Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Capt. George Landrum
February 7, 2005
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report
Cabo Bite Report
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT JANUARY 31-FEBRUARY 6, 2005
WEATHER: It seems that every week now we have had a little bit of rain, at least since the beginning of the year. This week was an exception, we did not have a little bit of rain, we had a lot! On Friday afternoon the clouds rolled in and it started raining. I had fished that day and it was a bit of a relief to not have to wash the exterior of the 50’ Viking. The last bit of it fell early Saturday morning. With the rain came wind, on Saturday it was kicking out of the NW in the morning and switched to the ESE in the afternoon. The rest of the week was nice, partly cloudy with highs in the low 80’s and lows in the mid 60’s for the most part although I did read 55 on my house thermometer on Wednesday morning.
WATER: The water was beautiful for most of the week except for Saturday, when swells from the ESE appeared out of nowhere. We all wondered if there was a Hurricane somewhere close! Those, combined with wind from the same direction, made the day a bit bouncy. The water on the Pacific side has remained cool. At the end of the week we were seeing temperatures in the 67-70 degree range with the warmer water within 5 miles of shore. On the Cortez side of the Cape the near shore water was the colder stuff with water out to 5 miles in the 70-71 degree range. Once past the five mile area it warmed to 72-74 degrees with a few spots up to 75 degrees. There was a pretty good break running NE to SW about 5 miles in front of Cabo and it ran just inside the 95 spot as well.
BAIT: Mackerel was the bait of the week as is usually the case this time of year. They could be obtained at the normal price of $2 per bait. There were also some Sardinas as well, but they were a bit pricy at $20 for a sparse bucket.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Just as was the case last week, the action on Billfish took place around the 95 spot, at least that was where the big concentration was. There were fish found closer to shore as well and also up the coast to outside the Gorda Banks. A few fish were caught by dropping live bait and drifting, but it seemed that more were caught on lures than live bait. One of the favorite colors this week was a Mackerel Green with Cream undersides. Most of the fish were averaging #110, but there were fish up to #180 caught. A friend of mine got one that size that had a bill curved like a hook! A good day produced three or four shots at a Marlin with at least one solid hook up and a great day was going four for four on them.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin Tuna continue to be out quite a ways with the main areas being between 20 and 35 miles to the south and south-east. They have been associated with Porpoise and most of the fish have been between 15 and 35 pounds. Trolling dark colored feathers and Cedar Plugs resulted in most of the hook ups, but chumming with Sardinas once you found the fish made for some light tackle excitement as long as the wind was not blowing too hard.
DORADO: The Dorado bite was still off but there were times when you cold do well. Most of the fish were found up toward the Gorda Banks area and the ranged in size from little shakers (5-8 pounds) to nice fish in the 15-30 pound class. Dark colored lures worked on them as I know from personal experience. Saturday we had three Marlin strikes, all on the Mackerel/Cream outrigger lure and five Dorado strikes, and all on a Purple/Black outrigger lure. Dropping back a live bait after a hook up resulted in more fish being hooked.
WAHOO: There were more Wahoo caught this week than last week and a few of them were nice size, in the 70 pound class. Dark colored lures were what most of them hit on but there was no concentration of fish; it was a matter of luck. The warmer water on the Cortez side of the Cape held the fish.
INSHORE: Sierra, Sierra, Sierra, those are the inshore fish of the week. The Pacific side of the coast has been going off from the lighthouse up to Migraino on fish from three to six pounds. Small green hootchies live Sardinas and small Rapallas have all been working well, just don’t forget to use wire leader!
NOTES: Lots of Whales this week, breaching mammals everywhere! Both Humpbacks and Gray Whales have been giving us lots of excitement. This weekend here in Cabo has been strange. It is Super bowl Weekend and it is also a federal election day on the 6th. That means that there can be no alcohol served between midnight Friday and midnight Sunday. The streets have looked like a ghost town! There are private parties taking place so everyone stocked up for them on Friday. Well, that’s it for this week. The music for the week was Edgar Winters on the album “Let it In”, and there is no finer was to wake in the morning than to the rocking blues! Until next week, Tight lines!
Daily Catch Reports
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 3, 2005
I fished today with Jay and Ted on the 46’ Hattaras. Jay has fished Maui four times looking for Marlin and finally managed to get one that weighed 148 pounds. Ted has never fished saltwater before. Jay wants to try and beat his record weight on Marlin and also try and catch a Dorado, Ted just wants to catch a fish. The water is in great condition with small swells from the NW and almost no wind at all. We started out pulling lures right off the Arch since there had been fish in the area a few days ago. We worked out about 6 miles and had no luck so I started us in toward the lighthouse. My deckhand heard on the radio that a Panga working that area had hooked up two Marlin, so off we went. When we arrived there were 9 other boats there, and all of them were drifting live bait. I decided to make a pass around them trolling lures while looking for the concentration on bait. Halfway around on the pass we got hit on the short outrigger and Jay got into the chair. His fish had one hook in the upper jaw and one fish in the lower so the fight was fairly quick. In about 20 minutes or less he had the Marlin to the boat for a release, and the healthy #140 Striped Marlin swam away to fight another day. We put the lures back in the water and as we finished the pass we had a strike on the shotgun line. That was a nice fish and really started screaming line out. As we started to pass that rod down for Ted we had another Marlin come up on the long rigger and take it. The rigger fish started jumping right away and just as it completed the first three jumps the shotgun fish came off. Ted settled into the fight and it took him about 35 minutes to work the fish to the boat for a good release. His fish was a bit smaller at around #130 but put on a great show for us! By the time we had released the second fish there were 30 boats in the area. We decided that if the fish were that concentrated we might have good luck with lighter line and live bait s we tried it for about an hour but did not have a bite. That was it for the day but even though we caught no other fish, the guys were very happy. So were my deckhand and I, it is nice to be able to catch what the client wants because it often doesn’t work out that way! Thanks guys, we hope to see you again next year.
