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Fishing Reports for Local Area - Location |
   
darrell primrose (Wahoo_tooya)
New member Username: Wahoo_tooya
Post Number: 2 Registered: 6-2010
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 2:38 pm: | |
wahoo are going crazy in cabo--and east cape --it early in the season but red rum sportfishing is bringing in 1-3 per boat !! best lure is Ballyhood Lures ''wahoo express'' www.ballyhood.com |
   
darrell primrose (Wahoo_tooya)
New member Username: Wahoo_tooya
Post Number: 1 Registered: 6-2010
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 2:35 pm: | |
wahoo are going crazy cab and east cape seems a bit early in the season but its happening -- best lure to atke is the Ballyhood lures - ''wahoo express lure www.ballyhood.com |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 160 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 25, 2010 - 7:36 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report January 18-24, 2010 WEATHER: Our highs this week were in the mid 80’s and the low we experienced was 59 degrees, enough to require a light sweater in the early mornings and in the evenings. We had mostly sunny skies and some strong winds at the end of the week. We did have a bit of rain on Thursday night and during the day on Friday, but no downpours. WATER: Water temperatures on the Pacific side of the Cape this week remained in the 73-74 degree range while well offshore 40+ miles to the southwest there was an area of 76 degree water. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water was several degrees warmer at 75-76 degrees. The water on the Pacific side became very rough, almost un-fishable in the later part of the week as the southern end of the frontal system that struck the U.S. west coast came across our area bringing strong winds and rough seas. With the Cape protecting the Sea of Cortez from the strongest winds the water there was in much better shape with the seas beginning to get choppy in the early afternoon each day. BAIT: Mackerel and Caballito were available at the normal $3 per bait. FISHING: BILLFISH: Fishing for Striped Marlin was spotty this week, the success ratio was down as the fish were difficult to find, and once found were not in the feeding mood. This, combined with the rough seas made most of the boats try to target other species. One friend of mine did see, early in the week, several Blue Marlin and a Black Marlin feeding on a school of Dorado just off of the lighthouse on the Pacific side. He reported that the fish looked to be between 600 and 800 pounds but were focused on the schooled Dorado and would not touch what he had out, and even if they had, his #30 gear would have not been able to handle them. A few other boats reported seeing an occasional large Marlin on the Cortez side as well, but there were no reported hook-ups. YELLOWFIN TUNA: There have been some smaller school sized fish found on occasion along the ridge between the Golden Gate and the San Jaime Bank early in the week before the wind began to blow, but since then the Tuna catch has been pretty much confined to an occasional hook-up on the Gorda Banks. There was a decent bite for one day around the 1150 spot but those fish had moved on by the next day, and they were just larger than footballs anyway. DORADO: We had some decent action on Dorado along the Cortez coastline between the Santa Maria Bay and Red Hill just off the beach. The fish averaged 12 pounds and while there were good numbers to be found early and mid-week, at the end of the week the fish had moved elsewhere. Watching the boats return Saturday afternoon there were not many yellow flags flying. WAHOO: Still around and still biting, really amazing that boats are still getting Wahoo this time of year! There was a decent bite on fish averaging 30 pounds in the same area the Dorado were found, probably feeding on the same baitfish. While there were no big numbers, there were about two dozen caught each day. A few boats targeted them and were able to come in with two or three per trip. INSHORE: With the strong winds and big swells almost all the action took place on the Cortez side of the Cape. The action was fair for Sierra most days but a few days the fishing really shined as when the schools were found the anglers were able to get limits on fish averaging 5 pounds fairly quickly. There was sporadic action on other near-shore species such as snapper and grouper with the action really spread out. NOTES: Overall I have to say that we can’t refer to this past week as one when “You should have been here” as the fishing action was sporadic at best and occasionally just bad. The heavy, strong winds had a lot to do with it as about half the week the fish on the Pacific side were unreachable. Hopefully the situation will return to normal quickly. This weeks report was written to the music of the Bryan Flynn Band, once again back in Cabo and playing at the Cabo Lounge and at Tanga-Tanga. Brian will be playing at the Talketna, Alaska Folk Festival this year (how is southern rock folk music?) so if you get a chance, check him out. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 159 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 18, 2010 - 7:10 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report January 11-17, 2010 WEATHER: We had great weather this week even if it was a little on the cool side for me. Our daytime highs never rose above 82 degrees where I was and I saw a low of 60 degrees on Saturday morning. We had a couple of days with blustery winds on Thursday and Friday but then it settled back down. We had mostly sunny skies with no rain for the week. WATER: 40 miles to the southwest has been an area of warm water, 76 degrees with a solid appearing edge, but I know several boats that went to the area and could not find a really defined separation. Elsewhere on the Pacific side the water was averaging 72 degrees with swells at 3-6 feet with a decent amount of chop during our blustery days. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water was a bit warmer at 73-74 degrees and some swells from the east at 1-3 feet. BAIT: The normal Mackerel and Caballito were on hand for $3 per biat and there were Sardinas in San Jose at $25 a scoop. FISHING: BILLFISH: Once again there were Striped Marlin caught but not in any numbers. The most flags I saw on any one boat this week for Billfish was two, but I did talk with a captain who said that on Saturday he had released two Striped Marlin and a small Black Marlin. Both of these fish were found close to home, as were most of the billfish found this week. A few boats went to the Golden Gate and Finger Banks to check out the activity and reported that there was no bait to be found either place, but reports from boats transiting the area between Mag Bay and Cabo have reported good numbers of fish midway, so hopefully soon they will appear here. YELLOWFIN TUNA: There have been some fish in the 20-30 pound class found to the south of the San Jaime Banks this week, and there have been reports of some very nice fish occasionally appearing to the north of the Golden Gate, but they have not been biting anything offered and disappear very quickly. The smaller fish were found with the white bellied porpoise and only the first few boats on the scene have been having any luck. DORADO: These have been the fish of the week and have saved quite a few charters this week. I am surprised that they are still around with the water as cool as it is, but most boats are still able to get a few in the fish box by the end of the day. The Dorado have been scattered and watching the frigate birds has been the best way to find them. WAHOO: Again these fish continue to surprise us. First that there are still some out there with this cool water and second that they are still willing to bite! There were not a lot caught this week but I know of at least one that was 60 pounds or so, it was dropped into the marina while being held for photos, and then they could not find it! INSHORE: the bite has been hit or miss on the Sierra, when you found them the bite was really good, but otherwise it might end up being just a couple of fish in the box. There are still a few small roosterfish being caught and I had a report yesterday of a couple of small yellowtail being caught up by Migraino beach. Some decent snapper and grouper are starting to show up in the fish wells also. NOTES: Whales, cool water, great weather and good football, it’s been a nice week, now if the Striped Marlin would just show up in numbers things would be perfect! This weeks report was written to the music of Boz Scaggs on his 1994 Virgin Records release “Some Change”. Until next week, tight lines |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 158 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 11, 2010 - 9:38 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report January 4-10, 2010 WEATHER: It seems as if we have settled into the winter weather fairly well as for the past month we have been consistently in the low 60’s at night and the mid 80’s during the day. This past week had us happy with mostly sunny skies and light winds. WATER: There were no large swells this week; everywhere you went it was an average of 2-3 feet on the Pacific and 1-3 feet on the Cortez side. Along the beach on the Pacific side it was an average of 77 degrees with an occasional spot of 76-degree water. On the Cortez side it was a little cooler with a cool area from just to the north of Cabo all the way up to San Jose where the water was 76 degrees. BAIT: Caballito were still the most common bait available but there were a few Mackerel to be found, all at the normal $3 per bait. There were Sardinas up in the Palmilla area at $25 a scoop. FISHING: BILLFISH: I heard of a Black Marlin in the #450 range being caught at the very beginning of the week between the 95 spot and the 1150 area but the larger Marlin were few and far between. As the water continues to cool I expect the numbers to reduce even further, but as long as there are large baits in the area there is a chance at a Blue or Black Marlin. The bite on the Striped Marlin has been very sporadic this week as one day the bite is on and the next day it is off. The favorite and best producing area continues to be from the lighthouse on the Pacific side to the lighthouse on the Cortez side. Boats that have been drifting with baits deep have had most of the luck, as it seem the fish are feeding deep. Fish on the troll have been caught, but not in the numbers as on deep drifted live bait. The expected action at the Finger and Golden Gate Banks has yet to happen, and it may be a while before it does. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin fishing this week was a repeat of last week. Football fish were the fish most often caught but there were a few boats that got into fish in the 30-40 pound range. All Yellowfin were few and far between this week but the Pacific side between the Golden Gate and the San Jaime Bank seemed to produce more than other areas, at least areas that were reachable by the day charters. The Gorda Banks were reported to continue to produce an occasional larger fish, up to 100 pounds, but it was a scratch fishery, nothing steady. DORADO: Our wide open bite on Dorado stopped at the beginning of the week before last and i9t has not gotten any better since then. The cooling waters have had a lot to do with this and I don’t expect the bite to get much better unless you are able to find something floating that has been in the water a long time. Most boats were happy to get several Dorado and a few were lucky to get a half-dozen or so during a trip. We had fly fishermen this week who caught a few on the fly every day after hooking one on the troll, casting to following fish resulted in some nice fish in the 10-18 pound class. Most of this action occurred just up the beach on the Pacific side. WAHOO: There were a couple of days this past week when I heard of boats getting one or two fish a day, most of them coming from the area of Gray Rock, and they were biting regular Marlin lures, or getting hooked on drifted live bait. Other than those two days, there were few Wahoo in our area. I heard of reports of decent catches from the San Jose area though, with some fish on the Gorda Banks and others around the Punta Gorda area. INSHORE: The Sierra bite picked up, but you had to go a ways up the Pacific coast to get into the numbers. From Migraino and to the north the numbers were good with limits happening on a regular basis. There were reports of some small Roosterfish, but the water is starting to cool down and the action on the bigger fish is cooling as well. NOTES: The fishing is still not great, but it has improved over the first week of the year, and hopefully this is a trend that will continue. The whales are giving a good show every day; the weather is great, even if it is cool enough for a sweater in the evening. This weeks report was written to the music of Ernest Ranglin from his album “Grooving”. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 157 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 04, 2010 - 10:21 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report Dec. 28, 2009-Jan. 3, 2010 WEATHER: We started the week with rain, and a good rain at that! For the past few years we seem to have had just a bit of rain once a week for the first 6 weeks of the year, but this Monday we had at least 2 inches, more rain than we received during several close hurricane passes late in the year. No really hard rain, just a steady, hard drizzle and occasional dump. Almost all of it soaked into the ground, but it did put a bit of a damper on the fishing for both Monday and Tuesday. The rest of the week provided us with partly cloudy skies, high temperatures in the mid 80’s and low temperatures in the low 60’s. WATER: Surface conditions on both sides of the Cape were great this week and in an unusual change, we had swells from the east early in the week! They were not large and had little effect on the fishing, but it was a bit disconcerting in the morning. Water temperatures were a bit warmer on the Pacific side most of the week with the water up to Todo Santos averaging 78 degrees except for the 2 miles closest to the beach where it was about a degree cooler. On the Cortez side it was an average of 77 degrees anywhere to the north of an east-west line across the 95 spot. BAIT: Almost all the bait this week was Caballito, which was a bit of a change as normally being close to the full moon causes a drop in the numbers of these baitfish being caught. There were a few Mackerel being caught as well, but most boats were better off trying to catch their own at the lighthouse. Prices remained at $3 per bait and there were reports of some decent sized Sardinas being available up in San Jose. FISHING: BILLFISH: Once again there were a few decent Blue Marlin and Black Marlin reported this week, but nothing as large as the #88 that was caught last week. The fi8sh I saw and heard of were in the #400 class and were found on the Pacific side close to the beach, feeding on Dorado in the case of the Blue Marlin, or on the Outer Gorda Bank feeding on Bollito in the case of the Black Marlin. A few decent sized Sailfish were found as well, and the Striped Marlin bite just shut off. A few Stripers were caught every day, and the best results I saw were three fish in one day, but at least they were close to home, almost on our doorstep. The action was between the lighthouse and the Solmar Hotel and deep drifting with live bait or slow trolling them on top produced the best results. Most boats were getting shut out on the Striped Marlin this week. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Football fish were the fish most often caught but there were a few boats that got into fish in the 30-40 pound range. All Yellowfin were few and far between this week but the Pacific side between the Golden Gate and the San Jaime Bank seemed to produce more than other areas, at least areas that were reachable by the day charters. The Gorda Banks were reported to continue to produce an occasional larger fish, up to 100 pounds, but it was a scratch fishery, nothing steady. DORADO: What happened to the Dorado? One week it was great and then all of a sudden they seemed to disappear! We fished the coastline to Todo Santos on Saturday for one Striped Marlin and one Dorado; earlier in the week it was no problem getting limits on Dorado in that area. There were a few boats that came in with multiple flags flying, but they were not the norm. WAHOO: Our trip Saturday was focused on Wahoo as we trolled the drops along the Pacific side at 9 knots with Marauders and Rapallas but did not receive even one Wahoo strike. We released a Striped Marlin on a Rapalla but did not hear of anyone getting a Wahoo that day. INSHORE: The Sierra action was really good early in the week but by the weekend the bite had really dropped off, most boats were happy to get a few in the box. Small Roosterfish and a few bottom fish rounded out the inshore action for us this week. NOTES: Happy New Year everyone! As you can tell from the report, the fish decided they needed a holiday as well and did not show up for the New Year party in Cabo. Hopefully they show up again soon as we have a lot of people looking forward to bending a rod in the next month! Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 156 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 28, 2009 - 7:12 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report December 21-27, 2009 WEATHER: The low this morning was 61 degrees, a tie for the season so far. Most mornings this week have been in the low 60’s while the daily highs have been in the low to mid 80’s. We had partly cloudy skies to mostly cloudy skies this week, to the point that for a few days it looked as if it might rain on us! At least if it did it was not going to be the frozen stuff. WATER: The surface conditions on the Pacific side of the Cape were good for most of the week but there were a few days when the wind made itself felt. On those days the water on the Cortez side was just fine. The Pacific side has been warmer than the Cortez side this week with water averaging 77-78 degrees while on the Cortez side it has been ranging from 74-77 degrees. Water clarity has been very good with the exception at the end of the week of a large eddy of cold green water that came in across the 1150 area from the southwest. BAIT: Most of the bait this week was Caballito but there were a few Mackerel as well as some mullet to be found. The cost of these larger baits was the normal $3 per bait. On and off you could find Sardinas up in the San Jose area for $25 a scoop. FISHING: BILLFISH: I am really confused about the Marlin fishing so far this season. I know that it is an El Nino year so the water is going to remain warmer longer, but I saw a Blue Marlin that weighed in at just around #800 hanging from the scales on Wednesday! I did not get over there in time to find out where the fish was caught or what it was caught on, but having Blue Marlin remain in our area this long, and be a fairly consistent catch is very unusual for us. Normally we are getting multiples of Striped marlin and the water has cooled to 72 degrees by now, but the water is still warm and the bite on the Striped Marlin has not yet turned on full time. We are getting little spurts of action from time to time, and I am hearing good reports from the private boats that are willing to travel 80+ miles up the coast on the Pacific side, but these fish have not yet made it into our area. The Striped marlin we are getting have been found off of the lighthouse on the Pacific and up just offshore of Los Arcos, both areas where bait is concentrated by the currents. When the bite has happened it has been good, but the past week only had two good days where the boats were releasing 4 or more fish each day, the rest of the days they were lucky to get one to the boat. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Football fish were available this week but they were moving around very rapidly, one day they could be found off of the Golden Gate Bank, the next day they would be absent there but were found 12 miles south of the Cape. With the fish moving around so quickly the action was not consistent, but if you were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time the action was good on fish that ranged in size from 10 to 30 pounds. Some boats only got one, others that were first on the scene managed to get 15. The fish also showed up for a few days off of the Palmilla point and chumming then live baiting with Sardinas was the way to go. There was also some decent action on fish of the football size on top of the inner Gorda Bank and an occasional cow was hooked up on the outer Gorda Bank by boats using downriggers and Bollito as bait. DORADO: Dorado were still caught by almost every boat that fished this week, and those that managed to find something floating in the water really managed to limit out (and sometimes exceed the limit). Most of the action was still close to the shore on the Pacific side in the warmer water and slow trolling live bait worked well. Boats that headed offshore in search of Tuna usually managed to get one or more Dorado out there as well, but the numbers were found in close to the beach. WAHOO: I am amazed that there are still Wahoo being caught! While I reported in last weeks news that there had been no Wahoo caught, I was corrected by a large number of anglers and Captains afterwards, and I myself was aboard a friends boat when we hooked and brought to the side of the boat a Wahoo of around 30 pounds while fishing the inner Gorda Bank. The fish have been scattered but reported from almost all the high spots and along the points, no large numbers on the most part, but a decent pick for boats that rigged a couple of lures for them. INSHORE: As a repeat of last weeks action, again it was a decent bite for Sierra that were averaging 6 pounds with an occasional 8 or 10 pound fish, Roosterfish that averaged 5 pounds with an occasional fish to 30 pounds and some scattered bottom fish found as well. The Striped Marlin bite was not as good close to the beach this week. NOTES: I hope everyone had a great holiday and will have a great New Year celebration as well. Whales are still around and showing off for us, both Gray and Humpbacks. If you want to do any banking, avoid HSBC Bank, they no longer accept a U.S. passport as valid identification and they no longer change dollars to pesos, maybe that is why there is no longer anyone in line there? This report was written to the guitar playing of Larry Carlton on the 1982 MCA release “Sleepwalk”. Until next week, tight lines and happy holidays! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 155 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 21, 2009 - 7:31 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report December 14-20, 2009 WEATHER: We had very even weather this week with the morning lows at 65 degrees and the afternoon highs at 85 degrees with just a little wind in the afternoons. No clouds to speak of this week, really wonderful weather to spend the holidays enjoying, much better than all the snow I see in the news! WATER: Surface conditions on both the Pacific and the Sea of Cortez have been great, some small swells set quite a distance apart and light winds in our area. Farther up the Sea of Cortez, around the East Cape the wind has been howling and there were whitecaps everywhere. On the sea surface temperature charts you can almost see where the wind stops, as that is where the water temperature changes. Just to the south of Los Frailles the water warms to 79 degrees from 76 degrees and the warm water wraps completely around the Baja all the way up to just past Todo Santos on the Pacific side and extends well past any fishing range offshore along the entire area. BAIT: Caballito and Mackerel in a pretty even mix at the usual $3 per bait and I have been told that there are some Sardinas up toward San Jose at $25 a scoop, but only if you get there early. FISHING: BILLFISH: With the water temperature staying fairly warm and the Dorado still around there was a bit of Blue Marlin action this past week. We had clients on two trips hook into Blues, one at the start of the week that was estimated at 225 pounds and was released and then at the end of the week another on estimated at 500 pounds that did not stay hooked for very long. If we had that kind of action then there were certainly others hooked as well. Also, there are still Sailfish to be had as twice this week anglers fishing with us released Pacific sails that averaged 100 pounds. The big news though is the Striped Marlin bite. It has started again and is happening close to home. Most of the action is taking place on the Pacific side off of the Lighthouse and up to the north to Los Arcos, close to the beach where the bait is stacked up, and there are reports of them showing up in small numbers at the Golden Gate Bank. Some of the better catches have been double digit numbers up to 19 a day (the best I heard of) but any boat that has gone out with the intention of Marlin fishing has been coming in with at least two flags flying. Hopefully this action will continue. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin have been scarce in our area. Boats traveling 20 or more miles to the west have found some fish, and there were some fish found to the northwest of the Golden Gate Bank, toward Finger Bank, but for the most part the Tuna have been a non-event for the boats. The fish that have been found in our area have all been football size, nothing large. I did talk with one angler that got off a long-range boat fishing well to the north of us who said that they had four fish over 300 pounds during their trip sop maybe we will see some of those fish later in the season. DORADO: Dorado remained a staple for most of the boats, as they were fairly easy to find and close to home as well. The numbers have not bee great with most boats getting one or two fish, but a few boats that found schools of these great tasting fish were able to limit out at two fish per angler. They were scattered over the area with even numbers found on both the Pacific and the Cortez side of the Cape. All methods were working but the best results seemed to be had by boats that saw or hooked fish then slow trolled live bait in the same area. WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo caught this week but did see a couple of Wahoo flags flying. They may have been for Wahoo but it is more likely that they were being flown for Sierra. INSHORE: Once again it was a decent bite for Sierra that were averaging 6 pounds with an occasional 8 or 10 pound fish, Roosterfish that averaged 5 pounds with an occasional fish to 30 pounds and some scattered bottom fish found as well. Most of the Pangas were going just offshore and getting into the Striped Marlin action so it was hard to get a really good idea of inshore catch ratios. NOTES: This weeks report was written while listening to Christmas music on Sirus Radio. I had forgotten what a beautiful voice Jim Nabors had. We are still seeing whales, the weather is great and there is a good Marlin bite going on. Buy yourself your own Christmas present and get away from the snow and cold! Until next week, tight lines! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, whichever is your reason for the season! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 154 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 14, 2009 - 8:10 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report December 7-13, 2009 WEATHER: The weather this week was a repeat of last weeks with the lows around 61-63 degrees and the highs around 89 degrees. We had partly to mostly cloudy skies at the beginning of the week that slowly developed into clear skies at the end of the week. No rain of course, and the wind died off a little. We still had afternoon winds from the west and southwest through Thursday but then they switched and came from the northwest. WATER: Surface conditions on the Pacific were very nice in the mornings with swells building during the week but spaced far enough apart that they gave the surfers a great time but did not really affect the fishing boats. These were caused by a couple of storms off to the far west, the same storms that gave Hawaii such great swells at the beginning of the week. In the afternoons there was a bit of chop on the water due to the afternoon winds, but the water was still very fishable. On the Cortez side of the Cape we had smaller surf and less chop, as is normal when the swells and weather come from the northwest, but at the end of the week the swells had switched and started to come from the east, but they were small. Across the area from the Golden Gate on the Pacific to the Punta Gorda area on the Cortez side the water was almost an even 80 degrees. BAIT: Almost all the bait this week was Caballito, the moon was coming off of full and the bait guys had no problem getting these in the early morning. Mackerel was scarce but there were some available and I hear that there were still some Sardinas to be had up around Puerto Los Cabos. FISHING: BILLFISH: I did not hear of any Blue or Black Marlin being caught this week even thought the water temperature is fine for them. The Striped Marlin bite we had at the tail end of last week was a two day wonder, lasting Sunday and Monday, since then the better catches have been topping off at 3 fish per boat but the average is probably less than one release per boat per trip. The fish that are being caught are spread across the area, but more have been seen on the Pacific side than on the Cortez side, and the ones that are being caught show a preference for artificial lures over Caballito, and for Mackerel over artificial lures. There have been some very small fish in the releases as well, some of them reported as small as 15 pounds, but the average seems to be staying around the 100-110 pound mark with an occasional fish in the 160 pound range. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Still a slow bite on Yellowfin with a few fish being found on the Golden Gate Bank every few days as well as off of Palmilla on the Cortez side. A few boats have been going as far out as 50 miles to the south and west with little luck, and the fish they have found have mostly been footballs. DORADO: The water temperature across the area warmed back up and the Dorado have remained in the area, but like last week, the bite has been slower than it was last month. This week was a repeat of last week as Boats were averaging 4-8 fish per trip with an occasional limit load. The fish were averaging 12 pounds with a few large fish in the pick, but no big numbers of them. Live bait seemed to do the trick on them this week, slow trolled in areas where Frigate Birds were seen to be working. The fish were spread across the area but the best results seemed to be had close to the shoreline and close to Cabo. WAHOO: The full moon has gone and the Wahoo bite disappeared as well. There was still an occasional bite, but not nearly the numbers we were seeing during the full moon phase. Once again the shallower waters near steep drops and around rocky points supplied what little action there was. INSHORE: A repeat of last week here. Inshore has been a decent mix of Sierra, small Roosterfish and Dorado. Most of the activity has been taking place on the Pacific side of the Cape and you did not have to go very far to get into the action. NOTES: I could not help myself and played my “Chute 9” CD again, replaying over and over the first song on their album, “Mexican Dog”. I was laughing so much I kept missing the right keys on the keyboard and almost have the lyrics memorized. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 153 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 07, 2009 - 9:00 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report November 30 - Dec 6th, 2009 WEATHER: I think that the season’s change is upon us. This week the low was down to 61 degrees, cold enough for me to be wearing a long-sleeved shirt and a sweater on top of it when we went to the marina in the mornings. Our daytime highs were up to 89 degrees a couple of days but for the most part remained in the low 80’s. We had mostly cloudy skies for most of the days this week but there was no rain with the clouds, at least in our area. We had a couple of days of blustery weather at the end of the week but by Saturday things had really calmed down. WATER: Surface conditions on both sides of the Cape were very nice most of the week with the exception of the Pacific side on Monday and Tuesday as the wind blew fairly strong in the afternoons on both of those days, and on the Cortez side on Friday as the wind switched direction and came from the southeast. The swells were not bad anywhere but there was some fair sized surface chop accompanying those winds. On the surface the water on the Sea of Cortez averaged 80 degrees well offshore and a cooler 78 degrees within 10 miles of the shoreline. On the Pacific side the water to the north of the San Jaime stayed cool at an average of 76 degrees, while the water on the San Jaime and to the south of there was a warmer 78 degrees. BAIT: There was a full moon this week that made it a bit more difficult for the bait boats to catch the Caballito. There seemed to be plenty of Mackerel around though and all the larger baits were at the normal $3 per bait. I heard that there were Sardinas at the Palmilla area but can only assume that they were the normal $25 per scoop since I did not buy any myself. FISHING: BILLFISH: The high note for the week on the billfish front was the capture (and non-release) of a Blue Marlin that weighed over 850 pounds. The fish was caught on the Pacific side within a mile of the beach just to the inside of the Golden Gate Bank. This area had been providing some action the week before on fish to 400 pounds or so. The amount of bait in the form of young Dorado kept these large fish in the area much longer than normal. When weighed, this Marlin had two Dorado in the 12-pound class in its stomach. Other than this one large fish there were few other Blues or Blacks reported this week. There were plenty of Striped Marlin; however getting them to eat was a problem. Many boats were seeing groups of a dozen or more feeding on bait balls off of the area known as Los Arcos and were able to get an occasional fish to bite. A good catch for the week was two or three Striped Marlin released for the day, but most boats were lucky to get one. ((In a last minute update: On Sunday the 6th as the boats started coming in there were blue marlin flags flying everywhere. Mid-morning the bite on Striped Marlin had busted wide open on the ledge at the lighthouse and boats were releasing between two (for the slow boats) and 17 (high flag boat) marlin, best of all, there were only 30 boats in the area at the time. Hopefully the bite will continue. The bait was stacked up and the fish were feeding hard on a mix if Mackerel and large Sardinas, but boats using Caballito as bait got bit as well.)) YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again the Yellowfin action remained slow as the few fish that were found on a regular basis seemed to have been fished so hard that it was difficult to get anything going. The Gorda Banks bite slowed quite a bit and there were occasional schools of fish moving through directly south of the Cape, mostly in the 20-pound class and associated with Dolphin that provided action once in a while. DORADO: The water continues to cool down and the bite continues to drop off, not that it has gotten bad, mind you, but not the numbers were had been spoiled with a month ago. Boats were averaging 4-8 fish per trip with an occasional limit load. Most of the fish remained in the warmer water on the Pacific side and around the structure of the 95 spot on the Cortez side. The fish were averaging 12 pounds with a few large fish in the pick, but no big numbers of them. Live bait seemed to do the trick on them this week, slow trolled in areas where Frigate Birds were seen to be working. WAHOO: Once again we had a good week for Wahoo. While never a common fish in our area, the past couple of months have really been good. The fish have not been large, with an average weight of 20 pounds once again, but there have been many more than normal come in on the boats. Perhaps one in 10 boats came in flying Wahoo flags this week, about double the norm for this time of year. Working areas just off the beach around the rocky points in water ranging from 50 to 250 feet in depth with dark colored lures that work below the surface, or with live bait dropped deep and slow trolled on wire leader has provided most of the action. INSHORE: Inshore has been a decent mix of Sierra, small Roosterfish and Dorado. Most of the activity has been taking place on the Pacific side of the Cape and you did not have to go very far to get into the action. NOTES: More whales continue to arrive in our area, providing a break from watching lures behind the boat most days. I am off to the beach with the dog in a few minutes; she needs a few more boogie-board lessons and some exercise (as well as a bath). This weeks report was written to the Alligator Records 20th Anniversary Collection of blues, released in 1991. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
