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 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 for Sept. 14 – 24, 2015

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com http://www.flyhooker.com https://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
Sept. 15 – 24, 2015

SYNOPSIS: The bite on Blue Marlin has dropped off a bit during this reporting period but the bite for Striped Marlin and Sailfish has continued at a brisk pace. The best thing we have had going on has been the appearance of Yellowfin Tuna, and some of them have been very good size, ranging up to #250. It was not uncommon to get many football size and a decent number of 40-50 pound fish. The Dorado bite has been hit and miss with the Frigate birds being an important part of finding them. Wahoo has slowed down and inshore fishing remained decent, even with high seas and fairly strong winds over the weekend.
WEATHER: As is often the case this time of year, the port was closed this past Sunday due to strong winds and high seas, an effect brought to us by the passing of a tropical depression to the west. While bringing us plenty of rain, it did have the effect of dropping the humidity for two days, something we were in dire need of as we were experiencing humidity levels in the mid 80%. This humidity was brought to us courtesy of constant storm clouds coming across the Sea of Cortez from the mainland, thunder and lightning were common early in the reporting period as well as much needed scattered rain. The rain did not wash anything away but was solid enough that we did have flooded streets downtown on more than a few days. Our nighttime lows were in the low 80’s while our daytime highs were in the mid to high 90’s. The desert is green!
WATER: There was quite a change in the water temperatures as we now have our warmest water at 87 degrees, down several degrees from the last report. Our coolest is at 84.5 degrees and the majority of reachable water has been 85 degrees with a slight off-color to it. We do have a plume of blue water that started several days ago coming in from the southeast and reaching to the beach between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose. The passing of the tropical depression mentioned earlier brought about some swells to 9 feet and steady 30 mph winds for two days, resulting in the closure of the port on Sunday, and most of the boats returning very early on Saturday. At the last report we had strong currents pushing toward us from the south and this continued for several more days. In the past several days these currents has slackened off a bit and the current on the Pacific side has switched and started to come from the north, our normal for this time of year.
BAIT: Almost all the bait available during this time was either Caballito or Lisa (goggle-eyed scad or mullet) at the normal $3 per bait. There was also frozen ballyhoo at $3 each from a few of the bait boats. Sardinas have been available on a limited basis here in Cabo, depending on the inshore conditions, at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: As mentioned in the synopsis at the top of the report, the bite on Blue Marlin dropped off this reporting period as we have a waxing moon, with the full moon on the 28th. However, even though the bite on the big billfish has dropped off, there has continued to be good action with Striped Marlin and Sailfish. Boats that have been targeting them have done well and it was not uncommon to see several marlin release and several sailfish release flags flying on one boat. For the Striped Marlin, live bait was the most common method of hooking up with anglers or crews tossing live bait in front of tailing fish. For the Sailfish, trolling smaller lures, sometime rigged with a small strip of bonito was the way to go. The fish have been scattered with no concentrations in any one area. Hopefully as the full moon begins to wane the Blue and Black Marlin will start to bite again. Bisbee Black and Blue is a month away!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Tuna fishing continues apace, and the number of fish caught has increased as well. Many anglers who worked the area to the south of the San Jaime Banks as well as between the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks did well on fish ranging in size from footballs to 200+ pounds. The key this week was to work the area. These fish have not been strongly associated with porpoise, but constantly working the area with lures was the way to go. Most of the football and medium size fish were caught on trolled lures (and a few larger ones as well) but the majority of the bigger fish were caught by boats using a kite to get the splashing baits and lures away and into a quiet zone. Boats staying closer to shore were getting a steady pick on the football (6 to 15 pound fish) using feathers and cedar plugs, but boats that bought sardines and chummed with them did very well fly lining live sardinas in the same areas.

