This week is simple. I have not been home, still in Houston with Mary. Brain tumor removed, waiting for pathology. She is upbeat and being released for intensive care today. Sorry, but you are going to have to look elsewhere for a report the next few weeks. Regards, George
Cabo fish report
folks, I am sorry that this is a very abbreviated report. I have not been focused on fishing for the past few days, and am not in Cabo at this moment. We are in Houston at the hospital as Mary has a medical issue that must be addressed immediately .
At the start of the week the fishing was decent for Striped Marlin and Dorado on the Pacific side of the Cape. Basically, there is little change from last week, at least for the first couple of days. Like I mentioned, I have not been focused so appologise. I hope to have returned in a couple of weeks to resume the weekly report
Mexican fishing license cost increases
To my suprise, when I arrived at the dock at 6 AM to get fishing licenses for my clients this morning, the price at the dock had increase overnight from 150 pesos to 180 pesos. This was quite a suprise since we were never told about this yesterday morning when we purchased licenses. The cost for a daily, according to the federal government, is still 134 pesos, so I asked the agent selling them at the dock about the reason for the increase. While my Spanish is not fluent, he seemed a bit confused and was muttering something about the city or state increasing the amount of tax. If I find out better information I’ll let you know.
Cabo Fish Report
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
January 7 – 13, 2013
WEATHER: It feels as if we are getting into our winter season as the morning lows have been in the high 50′s and the daytime highs in the high 70′s. I don’t think I saw the temperature raise to 80 degrees this week. This is great if you have been dealing with below freezing weather at home, but cold for us who live here. We did have some wind from the north again this week and it kept things cool, combine that with cloud cover for about half the week and it feels like the season has changed.
WATER: At the end of this week there was not much change from the end of last week as far as the surface temperatures went. The cold green water we had seen to east of a line across the Gordo Banks and the area south had moved to the east, allowing cleaner, slightly warmer water on the Gordo Bank and across the flats just to the east of Punta Gorda. To the west of that area the water inshore of the 1,000 fathom line remained in the 72 degree range, and south of the 1,000 fathom line it warmed to 75 degrees. On the Pacific and across the Cape region to the south the water averaged 74 degrees. Due to the northerly wind the water on the Pacific side and offshore on the Sea of Cortez side remained a bit choppy and had a lump of 2-5 foot swells, spaced far enough apart that it was not strongly felt. On the Cortez side the swells were smaller, as is usual, at 1-3 feet.
BAIT: Caballito, Mackerel and frozen Ballyhoo could be had for $3 each this week, and there were very few Sardinas available.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite slowed down just a bit this week, perhaps due to the new moon phase, there has to be some reason. Instead of almost every boat getting one or two, sometimes four releases, we were lucky to get that many hook-ups, and get a release for the day. The fish are still there, we are seeing them tailing on the surface, they just were showing little interest in bait or lures this week. This is sure to change as the moon phase changes, it always does. The good point is that the fish are still here! Most of the fish were found on the Pacific side from the Golden Gate to the San Jaime and inside that line, in the canyon. Not as many this week were found inside the two mile line, more were found just outside there. Not to say there were no fish caught, contrary, there were plenty of fish caught and released, and unfortunately quite a few brought in to the dock, just not as many as were caught last week. My guess is that approximately 60% of the boats caught a billfish this week.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The tuna pen that came though our area last week is gone, but the word is that there are several more that will be approaching soon. Hopefully they will be holding as many fish as the one that just passed. Meanwhile, there have been Yellowfin found outside and to the south of the San Jaime Bank, it was just a bit of a bumpy trip to get to them. The porpoise were holding Tuna so the trick was to find the porpoise and hope you were there at the right time. The tuna were footballs for the most part, but one of the schools was of fish between 25 and 45 pounds, and I did hear of an 80 pound class fish caught as well. The larger fish were biting on live bait drifted way back behind the boat, and the usual dark colored lures and cedar plugs accounted for the rest.
