Cabo Fish Report June 3 – 9, 2016

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING

Captain George Landrum

gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com https://captgeo.wordpress.com/

Cabo Fish Report

June 3 – 9, 2016

SYNOPSIS: It has been two months since my last report as we had seen very little change in conditions until recently. Several weeks ago things began to improve as the water began to change a little and now we have experienced decent fishing for the past two weeks, with fingers crossed it will be even better! Striped Marlin to the southeast and easterly, Tuna out front and to the west, Dorado and Wahoo scattered closer to the beach and some good Roosterfishing along the coast line. Check below for a few more details!

WEATHER: This morning it was 67 degrees at 6 am, three days ago it was 79 degrees and everyone was shopping for new floor fans! We have clear mostly cloud-free skies at the moment but just experienced three days of cloud cover. No rain and the breezes have been picking up a bit in the evening. During our week of warm weather the winds appeared from the south, coming off the warmer water down there, more recently the cooler winds have started in again from the northwest, again from the cool water to the north.

WATER: As of today we were seeing cool, almost cold water along the beach, the temperatures were ranging from 68 to 70 degrees with the cooler water on the Pacific side. Last week these waters were in the 70 – 77 degree range. Once you get offshore around 10 or more miles the water warms up to 74 degrees, last week we were seeing the temperature around 77 degrees. The water overall is an off-blue color with currents now coming up from the south. Wind chop on top of three to five foot swells on the Pacific side made fishing to the west and south uncomfortable for some people, but for those who did not mind getting a bit wet, the fishing was worth it. The water conditions on the Sea of Cortez side were much better than on the Pacific, but well offshore there were still some large swells wrapping around the Cape.

BAIT: The bait availability has been on and off, with a variety of live baits but no one species except Caballito in abundance. There have been a few Mackerel, Look-downs, grunts, green jacks and little pompano, no Sardinas that I heard of. The live baits have been the normal $3 each, and many of the boats have been using (or at least taking) frozen ballyhoo in order to be sure of having something fishy to use!

FISHING:

BILLFISH: Thank goodness the fishing for Striped Marlin has improved! The best area to find them has been around the 1150 spot, but anywhere from the 95 Spot to the Gorda Banks has had fish at times, it’s just that the concentrations tend to move around with the bait and temperature. One day the bite would be hot right on top of the 1150, then nest day it would be hot ten miles further to the east, and the third day the concentration could have moved to just outside the Gorda Banks area. The important part is that there were numbers around, and that they were hungry. While most charters were very happy to hook a few and get one or two for release, a few boats were able to be in the right place at the right time and experienced outstanding fishing with double digit releases. Other areas around the Cape were producing Striped Marlin as well, but not in the numbers we were seeing to the east. Please remember to catch and release your billfish if they are healthy when you bring them to the boat. Do not remove them from the water as this can cause internal damage once the support of the water is removed.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: We have had plenty of football Tuna around! Several weeks ago the bite had just started to turn on for some slightly larger sized Tuna, then the purse seiners showed up, of course it went downhill then. Thankfully there are still good numbers of the footballs, and still some larger fish surprising anglers, some to 200 pounds. Most of the tuna activity has been to the south and west with the larger fish being found to the northern edge of our charter range. Boats working the Golden Gate to the San Jaime were finding enough fish to make it worth the choppy conditions (unless you asked those who got seasick!).

DORADO: Well, the Dorado made a showing! There were a couple of nice sized fish in the 20 pound class, but most of them were much smaller, really release size fish for most people as they were in the 5-8 pound class. The Dorado were found just off the beach to 10 miles offshore with the concentrations found on the Cortez side of the Cape. There were a few patches of these small guys found several miles off the beach on the Pacific side, and up to the beach itself, but no big concentration. I really hated to see a few of the boats come in flying 5 or 6 Dorado flags and then seeing these 24 inch fish being unloaded! Not a lot of meat on them, toss the little guys back and wait for the big ones!

WAHOO: I was very surprised to find that the Wahoo catch, since my last report, has improved quite a bit! For quite a while we had steady action on these speedsters, but then they disappeared. Right after that they showed up again, and action has been fairly steady on fish from 15 to 25 pounds with a few topping 40 pounds in the mix. Getting out early was the key for multiple fish, as was using wire leader. Many boats were coming in with only one out of four or five strikes due to the razor teeth slicing through the mono leaders. A few anglers were amazed to see no lure on a few lines when the mates cleared them on a hookup! The Wahoo were scattered around in the usual near-shore environment, along points or drop-offs.

INSHORE: Thank goodness the inshore fishing has picked up! We finally started seeing some decent Roosterfish as of two weeks ago. Many of the fish were small, in the 5-10 pound class, but there were plenty of them in the 15-25 pound class as well, and I talked to a few anglers who battled fish in the 40 pound class (with no luck!). As well as the Roosterfish, we have seen decent numbers of Snapper and a few nice late season Yellowtail. Toss in the normal and expected bottom fish such as Triggerfish, Grouper and Amberjack as well as an occasional influx of Jack Crevalle and there has been steady inshore action lately/

 

NOTES:

If you are planning on booking a fishing trip soon (or later in the year), contact me to see what I can set you up with. I offer fishing charters for people with any type of experience on the water at reasonable rates, and service is the name of the game to me!

My Music of the week: The album “Live From Amsterdam, Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa”. Simply amazing!

The information I use in these reports are obtained in many different ways, some from personal experience, some from my clients and Captains who are out every day, and some from on-line subscription services such as Fish-Track, BuoyWeather and SurfZone as well as HurricaneZone. I, and only I, am responsible for any errors made, as I sift all this information and compile it.

Thank you very much for checking out my report, and if you would like to book a charter, check out www.flyhooker.com, I have just re-vamped the web site , it is still under development, but there will be new photos, articles, tips and techniques every week starting next month.

If you want to get the report every time I update, go to my blog at www.captgeo.wordpress.com and sign up! No spam, I do not share your e-mail and you can un-subscribe at any time!

Meanwhile, Tight lines!

 

Cabo Fish Report March 18 – 31, 2016

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING

Captain George Landrum

gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com https://captgeo.wordpress.com/

Cabo Fish Report

March 4 – 17, 2016

SYNOPSIS: This will be a short report as not a lot has changed over the past two weeks. The water is cooling, there have been some football tuna, a few Striped Marlin, scattered Yellowtail, Sierra and small Roosterfish.

WEATHER: This morning it was 63 degrees and windy at 15 knots from the northwest with higher gusts. This made it feel colder than it was and then the sun broke out! Our average high for the week was 83 degrees and our low average was 63 degrees. We had some very windy conditions during the middle of last week and at the end of this week, between it was nice with plenty of sun.

WATER: The water has continued to cool down, last week the Pacific side was showing 71-72 degrees, this week we are seeing69-70 degrees in the same locations. These temperatures have extended to about 15 miles offshore on both the Pacific side and the Cortez side of the Cape. Outside the 15 mile range it warms to 72-73 degrees. Currents are strong from the northwest, as has been the wind. This combination has resulted in large swells with plenty of chop on the Pacific side at the end of both last week and this week, while the water on the Cortez side within 10 miles of the beach has been much smoother.