DORADO: Hit or miss on Dorado was the result for most of the fleet boats this week. A few were able to find something floating in the water and when they did, catching three or four Dorado was not a problem. For everyone else the Dorado were a bonus. The majority of them were in that 10-12 pound class with a few little guys that should be released being brought in and a few very nice 20+ pound fish making their way into the boats fish boxes. The use of live bait around floating debris was extremely productive, and once the bite slowed down, using chunk would get a few more. The best indicator of both Dorado and Striped Marlin were the Frigate birds. Seeing them dipping into an area and staying around was an almost sure indication of action to come.
WAHOO: The Wahoo fishing slowed quite a bit this past week as we were in the new moon phase, but as the moon begins to wax and become larger we should (I hope) see another increase in action with the razor toothed speedsters. A few decent size Wahoo were caught by boats fishing offshore for Marlin and Tuna, these were blind strikes on fish in the 30-50 pound class. A few boats fishing very early in the morning during gray light were able to come up with two to three fish each while working the usual high spots and ledges close to the beach. A few of these fish were very nice size! Using swimming plugs trolled at slightly higher than normal speed in these areas did the trick for these boats.
INSHORE: Inshore fishing remained a bit off with the large swells and churned up water. Bait fish were scattered into small schools so the same thing happened with the Roosterfish and jacks. Most of the Pangas that normally target these fish were working at catching Yellowfin tuna instead.
NOTES: Hopefully in October I will be running a 35′ Luhrs, to be named the “Susie Q”. We are in the process of updating and repair which should be done in four weeks (update: it is taking longer than expected, so hopefully the boat will be ready at the end of October) 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 “Seesaw” with Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa. I just cannot get enough of Joe and his Guitar and when combined with Beth’s voice amazing things happen!
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
If you want to get the report every week, 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 Sept. 9 – 14, 2015

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING

Captain George Landrum

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

Cabo Fish Report

Sept. 9 – 14, 2015

SYNOPSIS: We have been catching pretty much everything this week as the Tuna have shown up, there are still Blue, Black and Striped Marlin as well as Sailfish offshore (and sometimes next to the beach!), the Dorado have been on and off but when on the action has been great and there are still a few Wahoo being caught! No hype, just what has been going on, read below for more information.

WEATHER: This week was a lot cooler than last weekend we actually saw a couple of morning of temperatures below 80, 79 to be exact, but enough of a drop that it was noticeable. Our daytime heat was not too bad as most days we reached the mid 90’s, much better than 100+ degrees we were seeing last week. The cause of this change was a series of storms, first we had feeder bands from Hurricane Linda finish passing by early in the week bringing in clouds and a few good long soaks from the rain and then from mid week to now we had storms coming to us from the mainland. These storms were not raining out before they go to us, which is the usual, instead the brought us several days of good rain. Good for the plants rain, not good for downtown Cabo though. Downtown floods easily with a bit of rain and it flooded several times this week. Those of you who have been here when this happens know what I am talking about, and the cleanup is a mess. The very positive side of this rain is that the desert is green and flowering!

WATER: Water temperatures have ranged from 89 degrees on the Gordo Banks to 82 degrees just off of the San Jaime Banks. At the end of the reporting period there appeared to be a decent temperature break halfway between Cabo and San Jose that runs due south with 89 degree water to the east and 86 degree water to the west. Currents appear to be pushing northwestward through that area, breaking to the west on the west side of the break and to the northeast on the east side. Directly in front of Cabo we are seeing temps in the 85-86 degree range. Much of what I have just written is an interpretation of past events combined with what I have been told or seen myself as the cloud cover most of the week did not allow good shots of the area.

BAIT: Almost all the bait available during this time was either Caballito or Lisa (goggle-eyed scad or mullet) at the normal $3 per bait. There was also frozen ballyhoo at $3 each from a few of the bait boats. There had also been very small Sardinas (or similar small forage fish) available in San Jose for boats getting there early, at $25 a scoop. The amount of these small baits declined late in the week as all the rain caused the beach waters to get a bit off colored.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: The Marlin fishing has been great this week! The bite for Blue Marlin was not quite as hot as it was last week but has still been very good. The Striped Marlin seem to be showing a bit more of an appetite and there are still Sailfish to be found. The area of the San Jose Canyon appeared to be the hot spot for Blue Marlin bites and working the area with the usual array of larger plastic lures was the best way to get bit by one of these fish, with the added chance of an occasional Striped Marlin. Speaking of Striped Marlin, the area from the 95 Spot to the San Jaime Banks was a great area to work, even if it is a very large area to cover. Tossing live bait at tailing fish was the best way to hook up, but plastics worked well also. Black/green and petrolero were the hot color combinations for most of the boats getting lure action. Sailfish were scattered with a few being found everywhere, but there seemed to be just a few more coming from the Cortes side of the Cape.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: What a nice week for Tuna fishing as the boats that ventured a long way offshore had about a 50% 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 much easier to get too were the footballs, running between 8 and 20 pounds. Many 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. Limits or near limits of five fish per person were not unusual although most 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.

