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Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Capt. George Landrum
June 23, 2003
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report
Cab fishing Report for June 16-22, 2003
Capt George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT JUNE 16- JUNE 22, 2003
WEATHER: Great weather this week with very little wind at the beginning of the week, then on
Wednesday night it began to blow again. It has been blowing every night since then but the wind
has died down around sunrise. Our warm daytime temperatures have reached the high 90’s and
nighttime lows have been in the low 60’s, and once again we received no rain and had very little
cloud cover. (Good Times Bad Times)
WATER: There has not been a big change in the water conditions since last weeks report
except for the fact that the daytime surface temperatures have been about 2 degrees higher all
around. The Pacific side is still rough, due to the continuing northwest winds, and still has cold
water, with most of it in the low 60’s. The Sea of Cortez has had great conditions once you get
past the Chileno area and closer to home it has been only a little choppy, not really rough. We
have been seeing the average temperature in the calm water at around 81-82 degrees with an
occasional marking of 84. (Dazed And Confused)
BAIT: No change from last week, most of the bait this week was Mackerel, and they were the
normal $2 per bait. There was Mullet available as well at the same price but Caballito were
scarce. (Whole Lotta Love)
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Lots of Striped Marlin out in front of the arches, and most of the action has been
less than four miles offshore. The only problem has been that most of the fish have had lock-jaw
and won’t bite. A few boats found the right fish and caught two or three, but most boats only had
one blue flag flying. The bite was 80% live bait and the lures that worked were dark colored.
There was a smaller concentration of fish found up east of the Gordo banks but they were
suffering from the same disease (lock-jaw). Some Blue Marlin are being found, but not with any
regularity yet, and all of them have been reported from the area east of the Gordo Banks.
(Ramble On)
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Find the porpoise, find the Tuna, that was the story for the week on
Yellowfin. Even the large Black Porpoise, not known as a good indicator for Tuna, were found
to be holding large fish this week. Sightings were made of fish in the #100 + mixed in with these
big porpoise, and some of them were caught, but they were very boat shy. There were smaller
Tuna to be found with the normal indicator porpoise and they were running to 35 pounds with a
15 pound average. Cedar plugs and small dark colored feathers were the key with the plugs
having a decided advantage. Most of the smaller fish were found out from the arch to the Pacific
side and the larger fish were found past the 95 and 1150 spots. (Immigrant Song)
DORADO: Close to home and all the way up the coast on the Cortez side to Punta Gorda.
Most of the fish have been less than 2 miles off shore and finding the Frigate birds was the key.
Find the birds working and then tossing live bait resulted in some boats doing very well. Of
course, the normal live bait dropback after hooking one up sure got the numbers up there. Some
boats were getting up to a dozen fish, some were only getting one, but the fish were there. Most
of the fish close to shore were less than 25 pounds, but there were bigger fish to be found
offshore, just not in the same numbers. Bright colored lures were the key for those trolling
plastic. (Misty Mountain Hop)
WAHOO: There were still a few Wahoo caught this week but the numbers were down quite a
bit. The fish found were incidental fish and scattered. (Stairway To Heaven)
INSHORE: The inshore action this week was Roosterfish, Jack Crevalle and large Sierra.
Most of the action was just between the arch and Cabo Falso and slow trolled live bait was the
trick. Roosters to 50 pounds, Jack Crevalle to 45 pounds and Sierra to 10 pounds kept rods bent
for those looking for short trips and good action. It sure was easy to run through a lot of bait
though! (Black Dog)
NOTES: A few big Tuna got all of us excited, hopefully it is a sign of things to come. As the
moon gets smaller the Marlin bite should turn on. There is still lots of Tuna off the East Cape, but
they are 35 miles out. The Dorado bite there dropped off as ours started to turn on. With our
fingers crossed, the fishing should continue to improve! This weeks report was written to the
sounds of Led Zeppelin on their 1990 Atlantic release “Remasters”, disc #1. Rock on Robert,
Jimmy and John! This week, just maybe, some of you may be familiar with the music and figured
out the group on the first song. Until next week, tight lines!
