was enough to spot windshields and get the docks wet. Our daytime highs were in the low 80’s and the nighttime lows in the 60-degree range.
WATER: The cloud cover did not allow any decent water temperature images this week but at the end of the week the water was calm everywhere. At the beginning of the week the winds were blowing heavily from either the northwest or the southeast and you could always get away from the choppy conditions. On the Pacific side there were large swells early in the week but they had disappeared by the weekend. Water temperatures appeared to be much cooler from the beach to 15 miles out on the Pacific side with 64 degrees seen in the middle of the week in this area. Farther offshore the water warmed up to 74 degrees for a day or so and this was the warm water area we had been watching last report. It continued to advance toward us but as it swung past the Cape it cooled to 72 degrees and remained offshore. At 30 miles the water warmed to 74 degrees, and that was directly south of us. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water had temperatures around 70 degrees.
BAIT: Just like last week, there were Mackerel at $2 per bait and there were occasional Sardinas available up at San Jose if you were there early and they were the normal $20 per scoop. There were a few Caballito in with the mackerel but there were no large numbers of them.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Billfish action this week moved to the Cortez side of the Cape as is normal this time of year. With the water a little bit better color than on the Pacific side the fish seemed to be holding in the area bounded by the 95 spot, the 1150 and San Jose. Most of the fleet boats worked this area all week with mixed results. At least 40-50 boats were getting hit on trolled lures and occasionally the feeders would pop up and a few lucky boats were able to get in on the action. There appeared to be quite a few squid still in the area and as a result the lure strikes were still not very aggressive, a lot of the fish were coming unbuttoned. Tossing live baits at feeders resulted in better hook-up ratios and a few tailing fish were found as well.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I only heard of three areas this week that held Yellowfin Tuna. One of them was the area of the San Jaime Banks early in the week. A few brave boats were able to punch through the 25-mile wide area of nasty water and get to the warmer, calmer water in that area and they found plenty of school Tuna in the area. Best results were had on cedar plugs and since there were only a few boats working them the fish stayed up and the boats did well. A friend of mine found Porpoise off of the Lighthouse ledge early in the week and managed to load up on football fish using hootchies. At the end of the week the warmer water 30 miles to the south produced Yellowfin in the 15-20 pound range for boats that got to them early.
DORADO: Dorado continued to decline in numbers for almost everyone. There is always a lucky boat or two that manages to get onto a decent bite around floating debris and that happened to a couple of boats this week, but on the average it looked as if there were about two Dorado for every three boats. The action (what there was of it) was on the Cortez side of the Cape out around the 1150
WAHOO: Once again none were caught this week that I am aware of although I am sure there were a few. The new moon on the 17th may have had something to do with this.
INSHORE: The Sierra bit started to sizzle this week with a lot of the Pangas coming in with limits of five fish each (or in some cases, more) for their anglers. Along with the Sierra came a mixed bag of inshore species including an occasional small Roosterfish. A few amberjack mad a showing as well and a decent Pargo bite was had in the rocks close to home. Yellowtail finally made a decent showing; all it took was for the water temperature to get right. Catches of 2-10 fish in the 8-25 pound class were made on jigs worked yo-yo fashion and live bait dropped down to 50 or 60 feet. The rocky points produced best on these fish for boats working water between 100-200 feet deep.
NOTES: Last week the Whales were everywhere, this week they seemed to have almost disappeared. Not really, as there are still plenty of them to be found, but the heavy concentration we saw last week seemed to have moved on up the Pacific side heading north. I have five days of fishing this coming week so hopefully I will be able to provide some more, good, updated information in the next report. Until then, listen to some classical guitar on the CD “Celebration”, a 2000 release by Kimberly Productions with Miguel De Hoyos on the guitar. Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 20
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 12, 2007 - 10:13 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
February 5-11, 2007
WEATHER: Our Daytime highs were from the low to mid 80’s this week with the warmer temps earlier in the week. Nights were a bit warmer as well with our lows in the mid 70’s. Later in the week, especially this weekend, it seemed lower due to strong winds from the southwest. We did not receive any rain this week but did have partly cloudy skies most o the time. It made for some beautiful sunsets on Thursday and Friday. The skies were much clearer on Monday and Tuesday, enough so that on Monday at sunset, 6 of the 8 people aboard the boat I captain (including me) saw the “green flash” as the sun disappeared over the horizon. Pretty cool!
WATER: On the Pacific side of the Cape we had warm water approach all week long from the southwest. The charts show a beautiful 74-degree wall pushing 70 degrees and moving steadily our direction. As of Sunday it was running east-west from the south side of the San Jaime to 8 miles south of the arch and 6 miles to the west of the 95 Spot. With the winds kicking in over the weekend it was too bouncy for most of the boats to go check it out, but if it continues to stay in the area I will be checking it out myself. The Chlorophyll charts show it to bee very clean. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water was cooler with everything inside the 1,000-fathom line between 69 and 71 degrees. The water within two miles of the beach was very green while farther out it was slightly green, definitely off-color.
BAIT: Just like last week, there were Mackerel at $2 per bait and there were occasional Sardinas available up at San Jose if you were there early and they were the normal $20 per scoop. There were a few Caballito in with the mackerel but there were no large numbers of them.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite moved from the Pacific side to the Cortez side this week. Most of the action was taking place between the Arches and the 95 spot, with the concentration at the 95 spot at the end of the week. A good day was three fish but most boats were averaging one release per trip. Dropping down a live bait after releasing a fish resulted in most of the multiple fish catches as where there was one Marlin there were sure to be more, but this method didn’t work later in the week with the strong winds. When the wind kicked the swells up a lot more fish were found tailing on the surface and that became the way the majority of fish were found this weekend. There were quite a few fish striking lures, but it was half-hearted for the most part and the hook-up ratio was pretty poor. Almost every fish caught was stuffed with foot-long squid so that is the reason for the poor lure catches I am sure.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were some fish found later in the week on the Cortez side out toward the Cabrilla Seamount, but it was sure a long way to go on the hope that they were in the area. The fish were associated with Dolphin but were just a bit bigger than footballs, mostly in the 20-pound class. The bite that had been going on at the inner Gorda Banks fell apart on Sunday when the strong wind didn’t allow for a slow, controlled drift, a necessity when fishing chunks for the larger Tuna. The fish that were caught earlier in the week were in the 40-80 pound class. Live Sardinas worked in the same area accounted for an average of three Yellowfin per boat; these fish were in the 15-20 pound class.
DORADO: The Dorado catch continued its decline this week with the cool waters on the Cortez side. A few boats worked the Pacific side offshore and were able to get decent results in the warmer water but it was too rough for them to do much more than troll down swell and pick up an occasional fish. I managed to get one yesterday between the 95 and 1150 spots but the water was a bit too green and it seemed cool at 71 degrees.
WAHOO: None were caught this week that I am aware of although I am sure there were a few.
INSHORE: The Sierra bite continues to slowly improve, but it’s still not red-hot. Most boats are getting a dozen or so per trip, a few get about twice that. For the most part the big inshore fighters have been the Jacks, averaging 20 pounds. A lot of the Pangas were going out for Marlin this week, as they were fairly close, at least they were until the wind picked up this weekend!
NOTES: Whales are everywhere! I can’t believe how many we are seeing every trip this past week. Yesterday (Sunday) there were Humpbacks doing full breech leaps and popping up all over the place, we must have counted several dozen out in the deep water. We saw at least three-dozen Gray whales up along the beaches and one of them did a series of full breech leaps in just 45 feet of water! This weeks report was written to the classical guitar music of Miguel De Hoyos. I had a chance to listen to him this week while we were out to dinner and I was blown away to hear him play Flight Of The Bumble-Bee and Memories Of La Alhambra. His finger-work is just amazing and I ended up buying a couple of his CD’s. His album “Sevilla Suite” has both of those on it and was self produced in 1997 at Pacific Beach Studios in San Diego. Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Username: Captg
Post Number: 19
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 05, 2007 - 7:19 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
January 29-Febuary 4, 2007
WEATHER: We had a couple of days of cloudy skies early in the week but everything cleared up nicely later on. February 3rd brought a brief one-day change in the wind as it blew up from the east instead of the normal northwest direction and that caused a few complications but it was only a one-day blow. Our daytime highs were in the high 70’s and the nighttime lows in the mid to low 50’s.
WATER: Surface conditions were great almost everywhere and all week long with the exception of choppy water on the Cortez side on Saturday when the wind switched and far out on the Pacific for the rest of the week with the normal northwesterly wind. Even then, it was not bad, just a bit bouncy. On Saturday the water off of Solmar beach and to the lighthouse was mixed up, the normal current down the Pacific coast was countered by the easterly wind and that made things bouncy in there as well. At the end of the week the water on the Pacific side ranged from 67 to 70 degrees while on the Cortez side there was a band of warm water running across the Gorda Banks and to the south across the 1150 area. This water was 72 degrees and fairly blue while right in front of town and up around the inside of the Golden Gate Bank on the Pacific the water was a very ugly green.
BAIT: Just like last week, there were Mackerel at $2 per bait and there were occasional Sardinas available up at San Jose if you were there early and they were the normal $20 per scoop. There were a few Caballito in with the mackerel but there were no large numbers of them.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There were still some Marlin being found on the Golden Gate bank but not in the numbers of the past weeks. The green water moved the bait out and the fish scattered a bit. There were still Striped Marlin being caught off of the lighthouse but it seems that most of them have moved over into the Sea of Cortez. This time of year they start to spend quite a bit of time on the surface and that is beginning now. It has been much easier to spot them as they tail along down swell but sometimes it can be very frustrating to toss live bait after live bait at them and have them refuse every offering. Top boats are coming in with three or four Marlin flags this past week instead of the 6 or 8 we became used to a few weeks ago, but the fishing style is changing as well.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were occasional schools of Yellowfin found offshore on both sides of the Cape this past week as well as directly south, but they have been a long way out there, 20+ miles. Closer to home there has been a steady if not hot bite on fish averaging 25 pounds at the Gorda Banks. Anglers using live Sardinas had the best and most consistent results on these fish, but bigger fish are there as well. Using chunk baits on flouro-carbon leader anglers got into an occasional fish to 120 pounds.
DORADO: Dorado remained the number two fish this week as the cooler water continued to move in. Finding blue water was the key this past week and that meant going a bit farther offshore on the Pacific side. A few boats were able to score well on fish averaging 15 pounds when they found floating debris such as tree limbs and chunks of wood, but on average boats were scoring one or two fish between 8 and 20 pounds while trolling lures.
WAHOO: The full moon resulted in a few Wahoo being caught and a few boats actually caught more than one. I saw four flags on one boat and it was reported to me that when the anglers were asked if the flags were for Wahoo or for Sierra they assured the questioner that the were for Wahoo. On the radio I overheard a few conversations about hooks being bitten off and lures being trashed. It seems that most of the fish were being found on the Cortez side of the Cape and mostly close to shore and around the Gorda Banks and Punta Gorda.
INSHORE: The Sierra are beginning to show up in large numbers as the water continues to cool. They were in the blue water, not the green, and they were very close to the beach, almost up in the surf line for the most part. The average size is only 4-5 pounds, but that will increase over time. There were a few areas in the rocks that produced Pargo this week.
NOTES: Larry Carlton on his self-produced album “Sleepwalk” was my choice in music for writing this report to. I have had it for a long time and had forgotten just how much I enjoy his guitar style. It’s Super Bowl Sunday and I have a trip from 9-3 today. I guess that the boat will just have to wait until tomorrow to get cleaned well inside! I don’t really care who wins this game as long as it is a close one and our numbers come up on the board. We are starting plans to re-do the kitchen at home, bring down my Jeep and perhaps take a week vacation sometime this summer. Busy, busy, busy! Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 18
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 15, 2007 - 8:58 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
January 8-14, 2007
WEATHER: We started this week with some very nice blue skies and ended it on an overcast note. The wind came before the clouds so we had a good breeze on Wednesday and that also dropped the temperature for the day. With the cloud cover through the weekend the heat was trapped so our morning lows at the end of the week were in the low 60’s. The weather guys predict that the clouds will be gone by Tuesday and are expecting the lows to return to the mid to low 50’s. Along with the clouds came some rain, not hard rain, just some spitting, enough to wash off the dust but not cause rivers in the streets.
WATER: We had choppy conditions throughout the area on Wednesday when the clouds first moved in and since the winds were coming from the northwest the Pacific side beyond the lighthouse remained choppy. Close to home in the lea of the Cape things were smoother. The water temperatures remained fairly consistent at 73-74 degrees on both sides of the Cape but as you went farther up the Pacific and the Cortez the water became much more green in color.
BAIT: Bait this week was 75% Mackerel, as the water continues to cool off there will be a change to almost all Mackerel. There were Sardinas available off of Palmilla at the usual $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There wasn’t much difference from this week and last week on the billfish front. There is still a great bite going on at the Golden Gate Bank with giant balls of bait remaining on the edge of the shallows there the Marlin have remained as well. While there are some fish caught while slow trolling live and dead baits, the majority of the Marlin have been caught while drifting with baits deep in the water. These fish have been averaging 120 pounds and have been there for the past three weeks. There have also been Marlin found on the ledge at the lighthouse and the same methods have been working there. In the past week I have seen a lot more tailing fish that in the past month but these fish have not been hungry for our baits. With plenty of Marlin in the area it has not been uncommon for boats to hook and fight 6 or 8 fish a trip. With the deep drifting live bait it becomes important to use circle hooks, this keeps the Marlin from being hooked in the stomach or gills and makes releasing them much easier.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: It has still been slow for the Yellowfin close to home. There are still fish out 35 miles to the south and west but that is a long way to go for most of the boats. I heard reports of nice fish being spotted up to the north around the Finger Bank early in the week but the water has changed since the and the consensus is that they have probably move on. There has been an occasional pick on smaller fish within 20 miles of the Cape when the right Dolphin are found, but it has been a once-in-a-while thing.
DORADO: The Dorado bite really picked up this week and the reason seemed to be floating debris. I was lucky to get in on a decent bite about 5 miles off the beach on the Pacific side early this week when someone found a log. We went through all our bait and limited on Dorado between 15 and 25 pounds. A friend of mine went looking for the Tuna out 35 miles to the west and found a traveling school of Dorado instead. He reported that he went through all his bait as well and ended up with 13 Dorado between 20 and 30 pounds. There have been fish under the Frigate birds as well. Some boats have been coming in with their outriggers loaded with yellow flags as well as a few Marlin and an occasional Wahoo flag.
WAHOO: The Wahoo continued to bite for a few anglers this week as I overheard on conversation on the radio of a five fish catch in water between 80 and 100 feet deep on the Pacific side. The boat was working the beach for Dorado when it found the Wahoo school! There were other fish caught as well, enough so that seeing the red flag was not uncommon this week. Most of the fish were in the 15-25 pound class, but that is good eating!
INSHORE: Inshore fishing continued to produce plenty of Sierra as well as the normal beach fish such as Jacks, Pompano, Ladyfish, small Roosterfish, Pargo and Skipjack. Just off the beach the bite has been good for Dorado and the occasional Wahoo. Almost all the action has occurred on the Pacific side of the Cape.
NOTES: My fingers are crossed. I am writing this on Sunday morning and the Seahawks are playing at 11 am. I had a trip scheduled from 10 am until 3 pm and they just called to cancel so now I get to watch the game! It is overcast and blowing on the Pacific side with an occasional spit of rain, a good day to watch football on the tube. I hope everyone out there has a great week, and check the report next week to see how things are going down there on the tip of the peninsula. Until then, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 17
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 08, 2007 - 8:06 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
January 1-7, 2007
WEATHER: The New Year started out a little bit cool with a fairly stiff northwest breeze pushing around the high 50’s nighttime temperatures. During the daytime we had warmer weather, most days reaching the low 80’s. At the end of the week we had some strong cloud cover move in and on Friday night the wind that brought it in our area really blew.
WATER: The Pacific side of the Cape remained warmer than the Cortez side for the second straight week with the Pacific being in the mid 70’s almost everywhere and the Cortez in the low 70’s. The Pacific side was choppy on Friday and the area in front of the arch had some very confused water on Saturday as winds up at the East Cape pushed up some swells from the northeast.
BAIT: Bait this week was 75% Mackerel, as the water continues to cool off there will be a change to almost all Mackerel. There were Sardinas available off of Palmilla at the usual $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There was a little bit of slack in the bite at the start of the year on the Striped Marlin, but by the 7th it had reverted to what we were experiencing at Christmas. The Striped Marlin have been concentrated off of the Cabo Falso ledge and this has resulted in the majority of the fleet boats working within sight of the Arch. A few of the fish have come while bottom fishing live bait on the drift and quite a few more have come while slow trolling live or dead baits. The most exciting fishing has been the action under the Frigate piles. Suddenly the Frigates dive on the feeding Marlin as they chase the bait to the surface and the boats run to the spot and throw out live bait. When there are a lot of boats out, like in the middle of the day, this can be a tough way to get a fish and the traffic is pretty dense, but in the afternoons when things clear out a bit it can be a real blast! The fishing has been good enough on the Marlin that many of the boats have been releasing double digit numbers right here close to home. During the middle of the week the bite here died off a bit and the 95 spot went off, but that bite was short lived as the fish moved back to the lighthouse.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Strangely enough, the Yellowfin Bite has still not really taken off like it usually does this time of year. I went out on Wednesday and found a couple of pods of white bellied dolphin at 26 and 32 miles to the west and managed to get a couple of football fish out of them. With the dolphin sleeping and the bite a slow pick, we reeled the line in and continued cruising to the west. At a distance of 41 miles from Cabo we found a big pod of spinner dolphin and then had a blast on Yellowfin between 15 and 45 pounds. Being the only boat there helped as we could use lighter line and not worry about it. With a few frigates and lots of gannets on the fish it was no problem getting back to them after landing one. Other boats stayed with the first group we found and continued the slow pick. I heard that the same thing had happened with the 30-mile fish over the past several days and there had been nothing large found. A few decent fish are continuing to be caught at the inner Gorda, but the action there is very slow.
DORADO: The bite picked up for the New Year with most boats finding fish just off the beach on the Pacific side where the warmer water is. Best results were had by slow trolling live bait. Jeff DeBrown, a professional fly fishing guide from the “Reel Baja” on the East Cape had four Dorado on the fly yesterday for his clients and our buddy Lance from “Baja Anglers” put his client on a 40 pound fish the day before. The boat next to us found a pallet floating about 30 miles up the Pacific yesterday and caught limits of fish in the #30 range as well as some Yellowfin while fishing live baits and dropping jigs deep into the water.
WAHOO: The full moon we have just had resulted in more Wahoo than we have seen in quite a while, but none of them were very large. The average size was 30 pounds with some as small as 10 pounds. The banks and ledges on the Pacific side were where the fish were found.
INSHORE: My friend Jeff was able to pit his clients on 6 different species of fish the other day. Sierra, Dorado, Pompano, Skipjack, Ladyfish and Jacks all came to the fly for them. Normal tackle produced the same results for others and there were a few snapper and grouper as well as small roosterfish in the mix. Most of the action, if not all of it, happened on the Pacific side of the Cape.
NOTES: This weeks report was written to the music of CCR on a three CD set titled “36 All-Time Greatest Hits” from Fantasy Music, 2000. Thanks for the great Christmas present sis! To everyone, I hope missing one week was all right; I had a lot of things happening at the end of the year! Until next week, tight lines and “Go Seahawks”! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 16
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 18, 2006 - 9:03 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Dec.11-17, 2006
WEATHER: We had sunny skies at the beginning of the week with very little wind. Our daytime highs were in the low 80’s while our nighttime lows averaged 63 degrees. At the end of the week we had a front move through and on Sunday the wind picked up from the northwest at 15-20 knots and the swells kicked up as well, but the skies were clear. That changed this morning as I woke up to mostly cloudy skies with little wind. The weather charts show this cloudy condition to remain for a few days at least.
WATER: There was very little change in the sea temperatures this week, almost exactly the same as last week with the exception of a push of warm water from the south has extended the warm water up to the Punta Gorda area on the Cortez side and past the Finger Banks on the Pacific. Our average temperature on the Cortez side of the Cape has been about 76 degrees inside the 1,000-fathom line. Just off of the beach it has been much cooler, as low as 73 degrees in some spots. On the Pacific side of the Cape it has been a bit warmer with the average temperature being 78 degrees with a band of slightly cooler water just off of the beach. Over all our water temperatures seemed to have dropped several degrees this week, but they can change at any time.
BAIT: Bait this week was 75% Mackerel, as the water continues to cool off there will be a change to almost all Mackerel. I did not hear of any Sardines being available locally.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I said last week that the Striped Marlin bite at the Golden Gate had fallen off a bit, but a few boats were there at the right time early in the week when it really went off. The bite was early in the morning at the beginning of the week and started later each day. The best result I heard of from an individual boat was 30 releases in one day; most of the boats there at the same time scored double digits. There was no reason to go that far later in the week as the bait and fish continue to pile up off of Cabo Falso. That was a good thing on Sunday as the weather picked up and almost no one was able to make the trip to the Golden Gate. I found a few fish between the Gate and the San Jaime Bank but the water was pretty bouncy. The fish at the Cabo Falso ledge were being caught while drifting bait deep early in the day, by trolling live and dead bait during the middle of the day and by running to feeders popping up with Frigate birds diving on the later in the afternoon. That was nice fishing as we were out of the wind and rough water and later in the day there were fewer boats around.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were reports of good fish being caught in the last seven days, but none of the big ones were for me! There were fish found at all the banks and between them as well, but they were all associated with Porpoise, nothing was reported as being blind strikes. One boat fishing the San Jaime with hand lines (think Panga here) did well with one fish of #160 and many others around #35-#40 while boats working 13 miles due south around the 1,000-fathom line got into fish averaging #40 for a few days. I did not hear any reports of fish at the Gorda Banks, but I am sure there were some there as well.
DORADO: I think that the Dorado’s designation as “fish of the week” has finally changed because of the great Striped Marlin showing. There were still Dorado being caught, and they were good-sized fish, but the numbers we had been seeing for the past month were just not there. Most of the fish were taken between the beach and 6 miles off shore or on the banks, a few groups were found out at the 1,000-fathom line as well. The key this week to finding the Dorado was to look for working Frigate birds. Tossing live bait into the water under the birds or slow trolling in the area seemed to work most of the time.
WAHOO: I had no reports of Wahoo this week.
INSHORE: Sierra are taking over as the inshore fish now, and the bite has been better where the water has been a little cooler. Of course this means that most of the time you have to get a little distance away from town, but the bite was decent up at the lighthouse for a few boats. I had a report from one fisherman of a 25 fish morning while fishing on a Panga with live bait and hootchies. The annual Sierra tournament is this coming Saturday, the 23rd. No boats larger than 24 feet allowed, $150 entry fee for a team of up to three anglers, lines in at 4 pm and out at 6 pm and you must be in line to weigh you fish no later than 6:20. %60 of the entry fees go to the largest Sierra, %20 to the smallest, %10 for food and drinks and %10 to the organizers. I was lucky and caught the smallest one last year on a last minute entry; the tournament was a lot of fun!
NOTES: Happy Holidays! I will try to get a report out next week, but as Monday is Christmas morning, It might be a day or two later than normal. Until then, Tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 15
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 11, 2006 - 8:03 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Dec. 04-10, 2006
WEATHER: I just love this time of the year! In the morning it is almost cool enough to need a light jacket or sweater since it has been 60 degrees the past few mornings. In the day it never seems to get much above 80 degrees in the direct sun and there is just a slight breeze in the afternoons and evenings. We have had only partly cloudy skies this week and of course, no rain. I don’t believe I have seen conditions much better than this for a long time!
WATER: The water is cooling down the farther we get into the winter season and of course things change quickly. Our average temperature on the Cortez side of the Cape has been about 76 degrees inside the 1,000 fathom line, outside of there, past the Cabrillo Seamount, it is a few degrees warmer. Just off of the beach it has been much cooler, as low as 73 degrees in some spots. On the Pacific side of the Cape it has been a bit warmer with the average temperature being 78 degrees with a band of slightly cooler water just off of the beach. Over all our water temperatures seemed to have dropped several degrees this week, but they can change at any time. Surface conditions were excellent with just a slight swell and little if any wind chop.
BAIT: A fairly even mix of Mackerel and Caballito were available at the normal $2 per bait. I did not hear of any Sardinas in the area.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite that was happening for boats fishing the Golden Gate Bank has fallen off a bit more than last week, there are still some fish there but you are really scratching to get them. Fortunately for us, the mass of fish seems to have moved closer to home and there are now fish being caught daily off of the light-house ledge using the same technique of deep dropping live bait and drifting across the holding area. The size of the fish has varied between 60 pounds to 130 pounds with a few of the fish way on the other side of both ends of that range. I heard of one Striped Marlin of #30 being released and one of #220 being released. As far as other billfish are concerned, I have not heard of any Blue or Black Marlin in the past week, but there have been some Sailfish appearing in the area, I had a good Panga captain report that he had released one that he thought would have been an easy #200, the size of a large Striped Marlin!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We finally had some Yellowfin show up this week! On Thursday a few boats found the fish 13 miles to the west-southwest mixed in with a few porpoise. There were birds working the area and the fish were feeding hard on Mackerel and Flying Fish. With only a few boats there the first day the fishing was good. The fish were so thick and aggressive that boats were able to scoop bait from the water as they were taking shelter under the boats! The fish varied in size from 25 pounds to 60 pounds with a few fish on either size of that range. Friday the fish were still there but only the first couple of boats had any bites, on Saturday it was a repeat. We had a client that was the fist to the fish and he managed to score 8 fish between 25 and 70 pounds, the second boat there caught two fish and the other 15-20 boats that showed up caught maybe 5 fish between them.
DORADO: Even thought the Yellowfin finally showed up, Dorado remained the fish of the week due to the consistency of the catch. Most boats were able to get at lest one or two Dorado in the box, a few did quite a bit better than that. The bite has remained on the Pacific side and has appeared better closer to the beach, up around 15-25 miles to the north of Cabo. The fish are hitting bright colored lures and slow trolled live bait and have been averaging 20 pounds.
WAHOO: I saw the smallest Wahoo I have seen in a long time this week when the same client who got into the Tuna caught a 4-½ pound fish on Tuesday. With 5 days of fishing Lance was able to get at least one of every species available, nice job Lance! Other than that, there were not very many Wahoo reported from our area. I had heard that there was a halfway decent bite up at the Inman Banks, but had no confirmed reports of those fish.
INSHORE: There are Sierra showing up, and starting to show in decent numbers, but the target for most of the boats fishing inshore this week has been Snapper and Grouper. None of these have been large fish and not in huge numbers either, but at least they are great eating.
NOTES: Our Striped Marlin and Yellowfin Tuna fishing continues to improve every week, my fingers are crossed that it continues. Meanwhile the holidays are coming up and with my mother coming to visit for Christmas, a lot of my time between fishing and working on the boat will be taken up with getting the house ready for the visit! Until next week, Tight Lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 14
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 8:22 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Nov. 27-Dec. 03, 2006
WEATHER: We had very nice weather this past week with our daytime highs hitting the mid 80’s and our lows at night in the low 60’s. At the end of the week we were mostly cloudy but with no rain. Early in the week we were expecting a couple of days of very strong winds, but it appeared that a push from the south kept the northerly winds (20-30 knots) away from us, all we got was one day of perhaps 20 knot winds from the north.
WATER: There is not much to say about the water conditions, there are no strong temperature breaks or color breaks within our area. The surface temperature has remained an almost constant 80-81 degrees within 40 miles of Cabo. We did have some fairly choppy conditions during the middle of the week when northerly gusts blew in for the day, but other than that things have been just great out there.
BAIT: A fairly even mix of Mackerel and Caballito were available at the normal $2 per bait. I did not hear of any Sardinas in the area.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Just about the only billfish I heard of this week were Striped Marlin and a couple of Sailfish, I am not sure if there are still any Blue Marlin in the area as the water is getting colder every week. The Striped Marlin have been spread out. While there are still many of the fleet boats working the Golden Gate Bank hard with drifting live bait, the bite has not made it worthwhile for many boats. In an effort to find more fish they have been searching off of the ledges on the Pacific side just off the beach and have come up with a few fish on the drift and on the troll. A few boats have gone up the Sea of Cortez around Punta Gorda and have done fairly well and there was a halfway decent bite for two days off of the Red Hill area. Most of the fish have been small Striped Marlin; just as last weeks fish were fairly small, I mean that the average has been less than #100. I have heard that boats working the area outside of Magdalena Bay (far out of reach for a 1 day trip) have been doing exceptionally well on the Stripers, we can only hope that just as happened last year, these fish make it down to our area. Perhaps as the water cools down and the bait supply starts concentrating in our area things will pick up.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin Tuna were hard to find this week, a few fish were found up on the Sea of Cortez and a few were found to the north of the Golden Gate and around the Finger Bank, but the fish we were finding on the south side of the San Jaime have moved on. Boats have been going to the south as far as 40 miles without any luck this week.
DORADO: There is no doubt that Dorado are still the fish of the week, and they may end up being the fish of the month if the Yellowfin Tuna and Marlin don’t start biting. There are still fair numbers of fish being found on the Pacific side of the Cape from inside the Golden Gate Bank to the Finger Bank, and there have been a few boats reporting great action a bit farther north. That is out of range for most of us but it is nice to know that those fish should eventually move south toward us. The Dorado have mostly been fairly good-sized fish with an average of 18-20 pounds.
WAHOO: Wahoo fishing improved this week with quite a few of fish between 45-60 pounds being caught. There were no large concentrations of them, but the ones that were caught were found in areas that typically hold these speed demons. Water between 250 and 350 feet in depth just off of the major points and on the banks gave up fish. Dark colored lures trolled between 8 and 10 knots brought savage strikes and a few boats that targeted Wahoo caught fish, but at that speed, not much else!
INSHORE: Inshore fishing is still slow with most of the Pangas trying for Dorado. A few bottom fish have been caught as well as a scattering of Sierra and early season Yellowtail off of the rocky points, but there just has not been any consistent inshore action. Red Snapper in 250 feet of water has been the basic fish close to the beach, but there had been a couple of days with decent Pompano action just off the beach’s on the Pacific side, noting large but at least good eating fish!
NOTES: The weather is perfect, I wish the fishing was. It is not bad, but there are boats coming in with nothing to show for a full day on the water. Then again, there have been boats coming in from a day out that have been flying an honest three Marlin, three Tuna and two Dorado flags almost every day. Once in a while things just break your way! I hope it does for you next time you visit us! Until then, Tight Lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 13
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 27, 2006 - 8:48 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Nov. 20-26, 2006
WEATHER: Once again we have had perfect weather here in Cabo. Our daytime highs have been in the low 80’s and our lows in the evenings and early mornings have been in the mid 60’s. We have had only occasional clouds this week and the winds have been very light for the most part. We did have one day, the 21st, when the remnants of Tropical Depression Sergio brought strong southeastern winds and seas of 5-7 feet. On the 22nd the wind was gone and the seas had settled down.
WATER: Our water has remained blue and warm this past week and it looks like it may continue through this next week as well. Everywhere you might have gone within a 30-mile radius the water was a consistent 81-83 degrees. Once you got more than 40 miles to the north on the Pacific side it dropped a bit, down to the 78.5-degree range, but it remained blue. On both sides of the cape swells early in the week were between 3-7 feet as a result of Sergio, but as of the end of the week the swells had dropped to 2-4 feet. On Saturday the wind started to pick up again and by Sunday it was pretty bumpy on the Pacific side, also there was a cool water eddy that was about 78 degrees that moved into the area from the southeast on the Cortez side and lay about 15 miles offshore.
BAIT: Once again there was a pretty even mix of Caballito and Mackerel available at the usual $2 per bait. A lot of boats set out without buying any bait and instead, if they were headed to the Golden Gate Banks they caught their own Mackerel and Mackerel Scad there. I did not hear if there were ay Sardinas available this week.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: While the water temperature and color has remained great for Blue Marlin, there were very few of them caught this week. The billfish of the week was Striped Marlin, and they were there in good numbers if you were in the right place at the right time. The main concentration of Striped Marlin seemed to be at the Golden Gate Bank, probably there because of the large amount of bait in the area. Best results came from dropping live bait down to 100-150 feet, just above the massed Mackerel schools. Most boats were able to get two or three fish released a day while a few boats were able to get into double digits. By the weekend the bite had dropped off a bit, on Saturday there were 45 boats on the bank with the results being a bit disappointing, on Sunday there were only 15 boats and only one hookup in the morning, the bite did improve a bit later in the day with the best result being four fish for one of the boats sticking with it. Elsewhere, there were fish found off of the ledge at the lighthouse and while they were coming up and striking on lures, they were not being real aggressive. There were more Striped Marlin to be found within 2 miles of the coastline on the Pacific side and a few boats were catching and releasing between 2 and 6 fish a day up at the Finger Banks. I received four strikes Sunday at the San Jaime Bank for two releases but they were both small fish, one about 75 pounds and the other maybe 50 pounds. Most of the Striped Marlin caught this week were smaller than 100 pounds, but there were a few exceptions.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Yellowfin bite that had been happening at the Gorda Banks tapered off this week. There were still nice fish being caught, but not in the numbers or in the size categories that had been happening the past few weeks. Scattered pods of dolphin to the south of the Cape had produced fish in the 20-35 pound class for those boats willing to go 30 miles, and there were also the same size fish found to the south of the San Jaime Banks, again among the dolphin. Spreader bars and daisy chains produced the best results while a live mackerel dropped back after the first fish hooked up produced the larger fish, some to 50 pounds.
