Cabo Fish Report

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
https://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
October 23 – 28, 2012

WEATHER: I really don’t know what to say except to mention what a great pleasure it has been to once again get through the heat and humidity that summer time brings to us here in the southern part of the Baja Peninsula. When our nighttime lows stay in the mid 70’s and the daytime highs stay in the low 90’s it is about as good as it gets, compared to what we had for the past three months. In another few months we will be even cooler as the temperature at night drops to the low 60’s, but this weather I would prefer to have year round! We had very light clouds this week and while the beginning of the week started off a bit windy, by the end of the week we were experiencing just light breezes. The week started with moderate winds from the northwest, picking up in the afternoon, and ended with light breezes from the northeast in the morning, dying to nothing in the afternoon.
WATER: On the Sea of Cortez side of the Cape we had water at 84-85 degrees inside the 1,000 fathom line most of the week, with the exception on Friday when a hot spot of 87 degree water formed across the 1150 to the 95 spot and out to the 1,000 fathom line. For most of the week there was a good temperature break at the 1,000 fathom line as well with the water to the northeast being 2 degrees warmer than the water to the southwest. Surface conditions on the Cortez side were great all week as well with swells at 2-4 feet early in the week and dropping to 1-3 feet later in the week. On the Pacific side we were seeing the water between the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks at 84-85 degrees with swells at 3-6 feet early in the week and dropping to 2-4 feet later in the week. In between the Cortez and the Pacific we had a late intrusion of cooler water at 82-83 degrees, coming in to almost three miles of the arch. The water was slightly cleaner on the Pacific side than it was on the Cortez side this week.
BAIT: Same bait report as last week. Sardines could be had here in Cabo this week, probably due to the demand of the tournament boats who use them to catch skip jack and small Yellowfin for bait. A scooped bucket would set you back $25, but they were in much better shape than the Sardines we were getting earlier in the week from bait boats farther north. Caballito and Mullet could be had easily at $3 each, and there were frozen Bally-hoo for $3 each.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Our big money Marlin tournament season is over now that the Bisbee Black and Blue is finished, at least the tournaments for big Marlin. Next week is a small tournament with the Trip Advisor website members, then the W.O.N. Tuna tournament in November. Next year we will see more tournaments that focus on Striped Marlin in the Spring. Statistics can do funny things to your thinking, and as I did last week in the report, this week I am going to lay a few more on you, based on the three day Black and Blue tournament that just finished. There was 106 teams fishing three days for 318 boat days on the water, with big Marlin as the focus. There were 67 billfish caught, 1 Spearfish, 4 Sailfish, 4 Black Marlin, 19 Blue Marlin and 39 Striped Marlin. Based on this, it took 4.75 boat days to get a Marlin this week. Pretty sad stats, and when there was only one Marlin caught over 300 pounds it almost makes me cry. (The team that caught the 2.4 million dollar fish is not crying!) Once again I have to remind you that the stats for normal charters would be much better as the focus for most of the boats in the tournament was big Blue or Black Marlin over 300 pounds, or numbers of smaller sized Blues or Blacks. None of these boats focused on Striped Marlin, which is the most common species here, as evidenced by the comparative number caught during the Tournament. In conclusion, while the possibility of getting a Blue or Black to the boat was fairly small, the chances of hooking into a Striped Marlin, if you focused on that, was fairly good, probably at twice the rate of the Marlin hook-ups experienced by the tournament anglers.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: With the Black and Blue Tournament going on, and since Tuna did not count in any category, the pressure on the Tuna was pretty slack. Not that there were many out there, but those that were caught were pretty decent fish. There were scattered pods of Dolphin to the south 30 miles and to the west the same distance, and some of these pods produced a few Yellowfin to 35 pounds, but once again the focus for big fish was on the Gorda Banks area. Charter boats drifting, slow trolling or flying live bait off of kites were getting the occasional bite from fish that occasionally exceeded 300 pounds (314 for one boat) but most of them were between 100 and 200 pounds. It took a while, you had to have patience. One of our friends worked the area for two days and managed to get a nice 158 pound fish.