BAIT: The usual variety for this time of year is Mackerel, Green Jacks and a few Caballito and that is what we are seeing now. I have still not heard of any Sardinas being available locally. Bait has been the normal $3 each and a lot of the bait boats are carrying frozen Ballyhoo and squid slabs for sale as well.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: Striped Marlin fishing has been just a bit better than during the last report, I believe the success percentage to be between 20-25% for boats targeting them. The bite (or what there was of it) had been just outside the beach area on the Pacific side last reporting period, at the tail end of this period the fish seemed to have moved up the Sea of Cortez to the San Jose Canyon area. That may have been because the rough conditions on the Pacific side forced most of the boats to fish the Canyon area, it is hard to be sure. The Marlin that were found were picky fish and it was difficult to convince them to eat a live or dead bait. Small hooks and very light leaders gave an improved chance of hooking up, but decreased the chance of getting them to the boat. These fish would eat an unrigged bait with no problem, so it was exasperating!

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Last week we finally had some Yellowfin in the area. Boats headed out to the San Jaime Banks and reported finding schools of 8-20 pound fish near, but not among, the pods of porpoise. Light leaders and pink or red hootchies were the ticket to getting bit and boats were coming in with 4 to 15 fish per trip, the earlier boats to the action getting the best results. As the wind started picking up the conditions worsened and by two days ago few boats were trying to get out there, so the fish may still be in the area. We will find out once the wind dies off and we have a chance to get to the Banks. Other than that, the action on Yellowfin was very slow and scattered over the normal areas such as the Gorda Banks (a few fish) and the Punta Gorda area high spots. In those locations the best results were had using chunk bait dropped into a chum trail but many boats reported Sea Lions being a real issue.

DORADO: I had clients who released a little five pound Dorado this week, but that was the only one I heard of!

WAHOO: I didn’t hear of any Wahoo being caught this past reporting period. The cool water may be the issue, or the wrong time of the year, or the moon phase, or we have not been wearing the right shirts, who knows?

INSHORE: Even inshore fishing was slow this period. There was scattered action on Sierra, a few Yellowtail were brought in, some Amberjacks, small Roosterfish, small grouper and snapper as well as some small sharks. As you can see, not a lot of any one species, you could not be sure what you were going to catch!

 

NOTES:

If you are planning on booking a fishing trip soon (or later in the year), contact me to see what I can set you up with. I offer fishing charters for people with any type of experience on the water at reasonable rates, and service is the name of the game to me!

My Music of the week a single song by Joe Bonamassa, “Drive” off of his new studio release. Check it out with a search on YouTube!

The information I use in these reports are obtained in many different ways, some from personal experience, some from my clients and Captains who are out every day, and some from on-line subscription services such as Fish-Track, BuoyWeather and SurfZone as well as HurricaneZone. I, and only I, am responsible for any errors made, as I sift all this information and compile it.

Thank you very much for checking out my report, and if you would like to book a charter, check out www.flyhooker.com, I have just re-vamped the web site , it is still under development, but there will be new photos, articles, tips and techniques every week starting next month.

If you want to get the report every time I update, go to my blog at www.captgeo.wordpress.com and sign up! No spam, I do not share your e-mail and you can un-subscribe at any time!

Meanwhile, Tight lines!

Cabo Fish Report March 4 – 17, 2016

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING

Captain George Landrum

gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com https://captgeo.wordpress.com/

Cabo Fish Report

March 4 – 17, 2016

SYNOPSIS: Happy St. Paddy’s day! I have good news, the fishing has improved a bit since my last report two weeks ago. Inshore has gotten better and I expect for the offshore action to improve soon as well! Scattered Marlin and Tuna, few Dorado and Wahoo, decent Yellowtail and Sierra, a few big Roosterfish and scattered bottom fish.

WEATHER: Our daytime highs have varied between 75 and 88 degrees and the nighttime lows between 62 and 67 degrees. We just finished up three days of overcast skies, but had clear and sunny conditions prior to that. Last week we did have what was described as a “dip” in the jet stream affect us with winds that gusted to over 40 mph. Around the middle of the day the winds had stirred up so much dust and sand that it was difficult to see the water from the hills behind town. Since then we have had mostly light breezes, with it picking up just a little in the afternoon. As of today our prevailing wind is from the West-Northwest.

WATER: With the exception of last Tuesday and Wednesday the swells have been around 2-5 feet on the Pacific side and 1-4 feet on the Cortez side of the Cape. On those two days the wind had really kicked the water up and we saw swells on the Pacific side that may have been 7-9 feet. The Captain closed the port to vessels under 40′ on Tuesday because of the high winds and choppy conditions, but it was opened on Wednesday morning. Now the good news: Last week saw ocean temperatures about 5 degrees above normal, and I believe that temperature difference has been one of the reasons the fishing has been off. It looks like a combination of the winds from last week (small effect, but there) and the strong current flow from the Northwest has moved the cooler waters we expected into our region. There has been an overall drop of 2-3 degrees. Last week report I did we were seeing 74 degrees on the Pacific side and 75-76 degrees on the Cortez side of the Cape, this week we are seeing 71-72 degrees on the Pacific and 72-73 degrees on the Cortez side. As of today, the water on the Pacific side within two to three miles of the beach is a bit off color but not bad and water out past that distance is a clean blue.

BAIT: We are finally seeing some numbers of Mackerel available, the slightly cooler water sure helped here. Other than that, live bait availability has been pretty much limited to scattered species such as green jacks and tortillas. I did not hear of any live sardinas available in Cabo, but there was some freshly dead smaller ones being sold in gallon zip-locks. Live bait cost remained at $3 per bait, I am not sure what was being asked for the dead sardinas. Some boats were using frozen ballyhoo and squid strips.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: Striped Marlin fishing has been off and on with it being a matter of the right place at the right time with the right bait or lure. Most of the boats are not getting hooked up to Marlin, and if they are it is just one or two fish. A few boats have done well on occasion, the best I am aware of was three releases on one day. The cooler water on the Pacific side was the area to work, and the farther north you got the better things seemed to be with more fish being seen and a better hook-up percentage. Live bait was king, and Mackerel was the best bet. Boats working north had good luck tossing bait in front of tailing fish while nearer to home the boats pretty much relied on drifting deep dropped live baits over the high spots. This also resulted in some small Mako Sharks and bigger Blue Sharks being hooked.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Even with the cooler water we have not seen much of a change in the Yellowfin Tuna catches. Even though these are highly migratory and do not spend a long time in our area we usually get some good action this time of year. Unfortunately, and perhaps because of the number of purse seiners we have seen, the schools have been small and sparse. When pods of porpoise are found, the tuna normally associated with them have been absent and the porpoise very shy. This often happens when they have been worked by the seiners which will set nets around the pods in order to catch the tuna traveling with them. The tuna that are being caught are small ones in the 8-20 pound class, with a few larger ones on occasion. My fingers are crossed that this will change soon.

DORADO: I have only seen a few Dorado flags in the past two weeks, and none of the fish in person, the water may just be too cool for them.

WAHOO: Pretty much the same with the Wahoo as with the Dorado, but it may also be because of the new moon phase we just went through. For some reason, Wahoo seem to be much more strongly affected by the moon phase than most other pelagic fish. The coming full moon next week may make the difference and allow anglers an improved chance of success on these tasty speedsters!

