Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Capt. George Landrum
November 17, 2003
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report
Cabo Fishing Report for Nov 10-16, 2003
Capt. George Landrum
"Fly Hooker" Sportfishing
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
CABO FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 9 TO NOVEMBER 15, 2003
WEATHER: It was nice and sunny at the start of the week but we ended up with
overcast skies for most of the weekend. There was a threat of rain that did not
materialize here in Cabo but we could see it falling in the mountains. Our day time
highs were in the low 90’s, up a bit from last week, while our night time lows were
mostly in the very low 70’s. It was a fairly comfortable week all the way around!
WATER: Surface temperatures this week were mostly in the 81 degree range almost
all around. There was a warm water finger pointing at us down south at 30 miles, and
the water there was in the 83 and 84 degree range. On the Sea Of Cortez the wind
was minimal for most of the week, at least until you got to the Punta Gorda area, then it
really kicked in. On the Pacific side we had great surface conditions up until Friday
afternoon, then the wind turned on from the north-west and really raised a commotion.
It seemed to die down a bit on Saturday afternoon.
BAIT: Plenty of Sardinas available this week at the normal $20 a bucket and there
were a few Caballito starting to show up as well. They were the normal $2 each.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Blue Marlin action continues to wind down but there were a few caught this
week. The best area, both for the Blue Marlin and the Striped Marlin, seemed to be
close to town, just within 8 miles of the lighthouse on the Pacific side. For the Blue
Marlin, lures were the ticket and the preferred colors were blue/green and blue/silver.
The Blues were mostly in the #250 range though there were a couple released which
were reported as being in the #500 class. The striped Marlin seemed to prefer live bait
this week and there were quite a few spotted. They were not staying on the surface
long though, you needed to cast to quite a few before you hooked up with a hungry
one. That was tough to do as sighting them was difficult, they were just under the
surface and went down quickly.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were football and school fish out there this week, but the
really big cows were few and far between. 20 miles and more to the south seemed to
be where they were, and it looked like that was around the boundary area where the 81
degree water met the 83 degree water. Most of the fish were caught on lures as they
were moving around pretty fast with the porpoise, but when things got slow, heavy
chumming with Sardinas brought the bite back on. Not everyone got into the fish, but
those that made the trip and were among the first there averaged three or four fish per
boat.
DORADO: There is not much I can say about the Dorado that I have not already said
in each weeks report for the last month. Again, the key to a good catch was finding a
floating piece of debris that held fish. You might see 5 or six pieces of wood over the
course of the day and maybe one of them would hold some fish. If you were lucky, no
one else had found it yet and the fish would be willing to bite! There were Dorado
caught by boats slow trolling live bait just outside the beach area as well, but the fish
were not very large, most of them were reported in the 15 pound range, but I did talk to
one angler who came up with a #40 fish working live bait.
WAHOO: Some decent Wahoo were caught this week and it seemed that they were a
bit more concentrated than normal. Or at least they were in the areas where you would
expect to find them! On the Banks and on the drop-offs the bite was sporadic but there.
One of the hot spots this week was up at Punta Gorda, just a few miles off the beach.
Most of the Pangas working out of La Playita in San Jose were getting at least one fish
a day, up to 90 pounds. The bite was early and on the tide change. Lots of bite-offs on
live bait, most of the fish were fooled with live bait run on very small wire leader.
INSHORE: Inshore action this week picked up just a little bit with a very good bite on
Skipjack and Bonita to 10 pounds. That bite was early and on Sardinas. There were
Sierra reported being caught off the Solmar beach and up north to the lighthouse, but
the fish were small, most of them under three pounds. Scattered Dorado and an
occasional Jack Crevalle kept things interesting.
NOTES: All the tournaments are over for the year, thank goodness, and now we just
have to make it through the holidays. The fishing is slowly improving as the weeks roll
by and we are really hoping for a great Striped Marlin season. I have talked to a few
people who have been fishing up in Mag Bay and the story is “wide open bite on
everything except Striped Marlin”, it appears they have just not come down from up
north yet. That may mean that we will be a little late on the bite this year, but it should
happen really strong when it takes off. Meanwhile, we are hoping the fish that are
making the bite “wide open” up there, move on down to our area! Well, that’s it for this
week. If you get a chance to get a line in the water, go do it! I heard from a friend of
mine that they were catching Yellowfin Tuna 5 miles off the beach at Newport Beach,
Cal., unbelievable! Until next week, tight lines!
