Cabo Fish Report

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
https://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
June 20-16, 2011

WEATHER: Last weeks weather continued on into this week as we started with lows in the high 60’s and highs in the low 80’s along with a lot of wind. On Thursday it started to change, at least the temperatures did! The wind continued until finally dying down on Sunday. At the end of the week our lows were in the mid to upper 70’s and the daytime highs had returned to the mid 90’s. Still no rain but we did have several days of cloud cover.
WATER: Our seas have slowly returned, or are slowly returning to haw they were a couple of weeks ago. At the beginning of the week the water had dropped about 12 degrees along both sides of the Cape, with a severe drop along the Cortez coastline. Finally, at the end of the week it started to warm up, and the trend continued offshore as well. Starting the week with 69 degrees in the bay, we ended the week with a slightly more reasonable 73 degrees, but the water remained very green and off color. On the Pacific side at the end of the week we had water as cold as 65 degrees but it did not intrude into the Sea of Cortez. The green water remained inside the 1,000 fathom line for the most part, and the water started to warm up eastward of a line due south of San Jose. Surface conditions were not all that great this week as the swells from the remnants of Hurricane Beatrice pounded the beach, making the surfers happy but when combined with the steady wind made fishing uncomfortable for most anglers. At the end of the week the swells started dying down as did the wind.
BAIT: Mackerel and Mullet were easy to get this week at the normal $3 per bait, there were no Sardinas and only a few Mackerel to be had.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Almost the only area that held Striped Marlin this week was outside the 1,000 fathom line on the Cortez side of the Cape. The water was choppy but a bit clearer and just a bit warmer there. For that matter, almost all the fish that were caught this week came from that area. A couple of “maybe” small Blue Marlin were reported from there as well, but that may have been wishful thinking considering the water temperature. For the most part boats were seeing three or four fish a day and managing to hook up and release between one and three per day. A few boats managed to really kick some butt and released up to five fish. A couple of fish were reported from the green water closer to shore, but this was a very scattered event, not normal during the course of the week.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Fish of the week as far as I am concerned! Yellowfin between 12 and 30 pounds were the lifeblood of the offshore anglers this week as they could be found along the color break at the 1,000 fathom line. Not associated with porpoise, it took a while to find them, but once they were found the action was decent. Most boats were catching between three and 10 fish per trip. Dark colored lures were the key, bright colors just did not work.
DORADO: Maintaining the trend started last week with the influx of cold water, the bite on Dorado continued on a downhill slide. The fish were smaller as well with a lot of fish in the 5-6 pound class being released, and they were almost the only ones being caught. Like all the other fish, they were found around the 1,000 fathom line, or up off the Punta Gorda area.
WAHOO: Cold water and the last quarter of the moon phase put the brakes on the Wahoo fishing this week. I did not hear of any being brought in.
INSHORE: Inshore fishing was a pain this week with the cold, green water and the large storm swells. Some anglers were able to get hooked up to Yellowtail on the Pacific side by trolling Rappala style lures and if they continued to work an area could do all right on fish to 12 pounds. Add in some decent Bonito, scattered all along both side of the Cape, and some Sierra along the shore off of El Tulle beach and the fishing was ok, not great but ok.
FISH RECIPE: My recipe has been taking too much space so if you want to see it, check out my wordpress blog a little later in the week, or subscribe to the blog and you will receive an email as soon as I post it.
NOTES: This weeks report was written to the songs of the birds chirping in the trees outside, I hope they are saying the water is warming up! If it continues to warm, and I think it will, we will see much better fishing by mid-week. Now, it’s off to the beach with the dog, then give her a bath and brushing, she has her birthday party this afternoon!
Until next week, tight lines!
I will be posting more to my blog now, please go to https://captgeo.wordpress.com/ and subscribe, you will be sent a notice every time I post a new article. Please feel free to send suggestions or if you have any ideas for articles. Thanks George

Fish Recipe of the Week

Fish Recipe of the Week

This is a take-off from a Sam Choy recipe for chicken that also works very well for any thick white meat fish fillet. Full of zesty flavor it is one of my favorites either hot or cold.

1 pound white meat fillets at least 1 ½ inch thick
1 tablespoon minced shallots
3 tablespoons butter
¼ cup white wine
juice and grated zest of 1 lime
salt and pepper
1 very thinly sliced lime

In a skillet saute the fish and shallots in butter for about 6 or 7 minutes. Remove the fish and set aside to keep warm.
Add white wine to skillet and reduce to half.
Add lime juice and cook until sauce thickens.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Pour sauce over fish and sprinkle with zest, garnish with lime slices.