DORADO: The Dorado bite experienced a sudden drop this week and I am not sure why. Plenty of charters were working both the inside and the outside area of the Pacific coastline and most were lucky to get three or four fish, there were no really large concentrations found. Boats that did well were ones that were willing to lose their first fish to get more. Leaving that first fish in the water and slow trolling it 30 feet behind the boat until more fish appeared was the trick, and it works much of the time. We had one fly-fishing client this week who did very well, it’s often hard to get enough shots at a fish on the fly rod, but if your target is Dorado, this method as well as heavily chumming with Sardines works very well. On the Cortez side there were Dorado appearing in fair numbers off of the Cabo Del Sol area as tournament boats were heavily chumming the area early in the morning attempting to get those big Skipjack for live bait. With 30 or 40 boats tossing Sardinia in the water the Dorado came in and there were quite a few caught. I didn’t see any really large Dorado come in, or hear of any large ones, most of the fish were between 10 and 15 pounds, but there were a couple of big fish caught by tournament boats, at least I assume they were big as the teams reported the hook-ups on the radio before reporting them as non-qualifying species.
WAHOO: The full moon did produce more Wahoo than were caught last week. During the tournament our team caught a 60 pound fish the first day. While not worth any money in the tournament, it sure was good to eat! Other boats reported hooking up Wahoo as well, and there were a decent number caught by the charter fleet. I did hear of one boat getting two 30 pound fish one day. The action on these fish was scattered and not concentrated in any one area.
INSHORE: The slow down in the Dorado bite had many of the panga anglers crying this week. Last week was absolutely great, but there was a dearth of action off the beach this week. One of the saving graces was that area off of Cabo Real early in the morning as the numbers of white Skipjack and scattered Dorado at least produced action. For the normal inshore species such as Roosterfish, Jacks, Grouper and Snapper, the action was slow as well. Fishing on the Cortez side of the Cape just off the beach produced most of the action as this was the side of the Cape that was holding the Sardinia schools.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: In a couple of days I am going to produce a short blog with some number crunching concerning the tournaments we have just had, so check it out. I had a great time fishing this week, just wish our team, “Sporty Game” had gotten our big bite on Thursday hooked up. Oh well, next year! We did get that nice Wahoo as well as a Dorado while bait fishing, so there were fish in the boat, just not the right kind. I would like to thank Mary for keeping the blog updated with the tournament results while I was out fishing, great job honey! Also, a big thank you to Mark Bailey for turning me on to the group “Two Tons of Steel”, this is the first time I had heard of them. Based out of San Antonio, they are described as a “rockabilly” group. However you want to describe them, they are fun to listen to! Until next week, tight lines! Oh, don’t forget that Cabo has changed their time already, last night we set our clock back when we went to sleep. This is one week earlier than in the states, so don’t get confused when you get down here!

Cabo Fish Report

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
https://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
Sept 17 – 23, 2012

WEATHER: We had some really great weather this week if you are in the mood for some heat and humidity! At the start of the week there was a good breeze from the northwest but by Wednesday it was still and muggy with sunny skies. That’s not the perfect weather but pretty good if you are out on the ocean! Our daytime highs were in the mid to high 90’s while the nighttime lows were in the low 80’s. It seems as the week went on the early morning temps were a bit lower than at the start of the week and perhaps the humidity a bit less as well.
WATER: On the Cortez side of the Cape this week it was calm but with a few humping swells, spaced well apart at the start of the week. On the Pacific side it was a different story as the northwest winds on Monday and Tuesday made the fishing uncomfortable. On Monday it was like a sheep farm out there but the conditions steadily improved as the days went on. By yesterday it was like a lake with small, long period swells and no wind. On the Cortez side it was glassy. Water clarity was the big issue this week. At the start of the week we had a monster area of very green water from the Punta Gorda area in the Cortez all the way to the Cape and it extended out to the 1,000 fathom line. Currents coming down from the north pushed this green water around the Cape and up into the Pacific side, traveling about 7 miles a day. This water clarity issue was the largest factor affecting where the boats went to find fish, the preferred area was to the west, then north side of the dirty water as it worked it’s way around the Cape. By Friday most of the boats were having to travel as far up the coast as Cerritos Beach to get to the north side of the clean water, but the water close to home and at the banks had cleared up.
BAIT: Caballito were available early in the week for $3 each and there were frozen horse ballyhoo for the same price.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There was decent action on both Sailfish and Striped Marlin this week on the Pacific side but I did not hear of much happening on the Cortez side. Fish were found from close to the beach in 40 fathoms of water to 5 miles offshore, but there was little action outside that zone. I fished 4 days for Blue or Black Marlin with no results at all, but heard of a few boats getting strikes from big billfish. Most of the billfish found inshore were striking lures pulled for Dorado, but they were the perfect size!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I think that Yellowfin Tuna have definitely taken the top spot and became the fish of the week. On Wednesday a potential world record was brought in to the marina. The boat had reportedly been out on it’s third multiday trip targeting a world record and this trip it paid off 180 miles offshore while chunking with cut bait in a pod of black porpoise. While I am not 100% positive, it was told to me that the scale that weighed the fish at 427 pounds had been certified at the time and sent up to be re-certified after weighing the fish. Such a nice fish, but there were good fish closer to home as well. We had clients out on Tuesday who brought in one that weighed 156 pounds and brought two that weighed 85 pounds each on Wednesday. One of the Pangas we book on a regular basis returned on Saturday with a tuna the scaled out at 280 pounds, and caught on #40 test line! Not all the fish caught were that large, nor did all the boats fishing for them get Yellowfin, but those that did found quality fish that averaged 25 pounds. Almost 100% of the action was on the Pacific side of the Cape between the south side of the San Jaime Bank and the Cerritos Beach area to the north, in the clean water with dolphin around.