Danny Mathews (Danny_d_picante_guy)
New member Username: Danny_d_picante_guy
Post Number: 1 Registered: 12-2009
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 03, 2009 - 11:57 am: | |
Weekly Fishing Report by Picante Sportfishing November 23rd. to November 30th. 2009 Our fishing report is compiled from the weekly catches of our fleet. We’ll update the report every Monday. Just another week in paradise….we had a partly sunny week with winds out of the west and northwest kicking up over the weekend. This is a typical weather pattern this time of year….the winds push the cooler water south and that brings the baitfish and the Striped Marlin to our sleepy fishing village. Our good friends from back east John Cuchinotta and his buddies spent 5 days in town fishing every day on various boats in the fleet. On the 23rd. they released 2 Striped Marlin & boated 4 Dorado on board the “Picante Express” with Captain Gilberto “Bori” Castro at the helm. “TEAM RAMROD” fished on their 32’ Albemarle and Captain Castro showed them a great day releasing 2 Striped Marlin and boating 1 Wahoo and 2 Dorado. Our new 40’ Cabo Flybridge with Captain Jaime “THE HOOK” Gonzalez at the helm had a great day with Mr. Mueller and his friends in the cockpit releasing 2 Striped Marlin and boating 4 Yellowfin Tuna and 8 Dorado. On the 26th. Mr. Graham and his friends chartered the “Picante Dream” with Captain Pablo “Palin” Cesena at the controls and they were not disappointed releasing 1 Striped Marlin and boating 8 Dorado. On the 27th. Nickie Peacher treated her family to a Cabo vacation and booked our 40’ Tolleycraft for a family outing. First timers in Cabo they could not of been happier releasing a Striped marlin and boating 13 Dorado for a family feast that evening. In fact,they enjoyed themselves so much they booked the boat again for November 30th. For those of you that are IPhone fans a new APP is being launched in Mid- December called “CABOS MEXICO”. It will feature important phone numbers while in Cabo, local restaurants, maps and activities, including Picante Sportfishing front and center. A valuable resource while traveling to Cabo San Lucas. FLEET PRODUCTION 22 Striped Marlin 158 Dorado 39 Yellowfin Tuna 2 Wahoo 7 Roosterfish 15 Sierra 3 Mako Shark Book your trip to Cabo San Lucas today to get in on the action !!! Our main website is www.picantesportfishing.com Daily fishing reports are posted on the website. |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 152 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 30, 2009 - 8:47 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report November 23-29, 2009 WEATHER: We had mostly sunny skies at the start of the week with a few scattered spits of rain on Thursday as clouds moved in for a couple of days. It cleared on Saturday and then another cell of clouds moved over us bringing some wind with it. Our daytime highs were in the high 80’s and the nighttime lows were in the low 70’s. WATER: It seems as if the water temperatures across the area cooled by several degrees this week. On the Cortez side of the Cape we saw 80 degrees next to the beach and to two miles out, past there it dropped to 76-77 degrees. On the Pacific side the same thing was going on close to the beach with the temperature around 78-79 degrees and outside of the two mile distance dropping to 76 degrees from the north end of the San Jaime Bank and northward. To the west of the Cape there was a plume of warm water that averaged 80 degrees and extended across the San Jaime Bank and 10 miles to the south of there, then bent sharply to the southwest. Surface conditions were great on both sides of the Cape early in the week but at the end of the week the winds had caused steeper seas with quite a bit of wind chop on top. BAIT: Bait this week was mostly Caballito but there were some Mackerel showing up from the bait boats. The prices remained at $3 per bait and there were some Sardinas available in San Jose at $25 a bucket. FISHING: BILLFISH: We had scattered Striped Marlin showing on both sides of the Cape with a lot of small ones showing up, and by small I mean less than 50 pounds in weight. There were groups of Stripers to be seen on the surface in numbers as high as 25 fish per group, but they were not very interested in eating anything. A few boats were able to release two fish per trip, but they were the exception, not the norm. Early in the week there was a flurry of action on Blue and Black Marlin to 400 pounds close to shore on the Pacific side in the warm water band. Feeding on small Dorado and skipjack, they surprised and tormented a lot of the boats that had changed over to smaller tackle for the Dorado and Striped Marlin. YELLOWFIN TUNA: The best action I heard of for the week was at the Gorda Banks. Using Sardinas as bait and light flouro-carbon leader, many of the boats were able to get two or three fish to 100 pounds drifting over the high spots on both the inner and outer bank. At the end of the week school sized fish averaging 25 pounds were found off of Palmilla point, and once again Sardinas were the key to the action. DORADO: he water has cooled a bit and the numbers of Dorado have dropped off. Most of the boats are averaging 4-10 fish with a lot of small ones in the catch. A few of the boats have lucked out finding floating debris and have recorded great catches on fish averaging 25 pounds, but these were few and far between. The best action on Dorado has been along the shore on the Pacific side and out on the 95 spot to the east. WAHOO: Surprising as it is, this seems to have been the best Wahoo season in years as boats are still getting multiple fish each day if they focus their efforts on these speedy razor toothed fish. Most of the fish have been found to the north of Palmilla and up around the East Cape but floating debris has held numbers as well. The fish have been smaller than average with most of them ranging in size from 6 to 20 pounds. INSHORE: In a repeat of last week, the Pangas have been having good luck on the Cortez side for large Sierra and there have been a few large Roosterfish found on the Pacific side. Most of the inshore action has been with snapper and small Roosterfish as well as Dorado. NOTES: The Whales are showing up in decent numbers now, there are plenty of Striped Marlin around (even if they are not eating right now), there are still Dorado and Yellowfin as well as Wahoo, the weather is great and the holidays are here, what more do we need? My friend Capt. Darcy completed a Darcy Slam the other day with a #35 Striped Marlin, #6 Wahoo, #8 Dorado, #6 Yellowfin and a #8 Sierra. So Darcy, is it the size of the fish or the variety that make it a slam? LOL!! This weeks report was written to a variety of songs from the reggae guitar master Ernest Ranglin, and I replayed “Stop That Train” about 10 times! Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 151 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 23, 2009 - 8:57 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report November 16-22, 2009 WEATHER: It was a great week to be outside or on the water as our highs were in the high 80’s and the lows in the low 70’s. It actually hit 68 degrees one morning; almost cool enough for me to get out a long sleeve sweater to wear! We had mostly clear skies and sunny days except for the end of the week when some clouds moved in. WATER: Water on the Pacific side of the cape had a slight swell of 2-5 feet. Near shore and out to the Golden Gate and San Jaime bank the water was in the 80-81 degree range, west of there it dropped to 77-78 degrees. Near the shore the water was great with little wind until late in the day, outside the wind picked up earlier and it was occasionally rough in the afternoons. On the Cortez side of the cape the water was 80-82 degrees everywhere you went with just small swells and light winds. BAIT: Bait this week was mostly Caballito but there were some Mackerel showing up from the bait boats. The prices remained at $3 per bait and there were some Sardinas available in San Jose at $25 a bucket. FISHING: BILLFISH: There has not been a good bite for billfish this week but there have been some caught. Mostly Striped Marlin and fairly close to shore on the Pacific side, the fish have been scattered up and down the coast. On Saturday a private boat fought and landed a 650-pound Blue Marlin in about 600 feet of water just north of the Golden Gate Bank. We had decent luck ourselves with a release on a Striped Marlin on Thursday, going one for two but spotting no tails, the strikes we had were on lures. On Saturday we had no marlin action at all but watched part of the fight on the big Blue. There have been a few fish on the Cortez side of the Cape but not any numbers there either, just scattered fish here and there. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Tuna were scarce this week but toward the end of the week there were a few schools found to the southwest of the San Jaime Bank along the 1,000-fathom line and the temperature break. Most of the fish were footballs to 30 pounds but there were a few fish that pushed the 60-80 pound mark. Live bait got the larger fish to bite and the first boats to the area caught them. Elsewhere there were just a few fish found under scattered Porpoise. DORADO: The Dorado have moved a little farther to the north every day on the Pacific side. Early in the week they were concentrated close to the shore just to the north of Los Arcos. As of this weekend the larger mass of fish had moved up as far as Cerritos beach and could be found in water from 50 to 200 feet in depth. The bite was not wide open but it was a fairly steady pick on fish that ranged between 8 and 25 pounds in size. Dropping back live bait as the first fish was being brought in accounted for about half of the fish landed. WAHOO: There were a few Wahoo caught this week but there were more lost than landed. That is to be expected from the razor tooth gang when you are rigged for Dorado, mono leader just can’t handle them very well. A few fish were found offshore but most of the action occurred close to the beach around the rocky points on both sides of the Cape. INSHORE: Pangas have been having good luck on the Cortez side for large Sierra and there have been a few large Roosterfish found on the Pacific side. Most of the inshore action has been with snapper and small Roosterfish as well as Dorado. NOTES: My apologies to everyone for there not being a fish report last week, but I was up in the states for a friends wedding. On Friday I got the chance to play the newest golf course in Cabo, the Diamante. Boy, what an experience that was! This has to be the nicest course I have ever played and the service was out of this world. I have no doubt this is the best course in Mexico and it should easily be ranked in the top 100 in the world, if not in the top 50. It is a Davis Love III design with a true links look and feel. If you only have the chance to play one course when you come here, make it this one, the price is very reasonable for Cabo and you will not regret it, believe me on this! I wrote this weeks report to the music of Mark David Manders on his CD “Cannonball”, yet another great gift from Mark Baily! Until next week, tight lines |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 150 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 09, 2009 - 7:26 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report November 2-8, 2009 WEATHER: Our nice weather remained with us this week as we saw high temperatures in the mid to high 80’s and the lows in the low 70’s. One morning, Tuesday I think, the data on the truck dash showed 68 degrees. We had no rain this week and mostly sunny skies with light winds from the west and northwest. WATER: The Pacific side has had a bit of a swell compared with the Cortez side, around 3-5 feet most of the time and in the late afternoons the wind has picked up just a little bit causing some whitecaps on top of the swells. The Cortez side of the Cape has remained calm. The water on the Pacific side has remained several degrees cooler on average than that of the Cortez side. Water close to the beach on the Pacific has been in the 78-79 degree range and rising a degree or so a little farther offshore. On the Cortez side the near-beach water has been 80 degrees and offshore it has been 81-82 degrees. BAIT: We had a full moon this week so Caballito were tough to get and there were no Mackerel. When you were able to get the larger baits they were going for $3 each or more, depending on what the bait guys could get away with, there was a two day Tuna tournament at the end of the week that caused prices to go up a bit. There were Sardinas available at $25 or more per scoop; again the price depended on the tournament boats needs. FISHING: BILLFISH: There was a Black Marlin reported to have been caught on the Gorda Bank during the Tuna tournament that ended up weighing over 650 pounds. Ah, just little late to get any big money for that girl in a tournament! That was the only large Billfish I heard about this week, most of the action was on Striped Marlin and a few Sailfish. There were fish found scattered about all along the Pacific side, no strong concentrations were found anywhere. Getting a billfish strike was the average luck; a few boats were able to get one or two to the boat for a release. YELLOWFIN TUNA: The big news on the Tuna front was the capture of a Yellowfin during the first day of the W.O.N. tournament that weighed 383 pounds! That fish was a real toad and was reported to have been caught while fishing with a live Bollito on the surface at the Gorda Banks. There were no other fish caught over 200 pounds and not really that many over 100 pounds. Most of the fish found were in among porpoise to the west of the San Jaime Banks and to the south of the Cape approximately 35 miles. There were 104 boats entered in the tournament so pretty much all the areas got covered. DORADO: The Dorado bite has slowed down a little overall, but a few boats are continuing to do extremely well when finding debris on the surface. One boat found a dead turtle on the surface and loaded up on decent size Dorado averaging 20 pounds. For the most part the numbers are down, a good trip is five to 10 fish and the average size is now down to 10 pounds. During the Tuna Tournament there were only two Dorado weighed in over 30 pounds. WAHOO: The Wahoo bite was good for the boats that targeted them and for everyone else it was an incidental catch. I have one friend that managed 15 Wahoo in three days, loosing a lot more than that, and the largest one was 85 pounds. During the Tuna Tournament the largest to come to the scales was 61 pounds. Working the high spots and the steep drops with either high-speed lures of slow trolled live bait on wire leader was the key for Wahoo. INSHORE: It appears that the size of the Roosterfish shrinks week by week. The week before last they were averaging 5-10 pounds and this past week anglers were lucky to get one that weighed 5 pounds. The lack of larger baits may have had something to do with that though, as a small sardina tends to be a quick snack for a small roosterfish. Other inshore fish have yet to really arrive, there are a few Sierras being caught and an occasional small Yellowtail, but neither in any numbers. Most of the Pangas are concentrating on Dorado at the moment. NOTES: Once again my thanks to Mark Bailey for the music selection this week. This week it is the music of 1100 Springs on a cd he labeled “Country Jams” Thanks Mark! Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 149 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 02, 2009 - 7:02 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report October 26-November 1, 2009 WEATHER: As we expect this time of year, the weather has gotten off of the summer schedule and we now have the cool fall weather comforting us. Our temperature this morning was 68 degrees, earlier in the week it was a steady 70 degrees while the daytime highs have been in the mid to high 80’s with little humidity. No wonder so many people come and visit this time of year! We had mostly clear skies this week with a little wind from the northwest early in the week. WATER: The seas have been nice at an average of three-foot swells with a little afternoon chop on top of that on the Pacific side and an average of 1 foot less on the Cortez side of the Cape. There was an intrusion of cool water from the Pacific side across the tip of the Cape this week and at an average of 80 degrees it crept close to the beach in a narrow 3 mile wide band as far as San Jose then bent to the east in a 10-mile wide band extending from the Gorda Banks to the 1150. To the southwest of this cool band the temperature was 82 degrees, sort of a pocket of warmer water 30 miles by 30 miles. Out on the Pacific the water 15 miles to the west of the San Jaime Bank, along the 1,000-fathom line, was also a warm 82 degrees while inside that area it was 80 degrees. Surprisingly, the warmer water was a little green this week while the cooler water was bluer. BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were the usual $3 per bait and there were some Sardinas available up in San Jose at $25 a bucket, or here in Cabo at $30 a half bucket. FISHING: BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite as well as Blue and Black Marlin dropped off this week. It may have something to do with the full moon. As the water cooled we expected the big girls to slow down but the Striped Marlin should be picking up. Maybe soon the big groups will start to show. The Striped Marlin that were caught were found on the Pacific side fairly close to the beach by boats looking for Dorado. Small groups of two to six fish were spotted on the surface but only one in 10 or 12 showed any interest in eating a live bait and very few of them showed any interest at all in lures. A few boats did all right, releasing two or three fish per trip, but we have not yet seen the numbers of fish as we have over the past three years. YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Yellowfin were scattered out this week, some fish were found as close as two miles from the lighthouse and there were other out 30+ miles to the west. Almost all the fish were found with Porpoise, there were a few unassociated schools found but it was hard to keep on the fish without the mammals to show you where they were headed. Most of the fish caught were football to school size fish, from 8 to 40 pounds with an occasional 60-80 pound fish in the mix. A few boats that got to the schools first did all right with an occasional larger fish to 130 pounds. At the end of the week the bite slowed down and the fish were harder to find. On Saturday it was reported that there were three purse seiners working the area so the bite may be off for a while. That too bad as we have the yearly Tuna Tournament coming up next week. DORADO: The Dorado bite was wide open early on, boats were catching all they could handle and were releasing anything under 10 pounds (at least most of the boats were). Later in the week the water started to cool and the bite slowed down. With the moon getting larger the bite moved to the afternoon as well so it often seemed that there were no more Dorado around, at least at the end of the week for the first few hours of a trip, A few boats managed to do extremely well after finding a dead turtle on one day and a log on another day, both of which were holding major numbers of fish under them. Even with the slow bite late in the week, most of the boats were able to catch near-limits of fish averaging 12 pounds. WAHOO: The full moon brought the Wahoo bite back as there were more fish found late in the week than earlier in the week. Most of the fish averaged 30 pounds and were found near the points by boats working for Dorado. INSHORE: With the great water conditions most of the Pangas were trying their best to put clients on the Dorado and Tuna early in the week. At the end of the week with the bite moving toward the afternoon, the morning boats returned to the near shore ground and targeted Roosterfish, Sierra and Snapper. Most of the Roosterfish were on the small size with an average of 10 pounds but there were some nicer fish found in the Cabo bay near the RIU resort beach. These fish reportedly were in the 30-4o pound class. The Sierra were still small at an average of 4 pounds and were found farther up the Cortez side of the Cape. The main species of snapper found this week were the smaller Yellowtail Snapper but there were a few Cuberra and Barred Pargo in the catch as well. NOTES: Once again my thanks to Mark Bailey for the music selection this week. The 2008 release by Smith Entertainment of the album “Ain’t In It For The Money” by the Texas group “Micky and the Motorcars” kept me tapping my toes as my fingers worked the keyboard. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 148 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 26, 2009 - 9:55 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report Oct 19-25, 2009 WEATHER: Two close calls in two weeks means we got really lucky when it came to weather this week. As Monday opened we awoke to the sounds of heavy thunder and lightning flashes with heavy rain as the first band of Hurricane Rick came over us. For the next two days we watched as Rick finally lost energy and started moving off to the south of us. We received lots of gentle rain and then the skies cleared. On Wednesday afternoon the last feeder band went over the top of us and once again we received several hours of heavy rain. The remainder of the week was sunny and we had nighttime temperatures in the mid 70’s and daytime highs in the high 80’s with light winds. WATER: We had rough water at the start of the week as Hurricane Rick approached. The swells built up and the Port closed through noon Wednesday due to the high winds and sloppy sea conditions. On Thursday the swells were back to normal size and the skies were clear. At the end of the week the water was in great shape with small swells and no wind chop. Water temperatures on the Cortez side of the Cape averaged 85 degrees to 25 miles south of land then dropped to 83 degrees. The warmer water wrapped around the Cape on the Pacific side and we had continued temperatures of 85 degrees 10 to 15 miles off the beach there. Once past the San Jaime and the Golden Gate banks to the west the temperature dropped to 81 degrees. BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were the usual $3 per bait and there were some Sardinas available up in San Jose at $25 a bucket, or here in Cabo at $30 a half bucket. Prices seem to go up in tournament time for Sardinas, as they are needed to catch the small tunas used for baiting the big Marlin. FISHING: BILLFISH: This week was the Bisbee Black and Blue Marlin tournament. We were postponed a day due to Hurricane Rick but this tournament really shows the state of billfish in our area as they are the only fish that count, and you have some of the best fishermen and fishing teams in the world competing, at least for the big marlin. I guess it’s possible that Hurricane Rick caused things to change because while the week before there were plenty of Black Marlin caught on the Gorda Banks, the boats that fished there this week got goose eggs for their efforts. With 89 teams competing for three days there were only two fish brought in that weighed over the 300-pound minimum, one on the first day at #375 and one on the third day at #305. It’s pretty sad that 267 fishing days had those results. There were smaller fish caught, we released a Striped Marlin on the first day and a small Blue Marlin on the third day and there were plenty of hook-ups reported, but no big fish. Most of the action seemed to have shifted to the Pacific side this week as the current pushed the warm water up the coast. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again the number of Tuna was down from last week but when you could find them they bit pretty well. We had one couple who got into the fish on Thursday about 20 miles to the southwest and they were able to come in with one fish of 100 pounds, one of 80 pounds and plenty of smaller fish. On their second day they had all smaller fish. Another group we had out got into the fish but were unable to get a bite all day long, ending up with a goose egg for the day. Most of the fish were found on the Pacific side within 25 miles of the shore, but there was a nice school reported out at the temperature break to the west of the San Jaime Bank. Another big fish was caught by one of the boats in the Bisbee tournament. They boated the large Yellowfin after 1-½ hours of fighting on #130 line so it had to be a beast but I never heard the weight. DORADO: The Dorado bite dropped off a lot this week, the storm seemed to have scattered them. Perhaps this coming week will allow them to school up again and the action will improve. A few boats were still able to show well on these fish with limits of two per angler, but they were not the norm for the week. The action that occurred was on the Pacific side of the Cape fairly close to shore in the warm water. WAHOO: I only heard of a couple of Wahoo being caught this week, and those were found in the open water by boats looking for Blue Marlin. INSHORE: Dorado continued to be the main focus of Pangas this week as they were still present in fair numbers, though small in size, close to the beach. A few of the Pangas ventured offshore on the Pacific side looking for Yellowfin and did well. Action inshore did not pick up until the very end of the week due to churned up conditions, but there was a bite for small Sierra up toward San Jose and there was some decent grouper fishing along the Cortez coast. NOTES: Our prayers were answered as Hurricane Rick downgraded from a category five to a category one and passed well to the south of us. The rain it brought was a blessing; gentle enough to soak into the ground without causing bad run-off. The Bisbee tournament was a bust with low numbers of boats and even lower numbers of fish. The next tournament coming up is the Tuna Tournament the first week of November so everyone is now gearing up for that! My thanks to Mark Bailey for bringing me some new CD’s to listen to. This weeks report was written to the great country music of Danny Balis on his 2009 self released album “Too Much Living”. Great stuff! Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 147 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 19, 2009 - 7:13 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report Oct 12-18, 2009 WEATHER: We had a break last week as we expected Tropical Storm Patricia to come over the top of us. She did, but only as a remnant low-pressure system, thank goodness she fell apart early. She did bring three days of gentle rain, and the hills are bright green now. Due to the swells and gusty winds the Captain of the Port closed the port Wednesday and Thursday morning. We were hoping the clouds would help lower the temperatures a bit and they did for a few days, then we were back to the mid 90’s with high humidity during the daytime and the mid 80’s at night. Now we have something else to worry about, and we can only hope that Hurricane Rick, a category five hurricane at this time, and 555 miles away and with core winds at 180 mph, either gets directed more to the west or falls apart soon. As of now we are expected to get a very close pass mid-day Wednesday with core winds at 125 mph, and storm force winds out to 140 miles from the center. WATER: Choppy water was the norm early in the week and things finally mellowed out on Friday. We had swells at 2-5 feet on the Pacific, 1-3 feet on the Cortez side with winds that varied direction, occasionally from the east but mostly from the northwest or north. The water on both sides of the Cape was in the 84-85 degree range at the end of the week, as far as you could fish on the Cortez side and out to 35 miles from shore on the Pacific side. Once past that 35 miles it dropped to 81 degrees. BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were the usual $3 per bait and there were some Sardinas available up in San Jose at $25 a bucket, or here in Cabo at $30 a half bucket. Prices seem to go up in tournament time for Sardinas, as they are needed to catch the small tunas used for baiting the big Marlin. FISHING: BILLFISH: There were still plenty of Striped Marlin out there but getting them to bite was sometimes difficult. Most boats were able to hook and release at least one fish per day, and a few boats were releasing two or three per trip. They really seemed to like the Pacific side of the Cape close to the shoreline, as did the occasional Sailfish. The Larger Marlin were in different areas. Running the ridge between the San Jaime and Golden Gate Banks brought up quite a few Blue Marlin this week with a couple of fish that were in the 200-300 pound category. The biggest fish were the Black Marlin, and there seemed to be more of them than this time last year. The Los Cabos Billfish Tournament was two days this year due to the port being closed for the first half of the first day, but there were four Black Marlin weighed that were over #300 with the largest at #550, all on live bait and all at the Outer Gorda Banks. YELLOWFIN TUNA: While the number of Yellowfin caught this week dropped off from last weeks catch, there were some quality fish taken. Among the 39 boats fishing the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament there were four Yellowfin over 100 pounds. Earlier in the week there was a reported cow over #300 taken from the Gorda Banks area. Most fish found were smaller, in the 20-35 pound class and were found with porpoise. Good areas were to the south between 8 miles to 30 miles. DORADO: Once again Dorado were the fish of the week as the action was wide open on fish ranging in size from 4 pounds to 25 pounds with an occasional 45 pound fish tossed in. Almost all the action was on the Pacific side where the water was a bit on the rough side once again. Limits were common as was boats going way over the established limit of 2 fish per angler. Many boats left Dorado in order to catch something different! WAHOO: Surprisingly we still had a decent Wahoo bite happening this week as fish averaging 30 pounds were caught on both sides of the Cape. Working structure was the best method, back and forth across peaks and drop-offs with heavy lures. INSHORE: Dorado were the target of almost every Panga Captain and angler I talked to this week. With the bite as good as it is and with a few billfish to toss in for some action there was little effort made to work the beach for Roosterfish or the bottom for Snapper and Grouper. NOTES: Please keep your fingers crossed that Hurricane Rick does not hurt us too bad. We just had one huge noisy squall come, part of the feeder bands Cats and dogs hiding everywhere! We may end up with a one-day Bisbee tournament as the fishing is supposed to be on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Maybe we will be able to fish on Friday at least! This weeks report was written to an album first released in 1971, “L.A. Woman” by the Doors. I thought the song “Riders On The Storm” was appropriate. Until next week, tight lines. |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 146 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 12, 2009 - 8:22 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report Oct 5-11, 2009 WEATHER: We had a week with no influences from storms finally! Well, with the passing of Olaf we did get some very nice cool weather early last week, so nice in fact that we felt that we might just be getting into the fall weather pattern, but that was a short lived wish. At the beginning of the week we had our nighttime lows in the low 70’s with low humidity as well, and light breezes, perfect evening weather. The daytime highs were in the mid 80’s and also with low humidity, even though we had a fair amount of cloud cover. Later in the week things warmed up almost 10 degrees across the board. At the beginning of the week the wind was from the southwest, then it started to shift around and come from the northwest at 15-20 knots in the afternoons with lighter winds in the mornings. In the afternoons late in the week, Thursday and Friday in particular, the wind shifted hard and blew at about 15-20 knots from the east, surprising everyone. P.S. Update: Since writing the report an area of disturbed weather to the southeast has been designated as Tropical Storm Patricia and is expected to move over or very near the southern tip of the peninsula (that’s us!) on Tuesday evening with winds to 50 knots, gusting to 60 knots, and it looks like there is a lot of rain with it. WATER: The water was choppy almost all week on the Pacific side and in the afternoons on the Cortez side of the Cape this week. At times it looked as if there were sheep feeding all over the place out there as everywhere you looked there were whitecaps. I was fishing on Monday and when we went out in the morning toward the Gorda Banks the water was perfect, when we started to come back in the afternoon we were taking an occasional dose of water on the fly bridge of the 40’ Blackwatch I was on. The same thing happened for boats that went to the Pacific side later in the week as they faced winds from the east on their way back, hugging the beach helped them a little bit. Early in the week the water temperatures close to shore on the Pacific side were cool at 77-80 degrees between the beach and the offshore banks while the water on the Sea of Cortez remained a steady 85 degrees everywhere. This changed late in the week and on the weekend the warm water from the Sea of Cortez had wrapped its way around the Cape so that we had 83-85 degree water everywhere on the Cortez side as well as from the San Jaime and Golden Gate Banks to the beach on the Pacific side. Outside the Banks the water dropped quickly to 79-80 degrees. Surprisingly enough, the water on the Cortez side of the Cape was slightly green, even though it was the warmer water for most of the week. BAIT: Almost all the larger baits this week were Caballito and mullet at the normal $3 per bait and they were occasionally hard to come by, perhaps the product of coming off the full moon. There were Sardinas available at San Jose if you got there early, at the normal $25 per bucket. FISHING: BILLFISH: The billfish bite dropped off quite a bit this past week, perhaps due to the full moon. There were Sailfish and Striped Marlin found close to home and close to shore, just not in any number and the ones that were found were not in a very hungry mood. We should have been seeing more Black and Blue Marlin than we have been, but once again the full moon had an effect on that. Now that we are in the last quarter perhaps things will get better with these larger billfish. Don’t get me wrong; there are still Marlin and Sailfish out there, just not in great numbers. There have been all species caught everyday, with the exception of Black Marlin, just no really large specimens or in large numbers. YELLOWFIN TUNA: This was a nice week for a number of boats that went out and got into the Tuna. The bite got quite a bit better late in the week with fish showing up close to home and in a feeding mood. As close as two miles from the arch there were pods of porpoise holding fish that averaged 30 pounds. We had clients on two days bring in Tuna that weighed over 100 pounds, one of them scaled out at 150 pounds. The rough water conditions extended the fight as did the fact the fish were caught on #30 test line. Live bait was the key to the larger fish while the smaller fish often turned their noses up at normal sized lures and demanded small hootchies in red or pink. At the end of the week the Tuna had worked their way to 24 miles offshore toward the southeast. DORADO: Dorado were the fish of the week as the action was wide open on fish ranging in size from 4 pounds to 25 pounds with an occasional 45 pound fish tossed in. I heard of one boat that landed a fish over 70 pounds but did not see the fish or a photo. Almost all the action was on the Pacific side where the water was a bit on the rough side. To my surprise it seemed that dark colored lures worked better this week for those using artificial lures. Many of the boats opted to catch a few skipjack and chunk them up for chum, and then using strips for bait as the Dorado showed up. It was no problem at all to limit out, and with the action this hot and heavy many of the boats went overboard and caught three or four time their limit (two Dorado per angler). There were scattered Dorado offshore as well, and boats that caught Dorado limits early and headed offshore for something else still caught them 20 miles out. WAHOO: We still had a decent Wahoo bite happening this week as fish averaging 30 pounds were caught on both sides of the Cape. Working structure was the best method, back and forth across peaks and drop-offs with heavy lures. Trolling at a higher than normal speed kept many of the nuisance small Dorado off the hooks. 