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George Landrum (Captg)
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Username: Captg
Post Number: 98
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 20, 2008 - 8:27 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
October 13-19, 2008
WEATHER: The week started with morning temperatures in the mid 70’s and ended with the temps in the high 70’s, a slight warming over the course of the week. Daytimes saw a slightly larger change with daytime temps up to the high 90’s, but with low humidity compared to last month. We had mostly sunny skies this week with no rain at all.
WATER: The water on both sides of the cape was a little bumpy at the start of the week but by this weekend things had gotten really nice. On the Pacific side we had a slight swell at 2-4 feet and a slight chop early in the mornings and late in the afternoons while on the Cortez side the water remained almost flat with swells at 1-3 feet and spaced far apart. Once you got north past the Punta Gorda, Los Frailles area the wind kicked in a bit and there was some chop on the water, but close to home it was like a lake. Water temperatures on the Cortez side were in the 86-87 degree range almost everywhere and on the Pacific side the water was a fairly even 85 degrees except for just below and to the west of the San Jaime Bank where it dropped to 82 degrees.
BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were available at the normal $3 each but on a few days they were a bit harder to get. Boats going up the Pacific side were stopping at the Golden Gate Bank to make bait as there were some small, scattered schools of Mackerel down deep.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There were still plenty of Striped Marlin at the Golden Gate Bank but as the days went along the bite dropped off. Early in the week boats were releasing five or six fish on a geed day but by the end of the week a two fish day was a good one. The fish were still there, you could see them on the depth sounder and on the surface, but they were not biting as well. Farther to the north at the Finger Bank, the same situation was occurring, but there the difference was in the baits available. At the Finger Bank the Marlin were feeding on Sardinas, and would often just ignore a Mackerel or Caballito because they were so focused on the small fish. On the big fish front, there were quite a few medium sized Blue and Black marlin released, with the majority of them being Blue Marlin in the 200-250 pound class. The Los Cabos Billfish Tournament, held over three days, had only one qualifying marlin caught, a #415 Black that ended up taking all the jackpots for the three days as well as the big fish prize, a nice total of over $500,000 u.s. Saturday was the first day of the two-day little Bisbee tournament, with only 20 something boats entered? With the #415 Black being caught on the Outer Gorda Bank on live bait, every boat in this tournament was there fishing the same way. There were two fish weighed in on Saturday, the largest was a #385 Black. The other fish did not quite make the grade, weighing in at a short #295, five pounds shy. The winning fish on Sunday was a #514 Black ,same area, same method.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: This was almost a repeat of last weeks results with most of the fish caught being found to the south of the San Jaime Banks among Porpoise pods. The first boats on the fish did well with catches ranging from 6 to 10 fish with an average weight of 20 pounds, the larger fish going 30 pounds. If you were the third or fourth boat on the scene you might get one or two fish, if you were later than that you were out of luck. There was one very nice fish caught this week during the Los Cabos Tournament, a Yellowfin weighing in at 181 pounds, but I could not get the information on where or how it was caught.
DORADO: The number of Dorado being caught this week fluctuated day to day, but overall the numbers are down a little bit unless you went far up the Pacific side. The passing of Hurricane Norbert did was quite a bit of debris into the water, but the inshore current changed and at a movement of 2 knots, pushed the debris to the north and out to the west. Locally the best bite has been on the Pacific side from 2 to 4 miles off the beach. Finding feeding Frigate birds in that area was a sure indicator of Dorado and slow trolling live baits under the birds, or pulling lures in the area usually resulted in hooking up, with the fish averaging 12 pounds. I did hookup one nice Dorado this week, in the 50-pound class, but it got away after charging the boat like a Marlin. The largest Dorado caught during the Los Cabos Tournament was 57 pounds.
WAHOO: I heard good things this week about Wahoo up around the Punta Gorda and Inman Banks, with quite a few of the local Pangas getting one or two fish in the 40 pound class each day. They were getting good results on swimming plugs like Rapallas and Marauders, and there were a few large fish hooked up as well. The largest Wahoo brought in during the Los Cabos Tournament weighed in at 44 pounds.
INSHORE: Almost every Panga captain I talked to this week was working off the beach for Dorado and Striped Marlin. Only one went and fished the beach and he told me that the Roosterfish bite was off, releasing only three small fish outside of the Westin Hotel on the Cortez side.
NOTES: This is the Bisbee Black and Blue Tournament week so there will be a lot of pressure on the fish, and if this last weeks results are any indicator, you will probably be able to walk from boat to boat on the Outer Gorda Bank. My golf game is not improving, so after having been semi-retired for the past year and driving my wife nuts, I am ready to get back to full time work. If anyone out there has a full time Captain position that needs filled (preferably here in Cabo or San Jose) drop me an e-mail with a phone number and I’ll give you a call. Until next week, tight lines!
Just heard that a bigger marlin came in last night at over 800 lbs!!!!! |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 97
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 13, 2008 - 8:41 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
October 6-12, 2008
WEATHER: This was an interesting week on the weather front as we had a scare from Hurricane Norbert and were keeping an eye on Tropical Storm Odile. Norbert ended up passing well to the north, bringing only several days of cloudy skies, gusty winds and a little bit of rain. Oh, and some big swells! Odile looks as if she is going to dissipate well to the south and west of us and should not effect us in any way. As expected, although several days early, the temperature dropped and the humidity dropped as well. This morning on the way to the golf course we had a reading of 74 degrees, at least 10 degrees less than anytime in the past four months! The skies were sunny and the weather perfect.
WATER: The end of the week saw the Port Captain close the port for Friday and Saturday due to the effects of Hurricane Norbert. Prior to that the Pacific side was seeing small swells at 3-5 feet with winds from the northwest at 5-10 knots, the Cortez side had swells at 1-3 feet with slight winds, variable in direction and speed. Hurricane Norbert pushed the swells to 10-12 feet for Friday, and winds gusted to 30 knots on Friday and Saturday. The Port Captain opened the port at 7:00 am Sunday. Water temperatures on the Cortez side of the Cape were in the 86 degree range on average, and on the Pacific side out to the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks it averaged 85 degrees with a 2 degree drop outside, to the west and to the north, of those banks.
BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were available at the normal $3 each but on a few days they were a bit harder to get. Boats going up the Pacific side were stopping at the Golden Gate Bank to make bait as there were some small, scattered schools of Mackerel down deep.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The beginning of the week saw a continuation of the hot Striped Marlin bite we had been having at the Golden Gate and the Finger Banks. As I write this we are waiting to see if the storm conditions caused the fish to move off as we have several boats out fishing today. Our fingers are crossed that the port being closed for several days, and the lack of rain in our immediate area will have given the fish a break and they will be ready to eat when our clients get to the grounds. There were a few more Blue Marlin caught early in the week before the weather moved in, but none of them were large ones according to what I heard, most of them were in the 200-250 pound class. Almost all the action on billfish this week occurred on the Pacific side with the exception of a few Blue Marlin up around the Punta Gorda area.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Early in the week reports were coming in about a few nice schools of Yellowfin Tuna to 50 pounds outside of the San Jaime Banks, and to the south of the Banks. There were a few fish caught by the first boats on the scene at the Golden Gate Bank as well. We will have to wait and see if these fish remain in the area after having the fishing shut down for several days.
DORADO: Once again there were still some decent Dorado to be found with the average size a bit smaller than expected at 12 pounds, but the number of fish was down as well. Most boats were happy to get three to five fish per trip; the exceptional catch may have been 10 fish if the anglers were lucky enough to get into a school of fish. There is a decent chance that the rains from Hurricane Norbert, as it passed across land to the north, may have washed out a lot of debris from the arroyos and we may have some decent concentrations of Dorado under this floating debris in the coming week. The California current should bring this debris into our area in three or four days.
WAHOO: My fingers are crossed that the full moon will bring on the Wahoo bite, but for right now it is wait and see. Hurricane Norbert may have had an effect on these sensitive fish.
INSHORE: Early in the week the inshore action was decent with small Roosterfish to 15 pounds and an occasional 40-50 pound fish being caught on the Cortez side of the Cape. Bottom fishing was poor so most of the Pangas were working several miles off of the beach for Dorado and Marlin.
NOTES: It looks like the beginning of a decent fall fishery here in Cabo, as long as the rough weather stays away! The water temperatures are perfect, the water is blue and the fish are out there. With the drop in our air temperatures and the humidity things are downright decent in town and on the water! Until next week, Tight Lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 96
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 06, 2008 - 12:21 pm: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
September 29-October 5, 2008
WEATHER: It seems to be cooling a little bit every day, maybe a degree less in the morning every other day. As of this morning our low was 80 degrees, down from 84 last week. This week was mostly sunny with lows of 80 degrees and daytime highs of right around 96-97 degrees.
WATER: Surface conditions on both sides of the Cape remained the same as last week. The water everywhere was almost glassy on a few days with the Pacific side having small swells at 1-3 feet with gentle winds from the northwest. On the Cortez side it was just flat with a bit of wind ripple. Water temperatures on the Cortez side up around Punta Gorda were in the 87-88-degree range while just off the arch and on the Pacific side of the cape the water was a little cooler at 85-86 degrees. Outside of the San Jaime Bank the water dropped to 83-84 degrees. It was blue water everywhere you went.
BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were available at the normal $3 each but on a few days they were a bit harder to get. Boats going up the Pacific side were stopping at the Golden Gate Bank to make bait as there were some small, scattered schools of Mackerel down deep.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: One of our clients this week ended up fighting a Blue Marlin for 4 ½ hours before getting the tail-wrapped fish to the boat. It came in on a short rigger lure and the guys dropped a live bait back to it, thinking it was a Striped Marlin. The battle took place on a fairly light bait rod and since the fish died, they took it to the weigh station. It was a nice Blue of 376 pounds! There were a few others caught this week as well, but the big noise around the docks has been the influx of Striped Marlin. Last week it was looking real good but you had to go 50 miles for double digits, this week the Golden Gate Bank started to turn on and the run was much shorter. Boats working the Pacific side between the lighthouse and the inside of the Golden Gate were hooking two or three fish per trip while trolling and casting to tailing fish or fish raised on the lures. Boats working the Golden Gate were dropping bait deep and drifting across the high spot or running to birds dropping down on fish. The problem with running to the birds was the large numbers of whales and dolphin. The Gate was producing double digit catches with one boat getting a three-day total of 33 Striped Marlin as well as several sailfish. The Finger Bank really started popping this week as well, but the fish were not right at the finger, instead the concentration seemed to be five or six miles to the north, just around the flats at the wrist. Talk about double digit fishing, one of the fleet boats reported releasing 45 Striped Marlin in one day! I hope it keeps up for a while.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were some Tuna out there but they were scattered. Most of the action on larger fish switched directions with the area around the Cabrillo Seamount on the Cortez side producing fish in the 50-60 pound class for a few boats that checked the area out. The Pacific side outside of the San Jaime Bank still produced fish in the 15-40 pound class under pods of dolphin. In both areas live bait produced the larger fish with small dark colored lures working on the smaller fish. When the fish became shy and the bite slowed, switching out to small pink hootchies tied directly to the line, let out 150-200 feet and jigged with sharp pulses while slow trolling worked.
DORADO: There are still decent numbers of Dorado out there but it was not the fish of the week this week, instead the title went to Striped Marlin. The bite slowed on Dorado and the size seems to have dropped a bit as well with the average fish coming in at 12 pounds. There are still fish of 30 and 40 pounds being caught, but not in the numbers of the last few weeks. Another possible reason for the lower catches might be the Marlin action, with most boats concentrating on these fish. There was decent action on the Cortez side for Dorado as well with good reports coming from boats working the Punta Gorda area, fish averaging 15 pounds with four or five fish per trip.
WAHOO: I heard of one or two incidental fish being caught this week, but with the full moon coming on the 14th the bite right around then should be better.
INSHORE: Roosterfish action was still to be had if you were in the right place, at the right time, with the right bait. This week that meant the beach off of La Laguna on the Cortez side, right at the start of the drop off of high tide, and using live mullet. A few boats reported fish to 60 pounds with a lot of medium 20-35 pound fish as well. The best report I heard from one boat was 11 releases in a trip. Other inshore action was sparse as most of the Pangas worked off the beach for Dorado and Striped Marlin.
NOTES: I found a new best place to go for shrimp tacos, only 15 pesos each, but if I tell everybody it will get ruined, but if you ask me politely I’ll tell you. I am going on a two night trip up the Cortez at the start of the week, snorkeling and diving, but I will be listening on the radio to boats fishing in the area and will let you know what I hear next week. Until then, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 95
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 29, 2008 - 6:58 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
September 22-28, 2008
WEATHER Hot and humid were the words to describe this week. Our daytime temperatures were in the high 90’s with 80% humidity and nighttime lows in the mid 80’s and no change in humidity. Mostly sunny skies this week, even on Saturday when we had a short downpour of rain the sun was shining!
WATER: The water everywhere was almost glassy on a few days with the Pacific side having small swells at 1-3 feet with gentle winds from the northwest. On the Cortez side it was just flat with a bit of wind ripple. Water temperatures on the Cortez side up around Punta Gorda were in the 88-degree range while just off the arch and on the Pacific side of the cape the water was a little cooler at 84-85 degrees. It was blue water everywhere you went.
BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were available at the normal $3 each but on a few days they were a bit harder to get. Boats going up the Pacific side were stopping at the Golden Gate Bank to make bait as there were some small, scattered schools of Mackerel down deep.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite has turned on, at least if you are willing to travel 50 miles to get to the fish. Realize that if you do this, the boat will likely charge a fuel premium for the trip. The Finger Bank turned on this weekend with several boats reporting multiple numbers of fish there. Captain Tony Nungary on “Tony’s Machine” had 17 releases in 2 hours while fishing a private tournament and Captain Jay Bush reported 22 releases but spending a bit more time in the area. Reportedly the fish were not feeding on bait balls but were being hooked on trolled lures and on dropped back baits. If this action continues we may have a repeat of the awesome action of last year. The Golden Gate Bank also had good action on Striped Marlin, but not quite the numbers of the Finger Bank as most boats working the southern edge were getting bit on deep dropped live baits, not covering much of the water but working around the deep bait balls, dropping, drifting across for 15 minutes then pulling the baits up, running back up-current and dropping again.
YELLOWFIN TUNA The Tuna action this week was considerably slower than last week. According to Mike Tumbrillo, the owner of the 31’ Bertram “Renegade Mike”, his crew searched several days but were not able to find the big fish that had made an appearance last week. There were schools of fish in the 30-40 pound class to the west of the San Jaime Bank as well as 30 miles to the southwest, but the big boys were absent. Boats willing to go the distance did fairly well, averaging 2 to 10 fish per trip. Cedar plugs and green or dark colored lures run close to the boat worked well, with a few of the larger fish biting on live bait dropped back after a trolled lure hook-up.
DORADO Once again, just like last week, Dorado were the fish of the week. While not everyone caught their limit this week and there were a couple of slow days, the numbers were still good and the average size of the fish was decent. Most of the fish were found on the Pacific side of the cape but the reason was most of the boats headed that way looking for Tuna and Marlin, the Dorado were not the target for most of the boats this week. Reports from the few boats that went north on the Sea of Cortez were that the Dorado were there as well but you had to find the concentrations. A few boats did this by fast trolling lures until getting a strike, then chumming in the school with chopped up skipjack.
WAHOO I did not hear of any Wahoo this week, but I am sure there were a few caught.
INSHORE: Captain Victor on the Panga “Santi” reported that there were still Roosterfish to be found on the stretch of beach between the arch and the Pedregal. His clients released two fish of about 25-pounds each along with several smaller one during the middle of the week. Most of the Pangas were fishing just off the beach for some of the large numbers of Dorado, and they were doing very well. Bottom fishing was reported as being a bit off with the majority of fish caught being triggerfish.
NOTES: If you are interested in fishing with any of the Captains or boats mentioned above, feel free to drop us a line, we will be happy to set you up for a trip. Meanwhile, if you like good guitar playing, see if you can find the song “Not One Bad Thought” by Tony Joe White with Mark Knopfler. I bought a disc with the radio version and the extended version and was blown away by the playing. Well, until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Username: Captg
Post Number: 94
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 22, 2008 - 6:49 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
September 15-21, 2008
WEATHER Monday morning was a rude awakening with thunder crashing, lightning flash’s scaring my cats and the dog and the sound of heavy rain. Thank goodness it only lasted about two hours, but in those two hours we had about two inches of rain here in town. Friends coming into town were amazed as this was a localized storm, with only light sprinkles two miles away. We have had mostly clear skies since then. With all the steady light rain the week before and little sand and dirt washed into the streets it was a bit disturbing to see what a quick heavy rain could do, now there is a lot of sand and dust in the streets. One good thing that happened is that the cool air stayed with us. Our mornings have been averaging in the mid to high 70’s and it was not until late in the week that our afternoon highs became greater than 90 degrees.
WATER: While the swells on the Pacific side remained a bit on the large size early in the week at 4-6 feet, they became smaller as the week wore on. As of Sunday they were averaging 3-5 feet in the large sets, enough for you to know that it was not flat! On the Cortez side things were considerably calmer with swells at 1-3 feet. The water temperature on the Cortez side remained a slight bit higher than the Pacific at 85 degrees on the average. On the Pacific side the areas inside of the banks averaged 82-83 degrees with a one-degree drop outside of the banks. The water remained a very nice blue everywhere.
BAIT: Almost all the bigger baits this week were Caballito and Mullet at the normal $3 per bait. The Sardinas were a bit harder to come by, according to some of the bait boats that was due to the water temperatures.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I said in the last report that it was beginning to look good for the Striped Marlin fishing and this week proved it to me. We had a client fishing on Saturday who released 11 Striped Marlin and lost a Sailfish in the vicinity of the Golden Gate Banks. Not only that, but he also kept 7 nice Dorado while releasing many more. Most boats were getting at least one or two Marlin releases per day this week. Most of these fish were a result of throwing live bait at tailing fish, but a few were caught on lures being pulled for Dorado. There were also a couple of very decent days of Blue Marlin fishing. Wednesday captains on the fleet boats reported hooking up with at least three nice Blues while a private boat reported releasing one as well. Most of the Blue Marlin action occurred between the 95 spot and the south end of the San Jaime Banks.
YELLOWFIN TUNA While the Tuna action this week was not hot and heavy, there were some nice fish found. One of my friends, while fishing on his boat, “Private Reserve”, hooked a double header while working a Frigate bird. The first fish took the #50 class reel into the deep backing; the second fish didn’t do much at first. The first fish ended up being a nice 50-pound Yellowfin. After landing it he picked up the rod on the second fish and after a one-hour fight he managed to boat a very nice #175 Yellowfin (and he was nice enough to give me a chunk for sashimi, thanks Tiff!). There were boats that managed to get into schools during the week, but the runs were normally at least 30 miles as the concentrations that were found were outside of the banks on the Pacific side.
DORADO Absolutely no doubt about it, Dorado were the fish of the week. If you were not getting your limit this week, or at least catching all you wanted to catch, you were in the wrong place! The correct place to be was anywhere within 10 miles of the shore on both the Cortez side and the Pacific side, with the better concentrations on the Pacific side. Slow trolling live bait, working Frigate birds or trolling 6-8 inch brightly colored lures all worked well on fish that averaged 15 pounds. Almost everyone (with the exception of a few greedy crews) were releasing anything under 10 pounds, and still limiting out.
WAHOO There were a couple of nice Wahoo to 60 pounds caught this week, but I did not hear of any large numbers. The fish that I know about were caught on the Pacific side by boats fishing for Dorado.
INSHORE: There was some decent Roosterfish this week with fish that ranged to 30 pounds, but not any large numbers on fish that size. The Cortez side of the Cape had the best fishing for bottom fish such as snapper and grouper, but there were no large numbers of anything except triggerfish. With the nice water we had, most of the Pangas were working outside for Dorado and Marlin, and doing quite well with them.
NOTES: Maybe I should start playing virtual golf, as my game is not improving at all. Or better yet, maybe I should start fishing more, especially since the fishing is so good right now! Once again my thanks to Tiff on the “Private Reserve” for the excellent Yellowfin fillet, that was perfect! Until next week, listen to some Moody Blues or Pink Floyd and relax! |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 93
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 15, 2008 - 8:01 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
September 8-14, 2008
WEATHER The weather was the big item of the week. Starting the week off was a movement of storm cells over the top of us from the mainland. These cells had plenty of thunder and lightning with them, to the point that the Port Captain closed the marina on Monday and Tuesday. The positive aspect of this was the fact that the rain was light and fairly steady, the type of rain that will soak into the desert instead of running off into the arroyos. Just as these storm cells moved out the feeder band of Tropical Storm (late Tropical Depression) Lowell moved in with winds steady at 30 mph with gusts to 45 mph and more light rains. This kept the port closed through Wednesday, and it did not open again until mid morning Thursday, too late for most of the charters as they had already cancelled trips for the day. With the movement of weather through the area the daytime temperatures dropped as well as the nighttime temps. Our nights ended up being a beautiful 72-75 degrees at the end of the week while the daytime highs did not get much more than 87 degrees, and with low humidity at that. Everyone has been saying how it feels like the middle of October this week!
WATER: Naturally the water was too rough for fishing until Thursday but the weather we experienced cooled off the surface temperatures a bit, as well as what we had on land. On the Pacific side the water was almost a steady 84 degrees with a little cooler areas near shore. On the Cortez side of the Cape it was averaging 86 degrees, overall down about 2 degrees from before the beginning of the week. The swells remained from the southwest until Friday when they began returning to their normal northwest direction. On the Pacific they were 6-8 feet when the port opened on Thursday but had dropped to 3-5 feet over the weekend. On the Cortez side they were averaging 2 feet less. With the light and steady rains we did not have much in the way of debris wash out of the arroyos but the water was a bit discolored close to the arroyos on both the Pacific and Cortez side on Thursday, clearing up by the weekend.
BAIT: Almost all the bigger baits this week were Caballito and Mullet at the normal $3 per bait. There were Sardinas available from a couple of boats locally but everyone had them up toward Palmilla. The price here was a bit higher than to the north as the boats here were charging $30 a bucket while it was only $25 a bucket up north.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Striped Marlin continued to bite even though the water remained in the 84-degree range. It did not take much of a search on Friday to find the fish, they were still holding in the same area as last week, mostly on the Pacific side closer to shore, most within 7 miles of the beach. There was a concentration of fish on the Golden Gate Bank; that bodes well for next week as well. There was a scattering of Sailfish in the catches as well, and they were from the same areas. The Blue Marlin did not appear at the end of the week, hopefully they will start to show in numbers soon.
YELLOWFIN TUNA On Thursday and Friday there were reports of Yellowfin to 60 pounds being caught to the west side of the San Jaime Banks, but few fish reported from other areas.
DORADO Still mostly being caught on the Pacific side, the Dorado have been striking well on medium sized lures in brighter colors. Live bait dropped back behind a troll hooked fish resulted in many doubles on fish that averages 15 pounds with a few in the 40-pound class. Spotting the Frigate birds swooping on flying fish was the key to steady action on Dorado after the storms.
WAHOO I did not hear of any reports of Wahoo after the storms this week.
INSHORE: The swells kicked up by the storms made inshore fishing very iffy, most of the Pangas preferred to go out 5 miles or so for Dorado. A few of the Pangas that worked inside on the Cortez side reported decent action on Roosterfish to 35 pounds, nothing hot and heavy but steady fishing with live Mullet and Caballito.
NOTES: The desert is going to be beautiful after the nice rain we just had and hopefully I will get a chance to check it out this week. Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 92
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 08, 2008 - 9:57 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
September 1-7, 2008
WEATHER Talk about warm, this week we had the early morning temperatures in the low to mid 80’s, on Sunday morning I saw 86 degrees on the thermometer. Our daytime highs have been up there as well, mostly in the high 90’s and we have had very little wind. Partly cloudy skies have kept it from getting unbearable and it looks as though the clouds may continue as we get some remote banding from a storm expected to pass well to the south of us this week.
WATER: The air is hot and so is the water. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water has been a pretty even 86-88 degrees. On the Pacific side from the shore to around 10 miles out it has been from 82-84 degrees and farther out it has been between 85-88 degrees. We had some big swells mid-week but they had died out at the end of the week, however, we might se a few more big ones due to the storm to the south. With the wind very light most of the time there has been just a bit of a chop on the water. Mid-week we had a couple of breezy days on the Pacific side close to shore, but once you got away from the shoreline by three or four miles it calmed down.
BAIT: Almost all the bigger baits this week were Caballito and Mullet at the normal $3 per bait. There were Sardinas available from a couple of boats locally but everyone had them up toward Palmilla. The price here was a bit higher than to the north as the boats here were charging $30 a bucket while it was only $25 a bucket up north.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin continued to bite this week, surprising everyone since the water is so warm. The Sailfish showed up as well, not in the numbers as on the mainland but everyone had shots at multiple fish this week. I did not hear of anyone getting hooked up to big Blue or Black Marlin this week. Most of the Marlin action took place in the band of cooler water along the shoreline on the Pacific side while the Sailfish were in the warmer water just outside. Live bait got the most attention form the striped Marlin this week, but you had to be quick or the Dorado would take the bait before the Stripers got a chance to chew.
YELLOWFIN TUNA We had good Tuna action this week on fish that ranged between 15 and 150 pounds. Most of the fish were between 30 and 50 pounds but the same schools were delivering #150 fish on drop-back baits or deep drifted live baits. The school fish were hitting almost everything, feathers to Blue Marlin lures worked but the best action was on the smaller lures in the 4-6 inch size. A few boats loaded their clients with Tuna in the smaller size range by chumming heavily with sardines while in the Porpoise, then drifting with sardines on small hooks with a small piece of lead several feet above the hook. The Majority of Tuna action took place along the warm-cold water boundary on the Pacific side, around 12-18 miles offshore. I don’t know how much longer it will last because a couple of Tuna Seiners showed up on Saturday.
DORADO Definitely the fish of the week, Dorado made a strong showing in our area. From the Punta Gorda area all the way around the Cape to the Todo Santos area on the Pacific the fish were chewing on anything put in the water. Like I said above about the Marlin, there were Dorado taking live bait away from the stripers. Covering the water while trolling at 9 knots located the fish, then dropping back live bait or casting flies to fish following the one hooked on the troll resulted in steady, exciting action. Most of the fish were in the 12-15 pound class but occasional fish ran to 50 pounds.
WAHOO Wahoo made a showing this week offshore around the San Jaime and Golden Gate banks as well as in the open water. They were not large fish on average, just around 30 pounds, but at least they were there!
INSHORE: Large swells made inshore fishing a bit uncomfortable during the middle of the week, but boats that targeted them did well on Roosterfish averaging 15-25 pounds. Slow trolled Mullet and Sardines worked for the Roosters. Most of the Pangas were doing well on Dorado and we had one friend get a $150 pound Tuna while fishing on a Panga, as well as others to #50 and plenty of Dorado.
NOTES: I still didn’t get into the hills, maybe next week! Instead, I golfed four days straight. It looks as if I need lessons if I am going to improve. I should have been out on the water more, it is a lot cooler out there and the fishing is red-hot right now. Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 91
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 01, 2008 - 7:28 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
August 25-31, 2008
WEATHER We ended last week with high winds and the port closed on Sunday but at 10 AM Monday the port Captain decided conditions were safe enough to allow the fleet to go out. Of course that was too late for many of the boats as clients were not willing to wait at the dock for four hours on the “possibility” that he would open it up. Anyway, the weather cleared and for the remainder of the week we had partly cloudy to mostly cloudy skies with winds from the northwest at 10-15 knots. We had some rain on Saturday, just a light sprinkle here in town but out on the Pacific side about the San Jaime area it dumped for an hour then rained very heavily for another hour. At the end of the week, Sunday, we had mostly sunny skies with light winds. Our average daytime high was 94 degrees and our average nighttime low was 81 degrees.
WATER: As I mentioned in the weather section, the Port Captain closed the port until 10 AM Monday and upon going to sea it was found that on the Pacific side the seas were at 3-5 feet with winds between 10 and 15 knots while on the Cortez side the seas were 1-3 feet with winds at 5-10 knots. This remained the same almost all week; finally on Friday the Pacific side became even calmer with swells at 2-3 feet and the wind dropping to 5-10 knots. The rain at the end of last week resulted in off-color water conditions just off the beach on the Sea of Cortez but did not seem to affect inshore water on the Pacific side. Water temperatures on the surface dropped a bit due to the cloudy conditions and we had much more fishable temps on the Cortez side with an average of 84 degrees with the water blue. On the Pacific side the water inside of the San Jaime and Golden Gate Banks was 80-82 degrees and blue.
BAIT: Bait this week was Caballito with a few Mullet for those that wanted them. The big bait price was $3 per bait. Some Sardinas were available up toward San Jose later in the week at $25 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite continued this week with most of the action taking place within 5 miles of the beach on the Pacific side between the lighthouse and the inside of the Golden Gate Bank. Live bait tossed at tailing fish worked on about 40% of the fish seen and a few others were caught on trolled lures. There were plenty of Sailfish to be found as well, we had one client who was covered up with all five lines going off at once on Tuesday, resulting in the release of three fish and the loss of two. The Sailfish were also just off the beach, there seemed to be a good concentration of bait in the area. There were reports of a few nice Blue Marlin this week but they were not biting hot and heavy. I heard of several fish in the 250 pound class being released from the area of the 95 Spot and the 1150 and I am sure there were a few from the Gorda Banks as well.
YELLOWFIN TUNA The Tuna stayed around after the passing of the storm and most boats were able to do well if they stayed on the fish. On a few days it was scratch as scratch can to get bites, but on Saturday when the rain came on hard the fish came to the surface and bit hard for two hours. Most of the fish were in the 25-40 pound class with a few fish reaching 60 pounds. Earlier in the week the bite occurred closer to shore among the porpoise and those fish were both smaller, with quite a few footballs, and larger, with a few fish in the 80-pound class. Lures, especially small feather in dark colors worked on the football fish, and live bait worked on the larger fish.
DORADO Last week I was hoping that the storm would was debris into the water and improve the Dorado catch, but the debris did not happen. The Dorado catch, howev3er, turned on by itself and this week Dorado were fish of the week. Almost any boat that wanted to was able to get limits for their clients (federal limit of two per angler per day) and most of the fish were in the 10-20 pound class. There were some nicer fish caught as well as we had client who caught several nice bull Dorado in the 50-pound class. As with the billfish, most of the Dorado action took place on the Pacific side within 5 miles of the beach, but there were several days during the week when the action was hot and heavy just off the beach on the Cortez side up around the Palmilla area and other rocky points.
WAHOO Our just passed new moon may have had something to do with the lack of Wahoo this week, perhaps next week they will make a showing!
INSHORE: The inshore fishing on the Cortez side was very poor this week due to the discolored water, but slowly improved toward the end of the week. On the Pacific side most of the Pangas were fishing for Dorado and Tuna since it was a fishery very close to shore.
NOTES: Well, I was going to go to the hills this weekend but have come down with some sort of cold/sinus infection and did not do it. No golf either. Oh well, there’s always another day, knock on wood. I have gotten a lot of reading done and managed to get several articles written before deadline. I guess that’s one nice thing about being at home a lot. This week’s music was a mix of acoustic guitar from my computer library, just the right stuff for my mood today! Until next week, watch some football and keep a line tight! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 90
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 8:55 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
August 18-24, 2008
WEATHER We started this week with hot and humid conditions and just a little bit of a sprinkle of rain on Tuesday. Every day since then we have gotten just a bit more rain until Saturday night when Tropical Storm Julio’s feeder bands moved into our area. It really started to rain then! We received about three inches then for a total over the week of around 5 inches of rain. Forecasts call for more rain through Sunday and into Monday morning, for a total of up to six inches this weekend. This has cooled things off just a bit, but has really messed up the streets. Our daytime highs have been the low 80’s and the nighttime lows in the mid 70’s. Today, Sunday, we are expecting winds to 35 miles per hour with gusts to 50 miles per hour, the Port Captain shut down the Marina for the day,
WATER: We had great conditions on both sides of the Cape early in the week with smooth water, almost glass-like smoothness. Water temperatures were up a bit, and that may be one of the reasons that Tropical Storm Julio kept coming toward us, our water just offshore ranged from 85 to 89 degrees with a few areas off 30+ miles showing 90 degrees. The water was blue everywhere you went early in the week and through the weekend, but I am telling you now that the near-shore waters on both sides of the Cape are going to be discolored next week, there is enough rain that the runoff is going to extend quite a way offshore, just how far remains to be seen. On a positive note, it usually means that wood and debris gets washed down the arroyos as well, and that will give Dorado some items to focus on and congregate under
BAIT: Bait this week was Caballito with a few Mullet for those that wanted them. The big bait price was $3 per bait. Some Sardinas were available up toward San Jose early in the week; I doubt there will be any around this coming week with the dirty water inshore.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There were some Blue Marlin caught this week but the surprise of the week was the number of Striped Marlin that ended up biting. The warm water conditions normally keep the Stripers off their feed, but we had several charters that ended up releasing three or four Striped Marlin per trip. These fish were found in the same areas all the other species this week, a band of water no farther out than 30 miles and concentrated on the banks and points. Live bait worked very well this week for the Striped Marlin while almost all the Blue Marlin bites were on lures.