Easy, simple and goes great with rice!

Cabo Fish Report

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
https://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
June 13-19, 2011

WEATHER: A bit of change was in the works for us this week. On Thursday the wind started to blow from the northwest pretty hard but it was dying off around sunrise, then picking up again in the afternoon. It brought cooler temperatures with it as well. While we started the week with lows in the high 70’s, by weekend we had morning highs of 68 degrees two days in a row. Our daytime highs started the week in the mid 90’s and as of the weekend we had highs in the high 70’s. Mid week delivered a bit of cloud cover as well, but no rain.
WATER: Either wind wind pushed it around or the current along the Pacific side became much stronger, but whatever the reason the cool water from the Pacific side wrapped itself around the Cape and intruded as far up the Sea of Cortez as the East Cape. While the water on the Cortez side of the Cape began the week being in the low 80’s, it ended the week in the mid 60’s, a significant change. Along with the cool water came a color change and with a green tinge to it the water was not quite a good as we had been seeing. Couple that with the wind in the afternoons and the associated choppy conditions it is understandable that many charters came in around noon or 1pm. The mornings were fine but once noon came around it was time to head back. We had some good sized swells early in the week but they tapered off at the end of the week and were averaging just 3-5 feet instead of 5-7 feet.
BAIT: Water conditions were not favorable for Sardinas this week so it didn’t matter where you went, there were none to be found. Most of the bait boats had plenty of Mullet for sale as well as some decent Caballito, and a few of them had Mackerel, all available at the normal $3 per bait. Ballyhoo, thawed out, were also available at $3 or $4 each, depending on who you bought them from.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Striped Marlin were scarce for most of the boats this week but a few were able to do well on them. A private boat I know of caught four in one day, as well as two small Blue Marlin, and a charter boat we use released three Striped Marlin one day as well. You really had to be in the right place at the right time. The private boat reported catching his Striped Marlin in the vicinity of the 1150 while the charter boat found his close to Palmilla point. Other boats working the same areas reported seeing fish but could not get them to bite. Like I said, right place at the right time! I heard of a few other Blue Marlin being caught early in the week but as the water on the Cortez side cooled down they disappeared.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Still very on-off fishing, those that got into a decent school and worked it hard were rewarded with limits on Tuna that averaged 25 pounds in the area between just outside the 1150 and withing 6 miles of the arch. There one day, gone the next, as often happens with these fish. The better catches were had by boats that lucked into schools associated with porpoise, but blind strikes were also significant. With a blind strike, and specially with a double or triple, working the area in a grid often resulted in many more hook-ups, at least until the school was lost. There were reports of some nicer fish from up in the Punta Gorda area, offshore, but beating it back home against the wind made that a trip only for the experienced, and those willing to take a gamble. There one day, gone the next!
DORADO: With the cool water moving in the bite for those nice Dorado we had been seeing dropped off quite a bit. There were still fish being found, but they had followed the warmer water so most of them were from the Gorda Banks area and farther up the Sea of Cortez. With an average weight of 25 pounds, these were a nice fish to have! Early in the week we were seeing quite a few larger fish, most of them in the 35-50 pound class, a good indicator of things to come once the water warms back up.
WAHOO: This being a full moon week the Wahoo were accommodating and many boats were returning flying an orange Wahoo flag. Most of the fish were between 35-45 pounds, but there were both smaller and larger fish reported. The largest I heard of was 78 pounds. Palmilla point and Punta Gorda as well as the associated small banks in the area kicked out most of the fish, but there were quite a few open water fish as well. I would guess that on average, about 15 percent of the charters caught Wahoo this week.
INSHORE: We had some decent Roosterfish in the surf this week, nothing big but averaging 15 pounds. There were a few larger 30 pound fish, but not many. The best method for these fish was slow trolling live Mullet. Also, since the water cooled off later in the week, some Yellowtail have returned to our area. Pangas were finding them around the Palmilla area as well as scattered around rocky points. Working yo-yo’s and slabs in 120 to 200 feet of water off the points brought some nice fish to 30 pounds, but averaging 12 pounds. A few boats were able to get Grouper to 80 pounds off of underwater rock piles using live Caballito.
FISH RECIPE: My recipe has been taking too much space so if you want to see it, check out my wordpress blog a little later in the week, or subscribe to the blog and you will receive an email as soon as I post it.
NOTES: Sure hope the water warms back up. As it is, the cool water once again has resulted in the inshore fishing getting a bit better for eating quality fish, but offshore it has depressed the bite a bit. This weeks report was written to some great music by Jean-Luc Ponty off of his 1978 Atlantic Records recording “Cosmic Messenger”. Until next week, tight lines!
I will be posting more to my blog now, please go to https://captgeo.wordpress.com/ and subscribe, you will be sent a notice every time I post a new article. Please feel free to send suggestions or if you have any ideas for articles. Thanks George