INSHORE: As in the last report, most of the fishing action and success has been had by anglers focusing on inshore species. I know of some folks who have gone out and caught little, but I think that may be more due to tide conditions than lack of fish. Boats that have based their efforts around the tides, fishing offshore and trolling between the high and low tide and fishing the beach during the hour of high and low slack have done well. The numbers of Yellowtail being caught has risen quite a bit, with some boats getting three to six fish in the 15-20 pound class. Live bait drifted just off the bottom had the best results, but working iron did well also. Numbers of Sierra are slowly improving as well, but you need to find the schools to get good action on them. Looking for breaking shoals of baitfish just outside the breakers is the best way to spot the schools, and the earlier in the morning the better. There were plenty of small Pompano and Triggerfish for anglers looking for action, and I did see some very nice Sheephead caught as well as some medium sized grouper and small snapper.

 

NOTES:

If you are planning on booking a fishing trip soon (or later in the year), contact me to see what I can set you up with. I offer fishing charters for people with any type of experience on the water at reasonable rates, and service is the name of the game to me!

My Music of the week a single song by Chris Joss titled “Tune Down”. Check it out with a search on YouTube!

The information I use in these reports are obtained in many different ways, some from personal experience, some from my clients and Captains who are out every day, and some from on-line subscription services such as Fish-Track, BuoyWeather and SurfZone as well as HurricaneZone. I, and only I, am responsible for any errors made, as I sift all this information and compile it.

Thank you very much for checking out my report, and if you would like to book a charter, check out www.flyhooker.com, I have just re-vamped the web site , it is still under development, but there will be new photos, articles, tips and techniques every week starting next month.

If you want to get the report every time I update, go to my blog at www.captgeo.wordpress.com and sign up! No spam, I do not share your e-mail and you can un-subscribe at any time!

Meanwhile, Tight lines!

 

Cabo Fish Report Feb. 26 – March 3, 2016

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com http://www.flyhooker.com https://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
Feb. 26 – March 3, 2016

SYNOPSIS: About the best I can say for our fishing this past week is that there are fish being caught. The Marlin bite is slow, there are very few Dorado, some small tunas, an occasional Wahoo and scattered inshore fish, with occasional schools of Sierra biting well. Read on down for some detailed information and what to expect.
WEATHER: With mostly sunny skies and daytime highs in the high 80’s it has been great weather to be on the water or on the beach. Our evenings have seen lows in the mid 60’s, not cold enough for sweaters, but perfect for walking around town! We did see some heavy fog on the Pacific side a bit to the north but it burned off rapidly. The winds have been light with 0-8 mph from the NW early in the day and raising up to 8-15 mph in the afternoons with mostly NW but once in a while switching to N or NE.
WATER: Swells at 1-4 feet on the Pacific side and 1-2 feet on the Cortez side, combined with the light winds have made surface conditions great. Currents have been pushing from the NW and wrapping around the Cape in an anti-clockwise direction with the near-shore waters on the Cortez side seeing a definite weakining in current strength. Of course the big news is the water temperature. I did a little research on the past temperatures for this time of year based on my fishing reports since 2003 and the only time we had water this warm at this time of year was in 2010 when it ranged from 73-74 degrees. This past week it was 74-75 degrees with the cooler water on the Pacific side and the warm water on the Gordo Banks. I ran an average over the past 13 years and it is normally 5 to 6 degrees cooler.
BAIT: The water temperature is the biggest factor in bait availability and it has had a very strong effect this week. With the water too warm for Mackerel and too cold for Caballito there have been little of either. What bait has been readily available has been what most consider “second rate” baits such as “look-downs” (tortillas!), green jacks and assorted other species. A few spots of Sardinas have shown up on the Cortez side, but no big numbers. As a result, bait availability has been spotty, first out gets the prime baits, later boats have to settle for the leftovers. All said and done, the price has remained the same at $3 per bait for the larger baits, but there have been frozen ballyhoo at the same price on most days.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite has been mostly off, but a few boats have managed to get bit, resulting in between one and two releases per day, but not on a consistent basis. Due to the temperatures, most of the action has taken place on the Pacific side up around the Golden Gate Banks and Todo Santos. There have been a few Blue and Black Marlin reported as well, nothing steady of course, but with the water still in the tolerable range for these fish, it is not surprising. These have been reported as being either almost due south of us or around the Gordo Banks area (the Black Marlin). The boats that are having the best success on the Striped Marlin are dropping live bait on the high spots along the Pacific coastline, in particular any area that shows bait on the depth sounder. A live bait on 10 feet of #100 leader with a three to five ounce lead weight gets the bait down, and the more conservation orientated boats are being sure to use circle hooks while fishing this way to avoid killing the fish. When they bite on a deep bait like this they often end up swallowing the bait deep before the anglers realize they have a bite. Using a circle hook allows the hook to slide out of the gullet and into the corner of the jaw, avoiding damage to the gills or internal organs. If you do some drops like this while you are out, please make sure that your crew uses circle hooks! A few of the fish have been spotted tailing on the surface, but there have not been the number of feeders that we normally see as there is no good concentration of bait.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: This past week was not a good one for anglers or crews that wanted to target Tuna. There are Tuna out there, but mostly they have been the smaller football fish in the 8-15 pound class, and found with the moving schools of dolphin. Two weeks ago there was a nice concentration of good size fish on top of the San Jaime Bank but they were only up and feeding at daybreak and right at dusk. Private boats staying out until dark were able to catch a few fish in the 80-120 pound class using live bait, but then the Purse-Seiners moved in and swept them up. We had up to five Purse Seiners at one time on the San Jaime and when they moved away there were no fish left. Getting the scattered footballs to bite was not easy either, pulling small hootchies and king-kings set way back behind the boat resulted in catches that varied between 2 and 8 fish per boat, for the boats that were able to find the fish.

DORADO: I had thought that with this warmer than normal water we would be having some good Dorado action, but it has been spotty. The fish that are being caught are very nice fish in the 20-40 pound class, and most of them have been caught on lures, or on live bait tossed under a working Frigate. Unfortunately there have not been many working Frigates.
WAHOO: We just came off the full moon and as a result there were some decent Wahoo caught, but not any numbers of them. Most of the action appeared to happen on the flats up around Punta Gorda or inside 50 fathoms of water on the Pacific side around the rocky points. Sizes ranged from 18 to 40 pounds.
INSHORE: Inshore is where most of the action has been happening for the past few weeks, and even there it has been a bit hit or miss. We would normally be seeing lots and lots of Sierra, it should be red-hot for them and we should be seeing plenty of Yellowtail as well. I believe that the warm water has kept them from getting this far down the coast, but at least a few have managed to make it. Just last week there was a Sierra tournament for the Pangas and only a few boats showed well as they were able to find some big schools just off the beach, but most of the boats only caught a few. The best action was on chunk bait, setting up a chunk line and working it hard put fish in the boat. Anglers and crews that used live bait hoping for the larger 10 pound sized fish ended up chopping up the live bait to get chunks, and boats that stayed with pulling hootchies and Rapalas had little luck at all. A few Yellowtail have hit the deck, a few of them in the 10-15 pound class but most in the little 6-10 pound category. A typical inshore catch this week was a couple of Sierra, a couple of Snapper and maybe some Pompano or Amberjack as well, and of course Triggerfish.

