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From Jan 01, 1999 To Feb 06, 2012
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Dec 20, 2010; 11:10AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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Author E-mail: gmlandrum@hotmail.com
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Report Description:
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
www.flyhooker.com
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
December 13-19, 2010
Weather: Almost Christmas and still no snow, what is going on? Oh well, I guess with daytime temps in the mid 80's and nights around the low 60's we won't be seeing much of that white stuff anytime soon. Breaks my heart (not!). We had mostly sunny skies this week and starting on Monday we experienced quite a bit of wind, most of it coming from the northwest. On Saturday it swung a bit and came from the east then died off and now it is nice and calm.
Water: All week long we have had a small area of cold water right in front of Cabo. The water has been 68 degrees while everywhere else it has been 71 degrees. The only other area of cold water we have seen is to the west of the San Jaime Bank where it was also 68 degrees. This cold water in front of us has also been off-color with a lot of green. The Pacific side of the Cape has continued to have good blue water while on the Cortez side up to the north, around the east cape, it has started to become greenish as well. When the wind started to blow on Tuesday the Pacific side became very rough and hard to fish. Most boats stayed to the south and the Cortez side of the Cape.
Bait: Caballito, Mackerel and Mullet were all available at the usual $3 each. There were a few Sardinas in San Jose at $25 a scoop.
FISHING
Billfish: We still are not seeing the numbers of Striped Marlin we expected, but we may have been spoiled with the success of the past several years. I don't know if it is a current issue, a bait issue or a commercial fishing issue, but they just have not been there in great numbers. We are still seeing fish, and they are still not biting well though. Most boats are seeing several dozen per trip but are lucky if they hook up one or two. And, surprisingly, there are still big fish around. We had clients fish on Thursday who found the Pacific side too rough, and the target was Striped Marlin. They turned to the Cortez side and ended up with a Black Marlin of #450 instead. It was a 40 minute fight for Bill Cook.
Yellowfin Tuna: While there were not a lot of Tuna caught this week, the boats that did get into them did very well, limiting out on fish that ranged from football to school size. Most of the action occurred to the south of Cabo or out to the west. Of course the problem was the water conditions. The winds we had made the swells large, sometimes 7-9 feet and there was chop on it, a lot of chop. The type of conditions I sometimes describe as a field of sheep. Anyway, there were fish out there, and they were biting steadily, but you had to be strong. Some of the Yellowfin went 50 pounds but the average was 20 pounds.
Dorado: Once again scarce, the numbers continue to drop as the water cools down. Fish were still found, and occasionally a boat found a small school and caught limits on fish to 15 pounds, but that was not the norm. Most boats were lucky to get a Dorado strike, and the success ratio was around 15 percent. Close to the beach on the Cortez side and just off of San Jose close to the beach were the best areas. Fish were found close to the beach on the Pacific side, but the water was rough most of the week.
Wahoo: No Wahoo were seen or reported to me this week, but there are always a few out there.
Inshore: Sierra are still the inshore stars, and are likely to continue to be so until the Yellowtail show in greater numbers. Right now you are able to get your fill of Sierra using either Sardinas, small rapallas or hootchies, but the sizes are not much larger than 6 pounds. There are still firecracker Yellowtail showing up and the Amberjack are biting, but no large fish, just in the 10-15 pound class. A few of the Pangas are getting into some Snapper to 10 pounds in the rocks, but the swells and winds have made that a “sometime” event.
Notes: If you are getting your own fishing licenses, you must have pesos!!! The people that sell the licenses around the marina can no longer take dollars from anyone. Get pesos the day before! No one has change for your US $100 at 6AM.
Music this week was a variety of Christmas songs as I wrote this and Mary baked cookies! Merry Christmas, I hope Santa is good to you!
If you can't wait until Monday, the blog is updated on Sundays! Available only at
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/ |
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Dec 13, 2010; 10:29AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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Author E-mail: gmlandrum@hotmail.com
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Report Description:
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
www.flyhooker.com
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
December 6-12, 2010
Weather: It all remains the same as our nighttime lows remain in the low 60's and the daytime highs in the high 80's. Mostly clear skies and no rain. Almost boring except that we love the “no snow” for Christmas effect!
Water: The water everywhere we could get to on a day charter was 75-75 degrees. Way out to the west, past our range the temperature break had moved to more than 50 miles offshore and there it dropped to 72 degrees. At the end of the week there was a band of warm 77 degree water running from just off of Punta Gorda and southward toward the 1,000 fathom line, and there was a large spot of 78 degree water 30 miles to the south of the Cape.
Bait: Caballito and Mackerel were both available as live bait this week at $3 each. There were fewer Sardinas around our area but reports were that they were still available in San Jose for the boats that wanted to make the 1 hour run up there.
FISHING
Billfish: Last week I said that maybe the moon phase was what was turning the Striped Marlin off their feed. I may have been wrong (wouldn't be the first time) as even as we come out of the new moon phase the continue to keep their mouths shut. We are still seeing them out there every day, and every day there are a few caught, but there has been no real success stories. A very lucky boat may get one or two releases, but that is a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Of course this means spending a lot of unproductive, boring time focusing in one area, an area where you know there are fish, and hoping that they suddenly go on the feed for a few minutes, or traveling constantly hoping to come across a new batch of fish that are hungry. Either way, Marlin fishing this past week has been fairly unproductive and boring.
Yellowfin Tuna: Yellowfin Tuna continued to be the offshore fish of the week as schools of football and a bit larger fish move in and out of our area. Sometimes as close as 4 miles out and sometimes as far as 25 miles out, they have provided fairly consistent action for fish up to 35 pounds but averaging 15 pounds. Consistent action is one thing, but consistent location is another. These fish have been moving, and moving quickly so the area that produced in the morning may not be the area they are at in the afternoon. This has made for some frustrating days, but when you do get into the fish, it has been great. Along with the football fish have been some that have gone as large as 100 pounds, but they have been far fewer than the smaller fish.