DORADO: If it were not for the fact that the fishing for Tuna was so impressive, Dorado would have remained my choice for fish of the week. Once again almost all the action occurred on the Pacific side of the Cape and for almost the entire week, at least through Friday it happened on the north side of the dirty water, right on the edge. There were some fish caught on the outside in the clean water but the concentrations were inshore. On Saturday the dirty water had moved far enough to the north and been filtered enough that the boats did not require such a long run and were able to find good numbers closer to home. Many boats were able to limit out on fish at averaged several pounds over what they were catching last week, most of the fish were in the 10-15 pound range with a few really big ones in there. Live bait worked along the edge where the fish were concentrated worked early in the week and later on there was decent action on bright lures.
WAHOO: This week we were coming from the new moon to the first quarter and we did have a little spurt of Wahoo action, something we have not seen for a few weeks. Most of the fish were caught offshore around the banks but there were a few fish picked up right on the beach. Most of the fish were between 20 and 45 pounds and were incidental catches made while fishing for Tuna and Dorado.
INSHORE: Strong currents once again had an effect on the inshore bottom action and the numbers of Roosterfish available had dropped off. Many if not most of the Pangas were working just off the beach for Dorado and a few ventured offshore for Tuna and Marlin once the winds had died down.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: This week I have no music going but there is a lot of anticipation as one of my clients brought me 10 new CD’s that I am going to start using and playing. A very esoteric mix of stuff, everything from Doobie Brothers to Yo-Yo Ma to Ry Cooder to Johnny Cash and Carlos Santana. Looking forward to it! Of course, being Sunday morning the pup is at my knee with her head resting on my leg looking at me with that look, “It’s time for the beach, Dad, hurry up!”. So, until next week, stay safe and have a great time. Until then, tight lines!

Big fish on a small boat!

Who says you have to be on a big boat to catch big fish? On Wednesday of this week a possible new world record Yellowfin Tuna was brought in to the scales here in Cabo San Lucas. Reportedly caught 180 miles out, it was caught on a large private yacht, and after scaling out at 421.5 pounds is an awesome accomplishment, one to be proud of your entire life.
But what if you don’t have a private yacht at your disposal? Maybe all you can afford to go out on is a little 23 foot panga. Can you still do it? Well, according to Ken Ward you can catch big fish from small boats, and he proved it this afternoon.
It was not world record size, and would not have qualified anyway since the last hour of the fight was spent hand-lining the dead fish up to the boat, but there were the first three hours spent fighting the fish. Oh, all right, it was a Yellowfin Tuna that weighed in at 280 pounds at the main dock scale, caught on #40 line from a Panga! Victor Garcia, the captain of the panga “Santi 1” had Ken as his client today. Ken is an avid reader of my fish report and lives here in Cabo. They started out the day looking for Sailfish to cast to with the fly rod but found a good looking school of porpoise on the south side of the San Jaime Bank. They were not getting any big bites, even though they could see fish on the depth sounder, so Victor decided to go to where the fish were staying. He deployed a downrigger with a live Caballito and worked the school for a while, getting in front of the pod of dolphin and dropping the bait down. It finally worked and after four hard, sweaty hours the fish was in the boat. Then it was a run into the marina for weighing and photos of the fish of a lifetime!
Congratulations to both Ken and Victor. Now, Victor, could you make sure some of our clients get that kind of action?

Cabo Fish Report

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
https://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
Sept 10 – 16, 2012

WEATHER: This time of year we can expect occasionally rough conditions since it is our storm season. We always hope for some rain, not too much mind you, but hope the storms pass far enough away that the winds stay down and the seas are fishable. This week we had Tropical Storm Kristy form up to the south and pass to the west. This formation brought us some rain, in fairly light amounts here in Cabo and it was light enough that the ground absorbed it, maybe ½ inch total. I heard that the weather and rain was much worse in the San Jose area though. We had mostly cloudy skies this week, but a couple of sunny days early on and our temperatures stayed in the mid to high 90’s during the day and dropped to the low 80’s at night with high humidity most of the time. The best weather was offshore where you got a breeze!
WATER: Let me preface this section by letting you know that the Cabo San Lucas Marina was closed on Friday due to the large surf conditions caused by Tropical Storm Kristy. It was also closed Thursday afternoon, and probably should have been closed Thursday morning, these swells were 12-15 feet and causing some extra large surf. Walking the beach was not safe nor was taking any boat close to the beach. At the end of the week the water on the Cortez side of the Cape was green with run-off but warm, the charts showed 89 degrees in front of San Jose and a large plume of dirty water extending out from there, across the Gorda Banks and out to the 1150 spot and the 1,000 fathom line. In front of Cabo it was 87 degrees and dirty water, but not as bad as around San Jose. If you went around the Cape into the Pacific side at the end of the week you found 85-86 degree water that was clean, at least between the San Jaime and Golden Gate Banks and shore. Swells during the passing of Tropical Storm Kristy kicked up the shore very hard and there were spume lines extending across the entire Cape up to three miles offshore. At the end of the week the swells had subsided to 2-4 feet in all areas with just a light wind on the Pacific side.
BAIT: Caballito were available early in the week for $3 each and there were frozen horse ballyhoo for the same price.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Sailfish were the billfish of the week as the warm water really seemed to set them on a feeding frenzy. Last week we were having pods of them coming into the lures and making the cockpits a picture of frenzy as lures were attacked left and right. These beautiful fish averaged 90 pounds with a few going as large as 130 pounds, Not all that bit were hooked up of course, but most boats managed to get two or three releases per trip. Not the numbers you see elsewhere, but very good for our area. Strip baits (tuna belly) dropped back to the fish that came in on the lures worked better than anything else to get them hooked up, better than live bait, which is strange for some of these guys to get their heads around. The Striped Marlin that were caught were mostly hooked on live bait, and the local fishermen are very used to that and have this fishing method down to a science. There were reports of a few Blue Marlin early in the week before the storm passed, but nothing since then. Almost all the billfish action in our area happened on the Pacific side of the Cape.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I heard that early in the week there were some very nice Yellowfin to 200 pounds caught at the Gorda Banks and that has gotten everyone’s pulse pounding. The Gorda Banks are well known as a large Tuna area, if they are around, and it is almost always a live bait fishery. In the rest of our local ocean most of the tuna were found with porpoise and were football fish, in the 5 to 12 pound class with a few 18 to 25 pound fish mixed in. The Purse Seiners really made their presence known and felt last week, but hopefully the foul weather forced them away and we will have a few weeks of decent Tuna fishing before they re-appear. After the storm passed a few boats went out and found that the Tuna were still around, getting decent results fishing on the Pacific side 2 miles off the beach.

