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 Sept. 22 – Oct. 1, 2015

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING

Captain George Landrum

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

Cabo Fish Report

Sept. 22 – Oct. 1, 2015

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

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

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

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

FISHING:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meanwhile, Tight lines!

Cabo Fish Report Sept. 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.

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 June 30 – July 6, 2015

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING

Captain George Landrum

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

Cabo Fish Report

June 30 – July 6, 2015

SYNOPSIS: Fair for Blue Marlin, good for Striped Marlin, fair for Yellowfin Tuna, slow for Dorado, slow Wahoo and fair for Roosterfish. A little different from last week, but not much, and most of that is due to windy conditions late in the week. See details below.

WEATHER: This morning had the lowest temperature I saw this week at the thermometer in the truck read 77 degrees at 5 am as I drove the pup to the beach for an early morning swim. Most of the week we had readings in the 80s, ranging from 82 to 86 at 5 am. Daytime highs almost reached 100 several afternoons, but the mercury managed to stop at 98 degrees. We did have a bit of cloud cover move in on us Friday afternoon and had overcast skies with some light rain on Saturday morning, just a bit more than sprinkles on shore with some heavier water dropping offshore. This was just a quickly passing event as the cloud dissapeared Saturday afternoon. Winds were mainly from the northwest during the week with breezes picking up a bit by 11am and really kicking in by 2pm from Wednesday on. Occasionaly early mornings had a slight breeze from the southwest, but it always died off quickly. We generaly get three or four days of wind followed by three or four days with just a light breeze, so my fingers are crossed that this week will be better, I am going out Wednesday and Friday and have my toes crossed as well!

WATER: The coolest area around this week was the area around the Golden Gate Bank with an average reading of 76 degrees. The area around the San Jaime Banks was a bit warmer, shifting from 80 to 82 degrees and then back as the currents moved the surface water around. Directly off of the Cape the water was a warm and balmy 85 degrees and around the Punta Gorda area we were seeing 85-86 degrees on a daily basis. The water in any area, if above 80 degrees, was a clean blue. Strong currents from the East continue to bring the warm water to us, wrapping it around the Cape and on up the Pacific side. Swells were 2-4 feet on the Sea of Cortez side and 4-6 feet on the Pacific side, and of course very choppy on the Pacific in the afternoons. The wind created uncomfortable conditions the farther south you went as well as you went beyond the protection of the Cape.

BAIT: No change from last week, there were three types of bait available this week, Caballito in all sizes, the small flat fish known locally as “tortillas” but we call “Moonfish”, about the size of your hand and silver, plus some “Lisa”, also known as Yellowtail Mullet. All these were $3 each and there were frozen Ballyhoo as well at the same price.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: Striped Marlin were the billfish of the week as they could be found from ½ mile off the beach on both sides of the Cape. The Blue Marlin were around earlier in the week but farther out at 12-25 miles, and were probably still around at the later half of the week, but the water conditions keept many boats from fishing that area. All types of bait were working for the Striped Marlin, and one of the best was frozen ballyhoo, thawed and then rigged with a chin weight and used as a drop back bait to Marlin that appeared in the spread. For some reason these seemed to produce much better than live Caballito as a drop back. Live bait cast to tailing fish seemed to work better if the tail fins were clipped a littl bit, slowing down the speed and allowing the tempermental (sometimes) Striped Marlin to catch them. With the water nice and warm it was no suprise that there was a decent showing of Sailfish as well, not a common billfish in our waters. I have yet to hear anything solid on Black Marlin, perhaps in another week or so.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Just when things were getting good, with anglers managing to get offshore and catch plenty of Yellowfin from footballs to cows, the wind kicked up and changed things. The Tuna had been holding at 20 plus miles on average, occasionaly a school was found closer, but most of them were at least that far out. The chances of getting onto a 100 pound plus fish was decent and quite a few anglers were able to do that early in the week. By Saturday conditions offshore had become darn near unfishable, only one boat that I heard of was able to get any decent fish, and they got beat up but managed to bring in three Tuna between 120 and 180 pounds. Earlier in the week the porpoise associated with the tuna were just puddling around, little pods scattered over a wide area. The best method then was either setting live baits 80-100 yards back while slow trolling or running a skipping bait under a kite. A few were caught by drifiting a live bait as deep as 200 feet in the areas with porpoise, but that also resulted in a number of shark bites.

