Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Capt. George Landrum
October 14, 2002
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report
Cabo Fishing Report for OCt 7-13, 2002
Capt George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR OCTOBER 7-13, 2002
WEATHER: This week has been warm, a bit warmer than last week as the daytime highs have
gotten to the 100 degree+ level in the sun. Of course that’s on land, at sea it has been much more
comfortable. Our nighttime lows have been in the high 70’s to low 80’s and we have not had any
rain all week. (Dreadful Selfish Crime)
WATER: The thumb of warm water that we had wrapping around the Cape last week now
looks like it has been hit with a hammer! This plume now extends well to the west of the San
Jaime Banks and has extended south as far 30 miles off the Cape. Up the coast on the Pacific side
we have water in the 84-85 degree range extending out about three miles, further than that it
drops to 82 degrees. On the Sea of Cortez we are seeing temps in the high 80’s, mostly 87-88
degrees at the Gorda, 1150 and 95 spots, with no temperature breaks nearby. At the end of the
week the most defined temperature break was 30 miles to the south where the change was as
much as 4 degrees in just a mile or two. (I’m Going To Town)
BAIT: There were no problems getting bait this week and the Caballito were the usual $2 per
bait. There were some Sardinas available early in the week if you were willing to go to the
Chilleno area to look for them, but by the later part of the week they had moved on. (Sonora’s
Death Row)
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Marlin fishing has continued to be hot this week and most boats have been
getting a Billfish every trip, often more than one. The Blues are outnumbering the Striped Marlin
depending on where you were fishing. Most of the Blues were just offshore on the Pacific side
and out towards San Jaime Banks, the Striped Marlin were spread all over with significant
concentrations of them at the 30 mile temperature break. The majority of the bigger Blues
(#250+) were taken on live bait, most of it smaller Skipjack. The smaller blues were hitting lures
and the Striped Marlin were attacking both lures and baits. Best colors in lures continued to be
purple/black, black/green and black/red. The Sailfish are still around and many boats hooked into
them while working Dorado schools. Live baits were the top choice for the Sailfish which were
averaging 80 pounds. (Gringo Honeymoon)
YELLOWFIN TUNA: A few more Tuna were caught this week than were found last week so it
looks as if the fishing for them is improving a bit. A few nice fish in the #150 category were
caught but most were smaller fish around 20-30 pounds. All the fish that I am aware of were
caught with the Dolphin pods. The majority of the fish were found on the Pacific side and south
of the southern Temperature break. Best choices for lures were the standard cedar plugs and
dark colored 6” feathers. (The Road Goes On Forever)
DORADO: The school Dorado continued on the bite this week with most of the fish in the
10-15 pound range. There was no problem getting as many as you wanted as long as you were in
the right place. This week the right place was the Pacific side out about 2-3 miles from the
lighthouse up to Los Arcos. Smaller feathers as well as live and cut bait worked well once the
fish were found. A few larger fish were caught by boats working further offshore. (Amarillo
Highway)
WAHOO: A lot more Wahoo flags were flow this week than last week and many of the fish were
caught by boats working the Dorado on the Pacific side, as well as fishing the San Jaime Banks
for Marlin. Many lures were lost and often the change to plugs on wire leaders was made after
the fact. Average size seemed to be 30 pounds but many of the fish that were caught (and lost!)
were 70-100 pound class. (I’m Comin’ Home)
INSHORE: This week the inshore fishing remained about the same as last week. A few decent
Roosterfish and Amberjack along the shoreline, good fishing for Skipjack and Bonito a bit further
out on the Pacific side. Most of the Pangas were still concentrating on the Dorado and Marlin.
(Five Pound Bass)
NOTES: The Port Captain let everyone at the Captains meeting for the Bisbee “Open” know
that for the week of APEC there will be a no fishing zone extending from Cabo San Lucas to San
Jose. from the shoreline out to a distance of three miles. Anyone breaching that zone will be
warned once and then if there is no response, they will be subject to ramming or being fired upon.
With 21 countries attending and at least 6 heads of state, including G.W., I guess they are taking
the threat of terrorists seriously. (3 miles, about the distance a hand held rocket can be fired?)