DORADO: Once again fish of the week as they often are this time of year, Dorado are still out there in decent numbers. At the beginning of the week almost anyone could limit out on small Dorado that were between 5 and 10 pounds with a few to 15 pounds tossed in, but the larger fish were a bit harder to find. If you could find some floating debris your chance improved dramaticly, as they did if you were able to find frigate birds working. Working bright lures at slightly higher speeds than normal really caught their attention, then working the area hard with live bait brought in some decent fish. Almost all the Dorado action here in Cabo happened on the Pacific side within 5 miles of the beach.
INSHORE: Strong and variable currents at the beginning of the week and dirty water at the end of the week made inshore fishing problematic at best. A few Snapper and Grouper were found on the Pacific side as well as the occasional Roosterfish but almost all the Pangas were working a bit farther offshore in order to catch the easily found Dorado and Bonita.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: My music this morning was the sound of my fingers going tickity-tack on the keyboard, but in my head I was hearing the sounds of a reel going off! It looks as if we might have some decent weather this coming week so the chances of it happening are pretty darn good! It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so it’s nice to know that there is another report out there that is flattering mine! It’s off to the beach for the Sunday trip, and let me toss out a good morning to Mark and Char, we look forward to you guys getting down here! Keep the music going, and until next week, tight lines!

Cabo Fish Report

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
https://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
Sept 3 – 9, 2012

WEATHER: Hot, humid and buggy has been our experience on land this week, that’s one of the reasons to get out on the water, or in many cases, into the water at the beach. With our daytime highs in the high 90’s and occasionally breaking 100 degrees combined with the 80% humidity the flies, bo-bo’s (no-see-um’s) and mosquitoes have been a big annoyance. This happens every time after we have a big wet spell, but since it has been three years we tend to forget. The skies were mostly sunny late this week with just a few high, passing clouds but it looked as if we might have received some rains in the mountains early in the week as another storm system moved over the peninsula to the north of us and Hurricane John passed to the west.
WATER: We had a breeze on the Pacific side early in the week that was a result of feeder bands from Hurricane John coming through, and combined with a storm that came in from the mainland conditions were choppy and very bumpy early in the week. On Tuesday we were seeing swells to 12 feet coming in on the beach at Medano, washing right up to the retaining walls at the resorts and washing over the sand berm at the arroyo, filling in the area behind so it became a saltwater pool. This swell, a result of the passing hurricane, fell off very quickly and by the end of the week we had almost flat conditions with swells on the Pacific at 2-4 feet and on the Cortez side at 1-3 feet. Water on the Sea of Cortez has been warm in our area, often in the 89 degree range. Looking at the charts we can see water as warm as 91 degrees up in the East Cape area. Right in front of the Cape the water is 88 degrees but farther to the north along the beach it cools a bit to 84 degrees. Out at the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks the water is between 85 and 86 degrees. It is blue water almost everywhere you go as well, with it just a bit deeper in color on the Pacific side.
BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were available at the normal $3 each and if you went to San Jose and were early it was possible to get Sardinas at $20 a scoop. Most of the bait boats had frozen Horse Ballyhoo available as well at a very proud $3 each.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Striped Marlin and Sailfish remained the most common billfish in the area but there were a few Blue Marlin reported hooked and released this week, and a few small one that were caught and brought in, sigh. I heard of no Black Marlin this week but there may have been a few of these fish as well. Most of the Sailfish and Striped Marlin were found just to the south of us by boats looking for Tuna. A few were caught to the east at the 95 spot and many were found between 3 and 10 miles off the beach on the Pacific side. Dropping back a live bait or frozen (then thawed) Ballyhoo to fish appearing in the spread was the most common method that worked this week, throwing a live bait at a tailing or sleeping Striped Marlin came in a distant second as far as working went. It is exciting when a pod of Sailfish appears in the spread and suddenly there is a fish behind every lure!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Most of the Tuna caught this week were football sized fish, and later in the week you did not have to go far to find them. The area off of Chileano Beach had a good showing of these Tuna that ranged between 5 and 10 pounds early in the week. As time went on these fish slowly moved toward Cabo. At the end of the week the fish were right in front of the bay. The only difficulty was weeding your way through the numbers of Skipjack and Bonito that were mixed in with them. I was really surprised that with this amount of small tuna out there, there were not a number of Black Marlin hooked up. Maybe it’s just a bit early for numbers of these billfish to show up. Offshore, looking for pods of Dolphin was the main method of finding tuna, either that or searching for the Tuna Seiners and their helicopters. There were enough Seiners out there looking to set their nets on fish that you had to get lucky to find fish for yourself. Most of the boats that got decent Tuna found small pods of Dolphin, pods small enough to draw no interest from the helicopters. Flying a kite to take your lure or bait well away from the boat was the most successful method used to catch fish to 150 pounds, but there were not many of these out there (fish I mean). I only hope that these vessels go away soon before they net everything in the area and leave us hoping for a stray tuna.