DORADO: With a smile on my face I can say that there is a marked improvement on the Dorado bite as most boats were able to get at least one. Only a month ago we were crying because there might be only one caught among the fleet for the day. That has changed and the fish are beginning to show up. Several friends were catching three to five fish per trip and the sizes were decent. There were still a few small ones in the catches, but also many larger 20 pound fish! Multiple fish catches relied on working the first fish caught correctly in order to keep other fish in the school close to the boat. Hooking up, gaffing the fish and continuing on up the coast was not the way to get more than one fish unless you got lucky!

WAHOO: Moon phase and currents are the name of the game when it comes to catching Wahoo, and of course working the correct area at the right time! Last week the Wahoo bite was great, this week it really tapered off as we came into the new moon phase. There were a few fish caught, but not nearly the numbers we saw last week. Hopefully this coming week will be good as we get a waxing moon. The Wahoo that were caught were found in the normal and expected areas, and most of them by boats that were first to the area. Working the ledges and drop offs in 300 feet of water, and sometimes as shallow as 100 feet served up decent results, and there were a few nice size fish in the 40 pound class caught in the blind by boats fishing offshore for Marlin and Tuna.

INSHORE: Inshore fishing was a bit off this week as the downpours caused the near shore water to become off-color. There were a few spots with clean water that were holding smaller Roosterfish but most of the pangas were concentrated on Tuna and Dorado.

NOTES: Hopefully in October I will be running a 35′ Luhrs, to be named the “Susie Q”. We are in the process of updating and repair which should be done in four 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” from “The New Riders Of The Purple Sage”, recorded in 1982. My kind of music!

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 July 29 – August 18, 2015

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING

Captain George Landrum

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

Cabo Fish Report

July 29 – August 18, 2015

SYNOPSIS: There has not been a lot of change in the fishing for the past three weeks, and that is not too much of a surprise. With water temperatures in the high 80’s we are seeing a lot of Blue Marlin and Sailfish offshore, and Roosterfish along the beach. Other species have been scarce with just a few big Tuna, a few nice Wahoo and a few smaller sized Dorado.

WEATHER: We saw some rain in the past few weeks as storms from the mainland blew across the Sea of Cortez. The clouds would stack up in the mountains and then the rain would start, enough to bring some welcome relief to the thirsty desert plants. Just yesterday we had a light sprinkle here in town! I saw a lot of cloud cover during this reporting period, but an almost equal amount of sun so it was a pretty mixed experience. Our daytime highs have hit over 100 degrees several days, last week the thermometer on my truck read 103, but most of the time we have been between 95 and 98 degrees, with high humidity. Yesterday and today felt a bit cooler because of lower humidity but the gauges still read the same when it came to the temperature. Our nights have been warm as well with the lows in the low 80’s. Mostly around 82-83 degrees, and with this humidity almost anyone with an air-conditioner has been using it at night.

WATER: For this entire reporting period we have had greenish water everywhere within 30 miles of Cabo. If you ran to the southwest farther than that you got into cleaner water. Temperatures in the greenish water have been from 89 to 85 degrees, the blue water has been cooler at 85-82 degrees. With the passing of storms well offshore to the west we have had some swells to 2 meters on the southern to western exposures, but that was only for a short period of time. Most of the time the swells were around 2-4 feet and almost always glassy. When there was a breeze it was light so there was rarely any chop on the water. If you did come across any rough conditions it was almost always from the Arch to the lighthouse on the Pacific side. The combination of currents and breeze occasionally made the waves stack up, but getting past them just involved a bit of time and then you were good.