DORADO: As the water continues to cool the bite continues to slow, but there are enough Dorado around to still be the offshore fish of the week. Not as many anglers limited out this week as did last week, but the fish were still in the same areas and feeding the same. The week before last the fish count on Dorado really spiked due to the tuna pen coming by, this past week we returned to more normal conditions. I know I heard a charter broker telling potential clients that the Dorado fishing was off-the-chart good several days after the tuna pen was gone, hope they were not too disappointed! Meanwhile, fishing within two miles of the beach on the Pacific side resulted in the majority of the Dorado found, and these cool water fish were a bit larger, and keep getting larger, every week. My guess is that the average this week was 15 pounds, and there were probably about a quarter of the boats getting limits and the rest about one fish per angler, that was for the boats that were targeting the Dorado. As normal, keeping the first fish in the water to attract more worked well, as did slow trolling a live bait under feeding Frigate birds.
WAHOO: New moon but cool water, what more need I say? Wahoo really prefer slightly warmer water than we are experiencing right now, but there were still a few caught this past week locally. Most of the fish were small, in the 10-15 pound range, and there were not many of them, but you still had a chance. This just might have been the last week to get one of these speedsters hooked up until the water warms back up. The fish that were caught were found inside the 300 foot depth contour, and were caught by boats that targeted them using Rapallas and Marauders on wire leader. There were more fish cut off on mono-filament leader used on lures run for Dorado than were caught.
INSHORE: As I said on my mid-week up-date, the Sierra bite went wide open during the middle of the week with boats getting into the fish from the lighthouse all the way up the Pacific coast to Migraino. Bright colored hootchies worked great, and I had a client who fly-fished for two days with a guide who got tired of catching them after a fish count that went over 50! They went through many flies during the two days, starting with fully dressed ones and finally putting on new ones when all that was left was just a bit of dressing on the hook. Tired arms, a fish on every cast and the fish ranged from 3 pounds to 8 pounds, it doesn’t get any better than that! As well as the Sierra, there have been some Amberjack, Grouper and a few Snapper being found. As far as Yellowtail are concerned, the commercial panga anglers working at night are getting a few, but there have been no real numbers found during the daytime. We are still seeing a few scattered small Roosterfish as well.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this months recipe!
NOTES: There are plenty of whales to be seen when the fishing slows down so even if you are not a hard-core angler you deserve to get out on the water for that show. And of course since there are fish biting, catch dinner as well! I thought I’d mention something about myself today. I am actually a Captain and don’t just call myself a Captain, or Commander, or Admiral. I hold a 100 Ton U.S.C.G. License and am I.G.F.A. Certified, and am a Captain on a private boat. I have 10 ½ years in the U.S. Navy, 6 years experience commercial fishing in the tropics and extensive experience in wholesale/retail seafood. My Charter experience started after commercial fishing became hard on my body and I have been working charter and private boats for 18 years, and have been in Cabo, working on boats and chartering boats for 13 years. We have a business license, pay taxes and work out of the house since shop space is so expensive here. My reports have been going out every week (with a few weeks missed due to hurricanes) for 12 years, un-biased and honest, I don’t try to lay it on thick in order to get you here, just try to give you information to help you make fishing decisions. I appreciate all the e-mails I get from you as readers and plan on continuing the reports as long as possible! This weeks report was written to the music of James Taylor and his “Best of” CD. Until next week, tight lines!
And as always, George writes this report
and posts to the blog on Sunday morning. So if you
can’t wait, click the “FOLLOW” on the top of the blog
page! You will know whenever something new is posted!
Mid Week Up-date!!
Just a quick update for those that read the report for the Cabo San Lucas area. We had a client from Baja On The Fly out today and two days ago with professional guide Lance Peterson and according to Lance, the fishing has been “Epic”. Lance usually guides on the East Cape but Joe specificly requested him as a guide for this week and it paid off. On Monday they worked the area on the Pacific side of the Cape called Marguarita and hooked Sierra Mackerel that ran from 3 pounds to almost 10 pounds. Lance said that they hooked up on almost every cast. (makes me wish they had tried for the presently open #2 tippet record!). Today they fishid an area just short of there and after tiring of Sierra headed slightly farther off the beach. Teasing up more fish, Joe caught several Mahi-Mahi casting to them, and they had a few nice Roosterfish to 25 pounds come to the boat as well. These fish did not show an interest in the flies, but a school of smaller fish in the 5-10 pound class showed shortly thereafter. Several casts werte made to these fish but before one of them would bite, a Jack Cravalle crashed the party and made Joe work! Captain Victor on the Panga “Santi I” did a great job of putting Joe and Lance on the fish, like he always does. Like I said, Lance called it “Epic”, and as a long time guide in our area, he should know! My regular report will be posted on Sunday, so stay tuned!
