Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Capt. George Landrum
August 11, 2003
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report
Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report Aug 5-10, 2003
Capt George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR AUGUST 4 TO AUGUST 10, 2003
WEATHER: Hot and humid, warm and muggy, call it what you will, we had sweat rolling off
our foreheads this week. The only saving grace was a slight breeze from the southeast and having
the sun set. Our daytime highs were in the high 90’s and our nighttime lows in the low 80’s. A
few partly cloudy days midweek with a threat of rain, but none of it fell on us. (What’s Forever
For)
WATER: It got a bit rough in the afternoons when the breeze picked up if you were either south
of the Cape or on the Pacific side, but elsewhere and at other times the water was just slowly
rolling swells with a light ripple. There has been a thin band of cooler water along the shore, out
to a distance of three miles, running along the Sea of Cortez side of the Cape up to the area of
Gorda Banks. This water has been several degrees colder than the band just offshore, with the
warm water ranging from 85 to 86 degrees. This warmer band has extended out between 25 and
15 miles to the south, with another thin cooler band just behind it. In an east west direction from
the Cape, extending from the south side of the San Jaime to the 1150 spot, everything to the north
has remained cooler and the south side has been 85 degrees. (Dream Lover)
BAIT: Mackerel and Mullet at the normal $2 per bait. (Let’s Keep It That Way)
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Billfishing remained a bit slow this week with many boats not seeing a fish at all. As
the water continues to warm, the Striped Marlin that remain in the area seem to go off their feed.
There have been a few Sailfish caught this week, and they have been nice sized, but again, not
everyone is finding them. The Sailfish that are being found seem to be close to shore, within 5
miles. Off shore there are Blue Marlin being found, but for most of the boats it has been a scratch
week, you have had to scratch real hard to come up with a Billfish. From 15 to 25 miles to the
east and south seems to have been the favorite area, as there has been lots of bait around,
including big Squid to three feet in length. Marlin candy! (It Should Have Been Easy)
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Fish of the week yet again. Those boats that have gotten into the
Yellowfin have done well on fish to 45 pounds, with most of the fish just on the edge between
football size (to 15 pounds) and small school fish (25 -35 pounds). Cedar plugs, small feathers in
blue and white seem to trip their trigger this week. Reports were that many of these fish were
feeding hard on flyers, and some of the better catches were had by guys rigging the very small
softhead birds with hooks and using them as lures, run 150 feet or more back, and pulled at high
speeds up to 14 knots. I have unconfirmed reports of a late afternoon bite on these same schools,
with the fish running much bigger, to 180 pounds. It seems to happen well after all the fleet and
normal charter boats leave and the bite has been on live bait run back in the north forty, up to 300
yards back, and pulled across the front of the Porpoise, and on large Blue Marlin lures run the
same distance once the baits have been eaten up. This is an unconfirmed report because I did not
see the fish myself and have not been able to get to talk to another Captain who was supposed to
have been in the same place doing the same thing, so take it for what I offered it as! (Tennessee
Waltz)
DORADO: No change in the Dorado situation this week so I am just repeating last weeks report
here. The Dorado were scattered for almost everyone, just like last week, but a few boats were
able to get into some nice fish. Frigate birds working and turtles on the surface were some of the
keys the captains were looking for, and the first one on the scene got good results. Live bait was
a key factor, being the go-to for working Frigates and turtles, and also as a drop-back for fish
picked up on the troll. (Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall)
WAHOO: Same as above, but I think the bite will pick up as we near the full moon. A few fish
were found, a few more caught, but not in any quantity nor consistency. (Only Love)
NEARSHORE: No change from last week, Pangas were working just off the beach for
Roosterfish and having some luck with them, most of the fish being in the 20-30 pound class. The
Jack Crevalle were in there as well and some of the boats were able to pick up Dorado in the surf.
