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Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Capt. George Landrum
January 17, 2005
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 JANUARY 10-16, 2005
WEATHER: It’s been cold enough in the mornings and evenings that a sweater has been needed, at least by those of us with thin blood. I guess that if it has been -10 degrees where you are at the 60 degrees we have here in the evenings may feel tropical, but not to us! Our night time lows have been down to the mid 50’s and our day time highs in the high 70’s. Partly cloudy most of the wee and on Wednesday we had pretty strong winds from the northwest but they died down on Thursday. No rain this week, but that is no surprise.
WATER: There was no big change in water temperatures this week with the exception of a cold upwelling right at the Cape that worked its way up the coast on the Cortez side. This water was 68-70 degrees and only extended about ½ mile off shore. The water within 20 miles of the coast on both sides of the Cape was pretty steady at 73-74 degrees this week while farther out the temperature dropped to the 70-71 degree range. There was a fairly sharp edge running across the San Jaime and the Golden Gate banks at the end of the week. There was a circulation of warm water to 76 degrees just past that 20 mile distance on the Cortez side of the Cape. On the Pacific side, the warm water band close to shore ran all the way up to Todo Santos.
BAIT: This week the bait was a mix of Caballito and Mackerel. They have been the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Tuesday was a banner day for Striped Marlin as the fish were packed up and close to home. The area to be was within 8 miles of shore just off the arch to the lighthouse, and they were feeding heavily. Most boats that worked the area were able to get at least several fish hooked up and almost everyone came in flying at least two Marlin flags. The most I heard of on one boat was 8 Striped Marlin released that day, and they were biting anything offered, even dead bait on a drop back. That night the wind kicked up and by the morning the fish had scattered. The bite from Wednesday on was not as good with the fish scattered all over the place, but there were still pockets of fish popping up here and there feeding hard. Watching for the Frigate birds stooping on flying fish was the key to getting on the feeders before they went down, and once the fish were found it was often a race between boats to be the first on to the spot and to toss the bait.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: This week’s action on Yellowfin Tuna is a repeat of last weeks with the exception of the Jaime Banks area. One of the long range boats out of San Diego has been working the area for a while and they have gotten several big Tuna, some of them over #300. A few of the local boats have been lucky to be there at the right time and have hooked up on nice fish as well. One Captain relayed to me a story of hooking up to one he swears would go over #400 and having the hook pull just as the leader was taken in hand. There were fish in the 35-45 pound class found between 30 and 40 miles to the west during the middle of the week, but they were moving around a lot. A few fish were found up around and just to the north of the Golden Gate Banks as well. The best baits for the Tuna this week were feathers in dark colors if you were trolling and Sardinas and Chiwillies if you were live baiting.
DORADO: Dorado action continues to be slow with the cooler water we have now, but there are still a few around. I don’t think I would be targeting any of them from now on, at least not if I wanted to catch one bigger than 10 pounds. There are still small fish found close to shore and a few larger ones off shore, but they have almost all been incidental catch.
WAHOO: A few fish have been turning up every day but they have been incidental catches. The bite that we had last week for a few days died off quickly as the fish passed through. There may still be a decent bit at the banks but I have not heard of it.
INSHORE: The Sierra action continued this week with the fish moving i9n closer to home. Up around the light house and Margarita there was good action just outside the breakers on fish to 6 pounds. A few boats that concentrated on them were able to fill fish boxes with these ceviche favorites. Other near shore fish were scattered and we are waiting for the Yellowtail to show up. Scattered Jacks and Needlefish as well as some Pompano round out the surface action and there have been some decent Snapper and grouper caught in the hours before and after high tide.
NOTES: For this week’s music I went back to the Pink Floyd “Echoes-Best of Pink Floyd” album2001, EMI. I grew up on the music and can’t get enough! Mary bought me golf lessons for Christmas; I had my first one a couple of days ago. Jack Gibson is a terrific teacher and has gotten rid of my slice already, this morning I will have to see if it helps on the course! The Whales are still here and the fishing is good. See you next week! Tight lines!