DORADO: Still the fish of the week! Best results came from the Pacific side with most of the action occurring 25 miles up the coast. Slow trolling live bait or trolling bright colored lures at 8 knots were the best way to induce these fish to strike and watching for following fish to drop a live bait to resulted in many double hook-ups. Most of these fish were in the 15-25 pound class. Farther to the north, the Finger Banks continued to produce good numbers of Dorado in the 30+ pound class to boats slow trolling live bait, as well as getting some action on Striped Marlin. A good day on the Finger was between 4-12 fish.
WAHOO: I only saw a few Wahoo flags this week and heard of a few fish caught over the radio. There was no concentration of fish and those that were caught were incidental fish.
INSHORE: There was only scattered inshore action this week with a few early season Sierra, a decent Red Snapper bite and a few Grouper and Amberjack. Most of the Pangas were working off the beach for Dorado and a few of them had really outstanding trips! It’s nice when you can go out and catch a half-dozen Dorado, a few Red Snapper and have a Striped Marlin as well and be back in by noon!
NOTES: Great weather and good fishing, it doesn’t get much better than this! If things change the slow way they have been, we should see the fishing continue to improve for Striped Marlin and Tuna over the coming month with a chance of continued Dorado action. Until next week, Tight Lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 12
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 - 8:33 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Nov. 13-19, 2006
WEATHER: With our daytime highs in the mid 80’s and the lows in the mid to low 60’s just about all I can say is that it is the perfect time of year! We have had only slight breezes this week and only two days with partly cloudy skies. We ended the week with no wind on Sunday, the morning temperature at 64 degrees and no clouds in the sky.
WATER: Tropical Storm Sergio brought some southern storm swells our way but they were not big ones, mostly 3-6 foot stuff. With a slight swell from the northwest and no wind on the water to speak of things were very nice on the surface regardless of where you went. On Sunday morning the water was like a mirror since there was no wind at all. Surface temperatures were an almost uniform 83-84 degrees within 40 miles of Cabo at the beginning of the week but they dropped by a degree or two at the end of the week. The water was a great blue color everywhere with very little green showing, where it did occur was close to the beach on the Pacific side.
BAIT: There was a pretty even mix of Caballito and Mackerel available this week at the usual $2 per bait. The Sardinas made themselves scarce and here in Cabo were very difficult to find. Up in San Jose they could be had for $20 a scoop instead of $20 a bucket, but there were a lot of boats that were happy just to get a handful.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There are still some Blue Marlin around, but as the water starts cooling down they are becoming a bit scarcer. I had reports of fish to #450 being caught and released (congratulations Lin!) as well as a number of fish in the #200 pound class, but no really large fish this week. Instead, there has been a resurgence of Striped Marlin. One of the best bets early in the week was the area of the Golden Gate Banks where boats were releasing one to five fish a day while drifting with live bait, some deep and some on the surface. There were also a few fish taken with this technique off of the ledge at the lighthouse. The Finger Bank area is beginning to take off, I reported last week that there was a decent bite in that area and it has improved a bit. The bite is still mainly in the afternoon and the fish are a bit scattered since there are not a lot of bait balls in the area, but slow trolling with either live or dead Mackerel has been a great technique. A lot of boats were stopping at the Golden Gate Bank on the way to the Finger Bank in order to make bait.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Inner and the Outer Gorda Banks continued to produce large Yellowfin Tuna to #150 this week, but the average size was #80. It was basically an early bite and either dropping a live Sardine, slow trolling a bridled Skipjack or catching and slow trolling a Chilwilie worked. A few boats were able to get two fish but most of the boats were good for either one big bite or one fish in the boat. The key was to downsize the leader and go with flouro-carbon. There was a fair bite on fish averaging #40 at 35 miles to the south of Cabo at the beginning of the week and these fish were found under Porpoise. I got into some fish in the 30-40 pound range south of the San Jaime on Friday and Saturday after being invited to the party by a friend of mine. He had spotted a couple of the long-range boats out of San Diego in the area; the Shogun was one of them. I did have one pass on a group of fish that resulted in one reel getting spooled and all the other lines going off but loosing all the fish. Must have been some decent fish out there but we were not able to get any of them to the boat. I heard of some good fish being found up at the Finger Banks while slow trolling live Skipjack, but apparently there was a problem keeping the Dorado away form the baits so few of them were caught.
DORADO: The focus for great Dorado action continued to be up the Pacific side at least 20 miles. There were decent fish found closer to home but the numbers and size of fish to the north were worth the run for most anglers. For those willing to pay the fuel premium to get to the Finger Bank area, the results from slow trolling live or dead bait was worth the expense. Of course there were a few boats that were not in the right place at the right time, but most of them were able to get between 6 to 20 fish a trip. What was nice was these fish were averaging between 30-40 pounds! Close to the beach at the 20-mile mark the action continued to be good with fish in the 15-30 pound class providing consistent action. Trolling lures at fairly high speeds got the first fish to hook up, and then dropping back a live bait fooled a few more into biting.
WAHOO: I only saw a few Wahoo flags this week and heard of a few fish caught over the radio. There was no concentration of fish and those that were caught were incidental fish.
INSHORE: There was a good Red Snapper bit inshore for a couple of days early in the week but then the fish moved on. Most of the Pangas have been moving a bit more offshore since we have had very good sea conditions this week. Their concentration has been on Dorado. For those that have been working just off of the beach there has been steady, but not fast, action on Skipjack, Bonita and a few scattered Sierra and small Roosterfish. The best action has been on live Sardinas when they could be found; otherwise hootchies in red were the way to go.
NOTES: The bite continues to improve as well as the weather. If everything keeps up at this pace then we will all be very happy in a few weeks! Happy Thanksgiving wherever you may be and have a safe and enjoyable time with your friend and family! Until next week, Tight Lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 11
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 13, 2006 - 7:28 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Nov. 6-12, 2006
WEATHER: once again we had paradise type of weather with our night time lows in the high 60’s and our day time highs in the high 80’s to low 90’s with a fairly low humidity level. Almost every day was sunny with a few scattered clouds and light winds.
WATER: The Pacific side saw just a slight chop on water that ranged between 80 and 83 degrees. There was no really strongly defined temperature break, instead there was gradual variations with a plume of the cooler water coming in off of the west toward shore just to the north of the Golden Gate Bank. On the Cortez side of the Cape we had 81.5 to 83 degree water with no defined breaks as well. On both sides of Los Cabos there were slight swells at the beginning of the week and swells at 4-6 feet at the end of the week, most likely a result of a few areas of disturbed weather well to the southeast of us.
BAIT: Caballito and Mackerel were available at the usual $2 per bait and there were Sardinas at $20 a bucket, both at the mouth of the harbor and up off of Palmilla and La Playita.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I didn’t hear of any really large fish being caught this week, but the Striped Marlin bite has started to pick up a bit. As far as the Blue and Black Marlin are concerned there are still fish out there, but most of them were averaging between 200 and 250 pounds, with an occasional fish in the low 400’s. As I said, the Striped Marlin bite has picked up a bit with a lot of boats finding fish off of the Golden Gate Bank while deep dropping live Caballito and Mackerel. An average of one to two fish per boat for the boats willing to stick it out all day was the norm, but there were boats that tried for hours with no positive results. Many of these boats were able to get a billfish after leaving the area and putting lures in the water. As with most fishing, tide change seemed to make a major difference. A few boats have begun to make runs to the Finger Banks on a regular basis, hoping to be at the spot when the Striped Marlin move into the area in force. So far the bite has been good, but not as spectacular as we saw last year. The bite in the middle of the week was in the afternoon after the tide change and the half-dozen boats at the bank reported releasing between four and 10 fish in an afternoon as well as being attacked by large schools of Dorado.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were still some school and football fish to be found in the San Jose area, ion the Inman Banks and just off the beach at La Playita, to be specific. These fish were biting on Sardinas after being chummed to the boat. In other areas the key was to find the porpoise and hope you marked Tuna under them on the depth sounder. There was a nice pod of Porpoise off the arch about two miles in the middle of the week and a few boats were able to get hooked up to fish in the #100 range by dropping live Mackerel down to 100 feet in front of the moving school. Most of the boats coming into the Porpoise were just pulling lures or trying to drop bait back behind the boat on the surface, but the deep baits produced while the shallow ones did not.
DORADO: The Dorado continue to provide action for boats fishing the Pacific side of the Cape with most of the action continuing to be 20+ miles up the coast. Smaller lure in bright colors as well as slow trolled live and dead bait worked well with many boats coming in with limits of two nice fish per client. A few boats were able to score extremely nice fish in the 30-40 pound class when they came across floating debris such and pieces of lumber and strands of Kelp, but most of the fish were associated with current lines. The bite has gotten better at the Finger Banks as schools of baitfish have started to move into the area. Most of these fish are in the 20-30 pound class. The Dorado bite on the Cortez side of the Cape has been sporadic with most of the fish found being close to the shore.
WAHOO: There were a couple of days at the beginning of the week when the Wahoo started to make a showing up in the San Jose area, but that bite shut off just as quickly as it started. Elsewhere, there have only been a few Wahoo found, and they have been incidental catches.
INSHORE: Once again we have seen a scattering of Sierra showing up inshore and the Red Snapper bite has started to pickup as well. There are a few Roosterfish still around but I have not heard of any large ones lately. Most of the Pangas that have been working inshore have done best while using live Sardinas as bait and have had very mixed bags with Sierra, Red Snapper, Triggerfish, an occasional Grouper and a few Amberjack being in the cooler at the end of the day.
NOTES: Things are looking up as the water cools and the weather gets better. We are hoping that the bite continues to improve and finally go wide open on the Striped Marlin and that the Tuna start to show up in force. It’s hard to predict what is going to happen so I just report on what has been. This weeks report was written to the music of the Stray Cats on their 1982 self-titled album from Arista Records. Until next week, Tight Lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 10
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 06, 2006 - 6:35 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Oct. 30-Nov. 5, 2006
WEATHER: We had beautiful fall weather this week with our nighttime lows in the low 70’s and daytime highs in the mid 80’s with just a few light winds. No rainfall and only scattered clouds made for some excellent days. This was also the week of the full moon and this morning the moon was setting as the sun was rising.
WATER: Water on the Pacific side of the Cape was almost uniformly 81-83 degrees while on the Cortez side we saw mostly 83 degrees. There has been a fairly consistent temperature break on the Pacific side at 220 degrees out by the 1,000-fathom edge going from 82 degrees shore-side to 80 degrees to the west. Surface conditions have been very good with only slight swells and almost no chop.
BAIT: Caballito and Mackerel were available at the usual $2 per bait and there were Sardinas at $20 a bucket, both at the mouth of the harbor and up off of Palmilla and La Playita.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There were a few large fish, both Blue and Black Marlin found this week but I did not hear of any real big ones with the exception of a reported 1,000 pound Blue at the beginning of the week. This fish was reported to have been hung and weighed at the main dock but I have not seen a picture or heard any more information on that fish. Most of the Blues and Blacks that have been caught have been in the #200-#300 class. There was a decent bite on Striped Marlin at the end of the week at the Gorda Banks by boats soaking live bait while hoping for a large Tuna and there were scattered fish found off the edges of the banks and just within two miles of the shore on the Pacific side. A fair concentration of Mackerel on the Golden Gate Bank resulted in a large number of fleet boats soaking bait on the shallow spot with mixed results. A few boats came in with three of four flags flying and a few boats caught nothing.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Tuna tournament resulted in one fish of #318 pounds, one of #204 and two fish over #100 along with several fish between #46 and #100. There were not the numbers of fish found that we have had in recent years. There were quite a few nice fish in the 20-30 pound range found among Porpoise pods offshore along with a few of the larger #60-90 pound fish but all the larger ones came on live bait at the Gorda Bank.
DORADO: I thought the bite on Dorado was wide open up at the Finger Bank based on an incomplete mid-week but found out via radio conversations after making the run up that the bite had been in the area of the Bank around a dead Pilot Whale. You always have to check out anything floating if you are looking for Dorado and the boat that found the whale ended up with 15 fish in the 20-30 pound range and lost twice as many more. Other than floating debris for a few lucky boats, it was a matter of one or two fish per boat. At least close to home that is. Quite a few boats were making 30 mile runs up the Pacific side and while working just off the shoreline they were able to get into decent action on fish from 10-20 pounds with a few boats making catches of 10 or more fish.
WAHOO: Very surprisingly there were very few Wahoo caught even though this is a fall full moon and we expect there to be some nice fish out there. No Wahoo over #40 was weighed in during the Tuna tournament and I heard of very few being caught at all. Last minute update, talked to a friend last night and they started biting up around Gordo Banks yesterday.
INSHORE: Exactly the same as last week as far as inshore fishing is concerned. Slow fishing inshore with a few Dorado, Skipjack and Yellowfin, some early season Sierra and a scattering of misc. bottom species. The better inshore fishing has been reported up toward San Jose.
NOTES: There has been a good variety of fish but not any numbers of a particular species except for a few boats lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. As the water cools over the next few weeks we should start seeing more Tuna, Striped Marlin and inshore should start producing more Sierra. Our fingers are crossed that it doesn’t take too long! Until next week, Tight Lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 9
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - 8:04 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Oct. 23-29, 2006
WEATHER: As we had expected, Hurricane Paul did have an effect on us last week. It slowed down quickly and fell apart, bringing us only some rain, winds to 45 knots and big swells, but the port was closed from Tuesday morning until Wednesday at 2 pm. Both the winds and the seas diminished quickly and things were back to Normal Thursday morning. Our daytime highs were in the low 80’s and the nighttime lows were in the low to mid 70’s.
WATER: The beginning of the week had us with warm water across the entire cape with most of it in the 85-86 degree range and with small swells. The effects of Paul were to cool off the water several degrees and bring in some swells at 4-6 feet with an occasional 6-9 set. These were storm swells and spaced some distance apart so it was not really rough, just lumpy. The water within reach of most of the fleet at the end of the week was in the 82-83 degree range and almost all of it outside ½ mile from shore was blue.
BAIT: Caballito were available at the usual $2 per bait and there were Sardinas at $20 a bucket, both at the mouth of the harbor and up off of Palmilla and La Playita.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Probably the best way to give you an idea of the bill fishing this past week is to post results of the Bisbee Black and Blue Tournament. The normal three days of fishing were cut to two days due to the port closure on Wednesday so the 183 teams only fished for two days total. That is 366 fishing days total. There were 152 billfish caught, a reported 64 Blue Marlin, 6 Black Marlin, 61 Striped Marlin and 21 sailfish. This is .4 billfish per team per day. Not great fishing, that’s for sure. There were three marlin over #300 weighed and one of them barely made it at #301. That gives you an idea of how the Marlin fishing was this past week.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Yellowfin action off of La Playita continued on an erratic basis with most of the fish biting around the tide change. They were school fish in the 20-30 pound class. There were larger fish found out at the Inner and Outer Gorda Banks as well as at the Inman, but you had to have the right bait for the cows that went up to #250. There were several of these nice fish caught this past week. In other areas, Porpoise pods 30 miles to the south had fish in them that averaged 35 pounds and gave quite a few people a lot of fun. Boats dropping live Mackerel deep on the Golden Gate Banks for Striped Marlin also came up with a few nice Yellowfin to #80.
DORADO: There were still plenty of Dorado to be found but you had to farther up the Pacific side to get into them. I tried the area inside the Golden Gate Bank on Saturday with poor results only to find that the action had moved another 10 miles up the coast. The fish are averaging 15 pounds with some of them in the #40 class, but 30 miles is a way to run. There were scattered fish closer to home but not in any numbers.
WAHOO: There were still scattered Wahoo around as we caught one that was about #65 on the second day of the Bisbee. No concentrations yet, maybe on the November moon?
INSHORE: Slow fishing inshore with a few Dorado, Skipjack and Yellowfin, some early season Sierra and a scattering of misc. bottom species. The better inshore fishing has been reported up toward San Jose.
NOTES: Sorry the report is late; a two-day case of some virus had me laid out since Sunday morning. Until next week, Tight Lines |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 8
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 23, 2006 - 6:56 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Oct. 16-22, 2006
WEATHER: I know why everyone likes to start coming to Cabo in October, it is because of the weather! We have had daytime highs in the high 80’s and nighttime lows in the low 70’s all week. It was actually cool enough on Saturday morning that my deckhand and myself wore long-sleeve shirts. We have had partly cloudy skies with a slight breeze in the mornings and almost no wind in the afternoons, then a slight breeze in the evening. Just what the doctor ordered. Of course it looks like this pattern may not continue for long as there is the possibility that tropical storm Paul could pass our way Tuesday, the day before the beginning of the Bisbee Black and Blue tournament. It might be a hurricane by then and forecasts call for it to be 200 miles to the southwest on Tuesday morning, continuing in our direction. All our fingers are crossed!
WATER: Warm water on the Cortez side, up to a solid 86 degrees were the norm with great surface conditions, a slight swell and an offshore wind only early in the morning. On the Pacific side the swells were a bit larger and there was a little more wind but nothing major. Water temperatures were 85 degrees up to 35 miles offshore and up towards the finger banks, then just a bit farther they dropped a degree or two.
BAIT: Caballito were available at the usual $2 per bait and there were Sardinas at $20 a bucket, both at the mouth of the harbor and up off of Palmilla and La Playita.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Probably the best way to clue you in on the marlin bite is by the results of a couple of tournaments. We had the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament this week and there were over100 boats participating. There were three qualifying Marlin caught (over #300) and they were all caught on the first day. The largest fish was over #430 and was caught aboard a 31’ Bertram. This weekend is the Bisbee/Lapicolla Offshore tournament with 64 boats entered and on the first day only one almost qualifying fish at #295 was brought to the scales. During both tournaments there were plenty of Striped Marlin, smaller Blues and a few Blacks and Sailfish caught, but no real beast fish reported. There was a lot of effort on the Pacific side out at the Banks and as a result most of the fish were from those areas.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We had great fishing for school Yellowfin this week up in the San Jose area off of La Playita to La Laguna. The fish were close to shore and at one time I saw 60 boats working several spots. The average catch was five or six fish between 15 and 30 pounds with a few larger ones in the mix. Light line or floura-carbon leaders with small hooks and a split shot on every other line brought the fish to the boat. It’s exciting to see the fish boil on the chum right where your bait is at then hearing the reels start to scream. There was on monster caught on the first day of the Los Cabos Billfish tournament as a Yellowfin Tuna that topped the scales at #315 was brought in by John Bulla on the “Go Deep” before noon.
DORADO: There were still plenty of Dorado around this week and most of the action was still on the Pacific side of the Cape. It seemed that most of the cruisers were going up the coast 15 miles and starting to work the water inside the Golden Gate area. I had a friend on a Panga who fished just three miles of the lighthouse on the Pacific side and he got 7 Dorado in five hours but several of them were little dinks of #8 and #10, the others were nice ones of #20+. Live bait slow trolled after catching one fish worked, as did trolling dark colored pushing plugs.
WAHOO: I heard quite a few Wahoo being called in on the radio during the tournaments and almost all of them came from the San Jaime Banks area. The fish averaged 30 pounds. The largest caught during the Los Cabos tournament weighed in at 79.8 pounds.
INSHORE: Just as last week, there were still a few Roosterfish being reported this week but with there being so many Dorado and Tuna close in it was hard to get the Captains of the Pangas to target anything else.
NOTES: Bisbee Black and Blue is coming up, keep your fingers crossed the Hurricane Paul does not grow up to be a big boy and ruin our fun! Until next week, Tight Lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 7
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 16, 2006 - 8:20 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Oct. 9-15, 2006
WEATHER: There was very little change in the weather at the beginning of this week compared to last week in temperatures as our daytime highs were in the low 90’s and our nighttime lows were in the low 70’s, the change was in the feel. It seemed that the humidity dropped a bit, but of course we felt it because we live here. Most of our visitors said that it was very humid. Oh well, I guess it’s all in what you are used to! We had some cloud cover the last half of the wee and that, combined with just a bit of wind kept things feeling cool (comparatively speaking). At the end of the week we had some stronger winds from the northwest and they brought our temperatures down as on Sunday night we had a low of 67 degrees here at the house. No need for the air conditioner now! The humidity dropped as well and it is starting to feel like fall.
WATER: Surface conditions on both sides of the Cape were great this week with the Pacific side being a bit bumpier, much as it was last week. With the wind out of the northwest that is to be expected, but it was not so rough that people were getting sick and coming in early. At the end of the week things changed a bit as the wind blew stronger starting Saturday afternoon. On the Cortez side it was almost like a lake most of the time. Our water temperatures on the Cortez side were an almost steady 85-86 degrees everywhere with no temperature breaks. On the Pacific side this warm water wrapped around across the San Jaime and the Golden Gate banks. Outside of these banks the temperature dropped a degree but there was no real defining edge anywhere.
BAIT: There were Caballito ($2 each) available most days if you were early, with the full moon just past us it was a bit easier to get bait than last week. I also saw a few Mackerel floating in the marina but I don’t know if they were from here or were tossed out of the bait wells of boats coming down from up north for the season. There were plenty of Sardinas available up at Palmilla and La Playita at the normal $20 a bucket.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There were a lot more Blue Marlin reported hooked up this week than there were last week but that may have been an effect of more boats searching for them. With the tournaments coming up teams are getting in the practice mode and actively working for the big mamas. There have been a lot of fish reported in the #200-#350 range as well as a few in the #500-#600 area, but it could all be just story as well. I know of one angler I trust who reported hooking into a fish at around #1,000 on a lure and had it hooked up for just a minute or so. There seems to be a lot of effort spent on the Cortez side for the Blues but with that many boats working out there I was surprised to not hear of more Blacks being hooked up. There were still quite a few Striped Marlin around and again, that is a bit of a surprise for me as the water temperatures are much higher than these fish normally like. They were more prevalent on the Pacific side of the Cape. Almost all the action on the Blues came on trolled lures while the Striped Marlin bite was a pretty even mix of lure fish and live bait thrown at fish on the surface.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: It was nice to find Yellowfin closer to home this week and you did not need to cover 50 miles of water looking for Porpoise. The fish that were up at Punta Gorda a few weeks have moved closer to us with quite a bit of action happening within a mile of the beach from La Playita to just outside the Chileno area. Sardines were the ticket, as well as light line. Chumming with the live Sardines then fly-lining baits or putting ones out with a split-shot on the line worked well on these fish that ran from 15-40 pounds on the average. There were fish reported hooked that were much larger, but very few of them were brought in, I think the largest I heard of being landed was right at #80. Using small circle hooks on very light leader was extremely successful, but also resulted in quite a few lost fish. Most boats had better luck with “J” hooks on floura-carbon leader in the #30 class.
DORADO: Lots of Dorado were being caught this week and almost all the heavy action was on the Pacific side of the Cape, up to and past the Margarita beach area. There was also good action from Gray Rock on the Cortez side to the Arch. Most of the fish were averaging #15 with a few fish being caught in the 30-pound class. I did see one fish weighed at #56, nice Bull Dorado caught on a live Caballito. Most boats that worked for Dorado were able to limit out easily. Best bait was either strip baits cut from Bonita, live Sardinas or Caballito. Lure action was also fairly steady with dark colored plugs from 6-9 inches working best.
WAHOO: I didn’t hear of any Wahoo caught locally but there were quite a few brought in by boats arriving from up north.
INSHORE: Once again there were still a few Roosterfish being reported this week but with there being so many Dorado and Tuna close in it was hard to get the Captains of the Pangas to target anything else.
NOTES: This weeks report was written to the classic Mexican music of Monica Rojas on her 1999 Armonia Productiones Musicales release “La Feria”. I got a chance to hear her sing this week at Miguel Locos, what a great voice! Also, congratulations to Greg W. on the addition of two future anglers to the population! I hope Thomas and Nicholas grow up to enjoy the salt water! Until next week, Tight Lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Username: Captg
Post Number: 6
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 25, 2006 - 9:46 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Sept.18-24, 2006
WEATHER: After all the worry for the past three weeks over if we were going to get hit by a hurricane or not, it was nice to have a stretch of time where the only worry was “How hot is it going to be tomorrow?.” As we have hit the official fall season the temperatures have not dropped much, maybe about 3-5 degrees, but the humidity has fallen and it feels a lot cooler. This week our high was 94 degrees and our nighttime low was 78 degrees, a very comfortable range with the humidity down. There was no rain and partly cloudy skies.
WATER: The water on the Pacific side was choppy since the winds returned to the normal Northwesterly but since the swells were small it was not uncomfortable. The water on the Pacific side was mostly 83-84 degrees with a bit of cooler water showing just to the north of the lighthouse close to shore. That cooler water was a bit off color as well. On the Cortez side of the Cape things were a bit warmer as well as a bit calmer. The swells that came from the south last week have almost died out and the NW wind can’t reach this side so there was very little chop. Unfortunately there was not good current or temperature break associated with the calmer water this week. At the end of the week we had a band of hot water show up from outside of Los Frailles to across the Gorda Banks and a bit toward us, this water was in the 86-87 degree range surrounded by water several degrees cooler. Surface conditions were excellent in the morning with slight chop developing later in the afternoons.
BAIT: Caballito in the larger sizes were readily available this week at the normal $2 per bait, and for boats that went up the Cortez side there were Sardinas available off of La Playita at $20 a bucket.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Billfish bite this week seemed to be evenly mixed between Striped Marlin and Blue Marlin with almost the entire action taking place to the south or just a bit into the Pacific side of the Cape. Not to say there were no Marlin to be found elsewhere, au contraire, but the majority of the fish were found in these areas. This may be because most of the effort for all species combined was concentrated there, but be that as it may, there was a fairly good showing of Blue Marlin to #250 and Stripes to #150 in the areas between the 95 Spot and the San Jaime Bank and inshore from those locations. On the Sea of Cortez the area to the north of Punta Gorda continued to supply a few Striped Marlin as well as a scattering of Sailfish. Off shore there were some Blue Marlin showing at the 1,000 fathom break and along the 100 fathom break.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I managed to get in a day of fishing this week and we tried for the Yellowfin that I reported being on the flats up past Punta Gorda. We got out of the marina early and picked up Sardinas at La Playita, arriving at the Estellidera area about 8 AM. By the time things had settled down and the fish had been found there must have been 35 boats in the immediate area. We picked at fish between 15 and 25 pounds for several hours and the boats spread out as the bite was not as hot as had been reported from the previous day. At about 11 AM we had a nice bite on a fish we guessed at well over #100, but we were using #30 line and #30 floura-carbon leader. After a fight of well over an hour and the fish within 100 feet of the boat, something large, probably a shark came by and spooked the Tuna. We were almost spooled with only 10 yards left when we thumbed the spool and broke the fish off. By then we were away from the bite and by the time we got back to the high spot we were the only boat left. We continued to work the Sardinas as chum and ended up with a dozen fish between 15 and 50 pounds. There was action in other area as well, the “Fly Hooker” had a blind strike on a #112 fish out toward the San Jaime as well as a Blue and Black released and a few Dorado over two days of fishing. A few boats reported decent action on blind strikes with fish averaging #25 within 2 miles of the beach on the Pacific side, from the lighthouse to 20 miles up the beach. Sardinas were the bait of choice on the Punta Gorda area while the big fish from the “Fly Hooker” was caught on a Pink/White Hi-5 swimming lure.
DORADO: Dorado action continued to be good on the Pacific side of the Cape with the best bite happening early in the morning until 10 AM. Lures trolled fast (10 knots) resulted in hookups and then bait dropped back caught the followers. That was the course of action for most of the cruisers, but the Pangas have their own methods. Talking with several of the better Panga captains I discovered that they have been slow trolling cut bait with a hootchies skirt over the bait to keep it from getting washed out, or drifting live bait while chumming with Bollito chunks of dead Sardinas. Most boats trying for Dorado were able to get at least a couple of fish in the boat and there were a few that really loaded up with limits for all the anglers aboard. There was a bit of debris in the water on the Pacific side, possibly remains from the storms we have just had, and that debris was occasionally holding fish as well.
WAHOO: I saw no Wahoo flags this week nor heard of any being caught. Maybe the new moon had something to do with that.
INSHORE: A few decent Dorado and Roosterfish have been caught by the Pangas, but for the most part inshore action has consisted mainly of school sized Dorado. The Pangas have been doing very well on them though, nothing to sneeze at with an average of 5 fish per boat. Pangas going up the beach on the Cortez side have had a little better luck with the Roosterfish than boats working the Pacific side.
NOTES: Tournament season is almost upon us and the Marina is starting to fill up with all the large boats. It’s nice to see the professional Captains and crew and get a chance to talk with them at the end of the day. There is an enormous amount of diverse talent and experience out there and of course, we are always learning something new! This weeks report was written to the favorite music of “Sporty Game”, a little country in the form of Brad Paisley on the 2001 Arista release “Part 2”. Play it Dan! Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Username: Captg
Post Number: 5
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 18, 2006 - 7:36 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Sept.11-17, 2006
WEATHER: The words I heard most often this week were “We dodged another bullet” when it came to discussing the weather. Less than two weeks after Hurricane John took a turn to the east and hit the East Cape (when we were forecast for a direct hit) Hurricane Lane developed and appeared as if she was going to run over the top of us. Hurricane Lane was a category three, just as John was, but was much more massive in coverage and held a lot more rain. Much to our surprise (and appreciation) she took a turn to the east, a hard turn, and hit the mainland coast of Mexico just to the north of Mazatlan, up in the Los Mochis area and dumped up to 24” of rain. I feel sorry for them but once again we came through all right. Everyone here was surprised as well when we received no rain in Cabo (other then a quick sprinkle on Friday night that dotted windshields). As a result we had very overcast skies starting on Wednesday and lasting through Saturday with only partly cloudy skies on Sunday. Daytime highs were between the low 80’s and high to mid 90’s while the nighttime lows were around the high to mid 70’s. Winds were from the NW during the middle of the week as feeder bands led into the storm and there was just a light breeze on Sunday.
WATER: Southerly swells brought in by Hurricane Lane made things confused on the Pacific side as they interacted with the NW winds feeding into the bands. This condition only lasted for three days but was a big influence on many of the trips. On the Cortez side of the Cape the swells were the only influence as there was almost no wind until you got more than 25 miles off shore. Temperatures on the Cortez side were in the 84-degree range to the north of the Gorda Banks and between 80-82 degrees between Cabo and the Banks. On the Pacific side the San Jaime Banks was at 83 degrees while the Golden Gate was in the high 70’s. These temperatures were from the middle of the week, the last good shot we had. From the boats out since then we have figured out that everything is about one degree less now. Conditions were good with blue water almost everywhere except for very close to the beach.
BAIT: There was not much change in the bait situation from last week. A combination of slightly larger seas and the moon conditions once again caused a significant lack of live bait with almost everyone being limited to 6 or 7 Caballito. There were Sardines available at both Palmilla and La Playita, but you had to be one of the first boats in the area to get the best bait, and it was at the normal $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: We had a good showing of Sailfish in close to the beach on the Pacific side this week and they were hitting smaller feathers and plugs meant for Dorado. Average size was #80 and a lot of the boats were hooking up or having strikes from four of five fish a day. Just a mile farther out and out tot eh San Jaime and Golden Gate Banks there were a few Striped Marlin. They were hitting lures but not hooking up well, most of the hookups were the result of slow trolling live bait or tossing the bait to fish appearing in the pattern. This is a good time of year as almost all the Billfish species we normally catch are around, as an example we had clients the week who caught Sailfish one day and Striped and Blue Marlin the next, then two days later had clients who hooked and released a Blue Marlin first thing in the morning and then a Black Marlin the last fish of the day, filling the space between with Dorado. Sailfish and Striped Marlin seemed to be more prevalent on the Pacific side while the Blues and Blacks were almost anywhere.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The flats up around Punta Gorda and the Estellidera area have continued to supply plenty of Yellowfin Tuna for boats that have picked up Sardinas for bait and use them for both chum and bait. On some days they have had to weed through a lot of Bonita and Skipjack, but there were days when things were just wide open. These fish have ranged between #15 and #40. Later in the week there were fish found with porpoise out around the 95 Spot and dark colored feathers and cedar plugs worked their magic with limits on fish to 35 pounds for the boats that got into them. There were reports of a few fish over #100 pounds being found but I never was able to get any confirming information on them.
