FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
August 11-17, 2008
WEATHER We continue our warm weather pattern this week and it will probably be this way for the next 6-7 weeks as well. By warm weather pattern I mean our daytime highs in the mid to high 90's and our nighttime lows in the mid 80's with the humidity in the 70% range. It does feel cooler when we get a breeze and that has happened after 10 AM this week, the wind picks up just a bit from the southwest and seems to cool things down a bit. We had partly cloudy skies this week with mostly sunny by the end of the week.
WATER: The surface conditions remained almost the same as last week since there were no storms that came near us. Almost flat seas on the Cortez side of the Cape with water temps in the 80-84 degree range. On the Pacific there were some small swells at 3-5 feet but with no chop on them and surface temps at 81-85 degrees. There were no temperature breaks this week, everything flowed smoothly with only slow, even changes. The water was blue everywhere you went!
BAIT: Caballito were the bait of the week with a few Mullet in the mix. The price on these larger baits was $3 per bait. For inshore fishing Sardinas were available at $25 a scoop from the bait boats around the Palmilla area.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The full moon this week slowed the Marlin bite on the bigger fish like the Blues and the Blacks, but there was still fair action on the Striped Marlin. For boats fishing outside the 1,000-fathom curve a few Blue Marlin were found, most of them at the southern edge around the knuckle and the doughnut. Striped Marlin were found closer to shore on the Cortez side off of Punta Colorado to Gray Rock from 1 to 5 miles out as well as off the rocky points on the Pacific side of the Cape. Lures were the name of the game as few of the larger fish fell for slow trolled Bonita or Skipjack, and the Striped Marlin did not seem to have much desire for Caballito. Lures trolled just a bit on the speedy side of normal worked better, Striped Marlin bit at 8-9 knots while the Blues bit at 10 to 12 knots. I did not hear of any Black Marlin this week but that does not mean none were caught.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Boats we had booked this week brought in Yellowfin Tuna to 130 pounds and I heard of larger fish caught as well. Multiple hookups were not uncommon for boats that were on the fish first thing in the morning and the larger fish, in almost every instance were caught on live bait. The first fish were caught on lures but once the first hookup occurred, a live bait pitched back into the pattern and free-spooled for about 30 seconds got hit fairly quickly. For boats coming up on a school that had already been worked by a couple of other boats, finding the direction the fish were traveling and dropping down a live bait to 100 feet and waiting for the fish worked fairly well. Based on reports for both Captains and anglers this technique worked about 50% of the time. The fish were pretty evenly scattered between due south at the 1,000-fathom line to west of the Golden Gate Banks. The key was to find the right pod of Porpoise. There were decent fish caught and the average was around 30 pounds.
DORADO The Dorado catch still has not really gotten into high gear, and it may end up being on of our off years based on past history. Normally this time of year we have boats coming in flying full outriggers of yellow flags, but for some reason it seem slower this year than last. My fingers are crossed that it is just a late season for these great fish and they will show in numbers sometime in the next two weeks.
WAHOO: We just had the full moon and that normally means a good Wahoo bite. Well, it has not happened offshore yet but the boats working the rocky points up on the Sea of Cortez have been getting some daily shots at fish to 40 pounds and there has been a few incidental fish offshore to 60 pounds, but with no concentration in numbers or in one particular area.
INSHORE: While there have been Grouper and Snapper available to the inshore Panga fishermen, with the calm seas most of the Pangas have been heading offshore for Tuna and Dorado.
NOTES: My golf game has not gotten any better but the kitchen is just about finished. I need to get out on the water more since that looks like the only way to stay cool without having the A.C. running 24/7 at the house. With the fishing on the up-swing and some decent Tuna out there as well as the chance at a nice size Blue Marlin, about a week straight should get my mind in the right frame of reference. I can't eat golf balls! Until next week, listen to a little Roy Orbison and relax!