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Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Capt. George Landrum
February 28, 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 FEBRUARY21-27, 2005
WEATHER: Back to the rain once a week! That is not a bad thing as living in the desert is so much nicer when everything is green. Of course it can make being on the water uncomfortable if it comes with a lot of wind and the rain is heavy, but this week we had what I consider to be just enough! We had clouds move over the area Thursday night and started to get a bit of sprinkles coming down. On Friday it was cloudy all day and as heavy concentrations moved over us they let down a light rain every few hours. Everything is starting to bloom now. There was no wind to speak of with the rain so the conditions on the water remained good. The rest of the week was partly cloudy to sunny and our highs were in the high 70’s and the lows in the low 60’s.
WATER: Surface conditions on the Pacific side of the Cape were a bit lumpy this week and there was enough of a breeze most days to make it a little choppy as well, but most boats did not feel that as the water on the Pacific side was in the 68-69 degree range at the end of the week, at least out to the Golden Gate and San Jaime Banks areas. It warmed up just a degree or so past the banks. On the Cortez side there was warmer water to be found but you still had to get past the cold water that wrapped around the Cape. !0 miles to the south there was a temperature break that stayed there all week long and at the end of the week it had started to concentrate some fish. Out farther on the Cortez side the water warmed to 72 degrees, but you had to go a ways to get there, at least at the end of the week. There was still some lump on the water as the swells were at 2-4 feet, but there was almost no wind until Saturday, and then just in the afternoon.
BAIT: Mackerel was the bait of the week with the price at the normal $2 per bait. Sardines were not available here and were difficult to get even up in San Jose.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Marlin concentration that had been 24 miles off shore to the east last week continued to move to the east at about 5 miles per day, following the warm water edge the first piled up on. At the end of the week the fish were 50 miles out, just past the Cabrillo Seamount, and Captains were saying that if clients wanted to get into the hot Marlin action they were going to have to start doing overnight trips! There were still some Marlin closer to home in the warm water break to the south, but not in the great concentration the farther edge had provided. That concentration of Marlin provided some great action for the boats able to get there and stay for the tide change, with boats able to release 4-9 fish a trip. Some of the Striped Marlin were small fish, in the 40 pound class, but most of them were 120-140 pounds. We were able to get the full range with Marlin at #40 up to #180. Unless the currents change and bring the concentration back, we will be looking at the scattered fish closer to home this coming week. Lure colors that worked were the full range, but surprisingly the heaviest overcast day, Friday, the fish preferred bright colors and we had great luck with neon green and red/yellow.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There are Tuna beginning to show but they are still not here in great concentration or close to home. I saw several good schools breaking water mixed in with Dolphin and Marlin this week, but they were concentrating on the food and would not look at a lure or the live bait we had. If we had Sardines it may have made a difference. The fish were running between football sizes to #60, and there were a few boats able to get into fish to #80. Up past the Gorda Banks, out toward the Cabrillo Seamount, 25-35 miles to the south and out past the San Jaime Banks in the Pacific were where most of the schools were found. There were a few fish found in closer to home but not in any numbers. I saw a lot of white Tuna flags flying at the end of the week but upon talking with the anglers from some of the boats, the fish the flags were flying for were Skipjack Tuna, at least for the most part.
DORADO: There are still some Dorado out there, but the fish that were close to shore have moved on, the water is pretty cool. Most of the Dorado have been coming from the temperature break to the south, and a few boats were able to get hooked up to 4 or 5 fish per trip. The sizes are not large with the average 15 pounds, but there have been a few fish in the 30 pound class. This is pretty much the average size for this time of year.
WAHOO: Just as was the case last week, a few Wahoo were reported this week but there were no large amounts of them found, nor any large concentration of fish.
INSHORE: The Sierra bite slowed a bit this week, but that does not mean that they are not out there. It just means that you are not going out and loading the cooler in a couple of hours! It may take a bit longer than that, perhaps all day now. There is still a decent bite on Pargo, Grouper and a few Amberjack for boats bottom fishing. There are a few Yellowtail beginning to show up and of course there are loads of Skipjack close to shore, ranging up to 12 pounds in size.