YELLOWFIN TUNA Well, last week I reported on the area where the Yellowfin were being found and they were still there through the first of the week and anglers were doing well on fish to 150 pounds, with quite a few nice ones in the 80 pound class. Nothing lasts forever and on Thursday a Purse Seiner showed up early in the morning and just like that the fish were gone. Fortunately there were other fish scattered around, and a few schools were actually closer to the Cape. Lets just hope they are still around after the storm passes through and no more seiners move in on us.
DORADO The Dorado catches remained slow at an average of two fish per boat, and the size ranged from 10 to 20 pounds. Hopefully the debris from the storm will help concentrate the fish and things will improve this coming week or two.
WAHOO: There were a few offshore fish early in the week but no concentrations of Wahoo. I did hear of several of these speedsters that went close to 70 pounds, and they struck on lures intended for Blue Marlin.
INSHORE: Inshore fishing was decent for small Roosterfish and Jacks to 10 pounds, otherwise it was a scratch-fest, most Pangas went further offshore for Tuna and Dorado rather than work the strong inshore current while bottom fishing.
NOTES: Next weekend I am heading for the hills, this rain should really green things up and I want to see if the downpour has revealed any interesting fossils, plus the Jeep needs a day out! Hopefully the fishing will remain good this week, we will know how it is by Tuesday. Until next week, have a great time and try to get some fishing in! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 89
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 11, 2008 - 9:51 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
August 4-10, 2008
WEATHER Can you say hot? That is what we have been saying all this week as we are having our nights down in the low 80’s but our daytimes reaching 100 degrees. And of course the humidity is up there as well. This means that sweat is the word of the day. This happens every year and will continue for the next several months, but in reality it is good for you. It opens up your pores and cleanses your skin. If you live with it long enough you have to believe it! We did have a couple of days with some clouds and a sprinkle or two, but overall, it was hot and humid.
WATER: The water was almost like glass this week and the boats could go anywhere they had the fuel to get to. The calm surface meant cruising for long distances was possible and quite a few boats went out searching for something different. On the Pacific side the water temperatures were in the mid to high 80’s inside the 1,000 fathom line while outside the line they dropped to the low 80’s. On the Cortez side the water was in the mid 80’s almost everywhere you went.
BAIT: Caballito were the bait of the week with a few Mullet in the mix. The price on these larger baits was $3 per bait. For inshore fishing Sardinas were available at $25 a scoop from the bait boats around the Palmilla area.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There was very little change in the billfish action this week with the action being pretty evenly spread between the Blue Marlin, Striped Marlin and Sailfish. The Striped Marlin are a bit of a surprise since the water is this warm, but they are nice to see. Most of the Blue Marlin have been smaller fish in the 120 to 200 pound class, but they will still kick the butt of any Striped Marlin. A few nicer fish in the 300+ pound class were caught this week as well. The bite on all the billfish was pretty evenly mixed between lures and live bait. There were plenty of small Bonita just off the beach to fill the tuna tubes with if you were targeting the Blue Marlin and the Caballito worked on the Striped Marlin. Most of the Sailfish were taken with small lures, but the occasional fish fell for strip bait dropped back or smaller live bait.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We finally had some Tuna show up but they have been quite a distance away. The calm water allowed boats to go out roaming and searching and a few of them did manage to find some decent fish between 32 and 40 miles off the Cape. The area outside the San Jaime had fish ranging in the 150-200 pound class early in the week for boats that had the time to find the Porpoise, but the fish were moving fast. Smaller fish were found a bit closer to home but still at least 30 miles out, and they ranged in size from 35 to 80 pounds. It seemed that the fish were slowly working their way south as the bite continued over several days. By the end of the week the fish had worked themselves out of our range. The larger fish in every instance were taken on live bait, and deep dropped bait caught the larger of those.
DORADO I have been surprised that the Dorado catch has been as slow as it has been. I guess that we need at least a month of the warm water to really bring them into our area, and it would help if we had floating debris for them to hide under. The fish that have been caught have averaged 12 pounds with an occasional fish to 35 pounds. Most boats have been lucky to get one or two fish; a few have caught three or more. Most of the action on Dorado has been on the Pacific side of the cape.
WAHOO: I did hear of a few nice Wahoo being caught, but they were incidental catches, not a targeted catch. The points and ledges have been the best producers historically and that seems to be where the fish that have been caught have been found.
INSHORE: There was almost no change in the inshore action this week compared to last week. With the calm water this week most of the Pangas were working just off the beach for Sailfish and Striped Marlin as well as Dorado. Those boats working the beach did fair on Roosterfish on the Cortez side.
NOTES: I think I am going to quit golfing, just when I think I have it figured out it falls apart. Since shooting the 92 last week I have not broken 100! I should just get out on the ocean more often. Our kitchen is finally finished and it looks great. We are taking off this afternoon for a jeep trip up into the mountains, the rain this last week should have made it very nice up there! The fishing continues to pick up and my fingers are crossed that it will continue to do so. Until next week, listen to some Jerry Jeff Walker and keep your lines tight! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 88
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 04, 2008 - 7:17 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
July 28-August 3, 2008
WEATHER There was no change in our weather this week, still 90 degrees or more in the daytime and in the mid 80’s at night. We had some rain on Saturday night-Sunday morning as a nice section of clouds moved over us coming in from the south. We had around ½ inch of rain with thunder and lightning around 2 am. The rest of the week was partly cloudy to sunny with no real weather in the area. We just went through the new moon phase.
WATER: Surface conditions this week were great on both sides of the Cape. On the Pacific side the swells were at 2-5 feet with light winds in the morning at 5 knots and picking up later in the afternoon to 10 knots most days. Surface temperature began the week on the Pacific side at a warm 83-85 degrees but at the end of the week it had cooled to 82-80 degrees, probably due to the cloud cover later in the week. On the Cortez side the swells were at 1-3 feet with almost no wind effect early in the morning early in the week. Later in the week the wind did pick up a bit from the north and there were a couple of choppy afternoons, but nothing uncomfortable. The surface temperature early in the week was a warm 86-88 degrees but at the end of the week had cooled to 84-82 degrees.
BAIT: Caballito were the bait of the week with a few Mullet in the mix. The price on these larger baits was $3 per bait. For inshore fishing Sardinas were available at $25 a scoop from the bait boats around the Palmilla area.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Blue Marlin, Striped Marlin and Sailfish have all been giving our anglers a good time this week, and the boats did not have to go very far to get into some action. The bite as been within a 100 degree arc from the arch, from off of Gray Rock to the lighthouse on the Pacific side at a distance of between 3 and 15 miles. Most of the Blue Marlin have been picked up farther out while the Striped Marlin have been closer to shore. The Sailfish have been closer in on average as well. There have been a lot more fish seen than have been hooked up however, as most of the Striped Marlin showed a definite “not interested attitude. While slow trolling live bait was a great way to get hooked up to the Sailfish and Striped Marlin, most of the Blues seemed to be more interested in lures, perhaps the higher speed got them excited. For the Striped Marlin and Sailfish, Caballito worked fairly well, but it seemed that better results were had by slow trolling small 15” Bonita. There were plenty of these baits to be had close to the beach and you could fill your tubes pretty quickly using small feathers and hootchies.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: This was another week where I did not hear of or see any boats bring in any decent sized Tuna. A few small football fish were caught and I did hear of a couple of fish in the 30-40 pound class but there was no consistent action on Tuna this week.
DORADO The warm water has started to set off the Dorado bite and almost every boat was able to get at least one of these great fish, and a few boats were able to get four of five. Most of the fish averaged 15 pounds with a few in the 10-pound range and a few in the 30-pound range. Slow trolled live bait worked well on the larger fish and the smaller ones fell for fast moving lures. Most of the action took place within 5 miles of the beach on the Pacific side of the Cape.
WAHOO: I heard of a few Wahoo bites this week but did not hear of any being brought in. The new moon may have had a strong effect on the Wahoo bite.
INSHORE: There was almost no change in the inshore action this week compared to last week. With the calm water this week most of the Pangas were working just off the beach for Sailfish and Striped Marlin as well as Dorado. Those boats working the beach did fair on Roosterfish on the Cortez side.
NOTES: I shot my best golf game ever this week, a 92! . My granite guy promised our new counters will be here this coming Tuesday, yay!! My buddy Tony Nungary has his boat “Tony’s Machine” up and running and is now booking charters. If you want to fish with a two-time Bisbee winner, who is really on top of his game, give us a call and we will see if we can set you up! He did very well this past week, fishing four days and releasing several Blues, Stripes and Sailfish as well as getting some nice Dorado for the table. Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Username: Captg
Post Number: 87
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 28, 2008 - 9:51 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
July 21-27, 2008
WEATHER Hot and humid, that pretty much describes this last week’s weather. We had nighttime lows in the low 80’s and daytime highs reaching 100 degrees The humidity has been up there as well, sort of feels like I am living in southern Oklahoma lately. We had some cloud cover for the weekend as a little front blew over the top of us from the mainland. That dropped some rain up in the mountains but few of us on the coast got any rain, at least not enough to talk about.
WATER: This past week was almost a repeat of last week’s water conditions with the exception that everything warmed up several degrees. Most of the week the water on both sides of the Cape was beautiful, blue and almost glassy. At the start of the week the swells on the Pacific side were in the 3-5 foot range and on the Cortez side they were about the same On the Pacific side of the Cape the water has warmed up to 83-84 degrees, on the Cortez side of the Cape it has been several degrees warmer at 85-87 degrees and very clear. The area immediately south of the Cape has been 82-83 degrees.
BAIT: Caballito were the bait of the week with a few Mullet in the mix. The price on these larger baits was $3 per bait. For inshore fishing Sardinas were available at $25 a scoop from the bait boats around the Palmilla area.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Well, for those of you who are interested in Blue Marlin, the water has reached the perfect temperature and the girls have shown up to party! Almost every day one of the boats has gotten into some decent blues and the favorite area has been between 150 and 210 degrees off of the arch out along the 1,000-fathom line. The best results so far have been on darker colored larger lures, greens and blacks along with a lot of purple have been working well. Just think of Bonita and Skipjack, that gives you the idea! There have been a few large fish reported but most of the blues so far have been between 150 and 300 pounds, only a few fish over that mark have been reported so far.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were a few scattered schools found this past week, but they were the exception. Unfortunately there have been few tuna underneath the porpoise that have been through our area, and the porpoise that have been through here have been very boats shy. Hmm, wonder if that has anything to do with Purse Seiners? Seems to me that since the U.S. decided to eliminate the “Dolphin Safe” label and requirements the porpoise have been worked hard and all the fish have been scooped up. Sigh. Of course, there is probably no correlation between the two facts.
DORADO The Dorado I heard of and saw this week were not large ones, but there were more of them showing up than last week. Not to say that you can go out and fill a cooler with fillets, but at least you can take some out for dinner! Most of these fish have been hooked on smaller lures and a few have been fooled by dropped back baits. An average per boat this week was probably in the one fish per boat rate, a few boats caught more than one, but many of them caught none.
WAHOO: The full moon is past and the Wahoo count is down to where I can count the ones reported to me on one hand. Most of those fish were incidental fish caught while fishing for Blue Marlin and they hit large dork colored lures pulled close to the boat.
INSHORE: With the calm water this week most of the Pangas were working just off the beach for Sailfish and Striped Marlin as well as Dorado. Those boats working the beach did fair on Roosterfish on the Cortez side, the swells were still a bit large for close to the beach fishing on the Pacific past the lighthouse.
NOTES: I was hoping the music for this week was going to be the stone guys installing the granite countertop in the kitchen, but I guess we are on Mexican time here, I heard no noise down there today, sigh. Anyway, the warming water has brought the big fish in our area and we are just eager as all get out to hook up something over 500 pounds. Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Username: Captg
Post Number: 86
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 21, 2008 - 9:04 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
July 14-20, 2008
WEATHER Summer time is back with temperatures in the mid to high 90’s most of the week. On Wednesday it was reported by a friend that at his house in town his weather machines reported 100 degrees and 100% humidity! Thank goodness that most of the week has been cooler than that! In the evenings it has cooled off to the mid 80’s with a slight breeze. On Thursday we had a band of clouds move through the area and they brought some rain with them, accompanied by lightning and thunder early in the day. The rain was not heavy, here at my house it was enough to spot the car windows, but out to the north it rained pretty well, there were reports of an inch in Todo Santos and La Paz.
WATER: Most of the week the water on both sides of the Cape was beautiful, blue and almost glassy. At the start of the week the swells on the Pacific side were in the 3-5 foot range and on the Cortez side they were about the same. At the end of the week the government had issued a surf warning for the Cabo area due to the large swells kicked up by Hurricane Fausto to the south. The only day of bad surface conditions was Thursday when the storms blew through, that really brought the chop up and a few people returned early or cancelled their trips entirely. On the Pacific side of the Cape the water has been 80-82 degrees and just a bit green, on the Cortez side of the Cape it has been several degrees warmer at 82-84 degrees and very clear. The area immediately south of the Cape has been a little cooler at 76-80 degrees and with a green tinge to it. It is only a 30-minute or less run to the blue, warm water.
BAIT: Caballito were the bait of the week with a few Mullet in the mix. The price on these larger baits was $3 per bait. For inshore fishing Sardinas were available at $25 a scoop from the bait boats around the Palmilla area.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The water warms up and the big girls start to show up! There were lots of reports of Blue Marlin showing up in the lure patterns this week and a few nice ones were caught and released. Unfortunately a few were brought in as well, mostly by the smaller boats whose crews wanted the fish. The largest Blue I heard of here in Cabo this week was a fish of approximately #400, released after a 90-minute fight. This fish was caught outside of the Gorda Banks early in the week. Most of the fish were in the #150-#200 range and the catch was scattered, mostly off on the 1,000 fathom curve, but a few were caught inside. I did not hear of any Black Marlin yet, but I am sure that with the water as it is, there must have been at least a few. The Striped Marlin bite is still fairly steady with about 50% of the boats getting bit by the little guys, and a few of them are catching two or more per day. Most of the action on these fish has been in front of the Cape in the cooler water.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were days when the fish bit and days they could not be found this week. When they were found most of them were footballs in the 10-20 pound class and the bite was good. If you were in the fish you were getting 12-20 fish per trip. Keeping the suspense up were fish occasionally reaching #50 in the same schools. The larger fish were caught on live bait dropped down in front of the moving schools with the boat pulling away at least 100 feet from where the bait was dropped. Just sitting there after dropping the bait did not work; you had to pull away. The fish were scattered across our area with some schools on the Pacific side and some on the Cortez side, but almost all of them were between 12 and 26 miles out.
DORADO If there was any floating debris found this week the boat that was on the find first did well on Dorado to #30. There were only two instances of this that I heard of, but both times the first boat limited out. Later boats were able to pick up a fish or two, but most of the Dorado found were scattered fish. With the warmer water on the Cortez side of the Cape that is where the majority of the Dorado were found as well.
WAHOO: There were some decent Wahoo caught this week up off of Punta Gorda as well as offshore in the current lines. The full moon we had mid-week seems to have gotten them hungry! Dark colored lures run close to the transom did well as did rigged dead bait run as far as 300 feet behind the boat. Naturally, if you were targeting these fish you had a small wire bite leader in front of the bait or lure, but most of these fish were caught as incidental fish, there fore many more were lost than ended up in fish boxes.
INSHORE: Roosterfish, Amberjack, the occasional pile of Grouper as well as some very nice Pargo made up the majority of the inshore catch this week. With the water being as nice as it was, many of the Pangas were fishing offshore, looking for Tuna, Dorado and Marlin. Quite a few of them got into these fish as well. Having the water like it was made for a decent mix of fish for the Pangas, and these fishermen were probably the most successful this week.
NOTES: Things are looking up with the arrival of the warm water and the bigger fish. We have our fingers crossed that the storms stay to the south and just bring us some clouds and a bit of rain. This weeks report was written to the music of carpenters finishing up my kitchen! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 85
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 14, 2008 - 8:46 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
July 7-13, 2008
WEATHER We had a very pleasing change in the weather this past week. The clouds moved in, a slight breeze was with us almost every day and our nighttime lows dropped to the mid 70’s. Almost every morning we had 75 degrees on the thermometer and in the afternoons we were seeing low 90’s. The humidity was up, the cloud cover worked that out for us, but all in all the weather was about as good as you could wish for this time of year.
WATER: At the end of the week the water on both sides of the Cape was almost glassy. I golfed Sunday morning and we could see the horizon in the distance with just a light riffle on it, closer to shore it was like a mirror. Earlier in the week the wind was from the northwest but it was a light wind. With the wind letting up and the currents being light, we started to receive warmer water in our area. On the Cortez side of the Cape we had water that was in the 80-84 degree range to the north of us, closer to home it was in the high 70’s. Unfortunately the water was still slightly off color, it had a definite green tinge to it. On the Pacific side it has warmed up as well and we were marking a lot of water to the south of the San Jaime Bank in the 76-77 degree range but the water was a nice blue color. To the north of the San Jaime the water was cooler and still had a green tinge to it.
BAIT: Caballito were the bait of the week with a few Mullet in the mix. The price on these larger baits was $3 per bait. For inshore fishing Sardinas were available at $25 a scoop from the bait boats around the Palmilla area.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: This was almost a repeat of last weeks report on Marlin. It was a spotty week for Striped Marlin, a few boats were able to get releases on one or two fish each, but many boats had trouble finding fish that were willing to eat. The best results were had along the color change to the south of us, and artificial lures seemed to do a bit better than the live Caballito did. I know of one boat that managed to catch a Blue Marlin the ended up weighing #350 on the API scales. The fish would have been released except that it died about 10 minutes into the fight. The fish ended up being hand lined in for the last hour as a dead weight. A few other Blues were seen in the patterns in the same area, up outside the Punta Gorda area.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again there were Yellowfin found, but not in large numbers and not close to home. Most of the fish were in the 25-40 pound range and bit on live bait dropped in front of the moving schools, but a few decent fish were caught with lures alongside the schools. The best colors were darker, in the black, blue and brown hues. Not many boats brought in Yellowfin, as it was a long run to get where they were, but if you managed to get into them, they were good quality fish.
DORADO The Dorado bite is beginning to pick up as the warm water returns to our area. Most boats were able to get a strike or two on good quality fish ranging between 15-30 pounds with a few big girls in the 40-50 pound range. Hopefully soon we will start to see more of the big ones. Best lures on the Dorado have been bright colored straight runners run off of the outriggers, or a stinger lure in bright colors with a rigged bait inside, run back about 150 feet or more. This lure and position also resulted in some nice Striped Marlin as well.
WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo being caught this week, but I am sure there were a few given the warmth of the water and the areas being fished.
INSHORE: Roosterfish were the inshore surface fish of the week this week with quality fish in the 20 pound class being caught with Sardinas on the Cortez side of the Cape. We had a couple of fly-fishermen work inshore on Friday and they managed to release 6 of these fish on fly, and several others on conventional gear. Grouper were still biting for angler seeking good eating fish, and the tips of the rocky points in water between 250 and 300 feet deep produced some of the nice fish. Smaller live baits really helped get the quality fish here.
NOTES: Things are picking up and looking better every day. Fingers crossed and the creek doesn’t rise, we should see steady improvement in all the species over the next several months. Until you get a chance to get down here and fish, keep your lines tight at home and keep dreaming of the big suckers here, one of these Blue Marlin or big Tuna just might have your name in its dreams! Until next week, have a great time! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 84
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
June 30-July 6, 2008
WEATHER Definitely in summer mode here as we have had our first touch of storm season. We had the cloud cover and some scattered rain from the passing of several systems well to the south of us late in the week, and it was enough for the Port Captain to close the port on Friday. He opened us up later on in the morning after it became apparent that there were no dangerous swells with the wind and rain, but it was enough to really mess up the fishing operations for the day. Our highs during the days have been in the mid to high 90’s with fairly heavy humidity, the evenings have been a bit cooler with a bit of a light breeze, bringing the temperatures down to the low 80’s.
WATER: The passing of storms to the south, along with the southeasterly winds that came with them resulted in confused seas offshore to the south. Our normal southern current flow met with the wind swells from the storm systems and the result was pretty choppy, but not dangerous, surface conditions. Water on the Sea of Cortez side of the Cape was between 79-82 degrees while on the Pacific side it dropped to 75-79 degrees. The water at the San Jaime Banks and to the north of there was off color and green, there was a plume of green tinged water flowing along the shore and to the south of the Cape, extending out about 30 miles. Due south of the San Jaime the water was a good blue color and on the Cortez side the triangle formed between the 1150, 95 Spot and the Cabrilla Seamount was blue as well. The water up to 5 miles offshore on the Cortez side was green tinged.
BAIT: Caballito were readily available early in the week at the new price of $3 per bait, later in the week they were difficult to get due to the weather conditions. I did not hear of any Mackerel or Sardinas being sold.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: It was a spotty week for Striped Marlin, a few boats were able to get releases on one or two fish each, but many boats had trouble finding fish that were willing to eat. The best results were had along the color change to the south of us, and artificial lures seemed to do a bit better than the live Caballito did. There were reports of a few Blue Marlin being seen in the patterns up toward the Punta Gorda area, but I did not hear of any being caught by our boats in Cabo.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were Yellowfin found this week but I am not telling anyone where. A few fish were up to 150 pounds and most of them were in the 30-40 pound class and they were not too far away, but last time I wrote about where they were we had a visit from tuna seiners. Maybe its just bad luck, but it is enough that there are some being caught again. Not all boats were able to get into the fish, but those that were in the right place at the right time did pretty well.
DORADO The warm water on the Cortez side and south of the San Jaime Banks has brought the Dorado bite back on. I think that the storms to the south of us may have pushed up some of these fish along with the warmer water. My fingers are crossed that these nice Dorado continue our way, it is a nice change of pace!
WAHOO: There were a few Wahoo in the 40-50 pound class reported being caught, but I had no luck with them myself. The warm water offshore on the Cortez side of the Cape delivered a few scattered incidental fish for lucky anglers.
INSHORE: The Sierra and Yellowtail bite fell off the charts with the influx of warmer water, but there were still a few being found. The good news is that the Grouper are starting to bite and decent fish in the 10-20 pound class are being found over rock piles in 200-250 feet of water. Cut bait and live Caballito have been working well, and a few hardy souls willing to do the work of yo-yoing at that depth have done well also.
NOTES: Best fishing this week was from Pangas for the Grouper, but there were good Tuna caught by those anglers lucky to be in the right place at the right time. I hope that this week sees a continuation of the good fishing inshore and an increase in the offshore Dorado catch as well as the appearance of more Blue Marlin in our area. Until next week, keep your lines tight and check out “Cowboy Boots and Bathing Suits” by Jerry Jeff Walker! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 83
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 7:11 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
June 23-29, 2008
WEATHER We are now back into summer mode. Our daytime highs have been in the mid to high 90’s and the nighttime lows have been a warm 80 degrees. Thank goodness the humidity has not gotten high yet, wait another two week for that. We had clear skies this week, for the most part, and the winds we were dealing with all day long every day last week were only blowing later in the afternoon this week.
WATER: The ebb and flow has this week gone in the direction of the Pacific. The warm water from the Sea of Cortez has pushed back the cooler Pacific water and we have now had almost a full week of water in the 78-80 degree range o the Cortez side of the Cape. This warm water has worked its way down so that the edge is almost due south of us and extends that direction for 30 miles. On the Pacific side the water remains in the 70-76 degree range with the cooler water being between the arch and the south side of the Golden Gate Bank, extending across the San Jaime Bank as well. This cooler water is green and at times there are streaks of almost brown in it.
BAIT: Just about the only thing I was able to find this week was Caballito for bait, but a few of the boats reported getting some Mackerel, but not many. The new price of $3 per bait is still holding, and for a few of the boats the price was even higher as they were only able to get 7 or 8 baits instead of the normal 10 baits, but were still getting charged the $30 price. I did not hear if there were Sardinas available or not.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Once again the week started slow for Billfish, as well as everything else. At the beginning of the week boats were lucky to see a few Marlin, let alone catch one or two. That all changed on Friday as a concentration of fish showed up, and showed up hungry, at the temperature break on the 95 spot. The fish were in small groups of twos and threes on the surface, and live bait was the best producer. Most boats were able to get at least one release and a few scored as many as five or six fish released. Farther to the north in the Cortez the Striped Marlin were spotty as the water was a bit warmer than the normally like, but there were a few Blue Marlin bites reported. It is still a bit cool for them, but look for more action from the girls in the blue suites as the water warms to a steady 82 degrees and the skipjack tuna start to show up in numbers.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again Friday seemed to be the day the fish shoed up as there were confirmed reports of fish in the 30-40 pound class found under porpoise between the 1150 and the Cabrilla Seamount. On Friday there were just a few boats in the fish but on Saturday the numbers increased. The fish were in the smaller Black Porpoise pods, which confused a lot of people, as that is not a normal occurrence. There were several fish reported in the #200 class as well. On Saturday this scene was repeated with one boat reported catching the largest Yellowfin of its history, and several other boats leaving the fish because they had enough. Who knows if these fish will stay in the area for any amount of time, but it is nice to see that there are still some out there. Live bait dropped down in among the porpoise worked best.
DORADO Once again there were just a few scattered Dorado reported, but look for the numbers and size of fish to increase as the water continues to warm.
WAHOO: There were a few Wahoo in the 40-50 pound class reported being caught, but I had no luck with them myself. The warm water offshore on the Cortez side of the Cape delivered a few scattered incidental fish for lucky anglers.
INSHORE: There were still plenty of Sierra available for anglers looking for consistent action on Pangas, as well as a fair number of small Roosterfish. Most of the action took place between Chileno and San Jose. On the Pacific side of the Cape the beach area was rough and green with only scattered schools of Sierra and small Yellowtails being found between the Arch and the lighthouse.
NOTES: Thank goodness the water is warming up! I have my fingers crossed that the Yellowfin will remain in our area and the Dorado will show up and start to bite! I know that it is a bit early in the season for there to be any large numbers of Dorado, but I can hope, right? Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 82
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 23, 2008 - 9:25 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
June 16-22, 2008
WEATHER Things have changed just a bit on the weather front, as of the middle of the week the wind quit blowing 24 hours a day and has just started blowing around 1 pm every day. That has made the afternoon temps comfortable and the early morning very nice, at least on shore. Our daytime highs have been in the mid 80’s and the nighttime lows in the high 60’s. No rain this week and we had mostly sunny skied.
WATER: Back and forth, back and forth, that is what the water temperatures have been doing to us as the California current brings cold water our way and then weakens and the Cortez warm water pushes our way. As of the end of the week instead of the 61 degree water we were having right here in the bay of Cabo at the beginning of the week, the water warmed up to 69 degrees out front, 62 degrees on the Pacific side of the Cape and 77 degrees from Gray Rock and north to the Punta Gorda area. Off shore, to the south and the Pacific side the water is green, it does not really clear up until you get to the north of the Gorda Banks. Surface conditions on the Pacific side have been pretty rough this week with the strong winds, later in the week the mornings have been all right until the wind starts to kick in, then it becomes choppy. The swells on the Pacific side are 4-6 feet with an occasional swell at 8+ feet, mostly due to the constant wind. On the Cortez side of the Cape the mornings have been great, and the water up past the Santa Maria area has been good most of the day. Coming home from that area has been rough in the afternoon as the wind starts to come more from the west later in the day.
BAIT: Mackerel and a few Caballito were available at the new price of $3 per bait, and there were nice sized Sardinas at the Palmilla area at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There was no change from last week for the Marlin report. The Marlin bite at the beginning of the week was not bad but as soon as the cold water started to wrap around the Cape the fish moved up the sea of Cortez and the ones that stayed around here stopped biting. At the end of the week you were lucky to get a chance to throw bait at a fish.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The white flags I saw this week were for Bonita that were caught close to the beach, I did not hear of anyone getting into any numbers of Yellowfin, but there were a few scattered football size fish caught.
DORADO There were a few scattered Dorado found up around the Punta Gorda area, but that was about it. They were caught by boats drifting with live bait for the most part, but a few were caught on trolled lures.
WAHOO: The full moon should have resulted in some Wahoo, but the water was too cold.
INSHORE: If you wanted to catch fish this week, a Panga fishing inshore was the way to go. The anglers were doing well on Sierra to 8 pounds, lots of Yellowtail to 10 pounds as well as a scattering of Bonito and Amberjack as well as Jack Crevalle. The Roosterfish that we had seen several weeks ago have been absent, probably due to the cooler waters. Most of the action on these fish took place between the arch and the lighthouse on the Pacific side and outside the Cabo del Sol-Palmilla area on the Cortez side.
NOTES: Checking on my reports form this time last year, it looks like a repeat so far. In 2006 we were catching Blue and Black Marlin already and the water was nice and warm. Hopefully we will see the warm water soon and the fishing will turn around. Until then, keep your fingers crossed! Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 81
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 16, 2008 - 7:10 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
June 9-15, 2008
WEATHER Our nighttime lows have been in the mid to high 60’s while the daytime highs have been in the mid 80’s, really nice weather all around except that the darn wind has been blowing almost non-stop all week. We have had mostly sunny skies, or partly cloudy if you are a pessimist, all week long.
WATER: We had the cold water off of the Pacific Ocean make a strong intrusion into the Sea of Cortez this week. What had been very nice warm water all along the Cortez side turned into cold green water this week as our temperatures dropped from the high 70’s into the low to mid 60’s. Out in front of town we had the water temperature drop to 61 degrees on Saturday, and the cold water, most of it in the 64-degree range, extended up to the Punta Gorda area. As of the end of the week it had warmed a bit to the low 70’s, but was still green. On the Pacific side the water was rough due to the consistent northwesterly winds, with seas at 4-6 feet and plenty of chop on top of that in the first 10 miles from the beach. Outside the ten miles the swells were still there but the chop disappeared as the wind appeared to be land related.
BAIT: Mackerel and a few Caballito were available at the new price of $3 per bait, and there were nice sized Sardinas at the Palmilla area at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Marlin bite at the beginning of the week was not bad but as soon as the cold water started to wrap around the Cape the fish moved up the sea of Cortez and the ones that stayed around here stopped biting. At the end of the week you were lucky to get a chance to throw bait at a fish.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were no fish at the beginning of the week but at the end of the week there were some football fish found on the Pacific side around the San Jaime Banks. Boats that were brave enough to challenge the 10 mile weather were able to get a decent catch of Yellowfin in the 10-15 pound class just to the south of the San Jaime. Best lures were cedar plugs and small dark colored feathers. The fish were associated with spotted porpoise.
DORADO There were some Dorado found at the end of the week in the warmer water south of the San Jaime Bank in the same area the Yellowfin were found. They were decent fish in the 20-35 pound class and most bit on the same lures as the Yellowfin.
WAHOO: The Wahoo went somewhere else this past week.
INSHORE: This was the type of fishing to do this week as the Sierra bite turned on and the inshore bite on them and on small Yellowtail was almost wide open. Almost all of this bite took place on the Cortez side of the Cape, but for those boats willing to challenge the currents and waves on the Pacific side, there was a decent bite on Snapper up at the el Arco area as well.
NOTES: Inshore was the place to be this week. All our inshore anglers did well if they were willing to catch what was available. The few Roosterfish that were caught were small, probably due to the cooler water, but also due to the cold water all the offshore species made themselves scarce. We just have to keep our fingers crossed that things improve and the water warms back up. Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Username: Captg
Post Number: 80
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 09, 2008 - 8:10 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
June 2-8, 2008
WEATHER: Everything is in flux this time of year. Just as we thought that summer had arrived, it cooled off and now feels once again like winter. The wind picked up at the beginning of the week, a lot of the larger yachts that move north this time of year sat in the harbor waiting for good weather for the ride north. At the end of the week a few of them left, but a few waited it out, and it may have been a good thing. The wind really picked up and the water got pretty miserable on the Pacific side of the coast as the winds blew at 20-25 knots from the west-northwest, bringing the swells up and the chop into play. Our nights have been as cool as 63 degrees while the daytime highs have been in the low 80’s. With the winds came partly cloudy skies as the remnants of a tropical depression from the Yucatan came over us.
WATER: The Pacific side of the Cape was fishable early in the week but when the winds picked up it became miserable. Swells were at 4-6 feet with an occasional 8-foot in the mix and the winds were blowing hard from the west-northwest. The current along the Pacific side was helped by the wind and the cool water from the Pacific punched its way into the Sea of Cortez. Like I said above, things are in flux. This cool water is at around 71 degrees and has extended itself from the beach at the arch out across the 1150 and almost to the outer Gorda Bank. Inside this band, along the shore, the water remained around 79 degrees, and up past the Gorda Banks it stayed warm as well. Along with the cooler water brought in, the clarity dropped as well, with green becoming the prevailing color.
BAIT: Mackerel and a few Caballito were available at the new price of $3 per bait, and there were nice sized Sardinas at the Palmilla area at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Very little changed this week on the Marlin front with most of the fish being found along the shore off of Palmilla and San Jose. They had moved toward us early in the week but the influx of cooler water from the Pacific side pushed them back toward the north. They are still not biting very well and it seems as if lures are working better than live bait for the most part. Pulling lures at slightly higher than normal speeds seems to get the fish active, they may be striking out of aggression rather than hunger as the moon gets larger. A decent trip is one or two releases per boat, a good trip this week would have been three or more releases, but we saw very few boats with more than three.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I sure saw a lot of tuna flags on some of the boats, but upon checking with the anglers found that the flags were being flown for Bonita that averaged 12 pounds in size, with a few reaching 18 pounds. A decent fight to be sure, but not Yellowfin by any stretch of the imagination.