9.5 to 11 knots worked for us, and we still got larger Dorado as well as Striped Marlin hook-ups at that speed. INSHORE: There was a three day showing of football Yellowfin and decent sized Dorado off of the Cabo Del Sol beaches during the middle of the week and Pangas that made the run to San Jose for Sardinas did well with plenty of both species of fish showing up in the catches. There were even a few Wahoo caught this way. Those willing to work their way offshore and brave the seas did well trolling lures for the smaller Tuna and a few Pangas managed to get Yellowfin to 60 pounds with live bait when the fish were close to shore. Most of the Pangas focused on Dorado as the water conditions made working very close to the beach uncomfortable. NOTES: The hills and desert are nice and green and there are flowers coming up everywhere. If you are coming down, take a day and get out into the surrounding area to check it out. There are plenty of companies that do excursions into the hills. On the fishing side of things, it’s finally happening, the Tuna are here and have been biting well, there are plenty of Dorado around, and in my mind that means that as the new moon approaches the large Marlin should be starting to feed. We have the bait in Tuna and Dorado, the water temperature is right and the moon should be perfect! Lets keep our fingers crossed! This weeks report was written to the blues of Taj Mahal on the 2000 Sony Music release “The Best Of Taj Mahal”. My great thanks to Tom Hispanski for bringing me this CD as well as the ones I have been using for my reports for the past three weeks, and the one I will use next week, thanks Tom I hope Herman gets a Marlin on the next trip! Until next week, tight lines |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 145 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 05, 2009 - 8:00 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report Sept. 21 - 28, 2009 WEATHER: Tropical Storm Olaf was the influence this week as it slowly worked it’s way up the Pacific side of Baja California, finally crawling across the central part of the peninsula before going off onto the mainland. At the slow speed Olaf was moving, we received lots of clouds and some more much needed rain. With light rains every other day and an occasional one-hour drench, the whole of Baja California Sur is looking clean and green! Our daytime highs dropped a bit due to the clouds and averaged 95 degrees with an occasional short jump to over 100 when the sun showed itself. Nights were in the low 80’s. Winds were from the west and southwest for the middle of the week through the end of the week due to the trailing feeder bands from Olaf. WATER: Long slow rollers were the word of the week for most of the time with the water on Friday becoming very confused and rough on the Pacific side as the wind finally switched directions. Seas averaged 2-5 feet on the Pacific and 1-3 feet on the Sea of Cortez. Water temperatures were down a bit due to the cloud cover and also they were hard to get unless you were actually on the water for the same reason. What we did see was temperatures on the Pacific side at mostly 79-80 degrees while the Cortez side was 76 degrees inshore and out to 10 miles along most of the coast with a plume of warm water to 82 degrees intruding across the 1150 and Cabrillo Seamount from the southeast. BAIT: Almost all the larger baits this week were Caballito and mullet at the normal $3 per bait. FISHING: BILLFISH: Striped Marlin and Sailfish were found rather close to shore on the Pacific side once again. There were reports of some decent Blue and Black Marlin being hooked up on the Cortez side up in the San Jose area, but I did not get to confirm that, just rumors I heard. The water conditions on the Pacific side at the end of the week had many of the boats focusing their efforts on the Cortez side of the Cape and it appears as if there are a few Striped Marlin and Sailfish to be found there as well, just not in the numbers we were seeing on the Pacific. Like the fish found to the west, these fish were not really in the eating mood either, drop a bait on their heads and the odds were 20% for a hook-up. YELLOWFIN TUNA: While the Tina Seiners the week before last caused a couple of days of no Tuna action, they seemed to have returned a few days later. Still not in the numbers we saw before the seiners came through, they are being found in decent numbers farther offshore on the Pacific side. Running 30-40 miles in the choppy conditions we had was not in the books for most of the boats though, and few of them made it out to the fish, therefore there were few Tuna flags flying. Heading out between 175 and 210 degrees for 30 miles put you in the area, then it was a job to find the porpoise, when the chop started they seemed to disappear! DORADO: Dorado action was good at the end of the week. These fish seem to like the conditions a bit choppy and most boats were coming in with at least four or five fish, averaging 12-15 pounds with good numbers of larger fish to 40 pounds. Most of the action was on the Pacific side of the Cape close to the beach. WAHOO: There were some nice fish last week and with the full moon on the 4th, there should be more this week. Most of the Wahoo taken this week were found by boats working just of the beach fishing for Dorado, so you know there were a lot of fish lost due to small diameter Mono leaders! INSHORE: The Pangas were not doing a lot of inshore fishing this week as the conditions were a bit rough, but there were some decent catches of small grouper and snapper made by boats working the bottom. For Pangas that were surface fishing, most of them were working just off the beach for Dorado and the occasional Striped Marlin and Sailfish. NOTES: I love the rain that we have been getting, it is just the right volume and scattered out so that it soaks into the ground instead of washing everything away. It has caused a bit of a problem with the road construction however, and for those of you who actually expected the crews to meet the August 1 completion deadline, this is Mexico, we will be lucky if it is finished by the end of October! Full moon in October this week should mean Wahoo in decent numbers and, hopefully, some big Marlin showing up! This weeks report was written to the music of the king of blues, B.B. King on the 2008 Geffen Records release, “One Kind Favor”. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 144 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 28, 2009 - 7:25 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report Sept. 21 - 28, 2009 WEATHER: We started this week with clear skies, had a small squall come through and wreaked havoc on us Friday morning. We had thunder and lightning, along with a decent rain for about a couple hours. Along with that came the wind. Apparently they were still parasailing during the squall. One boat crashed on the rocks by the arch, the folks dropped into the water and were rescued, but it was enough for the Port Captain to close the harbor and tell everyone to come back. After sitting around for an hour looking at flat calm water, he reopened the port. Some called it a day, and some headed back out fishing. Our daytime highs were in the high 90’s to low 100’s again, while the nighttime lows were in the mid 80’s. WATER: Early in the week the seas were big but spaced far apart coming from TS Noro off to the west of us. Seas are back to normal now 1-6 feet, slow rollers. Water temps aaround 89-90 in the Sea of Cortez around the Gordo Banks to 1150, 95 and past Cabo up the Pacific to Golden Gate. Slightly cooler temps out at San Jaime in the mid 80’s BAIT: Almost all the larger baits this week were Caballito and mullet at the normal $3 per bait. Sardinas available at the usual $30, if you are heading up towards San Jose, they are not bringing them down to Cabo. FISHING: BILLFISH: With the warmer waters coming back the Striped marlin bite has dropped off again. They are all over the place but being finicky eaters. Bouncing bait off their noses, just gets you “the look” before they swim away. Head of one 550 brought in on Friday. Makes me sad when people still kill these beauties for a couple tacos. Just a reminder to everyone, those fish over 300 #’s are the female breeding stock! Take your picture at the side of the boat and let her swim away. Fish like that are the future of marlin fishing. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Tuna were the fish of the week with almost every boat being able to get into them. Sizes ranged from 230 pounds to 15 pounds with most of the larger fish being caught on live bait dropped in front of the moving pods of Spinner Dolphin or Spotted Dolphin. Report from San Jose of a 357lb Yellowfin brought in up there. And this was the story until Thursday night when 3 purse seiners moved in the Pacific side with their helicopters. Not a tuna flag flying Friday or Saturday. Ok last minute update, I did get a report Sunday afternoon, that were a couple boats that finally found tuna late Saturday, so hopefully they will make a quick comeback this time. DORADO: Dorado were an off and on event this week, one day there would be plenty and then the next day they could not be found. When you could find them they seemed to be close to the shore on the Pacific side in the warmer water. Averaging 12-15 pounds, there were enough larger ones out there to make things interesting. Lures accounted for the first fish for most boats and then live bait dropped back usually accounted for the next one or two. Boats that did well on Dorado were catching between five and ten per trip and releasing two or three of the smaller fish. Same this week as last week. WAHOO: I saw some nice wahoo come in this week. We had one client bring in a nice 50 lb fish, and I saw a few more in the 20-30 lb range. INSHORE: A repeat of last week’s inshore report. Most of the Panga Captains are doing well on Dorado and Tuna since they are close to shore. There are still some decent Roosterfish being found and a few snapper and some nice 8-10 lb grouper as well. Not many marlin offshore but one panga released a sailfish and a striped marlin! The Pacific side has been the favorite side of the Cape this week. NOTES: The week started off great with lots of fish being caught all different kinds. It’s amazing how a couple of purse seiners setting their nets scares most of the fish off for a couple days. Hopefully the did not completely deplete the stocks as they have done in the past. 5 cruise ships coming to Cabo today, bringing a much needed boost to the local economy!. This weeks report was written while listening to a new CD our clients brought down, flashback to the 60’s with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Greatest Hits. Brought to you by Curb records 1990. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 143 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 21, 2009 - 8:55 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report Sept. 14-20, 2009 WEATHER: We started this week with partly cloudy skies, had partly cloudy skies during the middle of the week and ended the week with partly cloudy skies. Tropical Storm Marty was well off to the west of us at the beginning of the week and remained stalled in the same area for several days until degrading and falling apart. Marty brought us just a sprinkle of rain. At the end of the week an un-named storm came up quickly from the south bringing more clouds and we received a bit of rain from these on Saturday night, enough to leave small pools of water on the sidewalks in the early morning. Our daytime highs were in the mid to high 90’s while the nighttime lows were in the mid 80’s. WATER: Tropical Storm Marty brought the swells up early in the week, most of them at 6-7 feet but spaced well apart. With no wind on top of them it was very nice water. At the end of the week the Port Captain closed the port to all vessels Saturday afternoon and to small vessels (Pangas) Sunday morning due to the large swells brought by the un-named storm. Again, there was no wind on top of these swells so conditions were still good. At the end of the week the water temperatures on the Pacific side from the beach to 10 miles out stayed in the 84 to 85 degree range while farther out they dropped to 81-82 degrees. Both areas had blue water. On the Cortez side there was a finger of cool water of 83 degrees that had pushed its way between the 1150 and the Cabrillo Seamount toward the Gorda Banks. Everywhere else on the Cortez side was 85 degrees and blue. BAIT: Almost all the larger baits this week were Caballito and mullet at the normal $3 per bait. Sardinas were not available due to the large swells most of the week. FISHING: BILLFISH: Marlin fishing picked up a bit when compared with last weeks result with more Striped Marlin appearing within several miles of the beach on the Pacific side. We had one dedicated angler who had never caught a marlin of any kind release three Striped Marlin on Saturday while working this area. I fought and released a small Blue Marlin of around 150 pounds on Wednesday while out to the south of the San Jaime Bank and another client had a Blue in the 260 pound range in the same area on Friday. There were still a few Sailfish around but I did not hear of any Black Marlin caught. Sunday we had to clients release 300-400 lb blues. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Tuna were the fish of the week with almost every boat being able to get into them. Sizes ranged from 230 pounds to 15 pounds with most of the larger fish being caught on live bait dropped in front of the moving pods of Spinner Dolphin or Spotted Dolphin. The White-Bellied dolphin often only held smaller fish but an occasional larger one would surprise an angler. Almost all the fish in our area were caught inside the 1,000-fathom line from due south, then up to the San Jaime Bank and then up to the Golden Gate. This made for easy trips to find the fish, and I know of one Panga that caught a fish over 200 pounds just off of the lighthouse. DORADO: Dorado were an off and on event this week, one day there would be plenty and then the next day they could not be found. When you could find them they seemed to be close to the shore on the Pacific side in the warmer water. Averaging 12-15 pounds, there were enough larger ones out there to make things interesting. Lures accounted for the first fish for most boats and then live bait dropped back usually accounted for the next one or two. Boats that did well on Dorado were catching between five and ten per trip and releasing two or three of the smaller fish. WAHOO: I saw a few red/orange flags being flown this week but was never able to contact the Captains or anglers on the boats to find out where or when they caught the fish, or even if they were for Wahoo at all. INSHORE: A repeat of last week’s inshore report. Most of the Panga Captains are doing well on Dorado and Tuna since they are close to shore. There are still some decent Roosterfish being found and a few snapper and grouper as well. The Pacific side has been the favorite side of the Cape this week. NOTES: The fishing has been very good this week and almost all the anglers I have talked to have been very happy with the results of their trips, and some of them have been worn out afterwards from fighting Marlin and some of the large Yellowfin that have been around. We hope the action continues this week. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 142 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 14, 2009 - 8:20 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report Sept. 7-13, 2009 WEATHER: We had a really nice week as our daytime highs were reaching 100 at the beginning but had ended the week in the high 80’s and low 90’s and the lows have been in the low 80’s. Nice comfortable weather, if just the humidity would drop a bit it would be perfect. We had scattered clouds this week and no rain. WATER: The water’s color returned to it’s normal blue on both sides of the Cape; the Pacific side was looking much better. With our normal northwesterly breeze back in place the Pacific side was a bit choppy but fishable. The band of cooler 80-degree water 30 miles to the southwest is still in place, closer to home it steadily increases to a nice 86-87 degrees close to home across both the San Jaime Bank and the Golden Gate Bank. On the Cortez side of the Cape at the end of the week the water inside the 1,000-fathom line was 87 degrees and outside it was 84-85 degrees, but blue on both sides. Surface conditions on the Cortez side have been great with just a little chop in the afternoons. BAIT: Almost all the larger baits this week were Caballito and mullet at the normal $3 per bait. Sardinas were available from the Palmilla and Puerto Los Cabos area at $25 a scoop. FISHING: BILLFISH: It was still a slow week for billfish as few Striped Marlin were caught locally. There were reports of some decent numbers beginning to show up at the Finger Bank but with things being in constant flux the boats that went there were just as likely to strike out as to find a decent concentration of fish. A scattering of fish were found locally, most of them being found close to shore on the Pacific side up around the Los Arcos area and northward. There were still some Sailfish to be found but they were scattered as well, only on the Cortez side, and again, close to shore. I did not hear any reports this week of big Blue or Black Marlin, but there may have been a few hooked up. YELLOWFIN TUNA: There have still been some nice fish caught this week but they have been scattered. 30 miles to the south has been producing a few nice fish to #150 if you are in the right pod of porpoise, and there have been fish to #80 being caught on Sardinas up the coast in the Inman bank area. That was scratch fishing with only a few fish a day with lots of chumming taking place, but at least the fish were there. Light floura-carbon leader, #30 and #40 was needed, but you could get some fish. Some boats did all right catching a few Humboldt Squid at Punta Gorda and using them for chunk baits. Closer to home there were scattered schools with fish to #35 but averaging #15-#20. Most of these were found on the Pacific side between the beach and the San Jaime Bank and on the Golden Gate Bank. DORADO: It took a while but there was finally some debris in the water this week, perhaps washed into the ocean up north from last week’s hurricane. Boats that managed to find the pieces of wood were able to put a few nice #30 Dorado in the box along with some smaller fish. Inshore on the Pacific side was also producing Dorado once again with the average size being 15 pounds and a few larger fish in the mix. We hooked up one female on Tuesday at may have been 30 pounds and a much larger male was following her. Unfortunately she shook the hook while still a distance from the boat and even though we slow trolled a couple of live baits in the area for a while we could not get hooked up again. That’s fishing! WAHOO: A friend of mine did get a nice Wahoo this last week, early in the week. It weighed around #85 and he caught it while checking out the Inman Bank area. A few other Wahoo flags were being flown but I have no idea what size the fish were or where they were caught. INSHORE: Most of the Panga Captains are doing well on Dorado and football Tuna since they are close to shore. There are still some decent Roosterfish being found and a few snapper and grouper as well. The Pacific side has been the favorite side of the Cape this week. NOTES: The fishing has been decent if not great this week and things are returning to normal on the water. This coming week should see good action on Striped Marlin as the new moon is on the 18th; I hope it happens close to home. This weeks report was written to the music of Darius Rucker (Hootie and the Blowfish) on his first country album, “Learn To Live”, a 2008 Capitol Records release. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 141 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 - 8:01 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report August 31- Sept. 6, 2009 WEATHER: Those of you who have been watching our area this past week are already aware that we managed to dodge a bullet once again. Hurricane Jimena was expected to pass almost on top of us, perhaps just a little to the west on Tuesday as a Category 4 Hurricane with winds at 155 mph and higher gusts. With nature and lady luck on our side she shifted just a bit to the west and all we got were three to four days of clouds, about an inch of rain and winds that may have gusted at times as high as 70 mph. It knocked down palm fronds and kicked up some big seas, but it also brought in some cooler weather as well. At the end of the week our nighttime lows were in the low 80’s and our daytime highs had finally gotten back up to the high 90’s, but the humidity at the end of the week was a bit lower than it had been so it did not feel quite as hot as that. WATER: The Captain of the Port closed the Harbor on Monday at noon due to the increasing size of swells as Hurricane Jimena approached. The port was re-opened on Thursday after the Hurricane had passed and the swells had become smaller. The cloud cover having finally moved away, we were able to access to satellite charts to see how things had changed. We now have a band of cooler water on the Pacific side just to the outside of the 1,000-fathom line that is right at 78 degrees. This is a 10-15 mile wide band of water running from the northwest to the southeast. To the inside of this band of cool water is a band of 82-84 degree water about 15-20 miles wide and just inside there, along the beach, it is 80 degrees, from the inside of the San Jaime Bank to the inside of the Golden Gate Bank and out across the 95 spot on the Cortez side of the Cape. Elsewhere on the Sea of Cortez the water is a fairly steady 84-86 degrees. The cool water close to shore on the Pacific side is also green, a change from the nice blue water we had prior to the Hurricane passing. BAIT: Almost all the larger baits this week were Caballito and mullet at the normal $3 per bait. Large swells from Hurricane Jimena this week kept the bait guys from getting any Sardinas. FISHING: BILLFISH: On Thursday, after the storm, there were Striped Marlin and Sailfish on the Pacific side up around the Los Arcos area. Some boats were able to release two or three of each, most boats were happy to catch one. I heard of one nice sized Blue Marlin being hooked up on Thursday around 25 miles to the south of the Cape, but did not hear of any of these larger fish being brought to the boat. All in all it was a slow week for Marlin. YELLOWFIN TUNA: It was also a frustrating week for those trying to catch Yellowfin. The only really decent day we had was on Thursday. Several pods of dolphin were found that held Yellowfin and a few boats were able to get the larger fish to bite. About a dozen fish between 150 and 200 pounds were caught but most of the boats were able to catch a half dozen or so smaller fish to 35 pounds. These fish remained in the area for the rest of the week but no one could get them to bite again. Friday, Saturday and Sunday were very disappointing as you could see the fish clearing the water but even dropping down to #40 floura-carbon leader did not help, so very few fish were caught. DORADO: We were hoping the Hurricane would wash debris from the arroyos and that would help congregate the Dorado for anglers, but with only an inch of rain there was not enough water dropped to cause the arroyos to flood. Perhaps next week the debris from farther north where Jimena crossed onto land will reach our area, by then there should be good concentrations of fish underneath. Meanwhile the bite was way off, most boats were happy to get a Dorado in the box. WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo caught this week, even though it was a full moon. INSHORE: The large swells really messed up the inshore fishing, at least for the week on the Pacific side of the Cape, and on the Cortez side while the water was churned for most of the week by Sunday it had begun to settle and clear. Roosterfish were found again up around the El Tulle area but that was pretty much it for the week, with the exception of a few Jacks and a few Grouper. NOTES: As is normal after the passing of a Hurricane the water is all mixed up and it may take a week for everything to settle out. I am not sure how it affects the fish, but I know the current and temperature changes for a while and that is what we are seeing now. Our fingers are crossed that everything gets back to normal, or better, within the next week. This weeks report was written to the music of Jimmy Buffet and friends on Sirus/XM Margaritaville channel. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 140 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 31, 2009 - 6:39 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report August 24-30, 2009 WEATHER: We had interesting weather this past week as clouds moved in on Tuesday evening and brought with them a spit of rain, just enough to spot the windows. We thought that was all that was going to happen but on Saturday another cloud mass moved in. The thunder and lightning had my dog and the cats scared, but my wife got a decent photo of lightning striking the mountain nearby. It rained for an hour or so, knocking off all the dust and brightening everything up bit. This past week was still a bit warm at an average of 98 degrees during the day and 85 degrees in the coolest part of the night. Check the notes below; it looks like we may get some more rain this coming week! WATER: It was 85-86 degrees everywhere you went this week with no temperature breaks. The water was blue and with the winds mostly coming from the southeast to east, the Pacific side was calm most of the time with the Cape stopping the wind. The Cortez side had a little chop on it at times. BAIT: Almost all the larger baits this week were Caballito and mullet at the normal $3 per bait. Large swells this week kept the bait guys from getting any Sardinas this week. FISHING: BILLFISH: There were still Striped Marlin being caught out there, and mostly in the same area as last week, up the coast toward the Golden Gate Bank on the Pacific side. There were also still quite a few Sailfish being caught, some of them small and some large, and normally there were at least two in the pattern when they showed up. With the full moon coming on the bite picked up just a bit on the Blue and Black Marlin. These fish were found between the 95 spot and the south end of the San Jaime Bank with the areas around the porpoise seeming to offer a few more chances at one as they seemed to be in there feeding on the small tuna. YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were not a lot of Tuna caught this week, a few pods of porpoise held football size fish but they were not very willing to bite. Every day at least one boat, sometimes more, got into a fish of over 100 pounds with a few over 200 pounds being caught. The locations varied from 30 miles to the south to 3 miles off the lighthouse and up the Cortez side toward the Inman bank area. There seemed to be several schools out there moving around a lot. Of course there were also those times when you could see the fish but not get them to bite. DORADO: Once again the fish of the week, Dorado continued to please anglers who went looking for them. Even if your target was something different it seemed you could get at least one Dorado hooked up. Some of the boats that really concentrated on these fish were limiting out early and then going out to try for a big Blue Marlin. The majority of the fish were found close to the beach on the Pacific side from the arch and northward. WAHOO: I heard of a few Wahoo this week from the Punta Gorda area as well as a couple from close to the beach on the Pacific side up in the Los Arcos area. The fish reported to me averaged 30 pounds and were caught while fishing for Dorado. INSHORE: Just like last week, Panga fishermen were getting a little bit of everything this week, ranging from Roosterfish to Jacks to Snapper to Grouper to Dorado to Sailfish, etc. Pretty much anything you wanted to fish for could be found from a Panga this past week. NOTES: Hurricane Jimena looks like she is going to come in and give us a close-up look early this week. Perhaps a category 4 Hurricane when she come in on her closest approach (presently forecast for late Tuesday, subject to change at any moment) she will bring some much needed rain to our area, we just hope it is not so much that it ruins all the street construction taking place downtown (that was supposed to be completed at the beginning of August). Check in next week and I’ll let you know how things turned out. Meanwhile later today I am putting the hardtop back on the jeep and filling my gas cans, putting the yard in order and getting ready for a hurricane party. If you want to follow the storm check out one of my favorite weather sites, www.hurricanezone.com. This weeks report was written to the music of Jethro Tull on the 1993 Chrysalis release “The Best Of Jethro Tull, The Anniversary Collection”. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 139 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 - 7:08 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report August 17-23, 2009 WEATHER: It cooled down a few degrees this week as compared to last week. Our highs were in the mid 90’s and our lows in the mid 80’s, about 5 degrees less than our averages from last week. It was sunny this week with mostly cloud free days except the very beginning and the very end. On Sunday we had a cloud mass move in that looked as if it was going to drop a lot of rain on us, but most of it ended up in the mountains, as usual. WATER: The surface on the Pacific side started out the week pretty rough due to the wind and clouds that had just moved into our area, but by Tuesday things had really settled down. The rest of the week it was very nice, a little bumpy at times but very fishable. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water remained in great shape on the surface all week long. Water temperatures were very steady across our area with the cold areas at 83 degrees and the warm spots at 86 degrees with the warmer water on the Cortez side of the Cape. BAIT: Almost all the larger baits this week were Caballito and mullet at the normal $3 per bait. There were some Sardinas available up in San Jose at the usual $25 per scoop, but you needed to make arrangements the day prior to going out. FISHING: BILLFISH: We had a two day convention of Striped Marlin between the beach and five miles offshore up on the inside of the Golden Gate Bank this week. On Thursday and Friday the fish were packed up and almost everyone there was able to release at least one Striped Marlin, and a few boats released three or four. During the rest of the week the fish were there and along the rest of the Pacific coast as well, but the catch ratio was considerably lower. Also in the area, as well as offshore were Sailfish. They were between 40 and 100 pounds in size and occasionally attacked in packs with tow or three lines going off at once. Offshore there were a few Blues and Blacks found, but not very many were caught. I know of one Black that was tail wrapped and came in dead that taped out at #400 pounds. (Take the length from the tip of the lower bill to the fork in the tail, multiply that by the square of the girth, then divide the total by 800 and you will be within 10% of the correct weight) and one big Blue that came into the pattern on a friends boat that was bigger than that, his fish just stripped about 100 yards then left the scene. YELLOWFIN TUNA: For most of the week it seemed as if the Tuna had departed the area for good, no fish were caught for almost four days. Lucky for us some showed up late in the week on the Pacific side of the Cape. In the area of the Golden Gate Bank a very large pod of Dolphin showed the way to a school that averaged 10 pounds, not big fish, but there were a lot of them. Boats that were in the area did well, and the first boat of the day to find them occasionally caught one of about 60 pounds. Limits were normal for several days. Other than that there were very few reports of Tuna found anywhere. DORADO: Definitely the fish of the week once again. The water temperatures are perfect as are the surface conditions and everyone is coming in flying yellow flags if they want. Most of the fish have been found in the Pacific within five miles of the beach, but there were also concentrations found under floating objects. We had clients on Wednesday who were lucky enough to be the first boat to a floating dead seal and they managed to pick up four Dorado averaging 35-40 pounds, lost a couple more the same size, kept four more about 15-20 pounds and released a lot more that were smaller. WAHOO: We are going through a new moon phase and I have not heard of any Wahoo this week. INSHORE: Panga fishermen were getting a little bit of everything this week, ranging from Roosterfish to Jacks to Snapper to Grouper to Dorado to Sailfish, etc. Pretty much anything you wanted to fish for could be found from a Panga this past week. NOTES: I am hoping that the weather we are seeing over on the mainland works it’s way toward us and manages to dump a little rain, we sure could use it. The construction project renovating the main road through town is at least a month behind schedule so getting around by rental car is not really a viable option, I almost guarantee you will get lost, and then there is no place to park since they have started construction of the new cultural center in the big empty dirt lot near the Dolphin Center. This weeks report was written to the easy listening music of Jack Johnson, once again. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 138 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 17, 2009 - 7:14 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report August 10-16 2009 WEATHER: Hot. Daytime highs were in the 100-degree range, on Thursday at the house we had 105 degrees in the shade, the highest I have seen so far this year. In the evenings it has dropped to the high 80’s, and this morning at 5:30 it was 84 degrees. We had a little cloud cover in the middle of the week but it brought no cool air with it, just less breeze. If you are coming down, don’t pack a sweatshirt. WATER: On the Sea of Cortez the water was hot, just like the air. Surface temperatures were a fairly consistent 86-89 degrees with the cooler water closer to shore near the Cape. There were a few hot spots out past the 1,000-fathom line where we saw 90 degrees. On the Pacific side it was a bit better with the water being between a cool 80 degrees (at least cool for this time of year) and 86 degrees. The cooler water was at the San Jaime Banks and close to the beach up past Los Arcos. There was a bit of wind and chop on the Pacific side when the clouds moved in, and in the afternoons a slight breeze made for more comfortable conditions. As of the end of the week, over the weekend, the wind really picked up and the conditions became very rough and uncomfortable. On the Cortez side the water was smooth and glassy almost every day except for the end of the week when the swells picked up a bit. BAIT: Almost all the larger baits this week were Caballito and mullet at the normal $3 per bait. There were Sardinas available up in San Jose at the usual $25 per scoop. FISHING: BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin concentrations have been moving off to the north for quite some time and the few fish were are seeing now may have been lost, as there are not very many of them. Most of the billfish we are seeing now are either small Blue Marlin or Sailfish, with an occasional large Blue or Black in the mix just to surprise you. Almost all the action on billfish has taken place on the Pacific side or to the south of us; a few Sailfish have been seen and caught in the hot water on the Cortez side. The Blues are striking on large lures trolled at slightly higher speeds than normal and the Sails seem to like the smaller lures used for Dorado. Having a drop-back live bait standing by for packs of Sailfish that come in the pattern has resulted in multiple hook-ups for a lot of boats. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Early in the week the bite was still on for the Yellowfin that came through, but by the end of the week these fish had already moved on to the west and could not be found. They were finally lost to the west at 60+ miles, but hopefully another school of the large guys will come through the area. There are still some schools of the smaller fish to be found to the north of the Los Arcos area and to the south of the cape. The white bellied dolphin have been holding these smaller fish, to 30 pounds with an occasional 60 pound fish in the mix, while the white spotted dolphin were holding the larger tuna that came through. The key to the larger fish, while they were here, was circle hooks, live bait and #60 flouro-carbon leader dropped well in front of the moving school and away from the boat, or an immediate drop back when a smaller fish was hooked while trolling. DORADO: Early in the week and in the middle of the week the action on Dorado was almost wide open. As the moon became smaller it dropped off a bit. Either that or the fish moved off for a while. On a very positive note, the fish that have been taken lately have all been very good sized, and for many of the boats being able to cull your catch by releasing the small ones has been easily possible. Fish in the 40 to 60 pound class have been brought in every day and almost 70% of the boats have been hooking up to one that size, although getting them into the boat is a different story! Most of the fish have been on the Pacific side close to the beach, in the slightly cooler water. WAHOO: There were a few fish caught this week, most of them in the 30-pound class, and most of them have been found while trolling for something else. INSHORE: Dorado were the fish of choice for most anglers going out on Pangas this week but on Friday the wind kicked up for the early morning and Roosterfish were the target. Fishing was very good for both species and there were some very nice grouper and snapper caught as well. Most of the Dorado fishing was done on the Pacific side while the Roosterfish were found on both side of the Cape, with a better concentration of them on the Sea of Cortez side. NOTES: Just a last minute update on fishing conditions overall, since I wrote the above on Sunday morning the wind has picked up on the Pacific side and the fishing over the weekend has dropped off considerably. Most boats at the weekend were coming in with one or two Dorado and perhaps a small Tuna or releasing a Marlin or Sailfish. Hopefully the fishing picks up this coming week. It has been too hot to golf this week so I am taking a break and doing some little stuff around the house. I had a chance to see my friend Brian Flynn this week as he came down for a few days. He and the Brian Flynn band played one night at Poncho and Blondie’s, really rocking out the joint with their southern rock & roll. I listened to one of his CD’s today as I wrote this report and now I am all wound up! Rock on Brian!! Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 137 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 10, 2009 - 7:15 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report August 3-9 2009 WEATHER: We had partly cloudy skies this week and even had just a spit of rain on Thursday and on Saturday, not enough to do anything but you could see the spots on the cars. There was thunder and lightning in the mountains on Saturday so there must have been some decent rain going on up there. Our daytime highs were in the high 90’s to low 100’s and the nighttime lows did not drop much below the high 80’s. WATER: Surface conditions on the Pacific became a bit on the choppy side during the later half of the week as the clouds also brought in a bit of wind. It seemed that the wind was from the west so that even the Sea of Cortez was affected, receiving the results as fairly choppy conditions later in the week. Earlier in the week things were much nicer! Water temperatures on the Sea of Cortez remained high, and the farther north you went the higher they got. On Saturday I was reading 86 degrees at the 95 spot and as I got to the east of the 1150 on the 1,000-fathom line it had crept up to 87.7 degrees. Most of the water on the Pacific side was considerably cooler with 85 degrees being the warmest out around the San Jaime Banks. BAIT: Almost all the larger baits this week were Caballito and mullet at the normal $3 per bait. There were Sardinas available up in San Jose at the usual $25 per scoop. FISHING: BILLFISH: There were fewer Blue and Black Marlin caught this week, but that may have been due to the effects of the full moon. There were still some caught, just not as many as last week. Once again the area to the south of the Cape had the most Blue Marlin hookups while the Blacks were found closer to shore. On the Pacific side the bite for Striped Marlin continued at its slower than normal summer pace, but there were boats that released two to three fish per day, most of them being found fairly close to the beach, within five miles, up past the Los Arcos area. There were Sailfish around, we hooked one on Saturday out by the 1150 in warm 87-degree water, and released one at the 95 spot in 86-degree water. Others were caught to the south and west of the Cape as well. Most of the Sailfish were in the 40-60 pound class. YELLOWFIN TUNA: There have been decent numbers of fish this week in the 20-30 pound class being found on the Pacific side of the Cape, out around the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks. Early in the week there was a group of fish that were between 100-200 pounds found south of the Cabrilla Seamount. As the week progressed these fish worked their way around the Cape and at the end of the week they were outside of the San Jaime Bank. There were fish in the 120-180 pound class caught every day, one boat got covered up, hooking and landing five fish over 100 pounds on one pass. Bet those guys were tired afterward! Cedar plugs and feathers worked great on the smaller fish; Marlin lures and live bait were hooking up the larger ones. DORADO: The bite definitely improved over the results of last week, as most boats were able to get five or six fish a trip, averaging 15 pounds as long as they fished the right area. From the lighthouse on the Pacific side up to inside the Golden Gate Bank, as long as you stayed about 2-3 miles off the beach you were going to hook up. The boats that fished slow trolled live bait had the best results, but plastic lures worked as well. Closer to the beach the fish were smaller, but very active. WAHOO: The full moon did have an effect on the Wahoo bite, we had two on Saturday, both of them found in the open water around the 95 spot, and both were about 20-25 pounds. Other fish were caught by boats working off the beach for Dorado on the Pacific side and there were fish found at the San Jaime and Golden Gate Banks as well, and all of them were about the same size. INSHORE: Dorado in decent numbers and sizes as well as some good Rooster fishing kept Panga anglers happy this week. When the football tuna ventured close to shore the Pangas would scoot out and score a few fish, but for the most part they stayed within 3 miles of the beach, and almost all of them were fishing the Pacific side of the Cape. NOTES: I have a few more days of fishing coming up so will be able to relate some information next week based on personal observation instead of having to rely on other Captains and anglers to let me know. Take your pick on the music this week, during this report I covered everyone from Mark Knopfler to Craig Chaquiso to Ottmar Liebert, one song here and one song there. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 136 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 03, 2009 - 7:05 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report July 27-August 2, 2009 WEATHER: With partly cloudy skies this week you would think that the temperature would have dropped a little bit, but unless you were on the Pacific side of the Cape during the middle of the week while we had a decent wind blowing you were sweating most of the time. Our daytime average was 98 degrees and the nights were averaging 82 degrees. The clouds we had were blown our way from the mainland as a few storms passed us, dropping some much needed rain up in the mountains, but not on us. WATER: The swells on the Pacific side were pretty large during the middle of the week but got smaller later on. The mid-week wind from the southeast caused the Port Captain to close the port to small vessels in the afternoon on Thursday, the water was pretty choppy that day with many charter boats coming back early. Water temperature on the Cortez side of the Cape was pretty much averaging 88 degrees with a few areas well offshore that read up to 90, way to hot for fishing. On the Pacific side the water was a much more mellow average of 83 degrees with the San Jaime Banks at 82 degrees and the Golden Gate Bank at 84 degrees. BAIT: Almost all the larger baits this week were Caballito and mullet at the normal $3 per bait. There were Sardinas available up in San Jose at the usual $25 per scoop. FISHING: BILLFISH: Black and Blue Marlin along with a fair showing of Striped Marlin and the occasional pack of Sailfish continued to bite this week. I know of one Captain who caught a small 5 pound Dorado, rigged it as a live bait off the outrigger and hooked up to a 600+ Black Marlin less than 10 minutes later. After 2 hours of fighting the fish, with lots of video, it was released at the boat. Another boat, one of the big fleet boats, brought in a 400-pound Black to be weighed. There were quite a few more caught and released that were smaller. The Blue Marlin showed up as well with fish that occasionally topped the 400-pound class being released by private boats and a few in that size being caught by fleet boats. The fish were close enough in that a few were caught by Pangas as well. The Blacks were close to shore with the two large fish I just mentioned being caught in less than 300 feet of water. The Blue Marlin were caught farther out with most of the action occurring south of the Cape at a distance of about 12 miles. Sailfish were showing again this week with the concentration (or at least what we get as a concentration) occurring within 5 miles of the beach on the Cortez side. The Striped Marlin were found about the same distance off the beach up on the inside of the Golden Gate Bank. YELLOWFIN TUNA: It is nice to see the Tuna continue to show up, and occasionally a large one hits the deck. Up at the East Cape Bisbee Tournament the top fish was right at 150 pounds and we had fish here that would have matched that. Of course most of the fish were smaller! We had one client who did well with one Yellowfin at #60, three at #35 and one football and he was back by 11:30 with more than enough fish, having reached his limit on Yellowfin anyway. The fish have been showing up all over the place, but always associated with the spotted Dolphin (the larger fish) and the white-bellied dolphin, everywhere from the Gorda Banks to the Golden Gate, and up to 50 miles offshore. DORADO: The Dorado numbers were still down this week, a few boats were getting a few fish but most of them were happy to come across one and get it to the boat. WAHOO: There were a couple of fish reported to me this week from the area off the beach around Los Arcos, caught by boats looking for Striped Marlin, but the fish were not large ones, averaging only 25 pounds. INSHORE: Small Dorado, an occasional large Roosterfish and plenty of small grouper and snapper had the anglers fishing off of Pangas happy this week. With the rough water mid-week the later part of the week saw most of the boats working the water around 200 to 300 feet deep, staying away from the churned up beachside. NOTES: I shot my best golf game yesterday with a score of 93, I should have broke 90 but had a couple of train-wreck holes. I also lost about 3 pounds while doing it; even with drinking five bottles of water during the three hours it took to play. Downtown Cabo is a nightmare to get around in if you are walking and if you are trying to drive it is worse. The streets are still being worked on, it was supposed to be finished by yesterday but still looks like another month to me! The fishing is good, the weather warm and the beers are cold so if you are considering coming down, now is the time to look for some decent airfares! Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 135 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 27, 2009 - 8:23 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report July 20-26, 2009 WEATHER: It was just nine in the morning and the temperature was 90 degrees, by the time we got back home from the beach at noon it was 98 degrees. No clouds to be seen and just a light wind from the southwest. Guess that gives you an idea of the weather at the end of the week, huh? Well, the rest of the week was just about the same except, for an occasional three or four hours of wind from the northwest in the afternoons. Daytime highs averaged 98 degrees and the evening lows were in the high 80’s. WATER: From the Pacific side of the Cape around the Golden Gate Banks where it was 81 degrees around to the Punta Gorda on the Cortez side where it was 87 degrees the water was almost calm all week long. On the Pacific side there were a few days in the middle of the week where the water kicked up for an afternoon or two, the water was a bit more green in color than the Cortez side and there were larger swells on the Pacific side. On the Cortez side the water was almost like a lake for most of the week and the water was nice and blue once you got outside the beach a couple of miles. There was no real temperature break or color break anywhere around. BAIT: Almost all the larger baits this week were Caballito and mullet at the normal $3 per bait. There were Sardinas available up in San Jose at the usual $25 per scoop. FISHING: BILLFISH: As the water warms up to the mid to high 80’s the Blue and Black Marlin have started to show up as well as a few Sailfish. The Sailfish have been found closer to the beach, most of them within a couple of miles on the Cortez side of the Cape. Traveling in small packs, it was not uncommon to have three or four of the lures attacked at the same time. The Blue Marlin seemed to be concentrated between the 95 spot and the 1150, most of them were attacking larger lures trolled at slightly higher than normal trolling speed, around 9-10 knots, and the fish averaged 200 pounds with a few reported to be in the 400-500 pound class. There were Black Marlin found at the outer Gorda Banks as well as off of Punta Gorda, and the boats that did get hooked up on these fish were drifting or slow trolling live Bollito for big Yellowfin Tuna when they got bit. I saw one angler on a Panga fight a 400-pound Black for four hours standing up with no fighting belt and using a single speed Penn senator reel, wow, talk about old school! There were still scattered Striped Marlin around but not in large numbers and the sizes seemed a bit smaller than usual. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Things have been slowly improving for Yellowfin Tuna as schools of football size fish continue to work their way toward us. As well as the footballs, there have been fish between 35 and 80 pounds being found occasionally around the 1,000-fathom line on the Cortez side. All of the fish have been found associated with either the spotted dolphin or the white-bellied dolphin. Several fish assumed to be even larger have been hooked up, some of them resulting in fights lasting several hours before either pulling the hooks or breaking the line. The largest fish I saw brought in this week was around 120 pounds. DORADO: The number of Dorado caught this week remained low once again, for no reason that I can see. Most boats were lucky to get one, let alone hook up with one. A few boats returned with two or three yellow flags flying, but they were in the very small minority. WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo this week but with the full moon coming up soon that should change soon. INSHORE: It was still a steady pick on Roosterfish this week, but at least there were some decent fish out there. I saw a phone picture of one Roosterfish on Thursday (sent to my wife’s phone) that was at least 90 pounds, caught on live mullet, and the angler released one other at about 50 pounds. Most of the Roosterfish were a bit smaller than those two though, averaging about 15-20 pounds. The Pangas were also finding some grouper and Pargo close to the beach. Going just a few miles off the beach they were getting into some Sailfish and Striped Marlin as well. NOTES: The big fish are showing up and the water continues to be nice for us. As long as it does not get too warm we should be fine. The East Cape Bisbee Tournament is this coming week and I have friends fishing it, good luck “Sporty Game”! This weeks report was written while listening to the Sirus-XM Margarita channel. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 134 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 20, 2009 - 7:30 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report July 13-19, 2009 WEATHER: You don’t need to be packing any sweatpants or sweaters when you pack for your trip to Cabo if you are coming down in the next few weeks. As the weather last week showed us, summer is here to stay a while. Our daytime highs on land have been over 100 degrees every day, most days topping out at right around 102 degrees while the evenings have been a warm 85 average. There were a few clouds early in the week as a few weather systems passed to the southwest and the east of us, bringing cover from the sun, but no relief from the heat. Getting out on the water made things more livable, be it swimming in the ocean or getting out on a boat. Definitely save the golf courses for early in the day though! WATER: We did see water temperatures as high as 89 degrees early in the week up around the Punta Gorda area on the Sea of Cortez, but later in the week things cooled down a bit and the same areas on the Cortez side of the Cape had an average of 85 degrees with a few warm spots at 87 degrees. On the Pacific side there was a cool spot just to the north of the lighthouse near shore where the water dropped to 75 degrees later in the week. The water on the Sea of Cortez was a very nice deep blue once you got out past the 1,000-fathom line, a decent blue color inside there, but on the Pacific side the cool water was green and offshore the water had just a bit of a green tinge. Surface conditions on the Pacific were swells at 3-6 feet with chop on top in the later part of the week. The chop and swells wrapped around the Cape and finally tapered off to the east of the 95 spot, once you were toward the 1150 the swells had laid down and the chop had disappeared. BAIT: Almost all the larger baits this week were Caballito and mullet at the normal $3 per bait. There were Sardinas available up in San Jose at the usual $25 per scoop. FISHING: BILLFISH: The numbers of Striped Marlin being seen and caught continue to dwindle, as the water remains warm in our area. Along with the scarcity, the average size of those being seen seems to have dropped a bit as well. The cooler, greenish water on the Pacific side continues to hold more Striped Marlin than the warmer waters on the Sea of Cortez, but they have not been very willing to bite. On the positive side, there seems to be a bit of a better bite starting to happen with the Blue Marlin right about now. I heard of one boat releasing two decent fish on Saturday, and there has been at least a fish per day reported every day for about every 10 boats, that’s reported hook-ups, not releases. The warm, blue water on the Cortez side has the fish scattered out, there were no defined current lines or temperature breaks. This has meant that as usual, boats that have wanted to focus on these larger Marlin have been working structure. The 95 spot, the 1150, the Gorda Banks, the Cabrilla Seamount, the Vinorama drop and the 1,000-fathom line have been targeted this week, and with a bit of success. YELLOWFIN TUNA: The fish started to show up in decent numbers this week with most of them football fish on the Cortez side of the Cape. Along with the 10-15 pound fish were occasional fish to 35 pounds and a few schools of fish in the 40-50 pound class. All of them were associated with porpoise, and is usual, the first few boats to the action had action; if you were late you were out of luck. There were also a few larger fish mixed in with the small ones, hooking up to the occasional 80-100 pound fish surprised a few anglers this week. I heard of two fish hooked up that were supposed to be around 200 pounds, but did not get to see them; it may have just been the usual beer talking! DORADO: For some reason the number of Dorado caught this week dropped off. There were still fish out there but the average per boat dropped to about one instead of the two from last week. Perhaps because no one found anything floating on the surface this week! The fish that were found were scattered out, a mix of both the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific side of the Cape, inshore and offshore. Basically get out on the water and keep your fingers crossed. Working a while under frigate birds increased your odds quite a bit. WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo this week. INSHORE: This week the inshore action was a repeat of last week. It was a pick this week with steady action on small Roosterfish averaging 10 pounds and an occasional fish to 40 pounds, a couple of Sierra and small Yellowtail found on the Pacific side and a scattering of Pargo in the mix. There were two days in the middle of the week when the grouper action was decent, but then the fish moved to deeper water. Most of the Pangas were working just offshore looking for Dorado and Tuna action. Notes: The water has stayed warm, the big fish are starting to show up and we are getting a bit more excited every week! I will be out on the water at least two days this week looking for Blue Marlin and will let you know next week about any luck that we have. Until then, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 133 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 13, 2009 - 11:16 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report July 6-12, 2009 WEATHER: Well, now we know for sure that summer is full on us as our daytime temperatures this week have been consistently above 100 degrees, in a few cases getting higher than 103 degrees at my house. Our nighttime range has been in the mid to high 80’s early in the morning, I have yet to see anything lower than 80 degrees on the chart. We did have a couple of days when the wind blew a little from the east and brought some cooling to town, and on Sunday morning it felt for abut an hour that we might have a bit of fog move in and cool things down, but that never happened and things have stayed warm. No clouds, no rain and sunny skies, if you are coming in the next few months, leave the long pants and sweater at home, just bring swim suits and sunblock! WATER: The strength of the California current died off and the warm water that was stacked up past the Punta Gorda area worked its way quickly across the Cape. At the end of the week we had surface temperatures in the high 80’s across the Sea of Cortez and up into the Pacific as far as 10 miles northwest of the Golden Gate Banks, a big difference from what we were seeing last week. From the San Jaime Banks and the 1,000 fathom line all the way across the Cape into the sea of Cortez the water was 85 degrees or higher. On the Pacific side up above the Golden Gate Bank half way to the Finger Bank it began to cool a bit and at the Finger Bank itself it was 77 degrees. Even thought the water was warm above the San Jaime Bank, it was still a little off color, but everywhere else it was a deep blue. Sea swells were a little larger than normal due to the passing far to the south of Hurricanes Blanca and Carlos, but there was very little to no wind on top of the swells so conditions were great for fishing. BAIT: Caballito and Mackerel at the normal $3 per bait as well as Mullet at the same price. FISHING: BILLFISH: The numbers of Striped Marlin that have been seen this week are down, but that is considered normal for this time of year as the water warms past their comfort zone. A few are still being seen out there and a few are caught every day, but as the water stays warm the numbers will continue to drop off. There have been a lot more Sailfish showing up in the catch reports this week, once again due to the warmer water. They are being caught on smaller lures being pulled for Dorado and a few boats have had instances where all the lures have been attacked at once. There are also reports every day of Blue Marlin, and occasionally a Black Marlin appearing in the pattern and engulfing a lure. Not a lot of them are being brought to the boat yet, but that will change soon as the fleet boats start gearing up for these larger fish. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again we were seeing small football fish in and around some of the porpoise pods that were found. Not all pods had tuna with them, often a large pod would be found with plenty of feeding activity and bird action, yet not one fish would be caught or show up on the fish finders. On about half the occasions that the porpoise were found there would be fish with them. In the middle of the week there was decent action for one day with a nice pod of porpoise holding fish averaging 30 pounds between the San Jaime Bank and the Golden Gate Bank, but the fish did not stay around long enough for more that a couple of boats to get in on the action. Other than that one day, a good bite on football fish would be between 10 and 20 fish a trip, but you had to be in the right place at the right time for that to happen. Most boats looking for Tuna were lucky to get a couple of them in the box. DORADO: Still averaging 2 fish per boat, Dorado remained the fish of the week this week. While not everyone got into one of the nice 50-pound fish, there were enough of them in the 15-pound class to get a nice dinner for everyone aboard. Most of the action shifted to the Pacific side of the Cape as the warm water pushed its way up the coast. Closer to shore, mostly within five miles was where the majority of the action took place and small brightly colored feathers or plastic lures worked the best. Dropping back a live bait behind a fish that was already hooked up sometimes gave anglers a chance at a second, larger fish. WAHOO: With this week having the full moon I did hear of a few nice Wahoo in the 40-pound class being caught offshore. These were fish that were incidental catches caught while fishing for Marlin or Dorado. INSHORE: It was a pick this week with steady action on small Roosterfish averaging 10 pounds and an occasional fish to 40 pounds, a couple of Sierra and small Yellowtail found on the Pacific side and a scattering of Pargo in the mix. There were two days in the middle of the week when the grouper action was decent, but then the fish moved to deeper water. Most of the Pangas were working just offshore looking for Dorado and Tuna action. Notes: While the fishing was not red hot by any means, it was not dead either. The action was a steady pick all day for most of the boats, just enough action to keep anglers from getting bored. As the water remains warm the action for Blue and Black Marlin, Sailfish and Dorado should heat up. If there were more anglers in town perhaps the action would be better, but as so many have said recently, it is almost like a new day every day out there. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 132 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 06, 2009 - 7:21 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report June 29- July 5, 2009 WEATHER: There were cool temperatures at the start of the week compared to what we had at the end of the week. Early on the highs were in the low 90’s but as the 4th drew closer things started to heat up. On the 4th we showed 101 degrees on my home gauge. There were mostly sunny skies early in the week and some scattered clouds on the 4th, enough of them that we actually got a little spit of rain, enough to spot up the cars in town. Nighttime lows were in the mid 80’s to low 80’s, we were using the air conditioner when we returned from Oregon. WATER: There was a strong push from the California current this week and the cool water from the Pacific side wrapped around the Cape bringing water as cool as 72 degrees up to Los Frailles and 67 degrees just off of the lighthouse on the Pacific side. This cool water extended out 25 miles from the beach on the Pacific side and 10-15 miles from the beach on the Cortez side of the Cape. This cooler water was also green, and the closer to the beach you got the greener it was. Outside of the cool water the clarity improved and the water warmed up with a nice band of water between 79-82 degrees and 20 miles wide, then the temperature dropped a couple of degrees. Surface conditions were reported as variable this week as the wind would blow for one or two days hard from the northwest then die down for a day or two. This wind really brought up the chop and made things uncomfortable. At the end of the week the wind had dome very little and things were nice and smooth out on the water. BAIT: Caballito and Mackerel at the normal $3 per bait as well as some Mullet at the same price. FISHING: BILLFISH: It was reported to me that almost every day boats had been hooking up to Blue Marlin but since most of them are not prepared yet for these larger fish, most of them were getting away. There are still Striped Marlin out there but they have not been very hungry this week, there has been so much squid around that the fish are very lethargic and not willing to expend very much energy chasing lures or live baits. A few have been caught on lures and dead bait though, and the success rate has been about 40% for boats looking to hook up to a Marlin. Late in the week there was a decent bite reported just two miles from the beach up around La Laguna, between San Jose and Punta Gorda, right in the dirty green water, and several boats that fished there were able to get the fish to bite and managed to release several fish each. There have been Sailfish around as well and they have been found on the Cortex side of the Cape where the water has been warmer. YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were scattered spots of small football fish found in the blind this week and boats that stayed and worked an area after hooking one usually were able to put a half dozen in the box. A few fish were found among porpoise but it was not common to find these guys, those that were able managed to pick up between two and four fish averaging 25 pounds. A dead whale was found early in the week not too far from shore and there were plenty of football sized fish found around it, but the whale disappeared for a day, showed again for a day and then was gone. DORADO: Once again Dorado were the fish of the week, but mostly because of the dead whale that was found. A few greedy boats caught well over double their limits off of the whale but most boats kept things reasonable and left after getting two fish per client, the legal limit. The Dorado averaged 15 pounds and there were a few that approached 30 pounds. In other areas there were Dorado as well, mostly in the warm band of water 10-15 miles offshore, but also occasionally in close in the green water. Some of these fish were very nice sized, in the 40 pound class and larger. Even with the action around the dead whale things were still slow overall, when the whale was not around boats were lucky to get one or two Dorado per trip. WAHOO: The only Wahoo I heard of this week were caught from around the dead whale and were caught on lures being trolled for Dorado. A few boats put out Rapalla style lures and managed to get a few as well, but no one tried dropping iron deep for these fish that I heard of. INSHORE: Roosterfish were the inshore fish of the week, but even then things were slow due to the colder, greener water. A few Pangas were able to do well on Jack Crevalle averaging 25 pounds about a mile off of the beach to the north on the Sea of Cortez, but for the most part that was about the extent of the action. Notes: We had a great time in Oregon this past week, perhaps next time we will be able to stay longer. It was nice to wade in an icy cold stream flowing over clean rocks and smell the pine trees surrounding me! As the fishing here was slow overall with the exception of the two days the dead whale was around, it was a good time to get away. If this Pacific cold water current weakens and the water warms and clears again we should start to get more action in our area. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 131 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 22, 2009 - 6:27 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report June 15-21, 2009 WEATHER: Thank goodness we had a bit of a break in the heat this week. We still started the week with daytime highs in the high 90’s but ended up with mid 80’s at the end of the week. The nighttime lows went down as well with the week ending in the low 70’s, we did not need to use the air conditioning this week! While the start of the week was hot and had little wind movement on shore, we did have the first tropical depression of the year develop to the southeast, and it brought overcast skies on Thursday and Friday, which resulted in the lower temperatures, and also increased winds. WATER: The surface temperatures in the Sea of Cortez at the end of the week were between 77 and 82 degrees with the cooler water being toward the west and south. Directly south of us we had 71-degree water and at the end of the week we had cold water push across the Cape and bring the Pacific side down to the 65-66 degree range. There was a very cold area between the beach and about 5 miles out from just up around the Golden Gate Bank to the lighthouse that was between 56 and 60 degrees, and very green as well. At the start of the week we were still seeing the large swells from the west that were a result of that dissipated storm during the middle of last week to the southwest. During the middle of the week the swells shrunk to the usual 2-4 feet and then at the end of the week the tropical depression southeast of us brought in larger, slightly confused swells from that direction, but at the end of the week they had already started to shrink as well. BAIT: Large Caballito at the normal $3 per bait, small and large Mackerel at $3 per bait and plenty of mullet at $3 per bait. The large swells at the beginning and end of the week resulted in no Sardines being available then, but there were some during the middle of the week at the normal $20 per scoop. FISHING: BILLFISH: Boats that targeted Striped Marlin this week were having very mixed results. One day the fish would bite and the next they all had their mouths closed no matter what you put in front of them. When they were on the bite, getting three of four strikes on a mix of lures and bait was normal and the majority of the boats were able to release one or two fish. When the bite was off, no one was getting anything going. There were a few Blue Marlin caught this week as well as a couple of Black Marlin reported, and the size of the fish was decent at an average of 250 pounds. They were all found on the Sea of Cortez, and they struck on lures. YELLOWFIN TUNA: For most of the week the action continued to be slow with a few fish being found among Dolphin, and most of the fish were footballs between 5 and 12 pounds. A good catch would be 4 fish. At the end of the week there were a few very nice fish between 100 and 150 pounds brought in, caught among the big black porpoise in the Sea of Cortez. Hopefully they will remain in our area for a few days longer. DORADO: Dorado were the fish of the week for offshore anglers as they were almost everywhere on the Cortez side of the Cape. Along with numbers that averaged between three to six fish per boat came a very nice average size at between 15-20 pounds. A few small fish in the 10-pound class balanced out the few caught that were over 50+ pounds, and there were quite a few in the 30-40 pound category. Trolling lures along the current lines and under frigate birds worked very well and then once hooking up, dropping back a live bait for following fish had good results. WAHOO: I did hear of a few Wahoo caught this week but did not see them, they were reported from up around Punta Gorda as well as in open water where the surface temperatures were higher than 80 degrees. INSHORE: Fish of the week for inshore anglers was the Roosterfish. Although they were not everywhere, when you did find them they were there in good numbers. The high swells at the start of the week and at the end of the week put them off their feed for a while, but they did bite well once they got going. This week end I had a report of one boat fishing live bait catching two fish over 60 pounds, one of just under 40 pounds and quite a few in the 15-25 pound class. Up around San Jose there were good numbers of small fish in the 5-10 pound class. Notes: There will be no report next week, I hope the weather in Sun River, Oregon is good as I am looking forward to some golf and fly fishing there! Until next month, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 130 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 15, 2009 - 7:34 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report June 8-14, 2009 WEATHER: We hit a new high of the year this week with the top number being 102 degrees on Thursday afternoon. The rest of the week we were seeing high 90’s during the daytime and low 80’s at night. There was very little wind early in the week but on Friday the breeze picked up a bit. No rain for the week, instead we had mostly sunny skies. WATER: On the Sea Of Cortez we had water in the 81-84 degrees range, on the Pacific side of the Cape it was 67-68 degrees and from due south of the cape toward the southwest it was averaging 73-75 degrees. The cold water on the Pacific side was green as well, and the warm water on the Cortez side was nice and blue. Surface conditions were great all around early in the week. At the end of the week the swells began to pick up as a result of a storm that had built up to the southwest of us. Starting Friday the wind started getting stronger and the swells started getting larger. On the weekend the swells on the Pacific side were at 6-9 feet, causing surf to 20 feet, on the Cortez side the swells were less visible until they crashed on-shore, then they were dangerous. BAIT: Large Caballito at the normal $3 per bait, small and large Mackerel at $3 per bait and plenty of mullet at $3 per bait. The large swells at the end of the week resulted in no Sardines being available. FISHING: BILLFISH: Just as quickly as the bite turned on last week for the Striped Marlin it turned off again. They were still being caught, but not in the numbers of last week. A good trip would result in two to three releases; most boats this week were lucky to get one release. The fish were scattered between the 95 spot and the Los Arcos area on the Pacific side, from one tow five miles offshore for the most part. There were also fish reported from up around the Punta Gorda area close to shore. There were plenty of fish being seen, but few of them were biting. The fish that did bite were on a mix of lures and live bait. YELLOWFIN TUNA: The numbers were still low for Yellowfin Tuna this past week, but there were some caught. Most of the fish were less than 20 pounds, and most of them were caught while blind trolling, not in the porpoise. Directly to the south and into the southwestern area were the best bets to find the Tuna this week. There were a lot of flags being flown this week, but most of them were for Bonita that were being caught directly in front of town. DORADO: The Dorado bite continued to improve this week with most boats returning flying at least one or two flags for fish that ran up to 50+ pounds. A few boats really got into the fish and returned with limits for their anglers, but it did not happen very often. The warmer water on the Cortez side of the Cape had the largest fish, the numbers occurred to the south of us. At least a few of the large fish were being found up on the Pacific side as a few boats returned from the Golden Gate area with fish to 50 pounds, but no large numbers. WAHOO: There were still a few Wahoo caught this week and there should be a few caught this coming week as well as the warm water stays with us. The fish I heard of this past week were from the Punta Gorda and Gorda Banks area. INSHORE: The Snook disappeared and the bite for Snapper and Sierra as well as Yellowtail slowed along with it. Early in the week there was a concentration of Roosterfish to 50 pounds with most of them much smaller found just to the north of Chileno beach, but by the end of the week they had moved somewhere else. Most of the Pangas were working just outside for the Bonita and Dorado. Notes: At the end of the month we are going on a short vacation so there will not be a report for the last week of June. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 129 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 08, 2009 - 8:21 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report June 1-7, 2009 WEATHER: Summertime is here! Our nights had low temperatures in the mid 70’s this week with our high on Saturday of 100 degrees, but for most of the week it was in the mid 90’s. There has been a light breeze in town from the northwest that keeps it from being stifling, and it has been a cool breeze since it is being blown across the cool Pacific water. We had no rain this week and had beautiful clear skies. WATER: Water temperatures across the region stayed pretty much the same all week long. On the Cortez side of the Cape we say water averaging 79 degrees early in the week and 80 degrees later on with the warmest water occurring later in the week at 83 degrees between the Gorda Banks and the Cabrilla Seamount. Most of this warm water has been between the shore and out to just past the 1,000-fathom line. On the Pacific side it has been cooler and the water has been green. From Cabo Falso out to and across the San Jaime Bank the water has been averaging 65 degrees and has been very green. Between the 1,000-fathom line to the south of the San Jaime to a line directly to the south of Cabo the water has averaged 74 degrees. BAIT: There was a decent mix of small and large Caballito and Mackerel as well as some Mullet this week at the normal $3 per bait. FISHING: BILLFISH: All those Striped Marlin that we were seeing last week that would not eat a bait decided to get hungry this week. Not only that, they decided top move closer to us! The bite was going off only 1 to 4 miles off the arch during the later half of the week. There were Marlin everywhere you looked, tailers here and there, jumpers everywhere and groups of fish schooled up. The largest group I saw was 15 fish within a 30 yard circle, two on the surface and the others just underneath. They were biting well on live and dead baits, we had hooked one on a live bait and were clearing a rigged dead bait, just letting it hang back about ten feet when it was attacked by a brightly lit Striper! There were reports on the radio of a few small Blue Marlin being caught as well, but I don’t have any hard information on them. That is not hard to believe though since we have that warm water out there. YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Tuna bite was still slow this week but there were reports of some fish being caught over the weekend among porpoise just five miles south of the arch. I saw those Porpoise while fishing off a Panga as a guest and we pulled lures through them with no results, but there were a couple of boats hooked up to fish of some kind. There were also some decent fish in the 25-30 pound class reported being caught outside the Gorda Banks up to the Vinorama area up the Sea of Cortez. DORADO: Some decent sized Dorado were caught this week up in the warm water in the Sea of Cortez. The large fish were 40-50 pounds with fair numbers in the 20-pound class. Close to shore there were good numbers of small fish in the 6-10 pound range. The best lure we ran was a bullet head in pink/white but other anglers had good luck with green/white and bleeding mackerel. Most boats that got away from the Marlin and made Dorado a target were able to get a couple of fish per boat, not great numbers yet, but with some quality fish in there. WAHOO: The full moon appeared to make a difference this week. There were no reports of fish the week before but in the past five days I have heard of quite a few decent Wahoo to 40 pounds being caught. Fishing fairly close to the beach in less than 150 feet of water brought the most bites, but the fish were a little smaller than the fish caught incidentally offshore. There was a good bit on fish in the 15-20 pound class up at the Inman Bank according to a few fishermen that went there and targeted Wahoo. They had their best luck with slow trolled live baits. INSHORE: We had a good surprise this week with the inshore fishing. I actually fished off a Panga five days this past week and on two of those days we were able to get Snook. Snook only show up in our area for a very, very short period and it was my luck to be on the water when it happened. I fished on Tuesday through Saturday, the first three days with my sister-in-law, Ellie Crocker, a teacher of outdoors activities and physical education at Lanier Middle School in Houston, Texas. Tuesday we caught five nice red snapper, the largest about 15 pounds and then tried for the Snook. Ellie caught on that weighed 31.83 pounds and another of about 28 pounds. Casting live Caballito into the impact zone right where the rocks and the beach met resulted in the Snook ambushing the bait as they swam out of the bubbles and swirling sand. On Wednesday we went back and Ellie caught two more about the same size and I was able to get a chance and caught my first Snook. Of course it was smaller than any of hers! Then on Thursday we went for Roosterfish and caught 8 out of twelve that bit. Friday I fished with some friends from New Jersey for Snook with no luck in the first two hours so we went offshore and released two Striped Marlin of about 130 pounds each. Saturday was another two hours trying for Snook with the owner of “Eat Me” lures with no luck so we went looking for Dorado and ended up with two small fish. There were a few Yellowtail and a few Sierra caught and as the week came to an end the Snapper bite dropped off a bit. Notes: The water is warming up and the fishing is getting better every week. Now if the Yellowfin would just show up in good numbers things would be great! On the golf front, as a side note, most of the courses had dropped their prices for the summer and it is now affordable to play once in a while. I just played Cabo Real and had a great time except for the greens, they were so fast it was unfair! All in all though, I was happy with my 96. This weeks report was written to the music of Jack Johnson once again, this time on the soundtrack to the movie “Curious George”. |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 128 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 01, 2009 - 7:47 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report May 25-31, 2009 WEATHER: Once again we had a strange week with the weather. At the start of the week the wind began to blow pretty hard at 15-20 knots from the northwest and that brought the temperatures down. Our early morning lows were in the low 60’s, here at the house on Wednesday I registered 61 degrees. Our highs during the day stayed in the low to mid 80’s. Thursday evening the wind started to slow down and Friday around noon it stopped. Saturday morning the coolest I saw was 72 degrees and it warmed right up to 92-95 in the afternoon. No rain this week. WATER: At the beginning of the week there was a large plume of cold water coming across the tip of the peninsula and the water three miles off the Cape was a cool 63 degrees while farther up the Pacific side there was 57-degree water off the beach at Los Arcos. The currents changed and at the end of the week everything had warmed up by ten degrees as we had 77-degree water off the Cape and the beach temperatures on the Pacific side had warmed to 70 degrees. With the wind blowing as hard as it was no one wanted to fish that cold water early in the week anyway, it looked like victory at sea out there. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water was warmer with the current pushing out the cold plume we had early so that at the end of the week from the beach to the 95 spot and the 1150 it was averaging 77 degrees and just outside of there it was 75 degrees. At the end of the week the wind had died, the surface conditions on the Pacific had calmed right down and the Cortez side was almost flat. BAIT: There was a decent mix of Caballito and Mackerel this week at the normal $3 per bait. FISHING: BILLFISH: You wanted Striped Marlin this past week? Well, we had them by the dozens between the 95 spot and the 1150, but they were not as interested in biting later in the week. The boats were throwing baits every five minutes to fish on the surface but finding one that has hungry took time. Some boats were able to catch and release three of four early in the week but the numbers dropped at the end of the week. One possible reason is the amount of bait out there. Squid were showing on the depth sounders and you could see the Marlin around them, occasionally balling them up a bit so the Marlin were stuffing themselves and were not really in the mood to expend energy chasing lures or lively little Caballito and Mackerel. Putting out artificial squid as lures brought more attention, and this week I am going to try some of the real stuff inside of the artificial, perhaps that will work! At the end of the week the Marlin had moved closer to town and they were pretty concentrated three to four miles off of the Cape. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Sorry to say it but there were very few if any Tuna found by the boats fishing this week. We did see several Tuna Seiners anchored in the bay early in the week, the big ones with helicopters on them, and at the end of the week there was one small one anchored out there, so somewhere there are Tuna, just not here. DORADO: Dorado were scarce this week but there were a few caught at the end of the week as the water warmed up. A good catch was two or three fish but most boats were happy to get the chance at one. WAHOO: Once again, what Wahoo? On the bright side we are coming up on the full moon so maybe there will be a decent bite this coming week as the moon gets bigger and the water warms up. INSHORE: The Pacific side was basically un-fishable the early part of the week but at the end, starting on Saturday the seas had calmed enough that the Pangas were able to get back to the area that were producing last week. There were still Pargo in the rocks and live bait was the way to go. You had to button down the drag on these guys or they would rock you right away. There were some nice sized Jack Crevalle in with them as well. On the Cortez side the Roosterfish started to show up and they ranged from 5 to 35 pounds. Live bait slow trolled in 15-30 feet of water brought fish to the boat for pictures. There were very few Sierra caught and the Yellowtail bite slowed way down close to home. Notes: This weeks report was written to the music of Jack Johnson on his 2004 Universal release “In Between Dreams”. I can’t believe I just heard of him a few weeks ago! There seem to be more tourists coming in now, which is a very good thing for Cabo since we have been almost dead for the last month. The government has finally gotten around to tearing up Marina Blvd so you can’t drive through the middle of town. The good thing is that they have made the side streets one way with no parking so traffic moves along pretty well. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 127 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 25, 2009 - 9:22 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report May 18-24, 2009 Notes: Well, we finally had a reported case of swine flu in Cabo and guess what? Yep, it was a tourist that brought it with him! I just knew it was going to happen! Anyway, just the one case and it had no effect on any of the fishing. One good thing this week was the fact that the inshore fishing was great and the Marlin started to bite pretty good for the offshore guys. Check below for a little more detail. WEATHER: We really had a great week as we got a bit of rain at the beginning. Not of lot of it, mind you, but it was enough to make everyone get their car washed right afterward as the rain spots made the dust covering them easy to see. Combine the rain with a bit of fog and it was a nice cool start. As the week wore on the clouds and fog moved away and it started to warm up. At the start of the week the nighttime lows were in the high 60’s and low 70’s, at the end of the week it was in the high 70’s while the daytime highs at the end of the week were in the low to mid 90’s. Combine the temperatures with light winds and it was a very nice week to be here. WATER: The water on the Pacific side of the Cape was off-color out to the San Jaime bank this week, once past there to the west the water cleaned up a lot and was nice and blue. On the Cortez side the water was a bit off color out to 10 miles offshore then it cleaned up as well. The cold-water plume along the Pacific shoreline continued through Saturday with temperatures in the mid 60’s up to 2 miles from shore but on Sunday the warmer water from the Cortez side pushed the cold water back and it warmed to a very nice 70-71 degrees. At the end of the week the water around the San Jaime bank was 74 degrees; it was 73 degrees at the Golden Gate Bank. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water was a nice warm 76-78 degrees everywhere wit the exception of a ridge of 81-84 degree water that ran from the Grey Rock south to the west side of the 95 spot and continued south at least 40 miles. Surface conditions on both side of the Cape were just great at the end of the week with small swells through Saturday, then some larger ones coming in on Sunday but with very little wind pushing them. BAIT: We had a nice mix of different size Caballito this week and it was nice to be able to get the smaller ones for inshore fishing. There had been some very good small Mackerel available at the bait barge, but according to all the boat captains all the guys that work there got drunk on Thursday night and did not show for work on Friday, so, no Mackerel were available that day. Bait was costing the usual $3 per bait. FISHING: BILLFISH: This week was almost a repeat of last week. The Striped Marlin was still showing in good numbers on the Cortez side of the Cape from the 95 spot and past the 1150 spot. Most of them seemed to be mixed in with an enormous pod of common Pacific Dolphin that moved in, probably feeding on the same squid. The difference this week was that the Marlin were willing to eat live bait. As a result there were more fish hooked up this week that last week and most boats were releasing two to four fish a day. Later in the week the action was starting later in the day so boats that stayed out an extra hour or so were doing much batter than the boats that came in early. YELLOWFIN TUNA: As with the billfish report, there was little change in the Tuna report from last week. Yellowfin of any size were a no show with the exception of some football fish found to the west of the San Jaime. These footballs were not associated with any Dolphin and the two boats that did get into them on Saturday were not able to track them for long and as a result were limited to only a half-dozen fish apiece. DORADO: Wow, it seems that everything is a repeat of last weeks report and the Dorado are not exception. Find something floating on the water and you might get lucky, and the chances of this happening in the warm water of the Sea Of Cortez were much greater than in the cooler waters of the Pacific. A couple of boats were able to find some small debris and picked up a few fish each, but for the most part there the chances were about 10% of getting one stray Dorado. WAHOO: Once again, what Wahoo? INSHORE: Like I said, everything is a repeat of last week. Fishing from a Panga was the way to go this week. I fished just to the north of the lighthouse on Friday and caught a 19-pound and a 13-pound Pargo in the rocks at the lighthouse. One of the Pangas we use got into a nice school pf Pargo late in the day farther up the beach and had 10 fish over 20 pounds for his two anglers. Small live Caballito were the way to go. The Yellowtail bite dropped off a bit and the fish were scattered. Trolling Rapallas at 6 knots found some of the fish and then working yo-yo’s in the area would result in a few more bites. There were some bigger skipjack just outside the 50-foot depth that made a few reels scream as well. On the Cortez side there were scattered Sierra between Cabo and San Jose and past San Jose they were getting into some decent Bonita. |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 126 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 18, 2009 - 7:19 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report May 11-17, 2009 Notes: The number of tourists in Cabo is still far under the normal for this time of year and yet we have had no reports of swine flu in our region at all. Add the fact that we are far from the border and the drug wars and everyone here is wondering what we need to do to get things turned around. Hopefully over time things will change, and before everyone here goes broke! If you wanted to go fishing this week for anything other than Striped Marlin you needed to go in a Panga on the Pacific side, offshore there were only billfish. Scroll on down for more information on the different species this week. Until next week, tight lines! WEATHER: The week started with pretty steady winds from the west-northwest. I was out fishing in a Panga on Tuesday and the wind was blowing steady until about 9 am, and then the fog rolled in and the wind died down. Morning low was in the mid 60’s with the daytime highs in the mid 80’s. A few days later, and as a matter of fact through the rest of the week, the fog continued to move in, and not on a regular basis. At the end of the week the nighttime lows had risen to the mid 70’s and the daytime highs to the high 80’s, the wind had died down and the fog had finally stopped. WATER: At the beginning of the week that cold water plume that ran along the shore on the Pacific side continued to keep near shore water at a cool 60 degrees, but as the week continued the current slacked off and warmer water from the Sea of Cortez pushed its way to the lighthouse and slightly beyond. On the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks the water remained between 65-67 degrees. On the Sea of Cortez side of the Cape the water near the beach was 75 degrees while at the 1150 and east it warmed to 80 degrees. Pacific waters were rough early in the week and became more comfortable later on, in the Cortez early in the week getting home was a wet trip as the winds really kicked things up after noon, but later on it was nice all day long. BAIT: Bait was a little rough to get this week as the Caballito were fairly large and most of the fish that were caught were caught on lures. Everyone that could get live bait bought some though, as you never know if thy might make the difference between a good trip and a skunk flag at the end. Caballito were the normal $3 per bait, but some of the bait guys tried to sneak in half-dead fish or the small jacks instead, so you really had to watch out. FISHING: BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin showed up again from the 1150 to the Cabrillo Seamount, and they were there in pretty good numbers. They did not show much interest in live bait, most of fish came in pretty aggressively to lures, they just played with them and turned their bills away from live bait that was dropped back into the pattern. Boats where the mates and Captains worked the lures, teasing the fish into eating what they were already focused on, had best results. Boats that went for the Striped Marlin averaged 2 fish per boat with some getting up to four releases per trip. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again I did not hear of any boats getting into anything close to home except for a few small football fish that may have gotten lost! DORADO: A few scattered Dorado were caught this week by boats working the beach on the Cortez side, but with the water warming up there may be a better bite in the week to come. WAHOO: What Wahoo? INSHORE: Fishing from a Panga was the way to go this week and the cold water on the Pacific side did not deter the fish from biting. I fished just to the north of the lighthouse on Tuesday and we caught 16 firecracker Yellowtail and lost one that surely felt much larger. Later in the week the Pargo started to show up as well and the catch became a mixed bag. On the Cortez side there were scattered Sierra between Cabo and San Jose and past San Jose they were getting into some decent Bonita. |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 125 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 11, 2009 - 8:17 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report May 4-10, 2009 Notes: There are still no reported cases of the Swine Flu here in the Baja, but tourist numbers have remained low anyway. So come to Cabo to escape Swine Flu! Just as was the case last week the report this week is based on very low numbers of boats going out. We are still seeing a few whales here and there but they are pretty much done for the year. WEATHER: It was pretty nice during most of the week with light and scattered clouds, the daytime highs in the mid 80’s and nighttime lows in the mid 60’s. At the end of the week clouds moved into our area, coming in from the southwest and they were heralded by some pretty strong winds on Saturday. With wind speeds at 25 miles per hour all day long and a heavy cover of clouds it felt as if it might rain, but all we had was about 10 minutes of a light mist. WATER: The Pacific side was a tough way to go this week as they weather system made its way toward us. The winds have been pushing the swells all week long and early in the week you knew that something was on it’s was as the swells went overhead. A few boats that went out toward the San Jaime Bank reported that conditions were similar to “victory at sea” film clips. It was not comfortable out there and the water was cool as well with surface temperatures in the 67-degree area at the Golden Gate and the San Jaime Banks. Closer to shore on the Pacific side there was a band of cold water pushing its way south along the beach. This cold water was 61 degrees and ran from the beach to three miles out all along the Pacific side, finally turning off to the southwest at the lighthouse. Between the band of cold water and the 95 spot on the Cortez side of the Cape the water slowly warmed up to 72 degrees, and once you went east of there it quickly warmed to 77 degrees. The cold water was also very green with the green slowly fading the warmer the water became. BAIT: There was bait available at the normal $3 each with the small Barred Jacks being more prevalent than any other type of bait. These make good cut bait but I don’t care for them for much else. There were a few Mackerel, but there were not very many Caballito, both due to the cold water and the full moon. There were supposed to be Sardinas available up in San Jose, but I also heard that their availability was on “who you know “ basis. FISHING: BILLFISH: Reports have some Striped Marlin showing up at the Punta Gorda and north of there, in the warmer water. We caught one this week on the Outer Gorda Bank and had another one on the same trip come into the pattern and swirl on a lure. There were plenty of small Skipjack on the bank as well as common Pacific Dolphin. We went as far as Vinorama without seeing any other fish but I had some friends tell me I should have gone about 10 miles farther north. A couple of boats reported seeing Swordfish on the surface around the 95 spot on Thursday but no one was able to get a bite. YELLOWFIN TUNA: I did not hear of any boats getting into the Tuna this week locally, but did hear of one boat making a transit from Mazatlan that got into some nice fish about 80 miles from us. The fish were in the 50-pound class and they caught a dozen or so of them. DORADO: There were scattered Dorado this week and perhaps 50% of the boats out there were able to get a hook into one of them. These fish were scattered on the Cortez side of the Cape and until we get some floating debris in our area there are not likely to be any large catches. WAHOO: The full moon brought about a few hungry Wahoo up around the Punta Gorda area and the Inman Banks area. The usual high speed swimming plugs did not work as well as slow trolled or drifted live bait, but that may have been because more anglers were slow trolling or drifting, huh? INSHORE: Inshore fishing was almost non-existent on the Pacific side as wind and swells kept getting stronger and larger, the water became colder and got greener. The action on the Cortez side made up for it a bit though with some decent Yellowtail to 25 pounds being found off of the rocky points as well as some nice Sierra to 9-10 pounds. A scattering of other fish in the mix such as Amberjack, small Roosterfish, Pargo and Grouper made for some interesting trips on the Pangas. |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 124 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 04, 2009 - 9:10 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report April 27-May 3, 2009 Notes: This week I decided to start with the notes instead of ending with them. I thought that giving an overview at the start of the report would allow you to decide what sections you would like to check out. I did not fish this past week and there were very few boats going out due to the Swine Flu scare. We have had no cases in Baja California, none, zero, zip, and nada. Even with that knowledge, the media has hyped up this flu so much that almost every charter we and other companies have had on the books has cancelled their trips. We still have a couple this month, but overall it looks like a good month for us to take a vacation. Since there is no Swine Flu here, maybe we will go up to the East Cape, don’t want to go to California or Texas, they have cases there and we might get sick, lol!! Given the fact that there were few boats out this week, the information I have is based on just a few trips, not the normal numbers. WEATHER: We had a couple of partly cloudy days this week but most of the time it was clear and blue. We started the week with some clouds on Sunday and had a mostly cloudy day this last Saturday. Nighttime temperatures have been in the low 70’s and daytime highs have been in the low 90’s. We had a bit of wind on the Pacific side Thursday and Friday that cooled things off a bit over there, but there was almost no wind on the Cortez side this week. WATER: Surface conditions on the Pacific side were great with swells at 3-5 feet and only a few days of wind at the end of the week putting some decent chop on the water. The Cortez side of the Cape showed us great conditions with small swells of 1-2 feet and only light winds. Water temperatures remained constant as there was very little change in the direction or speed of the currents. On the Cortez side the water was a very consistent 75-76 degrees with it warming slightly up toward the Punta Gorda area. On the Pacific side the cold water remained 64-66 degrees along the beach and extending in a plume to the south. Outside the 1,000-fathom line it warmed back up to 72-73 degrees. The cool water was slightly more green that the warm water. BAIT: Bait availability was very good with so few boats going out, at least at the beginning of the week. At the end of the week even the bait boats were taking nights off because of the low number of boats going out. Mackerel and Caballito were the normal $3 per bait and Sardinas were hard to come by. FISHING: BILLFISH: There were fish seen and a few fish caught up around the 1,000-fathom line on the Pacific side as well as quite a few seen and a few caught around the 95 spot. These were Striped Marlin that averaged 120 pounds. Catches averaged on release per boat with a couple of boats releasing three fish. Live bait tossed in front of tailing fish was the best technique but a few were caught on lures. YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were still quite a few of the football 10-15 pound Yellowfin found around the area of the San Jaime Bank this week and the boats that got into them had a great time because of the lack of pressure. There were reports of some larger fish being found at the Cabrilla Seamount, supposedly fish to 50 pounds. All the Tuna found this week were with porpoise and feathers in dark colors were the best bet for the football fish while live bait dropped into the middle of the porpoise were reported to get the larger fish at the Seamount. DORADO: Almost every boat that fished the Cortez side this week caught at least one Dorado, and some of the fish were really nice sized, to 50 pounds. Finding the feeding Frigate birds really helped zero in on an area, then slow trolling live bait got the fish to bite. Multiple fish were caught by leaving the first one in the water and dropping back a chunk of cut bait; getting any fish following to bite. WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo this week. INSHORE: Inshore fishing was the most prevalent type done this week. Due to economic reasons most likely as the Pangas cost a lot less than cruisers. Whatever the reason, the inshore fishery is still a happening thing with every Panga getting Sierra and having a good shot at Yellowtail to 20 pounds. Toss in the possibility of Dorado, Amberjack, Pargo and Grouper and almost every boat came in with a nice mixed bag of fish. Action was scattered along both sides of the Cape. P.S.: My gardening is coming along great, I have gotten a chance to catch up on my reading and hopefully get some time on the driving range. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 123 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 27, 2009 - 8:51 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report April 20-26, 2009 WEATHER: There were a few clouds in the sky this week but for the most part we had sunny and clear skies. It feels as if summer is fast approaching as our daytime temperatures have been a few degrees warmer every week, this week we averaged 88 degrees in the daytime and 71 degrees in the mornings. I almost turned on the air conditioning last night, but then thought better of it, after all, that stuff costs a lot of money and I turned on the floor fan instead! WATER: We had light winds at the beginning of the week and they picked up quite a bit on Thursday, by the weekend they had died back down. The winds were our typical northwest winds and they kicked up the swells and waves for a couple of days. By the end of the week things had calmed down. On the Cortez side of the Cape things were a bit calmer since the wind did not shift very much and the swells stayed small with just a light wind chop. There was a very defined current line running from the tip of the Cape to the south-southeast where the western side was a cool 64-67 degrees and the eastern side was 70-71 degrees. The cool water was in a band about 10 miles wide 30 miles to the south and the distance between the cool water and the warm water was one mile. On Saturday there was an 81-degree hot spot on the surface that ran between the 1150 and the Cabrilla Seamount. BAIT: Once again it was a mix of Caballito and Mackerel at $3 per bait and the Sardinas were hard to come by here in Cabo. The little guys were hard to get in San Jose as well; you had to be early to get a shot at these baits. FISHING: BILLFISH: The warm spot of water between the 1150 and the Cabrilla Seamount was expected to give up a couple of Blues or Blacks but failed to produce much of anything at all other than a couple of Dorado. A few boats were able to scratch up one, two, or in a few instances, three Striped Marlin while working between the shore and the 95 Spot. There were a few tailing fish sighted on the Cortez side but the kudos went to the guys who were willing to use their electronics to spot fish down at 100-150 feet and drop bait to them. YELLOWFIN TUNA: We had a couple of good days of fishing for football Tuna in the 5-15 pound class in the middle of the week. The fish were with a large pod of dolphin on the Pacific side just to the south of the San Jaime Banks. When the wind picked up on Thursday the fish were more difficult to find. When they were biting earlier I had no problem getting limits for my guys as we were covered up five times and had multiple hook-ups every pass. Small feathers or lures in the 4-5 inch size and in red or black were the ticket as the Tuna were feeding on small squid. There were also dolphin that had fish to the south, but once again at a distance of 25 miles and they were football fish. DORADO: This week was a repeat of last week, and it of the week before. Just like last week, once again it was a case of scattered fish. Almost every boat was able to get a Dorado this week, and a few boats managed to get three or four. The warm water on the Cortez side produced most of the fish and the best area was three to five miles off the beach, the same area that held most of the Striped Marlin. WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo this week. INSHORE: Just like last week, the bite is still on for Sierra and Yellowtail, it’s decent for Amberjack and Pargo and there are a few Grouper to add to the mix. The Yellowtail were up around Los Arcos on the Pacific side and the Sierra were on the Cortez side of the Cape. When the winds blew hard in the middle of the week the water really greened up on the Pacific coast and most of the action moved to the Cortez side. NOTES: Thank you for all the replies about my questions on Sun River last week, they helped me a lot. Denny, I look forward to hearing from you when you come down. Another game of golf planned for this week and perhaps some time on the water as well. This weeks report was written to the music of the birds on the Legends of Golf tournament in Savannah playing on the TV! Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 122 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 20, 2009 - 8:29 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report April 13-19, 2009 WEATHER: We had partly cloudy skies early in the week with the weekend resulting in perfectly clear skies. There was some windy days early with the wind lasting all night during the beginning of the week and tapering off a bit as the week progressed, then at the weekend the wind died to an occasional light breeze. As the winds lessened the temperatures increased. At the beginning of the week we had lows in the mid 60’s and highs in the low 90’s, at the end of the week the lows were in the mid 70’s and the highs in the mid 90’s. WATER: Surface conditions on the Pacific side were choppy at the beginning of the week, coinciding with the winds we experienced but at the end of the week the chop had gone away and there were just some well spaced 3-5 foot swells with a light breeze on them. On the Cortez side the surface was calm with negligible swells and no chop locally in the mornings, and with some slight chop and swells in the afternoon and early in the week up to the north around Punta Gorda. Water temperatures on the Pacific side remained at 66 degrees out to the San Jaime Bank and past there to the west it warmed to 70 degrees. On the Cortez side the water was a very nice 74 degrees early in the week and on the 16th a hot spot that went to 79 degrees appeared between the 1150 spot and the Cabrilla Seamount. Immediately afterward the surface temperatures dropped and as of the end of the week we had a fairly uniform 70 degrees in the area. BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito available this week at the normal price of $3 per bait. Sardinas were hard to come by this week. FISHING: BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite has slowly begun to pick back up with fish showing on the surface on the Cortez side of the Cape. Most of the fish being caught are found tailing on the surface and the bites have been pretty evenly mixed between live and dead bait. On the Pacific side there have been a couple of fish found, but overall everyone pretty much agreed that inside the Pacific side banks the water is too cool for much action. There were reports of a couple of Blue and Black Marlin giving some adrenalin rushes out there and that action was between the 95 spot and the 1150, outside around the 1,000 fathom line. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again the Yellowfin Tuna failed to show in any numbers. There were a few fish found, but they were at quite a distance from Cabo, it took several hours running time to get into the productive waters, such as they were, and once there it took quite a long time to find any fish, it there were any there. 40 miles to the southwest was where a few schools were found, and they were only school fish in the 20-35 pound class. That meant a long run on a possibility of getting a couple of small Tuna, most anglers said never mind. We did have one day of decent fish just to the south of the San Jaime with both Yellowfin and Dorado on the bite, but it was very short lived. DORADO: Just like last week, once again it was a case of scattered fish. Almost every boat was able to get a Dorado this week, and a few boats managed to get three or four. The warm water on the Cortez side produced the fish and the best area was three to five miles off the beach, the same area that held most of the Striped Marlin. WAHOO: There were scattered fish found in the early part of the week in the Punta Gorda, Inman Bank area. These fish averaged 25 pounds and swimming plugs had the best results. INSHORE: The bite is still on for Sierra and Yellowtail, it’s decent for Amberjack and Pargo and there are a few Grouper to add to the mix. Most of the action early in the week was taking place on the Cortez side of the Cape but as the winds died down it moved back to the Pacific side off of Los Arcos. NOTES: Took the dog to the beach this morning, nice and quiet out there with just a few people walking back and forth. I have a two hour cruise at noon and then will get to watch some golf. I am planning to get a couple of rounds in this week. If anyone out there has every played any of the courses in Sun River, Oregon, I would like to hear from you and get your opinions on them. My wife and I are going there at the end of June for a week long vacation, I need to smell some pine trees and see if I can stand wading in cold water casting a fly! Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 121 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 13, 2009 - 7:39 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report April 6-12, 2009 WEATHER: Scattered clouds were overhead this week almost every day, but they managed to disappear at the end of the week. We had strong winds almost every day that started about noon and blew until sunrise. Daytime highs were in the mid 80’s and the nighttime lows were around the low 70’s. WATER: Water on the Pacific side remained a cool 64-66 degrees everywhere to the west and north of Cabo, and conditions were very bumpy due to the wind. 12 miles to the south of a line due west of Cabo on the Pacific side the water was much warmer at an average of 72-73 degrees, but again, very bumpy. On the Cortez side of the Cape north of a line running southeast of Cabo the water was averaging 73 degrees. The further north you went on the Cortez side the better the surface conditions became, the Cape blocked the wind and the build up of swells. Between the two bodies of warm water was a plume of the cold water being pushed south from the Pacific and it was averaging 66 degrees. The cold-water plume was a bit on the green side. BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito available this week at the normal price of $3 per bait. There were also Sardinas at $25 for a large scoop at Chileno or $25 for a small scoop here in Cabo. FISHING: BILLFISH: The concentration of Striped Marlin that we saw last week up in the Destilladera area was a short-lived showing that only lasted about three days as far as having a good bite. Later in the week the bite dropped off and a really good day there might have resulted in three fish released. As we moved toward the end of the week the fish were to be found almost everywhere up in the Sea of Cortez, but with a full moon on Friday they were feeding at night and it was almost impossible to get bit. That’s not to say there were no fish caught, but the odds were pretty small. On the positive side, since the fish are showing on the surface, in another week the bite should really pick up! There were reports of a few different billfish this week as well. Unconfirmed by me but related by someone I know pretty well is the report of a Swordfish taken by a private boat early in the week while fishing at night. Also, on Thursday there was a Blue Marlin of about 300 pounds released in the area of the 1150 Spot. That fish ate a bait that was presented to a Black Marlin according to both the angler and the Captain of the boat. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin Tuna have still failed to show up in any numbers but a school was found well to the south of the San Jaime during the middle of the week and a few boats were able to post good numbers on fish averaging 25 pounds, with an occasional fish pushing 40 pounds. There was also a good bite early in the week for one boat that found the fish well to the west of the San Jaime, so it appears that there may be fish out there, but just too far from us right now to make the run. Maybe they will move closer to us soon. DORADO: Once again it was a case of scattered fish. Almost every boat was able to get a Dorado this week, and a few boats managed to get three or four. The warm water on the Cortez side produced the fish and the best area was three to five miles off the beach, the same area that held most of the Striped Marlin. WAHOO: The full moon helped on the Wahoo bite but it was not wide open by any means. Most of the fish caught were from the Punta Gorda area but there were a few fish found in the deep water as well, as long as it was warmer than 72 degrees. There were scattered fish in the warm water to the southwest of Cabo but they were incidental catches. INSHORE: Due to the strong winds this week the inshore fishing was a bit tough on the Pacific side but the area off of Los Arcos produced decent Yellowtail early in the week for boats using iron in 150 feet of water. Later in the week the anglers all moved to the south side of the lighthouse and up on the Cortez side of the Cape to get away from the wind. The Sierra bite continued to be very good and anyone who really tried was able to limit out on fish to 9 pounds. An on-off bite on Red Snapper kept every day a surprise and there were a few species such as Roosterfish, Amberjack, Ladyfish, Needlefish and Skipjack that kept the action fairly constant. NOTES: It is Easter Sunday and I just finished getting the back yard set up for guests as we are having a few friends over for grilled ribs and Dorado while we listen to music and watch the Masters tournament. Mark, the hanging basket of cherry tomatoes is producing great quantities, the Beefsteaks I planted are almost ready to produce flowers, my green beans are growing at an incredible rate and the sage, rosemary, mint, spearmint and basil plants are growing incredibly fast. My thyme has sprouted and next week the lavender seeds go in! Thanks so much for getting me started! I will get a chance this week to check and see if I learned anything from watching the master’s tournament. This weeks report was written to the music of Leo Kottke on his 1986 RCA release “A Shout Toward Noon”. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 120 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 06, 2009 - 6:19 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report March 30-April 5, 2009 WEATHER: Once again we had partly cloudy skies most of the week, clearing toward the weekend. Along with the clouds came wind, and it got pretty breezy for a few days. On the days when it was not blowing in the morning, it got started in the afternoon. Our daytime highs were in the mid to low 80’s while the nighttime lows were in the mid to low 60’s. WATER: There was pretty much no change as well on the water as the Sea of Cortez remained a tepid 75-71 degrees almost everywhere. The warmer water was from an area just to the south of the Cabrilla Seamount. The warm water extended toward us up until just to the south of the 95 spot, then the cold water from the Pacific side intruded. At the end of the week we had water as cool as 65 degrees just off the beach at the arch and it continued on up the coast very close to shore, but most of the area on the Pacific side was warmer than that at 66-67 degrees. The very cool water was also green, and the color change extended out to the 95 spot. BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito available this week at the normal price of $3 per bait. There were also Sardinas at $25 for a large scoop at Chileno or $25 for a small scoop here in Cabo. FISHING: BILLFISH: For most of the week the Striped Marlin stayed hidden from us, but as expected they did finally make a showing again. As usual for this time of year, the next appearance was to the north on the Sea of Cortez, specifically up at the Punta Gorda area around the Inman Banks. There was plenty of bait there and if you ran out you could catch your own. The fish were primarily tailing fish and you needed to be pretty accurate with you casts, but if you managed to get bait within 10 feet the chances were pretty good of getting a hookup. The better scoring boats were releasing 5-7 fish per day; others were getting one or two. There were occasional fish found in other areas as well, but they were not feeding as well, nor were they as concentrated. YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Yellowfin bite remained slow this week, just as it has for the past few months, but a few spots that encouraged us were to be found. A few nice fish were caught at the Gorda Banks, nothing earthshaking but some decent fish to 50 pounds were caught on live Sardinas. There were also several pods of Dolphin found that did have fish with them, small fish of 10-20 pounds for the most part. Of course there were more pods of Dolphin without Tuna than there were with Tuna, but that is just part of the game. Most of the fish that were found were on the Cortez side of the cape. DORADO: There were scattered Dorado this week and most of them were found in the warmer waters offshore on the Sea of Cortez. Outside of the 1150 and north of the 95 spot where the water warmed up, all the way out to the Cabrillo Seamount there were scattered fish. Hook one up and there was a fair chance of getting another following behind the hooked one. Spotting the Frigates feeding was the key, although blind trolling resulted in some fish as well. Most of the fish were decent size at 20+ pounds. WAHOO: Once again I heard of a few Wahoo being caught, but have no information other than they were all found on the Cortez side of the Cape. INSHORE: Once again a repeat of last week and the week before, and definitely the way to go this week if you wanted action. Sierra and Yellowtail continued to dominate the inshore action this week. While not large, the Sierra were in great numbers once the schools were found. There was great action just outside the beach on the Pacific side at Pueblo Bonita Sunset resort and on the Cortez side outside the Cabo Del Sol Golf Course. Most boats were able to get limits for their anglers using Sardinas as live bait, but blue/silver swimming plugs and hootchies did well also. There were not great numbers of Yellowtail found this week, but they were showing up in the fish boxes of the Pangas. Most of them were firecracker fish in the 8-10 pound class, but there were a few nice fish to 25 pounds and an occasional fish that could not be stopped. Added to the mix of fish caught were the occasional Pargo and Amberjack as well as some small Roosterfish. NOTES: It is amazing how quickly things can change on the ocean. Only a month ago and all the action was taking place on the Pacific side of the Cape and now everything has shifted to the Cortez side. It was nice to hear about the Marlin showing back up, it is the same distance to run but in the opposite direction! It is Easter weekend coming up and the beaches here are going to be full of vacationing Mexicans, it is one of the biggest holidays of the year and it is almost a tradition to go to the ocean for the week. Access roads to the beaches will be blocked at most areas close to town so if you are coming here this week be prepared for crowds! This weeks report was written to the music of Mark Knopfler on my own mixed CD. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 119 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 30, 2009 - 8:30 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report March 23-29, 2009 WEATHER: We had partly cloudy skies for most of the week but there was enough sun for everyone to stay happy. No rain came with the clouds we did get, but I heard there was a little up in the mountains. Our daytime highs remained in the mid 80’s and our nighttime lows in the mid 60’s. The winds stayed down for the most part and the wind we did get seemed to happen later in the afternoon. WATER: The water on the Sea of Cortez side remained a fairly steady 71-73 degrees everywhere you went. On the Pacific side of the Cape the water was considerably cooler at 65-67 degrees. The currents pushed this cooler water in a plume past the tip of the Cape and there was a defined temperature break early in the week and again on the 27th. This break had a difference of 6 degrees in a very short distance and while it was there the fishing was pretty good. At the end of the week the current from the Cortez side had pushed the warm water back across the tip of the Cape and the cold plume disappeared. BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito available this week at the normal price of $3 per bait. FISHING: BILLFISH: There have been just a few Striped Marlin caught this week. Most of these fish were found on the Pacific side inside the San Jaime Bank area. These fish have been tailing down-sea and when you found one that was hungry you had a chance at a hook-up. The problem was, not many of the fish were hungry! Maybe a quarter of the boats fishing this week returned with a Marlin flag, quite a difference from last month. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin Tuna were a repeat of last weeks report. Yet again another poor week for Yellowfin Tuna with only a few fish being caught. There were plenty of Bonito to be hooked up, and in those schools Yellowfin were reported as well, but they just would not bite. The presence of red crab in the area made having something in a red or dark orange color very important in lure selection, and those colors did much better than others on the few fish that were caught. DORADO: Again, a repeat of last week. There were some Dorado to be found in the warmer waters on the Cortez side of the Cape this past week. The waters just offshore of the Westin and at the Inman Bank held fish that were not large, but there were some decent numbers. With an average size of 12 pounds, smaller live bait such as large Sardinas worked well. Offshore just a few miles there were larger fish to 40 pounds, but they were few and far between. WAHOO: There have been a few Wahoo being caught up in the Inman Bank area, but no large numbers of them. Perhaps one fish a day total for the boats in the area, and the fish have been averaging 30 pounds. INSHORE: Once again a repeat of last week, and definitely the way to go this week if you wanted action. Sierra and Yellowtail continued to dominate the inshore action this week. While not large, the Sierra were in great numbers once the schools were found. There was great action just outside the beach on the Pacific side at Pueblo Bonita Sunset resort and on the Cortez side outside the Cabo Del Sol Golf Course. Most boats were able to get limits for their anglers using Sardinas as live bait, but blue/silver swimming plugs and hootchies did well also. There were not great numbers of Yellowtail found this week, but they were showing up in the fish boxes of the Pangas. Most of them were firecracker fish in the 8-10 pound class, but there were a few nice fish to 25 pounds and an occasional fish that could not be stopped. Added to the mix of fish caught were the occasional Pargo and Amberjack as well as some small Roosterfish. NOTES: Inshore was where it was happening this week and that is what many boats ended up doing instead of searching offshore for Marlin and Tuna. The water conditions were good and there was bait available (Sardinas) and the action could be red-hot at times. The whales continue to slowly move north and we see fewer every week. This weeks report was written to the sounds of dogs barking in the neighborhood. |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 118 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 23, 2009 - 7:20 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report March 16-22, 2009 WEATHER: There was no rain this week although a few mornings felt as though some rain could happen. What made the week different was the onset of our springtime winds. It actually started the week before but now we are seeing the normal three or four days of wind then three or four days of calm. There is no predicting it but at least there is usually a calm day sometime during the week. Our daytime highs were in the low 90’s and high 80’s while the nighttime lows were in the high to mid 60’s. WATER: On the Pacific side the water close to the beach remained cool at 65-67 degrees. Out across the San Jaime Bank and the Golden Gate Bank the water was 69-70 degrees. The 75-degree water was pushed farther away to the south by the strong currents and now lays 20 miles out. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water is decently warm at an average of 75 degrees north of the 1150 spot. Surface conditions on the Pacific remained choppy due to the strong winds that blow for a few days but has still been fishable. The Cortez side has been much better with small swells and light wind effects. The water throughout the area has been a bit off-color this past week with greener water than last week. BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito available this week at the normal price of $3 per bait. FISHING: BILLFISH: We may have seen the last of the red-hot Striped Marlin bite for this season as the fishy have moved off of the Golden Gate Bank along with the bait that was holding there. With the bite having have lasted since last November it is surprising that it lasted as long as it did. Now we are most likely going to be doing the normal fishing, casting live bait in front of tailing fish as they move through the area. A good day this past week would have been a five fish day; the average seemed to be one or two releases. With the water cooling down and turning a bit green, we might start to see a few Swordfish soon, but they have not appeared yet. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yet again another poor week for Yellowfin Tuna with only a few fish being caught. There were plenty of Bonito to be hooked up, and in those schools Yellowfin were reported as well, but they just would not bite. The presence of red crab in the area made having something in a red or dark orange color very important in lure selection, and those colors did much better than others on the few fish that were caught. DORADO: There were some Dorado to be found in the warmer waters on the Cortez side of the Cape this past week. The waters just offshore of the Westin and at the Inman Bank held fish that were not large, but there were some decent numbers. With an average size of 12 pounds, smaller live bait such as large Sardinas worked well. Offshore just a few miles there were larger fish to 40 pounds, but they were few and far between. WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo being caught this week. INSHORE: Sierra and Yellowtail continued to dominate the inshore action this week. While not large, the Sierra were in great numbers once the schools were found. There was great action just outside the beach on the Pacific side at Pueblo Bonita Sunset resort and on the Cortez side outside the Cabo Del Sol Golf Course. Most boats were able to get limits for their anglers using Sardinas as live bait, but blue/silver swimming plugs and hootchies did well also. There were not great numbers of Yellowtail found this week, but they were showing up in the fish boxes of the Pangas. Most of them were firecracker fish in the 8-10 pound class, but there were a few nice fish to 25 pounds and an occasional fish that could not be stopped. Added to the mix of fish caught were the occasional Pargo and Amberjack as well as some small Roosterfish. NOTES: The Whales are starting to move north and we are seeing fewer every week. Fishing inshore was where the action was this week but there were some days when the Bonito averaged 15 pounds and provided a good fight on the right gear when fishing offshore. This weeks report was written to the music of pianist Marcus Roberts on his 1990 BMG release “Deep In The Shed”. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 117 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 10:41 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report March 2-8, 2009 WEATHER: Our nighttime lows this week were in the mid to high 60’s while the daytime highs ranged from 84 to 92 degrees with it cooling a bit toward the end of the week. It also felt a bit damper in the mornings and there was condensation on the car windows at the end of the week. We had a bit of wind on Saturday as it blew at around 15 knots from the southwest for around four or five hours in the middle of the day, but it was a local wind and only seemed to affect the Sea of Cortez. WATER: Just as it was last week, the water on the Cortez side of the Cape was cooler than the water on the Pacific side. The cool water that had been up along the coast from Cabo to Punta Gorda and then broke toward the east moved in a southerly direction over the past week and now the break is from Cabo and due east across the 115o and Cabrillo Seamount. Close to the beach the water is a cool 71 degrees and very green, warming to 73 degrees at the Seamount and clearing up a bit. Five miles due south of the Cape and running in an east-west direction is a temperature break with water on the south side at 76 degrees. This break runs from south of the Seamount to the San Jaime Bank, once at the Jaime Bank the water warms to 78 degrees and the break extends toward the northwest. Inside this temperature break the water averages 74-75 degrees. The water on the Pacific side up at the Golden Gate Bank, where most of the fishing has been taking place has been great with small swells, just a little wind ripple. BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito available this week at the normal price of $3 per bait and there were Sardinas available up around the Chileno area at a cost of $25 a scoop. Most boats fishing the Golden Gate were catching their own bait in order to “match the hatch”, so to speak. FISHING: BILLFISH: The amazing Striped Marlin action continued this week as the Golden Gate area went red hot early, it tapered a bit toward the end of the week then turned on again at the weekend. It was combat fishing most of the time with boats running to the feeders as they popped up. At the beginning of the week there were so many birds and such large numbers of bait balls coming to the surface that catching fish was no problem. Later in the week, Thursday and Friday, the numbers coming to the surface declined and the boats were really competing for the fish. Many boats caught good numbers by drifting with live baits set deep while the rest of the fleet ran around chasing the bird piles. Getting your live bait on site was the key to getting good numbers. While early in the week the Marlin would eat almost anything you threw at them, they became picky later in the week. I did well using dead Sardines thrown into the feeding boils. Every time we came to a boil there were scales drifting around so the little bait balls they were chasing were Sardines. Using a Sabiki rig with hagi skin flies (clear wings) caught Sardines; Lucky Joes with red and yellow yarn caught the small Mackerel. Of course the problem was the Sardines do not stay alive in the bait tank, and since they are lightweight the birds often got to them before the Marlin did. A ¼ ounce egg sinker rigged under the chin got the dead bait down away from the birds and then getting bit was easy. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Not this last week but the week before there was a very, very nice Yellowfin caught at the Golden Gate Bank by one of the fleet boats. They were fishing a deep bait when they hooked up to the Tuna that later weighed 380 pounds at the main dock scales. The anglers were a local chiropractor and his family. Other than that bit of news, there is not much to report on Yellowfin. An occasional school of fish has been found with Porpoise, but the fish never reappear in the same area, and they have been moving through very quickly. DORADO: There were scattered Dorado caught among the feeders at the Golden Gate Bank as well as some fish scattered up around the Punta Gorda area early in the week. Without any floating debris to hold them we have just not seen very many this week. WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo being caught this week. INSHORE: Sierra continued to be on a wide-open bite this week with limits being easy to get. The fishing for other species was good as well with Pargo, Amberjack and Yellowtail biting lures and live bait. The fishing seems to have moved over to the Pacific side for the most part, as the water is so green on the Cortez side. NOTES: Little pup Mako sharks have been biting on live and dead baits at the Golden Gate Bank; thankfully most of them are being released. These guys have been small, from 10 to 30 pounds, not sexually mature yet. There are still whales around, but not in the numbers we were seeing so most of them have moved back toward the north. This weeks report was written to the music of David Foster on his CD/DVD release “Hit Man, David Foster and Friends”, a 2008 Reprise release. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 116 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 02, 2009 - 6:53 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report February 23 – March 1, 2009 WEATHER: A sunny week in Cabo this last seven days as there were only a few clouds that traveled through. Our nighttime lows were in the mid 60’s while the daytime highs managed to get into the mid 90’s a few days. Overall it was a bit warmer than last week, reminding us that summer will be here soon, but there was not the humidity that we see in the middle of the year. WATER: At the end of the week we had green water along the coast from Cabo up to the north on the Cortez side of the Cape at Gorda Banks and the green water then extended toward the east. This green water was 69-70 degrees. The water on the Pacific side cleared up quite a bit over the week but the temperatures didn’t change much except for a band of cool water that ended up running along the 1,000-fathom line south of the San Jaime Banks. This cool band of water was 5-8 miles wide and the temperature was 69-70 degrees while to the south it was 73 degrees and to the north it was 72 degrees. BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito available this week at the normal price of $3 per bait and there were Sardinas available up around the Chileno area at a cost of $25 a scoop. FISHING: BILLFISH: Last week the bite at the Golden Gate Bank dropped off considerably, this week it turned on again. The Striped Marlin decided that they were hungry and the flags being flown by the returning boats showed it. One friend went up by himself and had released 10 Marlin before noon and quit while his arms still worked! With the bite returning the boats returned as well. At times it seemed that you could almost walk across the bank by going from boat to boat, one angler reported counting 74 boats working the area at 10 am but almost everyone had left at 2 pm. He said the fishing was much better and also easier without the crowds. Mackerel were the baits of choice and the ones caught on site using Sabiki rigs or Lucky Joes got bit much better than the baits purchased outside the marina, the only problem was getting the baits the to surface without having a Marlin, Shark or seal taking them. Elsewhere there were Marlin reported but not nearly in the numbers as at Golden Gate. Outside the Gorda Bank and off of the Westin Resort were small concentrations of fish and there were fish scattered on the surface around the 1150 area as well. YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were some decent quality Yellowfin being reported from the Gorda Banks and around the Inman area, but while the quality was good it was scratch fishing with only a couple of decent bites per boat in the morning. Most of the fish were in the 30-50 pound class but for every Yellowfin bite you got there were 15 to 20 Bonita and Skipjack to go through. Chumming with Sardinas brought the fish up towards the boats but putting a lively one down at 50-60 feet was what it took to get the Yellowfin to bite, and going down to that depth usually resulted in the other fish picking up the bait first. The band of cool water along the 1,000-fathom line south of the San Jaime Bank produced some decent fish on Friday and Saturday as a few pods of Porpoise moved through. Small dark colored feathers, cedar plugs and diamond jigs worked deep ahead of the pods worked fairly well, a few boats reported getting limits for their clients using these methods. The smallest fish were reported at 12 pounds while the average size was 20-25 pounds. How long this bite might last is unknown as there was a purse seiner anchored in the bay on Saturday. DORADO: Dorado lost their title as fish of the week as the bite dropped off. This was probably the result of less floating debris being found, or it could be because most of the boats were focusing on the Striped Marlin bite at the Golden Gate Bank. Boats that worked the warm water between the 95 Spot and the 1150 and out to the Cabrilla Seamount did fairly well on fish that averaged 20+ pounds, but there were no large numbers, the best catches were around four or five fish per boat, one or two was the average. Finding Frigates working and then slow trolling live bait in the area was the method of choice for most of the boats but a few were doing well trolling 6-8 inch lures at 9 knots. WAHOO: I did not hear of any large fish this week but there was a bite on baby Wahoo on the Cortez side of the Cape close to shore. Some small 6-8 pound Wahoo were caught by Pangas fishing for Sierra and they were quite the surprise for most of the fishermen. INSHORE: The bite on Sierra averaging 6 pounds was wide open on both sides of the Cape this week. Best results were had by chumming with Sardinas once the schools were found, then drifting a live one on a very light wire leader. Mono leader got bit more often but more of these were lost than were landed. Fly fishermen had a blast with these fish! There were scattered Amberjack, Roosterfish, Pargo and Jack Crevalle to be had as well as a few Pacific Barracuda and Needlefish. NOTES: Well, it looks like things are really kicking in on the fishing front, the bite is good both inshore and offshore. The Whales are still out there, as a matter of fact a few boats have had very close encounters, including a 60 foot Viking that had one come up under it while traveling at 22 knots. My golf game did not improve as I did not break 100 last week, but I have returned to the range this week, maybe I can do better my next time out! This weeks report was once again written to the sound of James Hunter on his 2008 release “The Hard Way”. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 115 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 23, 2009 - 7:52 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report February 16-22, 2009 WEATHER: This was a beautiful week in Cabo with our nighttime lows in the mid 60’s and the daytime highs in the mid 80’s. We had a few days with light clouds, no rain and light winds. WATER: Warm water moved into our area during the week and almost everywhere you went the temperatures were around 75-77 degrees. It was just a slight bit cooler on the northern edge of our fishing area on the Pacific with the area between the northern San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks around 74 degrees and the Finger Bank at 71 degrees and greenish water. On the Cortez side there was a pocket of cool water at the Gorda Banks at 72 degrees. BAIT: Mackerel were the bait of the week this week and they were the usual $3 per bait. Sardinas were available as well from bait boats up at the Palmilla area at $25 a bucket. FISHING: BILLFISH: There were still Striped Marlin at the Golden Gate but they were not very hungry this week. You could throw a live bait in front of 20 fish before finding one that would bite. Other areas experienced the same type of results, but the fish were even more scattered. Almost every place you went you could find Marlin on the surface but their mouths remained closed. At a guess, success rates on Striped Marlin were probably around 30% with 3 out of 10 boats releasing a fish. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again the Yellowfin bite remained fairly poor with fish being found in the Gorda Banks and the Inman Banks all week and only a few schools are being found outside. The fish on the banks were quality fish between 30 and 60 pounds, but you had to work your way through all the Bonita to get to them. Sardinas were the ticket with chumming steadily bringing in the fish. Small hooks with light leader had to be used in order to get the Yellowfin to bite, but the light tackle also resulted in quite a few fish being lost. DORADO: Dorado remained the fish of the week as most boats were returning with between five and ten fish. Anything found floating in the water was likely to hold at least a few Dorado and some of the fish were a very respectable 40-50 pounds. Both sides of the Cape produced fish, and working the current lines was the best way to find floating debris. WAHOO: I only heard of a few Wahoo being caught, but the couple that I did hear of were very nice fish at around 60 pounds each. These were caught in the open water out 15 or more miles due south. INSHORE: Inshore fishing this week remained a repeat of last week. Sierra continued to be the inshore fish of the week as the number caught continued to climb. Most anglers were able to catch limits on fish that ran to 8 pounds. There were also quite a few small Roosterfish and Jack Crevalle as well as Amberjack around but live bait was the way to go for them, if you could get really small Mackerel or Caballito. Most captains for all the species available preferred heavy chumming with Sardinas. NOTES: There are still plenty of whales to be seen out there. The water warmed up this week so there could be a continuation of the Dorado bite for a while. I really hope that the Striped Marlin start biting again! I am golfing this afternoon, my fingers are crossed that I can do well and break 100. Maybe it would help if I took some lessons! Mark Knopfler and his 2000 Mercury Records release “Sailing To Philadelphia” were the background for this report. |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 114 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 16, 2009 - 6:49 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report February 9-15, 2009 WEATHER: Once again we had partly cloudy skies this week, not enough of them to block the sun, but enough to make for great sunsets. Our daytime highs were in the low 80’s while the lowest I saw in the early mornings was a cool 58 degrees. WATER: The wind was still blowing at the beginning of the week but as the days wore on the speed and intensity dropped so that at the end of the week the water was once again almost flat with small swells and very little wind chop, at least most days. Everywhere we looked the water was in the 72-73 degree range and there was no dark green anywhere. BAIT: Mackerel were the bait of the week this week and they were the usual $3 per bait. Sardinas were available as well from bait boats up at the Palmilla area at $25 a bucket. FISHING: BILLFISH: The bite at the Golden Gate Bank for Striped Marlin remained slower than it has been with good days bringing release numbers of 3 or 5 fish per boat. The bite at the Finger Bank was reported to be excellent, as there is much less pressure up there. Other than the Golden Gate, Striped Marlin close to us were scattered, a few were found off of Los Arcos, a few off of El Faro, a few off of Palmilla, you get the idea, right? Most boats were getting at least a strike or two but the focus for a lot of the boats changed with the drop in the number of bites, the Captains preferring to go for numbers instead of size and targeting other species. YELLOWFIN TUNA: I did see a few Tuna flags this week but did not see any of the Tuna that were brought in. I was told that they were mostly football and small school fish to 30 pounds. There were some found up around the Inman bank and out toward the Cabrilla Seamount as well as a few scattered schools mixed with Dolphin on the 1,000 fathom line south of the San Jaime Bank. The fish at the Inman bank were caught with heavy chumming of Sardinas, and Sardinas used as live bait, the other fish were caught on small feathers in dark colors. DORADO: There were quite a few more Dorado caught this week than I had expected, but the results were because of the finding of three objects in the water. A dead whale was found in the middle of the week around the 1150 spot and delivered a large number of decent sized Dorado to the boats when live bait was used around it. There was a large section of rope found just off of the Solmar Beach that produced a great number of fish until someone decided to pick it up and take it home. Also found in the same area a bit later was half a bucket, the number of fish around it kept quite a few anglers happy that day. WAHOO: I thought I was seeing a larger number of Wahoo flags this week than last week, but on closer inspection they proved to be shark flags. Quite a few pup Makos were caught this week, with most of them released. Very few Wahoo were reported being found, and those that were found were in the usual spots off of Gray Rock and up around Punta Gorda with the Inman Bank being the most productive area. INSHORE: Sierra continued to be the inshore fish of the week as the number caught continued to climb. One of the best spots this week was off of the El Dorado development on the Cortez side of the Cape. Most anglers were able to catch limits on fish that ran to 8 pounds. There were also quite a few small Roosterfish and Jack Crevalle around but live bait was the way to go for them, if you could bet really small Mackerel or Caballito. Most captains for all the species available preferred heavy Chumming with Sardinas. NOTES: There are still plenty of whales to be seen out there and they have been putting on quite a show most days. The whale harassment league of small water taxis and glass bottom boats seems to have tapered off a bit, good news for the whales. This weeks report was written to the music of James Hunter on his 2008 Concord release “The Hard Way”. My favorite song on this English bluesmans album is the last track, “Strange But True”. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 113 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 09, 2009 - 9:17 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report February 2-8, 2009 WEATHER: The week started out nice and sunny every day and along came Friday and the clouds tried to move in, giving us partly cloudy skies over the weekend. We knew it was coming as the winds really started to pick up on Thursday. Our nighttime lows for the week averaged in the low 60’s and the daytime highs averaged in the mid to low 80’s. WATER: The water continued to cool down this week. At the end of the week we were seeing temperatures in the low 70’s, mostly around 72 and 73 degrees along the shoreline on the Cortez side of the Cape. The water about 5 miles out on the same side was around 75 degrees. The same conditions occurred on the Pacific side of the Cape except the temperatures averaged one degree less. We had great conditions on the surface at the start of the week but by the weekend the winds had really started to howl and the Pacific side ended up almost un-fishable on Saturday. The wind seemed to die down over Saturday night but the water was still very rough on the Pacific side. On the Sea of Cortez the water was great up outside of San Jose. BAIT: Mackerel were the bait of the week this week and they were the usual $3 per bait. Sardinas were available as well from bait boats up at the Palmilla area at $25 a bucket. FISHING: BILLFISH: The Finger Bank was still reported to be a wide-open bite on Striped Marlin by the boats that went there early in the week. Many of these boats reported releasing up to 20 fish per trip. The fishing at the Golden Gate Bank dropped off quite a bit as the fish have appeared to have moved off in search of baitfish, but there were still quite a few being caught, definitely better fishing there than anywhere else in easy reach. A good day at the Gate resulted in 4-6 fish per boat while the average was 2-3 fish. Water conditions allowed only a few brave (or foolish) anglers to get to the fish on Friday and Saturday and while they hooked up while at the Gate, the water conditions made fighting the fish problematical. There were Striped Marlin reported off of the ledge at the Westin and a few boats were doing all right drifting live bait at depths of 50-100 feet. YELLOWFIN TUNA: I saw almost no Tuna flags on boats returning to the harbor this week but a few Captains reported hearing of fish up in the Punta Gorda area, just like last week, but the bite was definitely slower according to what was heard on the radio. A couple of boats reported catching several small Tuna to 20 pound in the blind while trolling around the 1150 area looking for Dorado, but there were no schools to be found. DORADO: Water conditions on the Pacific at the end of the week forced many of the boats to fish on the Cortez side of the Cape and as a result there were many more Dorado caught that last week from the same area. Most boats were coming in with at least two, and often as many as five Dorado. Average size was 18 pounds and there were a few that went as large as 40 pounds. Blind trolling with bright colored lures at speeds averaging 8.5 knots worked well on these fish to first find them, then slow trolling live bait in the same area often produced more. WAHOO: I talked to one angler this week that told me he had caught a dozen small Wahoo, after asking a few questions I had to tell him they were large Sierra. There were a few fish taken however, and the bite was scattered between the Gray Rock and Punta Gorda, only a few fish were reported on the Pacific side early in the week. INSHORE: As listed above, the Sierra bite has really begun to take off, at least it had started too until the wind kicked in. The same goes for the Pargo in the rocks, most of the activity had been on the Pacific side. The Cortez side still delivered a decent amount of these fish, but not to the number count from the Pacific side. Amazingly enough, there have still been quite a few Roosterfish caught. While not the large fish we get later in the year, these fish have been in the 6-12 pound class and have been biting well on slow trolled live bait, if the bait survives the Sierra attacks! NOTES: Last week I reported on seeing my first Gray Whales of the year. A fellow Captain reported seeing a mother and her calf being harassed by the little boat fleet just outside the rocks, with about 10 boats right on top of the two whales. They separated the calf from the mother and the calf was repeatedly breaching and looking for its mom, to the point that it was exhausted. There are laws on the books about this, but apparently no enforcement, sigh. This weeks report was written to the music of Norah Jones on her album, “Feels Like Home”. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 112 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 02, 2009 - 9:20 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report January 26-February 1, 2009 WEATHER: We had some wonderful skies at the end of this week with almost (Monday through Wednesday saw some clouds) every day being mostly sunny to cloudless. The daytime highs were in the mid to low 80’s and the nighttime lows to the low 60’s. Winds were light and variable most of the time with an occasional few hours of winds to 10 knots from the southwest during the middle of the week. WATER: Almost everything within reach of the fleets this week was between 75 and 78 degrees with the warmer water running from right off the point and to the southwest. The water was clean and blue as well. With light winds most of the week fishing conditions were great on both sides of the Cape. BAIT: Mackerel were the bait of the week this week and they were the usual $3 per bait. Sardinas were available as well from bait boats up at the Palmilla area at $25 a bucket but some of them were reported as being really small. FISHING: BILLFISH: The bite slowed down close to home for the Striped Marlin this week. Last week it was a wide-open bite at the Golden Gate Bank. This week the Golden still held fish but they just were not as hungry as last week. A few boats ventured up to the Finger Bank and reported excellent action there. Scattered strikes were reported almost all over the place but the normal fishing areas for the Stripers still produced better than others, Golden Gate Banks, the ledges off of the lighthouse on the Pacific side and off of Red Hill in the Cortez as well as the point off of Los Arcos on the Pacific. Average catch this week was two to three releases per boat and good days were releases totaling 8 or more. YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Inner Gorda Bank produced a few fish to 50 pounds on live bait early in the week and there were Tuna to 35 pounds found at the same time up in the Punta Gorda area. At the end of the week the fish had moved off and there were reports of some Yellowfin to 30 pounds being caught by blind trolling 10 miles south of Cabo. Other than that there was little to find out there. Perhaps in a few weeks things will pick up on the Tuna fishing. DORADO: While Dorado continued to be slower than last months fishing there were some nice fish this week. The flats up off of Punta Gorda were giving up two to five fish per trip, the point off of Los Arcos had two days of excellent fishing with many boats getting their anglers limits of two Dorado each. The ledge off of the lighthouse on the Pacific also produced quality of averaging 15 pounds close to shore. WAHOO: I actually talked to some people who caught Wahoo this week! There were fish to be found on the flats at Punta Gorda as well as a few from the rocky points on the Pacific side. These fish were not big, most of them 15 pounds or so. Trolling swimming plugs such as Braid Marauders had best results or Rapallas but there were a few bites on live bait. INSHORE: Once again a repeat of last week, there has been very little change in the inshore fishery this week. The Sierra bite is picking up and the fish are very nice size, between 8 and 10 pounds when you find the right areas. There are a few nice Yellowtails starting to pop up occasionally off of the Rocky points as well as some Pargo to 25 pounds right in the rocks. NOTES: I saw my first few Gray Whales of the year this week in very close to the beach in 30 feet of water. There are still plenty of Humpback Whales out there and the glass-bottom boat/water taxi fleet has been right on top of them, unfortunately. Yesterday there were two whales right out front that had 11 boats right on top, I thought one of the boats was going to hit one whale with its props, sigh. Overall the fishing this week was very good with plenty to choose from. I get to play golf this coming week; it’s been so long that I am going to have to go to the range the day before! This weeks report was written to the music of “Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes” on the album “I Don’t Want To Go Home”, a 1976 Epic Records release. |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 111 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 26, 2009 - 7:33 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report January 19-25, 2009 WEATHER: Once again we had mixed weather this week. The week started out slightly overcast and cleared up at the tail end of the week and then Sunday came on with mostly cloudy skies in the morning. The early days in the week had a little bit of spitting rain with the clouds, just enough to spot up the car windows, not enough to knock the dust off of the plants. Our daytime highs were in the mid 80’s and nighttime lows in the mid to low 70’s. WATER: This week we did have a bit of wind but it did not last for long and was not steady from any one direction. The swells did kick up a notch toward the end of the week though and we were seeing some 3-5 footers on the pacific side of the cape. On the Cortez side it remained at 1-3 feet until you got toward the Punta Gorda area then they grew to 2-4 feet. Water temperatures on the Cortez side were in the 73-74 degree close to the shoreline, 74-75 degrees from three to ten miles out and 75-76 degrees farther than that. On the Pacific side close to shore was 71 degrees and there was a band of this cool water running in a southwest direction across the south side of the San Jaime Banks from the shore just north of the lighthouse and extending at least 50 miles in a band 10 miles wide. North of this band of cool water it warmed up to 73 degrees and just to the north of the Golden Gate Bank there was a warm spot of 74 degree water. BAIT: Mackerel were the bait of the week this week and they were the usual $3 per bait. Sardinas were available as well from bait boats up at the Palmilla area at $25 a bucket. FISHING: BILLFISH: Once again the Striped Marlin remained the fish of the week, as every boat that tried for them was able to get hooked up. The best bite for the boats that stayed local was at the Golden Gate Bank. The fish were coming up on small bait balls. As soon as the Pelicans and Frigates started to dive on the bait the seals started feeding as well and then suddenly there would be a half-dozen or more marlin swirling on the bait. Sometimes they remained up for 15 or 20 minutes, other times they would disappear almost as fast as they showed up. Live bait tossed into the feeders almost guaranteed a hook-up. I had anglers who were not experienced on Thursday and in less than 2 hours we released 4 fish and lost three others. One of my friends fished all day on his boat and between himself, one friend and his wife they managed to release 23 Marlin. There were also plenty of fish found at the Finger Bank, but with hot action at the Golden there was little reason for boats to travel that far. Some fish were showing up on the ledge at the lighthouse and on Friday evening I was seeing quite a few scattered singles feeding just outside of Cabo San Lucas Bay. YELLOWFIN TUNA: I heard of a spot of fish found in the area of the San Jaime Bank early in the week that ranged in size from 20 to 50 pounds but I went and looked there on Thursday and could not spot anything. I also heard reports that the Pangas working out of the San Jose Marina were coming in early after limiting out on decent fish up in the vicinity of Punta Gorda, but I never saw any of the fish. DORADO: The Dorado bite definitely dropped off for almost all the boats this week as the water temperature continued its slow but steady drop. I fished the area from Los Arcos and 10 miles north of there with no touch at all, but did hear of some fish found just off of the lighthouse and out in front of Grey Rock in slightly warmer water. A good catch of Dorado this week seemed to be two fish, but most boats did not catch any. WAHOO: What Wahoo? INSHORE: A repeat of last week, there has been very little change in the inshore fishery this week. The Sierra bite is picking up and the fish are very nice size, between 8 and 10 pounds when you find the right areas. There are a few nice Yellowtails starting to pop up occasionally off of the Rocky points as well as some Pargo to 25 pounds right in the rocks. NOTES: Still no Gray Whales to report, but plenty of Humpbacks. Wide open on the Striped Marlin, if you want some fast action on these fish averaging 120 pounds, now is the time to get here. My golf game is not happening, I have had little time to get out there and play! No complaints though, working is a good thing. This weeks report was written while listing to the “Echoes, The Best Of Pink Floyd”. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 110 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 19, 2009 - 9:23 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report January 12-18, 2009 WEATHER: We had two very nice clear days this week, the 15th and 16th, the rest of the week was partly to mostly cloudy. Daytime temperatures were averaging the mid to low 80’s while the nighttime lows ranged from a low of 58 degrees on Monday to a high of 68 degrees on Saturday. Winds have been slight to non-existent this week. WATER: With no wind this week the water remained almost like a pool, we did have one day, Friday, where the swells picked up just a bit in the afternoon, but most of the week we saw conditions that were perfect, swells at 1-3 feet and just a light breeze. On the Pacific side the water seemed a bit warmer at an average of 74-75 degrees as far west as 20 miles past the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks. This warm water extended to the south as well, as far as any of the fleet went, at least 60 miles. On the Cortez side of the Cape things were a bit cooler at an average of 72-73 degrees for water east of a north-south line through San Jose. BAIT: A repeat of last week and the week before, Caballito and Mackerel were available at the normal $3 per bait, most of the Caballito were small ones, and the mackerel were larger. You could still catch plenty of Mackerel at the Golden Gate Bank if you ran out. Sardinas were available at Palmilla for an average of $25 a bucket. FISHING: BILLFISH: Once again Striped Marlin were the top fish, giving angler all the action they could wish for on most of the boats that worked the Golden Gate Bank. Not every day was a red-letter day though; we saw a definite slowing of the bite right around the full moon, several days either side of it seemed to be better. The same held true for the action we had been having on the Lighthouse ledge as the bite went from red-hot hot cool over three days. At the Golden Gate the better catches were had just before the full moon and boats that had experienced anglers were releasing double-digit numbers per day. That bite died to two or three fish per day during the full moon, and as of Saturday things had picked up very well. We had one group of non-experienced anglers release 6 Marlin between 8 am and 10:30 am, and then they went inshore for Dorado. Live Mackerel caught on site seemed to be the best bait by far, rigged dead bait came in just ahead of artificial lures, and those did not catch very many fish this week. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin remained scarce this past week. A few boats managed to get into some fish ranging from 20 to 50 pounds working due south of Cabo on Tuesday. On Wednesday the fish had moved north about 15 miles and on Thursday they could not be found again. Boats that got into the fish had great action, catching limits using cedar plugs and dropping live bait ahead of the moving fish. Elsewhere the Tuna bite was sporadic, with occasional small schools found scattered throughout the area. DORADO: Once again the best action for Dorado appeared to be close to the beach on the Pacific side of the Cape. With an average size of 15 pounds, most boats were able to get two to five fish trolling live bait under areas where the frigate birds were hanging out, or trolling bright colored artificial lures within a mile of the beach. An occasional 35-pound fish added spice to the catch as well. WAHOO: I have heard reports of a boat that has been getting several Wahoo every morning at gray light while fishing on the Cortez side just off the beach, but I have not been able to confirm that. Right now for most of the boats a Wahoo is a mystery fish! INSHORE: There has been very little change in the inshore fishery this week. The Sierra bite is picking up and the fish are very nice size, between 8 and 10 pounds when you find the right areas. There are a few nice Yellowtails starting to pop up occasionally off of the Rocky points as well as some Pargo to 25 pounds right in the rocks. Many of the Pangas have been working just offshore for Dorado and Striped marlin and doing fairly well. NOTES: We are still seeing plenty of Humpback Whales outside of the beach area but have not seen any Gray Whales yet, at least I haven’t. The Whale harassment fleet (whale watching charters, the small Panga guys) can be spotted right on top of the pods, often 10 boats at a time. Don’t forget, the price of fishing licenses has risen, even thought the price printed on the license has not changed. Until next week, tight lines! This weeks report was written to the music of Norah Jones, man what a voice that woman has! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 109 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 12, 2009 - 6:45 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report January 5-11, 2009 WEATHER: This week saw partly to mostly cloudy skies in the Cape areas. Daytime temperatures were in the high 70’s to low 80’s and the nighttime lows were as low as 58 degrees early in the week, raising to the low 60’s near the end of the week. Winds were light for the most part with a slight kick up in speed later in the afternoons. WATER: Water conditions remained much the same as last week with only a degree drop across the area. This means that on the Pacific side of the Cape most of the water was around 72-73 degrees with a few spots of 70 degree water, while on the Cortez side the water was 73-75 degrees up to Punta Gorda, and later in the week it dropped to 70 degrees past there.. BAIT: A repeat of last week, Caballito and Mackerel were available at the normal $3 per bait, most of the Caballito were small ones, the mackerel were larger. You could still catch plenty of Mackerel at the Golden Gate Bank if you ran out. Sardinas were available at Palmilla for an average of $25 a bucket. FISHING: BILLFISH: There was no change from last weeks situation for the Striped marlin, still the fish of the week, they continued to bite at the Golden Gate Bank. Catch rates varied from between 10 fish to two fish per day, depending on the length of time spent there and the experience of the anglers. Running to the diving Pelicans and Frigates and throwing a couple of live baits in among the feeding seals and Marlin resulted in many hook-ups, both on Marlin and on Pelicans. We had clients on Saturday release 6 nice fish. Slow trolling live bait also worked very well. Drifting with live bait set deep did not seem to do as well at the Gate this week. Another area where the Striped Marlin began to show was just off of the lighthouse on the Pacific side. Along the flats at the point the bait has begun to stack up and many boats have been saving time by fishing there instead of making the run to the Golden Gate Bank. The fishing has not been quite as good, but that should change soon. Elsewhere, there have been a few fish caught on the Cortez side of the Cape, but most of the fish seen in that area have been sleepers. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin remained scarce this past week. A few football-sized fish are beginning to show up off of the Westin area on the Cortez side of the Cape, the same area where we had such a good time catching them on light tackle last year, just a few miles off shore. Using live Sardinas as chum and bait resulted in catches of up to 6 fish per boat. There were also a few fish 15-20 pounds found among Porpoise off of Gray Rock late in the week, and the same type of action was occasionally found 8-10 miles off the beach on the way to the San Jaime Bank on the Pacific side. DORADO: There were decent catches of Dorado this week from the Pacific side of the Cape just a few miles off the beach. For some reason these seemed to be fish that averaged 12 pounds. Farther off shore at 10 or more miles the fish seemed to be bigger, one boat came in with three Dorado, all of them over 35 pounds. Slow trolling live bait seemed to work best on the Pacific side. On the Cortez side there was fair action up around Punta Gorda about two miles off the beach. Again, slow trolling live bait worked best, but pulling lures at 8 knots or more also resulted in fish being brought in. WAHOO: What Hoo? INSHORE: The Sierra bite is picking up and the fish are very nice size, between 8 and 10 pounds when you find the right areas. There are a few nice Yellowtail starting to pop up occasionally off of the Rocky points as well as some Pargo to 25 pounds right in the rocks. Many of the Pangas have been working just offshore for Dorado and Striped marlin and doing fairly well. NOTES: As you can see from the report, there was very little change this week from last week as far as the fishing went. One change that happened was the rise in price of fishing licenses. A daily license now costs 140 pesos, a rise of 10 pesos, a weekly is now 290 pesos compared to 260 pesos and a yearly costs 540 pesos as opposed to 500 pesos. The whales are still out there and are a lot of fun to watch. I spent a total of 5 days visiting family this week, vacationing in sub-freezing conditions, now I know why I have spent the past 23 years in the tropics! Have fun everyone, and tight lines until next week! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 108 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 05, 2009 - 9:17 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report December 29, 2008 -January 4, 2009 WEATHER: Our new year started out with partly cloudy skies and nighttime lows in the mid to low 60’s. As we approached the end of the week things warmed up a bit and the lows were in the high 60’s while the daytime highs remained in the high 70’s and low 80’s. WATER: The was no change in the water conditions from what we had during Christmas. The water on the Pacific side remained in the low 70’s almost all week and became a little choppy in the afternoons when the winds picked up. The swells increased in size later in the week, or the direction they came form changed, either way, on the Pacific side we had swells at 3-5 feet. On the Cortez side the water has remained in the high 70’s and the swells have been small and there has been no wind chop. BAIT: Caballito and Mackerel were available at the normal $3 per bait, most of the Caballito were small ones, the mackerel were larger. You could still catch plenty of Mackerel at the Golden Gate Bank if you ran out. Sardinas were available at Palmilla for an average of $25 a bucket. FISHING: BILLFISH: Still the fish of the week, Striped Marlin continued to bite week at the Golden Gate Bank. Catch rates varied from between 17 fish to two fish per day, depending on the length of time spent there and the experience of the anglers. Running to the diving Pelicans and Frigates and throwing a couple of live baits in among the feeding seals and Marlin resulted in many hook-ups, both on Marlin and on Pelicans. The other day we released three Marlin and three Pelicans in an hour. Slow trolling live bait also worked very well. Drifting with live bait set deep did not seem to do as well at the Gate this week. Another area where the Striped Marlin began to show was just off of the lighthouse on the Pacific side. Along the flats at the point the bait has begun to stack up and many boats have been saving time by fishing there instead of making the run to the Golden Gate Bank. The fishing has not been quite as good, but that should change soon. Elsewhere, there have been a few fish caught on the Cortez side of the Cape, but most of the fish seen in that area have been sleepers. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin remained scarce this past week. A few football-sized fish are beginning to show up off of the Westin area on the Cortez side of the Cape, the same area where we had such a good time catching them on light tackle last year, just a few miles off shore. Using live Sardinas as chum and bait resulted in catches of up to 6 fish per boat. There were also a few fish 15-20 pounds found among Porpoise off of Gray Rock late in the week, and the same type of action was occasionally found 8-10 miles off the beach on the way to the San Jaime Bank on the Pacific side. DORADO: There were decent catches of Dorado this week from the Pacific side of the Cape just a few miles off the beach. For some reason these seemed to be fish that averaged 12 pounds. Farther off shore at 10 or more miles the fish seemed to be bigger, one boat came in with three Dorado, all of them over 35 pounds. Slow trolling live bait seemed to work best on the Pacific side. On the Cortez side there was fair action up around Punta Gorda about two miles off the beach. Again, slow trolling live bait worked best, but pulling lures at 8 knots or more also resulted in fish being brought in. WAHOO: I heard of a few Wahoo being hooked up but none being brought in. INSHORE: Near the beach things have been very good. Friends of mine managed to catch and release a Roosterfish of 50+ pounds just to the east of the lighthouse one day, and clients of ours have had a blast on small Roosterfish ranging from 5 pounds to 15 pounds. The Sierra bite is getting better with some very nice fish to 8 pounds being caught. I saw one fish caught from a commercial Panga that may have been 12 pounds. A few nice sized Pargo have been found among the rocks on the Pacific side and I have seen some good grouper to 30 pounds being brought in as well. NOTES: Happy New Year everyone! As a side note, there have been quite a few Mako sharks, small ones, being caught up at the Golden Gate Bank. That has been a prelude to the southern movement of the Striped Marlin in the past, so it is very possible that the Marlin action will move closer to us pretty soon. Also, there have been plenty of Humpback Whales out there and watching them for a little bit has really been a treat. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 107 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 29, 2008 - 7:20 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report December 22-28, 2008 WEATHER: Our coldest night this week was last night as the reading on the meter showed 65 degrees. All the other days it has been in the high 60’s. Our daytime highs have been in the high 70’s to low 80’s and we had a clear Christmas day, but clouds have moved into the area since then. WATER: The water on the Pacific side has been in the low 70’s almost all week and there were a few days at the end of the week where it got a little choppy as the clouds moved in, but it was not bad. On the Cortez side the water has remained in the high 70’s and the swells have been small and there has been no wind chop. BAIT: Caballito were available at the normal $3 per bait, most of them were small ones, Mackerel were”catch your own at Golden Gate Bank" bait and Sardinas were available up at San Jose for around $25 a bucket. FISHING: BILLFISH: The Marlin bite remained the same but the fish have moved off the Golden Gate Bank a bit. There are still plenty of fish there, but with the number of boats working the area causing traffic problems at times, some of the guys have been working to the south toward the San Jaime Bank and have been finding the Striped Marlin there as well. Not the same numbers as at the Golden Gate, but the pressure is less. The same methods have been working, drifting with live bait set deep, slow trolling live bait on the surface and casting bait at fish seen in bait balls. This week the plastics have been working fairly well also with the best colors being the Petrelero. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Tuna were scarce once again, but a few fish were showing up mixed in with the porpoise around the San Jaime Bank. These fish ranged in size from 10 to 40 pounds with an occasional larger fish to 80 pounds hooked up. The larger fish were caught on live bait sunk to 50 feet in front of the moving pods of porpoise. DORADO: The Dorado bite was decent this week with fish coming from close to the beach on the Pacific side, most of them within a mile or so, but a few were in the deeper water as well. The warmer water on the Cortez side of the Cape started to produce as we expected and there were good catches of fish to 35 pounds around the Red Hill area and off of Grey Rock. Slow trolled live bait worked well once you found the area where the fish were concentrated. Average catch on Dorado for boats focusing on them was about 6 fish per boat. WAHOO: Once again I didn’t hear of any Wahoo being caught this week. INSHORE: Panga fishing this week has produced good numbers of small Roosterfish, some nice Sierra and Yellowtail along with a few good-sized Pargo. Fly fishermen have been having a blast with the occasional Dorado and good numbers of Bonita, chumming them up with live Sardinas. NOTES: This has been a very interesting and productive year for us, the fish have been biting well and while the economy has had an effect on bookings the fish don’t seem to care! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that you celebrate the New Year in style! Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 106 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 22, 2008 - 6:36 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report December 15-21, 2008 WEATHER: We continued with the cool, overcast conditions for most of last week. We did see a couple of days with plenty of sun, but for the most part it was partly to mostly cloudy. Our daytime highs were in the mid 80’s and our nighttime lows remained in the mid to high 60’s. WATER: With light winds most of the week the only rough times at sea were early in the morning between the lighthouse and the Arch, past there things calmed down, the swells were at 3-6 feet but there was plenty of space between them and not too much wind. On the Cortez side of the cape things were much smoother with swells at 1-3 feet between Cabo and Punta Gorda, and almost glass-like conditions. Water temperatures remained in the mid to high 70’s throughout the area except for early in the week when 80 degree water showed on the San Jaime Bank and right next to shore past the arch we had 74 degree water. At the end of the week there was a pretty strong demarcation at the 1,000-fathom line directly south of the Cape where 80-degree water on the outside met 78-degree water on the inside. BAIT: Caballito were available at the normal $3 per bait, most of them were small ones, Mackerel were”catch your own at Golden Gate Bank" bait and conditions and water temperatures have not been good for Sardinas. FISHING: BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite dropped off just a bit at the Golden Gate Bank but boats were still piling up the numbers with several methods. Drifting with live Mackerel both on the surface and dropped down to 100 feet or so worked well, as did slow trolling live Mackerel through the area. Probably the most exciting and frustrating method was to wait until the fish could be seen feeding on the surface, indicated by birds diving, running to the fish and then throwing live bait into the area. Combat fishing at it’s finest; many fish were cut off by other boats trying to do the same thing. Elsewhere there were a few Striped Marlin caught along the beach on the Pacific side and up around the San Jose area. YELLOWFIN TUNA: An occasional school showed up around the San Jaime Bank this week and fish to 60-80 pounds were caught, but they did not stay in the area for long. Boats fishing live bait deep for Marlin at the Golden Gate Bank also caught a few nice fish to 150 pounds. I heard reports that boats fishing from the Puerto Los Cabos Marinas in San Jose were getting fish to 80 pounds on a fairly regular basis but have no other information on that. DORADO: The Dorado bite was a repeat of last weeks and I don’t know if it will last much longer as the water continues to cool down. The only place that I heard of having a decent Dorado bite was just off the beach between the lighthouse on the Pacific side and the beach to the inside of the Golden Gate Bank. Within a mile of the shore boats were picking up between one and five Dorado, some of them very nice fish around 25 pounds, but most of them around 15 pounds. There were some fish up around the Punta Gorda area from what I overheard, but I could not get any information on numbers or sizes. WAHOO: I didn’t hear of any Wahoo being caught this week. INSHORE: The cooler water has brought the beginning of the Yellowtail and Sierra fishing with it. Pangas working off of the rocky points on both the Pacific and the Cortez side were able to get into some decent fishing for both these species as well as some nice Pargo right in amongst the rocks. NOTES: Just a reminder of how important communication is. I had a client this week that I thought had told me that he and his buddy wanted “lots of action, plenty of fish, and a Marlin would be ok”. This is what I told the captain so they went looking for Dorado and Tuna. I received a note from him later that after having caught only two Dorado on the boat we had booked for them, they had booked another boat and that based on the results and what they had observed, our crew had “not really been trying for Marlin, which is what we had wanted to target”. Please be sure you clarify things with the captain when you get on the boat. Have a Very Merry Christmas! Or Happy Hanukah Until next week, tight lines. |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 105 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 15, 2008 - 7:33 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report December 8-14, 2008 WEATHER: We had a couple of days this week when the temperature dropped to 64 degrees early in the morning. For the most part our daytime highs were in the mid to low 80’s. We experienced partly cloudy skies to mostly cloudy skies all week and had a couple of days early in the week when we had 10-15 knot winds from the northwest. WATER: Once again the water remained great for most of the week although we did have a day when the winds blew that the conditions became a bit choppy on the Pacific side. The cloud cover did not allow for any good reading of the surface temperatures but I was out there several times and on the Pacific side we had temperatures of 76-78 degrees around the Golden Gate Bank and cool 72 degree water at the arch. Water was reported warmer on the Cortez side with a decent break running north/south across the 95 spot early in the week, but by all reports that break has broken up and now the water up to the Punta Gorda area has cooled to 76 degrees. Up past Punta Gorda it has remained warmer at 78 to 80 degrees. BAIT: Caballito were available at the normal $3 per bait, most of them were small ones, Mackerel were a "catch your own at Golden Gate Bank" bait and I still do not know if there are any Sardinas available. FISHING: BILLFISH: The fantastic Striped Marlin bite at the Golden Gate Bank continued for another week, but at the end of the week the bite had turned into an afternoon experience as we worked our way through a full moon phase and the fish fed all night. It was common for boats to return after having released half-dozen Stripers and a few boats did double-digit numbers. Along with the Striped Marlin were hordes of seals and sea lions; it was often very difficult to keep your bait away from them as they followed the pods of Marlin around waiting for the bait to be chased up. I overheard a few boats up at the Finger Banks and the activity there pretty much mirrored that at Golden Gate, but there were fewer boats to compete against and there was also the chance of hooking up a bit Yellowfin. YELLOWFIN TUNA: I know of one boat that did well on Yellowfin this week outside the San Jaime Bank. They got into a pod of Porpoise and were the only boat there, landing 30 Yellowfin to 80 pounds and keeping seven of them. They also said they lost one fish around 180 pounds just before being able to grab the leader. Other than that, there were only occasional fish caught, but there were big fish seen. Early in the morning at the Golden Gate boats were seeing large Tuna estimated at #200+ clearing the water, but that activity was short lived, as soon as several boats had shown up the fish went down. There were still some nice fish reported farther to the north but that was too long a run for most of the boats. DORADO: The only place that I heard of having a decent Dorado bite was just off the beach between the lighthouse on the Pacific side and the beach to the inside of the Golden Gate Bank. Within a mile of the shore boats were picking up between one and five Dorado, some of them very nice fish around 25 pounds, but most of them around 15 pounds. There were some fish up around the Punta Gorda area from what I overheard, but I could not get any information on numbers or sizes. WAHOO: This week was a repeat of last week on the Wahoo. There were a few nice Wahoo taken this week ranging in size from 20 to 40 pounds. Most of the action was around the rocky points on the Pacific side or up around Punta Gorda on the Cortez side of the Cape. A few boats working the Finger Bank reported multiple strikes as well while trolling lures. A few fish were reported caught while blind trolling offshore. INSHORE: A repeat of last week, I saw a few Pangas coming in with nice Sierra to 9 pounds, a few with a lot more fish but smaller in size, a few decent Yellowtail to 25 pounds, a few nice Grouper to 20 pounds. There were quite a few Dorado caught just off the beach as well. NOTES: No golf for me this week, lots of boat work and a few days fishing instead, but that is a good thing, right? I saw Humpback Whales, Finback Whales and Gray Whales this week. This weeks report was written to the sounds of Led Zeppelin on the 1997 release “Re-mastered”, a bit different from my normal fare but it did bring back memories. |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 104 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 08, 2008 - 6:55 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report December 1-7, 2008 WEATHER: Our daytime highs reached the high 80's this week and our nightime lows were in the low 70's. There were partly cloudy skies most days as well. During the middle of the week the wind shifted and started coming out of the east and as Sunday approached it slowly moved back through the south, west and then the normal northwest direction. WATER: Water conditions remained very nice again, and even the shift in wind direction had little effect other than making the Sea Of Cortez side if the Cape a bit choppy. It did not blow from any one direction long enoigh to set up swells. On the Cortez side the water remained several degrees warmer than the Pacific side, averaging 82 degrees. The swells remained slight at 1-3 feet. On the Pacific side the swells were moderate at 3-5 feet but spaced well apart. The water averaged 79 degrees with occasional light chop. BAIT: Caballito were available at the normal $3 per bait, Mackerel were a "catch your own at Golden Gate Bank" bait and I did not hear if there were any sardinas. FISHING: BILLFISH: Striped Marlin continued to bite for everyone, but there were a couple of slower days when they kept their mouths closed. Boats were averaging 2-5 hook-ups per trip at the Golden Gate but a few were able to be at the right place at the right time and do better, often releasing 6 or more fish. Matching the hatch by catching your own Mackerel was key to a decent catch rate. Farther to the north at the Finger Bank boats were consistently in double digit numbers, one of my friends released 30 marlin in three hours while fishing with very experienced anglers. Elsewhere the bite was slow, a few Stripers here, a few there with no concentration to be found YELLOWFIN TUNA: We got out on Monday for a food trip, targetting Yellowfin. The focus was to the sought of the San Jaime Bank as a friend had reported there being a nice school of fish there. We went to the numbers and could not find a thing. We fianlly found some white-bellied dolphin in the middle of the San Jaime and were able to pick a double on the first pass, decent fish at 25 pounds. After working them for a while, and having to return soon, we did the run and gun, getting ahead of the moving pod of dolphin and dropping back two mackerel. That resulted in a double hook-up of 35-40 pound fish. That was it for the trip for us. Other boats reported the same slow pick results from small pods of dolphin both to the south of us and slightly to the north and west. Boats that ventured much farther north (private boats on multi-day trips) reported continued good action on fish in the 100-200 pound class usinf live bait on downriggers and on kites. DORADO: Once again the Dorado remained on the bite off of the beach on the Pacific side between the lighthouse and El Arco. Slow trolled live bait and fast trolled plastic lures worked well there, and they also did the job on fish that were on the Cortez side up around Punta Gorda. Most boats were able to get several fish between 12 and 20 pounds and there were a few larger ones to 40 pounds as well. A few of the boats on the Pacific side were able to get schools of Dorado behind an already hooked fish and were able to catch limits. WAHOO: There were a few nice Wahoo taken this week ranging in size from 20 to 40 pounds. Most of the action was around the rocky points on the Pacific side or up around Punta Gorda on the Cortez side of the Cape. A few boats working the Finger Bank reported multiple strikes as well while trolling lures. A few fish were reported caught while blind trolling offshore. INSHORE: I saw a few Pangas coming in with nice Sierra to 9 pounds, a few with a lot more fish but smaller in size, a few decent Yellowtail to 25 pounds, a few nice Grouper to 20 pounds. There were quite a few Dorado caught just off the beach as well. NOTES: As you can tell from the report, the fishing has been good this week, a bit on and off day to day but good overall. With the economy the way it is you can probably get some excellent deals on rooms in Cabo right now, and since fuel prices are back down it might result in cheaper air fares as well. Treat yourself to an early Christmas present, come to Cabo and get some fishing in! This weeks report was written to the music of "The Marmalades" . a mostly cover band from the 60's. Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 103 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 7:15 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report November 24-30, 2008 WEATHER: This weeks weather was a repeat of last weeks, highs in the mid 80’s and lows in the high 60’s with just a slight breeze most of the time, only one day in the middle of the week, Wednesday, when it picked up and blew pretty good. We had scattered clouds all week long, another week of perfect sunsets! WATER: Water conditions were great this week again, with just the one-day, Wednesday, when the winds from the northwest made conditions on the Pacific side a little choppy. The swells remained small and wide apart on both sides of the Cape, and most days the Cortez side looked like a pool table, flat and smooth. Water temperatures on the Pacific side have dropped down quite a bit as the near-shore areas are showing most days at 76-78 degrees. The water farther offshore has also dropped several degrees into the same range. On the Cortez side of the Cape things have remained warm at 80-81 degrees. BAIT: Caballito, Mackerel and Mullet were available at the now normal $3 each and there were Sardinas available up in the area of San Jose if you were there early, but they were pricey at $25 a bucket. FISHING: BILLFISH: The fishing for Striped Marlin is really something this year as once again the concentration of fish on the Golden Gate Bank amazes us. Boats that are really concentrating on the Marlin and are spending the time are releasing over 20 fish per day. Most of the fleet boats are trolling there and back and are getting two to five fish per trip. The fish are all in the 110-pound class and over. Working the bait balls between 150 and 200 feet deep with live bait caught on the spot has done the trick for most boats, the baits bought at the marina work for Dorado and an occasional Marlin, but matching the hatch with really fresh bait seems to do the trick. Elsewhere, there are a few scattered Marlin along the coast one to two miles off the beach on the Pacific side and a few showing up on the Cortez side close in as well. YELLOWFIN TUNA: One boat this week got into a good bite on Yellowfin Tuna averaging 40 pounds while fishing the 77 spot, a high spot between the Golden Gate and San Jaime Banks. The fish had pushed up bait balls of Sardinas and would not hit artificials, so they drifted into one of the balls and scooped up several loads of Sardinas. That did the trick and they were almost limited out when a helicopter showed up and then as they were leaving the school, a tuna seiner showed up. Needless to say, there were no more fish to be found in that area the next day. There were larger fish north of the Golden Gate again, but it was a very slow pick on big fish, worth the work if you wanted quality, but with no guarantees at all of getting bit. DORADO: The Dorado remained on the bite off of the beach on the Pacific side between the lighthouse and El Arco. Slow trolled live bait and fast trolled plastic lures worked well there, and they also did the job on fish that were on the Cortez side up around Punta Gorda. Most boats were able to get several fish between 12 and 20 pounds and there were a few larger ones to 40 pounds as well. WAHOO: I heard that there was a good bite on Wahoo to 40 pounds up in the Punta Gorda area, and I know that there were Wahoo on the Pacific side. Of course, the fish on the Pacific side were just little ones; the bites were happening close to shore and a three-foot long Wahoo only weighs about 10 pounds. Some guys mistook them for large Sierra! INSHORE: The Roosterfish bite seems to be dropping off and the cool water fish are showing up. Sierra and Yellowtail are beginning to be caught and the bottom fishing is picking up as well. With the calm waters though, most of the Cabo Pangas are working off of the beach searching for Dorado and Marlin. NOTES: I got to play Palmilla again this week as well as Cabo Del Sol, maybe someday my golf skills will match the beauty of the courses I get to play! On another note, the Whales are here! We have seen Humpbacks every day we have gone out, and on one day this week there was a pod of three that kept doing full breaches and lots of tail lobbing, they did the full jumps in pairs and must have come out of the water a dozen times, really great action. Ok then, I am out of here, tight lines until next week! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 102 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 24, 2008 - 8:36 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report November 17-23, 2008 WEATHER: It just doesn’t get any better than this! Our daytime highs were in the mid 80’s while the evening and early morning lows were as far down as 68 degrees but averaged 70 degrees. At the end of the week we had mostly cloudy skies, which kept things cool as well and gave us some wonderful sunsets! WATER: Swells on both sides of the Cape were between 1 and 3 feet this week and spaced fairly far apart. We had only light winds for the most part and combined with the small swells, we had some great surface conditions. The water on the Pacific side seemed to cool off a bit between 2 to 3 miles offshore and out across the San Jaime Bank, running an average of 76 degrees. Inside that area, and outside to the west, it averaged 78 degrees. On the Cortez side we saw an average of 81 degrees. BAIT: Most of what was available this week was Caballito, but the Marlin were fixated on Mackerel, so most of the Caballito were not used. You could catch your own Mackerel at the Golden Gate Bank or, if you had a good depth sounder, at the lighthouse. FISHING: BILLFISH: Striped Marlin remain the fish of the week with most boats getting at least four of five fish per trip. Boats that really worked it hard and concentrated on them were getting into the double digits again. Most of the fish were still at the Golden Gate Bank, but there was a decent showing at the lighthouse on the Pacific side as well. The bait keeps moving and the fish follow them so as the currents changed the Striped Marlin appeared in different areas, following the bait. Live bait was the key to a decent catch, and using circle hooks with flouro-carbon leaders really made a difference! YELLOWFIN TUNA: Close to our area there were scattered schools of football to school sized tuna found among the Porpoise. From outside the 95 spot along the 1,000-fathom curve to 8 miles to the west of the Golden Gate Bank there were scattered pods of Porpoise, and about half of them held fish. Occasionally a pod would come through closer to shore and the fist couple of boats would do well, but the later boats just got to see the mammals playing. There were confirmed reports of larger Yellowfin to #150 north of the Golden Gate Bank, but that was to far for most of the fleet boats to go, the reports were from private yachts. DORADO: The bite picked up just a bit this week for the Dorado with most of the action shifting to 2-3 miles off of the beach on the Pacific side between the lighthouse and the El Arco area. Live bait and bright colored lures in smaller sizes worked very well. Many boats slow trolled live bait and caught a decent mix of both Striped Marlin and Dorado. WAHOO: I saw a few fish this week in the 50-pound class but there were not a lot of Wahoo flags flying from the boats at the end of the day. Boats that had gone out looking for Tuna caught the Wahoo that I saw. INSHORE: There were a few more nice Roosterfish caught on the Pacific side of the Cape along the beach between the arch and the lighthouse, just like last week. As well as Roosterfish, there has been a showing of Sierra and a few Yellowtails. A few Pangas reported big Grouper were biting on the rock piles if you fished big live bait, but most of the fish were rocking the anglers and breaking off. NOTES: We have had a wonderful week as the weather has been just great and the fishing has been almost wide open. I had a chance to golf at Palmilla and while my score was not great, I had a fantastic time on the course. I have tiled the dining room where I pulled up the baseboards (termites) and the border looks great, and yesterday finished painting it. Now we are almost ready for Thanksgiving and all the folks we have invited over! Until next week, tight lines, and try giving a listen to some Allison Krause and Union Station if you can find the time! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 101 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 10, 2008 - 9:16 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report November 3-9, 2008 WEATHER: I think that we may have settled into cool weather finally. This week our nights were a perfect low to mid 70’s while the daytime highs were the mid 80’s. Our skies were partly cloudy this week but there was still plenty of sun to have fun in. WATER: We had winds early in the week from the northwest that caused the swells on the Pacific side to pick up a bit, the surf was nice for the surfers up at Cerritos, but it looked uncomfortable for anything smaller than a 31’ boat. The wind lasted two days and during those days it did not start to blow until around 9-10 am so boats were able to get up to the Pacific side banks and then ride downhill on the way home. If you fished on the Cortez side of the Cape and went offshore you had a long, rough ride back on these afternoons. The rest of the week was quite nice with the average Pacific swell at 3-5 feet with just a little chop. On the Cortez side it was 1-3 feet until you went past the Punta Gorda area and the wind kicked in. Water temperatures dropped a bit this week with the warm water just in front of the arch at 82 degrees. Outside of the 10-mile range the temperature dropped to 81 degrees. BAIT: The normal Caballito and Mackerel were available at the usual $3 per bait. There were Sardinas as well and since the Tuna Tournament was going on the price remained a bit on the high side at $30-$50 a scoop. It paid to go north toward Palmilla to get Sardinas, at the high price locally you did not get very many baits, maybe 50-60, and they were not in good shape. Toward Palmilla you could plug your tanks with freshly caught bait for $100. FISHING: BILLFISH: Striped Marlin remained the fish of the week and they were stacked up like cordwood on the Golden Gate Bank. Many boats that worked hard for them were releasing 15-25 fish before noon, stopping only because the anglers were worn out! These were the top boats, but the average boats were still managing to release double -digit numbers of fish. Dropping live mackerel down to just above the bait balls, mostly at 180 feet, and waiting for the strike caught most of the fish. The better boats used circle hooks as the hook-up ratios were better and the fish were not getting hooked in the gut. There were also many Sailfish caught, something of a surprise for me. A few decent sized Blue Marlin were reported but nothing that would have won the Bisbee Black and Blue. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin were the big attraction in Cabo this week as Thursday and Friday were the fishing days for the Western Outdoors Tuna Tournament. There were 97 teams entered this year, and while there were not as many 40-pound and larger fish caught this year, the largest fish recorded in this tournament was weighed in at a whopping 244 pounds. The boat “Bottom Line” caught a Yellowfin that weighed 143.4 pounds the first day and one of 101.6 pounds on the second day to take a record $271,346. Most of the fishing took place on the Pacific side of the Cape, and most of the fish were caught under Porpoise. Of course with this number of boats fishing it became crowded very quickly once Porpoise were found. A few boats came screaming into the pods that others were already carefully working the edges of, and this activity put the fish down for everyone, sigh. All in all, the Yellowfin bite was decent and the bigger fish were reportedly all caught on live bait. DORADO: The Dorado bite remained light this week, but if you wanted one you could get it. Between one and three fish per day was average, and the fish were around 12-15 pounds in weight. Small lures and slow trolled live bait, close to shore, within two or three miles on the Pacific side produced the best results. WAHOO: What Hoo? INSHORE: The small Roosterfish were still around on the Cortez side up around San Jose, but there were no large numbers. Most of the inshore fishing was just offshore a bit with the Pangas concentrating on Dorado and small Yellowfin Tuna. NOTES: No tournaments coming up, no friends and relatives visiting, it’s time for a break! I am looking forward to getting a book finished and spending some time around the house. Music to work by today was the album “Borrasca” by Ottmar Liebert and Luna Negra. Great Flamenco style guitar work! Until next week, tight lines! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 100 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 03, 2008 - 7:40 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report October 27-November 2, 2008 WEATHER: Just when we thought the cool days were here, it warmed up again! I am not sure what happened, but our daytime highs have been in the high 90’s while the lows in the evenings have only been in the low 80’s. We expected the temps to be at least 10 degrees cooler by now, but nope, no luck, just sweat and sunburn. We had two days with cloud cover but no rain during the middle of the week. WATER: Swells were slight to moderate on both side of the Cape this week, and the water temperatures on the surface did not vary very much at all, everywhere you went it was between 83 and 86 degrees. The cooler 83-degree water was outside the 1,000-fathom line to the south and southwest. The water on the Pacific side was nice and blue, on the Cortez side it was a bit on the dirty, green side, but not so much that it was un-fishable, just off-colored. BAIT: The normal Caballito and Mackerel were available at the usual $3 per bait. There were Sardinas as well and since there was a tournament going on the price remained a bit on the high side at $30 a scoop. FISHING: BILLFISH: There were plenty of Striped Marlin to be found on the Pacific side of the Cape between the Golden Gate Banks and the shoreline, along with a good number of decent sized Sailfish. The Stripers were averaging 120 pounds and were biting well on artificial lures later in the week, early in the week the bite was a pretty even mix of lure fish and live bait fish. The Sailfish averaged 70 pounds and the catch ratio between the two was around three Striped Marlin for one Sailfish. There were still Black and Blue Marlin out there, I talked to quite a few anglers who hooked up to fish around 250-300 pounds, but I am not sure if there were any bigger fish in the catch. I did not get to the weigh station for the tournament and the web site had not been updated as of my writing this report. YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were scattered Yellowfin caught this week, but no real big ones that I heard of. Football fish to 20 pounds in front of town to school sized fish to 50 pounds 30 miles offshore were caught by a few boats, but the schools moved around quickly and often could not be found the next day. I heard of two boats getting into fish averaging 80+ pounds 40 miles to the west, but the numbers could not be confirmed, nor could the location. Most of the school and football fish were caught on live Sardinas after chumming in front of the moving pods of Dolphin. The bait went quickly doing this, but the hookup ratio was good. DORADO: The Dorado bite continued this week, but not in quite the numbers we were seeing last week. Anyone that wanted could limit out on these great eating fish (limit is two per angler per day) but instead of catching 8 or 10 each (releasing the small ones) most boats were putting their fishermen on three or four fish each. The fish were still concentrated on the Pacific side in the cleaner water, and most of them were caught within three miles of the beach. Trolled plastic lures in bright colors, and between 6 and 8 inches in length resulted in steady hook-ups on fish averaging 10 pounds. Slow trolled live bait resulted in fewer fish due to covering a smaller area of water, but the fish averaged 15-18 pounds. WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo being caught this week, but I am sure there were a few. INSHORE: Once again there were small Roosterfish to 15 pounds to be found, and most of them were on the Pacific side of the Cape between the arch and the lighthouse. Most of the Pangas were fishing just a bit farther offshore looking for Dorado, and doing quite well on them. NOTES: I wish I had information to give you on the Governors Tournament held this week, but like I said above, I was not at the weigh station in the afternoons and the website has not been updated. The next tournament on the list is the W.O.N. Tuna Tournament this week with fishing being on Thursday and Friday. This is one of the favorite tournaments of the year with plenty of give-aways and parties, plus it does not cost an arm and a leg to enter. I will let you know the results on this one for sure, check in next week for an update! Until then, bend you ear to the music of Mark Knopfler and keep those lines tight! |
   
George Landrum (Captg)
New member Username: Captg
Post Number: 99 Registered: 8-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 27, 2008 - 7:27 am: | |
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com Cabo Fish Report October 20-26, 2008 WEATHER: Once again we had great weather here in Cabo. Our morning lows were in the high 70’s and the daytime highs in the low 90’s, just a bit warmer than last week but very nice overall. We had mostly sunny skies this week with no rain and light winds. WATER: Both the Pacific side and the Cortez side of the Cape had slight swells at 1-3 feet on the average for most days, with the winds light and variable at 5-10 knots. There were a few times during the later part of the week on the Cortez side when the winds picked u from the north strong enough to kick the swells up to 4-6 feet with a very short distance between them, making it very uncomfortable for the boats fishing live bait on the outer Gorda Banks and northward, but these winds were short lived and within three hours the seas had calmed down. BAIT: Due to the Bisbee Black and Blue Tournament there was a light demand for the normal Caballito and Mackerel, but they were available at the usual $3 per bait. Sardinas were in great demand in order to catch the small Yellowfin Tuna and Bonita used for live bait on the big fish, and the price went up accordingly. We spent $100 per day for three scoops or Sardinas each day, and on the first two days almost ½ of them were dead when delivered, sigh. Anyway, you could get bait here at the marina but it was pricey, a lot of the charter boats picked up 10 baits before leaving and caught anything else they needed while out on the charter. FISHING: BILLFISH: Striped Marlin were there in abundance if you were fishing either on the Golden Gate Bank or just to the inside of there. We had groups this week that were doing double-digit fish every day, between 12 and 15 Striped Marlin releases per day, and a few that were in the two or three per day range. If you were in the right place at the right time with the right equipment the fishing was outstanding. Live bait was the key for the large numbers, and finding the bait balls was the most important thing of all. As far as the Blue Marlin and Black Marlin were concerned, the catch numbers from the Bisbee tournament speak for them selves. 141 boats, fishing three days makes for 423 fishing days. Catching two fish over 300 pounds means one decent fish per 212 days effort. This year you may as well have gone to Florida looking for big blue and Black Marlin, the results were dismal, unless of course you were the boat that was across the board in the jackpots and caught a 313 pound Marlin on the last day. In that case you were not complaining about taking home a check for over 2 million dollars. Sigh. YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were more Yellowfin caught for bait for the Bisbee tournament than between all the charter boats combined. Having 60 boats all tossing out cut Sardinas and live chum in a very small area tended to concentrate the bait and the Tuna. Yellowfin to 15 pounds were caught in decent numbers every morning right in the middle of the bait along the drop-off. Farther offshore there were fish showing amongst the Dolphin, and they were ranging in size from 20 to 120 pounds. Smaller lures than most of the boats were pulling, I mean lures from 6 to 10 inches in length and in darker colors resulted in decent numbers, but live bait dropped in front of the moving schools resulted in the larger fish. DORADO: There were plenty of Dorado out there this week and most of them were pretty close to home. The area between the Cape and Los Arcos on the Pacific side put out the largest numbers of fish, but the average size was down a bit from last week, with 10 pounds being the average size. There were still many fish in the 25-35 pound class, but there were very large numbers of smaller fish as well. That bodes well for the next month as these fish can gain as much as 5 pounds per month in weight. WAHOO: The waning moon resulted in fewer Wahoo bites than last week, but there were still a few decent fish caught as incidentals during the tournament. I saw several fish in the 60-pound class being brought in from tournament boats. Most of these fish were caught while fishing offshore and were not in any concentrations. INSHORE: There were some small Roosterfish to 15 pounds with the average around 8 pounds caught this week. Live Mackerel were the main bait used and most of the fish came from fairly close to home, between the Hacienda Hotel and the Chileno Bay. Most of the Pangas were concentrated on the Dorado bite instead of the traditional inshore species. NOTES: The Black and Blue Tournament this week was a big disappointment with only two qualifying fish weighed. I heard a lot of comments that the lack of success combined with the tight economy might mean a definite drop in the number of participants next year. We’ll have to wait and see what happens with the economy. |
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