Dorado: Dorado were scarce this past week with only a few boats coming in flying multiple flags, and those have been for fish that have averaged 12 pounds. A few larger fish have been found in the offshore waters, but the majority have been found close to the beach and they have been the smaller fish. Not as many as there were a while ago, to paraphrase a song, they are still available for those who are willing to work for them and think they have the luck.
Wahoo: Among 10 boats fishing a small local tournament for tuna and Wahoo, only one small fish of 12 pounds was brought to the scale. Several days before,friends of ours caught one of 80 pounds, and the day of the tournament another friend lost 7 fish in a row due to leader being bitten through. This shows me there are still fish out there, but preparation is the key to success on these fish. Wire leader, shallower water and either high speed artificial lures or rigged bait slow trolled is what seems to work, at least last week.
Inshore: Sierra have taken over the show for the inshore fishing, but some Yellowtail are beginning to show up as well. While not large, the Sierra have been there in numbers and it was not a problem for most boats to limit out on them quickly. The Yellowtail were a bit larger, but still on the small side at an average of 6 to 8 pounds. Anglers from up north would call them “firecrackers” but they still eat good and fight well if the tackle is matched to their size. A few Amberjack as well as good numbers of Bonito and Skipjack have rounded up the most common inshore catch last week.
Notes: If you are getting your own fishing licenses, you must have pesos!!! The people that sell the licenses around the marina can no longer take dollars from anyone. Get pesos the day before! No one has change for your US $100 at 6AM.
My music this week was Boz Scaggs on his 1994 Virgin Records release “Some Changes”, still one of my favorites!
If you can't wait until Monday, the blog is updated on Sundays! Available only at
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/ |
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Dec 6, 2010; 12:48PM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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Author E-mail: gmlandrum@hotmail.com
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Report Description:
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
www.flyhooker.com
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
November 29-December 5, 2010
Weather: Maybe things have stabilized as our temperatures this past week were the same as the week before. Or morning lows were in the low 60's while the afternoon highs reached the low 90's. Still no rain, but we did have a couple of days with some light cloud cover.
Water: This week showed no change in where the temperature break was but we did have an overall drop in the water temperature by several degrees. At the end of the week we had a solid 75-76 degrees (79-80 degrees last week) everywhere you looked except for the Pacific side out past the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks. Once you got about 5 miles past them, the water temps dropped to 67-68 degrees instead of the 70-71 degrees from last week. That cooler water also had a slight green tinge to it, but not so bad that we did not fish there.
Bait: Caballito and Mullet with an occasional scoop of Sardinas pretty much covered the bases for live bait this week. The normal $3 each for the larger baits and $25 a scoop for Sardinas. There has been some brined and frozen ballyhoo at a rather expensive $4 each in the large “horse” size.
FISHING
Billfish: The lowering in the water temps seems to have brought more Striped Marlin into the area, but the moon phase (maybe) has had the effect of keeping their mouths from opening on most bait and lures. Boats are seeing several dozen fish a day but are lucky to get three or four bites, releasing one or two fish a day. Almost all the action has been on the Pacific side of the Cape just off the beach near drop-offs that concentrate what bait has been out there. There have been plenty of fish offshore as well, but not concentrated in any one area. The lowering temps have pretty much shut off the Blue and Black Marlin bite, but there are always a few fish around, even though I did not hear of any caught this week.
Yellowfin Tuna: As my friend Mike says, football season is here! There have been quite a few scattered schools of football size Yellowfin Tuna this week, with the fish ranging in size from 8 to 25 pounds and a few larger fish to 80 pounds on the outside of the schools. While much more common than they have been, it is still not wide open by any means, but when you do get into the fish there are multiple hook-ups. Hootchies, Sardinas, cedar plugs and small feather have all worked well. The fish have been found from near the shore to 30 miles off the beach and most of them have been to the south and west. Larger fish have been found near the temperature break outside the 1,000 fathom line to the west of us.
Dorado: Cooling water slowed down the Dorado bite for us close to home, but reports from the Punta Gorda area have been that the fishing for Dorado in their area has picked up, and all the way to the East Cape, even though the water is cool, the fishing has been fair to good for these great eating fish. In our area, the water near shore on the Cortez side has produced some decent fish to 25 pounds, and the same depth of water on the Pacific side has produced a few more fish, but in smaller sizes.
Wahoo: I thought that the Wahoo bite was over, but the past two days seemed to have proved me wrong as friends of mine caught 6 yesterday and 2 the day before. Working near shore and trolling slow with rigged dead baits they have been catching Wahoo ranging in size from 25 to 40 pounds. Other boats have been getting one or two here and there, but the fish are still around.
Inshore: A repeat of last week, small Roosterfish, the occasional Yellowtail, some decent Sierra and an occasional Amberjack rounded up the normal inshore catch this week. A few Pangas got into some grouper and snapper, and a few focused on the Dorado, but the mainstay was small Roosters and Sierra. Both sides of the Cape produced, but the Sierra were more concentrated on the Pacific side. The numbers of Yellowfin Tuna have proven to be a big draw and quite a few Pangas are venturing a bit farther offshore in search of the fish.
Notes: If you are getting your own fishing licenses, you must have pesos!!! The people that sell the licenses around the marina can no longer take dollars from anyone. Get pesos the day before! No one has change for your US $100 at 6AM.
As a change of pace I treated myself to some history in my music choice this week. A 2002 RCA release of Jimmy Rodgers music titled “Country Legends, Jimmy Rodgers” caught my eye on the shelf, and the early country blues and yodeling got my toes tapping this morning.