DORADO: The Dorado bite dropped off as the cool water moved back in, but there were reports heard of some kelp patties being found offshore up in the East Cape area that were holding Dorado. In our area there were about 10 % of the boats coming in with Dorado flags at the end of the week, and they were found along with the Striped Marlin.
WAHOO: The Wahoo went somewhere else this past week.
INSHORE: Action inshore consisted of small Roosterfish to 10 pounds with an occasional fish to 30 pounds, a few holdover Sierra to 8 pounds, a decent spot of Grouper and Snapper averaging 8 pounds along the rocky points and those nice 12-18 pound Bonita just a few miles off the beach. All the action took place on the Cortez side of the Cape.
NOTES: Word is out that the Marines have been stopping boats from fishing within three miles of the beach from Gray Rock and to the north on the Sea of Cortez. Any boats found fishing within this area have been escorted outside the three-mile limit. We have been told that this is because about 30 years ago this area of the Sea of Cortez was designated some kind of reserve, and this is the only way of keeping the commercial boats like the purse Seiners we had such a problem with last month, out of our area. If they have to stay out, then we have to stay out as well. I guess I understand that a little bit, but we are not commercial fishermen, so there has to be reconciliation here somewhere. Anyway, until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 79
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 02, 2008 - 7:38 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
May 26 – June 1, 2008
WEATHER: Things have warmed back up and now we are feeling once again as if we have summer on the way. Our nighttime lows have been in the low 70’s and our daytime highs have been in the mid 90’s, once reaching 99 degrees here at my house. We had scattered clouds in the mornings most days, but things cleared up rapidly.
WATER: We experienced a rapid improvement in water conditions this week as a major push of warm water from the north took place. This warm water displaced much of the cold green water that we had wrapping around the Cape from the Pacific side last week, and has come on strong enough that the entire area to the south of the Cape is now around 76-78 degrees and blue. This warm water has traveled up the Pacific coast past Todo Santos and extends from the beach to about two miles offshore. Farther out it is 72 degrees and still green, in places like pea soup. On the Cortez side of the Cape things have definitely improved with water temperatures within our reach being as high as 84 degrees, and up in the East Cape reaching 86 degrees. This warm water is also clear water and brings with it fish of all kinds. Surface conditions on the Pacific consisted of swells to 6 feet with afternoon winds from the northwest to 14 knots. On the Cortez side the swells were in the 1-3 foot range with slight afternoon winds from the west causing occasional choppy conditions.
BAIT: Mackerel and a few Caballito were available at the new price of $3 per bait, and there were nice sized Sardinas at the Palmilla area at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin have shown back up and the fishing has improved for them as well. The only problem is that the fish are still a considerable distance from us on the Cortez side of the Cape, up around the Punta Gorda area and farther north, in the Vinorama area. This is an easy 30-mile trek, and takes time, but when the tide change happens things have been going off like gangbusters, especially the last half of this week. There is plenty of bait in the area and the preferred method has been to slow troll live mackerel at 2 ½ knots in the area of heaviest concentration. The fish have been feeding on the surface, but the action is so quick that running and throwing bait has not been effective. The slow troll seems to do better. Those boats that have been using just lures have been getting fish as well, but not as many. With the push of warm water into our area it should not be long before the big girls start to show up! I am really looking forward to some Blue and Black Marlin action this summer!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We are still not seeing any numbers of Yellowfin Tuna, the actions of the Purse Seiners from several week ago seem to have had a very strong effect on this fish’s availability. We can only hope that a new batch of Yellowfin appear soon. Quite a few boats have been looking specifically for them, but the results have been very poor.
DORADO: There has been very good Dorado action in the same area as the Striped Marlin, but closer in toward the beach. Within the 300-foot depths around the Vinorama area the bite has been good on fish to 45 pounds, with most of the fish in the 20-25 pound class. Fast moving lures in bright colors have done well when fished back in the pattern, and as happens most of the time, a live bait dropped back once the lure-caught fish is close to the boat has often resulted in multiple fish hooked up.
WAHOO: Wahoo were the big surprise this week as they have followed the warm water and are now to be found off the Vinorama area, just like the Dorado and Striped Marlin. The best results have been had by the Pangas out of La Playita in San Jose as they have been leaving the marina early and have been catching Chilwilie at the inner Gorda Bank at first light, then running to the Iman Bank area and slow trolling these mackerel scad. Many of the Pangas were catching multiple fish in the 30-40 pound class every morning. For the boats coming into the area from Cabo Sa Lucas, the best results were to be had by trolling Magnum Rapallas and Marauders close to the boat at higher than normal trolling speeds, around 9-10 knots, and having a small, heavy lure off of the outriggers. The best catch I heard of by a cruiser from our area was 6 fish in the 30-50 pound class in one trip. I did see a larger fish come in, one that was reasonably in the 80-pound class.
INSHORE: The inshore action continued to be good on the Cortez side of the Cape for white Bonita and Roosterfish, with some boats doing well on some leftover Sierra as well. These are surprising, as the water has warmed up well past the normal temperature for them. Fishing bait off the bottom has had good results for anglers targeting Grouper and Amberjack, with many of the Grouper being in the 30-pound class. The best areas for the bottom fishing has been off the rock piles at the points, one of the most fished has been right off of Palmilla. Roosterfish action has been going off very well on the sandy beaches at La Playita and to the north of there in the La Laguna area. Best results for them has been by using live mullet slow trolled behind the boat, or some of the large Sardinas that can be bought up there.
NOTES: We are experiencing a definite improvement in our fishing, and things are looking good. On a slightly different note, rumor has it that the marines have stopped several charter boats from fishing closer than three miles from the beach on the Pacific side this week, forcing them to return to the Marina, or moving farther out. I am going to do a little checking this week and find out what is going on. I also heard that they stopped a 28 foot cruiser that was fishing 25 miles offshore while looking for tuna and told him to move in closer as he was not allowed to be that far out. Hmm, guess that is another thing to check on, but at least that one makes sense to me. No music for me this week as I am writing this very early in the morning prior to a fishing trip and my wife is still sleeping in the next room! Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 78
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 26, 2008 - 8:03 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
May 19-25, 2008
WEATHER: This week brought us cooler weather than we have had for a while. Our nights were down in the low 60’s; I saw our thermometer read 61 degrees here at the house one morning. Our daytime highs were in the high 80’s. On Wednesday the wind started to blow, and blow hard, from the northwest, occasionally shifting more from the west. That lasted until Friday morning, and then it became nice again.
WATER: Ugly is the term I have to use for our water conditions this past week, I sure hope things improve quickly. On the Pacific side of the Cape we have had the warmest water at 72 degrees, and that has been in a big circulation just to the south of the San Jaime Bank. It got as cold as 58 degrees right next to the beach just above the lighthouse mid-week. With the cold water comes color, and for the most part the water was very green. The current from the Pacific side must have been extra strong this week; the full moon may have had a lot to do with that. Anyway, the cold water from the Pacific started to push up into the Sea of Cortez, causing green/blue banding out as far as 50 miles and up the coast until the Vinorama area off of Punta Gorda. The warm water up there was 72 to 74 degrees. The farther up the coastline you went, the better things became. The wind that kicked in on Wednesday made offshore conditions miserable as well. On Wednesday you could not fish on the Pacific side if you wanted to, and things were not much better on Thursday, to the point that the Port Captain closed the Port until 11 am Thursday.
BAIT: Mackerel and Caballito were available at the new price of $3 per bait, and there were Sardinas at the Palmilla area at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Before the winds and currents moved the fish, the WCBRT, held on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, had the top team release 57 Striped Marlin over the three days. The second place team released 34 and the third place team released 27 fish. These were professional teams fishing on the same boat every day. In comparison, last year the top two boats tied at 33 releases each. During the tournament the fish seemed to be holding just to the east and north of the 1150 spot. When the wind and currents started, the fish moved way up to the north. There were almost no Marlin caught after Tuesday, and at the end of the week boats had to travel 2 ½ hours up the coast to find any fish. The bright spot is that it seems the warm water is moving back in our direction and the fish that are being found are starting to feed again. Hopefully next week things will be better.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again the bite on Yellowfin was slow; I saw very few white flags flying from the outriggers this week. The few Tuna flags I did see were for Bonita. I discovered this while looking at the fish carts coming off the docks with fish from the boats flying these flags. I heard of no Yellowfin being found in our area this week.
DORADO: The cold green water moved the Dorado out as well; this week was a bust for them. A couple of fish were caught, but they were found a long distance away, up in the warmer water off of Punta Gorda.
WAHOO: The cold water moved the Wahoo out as well, even up at Punta Gorda the bite was not happening, and normally the full moon and structure there provide decent action.
INSHORE: This was the only bright spot at the end of the week for us. On the Pacific side, if you went past the lighthouse you were out of luck, but off of the Pedregal and the arch there were schools (small) of Pargo and groups of Yellowtail For any other inshore action you needed to make the trip up the coast of the Sea of Cortez, and even then, during the middle of the week, it was a long trip home against the swell sand the wind. If you did get up there, the fishing for Roosterfish to 30 pounds, Sierra to 8 pounds, the occasional Amberjack, lots of Jack Crevalle and a few Pacific Barracuda made the trip worthwhile.
NOTES: This was one of the worst fishing weeks I can remember having had in quite a while. Maybe that is the reason for listening to Stevie Ray Vaughn while writing this report; a little blues goes a long way! The bright spot is that it appears that the warm water is moving back our way! Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
May 12-18, 2008
WEATHER: Our daytime highs have been in the mid to low 90’s while the nighttime lows have been around 72 degrees. We also had mostly sunny clouds this week, a nice change from the past month. Light winds have been from the northwest, just enough to cause an afternoon chop on the water, but nothing big.
WATER: There was an enormous difference in the water temperature between the Pacific side and the Cortez side of the Cape this week, and it was strongest just off the beach. In the area just off the beach at the Golden Gate Bank we saw water as cold as 55 degrees while the water on the Cortez side was pretty evenly at 77 degrees. Offshore there was a difference as well, but not as large. On the Pacific side, north of a line between the Cape and just to the south of the San Jaime Banks we had water temperatures in the low 60’s and just to the south it warmed up to the low 70’s. On the Cortez side from the arch to the 95 spot and then south and west, we had pretty much 80-82 degrees everywhere you went. The area between these two extremes was a mixed bag of 68-72 degree water. As is normal, the cooler water had much more of a green tinge while the warmer water remained blue.
BAIT: Mackerel and Caballito were available at the new price of $3 per bait, and there were Sardinas at the Palmilla area at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: We just finished the 2008 ROLEX/IGFA Offshore Championship Fishing Tournament this week. There were 63 teams fishing for 4 days, a total of 232 fishing days, and the result was approximately 350 Striped Marlin released. At an average of 1 ¼ fish per day this was just about the same as in the 2003 tournament when they averaged 1 ½ fish per day per boat. The top team in this year’s tournament released a total of 13 Marlin and 1 sailfish over the four days. We had the World Billfish Catch and Release Championship Tournament start this weekend and we will see how they do as well, I’ll report the results next week. Meanwhile, the fish this week were found from just off of Gray Rock to outside between Gorda Bank and the 1150 Spot. They were not feeding well, as a matter of fact we had clients on Friday who said they saw over 100 fish but could not get one of them to eat. Maybe it was a sign, but the last day of the tournament was on Friday as well, and that was reported as being the slowest for them.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again the bite on Yellowfin was slow; I saw very few white flags flying from the outriggers this week.
DORADO: As the water continues to warm the Dorado continue to show up in larger numbers. Almost every boat that went out this week was flying at least one Dorado flag on its return, and most of the fish were decent size. We had clients catch one of about 60 pounds on Wednesday, and another group on Thursday caught two fish averaging 40 pounds each. The warm water on the Cortez side was the location and both slow trolled live bait and fast moving bright colored lures in smaller sizes worked well.
WAHOO: There were some decent Wahoo caught this week and most of them came from either the Gorda Banks of the Punta Gorda area. Darker colored lures and slow trolled live bait worked on fish ranging from 25 to 50 pounds. There were not a lot of them, but enough to make a little more effort worth it. Maybe 25% of the boats fishing for them lucked into fish.
INSHORE: Yellowtail in the 8-10 pound class were to be found from the arch in front and up to the lighthouse on the Pacific side. There may be more fish farther north, but there was no reason to travel that far. Live bait, small Caballito and Mackerel, were the best baits if you did not have large Sardinas, but small Rapallas worked as well. Just off the arch there was a decent concentration of small Roosterfish in the 10 pound class and they were biting on the live baits as well as a few that were caught on fly gear. Up on the Cortez side, in the warmer water, there were a few larger Roosterfish caught and released, fish that ran from 30 to 50 pounds. The best bite on these larger fish was in the afternoon. Anglers working for Snapper and Grouper just off the bottom had decent luck using chunks of bait and yo-yoing jigs in 110 to 200 feet of water along any of the points in that direction. These fish were between 5 and 15 pounds in size. A few surprise Amberjack moved in as well, generating some scorching runs and burned thumbs!
NOTES: Good news this week was no Seiners in the area; the bad news is that the reason they were not here is that there are no Tuna! Maybe they got all of them last week? Sometime soon we should have new schools move into the area, it can’t be too soon for me! Sorry to the few of you who will get this late, but we had the computer crash yesterday and my wife spent all day getting it back in shape. Thanks dear! Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
May 5-11, 2008
WEATHER: It looks like things are changing a bit down here. This week we had mostly cloudy skies, a bit of wind at the middle of the week and no rain, but it felt like it should have rained. Our nighttime lows varied between 68 and 75 degrees while the daytime highs were in the high 80’s to low 90’s. With the cloud cover the humidity kicked up a notch.
WATER: The Pacific side of the Cape was cooler than the Cortez side at 68-70 degrees and was off color as well. The greenish water wrapped around the Cape through the middle of the week and crossed into the area of the 95 spot. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water was much warmer, and the farther up to the north you went, the warmer it got. In the area of Punta Gorda and the Gorda Banks we were marking water as warm as 81 degrees, and it was blue water. Elsewhere on the Cortez side (offshore) the water was in the high 70’s and pretty clear.
BAIT: Mackerel and Caballito were available at the new price of $3 per bait, and there were Sardinas at the Palmilla are at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There were a lot of Marlin to be seen on the surface up in the Palmilla area close to shore but they were stuffed with squid and did not want to eat. Lucky boats were catching one or two per trip. There were a few decent Sailfish coming from the same area as well. There was not a lot of action on the billfish front but I am awaiting reports from a few friends that went up to fish the warm water on the Cortez side, they should be back early this coming week. My fingers are crossed.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: A few boats caught a few small football sized fish after the seiners left the area. Overheard on the radio were reports of them talking to each other and bragging about stuffed holds, guess they took all the fish.
DORADO: A few small fish were caught close to home, but the concentrations we had earlier were with the Tuna, guess the seiners got most of them too. I am hoping the warmer water to the north on the Cortez side holds more and they will work their way down to us.
WAHOO: What Hoo? New moon phase.
INSHORE: Green water on the Pacific side had most of the Pangas fishing the Cortez up around Palmilla point. These boats were getting some decent Sierra and Amberjack as well as some Snapper and Grouper. Bait of choice was Sardinas.
NOTES: Bad news was the seiners showed up again and wrapped all of the fish, the government allows it and now we don’t have anything to fish for. The good news is that the water is warming up and we should have a new mass of fish moving into our area soon. I really don’t know how else to put it other than the fishing this past week was extremely poor. My fingers are crossed that the government does something to regulate the encroachment of Seiners into the sport fishing areas. Tuna from the seiners goes for $480 a ton to the packing plants; wonder how much that same fish is worth in income from sport fishing? Enough said, I don’t want to get into trouble. Until next week, keep your fingers crossed for tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
April 28-May 4, 2008
WEATHER: We had just another week in paradise with our daytime highs varying between 90-95 early in the week and 85-90 later in the week. Our nighttime lows varied as well with 75 early in the week and 65 later in the week. That nighttime low of 75 on Monday and Tuesday night forced us to turn on the air conditioner! We had partly cloudy skies all week long with winds at 10-15 knots from the northwest with occasional higher gusts.
WATER: There was little change in the surface conditions from last week. The Pacific side of the Cape had swells at 3-5 feet and the Cortez side had 1-3 foot swells. The water temperature on the Cortez side was a pretty even 74-76 degrees from the shore out to around 12 miles, then it became 67-69 degrees for another 12-20miles, then there was a pretty strong break where it warmed right back up. On the Pacific side the temperature remained around 66-69 degrees. On the Pacific side from the Golden Gate and across the San Jaime Bank and toward the beach the water was a fairly dirty green, the closer to shore you got the dirtier it got. This plume of cool, green water extended to the south of the Cape keeping the water outside the 1,000-fathom line that dirty green.
BAIT: There was plenty of bait this week as the larger boat brought in plenty of Mackerel to sell to the Panga bait boats. With the small moon the bait boats were able to catch plenty of Caballito as well. This week the bait was the usual $2 per bait. When we purchased bait on Saturday, our supplier informed us that as of this coming Wednesday all the boats were raising their prices to $3 per bait. Keep in mind there has not been a raise in the bait price for almost 8 years, so this is not unexpected.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Once again the billfish were very easy to find this week, all you had to do was get out on the water. From just off of the lighthouse on the Pacific side around the Cape to the Punta Gorda area they were everywhere. Early in the week they were on the surface sleeping and tailing. Unfortunately, they were also full! They may have been stuffing themselves on squid once again, but for whatever the reason, you could throw baits to 25-30 fish and be lucky to find one or two that were hungry. A few boats resorted to drifting live baits deep, and this technique did work a little better than trolling lures while casting bait to fish on the surface. As the week went on the fish seemed to move up the Cortez coast just a bit and then back to in front of the arch. At the end of the week the ratio of fish baited and fish hooked improved a bit and most boats that tried to work Marlin were able to catch between two and four per trip, definitely an improvement over earlier in the week. Mackerel was the bait of choice; Caballito just didn’t seem to get the fish interested. The Striped Marlin averaged around 120 pounds.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: At the beginning of this week all the purse seiners we had out front last week had gone north, leaving us with just “scales drifting down” where before we had great fishing. Of course the fish were not around, they had all moved out or had been scooped up in the nets! Well, on the positive side, on Saturday this week the fish re-appeared just two miles out off the arch and lighthouse. These fish were also a bit larger with most of them between 20-30 pounds with a few pushing 40 pounds. One hour in the fish resulted in 16 Yellowfin for one of our groups of anglers. Almost anything worked, as these fish were very hungry. I went up on the Cortez side on Saturday and we got into a very larges group of dolphin with birds everywhere and large schools of bait showing up on the depth sounder. No Yellowfin though, and I could see two super seiners just on the horizon to the north, off of Los Frailles. I wonder if they had already gotten all the fish?
DORADO: The warmer water out front brought more dorado into our area and most boats were able to get at least one or two fish per trip. One of my friends was fishing up off the Punta Gorda area earlier in the week and found a dead whale that had been around long enough to attract quite a collection of life under it and was able to limit out on fish averaging 15 pounds. There were a few fish in the 30- pound range there as well. Everywhere else the bite was just all right with bright colored lures and live bait fished for Marlin getting the most fish.
WAHOO: The moon phase might be wrong for Wahoo this last week as I did not hear of any of them being caught.
INSHORE: Our anglers tat fished off of Pangas this week continued to do well with a varied catch including Roosterfish to 15 pounds, Sierra to 8 pounds, Yellowtail to 15 pounds and an assortment of bottom fish such as snapper and grouper to 10 pounds. The majority of the fish were found just off the beach on the Pacific side but when the late afternoon winds kicked in the afternoon trips worked off of Gray Rock and Cabo del Sol for the same type of fish. On Saturday, when the Yellowfin showed up so close to the arch, almost every Panga out there was in the mix, and they all did well. Quite a few of the Pangas were working just off the beach for Marlin as well throughout the week, and were averaging just about the same as the cruisers.
NOTES: The Seiners left, that’s good news, there are Tuna out front again, that’s good news! Live bait is going up in price on Wednesday, that’s bad news! I’m done with this week’s report, that’s good news! Until next week, tight lines! Give a listen to the music of an old Fender Stratocaster player, Dick Dale on his album “Spatial Disorientation”, that’s weird news! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
April 21-27, 2008
WEATHER: I guess that I probably don’t say this enough, but I have to let you know that this is just about my favorite time of the year for the weather. We have had morning lows in the mid to high 60’s and our daytime highs have just reached the low 90’s. The week began with mostly cloudy skies on Monday and on Tuesday afternoon they started to break up. The wind was kicking in a bit early in the week as well. The clouds brought no rain and after they were gone the winds were very light, just enough to put a light chop on the water in the afternoon. The week ended on a very nice note with clear and sunny skies and light winds.
WATER: The Pacific side of the Cape had swells at 3-5 feet but spaced well apart. On the Cortez side south of the Punta Gorda area things were nice with swells at 1-3 feet. On the Pacific early in the week and up past Punta Gorda the winds kicked it up a notch and the water was choppy. On the Pacific side the water temperatures were lower than on the Cortez side with 69-71 degree water almost everywhere. The temperature break was a straight line north to south off of the lighthouse on the Pacific side. East of the break the water warmed to 75 degrees and out at the Cabrillo Seamount late in the week we had some water as warm as 82 degrees for a day or so.
BAIT: This was a tough week to get bait; the bait boats were working hard at snagging Caballito right at the mouth of the marina and were not having a lot of luck. I heard of quite a few instances of bait boats charging as much as $5 per bait. That is high, but not bad if it is the right bait, but the fish definitely preferred Mackerel, and the Caballito are not in very good shape after being snagged. In other words, bait was scarce this week, and expensive.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Once again there were plenty of Marlin out there but the bite was still off. There were plenty of squid in the area and the Marlin were stuffed. A few boats were doing all right on Mackerel (a scarce bait this week) and a few fish were caught on Caballito, but the majority of fish were hooked on artificial lures. The Striped Marlin were all over the place from a mile off the arch to 5 miles off of Gray Rock, you had no problem finding fish, but they were not very hungry. On the Billfish side of things, I heard that several weeks ago there were three or four large Blue Marlin, one in the #800 and a couple on the 500-600 pound class caught right out front when these small football Yellowfin first showed up. I didn’t hear of them at the time, but was told of them yesterday by a very reputable Captain.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin Tuna were the fish of the week, at least at the beginning of the week, and are also the “rant” fish of the week. At the start of the week, under the cloudy skies, hordes of football size fish, from 8 to 20 pounds showed up jut off the beach from 2-5 miles from the arch. All the tuna you wanted were available and everyone limited out on fish. On Wednesday the Purse Seiners started to show up. On Wednesday there were 6 boats out there, on Thursday there were 9 boats, on Friday and Saturday there were 13 boats, at least 8 of which were super Seiners over 200 feet long and with spotting helicopters n the decks. They were fishing these tuna just 2 miles off the beach. The marines went out and stopped two of the boats and chased them away, but said that the others all had permits to fish there. These fish have hold that can carry 1,500 TONS of fish. Needless to say, at the end of the week a good day on the water resulted in a dozen or fewer tuna for the sport fleet. There were the occasional nice fish; the largest I heard of was a double on fish in the #70 class.
DORADO: The warm water has resulted in an increase in the numbers of Dorado being caught. Most boats are getting a fish or two a day; on Saturday we caught four Dorado between 12-18 pounds. They are in the same area as the tuna and marlin, right in among the Seiners. A live Caballito dropped back after a hook-up resulted in at least one of our fish, the others bit on bright colored lures.
WAHOO: There were a few Wahoo caught, again in the warm water out front, but not many of them. Average size was reported at 25 pounds.
INSHORE: The warmer water resulted in fewer Yellowtail being caught this week, but an increase in the numbers of Roosterfish. The Roosterfish are still on the small side with an average weight of around 5 pounds. Live bait was tough to come by so while the Caballito were large, there were not many of them and the ones anglers used were getting pounded hard by the Roosters. Most of the hook-ups were a result of luck, as the baits were much too large for the fish. The Sierra bite has dropped off as a result of the warmer water but the Pargo and grouper bite has become better. With the Tuna so close to shore, many of the Pangas were targeting them, and they had good luck.
NOTES: The Tuna Seiners had everyone up in arms, especially late in the afternoons when they started to set nets around the few sports fishermen that stayed out. I had thought that they were not allowed by law to fish any closer than 20 miles form the beach, and not at all within the Sea of Cortez, but I must have misunderstood the rules. Anyway, I overheard more than one local crew complain and talk about doing something, but since the Marines are letting them fish, it must be legal (right?). If we saw these numbers between one and 6 miles off of the beach, imagine how many more are just beyond the horizon. If these boats continue to fish right in front of Cabo, look for the numbers of all species caught by the local sport fishing fleet to drop off quickly. I remember what just 2 of these boats did to the fishery on top of the Gorda Banks six years ago; it took four years for the fishery there to recover. The Pangas and fishermen out of San Jose ended up ganging together and throwing rebar anchors into the middle of the Seiners nets while they were fishing and powering out, ripping their nets up. Until next week, keep your fingers crossed! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 73
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
April 14-20, 2008
WEATHER: Once again we have had a week of sun and fun here in Cabo. This time of year the spring break crowd is gone, the number of cruise ships calling at our port is down and the temperature has started to climb. Not too high, just into the low 90’s during the day and the low 70’s at night, but that’s just perfect for me! With this kind of weather a lot of our friends have returned from the cold north while many of the winter residents have gone home to prepare for spring back there. Just a very nice time of the year!
WATER: We have had light afternoon breezes for the first part of the week changing into light morning breezes later in the week, but nothing heavy enough to cause problems out on the water. A prevailing northwesterly direction has meant that the water on the Sea of Cortez has been very nice with only slight swells and wind chop while the Pacific side of the Cape has had slight swells and mostly slightly choppy conditions. Water temperature on the Pacific side has remained cooler than on the Cortez side with that wrap around the Cape from the east I mentioned last week still happening. Offshore on the Pacific side it has been 67-69 degrees while closer to the beach, say 4-5 miles off the beach and 10 miles to the north the warmer 74-degree water has prevailed. Of course the cooler water has meant green conditions and on the Golden Gate Bank reports were of very green conditions. On the Sea of Cortez we have had consistent 74-75 degree water across all the areas with just a slight tinge to it.
BAIT: There were many more Caballito available this past week than there were Mackerel, and they were both the normal $2 per bait. I did not hear anything about Sardinas.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: You didn’t have to go far this week to find Striped Marlin, but you had to have the right bait and a good amount of luck to catch one! Early in the week the bite was good up at the Punta Gorda area later in the afternoon and there were not many fish in our area, but on Wednesday the suddenly showed up in large numbers. It was not uncommon to spot pods of three to fifteen fish less than four miles form the arch, and often within a mile or less. The problem was that the fish were not very interested in Caballito, and that was the bait most common from the bait boats. Mackerel was preferred by the Marlin that were hungry. Being off the feed was probably due to them feeding all night during the full moon phase (tonight is the full moon). What they have been feeding on also had an effect! There were balls of 12-inch squid everywhere, and almost every species of fish caught this week was stuffed with them. Captains and anglers who were on top of their game and lucky enough to get a fish to the boat were ready with a bait net to catch any fresh squid spilled from the Marlins mouth, and some of them were lucky enough to be on top of one of the squid balls when the marlin forced them to the surface, managing to net a few live ones to toss out. Guaranteed catch if that happened! But, alas, for the most part boats were lucky to catch one marlin after throwing bait to dozens of lazing fish.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The tuna bite in our area dropped off again although a few boats were able to get into small pods of porpoise that were holding then. The tuna that were caught were not large ones; most of them were in the 10-15 pound range. A good catch this past week would have been four or five tuna. Most of them were found to the south at a distance of 10 miles and more, a few more were found around the 1150 area. Red and orange colored lures in the smaller sizes sort of imitated the squid they were feeding on.
DORADO: Once again the numbers of Dorado slowly increased over the numbers caught last week. It seemed that about 20% of the boats were flying a yellow flag or two when they returned this week. Most of the fish were found in the same areas as the Striped Marlin and they were also stuffed on squid. One nice thing is that the average size has been fair, not a lot of the little slipper size (5-8 pounds) were caught, most of the fish were around 12-15 pounds.
WAHOO: What Hoo once again, and I was surprised since we are in a full moon phase. Maybe the water just has to warm up a bit more?
INSHORE: There were reports from the anglers and Captains of large numbers of small Roosterfish once again just off the beach on the Pacific side between the arch and the lighthouse. These fish have been pounding small Caballito and the boats often had to return for more bait. The size was small with an average of 5 pounds, but a few larger ones, to about 15 pounds, were caught in the same area every day. I had an angler tie into a very large Sierra on Tuesday in this area. He fought the fish on line around 15 pounds in strength and said the Sierra would have weighed about 20 pounds (this is an experienced angler and Captain saying this). Of course when I told them that it might have been a possible line class world record they were mad they had filleted the fish! There have been some nice Pargo in the 20-30 pound class start to show off of the rocky points and live bait slow trolled deep has been the key for the larger ones. Adding to the excitement of fishing this way is the possibility of hooking up to some of the 30-40 pound Yellowtail that are still around. There are still many of the smaller ones, but as I said last week, not in the numbers we had been seeing. Even with the inshore action being good, many of the Pangas are targeting Marlin since they are so close right now.
NOTES: My golf game continues to improve; I am now consistently breaking 100. Don’t laugh, that is quite an improvement for me! I am looking forward to fishing this coming week; I just hope things keep popping out there! This weeks report was written to the sound of my dog snoring in the background, she had a hard day at the beach this morning! Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 72
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 8:31 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
April 7-13, 2008
WEATHER: The weather continues to slowly warm up as our nighttime lows have been in the high 60’s and our daytime highs have been in the high 80’s. There have been very few clouds in the skies this past week, just scattered around here and there for the most part. No rain has been seen to fall anywhere near us. Sun block of at least SPF-35 has been a necessity.
WATER: It appears that the California current has become weaker as the warm water on the Cortez side of the Cape has started to come across into the Pacific side over the week. The cooler water in the current has been forced offshore, outside the San Jaime Bank it is a cool 68-69 degrees while on the bank and up to the shoreline it is a warmer 73-74 degrees. On the Cortez side of the Cape we have mostly warm water in the 74-75 degree range. Surface conditions have been great this past week with small swells and very little wind.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin are re-appearing in large numbers now as the water has warmed up to their preferred 74 degree range, but they are not biting all that well. That is not to say there are no fish being caught; it just means that as far as the percentage of fish caught to fish seen, well, that is a low number. The positive side of this is that there are large numbers of fish being seen on the surface, small groups of three or four and larger groups that number up to fifteen fish. Most boats have been releasing two or three Marlin per trip, but throwing bait to forty or so fish in order to get those numbers. The area around the 95 spot has been holding large numbers of Striped Marlin, as has the area around the 1150.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We had a wide-open bite on the football size fish this week as a large school moved to within 4 miles of the bay early in the week. Boats were getting 20-30 fish each before tiring and going on to fish for Marlin. These fish were averaging 8-10 pounds each with a few in the 20-pound class. They were biting anything you put in the water, but the larger fish were eating live bait dropped in front of the moving schools. Any boats that went out at 150 degrees ran into these fish on Monday and Tuesday, as the week went on the fish moved to the west. There were other scattered schools found, but with the bite so good close to home not many boats went much farther to look for larger ones.
DORADO: There continued to be a few fish caught this week and as the water warms up more we should expect to be seeing more Dorado. I had a report of a boat up at Los Barillas catching 27 Dorado after finding a dead seal and that is the type of thing that may begin to happen here. Not that we kill seals, but this time of year we begin to find kelp fronds and trash in the water that hold large numbers of Dorado.
WAHOO: What Hoo once again.
INSHORE: The numbers of small Yellowtail being caught has lowered this week, weather because they have moved on to water more in keeping with their preferred temperature or because they became fished out, I don’t know. But instead of filling coolers with these small 5-8 pound fish, boats are getting just three or four per trip. What has a lot of anglers excited is the number of Roosterfish that have been showing up just outside of the arch. There have been mornings when 20 fish have been caught and released by one boat, but the fish have been small with an average size of 5 pounds. Little guys, but when you use light tackle they are a blast to catch! The Sierra bite has fallen off a bit as well and with the smooth water conditions and the Yellowfin Tuna being close, a lot of the Panga fishermen have been going out for the Tuna.
NOTES: Maybe I’ll try this thing I’ve been trying to get to use next year, it does not look like I will get to use this technique anytime soon, sigh. Anyway, we had great fishing this week and I hope it continues, with the numbers of Striped Marlin we are seeing if they start biting it will be awesome. This weeks report was written to the music of John Lee Hooker on the 2006 Virgin Records release “Best Of Friends”. Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 71
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
March 31-April 6, 2008
WEATHER: The weather has continued to make a believer of me in Cabo being the perfect place to live this time of year. Our daytime highs have been in the low 90’s and our nighttime lows in the mid to low 60’s. We had mostly sunny skies this week and for the most part, light winds. There were a couple of days in the middle of the week where the wind blew strongly from the west, but it was for only a day or two.
