FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
Aug 27 – Sept 2, 2012
WEATHER: After the rains we had the last week we thought that was the end for a while, but we received more rain, 2 ½ inches here at the house on Thursday as thunderstorms moved in over our area. Lots of lightning and thunder came with the rain, but now the desert looks tropical and green instead of dry and brown. One more week and there will be flowers everywhere! This is the season when this type of weather can come up quickly and until the end of October we could get rain at any time. Our daytime highs have been in the high 90's since Thursday and the humidity has been high as well. We have had lots of mosquitoes due to the rain as well as gnats, so a good bug spray or cream has come in just as handy as sunscreen this week. The good thing is that you don't have to worry about them if you are out on the water fishing!
WATER: As Hurricane Ileana passed by well to the west we experienced storm swells of up to 8 feet with a spacing of about 9 seconds, fairly close together, so the water was up and down, but without much, if any, chop on top of it. At the end of the week the swells had dropped to 3-5 feet from the southwest. Temperatures on the Cortez side of the Cape were in and around 87 degrees while on the Pacific side we were seeing 84-85 degrees. The inshore water on both sides of the Cape was dirty and off-color due to the runoff caused by the rains, and the offshore water was slightly off-color on the Cortez side. On the Pacific side the offshore water was a nice clear blue.
BAIT: No change from last week as water conditions inshore made bait difficult to get. Caballito and Mullet were available at the normal $3 per bait and you could get them if you were out early, many boats were unable to get bait and had to settle for frozen horse ballyhoo at $3 each. I heard reports that there were a few Sardinia available in the San Jose area, but you had to know someone and pay well for them.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Sailfish continued to be the number one Billfish for the week as most boats were having at least two to three come into the pattern sometime during the trip. A few boats managed to find small groups of Striped Marlin as well, getting covered up but only managing to get a couple to the boat for releases. As far as the larger Marlin go, there was a scattering of Blue Marlin bites reported with the majority being reported from the Pacific side of the Cape. A few Black Marlin were reported as well and most of these fish were being found up in the area of the Gorda Banks and north.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Tuna lost their place as the fish of the week as the Dorado bite started off strong, but there were still plenty of Tuna around. Most of the fish were reported from the Pacific side between the lighthouse and the San Jaime Banks with a few schools of decent fish being found at the 1,000 fathom line south of the San Jaime. Porpoise were the key, as usual, and if there were birds with them, all the better. The majority of fish caught were between 8 and 15 pounds but there was a scattering of fish between 18 and 35 pounds. I did hear of several larger fish, between 100 and 150 pounds being caught as well, so you never know what might hit!
DORADO: Well, our expectations were met and if you managed to fins any floating debris this week it was a guarantee of Dorado action, at least if you were the first boat to find it! Most of the fish were smaller ones at 8 to 12 pounds, but there were enough of them to 20 pounds to keep you hoping. According to reports I have been getting there are some really nice fish up in the East Cape area, plenty of them over 20 pounds and it should just be a matter of time until they start to show up in our area, or until our fish grow that large. Trolling lures until you hook up and then dropping back live or cut bait has worked while waiting for some debris to show up, and of course that old dependable method of looking for working Frigate birds will never stop working. The majority of the smaller Dorado were found closer to shore on the Pacific side of the Cape and the larger fish were found a bit farther out, at least 5 miles, in the blue water.
INSHORE: Inshore fishing was very slow this week as the rains have resulted in very off-color water out to ½ mile. Combine that with the storm swells churning up the beach early in the week and most Pangas were venturing outside to fish Dorado and Tuna.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe! It's a really yummy one!
NOTES: After a day of pumping out the vacant pool behind the house (mosquito central, and full of debris) there is still about 18 inches in the bottom. When we get back from the beach I am back at it again, slathered up with a good repellent. Douse the remainder with bleach and hope it kills the buggers. My garden is a happy one, all this rain has the plants smiling. Checking out the weather satellite animations it looks like we may get a few more rain clouds this afternoon and there might be something building up well to the southwest of us. A few Purse Seiners have shown up in our area this week so I am not sure how long the Tuna bite will remain good, but our fingers are crossed, as always, that things will work out in the anglers favor! This weeks report was written to the music of my friend and amigo Bryan Flynn, what a great guitar! Until next week, tight lines!