If you can't wait until Monday, the blog is updated on Sundays! Available only at
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/ |
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Nov 29, 2010; 11:45AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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Author E-mail: gmlandrum@hotmail.com
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Report Description:
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
www.flyhooker.com
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
November 22-28, 2010
Weather: The temperatures are still dropping week by week as our “winter” approaches. Most of you will laugh, but it has been a very chilly (for us) 63 degrees in the mornings and evenings, requiring windbreakers or light sweaters. It's funny to see all our visitors running around in shorts and t-shirts while we are shivering! We had a little bit of breeze this week, mostly from the northwest, but nor a real strong wind. Our daytime highs got up in the low 90's and we had mostly sunny skies.
Water: At the end of the week we had a solid 79-80 degrees everywhere you looked except for the Pacific side out past the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks. Once you got about 5 miles past them, the water temps dropped to 70-71 degrees. That cooler water also had a slight green tinge to it, but not so bad that we did not fish there.
Bait: Bait has been a big issue for the past few weeks as there has not been very much of it available, at least the good stuff. The full moon made catching Caballito difficult, the area has not had many Mackerel show up yet so the majority of bait available has been very small Caballito, a few Mullet and green jacks. There have been some Sardinas available up in San Jose.
FISHING
Billfish: The 80 degree water we have had this week has still provided a few Blue and Black Marlin to give anglers a fight, but I did not hear of any that were larger than #250. These fish were caught on the Cortez side around the 1150 and the outer Gorda Banks. There have been plenty of Striped Marlin around, but they have not been in the mood to bite. Boats have been seeing between 4 and 20 per day and most of the time have had just looky-loos where the fish follow a lure or bait for a while then take off. The best catches I have seen have been two fish per trip with an occasional Dorado or Tuna tossed into the box. Most of the fish have been on the Pacific side, within 5 miles of the beach. I think the main problem has been the moon phase as we are just coming off of the full moon.
Yellowfin Tuna: On again, off again, close to shore then 30 miles out, there was no way to predict where you would fins the Tuna this week with the exception of the Inman and Gorda Banks, and even they were iffy as sometimes the fish were there but would not bite. For the most part, boats did not get into any numbers of fish, but there were a couple of exceptions. We had one boat in the middle of the week come to the dock with four Tuna flags flying and each of the fish was over 70 pounds. He found those fish in porpoise out at the temperature break outside of the Golden Gate Bank, but the weather that day was too choppy for most of the boats and anglers.
Dorado: Once again we did not see any large numbers of Dorado with a couple of exceptions. A few boats did come in flying multiple flags and after asking the crew what they had done, I found that two of the boats had found a large piece of wood and had a great time loading up with limits of fish that averaged 15 pounds. A couple of the boats had managed to find small schools of little fish averaging 10 pounds just off the beach between the Gray Rock area and the Palmilla point and had kept one fish in the water while chunking for the others, once again reaching near limits for their anglers. These were the exceptions though, as most of the boats felt lucky to get one or two fish during a full day trip.
Wahoo: As a result of being on the back side of the moon, the Wahoo bite we had been experiencing dropped off quite a bit. There were still fish out there, but not in the numbers we had been seeing for the past two weeks. Fish that were caught were found between the Arch and San Jose close to the beach in 300-400 feet of water with a few fish in a lot closer. Most of the fish were smaller than last weeks, averaging 25 pounds.
Inshore: Small Roosterfish, and occasional Yellowtail, some decent Sierra and an occasional Amberjack rounded up the normal inshore catch this week. A few Pangas got into some grouper and snapper, and a few focused on the Dorado, but the mainstay was small Roosters and Sierra. Both sides of the Cape produced, but the Sierra were more concentrated on the Pacific side.
Notes: If you are getting your own fishing licenses, you must have pesos!!! The people that sell the licenses around the marina can no longer take dollars from anyone. Get pesos the day before! No one has change for your US $100 at 6AM.
My music for this weeks report was deep in the back of my shelf. I pulled out a tape of Pat Macdonald and Barbara K. from 1986 playing as “Timbuk 3” on the album titled “ Greeting From Timbuk 3”, a Columbia Records release. Until next week, tight lines!
If you can't wait until Monday, the blog is updated on Sundays! Available only at
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/ |
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Nov 22, 2010; 11:48AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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Author E-mail: gmlandrum@hotmail.com
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Report Description:
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
www.flyhooker.com
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
November 15-21, 2010
Weather: It is cooling down now, and it seems to be happening a little bit faster than last year. Our morning lows have been down to 65 degrees while the daytime highs have been as high as the mid 90's, quite a bit of variation. This week we had mostly sunny skies and no rain.
Water: Our surface temperatures were great this week with the average on the Sea of Cortez at 80 degrees almost everywhere you looked. On the Pacific side there was a band of warm water running up the beach and about two miles out that was 78 degrees, and farther out it dropped to 73-74 degrees. The San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks were 74 degrees.
Bait: Caballito this week ranged from decent size to fish only 6” long, and the bait guys still want $3 each. Still no mackerel available, but hopefully there will be some soon. I know that the bait boats in San Jose are still getting Sardinas, but don't know what the cost is.
FISHING
Billfish: The largest Marlin I heard of this week was Black that was caught around the 1150 area and weighed in over 500 pounds. There were a few other Blacks and Blues caught, but I did not hear of any large ones, mostly small fish in the 200-250 class. The good news was the numbers of Striped Marlin that were found on the Pacific side of the Cape. Most of them were found just on the edge of that warm water band I mentioned earlier, about two miles or so from shore. Early in the week they were fairly close to home, around the Los Arcos area, as the week went on they slowly moved to the north and as of Saturday were being found outside of Los Migrianos. Boats checking on the Golden Gate and Finger Banks have reported that there is still no concentrations of bait on those humps although there are some areas that have small schools. The lack of mackerel for bait has hindered anglers abilities to hook up, but even so, a good day has meant releasing two to four fish, and a great day has been up to six Striped Marlin releases.