DORADO: I did not see many Dorado this week, nor did I hear of many in our area. I did hear reports of some smaller fish being found up the Sea of Cortez off of Punta Gorda, but not close to home. I am really surprised since they seem to turn on when the conditions get choppy.

WAHOO: I only heard of one Wahoo caught this week. I am sure there were more, but I did not hear about them.

INSHORE: Roosterfish ended up being an on-then-off situation this past week with one day being good and the next being poor, but the fish that were found were good size ranging from 20 to 60 pounds. Smaller fish were found just outside the breaker and the larger ones were a bit farther out. On the days when the Roosters were not biting well the Amberjack took over, and of course there were plenty of Jack Cravalle to work your arm muscles. On the Pacific side the water was a bit on the bumpy side from the Arches to the lighthouse, but mellowed out a bit once past there, and the better inshore fishing for these fish was found east of the Golden Gate Banks and south of there. Bottom fish were scattered with better fishing for them on the Cortez side due to less wind, but the current was stronger.

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 The Traveling Wilburys and their CD titled “Volume One”. What an amazing group of musicians!

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 June 24 – 29, 2015

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING

Captain George Landrum

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

Cabo Fish Report

June 24 – 29, 2015

SYNOPSIS: Good for Striped Marlin, good for Yellowfin Tuna, fair for Dorado, some Wahoo and fair for Roosterfish. Does that round it up pretty good? I have to say that this is an average, some trips the fish were there and on others it was being in the right place at the wrong time. Details below.

WEATHER: This week was the start of the summer weather as our lows were in the high 70’s at night and our daytime highs were in the high 90’s. Toss in a little humidity to coat you with a light sweat (if you were on land) and it was fantastic! Remember, sweat opens your pores and cleans you up! We were still getting some light winds from the northwest and once in a while from the south and that helped cool things off in the evenings and early mornings.

WATER: There was not a lot of change from last week other than a degree increase in the overall temps. On the Pacific side the water was a bit off color and in spots was as cool as 72 degrees. With the prevailing northwest winds the surface was choppy in the afternoons but decent in the mornings. At the tip of the Cape the water started to clear up and the temperature went up to 80-81 degrees. The farther up the Sea of Cortez you went the warmer it became and the cleaner it got with water off of the Punta Gorda area reaching 84 degrees. The water on the Cortez side also remained mostly flat with little effect from the northwesterly breeze, but on occasion when the southerly wind kicked in the chop would build up. Watching the ocean from shore you could see the wind line way out there in the afternoons.

BAIT: No change from last week, there were three types of bait available this week, Caballito in all sizes, the small flat fish known locally as “tortillas” but we call “Moonfish”, about the size of your hand and silver, plus some “Lisa”, also known as Yellowtail Mullet. All these were $3 each and there were frozen Ballyhoo as well at the same price.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: The warm water is starting to bring in the bigger billfish to our area. Typically enjoying water in the 82 – 88 degree range, we are seeing more Blue Marlin every week. I just had a communication with a private boat I fish during tournaments and they were 1 for 6 on Blue Marlin in two days and lost count of the number of Striped Marlin they had in the pattern, hooked and released. The charter boats sometimes did as well, there were plenty of blue flags flying in the afternoons and as is normal, being in the right place at the right time helped. The fish seem to have concentrated a bit in the later part of the week with most of them being found from just off the beach to 15 miles out on the Cortez side (Striped Marlin) and the Blues have been scattered all over the Cortez side. Lures were the ticket for the Blue Marlin but the Striped Marlin liked live bait a bit better.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: They are here and I have to consider them the fish of the week. If you found the right porpoise pod you could come away with fish up to 200 pounds, or load up on footballs to 20 pounds, and if it was not the right school you might just get one. There were boats that came in with limits of 20 Yellowfin for their party of four and some of the fish were in the 60-90 pound class, others came in with one 8 pound fish, as always, right place at the right time. The larger fish were mostly caught on live bait run off of a downrigger or drifted with a torpedo sinker to keep it down. The smaller fish were on cedar plugs and hootchies.

