 |
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Capt. George Landrum
May 7, 2001
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report
"Fly Hooker" Daily Fish Report
“FLY HOOKER” DAILY CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING REPORT FOR 1 MAY, 2001
Jim Young and Roald Pettersen are our anglers for today and this is not the first time they have fished Cabo, but this is the first time with “Fly Hooker”. They would really like to catch a Marlin on this trip and they have booked three days on the boat. Today Juan and Manuel decided to work the areas close to home, from 1 to 7 miles out, as these are the ones that the Marlin have been reported in for the past few days. They have their fingers crossed that the coming full moon won’t put the jinx on the fishing. Strong winds last night appeared to have driven the Marlin further offshore along with the warmer water because all they were able to find was two football sized Yellowfin and a lot of Skipjack and Bonito. It was a rough day on the water but they did see one Marlin, but that fish was not interested in eating. Hopefully they will have better luck when they go again, the day after tomorrow. Until then, fingers crossed for Tight Lines!
“FLY HOOKER” DAILY CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING REPORT FOR 2 MAY, 2001
Kevin, Kelly and Jay booked direct with us last night and are looking forward to a day of fishing, well, at least Kelly and Kevin are! Jay is the designated beer drinker and video operator. The water has just gotten rougher; the wind did not die down last night at all. While I was lying in bed it sounded like we had a hurricane coming towards us! Even though the water was extremely rough the guys went fishing. Since the wind was coming off the Pacific side most of the boats headed out to the Sea of Cortez side, hoping for calmer water. It worked too, until they decided to come home, then it was an uphill, into the wind trip. The water on the Cortez side was calmer though and there were fish. The guys caught 4 Tuna, the largest about 20-25 pounds, plus they caught and released a very large number of Bonito. The surprise of the trip was Wahoo! One in the morning struck on a Marlin lure and after a long battle they got it close to the boat. Juan estimated the Wahoo at near 100 pounds as he got a good look boat side, just before he was able to get a gaff into the fish and it bit through the monofilament leader. Later in the day there was the surprise of another Wahoo strike and this one they got into the boat. At the dock it was decided that this fish was a solid 50 pounds, and it sure tasted good! They guys lost another fish that struck and it could have been another Wahoo, but they never saw the fish. Not a bad trip at all, and Kevin, Kelly and Jay took some fillets with them to have fixed for dinner. Not surprisingly they walked off the boat with the cooler of beer almost full! Jay said that between the fishing action and the rough water he never had a chance to get any drinking in! Maybe next time Jay, and until then, Tight Lines from the “Fly Hooker” crew.
“FLY HOOKER” DAILY CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING REPORT FOR 3 MAY, 2001
This is the second day of fishing for Jim and Roald and they are ready for action. The water on the Pacific side was still rough this morning so they headed out towards the Sea of Cortez. They got a little bit of a late start, but that just gave them a heads up on where the fish were. Everyone else had spread out looking for them and by the time Jim and Roald got out the areas holding fish had been found. 30 miles to the southeast of Cabo there was a warm water band and there were a lot of Marlin reported in the area. The “Fly Hooker” saw between 12 and 15 Striped marlin in a very small area, in single and double groups. Bait was tossed to them all, both Mackerel and Caballito, live, stunned and dead, but none of the fish wanted to eat! Jim, Roald, Juan and Manuel said there was so much squid in the water that in places it looked pink! While they were working the Marlin, in amongst all the squid, they were surprised to suddenly be surrounded by Porpoise, jumping and chasing the squid. At the same time the Yellowfin Tuna went on a feeding spree and the guys quickly gave up on the stubborn, closed mouth Marlin and got into the action with Yellowfin. Jim said it was one of the most amazing sights he had ever seen and it was not long before they were tired out from the non-stop fishing action. Roald was fishing so hard that he forgot which sandwich he had ordered and had almost finished Jim’s ham and cheese before Jim noticed! He got a lot of heat for that and it was decided that for the next trip both box lunches would be the same! I have no idea how many Yellowfin they caught and released, and everyone else lost track too! It was enough though, and they said that for the next trip they just wanted Marlin, as Roald has never caught one! We will keep our fingers crossed for you Roald! Until then, Tight Lines!
“FLY HOOKER” DAILY CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING REPORT FOR 4 MAY, 2001
Kurt Preston and friends were aboard the “Fly Hooker” for a day of fishing and the water had laid down a little bit over yesterdays conditions. With no wind last night the water had a chance to calm down. The strong wind did force the warm water out though, and the guys were lucky to be able to find some fish that were not too far away. Eventually they got to a large group of Porpoise and Yellowfin, but by the time they arrived there were plenty of boats already in the area. Juan said he counted 80 boats working the fish. They were able to get one Yellowfin out of the mess but were lucky enough to hook up to two Dorado also! Some good fish for the grill at home plus some nice fillets for dinner tonight! Thanks Kurt, we just wish there had been a little more action for you, maybe next time! Until then, Tight Lines from the “Fly Hooker” crew.