Yellowfin Tuna: The bite on Yellowfin Tuna has been an on-off event this past week. One day they are in one area, the next day the same area is as dead as can be. Pods of Dolphin holding Tuna have been found everywhere this week, and the most consistent area has been a slice of water from directly south of us to just to the south of the San Jaime Banks. This area also encompasses a strong temperature break/current line that keeps moving around. There have been some nice fish taken from these schools, up to #150, but most of them have been in the 20 pound class. There are still fish being found in the San Jose area as well, and boats working the humps there have been doing well using Sardinas as chum and live bait.
Dorado: Not the fish of the week for several weeks now, the numbers continue to be low and the fish small, with an average size of only 10 pounds. There have been decent concentrations of them on the Cortez side of the Cape close to the beach, and Gray rock up to Palmilla has been providing action on these smaller fish. Some boats have been coming in with limits of these, with an occasional fish to 20 pounds. On the Pacific side the fish have been a bit larger on average, but there have been fewer of them.
Wahoo: For a lot of the fishermen this week Wahoo have been the highlight of the trip. If they managed to get out early they had a really good chance to get one of these speedsters. There have been more Wahoo caught in the past two weeks than I have seen in years, and the fish are decent size. We had one client that went out in the morning and was back at 10:30 with one #50 and one #25 pound as well as a Dorado. Some boats have been getting three or four fish a day, but almost all the action has been early morning. Dark colored lures, swimming plugs and live mackerel scad have been the good stuff to use, and the mackerel scad (chilwillies) have been the key to larger fish. Most of the action has taken place along the coast in the Sea of Cortez.
Inshore: Inshore fishing has been a repeat of the past months action as once again as Roosterfish in the petite size with an occasional fish to 35 pounds, Lady fish, decent sized Sierra, small Yellowfin, Bonito, Skip jack, occasional Snapper and Grouper along with a patchwork of Dorado and Striped Marlin made up most of the inshore catch. Most of the effort took place on the Pacific side of the Cape and for shear numbers, Sierra were the fish of the week inshore.
Notes: If you are getting your own fishing licenses, you must have pesos!!! The people that sell the licenses around the marina can no longer take dollars from anyone. Get pesos the day before! No one has change for your US $100 at 6AM.
Fleetwood Mac's “Rumors” album was my pick of the day for listening while writing this report so I am in the mood to take Mary and Tawny for a walk on the beach now! Until next week, tight lines!
If you can't wait until Monday, the blog is updated on Sundays! Available only at
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/ |
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Nov 15, 2010; 11:00AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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Author E-mail: gmlandrum@hotmail.com
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Report Description:
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
www.flyhooker.com
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
November 8-14, 2010
Weather: I just keeps getting better and better. What can I say? With our morning low this week at 68 degrees and our daytime highs in the low 90's it could only be better if we had a little bit of rain every other day. Anyway, it's been great! We only had a little bit of wind the other evening that did not last long and mostly sunny skies every day.
Water: The interesting thing on the water this week was the way the currents affected the distribution on the Pacific side. First, on the Cortez side of the Cape the water was almost a uniform 80 degrees on the surface with small seas and only afternoon chop when the wind blew hard enough. On the Pacific side the currents have really moved things around. In the middle of the week we had two troughs of cold water running north-south, the first one inside the San Jaime and off of the beach where the water dropped to 73 degrees, with 75-76 degree water on either side. The second was just to the west where there was a two degree difference with a three mile wide band of 73 degree water was pinned between 78 degree water, about 8 miles to the west of the Jaime Banks. By the end of the week everything had warmed up a couple of degrees and tightened up, mocing a bit closer to shore.
Bait: Caballito were available at $3 each as were mullet. There were small Sardinas as well at around $30 a scoop. Still no Mackerel available from the bait boats, but a couple of the larger boats have brought a few down from Mag Bay, so perhaps they are on their way in our direction.
FISHING
Billfish: With tournament time over for the year, as far as the big fish are concerned, there has been little direct pressure on the Blue and Black Marlin, therefor the ones that have been caught have been incidental catches. There are still a few Black Marlin out there, mostly up in the San Jose and Punta Gorda flats. A scattering of reported hook-up on Blue Marlin have been made as well with a few brought to the docks, but the largest I heard of was about #300. The big event of the week has been the re-appearence of the Striped Marlin on the Pacific side. While there has been no big balls of bait piled up, there have been small spots of bait on the Golden Gate Bank and along the self off of the Los Arcos area and the lighthouse. Some boats have been doing well, with up to four Striped Marlin a day by finding these bait balls on the depth sounder and dropping live bait on them. It would probbaly be a better catch rate if we could match the bait, but not yet. Also, in the afternoons the Marlin have been chasing the remainder of the bait to the surface and the diving birds have been resulting in clouds of smoke as captains gun the boats to the action, hoping to get a bait in there before the fish dissapear again. While frustrating at times, some boats have been getting four to 6 Striped Marlin a day this way.
Yellowfin Tuna: There were still some nice Tuna caught this week but I did not see anything over 180 pounds hit the dock in the afternoons. Most of the fish were slightly larger than footballs at 25-30 pounds, with a few larger to 80 pounds, but at the end of the week I also saw some that were more the size of footballs and less, down to three or four pounds. All these fish have been scattered in the open ocean with some concentrated just to the west of the San Jaime and more concentrated in the Inman and Gorda Banks areas, but the larger fish I have seen were all from porpoise, and quite a ways offshore. Boats fishing the areas to the north up in the San Jose area have been doing all right using live Sardinas as chum then fly-lining a hooked bait, this has been the favored method for the fish to 30 pounds.
Dorado: These were still a dissapointment as we saw no really large fish hit the dock. I heard of one nice one that weighed 50+ pounds, but for the most part the fish have been less than 10 pounds, and most of them have been caught near-shore on the Pacific side.