DORADO: There was not a lot of change in the Dorado this week, but I do expect things to pick up soon because as the water gets warmer they Dorado become thicker, it happens every year! Again, as last week, there were mostly small fish caught but I did see a few in the 20-40 pound class hit the fillet tables. Close to the beach was better than offshore for these colorful fighters.

WAHOO: Sometimes I get the guess wrong, and it looks like this is one of them. I thought the Wahoo would continue to bite well, but it really dropped off. I saw very few of them brought in and those were in the 20 pound class. Found in the normal areas right on top of the high spots and drop-offs, swimming plugs like Rapallas worked on them if they were pulled fast enough.

INSHORE: Inshore fishing was great for Roosterfish if you could deal with a bit of choppy water. They were found in good concentration on the Pacific side between the old lighthouse and the windmill. Slow trolled live mullet were the ticket here for fish to 60 pounds. Also available were some nice Pargo to 15 pounds, but the majority of them were 5-8 pounds.

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 am going to start posting the report on Mondays instead of on Sundays from now on as we seem to be having more trips on the weekends and I like having the best information possible to share with you. The more anglers who get out, the better my information is. The fishing pressure is still light, so if you want to get on the water there is plenty of room! 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 Kentucky Headhunters and their CD titled “Pickin on Nashville”, sometimes you just need a bit of twang in your rock!

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 June 16 – 23, 2015

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING

Captain George Landrum

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

Cabo Fish Report

June 16 – 23, 2015

SYNOPSIS: Ah, the ebb and flow of fishing! The fishing at the start of the report period was good and getting better by the day for all species. Anglers were looking forward to the two day Pelagic tournament on Thursday and Friday. Looking forward to something does not make it happen though and the winds kicked up, the bite went off and disappointment set in. Then it got better again and now continues to improve. If you want Roosterfish, Tuna or Marlin it is a great time to come and fish! Details on all this below.

WEATHER: I am very happy to say that this has been the best June so far when it comes to comfort. I have been here a while and having nighttime lows in the low 70’s and daytime highs in the high 90’s with a slight breeze (most of the time) is about as good as it gets. We did have the wind show up starting on Thursday and it blew very hard on Friday and Saturday, slowly tapering off on Sunday. The strong wind did several things, none of them good. Personally, it kicked an allergy into high gear and I was miserable for four days, but for those who tried to fish offshore, going to the Tuna, it made the trip almost impossible. Those who did make it got beat up pretty good. Even with the wind we had sunny skies, and there were plenty of sunburns to go around.

WATER: Early in the week we were seeing warm water, and blue water, in front of the Cape. As the week progressed, cooler green water intruded from the Pacific side and at the end of the week water that had been in the 79-80 degree range had decreased to 72 degrees and become green. This discolored band of water extended out about 13 miles and worked it’s way up the coast to San Jose. Outside the 13 miles line it warmed quickly to 78-79 degrees and was much cleaner. I was surprised to see this cold water come in as all the charts are showing the surface current coming past us from the east to the west, so this cold water must be a result of a strong sub-surface flow. At the tail end of the week surface conditions became extremely choppy and uncomfortable. A slight increase in swell size combined with a wind that switched and came from the southwest instead of the northwest resulted in many short trips, and made getting out 40+ miles to where the Tuna had been almost impossible for most of the boats. At the end of the week we still had the cool water in front but the surface conditions had improves greatly and boats were again searching offshore for Tuna and Marlin.