Fly Hooker Daily Catch Reports
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR JANUARY 13, 2005
Today I had a solo angler on the 50’ boat. Paulo (his real name is impossible for me to spell) is from Italy and has a boat there, but has never fished before. He wanted a nice boat to fish from for his first experience and had the money to spend. He had one more day left of his month long Mexican vacation so decided to give the fishing a chance. As the owner of a fourth generation wine bottle making company he has had and will continue to have a chance to fish all over the world if he likes the experience. Well, he had a great time even though the fishing was slow by our standards. We started the fishing just off the light house on the Pacific side and the lines were not in the water even 5 minutes before a Dorado came slicing through the water at the short rigger lure. Hookup! Paulo got in the chair and started to horse the fish in. I quickly gave him a few pointers on technique and after about 15 minutes he got the #25 Dorado to the side of the boat. One fish in the box and it was a great way to start the day! Things slowed down from there. There were Porpoise out at 16 miles so we worked our way out, hoping to get into some Yellowfin, but there were so many boats working them that the fish had gone down and the Porpoise had scattered. Eventually we found a small piece of Styrofoam floating on the water with about five feet of line attached to it. Our first pass produced a small Yellowfin of about 6 pounds and then we worked it with live bait and jigs. Nada. No other fish were home on the debris so we continued working back toward the shore. We got a call on the cell phone about a concentration of Marlin about 8 miles off of Los Arcos and worked our way to the area. Once we got there we switched over to bait, pulling two live Mackerel from the flat lines, one rigged Ballyhoo from the short rigger and the whisky line and one rigged squid from the long rigger. We saw one other boat hook up and of course everyone was running toward and Frigate the started to dive. Paulo informed me that he had a tennis lesson at 3 PM so we pulled lines and ran in. Paulo was happy with his first experience fishing and said that he would definitely do it again! Thanks Paulo, we hope to see you again one day!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR JANUARY 15, 2005
Today we had Tom, his wife Dawn and their friend John out fishing. They are friends of a friend and they had a great time. They started off fishing right outside of the light house on the Pacific side and worked their way out to the south side of the Jaime Banks. On the way out they had a Marlin spotted on the surface and were able to get it to eat a live bait. It did not take too long before the fish was brought to the side of the boat for pictures and then released. A little while later they were able to find some Porpoise that were feeding and there were Tuna with them. The bite was not red hot, but the fish were nice size with the average at 30 pounds. They ended up getting six of them in the fish box, and spent quite a while working the last one hooked up. The Captain and crew estimated its weight at between 80 and 100 pounds, but it pulled the hook just before the mate was able to grab the leader. Oh well, that’s fishing! They ended the day with some excellent fillets and great action to remember it by! Good going guys, we hope you get to do it again!
“FLY HOOKER” FISH REPORT FOR JANUARY 16, 2005
Terrance Fails fished with us again today after returning from his long-range diving trip to the Socorro Islands. He fished on the 5th and wanted Marlin but caught 4 nice Dorado. Today he fished on the same boat and they started up on the Pacific side about 8 miles, drifting live bait hoping a Marlin would show up. The area had been producing Marlin on a fairly regular basis but after several hours with no bite, or any signs of fish, they received a call on the radio. A friend of the Captain had found Frigate birds working a group of Marlin about 8 miles farther north so they picked up the lines and went there. Of course, by the time they arrived there were a lot of boats in the area. It’s impossible to keep a radio communication secret down here and everyone close had pulled lines and run to the area. Terrance had one shot at a Marlin as they had one pick up a live bait and run with it. He said the fish was only on for about five seconds and then they lost it. Sigh. It happens a lot with Marlin. Anyway, that was it for the day, but Terrance is trying again tomorrow, we hope he has better luck then! Until next week, Tight Lines!
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