Wahoo: The Wahoo bite took off this week with some boats bringing in six per trip. The best time was at gray light in the morning, and using dark colored lures and swimming plugs worked for artificial lures. Some boats were rigging ballyhoo inside a hollow head lure and pulling them in the spread and were doing well with them, but the best catch came from boats using live bait. The bait was Mackerel Scad, and you had to be out at first light to get them, and you had to catch your own, they are not available from the bait boats. Slow trolling these treats resulted in giant blow-ups as the Wahoo tried to eat them, and the occasional surprise Yellowfin Tuna as well. On the Cortes side, between Gray Rock and the Inman Bank, all in the shallow, 300 foot or less water was the best place to be for these speedsters.
Inshore: Roosterfish in the petite size with an occasional fish to 35 pounds, Lady fish, decent sized Sierra, small Yellowfin, Bonito, Skip jack, occasional Snapper and Grouper along with a patchwork of Dorado and Striped Marlin made up most of the inshore catch this week. Boats that had Sardinas also did great playing with needle fish to 4 feet, something kids really like to do and they are great fun on ultra-light gear. Most of the effort took place on the Pacific side of the Cape and for shear numbers, Sierra were the fish of the week inshore.
Notes: If you are getting your own fishing licenses, you must have pesos!!! The people that sell the licenses around the marina can no longer take dollars from anyone. Get pesos the day before! No one has change for your US $100 at 6AM.
It has been a nice, quiet morning, so my music selection matched the mood. Nora Jones on her 2002 Capitol Records/Blue Notes release”Come Away With Me” fit perfectly!
If you can't wait until Monday, the blog is updated on Sundays! Available only at
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/ |
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Nov 8, 2010; 11:32AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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Author E-mail: gmlandrum@hotmail.com
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Report Description:
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
www.flyhooker.com
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
November 1-7, 2010
Weather: Our wonderful weather continued this week with lows in the low 70's and most of the days in the high 80's with the exception of Friday, when we had 98 degrees in the center of town. For the most part the wind was mild, the two day of the Los Cabos Tuna Jackpot tournament, Thursday and Friday. We had the wind switch almost 180 degrees and come from the southeast instead of the normal northwest, and it blew at a pretty good clip.
Water: Surface conditions on both the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific side were great all week long, with the exception of Thursday and Friday when the wind changed direction. On those days were were seeing steady whitecaps and rollers, the Port Captain closed the port to small craft traffic on Thursday afternoon when a water taxi rolled over in the surf at Medano beach, thankfully no one was hurt. The rest of the week we had normal northwest winds at 8-12 knots, causing light chop on the Pacific side and almost nothing on the Cortez side of the Cape. At the end of the week we had an intrusion of cool 77 degree water pushing our way from the south, and coming at us just to the east of Cabo, between Cabo and San Jose. This intrusion has caused the warm water there into a small band of 80-81 degree water between the shoreline and the 95 Spot and the 1150. Just on top of the Cabrillo Seamount has been a warm spot of 84 degree water and it is now being pushed to the east. From Cabo San Lucas to 15 miles west of the San Jaime Banks, and to the south of there has been warm water at 81-82 degrees. North of the San Jaime, across the Golden Gate Bank and up the coast to the Finger Bank the water has been 75-77 degrees.
Bait: Caballito were available at $3 each as were mullet. There were small Sardinas as well at around $30 a scoop.
FISHING
Billfish: We were seeing a few more Striped Marlin beginning to show up in the catch reports this week. Not everyone was able to get one on the end of their line, but the success ratio seemed a bit higher than the last two weeks. This may be due to the slightly cooler water we are seeing now, much more preferred by the Stripey than the warm 80+ degree water. The bite was off on Blue and Black Marlin and probably for the same reason, cooler water, but also because there was so much attention and effort placed on Yellowfin Tuna this week.
Yellowfin Tuna: As I thought last week, the amount and size of the Yellowfin Tuna we had been seeing resulted in a great Los Cabos Tuna Jackpot Tournament. I was surprised, as were many people, that there was only one fish weighed over 200 pounds, after seeing several 300 pound fish come in last week, but there were reports of very large fish being broken off. Most of the fish seemed to come from one of two area. Our usual cow tuna grounds this time of year is the outer Gorda Bank, and it continued to deserve its reputation as there were quite a few qualifying fish from there, but the number of boats and the small area, combined in the switch in wind direction made the success ratio a bit smaller than most boats would have liked. The other are that produced well was the temperature break to the west of the San Jaime Banks. There were scattered Porpoise pods all over the place, instead of finding just one or two to work, many boats were finding six or seven pods a day to check out. As usual, the big fish were caught on a mix of methods with live bait on down-riggers working well, live bait and artificials under kites working on the shy fish and lures getting the ones that were not so shy. The largest fish of the tournament was #208, there were two fish in the #180 class, around five or six fish in the 150-140 pound class and uncountable fish in the #100 category. It got the point very quickly that if your fish did not eyeball out at over 100 pounds you could not weigh it, there were plenty of larger fish to get up to the stage.
Dorado: Dorado were a big disappointment this week as there were no large fish caught. The Tuna Tournament had a side jackpot for the largest Dorado or Wahoo of the tournament, the fish had to be over 30 pounds. There were no Dorado entered! The fleet boats did well on Dorado, but mostly fish that averaged 12 pounds, and most of them were found on the Pacific side along the coast.
Wahoo: There were a few nice Wahoo brought in this week, and the winner of the side jackpot at the tuna tournament weighed in at a very respectable 58 pounds! Most of the fish brought in were in the 25-30 pound range and were found along the edges of the banks.