DORADO: Fish of the week, and most of them were caught close to the beach on the Pacific side, just as they were last week. Smaller lures in bright colors trolled at 8 to 81/2 knots brought them in, keeping the first fish in the water for a while brought in others. Most of the fish were in the 5 to 10 pound class but there were a few larger one to 20 pounds caught inshore as well. The majority of larger ones were caught at least 5 miles from the beach, and finding working Frigate birds was the key to getting more than one shot at fish that came as large as 35 pounds. There were not many of these, but if you worked it there was a chance of two or three in the box. Slow trolling live bait in the area of the Frigates worked well, very few anglers were willing to risk the chance of loosing a large Dorado by leaving one of them in the water as a teaser for more.
INSHORE: Inshore currents were variable this week and bottom fishing was scratchy as a result. The water is clearing up and the inshore catch was a mix of Roosterfish, Amberjack, a few Snapper and a couple of Grouper. Most of the pangas were going for the football Tuna and venturing a bit farther out for Dorado and Sailfish.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: Off to the beach in a few minutes to get in some quality time before football! Sunday morning breakfast and Bloody Mary’s when we get back from the beach. Think I’ll fix up some Sashimi from our tuna as a snack! My music for this weeks report was something I have not listened to for a long time, a bit of reggae from a local band, Rhythm Force, off their self-titled album published about 10 years ago. Until next week, tight lines!

Cabo Fish Report

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
https://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
July 23-29, 2012

WEATHER: It’s Sunday afternoon and I am a bit late in getting the report written for this week as I was fishing, or at least out on the water, this morning. The last thing I wanted to do was spend time in the engine room working on the water pump for the generator, but at least it was early in the day and I did not have to deal with 112 degrees in the open sun in the parking lot that my wife experienced at 2 in the afternoon! This morning the high, or should I say low, for the morning was a balmy 84 degrees, and you saw what I just wrote as far as how high the temperature rose. The humidity has not been too bad, and we have had some cloud cover for most mornings this week, but it sure burned off by mid-day. No rain this week, as expected, but I thought I saw some clouds dropping a bit up in the mountains towards the East Cape on Saturday. We did experience some wind from the north-west during the middle of the week but it was experienced out on the water, not here in town.
WATER: I don’t think I have seen better conditions on the Cortez side of the Cape since last summer, swells a 1-3 feet, little wind if any with a few short period exceptions and the water has been an average of 86 degrees in our area, a bit warmer up toward the East Cape. On the Pacific side it has been a bit of a different story however. The water temperature and clarity has been fluctuating a lot, mostly due to the currents. There has been an area of cool, 75 degree water showing up between the beach inside the Golden Gate Bank and extending to the southeast, sometimes wrapping around to the 95 spot. Not only cool, it has also been green, sometimes dirty green but mostly a clean green color. It has extended offshore as far as across the San Jaime Banks and running down along the 1,000 fathom line. Localized wind have made this area a bit uncomfortable to fish, choppy and cold when going out another 12 miles often ends up being much more comfortable and with better water to fish in. That being said, look down farther in the report to see what has been in this water.
BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were available at the normal $3 per bait and you could get them if you were out early, many boats were unable to get bait and had to settle for frozen horse ballyhoo at $3 each.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Locally we had pretty decent Marlin fishing, however up in the area of the East Cape the fishing was a bit different. We would have thought that with the warmer, bluer water up there that the 61 boats fishing the 3 day tournament would have produced a few more fish. After all that is 183 fishing days. Unfortunately there were no fish brought in that qualified for the 300 pound minimum weight. There were several underweight fish brought in and the results of the tournament were 48 Striped Marlin, 29 Blue Marlin, 1 Black Marlin and 14 Sailfish for an average of 1.5 billfish per team. The day prior to the tournament starting, here in Cabo a Blue Marlin weighing over 700 pounds was brought in to the scales, and the day after the tournament a nice Black Marlin estimated at 550 pounds (by a Captain who knows his fish) was caught on live bait. I also heard one Captain (who may have been telling fish stories on the radio) say that he had hooked for a very short time (one jump to be exact) a Blue Marlin on a blind strike that was estimated at being near 1,000 pounds. I fished three days locally on the Sea of Cortez side and only managed to get one Sailfish up into the lures, but had clients who did much better than that. On the Pacific side there were Blue Marlin being found offshore in the blue water and Striped Marlin being found in the cooler green water next to the beach.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: While I did not hear of any large Tuna being caught near home this week, there were several very nice fish, two over 200 pound and one over 100 pounds caught during the East Cape Bisbee tournament. There were large fish reported at the Inman bank just of the north of Punta Gorda, but they were very finicky and rarely came up except after most of the boats were gone in the afternoons. Slow trolled live Bolito hooked a few of these cows. Near to home it was a matter of finding the right pod of Dolphin to fish, with the Spotted Dolphin and the White Bellied Dolphin holding Yellowfin to 40 pounds with most of the fish in the 15-20 pound class. A great catch for most of the boats was a limit of five Tuna per angler, but it was great because few boats were able to manage that! Instead, the average catch was two to three fish per angler with at least on of them going 30 pounds. The area offshore on the Pacific side from just inside the San Jaime Bank to 10 miles to the west of there produced most of these fish.
DORADO: Once again I saw a lot of small Dorado this week, and we released a few ourselves! Near the beach they were quite common, at least on the Pacific side. In the area of San Jose they could be found close to the beach as well. For larger fish the area offshore in the warmer water on the Pacific seemed to produce a few fish to 35 pounds, we had clients who managed to get a couple of these fish each day as well as some of the smaller ones. Up at the East Cape Tournament there were a few very nice Dorado brought in, the largest was 57 pounds and there were 13 total over 30 pounds.
WAHOO: I know the Wahoo bite was decent this week because even I was able to catch one! Heck, I used to catch these guys for a living commercially when I lived in Guam, but I have a hard time figuring them out here. My fish was a triple strike with just one hooking up, and it was out in the open water with no structure near. Other fish were caught in the fifty fathom flats off of Punta Gorda as well as out in the open warm water on the Pacific side. I didn’t hear of any really large fish this week, ours was about 25 pounds and that sounded about average.
INSHORE: Amberjack, Roosterfish and a few Grouper were pretty much the inshore action this week. For anglers fishing fly gear or light tackle there was a good bite on nice sized Skipjack as well.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: Music of the week: Rascal Flatts and a bit of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, not bad fishing music! Oh and toss in some Oak Ridge Boys as well. Country kind of week for me! I hope the fishing stays good and I really hope that y’all get a chance to come and try it! Until next week, tight lines!