Fly Hooker Daily Catch Reports for june 16-22, 2003
“FLY HOOKER” FISH TOTALS FOR THE WEEK:
Striped Marlin: 4 fish released (3 tagged) (# to 130)
Wahoo: 0 fish caught
Dorado: 6 fish caught (#15-#25)
Tuna: 1 fish caught (#120)
Needlefish: 2 fish caught and released
Jack Crevalle: 2 fish caught and released
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR JUNE 18, 2003
Bob Nelson Sr., his son Bob Nelson and Bob’s sons Aaron and Travis are our anglers today
and Friday. Today was a lucky day for the boys as both of them got to fight fish while the old
men just got to watch and take pictures. I never did find out which caught which for sure, but I
think it was Travis that got to fight the first fish, a Striped Marlin of about 120 pounds. Lots of
surface action and about 30 minutes of fighting left him with an ache in his arm and some nice
photos of the fish in action. Juan had the leader and the fish alongside the boat when the leader
wore through and the fish swam away so the fish was not tagged, but it was a good catch and
release. I think it was Aaron who caught then next fish. Juan and Manuel had the boat about 17
miles to the east when they spotted Porpoise and went to investigate. The Porpoise were the big
black ones so they did not have a lot of confidence in getting anything there, but imagine their
surprise when one of the outrigger lures was inhaled! An up and down fight that lasted around 30
minutes lasted another 5 minutes at the side of the boat as Juan tried to maintain control of the
fish and finally he was able to place the gaff in the Yellowfin Tuna, estimated to be at least 120
pounds! Way to go guys, I’ll never pass up the chance to make at least a couple of passes around
those kind of Porpoise again. A very good day on the water and a cooler full of Tuna to take
home, but we are hoping that the old guys get fish the next time!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 19 JUNE, 2003
Our friend Don Cole gets a chance to fish with his boys Bill and Joe and Bills 10 year old son
Carson. The idea today is to get a Marlin for Carson, he wants to be able to fight the fish all on
his own without any help from anyone. He was so excited this morning and of course, being 10
years old, full of questions! Guess what? He did it! Juan and Manuel were able to find a hungry
fish and it took Carson about an hour to bring the fish to the boat, without help from anyone. The
fish was estimated at 100 pounds and was tagged and released, way to go Carson! Guess you will
have some bragging rights at school! I was so excited for Carson that I forgot to ask who caught
the other fish but there was another Marlin tagged and released as well. All the fish were close to
home and they never were more than 7 miles from port.
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 20 JUNE, 2003
This is the second day of fishing for the Nelson family and they saw a lot of Marlin today but
had a hard time getting them to bite. Bob finally got a chance in the chair and it took him about
30 minutes to get his fish, caught on live bait and estimated at 120 pounds, to the boat. I think it
was on this trip the Juan and Manuel went to the arch on the return and tossed live bait, catching
two Jack Crevalle to finish up the day. Not a bad two days of fishing with a total of two Striped
Marlin and a big Tuna! Thanks guys, we hope to get a chance to fish with you again!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 21 JUNE, 2003
John Landwehr, “Mom”, Shane and Cathy were our anglers for today and they are fishing
tomorrow as well, at least John and Shane are. Another daughter was supposed to fish today but
she was not feeling well. The Landwehrs really want to catch some Dorado to take home with
them and Juan and Manuel must have been wearing their lucky shirts today as they were able to
make the request come true. Juan told me that they ended up about 12 miles offshore to the east
and there were Dorado allover the place, with Frigate birds diving on the fish. It was a run and
toss bait situation an they only caught two fish on lures. Running to where the birds were
working and tossing live bait in the water got them a lot of hookups and they ended the day with
5 Dorado between 15 and 25 pound and they lost 4 others, one of them a big bull. They also had
a Striped Marlin hooked up for a while but it got away. John would like to try for Marlin and
Tuna tomorrow, with an emphasis on Tuna, so we will see if crossing our fingers works!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 22 JUNE, 2003
It was Manual’s day off today and the arrangement Juan had made for another guy fell through
so I was pressed into service as deckhand today. I was no Boy Scout this morning, having had
only three hours of sleep, a clean, new white T-shirt on and no sunglasses, but I tried my best!
We were cruising out and about 1 1/2 miles from the Arch when I spotted a Marlin on the
surface. Juan pulled the boat around and I tossed out a live Mackerel. The fish saw the bait and
charged in, taking it right away. I gave him 8 seconds, pushed the drag lever up to strike, let the
line come tight then struck him and we were hooked up. Shane was ready and John had the
camera out as I looked at my watch and realized that it was not yet 7 am! This fish did everything
Marlin are known for, sulking down deep, tailwalking, greyhounding leaps to the side and away!
John got some great shots of the fish in the air. After 22 minutes of fighting the fish, a Manta Ray
swam across the line and we were cut off. Shane had blisters on his fingers but was really
pumped up. We scanned the water as we put the lures out, sure that in a few moments we were
going to be hooked up again. In the next four hours we spotted three sharks, that was it.
Eventually we ended up in the area where the Tuna had been caught four days ago but the water
was empty. Maybe I would have more luck than Juan so I got behind the wheel and turned us
toward shore. Outside Red Hill I found the Black Porpoise and we worked them for an hour. It
sure looked fishy as there was a small flock of birds working the feeding Porpoise, but we did not
have a strike and I neither saw any fish nor marked any on the sounder. Not wanting to get
skunked and needing to get something in the boat for John and Shane, we asked them if they
wanted to try for a Grouper or Snapper in the rocks off of Punta Ballena. They said they were up
for anything so when we got there we pulled in the lines and tossed out some live mackerel. We
got bit almost instantly, but the fish turned out to be Needle Fish, which John likened to Alligator
Gar. John’s was the bigger fish, perhaps 6 feet long and Shanes was about 5 feet long. We had a
couple of other hits but that was it for the day. Sure wish we had not got cut off by the Manta,
but perhaps next time things will work out different! Thanks guys, we really enjoyed your
company!
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