Inshore: Roosterfish in the petite size, Lady fish, decent sized Sierra, small Yellowfin, Bonito, Skip jack, occasional Snapper and Grouper along with a patchwork of Dorado and Striped Marlin made up most of the inshore catch this week. Most of the effort took place on the Pacific side of the Cape and for shear numbers, Sierra were the fish of the week inshore.
Notes: If you are getting your own fishing licenses, you must have pesos!!! The people that sell the licenses around the marina can no longer take dollars from anyone. Get pesos the day before! No one has change for your US $100 at 6AM.
No music for me today, I have a cold or allergy, stuffed sinus and headache so the sound I am hearing are the tip-tip-typing of my fingers on the keyboard. Next week, ok!
If you can't wait until Monday, the blog is updated on Sundays! Available only at
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/ |
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Nov 1, 2010; 10:56AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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Author E-mail: gmlandrum@hotmail.com
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Report Description:
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
www.flyhooker.com
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
October 25-31, 2010
Weather: We have had the best weather for the past several weeks! Morning lows in the low 70's and mid-day highs in the mid to high 80's with a little dew on the plants in the mornings has made everything brighten up and look great.
Water: The water in most areas of the Sea of Cortez has been a steady 82-83 degrees but at the end of the week there was a hot spot of 87 degree water off of the Punta Gorda area. The warm water wrapped around the Cape, creeping up along the shoreline on the Pacific side as far north as the Golden Gate Bank with 80 degree water. More than 4 miles offshore on the Pacific side the water cools considerably to 74-77 degrees. Farther out than 50 miles to the southeast the water cools again to 77 degrees while the warm water from the Sea of Cortez continues to the south and southwest in a finger of warm water.
Bait: Caballito were available at $3 each as were mullet. There were small Sardinas as well at around $30 a scoop.
FISHING
Billfish: With the Bisbee's Black and Blue Marlin tournament over the focus has changed a bit with the boats going out re-focusing on the more common Striped Marlin instead of the larger Blue and Black Marlin. There are still nice Blues and Blacks being caught each day, but there has not been the pressure, the intensity of effort we saw the past week. The larger fish have still been coming from the warmer waters up around San Jose in the Punta Gorda and Vinorama area and along the line between the 95 spot and the 1150, while the Striped Marlin have been just off the warm water along the Pacific side, with more fish being found to the northern area than to the south end of the Cape.
Yellowfin Tuna: The Yellowfin Tuna this week were spread out all over the place, and there were some really nice ones caught. The largest I heard of came from the Gorda Banks, two days in a row there were fish over #300 caught, the largest at #350! There were football and slightly larger in the area as well and a few fish over 100 pounds. Boats working off of Palmilla and Cabo Del Sol with Sardinas were doing well on fish in the 15-25 pound class. Offshore in the Sea of Cortez passing pods of Porpoise signaled the presence of nice Yellowfin more often than not, but there were a few instances where the Tuna were not present. These fish ranged in size from 20 pounds to occasional groups of fish to 200 pounds seen breaking the surface, and a few being hooked up. On the Pacific side there were also passing pods of Porpoise off of the lighthouse, close to shore that were delivering Yellowfin that averaged 35 pounds with an occasional fish to 60 pounds, and boats working the San Jaime Banks area were pleasantly surprised to see fish in the #200 class breaking the water, but frustrated when they would not eat. Boats that were willing to go the extra yard by working kites with both live baits and artificials were able to hook the occasional fish to #180, but the larger ones were elusive. All this leads up to what looks like a really fantastic Tuna Tournament!
Dorado: If you were in the right place at the right time it was no problem to limit out on the Dorado this week, but many boats also had little luck. It seemed as if the fish on the Pacific side moved just a little farther to the north than they were last week, which seems counter intuitive as the cooler water is to the North. However, there were passing schools of fish found offshore at a distance of 10-15 miles on the Pacific side as well as very far to the south of us at a distance of 30+ miles, and some of the schools were of large fish, with an average of 30 pounds. That was not the norm however, as the fish closer to hove averaged 12 pounds yet once again, with only an occasional fish to 30 pounds. A few boats found small floating debris and were able to pull some decent fish from them using live bait, or were able to get good numbers by leaving the first fish hooked up in the water and waiting for the rest of the school to show up.
Wahoo: There seemed to be a few more Wahoo this week than last, but once again they were an incidental fish as few boats were targeting them. The boats that did get Wahoo seemed to find them while fishing for Tuna closer to shore, which makes sense as Wahoo are structured oriented fish.
Inshore: I heard that there were schools of Roosterfish averaging 4 pounds cruising the beach off of Playa Grande and the Solmar, small fish but at least they were Roosters, good for those that have a bucket list to work on. This morning I came across a couple of locals working the beach with spinning rods right in the arroyo between Club Cascades and Villa Del Palmar and they had a good number of small Jack Crevalle as well as one very nice Sierra! We had one fly fishing client out this week who caught one small Roosterfish, several Ladyfish and a few Sierra on the Pacific side close to the beach. I also had one Panga Captain tell me that he had caught a Yellowtail that weighed 22 pounds for a client on the Pacific side up around the the rocks at the lighthouse, but I never saw the fish.
Notes: If you are getting your own fishing licenses, you must have pesos!!! The people that sell the licenses around the marina can no longer take dollars from anyone. Get pesos the day before! No one has change for your US $100 at 6AM.
Once again I had a “ye-haw” western bent, music with a drawl as I continued to explore the CD's brought to me by my friends from Plano, Texas. A new favorite was Wade Bowen on his CD “If We Make It Home” Until next week, tight lines!
If you can't wait until Monday, the blog is updated on Sundays! Available only at
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/ |
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Oct 25, 2010; 12:09PM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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Author E-mail: gmlandrum@hotmail.com
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Report Description:
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
www.flyhooker.com
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
October 18-24, 2010
Weather: Once again you could not have asked for more perfect weather as our morning lows were in the low 70's and the daytime highs in the mid to high 80's. The humidity was low, the bugs were almost gone, the sun was shining and the water was warm. It really does not get much better than this!