BAIT: There were three types of bait available this week, Caballito in all sizes, the small flat fish known locally as “tortillas” but we call “Moonfish”, about the size of your hand and silver, plus some “Lisa”, also known as Yellowtail Mullet. All these were $3 each and there were frozen Ballyhoo as well at the same price.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: We started this reporting period with great news as the Striped Marlin bite had started to bust wide open and then the wind came. I don’t know the reasons, don’t have an inkling really about the reason why, but when the wind came the bite dropped off severely. Boats were still spotting fish but they ha closed mouths. My guess is that maybe 20% of the boats were able to get a Marlin hooked up and to the boat for release. At the end of the week it had improved a bit, the Striped Marlin were biting, but more out of curiosity it seemed as most of the bites were short ones, a chew and release strategy on the part of the fish. A few did mistime their efforts and were rewarded with a hook in the mouth so boats were coming in flying flags, but I was seeing one Marlin flag per boat at the end of the week instead of three to six per boat I saw at the start of the period. Of course it all depends on being in the right place at the right time, but the top release boat for the Pelagic tournament had a reported total of 13 releases for two days of fishing. There were reports and confirmed catches of Blue Marlin as well, most of them under #300, but still great excitement. I have not heard of any Black Marlin yet, the water may still be a bit warm, but a few Sailfish were caught and that normally bodes well for warmer water. Most of the Marlin fishing effort occurred within five miles of the beach as the southerly winds pushed the bait to the beach and the offshore waters were rough for half the week.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: We started this period with a bang as reports of big fish getting closer became more frequent, and we did see some nice ones between 60 and 200 pounds hit the docks. When the winds started blowing the chance to get to these fish became almost nil for most of the boats, and it was not until Sunday that conditions returned to normal. Then it was a search to fish the fish again. There were Tuna found as close as 13 miles and as far out as 40 miles and they were in a range of sizes. We finally had the football fish show up (8-15 pounds), some boats got school size fish between 20 and 50 pounds and there were a few fish in the 60-200 pound class brought in as well. The largest Tuna in the Pelagic tournament was just under 150 pounds. I am still waiting for some Sashimi!

DORADO: Most of the Dorado for the reporting period were smaller fish running from 5 to 12 pounds and they were a scattered catch, mostly found within several miles of the beach. While not here in numbers yet, it is a good sign of things to come. The largest Dorado caught during the Pelagic tournament was 42 pounds.

WAHOO: There are still a few Wahoo out there, but not in numbers like we had been seeing. With the 1^st quarter moon Wednesday, the time from then to the full moon might show us a few more fish, at least our fingers are crossed that it happens that way! During the Pelagic tournament the largest weighed Wahoo was 22 pounds, but there were reports of larger fish from non-tournament boats.

INSHORE: Roosterfish! Last week the Roosters were from 5 to 15 pounds, but this week the larger fish showed up and there were plenty of fish between 20 to 60 pounds being released each day. Working just outside the breakers on the Pacific side and slow trolling live mullet produced plenty of bites from these great fighting fish. They were there following the bait, and there were large schools of mullet in the area. Thanks to all of you who released your Roosterfish, there are much better eating fish out there and releasing them goes a long way to keeping our fishery healthy! Besides Roosterfish, there were large schools of Jack Crevalle to 35 pounds cruising around, and many cruisers tool a break during the heavy winds offshore to come in and relax with a few of these strong rod benders. Scattered snapper and grouper as well as great numbers of Skipjack round out our inshore fish this week.

NOTES: The Pelagic two day “Triple Crown” fishing tournament had a good turnout this year, but was once again marred by controversy. A few fights almost broke out, and for reasons I am still not clear about, the 22 pound Wahoo ended up taking a lot more money than the 42 pound Dorado. I did not talk to anyone who was clear on why that decision was made, and most were upset. I did hear at least four teams who said they would not be entering it again. Come on Pelagic, you have a great product and a great reputation, please explain what was going through your minds on this one.

I am going to start posting the report on Mondays instead of on Sundays from now on as we seem to be having more trips on the weekends and I like having the best information possible to share with you. The more anglers who get out, the better my information is. The fishing pressure is still light, so if you want to get on the water there is plenty of room! 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 Moody Blues (in honor of the Pelagic tournament) and their CD titled “The Best Of The Moody Blues”.

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!