Fly Hooker Daily Catch Reports for Nov 10-16, 2003
Capt. George Landrum
"Fly Hooker" Sportfishing
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
WEEKLY FISH COUNT
STRIPED MARLIN: ONE TAGGED AND RELEASED (#130)
DORADO: SIX KEPT TO #30
BONTIA: BUNCHES
SKIPJACK: MEGA BUNCHES
YELLOWFIN TUNA: FOUR KEPT TO #25, ONE RELEASED
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 9, 2003
John Chinundet and his wife Tanya fished with Juan and his brother Juan today.
John is fishing with us again on the 14th. The action started early and then died off as
a Striped Marlin was spotted early in the trip with the lines in the water for only a very
short time. A live bait was tossed and Tanya got to fight the fish for about 30 minutes
before the fish was brought to the side of the boat for photos and tagging. A very nice
way to start the trip, but the action went downhill from there. Working their way up the
Pacific coast they found fish when they had reached the area inside the Golden Gate
Banks. A few nice Bonita were caught and John had a chance at a good sized Dorado
as well. That was all the shots they were going to get though, and they returned with a
Marlin and a release flag flying. Good job on the fish, Tanya! John has invited me to
go with him on Friday as Tanya is going to be attending conferences this week. Ok, I’m
up for it, and I’ll let you know how it turned out when we get back!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 10, 2003
Roger and Dot Salyer and their son Canyon are fishing the “Fly Hooker” today, and
Juan and Manuel decided to go to the area inside the Golden Gate Banks once again.
It was a good choice as they ended up the day with five Dorado to 30 pounds and
almost a dozen Bonita to 12 pounds. Canyon was the top fisherman for the day,
catching both more and larger fish than anyone else! Thanks for coming back and
fishing with us, we are glad it was a successful trip for you!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 11, 2003
Another day that I get to go on the boat! We had two anglers, Skip Smith and Walter
John, plus their guide, our friend Jeff, from “Baja On The Fly”. The wind has been
howling up on the East Cape so they decided to give the fishing here a try. Fly
fishermen are working under a handicap to start with so anything we can do to make
things easier we try and accomplish. With that in mind, we loaded up on the Sardinas
and cruised out in search of fish. Well, we ended up cruising for over two hours before
stopping to work a piece of tree trunk floating in the water. On the way we had spotted
several other pieces of debris, but none of them held any gamefish, just some small
baitfish. On the piece of wood we did stop at, Jeff and I saw a Dorado cut through the
water about 30 yards away, so out went a couple of handfuls of Sardinas and we
waited to see what would happen. It did not take long before a couple of Dorado
showed up and started slashing in on the bait and Walter and Skip started casting.
Walter got the first hook-up and it was short lived as he was standing on the fly line
when the fish struck. A very short run and the leader popped. Shoot! A little while
later he had another hook up and again, the fish popped the leader after a bit longer
run. Finally, after quite a while and a lot of chum, a few new fish moved in and Skip
had a shot. Everything went well for him and we were excited as the Dorado, estimated
at near #30, did a lot of jumping on its long run. For some reason though, the leader
parted about 5 feet from the fly and the fish was lost. Skip did have the chance to feel
the power though! Our chum was gone so we gave the log a few passes with trolled
flies. The first pass resulted in Skip hooking up to a small Yellowfin Tuna of around 8
pounds. He fought it to the boat for a picture and the fish was released. One more
pass resulted in another Yellowfin hook up but this time the fish got away. That was it
for the day as we were running out of time. We tried trolling flies for about an hour,
then picked up and ran in. Thanks guys, it was fun fishing with you!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 12, 2003
Taylor, Linda, Jim and Laurie were our anglers on the “Fly Hooker” today. Jim and
Laurie were supposed to have come down to Cabo with our friend Skip but it was when
we had either Hurricane Marty or Isabelle approaching. Since they live in the Keys,
they decided that they would pass on the trip! No problem, they are here now and
since Taylor and Linda had been looking for someone to share the boat with, it all
worked out. Juan and Manuel went to the Pacific side, looking for the same piece of
wood we had found yesterday. They got lucky and eventually found it, but the fish were
not there in the numbers they had been before, either that or someone else had
already hit it. They did manage to get one Dorado hooked up on live bait and Laurie
was the angler. Not much fish today but at least they got dinner in the boat! The same
group is fishing again tomorrow so we have our fingers crossed that the fishing will
improve for them.