Fish recipe of the Week

Fish Recipe of the Week

This week the recipe is about the sauce. Fresh chiles, tomatillias and tomatoes really make this one take off!

For the sauce:

10 tomatillias, husked and washed.
1 Poblano chile
2 yellow chiles
1 Jalapeno chile
1 Roma tomato
1 tablespoon of white vinegar
Salt
Lime juice

Grill the Poblano and Yellow chiles on high heat. After roasting them, getting char marks on the skins, place them in a glass bowl and cover with cling wrap so they sweat. After about 10 minutes (or when they cool down) take them out and pull the skins off, then place them in the blender and pulse until creamy.
Grill the tomatillias on medium heat, getting them to pop and jiggle on the grill. This should be just perfect with light to medium grill marks. Let them cool them slice the tops off and chop them.
Chop the tomato.
Cut the top off the Jalapeno and slice lengthwise. Use a spoon to remove the seeds and ribs from each half.
Place the tomatillias, tomato, jalapeno and vinegar in the blender and pulse.
Add salt to taste, and if you feel it is too hot, add some lime juice.

The fish itself was very basic. We used some Wahoo that I cut into small steaks, oiled and dusted with salt and pepper then grilled about 4 minutes per side over medium heat.

Plate the fish and top with the sauce. This was great with some oven roasted potato slices and a small salad!

Cabo Fish Report

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
https://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
June 6-12, 2011

WEATHER: While we had great weather for most of the week we did end on a blustery note. Friday night a little breeze started, nothing much at all and it was still nice on Saturday morning. Then all of a sudden on Saturday about mid-day the wind started to blow hard from the south. It did not take long for the whitecaps to come up. We had a little bump of a swell that made the surfers happy, a result of the short lived hurricane “Adrian” far to the south. Our nighttime lows for the week were mostly in the mid 70’s while the daytime highs were in the mid to high 90’s and the humidity ranged from 60% to 40%.
WATER: At the end of the week we had 80-81 degree water from the beach out to the 1,000 fathom line on the Cortez side of the Cape and around across the top of the San Jaime Bank on the Pacific side. Outside this warm water it dropped 3 or 4 degrees except on the Pacific side where the water to the north dropped to 72 degrees just off of the Bank. 40 miles to the west was another large temperature change where the water went from 72 to 64 degrees. Surface conditions were fair with small swells at the start of the week slowly growing larger and then the hard wind on Saturday really chopped things up in the afternoon.
BAIT: There was a decent availability on Caballito this week at the normal $3 per bait, some Sardinas were found in the Palmilla area at $25 a scoop and of course you could get frozen ballyhoo at $3 each.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The concentrations of Striped Marlin that we had been finding up around the Destillidera area have moved once again and appear to have come a bit closer to us. During the middle of the week the move started and as often happens it coincided with their not eating once again. At the end of the week they became hungry again and if you found the fish (between the 1150 and the 95) and were pulling lures at the right speed (8.5 knots) then you got bit, but only on lures, very few fish were hooked on live bait. The color did not seem to matter, it was size (10-12 inches) and speed that got them going. Good catches at the end of the week were four or five releases per boat but the average was just two. There have been more reports of Blue Marlin but I have not heard of any Black Marlin yet.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: On again, off again fishing for Yellowfin Tuna was the way it worked this week. The open water fish we had been finding last week seemed to have moved on and we have been finding fish at the end of the week only with Porpoise. Well, not entirely true, there are still a few unassociated fish out there, but not the numbers we were seeing last week. Reports I have heard have been that the Los Frailles and north in the East Cape area have been fishy, with Tuna to slightly over 100 pounds among the porpoise there. Hopefully the fish move our way soon! I did see two purse seiners moving past us heading up on the Pacific side on Friday.
DORADO: As the water warms up the fishing gets better! Almost every trip is producing a few Dorado and just like last week the larger ones have been found offshore. Fish to 40 pounds have been biting lures meant for Striped Marlin and there have been plenty of smaller fish closer to the beach, that is plenty of them if you find the schools, otherwise there sure is a lot of water out there! Finding Frigate birds working was the key to getting the school fish as they could be seen swooping down on the flying fish being chased by the Dorado.
WAHOO: I heard of a few fish being caught but not as many as last week. The warm water helps but we are between moon phases right now. If the water stays warm we should be seeing more Wahoo in about 10 days.
INSHORE: The Roosterfish have not been right on the beach, at least not mid-week, but instead have been found in 80-100 feet of water. Slow trolling live mullet was the key to getting bit on a regular basis, and for those with plenty of Sardinas to chum with, tossing out a live one after chumming around the rocks in the shallows worked on the smaller fish. There were Amberjack and some Snapper (Snapper early in the week before the swells picked up) as well as some grouper found by the fishermen working the bottom or the rocks.
FISH RECIPE: My recipe has been taking too much space so if you want to see it, check out my wordpress blog a little later in the week, or subscribe to the blog and you will receive an email as soon as I post it.
NOTES: The whales are gone, but the fish are showing up, yea!! This weeks report was written to the music of Jeff Beck on his early album “Blow by Blow”. Sure brings back memories! Until next week, tight lines!
I will be posting more to my blog now, please go to https://captgeo.wordpress.com/ and subscribe, you will be sent a notice every time I post a new article. Please feel free to send suggestions or if you have any ideas for articles. Thanks George