Even with that area closed, we will be all right. Most of the fishing action has been taking place
on the Pacific side anyway! The “For Pete’s Sake” charity fundraiser for Leukemia tournament
just finished and we are in the Bisbee “Open” right now. This coming week is the Bisbee “Black
and Blue” tournament. The marina is full of the big boats and the pressure is on. Cabo is a
happening place this weekend and next weekend looks to be hopping as well! Let’s hope the
fishing remains good! Until next week, Tight Lines! This weeks report was written to the music
of Robert Earl Keen on his C.D. “Live-Number 2 Dinner”, 1995, BMI Music. Special thanks to
Greg Hurt for the copy! Next time you’ll get a fish, Karma exists!
Fly Hooker Daily Catch Report Oct 6-13
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR OCTOBER 7, 2002
Today is the last day of fishing on the “Fly Hooker” for Dave Gilbertson and Hugh Levine.
They have had a lot of fun and have been moderately successful for the past three days. Today
the plan is to troll lure with hooks instead of teasers, two lures on their Newell reels and one on a
Tiagra. If they hook up a Dorado they will try and chunk up some more, they have saved the
leftover bait from yesterday to use as chunks. Anything else, such as Marlin, they will try to hook
up either on the lures or, if possible, on the fly gear. The action was a bit sow during the day, but
they did have three Striped Marlin come into the lures. Only one gave a decent hit and it did not
hook up. They brought a nice 30 pound Dorado to the boat, pulled him in tight and then tried to
chunk up some followers, in case there was a school there. As the chunking was going on Hugh
kept casting out and working poppers back to the boat. Unfortunately there were no other fish
interested so they released the Dorado and continued the search. There was no other action for
them though, and they returned to the Marina flying a Dorado and release flag. Thank you Dave
and Hugh, you are true gentlemen and we enjoyed your company very much. Tight Lines on your
next adventure!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 8 OCTOBER, 2002
Don Cartner is back! He has brought Vance with him again and another friend whom we have
not met before, Greg (Wahoo) Cheney. Greg Hurt came also but he had to leave today. They
fished the last two days aboard another boat and that is how Greg got the nickname “Wahoo”.
The first day of fishing he caught a Wahoo estimated at 70-80 pounds. Made for a great dinner!
Today they would really like to catch some meat and have a chance at a big fish, so Juan and
Manuel tried their best. Early in the day they caught two Dorado of about 15 pounds each and
then at 1:30, about three miles out of the Marina they decided to slow troll some live Caballito.
They used one of our TLD25’s loaded with #40 line, one of Don’s Penn Intl. 30’s loaded with
#40 line and another one loaded with #30 line. A blue Marlin showed up about 5 minutes after
the baits were put out and picked up the bait on the Penn 40# that Vance was holding. It then
swam over to Don’s bait and ate that one, on the #30 line! When it ate Don’s bait it let go of
Vance’s bait so it was only hooked on one line. Don set the hook and was kind enough to let
Vance have the workout! The fish only jumped a couple of times and from then on the fight was
down and dirty. Vance worked the fish hard, every minute of the fight going at it standing up, not
in the chair. At 3pm Juan called me on the cell phone to let me know that they were hooked up
and he was not sure what time they were going to get in. Eventually, after a fight lasting 2 hours
and 15 minutes, Vance was able to get the Blue Marlin to the side of the boat and get a tag placed
in the fish. The estimated #175 Blue Marlin was released to fight again another day. Everyone
was beat when they got in and Vance was pumped! Tomorrow is another day and we look
forward to seeing what kind of action happens then!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR OCTOBER 9, 2002
Don, Greg and Vance were out again today and boy, did they end their fishing with a bang!
Again, Juan and Manuel decided to fish the Pacific side of the Cape, and they did not have to go
far to find action. It started with the bait. They picked up 10 Caballito as they left the Marina and
then Juan put out some very small pink skirts and they caught a few Skipjack that were about 3
1/2 pounds. Juan rigged two of them and they proceeded to troll the baits. It was not long before
one of the smaller baits was eaten by a nice 35 pound Bull Dorado. I believe Vance was the
angler on that fish. A few minutes later they had a strike on another bait. It was Don’s turn and
he spent about 25 minutes subduing an estimated #250 pound Blue Marlin! The fish was tagged
and released. A few more Dorado were caught on the smaller baits and then Greg got to tangle
with a Striped Marlin estimated at #120! This fish put up quite a show on the surface, unlike the
Blue that Vance caught yesterday. Don thinks that he may have gotten some good shots of this
fish! At the tail end of the day they got a report over the radio of some Tuna action not too far
away and Juan and Manuel ran the boat to where the Porpoise were. On the first pass they had a
double strike and got one of the #30 fish in the boat. Let’s see, two Marlin flags, two release
flags, four Dorado flags and a Tuna flag. That sounds like a pretty darn good day to me! Thanks
guys, Don, you have been a pleasure to spend time with, as has everyone you brought with you.