NOTES: Whales, Dolphin and Turtles continue to keep everyone entranced until the fish bite. Surface conditions are great. I fished three days this week for a total of 12 Striped Marlin released. I golf in a couple of hours, hopefully I will be done in time to get to the radio station for the 6:00 program, I am supposed to talk about the Humboldt Squid tonight. Sitting at the computer listening to Credence Clearwater Revival on the 1991 Fantasy Records release “Chronicle; the 20 greatest hits” CD. Life is good! I think I’ll take one of my good cigars to the golf course and smoke it on the back nine; after all, I deserve it! 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 21, 2005
Dan Barrow and his wife along with another couple were our fishermen today and they were really looking forward to getting out on the water. While Marlin was not their primary target, they wanted some fish to eat and if a Marlin came along they would not turn it down! Well, they took off at 7am and headed out to the southeast. The captain of the boat told me that they went 17 miles out and found Porpoise. With no other boats around they had the fish to themselves for a little while, other boats started to show up then. Back in the marina at 12:30 with a full cooler, the action was enough that they were very happy. None of the fish were big ones, the largest of the catch was around 20 pounds, but there were enough of them to fill the fish box. Beside the fishing action they were kept entertained watching the whales and porpoise. Thanks folks, we are glad you had a good time!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 22, 2005
I fished on the big boat today with a group here from central California. The object for the day was meat fish as opposed to Marlin. Not a problem I thought, there have been Dorado inshore and we had a chance at finding, or at least hearing of, some Tuna as well. My idea was to head on up the Pacific coast to inside of the Golden Gate Banks area. Well, the two ladies were not sure about their sea legs and the guys were a bit hung over so we decided to try the Cortez side instead. We cruised on out, looking for some indicators and at about 10 miles northeast we found Dolphin. In went the lines and we worked them for almost two hours without a bite. I was metering some fish but not a lot and eventually decided to try the Outer Gorda Bank instead. We cruised over there and man, that spot was just packed with Whales. The ladies got a kick out of it as that was all they really wanted anyway. There was a concentration of Skipjack on the banks and we managed to get everyone hooked up to one of them over 30 minutes and then I got a call from a friend who runs a Panga out of San Jose about some Dorado a little farther up the coast. We trolled in their direction and found the concentration of Pangas. Every one of them was bottom fishing for Pargo, the Dorado bite had been earlier. Thinking that the bits of bait down current of the boats may have attracted some stray fish I made a couple of passes and sure enough, one Dorado of about 15 pounds pounced on a long rigger lure. It didn’t take long for the experienced angler to get the fish to the boat and Marko gaffed the fish and put it in the ice box. Back toward Cabo now as the time was running out. At five miles from the Outer Gorda we spotted a large pod of Dolphin and swung over to them. I metered a few fish and then all of a sudden the school popped up about 250 yards away! Nice fish in the 50 pound range were just pounding bait and then they went down as we were halfway there. With signs like this we stayed for a while! The fish popped up again about 10 minutes later and again went down before we got there. The Dolphin settled down and the fish stayed down for the next half hour, although we were still marking them deep, about 150 feet. They were moving around pretty good and then all of a sudden they were boiling just off out starboard side, not 50 feet away. A hook up was going to happen for sure, right? No way, we even dropped a live Caballito by the boil and did not get a hit. Folks, we tried everything we had. Maybe if we had Sardines we may have gotten hooked up, but even the little silver hootchies did not work. Well, at least everyone had a good time and they knew we had tried so the cruise back home was a smooth one with everyone having gotten to crank on a fish and no one seasick! I am fishing again tomorrow and will let you know what happens then.