Cabo Fish Report

Cabo Fish Report

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
https://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
July 2 – 8, 2012

WEATHER: Summer!! For those of you who have been here before, you know what that means. For those that are thinking about coming to visit, let me fill you in a bit. Summer in Cabo means warmth, as in 95 to 102 degrees in the daytime. This morning at 7AM it is 86 degrees and 66% humidity, it will get warmer, up to 100 degrees if yesterday is anything to go by. It also means sunny skies. While we had a few high clouds in our area this week, they didn’t block the sunshine. I just came back from bringing a boat from La Paz and it was raining in the East Cape, but nothing here in Cabo. It also means light winds, perfect for fishing, and warm seas, just what we have been waiting for!
WATER: Warm, blue water is here! It took a while to show up, and it may be gone in a few days for a while, but for now it is a reason to rejoice. We have gotten tired of the cool green water and now we have water worth going fishing in. At least on the Cortez side of the Cape. On the Pacific side it is 78 degrees on the San Jaime Bank and 71 degrees on the Golden Gate Bank, but the water is still off-green in color, if not downright dirty in the cooler water. The warm water we have on the Cortez side pushed across the tip of the Cape into the Pacific side for a distance of about 10 miles toward the west at the end of the week. At it’s western edge this warm water is 81 degrees, go east a little distance and we have 85 degrees across the area almost everywhere you look. And not only is it 85 degrees, it’s almost clear blue, not quite there yet, but much better than it has been. Perhaps just a few more days left for it to clear up all the way. Along with the warm, clear water we have been blessed with almost no wind, so the surface conditions have been great. Some small ground swells at 1-3 feet from the south have been about it.
BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were available at the normal $3 per bait and there were plenty of green Jacks if you wanted them.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: With the clearing water the daily expectation of a Blue Marlin appearing in the pattern has increased. A few anglers this week found these much anticipated fish visiting their lures and a few actually bit! It’s nice to have a big one on the end of the line, and quite a bit different experience than that of fighting a Striped Marlin, which we still have around and are now managing to catch. All in all a real improvement over the past several months billfish action. While none of the Blue Marlin reported were large, on both the way up and on the way back from La Paz I marked some very large Marlin on the depth sounder, much larger than any Striped Marlin, so as the warm water continues, and as the water continues to clean up we should start to see more of these fish in our area. Working current lines and bottom structure continues to be the main method of locating both the Blue and Striped Marlin. The best areas therefore have been the 95 spot, the 1150 and offshore along the 1,000 fathom line. The Inner and Outer Gorda Banks should start to go off in a little while as well, as soon as the temperature has stabilized and the Black Marlin show up.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: This is one fish that has had me confused this week. On both the way up and the way back from La Paz, and in our area according to the Captains and the fishermen, there were very little Dolphin and few Dolphin pods reported. Since these pods are our main Tuna indicator does this mean the fish are not here or does it mean they will arrive when we start to see more Dolphin? Well, there are a few fish here, just not in any large numbers, the ones that are being caught are in the 10-20 pound class and are being caught in the blind. On the few occasions when Dolphin pods have been reported and they have had fish on them, the fishing has been great. This tells me that as soon as we start seeing good numbers of Dolphin pods we will start to see more Tuna, and a better quality of fish. My fingers are crossed!
DORADO: Every week the Dorado catch improves, and as the warm water has arrived we are going to see an upswing in the numbers as well as the sizes of Dorado caught. One again the key has been objects floating in the water, be it a piece of wood, a dead seal or a shark buoy. Any and all of these held fish when found this week and the dead seal had a great number of good size fish associated with it. Also finding frigate birds working and diving were a great indicator of Dorado as the fish chased flying fish out of the water and the frigates swooped down to catch them. Getting into an area where this was taking place gave a good chance of a hook-up if a live bait was thrown out and slow trolled around.
WAHOO: On both the way up and on the way back I pulled lures for Wahoo since we were traveling close to the shore, but had no strikes from them at all! I heard reports of a few being caught this week but not about where or on what.
INSHORE: Sierra action this week was decent inshore, but not great, and there was good action on a mix of bottom fish from snapper to grouper to trigger-fish. A few Yellowtail on the Pacific side, but no large ones that I heard of, and good numbers or Roosterfish all along the shoreline on the Cortez side.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: Fishing is improving finally and we are seeing the expected increase in water temperature and clarity. On a slightly negative note, all the fish we caught on our delivery were stuffed with red crab, and on the depth sounder I could see shoals of both them and of squid. Red crab means the fish are getting fat and happy just swimming through the clouds of crab with their mouth open, they don’t have to work had for a meal. This in turn means that you have to be very lucky to hook one up on a lure, making a live bait the choice for finicky fish. This weeks music selection is the Dixie Chicks, I listened to one of their albums for 20 hours straight during the delivery, if I had known I would have brought my own CD collection, but in the end they are very good musicians. Until next week, tight lines!