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 4 FEBRUARY, 2005
Today I took the owner of the 50’ Viking and two friends out. Herb invited his regular guest John and also a friend, Richard. We had heard about some decent Yellowfin being caught yesterday out almost due south between 25 and 35 miles. Herb decided that he wanted to target them, take home some raw Tuna and of course John wanted to be reassured that there were still Tuna in the Cabo area. I got two buckets of Sardinas as well as five Mackerel in the morning and we were on our way at 7:30. It took us an hour to run out 25 miles. No sign of Porpoise and no boats stopped so we kept on going. At 36 miles I thought I saw some Porpoise breaking water in the distance so we made a slight turn. No sign of them when we arrived in the area but I decided to put the lines in the water anyway as we searched the area. After about 30 minutes I noticed three boats about five miles distant that were staying together and working toward us. It sure is nice to have good radar! We pulled in lines and cruised in their direction. About a mile before meeting them we spotted one Frigate bird working and then Porpoise under it. In went the lines and on our first pass both of the flat lines went off. Since we were fishing for Tuna all we had out were feathers and cedar plugs. The first fish to the boat was a small Skipjack but the second one was a decent 15 pound Yellowfin. The second pass resulted in another double strike but one pulled hook. John worked the fish I close and eventually the gaff was placed in a 35 pound Yellowfin. Back into the water went the lines. A few minutes later a Marlin came up on the short rigger feather. The Marlin knocked the line from the outrigger clip but did not hook up. Herb dropped back a live bait and the fish came in on it really fast and lit up! The bait was eaten and herb set the hook. Two jumps and the leader broke at the knot. Oh oh. By then the Porpoise and Frigate bird had disappeared. We continued to work the area for several hours and got another Marlin hooked up on the feather. Richard fought the fish for 7 minutes standing up and had to pass the rod off. Herb got on it and the fish was to the boat in about 10 minutes. A good release and then for the next hour we tossed bait to sleeping fish. We did have one more Marlin show an interest in a live bait but it did not eat. That was it for the day, the last hour we spent drifting live bait at the light house ledge, but the wind was beginning to come up and the drift was not all that great. I hope that next time we target Tuna we are able to get a few more in the box!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 5, 2005
I fished today again on the big boat and the water was no nearly as nice as it was yesterday! There was a big storm swell from the ESE as well as wind from the NE in the morning and the ESE in the afternoon. We started off at the 95 spot looking for Marlin. I spotted some good bait at 200 feet but then saw Porpoise and birds working about a mile away. Once I got there I saw good Tuna marks on the depth sounder but the fish were at 150-200 feet. We worked the Porpoise for about an hour with no luck. The clients wanted Marlin so we left the Porpoise and went in closer to shore off of the Westin. In that area we had a knock down on the long rigger, a Mackerel and Cream colored lure but the fish did not hook up. About an hour later we had a hook up on the same lure but the fish only jumped twice before throwing the hook. I turned up toward the Gorda Banks and got into some Dorado. Every one of the fish hit a purple/black lure on the short rigger. Out of five strikes we hooked four fish, releasing two small ones and keeping a 15 pound and a 25 pound fish. I turned the boat back toward the 95 spot and it was a nice downhill, downwind run. About five miles from the 95 we had a solid hookup on the same Mackerel/cream lure. This was a nice sized Striped Marlin and it did a lot of jumping and took a lot of line. After 25 minute we had the fish close enough to the boat to see it was tail wrapped and after unwrapping it we spent 15 minutes towing the fish by the bill while holing on through the transom door. Eventually the fish regained its energy and when it started kicking with its tail again we let it go. That was it for the day but the guys decided to book the boat for Monday as well. We sure hope the fishing is good!
We also had clients on a pair of 31 Bertram’s today, four guys to each boat. One of the boats got a Wahoo that was around 40 pounds while the other boat found two hungry Striped Marlin that were fought to the boat and released, as well as two Dorado that were kept. They fished the area of the 95 spot and closer to shore. Bill and his buddies have a few more days of fishing ahead of them so I’ll give more information on their fishing experience in next weeks report.
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 6 FEBRUARY, 2005
Three of the guys that fished the Bertram have yesterday decided to put in an extra day of fishing today. The water was much better than yesterday, almost like a lake. Of course the fish had moved. They started out at the 95 spot and had one fish hooked up before the line back-lashed and parted. That was on the clients gear. They then worked their way out to the 1150 and while they spotted more Marlin and tossed bait at them they could not find another hungry fish. I hope they have better luck tomorrow! Until next week, Tight Lines!
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