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Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Capt. George Landrum
May 12, 2003
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report
Cabo San Lucas Fish Report for May 5-11, 2003
Capt George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT MAY 5 - MAY 11, 2003
WEATHER: We are starting to feel the summertime weather now. Our daytime highs have
been up to the 95 degree level while our lows at night have not been much less than 70 degrees.
Warm days and mostly clear skies were the norm for this week. The humidity is starting to rise a
bit so there have been some muggy days, but an afternoon breeze almost every day has helped to
keep it under control. (Helplessly Hoping)
WATER: Beautiful blue water, some of it to 80 degrees, on the Sea of Cortez side of the Cape
and very smooth water until Saturday when the afternoon breeze switched and started coming out
of the East. The Pacific side has been a bit cooler and not as smooth, but still fishable. The
afternoon breezes early in the week, coming from the Northwest, kept a small chop on top of the
medium sized swells. In a southwesterly direction from the Arch, there has been a lightly defined
temperature break out to ten miles, then it becomes a bit more defined. There has been a 4 degree
change over a fairly short stretch of water and that area has been holding some nice fish this past
week. (Wooden Ships)
BAIT: Mackerel was the bait of the week with the normal $2 per bait being charged. Few
Caballito were found, there were a few Mullet to be had and I heard of no boats able to find
Sardinas for bait. (Teach Your Children)
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Most of the Marlin action this week was on Striped Marlin and the action seemed
to be concentrated in the area of the temperature break to the Southwest. Catches of two to three
fish per boat were not uncommon and a few boats came in with as many as four flags flying. Live
bait tossed to tailing fish were the top method while baits dropped back to fish appearing in the
pattern was second, with fish actually being caught on lures came in a distant third. While this
area held the concentration, it was not really worked until later in the week. Until then, there
were large numbers of other fish being found closer to home, just a few miles offshore from the
Arch as a large mass of bait moved into the area. There were Marlin mixed in with these other
fish and they were fairly uninterested in most offerings, but live bait trolled slow did work. (Ohio)
YELLOWFIN TUNA: This is another of those weeks where I should just be able to put in
“repeat”, as the action was the same as last week. I did hear of some nice Yellowfin in the 60-100
pound class getting caught, but the majority of fish were in the 15-35 pound range. A few were
blind strikes but most of the fish were found associated with Porpoise. There was some excellent
action less than two miles from the Marina this week as a mass of bait moved in and the fish
followed it. Dark feathers and cedar plugs were hot lures again, but a live bait dropped back on
the first hook-up almost always drew the larger fish. The 95 spot and 5-12 miles at 150 from the
arch were good areas to work, and there were reports of good sized fish beginning to come from
the San Jaime Banks as well. (Find The Cost Of Freedom)
DORADO: Find the fish and you find lots of them, otherwise most boats were coming in with
one or two Dorado in the 15-25 pound range, sometimes a bit larger than that, up to 50 pounds.
For boats able to find something floating in the water, the catch rate immediately went up! A few
boats were reporting up to a dozen nice fish in the 15-35 pound range while working live bait
around floating debris, and it did not have to be large objects, a small piece of bamboo often held
a half dozen fish. The other boats were finding the fish scattered over a wide area, but during the
middle of the week the action became red hot just 2 miles from the harbor as the large mass of
bait moved into the area. Catches of five or six Dorado per boat were not uncommon for those
staying and working the area hard. (Woodstock)
WAHOO: Who would have believed two weeks in a row of Wahoo action? Almost every boat
that started fishing for the Yellowfin and Dorado just in front of the town got hit by Wahoo this
week. Of course, most of them got bit off, but the fish that were caught were quality fish. 60
pounds was not uncommon and there were a lot of fish in the 80-100 pound range as well.
Black/Green and Blue/Purple lures seemed to attract the most attention and a lot of Marlin lures
were lost! (Our House)
INSHORE: There are finally a few Roosterfish starting to show up on a regular basis, but they
are still on the small side, mostly between 8-12 pounds. With the smooth water and the pelagic
fish close to home, this week most of the Pangas went out for Yellowfin and Dorado. With the
paucity of boats fishing inshore, I really don’t have much to report from this area. (Helpless)
NOTES: The offshore fishing just continues to improve! I just hope it stays as good as it is,
at least for a while. My apologies if you receive this report late, we are dealing with a computer
problem....sigh....it’s always something, isn’t it? This week’s report was written to the music of
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young on the 1974 Atlantic release “So Far”.
