Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Capt. George Landrum
April 7, 2003
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report
Cabo San Lucas Fsihing Report for Mar 31-April 6, 2003
Capt George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT MARCH 31-APRIL 6, 2003
WEATHER: What a strange week we have had. It was mostly cloudy all week except for
Saturday when the sun broke through for the whole day. On Tuesday and Wednesday we actually
had what might be considered rain (realizing we are in a desert and if it speckles the windshield
we run for cover). Our high temperatures were in the mid 80’s and the lows in the low 60’s.
Winds from the northwest, gusting to 20 knots on some afternoons but nice and calm in the
mornings. (Are You Ready For The Country?)
WATER: The water on the Pacific side was choppy and sloppy almost all week long and on the
Sea of Cortez we had flat water between Cabo and San Jose. Past San Jose it was big swells and
very choppy until Saturday when we had good water up there. The Pacific calmed down a bit too
and was fishable but a bit sloppy. The water is warming up and we were getting temperatures
ranging from 74 degrees out by the Cabrillo Seamount (slightly off-color water), 71-72 out to 15
miles on the Sea of Cortez (beautiful blue water) and 68-71 on the Pacific with the colder water in
a band out to 15 miles offshore (blue water offshore, greenish close in). (Out On The Weekend)
BAIT: No problem getting bait this week and for those wanting smaller Caballito, there were
plenty available (nice for the Dorado and Yellowtail). The Mackerel were not showing up in the
bait tanks often but there were a few around. The normal $2 per bait. (Harvest)
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I guess the new moon phase worked out for us as the Marlin bite picked up this
week and the fish are closer to home. The action moved down from the Punta Gorda, Gorda
Banks area and the fish are now being found at the 95 spot and just to the southeast of the Cape.
Some of the fish are going to almost #180 and the best bite has been on dark lures (black/green,
black/red, black/blue) or live bait, with lures out catching bait this week for most of the boats.
Fish found on the surface have mostly been sleepers, not tailers. A few Blue Marlin to #400 were
caught this week and as the water continues to warm, there should be more of them hooked up.
(There’s A World)
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Fish of the week again, the Yellowfin were out there all week long, but it
was choppy and sloppy water! Ranging from 8 to 25 miles offshore and from outside the Gorda
Banks all the way around to the Golden Gate, fish in the 40-80 pound class were found with the
Dolphin. The bite dropped off, way off, on Saturday as soon as the skies cleared and the wind
died down, but a few boats were still able to get into the fish. As with the Marlin, dark colored
lures seemed to produce the best and swimming plugs such as Marauders were a favorite when
rigged on #150 mono leader with a chaffing thimble. A few fish in the 100-200 pound class were
found as well, but as last week, these were mostly blind strikes on the troll. (Heart Of Gold)
DORADO: The bite has continued to pick up on Dorado as the water warms up, and the fish
seem to be getting bigger every week. A lot of fish in the 35+ class were hitting the decks this
week and most of them were found associated with floating objects. A number of kelp paddies
have been found and targeted with the better captains keeping track of their drift in order to find
them the next day. Working the floating debris with live bait produced some very nice catches
this week. Finding a fish on the troll and using a drop-back live bait has also been producing well
as most of these larger fish are traveling in pairs. Lure size has not really been an issue with these
bigger fish as they are hitting the same lures pulled for Striped Marlin and Tuna, but they are also
going for bright colors. (Alabama)
WAHOO: Few Wahoo were encountered this week but there were some. Most of them were
caught around floating debris and a few were found on the edge of the San Jaime Bank. (Words)
INSHORE: The great Yellowtail bite we had been having dropped off mid week and now you
really have to scratch hard to get a fish or two. Live bait has been the trick and the smaller the
better. Roosterfish are beginning to show a bit better on the Sea of Cortez beaches, but no really
large ones yet, most of them have been 5-15 pounds. As the water continues to warm, the bite
should get better and the fish larger. Sierra are still available and the best areas have been off the
Hotel beaches on the Pacific side and between Punta Ballena and the Westin on the Sea of Cortez.
Like last week, anything with a dose of orange on it has worked well. Fly fishing and light
spinning gear is a blast on the Sierra! Bottom fishing was hit or miss this week due to the choppy
water conditions most of the time, but boats fishing early in the day were finding a mixed bag of
Snapper to 15 pounds and smaller Grouper to 5 pounds as well as plenty of Triggerfish. A few
Dorado are still being caught on the Pangas but the larger fish we have been finding have all been
offshore. (Old Man)
NOTES: The fishing continues to improve and the pressure is light. This weekend there were
whales all over the place! What a great sight, almost everywhere we looked on the Sea of Cortez
side you could see a spout or a back or a tail, and most of them were large whales, Humpbacks by
the look of the flukes. If you want to release your Billfish (and remember them by a picture), be
sure to tell your Captain that a Marlin killed that could have been released means no tip for them,
that seems to get their attention. There is no need to kill the fish in order to have a mount done!
This weeks report was written to the music of Neil Young on the classic 1972 Warner release
“Harvest”.
Until next week, best wishes and tight lines!
"Fly Hooker" Daily Catch Reports Mar 31- April 6, 2003
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 2 APRIL, 2003
Marta and David are friends of a friend and they wanted to do a half day of fishing today, but
not leave until 1pm. No problem and the plan was to work inshore and target Yellowtail and
perhaps bottomfish for some Snapper and Grouper. Well, we did not have any luck finding bait at
that time of day, none of the bait Pangs were out and the receiver at the entrance to the Marina
was out of bait. We checked with a few boats returning early and they had already fed their left
over bait to the Pelicans. All right, change in plan, we are going to head offshore and see if we
can find some Yellowfin, maybe a Skipjack would be all right for bait as well. Of we went for a
boat ride. Out 16 miles and nothing out there but choppy water and big swells, we doused the
bow of the boat a few times. “Enough of this” said Marta and David and we headed back in. If
only I had known....could have purchased some frozen squid for bait.....sigh. Sorry folks.