“FLY HOOKER” DAILY CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING REPORT FOR 4 MAY, 2001
O.K., this is it, Jim and Roads last day of fishing aboard the “Fly Hooker”. They leave tomorrow morning so if it is going to happen, it has to be today! Mary and I wished them luck as they left the dock and we could see Juan giving a bit of a prayer as they left the slip. They headed out to the same area they had spotted all the marlin in last time but this time the fish had moved a little further out and they did not get into them until they were 35 miles distant! Again they spotted Marlin all over the place and again, most of them were reluctant to eat. Most of them, not all of them! This time they did get a couple of strikes on the lures and this time they did manage to find one Striped Marlin that was hungry enough to eat a bait! Roald got a chance to prove his stuff and it took about 25 minutes of cheers and jeers for him to bring the feisty 120 pound Marlin to the boat. There were lots of jumping action from this fish and it was still full of life at the side of the boat. Juan was able to place a Billfish Foundation tag in the shoulder of the fish and upon the tag being placed the Marlin made a sudden lunge and the leader parted! All right, Tag and Release! Congratulation Roald, and I am sure that the release certificate you will receive will look nice in the frame with the picture of the fish jumping! Thanks Jim and Roald, and we look forward to getting a chance to fish with you again! Until then, Tight Lines!
Cabo San Lucas Bite Report
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR MAY 1-6, 2001
Capt. George Landrum
“Fly Hooker” Sportfishing
[email protected]
WEATHER: It has been an interesting week for us on the weather front. Early in the week we became the focus of some very strong winds as a high-pressure area formed up to the northwest of us and another formed down to the southeast. This funneled an eastbound frontal system directly over the top of us on Monday night, Tuesday and Wednesday. We had been receiving cloudy skies from this system and on Thursday we actually received a little rain. Thankfully the high pressure to the southeast moved away and the frontal system dropped to our south. Since Thursday the weather has steadily improved. There has been little wind in the mornings and the afternoon breezes have been primarily from the south or southeast. Highs have been in the low 90’s and the lows in the high 70’s.
WATER: Due to the system we had move through the area, the water on the Pacific side was extremely rough on Tuesday and Wednesday but began settling down on Thursday. Even the Sea of Cortez was very choppy during those days. Today is the sixth and I took a bus drivers holiday (we had a client cancel for the day and I went fishing). The water on the Sea of Cortez was calm and has cleared up quite a bit from the greenish color it received earlier in the week. The warm water was pushed way out to the southeast by all the wind in the frontal system but it is starting to get closer again as the weather has calmed. Low water temperatures on the Pacific have been in the high 60’s and the warm water about 30 miles to the southeast has been about 73 degrees.
BAIT: There has been a good mix of Mackerel and Caballito available all week and a few of the pangas have had Sardinas. The normal prices of $2 per large bait and $20 per scoop on the small stuff.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The good news here is that there are a lot of Striped Marlin around and there have been a few Blues reported caught this past week, even though the water was a bit cool for them. The bad news is that we have just gone through a full moon and even though the fish were out there, they were not often in the mood to bite. A few boats were able to find co-operating fish, but the majority of the fish found had their mouth zippered closed. More good news is that as the moon gets smaller the bite should pick up. If the fish follow the warm water and come in closer this week, the quartering moon should give us a great bite. All we have to do is keep our fingers crossed. The weather early in the week forced the warm water so far out that many times it required a trip of 30+ miles to find the fish. Today the bite seemed to pick up a bit and a lot of the boats were reporting getting strikes on lures, where early in the week the only bites were on live bait.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There are still plenty of fish out there and most of them have been coming off of the porpoise pods. These have been school fish for the most part and have rarely been larger than 35 pounds. Bigger fish were reported early in the week at Gordo Banks but the weather blew in the red crabs and the bite at the Banks became an occasional thing rather than the great fishing of last week. There were Yellowfin in the football class (10-20 pounds) in closer to shore but these fish were not mixed in with the porpoise and were mostly caught in the blind while on the troll. As has been the norm, best lures were cedar plugs and feathers in pink/white and purple. On the Banks Sardinas worked well early in the week but as the days wore on and the red crab moved in dead baits seemed to get the most action, with chunking providing the larger fish.
DORADO: Surprise! They seem to be starting to show up. Quite a few of the boats have been flying Dorado flags this week and some of them have been for pretty nice sized fish. They are not here in any concentration yet but it bodes well for the future. It’s possible that the frontal system and the associated rough water brought the fish in and they might stick around for a while. Best baits have been feathers and a few of the larger fish have been caught on Marlin lures.
WAHOO: Another surprise! Quite a few Wahoo flags this week and I have seen fish from the 100 pound range to the 40 pound range hit the decks this past week. Most of these fish were taken in the 40-50 fathom contour off Red hill and Grey Rock while trolling but some of them were reported from Gordo Banks also. Marauders and Magnum Rapalas run with wire leader were providing a lot of the fish but many more were lost when they struck lures run on monofilament line. Darker colors run close to the boat seemed to work very well.
INSHORE: A few Sierra and smaller Roosterfish were providing a little action but for the most part the inshore catch was limited to football Yellowfin, Skipjack Tuna and Bonito. Many of the Pangas resorted to going offshore in search of action after the weather calmed down on Friday.
NOTES: The house is off the market, looks like we are going to be able to work out something with the seller. Its getting warmer and we have not needed a jacket in the morning this week! Don’t leave valuables in your car if you rent one, take it all with you or better yet, leave it in your hotels safe. My van was broken into last weekend while parked downtown in the morning. I must just be stupid to have left them in there, but it is sure a hassle trying to replace all the documents that were in my bag. Firm answer from the Marina Manager, “No New Commercial Slips Will Be Allocated in the Marina!” Lots of people, the weathers great now, the fishing is good and the Charter companies are busy!
UNTIL NEXT WEEK, TIGHT LINES!
Capt. George Landrum
“Fly Hooker” Sportfishing
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