Cabo Fish Report
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Dec 31, 2012 – January 6, 2013
WEATHER: After I had posted the report last week, on Sunday, we had some rain come down, actually it was more like a little bit of Seattle sunshine (those of you from there know what I mean). After that it started to clear up and from early in the week until now we have had clear skies and great temperatures. The daytime highs have been in the high 70′s to low 80′s while the nighttime lows have been in the low 60′s.
WATER: Let’s see, if you draw a line from just to the east of the Gordo Banks southward to just to the east of the 1150 then everything to the east of that line was in the 71-72 degrees range and green. To the west of there the water warmed up a bit. In a east-west line from 5 miles off of Cabo San Lucas everything to the north appeared to be in the 74 degree range while everything to the south of it appeared to be in the 76 degree range. It was also much cleaner water west of the 1250 and the Gordo Banks. Northerly winds made the afternoons bumpy out there but most of the mornings were just fine with swells on the Pacific side at the usual 2-5 feet and on the Cortez side at 1-3 feet.
BAIT: Caballito, Mackerel and frozen Ballyhoo could be had for $3 each this week, and there were very few Sardinas available.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I never did get any confirmation of Black Marlin being caught last week off of San Jose, so who knows? The Striped Marlin action however has been great on the Pacific side and just out in front of Cabo. Our clients have been catching several every trip and hooking up many more, with 98% of the fish released. Perhaps we were just lucky but out Marlin catch ratio this week was 100%, every boat that went out caught at least one Marlin, and for many of the anglers this was their first attempt at saltwater sportfishing. Now that they are hooked, I hope they don’t expect action like this every trip! Most of the fish were caught on live bait dropped back to fish appearing in the pattern (45%), some were caught by tossing a live bait in front of them as they were tailing on the surface (30%) and the rest were caught on trolled lures (25%). The action occurred close to home for most of the boats as there were decent concentrations of fish from the Arch to up the coast on the Pacific side as far as Migraino Beach, out to 5 miles. There were other fish scattered out across the area with small concentrations found on all the banks as well as the current lines.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Tuna were an on-off fish for most of this week. We had one group fishing that managed to get into some decent fish averaging 35 pounds while working a Porpoise pod about 25 miles to the southwest early in the week and several other groups that caught one or two fish per trip, but they were mostly blind strikes close to the beach. I still hear of an occasional nice sized fish caught at the Gordo Banks, but not enough of them to make it worth a trip up there for me. It looks like this bite may be done for the time being. On a short lived positive note, one of the local boats (thanks Mike!) spotted a very slow moving large vessel about 25 miles to the northwest of the lighthouse on Saturday and went over to check it out. It was a converted Shrimp boat towing a tuna pen at about 1 knot toward the southwest. Mike fished around it and said that he had to go at least a half mile away from the pen before he could set all his line for another pass, the fish were so thick near the pen that the lures were getting hit before he could get them all set. Plenty of Tuna, Dorado and Wahoo as well as Striped Marlin were trailing the pen as it was being towed. The Captain of the boat told Mike that there were two other pens being towed this was as well, but not how far away they were or how close they would pass to us. This was great for Mikes clients, they had a blast, and there will probably be at least half the fleet looking for the Tuna pen today.
DORADO: Fish of the week as far as numbers go, there were plenty of Dorado everywhere you went. 100% of our clients caught Dorado this week and most of them limited out at 2 per angler. These fish were nice as well with the average in the 12-15 pound range. Anywhere on the Pacific side held Dorado but most of the boats were working near the shore out to 5 miles since that also gave them a good chance at a Marlin as well. There were also Dorado scattered all along the Cortez side of the Cape, but they did not seem to be there in the numbers that were found on the Pacific side. The best method this week as leaving the first fish hooked up in the water behind the boat and dropping back either live bait or strips of fresh bait and waiting for the school to show up. This week it seemed as if the fish were starting to school a little, not just traveling in twos and threes, so waiting about five minutes before giving up was the key. Oh, and all the fish around the Tuna pen on Saturday was a bonus, I just hope plenty of boats get into that action today!