Water: On the Sea of Cortez we had 83 degree water from the shore out to a distance of about 10 miles then it started to drop to 79 degrees. The surface conditions were great with very small swells and little wind. On the Pacific side the wind was fairly constant from the northwest, but not strong enough to make it impossible to fish, just uncomfortable for a lot of people. The warm water from the Sea of Cortez started to wrap around the Cape and extended itself out to the southern edge of the San Jaime Bank at the end of the week. The near-shore water was a cool 78 degrees while out a distance of 30+ miles it dripped to 75 degrees.
Bait: Caballito were available at $3 each as were mullet. There were small Sardinas as well at around $30 a scoop.
FISHING
Billfish: Marlin remained the talk of the town as the 30th annual Bisbee's Black and Blue tournament too place Wednesday through Friday. There were 8 marlin over 300 pounds brought to the weigh scale on the first day of the tournament with the largest being 599 pounds. Actually there were 9 fish brought in, but the largest one, a 800 pound Blue Marlin was 10 minutes late and did not qualify. Overall for the 103 boats fishing, there were 74 fish reported caught with 13 Black Marlin, 32 Blue Marlin, 28 Striped Marlin and one Sailfish. This is just for the tournament and does not count fish caught by charter boats not involved. With 0.73 fish per boat it was slow the last two days, but the average size was very good. Most of the fish were caught on the Sea of Cortez side as the conditions for large fish were more favorable there.
Yellowfin Tuna: Seeing the big Yellowfin Tuna blowing up on small bait fish was not an uncommon sight this week and several of the large fish were brought in. The largest I heard of was one that weighed right around 388 pounds, caught by a boat fishing for big Marlin in the tournament. There were quite a few fish in the 30-40 pound class brought to the docks by the charter boats, and most of these were caught due south of the Cape, fairly close to shore.
Dorado: The charter fleets continued to do well on Dorado just to the south and on the Pacific side of the Cape with an average of three fish per boat, and some limiting out with fish that averaged 12 pounds. An occasional fish went to 40 pounds, but not quite as many as there were last week.
Wahoo: I did not hear of as many Wahoo this week, but it may have been because of the number of boats fishing for Marlin. With the full moon though, and the large number of boats working the Gorda Banks and the flats off of Punta Gorda, not having many Wahoo hook-ups was a surprise.
Inshore: For the third week in a row, this week was a repeat of the last week for the inshore fishing. Roosterfish to 40 pounds, some nice sized Sierra and a scattering of Snapper were reported from the Pacific shoreline this week. The Roosterfish were caught on live bait and the schools have been fairly large. The Snapper have been tight into the rocks, but our small swells have made it easier than normal to get in there and toss a live bait. Most of the Pangas have been focusing slightly offshore fishing for the Dorado.
Notes: If you are getting your own fishing licenses, you must have pesos!!! The people that sell the licenses around the marina can no longer take dollars from anyone. Get pesos!
This week I decided to go western as a friend brought me some down home Texas music! One of my favorites was Hayes Carll on his CD “Little Rock” Until next week, tight lines!
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/ |
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Oct 18, 2010; 11:40AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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Author E-mail: gmlandrum@hotmail.com
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Report Description:
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
www.flyhooker.com
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
October 11-17, 2010
Weather: What a beautiful week we had! As is usual for this month of the year, the weather changed for us and the temperature dropped what felt was five degrees. With no storms on the horizon and just a light breeze we had great weather. Our daytime highs were in the high 80's to low 90's and our nighttime lows were in the mid 70's.
Water: On the Sea of Cortez side we had 86 degree water all along the coast out to a distance of about 5 miles, then it dropped a degree to 85 degrees. On the Pacific side it was mostly 82 degrees between the Jaime Bank, the Golden Gate Bank and the shore. Outside the banks the water dropped to 78 degrees. There was a bump, a bit of a swell, on the Pacific side while the Cortez side had almost pool table flat water with maybe 1-2 feet of swell, spaced far apart.
Bait: Caballito were the most common baits to be had from the boats this week and were the usual $3 each. The bait barge had some as well as some Sardinas. With the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament just happening and the little and big Bisbee tournaments the Sardinas have been the bait of choice in order to catch the smaller Tuna for bait.
FISHING
Billfish: The first day of the Los Cabos Tournament was Wednesday and two big fish were brought to the weigh station. The largest was a Black Marlin that was reported to have been caught in the vicinity of the Gorda Banks and weighed in at 713 pounds. The second was a Blue Marlin that weighed in around 650 pounds. The last day of the tournament had three marlin over 400 pounds brought to the weigh station. The first day of the little Bisbee tournament was Saturday and a several nice fish were brought in as well. Next week I should have an update on the big Bisbee tournament as I will be captaining a boat for that one and will have the radio on full time! There were still plenty of Striped Marlin being found out there with most of the action happening on the Pacific side up around the Golden Gate. While the action is nor red hot, there has been a fairly steady bite on fish with most boats getting a shot or two a day, and a few getting multiple releases.
Yellowfin Tuna: Yellowfin Tuna action remained steady for boats fishing for the football fish up to 20 pounds in size, particularly around the Gray Rock area and the Santa Maria area during the tournament days. With that many boats chumming with Sardinas the fish are attracted to the area. There were a lot of Bonita and Skipjack as well. The area off of Palmilla has been producing some decent fish to 30 pounds for boats using Sardinas as bait. The largest Tuna of the Los Cabos tournament was 209 pounds and was caught by a friend of ours, who will not give any details about where or how, except to say the fight took two hours, and by the way, was caught on a Panga!
