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Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Capt. George Landrum
April 9, 2001
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report
"Fly Hooker" Daily Fish Report
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 2-6 APRIL 2001
I guess that this is actually a boat report as opposed to a fish report. The “Fly Hooker” has been down for 8 days as we attempted to get the port engine head repaired and replaced. We were supposed to have received the head from La Paz on the 2nd, but they must have meant Mexican time because it did not arrive into Cabo until the pm. In La Paz the machine shop had reamed and replaced the #2 cylinder injection tube. Upon arrival here the guys in the shop in Cabo said that bad valve seals had caused the original problem and they all needed to be replaced. No problem, they have valve seals here! Unfortunately, it would take all day to get them replaced; the head was not ready until 8pm on the 4th. By then our mechanic had given up for the day and gone home. I was a bit upset over this, as we had a trip on the 5th that I was hoping to have the boat ready for. Mary got hold of our angler for the 5th and we were able to find another boat for him. I contacted another mechanic and asked him to be at the boat at 9:30 in the morning. Whoops, guess I stepped on some toes by doing that! The replacement mechanic showed up at 9:30 and looked at the head and the engine for 30 minutes then said he would go get his tools and be back. At 11:30 he showed up with a bucket of tools and said that now he needed to take the parts to the shop and clean them and he needed 100 pesos for cleaning fluid. At 1pm he returned, having cleaned the diesel injectors, following cams and all other parts in gasoline! He placed the head gasket in place and all the seals then said he had to go get the special tool (socket) needed to torque the head bolts down. He had been gone for 30 minutes when I told Juan to go get Renee, our original mechanic. I was tired of the clown who so far had spent 5 ½ hours to get a three-hour job done, and still had not gotten to torque the head! The clown returned and so did Juan with Renee and after a brief altercation Renee proceeded to finish up the installation job. It only took him an hour to get everything set up and we were there until midnight trying to get the engine started. Everyone was tired, our angler for the 6th had not shown up or called and was not registered in the resort he had said he would be in so we decided to continue in the morning when everyone had rested and had a fresh mental attitude. Ed Burrell from Prudhoe Bay had still not gotten hold of us, even though he had reserved the boat. Our fault for not getting a deposit but then again, the boat was not ready yet. We were there with another boat for him. After several hours work, replacing all the cables and rebuilding the starter we got the rebuilt engine started and ran a no-load test in the slip, then took it out on a test run. Everything works! Yay! We have trips scheduled for the next two days; now that the boat is working we just have to hope the fish are biting!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 7 APRIL 2001
Kevin Booth, his brother Bob, Harold Martin and his son Brandon are the anglers on the “Fly Hooker” for the next two days. They just want to catch fish and discuss the day’s plans with Juan on the way out. Inshore fishing has been slow and they would like to get some fish to take home with them so it is decided to go out for Tuna. Manuel head out to the southeast where there have been reports of Yellowfin being caught in with the porpoise pods. At a distance of 28 miles they finally hit blue water and the temperature was up to 70 degrees. There were the porpoise and the boats that were already there had been having good action. It was crowded by the time Juan and Manuel got the “Fly Hooker” into the fish but they proceeded to get a few strikes. I believe it was Kevin that got the chance to fight, and then loose the biggest of the day. Juan said that based on the drag on the reel and the strength of the fish he felt the Yellowfin would have been about 80lb. Of course we will never know because the hook pulled. Hey, it may have been 200+! That’s the good thing about the ones that get away. Both the Martins got to get a fish in the boat; both of their fish were I the 25-pound category. There was one other strike, this one on a Rapala CD but one of the treble hooks opened up after a few seconds into the initial run and the fish escaped. That was the action for the day, but tomorrow is another chance! Until then, Tight Lines!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 8 APRIL 2001
The second day of fishing for the Booths and the Martins was uneventful. Juan and Manuel took the “Fly Hooker” back to the same area in the hope of being the first boat to get to the porpoise, but they had moved out of the area. Today the temperature change to 70 degrees occurred just 15 miles out as opposed to the 28 miles yesterday! When they arrived at the 28-mile mark the water temperature had gone up to 72.9 degrees! That was just great but there were no fish in the area. About mid morning they arrived in an area where a large patch of seaweed had been found, but there were 10 boats working it. There were plenty of Dorado in the seaweed but only the first three boats to the patch had been able to get any of them to bite. The “Fly Hooker” worked the patch for a while then continued the search. No luck was had today, the water was beautiful but the fish had disappeared. I wonder if the fact that the full moon was today had anything to do with it? Sorry guys, I wish we could control the fish and the weather. I hope the next time you have better luck, and have fun golfing tomorrow! Until next time, Tight Lines!