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 23, 2005
Today on the big boat I had a couple from North Carolina. John helps a friend out on his charter boat and has done a lot of fishing, White Marlin on the east coast, fished Hawaii, Bahamas and now Cabo. Today the search is on for Marlin. One for John would be just great, but if we could manage to find one for his wife, Kim, to fight that would just be an added bonus. The bite yesterday had been out toward the Cabrillo Seamount, almost 40 miles out. We cruised out there and my plan was to stop about five miles short of where the bit had been yesterday and start the search. As we approached the area the water temperature started going up and in went the lines. On the cruise out I had talked to and listen to a few of the other Captains and we agreed to call each other if we found the fish. As we worked our way east a boat north of us hooked up. They quickly released a small Striped Marlin and then another boat hooked up. They lost the fish but I thought, great, we are in the right area! We spotted a small piece if 4x4 floating on the water and as we turned toward it got a knockdown on the stinger line. Marko reeled it in and the rigged Ballyhoo had been stripped off, just the head remained wired on. We worked the area for a while with no other action by anyone, and then I received a call over the radio from my friend Darcy. He said “See the freighter over here. You should get here; it’s going off with a good bite!” That was all I needed to hear and we raced to crank in the lines. Jeff, on one of the other boats had gotten the call as well and it was a sight to see, both of these big boats roaring off past the pack at 30 knots, heading 8 miles to the south. Man, are we glad Darcy called! As soon as we got near we could see the Marlin jumping! At first I thought that Darcy had called us in on Tuna action and these were Dolphin jumping all over the place, but then I realized that they were feeding Marlin! I marked fish from 150 to 200 feet so thick that they liked like a Tuna school. Before we had all the lines in the water we had a double strike. One of them fell off right away but John worked on the second fish, getting it to the boat in about 15 minutes. Now that he had his fish released it was time for Kim to get her shot at one. Once again not all the lures were in the water before we had one come up on the short rigger. Marko dropped back a bait but the fish faded away. With the number of fish were seeing we decided to leave the bait out for a few minutes and sure enough, not three minutes later we were bit! Kim fought the fish from the chair with 30 pound gear. It took her about 30 minutes but she was finally able to whip its butt and Marko grabbed the leader. The hook was in the corner of the jaw and we cut the leader about 5 inches away from the hook. Now we had two fish on the board and both John and Kim had caught one! By this time there were about five boats in the immediate area and everyone was enjoying the same kind of action. By 2:30 most of the boats had turned for home but we stuck with it a while longer, when you cruise at 25 knots that’s allowed! By the time we had to leave we had racked up two Striped Marlin for Kim (I’m not fighting another one, I’m supposed to be the Photographer!), both fought from the chair, and a grand total of seven, yep, count them, seven Striped Marlin for John, all fought stand up style! Four hours of non-stop action with nine Marlin released, and a few more that were hooked then lost. What a day! Thanks John and Kim, you had a chance to enjoy an outstanding day on the water, and Kim, I promised you Whales, didn’t I? If the fishing hadn’t been so good maybe I would have been able to get a little closer to those we saw blowing on the way home. Thanks guys, you were great! I am fishing again the day after tomorrow; I hope that we have some more good luck then. And Darcy, thanks buddy!!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 25, 2005
On the big boat today I had Lars and his wife Robin and their friend Rueben. Rueben’s wife was going to come along as well but since she felt a bit queasy after the airplane trip she thought that it might be better for all concerned if she just stayed back at the resort. The water was a bit lumpy out to 16 miles on the way out and the way back so that may have been a decision for the best. No one had any experience catching anything larger than a small trout and this was the first saltwater excursion for Rueben. Lars and Robin have been out before but without any luck. All they wanted to do was catch a fish. I explained to them that the best chance for that right now was Marlin, and while they were large fish, the right technique would enable them to bring one to the boat. The Dorado and Tuna had been spotty so we all decided the Marlin would be the target, if we caught something else that would be fine. I also told them that the fish had been quite a ways out the last week and it would be a run of at least an hour before we put lines in the water, so sit back with a cup of coffee and relax. An hour after starting out I started to see signs that the water was warming up, the surface temperature started rising from 69 degrees to 71 degrees. Some Whales spouted off in the distance and then some birds appeared along with a few Dolphin. We were five miles short of my goal but it looked fishy so in went the lines. Looking back on the radar I could see boats coming up. The Dolphin disappeared, the water started to cool down as we continued east and the boats that had been coming up behind us cruised on past. I continued on toward the east and at the original target area the water again began to warm. As soon as I saw the temperature at 72.5 degrees we spotted our first Striped Marlin. It was a sleeper and as we turned to approach it I pointed it out to everyone and warned them that the chance of this fish eating a live bait or striking a lure was extremely slim, but we always give it a shot anyway, one in a thousand might be in the mood to fill its belly. As usually happens with sleepers, it sunk out of sight as we came near. But at least everyone was awake and ready now!