Cabo Fish Report

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
https://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
June 25 – July 1, 2012

WEATHER: Once again it was a mix of wind and calm as well as hot and humid vs. just hot. We are past the usual time frame for this type of weather but it is what it is and we deal with it. As the week ends we have a high overcast with light winds from the northwest here in Cabo. I just returned from a delivery to La Paz and the skies were clear, the water flat and there was almost no wind the whole trip, so things can change quickly. This morning we have a high of 82 degrees to go with the overcast and this was an average low for the week with a range between 87 and 78, highs ranging between 87 and 98 degrees.
WATER: We ended the week with a 5 miles wide band of cool 68 degree water just off the beach and wrapping around the Cape. Once past Gray Rock that band warmed to 71 degrees until it dispersed at San Jose. Farther offshore on the Pacific side the water across the Golden Gate Bank and the San Jaime Bank was 74 degrees and this water extended out to well past the 1,000 fathom line to the west. The cool water close to shore was very green, and the water slowly cleared up the farther you went offshore, but never did clear to a nice blue color. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water was 71 degrees close to shore, warming to 74 degrees at a line between the Punta Gorda and the 95 spot. Outside that line the water was 76-77 degrees but green everywhere you went. Up past the Punta Gorda area the water was 76-78 degrees and still a bit green but not quite as dirty in color. Early in the week there was an area of warm water the was 78 degrees 35 miles to the SSW of the Cape and the water cleared up quite a bit, but still had a green tinge to it.
BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were available at the normal $3 per bait and there were plenty of green Jacks if you wanted them.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: It was a mixed and varied week for anglers in Cabo as the best Marlin fishing was a long run, but if you took a gamble and stayed closer to home you might have ended up catching a few anyway. Running up to the Vinorama area early in the week had quite a few boats getting into Striped Marlin, one of the best catches I heard of from that area was 5 releases, but it was an “good one day, poor the next” area, so the run was a gamble. Staying closer to home meant fishing the green water and there were a few fish to be found there as well, the 95 spot continued to kick out a few fish as did the San Jose Canyon area. There were a few Blue Marlin reported being hooked up in the Vinorama area and I saw several large Marlin marks on the depth sounder as I went through this area on my delivery to La Paz, as well as many smaller Marlin marks. Both lures and Caballito were catching Marlin this week, but if you were able to get Mackerel (difficult, as there were few to be had) your chances increased quite a bit.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Well, the Yellowfin remained a so-so catch this week with the majority of fish found being footballs sized. There were a few larger fish, some of them actually very nice, as in 80 pounds, but there were no large numbers of them. I went to the 1,000 fathom line off of Vinorama early in the week after reports of some of these nice fish mixed in with Dolphin but found no Dolphin or Tuna, and everyone in the area was mentioning the sudden absence. Later in the week I went 40 miles to check out the warmer, cleaner water to be found to the SSW and once again found no Dolphin but managed to get four footballs and two fish of about 20 pounds, all in the blind and all within a mile of the same area. Small pods of Dolphin close to home were producing some footballs but not every pod of Dolphin held the Yellowfin so it was a matter of moving on if nothing bit after working the pod. We did find that all the Tuna, as well as the Dorado that we caught were stuffed with red crab, and we could see shoals of these encrustations just under the surface and marking on the depth sounder. Its hard to get fish to bite when all they have to do is swim around with their mouths open to get fed!
DORADO: There were a few large Dorado reported this week from the Punta Gorda area, averaging 25 pounds, but closer to home the size average remained 8-10 pounds. Out at Punta Gorda and beyond the fish were found on Shark Buoys, and while not every buoy held Dorado, most of them had something around. On my trip to the area early in the week we caught two small Dorado off of one buoy, had another one hit a lure after coming out from under a turtle and another after coming out from under a pod of logging Pilot Whales. A friend went up there two days later and found a great concentration of good fish under a buoy but could only get one hooked up, and it was spraying red crab everywhere during the fight and after it was boated. Closer to home the fish were found between the arch and Chileano Bay at a distance between 2 and 5 miles, scattered out. The key was small feathers and looking for working Frigate birds.
WAHOO: I thought that the green water would keep the Wahoo bite down even though we are coming up to a full moon, but there were a few fish reported this week, almost all of them from the Punta Gorda to Vinorama area in the cleaner water. The sizes were small with an average of 20 pounds, and the numbers caught were small as well, I only heard of four of them, but there were surely many more lost.
INSHORE: This weeks inshore report is a repeat of last weeks as there was no significant change in results or locations. Still slow, the bite on Yellowtail was almost non-existent, the Sierra bite slowed way down as well. The positive note for Sierra was the size increased by quite a bit with some of the fish being caught being larger, in the 8-12 pound class. Add in an occasional Grouper to 25 pounds, a few Roosterfish to 40 pounds, an Amberjack once in a while and there was something to catch for almost everyone.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: I have to think positive and what has me in that mode this morning is the water I experienced on the trip to La Paz and what I heard about the fishing up at the East Cape. The bite has been turning on up there as the water warms and clears, Blue Marlin, Dorado and Yellowfin Tuna would happen now and then. These fish move into our area as the warm water works it’s way down so it should be here shortly! My music for the week is a compilation of the best of “Earth, Wind and Fire”, been a while since I have listened to a horn section like theirs! Until next week, tight lines!