Cabo San Lucas Fish Report
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR APRIL 2-8, 2001
Capt. George Landrum
“Fly Hooker” Sportfishing
[email protected]
WEATHER: We have finally gotten the nice weather that we have been praying for. The wind blew for the first two days this week and then it got warm and the wind disappeared. We have had sunny days all week and the daytime temperatures have been in the high 70’s to high 80’s, nighttime in the mid to low 70’s. No rain this week but things are still looking pretty green down here.
WATER: If the nice weather continues maybe the warmer water will move in and the fishing closer to home will improve. We have still had cold water close in all week, with the temperatures close to home being in the 60-63 degree range. There was a large area of warm water on both the Pacific side and the Sea of Cortez side but you had to travel at least 40 miles out to get there. That was in the beginning of the week, as the days wore on the warm water began to move closer in, yesterday we were seeing 70 degree water as close as 28 miles on the Sea of Cortez. My normal Sea Temperature provider, Terrafin.com, has had satellite problems this past week and I have been unable to follow the movements of warm and cold water in areas we have not fished.
BAIT: We have had the normal availability, a mix of both Mackerel and Caballito at $2 per bait. There have been very few Sardinas available, you had to be the first boats out to get any this past week, when you did get them they were the usual Cabo price of $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: It looks as if the Striped Marlin bite might pick up soon. With the warm water coming in closer, that will help a lot. We saw a few fish at the beginning of the week and as the weekend drew near, along with the full moon, there were more fish seen but fewer bites reported. Best results were had by boats pitching live bait to fish found on the surface. There were reports of a strong Striped Marlin bite up in the east-cape area but not a lot was happening here.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The normally dependable Gordo banks area was suffering from very cold water and an occasional day of high winds this week and there were few reported Yellowfin from that area. Instead, most of the Tuna reported were coming from Porpoise pods located well to the southeast of Cabo, out in the warmer 70-degree water. Having to travel from 2 to 3 hours to get to the fish was a deterrent for most of the boats as was the fact that just because they were in one area on one day did not mean that they would be there the next. Most of the fish were football to 35 pounds. A few nicer ones in the 60-100 pound range were caught and there were reports of several that might have gone 200+ pounds reported hooked up. Boats using cedar plugs in both 6” and 9” size, feathers in green/yellow and Blue Mackerel Rapalas in the CD18 SS model had best results.
DORADO: A few scattered Dorado were reported close to shore on the Sea of Cortez side, but there were no concentrations found. The boats fishing near-shore for Yellowtail and Sierra caught the fish that were found. Average size was 8-10 pounds with an occasional fish to 20lbs.
WAHOO: No reported Wahoo for this week.
INSHORE: Everyone thought that the Yellowtail bite was going to take off when the cold water moved in, but it has been pretty much a hit and miss fishery this past week. Remember last week when I reported that the bite seemed to be concentrated on the tide change? Well, that changed this week and it seemed that there was no one time frame during the day when the fishing was better. Most inshore anglers were lucky to get a half-dozen Sierra, an Amberjack or two and possibly one or two Yellowtail during a half-day trip. There were good reports as far as Bonito and Skipjack fishing go and these fish provided a lot of action for people who were not looking to fill the cooler with fillets. They provided good action when using 12-20 pound test gear as some of the Bonito were going up to 15 pounds in size. Bottom fishing was scratchy but there were a few boats reporting decent catches of Triggerfish and Snapper, caught mostly on red crab.
NOTES: No, the Charter business is not for sale, just my house! We are not leaving Cabo but since we live here fulltime we were not able to get a U.S. Mortgage on the home. If you are interested it is 8 blocks from the marina, 2-½ bed, 2-½ bath, 1,800 sq. ft. 2 story 14 year old home with an existing bank trust in place. My equity is 30,000 with a balance due of 55,000 in 60 days. Or hey, offer me a loan! I’m willing to pay 12% on a 5-year simple interest loan and will place the lender on the trust as 1st beneficiary! Thank you, that just saved me from having to answer another 25 e-mails this week. Until next week,
Tight Lines!
Capt. George Landrum
“Fly Hooker” Sportfishing
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
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