About two miles in the distance I saw a boat hook up so we started to work the temperature break, from the southwest to the northeast. We quickly figured out that this was a hook shaped extension of warm water covering a distance of about five miles so we worked the edges. A few times I marked Marlin on the depth sounder as deep as 200 feet. For the next three hours we saw several sleepers, a few tailers and one of those was a giant fish we were unable to get to bite, plus we saw a couple of free jumping fish. We were 36 miles from the Marina and at around 12:30 many of the boats turned around and headed back. A bunch of the fleet boats had been working some Frigate birds with Dolphin under them but those of us with the larger boats did not want to get into the pack, sometimes they get a bit crazy gunning the boats and running to diving birds. As the pack thinned out I went toward the area. By the time I arrived there were only about five small boats still there and the fish began to go crazy, Tuna feeding and the Dolphin going nuts. In the mix I could see Marlin tailing and feeding as well. We had heard that some of the boats during the morning had gotten strikes from fish on bright colored lures, green/yellow being one of the better colors. That surprised me since we had heavy cloud cover, normally dark lures worked better. Knowing that things had been happening with bright colored lures I rigged a pin-rigged horse Ballyhoo behind a neon-green Illander lure and ran it in the shotgun position. On the first pass on the Dolphin we got nailed! The snap of the center rigger got the attention of everyone, but the fish failed to hook up right away. My deck hand for today, Armando, frees pooled the rig back another 15 feet then cranked it in fast for 30 feet. The Marlin came back on the rig and Armando raised the rod tip up high, let the fish eat the bait, lowered the tip as the fish ate, and then set the hook as the fish turned away. Hook up! Rueben was in the fighting chair and he went to work. Of course since it was his first fish it took a few minutes for him to settle down but then he got into the groove and worked the fish hard. We had a great series of jumps to start out but then the fish sounded. Another boat started to come across our stern but Armando waved them off. I was not worried about them so much as I was worried that one of the hundred or so Dolphin feeding around us would brush against the line and break it. After 20 minutes I forgot about worrying about the Dolphin because the fish was close enough to the back of the boat to be able to see it. Armando grabbed the leader and quickly removed the hook from the Marlin as we estimated its weight as right around 150 pounds. The fish had been bill wrapped and came loose easily. A couple of quick pictures of the fish alongside the boat then an easy release and there were high fives all around! Rueben was shot, and said that from now on he would coach instead of fight a fish! He got the chance fairly quickly.
We bobbed around for about ten minutes as I re-rigged with a new Ballyhoo and took a bathroom break. Armando got the rest of the gear set up and then off we went. I had just barely reset the teasers off the bridge reels and we had only gotten three lures out when the yellow/red plunger on the port corner brought the attention of another Marlin! Lars saw it first as its dorsal fin broke the water behind the lure. He yelled that there was a fish out there then we all saw the bill come out of the water as it charged the lure. The Marlin struck at the lure but only took about five yards of line before letting it go. Lars was in the chair so as soon as the fish struck Robin and Rueben had started to clear the other two lines in the water. Armando had dropped back a live bait as soon as the fish struck and let go, but the Marlin ignored the live bait and came back on the lure a second time. This time it stuck and took off in a series of grey-hounding jumps. No one was around us and the Dolphin had moved a bit to the south so I was not worried this time about getting cut off. Lars quickly settled into the rhythm of pumping and reeling as Rueben (the fish master) coached him along. It took only 15 minutes for Lars to bring his fish to the boat and it was a bit smaller than Rueben’s, about 120 pounds. Once again a quick couple of photos along the side of the boat then a release and once again there were high fives all around! It was 1:30 by now but we still had hope that one more Marlin would find our lures attractive and we could hook Robin up to a fish.
As Armando re-set our lures I looked around to see where the Dolphin and birds had gone to and could not see them. The few boats left had spread out searching for hungry fish. I headed a bit south in the direction they had been working when we first came into them and then I spotted one Frigate bird working in circles about 50 feet high. On the second pass under the bird the center line, with the rigged Ballyhoo, snapped out of the clip. This time there was hesitation again because the fish had only struck at the lure, not eaten it. Armando tried the drop back, reel fast attempt again without success. We put the rig back in the snap, ran it up and I made one more pass under the Frigate. By this time several other boats in the area had seen us working the bird and were headed over to us. Snap! The center rigger went off again and this time there was no hesitation as a very nice fish came out of the water shaking its head. We could tell by the size of the fish at that distance and the speed with which it was taking line that this one was a bit bigger than the other two. Robin was in the chair and thought she was doing something wrong since the fish was not stopping! As soon as the lines were cleared and I had the teaser up to the riggers we started to back up. Fro 10 minutes I continued to bump the engines in reverse, first the port, then the starboard, as Robin worked her way into a rhythm and slowly started to gain on the fish. Thank goodness the fish put on a good surface show during the fight, after 30 minutes Robin had the fish to the boat, tired from all the activity (both Robin and the Marlin). For the third time today we had pictures along the side of the boat and a healthy fish was released. Everyone had caught a Marlin and it was 2:30 in the afternoon. With feeding Marlin still in the area Armando put out a live bait as we went forward on one engine while getting everything ready for the 90 minute run back to the Marina. We were 36 miles out and at 4:00 had returned to the slip with three Marlin flags and three release flags flying. Lars, Robin and Rueben had a wonderful time and we really enjoyed their company on the water with us today! Thanks folks, and we look forward to you coming back to try it again some day!
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