DORADO: I think that Dorado may well be the fish of the month since almost every boat that went out was able to get at least three or four of these good eating fish. Most of the action was on the Pacific side of the Cape and close to shore. Or at least there were more fish close to shore, there were larger fish offshore around the Banks, but the numbers were within a mile of the beach. Most of these fish were in the 8-12 pound range while the offshore fish were in the 20-30 pound range. Strip baits, drifted live bait and slow trolled Ballyhoo accounted for most of the fish, plastic jigs and feather brought in the rest.
WAHOO: There were a few Wahoo reported from up at the Punta Gorda area and a couple from the Pacific banks, but there were no numbers of fish; they were incidental catch for boats working for other species.
INSHORE: Still some nice Roosterfish around but not in great numbers. Most of the Pangas have been fishing for Dorado and having great success.
NOTES: My buddy Chris Golden came back from a trip for Tuna up at the flats off of Punta Gorda and still had some Sardinas in the bait tank. While cleaning the boat after the trip they were fly-lining the leftover bait in the Marina and were having fun catching and releasing some 4-5 pound jacks. One of the Jacks became lunch for a small Hammerhead that they were able to release! This weeks report was written to the music of Bobby McFerrin on the 1988 EMI release “Simple Pleasures”, a step back in time with a song that brings a lot of memories “Don’t worry, be happy”. Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 4
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 11, 2006 - 7:11 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Sept.4-10, 2006
WEATHER: It’s fairly simple to describe the weather for the past week, cloudy and rainy! Early in the week we had rain every day, the crab grass in my front yard (normally just dirt) got so bad (2 ½ feet) from the past two weeks that I had to go and buy a weed-eater (as you get older those gadgets come in handy, sure saves your back!). Almost every day we had a solid cloud cover except at the end of the week where Saturday and Sunday had some sun peeking through, actually on Sunday it was mostly sunny. Our daytime highs were in the mid 90’s while our nighttime lows were in the mid 70’s.
WATER: Hurricane John really cooled things off and turned the water over. Inshore on both the Cortez and Pacific side the water was green and had cooled off to 80 degrees. There were some good size swells as a result of the passing of the hurricane on the Cortez side but the water on the Pacific side was really nice. As the week progressed the Cortez side smoothed out but there was quite a bit of debris in the water the farther north you went. At the end of the week the water on the Cortez side was 83-84 degrees and the Pacific was mostly in the 81-82 degree range.
BAIT: Bait was a bit tough to get this week with the inshore water being all green. Most of the boats were lucky to get 7 or 8, a mix of Caballito and Mullet at the normal $2 per bait. If you got out real early there was some Sardinas available up at Palmilla and San Jose at $20 a scoop, but they sold out real early.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There were still Striped Marlin getting hooked up this week but there were more Blue Marlin than Striped Marlin on the Cortez side of the Cape. All the Blues that I hear of came on lures around the Porpoise schools and around the banks while the Striped Marlin were closer to shore and came on live bait dropped back to fish appearing in the spread or to tailing fish. Most of the Blues were in the 150-200 pound range but there were enough of the 400-500 pound fish to keep everyone on their toes.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: This is almost a repeat of last weeks report. I and almost everyone else thought that Hurricane John would have chased the Yellowfin away from the Inman and Gorda Banks but it appears that the off colored water was all right with them. Scattered football fish were caught on the Pacific side amongst Porpoise and there was a good bite on Yellowfin to 40 pounds on those two banks, but the bite happened very early in the day based on the reports that I received. Sardines were the bait of choice for the early boats but others did all right on chunk baits and a few boats hooked up decent fish on lures. The fish found on the Pacific side were almost all associated with porpoise but you really had to hunt to find a pod that held the tuna, sometimes going through three or four pods of fish.
DORADO: Repeat of last week once again. Slow trolling strip baits was the way to go if you wanted Dorado this week. A good trip could result in 45 to 50 pounds of fillets. Most of the fish were between 12 and 20 pounds and they were found close to shore with the most effort being expended on the Pacific side. These fish like the rougher water and with the swells churning up the beach there were a lot of rip currents and debris lines to attract their attention. Lures also garnered a few fish but best results were had with the first fish kept behind the boat and chunks or strip baits drifted behind the first caught fish.
WAHOO: Nada
INSHORE: There were a few nice sized Roosterfish found this week but the discolored water made it a real search. Most of the inshore fishing was for Grouper and Amberjack. Almost all the Pangas that I heard about were going for the Dorado since they were so numerous and so close to shore.
NOTES: One more month to tournament time, start getting all the gear in order! If you are planning to come to Cabo during the month of October and want to fish, you may be too late for booking, get on the inter-net or on the phone and go to work, or change to golf! This weeks report was written to the music of that Texan guy, Jerry Jeff Walker as he sang about living in the tropics on the 1997 Tried and True Music release “Cowboy Boots & Bathing Suites”. Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Username: Captg
Post Number: 3
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 04, 2006 - 3:12 pm: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
August 28-Sept.3, 2006
WEATHER: Talk of the week was of Hurricane John. At the start of the week it was just a tropical depression to the southeast of Acapulco and almost everyone, including me, thought that it would follow the normal track to the west-northwest if it developed into anything. Thinking that was what was going to happen I booked tickets to California to get a car to drive back. To my dismay John developed into a tropical storm then a hurricane and came right at us. Kristen, out to the west, kept John from moving to the west. Uh-oh, I quickly booked tickets back on the first flight out on Thursday and arrived about 2 pm Thursday afternoon. No rain yet, just a few dark cloud bands. When the attendants went through the plane before we left Phoenix Airport and explained the Cabo was expected to get a direct hit from a hurricane, we were an hour late leaving as the manifest had to be radically changed and a lot of luggage unloaded! We came in with only about 20 people on the plane, but there had to be about 300 waiting to leave! Thank goodness we were not trying to get out. After going directly to the marina to secure the boat it was time to head for home and take care of the heavy stuff my wife could not do. I have to say that after having been through at leas 3 category 5 hurricanes, I am always happy when we only get a little rain and wind. Hurricane John kept moving off to the east and we only received the weak side, with winds to 35 knots and maybe 2” of rain over Saturday and Sunday. The East Cape took a direct hit and I lost contact with a few friends up there and I hope they are all right. Our cell phone system is busy and as of Sunday morning we cannot get on line or phone anyone, probably because a relay tower or two in the northern part of the state has been damaged.
WATER: It was decent water early in the week with swells on the Pacific side at 2-4 feet and the water was blue and warm at 84 degrees. On the Sea of Cortez side there were almost no swells and only light winds with blue water at 86 degrees. The clouds started moving in on Wednesday, not thick, but enough to give us partly cloudy skies and they kept the surface temperatures down a bit. Thursday the swells started to pick up and of course the port was closed on Friday and Saturday. The port re-opened on Sunday and a few boats that still had clients went out. A few of them returned with seasick passengers but most of them stayed out, the swells were up a bit but there was no chop on top of them.
BAIT: Caballito early in the week with the usual price of $2 per bait, some Sardinas up at Palmilla at $20 a scoop. At the end of the week on Sunday there were two bait boats out there selling bait, they were Caballito held over in their tanks through the storm, but they weren’t trying to gouge, only asking the usual $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: This whole section is going to be a bit difficult for me as I was only here for Monday and Sunday. There were Striped Marlin reported every day as well as some Blue Marlin, but the numbers of both had dropped off a bit. The Striped Marlin were reported close to shore near home and the Blue Marlin were reported to be out past the 95 Spot, just like last week.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Scattered football fish were caught on the Pacific side amongst Porpoise and there was a good bite on Yellowfin to 25 pounds with an occasional larger fish to 100 pounds reported early in the week a the Gorda Banks. I am writing the report on Sunday and will upgrade it if I find that anyone has found fish today. Almost all the above action at the Gorda was on Sardines and chunk bait.
DORADO: Exactly the same as last week. Slow trolling strip baits was the way to go if you wanted Dorado this week. A good trip could result in 45 to 50 pounds of fillets. Most of the fish were between 12 and 20 pounds and they were found close to shore with the most effort being expended on the Pacific side. These fish like the rougher water and with the swells churning up the beach there were a lot of rip currents and debris lines to attract their attention. Lures also garnered a few fish but best results were had with the first fish kept behind the boat and chunks or strip baits drifted behind the first caught fish.
WAHOO: Nada
INSHORE: Like they say in jersey, fagitaboutit! Storm swells made inshore fishing almost impossible on the Pacific and there were enough Dorado just offshore that the Pangas focused their attention there.
NOTES: As I said above, I am writing this on Sunday and am not sure if we will get internet back or not before Monday. If the boats that went out today did any good I will try and update this report before it is posted. Cabo got off lucky with Hurricane John, a bit of wind and rain but little damage. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we are as lucky the rest of the month! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Username: Captg
Post Number: 2
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 28, 2006 - 8:37 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
August 21-27, 2006
WEATHER: We have been experiencing our normal summer humidity and this week is just about what we expect from this time of year, highs in the high 90’s and humidity in the 60’s. That makes it feel over 100 degrees out there and being on the water is almost the only thing that helps relieve the sweat factor (other than being inside in the air-conditioning). We had a little relief this wee in the form of cloud cover, early in the week it was the tailing ends of banding from hurricane Ileana as she passed to the southwest of us. At the end of the week it was from a large system crossing over us from the mainland. We did receive a lot of rain up in the mountains and certain parts of the Los Cabos area received more than just window dotting rainfall as well. On the 27th we actually had a half day of hard rain, about an inch and a half!
WATER: We experienced fairly large swells all week, in fact the Port Captain closed the harbor at 9 am on the 23rd due to the size of the swells, but of course that was well after most of the charter boats left at 7 am. A few boats returned early with seasick passengers but most of them were able to hang in with the 6-foot swells. He re-opened the harbor at 7 am on the 24th so there was no real time lost for anglers. Water on the Pacific side was a bit rougher than on the Cortez side of the Cape with the swells at 6 feet and the wind at 10-15 knots from the NW. On the Cortez side the swell effect was not quite as bad and the winds were less so a lot of boats concentrated their efforts there. Pacific temperatures ranged between 80-85 degrees and on the Sea of Cortez it was between 83 and 86 degrees. The water was nice and blue on both sides of the Cape.
BAIT: No change in the bait availability from last week with the exception of Sardinas, there were very few available from La Playita due to the storm swells close to shore, instead most of the boats picked up Sardines at Palmilla. Bait for the most part here in Cabo consisted of Caballito with a few miscellaneous species in the mix such as Slip-mouths and Ladyfish. Up off of Palmilla and La Playita there were Sardinas available at $20 per scoop, and these were some decent sized baits.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There are still Striped Marlin out there but the numbers are going down, as the water remains warmer that they like. The warmer water has brought in some large Sailfish, many of them over 90 pounds, and the bite for Blue Marlin has picked up. Most of the boats that are trying for a big fish are getting at least one shot a day at a Blue and probably 50% of them are getting solid hook-ups. These have been nice fish with an average size of 200 pounds and a few individuals have been over #500. I did not hear of many Black Marlin caught this week. Almost all the big fish-Blue Marlin action has been outside the 95 spot, around the 1,000-fathom curve. A few have also been found off of the Lighthouse on the Pacific side and at the Gorda Banks. Most of the Blue action has been on lures but a few boats have reported excellent results with Bonita used as skip baits, rigged with circle hooks (remember to release your billfish!).
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I did not hear of much Tuna action on the Pacific side this week but that may have been due to the slightly rougher conditions there. We did have an excellent Tuna bit on fish from 20-40 pounds at the Inman bank early in the week. These fish were interested in Sardines and chumming with some brought the football size fish to the surface and the action was great. There were a lot of Bonita mixed in with the Yellowfin. Fishing large Sardinas deeper in the water, around 40’ resulted in some larger Tuna for a lot of boats, there were reports of as many as 8 fish over #60 per boats with a few fish reaching the #100 mark. Later in the week this action seemed to move toward us with a lot of boats stopping at the Gorda Banks and getting the same results
DORADO: Slow trolling strip baits was the way to go if you wanted Dorado this week. A good trip could result in 45 to 50 pounds of fillets. Most of the fish were between 12 and 20 pounds and they were found close to shore with the most effort being expended on the Pacific side. These fish like the rougher water and with the swells churning up the beach there were a lot of rip currents and debris lines to attract their attention. Lures also garnered a few fish but best results were had with the first fish kept behind the boat and chunks or strip baits drifted behind the first caught fish.
WAHOO: I saw a few Wahoo flags this week, but later discovered that boats that had no Shark flag aboard had flown most of them. There were a few Mako sharks caught but none of them were large.
INSHORE: Dorado and Yellowfin Tuna were the main targets for the Pangas this week while a few boats die try for Roosterfish. Unfortunately the swell size kept most of the Pangas from both getting the right bait for Roosterfish (mullet) and from getting really close to shore, right in the surf zone.
NOTES: The fishing continues to improve, as the weather remains hot and humid. I am going to be gone for most of next week but hopefully will get the skinny on the fishing when I get back. Until then, enjoy some good music and tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Username: Captg
Post Number: 1
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 21, 2006 - 9:09 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
August 14-20, 2006
WEATHER: We started this week with hot conditions and ended it with hot conditions. On Monday we registered 106 degrees on the wall here at the house, of course that was in the sun but still, it was very warm. Our average temps dropped in the middle of the week and then they were up again this weekend, I saw our home station register 104 at noon on Sunday. Combine the high temps with high humidity and you have the normal Cabo conditions for this time of year. We had partly cloudy conditions for most of the week and there was some rain up in the mountains but not here in Cabo. Average daytime highs were in the high 90’s and nighttime lows were in the low 80’s.
WATER: The passing of tropical storm Hector well to the south of us brought in some swells, but nothing that really affected the fishing, they just made the surfers happy! On the Sea of Cortez side of the Cape we have had swells to 3 feet and winds from the southeast at 5-10 knots, resulting in just a very light rifling on the water, or at worst, a light chop. On the Pacific side the swells were larger since there was better exposure to the effects of Hector, but still there was nothing larger than 6 feet this week. On the Pacific the winds were prevailing from the northwest at 10-20 knots and for the most part were on the low side of that. I had several days of fishing out around the Golden Gate Banks that were amazing, water clarity blue with just a very slight tinge of green and temperatures in the 84-degree range. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water was between 85-88 degrees with an occasional hot spot well out of range of our boats where we saw 91-degree water. Off shore there was blue water and in close to the beach it had a slight green tinge.
BAIT: Bait for the most part here in Cabo consisted of Caballito with a few miscellaneous species in the mix such as Slip-mouths and Ladyfish. Up off of Palmilla and La Playita there were Sardinas available at $20 per scoop, and these were some decent sized baits.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I am having a hard time believing that we are still catching Striped Marlin here since our surface temperatures are so high, but there has been a Striped Marlin strike on every trip I have made this past week. We found a concentration of these billfish on the Golden Gate Bank at the beginning of the week and went 2/5 in an hour on lures. This bank as well as the area on the Sea of Cortez around the Vinorama and Inman Banks has had fairly consistent action on the Stripers. Blue Marlin action was fairly consistent early in the week in an area 20 miles out at 160 degrees and there was a decent bite as well around the 95 Spot. Almost all the Blue Marlin action was on lures with Petrelero and blue/black being the most bit. The Blues were averaging #200-#250 with a few fish caught and released in the #350-400 pound range and there were two fish in excess of #600 brought in. Just a quick reminder, you don’t need to kill the fish to have a mount made! Also, any Blue Marlin over #400 is a female and is the basis of the brood-stock out there, so unless you catch the fish in the Bisbee tournament and it is worth a whole lot of $’s, let them go after taking a picture or two!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were school fish and football fish caught amongst the Porpoise on the pacific side around the Golden Gate and San Jaime Banks this week and the bite was fairly consistent. To the south there was some action on football fish out at 20 miles, and the best, most consistent action on good Yellowfin Tuna was at the Inman Bank area and Punta Gorda. Up there the action was a live bait thing with Sardines required and an early start an absolute necessity. Fish to 100 pounds were hooked and caught while fishing Sardines on small hooks tied directly to #40 line. Steady chumming with live sardines brought the fish up from 100-150 feet of water and once you got past the Bonita bite the chances of hooking up one of the nice fish (not the chances of landing one!) went way up.
DORADO: For some reason the Dorado action has remained slow and sporadic with most of the fish in the sub-10 pound range. A few larger fish have been caught but almost all the action has been on fish around 10 pounds. Fishing within 300 feet of water on the Pacific side resulted in quite a few boats getting multiples on Dorado and the action seemed to be a bit better off of the rocky points. Feathers in bright colors and slow trolled cut bait did the trick.
WAHOO: I didn’t see very many Wahoo flags this week but that may have been because almost all the boats were focused on Blue Marlin or Yellowfin Tuna. While fishing the Inman Banks on Friday we were working to get a Yellowfin Tuna, catching lots of Bonita instead. Twice we had Wahoo strikes on live Sardinas and once we had a Wahoo come up to the boat, following a hooked Skipjack. The Wahoo (estimated at 30 pounds) took three bites on the Skip Jack and left full.
INSHORE: There has been no inshore change for the past two weeks. Inshore on the Pacific has still been an iffy thing except for boats working right in the rocks for Snapper. Most of the inshore action took place on the Cortez side and there were some decent Roosterfish as well as Pargo and Grouper. The majority of the Pangas were working a bit farther out for Dorado.
NOTES: Repeating the fisherman’s mantra “Patience, Patience, Patience” can drive you crazy but that is the way it works. This past week was a perfect example and I was lucky to have patience and a lot of luck! The bite is slowly improving in all aspects and I am really hoping for the fishing on the Pacific side of the Cape to bust wide open in a week or so. Until next week, Tight Lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 24, 2006 - 9:00 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
July 17-23, 2006
WEATHER: With the passing of Hurricanes Bud and Carlotta we received large swells, and a bit of wind, but for the past week things have come back to normal. Our daytime highs have remained in the high 90’s with an occasional foray into the 102-degree range while at night we have been thankful for cooler temperatures in the low 80’s with a slight breeze. Next week we might see some overcast conditions and possibly a bit of rain as Tropical Storm Emilia may have a bit of an effect on our weather as she is expected to pass us well to the southwest.
WATER: The storm swells we ended with last week died off and there were only seas to 3-4 feet on the Pacific side and less on the Cortez side of the Cape this week. At the end of the week we had very slight seas everywhere with very little wind on the Cortez side and some choppy conditions on the Pacific. Water temperatures were mixed a bit as we had a band of very warm water (84-85 degrees) cross the tip of the Baja at a distance of about 15 miles. On the Pacific side of the Cape the water was 77-80 degrees with the warmer water in a band across the San Jaime Bank. On the Sea of Cortez we had a hot spot of water around the Gorda Banks with temperatures at 86 degrees. We had green water close to shore on the Pacific side and slightly green water on the San Jaime and Golden Gate Banks. The water on the Sea of Cortez was very nice and blue.
BAIT: Mostly Caballito and Mullet with a few Mackerel at the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: On again, off again are the words to use for the Billfish bite this past week. We had a client fish 6 days straight for Marlin with the emphasis being on Blues. Day one was a shut-out, day two resulted in two Striped Marlin, day three was a Striped Marlin and a Dorado, day four was a release of a Blue of about #200 and another the same size jumped off, day five was a Striped Marlin release and a Blue of about #500 jumped off and day six was another shut-out. The action was inconsistent and scattered. Most of the Striped Marlin and the small Blues were found within 2 miles of the shore on the Cortez side while the larger Blue was found at the 95 spot. All these fish fell for one of two 10” lures from Black Bart. The fleet’s catches were about the same with the on-off results, but fewer fish were found on the Pacific side than on the Cortez.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I heard of one boat getting into Tuna at the San Jaime early in the week but that was the only positive Tuna note I heard. There were scattered blind strikes on fish to #30, but nothing consistent. My fingers are still crossed.
DORADO: Maintaining their status as fish of the week, the Dorado were small and scattered, but still more plentiful than any other species. Most of the fish were found within 2 miles of the beach on both the Cortez and the Pacific side of the Cape with there being a slight increase in the number of fish found on the Pacific side as the week wore on.
WAHOO: What Hoo? I saw one confirmed Wahoo flag this week.
INSHORE: A repeat of last week’s inshore action. Fishing for Roosterfish continues to improve and anglers found the best results either slow trolling mullet just outside the surf break during the day or soaking live bait at night in the 50-60 foot zone. There were fish to #80 caught but the average was 20 pounds. Other than the Roosterfish there is almost no action to report. Almost all the inshore action was from Cabo Falso and up the coast toward San Jose.
NOTES: This weeks water was a bit warmer overall than last weeks, and we are now in Hurricane season so that will have an effect on where the storms head. I am still waiting for the good fishing to start, it’s not bad right now, but as you can see, it’s nothing to write home about, at least compared to what we are used to! This weeks report was written to the music of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young on the 1970 Atlantic release “Deja-Vu”. Until next week, Tight Lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 17, 2006 - 8:03 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
July 10-16, 2006
WEATHER: The big news on the weather front this week was the appearance of the first hurricanes of the season. The closest point of approach was 450 milers to the southwest so we only received a spattering of rain here in Cabo but we definitely noticed the swells these storms produced. Hurricanes Bud and Carlotta are now tropical depressions and no longer have any effect on our region, but the swells produced did have an effect on the fishing. We also had a little rain from the storms, most of it in the mountains and out on the East Cape. Our daytime highs were lowered to the mid 80’s due to the overcast for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but on Sunday the clouds were gone and at my house the thermometer (in the sun in the driveway) showed 120 degrees. Of course that was direct sun with no wind, in reality it was the low to mid 90’s with a slight breeze in most of the inland areas, and significantly cooler offshore.
WATER: With the overcast produced later in the week from the feeder bands associated with Hurricanes Bud and Carlotta we were not able to receive good sea temperature shots. I was on the water on both the Pacific side and the Sea of Cortez and the following is what I observed. On Friday on the Cortez side of the Cape we had water temperatures in the high 80’s, most of it from 85 to 88 degrees all over the place. From the 95 spot to the 1150 and out to the Cabrillo Seamount the water was a deep blue to purple color and 86-88 degrees. The storm swells were at 8-10 feet but there was no wind on top of them so it was not too bad. On Saturday I fished the Pacific side and the water at the Golden Gate bank was 85 degrees and blue with a tinge of green to it, farther to the south at the San Jaime Bank the temperature dropped to 80 degrees and was a light green in color. Several miles to the inside of the San Jaime the temperature raised to 83 degrees for several miles indicating a band of warm water along the Candelaria Canyon trough, but it was still a greenish color. The green tinged water color extended to 25 miles to the south of the Cape and it did not really clear up until well past the east of the 95 spot. On Sunday the swells had died down to an almost normal 3-6 feet and the water had also started to clean up a bit.
BAIT: Mostly Caballito and Mullet with a few Mackerel at the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite has continued to drop off with the increase in water temperatures but the Blue and Black Marlin bite has improved. This means that there were fewer Marlin caught, but those that were brought to the boats were larger in size. I heard an unconfirmed report of a Blue Marlin weighed at the Cabo scales on Friday that was supposed to have pushed the needle to between 900 and 1,000 pounds, the fish was reported to have been caught by one of the fleet boats at the 95 spot. Most of the Marlin action was close to shore, between 1 and 5 miles out and it was a mix of Striped Marlin and small (250 pound class) Blue Marlin. The warm waters have also brought Sailfish into our area and the catch of these Billfish was almost equal to the Striped Marlin action. The Marlin action dropped off quite a bit late in the week with the advent of the large storm swells in our area, but this effect was also very pronounced on other species as well. If I had to hazard a guess, it would be that the billfish success ratio this week ran about 40% with most of the fish taken on trolled lures, and most of the action happening on the Cortez side of the Cape.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We are still waiting for the Tuna to show up in numbers. For two days in the middle of the week there was a good bit on fish in the 30-40 pound class at the San Jaime Banks, but then the storm swells moved in as well as the Purse Seine boats and then there were no more fish to be had. It may be that the reason is not entirely the Seine boats, because the water also cooled a bit and turned greenish, but for whatever the reason, the fish disappeared. I did hear of a boat getting into the Yellowfin amongst the Porpoise on the east side of the San Jaime on Saturday and doing very well, but since I was in the same area and saw no other boats there on the radar I tend to think it was just a bad joke. There were scattered pods of Porpoise found to the south at 30+ miles and they did produce Yellowfin on occasion, the largest I heard of and could confirm from that area was #94. Off of the Punta Gorda area there were reports of blind strikes on school fish to 35 pounds. Hopefully the Tuna fishing will get better soon.
DORADO: For the second week in a row Dorado were the fish of the week. This does not mean the bite as wide open by any means; this just means that there were more Dorado caught per trip than any other species. Most of the fish were between 15 and 25 pounds, but there were enough fish over #30 to keep things interesting. The storm swells we had and the weird water conditions combined to keep the numbers down, but they were still the most common fish out there. It is a good possibility that the swells produced by the storms and the rain in the mountains may result in more floating debris during the next week, and with that a better chance to find a concentration of fish, at least we can keep our fingers crossed for that!
WAHOO: What Hoo? Bad moon phase combined with the strange water meant that if there were any Wahoo found it was pure good luck. I did not hear of any fish caught this past week.
INSHORE: Fishing for Roosterfish continues to improve and the best results were found by anglers either slow trolling mullet just outside the surf break during the day or soaking live bait at night in the 50-60 foot zone. There were fish to #80 caught but the average was 20 pounds. The large storm swells had a definite effect on the inshore fishing this week so other than the Roosterfish; there is almost no action to report. Almost all the inshore action was from Cabo Falso and up the coast toward San Jose.
NOTES: Sirius Radio “Elvis Channel” was the music for this weeks report! Once in a while you have to go back to the roots! Until next week, Tight Lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 10:39 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
July 3-9, 2006
WEATHER: All week long we had the daytime highs in the high 90’s to right at a top of 102 degrees. The evening temperatures were quite a bit cooler at the low 80’s but no matter how you cut it, most people were looking for air-conditioning in the middle of the day! We did have the daytime temps drop for an afternoon and then into the evening on Friday with the threat of clouds and thunderstorms from the mainland, that cooled thing rapidly! No rain and it looks like thing may remain the same for a while.
WATER: It keeps getting warmer and the water continues to blue right up, I saw water this past couple of days that looked almost purple. On the Cortez side of the Cape we have had surface readings of up to 90 degrees. I have been in a few of those areas the past few days and never did see anything above 88.5 degrees, but that is easily explained by differing equipment. What it comes down to is that on the Cortez side of the Cape the water has been between 89 and 80 degrees with the cooler water being outside the Cabo area toward San Jose a distance out 10-20 miles. Off of the East Cape the water is very warm, averaging 87 degrees on the surface. As far as the Pacific side of the Cape is concerned, the warm water is progressing fairly quickly toward the north. We are already receiving reports of 80-degree water covering the Golden Gate Bank. It is bluing up nicely in that direction as well as the chlorophyll laden green water is pushed north.
BAIT: Mostly Mackerel, Caballito and Mullet at the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I am now able to say officially that the summer season in Cabo is upon us. I could not say that until I had hooked my first Blue of the season and we did that on the 7th, with a Blue that was well over #350 crashing the short corner plunger and charging the boat. Of course, as always, the guys with the video cameras we asleep and did not get any film of the fish, but it was a classic take and then an epic show, at least until the hook pulled with the fish three hundred yards out. Other guys have been getting into them, but that is my first of the year, so now for me, it is “official”, and the big gear is coming out. Over the radio I heard that there were fish ranging in size from #600 to #200 caught. There were also a few Blacks, but not the number of last week. Surprisingly, there were still a lot of Striped Marlin caught as well, we released two on the 7th and had another one come off after a short run. Most of the billfish action occurred within 10 miles of shore, and the action was not concentrated in any one area, at least close to home. I did hear that there were two days this week when anglers on the East Cape were getting multiple fish per day only two miles off of the beach outside the Cabo Pulmo area. We are hoping that the Number of fish remains high and that the water does not warm up too much, we’d like them to stay around for a while!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: tuna were no the fish of the week, there can be no doubt about that. The fish that were found were 90% footballs, between 6 and 10 pounds in size. Most of the boats were releasing these baby Tuna, but quite a few boats (and fishermen) were loading up just to put meat in the coolers. Offshore were where most of the bigger fish were found, but there were no fish as far as I heard of that weighed more than 60 pounds. ^0 miles due south of the Arch and 50 miles due east of Punta Gorda were reported to have good size porpoise pods that held Tuna, but that was to far for most of the boats to travel. That is not to say there were not any fish found closer to home, it’s just that these fish were blind strikes, and the largest of them were only in the 25-pound class.
DORADO: Once again I have to say the Dorado were the fish of the week. They were found everywhere and almost every boat got some, a few boats did very well with fish counts of five or more, all in the 10-20 pound class with a few fish to 50 pounds. We expect the bite to only get better and the fish to get larger as time moves on. Bright colored lures and slow trolled live bait seemed to work best on these fish, and as long as the water was 80 degrees or better, the fish were there. Wow, that was almost word for word from last week! Must mean that there are fish here! This week however they were not everywhere, you had to search a bit to find them, but there are still large numbers of these quality fish, and the boats that got into them did very well!
WAHOO: I thought that this moon was going to bring on a good Wahoo bite and while I did hear about a few fish, there were not the numbers that I was expecting. A few boats had more than one strike and a few of them got lucky and caught both fish, but most boats were lucky to get one Wahoo strike, even if they were concentration of the fish. The best results seemed to come from the Punta Gorda, La Fortuna area and around the Inman Banks, as live bait slow trolled very early in the morning produced consistent fish every day. Elsewhere the bit was slow and most of the fish were incidental catch found while looking for Marlin or Tuna. Overall the Wahoo averaged 40 pounds, with the smallest I heard of around 12 pounds and the largest right at 80 pounds.
INSHORE: Roosterfish is beginning to get better with more quality fish being found but the key is still having fresh, lively Mullet in the bait tank. With the calm water we had most of the week many, if not most, of the Panga fleet boats were working offshore for Dorado and Marlin. Other than the Roosterfish, inshore fishing consisted of Needlefish and Bonita, and there were plenty of both to be found. Best baits for them were Sardinas.
NOTES: Music for this week’s report was from the Sirius radio “Classic Vinyl” channel. You learn more cuss words playing golf than you do fishing! My best at 118 and getting better every week! Until then, Tight Lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
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Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 03, 2006 - 7:14 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
June 26- July 2, 2006
WEATHER: There is no doubt about it; we are defiantly in summer mode here in Cabo! Our daytime highs have been up to 102 here in town and at night our lows have been in the mid to high 70’s. Not only that, it’s starting to get humid. The best way to co9mbat this has been to get out on the water, and that is what Cabo is all about anyway. Unless you get a T-time of 7 am and play a very fast round, of course!
WATER: We had surface temperatures approaching 90 degrees showing up off the East Cape this week, but they never got close to us. The warmest water we saw was 86 degrees out around the Seamount, and that was just for a few days. Near home the water temperature on the Cortez side of the Cape averaged 86 degrees with the water just outside the arch at 82 degrees. On the Pacific side we have seen a steady push of the warmer water up to the north and out to the west. There has been a slight turn-over of the water near shore that happened on Friday afternoon and we had a finger of cool green water, about 74 degrees, flow along the beach on the Pacific and form an eddy that reached the 95 spot. Hopefully this goes away soon.
BAIT: Mostly Mackerel, Caballito and Mullet at the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Blue and Black Marlin are starting to show on a regular basis and there are still plenty of Striped Marlin showing up. The key for the Striped Marlin has been to get below the warm surface layer into the cooler depths. On the Cortez side there were a lot of lazy fish seen on the surface within 5 miles of the shore. Keeping an eye on the depth sounder for bait, it paid off to drop a couple of live ones down on top of the bait balls, mostly around 50-60 feet. That was where the fish were hungry. Boats doing this were able of catch three or four fish a day if they concentrated on it. The Blues and the Blacks were caught mostly while trolling lures. The Blues were off shore and most of them were found in the same areas as the football tuna. That makes a lot of sense because the tuna are a primary feed for them. A few boats rigged the tuna and fished them live and got results, not every boat had the technique work, but there was enough action for the lucky ones! The Black Marlin were concentrated closer to shore and while not there in big numbers, there were some quality size fish found. Almost all of these fish were caught on lures but I believe that if someone trolled a couple of live tuna over the edges on the banks and shelves there would be some action for them.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Most of the Yellowfin this week were football fish from 6 to 15 pounds and they were found in the blind just off shore, 5 miles or so on the Pacific side, with a few fish found on the Cortez side. These provided high numbers for a lot of the fleet boats and got a lot of anglers excited, but there were very few quality fish found. Strangely enough bright colored lures worked better than dark colored lures this week, and red/yellow was a favorite. That may have had something to do with the fact that every tuna we caught was stuffed to the gills on red crab and Sardinas! I did talk with a few anglers who said that farther off shore, 30+ miles to the south there were Dolphin pods and they were holding some decent fish to 40 pounds, but they were moving fast.