WATER: Water temperatures on the Cortez side of the Cape have continued to rise slowly; we had as warm as 75 degrees at the end of the week across the 95 spot. There is still a plume of cool 67-degree water coming across the tip of the Cape from the Pacific side. Both sides of the Cape experienced bouncy conditions on Friday and Saturday when the wind shifted and came from the west, but it settled right down. Water clarity had been an issue on the Pacific side close to shore but that has cleared up a bit, however the farther to the north you went the greener the water became. The blue water has remained south of us at a distance of at least 25 miles. Even the warm water across the 95 spot has been slightly green in color.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The good news is that the Striped Marlin bite has continued to improve; it was better this week than last week. That may be due to the warmer water we are experiencing, but for whatever the reason, we are happy. Along with the improved bite is the fact that the fish have moved closer to us, in the warmer water across the 95 spot, which translates into shorter runs to the Marlin. They seem to be a bit larger on average than we have seen lately as well. I did not hear of any other species of billfish this week, but I am sure there were some strikes on larger ones.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The football size Yellowfin continue to provide action but they have been a little harder to find for many of the boats. 25 to 30 miles to the south has continued to be the most prolific area for these fish and the first boats to the schools are doing well with an average catch rate of 10-12 fish per boat. Anglers arriving a little late have not been shut out, but it has been a slow pick for them with an average of four or five fish per boat. There were rumors floating around in the middle of the week of a private boat finding a school of fish averaging 80 pounds, but I was not able to confirm any information on that.
DORADO: The warm water continued to produce fish that averaged 12 pounds with a few in the 20-30 pound class, but there were no large numbers from that area. Almost everyone got a fish or two though. There was one day when a couple of boats found a patch of kelp to the inside of the San Jaime bank and loaded up on Dorado that averaged 15 pounds, they worked it hard with cut bait and kept radio silence until they were done. They looked for it again the next day but it had drifted off and could not be found again.
WAHOO: What Hoo?
INSHORE: Firecracker Yellowtail continued to provide plenty of action for inshore anglers this week with the fish averaging 5 pounds. Sierra were in the same areas and while the fishing was not red-hot for them, the bite was still decent with anglers catching as many as they wanted. Roosterfish were also mixed in with the Yellowtail and Sierra. They were small ones at an average of 5 pounds, but provided good action on light tackle, and a variety in the catch. White Bonita rounded out the inshore action with fish from 5 to 12 pounds. All of these fish were found in water less than 100 feet deep, close to the shoreline on the Pacific side.
NOTES: I did not manage to get out and try the thing I mentioned last week, perhaps I will get a chance this week. If I do, I’ll fill you in on the results. The bite continues to improve in our area and our hope is that the trend continues. Whale sightings are down as the migration is almost over. On Saturday we saw only two, a mother and baby Humpback headed north on the Pacific side. Let me take a second here for some blatant advertising. The Shrimp House is back!! Shrimp and bulldogs! On Hidalgo Street. Right now the sign says El Patio, but Maro is getting that changed This weeks report was written to the sounds of U2 on their 1987 Island Records release “The Joshua Tree”. Until next week, Tight Lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 70
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 31, 2008 - 10:01 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
March 24-30, 2008
WEATHER: Wow, did we ever have great weather this week! I was telling my wife yesterday as we were driving out of town that I wish it was like this every day, then she reminded me that if it was, there would be too many people living here! Guess that’s right, I mean it was 11 am and it was a beautiful 77 degrees out there, and only 67 when we got up in the morning. We had lightly scattered clouds all week and this wonderful weather. Sure am glad I was here this week!
WATER: The winds from the northwest were on again, off again this week as they kicked up for three days during the middle of the week. This resulted in rough conditions on the Pacific side of the Cape and in the Sea of Cortez offshore. Along with the wind came a strong push from the California current, bringing water along the Pacific coast as cold as 61 degrees. On the charts it looks like a finger cupped around the Cape, pointing toward the east. The warmer water, in the 71-degree range at the end of the week, was outside the 1,000-fathom line again. Earlier in the week it warmed up to 75 degrees in a warm eddy that spun across from the west to the east, then went beyond our immediate area. The water between Cabo and the 1150 and north of that line has been a consistent 71-72 degrees while the water on the Pacific side offshore has been a much cooler 67 degrees.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite picked up this week, not red hot by any means but much better than it has been. Most of the fish were found outside the 1,000-fathom line and in the warmer water on the Cortez side. Most of these fish were on the surface and caught on live bait, but a few were attracted by lures and bit on drop-back live bait or were hungry enough to eat the lures. My guess is that the average was a fish for every other boat, with a few boats managing to hook up and release two or three per day. One nice thing I heard early in the week was of a Black Marlin reported to be in the 400 –pound range being caught by one of the fleet boats while they were fishing for football Tuna outside the 1,000-fathom line. That was reported as happening on Tuesday. A few more Swordfish were sighted as well, but there were none reported hooked up that I heard about.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Football Yellowfin in the 6-15 pound class continued to be the fish of the week as almost everyone willing to get out 30 miles was able to get limits, some more than limits. It usually did not take long as the fish were very hungry and multiple hook-ups were the norm, as three or four lines would get hit at the same time. Boats with just one client aboard went to pulling only one or two lines. The fish slowly moved to the east over the course of the week and the best bite was between 180 and 210 degrees during the start of the week and between 170 and 140 degrees at the end of the week. A few boats were able to get into slightly larger fish averaging 30 pounds at the end of the week, but rough offshore conditions made keeping sight of the Dolphin pods hard to do.
DORADO: There were a few more Dorado caught this week than last week, probably due to the eddy of warm water that passed our way. Most of the Dorado were caught in the warm water as boats fished for Tuna. Average size was around 15 pounds but a few boats caught doubles on fish in the 30-pound class.
WAHOO: What Hoo?
INSHORE: The rough water on the Pacific side combined with cold green conditions that started early in the week meant the inshore fishing was not very good this past week. That is not to say there were not fish caught, but the numbers were down from what we had been experiencing. The Sierra bite was spotty; a good trip resulted in a half-dozen or so to 10 pounds with the average size around 6 pounds. There were Pargo found in the rocks at the points and still a few decent Yellowtail were found.
NOTES: I don’t know if the warming of the water is a trend that is going to continue, but I sure hope it does. It seems that the water getting warmer means better fishing for us. I am going to get out this week and give a few things I have been working on a try; I’ll let you know next week if they work out. Until then, try and keep a smile on your face, things could always be worse. This weeks report was written to the music of my dog snoring in the background after a long morning at the beach! Tight Lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 69
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 24, 2008 - 8:33 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
March 17-23, 2008
WEATHER: The weather has been going back and forth from cool to warm and it seems to change about every 5 days or so. This past week it was cool at the beginning and warm toward the end. At the end of the week our nighttime lows were in the mid 60’s and our daytime highs reached 91. Earlier in the week everything was 10 degrees cooler and there was wind and partly cloudy skies. Thankfully, the wind died down to nothing on Thursday and there were just light breezes over the Easter weekend.
WATER: Water conditions remained less than perfect on the Pacific side at the beginning of the week with strong winds from the northwest pushing up swells to 6 feet with lots of whitecaps on top. Also during that time frame the Cortez side was rougher than is normal with winds from the North not really pushing up swells but bringing on a lot of chop. At the end of the week things had really settled down, the wind quit blowing on Thursday and the swells relented on the Pacific side, becoming 2-3 feet with no chop, and conditions almost glassy on the Cortez side. On Sunday afternoon the wind again started to pick up from the Northwest and the Pacific side started to kick up a bit. Water temperatures were much warmer due south of the Cape much of the week with a band of warm water out past the 25 mile line, wandering between there and 30 miles out. This water was in the 70-70.5 degree range and was pretty clean and blue. I made a run out to the southern side of San Jaime on Friday and while I read mostly 68 degrees to the south, as soon as I approached within 5 miles the water dropped to 64 degrees and turned very green. I overheard other Captains mention that the water out past the 95 spot was also cool, but a bit cleaner, but with no fish to be found.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There were very few Marlin caught this week and the ones that were caught were found due south, in the warmer water among the Dolphin, I think the hook-up ratio was probably in the 10% range once again. Just as happened the week before, there were a few Swordfish sighted and fished for, but I did not hear of any coming in to the dock.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again the football size fish were found anywhere from 170 degrees to 220 degrees off of the cape. The distance varied from 32 miles to 38 miles, but very few fish were found any closer than that. All of the fish were associated with the white-bellied Dolphin; if you found a pod of them the chances were good that there were fish with them. The average size was 12 pounds with a few fish going to 20 pounds and a few in the 8-pound range. Best lures were cedar plugs and dark colored feathers. Multiple hook-ups were not uncommon and most boats later in the week were able to catch as many as they wanted. I heard of one boat that got into fish just a little bit bigger at a reported 25-pound average while fishing a bit farther east, just to the south of the Cabrilla Seamount, but there was no confirmation on that. The full moon we are going through right now may be helping our tuna catch.
DORADO: Once again there were a few Dorado caught, but most of them were very small. A few boats reported finding patches of kelp while looking for Tuna, and some to these patches held Dorado and small Yellowfin as well as a few Yellowtail.
WAHOO: Wahoo are in the same category this week as Dorado, with the red flags seen flying but I believe they were all for Sierra!
INSHORE: The bite on small Yellowtail continued this week with many more of them being taken off of the lighthouse on the Pacific side. A surprise for most anglers was the chance to get bit by large Humboldt squid. The squid were concentrated off of the arch, right in front of town, and on Friday they had moved even closer, with boats fishing for them within 200 yards of the Marina entrance. Sierra continue to provide action for those fishing just outside the breakers on both sides of the Cape, but the action seemed better on the Pacific side.
NOTES: It’s a long run out to the Tuna, and they are not big fish, but at least there is action in that area, plus the chance to come across a Marlin or Swordfish as well as a patch of kelp. The Tuna have been keeping anglers happy and with the Humboldt squid right in front there is no reason for anyone to have gone home empty handed later in the week. The Whales are slowly moving back to the north, we saw only three of them on Friday. If the water warms up a bit things should start to take off, our fingers are crossed for better action in the future. My golf game is better; I am consistently scoring below 100 now with no mulligans. Maybe by the time I’m 90 I will break 90! Until next week, Tight Lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 68
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 17, 2008 - 10:48 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
March 10-16, 2008
WEATHER: While the week started off great, with the daytime highs to the low 90’s and nighttime lows in the mid 60’s, at the end of the week the clouds moved in and the wind picked up. As of the weekend we were having winds from the northwest to 18-20 mph with partly cloudy skies and the average temperatures had dropped by 8-10 degrees. No rain came with the front system, but it definitely cooled things off.
WATER: As a result of the winds later in the week, what had been smooth 2-4 foot swells with light breezes on the Pacific side turned into sheep farming by Friday. Everywhere you looked there were whitecaps and swells that had kicked up to 4-6 feet with a few larger ones. Boats that fished south of the Cape early in the week started reporting the wind and swell increase on Tuesday and by Thursday the effects were right off the Cape. On the Cortez side, things were a bit nicer, especially in the morning before the wind really got to cranking it up. Outside of 10 miles though the effects came into play and you had to deal with the choppy conditions. As a result of the wind and the strong California current there was a band of very cool water, down as low as 59 degrees right at the lighthouse. Almost made me expect Albacore Tuna! On the Pacific side the water remained cool, between 59 and 65 degrees outside the 1,000-fathom line. This cool water extended south a distance of 30 miles while on the eastern side of the Cape it only went north as far as a line east of Cabo out to the 1150 area. Farther north it warmed a bit to the 68-degree range and out to the south of the Seamount there was a warm spot that had been drifting around all week that had water as warm as 71 degrees.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Striped Marlin this week were found either close to shore, within 10 miles on the Pacific side or far out, past 30 miles to the south. While there were fish spotted, there were not many of them that were hungry. Looking at the flags flying as boats returned for the day and talking to the guys who were out there this week, the fish were either going to eat right away or disappear before you could get a bait to them. My guess is that only 10% of the boats had a decent shot at a Striped Marlin this week and about half of them hooked up, with some of these fish lost. From that I guess you can tell that the percentages were pretty low. I did hear rumors of a large Marlin, either Blue or Black, being landed early in the week. This fish was reported to be in the #400 range but I never heard anything more on it. With water this cold it would be surprising to me to have one out there, but you never know. There were a few more Swordfish hooked this past week in the cool, green water to the southwest with the largest reported at #250. These fish were reported to have eaten live Mackerel.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again it was mostly football Yellowfin this week. The majority of the fish were found south at 30+ miles early in the week before the wind picked up. Later in the week the fish may have been there still, but it was too rough for most of the boats to get there. As a result of the wind more boats fished on the Cortez side of the Cape and around the warm water sot south of the Seamount there were reports of fish averaging 25 pounds with a few to 50 pounds mixed in with the white bellied dolphin. There were massive pods of these dolphin reported off of the Pacific side in the area of the San Jaime Banks, but with the pods reported to be 3 or 4 miles wide and long, it was difficult to find any fish with them.
DORADO: I did see several Dorado flags early in the week but nothing over this weekend.
WAHOO: Wahoo are in the same category this week as Dorado, with the red flags seen flying but I believe they were all for Sierra!
INSHORE: There was a giant school of small Yellowtail found on the Pacific side up at Los Arcos early in the week. Thank goodness the wind kicked up, as there may be some of them that escaped to reproduce. A lot of the Pangas were going out and loading up on them, and these were small fish in the 5-pound range. I hated to see this as for many of the guys there was no reasoning with them, it was a “load up while you can, the hell with the stock’ mentality. There were a lot of the Captains however that limited their clients to only a couple of these for dinner, then took off to look for larger fish. My hat is off to these guys; they care about the future of the fishery here. Also inshore there were scattered Pargo up in the rocks as well as a few larger Yellowtail to 40 pounds just off the bottom in 120 feet of water.
NOTES: I hope the winds die down, but it looks as if it may continue to blow for the next four of five days. Normally this type of wind only lasts three days then we get three days of good weather. It remains to be seen if we will have the same pattern this season. There are still whales around but they are getting ready to return to the north. No music this week, I wrote this report to the sounds of the wind blowing, my dog snoring and one of the cats crying for treats. Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 67
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 10, 2008 - 9:45 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
March 3-9, 2008
WEATHER: It was just another great week here in Cabo! I love living here when the weather is like this, the daytime highs in the mid 80’s and the nighttime lows in the high 50’s, it makes me feel good to get up in the morning to a slight chill, and cooking on the grill in the evening is so nice! We had mostly sunny skies this week with no rain seen or felt.
WATER: The water on the Pacific side of the Cape has cooled considerably with the near-shore water 64-65 degrees while farther offshore it warms to a toasty 69 degrees. The near shore cooler water is slightly green while offshore there is a nice blue color. On the Cortez side the water across the 95 spot, the 1150 and Gorda Bank has remained at 66 degrees and green. Off shore at a distance of 30-50 miles the water warms up to 72 degrees and is just slightly tinged with green. Our good deep blue water is to the southwest. Everything appears to be moving slowly to the east with a clockwise rotation. The water has remained nice on the surface on both sides of the Cape with swells of 2-3 feet and light winds.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price. There were Sardinas up around Chileno Bay at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin catch remained slow this week for most of the boats but there were fish found. Most of these were tailing or sleeping fish, and only a few were hungry and bit. These fish were in the cooler water close to shore, most of them found off of the points and drops along the Pacific side of the Cape, but there were also a few fish found just outside the Gorda Bank area. There were a few more Swordfish sighted this week but I did not hear of any boated.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: This past week was almost a repeat of last week as there were plenty of the football size fish to be found offshore. On the Cortez side, out toward and on the edge of the warm water at 30-50 miles the fish were slightly larger at 15-30 pounds with a few fish pushing 40 pounds. To the south of the Cape and to the south of the San Jaime Bank the fish were footballs for the most part with an occasional fish pushing the 25-pound mark. The best action was had with smaller feathers with squid colors as these fish are just stuffed with 4-5 inch squid. Having all the rods go off at the same time was not unusual, but it did take time to get out there and back.
DORADO: There have been a few fish found this week, but no large numbers like a few boats had the week prior. Most of these fish have been found in the warm water to the south and west and have averaged 15 pounds.
WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo this week but I did see several flags flying along with Tuna and Dorado flags so I assume there were some of them caught offshore.
INSHORE: The inshore fishing remained hot this week with large numbers of Sierra and smaller Yellowtail providing plenty of action on both sides of the Cape. Smaller swimming plugs pulled just outside the breaking waves provided lots of action on Sierra to 8 pounds and Yellowtail to 10 pounds. Fishing slow trolled live Mackerel down close to the bottom in 50 feet of water caught fewer, but much larger fish, up to 10 pounds on the Sierra and 35 pounds on the Yellowtail. A few very nice Grouper and Snapper fell to these same methods. Just off the rocky points there was great action on the Bonita to 20 pounds and they bit well on blue-silver irons fished yo-yo style. An occasional big Yellowtail was an added bonus for many anglers.
NOTES: Things continue to improve and I am optimistic it will continue. Now, if only my golf game would hit the next level! This weeks report was written to the music of Alison Krauss + Union Station on the 2002 Rounder records release “Live”. |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 66
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 03, 2008 - 7:05 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Feb 25-March 2, 2008
WEATHER: It warmed up a bit this past week with several days where our highs were in the mid to high 80’s. On the cooler days we were in the high 70’s, still just about right. In the evening it cooled off quite a bit and on the cold nights we were seeing temperatures in the mid 60’s with a bit of an evening breeze working that made it feel even cooler. There were partly cloudy skies for the first part of the week but it cleared later on. There was no rain, of course.
WATER: I fished both sides of the cape this week, on the Cortez side on Wednesday and the Pacific on Friday and they were surprisingly similar as far as surface conditions went. On the Cortez side the water was cool and green out as far as the 95 spot and the 1150, past that point and out to the Cabrilla Seamount things warmed up to 73.4 degrees and were nice and blue. The only problem we had was the fact that we could not find any fish! The surface was almost glassy with current rips easily seen and the swells slight at 1-2 feet but all we ended up with was seeing some common Pacific Dolphin, a few Humpback Whales and two Striped Marlin on the surface. Oh, we did release on 3-pound Dorado. On the Pacific side on Friday the water within three miles of the coast was a bit bumpy and there was a strong cloud line out 15 miles. We went 31 miles out looking for Tuna and other than the first three miles, the swells were slight at 2-4 feet and the water was glassy, almost summer time like. The water was a slight bit cooler at 71 degrees but we did find football-size Tuna to 25 pounds.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price. There were Sardinas up around Chileno Bay at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There was a bit of Striped Marlin action almost every morning for boats the fished the area off of Los Arcos on the Pacific side, but it revolved around the tide change and did not last long on any one day. The lucky boats were getting two releases a day while most others were lucky to get a strike. The nice part of the billfish situation is that the Swordfish are starting to be seen on the surface on a fairly regular basis, and by that I mean regular when compared to normal! Probably one in 15 boats have sighted a Swordfish this week and one boat I know saw three different fish on Tuesday and managed to find one of them hungry, proceeding to catch a Swordfish in the 150-pound class after a fight of 90 minutes.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There are finally Tuna showing up on a regular basis even if they are football size fish. From a distance of 30 to 45 miles at between 150 and 240 degrees from the Arch there have been fish found every day. A few small groups have been found closer but they have not been biting well. On my Friday trip we went 31 miles at 230 degrees to find two separate pods of Dolphin. Both of them held fish with the first pod having fish averaging 20 pounds and the second pod averaging 10 pounds. A triple strike, then the fish in the first pod went down. At the second pod we were covered up with all five lines going off, then a double, then singles for a total of 16 Tuna at the end of the trip with the larges at 25 pounds. A friend of mine found fish at 170 degrees and 45 miles on Wednesday that averaged 25 pounds and picked 16 of them in about an hour before having to return to port
DORADO: The warm water on the Cortez side produced a few Dorado this week but other than one day, Tuesday when a pair of boats found a dead seal and loaded up on 15-pound fish, they have been scarce with just a few fish showing up.
WAHOO: I did hear of one nice Wahoo being caught this week about 35 miles to the south by a boat looking for Tuna. The fish was reported to weigh around 90 pounds. I am sure there were a few others caught, and on Wednesday we had one make a pass at one of our lures, but I had no other confirmed reports of them.
INSHORE: The inshore fishing has remained good for Sierra and Yellowtail. Most of the Yellowtail have been caught by boats fishing swimming plugs for Sierra and these fish have been small, but boats willing to do the work and drift live baits deep off of the rocky points or use iron jigs to “yo-yo” have been getting a few nice fish of up to 30 pounds. The Grouper have started to bite a little better and there are still a few snapper being found in the rocks.
NOTES: Things are starting to look up on the fishing front here in Cabo as we are starting to see some Tuna showing up and the inshore fishing remains good. Our fingers are crossed that things continue to remain on a positive track. My golf game is improving as well; I am now consistently getting under 100 strokes! This weeks report has been written to the music of the Gypsy Kings on the 1995 Nonsuch Records release “The Best Of The Gypsy Kings”. |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 65
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 25, 2008 - 8:02 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Feb 18-24, 2008
WEATHER: We had a few clouds in the sky this week, but not enough to call it cloudy, just enough to make things cool. Our daytime highs were in the low 80’s and the nighttime lows were in the high 50’s. Light winds on shore kept things nice and comfortable while at sea on the Pacific side things were a little bumpy as the winds were from the northwest and kicked up a light chop.
WATER: The wind died down this week so surface conditions were much better on both the Pacific and the Cortez sides of the Cape. On the Pacific swells were 3-5 feet with a light chop while the Cortez had swells at 1-3 feet with almost no chop in the morning and offshore chop in the afternoons. Water temperatures on the Pacific side were warmer, almost averaging 68 degrees up to 10 miles offshore and out a bit farther it dropped to 67 degrees. The water close to shore, in the warmer area, was very green, almost brown in some areas. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water was 64-65 degrees out to 4 miles from the shore and farther than that, across the Gorda Bank and the 1150 spot the water warmed up to 69 degrees. There is a plume of cool, off-colored water running south from the Cape, but the water out 5 miles to the south side of the 1,000-fathom line warmed to 71 degrees. While the warm water was on both sides of the Cape, the only really blue water was on the Pacific side out past the San Jaime Bank.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price. There were Sardinas up around Chileno Bay at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: About the only thing I have to say for the past weeks bill fishing is that it was almost non-existent. Not that there weren’t people out trying, it’s just that the few fish that were found were not interested in eating. The full moon may have had something to do with it perhaps, it’s been know to have an effect, but it’s not really an explanation of why the fish have mostly disappeared. Perhaps the much cooler than normal water has something to do with it as well? One bright spot is that the green, cool water has brought about more sightings of Swordfish, but I have not heard of anyone actually hooking one up in a legal sort of way, but a few guys did hook fish by snagging them, then proceeded to loose them after several hours of fighting time. These Swordfish have been seen in the cool water plume running directly south from the Cape.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: No change this week from last week on the Tuna situation. There are still only football fish being found out there, and most of them have been between 18 to 30 miles to the south. Boats working westward past the banks were not doing well with only an occasional pod of porpoise showing, and few of them holding fish. Once again red hootchies were the best bet for these fish as most of the stomach contents were found to be red crab.
DORADO: I did not hear of any Dorado being caught this week, and saw no new yellow flags flying. I am sure there were a few, but no reports were heard by me.
WAHOO: Once again I didn’t hear of any Wahoo this week. The flags you see flying are for “Mexican Wahoo”, or better known as sierra.
INSHORE: Just like last week, with the exception of more small Yellowtail being caught by guys pulling small swimming plugs for Sierra. Mexican Wahoo, also known as Sierra, have been the mainstay of the Panga fleet this week with most boats able to get at least a half-dozen or more. Yellowtail action dropped off again, it seems to be a “good one week, slow the next” type of fishery. Snapper fishing has again improved and there are a few more grouper being found by those targeting bottom fish. The usual smaller Roosterfish to 5 pounds, some small barracuda and Bonita have rounded out the catches inshore.
NOTES: Well, the nice weather continued for this past week as we had hoped, but the fishing has been very “off”, compared to the usual activity we get this time of year. The best bet has been fishing inshore; a lot of trips have been saved by targeting Sierra after six hours of looking for Marlin and Tuna. Fishing inshore also gets you up close to the whales, and that is always a lot of fun. This weeks report was written to the music of Boz Scaggs on his 1994 Virgin Records release, “Some Changes”. Until next week, Tight Lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Feb 11-17, 2008
WEATHER: We had partly cloudy skies early in the week, then things cleared up at the weekend and it was bright and sunny. We also had quite a bit of wind from the northwest up until the weekend; it then died down here in town. There was no rain associated with the early week cloudy conditions.
WATER: Surface conditions on the Pacific side of the Cape were rougher than they had been last week due to the continuing wind. Choppy seas, running at 4-6 feet with 12-15 knots on top made for unstable footing and a lot of spray and pounding while running to and from the banks. On the Sea of Cortez the surface conditions were much better, but there were few boats fishing the area due to green, cold water. With the surface temperatures at 67-69 degrees all the way up to Punta Gorda, and down to 64 degrees north of there, the fishing was not very good. On the Pacific side things were warmer and the water a bit clearer, but the cool water seems to be working its way toward us there as well. There remains a plume of warm 71 degree water running from across the Golden Gate bank to three miles outside the lighthouse as well as an area on the western edge of the San Jaime bank that is as warm, but the warm water seems to be receding southward.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price. There were Sardinas up around Chileno Bay at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Striped Marlin have continued to remain scarce with the only concentration found atop the Golden Gate Bank, and there were not many of them willing to eat. Most boats fished the bank with slow drifted live Mackerel caught on the site and felt they were doing well with a couple of Marlin bites and possibly one or two releases. Boats using smaller diameter floura-carbon leader with circle hooks were having better luck than others with most of them able to get up to a half-dozen bites a day for up to that many releases. Running to feeding Marlin, marked by the diving birds, was not as productive as the fish did not stay up long. On Saturday and Sunday there were up to 60 boats working the bank with most of them only getting one or two bites, and almost all of them having sick anglers on board due to the surface conditions.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There are still only football fish being found out there, and most of them have been between 18 to 30 miles to the south. Boats working westward past the banks were not doing well with only an occasional pod of porpoise showing, and few of them holding fish. Once again red hootchies were the best bet for these fish as most of the stomach contents were found to be red crab.
DORADO: I did not see any Dorado myself, but I did overhear one conversation concerning a decent catch made by a boat that found a piece of wood in the water 30 miles to the south, and they were apparently able to pick off 5 fish between 15-20 pounds.
WAHOO: Once again I didn’t hear of any Wahoo this week. The flags you see flying are for “Mexican Wahoo”, or better known as sierra.
INSHORE: Mexican Wahoo, also known as Sierra, have been the mainstay of the Panga fleet this week with most boats able to get at least a half-dozen or more. Yellowtail action dropped off again, it seems to be a “good one week, slow the next” type of fishery. Snapper fishing has again improved and there are a few more grouper being found by those targeting bottom fish. The usual smaller Roosterfish to 5 pounds, some small barracuda and Bonita have rounded out the catches inshore.
NOTES: Still lots of whales out there, everyone is seeing them during the fishing charters. There are also quite a few small Mako Sharks being caught at the Golden Gate Bank, but I have not heard of any large ones. This weeks report was written to the music of “Mighty Lester” on their 2006 release “We are Mighty Lester”, released by themselves, some really swinging blues! Until next week, keep your fingers crossed that the fishing picks up and the nice weather continues! Tight Lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 63
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Feb 4-10, 2008
WEATHER: It felt like winter this week even though it never got below 56 degrees. Maybe it’s just that I am used to the warm weather now. Our lows, alt least the lowest I saw, was 58 degrees, but with a bit of wind on it, it felt colder. Our daytime highs were in the high 70’s and most of the week we had partly cloudy skies most of the week. On the 9th the skies actually cleared enough for the sea-surface temp charts to come through on the Terrafin web site.
WATER: I did not see anything warmer than 70 degrees this week, and most of that was a plume coming up from the south and running from 20 miles due south to the southern end of the San Jaime Bank. Inside that band it dropped to 67 and 67 degrees. On the Cortez side of the Cape it was a consistent 68 degrees until you got past the Punta Gorda area, and then it dropped to a very cool 63 and 64 degrees. The surface conditions were great with small swells from the Northwest on the Pacific side and almost pool-table smoothness on the Cortez at the end of the week.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price. There were Sardinas up around Chileno Bay at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Boats looking for Marlin were really having to scratch for them this week, and I mean that they were difficult to get to bite, not that they were hard to find. Some boats working deep bait on the Golden Gate Bank had luck, but it was not steady by any means. There were also some hungry fish found close to shore, within two miles, along the points on the Pacific side. Boats venturing farther offshore were seeing quite a few fish in small groups of two or three at a time, but they had lockjaw and most refused to bite. As an example, a large private yacht that has placed in quite a few tournaments spent 12 hours late in the week fishing for marlin, from 6 am until 6 pm and were only able to find two hungry fish, and that was a double hook-up.
YELLOWFIN TUNA The porpoise are starting to show up in fair numbers but not all the pods have Yellowfin with them. Fishing south of the San Jaime and west of there boats are finding pods of between 20 and several thousand porpoise. There have been Tuna of between 15 and 30 pounds caught among the mammals, but I did not hear of any large ones yet, and a good day so far has been getting eight or ten of these fish to bite. Most boats are having a hard time getting hooked up to them though as they have been feeding fairly heavily on red crab, according to the guys who have opened up the ones they catch. As a result, the small hootchies in red colors have worked best on these smaller Tuna.
DORADO: A few fish now and then, no steady action but the fish that have been taken have been from the warmer water areas.
WAHOO: I didn’t hear of any Wahoo this week. The flags you see flying are for “Mexican wahoo”, or better known as sierra.
INSHORE: Mexican Wahoo, also known as Sierra, have been the mainstay of the Panga fleet this week with most boats able to get at least a half-dozen or more. Yellowtail action is picking up once again with several fish to 40 pounds being boats as well as a few nice grouper to 50 pounds. The usual smaller Roosterfish to 5 pounds, some small barracuda and Bonita have rounded out the catches inshore.
NOTES: Whales, whales, whales and porpoise, there have been plenty of these out there for anglers that get bored of not catching fish this week. Well, for some of them at least! I am taking off for L.A. to re-new my Captains License and will be coming back in the middle of the week, maybe fishing will have gotten better by then! Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 62
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 04, 2008 - 9:05 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Jan. 29-Feb 4, 2008
WEATHER: We finally had a couple of days where the sun actually shined all day long. The middle of the week was special, no clouds and it warmed up a bit. Our morning lows have been around the low 60’s to high 50’s, colder when there were no clouds. The highs for the days have been between the low and high 70’s with one day where it reached 82 degrees here at the house. Cloudy early in the week and at the end of the week.
WATER: Surface conditions on both sides of the Cape were good this week with slight swells and only light winds. On the Pacific side the water temperatures were in the 70-71 degree range with a light tinge of green to them while on the Cortez side the water was about a degree or two warmer and clearer. Due south at a distance of 20 miles the water warmed up to 74 degrees and became blue.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price. There were Sardinas up around Chileno Bay at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite remained slow, the concentrations of fish have moved and no one has been able to find them yet. Well, except for one day early in the week when only 10 boats were at the Golden Gate Bank and the Marlin re-appeared for the day. The action was pretty good on Monday and the top boats released double-digit numbers. That shut right back down though, as on Tuesday almost 40 boats worked the bank and there were only about ten fish released. Most boats have been happy to release one or two Marlin per trip and a few lucky (or good) ones have been in the 3 or 4 release range. The bite has been on a mix of live bait and lures with many of the live bait fish coming on deep dropped baits or slow trolled live baits on the Golden Gate Bank.
YELLOWFIN TUNA Well, for most of the boats out there a few football Tuna are all that they have been able to get onto, but every once in a while a larger fish in the 30 –pound range is hooked up. These fish are almost all with Porpoise and there are not many of them found right now. I sure hope things change soon as Tuna are one of our staples this time of year. The area due south to 35 miles has been the best producing, but the action has started to swing into the Sea of Cortez direction, perhaps following the warmer water movement.
DORADO: A few fish now and then, no steady action but the fish that have been taken have been from the warmer water areas.
WAHOO: I have heard of a few boats getting Wahoo in the warm water to the south, but there has been no numbers, just a fish now and then in the 40-pound class.
INSHORE: Sierra, small Roosterfish, Ladyfish, Snapper and some Bonita have been the inshore production this week. The Sierra bite has been on and off on the Pacific side but the best results have been while using Sardinas as bait. Snapper are being found in the rocks, I mean right up in there, and a lot of them are being lost due to that fact.
NOTES: There are more whales showing up, I had a good time watching them while sitting in the Cost-Co parking lot waiting for my wife yesterday! The Humboldt Squid are still around feeding on the red crabs and Swordfish are still being sighted, but I didn’t hear of anyone catching on this week. Until next week, Tight Lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 61
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 28, 2008 - 7:54 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Jan. 23-29, 2008
WEATHER: It has been cloudy most of the week so sun seekers were not very happy; I saw a lot of folks that were very burned, thinking that the clouds were stopping the tanning rays. Oh well, at least the clouds helped hold the warmth in and we didn’t see temperatures lower than the mid 60’s at night. At the end of the week early I the morning it was 69 at our house. Daytime highs were around the low to mid 80’s, warm enough that I had no need of a sweater most of the time. With all the clouds I thought that we were going to get some rain but all that happened was a bit of spit, you know, the kind that just dots the dusty windshield on the car? That was early in the week on Tuesday, and it was probably my fault as I had just washed the Jeep when it started.