NOTES:
If you are planning on booking a fishing trip soon (or later in the year), contact me to see what I can set you up with. I offer fishing charters for people with any type of experience on the water at reasonable rates, and service is the name of the game to me!
My Music of the week is Joe Bonamassa’s “Tour de Force – Live at the Royal Albert Hall”, still one of my favorites! I will get a chance to see him perform live in May!
The information I use in these reports are obtained in many different ways, some from personal experience, some from my clients and Captains who are out every day, and some from on-line subscription services such as Fish-Track, BuoyWeather and SurfZone as well as HurricaneZone. I, and only I, am responsible for any errors made, as I sift all this information and compile it.
Thank you very much for checking out my report, and if you would like to book a charter, check out http://www.flyhooker.com, I have just re-vamped the web site , it is still under development, but there will be new photos, articles, tips and techniques every week starting next month.
If you want to get the report every time I update, go to my blog at http://www.captgeo.wordpress.com and sign up! No spam, I do not share your e-mail and you can un-subscribe at any time!
Meanwhile, Tight lines!

Cabo Fish Report Nov. 24 – Dec. 2, 2015

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING

Captain George Landrum

gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com https://captgeo.wordpress.com/

Cabo Fish Report

Nov. 24 – Dec. 2, 2015

SYNOPSIS: The appearance and departure of late season Hurricane Sandra had little effect on our fishing other than getting the port closed on Friday and Saturday. The fishing was good prior to the storms passing and great afterward, depending on what you were fishing for. Bill-fishing for Striped Marlin is as good as it gets, the Dorado are biting like crazy, there are some Tuna to be found and some very nice Wahoo have been hooked up!

WEATHER: Well the big news on the weather front was the development of a very late season Hurricane, named Sandra, that had everyone on edge last week. Early projections had the storm passing very close to us, but weakened from the category 4 class it reached for a short time. We got lucky with a high pressure ridge that came from the northwest and kept Sandra to the south and weakened her quickly. All we received were some large storm cells, overcast skies, a bit of wind and some rain. Very good for us! Since then our morning lows have been in the high 60’s and our daytime highs in the mid 80’s. As of today we have mostly clear skies with little breeze.

WATER: Swells from the south had the water humped up pretty good with swells to 8-10 feet and some big surf for those that liked that sport, but since the weekend the swells have receded to the normal, pretty much 4-6 feet on the Pacific side and 2-4 feet on the Cortez side. Water temperatures have varied as well with occasional warm spots of 82 degree water at the end of this reporting period being found south of us, and water to 76 degrees along the Pacific side. Water on the Cortez side has averaged 79 degrees. There has been some slightly off-colored water along the beach on the Cortez side and north quite a way on the Pacific side. With light winds we are currently experiencing the chop on the water has been minimal and relegated to the afternoons. Currents have been strong with the water on the Pacific side running strongly from the south to north and on the Cortez side it was much weaker and from the east-southeast to the west.

BAIT: The water finally cooled off enough for the Mackerel to show up so they have been readily available from the bait boats, as well as Caballito. Both these have been at the normal $3 each. There have been very few Sardines to be found, but most of the bait boats have had frozen Ballyhoo available at $3 each.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: Early in this reporting period the Striped Marlin bite was really, really good and almost everyone that wanted to catch one had a positive experience. It got even better after the passing of Hurricane Sandra, and of course it has been good since the Mackerel arrived. After the storm passed, boats going out were releasing between three and six per day, mostly on the Pacific side or directly south. They were found everywhere, but the concentrations were along the 1-3 mile range off the beach. Look for the bait on the depth sounder and you would find the fish. Many of the fish caught were hooked by casting live bait in front of tailing fish, some by dropping a live bait back into the trolling pattern when a Marlin showed up in the lure pattern. About 25% were caught on the plastic lures and a few were caught by boats soaking live bait between 80 – 200 feet deep on high points that held bait. A few Sailfish were reported as well, but as the water continues to cool it is doubtful they will be around for long. I did not talk to anyone who hooked up a Blue or Black Marlin this week, but heard gossip about several fish in the 200-300 pound class that were hooked up and fought to release.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Tuna have been about as on/off as you can get these past days. Prior to the storms passing there were good numbers 30+ miles offshore, with a few large fish mixed in, but few or no fish to be found closer to Cabo. Since the storm passed the fish have moved in closer and plenty of football sized fish in the 10-20 pound class have been found under passing Porpoise pods within 20 miles of the beach. There have been scattered schools of football sized fish not associated with porpoise close to the beach as well, so quite a few boats working the beach zone for Dorado managed to pick up one or two. Most of this has been taking place to the south (offshore) or on the Pacific side anywhere. I don’t know of any boats that have tried to make it out to the Cabrillo Seamount, but boats working the Cortez side closer to land (5-20 miles out) have reported scattered success.

DORADO: Almost wide open has been the catch phrase for the Dorado for the past several weeks. Not everyone was able to get hooked up to a lot of fish, you had to find the schools, but when you did the fishing was awesome! Most of the fish ranged between 12 and 20 pounds with quite a few in the 25+ range. As usual, keeping the first one in the water to attract others was the key to getting numbers. One thing I love about that is you do have a chance to use much lighter gear if you have it. I have had plenty of fly fishermen who use conventional gear to catch the first fish, and then target individual fish that show up. Using conventional gear, tossing a live bait behind the first fish works extremely well, and when you get low on live bait (it happens sometimes) strips filleted off of a bait or off a skip-jack worked well.

WAHOO: We just came off the full moon and there were some nice Wahoo brought in before the passing of Sandra, a few of them over the 50 pound mark. Since then I have not seen any of the big Wahoo but some boats have been getting more than one in the 20-30 pound class. The normal areas have been producing them, the high spots, the ridges and drop offs along the coast and the current lines off-shore have all produced fish. The only issue for most anglers was the razor teeth of the Wahoo. The fish caught have often been off of double or triple strikes, but on lures or bait being used for Dorado and Marlin, therefore on monofiliment leader. That stuff is like butter to a Wahoo, and to get one to the boat you have to be lucky or have the hook right in the corner of the jaw.

INSHORE: There was no change in the inshore fishing this period with the exception of high swells on Thursday through Sunday. Pangas fishing along the beach went mostly for the Dorado and had good success. Boats that fished this area also had some Wahoo bites. In among the rocks there were some decent Snapper on live bait and some Roosterfish in the #15 class. Using live bait also attracted Needlefish and they really took a toll on the bait count. A few small Yellowfin, some scattered Sierra and some Bonita rounded up the inshore action. Most of this took place on the Pacific side as well.

 

NOTES:

If you are planning on booking a fishing trip soon (or later in the year), contact me to see what I can set you up with. I offer fishing charters for people with any type of experience on the water at reasonable rates, and service is the name of the game to me!

My music of the week is the soundtrack album of “Local Heroes” and “Sailing to America”, both by Mark Knopfler.