BAIT: Almost all the bait available during this time was either Caballito or Lisa (goggle-eyed scad or mullet) at the normal $3 per bait. There was also frozen ballyhoo at $3 each from a few of the bait boats.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: If you were looking for a lot of billfish you were out of luck, but if you were looking for big billfish then this was the place to be. For some reason, perhaps because the bait has been in the greenish water, the best fishing was within 30 miles, and most of it withing 15 miles. The warm water meant that the Blue Marlin and Sailfish made a showing, along with a few Black Marlin, but there were few Striped Marlin. A great day on the water in our area would result in a couple of Blue Marlin releases along with a Sailfish and a few other strikes. A slow day would have been two or three hook-ups or strikes with nothing hanging on long enough to get to the boat. Larger lures attracted the attention of the Blue Marlin, and running the at 8 to 9 knots worked much better than running them at the normal 6-7 knots used for Striped Marlin. The Sailfish had a difficult time with the larger lures though, so having a few smaller ones in the spread helped overall catch rates. The majority of the fish were found from the southwest to southeast of the Lands End and within 25 miles of port. I did spend five days fishing up on the East Cape at the beginning of the month in preparation for the Bisbee East Cape Tournament and it was very hot, very humid and very slow fishing. The water temps were between 89 and 87 degrees and we managed to have one big Blue hook up then get off and had several Striped Marlin strikes. There were 61 boats in the tournament and they fished for three days. In the end there were only two Marlin over 300 pounds caught, one was a Blue Marlin of just over 400 pounds and the other was a Black Marlin in the 380 pound range. Overall there were four Blacks, 40 Blues, five Sailfish and 13 Striped Marlin. That was 183 days of fishing for 62 fish, approximately 1 billfish for every three days of fishing. Not great numbers there, the action was much better here at home. My team had to withdraw due to mechanical issues, but we will be ready for the October tournaments here!

YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Yellowfin bite dropped off the charts for us as boats searched farther and farther afield for the cows. An occasional football sized fish was caught fishing in the blind, and those porpoise that were found most often had no fish with them.

DORADO: This has been the worst Dorado season I have ever seen here. Everyone is crying but no one is sure of the reason behind the non-appearance of these fish. Some are blaming it on the commercial fisherman who have been authorized by the government (so I have been told) to sell Dorado (up to 30% of their catch, considered by-catch while fishing in a fishery directed at other species). Dorado used to be considered a “sports” fish only, commercial sales of Mexican caught fish was prohibited. The shrimp season has been a big bust this year and many people are saying that many of the shrimp boats have re-geared so that they are catching Dorado. Other people are blaming it on El Nino, saying that the water here is too warm for the Dorado and that is why they are being caught as far north as San Francisco. Whatever the reason, my fingers are crossed that the fast growing prolific fish will be back with us soon.

WAHOO: Once again there were a few decent size Wahoo caught, and almost all of them were caught in the blind as incidental catches offshore.

INSHORE: Roosterfish and Triggerfish were the mainstay of the Pangas fishing inshore this period. Slow trolling live bait in 20-50 feet of water or casting popping plugs into the breaking waves resulted in Roosterfish as large as 65 pounds being caught and released. The average size was around 25 pounds, a very nice fight from a beautiful fish! Boats trying to bottom fishh were getting an occasional grouper, amberjack and snapper, but the bread and butter were triggerfish, and most of them were decent size for the species. They might not look like much, but the meat is flaky white and fantastic as ceviche or pan-fried.

NOTES: October bookings are filling up very fast, but there are plenty of openings for September. We are keeping our fingers crossed for “No Bad Weather”!

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 an old school band only a few of us older folks may remember. “Blind Faith” album “Crossroads” disc #2.

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 for July 14 – 28, 2015

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING

Captain George Landrum

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

Cabo Fish Report

July 14 – 28, 2015

SYNOPSIS: Blue Marlin are out there and biting as well as some decent Striped Marlin, Sailfish are making an appearance due to the warm water, some small Yellowfin Tuna with a few cows in the mix, small Dorado (except one!) and a few Wahoo.

WEATHER: We were very lucky with Hurricane Dolores as she stayed quite a way offshore, bringing us some cloud cover, a few light rains and some really big swells. Once she had passed and the skies settled down we had partly cloudy skies with the low temperatures being in the low 80’s and the highs just pushing the 100 degree mark. The passing of Dolores brought with it a relief from the humidity, and that lasted three or four days. At the beginning of this week the humidity picked up and over this weekend we had storm clouds move in from an area of light circulation over the mainland. The cloud brought rain, lightning and thunder to our area. While most of the rain stayed in the mountains, we did see some strong rain locally on Sunday. One yacht was struck by lightning while pulling anchor in Chileno Bay at 2:30 on Sunday afternoon, no one was hurt although they were knocked down, but the boats electronics were fried. As I write this the temperature is hovering around 88 degrees with bearable humidity.