Most of the Pangas were venturing offshore early in the week looking for Dorado and Tuna, and
some of them had good luck. (Beginning To Feel Like Home)
NOTES: I spoke too early last week, the Purse Seiners are still here and we now have four in the
area. Guess the L.A. Times had an article on the front page of the sports section with a picture of
a Whale and Calf caught up in a gill net up in the Sea of Cortez. The weather continues to be hot
and humid, the fish continue to bite, and my boat is out of the water for the week for new shaft
logs and bottom paint. I will continue to ask the anglers and Captains how they are doing and
next week I hope I have another good, accurate and honest fish report for you. Until then, Tight
lines! This weeks report was written to the music of Anne Murray from the 2002 EMI
compilation, “Love Songs”
"Fly Hooker" Daily Catch Reports for Aug 5-10, 2003
“FLY HOOKER” WEEKLY FISH COUNT
1 Sailfish Tagged and Released
15 Yellowfin Tuna
10 Bonita
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR AUGUST 5, 2003
Mark Kaplan and his sons Shawn and Anthony were our anglers aboard the “Fly Hooker”
today. The idea was to catch some big fish on light line, preferably Tuna, but as you may realize
from last weeks fishing with Steve Zozaya and his son Steven, they have been few and far
between for us. Juan and Manuel decided that their best chance was going to be working the
areas offshore of the lighthouse on the Pacific side and it ended up being the right choice, at least
for the number of fish. The action was pretty well non-stop once the fish were found and they got
tired arms working on the 15-20 pound Tunas on the Penn 12T and the Shimano TLD 25’s.
According to the anglers, they ended up with almost 15 Bonito to 15 pounds released (that’s not
counting the ones hooked up and lost) and 7 or 8 Yellowfin to 20 pounds (all kept to eat). The
highlight of the day was Shawn catching, tagging and releasing a Sailfish estimated at 100
pounds! When the boat arrived back at the dock, almost the first words out of Marks mouth
were, “Man, my arms are tired!”. Thanks guys, and congratulations Shawn!
“FLY HOOKER” DAILY FISH REPORT FOR AUGUST 7, 2003
Our Hawaiian buddy Richard (owner of Mission Book Binding, in San Diego) is here for his
fifth year in a row on the “Fly Hooker”, celebrating his birthday with his buddy Dave. Being his
birthday he would really like a birthday present of a big fish! Well, Juan and Manuel tried, and
they were in the right area, but it just did not happen. All the action they had today was a strike
from a Dorado that came off right away and a chance to toss bait to a Striped marlin they found
on the surface. Heck, thats fishing as Richard says, and they guys worked hard for them and they
did have a good time. Every day is different, so they have booked the boat for tomorrow as well!
We’ll keep our fingers crossed for them.
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR AUGUST 8, 2003
Wow, we were hoping for different results for today, but we had our fingers crossed for better
than this! Richard and Dave did catch fish today, but there were not many of them that ended up
in the boat, as a matter of fact, they only ended up with a Yellowfin Tuna of about 15 pounds and
a Bonita of about the same. Richard managed to loose a nicer sized Tuna, Dave said that it must
have been at least 1,000 pounds or more (hey, the ones that get away always grow!) but Juan said
that it was more like 40 pounds. Apparently as Juan was going for the leader Richard thought
that he already had it in hand and set down the rod in order to go to the side of the boat to get a
look at the fish. Apparently the slack line resulting from this action allowed the hook to drop out
of the Tuna’s mouth and the fish swam away. Dave also said that Richard allowed a Sailfish to
escape after it had been hooked up and had made three nice jumps. Heck, Richard said that he
was going to release it anyway, and he got to see the fish in action, so there! Thanks guys, we are
glad you had a great time and look forward to seeing you again next August 7th!
“FLY HOOKER” NON FISH REPORT FOR THE NEXT WEEK
We pulled the boat out of the water on the 9th and have scheduled downtime for the next week
as we do some work. We will be changing the shaft logs from the original bronze (lots of
corrosion) to fiberglass, shortening the shafts by a couple of inches, changing the props, putting
bushings on the rudder shafts, cleaning and repainting the bottom paint and changing all the zincs.
If I had the money and the time we would also be repainting the hull and putting in a new deck,
but that will have to be the next project. We should be back in the water on the 15th, early
morning of the 16th at the latest, as we have 24 of the next 30 days booked. Keep your fingers
crossed for us, and we hope to get a chance to see you soon in Cabo!
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