Mary, Juan, Manual and I look forward to seeing you here in Cabo next year! Until then, Tight
Lines!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 10 OCTOBER, 2002
Our friend and repeat client Andy Thaler fished with us again, this time just for one day. Andy
did a solo trip today, I wish I had been able to go along! There was not a lot of action, but it was
quality time. Juan and Manuel wanted to get Skipjack for bait again but could not catch any, so
they had to use lures and the normal Caballito. It was not long into the trip when the lure on the
bridge rod got a hit. Andy had been relaxing on the engine cover, the lures had just been put out
and he was starting to settle in when it happened. All of a sudden the engines sped up and Juan
and Manuel started yelling. Juan is holding the rod out, handing it down to Andy when he let’s
him know, “It’s a big one!”. Right away Andy got in the chair, and as soon as the fish stopped
it’s first run and finished doing the “Windshield wiper” show, he started to work on the fish. It
took him 45 minutes to get the Blue Marlin to the boat where Juan could put in a tag, and then
another two or three minutes for Juan and Manuel to get the hook removed, but eventually they
were able to watch the Blue Marlin, estimated at #350, swim powerfully away. Back into the
water went the lures and about an hour later a Wahoo decided to strike a custom made lure in the
Bleeding Mackerel pattern. It did not take long for the very large Wahoo to cut through the
mono leader and take the lure. Several Blue Marlin came into the pattern a little while later, but
none of them hit a lure or tried to eat a Caballito dropped back to them, but they did find a
Sailfish that was hungry. Andy was able to best that fish in about 15 minutes and said he was
happy it was not another big Marlin, his arms were tired! They saw a Striped Marlin on the
surface but could not get it to eat and then the day was over. A Marlin flag, a Sailfish flag and
two release flags, not too shabby! Thanks Andy, and thanks for treating for dinner at the “Fish
House” as well, that was great! We hope to see you again next year!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR OCTOBER 11, 2002
Tom McHugh fished out of San Jose last year and managed to get a 90 pound Yellowfin Tuna,
not exactly a small fish, but not the Billfish that he was looking for. This year he wanted only a
Marlin, after all, that is supposed to be the main species here in “The Marlin Capitol of The
World”. He chose us to go fishing with because of recommendations from other clients of ours
from his home area in Anchorage, Alaska. He left the Marina this morning accompanied by his
friend Nora, and Juan and Manuel took off up the Pacific coast, headed to the area known as Los
Arcos. This was about an hour run and when they got there the first fish to hit was a 10 pound
Dorado. Nora reeled in this fish and Tom reeled in the next one of the same size, then a couple of
15 pounders. Headed offshore, these fish were caught on the way out. A short while later
Manuel spotted two Striped Marlin tailing on the surface and live bait were pitched out. One of
the baits was eaten, it was the one on the Shimano TLD50 2 Speed and it took Tom only about
10 minutes to best this fish, which both Tom and Juan estimated at 80-90 pounds. The fish was
tagged and released. The Marlin search continued, mostly looking for a bigger Blue Marlin, but
they had no luck finding one. Tom was happy anyway, he had finally gotten the Billfish he had
been looking for, and he had some good fillets to take home with him! Thanks Tom ,and maybe
next time it will be the big one!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 13 OCTOBER, 2002
Ed and Paula Weise are back in Cabo and they have brought George Cunningham and his wife
with them. They are fishing for three days and the targets are to be Marlin and Tuna. Today they
got neither of the fish they were looking for to the boat, and as a matter of fact, did not even see a
Tuna. Juan and Manuel took them up the Pacific side, out towards Golden Gate banks. They
hooked and brought in one decent Dorado that they kept for dinner and released two small female
Dorado as well. Later on in the trip they spotted a Striped Marlin on the surface and tossed a bait
to it. The fish took the bait and the fight was on. During the hour and a half, everyone got a
chance to fight the fish, including Juan! Eventually the line broke and the estimated 130-140
pound fish swam away. Perhaps tomorrow they will get a tag into one! The water was a bit
rough up there today and everyone felt a bit seasick so we hope it lays down tomorrow. Until
then, Tight Lines from George, Mary, Juan and Manuel, the “Fly Hooker” Crew
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