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Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Capt. George Landrum
July 5, 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 JUNE 29 to July 4, 2004
WEATHER: Last week I said that the humidity was starting to get up there, right? Well, it’s here! But we also have this wonderful warmth to go with it as our night time lows have been in the low 70’s and the day time highs in the mid to high 90’s. You get to sweat when you are walking but it makes sitting in the shade with a cool one all the better. Of course, it is a lot more comfortable out fishing! We have had a little bit of cloud cover, no rain and slight winds in the late afternoon.
WATER: Warmer! The coolest water we were finding at the end of the week was out in the area of the San Jaime and Golden Gate Banks where the surface temperature was in the 77-78 degree range. Everywhere else, both to the south and up the Sea of Cortez we had water in the 80 to 85 degree range. Good surface conditions everywhere at the end of the week with slight swells and just a light wind riffle. The water was a great blue color except near home, near shore on the Pacific side where it greened up a little, but it was still not too bad.
BAIT: The usual Caballito at $2 each, some Lisa, a few small Mackerel and no Sardinas
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FISHING:
BILLFISH: And things just keep getting better! I saw most boats that were flying Billfish flags flying at least two, often four to six flags each as they came in. The fish, at least the Striped Marlin, were close to home, it was not necessary to get more than ½ mile offshore to get into the action. The really good action early in the week started up around San Jose and moved our way as the week went along. As of the end of the week, right out in front of Punta Ballena and the 95 spot there were Striped Marlin everywhere. The Blues are starting to show up as well and there were some nice fish reported from the area of the Gorda Banks. Hopefully they will be coming closer as well as the weeks go on. Almost all the action this week was on live bait. There were fish coming into the patterns but they were not very aggressive, live bait dropped back seemed to do the trick though.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Yellowfin bite this week picked up as well, and it is a good thing! We still are not having great numbers or really large fish, but a lot of footballs, sometimes enough of them to seem a nuisance if you were running lures that were too small, but quite a few of them were fish in the 20-25 pound range, with fish to 50 pounds showing as well. Most of the bigger fish were a little farther off shore than everything else, and the south side of the San Jaime Banks was a good place to find them, often pin-pointed by the feeding porpoise. Small feathers in dark colors were needed for the footballs if you wanted to catch a lot of them, medium sized lures in almost any color for the bigger fish.
DORADO: It is summertime and that means Dorado time. I have seen a lot of Dorado flags this week and while there have been some small fish in the catch; I have once again seen quite a few fish in that 50 pound range. Of course most of them are around 20 pounds, but that is nothing to sneeze at! Right out in front of town, within a mile of the arch and slow trolling live bait seems to be an almost sure bet for the Dorado, but most of the boats are covering more ground by pulling lures until they hook up, then dropping back live bait.
WAHOO: Once again it was not a red hot Wahoo bite, but there were fish being caught. Enough red flags were flying that we knew there were fish out there, and I did talk to a few people that hooked up to the toothy speedsters. Most of the fish this week were in the 30-40 pound class, and caught close to shore. I went out with a couple of friends on the 30th, just for fun as it was my birthday, and we tagged and released two Striped Marlin and had hard strikes from two Wahoo as well. All this action happened between 9 am and 11 am on the Sea of Cortez side between Punta Ballena and the Westin.
INSHORE: This week was a repeat of last week’s inshore report with the exception that more Roosterfish are showing up. Most of the inshore fishing was on hold this week as the Pelagics showed up so close to the beach that no one wanted to go for Roosterfish and Jacks when there were Dorado, Marlin and Tuna right there! For the few boats that did try, the bite on Roosterfish was on the Pacific up past the lighthouse as the Mullet followed the water change.
NOTES: I don’t know if I am going to be able to supply much of a report for next week, but I will try and get some information out to you. I will be away until Wednesday afternoon on a boat delivery, and Mary is meeting me on Wednesday for a visit to Disneyland! This weeks report was written to that nagging, obnoxious little tune, “It’s A Small, Small World”, that keeps running through my head! Until next week, Tight Lines!