WATER: There did not appear to be any real change in the water conditions from the week before. The cloud cover made it almost impossible to get an updated sea surface shot from space so reliance on the boats that were fishing was very strong. It appears that the water within 5 miles of the beach on the Pacific side up to just past the Golden Gate Bank remained warmer than that farther offshore and was a nice blue color as well. On the Golden Gate and the San Jaime Bank the water was off color green and quite a bit cooler at 70 degrees and lower. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water was green and off-colored everywhere and the area off of Punta Gorda was reported as almost a brown color by some boats. To the immediate south on an east-west line across the arch the water warmed up and blued up. As you reached 8 miles to the south the temperature rose to 74 degrees. Surface conditions across the area were good since this cloud cover arrived without any wind. Some swells on the Pacific side with a light ripple on top most of the time, but on the Cortez side up past Punta Gorda the wind started howling.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price. There were Sardinas up around Chileno Bay at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite remained off for another week for most of the boats. The fish were found on the Pacific side and to the south but while there were a lot of fish seen on the surface, not many of them were hungry. A few, very few, boats managed to come in with between three and five Marlin flags flying, but most boats were feeling lucky if they were able to get a couple of fish to eat and get one to the boat for a release. The big new for the week is the appearance of some Swordfish. This week several of these fish were spotted on the surface and at least two that I know of were hooked. One was hooked on a live Mackerel while fishing 23 miles to the south and was fought for six hours before the 100-pound leader parted. The Captain estimated to fish at over #300! It’s tough to get a fish like that on Striped Marlin gear!
YELLOWFIN TUNA I overheard a conversation about a private boat being hooked up on a very big Yellowfin just off the Golden Gate Bank on Saturday, and then nothing else. I know a few boats have been having a little luck on fish in the 30-pound class out past the San Jaime Bank, but it has been very inconsistent. The same has been the case on the football sized fish, they have been out there but the bite has been slow, a few fish have been the average with a few boats able to get into double digits.
DORADO: Once again there have been a few fish caught, one or two here and there, but no large numbers have been reported. The best area has been the warm water to the south.
WAHOO: Inconsistent, but there have been some quality fish out there. One boat caught two of them between 80-100 pounds in the warm water 20 miles south and a few other smaller ones were reported from the same area.
INSHORE: The Sierra action picked back up on the Pacific side as schools of fish to 10 pounds have moved in off of the beaches and rocky points to the north of the lighthouse. Double-digit catches were not a problem. Either whole Mackerel rigged with a stinger hook I the tail or large Sardines were needed for the larger fish, hootchies and plugs did not work on fish over six pounds. Off of the Rocky points Snapper have begun to show, it is time for the normal spring spawning groups to begin gathering. A few Yellowtail continue to be caught but the numbers have really dropped off over the past several weeks.
NOTES: There were acres of Humboldt Squid reported on the surface feeding on red crab this week, and this may have been a contributing factor in the Swordfish being seen. There are still whales out there and the numbers seem to be increasing. This weeks report was written to the guitar of Marshall Crenshaw on the 1989 Warner release “Good Evening”, great stuff! Until next week, Tight Lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 60
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 21, 2008 - 7:30 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Jan. 8-21, 2008
WEATHER: For the past two weeks our cool wintertime conditions have continued. Our nighttime lows have been down in the mid 50’s while the daytime highs have reached the high 70’s but have mostly been in the mid to low 70’s. As of the end of this week the skies have been only partly cloudy and we have had no rain. It has become windy in the afternoons but the mornings have been calm for the most part.
WATER: The water close to the beach on the Pacific side has remained warmer than most of the area with an average temperature of 71 degrees out to a distance of three-four miles from the beach at the inside of the Golden Gate Bank area. This warm water extends to the southwest across the San Jaime Bank and then in a thumb-shaped are with the tip 15 miles south of Cabo it warms to 73-74 degrees. The 71-degree water extends into the Sea of Cortez across the 95 Spot but stops short of the 1150. Water outside of this range on both sides of the Cape drops in temperature to the mid and high 60’s. At the end of this week, there was cold and dirty water across the Golden Gate Bank, the Finger Bank and the 1150 and Gorda Banks. The area inshore between Cabo and Punta Gorda was reported as being very dirty and green.
BAIT: Today is the full moon and as usual, as the full moon approaches the number of Caballito available for bait has fallen off. There are still plenty of Mackerel however and all these larger baits are at the normal $2 per bait. I have been told that there were no Sardinas available due to dirty water conditions up in the San Jose area.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite has dropped off quite a bit over the past week and instead of boats coming in with double digit numbers of flags, the high catch boats were getting four or five fish. Most boats were happy to get one or two releases and many were happy just to get a shot at a fish. One of the reasons may have to do with the temperature and clarity of the water in most areas, but the moon phase may have had an effect as well. Most of the Striped Marlin action was taking place between the San Jaime Bank and the 95 Spot and areas to the south of there, down in that warmer water area I mentioned earlier. I also heard form a Captain on a fleet boat that they hooked up a Blue Marlin earlier this week for a short while down in that warmer water, but the fish came off after the first run.
YELLOWFIN TUNA The Yellowfin Tuna that I have heard about have all been from the San Jaime area and for the most part have been football sized fish in the 10 pound range, found mixed in with porpoise. There have been a few fish to 40 pounds mixed in with them as well, but the numbers have been low. I have also hear unconfirmed reports of some nice sized fish being found occasionally 40-50 miles to the south of us. These fish have also been mixed in with porpoise and are reported to be in the 50-60 pound class. As far as I am aware no one has yet gotten into any concentrations of #100 + fish in the past two weeks, but we are hoping that it happens soon.
DORADO: The cool water of the past month has really slowed down the Dorado bite as they move south into warmer water. A few fish have been caught every day and for the most part they have been either just off the beach on the Pacific side or in the warmer water due south. The average size has been around 12 pounds with a few fish in the 25-pound class, but most of them are average size. The number of fish per boat is much lower as well, with an average catch of .3 fish per day, or 1 fish per three days of effort. I expect the Dorado to almost disappear as the water continues to cool.
WAHOO: As the full moon approached there were a few Wahoo caught, and there will probably be a few more on the waning side of the moon as well, but they have been incidental fish caught in the open water due south. Wahoo like warm water and just like the Dorado; there are fewer of them around right now than there were earlier in the season. The fish that were caught averaged 40 pounds and were caught on dark colored Marlin lures.
INSHORE: The Yellowtail bite dropped off as the water on the Cortez side of the Cape became dirty. A few have been caught on the Pacific side off of the rocky points on live bait dropped to about 250 feet, but there has been no consistent bite on them. The Sierra bite has slowed down as well with most boats getting only a half-dozen or so per trip. The Pargo are starting to show among the rocks on the Pacific side, and hopefully action on them will improve this coming week as the moon starts to wane.
NOTES: The fishing really slowed down the past two weeks as the water cooled off. Hopefully the Yellowfin will show in force and give us some alternative action, they are overdue based on the past six years catch records. On the positive side, the water conditions have been pretty good! This weeks report was written to the music of Mark Knopfler on his new solo release “Kill To Get Crimson”, a melancholy set of songs, sort of like the fishing the past two weeks! I just returned from visiting my father in Oklahoma City, his birthday was Saturday and it was nice seeing him for his 71st! Happy birthday dad! So, for those of you who were wondering why there was no report last week, now you know! Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Username: Captg
Post Number: 59
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 07, 2008 - 6:44 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Jan. 1-7, 2008
WEATHER: Here at the end of the week we are in a wintertime heat wave as our morning temperatures have been in the high 60’s for the past four days and the daytime highs have been in the mid 80’s. The skies have been clear and there has been no rain.
WATER: On the Sea of Cortez from a line due east of Cabo and north of that line the water was green and cold with the water at 71 degrees and dropping down to 69 degrees off of Punta Gorda. All the banks on the Pacific side, the Finger, Golden Gate and the San Jaime, had water at 73-75 degrees and the water was considerably cleaner. The 95 Spot, 1150 and the Cabrillo Seamount were on the line and for the most part saw the warmer, cleaner water. Surface conditions were good all week long close to home. There was an occasional day of breezy conditions on the Pacific but nothing too uncomfortable. Up on the Sea of Cortez, once you went north of the Punta Gorda area the northerly winds made fishing very uncomfortable.
BAIT: Just like last week, the bait was mostly Mackerel but there were a few Caballito in the mix. These larger baits were the normal $2 per bait. Up in San Jose there were Sardinas available at $25 a scoop, but they were tiny ones with the biggest only 2 inches, better for chum that as bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Striped Marlin were the fish of the week, no doubt about that. Almost every boat that went out caught at least one, and if they wanted to work at it a little bit there was no problem getting into double digit numbers. The great thing about it was you did not have to go far for them. If you wanted to burn the fuel the water allowed a trip to the Finger Bank, and there were still great concentrations of fish there, but closer to home you did almost as well and did not spend so much time in transit. Most boats did just fine drifting live bait but I always like it better when the fish appear in the lure pattern and you get to drop back a rigged bait and see them eat it. We had several clients this week that did just that, only they dropped back a streamer on a fly rod and hooked up!
YELLOWFIN TUNA We still have not seen any solid concentrations of Yellowfin this season. Once in a while a boat will find a school with porpoise but they have been few and far between, and the size of fish has been lacking, most of them have been football fish. They have mostly been found on the Pacific side outside the banks, but a few schools were reported within a mile or two of the coast on that side as well.
DORADO: I saw a few more Dorado flags this week than last week and we are hoping that the water stays clean and above 70 degrees for a while longer, maybe we will continue to find them. I had a friend get two fish in the 30-pound class early in the week up past the Golden Gate Bank, and there are still scattered fish in the 10-15 pound class being caught close to the beach on the Pacific.
WAHOO: I did not hear of any concentrations of Wahoo this reporting period but I did see one of about 70 pounds being wheeled along the Marina in a cooler, a really nice fish!
INSHORE: There was no change in the inshore report for this report period. Sierra were the fish of the week for the inshore fishermen and they were consistently on the feed off of the Solmar-Finesterra beach early in the morning. They seemed to move up to the north later in the day. Yellowtail continued to produce scattered action off of the rocky points on the Cortez side with some decent fish being taken off of Gray Rock and the drop at Chileno.
NOTES: We are seeing more whales every week. The weather has been great, my golf game is sadly lacking consistency and my ears had a treat as I wrote this report while listening to some cuts from the CD collection “Watching the Dark, the history of Richard Thompson”, a 1993 release by RYKODISC. Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Username: Captg
Post Number: 58
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 31, 2007 - 8:28 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Dec. 17-31, 2007
WEATHER: Wintertime in Los Cabos still beats wintertime anywhere to the north of us! Sorry about the one-week no-report zone, I have only missed three reports in 6 years but I am in a transition time, job hunting, Christmas, mom visiting and football play-offs, just too much going on for the last couple of weeks. Anyway, no snow for us in Cabo, things did remain cool however and I felt like it was going to snow on a few mornings when the lows hit the mid 50’s. At least we warmed up to the high 70’s on those days. We did get a bit of cloud cover just at the beginning of this report but now at the end of the year the skies are clear and there is nothing appearing on the horizon.
WATER: On the Pacific side the water has been much warmer with 71-74 degree and fairly blue water. The warmer water at the end of this reporting time was closer to shore and between the San Jaime Bank and us and in a long plume running directly south of the bank. On the Cortez side the water was warm as far as east to the 1150 spot, but became much cooler, down to 67 degrees at the Cabrillo Seamount, cooler and much more green, almost a pea-soup green in places just to the east of the 1150 and along that small temperature break.
BAIT: Bait was mostly Mackerel these past couple of weeks but there were a few Caballito in the mix. These larger baits were the normal $2 per bait. Up in San Jose there were Sardinas available at $25 a scoop, but they were tiny ones with the biggest only 2 inches, better for chum that as bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: As we expected to happen, the Striped Marlin have started to move our way. The bait moved south and the Marlin followed. The bite is still very good at the Finger Bank but there was no need to go that far. At the end of this reporting period there was an excellent bite going on at the San Jaime Bank on fish in the 100-120 pound class with a lot of boats releasing up to 20 Marlin a day. There was great activity on the Golden Gate as well, but there were a few days right around Christmas when the fish moved off of the Bank and the boats really had to search hard to find them. As well as the Golden and the Jaime Banks, there are good concentrations of Striped Marlin appearing off of the points and ledges just off of the beach. With just a hint of wind there are good numbers of tailing fish to be found close to shore in the afternoon. Almost all these fish are feeding on small Mackerel and slow trolling or drifting with these live baits has resulted in the best catches. It is more exciting to run in to bait balls popping up to the surface, but it was not needed in order to catch fish. A few boats were not able or not interested in catching Marlin however and directed their attentions elsewhere, and reported a distinct lack of Marlin anywhere else. Boats going up toward the Vinorama and Punta Gorda area on the Cortez side reported very green water and only a couple of Marlin sighted.
YELLOWFIN TUNA Once again at the end of this reporting period the football size Yellowfin were reported appearing up outside of San Jose, but the bite was sporadic, the size of available Sardines apparently had a strong effect on the bite. There were fish in the 15-20 pound class reported from the south side of the San Jaime Banks mixed in with pods of Porpoise but the moved around fast. A few boats going north on the Pacific side toward the Finger Bank reported fish in the 80 pound class but they were scattered out and the boats had a difficult time getting bit on these fish.
DORADO: Once again there were a few Dorado found but for the most part these were small fish, less than 15 pounds. A few boats caught one or two fish, most boats had none. The fish that were caught were found in the warmer water on the Pacific side and were caught on live Mackerel with a couple coming on bright colored lures.
WAHOO: I saw no Wahoo flags this week that were for Wahoo, I did see quite a few that were flown for Sierra.
INSHORE: There was no change in the inshore report for this report period. Sierra were the fish of the week for the inshore fishermen and they were consistently on the feed off of the Solmar-Finesterra beach early in the morning. They seemed to move up to the north later in the day. Yellowtail continued to produce scattered action off of the rocky points on the Cortez side with some decent fish being taken off of Gray Rock and the drop at Chileno.
NOTES: There are whales out there so be careful early in the mornings. Quite a few Makos (small ones) have been seen and caught at the Golden Gate Bank, averaging 30 pounds. Santa was nice to me this year; I must have been a good boy. No complaints but I am looking for a new boat to captain. This report was written to a variety of music from my collection so I don’t get into a rut! Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 57
Registered: 8-2006
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Dec. 10-16, 2007
WEATHER: We are keeping true to having rain at least once a week again as the week started out with quite the lightning storm on Monday morning. I thought that we might just have a lot of noise and then the rain let loose on us. Not quite gully-washers but scattered times with real heavy downpours for about ten minutes at a time. It was heavy enough to wash a lot of dirt into the roads, later in the week it was dusty in town as things dried off. We had partly sunny skies for the rest of the week, enough cloud cover to keep the warm air trapped so out nighttime lows didn’t get lower than the low 60’s and the daytime highs were in the low 80’s.
WATER: Surface conditions were good except for the start of the week. The lightning and rain worked the sea on the Pacific side up pretty good, lots of wind to go with the rain. A few days later it was great everywhere. The water within 15 miles of the cape has been a steady 74 degrees. Farther offshore on the Pacific, past the Golden Gate and the San Jaime Banks, it dropped to 69 degrees. On the Cortez side offshore it was 72 degrees, but close in it was 74 degrees. Water color has remained a decent blue across the Banks on the Pacific side, the warm water closer to home has been a bit off-color, and up around the Punta Gorda area the water had a strong greenish tinge.
BAIT: Once again there was a pretty good mix of bait with both Mackerel and Caballito available. The Mackerel were large ones and many boats opted to catch their own smaller ones if they were going to be fishing the banks on the Pacific side. The prices from the bait boats remained the same at $2 per bait. Sardinas were available later in the week from bait boast up in the Palmilla area at the usual $25 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite has remained wide open on the Finger Bank on the Pacific side, but it is such a long run for the fleet boats that very few have been going. The average there has been in the double-digit area in numbers of releases. The bite that had been happening on the Golden Gate dropped off to practically a standstill as the bait moved off the bank and in toward shore. The fish moved with them and now the close to home bite is within three miles of the beach on the Pacific side and extending down to just outside the lighthouse. Slow trolled or drifted live baits have been the best producer but a lot of luck is being had by boats pulling lures as well, dropping back live bait to fish that appear in the spread. One of the problems we see occasionally is lots of fish on the surface that don’t want to eat, and one way to get them excited is to troll lures at a faster speed. A few boats had luck doing that during the middle of the week, finding that lures pulled at ten and eleven knots got those fish to bite.
YELLOWFIN TUNA A scattering of football fish showed up again just to the north of the Gorda Banks on the Cortez side of the cape but there were also scattered fish on the Pacific, just no big numbers or consistently large sizes yet. The football Yellowfin were 10-15 pounds with an occasional 20-pound fish and Sardinas were the way to go. Chumming heavily with both live and dead Sardinas would bring the fish up, then a live one pinned on a small #2 silver hook on 20-pound floura-carbon leader would get bit quickly, heavier leader did not produce as well.
DORADO: There were a few scattered fish, but the numbers were smaller than last week. As the water cools these will become an exception in the catch rather than a targeted fish. Most of the ones that were found were on the Sea of Cortez up around the Punta Gorda area, but a few fish shoed up in the warm water on the Pacific as well. The best lures were smaller ones in bright colors, bright feathers worked for many boats. Small Dorado were found mixed with the football Tuna as well and readily ate Sardinas presented for Tuna.
WAHOO: I saw no Wahoo flags this week that were for Wahoo, I did see quite a few that were flown for Sierra.
INSHORE: Sierra were the fish of the week for the inshore fishermen and they were consistently on the feed off of the Solmar-Finesterra beach early in the morning. They seemed to move up to the north later in the day. Yellowtail continued to produce scattered action off of the rocky points on the Cortez side with some decent fish being taken off of Gray Rock and the drop at Chileno.
NOTES: The air temperature continues to slowly drop and I have started to wear a jacket in the evenings and the mornings, now I am starting to think about long pants as well. Slippers in the house to keep my toes warm too! It is cool to me but then I have lived in the tropics for the past 22 years, most of you would consider it balmy here. This weeks report was written while listening to selections from several different albums by one of my favorite musicians, Marl Knopfler. Until next week, have a great Christmas and I hope Santa keeps your line tight! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 56
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 10, 2007 - 9:34 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Dec. 3-9, 2007
WEATHER: We had rain every week at the beginning of this year and it is starting to look like we will have it every week at the end of the year as well. Our week ended with cloudy skies and one of those beautiful light, soaking rains that are so good for the plants here in the desert. It was actually cloudy for most of the week and that kept the temperatures perfect, with our nighttime lows around 64 degrees and our daytime highs in the high 70’s. It appears that we are at the end of a band of clouds and rain moving up to the northeast and there is a small circulation coming down our direction from the north that will force the remainder of this band of weather to the southeast.
WATER: The cloudy skies this week did not allow very good satellite shots of the sea surface temperature, but what we did get showed what I expected to see, lower temperatures across the region. According to the shots, and from seeing the water first hand on both sides of the cape this week, our average temperature on the Pacific side has dropped to 76 degrees, down from the 77 degrees last week. At the end of the week it was lower due to the heavy cloud cover. On the Cortez side of the cape it seems to have averaged about the same but the warm water extend much farther off shore than the 25-30 miles we saw on the Pacific side. At the end of the week the surface conditions on both sides of the cape were excellent, swells at four to six feet on the Pacific side but spaced very far apart and no wind chop. On the Cortez side the swells were 1-3 feet and far apart with only a light breeze to ruffle the water. The water color almost everywhere you went was tinted green, with a very heavy green cast to it close to shore on the Pacific side.
BAIT: Once again there was a pretty good mix of bait with both Mackerel and Caballito available. The Mackerel were large ones and many boats opted to catch their own smaller ones if they were going to be fishing the banks on the Pacific side. The prices from the bait boats remained the same at $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: This weeks Marlin report is a copy of last weeks report, which was a copy of the week before. What this means is that the Striped Marlin fishery is just wide open right now. Both the Finger Bank and the Golden Gate Bank continued to deliver massive amounts of Striped Marlin. A good day at the Gate resulted in at least two Marlin and some boats were getting seven or eight fish released. I fished it on Thursday and released four fish out of 7 raised, and all of them were either on lures or on bait dropped back to fish raised on lures. We saw no tailing fish but most of the boats were either drifting bait or slow trolling it, and quite a few were in combat mode, running and gunning for feeding marlin when they forced the bait balls to the surface and the birds started diving. A lot of boats tried that, but without a Kevlar armored hull II was not interested. The Finger Bank was a double-digit fishery with everyone making the run and having enough bait being able to hook into as many fish as they could handle. Reports from the mini-WCBRT tournament of 5 boats on the 7th and 8th were a wide open bite with the top angler releasing 59 Striped Marlin in one day out of the reported 190 releases that day for the top boat and 330 releases for them in two days. There were a reported 1,157 Striped Marlin released among the five boats over two days. Now is that wide-open fishing or what? Elsewhere the fish were scattered but still available, we had fish from the Punta Gorda area all the way around the Cape.
YELLOWFIN TUNA The big school of football Yellowfin Tuna we had so much fun with last week moved on and boats returning to the area were lucky to get one fish on Monday. There were still a lot of Bonito and Skipjack to be caught but the good stuff disappeared overnight. They did show up to the inside of the Inner Gorda Bank at the end of the week but in much smaller numbers and you had to work hard and chum heavily to get a bite happening. Once again there were reports of larger fish to the north of us on the Pacific side. A minimum run of 60 miles was required and then you had to keep your fingers crossed, but there were reports of fish in the 150-pound class under porpoise.
DORADO: The cool green water has made catching a Dorado a scarce happening. A few boats are getting multiple fish but most boats are lucky to get one. There was no concentration as the reports were scattered, a few small fish close to shore on the Pacific side in the green water, a few larger fish from the Pacific side banks and a few scattered small fish among the football Tuna on the Cortez side. I think the Dorado bite is pretty much ended for the season, but there will still be a fish found once in a while until the end of the year, and by then the water will be too cold.
WAHOO: Not only did I hear of some decent Wahoo being caught this week, I actually got one of them for my anglers! It was a fish of 42 pounds and we caught it on a dark green/black straight runner off of the short outrigger position while fishing for the Striped Marlin on the Golden Gate Bank. I heard other boats talking over the radio this week and they were reporting an occasional fish as well. A few fish were also caught up around the Punta Gorda area.
INSHORE: With the cool water come the Sierra and Yellowtail and both of them were present this week. Pangas were working just off the beach from the Arch to the lighthouse on the Pacific side and having great luck with Sierra ranging in size from 2 to 6 pounds. Yellowtail were found off of the rocky points. Boats fishing with live bait off of the arch ended up feeding the sea lions more often than getting their fish in the boat as the creatures were voracious and would not go away. Hey, with all that food swimming around so close, who can blame them! The few fish from the arch that actually were brought into the boat were caught on heavier gear while fishing with Rapallas.
Notes: Things are really going to get green around here because of the rain we have been getting, so instead of a white Christmas we will have a green one! Of course one of the problems with getting this kind of rain is it brings on those big bumbling flies, the ones that are almost too big to fly. The Whales are still out there every trip and that is a great thing to see. The Seahawks won again and that was a great thing to see! I played the 2 CD’s from the “Alison Krauss + Union Station Live”, 2002 Rounder records release while writing this report and that was a great thing to hear! Until next week, I hope great things happen to you and your line stays tight! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 55
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 03, 2007 - 8:32 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Nov. 26- Dec. 2, 2007
WEATHER: This was an interesting week as we actually had some nice rain! A weather system drifted over us from the mainland during the middle of the week and brought cloudy skies and two days of intermittent rain, more than just the usual spit that spots the windshields. This rain came down strong on Friday afternoon but was soft, very little run-off occurred, most of it soaked into the ground, washing everything and making it green again. You know that the plants will stay green for a while now! This system showed up on Wednesday and was preceded by some fairly strong winds but as it settled in over us it became nice again. Our daytime highs were in the mid 80’s and the nighttime lows were in the mid 70’s.
WATER: Water temperatures on both side of the cape out to a distance of about 20 miles remained about 77 degrees. The water up toward the Finger Bank on the Pacific side was cooler, down to about 72 degrees and 20 miles to the south it dropped a bit to around 75 degrees. The winds brought in by the weather system were from the northwest at 15-20 knots and that caused some choppy conditions on the Pacific side. A system far away from us also brought in some swells from the southwest.
BAIT: The large baits this week were a pretty even mix of Mackerel and Caballito. The price was the normal $2 per bait. Very nice Sardinas were available up at the Palmilla point for $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: This weeks Marlin report is a copy of last weeks report. The wind did have an effect on the number of boats that fished the Pacific side however. Both the Finger Bank and the Golden Gate Bank continued to deliver massive amounts of Striped Marlin. There were fewer boats on top of the bank than last week due to the slightly choppy conditions, probably a couple of dozen or so instead of 50 or 60, all either running to the feeders as they popped up or drifting with live baits deep. The bite at the Gate did drop off just a tad at the end of the week but that may have had more to due with the wind than with the numbers of fish. A good day at the Gate resulted in at least two Marlin and some boats were getting seven or eight fish released. The Finger Bank was a double-digit fishery with everyone making the run and having enough bait being able to hook into as many fish as they could handle. Elsewhere the fish were scattered but still available, we had fish from the Punta Gorda area all the way around the Cape, and as the water continues to cool down I expect that the Striped Marlin bite will only get better.
YELLOWFIN TUNA I had a blast with the football sized Yellowfin Tuna (8-15 pounds) that were packed up on the point at Palmilla this week. The action was consistent every day with the fish between 1 and two miles off the beach. Sardinas were the way to go for lots of fish and trolling feathers worked also. We had no problem catching as many as we wanted in a couple of hours and they were a blast on light tackle. As far as larger fish go, there was a report of one boat getting several fish in the 100 pound class, but no one was saying where they were found. Several boats worked the west side to 35 miles and south the same distance and reported that while the water was perfect, there were no signs of life out there. It seams that you had to go up the Pacific quite a way to get into the larger fish, or stay out until the fleet boats were gone for the home-guard fish to come to the surface at the San Jaime and the Golden Gate.
DORADO: The Dorado continue to thin out in numbers but a few boats are still getting into multiple fish days. The key this week was to look for Frigate birds working offshore if you wanted larger fish, and working close to the beach with small lures if you were interested in the smaller size Dorado. A good catch this week would have been three or four fish in the boat, but most boats were happy to get one.
WAHOO: There were fewer Wahoo reported this week, just a few were caught actually and the moon phase probably had everything to do with that. The few fish that were caught were in the 40-pound class and were caught up around the Punta Gorda area, at least the ones I heard of were.
INSHORE: We did have a day in the middle of the week where the Yellowtail showed up strong at the arch and boats were having great action on feathers and live bait, but those fish moved on quickly. There was also good Sierra action off of the lighthouse and the Pedregal beach. Some small Roosterfish were still being caught but I did not hear of any large ones this week. Most of the Pangas worked the football Yellowfin off of Palmilla and fished off the beach for Sierra.
Notes: This report was written to the new Eagles release “Long Road Out Of Eden”, a really great listen! Whales are starting to show up, I am seeing them every trip now. Football season is winding up soon and Christmas is just around the corner, my mom is coming to visit for Christmas so it is time to really clean the house up (boy I hate doing that!). My golf game yesterday was a train-wreck but I think I get a chance to redeem myself on Thursday. Until next week, have a great time and keep thinking of us down here with no snow! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 54
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 7:08 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Nov. 12-18, 2007
WEATHER: Now I remember why we have all the tourists come and visit us this time of year, the weather is great! Our morning pre-sunrise temperature this morning was 70 degrees and at noon we had only 87 degrees, sunny skies and a very light wind here in town. It does not get much better than this. There was no rain this week but we did have the wind pick up a bit at the end of the week, mostly from the northwest.
WATER: The water remained in the 80-83 degree range for another week. The water on the Pacific side was in the 83-degree range across the San Jaime and Golden Gate band and up to the Finger Bank area. Inside close to shore it dropped a degree and farther out it dropped a degree. On the Cortez side the temperature was a pretty constant 82-83 degrees anywhere within range. Later in the week the surface conditions worsened on the Pacific side as the swells kicked up a bit and the wind started to blow, early in the week you could go anywhere at a good speed.
BAIT: Larger baits were a pretty even mix of Caballito and Mackerel at the normal $2 per bait and there were plenty of Sardinas available as well both in Cabo and up in San Jose at $20 a scoop. If you wanted to catch your own bait there were plenty of Mackerel to be found just in front of the lighthouse on the Pacific side in 100 feet of water.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The good news on the Marlin front is that the fish have definitely moved onto the Golden Gate Bank. There are giant bait balls deep over the top of the bank and small broken balls of bait on the surface. Most boats have been having good results by either deep drifting a live Mackerel caught on the spot or running to fish feeding on the surface and tossing bait to them. I think the average per boat was about 5 fish for the day. Boats willing to go the extra distance were still having great fishing up at the Finger Bank, but unless all you wanted was Marlin, the Gate offered a better variety.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were still plenty of football Tuna just at the outer edge of San Lucas bay in water that was 200 feet in depth, just on the edge of the drop. These fish were biting well on Sardines early in the morning and averaged 12 pounds. Later in the day they seemed to stray a bit to the north and small feathers worked better. There were reports of slightly larger fish farther offshore, but the reports of cow Tuna were limited to private boats working the banks far to the north, well outside charter range. Hopefully these fish will come down to our area as the water temperature drops.
DORADO: The Dorado were scattered this week and the best bite remained on the Pacific side just off the beach 20 miles up. Boats that slow trolled live Mackerel did well, averaging 5 fish per boat with an occasional Striped Marlin in the mix. On the Cortez side there was no real concentration of fish except for the Inman Bank area, and even there, there were no large numbers. The fish averaged 12 pounds this week.
WAHOO: There were a few more Wahoo caught this week than last week and most of them were in the 30-pound class. The depths of 100-150 feet just off the beach around rocky points seemed to be holding the most fish, but it was a matter of being there at the right time, and that was unpredictable.
INSHORE: In a repeat of last week, the football size Yellowfin Tuna were the target of most of the Pangas this week, but there were still plenty of Roosterfish to be found on both sides of the Cape. At the end of the week most of the Pangas were fishing on the Cortez side due to the wind.
Notes: This was pretty much a repeat of the last weeks report and action. My only question is, why aren’t you here yet? Until next week, tight lines! (p.s. shot a 99 this morning!) |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 53
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 12, 2007 - 6:46 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Nov. 5-11, 2007
WEATHER: Now I remember why we have all the tourists come and visit us this time of year, the weather is great! Our morning pre-sunrise temperature this morning was 70 degrees and at noon we had only 87 degrees, sunny skies and a very light wind here in town. It does not get much better than this. There was no rain this week but we did have the wind pick up a bit at the end of the week, mostly from the northwest.
WATER: The water remained in the 80-83 degree range for another week. The water on the Pacific side was in the 83-degree range across the San Jaime and Golden Gate band and up to the Finger Bank area. Inside close to shore it dropped a degree and farther out it dropped a degree. On the Cortez side the temperature was a pretty constant 82-83 degrees anywhere within range. Later in the week the surface conditions worsened on the Pacific side as the swells kicked up a bit and the wind started to blow, early in the week you could go anywhere at a good speed.
BAIT: Larger baits were a pretty even mix of Caballito and Mackerel at the normal $2 per bait and there were plenty of Sardinas available as well both in Cabo and up in San Jose at $20 a scoop. If you wanted to catch your own bait there were plenty of Mackerel to be found just in front of the lighthouse on the Pacific side in 100 feet of water.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: This weeks billfish report is almost an exact repeat of last weeks. I had a couple of days where I was able to get to the finger banks to check out the reported Striped Marlin action and found that the reports had not been exaggerated. There were balls of bait everywhere and as soon as you got onto the shallows there were feeding Marlin everywhere you looked. On both trips we ran out of bait quickly and due to time restraints returned to trolling lures. We did not go more than 10 minutes before hooking into singles and doubles. We may have been able to get triple hookups but did not want to put three lines out. There were still Striped Marlin on the Golden Gate bank and toward the shore from there for the boats that were not able to make the long run to the Finger Bank but the conditions were a bit more crowded and the fish a bit more scattered. A few Blue Marlin were reported form the Cortez side of the Cape and I did hear of one nice Black Marlin being caught and released by a boat drifting bait for Striped Marlin and the Golden Gate Bank.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin were the fish of the week as we had the Western Outdoors Tuna Tournament take place on Thursday and Friday. With 127 teams entered as last I heard and there being no mile boundaries, boats were able to range wherever they wanted in order to find Tuna. This worked for at least four boats as there were four Tuna weighed that were over 100 pounds. The largest was #189, the second was #172, the third in the #150 range and the fourth (out of the money) was #135. There were plenty of fish that were over the qualifying weight of 40 pounds but almost all of these school fish were found at least 30 miles out. Closer to home there were plenty of football sized fish to be had just outside Gray Rock and up on the Pacific side just off the beach are by boats chumming with Sardinas and fly-lining live ones on small diameter leader.