The information I use in these reports are obtained in many different ways, some from personal experience, some from my clients and Captains who are out every day, and some from on-line subscription services such as Fish-Track, BuoyWeather and SurfZone as well as HurricaneZone. I, and only I, am responsible for any errors made, as I sift all this information and compile it.

Thank you very much for checking out my report, and if you would like to book a charter, check out www.flyhooker.com, I have just re-vamped the web site , it is still under development, but there will be new photos, articles, tips and techniques every week starting next month.

If you want to get the report every time I update, go to my blog at www.captgeo.wordpress.com and sign up! No spam, I do not share your e-mail and you can un-subscribe at any time!

Meanwhile, Tight lines!

Cabo Fish Report Nov. 7 – 23, 2015

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING

Captain George Landrum

gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com https://captgeo.wordpress.com/

Cabo Fish Report

Nov. 7 – 23, 2015

SYNOPSIS: A two week break since my last report mostly because little has changed. Tuna are out there a ways, mostly footballs, Dorado are around and there are some nice ones, a few Wahoo recently since we had the right moon phase, scattered Striped Marlin and a few Sailfish and an occasional Blue, inshore remained a bit slow.

WEATHER: Until two days ago we were having the perfect weather with nighttime lows down to 68 degrees and daytime highs in the mid 80’s. Several days ago it changed a bit with higher humidity and higher temperatures. Daytime highs up to 98 degrees and nighttime lows in the mid 70’s. We had some clouds move in, enough that we thought we might receive a bit of rain, but that has not happened yet. We had a few days of strong winds from the northwest that made for choppy conditions on the Pacific but it has calmed down a bit.

WATER: Swells on the Pacific side have been in the 3-5 foot range and on the Cortez side of the Cape they were smaller at 1-3 feet. The water on the Pacific side has been much cleaner and clearer than the water on the Cortez side but there has only been a temperature difference of one degree. Water on the Pacific side has been around 82 degrees with a strong current from the south, on the Cortez side it has been around 81 degrees with a weak movement of water for the most part. When you combine water temperature, clarity and current movement the best fishing should be between the shore and three miles out and outside the San Jaime Bank, all on the Pacific side and just outside the strongest current line. Guess what, that is the way it was!

BAIT: No change on the bait scene with Caballito and a small variety of other bait fish have been the normal $3 each and there are still no sardinas being found locally. Frozen Ballyhoo at $3 each has been available from some of the bait boats. Hopefully soon there will be Mackerel available, the water has to cool off a bit more though.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: Early in this reporting period the Striped Marlin bite was really, really good and almost everyone that wanted to catch one had a positive experience. It has tapered off a bit since then but should pick up soon as we go back into the full moon phase. There were scattered Sailfish being caught and early in the period there were scattered Blue Marlin as well. I had clients who released one about #350-400 and another around #200-250, both of them on the San Jaime Banks. Live bait was still the best way to get a Striped Marlin, dropping one back to fish that appear in the spread. The smaller Blue that my clients caught was on a live bait dropped back for a Dorado, dropped back behind one already hooked up. Imagine their surprise when the Blue appeared and ate the bait! A great fight on #30 tackle!

YELLOWFIN TUNA: As I mentioned in the last report, the super seiners were on top of the San Jaime Banks, and there were as many as seven of them at one time during the tuna tournament. That may have been, actually probably was, the reason there were only a few large Tuna caught during the tournament. Boats reported that the seiners were setting their nets right on top of the high spots in amongst the sport fishing fleet, helicopters flying overhead and chase boats working hard. The largest Tuna caught for the tournament was 210 pounds and we had expected there to be many of them over #200 caught based on the previous two weeks of fishing. Since then there have been mostly football sized fish caught, and then you had to find the right school of porpoise for that to happen. Boats and angles have reported seeing larger fish in the #100-#200 class breaking water in among the smaller fish, but they have been very spooky. The better Tuna fishing has been much farther offshore, many times as distant as 40 miles. Once in a while boats got lucky and found them 20 miles out but that was the exception. Also, contrary to normal, the best bites were on bright colored lures!

DORADO: Dorado were the charter fleet mainstay this period with most boats getting three to six nice Dorado per trip. Almost all the action has been withing three miles of the beach on the Pacific side or up around the Punta Gorda area and north of there on the Cortez side. As is common, boats with the best results were ones that dropped a live bait or belly strips behind a fish that was hooked on a lure. Patience was required, often slow trolling the live bait with the hooked Dorado for a half hour before more fish appeared. Using the first hooked fish as a teaser is one of the best ways to improve the catch!

WAHOO: This reporting period was during the new moon phase and there were some really nice Wahoo, as large as 55 pounds, caught by boats working the high spots and drop offs on the Pacific side specificly for them. Many boats reported getting bit by Wahoo but while fishing for Dorado using monofiliment leader, this resulted in many lost lures and not many fish!

INSHORE: Pangas fishing along the beach went mostly for the Dorado and had good success. Boats that fished this area also had some Wahoo bites. In among the rocks there were some decent Snapper on live bait and some Roosterfish in the #15 class. Using live bait also attracted Needlefish and they really took a toll on the bait count. A few small Yellowfin, some scattered Sierra and some Bonita rounded up the inshore action. Most of this took place on the Pacific side as well.

 

NOTES:

If you are planning on booking a fishing trip soon (or later in the year), contact me to see what I can set you up with. I offer fishing charters for people with any type of experience on the water at reasonable rates, and service is the name of the game to me!

My music of the week is the album “Jazz Collectors Edition” with Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan and Charlie Parker. Give it a listen, some great music here!

The information I use in these reports are obtained in many different ways, some from personal experience, some from my clients and Captains who are out every day, and some from on-line subscription services such as Fish-Track, BuoyWeather and SurfZone as well as HurricaneZone. I, and only I, am responsible for any errors made, as I sift all this information and compile it.

Thank you very much for checking out my report, and if you would like to book a charter, check out www.flyhooker.com, I have just re-vamped the web site , it is still under development, but there will be new photos, articles, tips and techniques every week starting next month.

If you want to get the report every time I update, go to my blog at www.captgeo.wordpress.com and sign up! No spam, I do not share your e-mail and you can un-subscribe at any time!

Meanwhile, Tight lines!

 

Cabo Fishing Oct. 31 – Nov. 6th

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING

Captain George Landrum

gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com https://captgeo.wordpress.com/

Cabo Fish Report

Oct. 31 – Nov. 6, 2015

Purse seiner waiting to scoop up the tuna

SYNOPSIS: Quick and simple today, there are plenty of Striped Marlin to be caught, lots of Dorado, a few Wahoo and we will find out if the big Tuna are still around today and tomorrow as teams compete in the Western Outdoor News Tuna Jackpot Tournament.

WEATHER: What a wonderful week we have had! Nighttime lows in the low 70’s and daytime highs in the mid 90’s, occasional scattered clouds passing through brought us a sprinkle on Tuesday but otherwise blue skies and sunshine!