DORADO: I have to say the Dorado were the fish of the week. They were found everywhere and almost every boat got some, a few boats did very well with fish counts of five or more, all in the 10-20 pound class with a few fish to 50 pounds. We expect the bite to only get better and the fish to get larger as time moves on. Bright colored lures and slow trolled live bait seemed to work best on these fish, and as long as the water was 80 degrees or better, the fish were there.
WAHOO: While the moon phase is not quite right for a good bite, the warm water has brought more fish in so that it seems that things are looking up. Just wait for the full moon and the warm water, there will be some nice fish taken. A boat berthed next to us had an #80 fish chew up a lure yesterday, the Captain said they saw it come in and attack.
INSHORE: Roosterfish fishing is improving with quality fish to 50 pounds starting to bite on the Cortez side of the Cape. Slow trolled live mullet, right in the surf line, has produced quite a few fish this week. There are large amounts of finger mullet just off the beach, as well as big schools of Sardinas. With the flat water conditions we had most of the week there was a lot of attention paid by the Pangas to fishing just off the beach, within 5 miles, for Marlin and Dorado as well as the football tuna, so the traditional beach fishing did not receive a lot of attention.
NOTES: The report is done and I’m out of here! I have a full day trip today and we are going to catch fish! This weeks report was written to the various groups that played on the Sirius radio “Margaretville” channel, such a nice thing to have! Until next week, tight lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
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Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 26, 2006 - 8:48 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
June 12-25, 2006
WEATHER: Over the past two weeks the weather has run from a high of 101 here at my house to a low of 62 degrees on the Pacific side. Last week there was one day when a large fog bank ran over Cabo from the Pacific side, you could see it coming. For the most part it has been sunny and warm, and the humidity is just starting to kick up a bit.
WATER: When I flew up to California on the 12th the water out in front of Cabo was blue and 82 degrees. While I was gone the California current kicked in strong and cold, green/brown water wrapped around the Cape as far north on the Cortez side as Gorda Banks. I got back on the 20th and while out on the 21st I recorded water at 64 degrees at the arch, and it was almost pea soup green. By the 22nd it had warmed to 76 degrees and on Friday we had 82 degrees and it was getting blue again. As of the end of this week we had a push of warm water onto the San Jaime bank area, I may be able to find out if the water is clearing up in that direction later in the week.
BAIT: Mostly Mackerel, Caballito and Mullet at the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The week I was gone the fishing went downhill for all species unless you went 40+ miles out and it really showed in the fleet Billfish records. This past week thing only got better toward the end of the week with the approach of the warm, blue water again. Boats that went up the Cortez toward Los Frailles the week before last had good luck with Striped Marlin and some decent Blue and Black Marlin as well. The same situation occurred for boats that went past the Cabrillo Seamount, 40 miles to the east. At the end of this week the Striped Marlin had started to show again just three miles off the beach from Gray Rock to Red Hill. There were a lot of tailing fish seen and most boats had a shot on at least one Marlin that was hungry, I did see a few boats flying four Marlin flags.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Over the past two weeks the Tuna situation has not really changed much. They were not to be found in any numbers when I left and that is still the situation most of the time. An occasional boat has gotten lucky and gotten into a school of footballs and limited out, but that is not the norm yet, perhaps later on the Yellowfin fishing will pick up. Most of the fish have been found with Porpoise and there have been some good marks down 60-100 feet, but the fish are just not coming up for the lures, and they have been moving fairly rapidly, making dropping a live bait on them a very tough proposition.
DORADO: The cold green water chased the larger fish away the week I left but they are back now and almost every boat is getting into at lest a few fish. Some of the fish have been in the 50-pound class but the average has been more in the 15 pound range with a few out to 25 pounds. Slow trolled live bait, brightly colored lures pulled at 8+ knots and finding diving frigate birds then tossing live bait have all been methods that have worked this week. Most of the fish have been on the Cortez side but as the warm water wraps around toward the Pacific side that might change.
WAHOO: There have been a few fish caught but the cool water and moon phase have made them a bit tough to get right now.
INSHORE: The cold, green water made bottom fishing almost the only game in town while I was gone but things have picked up again over the past few days with more Roosterfish being found on the Cortez side along with some good fishing for Amberjack and of course, bottom fish. Slow trolling live mullet for Roosterfish has been the ticket for most of the Pangas, and the fish have been very tight to shore.
NOTES: Glad I’m back home, the drive down the Baja was great, the road was in good condition, I just wish I had been able to bring a Jeep with me! This report was written to the sounds of Gnarls Barkley on the CD “St. Elsewhere”, a 2006 Downtown Records release. Until next week, tight lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
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Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 12, 2006 - 7:53 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
June 5-11, 2006
WEATHER: Highs in the upper 90’s and lows in the low 60’s early in the week, later on toward the weekend the nighttime lows were in the mid 70’s. We had a few scattered clouds and plenty of wind almost all week long. Reports from the Pacific side of the area were of fog banks just off of the beach and strong winds as well.
WATER: Hot water to 86 degrees was seen on the Sea of Cortez this week while just 8 miles up the beach on the Pacific side it was a cold 64 degrees. There has been a fairly well defined break where the temperature has changed from 68 to 78 degrees over a couple of miles. It started out right in front of Cabo and has drifted back and forth all week long. On the Pacific side of the cape the weather has been pretty nasty with the wind and chop so not a lot of boats are working the stuff, but there are fish out there.
BAIT: Most of the bait this week was Mackerel and some Mullet at the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: It’s getting better for the Blues and Blacks as there were some of each hooked up every day this week. A few reported fatties were out there but I don’t have any hard information on them. There were still plenty of Striped Marlin to be found and quite a few boats were able to get more than two a day. They ended the week close to home and just off th4 beach with most of the fish showing up between ½ and 4 miles offshore between Cabo and San Jose. The same area has produced the Blue and Black marlin as well. The Blues and Blacks have been hooked up on lures while about half of the Striped Marlin have been hooked on live bait, ¼ on dead bait and ¼ on lures.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: A few boats were getting into the Tuna on an almost daily basis, but they were getting a bit beat up doing it. The reports were of moving pods of Porpoise almost 25 miles to the south of us and they were holding plenty of school and football fish. Most of the Tuna were in the 15-20 pound size range with some to 35 pounds. Closer to home there were Tuna found just outside the Cabo Bay area and just off of Red Hill, less than 2 miles off of the beach. These fish were found by blind strikes, there not being any Porpoise with them. The usual feathers in dark colors as well as cedar plugs were the best lures and some of the boats reported doing well on the close fish by jigging or yo-yoing iron after a trolling hook-up.
DORADO: Finally the Dorado have made it to our area and things are picking up. Our boat was out yesterday and brought back a pair of fish, both of them over 60 pounds. Most of the boats were able to get at least a couple of fish in the 15+ range and there were a lot of fish larger than that. Slow trolled live bait worked great if you saw Dorado chasing flyers in the area, and dropping back a live bait after hooking one up on the troll also worked well. The Cortez side of the Cape saw the most action because the water was calmer, but fish were due south as well.
WAHOO: Full moon and Wahoo, that seems to be the right mix for now. There were plenty of fish caught, not to the point that everybody was getting hooked up to one, but there was pretty good action for boats that tried to target them. Most of the fish were in the 40-60 pound class and were biting on dark colored lures.
INSHORE: The Roosterfish are getting larger with fish to 40 pounds being found. The warm water has worked it charm and there are plenty of mullet for them to feed on. Right off of the surf break on the Pacific side the bite is still going on for Sierra as well, with quite a few Pangas able to catch limits. Scattered Bonito and Skipjack filled in for when the action slowed a bit and since the Marlin were in so close, a lot of Pangas were getting them while trying for the other fish.
NOTES: This weeks report was written to the music of Alison Krauss & Union Station on the 1999 Rounder Records release, “Forget About It”. Awesome! Until next week, Tight Lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 05, 2006 - 6:54 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
May 29-June 4, 2006
WEATHER: The warm weather continued this week with our daytime highs in the mid to high 90’s while the nights were much cooler with temperatures in the mid to low 70’s. At least that was how it was before this weekend. The wind started to blow and it really cooled off, I had 62 degrees here at home early Monday morning. That’s not to say the nights were not warm, I have still been running the air-conditioner in the evenings (except for last night)! We had mostly sunny skies this week with a little haze out to sea on the Pacific side early on, but the wind kicked in from the WNW and the haze went away. Unfortunately, so did the nice conditions on the Pacific side. We had a few days in the middle of the week where the Pacific was calm, it allowed a window for a lot of the bigger boats to leave and go up to San Diego. After the wind came back, it was victory at sea once again.
WATER: There was not much change this week from last week as far as the water conditions go. The Cortez side of the Cape continued to be a lot warmer than the Pacific side with some of the hot areas reaching temperatures of 84 degrees. The water blues up a lot and on the Pacific side it remained cool with a lot of the areas still in the 60’s and green. There has been a decent break right out in front to 30 miles where there is both color and temperature change and most of the fleet has been working it hard. Unfortunately this is also where the rough water from the Pacific side are meeting the calmer, warmer waters from the Cortez side, and there have been quite a few boats returning early from this area.
BAIT: The usual Mackerel at $2 per bait and there were some Mullet and Caballito as well at the same price. I saw some decent Sardinas at $25 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Striped Marlin continued to be the billfish of the week but there have been a few Black and Blues caught as well, undoubtedly due to the warming water on the Cortez side of the Cape. The majority of the Striped Marlin have seemed to be along the 74-75 degree temperature break to the SE of us and a lot of boats are getting two or three fish per trip. The Blues and Blacks have come from farther up the Cortez side with most of them up around the Punta Gorda area. Live and dead bait have worked best for the Striped Marlin and lures have produced the Blues and Blacks.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Tuna scattered once again and have been found all over the place. The clue, as normal this time of year has been to find porpoise that are feeding. A lot of time the Porpoise are traveling and you can work them for hours with no results. If you are not marking fish on the depth sounder it does not pay to waste your time on them. If there are fish under them, stay around the area, the fish will come up and feed sooner or later. Most of the fish have been in the 20-pound class with a few larger fish to 60 pounds reported once in a while.
DORADO: I was blown away early in the week when I saw several boats flying outriggers full of yellow (and red) flags when they returned, I thought that it might have been a holiday or something, but it turned out that a piece of net had been found. The first boat to the net found it out along the Cabrillo Seamount and over the next three days it came closer to the cape and more boats got on it. The surface appearance was small, only a couple of yards square, but the net extended deep and was loaded with Dorado. Limits were the norm by boats that found it with most of the fish in the 20-pound class. Elsewhere there were Dorado caught as well with quite a few fish beginning to show up in the better weight classes. Bright colored lures worked well in the open ocean while live and cut bait was the ticket around the net.
WAHOO: I saw more Wahoo flags this week than I have seen combined for the rest of the year so far. While there were a lot of nice fish caught off of the net, there were a lot of fish as well along the temperature break to the SE. Lots of bite-offs were reported due to the use of monofilament leaders, but there were plenty of fish in the 40-60 pound class caught as well. Surprisingly, there were more Wahoo reported from offshore than were reported from the ledges and banks.
INSHORE: Small Roosterfish and a few scattered Sierras have been the majority of inshore fish this week as we are going through the seasonal temperature change. A few Pangas are trying bottom fishing but most of them are going a few miles out and trying to get into Dorado and Tuna.
NOTES: This weeks report was written to the music of “The Amazing Rhythm Aces” on the 1994 Sunshine Marketing release “Ride Again”. Listen and enjoy! Until next week, Tight Lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 29, 2006 - 7:47 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
May 22-28, 2006
WEATHER: The heat of summer continued at the beginning of the week, we had daytime highs in the high 90’s with a tad over 100 degrees in the sun at my house on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday afternoon the wind started to blow and Friday morning I woke to 69 degrees! I don’t think we broke 85 degrees for the next two days. On Sunday the winds had died down and out at the golf course (Country Club) I worked up a sweat. Of course that may have been because I was chasing the ball all over hell and back, but I think it was because it became hot with no wind. Don’t even think about asking what I shot, if I told you I’d have to keep out of sight for at least a year!
WATER: The Pacific side of the Cape continued to be cooler than the Cortez side and the water was much rougher and green as well. The difference between the two areas was almost 15 degrees early in the week but late on the warmer water continued to intrude on the Pacific side. At the end of the week we had a cold spot right of 63 degrees in front of Cabo while the water up to the area of the Golden Gate bank was around 71 degrees and on the Cortez side it maintained an 80-degree presence. With the wind later in the week being offshore on the Cortez side was bouncy, on the Pacific side unthinkable for a charter.
BAIT: The usual Mackerel at $2 per bait and there were some Mullet and Caballito as well at the same price. I saw some decent Sardinas at $25 per scoop, a little pricey but if you were after some of the Tuna that were out there they paid off.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Marlin continued to show themselves and continued to frustrate anglers this week. The effort was concentrated on the Sea Of Cortez side of the Cape due to the strong winds, but the fish were there. These Striped Marlin might stay in the area for another few weeks, but as the water temps continue to climb we will be seeing fewer of them and more Blue Marlin. The bite was definitely focused around the tide change, though it was either very early in the morning around the low tide or late afternoon with the high tide. Almost all the boats were finding a couple of dozen fish a day and with luck 20% of them were biting. Live bait was the key, and light leader helped. The action was concentrated within 5 miles of shore on the Cortez side, off of Chileno Beach and the San Jose Bay area.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: It was nice seeing the flags flying for Tuna early in the week; almost every boat that put in any effort was able to get hooked up to fish in the 15-25 pound range. A lot of the fish were open water fish while there were slightly larger ones associated with the Porpoise schools. One friend of mine got lucky in finding a pod of Porpoise that has #60 class Tuna associated with them. That was not the norm however and most of the boats caught the football+ sizes. The fish were either due south of us (open water 20-30 pound fish), up the pacific side with the porpoise (the larger ones) or on the Cortez side with the porpoise (the footballs and a bit larger). The larger fish were biting on live bait dropped back after an initial hook-up on lures.
DORADO: Surprisingly enough the warmer water and the wind have not brought on a great Dorado bite for us. Perhaps it will take another two or three weeks. The conditions are perfect, but all we are getting are the scattered schools of little chicken fish and only a few of the larger #20+. Those that have been caught have been found with the Striped Marlin so they have been incidental fish. If someone concentrated on them the results might be different.
WAHOO: The new moon resulted in very few Wahoo being seen or caught this week. The few nice fish that were reported came from the Gorda Banks and Punta Gorda area on live bait and Marlin lures in darker colors.
INSHORE: Tournaments are over for a while and I am caught up on boat work! I think we are getting a cement delivery scheduled for Wednesday (new patio) as we have all the curb forms and rebar ready and laid. Everything is leveled and filled with sand and gravel; it’s time to find out what the ready-mix is going to cost! Next is the roof (if my buddy Tom ever gets things together) and then we’re ready for the hurricanes! This weeks report was written to the music of Neal Young on the 1972 Warner Bros. Release “Harvest”. Until next week, Tight Lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 7:53 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
May 15-21, 2006
WEATHER: We are having summer weather this week with our daytime temperatures in town around the low 90’s and our nighttime low in the mid 70’s. With the humidity starting to kick in I have been running the air conditioner on some evenings. No rain this week and we had mostly sunny skies all week long.
WATER: The Sea of Cortez is warming up so quick that I am a little bit worried. On the charts from Terrafin we are seeing water at 83 degrees already. On the Pacific side it is quite a bit cooler with a slight warm water extension onto the San Jaime Banks with temperatures around 71 degrees but the rest of the Pacific area has much warmer water with most of it in the mid 60’s. The clarity of the water is a mirror of the temperature with the Pacific side mostly green and on the Cortez side the hot 83-degree water is almost a purple color. I thing the Blue sand Blacks are just around the corner!
BAIT: This week the bait was almost all Mackerel with some of the bait boats having Caballito and Lisa at the normal $2 per bait. I did not hear of any Sardinas available.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: We just finished up the inaugural World Championship Billfish Catch and Release Tournament this week. There were 24 teams entered and over the three days of fishing, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday there were a total of 224 Striped Marlin released. That was an average of almost 3 Striped Marlin per boat per day. Of course not everyone caught the average, these were professional teams for the most part and they approach the sport that way. Lots of fresh bait, never mind the lures, throw bait to as many fish as possible and the numbers should work out. The top team released 30 Striped Marlin in three days of fishing and believes they threw bait to over 100 fish per day! One of the reasons it was difficult to find hungry fish was the full moon that just passed. The fish were feeding at night and stuffing themselves on squid. Most of the charter boats were lucky to release two fish per day since they were out for Dorado and Tuna as well. I did not fare as well as the professional teams; we were able to release one Marlin each day of the tournament. Maybe next year!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: It appeared that there were plenty of football fish out there this week; it was just that they were on the Pacific side in the rougher water. For most of the boats that was just a little bit too rough for their clients and with no Marlin in the same area, it was either Yellowfin or nothing. From 5 miles in front of the arches to just this side of the San Jaime Bank there were Yellowfin found with Porpoise and a few small schools were found in the blind. I did not hear of any reports of big Tuna from our area this week, but there is a good chance that they will show up soon.
DORADO: There were scattered Dorado this week and for the most part they were found closer to shore than almost any of the other species. From the Punta Gorda area to just off the lighthouse on the Pacific, they were found from ½ to 5 miles off the beach. Bright colored lures and slow trolled live bait were the best attractors for these fish. The sizes were not great but it is early in the season. Most of the fish were averaging 8 pounds but an occasional 25-pound fish made things interesting.
WAHOO: There were few Wahoo reported this week but at least there were a few. I thought that the full moon would have kicked the bite into gear but the fish were shy. A few fish in the 30-40 pound class were caught and they were found on the Cortez side of the cape, for the most part up around the Punta Gorda and Gorda Banks areas.
INSHORE: I was busy with the tournament this week so never did get a good feel for the inshore action but the few people I did speak to about it said that there were still a few Sierra to be found and on the Pacific there were still Yellowtail off of the rocky points. Roosterfish have started a fairly strong showing on the Cortez side of the Cape, as the Mullet have been more numerous this past week. This weeks report was written to the music of Pink Floyd on the 1990 Capitol release “Piper at the Gates of Dawn.” Until next week, Tight Lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 6:59 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
May 8-14, 2006
WEATHER: It was a beautiful week with mostly sunny skies. Our daytime highs were in the high 80’s and our nighttime lows in the high 60’s and reached the low 70’s this weekend. We did have steady winds from the northwest all week long at 8-15 knots.
WATER: Checking the charts at the end of the week you could see the progression, slow though it is, of warm water from the Sea of Cortez side of the Cape toward the Pacific. On the Cortez side our water temperatures were in the 75-80 degree range with the warmer water up around Punta Gorda. Right in front of Cabo the water was a cooler and greener 67-70 degrees and on the Pacific side of the Cape the water was very green and a cool 60-67 degrees. There was no really defined break between the cool and green water and the warm and blue water.
BAIT: There was a mix of Caballito and Mackerel this week at the usual $2 per bait, and there were reports of some Sardinas as well at $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Rolex/IGFA Offshore Tournament is over and while I have no actual numbers, reports were of approximately 77 Striped Marlin released on day one, 167 released on day two, over 200 fish on day three and over 100 fish on day four, all that between 66 teams. Apparently most of the action came from between the Gorda Banks, Punta Gorda and the 1150. Day one was a mostly lure fish day as the teams searched the area for concentrations of fish and day two and three were almost all rigged dead bait fish. There was a Black Marlin reported released as well on day one. We have another tournament this coming week and I will be fishing in it so I will have a good idea of details for next weeks report.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were quite a few white Tuna flags flying this week as the football size fish have shown up close to home. Most of the action on these fish was found within three miles of the Cape where the cool and warm waters mixed. The water was rough and bumpy and the fish were caught in the blind, but many boats came in early due to the number of fish they found. There were also reports at the end of the week of bigger fish to #100 showing up around the Punta Gorda area, and these fish were mixed with Porpoise.
DORADO: There were plenty of small fish to be found this week and they were in the same area as the football Tuna. These Dorado were small, I mean between 5 and 8 pounds so most of them were released. A few larger fish were taken up north in the warmer water and a few of them went over 35 pounds, but there were no large numbers of them.
WAHOO: The full moon kicked out a few Wahoo this week, most of them from the Gorda Banks area and north of there. If may be because that is where the tournament boats were concentrating, but with only 10 Wahoo caught (or reported caught) for 240 fishing days, you can see that the picking are still pretty slim, at least from areas where the Marlin are. Reports form the rest of the fleet as well as the Pangas out of La Playita were a bit better, with more action obtained closer in to the beach.
INSHORE: The Sierra bite fell off a bit this week and it seemed that the fish became a bit smaller as well with the average size down to 6 pounds. Off of the Rocky points there were still Yellowtail being found with fish to 30 pounds, the average size was around 15 pounds. A scattering of Amberjack and grouper rounded out most of the inshore catch with the exception of Roosterfish. These fish finally showed up in decent numbers on the Cortez side with lots of fish in the 8-15 pound class and a few larger ones to 35 pounds.
NOTES: My fingers are crossed for my teams’ chances in the tournament this week. As an inaugural event there are bound to be a few bumps, but it appears that the event coordinators have it together. This week’s music selection was a Mark Knopfler soundtrack (again), the 1983 release of “Local Hero” on Phonogram Records. Until next week, Tight Lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 7:08 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
May 1-7, 2006
WEATHER: We continued this week with partly cloudy skies and our daytime highs in the low 90’s. In the evenings we saw lows in the mid 60’s. The wind howled all week long but thankfully it ended over this weekend.
WATER: The wind and currents pushed the cold water from the Pacific across the Cape and up into the Cortez side. Thankfully it has only gotten as far as 8 miles up, but the water is off color and cool up to the 95 spot as of Sunday. The area around the San Jaime banks is in the mid 60’s and the cool water extends 30 miles south of us, where it finally warms up to 70 degrees. We are seeing 78 degree water around the Gorda Banks and the Cabrillo Seamount with the water to the north of there and outside the 1,000 fathom line warming up a bit more than that. Accordingly, very little fishing has taken place on the Pacific side this past week, most of the activity has been concentrated in the warm water areas.
BAIT: There was a mix of Caballito and Mackerel this week at the usual $2 per bait, and there were reports of some Sardinas as well at $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There is still a load of Striped Marlin out there, almost everyone is seeing plenty of fish, it’s just a bit of a pain and takes some time to find one that will bite. Those that have been brought to the side of the boat have been spitting up plenty of squid, so they are stuffed on easy pickings. A few boats have been having luck pulling dark colored artificial lures at 9 ½ to 10 knots, they must be getting fish that are ready to eat or are getting pissed off, and it’s the only reason I can think of. The last quarter moon is coming up on the 11th, maybe the bite will pick up. A lot of boats are coming in skunked but the lucky (or skilled) ones are flying two or three release flags per trip. Dead bait trolled in the long position has also worked well for a lot of anglers, and with the IGFA/Rolex tournament starting Monday; a lot of the teams have been pre-fishing this weekend. Hopefully I will have good news to report next week.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Still scattered football Tuna, and mixed in with the porpoise. I had a report from one Captain that during the early part of the week he had a double blind strike on Yellowfin estimated in excess of #200 at the Gorda Banks, but lost both fish after 1 ½ hours. Elsewhere there has been scattered fish to 50 pounds, but very few larger than that. Live bait dropped on good marks found with the porpoise has resulted in these larger fish, trolling feathers on top has gotten the footballs.
DORADO: Almost 50% of the boats have gotten Dorado this week, and the size of the fish has been small, almost 10 pounds on the average. A few larger fish in the #40 class have been caught, but in either size bracket there are not a lot of fish yet. Hopefully the warm water will bring more of them our way.
WAHOO: What Hoo?
INSHORE: The north end of San Lucas bay was providing plenty of action early in the week for anglers targeting Sierra and Pargo. Live bait and hootchies were the ticket with the larger fish biting on live bait. Sierra to 10 pounds and Pargo to 15 pounds provided the action, but it died off a bit later in the week with the encroachment of cool green water from the Pacific.
NOTES: Going back to one of my favorite artists, the sound track from the movies “Cal” was written by Mark Knopfler and released on CD in 1997 by Polygram Records. There is just something about that man’s style that gets my ears excited! This week is the Rolex/IGFA tournament, next week I will be fishing the inaugural “World Championship Billfish Catch and Release Tournament”, hopefully I will be able to provide some color commentary in next weeks report! Until then, Tight Lines! Oh, by the way, they are once again checking fishing licenses when you leave the Marina, so be prepared! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 01, 2006 - 9:33 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
April 24-30, 2006
WEATHER: We continued this week with partly cloudy skies and our daytime highs in the low 90’s. In the evenings we saw lows in the mid 60’s and a slight increase in wind although the wind died down later in the middle of the week, then picked up again over the weekend. No rain of course.
WATER: The wind and currents kept the Pacific side cold for the first part of the week, and the water green, but by the end of the week the wind had died down and the warm water had pushed across the Cape and encroached to the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks. At the end of the week this warm water was evenly spread across the Cortex side of the Cape and up to the two Pacific banks and it was a uniform 73-74 degrees up to 15 miles to the south of us and there it dropped to 69-70 degrees. Just a mile or two past the San Jaime and the Golden Gate, the water dropped in temperature from 73 degrees to 65 degrees.
BAIT: There was a mix of Caballito and Mackerel this week at the usual $2 per bait, and there were reports of some Sardinas as well at $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Marlin bite really fell off this week for most of the fleet. I did see a few boats flying multiple Marlin flags but that was definitely not the norm. If I had to guess, it would be that 30-40% of the boats were able to get a Marlin to the boat for a release. The fish appeared to have moved a bit at the weekend with boats reporting good action on Striped Marlin on deep dropped live bait at the lighthouse on the Pacific side. The water was a bit bumpy but the action was worth it if you were there on the tide change. While the bite on Striped Marlin fell off, the warming water did bring us our first flurry of Blue Marlin, if only for a short while. The water just past the 95 Spot produced a few Striped Marlin on Friday and there were also reports of several Blue Marlin in the #250 range caught. The big fuss was over the reported #820 Blue caught by one of the boats in the same area. #820? Guess they killed it, and not even for money in a tournament, sigh. Anyway, hopefully a sign of things to come, maybe it’s time to break out the big gear!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I think the Long-liners and Purse Seiners ended up with all the Tuna, there were very few footballs reported this week. Perhaps this coming week will have the Tuna show up at the Pacific banks.
DORADO: There were still a few Dorado out there but not in the numbers we had last week. All in all it seems as if the bite slowed way down for everything this week.
WAHOO: There were a couple of early morning fish reported from the Gorda Banks and the 1,000 fathom line south-east of the 95 Spot, but that was about it for Wahoo.
INSHORE: Inshore seemed to be the place to go this week as almost all the action was within 100 yards of the beach. Offshore it was slow fishing but the action just off the beach was red-hot on occasion with roving schools of Sierra tearing up the surface and Roosterfish to 25 pounds chasing finger Mullet onto the beach. The majority of the action described took place on the Pacific side this week; you just had to time it right as there were some very big swells early in the week. A few Yellowtail continued to be found off of the rocky points and bottom fishing resulted in some nice Snapper, Grouper and Amberjack, all to 15 pounds with the exception of a few Jacks to 40 pounds.
NOTES: This weeks short report was written to the music of Jeff Beck and Stevie Ray Vaughan on the 1989 double CD “Fire and the Fury”. Live from the L.A. Sports Arena. Rock on! |
patrick (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating:
Votes: 5 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 2:06 pm: | |
I just got my deegree from french school. My friends call me Lamo. My american name is Patrick. My real name is Patrick Pham. The last time I went out a three quarter day me and my brother caught 12 fish in total. I caught 7 albacor and my brother caught 5 skip jack tuna. They were all 20 pounds and more. We were at san diego. We were on a charter boat. |
patrick (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 1:53 pm: | |
Hi my name is Patrick Pham. I am a trout fisher men.I also like to |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
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Rating:
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 24, 2006 - 7:13 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
April 17-23, 2006
WEATHER: Once again most of the week it was partly cloudy skies. We had plenty of sun, just not all the time. Our daytime highs were in the low 90’s and our nighttime lows in the low 60’s. Light winds most of the week from the NW early in the mornings and picking up a bit in the afternoon.
WATER: If you swept across the map from east to west you would see the Cortez side of the cape with water in the mid 70’s, the water from the south of us and out to the San Jaime Banks in the high 60’s to low 70’s and the water to the west and north of there in the mid 60’s. There was no strongly defined temperature break in any of the areas and no strongly defined color break either. The water closer to shore on the Cortez side and off-shore on the Pacific tended to be a bit greener than off shore on the Cortez side. Out around the 1150 spot, the Cabrillo Seamount and to the west of the Outer Gorda Banks the water was occasionally found to 77 degrees.
BAIT: There was a mix of Caballito and Mackerel this week at the usual $2 per bait, and there were reports of some Sardinas as well at $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The fish of the week this week was definitely Striped Marlin. You did not have to go very far either in order to get hooked up. Early in the week the fish were showing very close to shore on the Cortez side, within 2 miles of the beach. Later in the week they moved off a bit and the biggest concentration was found at the 95 spot. On Saturday I went out and there were plenty of fish to be found just 3 miles off of Gray Rock and the Santa Maria Bay area. We went one for one for 45 minutes of trolling (lures only as it was a late trip) and saw at least a dozen tailing Marlin in the area. Most of the boats were still concentrated on the 95 spot, on the radar it looked like an armada coming in from the east at 2 PM. A dark colored lure (green/black) at 9 knots worked for us but we were one of the few boats that had any luck on lures, almost everyone was getting bit only on live bait or rigged dead bait. It seems from what I was hearing and was told that the key to getting a lot of action was rigging dead bait and trolling it way back in the spread. Tossing live bait at tailing fish was not working very well, but stunning bait and then tossing it out was better. Almost every fish caught was stuffed full of squid.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were still a few Tuna to be found this week, we are hoping that concentrations begin showing up soon. The fish that were caught were in the 10-15 pound class with a few to 30 pounds, and they were almost all found in the porpoise on the Cortez side, and in the blind on the Pacific side. On the Pacific side they were just 2-4 miles offshore from the arch to the lighthouse. On the Cortez side they were within the boundaries of the 95 spot, the 1150 and the Gorda Banks.
DORADO: The Dorado bite continued to improve this week with a lot more boats finding multiple fish. Most of the action has been in the warmer water on the Cortez side of the Cape. The fish have been ranging in size from 8 to 20 pounds with most of them around 15. The Dorado have been in closer to shore than the Marlin, most of them found just 2 miles form the beach. Bright colored lures have always worked well on them and they continued to do so this week.
WAHOO: There were still some Wahoo caught this week but not the numbers we had last week. Action on these speedsters was found around the inner and outer Gorda Banks as well as on the ledge at Red Hill. Average size was 30 pounds with an occasional fish to 60 pounds. Not only were a few found on the structure, there were also some open-ocean fish found out in the deeps, and these were the larger fish. The 1,000-fathom line to the southeast kicked out at least a couple of fish a day.
INSHORE: The Sierra bit went wide open on the Pacific side up around Punta Cota, even the surf casters were catching until their arms got tired! The fish averaged 7 pounds and were down at 10 feet or more and bright colors or live bait worked great. There were still some Yellowtail being caught just off the arch and yo-yo’s in scrambled egg as well as live bait worked better than other offerings. A few of the fish kicked the scales up to 40 pounds, but the average was more in the line of 12 pounds. Action on other species was off and on with a fair showing of Bonita and Skipjack, a few Amberjack but lots of Jack Crevalle and quite a few Pompano.
NOTES: Good fishing and writing music this week with a Mark Knopfler soundtrack from the 2000 movie, “Shot at Glory”. I just love this one! Until next week, tight lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 17, 2006 - 6:33 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
April 10-16, 2006
WEATHER: We had partly sunny skies most of the week with our daytime highs in the high 80’s and our night time lows in the low 70’s, as you can see it is starting to warm up here! On Monday we had a sudden blast of humidity roll in, it was just in time for Easter week! No rain of course, but very summer-like conditions.
WATER: There was no change in the water this week from last week as far as where the cold and warm waters are; it’s just increased by about 2 degrees everywhere. The cold, high 60’s green water is on the Pacific side with a warm water plume running across San Jaime Banks from the south, the water on the Cortez side has been warmer at the mid 70’s and much clearer. The wind was mainly from the NW but on Friday it shifted and came from the west on the Pacific side and the East on the Cortez side. It was a bit confusing for the smaller boats!
BAIT: Almost all Caballito this week at the usual $2 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: It was a Striped Marlin kind of week this week with some boats getting into the fish and getting double number releases. Of course there were not a lot of boats doing that, but most of us were able to get at least two or three releases per trip at the end of the week. There were fish everywhere you went, from the warm water on the Cortez side at Punta Gorda, the 95 spot and even in the greener water at the south and inside of the San Jaime. It was mostly a matter of being out there in the “right” spot when the tide was changing. The bite was a fairly even mix of bait and lures with lures trolled at 9 knots working better than slower trolling.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We finally saw some Tuna come in this week. There were Porpoise everywhere out there and while most of them were not on fish, there were a few pods that had good schools under them. Most of the fish were footballs but a few to 60 pounds did come in. The bite was on a mix of jigs, plugs and feathers with a few of the nicer fish caught on live bait dropped back after the first strike. The majority of the action happened either just 5 miles off the beach due south or 25 miles to the south and west.