WAHOO: This may be the last hurrah’s for our Wahoo this season as the water continues to cool down. We have just come through a l moon and the bite showed it as there were plenty of Wahoo out there if you wanted to target them, it’s just that so many boats were focused on Striped Marlin and Dorado that the pressure was light. The fish ranged from We-hoos of 5-7 pounds to small fish of 8-15 pounds with an occasional 20-30 pound fish in the mix. Near shore drop-offs and ridges held the fish and trolling the usual arsenal of Rapallas and Marauders on wire leader was the best bet. There were plenty of fish caught on live bait as well, but many more of them were lost due to getting the mono-filament leader bit through than were caught. Mike caught six decent Wahoo off the Tuna pen.
INSHORE: There were still some small Roosterfish along the beach this week but I expect this action to shut down as the water cools off. Most pangas were working within five miles of the beach for Dorado and Marlin, but those that went inshore for Sierra found a wide-open bite on fish from 3 to 4 pounds off the beach at Migraino. Small hootchies and rapallas trolled with a short wire trace racked up the fish. There were a few Yellowtail reported this week, but no numbers of them, just an occasional fish or two, and no large sizes.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this months recipe!
NOTES: Our winter season is approaching and as the water cools down we can expect the Striped Marlin bite to pick up as well as more Tuna start to show offshore. Inshore action should improve as well for Sierra and Yellowtail and I expect next month that Snapper fishing in the rocks during the full moon should be good. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the action continues on into our new year! This weeks report was written to the music of Richard Thompson on the 3 CD set “The History of Robert Thompson”, released in 1993 by RYKODISC. Dark, moody music from one of the co-founders of Fairport Convention. Until next week, tight lines!
And as always, George writes this report
and posts it on Sunday morning. So if you
can’t wait, click the “FOLLOW” on the top of the
page! You will know whenever something new is posted!
Cabo Fish Report
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Dec 24 – 30, 2012
WEATHER: It has been an overcast week here in Cabo, and while it did not get cold enough to snow, a lot of us who live here full time are wearing long sleeved shirts and long pants to keep nice and warm. I know it’s a bit laughable, but when it gets into the low 60′s in the evenings we feel cold. With the overcast came a bit of wind on Thursday evening and Friday morning but then it calmed right down. Of course it has been cloudy all week, but a front moving down toward us from California may just end up pushing all this cloud cover away in a few days. And, well, there may be a bit of rain later today or tomorrow, at least the forecasters are saying it may happen. The clouds and weather are coming in from the southwest, just as they were doing last week and we can see a few areas of heavy precipitation approaching, it depends on how strong the front moving toward us is and how quickly it moves. Our daytime highs have been in the low 80′s.
WATER: The water temperatures were pretty steady this week as from the shoreline out to 12 miles from inside the Golden Gate to Punta Gorda the water was a consistent 77 degrees. North of Punta Gordo the water cooled to 75 degrees and north of Golden Gate Banks it cooled to 76 degrees. Out past the 12 mile line from the San Jaime Banks and to the southeast the water warmed to 79 degrees. The water was fairly blue everywhere with the exception of past Punta Gordo, once you got into the 75 degree water the color turned a very dirty green. Surface conditions were good everywhere with the exception on Thursday afternoon on the Pacific side when it became very choppy due to wind. Swells were fairly small at 2-4 feet on the Pacific side most of the week with a pick-up to 4-6 feet Thursday morning and on the Cortez side they remained at 1-3 feet until you got past Punta Gorda, then they picked up to 2-5 feet as wind kicked them up on the East Cape.
