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Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Capt. George Landrum
February 11, 2002
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report
Cabo Fishing Report for Feb 4-10
Capt George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 4-10, 2001
WEATHER: It rained on Tuesday! Very unusual for Cabo, that’s for sure. We had scattered,
spitting rain most of the day, enough to wet everything down, water the plants, wash the cars and
make the desert green again. On Wednesday the sun came back out after three overcast days.
Sure was nice to see that again, and now our tourists will be able to go home with tans. The
temperature stayed between a high of 80 and a low of 58, not a bad range. (The Boys of
Summer)
WATER: Temperatures have ranged from 65 to 76 degrees this week. The warmer water was
touching the tip of the cape at the beginning of the week and has now moved offshore a ways.
There is a 76 degree hotspot south of the Cape 30 miles. Gordo banks and both the 95 and 1150
spots did have temps in the 73 range and the water near shore has cooled down to 69/71 degrees
with the cooler water on the Sea of Cortez side. Surface conditions have been good on both sides
of the Cape with the swells at 2-4 feet and a bit of chop offshore. (You Can’t Make Love)
BAIT: The normal Mackerel and Caballito at $2 each but there were no Sardinas here in Cabo
this week that I heard of. (Man With A Mission)
FISHING:
BILLFISH: As far as I am aware there were only two areas that were kicking out Striped
Marlin on a regular basis this past week. Nearest to Cabo was the 95 spot where during the early
and mid week boats were spotting 2-8 fish per day on the surface. Tossing live bait resulted in
getting one or two of the fish to the boat. Later in the week I heard reports that the area 38 miles
south was swarming with Striped Marlin and there was not a problem getting all the action you
wanted with some boats releasing up to five fish in a trip. A bit of a long distance but worthwhile
if that’s what gets you going. Again it was mainly a live bait bite although plenty of fish were
caught on lures. Elsewhere most anglers were lucky to spot a Marlin. (Building the Perfect
Beast)
YELLOWFIN TUNA: A few boats had consistent action on the football size fish and I know that
a few others came in with some real hogs, all from fishing the scattered Dolphin pods. Most of
these fish were caught on cedar plugs and 6’ feathers. Some of the Pangas also found footballs
around two miles offshore in the blind. The offshore fish in the Dolphin were scattered out, there
was no concentration and the schools moved from day to day. (All She Wants To Do Is Dance)
DORADO: A few fish were found this week but no one was coming in with a big catch. Most of
the fish were caught in with the Yellowfin and a few were caught near shore by boats looking for
the Sierra. Average weight was 12 pounds with only a few in the 30 pound class. Small feathers
and plugs were working and the brighter the colors the better. (Sunset Grill)
WAHOO: Same as last week, “What Hoo?” (Drivin’ With Your Eyes Closed)
NEARSHORE: This is where the meat action was concentrated the past week. The Sierra
showed up in force and most of the boats that wanted them were able to easily limit out (?) by
mid-morning. The fish were very close in and were nailing practically anything you put out there.
Mixed in with the Sierra were a few scattered Dorado and a lot of Jack Crevalle. Good action all
the way around. Not only that but there were a few scattered Roosterfish as well, some up to 20
pounds. With the Sierra biting so well not a lot of the boats were trying the bottom fishing but for
those that did the bite was on as well. Snapper to 10 pounds and Grouper in the same size range
made up most of the bottom catch but there were some Amberjack mixed in as well. (Land Of
The Living)
NOTES: My pick for the week as far as the fishing is concerned would have been either a Marlin
trip or inshore action. That is hindsight though, it’s always right! No predictions for the coming
week but I hope the Tuna action picks up. My boat has the port engine going back in on Monday
so I am looking forward to some fishing action. There are a lot of whales now and you have to be
careful and keep a sharp eye out for them, it sure can ruin a day to hit one with the boat. This
weeks report was written to the music of Don Henley on “Building The Perfect Beast”, 1984,
Geffen Records.
Fly Hooker Daily Report
“FLY HOOKER” WEEKLY REPORT
Notice that the title of this weeks report doesn’t say “fish”? Well that is both good and bad,
depends on how you look at it. Not that we haven’t had a chance or three to go out this week,
but sometimes there are priorities. In this case it was taking care of the boat.
For the last several weeks we have had a fresh water leak in the port engine and the mechanic
we had working on the problem turned out to be a good wrench turner but not a very good
diagnostician. First he replaced hoses, then he replaced the raw water pump, then he replaced the
heat exchanger, then he pulled the exhaust manifold and did a pressure test on it. No problems
with any of the things he replaced other than some worn hoses and we were still leaking water!
Time for a new mechanic.
Our starboard engine was rebuilt several years ago by Keiti and we have never had a problem
with it so it looked as if this was the guy we needed! Keiti came to the boat, we took it on a
check out run and he spotted signs that told him what the problem was. Oh-oh, a major problem
at that. On the 1st of this month we took all the hoses and wires of the engine and unbolted it
from the stringers and detached the transmission from the shaft. Over to the travel-lift on one
engine and just like at the dentist office they pulled the engine like a tooth, quick, fairly painless
but expensive. A one hour minimum charge for the crane at $150 an hour, ouch, give me some
novocaine quick!