DORADO: The Dorado showing continued to improve this week with about 35% of the boats coming in with at lest one flag flying. The size of the fish has been spread all over the map with the average being 15 pounds, but a few large ones of 45-50 pounds as well. Bright colored lures were the ticket.
WAHOO: The full moon action on Wahoo continued this week with at least one boat coming in with four fish averaging 40 pounds. There were quite a few fish in the #30 range being caught in a warm water band 5-8 miles off-shore and up around the Gorda Banks. A few boats tried at the San Jaime but it appears that the water there is not warm or clear enough yet.
INSHORE: The Sierra bite slowed down just a little bit but there was a good bit of action right off the front of the Marina during the middle of the week early in the morning on fish to 10 pounds. Boats slow trolling live bait were able to score up to 10 fish each of those two mornings. Other fish also provided action this week with Roosterfish averaging 6 pounds biting fairly well along the beach on the Pacific side up to the lighthouse area. There were Bonita and Skipjack just a bit farther out and some interesting results for boats trolling live bait in 100 feet of water with a few Dorado, Wahoo and Striped Marlin appearing unexpectedly and getting everyone excited.
NOTES: This weeks report was written to a compilation entitled “Cabo 2006” given to me by our client Hughie. Great music Hughie, thanks! Until next week, tight lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 10, 2006 - 7:37 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
April 3-9, 2006
WEATHER: Sunny skies all week long except on Saturday when we had a fairly strong cloud cover, daytime highs in the mid 80’s and nighttime lows in the high 60’s and we had no rain. There was a bit of wind from the NW in the mornings but most days it died of in the afternoon.
WATER: We had a definite split in the water situation this week with the water on the Pacific side of the Cape being considerably cooler that that on the Cortez side. On the Pacific we saw temperatures from 65-69 degrees with the warmer water being very close to shore right at the Cape and in a warm plume that ran across the San Jaime Bank from the south. On the Cortez side the water was much warmer with most of it 72-76 degrees. The warmest water was a ridge that ran from just to the north of the Outer Gorda Banks and then south across the 95 spot. There was a very strong temperature and color division in the water 10-20 miles directly south of us; the break was 69 degrees to the west and 74 degrees to the east across a distance of about 1 mile. The water on the cold side was also very green.
BAIT: This past week there were Caballito available at the usual $2 per bait, some small Mackerel and on a couple of days, Sardinas at $20 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There are still a few Swordfish being found in the cold, green water on the Pacific side and directly south, but they have been hard to get hooked up too. There has been the on-off Striped Marlin taking place again with one day being great and the next sucking. One boat could release five fish on Tuesday and then go 0 for 12 on Wednesday when the fish would not open their mouths. The fish are out there but sometimes they just won’t eat! Most boats are seeing plenty of fish, on occasion 20 or more on a trip and all the fish have been found on the Cortez side with most of them between 15 and 30 miles out to the SE and East. Dark colored lures and rigged dead baits have produced the best results since it seems the fish are stuffing themselves on squid.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: What Tuna? I haven’t seen a Yellowfin of over 15 pounds in a month or so. There have been a few small footballs caught just a couple of miles off of the beach on the Cortez side but not in any numbers. There are still Purse Seiners out at the Jaime Bank area, and you can see one of the Super Seiners (with the helicopter on it) looking very loaded and anchored in San Lucas bay. If they are around there has to be fish out there, but no one has been able to find them yet. Maybe they are all inside the holds of the Seiners?
DORADO: A few scattered fish have been reported in the 40-50 pound class this week but for the most part the fish have been considerably smaller as well as fairly scarce. Those that have been found have come from the warm water on the Cortez side of the Cape, and up around the Punta Gorda area has seemed to produce the best action. While not consistent in a day-to-day manner, it has been consistent over the week.
WAHOO: The Wahoo are biting better according to friends of mine. One Captain caught a #70 fish on Friday and a #60 on Saturday while the boat directly behind me caught one about #60 on Saturday. These fish were caught at the 95 spot (2) and 30 miles to the SE (1). I saw other Wahoo flags as well so there is the possibility that they were not all for Sierra.
INSHORE: Sierra, small Roosterfish, Bonita and Skipjack as well as the occasional Yellowtail continue to make the inshore fishing the way to go for action. Best results have been either right at the Arch, up the Pacific at Los Arcos and on the Cortez side in front of Cabo Real. Sardines have resulted in the best action but small Caballito and Mackerel worked also.
NOTES: Once again I wrote a report to a Mark Knopfler soundtrack, this time the 2000 Mercury release to the movie “A Shot At Glory”. Keeping our fingers crossed for better fishing in the near future, until next week, tight lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 03, 2006 - 8:02 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
March 27-April 2, 2006
WEATHER: Just the usual this past week, mostly sunny skies with the daytime highs in the mid 80’s and the nighttime lows in the mid 60’s. No rain of course and light winds.
WATER: At the end of the week everything had cooled off considerably on both sides of the Cape. On the Pacific the warmest water was on the San Jaime Bank at 69 degrees, but with blue water. The rest of the Pacific side had water around 65-67 degrees but it was off color, pretty green in some places. On the Cortez side the warm water was out at the 1150 spot and in front of San Jose, but it was being slowly pushed to the north every day. Warm at 73-75 degrees, it was also pretty green and off color. Not until you got out by the Cabrillo Seamount did it clear up. The water right in front of the cape was also off color and a fairly cool 66-70 degrees, depending on exactly where you were. The surface conditions were good at the end of the week but we did have one day of rough stuff during the middle of the week when things kicked up a bit with a day of strong wind from the west.
BAIT: This past week there were Caballito available at the usual $2 per bait as well as some Sardinas at $20 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There are still plenty of Striped Marlin in the area and most of the fish have been seen on the Cortez side, continuing the pattern of last week. The bite was pretty good at the beginning of the week but dropped off later on, even though plenty of fish were still being seen. I fished with a couple of friends on Tuesday and we had one good bite lost on a lure, one lost on a live bait dropped back and two releases on rigged dead bait. That seemed to be pretty standard early in the week but things slowed down later on. The fish have been stuffed with squid which they have been tossing up when brought close to the boat so darker colored lures have been having better luck. Having the squid around might also be the reason there have still been sightings, and occasional hook-ups with Swordfish this past week. A friend hooked, fought and lost at boat side an estimated #250 on Monday, the fish eating a dead bait pulled in front of it.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were very few Yellowfin heard of this past week and the few that were caught were reported to be in the football class. These fish were from up around the Punta Gorda area and were caught while chumming and fishing with Sardinas. Boats heading out to the San Jaime area looking for Tuna reported few Porpoise in the area but there have to be fish there since two Purse Seiners have been hanging around all week.
DORADO: A few fish are being caught, and they are getting a little larger, mostly in the 20-25 pound class, but not in any numbers here. I heard of good reports from 40 miles out up at the East Cape area, but it was also reported that the fish were following a small band of warm water that ended up disappearing close to shore after several days. Locally there have been a few smaller fish still being found with 5 miles of the beach.
WAHOO: A friend of mine (a captain on a private boat) reported that he lost two lures to Wahoo and caught one fish of about 35 pounds from the Inner Gorda Bank early in the week. That was the only fish I heard of but there had to have been others found.
INSHORE: My friend, fly-fishing guide Jeff DeBrown, had clients on Saturday who caught 10 small Roosterfish of 5-6 pounds, 5 Sierra, one Ladyfish, one 20 pound Yellowtail, lost one Pompano and saw lots of #20+ Jacks, all within ¼ mile of the arch. The Yellowtail and seven of the Roosterfish were on live bait while the rest were on the fly. I guess that give you an indication of the action, huh? There were also excellent catches of Sierra made from 5 miles up the coast on the Pacific side with hootchies in white working very well on fish to 6 pounds, and live bait doing better on larger fish.
NOTES: Eternal optimism is the name of the game if you are a fisherman so we are once again keeping our fingers crossed that the Tuna start showing up. Meanwhile the usual cool, green water we have this time of year means that there is always a chance at the most difficult of billfish, the Swordfish! This weeks report was written to an excellent musical selection, one of my favorite artists, Mark Knopfler on the soundtrack to the movie “Sailing To Philadelphia”, a 2000 Mercury Records release. Until next week, Tight Lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 27, 2006 - 8:15 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
March 6-12, 2006
WEATHER: The week started out very windy and then for the past four days it has been great with just light breezes and lots of sun. Our nighttime lows have been in the low 60’s while the daytime highs have been in the mid 80’s, great weather all around! We had only one day with clouds, Friday saw a bit of overcast for most of the day, but no bad stuff with it.
WATER: At the end of the week the water on the Pacific side was 66 degrees out to past the San Jaime and the Golden Gate banks, and up to 69 degrees to the West of there. To the immediate South the water was a bit warmer as the warmer water from the Sea of Cortez pushed its way past the Cape with temperatures up to 72 degrees. Out at the 95 Spot and to the South and Northeast of there the water was a warm 74-75 degrees with 76-degree water showing up around the Cabrillo Seamount. Surface conditions were excellent at the end of the week regardless of where you went with a slight 2-4 foot swell on the Pacific and 1-3 foot on the Cortez side and winds at 5-10 knots giving just a few small whitecaps to the water.
BAIT: This past week there were Caballito available at the usual $2 per bait as well as some Sardinas at $20 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite continued to improve but a lot of boats still came in without having gotten a Marlin to the boat. The fish were concentrated between the 95 Spot and the 1150 at the end of the week and while there were a lot of fish out there they weren’t being all that aggressive. A lot of boats were getting strikes but not hooking the fish up, and dropping back the Caballito often only interested the fish for a second. The best results seemed to come for boats trolling dark colored plastic lures at 9-91/2 knots. Lures in black/purple, black/green, black/red received the most attention from the fish. A few boats came in with two or three flags; most boats had either none or one flying from the outriggers. One item of special interest this week was a brief, one day showing of Swordfish on the surface in the same area on Friday. From what I heard there were about seven fish sighted, four hooked and one landed, all from a small 1 square mile area. Hmm, maybe a night trip, follow the temp break and see what happens? There was plenty of bait showing in the area down between 50 and 150 feet.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Still slow for Tuna the past week with some fish showing up 40 miles to the south of us. Nothing big to be reported close to home although I did overhear someone just on the outer range of reception on the radio talk about finding fish over #100 but not getting bit. That’s just a tease, I know, since I have no idea where they were, but at least there are some out there. Hopefully we will see them in our area soon. Several boats made the trip to the San Jaime Banks in the hope of getting lucky but the water was like a desert out there. On Wednesday a boat did get into some 30-40 pound fish in a fast moving school to the south of the bank, but they did not stick around.
DORADO: Early in the week there was decent Dorado action reported from the Punta Gorda-Los Frailles area, but by the end of the week the fish seemed to have disappeared, at least the numbers were gone. Boats in the area were still picking a fish or two but it was not worth the effort to go up there for the few fish that were found. Elsewhere there were occasional fish found close to the beach, within 3 miles, they were not large but at least they were Dorado.
WAHOO: I didn’t get any reports of Wahoo this week but that does not mean there weren’t any caught, just that I have no clue (not the first time!).
INSHORE: There was a good Sierra bite on the Pacific side in water from 50-60 feet in depth at the end of the week, and the bite was in the shallow water just behind the breakers earlier in the week. There were a few small 5-pound class Roosterfish caught as well. Boats fishing live bait deep off the rocky points got into Yellowtail averaging 12 pounds with one fish reported at 42 pounds. Not a wide-open bite but worth the effort with an average of one or two fish per boat. There was a scattering of other inshore species caught, among them Bonita and Skipjack along with Jack Crevalle and Needlefish.
NOTES: Fishing continues to improve, thank goodness! Some anglers are still striking out as far as getting anything to the boat, but most of them are seeing at least some action and it seems to be improving every day. This weeks report was written to the great music of Mark Knopfler on his second solo album, the 2004 Mercury release “Shangri-La”. Thanks Mark for continuing to make my ears happy! Until next week, tight lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 20, 2006 - 8:06 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
March 6-12, 2006
WEATHER: I said last week that it looked like our normal spring weather had started and it continued this week. The first part of the week was great with just a few clouds and light wind. On Friday night the cloud deck moved over us, the wind started to blow, and it blew pretty darn good, and is still blowing at around 15-25 from the NW. Our lows have been in the low 60’s and this weekend the highs were only in the mid 70’s, earlier in the week we were in the mid 80’s. There has been no rain with the clouds and if things continue as they have been, this wind should be gone in a day or two and we will have great weather for another three or four days.
WATER: Until the wind started on Friday night the Pacific side was in great shape with swells at 4-6 feet spaced well apart, on Saturday it looked like a ripe cotton field with some sheep in there! The Cortez side of the Cape had better surface conditions, at least in close to shore, and the later in the day it got this weekend the closer in the rough water came as the wind slowly moved around and started coming from the west. Earlier in the week the Cortez side had great conditions and we had a plume of very war, 78-degree water move onto the Cabrillo Seamount. Everywhere else on the Cortez side it was in the 73-74 degree range. On the Pacific side we still had the cold California current keeping 67 degree water between the San Jaime bank, and us but west of the San Jaime and occasionally on top of it the water was 70-71 degrees.
BAIT: Bait was still tough to get on occasion, at least the good stuff. There was quite a bit of what I call “junk” bait available, like lookdowns and small snapper-like fish. The baits were the normal $2 per bait and if you got good stuff it was mixed Caballito and Mackerel.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Billfish seem to have continued the pattern of last week with one day being great and the next being slower, but overall things seem to have improved quite a bit. The main concentration of effort has remained on the Cortez side where the water temps have continued to be in the 74-degree range. Most of the action has come from either the Estellidera area up the coast or in a triangle between the Outer Gorda Bank, the Cabrillo Seamount and the 1150 spot. One of the reasons may be the 78-degree water that moved in to the Seamount, but whatever the reason, that is where the fish have been. One friend of mine went toward the Seamount on Thursday, without any live bait, and said that they had 38 bites from the Striped Marlin, releasing two and jumping off five others. He thinks that if he had live bait they would have worn their arms out as most of the fish were very aggressive on the lures but he just couldn’t get solid hook-ups. The next day action slowed, as they were only able to get 8 bites in the same area while boats working more toward the Outer Gorda were getting 15-18 bites a day. Wednesday was very slow, most boats saw no fish and were lucky to get bit at all, so go figure!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Tuna bite was still slow this week with very few fish being brought in. I did have a Capt. Report to me they got into fish in the #150-#200 class out near the San Jaime mid-week, but couldn’t get them to bite on anything, he said there were fish breaking the water on both sides of the boat and it was extremely frustration. Hey, I know that feeling! Another friend of mine got lucky in the same area and landed two nice fish over #100, but that was pretty much the extent of the Tuna action this week.
DORADO: There were still a few nice Dorado found this week, but there were places they should have been that had no fish. As an example, a Capt. found a long-dead seal on the Cortez side that did not have even one Dorado around it, and on the same day found several pieced of debris that should have held Dorado but there were no fish under them as well. There were still fish out there as attested to by the flags flown, but they were scattered, not concentrated in one place. Most of the ones caught ranged in size from 20 to 30 pounds.
WAHOO: There were a few Wahoo caught this week out in the warm water on the Cortez side, and they were nice fish in the 40-pound class. No concentrations were found and they were incidental catches hooked while fishing for Marlin.
INSHORE: There was good fishing inshore for Sierra as almost all Pangas were able to catch a dozen or so, along with an occasional small Roosterfish in the 5-10 pound class. Boats soaking live bait in 100 feet off of the points were able to get some decent Yellowtail to 20 pounds along with a decent number of big Bonito and Skipjack. The Jack Crevalle continued to cruise outside the breakers in large packs and if you got into them they were able to supply plenty of hard fighting action. There were a few boats bottom fishing and they were able to get onto some grouper to 10 pounds along with a few Amberjack.
NOTES: It’s still not wide open but the bite is definitely improving. You just need to keep your fingers crossed with the wind, sometimes it helps and sometimes it hurts the fishing. The new moon will be the 29th so perhaps the Tuna bite will improve this week, and the Marlin bite should defiantly continue to get better. This weeks report was written to the interesting music of Andrew Bird on the 2005 Righteous Babe Records CD release, “The Mysterious Production Of Eggs”. Until next week, tight lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 6:56 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
March 6-12, 2006
WEATHER: It looks like we have finally had a bit of spring weather come our way. This time of year we often get a month or so of on-off windy time, and this last week the wind started blowing on Tuesday. It blew hard (and it was cold) until Friday and since then it has been great. Our daytime highs have been in the mid to low 80’s while the night time lows were around 60 degrees. There was a pretty good cloud cover during mid-week but by Sunday it had cleared up.
WATER: It was very choppy and pretty rough on the Pacific side most of the week and the conditions were bouncy on the Cortez side as well. Very few, if any, boats fished on the Pacific, as there were extremely large swells and very rough conditions through Saturday. If anyone had made it out there they would have found cold water at 64-65 degrees out to the San Jaime, but warm water at 74 degrees past there to the west. On the Cortez side the water remained pretty much around 71-73 degrees with cool 68-70 degree water to the immediate south of the Cape.
BAIT: Bait was tough to get toward the end of the week, but if you did manage to get some it was still the normal $2 per bait. The bait guys attributed it to the full moon.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: At least the bite for Striped Marlin seemed to steady a little bit; we did not have the wild swings of good-bad days we saw for the last few weeks. The bite was not wide open by any means but the fish were there on the Cortez side. From the 95 Sport to 4 miles inside the 1150 to the Outer Gorda banks seemed to be the place to go with most boats catching at least one Marlin a day and some getting three. The bite was a mix of live bait and lures but the lures seemed to work best at slightly higher than normal speeds, mostly around 9 ½ knots instead of the normal 7 ½ to 8 knots. There were plenty of feeders out there and watching the Frigates dive or circle was a key to the live bait fishing. There were plenty of tailing and free jumping fish as well, but the tailing fish didn’t seem to be very hungry. Maybe after the full moon the bite will turn on for them.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: What, you want Tuna? Try some other week, as there were almost no Yellowfin caught this week. An occasional pod of Porpoise held some small fish to 15 pounds, but they were few and far between. Most of the boats that managed to get Tuna found them on Friday and Saturday within 5 miles of the coast on the Pacific side.
DORADO: Success rates on Dorado this week looked to be about 15% with some boats getting fish to 25 pounds and a few to 50 pounds. The fish were on the Cortez side of the Cape in the warm water and were caught by boats looking for Striped Marlin. There was the occasional double, but not many.
WAHOO: What Hoo?
INSHORE: This is a repeat of last weeks inshore report with the note that all the fish were found on the Cortez side due to the rough conditions on the Pacific. There was a pretty decent Sierra bite, mostly in the afternoons but occasionally early in the morning. Large groups of Jacks in the 25-35 pound class were spotted close to the beach but they were not very hungry, possibly spawning concentrations. A fair to good bite from bottom species such as red Snapper and Grouper in 100-150 feet of water off almost all the points started at the end of the week and there were some decent Yellowtail to 25 pounds caught in the same area by anglers using live bait fished just off the bottom.
NOTES: It’s not wide open by any means even though some of the booths around the Marina will tell you that it is for the Striped Marlin. Go out with a good attitude and your fingers crossed, plenty of beer in the cooler and some good friends and you will have fun, and just might get dinner and a trophy. That is all you can really expect right now, but that’s not a bad thing. If the Tuna ever show up things might get kicked into higher gear, at least we hope so. Meanwhile, listen to some good music and plan your trip! This week’s report was written to the sounds of Alison Krauss & Union Station on their 2002 CD “Live”. Until next week, tight lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 06, 2006 - 8:15 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Feb. 27-March 5, 2006
WEATHER: I am still having a great time this week getting a lot of work done outside the house. With the daytime temps around the mid 80’s and the nighttime around the high 60’s it has been excellent. We had very little wind this week and had several days during the middle of the week where heavy fog moved in from the Pacific side. No rain and except for the fog, no really cloudy days.
WATER: We had great water conditions this week on both sides of the Cape. The large swells that occurred the week before died down and with no wind there were a few days when it was like glass out there. The surface temperatures are still at 73-74 degrees on the Cortez side of the Cape with a band of the warmer water across the Gorda, 1150 and at the Cabrillo Seamount at the end of the week. The California current has a very strong influence on the near-shore water temperature on the Pacific side of the Cape as the water out to just past the San Jaime and 20 miles to the west of the Golden Gate banks remains around 66 degrees. Go another 10 miles west of the San Jaime and you suddenly meet 71-degree water again.
BAIT: This week there were mostly Caballito available at the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Once again we had an on-off week for Striped Marlin. One day an area would be red hot and the next day there would be nothing there. The fish are moving around fast on the Cortez side of the Cape and when you are in the right spot it was possible to have a six fish day. In the wrong spot or the right spot at the wrong time and you flew the skunk flag on the way in. Areas that were temporarily holding fish (I guess they weren’t really holding since the fish were passing through), or where the bite happened were several miles to the west of the Outer Gorda Bank, inside the 1150 toward shore, just to the south-west of the 95 spot and due south of the arch 12 miles. If your timing was right there were fish all over the place and they were hungry, if it was wrong you might not even see a fish! Both lures and live bait were working fine if the fish were biting.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I only heard of a few Yellowfin Tuna this week and what I did hear was spoken of by people passing by, I never had a chance to find out any details. I did hear of a fish of 80 pounds but again, no details. There were very few white flags flying that were put up for Yellowfin, most of them were for Skipjack.
DORADO: There were a lot more Dorado caught this week than we have had for several months; the warm water that moved in on the Cortez side had a lot to do with it. It seemed that most of the action was up around the Gorda Banks and Punta Gorda on fish from 10 to 20 pounds, but they were catching a few out at the 1000 fathom line as well.
WAHOO: I did hear of a few Wahoo caught this week, mostly from up around the Punta Gorda area, but they were few and far between. Average weight was reported at 35 pounds and the bite was incidental on Marlin lures.
INSHORE: There was a pretty decent Sierra bite, mostly in the afternoons but occasionally early in the morning. Large groups of Jacks in the 25-35 pound class were spotted close to the beach but they were not very hungry, possibly spawning concentrations. A fair to good bite from bottom species such as red Snapper and Grouper in 100-150 feet of water off almost all the points started at the end of the week and there were some decent Yellowtail to 25 pounds caught in the same area by anglers using live bait fished just off the bottom.
NOTES: It appears that the fishing is slowly improving; now we need the Yellowfin to show up. Still plenty of Whales around so even if the fishing is slow there is something to watch. This weeks report was written to the sounds of Mark Knopfler off of his first solo CD, “Golden Heart”, released in 1996 by Vertigo Records. Until next week, tight lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 27, 2006 - 6:59 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Feb. 20-26, 2006
WEATHER: We are still stuck with great weather! Our daytime highs have been in the mid 80’s and our nighttime lows have been in the low 60’s, really hard to live with, huh? I feel sorry for all of you who are dealing with freezing cold! We had no rain this week and only a little cloud cover during the middle of the week, mostly sunny skies the rest of the time.
WATER: On the Pacific side of the Cape we have had some fairly large swells with a bit of wind chop on top, not enough to keep anyone from fishing, but enough to make it occasionally uncomfortable. The water near shore has been 68-70 degrees and cooled to 67 degrees at the San Jaime bank. Farther to the west the water warmed right up and at 20 miles farther it warmed right back up to 74 degrees. Immediately south of the Cape we still have a plume of green water but it is a bit warmer than last week at 71-72 degrees. On the Cortez side the water has been fairly consistent at 71-73 degrees but that band of warm water we had approach last week has dissipated and slowly worked it’s way back to the east. If you get out to past the 1150 and the Cabrillo Seamount you can get back into the 74 degree water for a little while. The only problem fishing out there has been the surface conditions. We have a fairly strong current running from the northeast along with big swells wrapping around the East Cape and they are meeting the swells coming from the Pacific side making for some bouncy water.
BAIT: There were Mackerel and some Caballito available this week at the normal $2 per bait. I heard that there were some Sardinas at Palmilla but have no idea if they were readily available or how much they were.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Striped Marlin were the fish of the week this week, but it was not because the fishing was red hot or there were amazing numbers of them being released. Rather it was because there was not a lot else going on! The bite was an on-off happening with one day being great and boats releasing between one and six fish each and the next day the best catch being two fish released while the average was only one Marlin for every four boats. Hard to predict when the bite was going to turn on, you just had to put in the time on the water. The bite was fairly predictable in it’s location, however. The band of warm water that ran from the Punta Gorda and southwest across the outer Gorda Bank and across the 1150 seemed to be consistent in holding the fish. Working the near break from the Estelladera area to just west of the 1150 resulted in action on lures in Petrelero and blue-black colors while live bait dropped back had about 25% of the fish hooked.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again it was a slow week for Yellowfin Tuna for the charter fleet. There were scattered Porpoise but most of them had no fish. A few of the private boats willing to make the 40-50 mile trip out past the San Jaime on the Pacific side had some fair luck on fish to 80 pounds when they were able to find the porpoise but since there was no structure to hold the bait or the fish, they were there one day and gone the next. That made for a long run on a crapshoot, but a few of them found floating debris as well and got into the Dorado.
DORADO: There were a few fish found in the 12-20 pound class along the edge of the warm water band on the Sea o Cortez side, but they were scattered fish, not concentrated into schools. My guess would be that there was about a 10% success rate on Dorado this week. As I stated above, there were a few decent catches from boats working the warm water 40 miles west, but the water was bumpy out there and it was not a good trip for anything smaller than 35 feet.
WAHOO: Once again no Wahoo this week. The flags flying were for Sierra.
INSHORE: This is a repeat of last week’s inshore report. Short and not so sweet. The Pargo bite came back on for the Pacific side of the Cape right after the full moon; they are hammering this spawning group pretty hard. On the Cortez side there has been a decent Sierra bite outside the El Tulle area.
NOTES: Hmm, not a lot to say about the fishing this week other than if you were looking for a Marlin you might have had some fair luck. This weeks report was written to the music of Bob Dylan off of the 1964 Columbia release, “Another Side of Bob Dylan”, re-released by CBS on CD in 1989. |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating:
Votes: 3 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 20, 2006 - 9:49 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Feb. 13-19, 2006
WEATHER: Well, at least I am able to tell you that the weather is still great here in Cabo, even if the fishing is off. We had an average daytime temperature of 79 degrees with our evenings dropping down to the mid 60’s, really nice conditions. A few clouds moved into the area over the weekend but not enough of them to put a damper on any activities.
WATER: The Pacific side stayed just as it had last week and the only thing that changed at all was the Cortez side of the Cape. The warmer water this week was on the Pacific side but the mass had moved back off shore. At the end of the previous week the water was 73 degrees all the way to the beach on the Pacific. As the week moved on this warm water started to move back to the west, and at the end of the week it had cooled a bit to 72 degrees and moved out to the west of the San Jaime Bank. To our immediate south the water was a very cool 65 degrees and pea soup green as well. This is a plume of water about 20 miles wide starting 8 miles off the arch and extending 30 miles to the south. On the Cortez side of the cape the water started to clear up a bit with water to 74 degrees running in a band from the Gorda Banks to the south-southwest.
BAIT: Same as last week, bait was a little scarce this week and unless you were one of the first boats out, you might have had a bit of trouble getting any. Most of what was available was Caballito at the usual $2 per bait. A lot of boats tried to make their own bait on the grounds, but where there had been good concentrations of Mackerel at the Golden Gate, the bait had disappeared.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: At the end of last week it had appeared that a concentration of Striped Marlin had moved in on top of the 95 spot but that bite only lasted two days. There are still Marlin being seen in that direction but they are hard to fool into biting. The marlin bite is off, I would guess that only 10% of the boats are returning flying the blue flags. A few boats are lucky and getting multiple shots, but the most flags I saw from any one outrigger this week was two. The best bet for Striped Marlin has been along the eastern boundary of the warm water on the Pacific side of the Cape and along the new warm water band on the Cortez side.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were plenty of Porpoise out there and there were a few Yellowfin mixed in with them, but the bite was very sporadic. Most of the fish were found in the same areas as the Striped Marlin and while a few fish did break the 50-pound mark, most of them were footballs. As far as the flags flying in the marina, most of the white tuna flags were for Skipjack and Bonita.
DORADO: Very few Dorado this week, a few of the boats were flying two flags, but very few had any at all. Floating debris resulted in one boat loading up, but no one else got into the action.
WAHOO: No Wahoo this week. The flags flying were for Sierra.
INSHORE: The Pargo bite came back on for the Pacific side of the Cape right after the full moon; they are hammering this spawning group pretty hard. On the Cortez side there has been a decent Sierra bite outside the El Tulle area.
NOTES: Hmm, seems like a good time to take a vacation and go snow ski! My boat is in dry dock until the end of the week and it is not bothering me at all. We can only keep our fingers crossed that the Marlin and Yellowfin start biting, they are our main catch this time of year. This week report was written to the blues music of Joe Cocker on the 1996 Sony release “Organic”. Until next week, tight lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2006 - 7:47 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Feb. 6-12, 2006
WEATHER: Once again we had a great week of good weather. Our daytime highs were around 80 degrees all week while our nighttime lows were right at 60 degrees. Clear skies and sunny conditions made it a great week to be here.
WATER: The warmer water this week was on the Pacific side but the mass had moved back off shore. At the end of the previous week the water was 73 degrees all the way to the beach on the Pacific. As the week moved on this warm water started to move back to the west, and at the end of the week it had cooled a bit to 72 degrees and moved out to the west of the San Jaime Bank. To our immediate south the water was a very cool 65 degrees and pea soup green as well. This is a plume of water about 20 miles wide starting 8 miles off the arch and extending 30 miles to the south. On the Cortez side of the cape the water started to clear up a bit with water to 68 degrees moving in to the Cabrillo Seamount, Gordo Banks, the 1150 Spot and the 95 Spot.
BAIT: Bait was a little scarce this week and unless you were one of the first boats out, you might have had a bit of trouble getting any. Most of what was available was Caballito at the usual $2 per bait. A lot of boats tried to make their own bait on the grounds, but where there had been good concentrations of Mackerel at the Golden Gate, the bait had disappeared.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: It was a frustrating week for anglers targeting Billfish, as there were few to be found until the end of the week. The concentrations of Striped Marlin that had been at the Golden Gate Banks totally disappeared and there were only a few fish found scattered across the banks on the Pacific side. As the water blued up on the Cortez side the Striped Marlin started to show at the 95 Spot at the end of the week. One to three fish per boat seemed to be the average and the best luck was had on live bait thrown to tailing fish. While there were fish every day, the bite seemed to be on-off with every day producing different results.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Not the fish of the week. There were footballs in the 10 pound class outside of the San Jaime banks and 30 miles to the south of the Cape. These fish were associated with Porpoise and they moved right on through, not staying long enough to be able to find them the next day. That was just about the extent of the Tuna action for us this week, though there were some nice fish seen popping occasionally at the San Jaime Bank. A few guys are going to try and sit on the hook and chunk for them this week, I’ll let you know the results next week.
DORADO: This week is a repeat of last week. There were a few Dorado found this week and it was floating debris that helped the boats find fish. I saw one boat come in with one rigger loaded with Tuna flags and the other rigger loaded with Dorado flags and found out from the anglers that they had found a piece of wood 26 miles to the southwest loaded with Dorado to 20 pounds and football Yellowfin. Another boat found a plastic bucket that was loaded with nice Dorado and a couple of Wahoo. Everyone was keeping their eyes open for anything floating in the water!
WAHOO: There were only a few Wahoo reported this week and they were associated with the floating debris mentioned above.
INSHORE: Large swells on the Pacific side made it difficult to get in close to the rocks to fish for the Pargo concentrations and while frustrating for most fishermen, it is probable a good thing for the fish. These springtime concentrations are spawning groups and it makes me worry for our local population in future years when so many fish are taken. There was still a fair bite for Sierra and on the Cortez side there was some luck with Yellowtail and scattered rockfish for guys using live bait on the bottom.
NOTES: Another slow week overall, but it looks as if things might begin to improve soon on the billfish front. Everything else is a crapshoot right now. This weeks report was written to the music of Mark Knopfler on his 2004 Universal/Mercury release “Shangri-La” |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 06, 2006 - 9:22 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Jan 30-Feb. 5, 2006
WEATHER: Daytime highs in the low 80’s and nighttime lows right around 60 degrees had us smiling this week. The wind was light so even with the lows at 60, you often didn’t need a light jacket. We had just a scattering of clouds overhead and no large mass move through so we really had a wonderful week weather wise.