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 13 NOVEMBER, 2003
One more day of fishing for Taylor and Linda Toussaint and Jim and Laurie. This
time Juan and Manuel headed up the Pacific coast towards the Golden Gate Banks
and had a little more luck than yesterday. The got into the Bonito and caught a
“BUNCH!” of them, and a little later on found Porpoise that were holding Yellowfin
Tuna. They ended up getting four fish out of the porpoise and the fish ranged in size
from 8 pounds to 25 pounds. Not a bad day on the water and certainly better than
yesterdays fishing! Thanks guys, we are glad you had a good time!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 14 NOVEMBER, 2003
Today was the second day of fishing aboard the “Fly Hooker” for John Chinuntdet
and since his wife Tanya could not join him today, he invited me. Yesterday he had
fished out of San Jose on a Panga and had good action on Yellowfin and a Wahoo up
at Punts Gorda. He said that a lot of the guys staying at the Presidente had been
working that area and almost everyone had been getting Wahoo, so off we went! Juan
and his brother Juan started us out at the Chileno area and we worked the coast up to
the Palmilla where we turned out and trolled to and over the inner Gorda Bank. There
were a few boats there but no action happening so we continued on to Punta Gorda.
Arriving in the area we could see about 20 boats drifting around and when we were set
up we started chumming with Sardinas. In no time at all we had fish boiling behind us,
but almost 50 yards away, they just wouldn’t come closer. We could see they were
Yellowfin Tuna of about 20-25 pounds. I drifted a Sardina back until it was in the area
and had a good, solid pickup, but after setting the hook and getting only a short run, the
line was either cut or the knot came undone. Hey, I didn’t tie the knot, all right? We
got more hits then, but everyone of them was a Skipjack or Bonita. Oh, also a
Needlefish in on the chum that did not hook up. About 90 minutes into the chumming,
Juan saw a Dorado behind the boat. John hooked it up on one of his light outfits and
after about ten minutes Juan released the Dorado, about 10 pounds, and we continued
to try. We did not have any other action though, and saw none of the other boats
hooking up to Tuna. Juan got on the radio and said the other captains were reporting
only Skipjack and Bonita, just like us. Apparently there had been a bite, but it was
really early in the morning. We had a bit of a nap on the way back home and I thanked
John for the invitation and told him I just wish the fishing had been better for us. Next
time!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 15, 2003
Our fly fishing friend and guide Jeff, from “Baja On The Fly” brought two of his clients
to Cabo today, Richard and Julie Laws, from San Francisco. They had tried to fish the
East Cape yesterday but the wind was blowing so hard by 10 am that it was impossible.
Jeff called yesterday and asked how the weather had been down here and I let him
know that we had fished the Cortez side yesterday and it had a bit of a breeze and
there had been some afternoon winds on the Pacific as well. All right, we would do the
best we could. We started out heading almost due south to look for Yellowfin Tuna or
Dorado, even a Marlin, but the wind was blowing hard and the water was too rough for
casting. Julie was not feeling well so we turned the boat around and worked the area
off the lighthouse, looking for Bonita or Skipjack, maybe even Sierra. As long as we
hooked something on the troll we could start chumming and get them behind the boat.
Well, after about an hour the strategy paid off. We hooked something up, tossed
Sardinas out and almost right away had fish boiling behind the boat. To make a long
story short, Dick, Jeff, Juan and myself proceeded to catch over 60 Skipjack between 3
and 10 pounds, releasing all but three of them. The three we kept had been attacked
by Triggerfish and needle fish and we thought we might be able to chunk them later on.
I managed to catch a Triggerfish on the fly and Dick got a 4 foot long needlefish as
well. Also Manuel spotted a Dorado come into the chum and Dick managed to place
his fly perfectly for a good hookup. The Dorado was a very nice sized fish and did a lot
of jumping, stripping a lot of line off the reel. With around 100 yards of line and
backing out the 16 pound tipped finally popped, but at least Dick got to feel the hook up
and runs! Julie finally gave up and taking sympathy on her, Dick agreed on returning
to the Marina. I would like to thank both Dick Laws and Jeff for letting Juan and myself
get in on the long rod action, it was a blast!
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