Fish Recipe of the Week

Recipe of the Week – quick and easy!

Our friend Mike T. gave us this recipe for a slightly different kind of ceviche and we love it. Give it a try next time you have the fresh ingredients around!

1 pound diced fresh fish (Tuna, Dorado, etc.)
1 diced mango
½ slivered red onion
1 cup lime juice
½ cup rice wine vinegar

Mix the diced fish and lime juice in a non-reactive bowl (that means glass, no metal), refrigerate

Mix the mango, onion and vinegar in another non-reactive bowl, refrigerate

Let both marinate for about an hour

Mix together and pour off excess liquid

Serve with chips and enjoy!

Cabo Fish Report

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
https://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
May 30- June 5, 2011

WEATHER: Sure am glad I am here and not there! With nighttime lows in the low 70’s and daytime highs in the mid 90’s, humidity most day around 35% it just doesn’t get much better than this. We had sunny skies all week long and at the start of the week we had a steady, but not too strong wind from the northwest. Today is going to be the hottest of the week though, as it is 77 degrees and not even 7 am yet!
WATER: On the Cortez side of the Cape, almost in a line running due east of us, the water to the north was 80 degrees until you got off of the Los Frailles area offshore. There it warmed to 84 degrees at the end of the week. South of that line it dropped to 74 degrees except for an intrusion from the Pacific side that ran right along the 1,000 fathom line where it dropped to 70 degrees. On the Pacific side of the Cape it was 66-70 degrees everywhere. Early in the week the Pacific side was a bit rough with large swells and some steady wind, but the swells died down late in the week as did the wind. On the Cortez side of the Cape the wind had little effect later in the week but at the beginning it made for a few days of rough riding back to Cabo if you went east to fish.
BAIT: There was a decent availability on Caballito this week at the normal $3 per bait, some Sardinas were found in the Palmilla area at $25 a scoop and of course you could get frozen ballyhoo at $3 each.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I did not hear of any Swordfish being caught this week but there may have been a few. Most of the boats were concentrating on the Striped marlin that were being found up to the east in the Destillidera area. The best catches were in double digits but most boats were getting between 3 and 5 releases per day, with a lot of fish just giving quick strikes and not hooking up. Most of the action for the fleet boats was on lures and the fish were averaging a little bit larger at 130 pounds instead of the normal 110 pounds. The action fluctuated a bit day to day and the fish moved around a bit as well. While the concentrations were in the Destillidera area, there were fish found closer to home also. Scattered Striped marlin were found all over the place and it seemed that most of them were willing to hit a lure or bait, but the concentrations were not there for large numbers to be caught. For the boats not making the long trek to the concentrations, a release average of 1 per boat was the norm. There were still Sailfish being caught in the San Jose area as well, mainly closer to the beach and the structure with small pods of three or four fish coming in to attack lures. Not a lot of them but enough that any trip had the chance of catching one.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We finally had some decent numbers of Yellowfin show up. To the east of us there have been occasional breezers, schools of fish that are traveling just under the surface, pushing the water so that it looks like a gust of wind is traveling through. If you see one of them, the chances of hooking up fish are good, just throw a live bait in the water in front of the school. Boats that were finding them and doing that were getting fish averaging 45 pounds with an occasional jumbo over 100 pounds. Most of the boats are catching smaller fish close to home. The area from 2 to 6 miles off the beach between the arch and Chileano Bay produced plenty of blind strikes on fish that averaged 18 pounds, a few smaller than that but nice fish anyway. Almost anything worked, lures big and small, live bait, rigged dead bait, it was just a matter of getting a strike and then working the area. A good catch was a dozen fish, a big catch was limits for everyone.