WATER: Hurricane Dolores brought 5 meter surf to most of the exposed beaches and took away a lot of sand, but with little rainfall the arroyos did not deliver any debris to the ocean. Once those swells tapered off we were back to normal with 3-6 foot swells on the Pacific side and 1-4 feet elsewhere. Water temperatures have climbed in our area over the past several weeks as we are seeing the Pacific side with water at 82 degrees while water due south and toward San Jose has been higher, reaching 88 degrees in many areas. The currents have been from the north on the Cortez side and strong to the south along the beach on the Pacific side while the area between San Jose and Cabo showed fairly weak currents running east to west. We have had good blue water in almost all areas that were fished.

BAIT: Bait this week was almost exclusively Caballito (goggle eyed scad) with a few misc. kinds in the mix like Lady-fish and a few Moon fish. The normal $3 per bait and there was frozen ballyhoo at the same price.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: The Blue Marlin have shown up during the past two weeks and I think the chances of hooking up with one are as high as 25% for anglers willing to put in the time and effort in the right areas. As always with Blue Marlin, working the current edges, be it far offshore where two directions collide or on the leeward side of high spots and along canyon edges resulted in better odds than just trolling blindly along with your fingers crossed. The Striped Marlin have not gone away, but there are fewer of them out there than prior to the Hurricane. The angers odds of hooking up to a Striped Marlin I would estimate at around 30%, perhaps a bit more than that. Often in the past two weeks what was at first thought to be a small Striped Marlin turned out to be a Sailfish. Since these small billfish often travel in small packs, it was even odds of getting multiple strikes if these fish showed up.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: I have seen quite a few large 150#+ Yellowfin hit the docks in the past two weeks. The bite on these cows was decent 30 miles or more offshore before Hurricane Dolores, but after the hurricane these fish became hard to find. A few are still being caught, but they are still quite a ways out, and that is a really big ocean. Trying to find current and/or color edges gave the best chance for getting into the big fish bracket. Smaller fish, from 6 pounds to 20 pounds were found among porpoise closer to home on the Pacific side, and on the Cortez side as well as south of the San Jaime Banks there were occasional schools of 30-50 pound fish. If you were the only boat in the area lures worked on the footballs and the school fish, but Marlin lures or live bait slow trolled 80+ yards back brought the large fish to the transom.

DORADO: Most of the Dorado being caught were on the smaller end of the scale with an average of 12 pounds. There were plenty of “flip-flops” (small fish just larger than a shoe) to be shaken off or rigged for live bait as well as a scattering of 20 pound class fish. Big news however was the catch of a giant Dorado reported to have weighed 102 pounds on a spring scale, weighed at sea. At almost 20 pounds larger than the existing world record, everyone was surprised that the fish was not held for weighing on a certified scale, but it went under the knife instead and now we will never know for sure.

WAHOO: There were a few Wahoo brought in these past two weeks and I believe the largest was around 54 pounds. They were scattered and offshore. I did not hear of any caught in the normal near shore high spots and drop-offs.

INSHORE: Roosterfish have been the target of the Pangas these past two weeks, but it was almost four days after the passing of Hurricane Dolores that the boats were able to get some decent water just off the beach. Fish from 10 to 50 pounds were not uncommon, and slow trolling a live bait in 25-50 feet of water got you into these, as well as some very nice (but not good eating) Jack Crevalle. There was a scattering of Snapper to be found on the bottom in the rocky areas and some very nice grouper as well. For the most part, other fish caught near the beach were Bonito and Skipjack, an occasional Pompano, and occasional Needlefish and plenty of triggerfish for those fishing the bottom.

NOTES: It has been two weeks since my last report, and it will be two weeks until my next one. I have been busy on several projects and I will be fishing from the 29^th through the 7^th for the East Cape Bisbee Tournament. I will be out of phone and wi-fi contact for most of the coming time, but will give an update when I return.

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. The fishing continues to get better every week so now is the time, while the weather is still good and the pressure light! 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 Ernest Ranglin from his album “Below The Bassline”. If you have never heard of him, please give him a listen, I know you will love his guitar work!

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 July 7 – 13, 2015

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING

Captain George Landrum

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

Cabo Fish Report

July 7 – 13, 2015

SYNOPSIS: We had great Striped Marlin fishing this week, some Blue Marlin and a few Sailfish, small Dorado, mostly small Yellowfin and scattered Roosterfish. Strong winds from mid week on and warming waters. See details below!