DORADO: The Dorado were scattered this week and the best bite remained on the Pacific side just off the beach 20 miles up. Boats that slow trolled live Mackerel did well, averaging 5 fish per boat with an occasional Striped Marlin in the mix. On the Cortez side there was no real concentration of fish except for the Inman Bank area, and even there, there were no large numbers. The fish averaged 12 pounds this week.
WAHOO: The Wahoo bite really dropped off this week but that may have been because most of the boats were concentrating offshore for the Yellowfin. There were still a few of them caught, but there were no concentrations of fish out there.
INSHORE: In a repeat of last week, the football size Yellowfin Tuna were the target of most of the Pangas this week, but there were still plenty of Roosterfish to be found on both sides of the Cape. At the end of the week most of the Pangas were fishing on the Cortez side due to the wind.
Notes: Striped Marlin fishing on the Pacific side ant the Finger Banks was wide open this week, double digit numbers for all boats that were able to make the trip. The wind picked up at the end of the week but is supposed to lay back down on Monday so our fingers are crossed that the fish will remain in the area, or come closer to us. I saw my first Gray Whales of the season on Tuesday, a pair of very large 50’ + animals just off of the lighthouse on the Pacific side. Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Post Number: 52
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 05, 2007 - 7:17 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
October 29-Nov. 4, 2007
WEATHER: Our weather remained beautiful this past week as the daytime highs were in the low 90’s and high 80’s while the nighttime lows were in the low 70’s. At the end of the week we had some wind that made the weather perfect, but chopped up the Pacific side as the wind was from the northwest.
WATER: Water temperatures were from 80-83 degrees pretty much anywhere you went at the end of the week. On the Pacific side this meant out to the San Jaime and on the Cortez side it meant up to the Inman Bank area and out to the Seamount. On the Cortez side this warm water was slightly off-color but better color was found on the Pacific. As the week came to a close the wind picked up from the northwest and the Pacific side became pretty choppy with conditions that were uncomfortable for a lot of folks, seas at 4-6 feet with 15 knots of wind.
BAIT: Larger baits were a pretty even mix of Caballito and Mackerel at the normal $2 per bait and there were plenty of Sardinas available as well both in Cabo and up in San Jose at $20 a scoop. If you wanted to catch your own bait there were plenty of Mackerel to be found just in front of the lighthouse on the Pacific side in 100 feet of water.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There were still Blue Marlin to be had this past week but the big news was the continued Striped Marlin bite. The Golden Gate bank turned back on as the Mackerel moved back on top and boats concentrating their efforts were rewarded with 5-8 releases a day. Drifting or slow trolling live Mackerel worked, as did soaking live bait deep with 8 ounce torpedo sinkers. With the bait pushed up to the surface, running in on the Frigate birds as the suddenly swooped down resulted in a large number of hook-ups as well, but brought some tempers flaring as the speeding boats cut through the crowds drifting. While the action was good there, the beginning of the week brought us reports of wide-open action from the Finger Banks. There were reports of 30-50 fish days but unfortunately (for the fishermen) the winds kicked in and few boats were making the trip due to rough conditions at the end of the week. I hope to get a chance to try it out this coming week as I will be fishing every day, and will head up there if the conditions permit.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were no reports of large Tuna that I heard of this week, but the action on football fish was wide open at the inner Gorda and the Inman Banks during the middle of the week. Chumming with Sardinas and then fly lining live Sardinas on light line had fish coolers being filled during the middle of the week. I was a day late getting in on the bite and when I did get there on Friday it was almost all Green Jacks and Skipjack. That was still fun on light tackle but not what we were looking for. On the way back home we came across a large pod of porpoise that held a lot of fish and ended up getting a dozen of the footballs for the anglers. There were reports of school-sized fish to 35 pounds along the western edge of the San Jaime banks, but the water conditions resulted in few boats trying for them.
DORADO: Early in the week the Dorado bite was wide open on the Pacific side, close to the beach in less than 200 feet on water, past the Golden Gate bank. A dozen or more fish per trip was easy and early in the week the water was great. As things became rough fewer boats were making it up there and closer to home the bite was not quite as good. Boats were still able to get Dorado but it was more on the 2-5 fish per boat level. There were some nice Dorado in the 40-pound class found on the Cortez side of the cape out 4-6 miles off the beach and they seemed to prefer bright colored lures in slightly larger sizes than normal.
WAHOO: My deckhand and I farmed a Wahoo this week, one about 25 pounds and we heard of quite a few other boats getting fish of the same size up in the area where the Dorado were found. Of course there were a lot of bite-offs as well but it did seem that about 10% of the boats managed to hang onto one. As usual, dark colored lures seemed to work better.
INSHORE: The football size Yellowfin Tuna were the target of most of the Pangas this week, but there were still plenty of Roosterfish to be found on both sides of the Cape. At the end of the week most of the Pangas were fishing on the Cortez side due to the wind.
Notes: I am going to be busy fishing this coming week so will have more first-hand experiences for next weeks report. Until then, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 51
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 7:29 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
October 22-28, 2007
WEATHER: This morning when I got up to go to the golf course it was 72 degrees here at the house and 69 degrees at the course. When I got in the truck to leave the course at 11 am it was 98 degrees. I guess that can give you an idea of the weather this week, huh? No rain, clear skies and at the end of the week there was almost no wind.
WATER: The Sea of Cortez was showing a pretty even 85 degrees anywhere within range of a day trip and the surface conditions were excellent at the end of the week. At the beginning of the week the wind was from the north and it was pretty choppy on the outside. The wind and a 2-knot current brought green water to the inside through the middle of the week, conditions improved at the end of the week. On the Pacific side the warm water had pushed well past the San Jaime Bank and across the Golden Gate bank. From the inside of the Golden Gate and up the coast out a distance of about three miles the water remained in the 84-degree range. The only true bleu water I saw this week was outside the 1150 on the Cortez side, elsewhere it was a slightly off color blue.
BAIT: You could get Caballito this week for $2 per bait but by far the quickest selling bait was Sardinas. They were bringing a premium price as all the boats wanted several scoops to use for catching tuna, in turn using the tuna as bait for Marlin during the Bisbee Black and Blue tournament. Because of this, locally the Sardinas were going for about the equivalent of $50 per big scoop, compared to $25 per decent scoop. Boats willing to make the 30-minute run toward San Jose got a better price and better-conditioned bait, a good scoop for $25.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Results form the Bisbee Black and Blue tournament told the true tale this week. With 167 boats fishing for three days there were 6 fish over #300 weighed, the largest of them was #620 and was reported to have been caught out toward the Cabrillo Seamount on the Cortez side of the Cape. Most of the reports called in over the radio were of fish caught either in front of the Cape or over on the Pacific side. I believe that the green colored water close to shore on the Cortez side had a lot of boats fishing the Pacific instead. On the first day all the qualifying fish were reported to have been caught on the Pacific side close to shore. There were plenty of Striped Marlin on the Golden Gate bank for the first two days of the tournament and then the fish closed their mouths and moved on.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: With most of the boats this week focusing on Marlin there were only a few looking for Yellowfin Tuna offshore. There were plenty of small fish, football size caught by boats making bait up on the Pacific side close to shore inside the Golden Gate Bank. The last day of the tournament had a couple of boats reporting hook-up on unidentified fish that ended up being large Yellowfin. These fish were either blind strikes or found with a few black porpoise and were found around the 95 spot, just 8 miles from Cabo.
DORADO: Once again almost all the Dorado action was found on the Pacific side, and the farther north you went the better the bite was. Charters working the inside were getting four to 14 fish per trip and the size averaged 15 pounds with a few fish in the 40+ range being caught as well. Boats working live bait deep found a few nice fish as well on the Cortez side up around the Punta Gorda area, but it was very scattered and there was no consistency to the catch in that area.
WAHOO: I was surprised that there was not more Wahoo reported this week as we just went through the full moon phase, but I only heard a few calls on the radio. With so many boats working close to shore on the Pacific side it just goes to show that there were not that many of these tasty fish around.
INSHORE: A repeat of last week. The inshore Roosterfish bite started up again with most of the fish in the small range at 5-10 pounds but almost everyone that targeted the Roosters were able to release at least one or two in the 30 pound class. Dorado were plentiful just a bit farther off the beach and an average catch consisted of four or five per Panga. Plenty of Bonita and Skipjack with a few football Yellowfin rounded out the inshore fishery.
Notes: The tournaments are over for the month and there is only one more to go. The Tuna tournament is the most fun of the bunch and is in November so we get a short rest. With a couple of weeks with no practice my golf game is really bad. My wife won a free ride at the ”Baja Wide Open” and gave them to my buddy and I. This is an off-road course where you drive a “Baja Buggy”, doing jumps and taking some great s-turns and hairpin turns on a sand track, over hills and down arroyos. It was such a blast! But now my back hurts a bit and that is my excuse for the bad golf game today! If you are interested in the results of the Bisbee Black and Blue tournament go to www.bisbees.com. Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 50
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 22, 2007 - 7:32 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
October 15-21, 2007
WEATHER: Our weather this past week was just what we were expecting for this time of year. It seems that on the 15th of October every year (or really close to that date) Mother Nature throws the switch that cools up down. Our daytime highs averaged 86 degrees while the nighttime lows were in the low 70’s. I think that is about as good as you can get. We had sunny days with a light overcast in the middle of the week. Winds were from the north and the northwest at an average of 10 knots. Up the coast on the Cortez side past Punta Gorda it was a bit brisker at about 20 knots from the north. We are keeping our eye on Tropical Storm Kiko, hoping it is downgraded and turns to the west.
WATER: We were in great shape for most of the week on the Cortez side with small swells and light breezes until you got past Punta Gorda. Up there the wind kicked in and it got a little choppy. On the Pacific side the wind was not too bad early in the week, it was a bit bouncy up until Wednesday, and then everything mellowed out. There were still some good size chopped swells as a result of shore reflection along the points, but farther offshore and to the north things were very nice. On the Cortez side of the Cape the temperature was a very even 85 degrees on the surface. On the Pacific side at the end of the week that warm water had finally extended out to the San Jaime Bank. For 10 miles or so to the west of the San Jaime, extending up the coastline across the Golden Gate Bank and approximately 5 miles off the beach all the way up past Todo Santos there was a band of water in the 82-85 degree range.
BAIT: As far as buying from the bait boats the most common bait was Caballito. A few boats had Mackerel but they were easier to catch yourself than buy if you were in the right place. The big baits were averaging $2 per bait. There were also Sardinas around, both here in Cabo and up to the north outside San Joes. They were priced at $25 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: With the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament held this week it was easy to find what was happening on the billfish front, and on all the rest of the species as well. There was a #560 Blue Marlin and others of #400, #360 and #330 weighed in and a Striped Marlin of #202. The first day of the tournament had 36 released billfish, the second had 42 releases and I am not sure how many were released the third day, but it was more. The top three release boats were all in the double-digit range. Most of the Blue Marlin action was found around the 95 spot and farther up the Sea of Cortez but there were a few found on the Pacific side close to shore in that warm water band. The majority of the Striped Marlin reported were on the Pacific side with Golden Gate Bank being the hot spot.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again there was spotty action on Yellowfin Tuna of any size. Football fish were found close to shore by tournament boats making live bait just off of Gray Rock as well as up off of the Inman Bank. These fish were chummed up using Sardinas. A few slightly larger fish were found among Porpoise on the Pacific side of the Cape and the tournament had the two largest Tuna weighed in at just under #100 for the largest and #70 for second largest. I am not sure if these fish were found with Porpoise or were caught while soaking live bait.
DORADO: The best Dorado action was on the Pacific side along the current-temperature break. There were some pieces of wood found that held fish and a few boats really enjoyed great action off of them. I passed up one such spot because there were already 15 boats working it, but returning later in the day we were still able to get 6 nice fish there. Even without the wood, fishing for Dorado within 4 miles of the coast was good, at least up until the end of the week, then things dropped off a bit. Largest fish of the Tournament at the end of day two was just under #40.
WAHOO: Quite a few Wahoo were caught this week and the average size was about 25 pounds. Close to shore along the current line on the Pacific and on the flats edge up at Punta Gorda were the best spots. Dark lures and of course the usual Marauders and Rapallas worked great on these speedsters. Largest fish of the Tournament was just under #60.
INSHORE: A repeat of last week. The inshore Roosterfish bite started up again with most of the fish in the small range at 5-10 pounds but almost everyone that targeted the Roosters were able to release at least one or two in the 30 pound class. Dorado were plentiful just a bit farther off the beach and an average catch consisted of four or five per Panga. Plenty of Bonita and Skipjack with a few football Yellowfin rounded out the inshore fishery.
Notes: Tournament time again and I am busy. Bisbee’s Black and Blue is this coming week. I’ll let you know how much we won next week! Until then, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 49
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 15, 2007 - 7:56 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
October 8-14, 2007
WEATHER: Nights have been a very comfortable mid 70’s for most of the week with a few evenings seeing a drop of a few degrees more. Our daytime highs have been in the mid to high 80’s. Winds have been out of the northwest for most of the week with a one day shift on Saturday when the came from the east. Wind speeds have been in the 10-knot range in the mid afternoon. No rain for the week, and if things hold as true as some folks say, tomorrow we should see the annual October 15 temperature drop. Long time residents say that every October 15 the average daytime temperature drops 5 degrees, almost like clockwork. Hmm…
WATER: Surface conditions on the Pacific side of the Cape were choppy early in the week and later on they quieted down a bit. Early in the mornings the water was rough up to the Cristobal area and then it smoothed out, later in the day the winds picked up a bit and it became choppy all the way up the line. As the week drew to a close things smoothed out and while there were still whitecaps, they were farther apart and pretty much confined to the current lines. Speaking of current lines, we had a fairly well defined break this week, all week long. It ran on both side of the Cape from five miles offshore from San Jose to Cabo on the Cortez side of the Cape and from just to the north of the Golden Gate to Cabo on the Pacific side. Inside the five-mile area and extending in a swath 10 miles wide from the tip of the Cape to at least 60 miles to the southwest the water was a very even 85 degrees. Outside this swath on the Pacific side the temperature dropped to 81-82 degrees and was quite a bit bluer and on the Cortez side it dropped to 83 degrees with about the same clarity.
BAIT: There was some Mackerel available this week but they were not lasting long in the bait tanks. Most of the boats were getting Caballito and both baits were the normal $2 per bait. There were Sardinas available as well at the normal $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: This week was a total repeat of last weeks report; things did not change at all on the billfish front. Late in the week there was a good bite on Blue and Striped Marlin at the Gorda Banks, there were tailing Stripers to be found on the 95 Spot and there were Sailfish 6 miles off of the Arch. Billfish were scattered all over the place but the bottom structure seemed to be the place to find them this week. While I did not go there myself, I heard reports of a very good Striped Marlin bite up at the Finger Bank early in the week with many boats getting double digit numbers of fish released. Our best lure color this week was Bleeding Mackerel for the Sailfish and Striped Marlin and Purple-Blue-Silver for the Blue and Black Marlin.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were no large Tuna reported this week but there were schools of footballs scattered from the Cabrilla Seamount on the Cortez side to the area just to the north of the Golden Gate Bank on the Pacific side. All these fish were associated with porpoise and were averaging 15 pounds. A few larger fish in the 50-pound class were caught but there were not many of them.
DORADO: Once again there were Dorado scattered just about everywhere but the best concentrations were on the Pacific side 3 miles off the beach inside the Golden Gate Bank and north of there. In the middle of the week there was a log and an uprooted tree found to the inside of the Bank, and they were about five miles from each other, right on the current-color-temp break. It was a bonanza on Dorado for the first few boats there every day and even with 15 boats working the debris fish were caught by everyone. Not until the area became a parking lot with over 30 boats in a half-mile area did the bite drop off, but it renewed every day. The fish ran in size from small 5 pounders (please let the babies go!) to nice fish in the 15-18 pound class. Almost everyone was able to get a few fish in the box but a few greedy boats reported keeping 30-40 fish each. With only four anglers on the boat and two crew, these guys were killing 5-6 times the legal limit. Live bait was the key to getting these fish to bite early ion the day and later on live bait fished off of downriggers or dropped on 6 ounces of lead hooked anglers up to the by then hook-shy fish.
WAHOO: We did not have a full moon this week so the bite on Wahoo was a bit off compared to what it had been, but still, boats that worked the 100 fathom and shallower areas just off the beach on the Pacific side, and the Gorda Banks area on the Cortez side were able to report some action on these speedsters. The best lures were swimming plugs such as Marauders and big Rapalla countdowns run close to the boat, mostly within the first three wakes. A few boats reported two fish out of three or four strikes and the fish averaged 25 pounds.
INSHORE: The inshore Roosterfish bite started up again with most of the fish in the small range at 5-10 pounds but almost everyone that targeted the Roosters were able to release at least one or two in the 30 pound class. Dorado were plentiful just a bit farther off the beach and an average catch consisted of four or five per Panga. Plenty of Bonita and Skipjack with a few football Yellowfin rounded out the inshore fishery.
Notes: I am getting older and the last few days have taken their toll on me. With tournament time coming up it’s not going to get any better. I have been watching the baseball playoffs every night and staying up until midnight really hurts, and I get up before 5 am every morning. Sigh, to be young again! For those who have not done so yet, please check out the web site linked below, it is for a good cause, our continued ability to call ourselves the “Marlin Capitol of the World”.
To take the survey, please click: http://www.southwickassociates.com/surveys/cabo_survey/Default.aspx?si cd=AJJMEI-73. The Billfish Foundation has hired Southwick Associates to administer the surveys. We sincerely appreciate your help in protecting Cabos unique fishery, and hope to see you fishing again in Los Cabos. |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 48
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 08, 2007 - 7:48 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
October 1-7, 2007
WEATHER: Our temperatures continue to cool a bit as we start into October, normally we notice the first cool day on the 15th, but we don’t mind it starting a bit early. We have been very fortunate this year to experience a fairly cool summer. This week our daytime highs were in the high 80’s, occasionally touching the low 90’s and our nighttime lows were in the mid 70’s. A few cloudy days occurred during the middle of the week that threatened us with rain, but they dropped their water over the Sea of Cortez instead of on us.
WATER: As the weather has cooled off the water has warmed up. On the Cortez side of the Cape we have had temperatures as high as 90 degrees in some spots, but for the most part it has averaged 85-86 degrees and has been a deep blue color. On the Pacific side it has been cooler with most of the water in range of the fleets between 80-83 degrees with the cooler water farther north. Surface conditions at the end of the week were not great though as we had winds from the west-northwest develop Friday morning and it was like a sheep farm out there Friday and Saturday. The wind settled on Sunday but it was still choppy.
BAIT: There was some Mackerel available this week but they were not lasting long in the bait tanks. Most of the boats were getting Caballito and both baits were the normal $2 per bait. There were Sardinas available as well at the normal $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Late in the week there was a good bite on Blue and Striped Marlin at the Gorda Banks, there were tailing Stripers to be found on the 95 Spot and there were Sailfish 6 miles off of the Arch. Billfish were scattered all over the place but the bottom structure seemed to be the place to find them this week. While I did not go there myself, I heard reports of a very good Striped Marlin bite up at the Finger Bank early in the week with many boats getting double digit numbers of fish released. Our best lure color this week was Bleeding Mackerel for the Sailfish and Striped Marlin and Purple-Blue-Silver for the Blue and Black Marlin.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: At the end of the week there was a decent school of Yellowfin found at the Golden Gat Bank but you really took a pounding to get to them. Reports were the fish were averaging 20 pounds and most boats were able to get a dozen or more. Yellowfin were also found to the north side of the Cabrilla Seamount among porpoise and again, they averaged 20 pounds with a few larger fish to 50 pounds in the mix. For boats that were able to do multi-day trips up the Pacific side, the Ridge and Morgan Banks reportedly had fish in the 80 pound class holding deep, small Skipjack run on downriggers were the ticket for a few of the private boats that ventured that way and worked the fish.
DORADO: There were Dorado scattered just about everywhere but the best concentrations were on the Pacific side 3 miles off the beach inside the Golden Gate Bank and north of there. As was usual, bright colored lures trolled at 9 knots and better brought in the first fish and live bait dropped behind the first fish caught managed to get quite a few anglers hooked into doubles or triples. Also as normal, anything found floating on the surface was worth working and at the end of the week there were a couple of logs found just to the outside of the 95 Spot that supplied a lot of action on fish averaging 25 pounds. On Wednesday there was a school of fish found just one mile off of the Arch and that kept boats busy for the day working fish in the 15-pound class.
WAHOO: We did not have a full moon this week so the bite on Wahoo was a bit off compared to what it had been, but still, boats that worked the 100 fathom and shallower areas just off the beach on the Pacific side, and the Gorda Banks area on the Cortez side were able to report some action on these speedsters. The best lures were swimming plugs such as Marauders and big Rapalla countdowns run close to the boat, mostly within the first three wakes.
INSHORE: Inshore action remained slow for most of the week, at least for the traditional fish. There was a good bite for Dorado just off the beach, at least until Thursday morning, and then the wind really started to kick in. The remainder of the week the action shifted to the Cortez side and things became really slow with the exception of a good bite on Skipjack and a few Bonita.
Notes: I love baseball during the playoffs; it is fun watching the best of the best. My golf game is getting better but this is the time of year when I get busy on the water so I know that the golf is going to suffer. Oh well, the paycheck is worth it! I know that I have been running the following for the past three weeks, but if you have not yet had a chance, or have been reluctant to go to the attached web site, please take the time this week to fill in the survey, it’s important for our fisheries here. Thanks for your support, and until next week, tight lines!
To take the survey, please click: http://www.southwickassociates.com/surveys/cabo_survey/Default.aspx?si cd=AJJMEI-73. The Billfish Foundation has hired Southwick Associates to administer the surveys. We sincerely appreciate your help in protecting Cabos unique fishery, and hope to see you fishing again in Los Cabos. |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 47
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: 
Votes: 3 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 01, 2007 - 8:03 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Sept. 24-30, 2007
WEATHER: It seems that every week this time of year offers something a little bit different. An example was that at the start of this week we were recovering from the anticipated effects of Hurricane (later Tropical Storm, and then Tropical Depression, Ivo) which ended up consisting of some good sized swells and cloud cover along with a light sprinkling of rain. The middle of the week was back to normal with sunshine and hot, high 90’s daytime temps and mid 80’s in the evenings. At the end of the week we were back to cloudy skies and sprinkling of rain, Sunday morning saw the rain starting at 2 am and there was a resulting drop in the temperature to a very comfortable mid 80 degrees.
WATER: The start of the week saw the remanents of Tropical Depression Ivo bring in the last of the large swells with 6 feet on the Pacific side and at all south-western exposures. The rest of the week had swells from the west and north-west at 3-5 feet with plenty of space between them. At the approach of the weekend the swells picked up once again as there was a area of convection move over us bring in the rain and a slight breeze, along with an increase in swells resulting from the formation of Tropical Storm Juliette well to the southwest of us. Water temperatures on the Sea of Cortez were 85-88 degrees and on the Pacific side of the Cape we had 81-85 degrees with no strong breaks. The water on the Pacific side, besides being just a little bit cooler, also had a slightly greener cast to them.
BAIT: This week we had plenty of Mackerel available as well as some Mullet at the normal $2 per bait and there were plenty of Sardinas available at the normal $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite continued this week but moved a bit farther to the north on the Pacific side, up pas the Golden Gate and toward the Finger Bank. Boats focusing on them were able to release as many as 6 fish per boat but it was a bit farther to run than last week. There were still fish found clioser to home though, and every boat out there had a chance to catch one. There were still Sailfish to be found and the bite improved on Blue and Black Marlin as well. I had a four day trip early in the week and we released a Striper on the first day, went one for three on Blue Marlin the second day (releasing one of about #200), one for two on Sailfish on day three and on the fourth and final day, two for two on Black Marlin, releasing one of about #180 at Estilladera and then tail-wrapping one and having it die, then boating it, weighing out at #265, at the Outer Gorda Banks.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Finally these fish are starting to show. There have been plenty of the football-sized fish out there and boats have had a lot of luck on the Pacific side around the San Jaime and inside the Golden Gate. These fish are associated with Porpoise, as is the norm. There have also been some nice school fish in the 40-100 pound range caught a little farther out in the same areas, but normally to the first few boat to get there. I also heard of some very nice fish in the #150-#200 class caught by Pangas working out of La Playita and fishing the Inman Banks area using live Skipjack as bait. Not red hot action, but consistent enough that there were boats fishing there every day, all day hoping to hook one of these nice fish up.
DORADO: Steady and consistent action was to be had on the Pacific side of the Cape this week on fish between 12 and 25 pounds with a few fish in the 50+ range. From just off the beach to out at the Banks and farther, the larger fish seemed to be a bit farther out, the smaller fish closer to shore. Finding debris in the water was a sure bet with the wash-out from the rain dropped by Ivo. If the debris was large enough you could be sure of at least a fish or two and a few boats were able to find small schools concentrated under the floatsam, boating limits of two Dorado per angler (of course no one exceeded the limit, sigh)
WAHOO: Just like last week, there were scattered Wahoo again this week and they were mostly caught by boats working close to shore for the Dorado. The largest fish I heard of was 40 pounds and most of them were half that. These speedsters were not common but a few boats were flying two flags at a time. I imagine that if you had targeted these fish this week there might have been some decent action.
INSHORE: A repeat of last week. Inshore fishing remained slow for the traditional species this week as the number of Roosterfish was down and the Pargo just were not on the bite. Most of the Pangas were focusing on Dorado and did have fine action with them. Bottom action was slow as well with mostly small snapper and an occasional Amberjack and Grouper in the mix.
Notes: This weeks report was written to the blues, swing, jinking and jiving music of “We are Mighty Lester” on their 2007 self produced album. Check them out at www.mightylesterband.com, it will be worth your while. Meanwhile, efforts have been made before in Mexico to pass laws that would hurt Los Cabos fantastic fishing. While these efforts have all failed, we want to prevent future threats.. Can you please help us by taking a few minutes to complete a survey? The results will be used to help pass stronger conservation laws intended to improve fishing success rates and the Cabo fishing experience. All responses will be completely confidential.
To take the survey, please click: http://www.southwickassociates.com/surveys/cabo_survey/Default.aspx?si cd=AJJMEI-73 . The Billfish Foundation has hired Southwick Associates to administer the surveys. We sincerely appreciate your help in protecting Cabos unique fishery, and hope to see you fishing again in Los Cabos. |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 46
Registered: 8-2006
Rating:
Votes: 4 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 24, 2007 - 7:40 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Sept. 17-23, 2007
WEATHER: We once again were treated to normal summertime weather in Cabo, with our daytime highs in the mid to upper 90’s and nighttime low in the mid 80’s. Combine that with a fairly high humidity level and things were nice and sweaty most of the week. As the week drew to a close we were all watching the slowly approaching Hurricane Ivo, which then became Tropical Storm Ivo, den finally regressed into merely a Tropical Depression, much to our relief! Cloudy skies with a bit of rain are just what we need!
WATER: Surface conditions were great all week with the swells increasing just a bit to a possible six feet at the weekend due to the effects of Ivo. Water temperatures on the Cortez side of the Cape and around the Pacific side to the southern edge of Golden Gate Bank were a steady 84-85 degrees. At the end of the week there was a very defined temperature and color break on top of the Golden Gate. This temperature break started as an eddy of cold water off of the Cape mid-week and has been pushed to the north over the course of the past few days.
BAIT: Exactly the same as last week, the prevailing bait this week was Caballito at $2 per bait, Mullet at $2 per bait and Sardinas at $25 per scoop. A few boats were able to make their own Mackerel during their fishing trips and these seemed to be the bait preferred by the fish.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The story of the week, and possibly of the month, continues to be the unprecedented number of Striped Marlin being caught. While Cabo is known as the marlin capitol of the world for a good reason, having these numbers so close and at this time of year is simply amazing. Boats that wanted Striped Marlin only had to go to the Golden Gate Bank, and between the Bank and the shoreline this week to get into simply incredible action. Most of you who read my reports know that I am pretty even in reporting the action, right? Well, when I have clients that can go out and release 13 Stripes one day and 15 the next, and do it during a normal charter, then that’s something to shout about. These numbers were not abnormal either; a lot of boats were getting into that kind of action. Bait balls were everywhere and the Marlin were busting into them all over the place. Slow trolled live baits, drop-backs into the lure pattern when the lures were pulled at 9 knots and dropping live bait around the bait balls all worked extremely well on these concentrated fish. While the action on Striped Marlin was hot, the Blues have been slow to show, but we did have one boat that hooked up and landed one of about #250 and then hooked and fought for a few minutes another on of about #400. This action was at the 95 spot and was not typical. Most boats were not finding any Blues, and normally at this time of year we would be having reports of 60% of the fleet having a blue into the spread. A friend of mine caught a #565 pound Black on Friday while fishing around the Gorda Banks, the first large Black I have heard of so far this year.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We are finally beginning to see some Yellowfin action, and it is about time! There are still football fish to 20 pounds but the buzz this week was about the fish in the #80-#150 class that were found as close as 5 miles from the arch. These fish were associated with porpoise and they moved back and forth between the lighthouse and the San Jaime Banks for about four day in the middle of the week. First boats into them were usually able to hang one or two fish, the largest I heard of was #180 but I was also told by a credible source that there was one fish in the #250+ caught. The fish moved on later in the week but it was a good introduction to what we can expect in the near future. Other fish were found on a consistent basis at the San Jaime Banks and they were in the 40-60 pound range and I did have one report of a boat going to the Cabrilla Seamount and finding some fish that size there was well. The best baits were live Mackerel but most of the boats had to resort to live Caballito. Mackerel seemed to out-fish the Caballito by about two to one.
DORADO: The Dorado action remained consistent this week and most of the action took place on the Pacific side. Just like last week the fish seemed to be concentrated close to the beach, within three miles out for the most part. Ranging in size from little slippers of 6 pounds to some very nice Bulls of #60, the average was #20. Bright lures and live bait were the best producers. The debris in the water that was north of the Golden Gate Bank last week and I found unproductive at the time has finally started to produce some nice fish as well. Boats venturing just to the north of the bank early in the week were getting some decent schooling fish under some of the larger debris, and what is nice is that the current line seems to be holding the stuff in the same area!
WAHOO: There were scattered Wahoo again this week and they were mostly caught by boats working close to shore for the Dorado. The largest fish I heard of was 40 pounds and most of them were half that. These speedsters were not common but a few boats were flying two flags at a time. I imagine that if you had targeted these fish this week there might have been some decent action.
INSHORE: Inshore fishing remained slow for the traditional species this week as the number of Roosterfish was down and the Pargo just were not on the bite. Most of the Pangas were focusing on Dorado and did have fine action with them. Bottom action was slow as well with mostly small snapper and an occasional Amberjack and Grouper in the mix.
Notes: I have a four-day trip starting Saturday and will have a bit of information next week about conditions and fishing up around the East Cape if you are interested in checking back then. I just hope the wind from the Tropical Depression stays away! Also, please take the time to check out the link below and fill out the survey, your help is needed.
Hello Cabo Anglers!
The Billfish Foundation is working to ensure the future of Cabo's amazing bill fishing. Efforts have been made before in Mexico to pass laws that would hurt Los Cabos fantastic fishing. While these efforts have all failed, we want to prevent future threats. Local charter companies have identified you as a Cabo angler. Can you please help us by taking a few minutes to complete a survey? The results will be used to help pass stronger conservation laws intended to improve fishing success rates and the Cabo fishing experience. All responses will be completely confidential.
To take the survey, please click: http://www.southwickassociates.com/surveys/cabo_survey/Default.aspx?si cd=AJJMEI-73 . The Billfish Foundation has hired Southwick Associates to administer the surveys. We sincerely appreciate your help in protecting Cabos unique fishery, and hope to see you fishing again in Los Cabos. |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 45
Registered: 8-2006
Rating:
Votes: 4 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 17, 2007 - 7:30 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Sept. 10-16, 2007
WEATHER: We are back to summertime weather with our daytime highs in the mid to high 90’s. There was a report of low 100’s just to the north of us toward San Jose on Friday. Nights have been a bit cooler with the lows in the low 80’s, but with little wind toward the end of the week it seemed a lot warmer than that. We have had partially cloudy skies with no rain. Forecasts for the next week are a repeat of the same.
WATER: Surface conditions have been great, especially toward the end of the week with the winds light and variable. Swells have been from the west-southwest at 2-4 feet and the water has been a bit warmer than last week. We did have a plume of warm water run across the 95 spot at the end of the week with the temperature there at 85-86 degrees. On the Pacific side up past the Golden Gate Bank there was a defined temperature and color break. At 5 miles north of the bank the water became a deep blue and changed from 78 degrees to 82 degrees in the middle of the week. There was a lot of debris from the hurricane in the well-defined current line, but it was too new to hold and bait or fish. At the same time the water at the San Jaime Banks and toward the Cape was an off-color green but even at 76 degrees was holding fish on the contour lines. On the Cortez side of the Cape we had a warm, blue water plume that ran from the Cabrillo Seamount across the 1150 and onto the 95 spot. At the end of the week things had changed quite a bit and the warm water was closer to home with 83-84 degree water across all the banks both on the Pacific side and the Cortez side of the Cape. The water just off the arch to five miles to the east and 10 miles to the west was cooler at 80 degrees.