DORADO: Every week the numbers increase, and this week the size increased as well. There were quite a few fish in the 40-50 pound class caught, and a lot of fish in the 12-20 pound class. The warm water on the Cortez side of the Cape was producing almost all the fish with the larger ones found offshore and the smaller ones closer to the beach.
WAHOO: It sounded as if the Wahoo bite was decent this week if you were fishing out at Punta Gorda. Boats that concentrated their effort on the 50 fathom line and worked it hard with swimming plugs and lead head lures were getting between two and five fish per day, most of them in the 30 pound class with an occasional fish to 60 pounds. There were a few others caught offshore but there were no concentrations out there, just incidental catches.
INSHORE: Roosterfish were the stars of the week for the inshore fishermen as some of the larger fish arrived with the warmer water. In the white water you could see fish to 40 pounds cruising for something to eat and getting a live bait in there usually resulted in a hook-up. Almost all of the sandy beaches were producing the Roosterfish, but the average size was 15 pounds, the larger ones were not as common. There were also some nice snapper caught in the rocks if you were able to get a bait in there, but the large swells early in the week made that a bit difficult. Many of the Pangas were fishing for Yellowfin Tuna since they were so close and biting so well.
FISH RECIPE: My recipe has been taking too much space so if you want to see it, check out my wordpress blog a little later in the week, or subscribe to the blog and you will receive an email as soon as I post it.
NOTES: Reports on the weather stations say that we might reach 100 degrees today! I think it is time to head to the beach before the sand get too hot to walk on, Tawny does not like that hot sand on her paws! The weather is heating up and so is the fishing, I am planning on a meat trip tomorrow, going out for a half day to get some fresh Tuna. This means that my recipe mid-week will be something to do with Tuna, you betcha! This weeks report was written to the music of Mark Knopfler on my favorite album of his, the soundtrack for “Sailing to Philadelphia”. Until next week, tight lines!
I will be posting more to my blog now, please go to https://captgeo.wordpress.com/ and subscribe, you will be sent a notice every time I post a new article. Please feel free to send suggestions or if you have any ideas for articles. Thanks George

Fish Recipe of the Week

Fish Recipe of the Week

Baked Fish Mexicana

This week we had a chance to cook both fresh Wahoo and fresh Dorado for dinner. We really liked this recipe for the Dorado so I thought we should share it with you. Any firm white meat fish should work fine, and what is really nice is that the recipe is very easy to prep and cook.

Ingredients:

1 ½ pound firm white meat fillets (Dorado, Mako, Halibut, Snapper, Wahoo, etc.) or steaks.
1 cup canned salsa
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese (we used some chipotle flavored goat cheese, it gave a really nice tang to the meal and the chipotle gave it a nice Mexican flavor as well)
½ cup crushed corn chips
1 avocado
sour cream

Cut the fillets or steaks ¾ inches thick and place in the bottom of a glass baking dish that has a very light coating of oil (we use avocado oil)

Open the can of salsa and pour over the fish, a little extra is ok.

Spread the cheese of the top (we crumbled the goat cheese)

Scatter the corn chips on the top.

Place in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes.

Put on the plate, serve with thinly sliced avocado and some sour cream on the side.

A small green salad, a glass of white wine (wait, this is a Mexican meal so a Pacifico is better!)

Enjoy!