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Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Capt. George Landrum
May 10, 2004
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report
Cabo Bite Report
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT MAY 2-8, 2004
WEATHER: Summertime, summertime, summertime! I think we are getting there as the days are getting warmer, as are the nights. Sunny skies with our night time lows ranging from the mid 60’s to the mid 70’s and in the early morning you can smell the humidity. Our days are ranging from the low 80’s to the mid 90’s with plenty of sun, a bit of moisture in the air and mostly light breezes. Perfect weather for fishing!
WATER: Water temperatures this week have been from the high 60’s out near Golden Gate Banks to the high 70’s in the Sea of Cortez. The highest I saw this week was 78.9 degrees out near the 1150 spot. The water on the Pacific near shore and just off the Cape 1 mile has been a bit cooler than the surrounding water, but only by a degree or two, and has been a bit green from the large swells. Surface conditions got a bit choppy during the middle of the week on the Pacific side as the afternoon winds kicked in, but the Cortez side has remained very nice.
BAIT: We have had a good mix of both Caballito and Mackerel this week, with most of the Caballito fairly small but with some nice big Mackerel available. The normal price at $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Remember the last time you went fishing and were told “You should have been here last week!”? Well, this was “last week” for anglers wanting to catch a Striped Marlin, and we can only hope that it is not the “only week”. Almost every boat returning from a trip was flying at least one Marlin flag this week and the reason was easy to discover when you went out. The fish were close, and there were a lot of them! As was the case last week, the Marlin were close to shore, many of the fish were caught less than a mile from the beach. The hottest action toward the end of the week was right in front of town, at distances ranging from 3 miles to 10 miles out. A lot of boats ran out of live bait during the hot action and had to return to the marina to re-load! On my best day out we spotted over 24 fish, had two releases, lost a couple of others and ran out of bait at 11 AM. The next day my guys took our clients out and returned at 1 PM. They picked up 15 baits in the morning and returned with four Marlin flags flying. The fish were ranging from 50 to 180 pounds and live bait was the key. Few fish came in on the artificials, most of them were sighted tailing and had live bait tossed at them. If that didn’t work, a dead bait was dropped back. If the fish were not interested in that, a dead bait was thrown in front of the fish with no hook or line attached. Most of the time they would go for that one, then light up and eat the next one with a hook in it. Ah, great fishing and no long runs to get to the grounds! Now, if the fish just hold here close for a few more weeks we should have great action as the moon goes to the new phase!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Tuna fishing has been on the back burner this week as the fish that have been around, and there have not been many of them, have mostly been small football sized fish (literally). Most of the action has been up on the Pacific side in Porpoise and the action has been sketchy. The best catch I heard of was 14 footballs, and the water was not in the best of condition that day. Small feathers in dark colors took honors this week, a change from the red ones that worked best last week.
DORADO: Scattered fish ranging in size from 10 to 35 pounds provided some action this week for anglers lucky enough to get hooked up. Most of the fish were found near shore mixed in with the Striped Marlin, but I understand there was some fair action farther up the Sea of Cortez off of Punta Gorda and Vinorama. The fish were found either in the open under Frigate birds, or under floating debris. Best action was on smaller Marlin lures in “Bleeding Mackerel” or “Dorado” colors, and of course, on live bait dropped back on hooking up with a lure accounted for approximately 20% of the second fish caught.
WAHOO: Again the bite has dropped off a bit, but there are still fish being found out there. While not specifically structure orientated, the best results have been close to shore and off the Banks. Of course, this may be because this is where the Marlin action has been and there have been a lot of boats working these areas! Most of the fish have been between 40 and 60 pounds, with an occasional fish to 90 pounds being caught.
INSHORE: There was no change in the inshore action this week, with the exception that the Sierra bite dropped off as the inshore waters warmed up, and the Roosterfish bite picked up. The Roosterfish are still small, most of them are between 5 and 15 pounds and they were being caught on small Caballito slow trolled just outside the first breaker. The best action was had on the Pacific side between the arches and Cabo Falso. There were some nice Jack Crevalle hooked up as well and for those willing to get in close to the rocks, some great Pargo were found ranging from 15 to 35 pounds, they had a preference for live Caballito.
NOTES: My apologies to everyone for last weeks report being either late or not getting out at all. And there were a few of you who received multiple copies! I just hope that this weeks report does not suffer the same problem. We had our computer crash and could not get on line; hopefully by the time Mary gets this for posting, the problem will have been resolved. Thanks so very much to all of you who e-mailed and were concerned about the reason; both of us are just fine! This weeks report was written to the country music of Vince Gill on his 1991 MCA release “Pocket Full Of Gold”. I felt a little bit country this week! Until next week, Tight Lines!