WATER: There was little change from last week on the water as the Sea of Cortez remained at 84 degrees everywhere within reach and had small 1-3 foot swells and good blue water. On the Pacific side the swells were 2-5 feet, the water within five miles of the beach averaged 83 degrees and outside the San Jaime Banks it dropped to 81 degrees. The water close to the beach was a very clean blue while outside it was blue, but not as clear. Currents will play a big part of this tournament as there has been a fairly strong east to west push on the Cortez side and this push has wrapped around the tip with a southeast to northwest run all the way up to the Golden Gate Bank along the beach and east to west farther offshore. This is likely to push the bait off the high spots and make it more difficult to chunk for the big fish.

BAIT: Caballito and a small variety of other bait fish have been the normal $3 each and there are still no sardinas being found locally. Frozen Ballyhoo at $3 each has been available from some of the bait boats.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: If you are interested in Striped Marlin then come on down! The water has cooled just enough for them to start showing up in decent numbers and they seem to be hungry as well. Most have averaged 110 pounds but there have been a few very small one in the 50 pound class caught and a few in the 150 pound class as well. There has been a scattering of Sailfish but almost no Blue or Black Marlin to be found. A few have been caught here and there, but no concentration of them, even on the tuna schools. The Striped Marlin have been suckers for live bait, but sometimes you had to stun the bait first so that it appeared injured (like getting a hook stuck through your nose wasn’t enough). Dropping the bait into the lure pattern or tossing it into the path of a tailing fish worked very well for almost everyone, and the fish were hungry enough that quite a few were caught on lures, with bright colors getting the nod this week.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Purse Seiners seem to have had quite an effect on the tuna fishing this past week. Since they showed up several weeks ago the sport catch has dropped by 90%. These are the big seiners with mile long purse nets and spotting helicopters. We have watched them brail net after net of Yellowfin, fish ranging from 10 to 300 pounds with plenty of Hammerhead Sharks and a few turtles as well. Combine this pounding with the sudden appearance of the Dorado and few Tuna were being caught, or even looked for prior to today. As I mentioned above, we will see how things go today and tomorrow. I will try and do a short quick post this evening and tomorrow evening with some totals so you can see how things are going.

DORADO: Fish the Pacific side for these great looking and fantastic eating fish! Boats working the water from the shoreline to three miles out are getting limits on fish ranging from 10 to 25 pounds (the limit is 2 per angler), and often within the first few hours. Almost any bright colored lure has done well, and of course throwing out some small chunks of Bonita as chum and then a live or cut bait has often resulted in all the rods going off at the same time. Walking around the Marina there are yellow flags flying from almost every charter boat you see! Griceldas Smokehouse has been so busy with anglers Dorado that their freezers are full (at least until these lucky anglers leave with their fish).

WAHOO: The Wahoo bite slowed down, as expected, as the moon waned but there were still a few nice ones caught. A few fish in the 30 pound class were found around Los Arcos and Migraino Beach right off the points in 250 feet of water. There were more strikes than fish though as most boats were working for Dorado and pulling smaller lures on lighter mono leaders. The majority of the time this means a lost fish as well as lost lure when the razor sharp teeth hit the leader and slice through so quick and clean that the strike is never even noticed. Many deckhands have pulled in lines after trolling for an hour or so only to find one or two lures gone! You have to keep an eye on them at all times!

INSHORE: Bottom fishing has remained the most productive method of getting fish along the beach. Using cut bait or smaller live bait has been working on grouper, snapper and an occasional Yellowtail. Since the water has been in good shape a lot of the pangas are cruising off the beach fishing for Dorado. I have had quite a few fly fishermen catch their first Dorado ever while casting for other fish from the pangas and they had a blast!

NOTES:

If you are planning on booking a fishing trip soon (or later in the year), contact me to see what I can set you up with. I offer fishing charters for people with any type of experience on the water at reasonable rates, and service is the name of the game to me!

My music of the week is the album “21” by Adele. I hear she is coming out with a new one soon and I can’t wait to hear some new stuff!

The information I use in these reports are obtained in many different ways, some from personal experience, some from my clients and Captains who are out every day, and some from on-line subscription services such as Fish-Track, BuoyWeather and SurfZone as well as HurricaneZone. I, and only I, am responsible for any errors made, as I sift all this information and compile it.

Thank you very much for checking out my report, and if you would like to book a charter, check out www.flyhooker.com, I have just re-vamped the web site , it is still under development, but there will be new photos, articles, tips and techniques every week starting next month.

If you want to get the report every week, go to my blog at www.captgeo.wordpress.com and sign up! No spam, I do not share your e-mail and you can un-subscribe at any time!

Meanwhile, Tight lines!

Cabo Fish Report Oct. 16 – 30, 2015

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING

Captain George Landrum

gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com https://captgeo.wordpress.com/

Cabo Fish Report

Oct. 16 – 30, 2015

SYNOPSIS: Well, the big money Billfish tournaments are over and I am glad! I have caught up on my rest and now working hard on getting the “Susie Q” up and running for charters. In the past two weeks everything has changed a bit, and for the better for most of the species, and the weather changed, for the better as well. Check below for more details!

WEATHER: It was almost like someone threw the switch once again as the change was almost overnight. We went from nighttime lows in the mid 80’s to mid to low 70’s right around the 21^st, and the daytime highs have dropped to the mid to high 80’s. If it was like this year round there would be too many people living here! The skies have remained clear with just a few clouds passing through. The wind has remained fairly consistent from the north-northwest on the Pacific side and from the north-northeast on the Cortez side, but you don’t really feel it there until you get up around the Punta Gorda area.

WATER: We had the passing of Hurricane Patricia to the south of us during this reporting period and while thankfully we had no winds from it (the strongest hurricane on record in the northern hemisphere according to NOAA) we did receive some big swells. These only lasted for a day, but were large enough that the Port Captain closed the port for a day. Other than that, the swells have pretty much remained at 3-5 feet on the Pacific side and 1-3 feet on the Cortez side of the peninsula. At the start of the report period the currents on the Cortez side were screaming from the north, then they slowed down and as of now they are picking up again but from the south. Water temperatures on the Cortez side remain higher than the Pacific with almost all the water showing 84 degrees and blue. On the Pacific side the 84 degree water extend about 10 miles offshore, then it drops down to the 82 degree range, and blue.

BAIT: Live bait has been a hit or miss proposition on some mornings but when available has been mostly Caballito at the normal $3 each. No Sardinas were found locally. Frozen local Ballyhoo (unbrined) has been available from some of the bait boats at the same $3 each, but you need to be careful as some has been thawed and refrozen, these are really too soft for anything but chum.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: I think that posting some quick numbers after breaking down the tournament results will be a good indicator of how the billfishing was, as of now the Blue and Black numbers has dropped off but the Sailfish remain the same and the Striped Marlin numbers have really picked up! For the first two tournaments (5 days fishing) there was an average of 1.04 billfish caught per boat day, these numbers included 2 Blacks, 30 Blues and 240 Striped Marlin. The third tournament was the Bisbee Black and Blue so only these fish counted, not Striped Marlin and the success rate for these bigger fish was much lower at .12 fish per boat day. There were not as many Stripers caught as most boats were running baits and lures too big for the Striped Marlin to eat, but there were many of them caught, just no records of how many. Since then the Striped Marlin bite has really picked up!