"Fly Hooker" Daily Catch Reports for May 5-11, 2003
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR MAY 5, 2003
Our good friend from Guam, Bill Gowder, is fishing aboard the “Fly Hooker” today and on the
7th. He would really like to get a Marlin or two or three but today it was Tuna time. Juan and
Manuel headed out at 150 degrees for 6 miles and put lines in the water. It was not until they
were 20 miles out that they finally spotted Porpoise. First boat on the scene always has the best
catch and that’s what happened today. Three passes in a row had all four lines hooked up and the
fish ranged in size from 15 to 35 pounds. After a while they had the 15 fish limit and sore arms
and went in search of Marlin. They did spot a few but those fish were not hungry as they all
passed on the offering of live Mackerel. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for Bill on the 7th, I
might get to go along on that trip!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR MAY 6, 2003
Roald Petterssen is a repeat client and loves to fish with Juan. He has booked today and the
8th on the “Fly Hooker” and like Bill yesterday, really prefers to catch Marlin. Almost first thing
in the morning they get a big hit and instead of a Marlin, it’s a Wahoo of about 60 pounds! Nice
fish! With it in the boat they continued to search for Marlin and finally spotted on and tossed it a
live Mackerel. The fish ate the bait and started jumping. It made four series of jumps before
going deep. It took Roald almost 40 minutes to get the fish to the boat, the fish had died after
getting tail wrapped. They saw a few other fish but none of them were in the mood to eat. Lets
see if they can do it again on the 8th!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR MAY 7, 2003
I got to go today with our friend Bill Gowder and Juan and Manuel set the lines as we reached
the line-up between the Arch and Missiones Resort. The lures had not been in the water for more
than five minutes when there was an eruption on the long rigger lure. No knockdown though, but
several seconds later the Bridge rod started to scream. I thought it was a Marlin but Juan said he
had been looking at the lure when it happened and it was a Wahoo. Sure enough, Bill put the
pressure on and in about 15 minutes had the fish to the boat. What a fish! Juan had a difficult
time getting the fish into the boat but after hitting the deck, it looked at least 60-70 pounds, by far
the largest Wahoo Bill had ever caught. We continued trolling up into the Sea of Cortez toward
the Gorda Bank area and after a while Manuel spotted a fin. He ran the boat to the spot as Juan
pinned on a live Mackerel and stood ready to pitch it out. The fish went down before we arrived
and we continued our search. Almost two hours later Manuel spotted another fish on the surface.
As Juan tossed the bait, this fish went down. We slow trolled that bait for a few minutes then
continued on. We saw Porpoise, Seals and Turtles and finally, we had a Marlin come in on the
Bridge rod lure. This fish came in charging hard and as Manuel gunned the boat to keep the fish
coming, Juan dropped back a bait. Nothing. Sigh. We continued the lure trolling but at about 1
P.M. trolled live baits for about 30 minutes. Still no action so out went the lures. As we were
about to pull lines, and in about the same area as this morning, we had a repeat. A knock-down
on the long rigger, then the same lure struck again. Manuel called down “Tuna”, I was hoping for
a Marlin but it ended up being another Wahoo, this one about 45 pounds. Thanks Bill, I sure
wish we had hooked into some Billfish for you, but maybe next time!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 8 MAY, 2003
Roald Petterssen had such a good time on the 7th that he is going again tomorrow as well.
That decision was made before todays trip, but todays result verified that it was a wise choice.
Juan and Manuel put lines in the water after cruising 45 minutes and when they were about 15
miles out spotted the first Marlin. This same are ended up producing three Marlin for Roald, two
were tagged and released and one was badly injured during the fight. Several other fish were
sighted and had bait tossed at them, but with no result. A little after leaving the area they
managed to hook into a 15 pound Yellowfin as well. Now that is the type of Marlin action that
everybody would like to have. It is always about being in the right place at the right time! Good
luck tomorrow Roald!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 9 MAY, 2003
Roald “The Fishing Machine” Petterssen is out for his third day of Marlin hunting today, and
Juan and Manuel took him back to the same area that they found all the fish yesterday. Their luck
was not as good today however, and they only managed to tag and release on Striped Marlin.
The were able to get a nice 35 pound Dorado in the boat, along with a small Yellowfin of about
25 pounds, so there were fish out there. Roalds total for three days of fishing was 5 Striped
Marlin, two Yellowfin Tuna, one Dorado and one Wahoo. Pretty good I think, and Roald had a
lot of fun doing it! Thanks Roald, we look forward to seeing you again!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 10 MAY, 2003
Ed and Charles were our anglers for today and they brought along their wives and another lady
so they could enjoy being on the water. Well, the wind switched a bit and the water was a bit
choppy out there. The trip was supposed to be a half day but ended up with only three hours on
the water as three out of five were feeling a bit ill. Of course for Ed it had nothing to do with the
amount of tequila consumed the afternoon and evening before! The objective of the trip was to
catch something for dinner and hopefully get something that would do a lot of jumping. Half of
the plan worked as they hooked into a lot of Tuna, but there were no Dorado or Marlin fooled by
the lures. Eight Yellowfin, with the largest 4 at 35 pounds, supplied plenty of fish for dinner, as
well as plenty of fish to be smoked and taken back home. We are glad you found fish and sorry
the water was choppy. Have a great time eating the smoked Tuna and thinking about your next
trip back!
Until next week, Tight Lines from George, Mary, Juan and Manuel, the “Fly Hooker” crew!
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