WEATHER: Unlike last week I saw no temperatures below degrees. This day last week it was 77 degrees at 6 AM, today it was 88 degrees at the same time, and little or no wind to relieve the heat. This was quite a change from earlier in the week when it comes to the wind. From early in the week the winds from the northwest were kicking in strongly, often 20 knots plus, and they blew throughout the night. The good part of this was that it kept the humidity down a bit, the bad part was that it made the Pacific side uncomfortable for fishing. As Sunday rolled in the winds died off, the humidity went up a notch and we started to sweat. We have had cloud cover for the past two days and many people were attributing it to developing hurricane Dolores, but this is just a spot of weather moving over us from the Mainland. At this point in time Dolores is too far away for us to feel any effects, but we may see some increasing swells on Tuesday and possible rain on Thursday if the storm tracks on the present predicted path and passes well to the west. We have only a 25% chance of tropical storm force winds at this time and with a three to four day time frame for things to change all of this could be different soon. If you want to check it out yourself I have several website you can look at, they are my favorites. The first is www.hurricanezone.net where you can see all the data, predictions and every photo and video available from around the world. The other site is www.earth.nullschool.net and while there is not a lot of data for the winds, the presentation is WAY cool! Just double click on any area to zoom in or grab and drag to change location.

WATER: The coolest water we had in the area last week was 76 degrees at the Golden Gate Banks. The currents, still strongly moving from east to west, moved the warm water into the area and now we are seeing that same area at 81 degrees. Directly off the Cape we have water at 84-85 degrees and as you move toward San Jose it gets to the 86-87 range. On the Pacific side we have had swells in the 4-6 foot size and with the windy conditions during the week, offshore it has looked like a field of sheep. I went out on a 28′ boat on Wednesday and it was bumpy but fishable, I went again on Friday and we got our butt kicked. It was calmer closer to the beach on the Pacific side, and on the Cortez side it was almost like a lake, only with 2-4 foot swells. The water appeared clean and blue everywhere I looked this week, that is good news!

BAIT: Bait this week was almost exclusivelyy Caballito (goggle eyed scad) with a few misc. kinds in the mix like Ladyfish and a few Moonfish. The normal $3 per bait and there was frozen ballyhoo at the same price.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: I was really hoping that the Blue Marlin bite was going to pick up in our area, and while the fish may be here, few boats were willing to brave the rough offshore water in front of the Cape or on the Pacific side to find them. Boats going north on the Cortez side were finding them off of Punta Gorda and to the north in decent numbers, but the ones in our area were scattered and not in any concentration. Striped Marlin remained the fish of the week, and they were there in good numbers for boats working the Pacific coastline to three miles offshore. They were also present offshore on the Pacific side as we caught one each day we went out (looking for big Tuna). Boats looking for them were coming in with between one and four Marlin flags flying, and a few caught even more than that. Our lucky lure was a 3.5 Zuker black/green head with black/green skirts, both Marlin ate that one, and a nice Wahoo as well.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: As I mentioned above, we went offshore looking for big Tuna and got our butts kicked. We found one pod of porpoise but couldn’t get a bite. Boats staying close to shore were finding plenty of small fish, from five to 15 pounds and on Saturday as the winds started to die off one boat came in with a 180# fish. We will find them again this week!

DORADO: Once again there were only a few Dorado being caught in our area, and the sizes were not large, most in the 10 pound class with a few 20# fish as well. Most of them were found on the Cortez side of the Cape and within five miles of the beach.

WAHOO: Once again I only heard of one Wahoo caught this week, but it was a nice 34 pound fish, and it bit the same lure the Striped Marlin we caught bit on. I am sure there were more, but I did not hear about them. Our fish was found in the middle of nowhere, a blind strike 18 miles out.

INSHORE: Fishing just off the beach this week was tough as the wind made for very choppy conditions and prevented or made it very difficult to stay in one place and work the area, at least on the Pacific side. After the winds died (Saturday) the fishing picked up again with Roosterfish taking the main stage for surface catches and Grouper being the top bottom-fish caught. Add in some decent triggerfish, Bonita, Skipjack, Pompano and the occasional Dorado and it was ok. Not fantastic, but ok. On the Cortez side the inshore fishing was just so-so with scattered success on Roosterfish and Amberjack with a few Jack Crevalle to work on the anglers arms.

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. The fishing continues to get better every week so now is the time, while the weather is still good and the pressure light! 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 John Klemmer and his album “Waterfalls”. Great saxophone jazz!

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!