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 3 APRIL, 2003
What a day of fishing! We had two Romanians aboard, one of them a 15 year L.A. resident
and the other a visitor, and a couple from eastern Washington. Nice folks, all of them and only
the L.A. resident got sick. All he did was puke and sleep and his friend said that was because all
he did last night was drink tequila and beer. His friend did not get sick and he said that was
because unlike the sick guy, he continued to take shots and drink beers during the trip, great
medicine according to him! Well, the man from eastern Washington is named Reno, and he and
the drinking Romanian were the anglers for the day. Reno had first shot with a nice Dorado of
about 30 pounds right off the bat, then 30 minutes later taking a Striped Marlin that was estimated
at 150 pounds that died during the fight. The Romanian fought two Striped Marlin, getting one
of them to the boat for a tag and quick release and having the other break the line about 20
minutes into the fight while only 20 feet from the boat. They also had another Marlin come into
the lures and strike, but not hook up. Great fishing, a little bit choppy seas but everyone had a
great time, even the L.A. guy!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 4 APRIL, 2003
The anglers aboard the “Fly Hooker” today had made arrangements over the internet to fish
with another company on this trip, but after giving them their credit card number, had never heard
back from them nor were they able to find the companies office or contact anyone from there
when they arrived. All right, no problem when they contacted us, we’ll take you out! The two
couples had a great time, no one got sick for longer than an hour (the two girls were sick really
early and got it over with, then they felt fine) and they caught fish! A couple of Dorado, one of
them around 50+ pounds and the other one about 25-30 pounds gave them plenty of fillets! They
also saw Marlin but could not get any of them to eat a bait. And they saw whales, seals, dolphins
and had a great time. That is the way it is supposed to work! Thanks guys, we are glad you were
happy and look forward to taking you or your friends out next time!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 5 APRIL, 2003
As a sort of busman’s holiday I took our Webmaster, Phil Orr, his girlfriend Carol and our
friend Leon out for a day on the water. The wind had laid down last night and there was barely a
gust this morning when we left the Marina at 5:45. 10 baits in the bait tank, six small ones for
Yellowtail or Dorado and six large ones for Marlin. We were planning on being back around 3
PM but the water was so nice, the sun so warm, the food and company so good that we stayed
out until dark! We worked our way up the coast on the Sea of Cortez and there was just a slight
breeze, blue water and sunshine all the way. Not until we went past the Gorda Banks did we start
to see any signs of life though and at 9:55 we found a large Kelp Paddy floating in the water. We
were all excited about it and set out live bait but while there was bait under the paddy, there were
no fish in the area. At 10:10 we picked up a Skipjack Tuna that we kept to use as bait if we
needed to. There were Whales everywhere up there and they were beautiful to watch as they
spouted, rolled and breached. A little while later we hooked up a 40 pound Dorado and Leon got
to fight it to the boat as Phil dropped back a live bait. The live bait may have gotten hit but Phil
thinks there is also a chance that he got hooked up on Leon’s line so we can’t be sure. Anyway,
Leon got his fish to the boat and now there was dinner in the box! We found some Porpoise and
nothing hit the lures so we put out two squid spreader bars and a planer with a live bait and
worked the area for about 30 minutes without a strike. All right, back to the lures. Shortly after
that we saw what looked like a cruiser and a very small skiff or jet-ski sitting still in the area of the
inner Gorda Bank and went in to check them out. It turned out that the jet-ski was a big ball of
Ambergris that had little sooty terns pecking away at it and the cruiser was hooked up to three
Dorado! Out went the live baits and before you could say it, we were hooked up to three Dorado
ourselves! Two of them made it into the boat and the other one tossed the hook during the jump.
Nice fish, all of them, and the largest was perhaps 45-50 pounds! That was it though, we
continued the slow trolling several times around and did not have another bit so we put the lures
out and continued to troll. Not later than 2 minutes afterwards we had a Striped Marlin make a
pass at the Black/green lure on the stinger, but he did not hook up. It was 2 PM by that time and
we turned towards the 95 spot, 20 miles away and continued the troll. Halfway there we had
another pull on the stinger lure, but again, no hookup. After reaching the 95 spot area we turned
for the barn and when we were just 7 miles out we hooked another Dorado! Got him in the boat
and then we spotted Dolphin jumping. We passed in front of the Dolphin and took a strong hit on
the stinger lure. The line continued to sing off the reel and there was no jumping so we were
hoping that we had hooked up one of the bigger Tunas. After 10 minutes, the Striped Marlin we
were hooked up to jumped (nope, not a Tuna like we thought). Phil worked the fish hard and
after 15 minutes Carol had the fish leadered and I placed the tag. The hooks were removed and
the fish swam away, surprised to be alive. I have to say that Carol was a great deckhand as she
has a lot of experience, and can fillet a Dorado quick and neat! Well, after that action we
continued to troll until we were a mile off the arch and then pulled in the lines and cruised home.
What a great day on the water! Thanks guys, and if any of you readers would like to do a full
day, sunrise to sunset fishing trip, let me know when, how many people (not more than four), and
I will let you know the cost, it’s a great way to spend the day!
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