WATER: There was basically no change in the water conditions this week from what we experienced last week. The only thing that differed was the slow approach of the warm 73-degree water from the west, at the end of the week it had pushed up against the shore on the Pacific side. We still have cold green water on the Cortez side of the Cape with the water from Gorda Bank and to the south at 67-68 degrees. South of us and out to 60 miles on the Pacific side it warms to 73 degrees and is a little off-color but mostly blue. You know the water is good when there are plenty of flying fish to be seen, and that is the case once you get about 25 miles out to the southwest.
BAIT: Most of the bait available this week was Caballito but there were some mackerel if you were early to the bait boats. The price was the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Striped Marlin continued to be the only billfish available and the bite definitely dropped off this week for most of the fleet. Golden Gate Bank still produced a few fish for boats dropping bait deep, but it appeared that the fishermen trolling lures might have had the better luck. Reports were that lures in blue/black were bringing fish into the patterns and that about 60% of the fish brought up were striking the lures. About 20% were opting for live bait dropped back to them. A good day brought a Marlin to the boat and a few boats had exceptional fishing considering the slow bite with up to five releases a day.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Tuna bite that we thought might start at the San Jaime last week got the ka-bosh put on it by the Purse Seiners. Several super Seiners were observed wrapping dolphin and tuna with one seiner including a 70’ sport fisherman in the wrap. The captain says he has some good pictures of the seiner and the mangling of the porpoise as they worked the wrap. I hope to get a chance to see it soon. With that happening at the San Jaime, many boats cruised farther offshore in search of fish and a few boats got lucky 50 miles out with fish in the 50-60 pound class. The fish were moving right along though, and were not there the next day. There were reports of some very nice fish in the 100+ class popping up occasionally on the Golden Gate but they were hard to fool into biting. One boat reported getting a fish that weighed #190 on a cedar plug; they had the hook almost straighten out on them during the fight.
DORADO: There were a few Dorado found this week and it was floating debris that helped the boats find fish. I saw one boat come in with one rigger loaded with Tuna flags and the other rigger loaded with Dorado flags and found out from the anglers that they had found a piece of wood 26 miles to the southwest loaded with Dorado to 20 pounds and football Yellowfin.
WAHOO: I did not hear work of any Wahoo this week.
INSHORE: Inshore is a repeat of last week with the exception of the number of boats working the concentrations of fish. At some of the rocky points it looked like a parking lot! The Sierra and Pargo bite was still on and the Pangas were having a great time with Sierra to 10 pounds and Pargo to 30 pounds just off the beach. Live bait for both species worked best but there was also good action for the Pargo by using large, deep diving Rapallas. Best action was seen from the lighthouse on the Pacific side and to the north of there. The best Sierra bite was a little farther off the beach than last week with most of the action taking place in 50’ of water.
NOTES: In brief, slow offshore action but some great inshore fishing this week. I guess we will just have to wait for next year for the Seahawks to win the Super bowl. This weeks report was written to the sounds of the Dave Matthews Band on their 2005 RCA release “American Baby”. |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 30, 2006 - 8:58 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Jan 23-29, 2006
WEATHER: All the way through Wednesday we had great weather here with sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80’s during the daytime and in the mid 60’s at night. Wednesday evening the clouds started moving in and early Thursday morning the wind started to blow as a front moved through the area. At right around 5 AM the rain started and we had a good downpour for an hour, then it just drizzled all the way through Saturday morning. The rain was just right, not so heavy that it washed things out and long enough that everything got a good soaking. I imagine that the desert will be extremely colorful in about two weeks! At the end of the week we have partly cloudy skies with daytime highs in the high 70’s and nighttime lows around 60 degrees.
WATER: We still have cold green water on the Cortez side of the Cape with the water from Gorda Bank and to the south at 67-68 degrees. South of us and out to 30 miles on the Pacific side it warms to 73 degrees and is still pretty blue. You know the water is good when there are plenty of flying fish to be seen, and that is the case once you get about 25 miles out to the southwest. We did have choppy conditions Thursday morning when the wind blew through, but it calmed right down on Friday with just a medium swell from the Northwest. Not many boats fished the Cortez side offshore due to the cold green water but out to 15 miles offshore the conditions were pretty good, farther than that and you started to run into a bit of northeast swell and effects from the East Cape area.
BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito available this week at the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Fishing for Striped Marlin had it’s effort concentrated at the Golden Gate Bank this week, with up to 60 boats working the drift on Tuesday and Wednesday. With bait packed everywhere around the bank it was the best shot available, but as the week wore on the bite dropped off. On Saturday there were only about 40 boats working the drift and few of them were able to get bit. There was a fair showing of tailing Marlin in closer to shore directly to the east and 3 miles off the beach, but it was still not close to wide open. At the end of the week it appeared that there was about a 30% success ratio for boats targeting the Striped Marlin, not great numbers but almost everyone was seeing fish, even though they were difficult to hook.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There was a brief two day flurry of decent Tuna in the 50-90 pound class on Thursday and Friday 28 miles to the southwest, and they were associated with several different porpoise pods in the area. Only about 6 boats got into the action as the fish were moving about quite rapidly, on Saturday they were nowhere to be found. There were few fish found elsewhere later in the week, but in the first few days a few nice fish to 200 pounds were caught on the southern edge of the San Jaime Bank. Best bets were soaking live bait at the edge of the bank or dropping bait back at least 150 yards from the boat in front of the rapidly moving pods of porpoise.
DORADO:
Once again there were few Dorado flags to be seen and the cooling water may be a good part of the reason. Of course, if we see some kelp paddies or something floating that may change in an instant so everyone is constantly scanning the surface. While there were few Dorado caught, the ones that were boated were nice fish to 50 pounds, and they were found by watching the Frigate birds, running to the birds when they dove and slow trolling a live Mackerel through the area.
WAHOO: There were a few fish to 50 pounds found just off the beach on the Pacific side this week, but once again there were no large numbers of heavy concentration of them.
INSHORE: The Sierra and Pargo bite was on this week and the Pangas were having a great time with Sierra to 10 pounds and Pargo to 30 pounds just off the beach. Live bait for both species worked best but there was also good action for the Pargo by using large, deep diving Rapallas. Best action was seen from the lighthouse on the Pacific side and to the north of there.
NOTES: In brief, slow offshore action but some great inshore fishing this week. This weeks report written to the music of Dave Roberts on the 1982 WEA Japan release “All Dressed Up”. Love Lukathers Guitar work! Until next week, GO SEAHAWKS!!! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 23, 2006 - 8:15 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Jan 16-22, 2006
WEATHER: Once again we have had great weather here in Cabo with our daytime temperatures in the low 80’s to high 70’s and our cool evenings in the mid 50’s. We had very little clouds this week so of course there was no rain but we did have plenty of sunshine!
WATER: While the first two days of the week were choppy on the Pacific side, the rest of the week gave us great surface conditions on both sides of the Cape. There were some large swells on the Pacific side but after Wednesday there was no wind chop on them, at least once you got out farther than two miles as we did have afternoon near-shore wind effect showing up with a bit of a push from the wind in the east. At the end of the week our warm water looks like a thumbprint with the tip of the thumb up against the cape and the water to the immediate south being the warmest at mostly 73 degrees. Once you get a few miles up the coast in either direction the water cools off. On the Pacific side this is a band of cool water about 15 miles wide and running to the southwest from the shore and across the Golden Gate and San Jaime Banks. This water is 66-68 degrees and farther to the north it warms back up to 69-71 degrees. On the Cortez side of the Cape the warm-cold water break runs almost due east from Cabo to just south of the 1150 spot, then when it hits the 1,000-fathom line it takes a sharp southern turn. On the cool side it is 67-68 degrees. This cool water on the Cortez side is very green and off color.
BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito available this week at the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Cooling water has brought down the number of large Marlin reported this past week, but there were still a few found. I had reports of several Blue Marlin appearing in lure spreads around the south end of the San Jaime Bank with one of these fish hooked up for a short time. With the paucity of Blues around the concentrated effort this week was on Striped Marlin. If you liked to fish in a parking lot, the Golden Gate Bank was the place to be as there was a very heavy concentration of bait on top of the Bank and with it, a very strong concentration of Striped Marlin between 70 and 120 pounds in size. There were several methods employed to catch the fish with the most common being setting a live bait or two deep at 100-150 feet and one or two others near the surface while drifting across the bank. This normally resulted in at least several good bites and sometimes more, with most boats able to release at least one Marlin, and I did see boats with up to five fish released. The other method was to gun the boat toward diving Frigate birds and tossing out a live bait, the first boat there often getting bit. Not my kind of fishing, either way, but hey, if all you want to do is catch a Marlin, join the fleet. Elsewhere, the Marlin bite was not red hot, and a lot of boats saw no fish whatsoever. An occasional tailer or feeder resulted in a hook-up or two close to shore, but there was no concentration of fish other than at the Golden Gate.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I don’t know what happened to the Tuna, but they were very scarce this week. A few fish were found to the south of the Lighthouse at 25 miles, and they were between 15 and 25 pounds, but there were no large numbers of fish caught. There were plenty of Dolphin seen and good fish marked under them, but they were very boat shy, perhaps from being worked hard by Seiners. I did get a chance to go out on Thursday and we saw fish in the #150-#200 class crash the surface several times on the south edge of the San Jaime, but none of the four of us working the area got bit.
DORADO: I saw very few Dorado flags this week, but I am sure that if someone had found something floating out there the results would have been different. The few fish I did hear of were in the 10-20 pound class and found due south in the warm water, but they were reported as being blind strikes.
WAHOO: A few fish were caught this week, the best areas reported as the San Jaime bank and just off the shore at the lighthouse on the Pacific. Few and far between, there was no concentration of fish with the ones being caught being incidental catches.
INSHORE: I got in a little personal inshore action this week with an 18-boat Sierra tournament from 4-6 pm Saturday. We fished just south of the San Cristobal point and caught fish from 2 pounds to 8 pounds with the average being right around 7 pounds. The bigger fish were all caught on live bait, mostly small Mackerel rigged with light wire leaders and a trailing hook. The smaller fish were on hootchies and Rapallas. I was amazed that all the live bait we used were hit within 2 minutes of being put in the water, but the lures rarely received any action. My partner and I caught 6 Sierra and tied for the smallest fish at 1.8 pounds. The largest fish of the tournament was 10.8 pounds and was caught by the boat that we tied with for smallest fish. Also caught in the same area were Pargo to 20 pounds and grouper to 12 pounds. According to our Panga Captain, this has been average for the week.
NOTES: In brief, warm water to the south, great weather and water, some fair Marlin action on drifted baits, great inshore action, everything else very quiet. This weeks report was written to the music of Pink Floyd on the 2001 EMI 2-CD release “ECHOES – The best of Pink Floyd”. Until next week, Tight Lines! Happy Chris? GO SEAHAWKS!!! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 16, 2006 - 9:48 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Jan 9-15, 2006
WEATHER: After a sunny start we ended the week under a cloud layer, as a fairly large system is moving across us. Our highs have been in the low 80’s to high 70’s while the nighttime lows have been in the low 60’s to high 50’s. The winds have been light but it looks as if the beginning of this week we might have a couple of days of heavy winds in the 25-35 mile per hour range.
WATER: With the cloud cover this week it was difficult to get any good satellite shots so most of what I have in the way of temperatures is reports from other captains and just an occasional glimpse of different areas via satellite. The basics from last week have not changes with the area immediately to the south and directly to the east and west being warm, mostly in the 76-78 degree range. On the Cortez side to the north of Punta Gorda the temperature drops off rapidly and the water becomes very green. On the Pacific side the warm water has crept up the coast so we are getting the 74-75 degree water out past the Golden Gate Bank. This week the surface conditions were good everywhere, it may turn a bit choppy and rough at the beginning of this coming week.
BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito available this week at the normal $2 per bait. Sometimes Sardinas were available from Pangas up at Palmilla at the normal $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: A few boats reported very hard strikes from giant fish this week and by most signifiers there are some very large Marlin still out there. One guy got spooled on a fully filled Penn #80 set at #27 of strike. Very few large fish were reported landed; most of them were lost during the fight. I was told of several releases of Blue Marlin in the #500-#600 range. Most of the Billfish action this week took place on the Pacific side from the lighthouse to the Golden Gate area. The Golden Gate is again holding large amounts of bait and there are plenty of Striped Marlin there with most boats able to release two or three per day. The same situation was happening off of the Los Arcos area and at the lighthouse, just not quite the numbers of fish. There were scattered Stripers found up the Cortez side, but not much action reported north of the Punta Gorda area.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I thought that the Tuna bite was going to continue all month but it took a bit of a drop this past week. I wonder if all the Purse Seiners we have seen out there have anything to do with it? Most of the fish caught have been footballs to 20 pounds with an occasional 35-pound fish in the mix. I did not hear of any larger fish being taken but I am sure there were a few. Most of the Tuna action took place between the 95 Spot and the San Jaime Bank. Best lures were feathers in dark colors and natural cedar plugs.
DORADO: The warm water to the south of us has held some nice Dorado and almost every boat that went out this week was able to hook into one or two. On Thursday a few boats did even better as a dead whale was found about 10 miles from port at 120 degrees. The first boat to find the whale reported a total of 42 Dorado ranging from 20 to 35 pounds. Another boat found a plastic 5 gallon bucket and picked over 30 fish before other boats spotted him and moved in. While these were abnormalities, there were plenty of scattered Dorado to 45 pounds found from just off the beach to 10 miles out. Live bait was the best bet, slow trolled along current lines or along drop-offs. Second best was trolling 6”-9” lures in bright colors at 8-9 knots in the same area until a fish hit, then dropping back a live bait.
WAHOO: Right at the full moon (the 14th) there was some good Wahoo action reported from the inner Gorda Bank, the Grey Rock drop-off, the 95 Spot and the lighthouse. Most of the fish were in the 35-45 pound class and the best lure was a Yo-Zuri Bonita or Braid Marauder in black or purple. Strikes were had on other lures but most often they were rigged with mono leaders, and that meant lots of lost lures and fish.
INSHORE: Sierra action has continued with most of the fish being in the 4-6 pound class and an occasional fish to 10 pounds. Surprisingly there was some fair Roosterfish to be found on the Pacific side up around the Los Arcos area as well. While most of the Roosters were in that small 5-8 pound category, there were fish caught that ran to 45 pounds, with quite a few in the 25-35 pound class as well. Boats working the rocky points at first light were able to score on some Yellowtail with the fish ranging from 12 pounds to 32 pounds. The bigger fish were fooled with live bait and the rest fell for slow trolled (5 knots) Rapallas or for iron being yo-yoed with the best colors for iron being scrambled egg.
NOTES: The year started off well for me with a new job as the Captain on a 58’ Viking. As soon as we get out of the yard I hope to see how it fishes! My wife Mary chose this week’s music so the report was written to the sound of the Beach Boys on the 1999 CEMA release ”The Beach Boys All Time Greatest Hits”. Until next week, Tight Lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 09, 2006 - 9:22 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Jan 1-8, 2006
WEATHER: First I would like to wish every one a happy new year! We have had a fine start with our weather warming up a bit and the wind disappearing. Our year has started with daytime highs in the mid 80’s and our nights in the low 60’s, just about as perfect as you can get. No rain of course and very few clouds, so things are off to a sunny start.
WATER: From Punta Gorda and north on the Cortez side the water is 70 degrees. On the Pacific side we have water at 73-74 degrees out as far as the west side of the Golden Gate and San Jaime Banks. Past there it cools to 71-72 degrees. South of us from the 1150, the 95 spot and across to about 10 miles south of the San Jaime we have had a big warm water eddy move in with temperatures in the 76-78 degree range, and fin a few spots early in the week the water was a bit warmer than that. The surface conditions on both sides of the Cape have been great with large rolling swells but no wind chop, just about as perfect as you could ask for.
BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito available this week at the normal $2 per bait. Sardinas were available from Pangas up at Palmilla at the normal $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: We knew that it could not last forever but we are very happy that id lasted as long as it did. The Striped Marlin bite at the Finger Bank has dropped way off with a lot of boats making the trip with no results to show for it. We have had a few folks manage to get two to four fish and an occasional 6 fish day up there, but you can do that closer to home with a bit of luck. There has been a fair concentration of fish off of the Light house on the Pacific side and it seems that almost every day half the fleet is there soaking bait with the results being between one and three fish a day. It gets a bit crowded and if the bait ball comes up a lot of boats charge to the spot where the Frigates are diving making for heavy traffic and lots of bounce for boat staying in one spot. The warm water that appeared early in the week did result is several Blue Marlin being caught wit the largest I heard of being right in the #700 range, as well as a few small Black Marlin. With these fish being caught to the east and south, the Striped Marlin close to home, just about the only thing missing would be Swordfish, and my friend Chuck Baker took his new purchase, the 35 Cabo named Knot-2-Worry out to the Finger Bank and ended up making the first fish for the boat a small Swordfish that they spotted while under way! Yep, a little bit of everything to start off the New Year!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: It looks as if the Yellowfin are going to be the fish of the week, and maybe of the month since they have been the most predictable catch. Mostly footballs to 15 pounds, they are being found under Dolphin. The main areas have been between the 95 spot and the San Jaime banks out to a distance of 35 miles. Of course most of the fish were closer than that, but there were some large fish out farther. Slow trolling live Caballito in front of the Dolphin resulted in multiple fish in the 50-70 pound class for quite a few boats, and there were reports of fish to #150 as well.
DORADO: The warm water incursion we have had has resulted in an improved Dorado bite with most of the action taking place right on the edge of the warm and cold water. This means that the bite has been good just three miles form shore. The best lures have been small plastics of around 8 inches in length in bright colors, with heads producing a lot of surface action. Dropping back a live bait after the first fish has been brought near the boat often resulted in multiple hook-ups. There are fish close to the beach as well as just off the arch, but the seals and sea lions can be a problem there!
WAHOO: I heard of some Wahoo being caught this week but there were not many of them and the sizes were not large. Most of the reports were from the Cortez side up around the Gorda Banks and the Iman Bank area.
INSHORE: The inshore fishing is starting to improve with Sierra being the main catch. If the schools are found most of the boats have been catching 12 to 20 fish per trip, but if the concentration is not there things are quite a bit slower. Some days the catch has been only one or two fish. A Captain reported to me that on one of his days this week they caught one Sierra, three Dorado, several small Yellowfin and one #150 Mako shark along with a large number of Bonita. The fish are there; you just have to search a bit.
NOTES: A 1997 KRB release of Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Great Balls of Fire” compilation was playing while I wrote this report and I just love his rendition of “You Win Again”. This year is off to a great start for most of us, but not for everyone. I would like to offer my condolences to the family of Dennis Cam, the owner of one of the boats I take care of. Dennis passed away due to a massive heart attack at 11:30 New Years eve, and he will be missed very much. Tight Lines Dennis. Well folks, until next week, may you all have smooth seas and tight lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 02, 2006 - 8:51 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Dec. 26- Dec 31, 2005
WEATHER: Daytime highs right around 80 degrees and nighttime lows at 60 degrees make things just about as perfect as they can get for the last week of the year. We had a few cloudy days early in the week but it cleared up nicely at the end. No rain of course, and the wind did not blow too badly.
WATER: The swells on the Pacific side died down this week but we did have a couple of days of windy weather that kicked up some choppy conditions during the middle of the week. The same conditions existed on the Cortez side early in the week if you went up past the Gorda Banks, but still the conditions were fishable, just a bit bumpy. The water on the Pacific side has been right around 70-71 degrees with very green water close to shore but getting a bit bluer the farther out you go. On the Cortez side the water north of the Gorda Banks was off color and cool at an average of 68-69 degrees around Los Frailles to 70-71 degrees off of Punta Gorda. Going farther south until you reached the Cape the water became a great blue color and warmed up to 74 degrees once you got a mile off shore.
BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito available this week at the normal $2 per bait. Sardinas were available from Pangas up at Palmilla at the normal $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I overheard one guy talking on the radio that the Striped Marlin bite at the Finger Bank was still going on as they had released 22 fish on Tuesday. The choppy conditions kept a lot of the smaller boats from getting up there, but the water was reported as blue and full of life. I can only hope that the bite continues! Closer to home, the Striped Marlin bite that had been happening just off the lighthouse has ended for the most part as the water turned a very pea-green color and the big bait ball that had been on the ledge moved away. There were reports that the Golden Gate still had a lot of fish on it with blue water so that may be the target for the coming week unless the bait and fish move over to the 95 spot. No Swordfish have been reported yet but with the cooling water and the green color coming it won’t be long until we start to see a few on the surface.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were quite a few football fish to 20 pounds taken off the lighthouse and the arch by boats that chummed and baited with Sardines this week, but that ended with the arrival of the green water. Other fish to 100 pounds were reported being found between 15 and 30 miles to the west and south, under the Porpoise. Much like last week, the larger fish were taken on live bait; the medium fish bit well on cedar plugs and the footballs were suckers for small hootchies in silver and blue. We did have one day of decent fish under Spinner Dolphin just 6 miles off shore toward the 95 spot. Dropping live bait deep in front of the slow moving fish brought between 2 and 6 Yellowfin per boat with the fish between 40 and 60 pounds.
DORADO: The Dorado bite remained poor this week with only a few boats finding more than one fish at a time and most of them were right around 10-15 pounds. A few fish to 30 pounds were caught as well, but they were few and far between. Most of the Dorado were found in the warmer water to the south of the Cape and they were caught on tuna feathers and live bait.
WAHOO: I saw one Wahoo brought in this week and it was only about 20 pounds. Of course there were more that I did not see or hear about, but the bite was very slow and the fish were an accidental catch. There was a brief bit up at Punta Gorda that lasted one day with the fish in the same 15-20 pound class, and they were caught on live bait.
INSHORE: Very little inshore fishing was done off of the Pacific side this week due to both the large swells and the green water. Boats working the shoreline on the Cortez side were reporting some Sierra to 8 pounds and a few decent Amberjack as well as a scattering of Pargo to 20 pounds found among the rocks. Most of the Panga fleet was working just offshore looking for Yellowfin and Bonita and they had decent luck with those fish as well as a few smaller Dorado.
NOTES: It’s the end of the old year and we have a new one on its way. We hope everyone has a safe and happy time, if you think you are going to get a little borracho while you are out, get an envelope and mail your keys to yourself and take a cab home! As always, our fingers are crossed for a successful fishing year to come and hope everyone out there gets a chance to come and visit Cabo this coming year. |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 26, 2005 - 9:53 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Dec. 19-25, 2005
WEATHER: Well, it’s Christmas week and I sort of feel a little coolness in the air since our night time lows have been around the high 50’s, not cold enough for snow, but then again, that might really mess us up here! Our daytime highs have been in the high 70’s, warm enough to not need a sweater during the day, and very comfortable if like me, you like to sun like a cat.
WATER: The word for the week on the Pacific side was “Big Swells”. As a result of storms moving across the northern Pacific region we have had ground swells to 12 feet move in on the offshore Pacific side. These ground swells have been large enough to hide a 31’ boat on the other side of the swell, but spaced far enough apart that you rarely noticed quite how large they were. They had no effect on the offshore fishing. There was little wind on the Pacific side and as far as 40 miles out and 50 miles up the surface conditions were great. The surface temperatures were 71-72 degrees almost everywhere with no temperature breaks worth noting. On the Cortez side of the Cape we had choppy conditions up past Punta Gorda at the beginning of the week but conditions improved later. There was a band of 68-degree water running east to west off of Los Frailles while the water closer to us remained 71-73 degrees.
BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito available this week at the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: It is amazing but the Striped Marlin bite up at the Finger Bank is continuing. A friend just spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday fishing the area and released 15, 12 and 32 Striped Marlin. He reported that the third day they found a concentration of fish just a bit further north and really had a blast. Boats working the Golden Gate Bank continued to get a fair number of fish while drifting live bait and some of these fish have moved south down the canyon edge and are biting lures on the north side of the San Jaime Bank. There is still a fair bite on the Striped Marlin at the lighthouse, but it has been a last hour effort for a lot of boats on the way home as there is not a very large concentration of billfish there. On average, the boats drifting bait at the banks are getting one to three fish a day, the troll average up at the south of the San Jaime have been between one and four hook-ups with one to two fish released and the Finger Bank continues to be the hot spot with a dozen fish on the average.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There was little change in the Yellowfin report this week. Almost all the fish were found between 15 and 30 miles out, from due south to the west side of the San Jaime bank. While many of the fish were footballs, there were some schools with fish crashing the surface at 40-50 pounds and a few fish much larger were taken on live bait soaked at 100 feet around the schools. You could not soak bait for long on many of the schools, as they were moving pretty fast. Almost all these fish were associated with Dolphin, and the better schools also had Frigate Bird piles on them. Dark colored lures worked at time as did white-silver-blue and of course, live bait.
DORADO: While the Dorado bite continues to be poor, there are still some fish out there as I found out on Thursday with a pair of fish at 30 and 45 pounds. First fish was on a lure and the larger male ate a live bait dropped back after the hook-up. There was about one flag for every ten boats this week.
WAHOO: There were Wahoo caught this week and the ones I heard of came from the 95 spot. They were nice fish at an average of 50 pounds and quite a few lures were lost in that area.
INSHORE: The big swells on the Pacific side have kept many of the Pangas from fishing close in but the ones that have done it are reporting a slow increase in the Sierra bite as well as a slow increase in the number of Yellowtail showing up. With the calm conditions on the Pacific side I have seen Pangas as far as 25 miles off shore.
NOTES: Striped Marlin and Yellowfin Tuna are going to be the holiday fish as they are the closest things we have to a sure bet this week. This week’s music selection is from one of my favorite guitarists, the amazing flamenco artist Ottmar Liebert with his 1990 Higher Octave collection of Christmas music, “Poets and Angels”. Check him out on-line and sit back and relax. Until next week, Tight lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 19, 2005 - 7:51 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Dec. 12-18, 2005
WEATHER: This last week continued mostly cloudy as bands of clouds moved over us from the NW. It felt as though we should have gotten just a little bit of rain, but nope, not yet! Our daytime highs have been right around 80 degrees while the nighttime lows have been right at 60 degrees.
WATER: On the Pacific side we have had mixed conditions with one day being great with small swells and little or no wind and the next there being lumpy conditions with a fair chop on top of it. The water temperature has been warmer on the Pacific with most of the water between the Golden Gate and the Jaime and south at right around 74-75 degrees. There were a few cool spots down to 71, but they were few and far between. Most of the water has been nice and blue. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water has been a bit greener with the area between the 1150 and the Gorda Banks being off color and 72-73 degrees. That water temperature extends out to the area of the Cabrillo Seamount. The surface water conditions on the Cortez side have been good right in front of town but as you traveled up the Cape it got a bit more choppy as there were very windy conditions past the Punta Gorda area.
BAIT: There was no trouble getting bait this week as all the bait boats had plenty of Mackerel, at the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The bite at the Lighthouse on the Pacific side has continued to improve as the Striped Marlin move closer. It is still a drift bait fishery for the most part with an occasional bait boil on the surface with Frigates diving to mark the spot. Running to the action and tossing a live Mackerel in the middle usually resulted in a hook-up for the first boat on the scene. In other area, the action at the Finger Bank continued with Striped Marlin balling up Sardinas. I made it up there on Thursday and we released 17 fish ranging from 60 to 130 pounds while fishing with live Mackerel, tossing them to the feeders. There have been a few fish showing off the points on the Pacific side while the action on billfish on the Cortez side has been almost non-existent.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Water conditions farther up on the Pacific side kept the one private boat that was going up to check out the large Tuna action from making the trip, so I don’t know if it is worth an overnight trip to find these reported bruisers, but closer to home there has been good to fair action on football and school size fish. The area around the San Jaime Bank continues to produce fish ranging from 10-40 pounds on lures and boats trying to drop bait deep, around 100 feet, are getting the occasional bite on fish to 100 pounds. These fish are associated with porpoise of course. Even closer to home, we had a fair bite at the end of the week on Tuna to 40 pounds just off the lighthouse on the Pacific side. The Marlin drift fishermen were getting the occasional fish to 40 pounds and then a decent pod of porpoise moved in and the surface action got good for two days. The best lures seemed to be dark colored and between 6 and 8 inches in length.
DORADO: The continued cold water has made the Dorado bite almost a thing of the imagination. This had to have been one of the worst Dorado seasons in quite some time as there was only a short timeframe, maybe one month, when you could be assured of a Dorado.
WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo being caught this week.
INSHORE: Most of the Pangas have been fishing the ledge at the lighthouse and have been catching Marlin and Tuna. For those working the shore, Sierra averaging 5 pounds have continued to provide action, an occasional 8-pound fish keeps the hopes up. There have also been some nice Pargo to 20 pounds being caught out of the rocks along all the points.
NOTES: The focus continues to be on Striped Marlin and Yellowfin Tuna offshore while the inshore prospects are looking good for more and larger Sierra and the occasional Yellowtail as the water temperature continues to drop. The whales are moving into our area in larger numbers as well, and by Christmas you should be guaranteed a sight of one on any trip. This weeks report was written to the rocking guitar and vocals of Johnny Winter on the 1991 Virgin Records release “Let Me In”. Until next week, Tight Lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
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Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 12, 2005 - 8:44 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Dec. 5-11, 2005
WEATHER: It was mostly cloudy for the mid and end of the week, days with clear skies started us off. Our daytime highs were in the low 80’s while nighttime lows were in the high 50’s. There was no rain, the winds began the week from the NW, shifted to the SE then ended up from the SW, moving to the West.
WATER: Surface conditions on the Pacific side of the Cape continued to be mixed as the wind continued to shift around this week. There were some good swells from the northwest and how choppy it was depended on where the wind was coming from. Warm water at 73 to 74 degrees surrounded us out to 15 miles on both side of the Cape and almost 50 miles to the south at the beginning of the week, but the water has shifted toward the northwest over the course of the week. The water outside the Jaime and up toward the Finger Bank remained green but still held fish. On the Cortez side of the Cape the cool water moved closer as an area of water in the 68-degree range pushed in from the northeast. At the end of the week the boundary laid right across The Gorda Bank and the 1150, running north to south. Surface conditions on the Cortez side were a bit bumpy from wind chop close to home for most of the week and it got a bit confused toward the Punta Gorda and outside as the wind from the northeast and southeast met the swells from the west.
BAIT: Same as last week, and almost every week. It was pretty much Mackerel, very few Caballito were in the bait boats tanks. The price was the usual $2 each. A lot of boats are still making their own bait at the Golden Gate before venturing up the hill to Finger Banks. At $2 per bait, filling with 30 or 40 baits gets expensive!
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Well, I have no Blue Marlin to report for this week, but there may have been some caught south of us where the water is still a bit warmer. Instead, the action from billfish has consisted almost entirely of Striped Marlin, and they seem to continue to get closer to us. The hot action at the Finger Bank (50 miles to the north on the Pacific) continues to be almost wide open for most boats making the trip. The bite has started late in the morning and has lasted until around 5pm. The catch has varied from 2 fish per boat to as many as 22 fish per boat. Most of these Striped Marlin have been the typical 60-90 pound winter fish, but there have been some of the large 150-pound fish in the mix. Closer to home, the bite has moved off the Golden Gate Bank and has begun at Punta Cristobal and off the Lighthouse. This fishery is mostly a drift fishery with live bait being soaked at 150 feet and some boats have been getting three Marlin a day.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The fish we had just off the beach last week have moved out and now the action seems to be centered on the San Jaime Bank, at least as of the end of the week. Most of the fish have been associated with large pods of Dolphin and the fish size has ranged from 10 to 35 pounds. Dark colored lures of about 6 inches have been working well on these fish. There were larger fish reported, up to 100 pounds, by boats working dolphin a little farther out and dropping live bait in front of the moving pods of mammals. There have been reports from the long range San Diego boats of very large “cow” tuna to 200 pounds up around the Mag. Bay area and at least one local private boat is planning to go up there this week to check it out.
DORADO: The water temperature continues to drop and with it, the Dorado bite. Almost the only fish I heard about this week were found under floating debris, and there was not a lot of that around our area. If you were able to find a piece of wood or a strand of kelp the chance of getting hooked up to dinner were good, and live bait works very well for doing that.
WAHOO: I did hear of several Wahoo being caught this week, but they were scarce. Most of the Wahoo flags flying in the marina continue to be for Sierra.
INSHORE: The majority of Pangas have been fishing close to the lighthouse on the Pacific side for Striped Marlin, but those working the beach have made good catches of both Sierra averaging 4 pounds and Red Snapper to 15 pounds. I caught some live bait at the lighthouse this week and then moved in to 120 feet of water, dropped one to the bottom and caught a nice Sierra of about 8 pounds and had another bait cut in half. The Snapper have been up in the rocks along the points.