YELLOWFIN TUNA: We will keep our fingers crossed that the Tuna will stay for a while, at least through the Western Outdoors Tuna Jackpot next week. The fishing has been very good at the San Jaime Banks for all sizes of Yellowfin. Fish ranging in size from 5 pounds to 290 pounds have been caught. The larger fish have been a result of finding the fish on the depth sounder and dropping bait down to them and waiting for the bite. Smaller fish have been on hootchies on the surface. There was a short burst of commercial activity as three purse seiners worked that area for several days, but since these fish have not been associated with Dolphin or anything floating two of them moved on. The one that remained was brailing a mix of fish including Hammerhead Sharks, hopefully they will move on as well. Normally the fishing for big fish is good at the Gorda Banks but it has been slow there as the strong currents have pushed the bait off the high spots, if it slows down again perhaps the fishing there will improve.

DORADO: If I had written this report fours days ago thee would have been little change from the last report. Lucky for us the situation changed then and boats have been doing well on Dorado! It seems that around six weeks ago the fishing in San Diego went dead as the fish moved back toward us. It took six weeks to get to us and now you can see yellow Dorado flags flying everywhere you look as boats are catching two, three, four or more Dorado per trip. The nice thing is that these fish are nice sized ones, not the little shakers we were getting a few weeks back. The average size is around 12 pounds but many of them are in the 15-25 pound class and there are a few over 30 pounds as well! Most of the action for these has been on the Pacific side within 10 miles of the beach, in that warmer 84 degree water. For the best results the first fish caught has been left in the water to attract others in the school, and dropping a live bait behind that one resulted in multiple hook-ups for many boats.

WAHOO: Wahoo are being caught as I write this, and it should remain fair to good as we move off of the full moon over the next several days. Most of the fish are being found in the usual areas, high spots offshore and drop offs and points next to the beach. These toothy guys have been ranging in size from 12 pounds to 30+ pounds and a lot of lures have been lost to them! When the bite is on it pays to change to wire if you don’t want to loose the lures, but the fish don’t seem to bite as well with the wire. Pulling lures at a slightly higher speed than normal, up to 10 knots, covers more area and once you get bit you need to work it hard for more!

INSHORE: With no change, inshore continues to consist of Bonito and small Yellowfin and you really have to chum to get them to start going, the problem was it was very difficult to get sardines to do this so many boats had to resort to chunking slabs of frozen squid or skipjack caught while trolling. The earlier you got out the better the action and most of it was in about 120 feet of water. Scattered Grouper, Snapper, Amberjack and Trigger fish rounded out the action.

NOTES: Hopefully in mid November I will be running a 35′ Luhrs, named the “Susie Q”. We are in the process of updating and repair which should be done in four more weeks or less, and once the paperwork is done it will be available for charter with me as the Captain. When it happens I will post pictures of the boat and rates.

If you are planning on booking a fishing trip soon (or later in the year), contact me to see what I can set you up with. I offer fishing charters for people with any type of experience on the water at reasonable rates, and service is the name of the game to me!

My music of the week is the album “Live in Amsterdam” with Joe Bonamassa and Beth Hart. You want some blues? It does not get much better than this!

The information I use in these reports are obtained in many different ways, some from personal experience, some from my clients and Captains who are out every day, and some from on-line subscription services such as Fish-Track, BuoyWeather and SurfZone as well as HurricaneZone. I, and only I, am responsible for any errors made, as I sift all this information and compile it.

Thank you very much for checking out my report, and if you would like to book a charter, check out www.flyhooker.com, I have just re-vamped the web site , it is still under development, but there will be new photos, articles, tips and techniques every week starting next month.

If you want to get the report every week, go to my blog at www.captgeo.wordpress.com and sign up! No spam, I do not share your e-mail and you can un-subscribe at any time!

Meanwhile, Tight lines!

Cabo Fish Report Oct. 2 – 15, 2015

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING

Captain George Landrum

gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com https://captgeo.wordpress.com/

Cabo Fish Report

Oct. 2 – 15, 2015

SYNOPSIS: Just a quick one today as it is tournament time and I am really busy! Anyway, the report period started out with excellent Tuna action which has tapered off a bit for most charters, decent action was seen on Striped Marlin and Sailfish, a few Blue and Black Marlin were reported, we had occasional decent action on Dorado and inshore action mostly consisted of Bonita and Skipjack with an occasional Dorado and bottom fish in the mix. Details below. By the way, I have a studio unit with two queen size beds available at the Wyndham Resort for Bisbee week, Oct. 17 – 24 for $500 obo, drop me a line!

WEATHER: We have had interesting weather during this period as weather systems from the mainland continue to move over our area, and a strong frontal system that blew through earlier this week. These have brought rain to our area, and instead of getting a drowning from hurricane feeder band (these usually dump mega rain in a short period) we have had a steady light rain that has been able to soak in, leaving the desert green! As I write we have had several days of clear skies and plenty of sun, or morning low was 81 degrees and our daytime high is expected to be around 95 degrees. After the frontal system came through we had 73 degree mornings two days in a row and many of us turned off the air conditioners for a while.

WATER: There has been little change in the surface conditions for this reporting period, we are still experiencing flat water on the Sea of Cortez side all the way up to the Punta Gorda area, once past there the swells picked up a bit and the water was a bit choppy at times. The water on that side of the Cape has been warm and just yesterday we saw readings of up to 94 degrees from the weather services. On the water readings ranged from 89 to 92 degrees, Due south we had swells from the Pacific at 2-4 feet and temperatures a few degrees cooler while on the Pacific side we were seeing swells at 3-5 feet with afternoon winds kicking up some chop early in the reporting period with a tapering off later on. Surface temperatures were pretty much 88 degrees inside the San Jaime and Golden Gate Banks and 85-86 degree outside to the west.

BAIT: Live bait was not a big issue this period most days, but there were a few when being the fist boat out gave a better selection. Caballito and Mullet were the most common, once in a rare while some small Sardinas could be found, but they have been hard for the bait boats to get. Live baits have been the normal $3 each, Sardinas more expensive than usual at up to $35 per scoop.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: The Blue Marlin bite that was going on has dropped off quite a bit for this period, but there has continued to be good action on Striped Marlin and decent action on Sailfish. The majority of the fish have been found to the south or on the Pacific side as the Sea of Cortez seems to be too warm (at least on the surface) for much action. Large lures for the big Billfish and smaller lures and live bait on the Stripes and Sails.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Some boats were still able to get into larger Tuna early in the reporting period, but as the days went by the numbers of larger fish dropped off quite a bit. Along with that drop came a drop in the numbers of smaller Tuna, but instead of having the fish in open water and not associated with anything, they have seemed to re-associate themselves with the pods of Porpoise coming through. Finding the Porpoise became instrumental in getting into the Tuna, and getting ahead of a traveling school and dropping a strip bait or live bait deep in front of the pods resulted in hooking up to the larger Tuna. Running hootchies a bit long and jigging them while working the pods resulted in most of the smaller football fish and some of the school size fish. Tuna action was either close to shore or outside the 1,000 fathom line on the Sea of Cortez or along the beach or outside the San Jaime Bank on the Pacific side.