It did not take long on Saturday for Keiti to get the engine torn down and show us the
problem. He checked the main bearings and the camshaft bearings and they were all in good
shape. The cylinder sleeves have rubber o-rings on the lower exterior that keep the water out and
on one of the sleeves the o-rings were torn up. The exterior of all the sleeves were corroded, far
more than they should have been with the hours on the engine since the last rebuild. Keiti said
that the guy that did the work last time may have placed used sleeves that looked sort of ok in the
block instead of new ones and the corrosion destroyed the o-rings. Cheap for him but expensive
for us. He also showed us that the piston rings needed to be replaced since we already had the
engine apart. A very good thing that we had a complete gasket set already on hand and that
Keiti’s father was able to get us new cylinder sleeves on Saturday. The rings gave us a bit of a
problem, no one here in Cabo had a set for the engine at a reasonable price, the best we could find
here (in fact the only ones) were priced at $400 for the set (that’s dollars, not pesos!). By the
way, the engines are Detroit 4-53 n/a so if you happen to be coming down anytime soon.....This is
where it gets a little crazy in Mexico if you have to order something.
First there is the phone call to Mazatlan and you have to wait for someone there at the parts
store who actually knows anything about parts and is willing to share the information. Next is the
description of what you need and the wait while they check the stock room. All right, they have it
in stock and can get it out on the evening flight, great. Next they give you the account number at
the bank where you need to make the deposit for the parts before they will ship them and they tell
you how much you need to deposit. No problem, you run to your bank and cash a check for the
amount needed and go to their bank and deposit the cash and get a signed receipt. Back home
because now you need to fax a copy of the receipt to the parts store to prove you have paid for it.
They acknowledge receipt and send it out that evening. All right, it will arrive Sunday morning in
San Jose at the airport at around 9am. Great, except the parcel service is closed on Sunday so we
can’t get the part until Monday. No problemo, Monday morning Mary is there to get the part but
has to call Mazatlan again to get the airbill number so the staff can find the package and verify
that it belongs to us. Oh yeah, freight at only $17 is a bargain but you got to have cash!
With all the materials on hand Keiti said that we should have the engine back together on
Tuesday for a bench test and back in the boat on Wednesday for a test run. Oops, Tuesday is a
federal holiday and looks like it is going to take one day more than we figured so we are looking
at getting the engine back in the boat on Thursday, hurray!
This is a boat engine and we are in Mexico so of course it was too good to be true. We knew
that and planed for delays like this.
Wednesday rolls around and we go over to the mechanics yard to find out how things are
going, must be ready for the bench test any time now, right? Well Señor George, we found
another problem that was not obvious to us when the engine was standing on end. Once we put
her down where the top is up we found that the inner two bearings on the cam follower shaft are
too loose and had caused a weal on the inside of the bearing that blocked oil flow. Good thing
we found that because it could have cause major problems down the road. Ok, great, at least we
can get it fixed, no problem, let me check in town for new bearings. Know what happened? Yep,
no one here had the right size, but they could order them for us. In this case Keiti was able to get
things worked out. A small lurch in the progress that set us back a day but no problem, better
safe than sorry! All right, now the target date is Friday. Bench test in the morning, put the engine
in at noon and test the engine in place for an hour under way. Now we’re cooking!
Fast forward to Friday. Call from Keiti. Señor George, one more thing, but I promise it’s the
last! As he was placing everything back in place he found a seal that had allowed an oil leak that
had caused a cracked bushing. Ok, new seal and bushing. Back to the local parts store. This
time they had the seal and the price wasn’t too bad! Bad news on the bushing though, the closest
one was in La Paz. If we wanted it they could have it here by 10am tomorrow. Let’s see, have it
here by 10am, engine together by 1pm, bench tested by 3pm and back in the boat by 5pm, all
right! Yep guys, order that sucker for us and we will be here to get it at 10am, on the dot.
Oh no, you guessed already? What, you have ESP or something? Maybe you have tried to get
boat parts before? 10am and no part, but the manager said that it will be in by 11am. Mary is
parked outside the store with a book. Ah-ha, may have done this before? At 11am the manager
says just one more hour please, and again at noon the same refrain. Sure is a good book, Dean
Koontz “In The Corner Of His Eye”, nice and thick, should last a long time. At 12:30 Mary goes
in and lets the manager have a piece of her mind, reminding him that he promised the part there at
10am and we have had a mechanic standing by waiting for it. Oh...oops...out the store the
manager goes, back at 1:15 with the part. Appears that the courier service had it at their office all
morning and just hadn’t gotten around to delivering it to the parts store yet. Amazes me what an
angry woman can accomplish! Back to the mechanics yard and he is gone to work on another
problem elsewhere. Oh well, we find it wouldn’t have made a difference anyway, the crane does
not work on the weekends.
All the parts have been delivered and paid for, with our fingers crossed we believe the boat will
be working with two engines Monday afternoon. Juan and Manuel have cleaned the boat and
engine compartments, gotten Manuel a new captains chair for the bridge and had the bridge rail
fixed. Mary and I have relearned the game “Scrabble” and have been playing three or four games
every afternoon with our friend Sandy from “Viva Cabo Hotel”. A few beers have been drunk in
the process and we have all agreed that it’s a fine life we live here in the “Marlin Capitol of the
World”, Cabo San Lucas!
Tight line to all of you and keep your fingers crossed for us! Until next week, much poorer but
with a better engine,
Capt. George Landrum, Mary, Juan, and Manuel, the “Fly Hooker” Crew
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