"Fly Hooekr" Daily Reports
Capt George Landrum
“Fly Hooker” Sportfishing
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
WEEKLY FISH COUNT
STRIPED MARLIN: SEVEN TAGGED AND RELEASED (#50 - #145), THREE FISH RELEASED (#120 - #185)
DORADO: TWO FISH KEPT (#10, #25)
WAHOO: ONE FISH KEPT (#85)
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 3 MAY, 2004
Andy “Muscle-ini (it’s not fat, it’s muscle!) , Ronnie (Arnold snores like a pig), Tommy (secret agent 006 ½ ) and Jim “Duke” are here in Cabo for the first time and fishing with us for three days, today Wednesday and Friday. They were referred to us by clients from New Jersey, and they are really looking forward to the fishing. Thank goodness the fishing has been pretty good. On this, the first day out, they worked the area just outside of town about form the 95 Spot to 20 miles out. Just past the 95 spot, they had two nice Wahoo strikes. One came off and the other had another Wahoo come through and bite the swivel. Juan dropped back a rigged bait and had it eaten and the leader was almost cut through on it as well and that fish was lost. A small Dorado in the same area came in the the boat for dinner and then the water started to kick up and they came in close to shore. In there they found a Marlin that struck and stuck! One fish to the boat, tagged and released. Good fishing guys!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 4 MAY, 2004
Roald Pettersen and his brother-in-law Steve are fishing with us today, Thursday and Saturday. Roald has fished with us before and really likes to catch Marlin! The mass of fish continue to stay close and today’s action was between the Westin and the Gorda Banks. I think it was Steve who got to reel in the first marlin today, but I am not real sure. The first fish was early in the trip and it was a very quick fight. Juan said the Striped Marlin may have been as big as #50, but not any larger that that! There were a few other stikes before they had another one hook up solidly. That fish was tagged and released after about 15 minutes. Not a bad day with two Marlin flags and two release flags flying when they arrived back at the Marina.
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 5 MAY, 2004
The second day of fishing for the gang form New Jersey saw a bit of different slant on things as the Marlin could not be convinced t6o stay hooked up! They had one fish along side of the boat when the leader broke and they had a couple of other Marlin interested but not hungry. Today they worked the area off of the Palmilla to Punta Ballena, around 3 to 10 miles off shore. Oh they did get at least one fish in the boat though! After around 5-10 minutes, Ronnie reeled in a Wahoo that was estimated to be about 80-90 lbs! Thanks for the dinner invite guys, the meal was great!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 6 MAY, 2004
Roald and Steve were out for their second day of fishing and the action took place in the same area as before. Juan was suffering from a sore throat and Edgar filled in for him today. One fish was well hooked and fought to the boat for a tag and then released. They had another fish in the pattern but ate the bait and spit the hook. Oh well that was it for the day, but things were not all bad, the weather was great!
“FLY HOOKER’ FISH REPORT FOR 7 MAY, 2004
I fished with Muscle-ini, Arnold, 006 ½ and the Duke today. They asked if I would go at least one day and this was the one I was available. Our intention was to get a little bottom fishing in , but the tide was wrong this morning so we went out for Marlin instead. I don’t think we ever got farther out than 10 miles, and that was straight out form the port. The first hook up was at 7:39 and Muscle-ini fought the fish for 17 minutes before getting it to the boat. I tagged the fish and Juan removed the hook from the bill. We were seeing fish all over the place, but they were difficult to entice them to eat. We had several more attempt at fish and on one of them one of a pair of Marlin struck the bait, but would not eat it. Later on we had another fish that had no interest in a live bait but ate a dead one tossed at it with no hook or leader attacked, another dead bait this time hooked up was thrown, but no interest! One of the most exciting times was spotting two Marlin tailing down swell , pulling in front of them to drop a dead bait back and while watching them approach having another fish free jump almost along the side of the boat.! We ran out of live bait at around 10:30, but managed to get another fish hooked up the Duke got it the side of the boat in about 22 minutes. This fish was a surprise as it did not look very big from a distance, but up close it was one fat dude. We estimated it at around #140. Juan had hold of the leader for a while as I tired to get a tag in the fish, but he was never able to get it close enough for me to stick him. After around three minutes the leader parted and the fish swam away. As we worked out way back in, Secret Agent 006 1/2 reeled in dinner; a nice #25 Dorado that struck on a mackerel rigged behind an Islander lure ran way back in the pattern. Just two miles form the marina as we headed back in we thought everyone was going to catch a fish when the bridge rod stretched a bit. Both Juan I looked at each other and he held the rod up waiting for a fish to appear. After a bit he put the rod back in the holder and we agreed that it had been the action of the sells that had stretched the line. Just then the reel screamed and a marling got his head and bill out of the water and threw the hook! Almost every one had a fish today! Thanks to the guys from “Joisy’ for a great time in the evenings, a couple of great meals and for being so much fun to be with! Have a safe trip home and we will see you again next year!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR 8 MAY, 2004
Roald and Steve were out for their last day of fishing this trip and Juan was back on the boat as well. Fishing started just three miles out and they were glad that I suggested they get extra bait this morning! I explained what had happened yesterday and they used almost all fifteen baits they purchased before they left. Juan gave us a call about 21:45 and said they would be in around 1PM. I got to the boat a bit late, but found out that they had managed to tag and release two Marlins, released one other without getting a tag placed and unintentionally releasing one other fish that would not survive and bleeding heavily from the gills. Juan decided the fish would not survive and stuck the gaff in it. The fish took exception to this and took off with the gaff. Roald fought the fish back to the boat. This time the flying gaff was ready, the fish appeared to be tired and then just as Juan had the leader in hand, and was going to place the flying gaff, the leader broke. Well the fish was released but not he way or in the shape anyone wanted. Sometimes things just happen. Well, Roald you finally had you “Four Marlin day”! Congratulations, we’ll see you again next year!
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