BAIT: No change in the bait availability this week from last week. There was plenty of Caballito, a few Mackerel and a very limited supply of Sardina. The bigger baits were the usual $3 each while the Sardinas, if you could find a boat with some to sell, were going for $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I have no confirmation of this from any f captains yet, but according to someone who was watching, and knows what a Striped Marlin and a Black Marlin looks like, there was a bite on Black Marlin of 200 pounds off of the marina in San Jose on Friday. He says he saw several Striped Marlin brought in but that there were at least five, maybe six, Black Marlin brought in as well, they were all in the 200 pound range and they were reported to have been caught pretty close to shore. I would not be surprised too much, but it seems the water is too cold for there to be many of them around. I will do a bit more checking this week, but he swears they were not Striped Marlin and that the anglers were talking about the “white meat” of the fish. Elsewhere the Striped Marlin fishery has been steady, if just a bit slow. Many boats are coming in flying release flags, but there are also a lot of fish being boated as tends to happen during the holidays, the crews want the fish for parties and guilt the anglers into keeping them. Hey guys, it’s your trip and you are paying, so just say “release”! Anyway, many of the fish have been found close to the beach, within several miles in most cases as they concentrate on the schools of bait along the shoreline. There has been no big concentration on them for most of the week, but for the first two days of the week the area off of Palmilla was reported to be holding large numbers of tailing fish that were willing to bite. A few boats came back from that area flying four flags!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We have finally had some Tuna show up! Not large numbers, or really big fish, but the kind of fish that keep anglers coming back for more. These are fish in the 15 to 35 pound class, large enough to put up a good fight on the right gear and enough of them to be able to take some fillets back home. I don’t think I have seen a catch yet, at least on a regular basis that would allow you to fill a cooler (yes, I know a few boats have done it, but not many), but combine the Tuna with the Dorado and it is possible to get a full cooler of fillets. Of course Lady Luck has to pay a visit, but that’s all part of fishing anyway! The fish have been found mixed in with the Porpoise and most of them have been along that 12 mile line from the San Jaime Banks and to the southeast of there. Cedar plugs, rapallas, dark colored hootchies and live bait have all caught numbers of fish with the larger fish coming on live bait or off of boats flying a kite. I did hear of some nice big fish still being caught at the Gordo Banks, but still not any large numbers, just the occasional nice cow sized fish.
DORADO: I heard that the Dorado bite off of San Jose was really good this week as there were plenty of fish found that ranged from 15 to 25 pounds. Combine that with the few Cow Tuna and the “Black Marlin” bite and that may have been the place to go. Too bad it’s at least 1 ½ hours up there for most of the boats, otherwise more would go to check it out. Closer to home the Dorado have been spread out with most of the fish found just off the beach on the Pacific side, out to about 2 miles. Quite a few boats were getting limits, but most of them were getting at least three or four nice sized fish. Slow trolling live bait was still the best method, with doing so under working Frigate Birds being the most productive. There were plenty of fish in the 10 to 15 pound class with a few fish approaching 30 pounds in the boats as well.
WAHOO: The Wahoo bite was very good this week, at least in the San Jose area. Part of that could be due to the number of boats working the shoreline for Dorado and “Black Marlin”, after all, that’s the Wahoo’s preferred area. There were fewer fish caught in our area, but there were some nice ones brought in as we went through the full moon phase on Friday. Rapallas and Marauders in dark colors worked well and if you had a bit of a wire trace on your live bait you stood a chance of bringing in one as well, just less of a chance of getting Marlin or Dorado.
INSHORE: I did not hear of anyone working the shoreline this week as the fishing for everything else was so good and the inshore fishing just so-so, but there were a few smaller Roosterfish and a few Sierra showing up. At this rate we should be seeing many more of these toothy little fish soon, and hopefully more Yellowtail as well.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this months recipe!
NOTES: One of the reasons the fishing out of San Jose may be so good is the heavy winds up on the East Cape, the strong currents produced and the cold, green water. All of these combined may be pushing the fish that were there down toward us, and San Jose is the first concentration of anglers they get too. If that is the case, and the trend continues, we may be seeing a lot more fish in our area as well soon! Meanwhile, have a happy new year! Until next year, tight lines!
And as always, George writes this report
and posts it on Sunday morning. So if you
can’t wait, click the “FOLLOW” on the top of the
page! You will know whenever something new is posted!