Dorado: The charter fleet did very well on Dorado this week but I was surprised that the largest Dorado caught during the Los Cabos Tournament by a tournament boat was only 31 pounds. I saw much larger fish being brought in by the charter fleet, some of the fish must have been at least 50 pounds. Perhaps it is the areas that were being fished because most of the big Dorado, and the large numbers came from the near-shore area on the Pacific side.
Wahoo: There were plenty of Wahoo reported this week and some boats were able to get multiple fish in the box, but you had to leave early for the first bite. Working the bottom contour around the 300 foot line with lures on wire leaders or rigged ballyhoo at first light seemed to work well for several boats that concentrated on these fish this week. The fish ranged between 30 and 50 pounds. In the offshore areas the fish seemed to average a bit larger but there was no concentrations to be found, the fish were sporadic.
Inshore: This week was a repeat of the last week for the inshore fishing. Roosterfish to 40 pounds, some nice sized Sierra and a scattering of Snapper were reported from the Pacific shoreline this week. The Roosterfish were caught on live bait and the schools have been fairly large. The Snapper have been tight into the rocks, but our small swells have made it easier than normal to get in there and toss a live bait. Most of the Pangas have been focusing slightly offshore fishing for the Dorado.
Notes: If you are getting your own fishing licenses, you must have pesos!!! The people that sell the licenses around the marina can no longer take dollars from anyone. Get pesos!
My music choice for this week was a new favorite of mine, Jack Johnson, and his CD “On and On” has been playing and re-playing in my truck and at home. It is a 2003 Universal records release. Until next week, tight lines!
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Gordo Banks Pangas Report San Jose del Cabo
October 17, 2010
Just like clockwork the busy fall season has now started, with the first of the
annual series of high stake billfish tournaments now just completed, the
grandest event of all, the Black and Blue Bisbee is slated for next week. The
local San Jose del Cabo Team on the 35 ft. Cabo “Fishermen” has officially won
the overall jackpot for the largest Black Marlin of the event, the black was
subdued in only 32 minutes and weighed in at 713 pounds, the same team also
accounted for the only other black marlin on the final day of the tournament, it
weighed in at 466 pounds. One 629 pound blue marlin was also weighed in on the
first day by the team aboard the “Sneak Attack” and on the last day a 465 blue
marlin was weighed in by the team on the “Rum Runin”. The weather conditions are
what you would call just about perfect now, no late season storms on the
horizon, which did happen during this same time frame last year, mostly clear
skies, some scattered clouds, light breezes, minimal swells, water temperatures
averaging 84 to 86 degrees, evenings and early mornings are just beginning to
cool off to the point where light wind breakers might be needed, all around
excellent fishing conditions for anglers. The Southern Baja landscape is now
green after the rains from a couple of weeks ago, but surely will dry out
quickly if the region does not receive additional rainfall soon.
Fleets have been fishing in all different directions, but the majority of the
most consistent action was now being found from Santa Maria to Iman areas.
Sardinas are being netted off of the Palmilla Point area, small to medium sized,
they have bait the bait of choice for enticing the football sized yellowfin tuna
to bite. The action was a bit up and down, with lots of skipjack mixed in, most
charters are finding limits of the yellowfin for their anglers. A few dorado
mixed in, though most of them were juvenile sized, only an occasional bull
topping the 20 pound mark.
Wahoo were being caught in limited numbers every day, on the same fishing rounds
as where the tuna and dorado were, striking on trolled lures, as well on larger
baitfish for the few anglers that did try that. The area of La Fortuna produced
perhaps the best action on the wahoo, particularly earlier in the day, the sizes
of the ‘hoo ranged up to 50 pounds. We do expect the wahoo bite to become more
consistent as the water temperatures drops more into their preferred range near
80 degrees.
Anglers out of La Playita on the panga fleets have had the option of jigging
moonfish on sabiki rigs right in the marina channel and using them for live
baits off of the bottom structure. These baits were particularly productive on
the Iman Bank in recent days for amberjack, which have been weighing an average
of 30 to 60 pounds, though on Friday a monster 97 pound amberjack was landed.
Some grouper and dogtooth snapper have also been accounted for, but amberjack
have been the most numerous bottom species, many boats are accounting for two to
six ambers, all of which are of quality size. The same time anglers are drifting
these larger baits near the bottom there are yellowfin tuna being found on the
surface, which have preferred the live sardinas.
The bite for the larger grade of yellowfin tuna on the Gordo Banks continued to
be very slow for the second consecutive week, though a handful of tuna in the 50
to 70 pound range were landed, most of these fish were landed by the commercial
panga fleet which were fishing later in the afternoon when these tuna were
becoming more active.
I was called down to the dock Friday at 10 a.m. to weigh in a large yellowfin
tuna. It officially weighed 335.5 pounds. It was caught on rod and reel by a
group of local La Playita pangeros, headed by Sergio Carillo. They hooked it on
a small dead sardina on the Inner Gordo Bank, using 80 pound main line with a 60
pound fluorocarbon leader and landed it in one and a half hours, it became tail
wrapped and was brought up dead from the depths. So another super cow has been
accounted for from the Gordo Banks as we build up towards the WON Tuna Jackpot
Tournament.
A few sierra are now showing up near the shoreline, early in the season,
especially consider the warm water temperature, as sierra do prefer much cooler
conditions.
Billfish are scattered throughout the zone in limited numbers, though there is a
chance at a variety, with striped, blue and black marlin in the area, as well as
some sailfish.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out
approximately 101 charters for the week, with anglers accounted for: 3 striped
marlin, 2 sailfish, 19 wahoo, 42 dorado, 695 yellowfin tuna, 9 dogtooth snapper,
9 barred pargo, 116 amberjack, 7 grouper, 4 rainbow runner, 12 sierra and 6
cabrilla.
Good fishing, Eric
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson
Owner/Operator
800 4081199
Los Cabos 1421147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
www.gordobanks.com
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