NOTES: We are starting the winter season with more Tuna showing up and fewer Dorado, the water cooling down and Striped Marlin moving in off the ledges, feeding deep. This week I have seen my first Gray Whales and Humpbacks of the season, the Grays right on the beach and the Humpbacks about 6 miles off. Hopefully the weather stays good and the bite continues! This week’s report was written to the excellent music of Mark Knopfler on the 2002 Warner Brothers release “Rag Pickers Dream”, thanks for loaning it to me go to my friend Jimmy Ryan! |
CaptG (Unregistered Guest)
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Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 05, 2005 - 6:53 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Nov. 28-Dec. 4, 2005
WEATHER: Daytime highs in the low 80’s with night time lows in the high 50’s or low 60’s, cold enough for jackets in the evenings and warm enough to play at the beach in the daytime! We have had a bit of cloud cover move in on us since the beginning of the month, but it looks as if it will move away over the next few days. We have had no rain with it, but it has made for very poor sea surface temperature shots.
WATER: It has been as little bit choppy on the Pacific side, but not bad. The water has been smooth enough to allow you to go wherever you want, but with a slight chop sometimes. On the Cortez side the surface conditions have been great up until you try and get past the Frailles area, then the winds kick in and it becomes victory at sea. That wind line has moved around a bit as well, sometimes getting as close to us as the Gorda Banks. The area of water between Gorda Banks, the 1150 and the 95 Sport has been in the 76-degree range, farther up the coast ad offshore it drops to about 70 degrees. If you took an image of the Cape and moved it down 40 miles, the resulting overlay on our offshore water would be where you could find temperatures in the mid to high 70’s elsewhere (farther to the west) the California current has a finger of cool 70 degree water going due south.
BAIT: It was pretty much Mackerel this week, very few Caballito were in the bait boats tanks. The price was the usual $2 each. A lot of boats are still making their own bait at the Golden Gate before venturing up the hill to Finger Banks. At $2 per bait, filling with 30 or 40 baits gets expensive!
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Well, things can change in an instant when you are talking about fishing, and they sure changed this week. Last week I heard of no Blues having been caught, this week I heard of three. One was estimated at #300+ and was released after three hours, found just off the temperature break to the southwest of the Cape early in the week, only about 11 miles out. Two others were reported released in the area between the 1150 and the Cabrillo Seamount. Other action on the Cortez side consisted of a few scattered Striped Marlin and Sailfish, with most of that bite happening fairly close to the Punta Gorda area. On the Pacific the bite is still going on close to shore around the Punta San Cristobal and at the Golden Gate Bank, and for those willing to put up the money required for extra fuel, the Finger Bank continues to be the place to go for the Striped Marlin. Expectations run high when making a long trip like that, but the results can vary. I had friends go up there early in the week and they came back with 4 Stripers released. I had another friend go up there on Saturday and they released 26 Stripers. Go figure, but if you do go, have plenty of bait just in case!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There was consistent action on Yellowfin this week with football size fish being caught everyday just off the beach on the Cortex side. This was a Sardine fishery, you had to find the fish on the depth sounder then chum them up. Most mornings there were 30 boats working the area. Larger fish were reported offshore past the 95 Spot and out to the Cabrillo Seamount, according to one captains report “as many as you could want” with sizes ranging from 10 to 30 pounds. All the Tuna this week with the exception of the footballs just off shore were found associated with Dolphin, but not every pod of Dolphin held fish. On the Pacific side there was some great action on Friday just to the north and inside of the Golden Gate banks, with fish to 80 pounds being caught within sight of the fleet soaking bait for Marlin.
DORADO: The Dorado found this week were scattered fish, there was nothing floating found by the fleet to really get the flags flying. There was decent Dorado action up around the Finger Bank, but there was little pressure on them as the main focus was Striped Marlin.
WAHOO: Repeat: Looking at all the red flags flying at the marina this week you would think that the Wahoo action has just busted wide open. That is not the case however because the flags are being flown for that they call “shallow water Wahoo”, or in other words, Sierra.
INSHORE: The inshore Sierra bite continues to improve and they are being caught from the beach as well. There are still some Roosterfish in the area, the Jack Crevalle are still around and just off the beach is where you will find a fairly consistent Dorado Bite and football Yellowfin. I have not heard much more about the Yellowtail, but a few friends have told me they are still getting an occasional fish and that the water temperature is getting right for them to start appearing in numbers.
NOTES: I have not had a chance to get out on the water much this week as I have been working on a couple of boats getting stuff fixed and repaired. Maybe someday I will get a position on a private boat with an owner who likes to do a lot of fishing and can pay a salary! It sure would be easier on me and the older I get the more my body would appreciate it! Anyway, hopefully I will be fishing this coming week and check out the report next week, weather I go or not, all my friends fish and I can fill you in. Meanwhile, this report was written to the fiddle music of Vassar Clements on the 1986 Flying Fish Records release “Hillbilly Jazz Rides Again”. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to e-mail me at gmlandrum@hotmail.com or give me a call at 044-624-122-0304 if you are in Cabo or 206-658-5158 if you are calling from the states. Until next week, Tight Lines! |
CaptG (Unregistered Guest)
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Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 28, 2005 - 7:41 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Nov. 21-27, 2005
WEATHER: I just love Cabo when the weather is like this, if only it stayed this way all year! We have had sunny days with the highs in the low 80’s. Clear nights and the lows have been in the mid to low 60’s, cool enough that we have started to use the light blanket on the bed and carry light jackets in the van for staying out in the evening.
WATER: The wind did pickup just a bit this week as compared to last week, but it was not bad. The water o the Pacific side did chop up just a little bit, but there were no swells to go with it and it did not happen until later in the day. The temperature on the Pacific side stayed pretty much around 74-76-degree range while on the Cortez side of the Cape they were quite a bit higher. Up around Punta Gorda we had water around 80 degrees while out around the 1150 and Cabrillo Seamount it was around 77 degrees. There was a strong temperature break visible on the charts that ran from just off the lighthouse on the Pacific side to the south for ten miles then curved off to the southwest for another 25 miles.
BAIT: It was an even mix between Caballito and Mackerel this week at the normal $2 per bait. If you left the marina early you had no problem making plenty of bait (mackerel) just north of the lighthouse on the Pacific side or up on Golden Gate Bank. I had no word this week in Sardinas.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin are still out there but they seem to have started disappearing from the Golden Gate Bank. There were 42 boats soaking bait on the bank when I was out there on Wednesday. We picked up two Striped Marlin around 80 pounds each on Tuesday but only had one hook-up on Wednesday. Reports from other boats that have been there since midweek are that the bite has dropped off quite a bit. On the up side, there have been more fish reported along the shore, with many boats finding tailing fish between Punta San Cristobal and the lighthouse from 1 to 5 miles off shore. The bite up at the Finger Bank is still taking place, but fewer boats were going there this week since the wind did start picking up. The bite there was also reported to have dropped off a bit, but who can really complain about 10 fish days instead of 15 fish days! They are still mostly feeding on Sardinas up there so it is very important to have the bait wells filled with small Mackerel before getting to the Finger Bank. On the Cortez side of the Cape there have been a few Sailfish and a few Striped Marlin reported from up around the Gorda Bank area and just to the north, but no wide-open action. I did not hear of any reports of other billfish this week, no Blues or Blacks, but that does not mean there were none hooked up.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: It was hit and miss on almost every species of fish this week, but if you were one of the boats that “hit” the Tuna, you had a great time. I know of one boat that was the only one on a Porpoise school and they reported catching 32 fish between 12 and 25 pounds. I saw a few boats come in with multiple flags for Tuna and saw fish ranging from 25 to 50 pounds being unloaded. The fish were reported all over the place, but during the middle of the week there seemed to be a decent concentration of them just off the coast on the Cortez side of the Cape. This concentration was within 2 miles of the shore and slowly moved to the south over several days. There were other reports of fish 25 miles to the south and reports of fish off to the west of the San Jaime Bank area.
DORADO: There were a few boats that really got into the Dorado this week and the fish they found were under floating Kelp. Once in a while we get a patch come through that has broken off from up north and by the time it arrives in our area it is normally holding quite a concentration of fish. For the first few boats there, the fishing can be unbelievable for Dorado, Wahoo and sometimes Tuna. A nice patch was found off the beach inside the Golden Gate on Wednesday and there were a lot of Dorado flags flying at the end of the day. There has also been good Dorado reported from the Finger Banks area as well.
WAHOO: Looking at all the red flags flying at the marina this week you would think that the Wahoo action has just busted wide open. That is not the case however because the flags are being flown for that they call “shallow water Wahoo”, or in other words, Sierra.
INSHORE: It appears that the Sierra bite has started with quite a few small ones in the 3-5 pound range being caught this week. There have also been reports of a few Roosterfish still around as well as some Yellowtail beginning to show up. Combine those with Pargo and some Grouper, as well as a few Dorado and small Yellowfin close to the beach and the inshore action is pretty good right now.
NOTES: I have been seeing whales on almost every trip this past week, and saw my first Gray Whales on Wednesday, really close to the beach off of Punta San Cristobal. With the weather getting really nice and the fishing starting to pick up it is a good beginning to the holiday season! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and that if you get a chance to come to Cabo you have great fishing as well! This weeks report was written to the music of my friend, Daniel Tuchmann - musician, producer, songwriter, and composer for motion picture and video. His career also includes being back up musician and soloist for some of the Latin America's top vocal artists such as Oscar Chavez and Amparo Ochoa. This music was from his first CD, the self titled “Daniel Tuchmann”. Until next week, Tight Lines! |
CaptG (Unregistered Guest)
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Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 21, 2005 - 7:35 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Nov. 14-20, 2005
WEATHER: There was no change in the weather this week as our day time highs were in the high 80’s and our nighttime lows were in the mid 60’s. We had a few high clouds late in the week but there was no rain.
WATER: Surface conditions were great no matter which way you went this week, on the Pacific side seas were slight at 1-3 feet and only slight breezes from the NW and on the Sea of Cortez the conditions were the same, with slight breezes from the north. Up past the Gorda Bank on the Sea of Cortez the water became pretty green, but the temperature remained at 79-81 degrees. On the Pacific side the water was the same out to the San Jaime and then to the south, but farther west and north it dropped into the mid 70’s with the area around Golden Gate Bank a cool 72 degrees. The temperature break on the Pacific side is still there and I tried to work it several times last week, but without much in the way of luck, it was holding bait but I found no big fish marks and there was little surface activity.
BAIT: There were plenty of Mackerel available at the normal $2 per bait early in the week and there were also a few Caballito as well but at the end of the week bait became hard to come by. A lot of boats were making their own bait instead of buying it. I have not heard anything on the Sardinas.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The only billfish activity I have heard about this week has been about Striped Marlin, I have heard of no Blues or Blacks caught this week, and only a couple of Sailfish. There are fish on the Pacific side of the cape from right in front of the light house on up the coast but the concentrations seem to be on the Golden Gate Bank and they are getting hit hard by the fleet boats without the range to get to the Finger Bank. There are immense concentrations of Mackerel on the Golden Gate and most of the boats are catching them on Sabiki rigs then dropping them back down on weighted lines to hook up to Marlin and an occasional Dorado, Tuna and Wahoo. The Golden Gate has also become an important stop for the faster boats that are continuing on up the line to the Finger Bank. Stopping at the Golden and fishing bait for an hour has almost become a necessity as the bait the Marlin are feeding on at the Finger Bank are Sardines and almost impossible to catch. Filling up the bait tanks then continuing on can put you in the middle of some of the most fantastic Marlin action available, and we can only hope the action continues as the fish start to move closer. It is not uncommon to hear of boats getting 30 bites, but far fewer hook-ups of course. At least the mackerel are the right size, close to the 5”-6”Sardinas. A dozen releases on a day trip to the Finger Bank was common this week, and what kept a lot of the boats from getting more than that was the lack of enough bait.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I was hearing about some decent Yellowfin showing up to the north, most of it information from boats working the area of the Finger Bank. There was some mid-week action to the south about 20 miles, but the fish moved through pretty quickly. Most of the fish caught mid-week were in the football to 30 pound class, the fish to the north are reported to be a bit larger, 40-50 pounds, but they are moving around a lot.
DORADO: As the water has cooled down close to home so has the Dorado bite. There are still boats getting one or two fish per trip, but only a few have been doing better than that. A couple of boats that have gone a little farther up the line past the finger banks have reported good Dorado catches, probably because of all the bait in the area. Their fish were averaging 25 pounds and many of them were larger. 5-8 fish per boat was not unexpected once the fish were found, and most of them were caught by dropping back a live bait after the first one hooked on the troll was brought behind the boat.
WAHOO: There were a few scattered fish reported but no great action on these speedsters this week.
INSHORE: I had reports of some Roosterfish, decent Pargo, a few early, small sierra and reports of a few Yellowtail beginning to show up. Live bait and vertical jigging were the way to go fir the inshore species this week.
NOTES: It’s not too late to get in on the hot Striped Marlin action. It is still going off but who knows how long it can last. I just hope the fish continue to move in our direction so everyone can get in on the bite. For this past week I would have to say the action was a bit slower than normal with the exception of the Golden Gate and Finger Banks, and a lot of people may have been a bit disappointed in the local catch rates, but at least the water was great! My fingers are crossed that the close to home activity will pick up and we will not have to be making 2 ½ hour runs to get to the fish. Until next week, Tight Lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
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Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 14, 2005 - 7:47 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Nov. 6-13, 2005
WEATHER: There was no change in the weather this week as our day time highs were in the low 90’s and our nighttime lows were in the low 70’s. We had a few high clouds late in the week but there was no rain.
WATER: On the Pacific side it was still choppy most of the time with the winds coming consistently out of the NW. The swells were 2-5 feet and for the most part the water offshore was nice and blue. The water along the beach out to four miles was a bit green and also a bit warmer at 79-80 degrees. Off shore out to the Golden Gate Banks and the San Jaime Banks the water was 77-78 degrees and past that it dropped to 74-75 degrees. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water was in great shape with an occasional late afternoon breeze from the ENE that would chop up the water if you were up around Punta Gorda, but closer to home things stayed very nice all day with minimal swells and water temperatures around 81-83 degrees. At the end of the week there appeared to be a very sharp temperature break running north-south along the 110* line with the east side at 82 degrees and the west side at 77 degrees, and less than a ½ mile area between the breaks.
BAIT: There were plenty of Mackerel available at the normal $2 per bait and there were also a few Caballito as well. I have not heard anything on the Sardinas.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: This week the buzz has been about the Striped Marlin fishing at the Finger Bank. Last week I mentioned it, this week I went. It is a 100-mile round trip and takes several hours of cruising to get there. I think most of the boats that can make the trip have been charging a fuel sur-charge. Anyway, Frigate birds everywhere and Striped Marlin slurping down big Sardinas like they were candy. I mean lots of fish! We had about 20 bites in four hours, went through our 10 live baits in the first hour and then had to figure out which lures would work. There were Dolphin and Whales, massive bait balls and Marlin everywhere! I overheard one boat say that they had 80 bites in one day! That does not mean that they were all hook-ups though, the fish were pretty focused on the Sardinas. There was decent action as well on the Golden Gate Banks with most of the boats there soaking live Mackerel and getting a few bites each trip. A great day on the Golden Gate was four or five Marlin, most boats hooked one or two fish. There was also Striped Marlin action just off the coast in the green water as there were bait balls in that area as well. As far as Black or Blue Marlin were concerned, the warmer water on the Sea of Cortez had a few, but there was little else there in any quantity so most of the fleet continued to work the Pacific side.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were two very nice fish caught out past the San Jaime Bank during the middle of the week, one weighed #250 and the other was #280. I saw quite a few football fish come in as well as a few fish in the 40-60 pound class, most of them from either due south at 15+ miles or out around the San Jaime in porpoise schools. Those big fish hit slow trolled live bait on the outside of the porpoise schools.
DORADO:
There were some nice fish caught this week from both the Golden Gate Bank and the Finger Banks. I saw one Dorado swimming with the Striped Marlin at the Finger, and at first I mistook him for a Marlin! He must have been at least 70 pounds! There was also decent action on Dorado close to home just off the beach, with the favorite method being to troll along until a hook-up occurs then slow trolling the area with live bait.
WAHOO: I caught a Wahoo this week at the Finger bank and heard of some others caught there as well, but there was no wide-open bite anywhere I heard of.
INSHORE: Most Pangas were fishing just offshore for Tuna and Dorado, but there was fair action in among the rocks for Pargo, with a few Roosterfish and a couple of Sierra in the mix.
NOTES: If you have always wanted to get into a great Striped Marlin bite, now is the time! I don’t have any idea how long it will last, nor how the weather will affect being able to get there, but the Finger Bank is going off. Buck up the cash for the trip and just do it! Best results during the week were by boats getting there early and staying late, 18 to 21 fish released a day. It’s going to cost you though, that’s a long way to run for any but the bigger or faster boats. Other than that, just check back next week for an update. And by the way, this is turning out to be a great season for charters (the boats and owners at least) since almost all the boats are going out every day. Maybe it has something to do with Cancun and Cozumel being out of the picture until at least the end of the year. Until next week, Tight Lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 07, 2005 - 9:03 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Oct. 31-Nov. 6, 2005
WEATHER: Daytime highs in the low 90’s and nighttime lows in the low 70’s to high 60’s made it very comfortable in Cabo this week. Combine the great temperature with clear skies and it was just about perfect. Last night we had just a bit of a breeze and those of us sitting around sipping Pacifico beer thought that bringing a light jacket tomorrow night might be a good idea!
WATER: Once again we had choppy water on the Pacific side of the Cape as the wind prevailed from the NW and West. Swells of two to five feet combined with winds of 10-15 knots made for some uncomfortable conditions, but a lot of people put up with it since there were fish out there. There was a fairly strong temperature and color break running just to the outside of the San Jaime and Golden Gate Banks this week that kept moving back and forth across the banks. At the end of this week the really strong break had moved to the south of the San Jaime and ran from the northeast to the southwest with the warm side to the east at 82-83 degrees and the cold side at 77-78 degrees, a really strong break. On the Cortez side of the cape conditions were just about as perfect as you could wish for. There were small distantly spaced swells and one to three feet with just a slight ripple on the water for most of the day, with a little chop developing in the late afternoon. We ended the week with a band of warm water at 84-85 degrees running across the Gorda Banks, 95 and 1150 spots and the water just to the outside of that at 80 degrees.
BAIT: There was plenty of bait available this week even with the Tuna Tournament happening. Of course the price of live Sardinas stayed high but there were plenty of Mackerel available for the normal $2 per pieces and of course there were some Caballito as well. With the price of live Sardinas so high a lot of boats went with frozen ones for chum and at $36 U.S. for a 12-kilo block, it was a good deal.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The focus for at least two days this week was on Yellowfin Tuna but with 145 boats out there Marlin were caught as well. A couple of days after the Bisbee was over a #700 pound Blue was brought in, and there were plenty of Striped Marlin to get anglers attention. The best concentrations seemed to be on the Cortez side around the 1150 and 95 spots, 5 miles to the south of the arch, early in the week on the Pacific side at the Golden Gate Bank and for those who could make the run and spend the fuel, up to the north around the Finger Bank (a 70 mile trip, not one most boats can make in one day). The action on Blue Marlin was spread out with most of it taking place on the Cortez side or on the warm side of the temperature break.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Well, we kept our fingers crossed for better Tuna action this week but it just did not materialize, at least for the big fish. To my knowledge there were only two fish over 100 pounds weighed in among the 145 boats participating over two days. The largest was #199.7 pounds and was reported to have been caught among porpoise out around the Los Frailles area on the Cortez side. The second largest fish weighed was in the #105 range and came from the Pacific, north of the Golden Gate Banks, again among porpoise and the same boat caught a lot of fish in the 30-pound class in the same school. There was a fish that size brought in late on the second day as well, one estimated at around 100-150 pounds, but being brought in after the deadline it did not count. On the first day fish in the 40 pound class were taking jackpot money, on the second day there were a few in the 70 pound class that had anglers walking away from the scale happy.
DORADO: Once again there was no change in the Dorado report this week. Most of the Dorado action came from the Pacific side and while there were a few fish in close to home, from the arch to the lighthouse, most of them were found much farther north, around the inside of the Golden Gate Bank. There were also scattered fish found along the warm side of the temperature break. Average sizes were 15-25 pounds with a few hitting 30 pounds. Bright colored lures worked well on them and it seemed that the “dorado” color was a favorite!
WAHOO: With the new moon happening on Nov. 1st I was expecting pretty good Wahoo action this week, but guess we will have to wait.
INSHORE: Repeat: Almost all the inshore Panga action was on the small Yellowfin, Bonita and Skipjack along the Sea of Cortez coast.
NOTES: With so many e-mail enquiries over the past week it has been brought to my attention that I forgot to mention something in last weeks report. The two lures that brought in money fish last week were on Cabos own, locally made, Hi-5 root beer-petrelero colors. Needless to say, I contacted Ken Matney after the first fish was caught and bought a few for myself. For all those of you that e-mailed me, you can contact Ken at HI5Lures@hotmail.com or give him a call at work at 011-52-114-349-60. I must also mention that there were two boats that broke down during the Tuna Tournament. One of them broke down the evening of the first day while on the way home. This was a 33-foot Crystaliner and it had no compass, no working running lights, no GPS and only two flares on board. After a lot of volunteer effort (many of the boats in the tournament quit fishing in order to aid in the search) the boat was found at approximately 2 am Saturday, 36 hours after having problems, by a passing cruise ship. If you are planning a fishing trip, ask what kind of equipment is on the boat, and if it works or not. Just a suggestion, I guess it depends on how long you want your fishing trip to last! Until next week, tight lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 31, 2005 - 7:13 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Oct. 24-30, 2005
WEATHER: We had sunny skies all week long with just a few scattered high clouds. Our day time highs were in the low 90’s and our night time lows in the low 70’s, just about as perfect weather as you can ask for.
WATER: On the Pacific side of the Cape the water at the beginning of the week was pretty rough and choppy with swells at 3-5 feet and a strong NNW wind blowing starting in the mid afternoon and lasting until early morning. At the end of the week the wind had shifted a bit and tapered off so things got a lot better. I was fishing on the Golden Gate on Saturday and it was very nice, small swells and no chop at all. When we came around the lighthouse on the way home the wind was from the east and things chopped up a bit, but it was still not bad. On the Cortez side of the Cape conditions were great all week, even out to the Cabrillo Seamount. There was a small 2-3 foot swell with almost no wind until you got far enough north for the effect of the breeze around the east cape to hit you and even then it was very light. The Cortez side has cleaned up quite a bit and the blue water has moved in to within a couple of miles of shore, and the water temperature has been 80-82 degrees with a few spots at 83 degrees. The Pacific had a lot more green water as there has been a strong southward current pushing the warm water back toward us and has started collapsing the very defined vortex we had early in the week, with alternating bands of warm-cold and green-blue water centered around the Golden Gate bank. As it has moved south, it has also moved a bit toward the east, and caused a very defined blue water band just off the coast that extended out for 6 miles.
BAIT: It was tournament week so of course the price of bait went up. As an example, I paid $40 a day for three or four Caballito and a scoop of Sardines and felt lucky to get those. Oh well, the bait guys deserve to make money this time of year just like everyone else.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Since we just completed the 25th anniversary of the Bisbee Black and Blue tournament with over 180 boats fishing three days for Marlin, the catch report should give you a good idea! On the first day almost all the boats except for about a dozen fished the Cortez side. The largest fish of the day was caught just past the 95 spot on a rootbeer-petrelero colored lure, was a #581 Black Marlin and took home $504K in the daily jackpots. One other qualifying fish was weighed, a #321 Black caught on live bait at the outer Gorda Bank and took home $378K. There were approximately 100 Striped Marlin, Sailfish and a few small Blue and Black Marlin released. On the second day only one qualifying fish was brought in, a #381 Blue Marlin that was caught on a Petrelero colored lure up around Punta Gorda and was worth $881K in the daily jackpots. There was also a #304 Yellowfin Tuna weighed by a boat that was not in the tournament but just wanted to get an official weight on the fish (pay attention for those of you in the Tuna tournament this coming week!). On the second day there were approximately 140 Striped Marlin, Sailfish and small Blue and Black Marlin released. On the third day there was only one qualifying fish weighed in, a #319 Blue Marlin and that fish brought in $378K while the rest of the daily jackpot rolled over to the fish caught the day before, another $504K to add to the $881K. There were about 1oo reported releases on the third day. Over all, 4 qualifying fish weighed, 4 underweight fish weighed and about 350 fish reported released for an average of .66 fish per team per day. My team had no fish on the first day as we fished the Pacific side, on the second day we fished around the 1150 spot and had one Striped Marlin and one Sailfish released (with one other Striped Marlin to the boat but we were not able to get a picture of it quickly enough). On the third day we went back to the same area and released two Striped Marlin and at 17 minutes before lines out hooked up a Blue Marlin that we ended up releasing as it was only about #225-#230.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: It was extremely slow for Yellowfin this week as the only large fish I know of was the one weighed in during the Bisbee. I don’t have any details on that fish, as I was pretty busy at the time. There were almost no porpoise found on either the Pacific side or the Sea of Cortez. The Yellowfin that were caught were caught while “making bait” during the morning prior to the start of the Marlin tournament, and these fish were about 8-10 pounds and caught on Sardines close to shore. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that things get better for the tournament this coming week!
DORADO: No change in the Dorado report this week. Most of the Dorado action came from the Pacific side and while there were a few fish in close to home, from the arch to the lighthouse, most of them were found much farther north, around the inside of the Golden Gate Bank. There were also scattered fish found along the warm side of the temperature break. Average sizes were 15-25 pounds with a few hitting 30 pounds. Bright colored lures worked well on them and it seemed that the “dorado” color was a favorite!
WAHOO: Repeat: I saw very few Wahoo this week so have nothing to report on them.
INSHORE: Repeat: Almost all the inshore Panga action was on the small Yellowfin, Bonita and Skipjack along the Sea of Cortez coast.
NOTES: All right, the Bisbee Black and Blue is over and now we are gearing up for the Tuna Tournament. I am fishing this one as well and will give you information on the results on the next report! Until then, Tight Lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 24, 2005 - 8:26 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
Cabo Fish Report
Oct. 17-23, 2005
WEATHER: Sunny skies for most of the week were a welcome sight for most of our visitors as was the very comfortable daytime temperatures in the low to mid 90’s. Our nighttime lows were in the low 70. There was a slight breeze every morning that gradually picked up to a strong wind from the northwest by 2pm that kept the mid day comfortable, if a bit wet on the water!
WATER: The Sea of Cortez had comfortable conditions this week with swells from 1-3 feet for the most part, until you got over 20 miles off shore, then it kicked in a bit as the Pacific swells wrapped around and had a chance to show themselves. During the afternoons, coming home into the wind was choppy but not uncomfortable. The surface temperatures were 81-82 degrees with no temperature breaks. On the Pacific side things were a bit different as the swells maintained an average of four feet with the occasional 6 footer in there along with steady breezes in the morning and strong winds in the afternoons. There was a very strongly defined temperature break that has cool west side water in the 76-degree range and just a mile away warm 83-degree water. This break has been drifting slowly to the west every day and as of now is several miles to the west side of the San Jaime bank. The warm water along the edge is green but on the cool side it is a very nice blue.
BAIT: Once again we had plenty of bait with Caballito at the normal $2 each and Sardines available here in Cabo at $20 a bucket.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Once again the Marlin were scattered and the bite for the bigger Blue and Black Marlin seemed to slow down. There were still big fish out there, but not in great numbers. There were plenty of Striped Marlin however. At the end of the week there was a good concentration of stripers at the Golden Gate Bank as well as along the temperature break out past the San Jaime. The bite was a mix of live bait and lures. The Bisbee Offshore Tournament just completed had one qualifying fish weighed in each day. Day one had a 465 Blue and day two had a 588 pound Blue plus there were a lot of call-ins of released Stripers.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Tuna bite slowed down this week and almost the only action I heard of was either just in front of the Fiesta American or up at the Punta Gorda area and past. All the fish were footballs from 10 to 20 pounds and chumming with Sardines brought plenty of them to the surface. There were also lots of Bonita and Skipjack in the mix. Some Tuna were found on the Pacific side up around the San Jaime Banks and they were slow to bite, but they were quality fish in the 40-60 pound class.
DORADO: Most of the Dorado action this week came from the Pacific side and while there were a few fish in close to home, from the arch to the lighthouse, most of them were found much farther north, around the inside of the Golden Gate Bank. There were also scattered fish found along the warm side of the temperature break. Average sizes were 15-25 pounds with a few hitting 30 pounds. Bright colored lures worked well on them and it seemed that the “dorado” color was a favorite!
WAHOO: I saw very few Wahoo this week so have nothing to report on them.
INSHORE: Almost all the inshore Panga action was on the small Yellowfin, Bonita and Skipjack along the Sea of Cortez coast.
NOTES: Everyone is either fishing the Offshore Tournament or getting ready for the Black and Blue. I have been very busy with charters and getting set up for the Black and Blue and can tell you that the new $5,000 daily jackpot has really caused a buzz around here. This means that there is the distinct possibility that the daily jackpots may total over $1,000,000 per day! I’d better go and re-check those knots! Until next week, Tight lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: 
Votes: 17 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 17, 2005 - 9:02 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
Cabo Fish Report
Oct. 10-16, 2005
WEATHER: With our day time highs in the mid 90’s things have warmed up just a little from last week, but it is still very nice during the day. At nights it has been in the mid to high 70’s, again, bit warmer than last week but you can feel the change with the drop in humidity. Having the clouds move away resulted in the slight rise in temperature, and that also resulted in the afternoon winds leaving us at the end of the week, resulting in very slight breezes instead of the strong wind.
WATER: Surface conditions on both the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific were great this week with the end of the week being extremely nice. There was a slight swell and early week afternoon winds resulting in some chop, but later in the week the wind went away and there were just swells with no choppy conditions. The Sea of Cortez was an almost uniform 85-86 degrees on the surface with a few spots to 88 around the 95 and 1150 spots. On the Pacific there was a very defined temperature break that ran from Punta Cristobal and out across the San Jaime Bank then to the southwest. On the warm side it was 85 degrees and the cool north side was 79-80 degrees just a mile away. There was also a band of warmer water running up along the coast for about 20 miles that ran from the beach to just over a mile off shore.
BAIT: Bait was not a problem this week as there were plenty of Caballito available at the usual $2 per bait. There were Sardinas available up at Palmilla at $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There did not seem to be any one area that held Billfish this week as the results of the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament showed. Most of the boats worked either the temperature break around the San Jaime or the area of Punta Gorda and the Cabrilla Seamount, and fish were found at all these places. Only three qualifying fish were caught in the Marlin category with the largest being a 465 pound Blue Marlin, the second was a #408 Blue and the third a #406 Black. There were plenty of Striped Marlin released and also a fair number of smaller, non-qualifying Blue and Black Marlin. The day after the tournament the Marlin fishing slowed down, with few boats getting into the Billfish, instead, most of them found Tuna and Dorado.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Most boats were able to get into the Tuna this week and there were some quality fish, enough so that I would have to call them the fish of the week. Spotted, Spinner and White bellied Dolphin held fish, and if you were there at the right time things could break wide open! Schools were found on the Pacific side between San Cristobal and the San Jaime Banks, on the Golden Gate Banks and to the north of it, on the Sea of Cortez 19 miles to the east of the arch and up around the Iman Bank area. Most of the fish were in the 30-60 pound class but a few slobs were brought in. One of the boats in the Tournament brought in a #160 on day one of the competition and a #277 on the second day. Cedar plugs worked for the smaller fish and live bait was the choice for the larger ones.
DORADO: There was little change in the location or sizes of the Dorado caught this week. Most of the fish were found either close to the beach, often only 200 yards off, or out in the open ocean under drifting debris. Both the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific side had fish, and while not in enormous quantity, they were there to be caught and most boats had little difficulty in getting a few for dinner. Bright colored lures trolled at high speeds and slow trolled live bait worked well.
WAHOO: I did see a few more Wahoo flags this week and it seemed that they were an incidental catch for most of the boats. Due to the concentration of boats around the banks, most of the fish came from there, but there were still fish caught out in the open. Average size was 35 pounds.
INSHORE: Most of the Pangas have been trying to get into Tuna this week, and they have been having some success with fish close to the beach. Dorado were also a target and everyone was getting fish to take home. The usual inshore species were a bit slow on the bite but there were still a few decent Roosterfish reported as well as Amberjack and Pargo.
NOTES: Ok, the first tournament of the month is over and now we are gearing up for the big money, ego oriented Black and Blue. Money is the name of the game in this one and if the big fish shows up you had better be prepared. I will be captain this year for an excellent team so keep your fingers crossed for us that lady luck pays the boat a visit! Next week I will be able to let you know how many boats are likely to be signed up so check back for an update! Until then, Tight Lines! |
CaptGeo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 10, 2005 - 9:26 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
Cabo Fish Report
Oct. 3-9, 2005
WEATHER: October has arrived and with it the weather has taken a turn for the better. Our day time highs have been in the mid 90’s and our night time lows have been between 72 and 76 degrees, finally we had a week where I did not need to run the air conditioner all night in order to get some sleep! We have had partly cloudy skies but no rain and everyone had been watching a large area of thick clouds just outside of Puerto Vallerta hoping that the mass did not start circulating. We got lucky and as of the end of the week the cloud mass diminished in size and started to move back to the northeast over the mainland. We have had strong 15-20 knot northwesterly to southwesterly winds all week, and this may have helped keep the clouds away.