DORADO: Dorado fish was still extremely slow compared to our normal years, but there were days when they would pop up along the beach on the Pacific side, often only for a day, and sometimes far to the north. This made it a frustrating experience for most anglers, but the ones that were in the right place at the right time had decent action on fish between 8 and 15 pounds. I know that there were a number of the little “slipper” Dorado between 1 and three pounds caught and released by my anglers, but some boats were actually keeping these little guys.

WAHOO: No change in the Wahoo action this period, we did not get the Wahoo action in the past week that I was expecting, but there were fish caught. The normal areas such as high spots and steep drops managed to kick out fish averaging 20 pounds. There were a few large fish in the 30+ pound class caught early in the reporting period, but that bite was short-lived and only lasted several days.

INSHORE: Inshore continues to consist of Bonito and small Yellowfin and you really have to chum to get them to start going, the problem was it was very difficult to get sardines to do this so many boats had to resort to chunking slabs of frozen squid or skipjack caught while trolling. The earlier you got out the better the action and most of it was in about 120 feet of water. Scattered Grouper, Snapper, Amberjack and Trigger fish rounded out the action.

NOTES: Hopefully in November I will be running a 35′ Luhrs, named the “Susie Q”. We are in the process of updating and repair which should be done in four more weeks or less, and once the paperwork is done it will be available for charter with me as the Captain. When it happens I will post pictures of the boat and rates.

If you are planning on booking a fishing trip soon (or later in the year), contact me to see what I can set you up with. I offer fishing charters for people with any type of experience on the water at reasonable rates, and service is the name of the game to me!

My music of the week is the album “Rubber Soul”. Do I really need to name the band?

The information I use in these reports are obtained in many different ways, some from personal experience, some from my clients and Captains who are out every day, and some from on-line subscription services such as Fish-Track, BuoyWeather and SurfZone as well as HurricaneZone. I, and only I, am responsible for any errors made, as I sift all this information and compile it.

Thank you very much for checking out my report, and if you would like to book a charter, check out www.flyhooker.com, I have just re-vamped the web site , it is still under development, but there will be new photos, articles, tips and techniques every week starting next month.

If you want to get the report every week, go to my blog at www.captgeo.wordpress.com and sign up! No spam, I do not share your e-mail and you can un-subscribe at any time!

Meanwhile, Tight lines!

Cabo Fish Report Sept. 22 – Oct. 1, 2015

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING

Captain George Landrum

gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com https://captgeo.wordpress.com/

Cabo Fish Report

Sept. 22 – Oct. 1, 2015

SYNOPSIS: We started the report period with some good Tuna action, but the big fish numbers have gone down and the smaller fish have become sporadic, popping up once in a while. There have been good days on Blue Marlin, yesterday was one of them with many reported hooked up. There was fairly steady action on Sailfish and a few Dorado and Wahoo were found. In shore the action has been limited to Bonito and some football Yellowfin and an occasional small Roosterfish. A scattering of the usual inshore species made for a few more fish in the boxes.

WEATHER: This morning it was 85 degrees as 6 AM and the humidity is up in the stratosphere. Mix that with no wind in town and it is much better to be on the water. This has been the case for most of the week, and the daytime highs have been in the mid to upper 90’s. It has been a sunny week with few clouds and a slight breeze once in awhile on shore, but very variable offshore. Afternoons have seen the wind as well as the seas pick up but most mornings have been great. We may have some clouds soon for the next several days as remnants of a storm to the south pass by, but then again I am not in the prediction business, so maybe not!

WATER: Surface conditions on the Sea of Cortez side have been the usual smooth ride, but on the Pacific side swells from the west/northwest and afternoon winds have resulted in an occasional bouncy ride. Water temperatures have been pretty much the same all over with only a three degree variation, 86 to 89 degrees and the water has been a nice blue, at least the past few days.

BAIT: Live baits have been the usual $3 each and have consisted of Caballito and Lisa (goggle-eyed scad and mullet). There have been frozen ballyhoo at the same price and once in a while some sardinas (with varying price). Many boats have been catching small bonito and skip-jack for making strip baits and slightly larger than normal pitching baits.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: Bill fishing remained good this week with the Blue Marlin bite being better than the rest of them. Striped marlin were an occasional visitor to the spread but their numbers were topped by the Sailfish. When the Sailfish decided to visit they came in small packs. Most of the fish were found to the south and southwest but I think that is because most of the boats were fishing that area looking for Tuna and were getting Marlin and Sailfish as well.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: There was a slight change in the week for Tuna fishing as the boats that ventured a long way offshore had about a 30% chance of running into a school of fish in the 40-80 pound class (but once in a while seeing nothing or only footballs size fish). By a long way I mean 30 miles and more. Closer to home and a little easier to find were the footballs, running between 8 and 20 pounds. Some of them were found just off the beach a mile or so, and they were one of the hot tickets for Panga fishermen this week. Some boats were getting two or three per angler. For these football fish, small hootchies in red or orange or small cedar plugs seemed to be the preferred lures. Boats venturing offshore reported commercial boats on the grounds, surprising since these fish were not associated with porpoise, but there appeared to be enough of them to attract the commercial attention. That may be one reason among many possible for the drop in the Tuna action.

DORADO: There are Dorado being caught as photos shared on face-book and other social media prove, but they are not here in numbers. In order to get at least one fish you have to get lucky, and multiple fish means in the right place at the right time with the right idea! Well, true for almost all fish I guess, but since the Dorado season this year has been so much off-kilter compared to most years Lady luck has to come into play. Suffice to say, spotting feeding Frigates or floating debris has been, was, is and probably always will be the key to beating the averages.

WAHOO: We did not get the Wahoo action in the past week that I was expecting, but there were fish caught. The normal areas such as high spots and steep drops managed to kick out fish averaging 20 pounds. There were not many large fish that I heard of caught locally.

INSHORE: Inshore continues to consist of Bonito and small Yellowfin and you really have to chum to get them to start going. The earlier the better and in about 120 feet of water. There are some small Roosterfish, and I did have two anglers tell me of hooking fish in the 25 pound class but these larger fish have not been common. Scattered Grouper, Snapper, Amberjack and Trigger fish rounded out the action. I did see one photo of a very nice 45 pound snapper!

NOTES: Hopefully in later October I will be running a 35′ Luhrs, named the “Susie Q”. We are in the process of updating and repair which should be done in four more weeks or less, and once the paperwork is done it will be available for charter with me as the Captain. When it happens I will post pictures of the boat and rates.

If you are planning on booking a fishing trip soon (or later in the year), contact me to see what I can set you up with. I offer fishing charters for people with any type of experience on the water at reasonable rates, and service is the name of the game to me!

My music of the week is the album “Echo” a great 2 CD set from from Pink Floyd. Sure does bring back a lot of memories!

The information I use in these reports are obtained in many different ways, some from personal experience, some from my clients and Captains who are out every day, and some from on-line subscription services such as Fish-Track, BuoyWeather and SurfZone as well as HurricaneZone. I, and only I, am responsible for any errors made, as I sift all this information and compile it.

Thank you very much for checking out my report, and if you would like to book a charter, check out www.flyhooker.com, I have just re-vamped the web site , it is still under development, but there will be new photos, articles, tips and techniques every week starting next month.

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Meanwhile, Tight lines!