Cabo Bite Report

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING

Captain George Landrum

gmlandrum@hotmail.com

www.flyhooker.com

https://captgeo.wordpress.com/

Cabo Fish Report

May 21-27,  2012

WEATHER:  Here at the tip of the Cape the wind blew almost all week long, coming mostly from the northwest but sometimes shifting and coming from the southwest.  Gusting to 30 knots at times, it was fairly steady during the middle of the week, only to die off on Sunday morning.  As you traveled up the coast toward San Jose the effect was much less noticeable. We had mostly sunny skies this week with the nighttime lows ranging from 62 degrees to 74 degrees and the daytime highs averaged 82 degrees, just about perfect!

WATER: There is not much to say about our water conditions that are good, at least for offshore fishing.  The strong currents that came in from the Pacific side last week really have had a lasting effect.  The water on the Pacific side from the coastline out to the Golden Gate Banks and the San Jaime Banks remains a cold 56 degrees and green.  On the Banks and to the west it warms a bit to 62 degrees but becomes even more dirty green.  Up toward San Jose on the Cortez side the water remains in the 62-64 degree range and green while along the beach up to San Jose the water became very green and dirty at the end of the week.  Warm water finally appears as you reach Punta Gorda and from the beach out to about three miles it is 75 degrees, continuing on up the coast to Los Frailes.  Due to the continuing wind the water on the Pacific side remained mostly unfishable unless you were in a Panga hanging close to the beach, and that was not much more than five miles up, after that it was nasty water with swells at 4-6 feet and the wind gusting to 30 knots.  On the Cortez side the swells were much smaller at the start of the week and now at the end of the week we are seeing the effects of Hurricane Bud, now dissipated and very far south of us.  The swells continue to build and will remain large for the next couple of days, but here on Sunday we are seeing 6-8 feet from the south.  The surfers are happy!

BAIT:  Just about the only live bait this week was Caballito at the normal $3 per bait.  The large swells at the end of the week almost shut off the Sardina netting and the water is too cold and dirty for the Mackerel, I am surprised to see there are still Caballito out there!

FISHING:

BILLFISH: Well, as I reported last week at the end of the IGFA Offshore Championship, the cold water shocked the Striped Marlin and the bite pretty much shut down with 47 teams releasing only 8 Marlin on the last day.  The situation has not changed much as the fish are still scarce in our area.  Boats that are targetting Marlin have to run almost 50 miles to get into that warm water toward Los Frailes, and even when they get there, getting a fish to bite is a coin toss.  A few fish have been found closer to home in the colder water but these fish have been very reluctant to bite.  My guess is that only 20% of the boats are seeing Marlin and out of them, maybe 20% are getting bit.  As a result I have been recommending to our anglers that they target something beside Marlin, like inshore fishing for Yellowtail.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Tuna bite remained off this week with only a few football sized fish caught, and most of them were caught in the blind with no porpoise or birds to indicate their presence.

DORADO: I saw no Dorado brought to the docks this week but heard of a few very small ones of about 8 pounds coming from the direction of San Jose.  No details on location or bait, just that there were a few small ones.

WAHOO:  Dedicated anglers getting to the grounds early up in the Punta Gorda area reported having a few Wahoo bites, and I did have one Captain tell me he lost a lure to a wahoo offshore around the 1150, but I did not hear of any being brought in this week.

 INSHORE:  There is no doubt in my mind that inshore fishing was the way to go this week as the bite for Yellowtail remained strong on the Cortez side of the Cape and there was still a decent bite on Sierra between the lighthouse and the arch on the Pacific side as well as off of the Cabo Del Sol area.  Mix in some decent grouper to 25 pounds, a few nice Snapper and occasionally a school of Pompano moving through and there was pretty consistent action.  The lack of Sardines at the end of the week hurt the inshore fishing just a little bit, but not a lot.

FISH RECIPE:  Check the blog for this weeks recipe! 

NOTES: Beach time and I think it will be a problem to keep the puppy from getting into the surf, she loves to swim and the swells might be a bit much today.  I wrote this report to the music of her snoring at my feet and the birds chirping outside as the sun comes up! Until next week, tight lines!

 

Happy Memorial Day to All!

Many thanks to all who have served in the past and present.  Your sacrifice can never be repayed.