WATER: On the Pacific side of the cape the water has been cool and a little off color, ever since two weeks ago. Most of the water there has been in the 70’s but it has been hard to tell if there were any breaks in the area due to cloud cover preventing a good picture, and not a lot of boats have been getting out very far due to the choppy conditions. On the Cortez side the water has been warmer, around 81-87 degrees with no sharp breaks, just gradual shifting temperatures. The warmest areas have been around the Gorda Banks. The surface conditions have been good in the mornings but the wind has been picking up around one in the afternoon as the wind shifts around.
BAIT: Bait was a bit difficult to get at the beginning of the week due to the rough water from the Hurricane and the Port being closed over the weekend, but at the end of the week there was no problem getting Caballito at the usual $2 per bait. Sardines were in short supply up around San Jose and the bait boats there serviced the Panga fleet first, if there were any left over boats from Cabo were able to get some at the usual $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The hurricane really messed things up on the Pacific side as the bite for Striped Marlin that had been happening last Thursday went dead when boats went back to the area at the beginning of the week. There were still fish around but not in the numbers they had been. Golden Gate Bank held a few fish and there was a lot of Mackerel there but conditions prevented most boats from getting there, not because the water there was rough, but getting past the lighthouse without the anglers getting sick was difficult. There was a decent bite during the week on Blue Marlin on the Cortez side between the 95 spot and the 1150 out to the Cabrilla Seamount as well as a few fish around the Gorda Banks, nothing really wide open, but there were fish around. Also on the Cortez side were some Striped Marlin and a few Sailfish. One friend caught and released a Sailfish estimated at 120 pounds on Thursday. There were a lot of boats concentrating on Blue Marlin this week hoping to get an idea of where to concentrate their efforts for the Los Cabo Billfish Tournament this week.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Definitely the fish of the week since almost every boat that tried was able to get one or two decent Yellowfin to the boat. The main concentration of fish was about two miles to the east of the San Jaime Bank, and the fish stayed in the area all week long. They were associated with Pacific Spotted Dolphin and while they were a bit picky most of the time many boats were able to get a half dozen or so ranging in size from 30 to 60 pounds with a few larger fish in the mix. I saw fish pushing the #150 mark boil occasionally. There was a good school found on Friday out past the Gorda Banks, 35 miles from Cabo and they were associated with the Pacific Spotted Dolphin as well. A friend of mine was the first to the school that day and ended up with 20 fish from 30 to 60 pounds. Another friend was able to get only one Tuna from the school, but what a fish it was! It hit a Marlin jig and after an hour Jay landed a #320 toad!
DORADO: For boats who’s anglers could not handle the rougher water offshore, there were Dorado close in, and you did not have to go far from port to get into them. Fish ranging from 6-12 pounds were found right outside of the arch and down to Grey Rock, and up the Pacific side to the lighthouse. Small lures worked in bright colors and often there were followers behind the first one hooked up. A few larger fish were found offshore, but the majority of fish were in close, within one mile of the beach.
WAHOO: There were quite a few Wahoo caught this week and the reason may have been the number of boats fishing the right areas for Dorado. With plenty of Dorado close in, fishing the 50-100 fathom line resulted in a lot of lures being lost but a decent number of Wahoo being caught as well. None of the fish were very large with the average weight being 30 pounds.
INSHORE: Panga fish was pretty much focused on Dorado this week, but I did see a few of them offshore fishing Tuna on the Pacific side. Rough water but they were having success. Inshore water was still a bit rough along the beach and a bit off color. None of the Panga Captains I talked to said great things about the beach area so there you go!
NOTES: I have been seeing a few whales out there in the last couple of trips and after describing them to people who know these things found out they were “Wright” or “Right” whales. Big suckers and pretty distinctive as well! The big boats are all arriving and the Marina is filling up. The first big Tournament of the month is this week so the town is filling up with anglers. We have been having two or three cruise ships a day visiting as well so the town has been busy. Combine that with Sammy Hagar playing every other night for two weeks at Cabo Wabo and this place is busy! Check the report next week and I’ll let you know the tournament results! Until then, Tight Lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 8:21 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
Cabo Fish Report
Sept. 19-25, 2005
WEATHER: There was no change in our weather this week, it’s still hot and humid. Our day time highs have been in the 100 degree range while the night time lows have been right around 80 degrees. No rain this week even though we did have a bit of cloud cover early.
WATER: The Sea of Cortez was pretty much a solid 85-88 degrees no matter where you went this week, the only difference anyone could find was there were current lines of green water out there and the fish seemed to be up along the edges. On the Pacific side we had a small upwelling of cold 82-83 degree water right along the edge of the Cape early in the week and that has held together and moved offshore. At the end of the week the cool green water is sitting right on top of the San Jaime Bank while the warm water has worked it’s way back around and now lies between the San Jaime and the shore almost all the way up to the Golden Gate Banks.
BAIT: Almost everyone had a difficult time getting bait at the beginning of the week and there were a lot of grunts and ladyfish showing up in bait tanks. They are not the best baits in the world, but are better than nothing I guess. We were able to get Caballito and Mullet at the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: It seemed that the bite on the Pacific side died down for Billfish this week but it stayed pretty good just past the 95 spot and up between the 1150 and the Gorda Banks. Most of this was due to the green water forming a barrier and holding the fish. It was an even mix of Striped and Blue Marlin with most of the Blues being in the 200-250 pound range and the Stripers in the 120 pound class.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: This week was almost a repeat of last week, so here it is. I didn’t hear of may large Tuna this week, in fact almost the only action on Yellowfin I heard of was on football and slightly larger fish up at Punta Gorda, caught by using Sardinas, and a pod of Porpoise holding school fish in the 25-35 pound range up to the north of the 1150, between there and the 1,000 fathom line at Punta Gorda. Like I said Sardinas for the footballs, and the school fish were biting dark colored feathers and live bait dropped to 50 feet.
DORADO: Bigger fish have begun showing up, and of course it helps if you can find something floating in the water. I know of two boats that were able to get into some very hot action this week, one at a dead seal and another at a dead turtle. The seal held a large school of fish averaging 20 pounds while the turtle had fish averaging twice that. Other than floating objects, the action was on smaller fish in the 8-15 pound class just offshore in water between ½ mile and 5 miles out, both on the Pacific side and on the Sea of Cortez side.
WAHOO: There were still Wahoo being caught this week and they were spread out. I had one do a rocket on me and just cut the skirt on a lure. Most of the fish were found along the 50-100 fathom area along both coasts, but there were not as many found as there were last week.
INSHORE: Most of the normal inshore fisheries were on hold as the Panga fishermen attacked the Dorado just off of the beach. There were a few Roosterfish reported, but most of the Pangas were getting Dorado, small Yellowfin and Bonito.
NOTES: Keeping busy, again I have to take off as I have a charter. Have fun this week and I hope you get a big one! Tournament season is only a few weeks away and already the big boats are showing back up! Until next week, Tight Lines! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 19, 2005 - 8:47 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
Cabo Fish Report
Sept. 12-18, 2005
WEATHER: Speaking of the weather this week, one word will pretty well paint the picture for you. Hot. Our daytime highs have been hovering right around 100 degrees and with the humidity it sometimes feels like 110. Thank goodness things were dropping off at night, at least down to the low 80’s! We are still using the air conditioner at night; there has not been enough wind in town to keep us cool with the windows open. We had very little cloud cover this week, it was mostly clear skies.
WATER: The water continues to warm up as our summer advances. At the end of the week we had water as warm as 90 degrees in our area. Water between 86 and 89 degrees extended 30 miles to the southwest and on the Sea of Cortez it was hard to find water cooler than 86 degrees, most of what we fished was in the 88-89 degree range. At the start of the week there was a very defined temperature break that ran north-south just along the outside of the San Jaime Bank and up to the Golden Gate, that has since been pushed out of our range, and has dissipated as well. The warm water has pushed it’s way up into the Pacific, as far as 20 miles north of the Golden Gate.
BAIT: Most of what we saw this week was Caballito at the normal $2 per bait. Up toward San Jose you could get Sardinas early in the week, but large swells made the capture of these little guys a bit more difficult than usual, so late in the week they were hard to find, if you could they were the normal $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: It was quite the week for billfish as almost every boat that wanted to catch either a Striped Marlin, Sailfish or Blue Marlin had action. Not so hot and heavy on Black Marlin, but there were a few found. Most of the action was concentrated, both as far as a general area and time. Good fishing for all species except Black Marlin was found in the area of the 1150, and some boats were getting sweeps, catch multiples of several species. My best day was Friday when we released two Blue Marlin estimated at 250 pounds and one Sailfish. Another boat released two Blues, two Stripers and a Sailfish. Outstanding fishing! There were almost no fish on the Pacific side at the beginning of the week. The concentration of Striped Marlin that had been on the Golden Gate banks seemed to have moved on, perhaps following the water edge as it moved north. At the end of the week there were fish beginning to show to the south and on the San Jaime Banks. Live baits were working well for the Sailfish; lures in almost any color for the Blue Marlin and the striped Marlin were a pretty even mix between the two.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I didn’t hear of may large Tuna this week, in fact almost the only action on Yellowfin I heard of was on football and slightly larger fish up at Punta Gorda, caught by using Sardinas, and a pod of Porpoise holding school fish in the 25-35 pound range up to the north of the 1150, between there and the 1,000 fathom line at Punta Gorda. Like I said Sardinas for the footballs, and the school fish were biting dark colored feathers and live bait dropped to 50 feet.
DORADO: As an almost repeat of last weeks action, there were plenty of small fish in the 7-10 pound size just off the beach to 8 miles out if you were fishing the Sea of Cortez side this week. Small feathers and small straight running splashers in bright colors worked well on these fish and it was not difficult to get a half-dozen in the boat. Out on the Pacific side later in the week there were fish a bit larger, some to 50 pounds but most of them in the 20-30 pound class. These were not running in schools like the smaller fish, but in pairs. Dropping back a live bait after getting one close to the boat often resulted in a double.
WAHOO: The full moon resulted in a fairly decent bit for Wahoo this week. There may have been a decent concentration somewhere, but for the boats getting these great tasting fish, two of them between 30 and 50 pounds were about the top catch. Of course many more were lost due to mono leaders getting bitten through! The majority of the action took place along the 50-100 fathom marks just off the beach and there was a bit of action at the San Jaime and the Iman Banks. Blue water fish were caught as well, real surprises to anglers looking for Blue Marlin and having a 30-pound Wahoo cut up their lures instead.
INSHORE: Just like last week, most of the normal inshore fisheries were on hold as the Panga fishermen attacked the Dorado just off of the beach. There were a few Roosterfish reported, but most of the Pangas were getting Dorado, small Yellowfin and Bonito.
NOTES: I have been busy this week; the number of charters has increased, as the fishing has gotten better. Muchos Gracias to Linda Wilson of the IGFA for the great Certified Observers course put on in Newport Beach several weeks ago. Also a big thank you to Beth at the Outdoor Channel for sending copies of the 2005 IGFA/Rolex Offshore Championship Tournament program, all the Captains and deckhands are going to enjoy it! Until next week, Tight Lines! I have to go, got a charter this morning! |
Capt Geo (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 12, 2005 - 7:54 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
Cabo Fish Report
Sept. 4-11, 2005
WEATHER: Our day time highs have been in the high 90’s this week, and according to the weather guys, with the humidity we have it has felt like 110. Our nighttime lows have been in the low 80’s and you can hear the air conditioners everywhere at night. There was no rain this week although we did have a couple of cloudy days in the middle of the week and with the winds light from the west things stayed fairly still most of the time.
WATER: There were a few cool spots on the Sea of Cortez where the water was only 84 degrees but for the most part water temperatures were between 85 and 88 degrees. Maybe the gauge on the “Senor Moment” is off a bit, but I did read a few spots where we got over 90 degrees surface temperature up around Punta Gorda. On the Pacific side we had the water temperature vary a bit more with cold water at 82 degrees and warm water at 88 degrees. We have had a pretty strong current push water from the Sea of Cortez up the Pacific side and the current break that had been running north-south across the 95 spot has spread out a bit and moved farther to the west. The break is still there but it is not as defined, now being between Cabo and the Jaime Bank area. Farther up the Pacific coast, just off the beach inside the Golden Gate Bank is where you will find the 82-degree water.
BAIT: We had a pretty good mix of Caballito and Mackerel available this week at the normal $2 per bait. There were also Sardinas available from bait boats up around the Palmilla area at $20 a big scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I love this time of the year with the variety of Billfish available! Once again every species we have available except for Swordfish and Spearfish were caught this week. There were plenty of Sailfish striking jigs on the Cortez side, but most of them were just strikes since the lures were a bit large for them! Dropping back a strip bait or small live bait resulted in quite a few fish being hooked up, as did drifting with live bait along the 100 fathom edge around the Punta Gorda area or the Gorda Banks. The Sailfish were averaging 80 pounds and some boats were getting three of four a day. Now that is not a lot if you are used to fishing Costa Rica, but for Cabo that is quite good! The reason not so many were hooked on lures was because most of the boats were pulling lures sized for the larger billfish such as Blue Marlin. Why? Well, they are here, that’s why! There have been a lot of them caught and released this week, and unfortunately a few killed as well. The action has been scattered but there were fish found at all the usual spots, the 95, the 1150, outside the Gorda, south of the Jaime, off of Punta Cristobal, almost anyplace where the currents and structure go together. The average size seemed to be around 250-300 pounds (as reported by excited anglers and Captains, it may have been less in actuality!) and almost all the action was on trolled lures. Keeping the speed up a bit, around 9 knots, brought aggressive strikes on lures in either blue-silver-yellow (Dorado colors) or black-green-silver (Skipjack colors). Some big Black Marlin were hooked as well, not as many of them as the Blue Marlin, but they were there. Action on the Blacks was mostly confined to just off of the various points and almost all of it took place in water between 300 and 900 feet in depth. Striped Marlin are still around and there was a good bite for Wednesday and Thursday 4-5 miles to the east of the 95 spot. Dropping back a live bait to fish coming into the lure spread resulted in most of the hook-ups and some boats were able to release four or five fish a day.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again there were school and football fish available up around the Punta Gorda area this week. It was a long run and you had to stop at the Palmilla area for Sardinas for bait, but there was decent action once you got there. Most of the Yellowfin action was early in the week, alter on the 15 pound Skipjack and Bonito moved in and while there were still a few Yellowfin to 30 pounds caught, the majority of fish were released as not being the “right” kind. For bigger Tuna you needed to find the porpoise, and at the end of the week it started to get good. Not much fish was found on the surface though; most of them were marked on depth sounder under Porpoise. Getting ahead of the group and dropping live bait on them resulted in fish ranging from #250 to #60 being fought and landed. Of course not everyone was able to get them to bite, a bit of luck was needed as well. Oh, and it also helped if you were using floura-carbon leader in #50, or tied you hook directly to 50 or 80 test line. Of course if you tied directly you needed to use a circle hook. Even then you sometimes lost a fish. One of my friends fought a Tuna estimated by him at #300-320 for three hours before loosing it right below the boat. He hooked it on #50 direct. He also caught one the next day he estimated at #150 but later turned out to be #223, so the one he lost may have been larger! Anyway, there are fish out there, you just have to find them, be ready and be lucky!
DORADO: This week was a repeat of last week’s action on Dorado. I saw a lot of Dorado flags this week and while there were a few nice fish to 50 pounds caught, most of the fish seemed to be in the 15-20 pound class. Close to shore, mostly within 2 miles was where most of the action took place with the exception of several boats that were able to find a piece of floating wood that held a decent school.
WAHOO: I didn’t hear of any Wahoo action this week.
INSHORE: With the great water conditions most of the Panga fleet this week was working offshore for Dorado and Marlin. Those that did work inshore reported fair to good action on Roosterfish, Skipjack, Jack Crevalle and Needlefish. Small hootchies and Sardinas were the lures and bait of choice inshore.
NOTES: Our computer is back! I was out four days this week so got to see quite a bit of action myself, and heard a lot on the radio so you have a pretty comprehensive report this week. My trips are slow for the nest two week so I will be writing a few articles and working on boats, envying the guys going out for Marlin and Tuna as I sit at home or on the docks! My best fishing music this week (almost every time I put these CD’s on we got bit) was Boz Scaggs and Ottmar Liebert, a little mellow but the fish liked them! Until next week, tight lines! |
CaptG (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 22, 2005 - 8:16 am: | |
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR AUGUST 15-21, 2005
WEATHER: It’s cooking down here this past week, and it looks like it will continue this coming week as well. Our day time highs have been right at 100 degrees with a heat index of 110. At the end of the week there was little wind to cool things off so it was particularly warm. Our night time lows have been in the high 70’s with a little bit of breeze, but not enough for me to sleep with the window and patio door open, we have been using the air conditioner! We did have a couple of partly cloudy days in the middle of the week and a little spit of rain Wednesday night, just enough to dot the car windows.
WATER: That temperature break that ran north-south just to the west of the 95 spot was still there at the end of the week and the warm side was 86 degrees and the cool side was 84 degrees. Up in the Sea of Cortez we saw temperatures in the 88-89 degree range, with the warmest spot being right on top of the Gorda Bank. On the Pacific the water was cooler with temperatures ranging from 78 to 84 degrees. Close to home right off the Cabo Falso area there was water at 84 degrees and there was a spot of warm water just to the west of the San Jaime and to the north of the Golden Gate banks. The winds varied their direction this week and at the end of the week there was little chop anywhere as the winds became very light.
BAIT: There was Caballito available from the local bait boats at the normal $2 per bait and there were small Mackerel as well at the same price.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: If you were in the right spot this week there were billfish to be caught, but it was a mater of the right place at the right time. Tide change was very important this week and my personal results show that. I fished on Friday and Saturday. Friday was a big fish hunt with high tide at 9:12 am. 10 miles outside the Westin Hotel where there was a temperature break we hooked a small Blue Marlin at 9:10, released the fish after 15 minutes, had one line back in the water when it was nailed by a Striped Marlin, had the lines back in the water after 15 minutes with one still to be put in position when we got nailed again and released another fish after 15 minutes. Three marlin within an hour after tide change and I worked the same small area for another three hours with only one half hearted strike. On Saturday the clients wanted quantity so I went to the Golden Gate Banks looking for Tuna and Dorado. Within one hour of the tide change at 10:09 we had released three Striped Marlin and had two other strikes, and possible could have caught more abut the clients wanted meat so we proceeded away from the Marlin. One boat ended up releasing 7 Striped Marlin from the same spot. Another friend caught a 600 pound Black Marlin, hooking the fish an hour after the tide change. As you can see, the fish were concentrated, but the spots were scattered around.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I didn’t hear of any large fish this week, and the nice fish that were up around the Golden Gate bank last week seemed to have moved on. There were still fish with the porpoise, but they were smaller than footballs, I called them nerf-balls, fish that were perfect Marlin bait size at 4-5 pounds. Other than that I heard of nothing in our area this week.
DORADO: No change here with most of the Dorado being found on the Pacific side. Floating debris would hold an occasional nice fish to 60 pounds but most of the fish found were in the 8-15 pound class with the smaller fish more prevalent. Bright colored lures run from the outriggers worked the best for the school fish while live bait dropped around debris accounted for some of the nice big boys.
WAHOO: There were a few fish in the 30-45 pound class reported from around the banks on the Pacific side, but no concentrations of them.
INSHORE: Inshore action was slow with just a few bottom fish and a few Roosterfish being found on the Pacific side. Most of the Pangas have been working from the 50 fathom line to five miles out looking for Tuna, Dorado and Marlin.
NOTES: Marlin were the high note for the week for about half the boats. I found it amazing that we were still having the kind of Striped Marlin action that we had considering the time of year, normally we might fish for three days before getting a strike from a Blue Marlin. This weeks report was written to the music of Four Play on their self titled 1991 Warner Bros release. Great Music! Until next week, tight lines! |
CaptG (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 15, 2005 - 10:46 am: | |
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR AUGUST 8-14, 2005
WEATHER: All right, the nights have cooled off a little bit but only because we have had a bit of a breeze. Other wise, it’s been consistently in the mid 70’s during the night with our day time temperatures getting up to the very high 90’s with a bit of humidity to make things just a bit sweaty. We were expecting clouds at the end of the week but they failed to materialize and the weather predictions show nothing coming our way for a few days.
WATER: The temperature break that extended north-south across the 95 spot last week has stayed in place all week long, and with temperatures changing from 83-84 degrees on the east side to 77-78 on the west side over a distance of two miles it has been the place to go. This has been a result of a strong California current along the Pacific coast, go out to the San Jaime and Golden Gate Banks and the water is 80 degrees. Surface conditions have been great in the mornings along the temp break but the afternoons have been choppy once the 10 am winds come in from the south-west.
BAIT: There was Caballito available from the local bait boats at the normal $2 per bait but there were no signs of Sardinas or Mackerel.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Well, the Blue Marlin have finally decided to show up for the party! I talked with five boats yesterday and three of the five hooked up to Blues with only one boat getting the fish in for a release. The two that did not hook up saw fish come into the pattern but for one reason or another they were not able to interest the fish in anything they offered. With these Blues showing up there are still Striped Marlin around as well. All five of the boats I talked with released at least one Striped Marlin as well. The action took place at the temperature break or just off to the east on the warm side for the Blue Marlin and to the west on the cool side for the Stripers. Blue Marlin action came on lures while the Stripers were eating Caballito. Other Blue Marlin action was found up the coast on the Cortez side around the Punta Gorda area with lots of bait being found along the 100 fathom line. There were Blue Marlin in there feeding and a few boats had fairly steady action in the area (that meaning a hook-up per day with more fish seen) on fish averaging 250 pounds.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: No change from last week so this is a repeat! There are still scattered small football fish around the coast areas on the Pacific side, and there were a few school fish found right in front of town just before the weekend. Some of the school fish were in the 60 pound class and provided last minute excitement for boats coming in after a long trip. There were several pods of porpoise reported to have nice fish among them up in the Golden Gate Banks area, but I never saw any of the fish myself or talked one-on-one with anyone who had caught them, so maybe it was just rumors. Most of the Tuna were caught on feathers with a couple of the larger fish caught on live bait during drop-backs.
DORADO: No change in the Dorado report from last week, so here it is. We were seeing a lot more Dorado this week than last week, and they have been close to home as well, from just off the coast on the Pacific side to the San Jaime Banks. The majority of the fish have been small; around 8-10 pounds but there have been fish in the 50 pound class caught as well. Bright colored lures run on the outriggers have gotten most of the initial strikes, and for the guys trying it, the followers have been a blast on fly fishing gear!
WAHOO: No action to report.
INSHORE: Roosterfish action on the Cortez side of the Cape from just outside of the Sheraton Hacienda del Mar on up the coast to the La Laguna area. Most of the hook-ups have been on slow trolled live Mullet just outside of the breakers and some of the fish have been very nice sized with the average weight at 35 pounds. There has not been a lot of other inshore action as the bottom fishing has tapered off. Most of the Pangas here in Cabo have been heading to just outside the light house on the Pacific side looking for Dorado and Striped Marlin.
NOTES: We sure were glad to see that temp break hold position for so long, and we have our fingers crossed that it will stay there for a while longer. Now if the Tuna would just come and visit us things would be great. I know there are Tuna somewhere in the area because I have seen three “Super Seiners” transit the area this week. This weeks report was written to the music of “Big Bad Voodoo Daddy” on their 1998 Interscope release “Mr. Pinstripe Suit”. Swing on! Until next week, tight lines! |
CaptG (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 08, 2005 - 7:14 am: | |
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR AUGUST 1-7, 2005
WEATHER: And the heat rolls on! Our day time highs have touched 100 degrees a few days this past week and our night time lows have mostly been around 75 degrees, but with the humidity it has seemed warmer. In town you really notice the heat during the day, but out on the ocean things are quite a bit cooler. No rain or clouds this week and there is no bad weather forecast for the next week. (I’ll keep my fingers crossed on that one!)
WATER: The water on the Sea of Cortez has been flat and warm with surface temperatures between 80 and 86 degrees. On the Pacific side there has been a bit of a swell with some chop in the afternoon, but the water has been between 75 and 80 degrees. The plume of warm water that reached across the Cape last week was broken by the strong California current so we now have a 10 mile wide band of cooler water between us and the San Jaime Bank with the cooler water (at 76-77 degrees) extending south for 30 miles. There is a nice temperature break running south from the 95 spot for 20 miles and it has held in the area for several days now.
BAIT: There was Caballito available from the local bait boats at the normal $2 per bait and the bait receiver in front had Mackerel, but they were saving it for special boats and had taken their sign down.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Well, this has been a very good week for boats that wanted Striped marlin. Most of the fish were located at the San Jaime Banks and anglers were getting at least one shot and often multiple shots at fish each day. Top boat that I know of came in with 7 flags flying while the average was one or two with a few boats getting three or four fish per trip. The size of the fish has seemed to improve a bit as there were more big fish found than last week. Quite a few of the Stripers were in the 150 pound+ range. Along with the Striped Marlin the Pacific side was putting out quite a few Sailfish as well, with many of them over 100 pounds. I saw a few pictures of fish that may have been in the 140 pound range. The bite seemed to be around 80% on live bait, either thrown to a spotted fish or dropped back to one in the pattern. As far as Blue Marlin go, there have been fish out there but not a lot of them reported as being caught and released yet. The results of the Bisbee’s East Cape Tournament are in and for three days of fishing among 56 boats they released 25 Blues and only weighed one over 300 pounds. Perhaps it is a matter of time before these fish have moved into our area.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There are still scattered small football fish around the coast areas on the Pacific side, and there were a few school fish found right in front of town just before the weekend. Some of the school fish were in the 60 pound class and provided last minute excitement for boats coming in after a long trip. There were several pods of porpoise reported to have nice fish among them up in the Golden Gate Banks area, but I never saw any of the fish myself or talked one-on-one with anyone who had caught them, so maybe it was just rumors. Most of the Tuna were caught on feathers with a couple of the larger fish caught on live bait during drop-backs.
DORADO: No change in the Dorado report from last week, so here it is. We were seeing a lot more Dorado this week than last week, and they have been close to home as well, from just off the coast on the Pacific side to the San Jaime Banks. The majority of the fish have been small; around 8-10 pounds but there have been fish in the 50 pound class caught as well. Bright colored lures run on the outriggers have gotten most of the initial strikes, and for the guys trying it, the followers have been a blast on fly fishing gear!
WAHOO: Slap my hand for last weeks comment about more than one person touching the rod and reel on that large Wahoo. I was just reporting what I had been told by others. I was informed by some one who is supposed to be “in the know” about it that they are considering putting in a world record application. I talked with a couple of guys who were there when the fish was hung and they said it was lucky that the federal weights and measures guys were there, they calibrated the scale and the fish weighed in at 192 pounds! I think I would have used a flying gaff! Other than that, the Wahoo have been pretty non-responsive this last week.
INSHORE: No change from last week with the exception that more of the Pangas have been going offshore than have been going inshore. Also they are having some shark action along with the usual inshore species. Some Roosters are still out there and they have been pretty decent size. The beaches on the Pacific have had most of the inshore action with the Roosterfish, Pompano, Pargo and Grouper biting pretty well. Fresh Mullet slow trolled alive was the key to getting into the Roosterfish and any of the small live baits fished on the bottom resulted in action from the Pargo and Grouper. Cut bait was what it took to get a decent Pompano bite, but when it happened it was wide open.
NOTES: Warm water on the Sea of Cortez has brought the normal fishing to almost a standstill, with the only thing happening just now being Blue Marin with an occasional Dorado. Most of the action has been on the Pacific side. As soon as we start seeing more Skipjack and small Yellowfin we should get more Blues in the area, big fish follow their bait! This weeks report was written to the music of Vassar Clements on the 1996 Flying Fish Records release “Hillbilly Jazz Rides Again”. Until next week, Tight Lines! |
CaptG (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 01, 2005 - 7:08 am: | |
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR JULY 25-31, 2005
WEATHER: It’s really cooking now, and it feels like summer in Cabo. Our daytime highs have been in the high 90’s and we are expected to break 100 degrees on Monday. Our night time lows have been in the mid 70’s and we actually had a little bit of rain on Thursday, just enough to spot the windshields.
WATER: Summer time warm water is finally here! On the Sea of Cortez side of the Cape we have seen 85 degrees this week, at least at the end of the week. Since Monday the warm water has been getting closer and closer, now the warm water is wrapping around the Cape and water to 82 degrees is extending across the San Jaime Bank. Farther up on the Pacific side Golden Gate Bank is 79-80 degrees. In close to shore on the Pacific side the water is cooler, most of it in the 75 degree range. At the end of the week there was a pretty good temperature break 22 miles at 170 degrees, this break has been traveling toward us all week long, coming in from the northeast. The wind has been kicking up in the afternoons but it has been very calm in the mornings on both sides of the Cape.
BAIT: Once again it was almost all Caballito this week. The bait has been schooled up very thick and most of the baits we were getting had been snagged. There were some small Mackerel available at times. Both baits were the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin seem to be following the temperature breaks and they were right in front of town early in the week. They have moved up the Pacific coast a bit and are also on the cool side of the temp break to the south-southwest. Most of these Striped Marlin have been in the 70 pound range but a few have pushed 180 pounds. The good news is that there have been Blue Marlin caught on a fairly regular basis this week, at least by the boats that have been searching for them. We should be getting more action from both the Blue and Black Marlin as the water stays warm.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Scattered small foot fish have been right in front of town and also among the pods of Porpoise. There have been larger fish out there but it takes a run of 40-50 miles to get to them. The larger fish have also been associated with Porpoise and for both sizes of fish darker colored lures have been the best bet.
DORADO: We were seeing a lot more Dorado this week than last week, and they have been close to home as well. The majority of the fish have been small; around 8-10 pounds but there have been fish in the 50 pound class caught as well. Bright colored lures run on the outriggers have gotten most of the initial strikes, and for the guys trying it, the followers have been a blast on fly fishing gear!
WAHOO: There were not a lot of Wahoo caught this week but the buzz around town has been about one large fish. On Friday one of the local 28’ boats brought a big fish in to be weighed. On the scale it showed 183 pounds! I did see a picture taken on a phone and it was big, I would have used a flying gaff on the sucker! No world record though, as more than on person handled the gear, but still a great fish. Hopefully we will get access to a real picture sometime soon.
INSHORE: Some Roosters are still out there and they have been pretty decent size. The beaches on the Pacific have had most of the inshore action with the Roosterfish, Pompano, Pargo and Grouper biting pretty well. Fresh Mullet slow trolled alive was the key to getting into the Roosterfish and any of the small live baits fished on the bottom resulted in action from the Pargo and Grouper. Cut bait was what it took to get a decent Pompano bite, but when it happened it was wide open.
NOTES: Things are looking up on the fishing front as the warm water has arrived. Of course there is a down side to that as well. If we get tropical storm action to the south, there is no cold water around us to keep it away. Guess we just have to keep our fingers crossed! Until next week, tight lines! |
CaptG (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 25, 2005 - 8:16 am: | |
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR JULY 18-24, 2005
WEATHER: We did have a day of bad weather this week as the feeder bands from Tropical Storm Eugene arrived Tuesday night and brought winds gusting to 40 knots with steady winds at 25 knots. Of course there was cloud cover with it but it was a very dry wind, no rain fell in our area because of it. The feeder bands were gone by Wednesday afternoon and we were back to bright, sunny skies. Our day time highs were in the high 90’s and our night time lows were in the low 80’s. We haven’t gotten the really high humidity yet so it has been very nice!
WATER: Except for Tuesday night and all day Wednesday the water has been great on both the Pacific side of the Cape and the Sea of Cortez side. On Wednesday the Port Captain closed the port to all arrivals and departures due to the large swells and heavy winds brought by the feeder bands, but the water improved dramatically by Thursday morning. We still had some good sized swells out there but there was no chop on top of it and both the Pacific and the Cortez side of the Cape were very comfortable. Early in the week the Pacific was much colder and had green water while the water on the Cortez side was just a bit off color but about three degrees warmer on average. The winds and swells changed things a bit but the current really mad the most drastic change. At the end of the week there was green water, but warm, up around the Punta Gorda area and slightly off color water in the 73 degree range just off shore on the Cortez side. On Thursday I fished the Pacific up to the Golden Gate Banks and while there were Porpoise everywhere and bait everywhere, there were no fish. The water was green and around 71 degrees. Reports from Saturday were that the current had pushed the green water away and the area was no very blue with temperatures in the 77-78 degree range. What we have now is the cold water in front on the Cortez side, warm water up past the Punta Gorda area and warm blue water on the Pacific side of the Cape.
BAIT: Once again it was almost all Caballito this week. The bait has been schooled up very thick and most of the baits we were getting had been | |