BAIT: Prevailing bait this week was Caballito at $2 per bait, Mullet at $2 per bait and Sardinas at $25 per scoop. A few boats were able to make their own Mackerel during their fishing trips and these seemed to be the bait preferred by the fish.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The week began with good fishing for Striped Marlin on the inside of the Golden Gate bank and then the bite slowly shifted to the south. At the end of the week there were still a few Stripers being found at the Gate but there were more fish to the south and east of the Cape, even though the water was more off-colored. A few boats released as many as 8 fish per trip working the area between the Cape and the 95 spot and there were scattered fish on the surface on the Pacific side around the Gate and within 4 miles of the beach. There were reports of some decent Blue Marlin being found as well. I heard a story of one Panga working off of the 95 spot that released two blues, one estimated at #250 and the other at #450 early in the week.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Football fish were still the order of the day for most of the boats, but finding them on a regular basis was a problem. To the north on the Cortez side of the Cape around the Punta Gorda area there were fish scattered around. Not associated with porpoise, they were found by trolling in the blind. Once one was hooked up the crew threw out live Sardinas to try and chum up the fish. The largest of these were reported at around 30 pounds. The good news is that on Friday there were some decent fish found on the west side of the San Jaime Banks at a distance of 30 miles from Cabo. The first boat to these fish caught 5 Yellowfin estimated between 45 and 60 pounds. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come!
DORADO: The Dorado bite was scattered again but the best results were had by boats working close to the beach on the Pacific side of the Cape. Most of the fish were in the 12-20 pound class with occasional fish to 40 pounds being reported. Hooking a fish on a trolled lure then drifting back live bait while keeping the hooked fish close to the boat resulted in some of the better catches. A good day this week was three or four Dorado while a great day was 6 fish. Most of the boats were happy to get two Dorado in the box. Things might improve over time as the debris to the north of the Golden Gate Ban works its way south.
WAHOO: I saw a few Wahoo in the 20-25 pound class come in this week and the new moon may have had a great deal to do with it. I also hear radio reports of larger fish being hooked up but biting through the mono leader being run on the Marlin lures. These Wahoo were reported from the various Banks, in the warm water areas.
INSHORE: The bite was still off after the dirty water from the hurricane. I was hoping that the Rooster fishing would pick back up but it remained slow this week. Most of the Pangas resorted to focusing on Dorado and Striped Marlin within 5 miles of shore.
Hello Cabo Anglers!
The Billfish Foundation is working to ensure the future of Cabo's amazing bill fishing. Efforts have been made before in Mexico to pass laws that would hurt Los Cabos fantastic fishing. While these efforts have all failed, we want to prevent future threats. Local charter companies have identified you as a Cabo angler. Can you please help us by taking a few minutes to complete a survey? The results will be used to help pass stronger conservation laws intended to improve fishing success rates and the Cabo fishing experience. All responses will be completely confidential.
To take the survey, please click: http://www.southwickassociates.com/surveys/cabo_survey/Default.aspx?si cd=AJJMEI-73 . The Billfish Foundation has hired Southwick Associates to administer the surveys. We sincerely appreciate your help in protecting Cabos unique fishery, and hope to see you fishing again in Los Cabos. |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 44
Registered: 8-2006
Rating:
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 10, 2007 - 8:20 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
August 27-Sept. 09, 2007
NOTES This report will start out with the note section as I need to apologize up front to all those of you who read my report on a weekly basis. With Hurricane Henrietta coming and the preparations needed last week as well as the beginning of football season I was in a bit of a time bind. Now that the squeeze is over I have the time to get a report out to you. What follows is mostly an update on present conditions, what was in the past remains in the past and unless you were here it will have no bearing on your fishing decisions in the future. By the way, this week’s music is an eclectic mix from a CD lent to me by my golf buddy Roy Johnson, we have had Patty Cline, Neil Diamond, Neil Young and Merle Haggard coming through the speakers this morning! Thanks Roy!
WEATHER: As I mentioned in the Note section above, we had to deal with Hurricane Henrietta this past week. She came through on Tuesday with winds gusting to 85 mph, not too bad, and she dropped about 5 inches of rain on us. Once again, not a bad amount and it was scattered over two days, that allowed a lot of it to soak into the ground and limited the damage to the roads from runoff. Prior to the Hurricane we had winds from the northwest at an average of 8 knots, not quite enough to put a chop on the water but after Henrietta the winds were light and variable. We had winds from the southeast on Sunday morning but earlier in the week they were mostly from the northwest. Our temperatures have been great with the daytime highs in the mid 90’s and nighttime lows in the low 80’s. The humidity was high after the hurricane and in the early mornings but for the rest of the time it was not bad at all.
WATER: We just had a hurricane so what can I say? Prior to the hurricane we had swells from the west at 2-4 feet, during the hurricane they were 10-12 feet from the south, after the hurricane they were 4-8 from the southeast and then they shifted back to normal at 2-4 from the northwest. The water temperatures were more affected by the storm that the surface conditions over the long run. Where before the hurricane we had surface temps in the low 80’s at the Golden Gate Banks on the Pacific side, after the storm went through the temps dropped to 76 degrees. This was pretty much the pattern across the board. Up at the Gorda Banks we had water temps in the mid 80’s prior to the storm and afterwards we were seeing 80 degrees. The water clarity changed just a bit and the biggest change was the amount of debris in the water. There was quite a large amount of small trash washed out to sea and it littered the water close to shore.
BAIT: Prior to the hurricane bait was no problem, immediately after the storm there was no bait available but things have improved over the last few days. There are Caballito and some Mackerel at the normal $2 per bait and there were some Sardinas as well in the last few days at the normal $25 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The two days before Hurricane Henrietta struck us the Striped Marlin bite was wide open. The last time I saw the bite this good was two years ago when the Finger Bank was going off. The day before the Hurricane we fished the area three miles off the beach just to the inside of Golden Gate Banks. Over the three days prior the bait had moved off the bank toward land and the Marlin followed them. With three anglers aboard we were able to release 10 Striped Marlin to 160 pounds and one Blue Marlin of #200 in just about four hours. There were bait balls everywhere and the birds were working them hard. While hooked up on a double with one angler at the bow and another in the cockpit I watched as a group of a dozen Stripers fed on a ball of bait within 50 feet of the boat and several of the group chased the baits under the boat as I watched from the tower. Great stuff! After the hurricane it appeared that things dropped off a bit as the conditions had changed but the fish were still in the area. A few boats were coming in flying 8 flags and a lot more were stringing up four flags from the outriggers. It appears that the fish are still in the same area but the increased swells from the hurricane broke up the bait concentrations a bit and it was a bit harder to find the concentrations of bait. A good depth sounder helped a lot. Another technique that had good results was trolling a slightly higher than normal speed with the lures, 9.5 knots instead of the usual 7.5-8 knots. For some reason that seemed to kick the Marlins appetite into gear and they would bite on the plastic at that speed instead of ignoring it.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were still football fish to be found before and after the storm and we did well on the fish from 8-12 pounds on the east side of the San Jaime and the south side of the Golden Gate prior to the weather hitting us. These fish were not associated with Porpoise; they were schooled in the open and were moving around fast. After the storm they were still in the same areas and dark colored feathers worked well on them but red was the color of choice as red was out-bit by a factor of 5-3 over other colors.
DORADO: Once again the Dorado bite was consistent and with the amount of debris in the water it will likely improve as far as finding concentrations of fish. Stray couples in the 40-50 pound class were found both before and after the storm, but there were concentrations of small fish in the 8-pound class found under the small debris after the storm. This means that we should be seeing quite a few fish in the perfect 12-20 pound class within the next 90 days and our fingers are crossed for that to happen.
WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo this week, but there were probably a few caught, the water and moon were right for them.
INSHORE: No inshore fishing due to rough and dirty water caused by the storm this week, but the Roosterfish should really be stirred up within the next week.
An email I received this week, another way to help let the government know.
Hello Cabo Anglers!
The Billfish Foundation is working to ensure the future of Cabo's amazing billfishing. Efforts have been made before in Mexico to pass laws that would hurt Los Cabos fantastic fishing. While these efforts have all failed, we want to prevent future threats. Local charter companies have identified you as a Cabo angler. Can you please help us by taking a few minutes to complete a survey? The results will be used to help pass stronger conservation laws intended to improve fishing success rates and the Cabo fishing experience. All responses will be completely confidential.
To take the survey, please click: http://www.southwickassociates.com/surveys/cabo_survey/Default.aspx?si cd=AJJMEI-73 . The Billfish Foundation has hired Southwick Associates to administer the surveys. We sincerely appreciate your help in protecting Cabos unique fishery, and hope to see you fishing again in Los Cabos. |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 43
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 20, 2007 - 8:09 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
August 13-19, 2007
WEATHER: Our week started our as a normal summer week and weekend up with a taste of our Hurricane season weather, only without the wind. Monday and the rest of the weekdays were just great with sunny skies and temperatures in the high 90’s during the daytime and in the low 80’s at night. On Saturday and Sunday we had the edge of a storm system come across us as the system came across from the mainland and turned up the Sea of Cortez. This system brought us cloudy skies and a scattering of rain on Saturday with a fairly decent rain on Saturday night. The wind shifted around from the northeast and the daytime temperature dropped to the high 80;s and nighttime lows went to the mid 70;s.
WATER: On the Sea of Cortez we had water temperatures in the high 80’s over most of the area. From San Jose and to the south there was almost a wall where the temperature changed from 85 to 83 degrees. This warm water pushed across the Cape toward the Pacific side on a small plume that extended 5 miles offshore and 5 miles into the Pacific. On the Pacific side the water was 80-82 degrees. Both sides of the cape had excellent surface conditions early in the week but over the weekend the Cortez side saw considerable chop and building swells due to the northeastern winds.
BAIT: There was no problem getting bait this week with plenty of Mackerel, Caballito, Mullet and Sardinas. The bigger baits were the normal $2 per bait while the Sardinas were $25 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: We are still seeing large numbers of Striped Marlin out on the water, very strange for this time of year, but at least they are there and they are biting. The major mass of fish has moved to the Pacific side of the Cape, just off the beach between the Lighthouse and the Golden Gate Bank. The bite has been an even mix between lures and live bait with most of the bait caught fish coming into the lure pattern and eating drop-backs. An average catch has been two Striped Marlin per day with a few boats scoring five or six. Also, there are finally some nice sized Blue and Black Marlin showing up. Most of these fish have been in the area of the various Banks and fairly evenly scattered.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again the Tuna bite dropped off, our great showing of football-sized fish came to a screeching halt with the change in the weather. There are still some fish out there, but not tin the numbers we were seeing last week. A few scattered schools of larger fish have been found on the Pacific side of the Cape outside the San Jaime Banks, but it has been a 40+ mile run with not a great chance of success in finding them. If you did find them, larger cedar plugs and Striped Marlin sized lures in dark colors worked best.
DORADO: As the water warms up the Dorado action is one thing you can count on, and the water is just about perfect right now. Every boat I have seen come into the Marina has had at least one yellow flag flying, and a few that were in the right spot at the right time had both outriggers loaded with them. Most of the action on Dorado has been on the Pacific side of the Cape and close to shore. Fish in the 20-40 pound class have been eating bright colored lures, and the occasional larger fish has bitten on live bait dropped back after seeing Frigate birds working an area.
WAHOO: There were a few nice fish caught this week and hopefully next month things will improve. The fish I saw were in the 40-60 pound class and were found at the edge of the Pacific side banks, caught by boats working the edges for Marlin.
INSHORE: Just like last week. Good to excellent Roosterfish were available on the Pacific side between the arch and the lighthouse on fish between 5 and 25 pounds. The baitfish moved in close to the beach and brought the Roosters with them. Other inshore action was spotty as most of the Pangas were concentration on the “close to shore” pelagic fish.
NOTES: Keep an eye on the weather; this is the time of year when things can turn quickly. I love fishing in August and September, there are some of the biggest fish of the year here now and there is not as much pressure on them as there is in October. Until next week, tight lines! P.S., if you get a chance to listen to music by Miguel de Hoyos, take advantage of the opportunity, you won’t regret it! |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 42
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 13, 2007 - 10:18 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
August 6-12, 2007
WEATHER: Summertime is definitely here as we had daytime highs in the mid to high 90’s and nighttime lows averaging in the mid to low 80’s. We did record a nighttime low of 74 degrees here at the house on Wednesday morning, but I attribute that to the fact that we had a storm come and cross over us from the mainland and it lowered temperatures across the board for at least one day. It also brought easterly winds on Wednesday and Thursday that mad for some fairly rough and choppy conditions out in front of town. There was quite a bit of rain in the mountains as a result of the storm but we did not receive anything more that a slight splatter here in town as a result.
WATER: Let’s start with surface conditions first. On the Pacific side we had swells from the northwest and winds at 10-15 knots up until Tuesday night. When the storm from the East moved through the swells remained the same but there was no chop on top of them. You had to be up the Pacific side past San Cristobal before you realized the difference, but it was definitely there. On the Cortez side of the cape we had very choppy and rough conditions starting on Wednesday, getting very rough on Thursday and tapering off in Friday, and back to normal by Saturday. Sea temperatures were averaging 82-86 degrees on the Cortez side of the Cape and between 77 and 81 degrees on the Pacific side of the Cape.
BAIT: There was no problem getting bait this week with plenty of Mackerel, Caballito, Mullet and Sardinas. The bigger baits were the normal $2 per bait while the Sardinas were $25 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Striped Marlin action continued to be pretty much wide open for the boats this week and it has me confused. Normally when the water get this warm the Stripers have all but disappeared and we are lucky to get into a decent Blue Marlin bite this early in the season, but it appears that everything is still a little bit late. Most of the Striped Marlin have been in the 90-110 pound class but there has been an occasional fish to 180 pounds. These fish have been close to shore on the Cortez side of the Cape and there was no problem at all getting their interest before the storm moved in even if you were trolling plastic lures. After the storm came thought, the fish seemed to spread out a bit and live bait worked better then plastics died. Most of the fish that came to boatside coughed up squid in the 8-12 inch range so lures in the red color range worked a lot better than other colors for almost every species targeted this week. There were also a few small Blue Marlin caught and released, we had out third of the season on my boat, a small fish of about 120 pounds. There were fish reported between 180 and 500 pounds though and the reports were scattered as to location.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: If you wanted football Yellowfin Tuna, this was the week to be here. Fish in the 6-12 pound class were found almost everywhere on the Cortez side early in the week and they were not associated with any porpoise schools, instead they were associated with structure. If you concentrated on the 300-foot curve along the Cortez side you were guaranteed to get bit on theses fish. The vest results were to be had on feathers in dark colors and trolled in the 7-knot range. Some boats reported catches in the 20-30 fish numbers. An occasional fish went 15 pounds but these were the exception. As the week went on the bite moves across the Cape and at the end of the week most of the action occurred between the arch and the lighthouse.
DORADO: The Dorado action continued to improve as the water warmed and the fish have been a bit larger on average as well. We caught a couple of fish this week that were over #40 and it seemed that every other boat returning to the marina had at least one yellow flag flying.
WAHOO: Just rumors again, I think it is a moon phase thing.
INSHORE: Good to excellent Roosterfish were available on the Pacific side between the arch and the lighthouse on fish between 5 and 25 pounds. The baitfish moved in close to the beach and brought the Roosters with them. Other inshore action was spotty as most of the Pangas were concentration on the “close to shore” pelagic fish.
NOTES: For the third time in 8 years I got to see Orcas here in Cabo. On Wednesday morning we left the Marina and spotted a small pod of 8 Orcas just inside off of Lovers Beach. We followed them for 30 minutes as the crossed in front of the arch and continued to the west on the Pacific side. I managed to get one good picture of the big male in the group, there was also a female it a calf. Needless to say, that made out trip! On everything else related to fishing, the reports above tell the story. Go Seahawks! |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 41
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 06, 2007 - 7:11 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
July 30-August 5, 2007
WEATHER: Up until August 2nd we were enjoying some very non-seasonal weather here in Cabo, it was more like spring with our nighttime lows in the mid 70’s and daytime highs in the mid 80’s, along with some slight breezes. Of course it had to change and now we have the normal situation with daytime highs reaching 99 degrees and on the 4th at 6 am we had 86 degrees here at the house. The humidity has kicked in as well and this morning we have a fairly good amount of cloud cover, the result of a small storm system moving across the Sea of Cortez from the mainland and crossing the Baja north of us.
WATER: The warm water we have been waiting for has finally arrived! On the Sea of Cortez we have had water in the 80-86 degree range while on the Pacific side it has been 78 degrees at the San Jaime Bank. Of course we have also had great surface conditions to go with this and it has made for some very good fishing trips! Swells have been moderate at 2-5 feet with just a light afternoon chop at the end of the week. Earlier in the week there were a couple of days when things got ugly when you returned to Cabo as the winds did pick up strong from the southwest, but it was only late in the day and did not affect many people.
BAIT: There was no problem getting bait this week with plenty of Mackerel, Caballito, Mullet and Sardinas. The bigger baits were the normal $2 per bait while the Sardinas were $25 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I mentioned on the last report that I would be doing a fair amount of fishing this past week and I did get out for three days. I was amazed at the number of Striped Marlin still being caught! On Monday we released two small ones and had a few others in the pattern, Wednesday we released one nice fish out of about a dozen hook-ups (they did not want the live bait that day, just toying with it, and we are using single hook rigs on the plastic lures) and on Friday we released two Striped Marlin (a double strike, one on a lure and the other on a drop-back bait) out of 6 bites, one big Sailfish of over #100 out of three bites (all at the same time) and on the way home stopped just outside the bay when we say a free jumping Striped Marlin, trolled a few minutes and hooked, fought and released a small Blue Marlin! Now that was a good day! All this action has been within 5 miles of the coast on the Sea of Cortez between Palmilla and home, so there was no real need for a long run, all the action was within 12 miles. Of course that made it pretty crowded as well so a few of us just kicked it in gear and went farther to the north to escape the crowds and still found good fishing. It seemed that except for Wednesday when we had a run of fish that would not eat the bait, the action was evenly divided between artificial lures and live bait.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: These fish are still not here in any real numbers of large sizes yet, but I hope that will change any day now. The few fish that have been found close to home are still in the “football” category but there have been reports for the last two days of some decent fish in the 20-30 pound class outside of the San Jaime. The Bisbee East Cape Tournament had no qualifying fish (over #40) in the Tuna category for the first two days but on the third day a boat fought a fish of #160 for an hour before bringing it to the scale, so there is hope!
DORADO: The Dorado action continued to improve as the water warmed and the fish have been a bit larger on average as well. We caught a couple of fish this week that were over #40 and it seemed that every other boat returning to the marina had at least one yellow flag flying.
WAHOO: Just a few fish were reported this week but I have no information on them, sorry about that, just the rumors.
INSHORE: The reports were that the inshore action has been pretty much limited to either Roosterfish or bottom fishing. Most of the Pangas have been working on the large number of Striped Marlin, Sailfish and Dorado just off the beach.
NOTES: The fishing has improved and that has everybody here happy! Now, if the Tuna just make an appearance it will be that much better. On a musical note, my friend Daniel Tuchmann has returned from 6 months in Ireland, visiting all the stone circles possible, meeting other musicians and trying to get a little Irish influence into his music. It only took him a couple of days to settle back in and now he is playing every Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Hemmingway’s, just behind Cabo Wabo. An excellent guitarist, he plays covers with his own influence as well as some of his original work. Please check out the Billfish Foundation web-page concerning the recently passed shark fishing law in Mexico. http://www.billfish.org/new/NewsArticle.asp?ArticleID=60 |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 40
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 9:00 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
July 23-29, 2007
WEATHER: I love it when we have daytime temps in the mid 90’s, we get to sweat and clean out our systems. When we add a light breeze in the evenings as the temperature drops to the mid and low 80’s it means that things are just about perfect here in Cabo. I know that these temperatures a too hot for a lot of people, and we did have the humidity raise up a bit this week, but it sure beats 112 degrees, and I don’t care it that is a “dry” heat or not, that is just too damn hot for me. I guess what I am trying to say is that things were just about perfect this week considering that we are in a summer weather pattern. We did have Tropical Storm Delilah pass to the southwest mid-week and she brought a scattering of rain to us on Wednesday along with some winds that decreased the temperatures but for the most part she was a “non-event”, but a warning of what might happen during the next several months.
WATER: As far as the basics are concerned we had storm swells at the middle and end of the week from Tropical Storm Delilah, large enough that there were high surf warnings out at all the hotels and resorts on both sides of the Cape. The wind combined with the swells were enough to convince the Port Captains office to close the Marina to departures after 7:30 AM on Wednesday, a lot of boats returned very early due to seasick clients. The storm came up from the south and pushed warm water with it. Early in the week prior to the storms arrival we were seeing offshore temperatures in the low 70’s, on Thursday we has a steady 79 and over across the board. At the end of the week the California current re-asserted itself and we had temperatures in the mid 70’s along the Pacific coast and as far up the Sea Of Cortez as Punta Gorda, and extending up to 10 miles off the beach on the Pacific side and 3 miles on the Cortez side.
BAIT: There were plenty of Mackerel and Caballito available this week as well as Mullet and Sardinas. The Mullet and Sardinas were difficult to get at the beginning for the week and of course on Wednesday there was no bait available, at least fresh caught bait, the water was just too rough for the guys to catch bat. At the end of the week there were bait balls all over the place, both up close to the beach and far offshore. Prices were the normal $2 per large baits and $25 per scoop of Sardinas.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Striped Marlin action was close to the beach on the Cortez side for moat of the week with most of the action happening place in the cool water within three miles of the coast. There were groups of fish tailing on the surface, occasionally as many as 7 or 8 fish together, and there were also lots of sleepers on the surface. Farther offshore the water was warmer and there were not the numbers of fish to be found. There were a few Blue Marlin reported and this was expected as the offshore water warmed up. Hopefully we will start seeing some good numbers of these fish as the warming continues and spreads. Also, there were Sailfish reported. These are not as common in our area as they are in many parts of Mexico, but here they are also an indication of warming water and a precursor to good Dorado fishing!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I keep hoping for the Tuna fishing to improve and this week there were a few days when almost every boat that went out returned with Tuna flags flying. Unfortunately most of these fish were only footballs in the 6-12 pound class, very few larger fish were found. Most of the action occurred wither 5 miles off of Chileno beach early in the week, 12 to 18 miles south of the Cape during mid week or at the San Jaime bank at the end of the week. Sounds like they are traveling, yes? As is often the case with the football fish, the best results were had with small re hootchies or dark colored feathers, slow trolled while being “jigged” among the porpoise.
DORADO: A few boats really did well on Dorado this week but most of the guys were lucky to get a fish or two. The clue was to find something floating on the surface or slow troll live bait in the area where Frigate birds were seen to be working. Most of the fish were in the 12-20 pound class with a few stretching the springs on the scales to 45 pounds. The best action was prior to the storm, early in the week, on the Cortez side of the Cape, but I believe that things will pick up really fast now that there is more warm water in the area.
WAHOO: We are just coming up on the full moon on the 29th and I am surprised that I have not heard of more Wahoo being caught. There were a few fish reported, but not in any numbers or from one particular area.
INSHORE: Inshore action was good for Roosterfish early in the week but the rough conditions as a result of Tropical Storm Delilah really had the inshore bite drop off. While it has been a few days since the storm passed, it nor until just now that the swells have died down enough to make the fishing comfortable close to the beach again.
NOTES: I am going to be very busy the next few weeks so I will have more “hands-on” report information in the next couple of reports. I really like that, it makes for better first hand information and also allows me to do an informal check on the “b.s.” factor of information I receive. Until next week, please take a few minutes to check out the following link, especially if you like fishing here!
http://www.billfish.org/new/NewsArticle.asp?ArticleID=60 |
George Landrum (Captg)
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Username: Captg
Post Number: 39
Registered: 8-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 23, 2007 - 7:49 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
July 16-22, 2007
WEATHER: I just got back from a trip to southern Orange County, California on the 17th as was gone for a week so bear in mind that I missed most of the daily information usually contained in my report. Almost everything in this weeks report is relayed second hand. While I was gone it appears I missed the summertime weather we normally get this time of year. It was reported to me that the temperatures actually got above 100 degrees with 80% humidity for three days. The day I returned (the 17th), things cooled off with breezes from the northwest returning and dropping the daytime temperatures back into the mid 80’s. There was no rain while I was gone and of course there were only a couple of partly cloudy days. Since I have been back we have not had to use the air-conditioner in the evenings in order to sleep, our nights have been in the mid 70’s, very comfortable!
WATER: Surface conditions were reported as being very good all week long with the only problem being some fairly large swells coming from the southwest due to storms in that direction. With winds locally mostly light and variable, there was no chop on the water on either side of the Cape. The water temperatures have changed almost daily however as the California current continues to have a great effect on the water temperatures. At the beginning of the week the Pacific side was very cool and the Cortez side of the Cape had water in the high 70’s and occasionally into the low 80’s all the way to the beach. The California current brought cool water close to shore and it wrapped around the Cape so that water within 20 miles of the coast line on the Pacific side and as far up the Sea of Cortez as Punta Gorda was in the low 70’s and slightly off color. At the end of the week we had an intrusion of warm water from the south and the southeast, water on Saturday at the Cabrillo Seamount was 85 degrees! Basically anything outside the 1,000-fathom curve on the Cortez side and immediately south was warm, everything else was cool.
BAIT: Caballito with some Mullet in the mix were the larger baits available this week, a few boats were able to score on Mackerel but they were not available in large numbers. The normal $2 per bait prevailed. I don’t know if there were any Sardinas available or not.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: At the end of the week there were Striped Marlin to be found in the cool green water close to the beach on the Sea of Cortez side between the Chileno beach area and the Palmilla area. Most of these fish were between 4 and 6 miles of the beach. A few boats did well with release counts of up to five fish per boat, most boats were happy to get one or two hook-ups per trip. The water was still too cool for there to be many Blue Marlin, but on Thursday there was one of #350 caught at the Cabrilla Seamount in the warmer water.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again there were scattered schools of football fish to 15 pounds found in with the white-bellied dolphin on the Cortez side of the Cape. I heard word of better quality fish being found 15 miles off the coast up at the East Cape and hopefully these fish will make their way down to us soon. The negative on this is that I have also seen a lot of purse Seiners, including several super-Seiners (with helicopters on the deck) crossing the Cape heading up in that direction.
DORADO: As the water warms up the Dorado catch continues to improve. This is one of the basics we can count on in sport fishing, warm water equals Dorado. I was out on Thursday and while fishing the Seamount we caught on bull that weighed between 50 and 60 pounds and also a cow that was about 25 pounds. It seemed that that was about par for most boats that were able to get into the Dorado, two or three fish per boat. There were also fish found in the cooler water closer to shore, but they were smaller on average, with fish in the 12-pound class being the norm. Best baits for these fish were feathers in bright colors; the larger fish fell for live bait.
WAHOO: I did hear of a few decent Wahoo being caught while I was gone but other than that I have absolutely no information.
INSHORE: The cool water inshore continues to produce a few Sierra, but not in any great numbers. The talk of the week was nice sized Roosterfish to 50 pounds being found in fair numbers up in the San Jose-Punta Gorda area. The best bait there was slow trolled live mullet with most of the action coming in less than 25 feet of water.
NOTES: It’s nice to be back home, and also nice to know that my timing was right to miss the three hot days. It appears that our water is late in warming up this year and that has its positive side as well as the negative. On the minus side, everything we expect to appear this time of year is late; the water is not warm enough for the Blues and Blacks to appear in any numbers. On the positive side, the cooler water keeps any storms from coming out way! Speaking of witch, there is one developing well to the southeast of us but it is projected to pass well to the southwest so the only effects we might receive would be a slight chance of feeder band cloud cover and some larger swells. I have my Jeep here finally and if you are interested I will post a picture of it next week, or maybe not, we’ll see. Until then, tight lines!
http://www.billfish.org/new/NewsArticle.asp?ArticleID=60 |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 38
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 09, 2007 - 7:13 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
July 2-8, 2007
WEATHER: It is finally time to admit that nature has brought summertime weather to us here in Cabo. This week our daytime temperatures have been in the mid to high 90’s while the nighttime lows have been in the high 70’s and low 80’s. A breath of wind from the northwest has kept the humidity down but that is soon to become a thing of the past. This week we had mostly sunny skies with a few scattered clouds early in the week but no rain at all.
WATER: The California current had a great effect upon our fishing this week as it brought cool, green water down the west coast of the Cape and as it passed Cabo it turned into the Sea Of Cortez. The current only ran to 20 miles offshore on the Pacific side, outside that boundary the water warmed to 78 degrees and was nice and blue. Inside the 20 mile zone the water averaged 71-75 degrees and had an increasing green tint the closer to the beach you got. On the Cortez side of the Cape the cool green water extended south for 30 miles and wrapped around to affect the water as far to the east as the Cabrillo Seamount. Surface conditions were great on both sides of the Cape as our winds were light and for the most part the seas were fairly glassy even though we did have some large swells from the south.
BAIT: Mostly Caballito this week with the new moon having a great effect on the fishing and there were some Mackerel available from the bait barge just outside the Marina. Some Sardinas were available as well if you ventured up toward San Jose. The asking price for the little baits was the usual $20 per scoop and for the larger baits was the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: We are between seasons on the Billfish right now, the water is warm enough that the Striped Marlin are off their feed and it is still not warm enough to bring in any numbers of Blue or Black Marlin. There were great numbers of Striped Marlin spotted on the surface this week but the combination of warmer water and a new moon seemed to have a negative effect on their willingness to strike a lure or eat a live bait. Most of the fish were found on the boundary between the cool and warm water on the Pacific side of the Cape, but there were occasional concentrations found on the Cortez side around the 95 spot and the 1150. I also had the chance to see a Swordfish estimated at #250 being carted along the Malecon as it was being taken to the Smokehouse. It was reported to have been taken along the green-blue boundary 15 miles to the south of the Cape. The blue water on top of the San Jaime bank and to the west of there drew a large number of boats to the area, but the fishing was spotty, there seemed to be better luck on the green side of the break.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: All I can say here is that there were some scattered schools of football fish found but no concentrations of larger fish. I did hear of an #80 fish being caught near to home, but no other information on big fish reached my ears.
DORADO: Once again Dorado were the fish of the week as it seemed every boat that went out was able to get at least one or two of these great eating fish. Most of them were in the 15-20 pound class but there were still enough in the 30-pound range to keep things interesting and I did see one boat bring in a pair of fish in the 50-60 pound class. It appeared that most of the Dorado were found in one of two areas, along the blue-green color break (also a current line) when floating debris was found, or along the coastline within 1 mile of the beach. The larger fish were found offshore but there seemed to be bigger numbers close to the beach. Small bright colored lures worked well as did slow trolled live bait.
WAHOO: Hmm? The red flags I saw this week were for shark, though I did hear a conversation on the radio where one 20-pound fish was caught.
INSHORE: Inshore fishing this week consisted of Dorado and Lady Fish, there were few other species taken on a regular basis although the inshore standbys did make an appearance at times. Snapper, Grouper, the occasional Roosterfish and a few stray Yellowtail were found here and there. As the water warms the Rooster fishing ought to get better and the Dorado and Yellowfin Tuna bite should improve.
NOTES: It was slow for me this week and I did not get a lot of fishing in. Most of the information here is that relayed to me by the guys that managed to get out. I am going to be gone for a week starting on the 11th but will try and get out some information next week. I will be calling home everyday and hopefully will be receiving good news about the fishing, which I will relay on to you. Don’t forget about the long-line problem we face as a sport-fishing destination, it may soon have a major effect on us. Check it out at the following link and add you voice to ours!
http://www.billfish.org/new/NewsArticle.asp?ArticleID=60
Until next week, Tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 37
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 02, 2007 - 7:07 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
June 25-July 1, 2007
WEATHER: It was a very confusing week this past week with the beginning being so nice. We had great weather to start the week and then it all turned around, the swells kicked up due to some small circulations to the south, we got overcast skies at the end of the week due to the same conditions and then the winds changed. At the end of the week we had winds coming in from the south and the swells from the south along with cloudy skies, not the best conditions for fishing for sure.
WATER: The Pacific side was much warmer than the Cortez side close to home with water temperatures in the high 70’s and this was nice at the start of the week. As the days wore on though the wind shifted and at the end of the week you did not want to go on the Pacific side of the Cape if you had any little hint of seasickness. Swells from the south at 4-6 feet and winds that seemed to reach an occasional 20 knots really kicked things up on both sides of the Cape. On the Cortez side at the beginning of the week the water was a lot cooler and a lot greener, and it was not until you were 25 miles off the beach that it started to clean up. At the end of the week the green water extended out 40 miles and the cool temperatures stretched up past the Punta Gorda area. With the wind switching to the south at the end of the week, there was really no place to hide and get out of the choppy conditions. Thankfully it was not due south, the was a lot of west in it and that allowed conditions close to the beach here in the Los Cabos are to be decent enough to run home in.