Fly Hooker Daily Catch Reports
Capt George Landrum
“Fly Hooker” Sportfishing
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
WEEKLY FISH COUNT
BLUE MARLIN: ONE FISH TAGGED AND RELEASED (#250)
STRIPED MARLIN: TWO FISH TAGGED AND RELEASED (#75, #80)
DORADO: ONE FISH KEPT (#50)
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR JUNE , 2004
Today was my birthday and since there were no charters booked for the day, it was time to have a little fun! Mary and I, along with our friends Dave McNabb and Ina Yank had Juan and Manuel take us out for a little fishing. It was supposed to be a half day, and hopefully could get a Dorado or Tuna, maybe even a Wahoo, for dinner! Since Mary tends to get seasick, I told Manuel to keep us on the Sea of Cortez and not more than three miles out, the water in close had been like a lake. We did not have any action for the first hour and a half, and it was not until we got up near the Westin that any action happened. Once there, we had a hard strike on the Marauder run close to the boat, and bringing it in to look at afterward you cold see the new Wahoo cuts on the body. Shoot, which would have been great for dinner. A little later Manuel spotted a Striped Marlin come in on the long lure and goosed the boat to keep the lure away and get the fish mad. Juan dropped back a live bait, Manuel slowed the boat and suddenly I was fighting a Striped Marlin! It didn’t take very long and we did get a few jumps out of the fish. I fought the fish standing up and it took about 12 minutes before it was at the side of the boat. I placed a tag and Juan removed the hook from the corner of the mouth. The Marlin was only about #75, but it was a good start! A little later, and about 5 miles off the Palmilla area we spotted an inflatable boat that looked like it might be fighting a fish. Manuel turned in that direction and as he yelled that there were three Marlin up ahead, I saw that someone in the inflatable was waving a red shirt from a paddle. Well, if they were sinking we would have headed over there right away, but they seemed all right for the moment, and by then Dave was hooked up to a Striped Marlin! It took him about 15 minutes to get the fish to the boat, also fighting it stand up style, and the fish jumped very near the inflatable several times. After tagging and releasing his fish (about #5 bigger than mine) we went over to check on the inflatable. It was a dad, his son and daughter and son’s friend. They had an electrical problem with his outboard and couldn’t get it started again. We rigged a bridle, got everyone on the “Fly Hooker” and towed them in to Palmilla. The kids we let us know that seeing the Marlin Dave fought jumping so close to them was really cool. After getting them taken care of at Palmilla we ran out a mile and resumed fishing our way back to Cabo. On the way we had another strike from a Wahoo that did not hook up, and we had one small Dorado try and eat a lure, but the fish just did one back flip when it hooked up, then came off. No fish for dinner, but we had a nice day on the water and were able to do a favor for someone who needed it.
“FLY HOOKER” DAILY FISH REPORT FOR JUNLY 3, 2004
It is the day before the 4th of July holiday and we have an old friend from Guam aboard the boat today, along with his sister, son-in-law and daughter. Wayne Baumunk worked on Guam during the late 70’s and the 80’s as a dive instructor and a few other things, and it was nice to hear from him when he was inquiring about the fishing. Well, we introduced them to Juan and Manuel, and Wayne said he really wanted Tuna or Dorado, so the guys took the boat up to the area between Punta Ballena and Red hill and worked the area offshore from 1 mile to 5 miles really hard. During the morning they saw three Striped Marlin but none of them would eat a live bait, but they had no strikes from any eating fish. It was not until on the way back at 12:45 that they hooked up to a big Dorado. Wayne’s son-in-law just had surgery for carpel tunnel and was not going to be fighting a fish so Wayne was on the rod. It took him about 15 minutes to get the fish close enough for Juan to gaff, and it was right around #50! A very nice Dorado that had beautiful fillets! Manuel turned the boat back and they made another pass in the area and this time a Marlin struck! Too big for the girls so Wayne was back in the chair again. This time the fight took 40 minutes, but at the end Juan was able to tag and release a Blue Marlin that they estimated at #250. Wayne was tired by then! Sometime during the trip they found a Turtle sleeping on the surface and there was a nice Dorado in the shade under it. They made a pass with the lures, tried live bait and then cut bait, but the fish was not interested. Manuel tried to get the boat close enough to free gaff the fish, but the Turtle woke up and went down, taking the Dorado with him. Not a bad end to the day, but all the action happened at the tide change, during high tide. If we could have predicted that it would have been nice. Anyway, congratulations Wayne, you should be receiving your release certificate from the “Billfish Foundation” sometime soon!
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