BAIT: There was a good mix of Pacific Greenback Mackerel and Caballito this week at the normal $2per bait. Up towards San Jose there were plenty of good qualities of Sardinas available at the usual $20 per bucket.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The bite on billfish really dropped off this week with very few Striped Marlin being caught. There was the occasional hot spot and a few boats were able to get in three or four releases a day, but they were by far the exception, and defiantly not consistent o a day-to-day basis. The water turned over when the wind shifted and once again the bite really suffered. There were Striped Marlin found along the 1,000 fathom curve between the Doughnut and due south early in the week but that bite disappeared, there were a few fish found out past the Cabrillo Seamount but these fish were pushed to the south with the change in water conditions as well. A few Swordfish were sighted this week but no one brought a Swordfish in that I am aware of. The Blue bite dropped off a lot as the water changed as well. I seems as if the Striped Marlin are on the way north and the conditions have not improved enough for the Blues and Blacks to really take their place yet.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I sure wish we had some consistent Yellowfin action to concentrate on. Instead we have scattered pods of porpoise that only occasionally kick out football size fish and an occasional school that a boat will get on that allows a #80 fish to be hooked up in. I think that there is a strong chance that the number of Purse Seiners working the water near here is having a strong influence on the catch as well. Several boats sighted Purse Seiners setting on schools of fish on the Pacific side in the vicinity of the Golden Gate and the San Jaime Banks this week. I got into a great pod of Dolphin on Tuesday but there were no fish under them. This pod numbered close to a thousand Dolphins but you could not get the boat close to them, they had already be set on by a Seiner and were scared. I found another large pod close to shore, within 1 mile of the beach on the Pacific side and they were working a big school of Sardinas. We stayed with these animals for over an hour and managed only one small 6-pound tuna from them.
.DORADO: There were a lot more Dorado flags flying this week than in past weeks and that is definitely due to the warming water. In the middle of the week a boat found a floating patch of kelp that produced fish for every boat visiting it, all fish in the 20-30 pound class, and a lot of boats were able to get three to five fish each off of the paddy. The first few boats to get there loaded up and caught fish far in the excess of the legal limit, but like they said, if we don’t catch them, the long liners will. Boats that visited the kelp patch the second day were rewarded with fish as well, but after being hit by 20 or so boats the fish left the area. Close to the beach there was fairly consistent action on smaller Dorado in the 3-8 pound range but no large fish. There were scattered fish caught by boats trolling for Marlin and the largest I heard of was in the low 50-pound class.
WAHOO: The patch of kelp that produced all the Dorado also delivered a few Wahoo in the 20-25 pound class to the first few boats to get there. Other than that the Wahoo action was a bit on the slow side with only an occasional fish reported by the fleets.
INSHORE: Inshore fishing was very inconsistent this week with most of the action moving far up the coast toward the East Cape and warmer water. The water on the Pacific side had been producing Roosterfish and Amberjack as well as some nice grouper, but the shift in the wind and change in water conditions really moved things around. There were Ladyfish in plenty though, and at least there was something to put a bend in the rod.
NOTES: It was a much better week to be golfing (if you know how to play the game, and my results this week show I need some big-time lessons) than to be out fishing. Hopefully water conditions will change again and the fishing will improve. Until then, have another beer and watch the fishing channels on T.V Saturday mornings! Oh, by the way, the government captured and confiscated two commercial fishing boats this week, one of the reported to be using gill nets to capture Marlin and another running a long line within the 15-mile limit (see the link below). When the crews left the boats at the dock after being brought in, they turned off all the freezers and the fish turned rotten. That’s a win-lose situation.
http://www.billfish.org/new/NewsArticle.asp?ArticleID=60
Until next week, Tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 36
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 25, 2007 - 6:58 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
June 18-25, 2007
WEATHER: It was so nice this week, no hot weather, just daytime highs in the mid 80’s and nighttime lows in the low to mid 70’s. We had the wind start to blow from the west during the middle of the week and that cooled things off a bit as well. We had mostly sunny skies with an overcast morning now and then, burning off mid-day.
WATER: On the Cortez side of the Cape the water cooled off a lot between the Cape and San Jose. Cold water, as low as 63 degrees on the satellite shots but registering 62 on my boat ran from right in front of the marina and up the Cortex and across the Gorda Banks extending out past the 1150 spot. The water was green and did not get blue until you got outside of the 1,000-fathom line. On the Pacific side things warmed up quite a bit with water temps on the San Jaime and the Golden Gate banks in the 73-75 range with just a tinge of green to it.
BAIT: Almost all the bait this week was Pacific greenback mackerel at the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The most consistent are this week was at the doughnut, 20 miles to the east at the 1,000-fathom curve. That is where they were concentrated and a few boats did as well as two or three fish a day with one boat reporting releasing five fish. There was a nice size Swordfish reported caught this week as well by one of the fleet boats, supposedly in the #350 range. I released one small Blue, estimated at #110 on Thursday as well as a couple of Stripers at the doughnut area and released one more on Saturday. The water was choppy with the westerly winds and northwesterly swells but even with that there were very few Striped Marlin reported up and tailing down swell.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I have almost given up on the Yellowfin this year. I keep going out and looking for them but have not had a lot of success. I keep hearing of a boat now and then getting lucky with a fish or two in the 50-100 pound class in among the black porpoise, and a few boats getting into fish in the 20 pound class among the white-belly porpoise, but I have not been able to find any of these fish myself. No sashimi for me this week!
DORADO: There were a few fish to 50 pounds caught this week and a few boat reported on the radio of catching three or four in the 10-20 pound class. Most of them were found at the temp-color break along the 1,000-fathom curve and a few were reported from up north along the Inman Bank area.
WAHOO: I heard of one small Wahoo caught this week form a source I trust along with a few radio reports of scattered fish at the 1,000-fathom line.
INSHORE: There were nice Pargo found in the rocks along the points on the Pacific side as well as up in the Punts Gorda-Los Frailles area. The Yellowtail bite dropped off when the water turned, as did the Roosterfish bite.
NOTES: Humboldt Squid to 50 pounds were found due south of the Cape mid week and I baited a Swordfish estimated at #300 in the same area, along the 1,000-fathom line. We spotted this fish jumping. Overall the fishing has been slow this past week, I went out five days and was skunked on two of them catching three Humbolts on one trip, two Stripers and a small Blue on another and one Striper on the fifth trip. With the fishing slow, my golf game got a workout and with a very hazy brain today I managed to turn out a very non-respectable 103 (lots of margaritas lass ninth, don’t-cha-know!).
http://www.billfish.org/new/NewsArticle.asp?ArticleID=60
Until next week, Tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 35
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 18, 2007 - 8:25 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
June 11-17, 2007
WEATHER: We had a quick and thankfully short reminder of what to expect later in the year early in the week. Waking up to early morning temperatures in the mid 80’s and muggy air let us appreciate the rest for the week. Monday and Tuesday were a bit on the mid-summer side of hot but the rest of the week was great with nighttime lows in the low to mid 70’s and the daytime highs in the mid 80’s. There was a light wind from the northwest early in the week and on Sunday we had a switch to winds from the East. All in all it was a great week on the weather front.
WATER: The Cortez side of the Cape continued to be the warmer side with water up off of the East Cape around the 80-degree mark. Closer to home and between the 95 spot and the Punta Gorda area the water was cooler with most of it being in the high 70’s early in the week. During the middle of the week a combination of extreme tides and shifting wind dropped the water temperatures across the area by an easy 5 or more degrees and put the fish into shock mode. Surface conditions remained good but the water cooled off and became very green in most of the areas that we had been getting good fish. At the end of the week the cleanest water was from the 1150 area on the Sea of Cortez and out to the Cabrilla Seamount and outside the 1,000-fathom line on the Cortez side. On the Pacific the water remained cold and green almost everywhere, with water temperatures in the sub-70’s to as low as 65 degrees.
BAIT: As is normal for this time of year there was a good mix of Caballito and Mackerel available from the bait boats at the normal $2 per bait. Sardinas were available as well and they were quality baits, most in the 3-4 inch size. In the San Jose area you could get them for $20 a bucket but here in Cabo they averaged $25 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Ouch, the water turned over and the fish moved offshore to the Cabrilla Seamount area. You could go out there and find fish but they were in temperature shock (sounds as good a reason as any) and getting them to bite was very difficult. That was just about the only area there were Marlin in any numbers. The area around the Vinorama Canyon produced some fish as did the area within 3 miles of the beach on the Cortez side, but the bite in these locations was early in the week. Also early in the week and continuing slightly into the end of the week was the sighting of Swordfish on the surface. A few of them were hooked up and a couple of them brought in. My friend Martin (Kiwi) caught a #200 fish on Wednesday.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We did finally have some Yellowfin show up this week but they were all small football fish, and not in any great numbers. On Saturday there were some enormous bait balls of Sardinas in the vicinity of the 95 spot and the small Yellowfin and Skipjack Tuna were harassing them all day long. Farther offshore in the 15 mile range there were small scattered pods of Dolphin holding the small Tuna under them as well. No one scored high numbers but there were fish caught by boats that put in the time and effort. Considering how slow the fishing was for everything else, getting a few Yellowfin was nice.
DORADO: The sudden change in water temperature and clarity had the Dolphin on the run but a few boats were able to get three of four fish on Saturday by finding the Frigate bids working the Sardinas. Using very small lures in Green-silver to imitate the Sardinas they were able to get small skipjack hooked up and slow trolling them in the same area brought in the Dorado.
WAHOO: I had no reports of Wahoo this week.
INSHORE: The inshore fishing had been great but when the currents changed and the clarity and temperature dropped the fishing did as well. There were still a few Sierra caught on the Pacific side but the green water made fishing for the Yellowtail difficult at best and Roosterfish were almost non-existent.
NOTES: June has always been a difficult month to figure out as things are in constant flux. This year is no different and we can only hope things settle down soon. Until next week, tight lines and give Ottmar Liebert a listen to. One of my favorite guitarists and hopefully to become one of yours.
http://www.billfish.org/new/NewsArticle.asp?ArticleID=60
Until next week, Tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 34
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 11, 2007 - 8:11 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
June 3-10, 2007
WEATHER: Once again we had a beautiful week go by with our daytime temperatures in the high 80’s to low 90’s and the nighttime lows averaging 70 degrees. We had one mid-week day with high winds but for the most part the wind was a minor consideration either blowing itself out by 6 am or not picking up until 1 pm. No rain of course and only a scattering of clouds this week.
WATER: The Cortez side of the Cape remained much warmer than the Pacific side with the average temperature being 76 degrees up to 15 miles offshore. The 95 and 1150 spots were the outer boundaries where the temperature dropped to 70 degrees or less and the warm water continued up into the East Cape region well offshore. On the Pacific side the water was much cooler with a finger of cold water from the beach inside the Golden Gate bank down to Cabo extending out to the southwest across the San Jaime Bank. This water was in the mid to low 60’s and very green. Surface conditions were good on the Cortez side of the Cape with small 2-4 foot swells most of the week with no wind o top of them. We did have one say of 4-6 foot swells (made the surfers happy) but with no wind they were not very noticeable. On the Pacific side the afternoon or early morning winds made things very interesting and most of the boats avoided working the cold green water.
BAIT: As is normal for this time of year there was a good mix of Caballito and Mackerel available from the bait boats at the normal $2 per bait. Sardinas were available as well and they were quality baits, most in the 3-4 inch size. In the San Jose area you could get them for $20 a bucket but here in Cabo they averaged $25 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: On a good note, the Striped Marlin have shown up close to home. I fished on Tuesday for Marlin and it was great, we never went farther than 5 miles for the marina and released one Striped Marin estimated at 120 pounds and one small Blue Marlin estimated at 170 pounds as well as seeing a lot of fish free jumping and sleeping on the surface. The one day mid-week when the wind blew like a banshee resulted in very few fish but for most of the days this week the Marlin were there, and in numbers. Best bets were slow trolling live baits or throwing live bait to tailing or sleeping fish. As well as Marlin, there were still quite a few Swordfish being seen, and a few caught and brought to the dock. They were also being seen close to home and a few of the boats have made plans for overnight Swordfish trips for the coming week. I’ll let you know if things work out for them.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin Tuna were just about the only slow fishery this week. There were a few fish found but they were small fish in the 10-15 pound range. Most of them were caught on the Pacific side in the rough water and there were no great numbers found, for the most part it was a picky catch. There were good fish reported from boats fishing the East Cape region 30 miles off the beach, but that is too much of a run for our local boats. Hopefully these fish will move into our area soon.
DORADO: The Dorado bite has continued to pick up and the numbers are increasing every week as the water warms. For the most part the fish are small with a large number of fish less than 6 pounds reported (please release these month old fish, they will be eating size soon) but there were still good numbers of fish in the 20-35 pound range being found. The Cortez side of the Cape in the warmer water was where most of the larger fish were found but waters close to home had larger numbers albeit the smaller fish. Small lures in bright colors trolled between 7 ½ and 9 knots did well on the Dorado as well as slow trolled live baits.
WAHOO: There were still Wahoo reported this week but they were still small ones, in the 20-30 pound class for the most part. Once the water warms up a bit there should be more action. The fish that were found and caught were from the Punta Gorda area as well as on the temperature break at the 95 and 1150 areas.
INSHORE: Inshore fishing has been hot this week with good numbers of Sierra continuing to hold angers attention on both the Pacific and the Sea of Cortez side of the Cape. The majority of the cooler water fish, Sierra and Yellowtail have been found between the Pedregal and the Lighthouse between 50 and 200 meters from the shore. Large schools of Sierra have given anglers all they can handle on live bait and hootchies as well as small jointed Rapallas. Slow trolled Mackerel have resulted in nice Yellowtail to 35 pounds, but a lot of Sierra bite-offs have occurred due to the use of light Mono leaders needed to get the Yellowtail to bite. In close to eh beach, the rocks have produced consistent action on Dogtooth Snapper to 20 pounds as well as Red Snapper to 8 pounds.
NOTES: The fishing continues to pick up as the water warms up offshore and meanwhile the inshore action is just great, everyone is having fun! If things continue this way there can be smiles on everyone’s face. I have hope for the Tuna showing up soon as that is the only thing we are really lacking at the moment. So far this year I have released two Blue Marlin and that is a sign that the water is warming and things are getting better! Fingers crossed for tight lines for everyone out there. Until next week!
http://www.billfish.org/new/NewsArticle.asp?ArticleID=60
Until next week, Tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 33
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 04, 2007 - 8:24 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
May 28-June 2, 2007
WEATHER: After the warming trend last week I was expecting things to get really hot this week. The arrival of that high-pressure system was a good intro to the temperatures to expect later in the year, and without the humidity. At the beginning of this week the warmest morning I recorded was 84 degrees before the sun came up, and 98 degrees during the middle of the day. At the end of the week the high-pressure system had moved on and we were back to having our morning lows in the low 60’s and our daytime highs around the mid 80’s. Of course we had no rain.
WATER: There was absolutely no doubt that the water was warmer on the Cortez side this week, and clearer also. We were seeing temperatures in the 78-79 degree range from the beach on out to the Cabrillo Seamount. The cleaner water was a band running from the Vinorama Canyon across the Outer Gorda Banks to the 1150 spot, elsewhere it was slightly tinged with green. The Pacific side started out with a push of warm water up the coast but as the week went on that push tapered off a bit and the water temperatures dropped a bit as well. Right now there is a significant temperature break off of the lighthouse and extending to the southwest. On the south side the water is showing a warm 72 degrees. 2 miles farther north it drops to 62 degrees and becomes very green. Surface conditions on both sides of the Cape were great with little surface chop and very light winds, with the exception of Thursday as the edge of the high-pressure system came across us.
BAIT: I really thought that bait would be harder to come by this week since it is the week after the IGFA Offshore Championship and the week of the World Championship Billfish Release Tournament but there was no problem getting all you needed. Of course there were not many Caballito yet, mostly it was Mackerel with a few Mullet at the normal $2 per bait. Up toward San Jose there were some really nice Sardinas in the 3-4 inch size at $25 per bucket, closer to home here at the marina the price was a bit higher with ¾ bucket costing the same.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Probably the best was to describe the fishing for Billfish this week was, in the right place at the right time. Having the full moon this week helped and the bite was definitely tide related with the best bite happening close to the tide change on most days. The Billfish most folks found were the Striped Marlin and while they were out there in good numbers, they were pretty concentrated as well. During the three days of the World Championship Tournament 23 boats were successful in releasing a total of 325 billfish for an average of 5 fish per day per boat, the large majority of which were Striped Marlin. There were a few Sailfish mixed in as well as two reported small Blue Marlin. Most of the action was concentrated up to the north on the Cortez side around the Vinorama Canyon area, the Gorda Banks and the 1150. I had fair luck Monday finding fish on the Pacific side to the south of the lighthouse but the water changed and the fish moved away. Almost all the fish reported released were hooked up on live bait. Light leader seemed to be the way to go, as the fish were a bit leader shy. There has been an abundance of squid in our area and the Marlin have been too full to chase artificials (on average). There were quite a few Swordfish sighted as well (comparatively speaking) and at least once was caught. There were several hookups reported to last between 2 to 6 hours where the fish were lost.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Just as I reported last week, there were some fish found offshore up around the Vinorama area mixed in with Porpoise. They were decent fish in the 35-pound class. Other than that there was not much found in the way of Tuna. A few boats reported finding fish in the greenish water south of the San Jaime area early in the week but those fish did not stick around.
DORADO: The Dorado bite has started to pick up a bit with a few more fish showing up in the catch’s every week. We had two on Wednesday while fishing up to the north in the Sea of Cortez in 79-degree water using live bait. They are not large fish yet with the biggest I heard of in the 35-pound class, but it is a definite improvement and hopefully a sign of things to come.
WAHOO: I was amazed that I did not hear of more Wahoo being caught during this Championship Billfish Tournament. Most of the boats were fishing in areas that traditionally hold Wahoo this time of year. A few were caught but they were not large fish, mostly in the 30-pound class, and on artificial lures.
INSHORE: Inshore has still been good for Sierra to 8 pounds with a lot of boats getting double digit numbers of fish on the Pacific side of the Cape. The Roosterfish have begun to show as well with some Pangas reporting up to 10 releases in a days fishing, and the fish have been a decent 10-20 pounds. At the end of the week there was a reported bit on Dogtooth Snapper (Pargo) on the Pacific side up in the rocks at the points.
NOTES: There have been many protests locally this week about the Shark Norma 029. Several winning teams in the World Championship Billfish Release Tournament donated part of their winnings to the Billfish Foundation to help fight this law. For more information on the shark longline fishing law, you can go to this website for updates.
http://www.billfish.org/new/NewsArticle.asp?ArticleID=60
Until next week, Tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 32
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 28, 2007 - 6:29 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
May 21-27, 2007
WEATHER: What a change seven days can make! We started this week with our evening and early morning temperatures in the high 50’s, specifically on Monday morning it was 58 degrees here at my house, and there was a lot of wind with it. For the next three days I had on long jeans and a light jacket every morning. This morning, Sunday, I got up and it was 78 degrees at 4:30 am here at the house! Yesterday it was registering 94 degrees downtown and there was just a light breeze out of the west. Now the skies are clear, the weather great and it feels like a non-humid summer!
WATER: Along with a change in the weather we saw a great change in the water as well. On the Pacific side early in the week there was water as cold as 58 degrees according to the sea-surface charts, the water was too choppy and green for us to go that direction and check it out. On the Cortez side of the Cape we had much warmer water, on occasion as warm as 81 degrees up around the Punta Gorda area. At the end of th4e week it appears as if the warm water is starting to wrap around the Cape and intrude into the Pacific as we are reading temperatures in the range of 76 degrees encroaching onto the southern edge of the San Jaime Banks. Just to the north of there the water quickly cools to 67 degrees and colder with a fairly well defined temperature break. On the Cortez side of the Cape the 80-81 degree water runs right up against the coast, extending out no more than five miles from the Punta Gorda area to Cabo, outside of this area it is just a bit cooler at around 74 degrees with no defined break. The warmer water is the blue water so most of the action we have seen has been within 5 miles of the beach.
BAIT: Bait became a bit scarce this week, and the IGFA Offshore Championship Tournament boats received the first pick for the most part. With the water warming up quickly Pacific Mackerel has become a commodity much in demand and supplies were scarce. Four days of tournament fishing put quite the dent in available supplies, and with three days of tournament fishing starting Monday you can expect things to remain on the lean side. Most of the fish were in the 1/3-pound range and the cost remained at $2 per bait. There were a lot of Caballito available early in the week but with the full moon coming up soon they have become hard to get as well. Sardines, nice sized ones, were available at $25 a scoop from the bait boats up in the Palmilla area.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: As a change of pace there were some Swordfish hooked up close to home this week. I had confirmed reports of two fish, one of them fought for 6 ½ hours and another for 2 ½ hours and both of them ended up getting away. More were sighted but refused to eat. I managed to catch and release my first Blue Marlin of the year at the inner Gorda Bank, a little guy of about 130 pounds. On the radio I hear reports of some Blues caught up in the East Cape area in the warmer water so more of them should be arriving soon. The just completed IGFA Offshore Championship Tournament had a total of 62 teams fishing for four days and resulted in the release of a total of 325 marlin for an average of 1.3 marlin per day, per boat. That is a bit slow by our standards but it just goes to show that the bite has been a bit off for the stripers. There were a lot of tailing fish early in the week due to the wind, but later on it was a matter of searching for feeders and being there at the right time. There were concentrations of fish up at the Vinorama area but they scattered mid-week and seemed to move in closer to Cabo. The bite happened for a lot of boats in the area of the 1150 spot and that was right at the edge of the warm blue water and the slightly cooler green water and at the end of the week it seemed as if the fish had moved in even closer with a lot of tailing fish seen off of Punta Ballena.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: At the end of the week there were some fish found offshore up around the Vinorama area mixed in with Porpoise. They were decent fish in the 35-pound class. Other than that there was not much found in the way of Tuna.
DORADO: Dorado are still an occasional catch with a few small fish being found in close to shore in the warmer water. With the influx of 80+-degree water we hope to see more of them soon.
WAHOO: There were a few scattered Wahoo in the 20-30 pound class reported this week from the Punta Gorda area. With the upcoming full moon on the 31st we will probably be catching a few more.
INSHORE: Inshore has still been good for Sierra to 8 pounds with a lot of boats getting double digit numbers of fish on the Pacific side of the Cape. The Roosterfish have begun to show as well with some Pangas reporting up to 10 releases in a days fishing, and the fish have been a decent 10-20 pounds. At the end of the week there was a reported bit on Dogtooth Snapper (Pargo) on the Pacific side up in the rocks at the points.
NOTES: The IGFA Offshore Championship Tournament is now over and starting Monday is the World Championship Billfish Release Tournament. http://www.wcbrt.com/ I am fishing in that one so will be pretty busy this coming week. I golfed this morning and finally broke the magic 100 mark with a score of 98; maybe I can buy a good driver now! Our local protest against the Shark Norma #029 was given a ½ page in the L.A.Times along with a photo of the boats in the marina protesting the law just recently passed and signed by the President. For more information on the shark longline fishing law, you can go to this website for updates.
http://www.billfish.org/new/NewsArticle.asp?ArticleID=60
Until next week, Tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 31
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 21, 2007 - 7:55 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
May 14-20, 2007
WEATHER: O.K., we have had partly cloudy skies for most of the week but as we came closer to the end of the week the winds picked up and the skies started to clear a bit. As of this morning, we had an early morning cool temperature of 58 degrees here at the house, yesterday our low was at 64 degrees. One of the reasons for the lowering temperatures has been a strong wind from the Pacific, it is always a few degrees cooler, often as much as ten degrees when we have the northwesterly wind coming through town. Our daytime highs have ranged from a high of 96 degrees top a low of 82 degrees, again depending on the wind.
WATER: Water temperatures of 64 degrees on the Pacific side of the Cape combined with green water and rough conditions have made the Pacific an untouched region for most of the week. Immediately to the south of the Cape things warmed up a bit to 70 degrees but the water has still been a bit off-color. If you headed due east from Cabo you had temperatures that were consistently in the 74 degree range with just a tinge of green and if you went up the coast on the Cortez side things warmed up and blued out a lot. From the coast out to a distance of five miles from Cabo to San Jose the water was an occasional 80 degrees (mostly in the 78 degree range) and blue, outside of that it dropped to 74 degrees. Once you got past the Punta Gorda area it warmed to 80+ degrees and became a deep blue for the most part.
BAIT: Smaller Mackerel were the normal $2 per bait, there were few if any Caballito around and there were some large Mullet at the $2 per bait price. A few bait Pangas were selling Sardinas brought down from San Jose at $20 a scoop, but these went quick to the fishing Pangas, and if you wanted Sardinas you needed to make arrangements in advance.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I almost don’t know what to say about the fishing this past week, not just for Billfish but also for all of the species. I had a friend spend three days fishing the East Cape area offshore and only catch one small Blue Marlin, estimated at #100. I spent the day fishing on Thursday and had one unidentified knockdown out at the Cabrillo Seamount. A couple of other friend went skunked as well on various days this week. Then I had a couple go on a Panga yesterday and land a #200 pound Striped Marlin yesterday at the last minute, right in front of Cabo. The Marlin bite is off, way off, and I am not sure of the reason. The fish that have been found have been in the warm water boundary from Cabo to San Jose out 5 miles and then again up to the Punta Gorda and Vinorama area within five miles of the beach. There have been fish there but they have not been real hungry. We have a couple of release tournaments coming up at the end of the month and there are a few teams pre-fishing for them. One of these teams reported releasing 7 Striped Marlin up around the Vinorama area.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Who knows? A few fish were caught this week but there was no consistency to location or method, one day they were there and the next day they were gone. Most of the fish that were caught were in the football size range, I did not hear of anything larger than 35 pounds. Where-o-where have these fish gone?
DORADO: Just like last week, there were some small Dorado found close to the beach and a few scattered large ones off shore. I had one the size of my shoe come out from under a turtle and strike a swivel, when we turned around and dropped a live bait back the bait was bigger than the Dorado!
WAHOO: There were a few scattered Wahoo in the 20-30 pound class reported this week but I did not see any of the fish myself. Who Knows?
INSHORE: We are still finding some Sierra inshore on the Cortez side and a good day will result in 6-10 fish in the 6 pound class. A few Yellowtails are still being caught off of the arch and the lighthouse on the Pacific side, but you have to get both the bait and the hooked fish past the Sea Lions. Up around the Punta Gorda area the bottom fishing has been fair, but still nothing to write home about.
NOTES: Fishing this past week left a lot to be desired. All right, let me be honest, it sucked. There were a lot of boats coming in skunked, and knowing the fishing, listening to the radio and seeing what is going on out there, I find it difficult to believe that some fleets are still reporting outstanding action. Honestly, there are a few boats that have done well on one day, but I don’t know of any of them that have been hammering the fish on every trip. I hope things change quickly as we have the four day IGFA Offshore Tournament happening this week and then the World Championship Release Tournament right afterward. Our fingers are crossed, I hope yours are as well!
As for our shark longline lining law, you can go to this website for updates.
http://www.billfish.org/new/NewsArticle.asp?ArticleID=60 |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 30
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 30, 2007 - 7:36 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
April 23-29, 2007
WEATHER: Every week is a surprise this time of year. While things were just perfect on the weather front early in the week with nighttime lows in the low 70’s and daytime highs in the high 70’s in the middle of the week that changed. Starting about Thursday the wind here at the Cape picked up and cooled things down quite a bit. On Friday morning it was howling here at home and the thermometer showed 59 degrees. In the afternoon it rose to 78 degrees. Here on Sunday morning the wind finally died down and things have returned to normal. On course we still had mostly sunny skies all week and no rain!
WATER: Surface conditions on the Pacific side of the Cape were nice at the beginning of the week and very choppy at the end of the week due to the wind I mentioned above. Most of the fishing was done on the Cortez side of the Cape anyway due to the color of the water on the Pacific. For the most part the temperature was in the 64-68 degree range and very off color, with the water close to shore almost pea soup green. On the Cortez side of the Cape things were quite a bit better. The wind that was coming from the northwest had little effect on the water and from five miles past the arch, almost at the 95 spot and continuing eastward, the water to the north was warm, in the 71-74 degree range and most definitely cleaner.
BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito this week at the usual $2 each. Some of these Mackerel were small ones and it was nice to have a selection. There were also plenty of Sardinas this week at the normal $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Most of the Striped Marlin action moved a bit farther to the northeast as the cool, green water pushed the bait around. The best action occurred within five miles of the shoreline between Santa Maria beach and San Jose with cleaner, warmer water giving up better catches. Most of the fleet was able to get a hook into at least a couple of fish per trip and there were a lot of three and four fish days, as well as a few reported 10 fish released days. Plenty of fish were being spotted on the surface but they were not in a real feeding mood. Boats fish right along side each other could have totally different results, depending on the mood of the fish they were tossing bait at. Drop-back baits accounted for about half of the fish, about a quarter of the fish came on jig strikes and the other were caught on thrown live bait. Once again slow trolled dead baits were working very well; with the marlin full they seemed to be able to slurp down dead bait without having to work hard for it. The Marlin were averaging 110 pounds with a few larger fish in the 150-pound class.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I did see a few Yellowfin flags this week but I have no idea where the fish were found as I could not find anyone that had actually caught one! Hopefully this situation will change soon.
DORADO: A few scattered fish on the Cortez side of the Cape up around the Gorda Banks area were all I heard about.
WAHOO: As with the Yellowfin and the Dorado, there were a few Wahoo caught but I have no information on where or how. For some reason it is difficult to find anyone who actually caught these fish, I am just seeing a few flags flying, and on the Wahoo, some of these flags could be for Sierra.
INSHORE: There are still plenty of Yellowtail at the arch but the Sea Lions have been harvesting more of them than the anglers have been, plus those guys have been taking the live baits as well. Most of the guys have given up on the arch and have been working the rocky points on the Cortez side of the Cape for these tasty fish. Both live bait and using yo-yo jigs have worked. The Sierra action has continued, but not quite as wide open as a few weeks ago. The average catch now is about a dozen fish per trip along with scattered Jack Crevalle. There have been a lot of Mullet showing up in the Marina so it won’t be long before the larger Roosterfish start to show. Right now the average size on these guys is about 10 pounds with a few in the 30-pound range being caught every day. The big story around the Marina this week was a boat that brought in a 100 + pound Cabrilla from just off of the arch. That is one old fish for sure.
NOTES: I am listening to Joe Cocker again this week, Jimmy got me hooked last week as I had not listened to the “Organic” album in a long time, it has to be one of his best ever, released in 1996 by Sony Music. Striped Marlin were the fish of the week, no doubt about it. I hope to get up to southern California in the next three weeks to pick up my Jeep and tow it down, do a little shopping while I am there. Depending on when I go and return, I may be missing a report, but I’ll let you know. Meanwhile, have a great time if you manage to get out on the water and remember, don’t kill your limit, limit your kill! Until next week, tight lines! |
George Landrum (Captg)
New member
Username: Captg
Post Number: 29
Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 16, 2007 - 7:53 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
April 9-15, 2007
WEATHER: We had great weather this week. Not too cold, not too warm, just right! Our nighttime lows were in the mid 60’s while the daytime highs were in the mid 80’s, we stay pretty evenly 20 degrees difference most of the time. A little cloud cover but only later in the week. No rain of course, but a little of that would be nice.
WATER: We really had some big swells this week, at least early on and until mid-week, things died down a bit at the end. There was no wind to speak of later in the week and it appeared that most of it was close to home; once you got a ways up on the Pacific side it just laid down. Our water temperature has been a bit cool right in front of town as we had a cold plume pushing from the Cape toward the south for most of the week, but by the weekend we were at 68-70 degrees everywhere within charter range.
BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito this week at the usual $2 each. I didn’t hear of any Sardinas available.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Marlin bite at the San Jaime Bank dropped off and the fish moved a bit. During the middle and early part of the week there was good action on the edge of the cold-water plume atop the 95 spot, a lot of boats were getting two to five Stripers a day there. On the Pacific side the bite moved up to the Golden Gate Bank, and there were rumors that the Finger Bank was starting to produce a lot of fish once again. Most of the action with the Striped Marlin was on bait, and at the Golden Gate it was on deep drifted live bait, elsewhere slow trolled dead bait got most of the attention.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Well, we still have not had a really strong appearance of school Tuna, but there has been some action on the San Jaime and the Golden Gate. Early in the week there were Tuna in the 60-100 pound range popping up at the Jaime, but the fish were spooky. A few boats got fish but more were seen than were hooked. Later in the week, around Thursday, there were nicer fish showing up at the Golden Gate. Once again they were appearing on the surface at infrequent intervals, but a few boats were able to catch some while using 50# flouro-carbon leader and live bait dropped deep. These same boats were loosing lots of rigs due to cut off’s from small Mako sharks and brief fights with Striped Marlin that wore through the leaders, but that was the way to get the Tuna to bite. Most of the fish were over #100 and I heard of a few in the #200 class but never saw one.
DORADO: I did not see a yellow flag flying from any outrigger this week, unless it was on a boat that had not gone out in a long while.
WAHOO:I heard of a few Wahoo caught this week, but have no information on who, what, when, where or how. Just full of good information, aren’t I?
INSHORE: Sierra fishing was wide open this week with later in the week being better. A couple of Pangas were coming in after five hours with 40 fish! Fishing for other species was slow, but with Sierra action like that, who cared?
NOTES: Almost no Whale action remains, there are still a lot of small Mako sharks around, I expect there to | |
