FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
August 27-Sept. 09, 2007
NOTES This report will start out with the note section as I need to apologize up front to all those of you who read my report on a weekly basis. With Hurricane Henrietta coming and the preparations needed last week as well as the beginning of football season I was in a bit of a time bind. Now that the squeeze is over I have the time to get a report out to you. What follows is mostly an update on present conditions, what was in the past remains in the past and unless you were here it will have no bearing on your fishing decisions in the future. By the way, this week's music is an eclectic mix from a CD lent to me by my golf buddy Roy Johnson, we have had Patty Cline, Neil Diamond, Neil Young and Merle Haggard coming through the speakers this morning! Thanks Roy!
WEATHER: As I mentioned in the Note section above, we had to deal with Hurricane Henrietta this past week. She came through on Tuesday with winds gusting to 85 mph, not too bad, and she dropped about 5 inches of rain on us. Once again, not a bad amount and it was scattered over two days, that allowed a lot of it to soak into the ground and limited the damage to the roads from runoff. Prior to the Hurricane we had winds from the northwest at an average of 8 knots, not quite enough to put a chop on the water but after Henrietta the winds were light and variable. We had winds from the southeast on Sunday morning but earlier in the week they were mostly from the northwest. Our temperatures have been great with the daytime highs in the mid 90's and nighttime lows in the low 80's. The humidity was high after the hurricane and in the early mornings but for the rest of the time it was not bad at all.
WATER: We just had a hurricane so what can I say? Prior to the hurricane we had swells from the west at 2-4 feet, during the hurricane they were 10-12 feet from the south, after the hurricane they were 4-8 from the southeast and then they shifted back to normal at 2-4 from the northwest. The water temperatures were more affected by the storm that the surface conditions over the long run. Where before the hurricane we had surface temps in the low 80's at the Golden Gate Banks on the Pacific side, after the storm went through the temps dropped to 76 degrees. This was pretty much the pattern across the board. Up at the Gorda Banks we had water temps in the mid 80's prior to the storm and afterwards we were seeing 80 degrees. The water clarity changed just a bit and the biggest change was the amount of debris in the water. There was quite a large amount of small trash washed out to sea and it littered the water close to shore.
BAIT: Prior to the hurricane bait was no problem, immediately after the storm there was no bait available but things have improved over the last few days. There are Caballito and some Mackerel at the normal $2 per bait and there were some Sardinas as well in the last few days at the normal $25 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The two days before Hurricane Henrietta struck us the Striped Marlin bite was wide open. The last time I saw the bite this good was two years ago when the Finger Bank was going off. The day before the Hurricane we fished the area three miles off the beach just to the inside of Golden Gate Banks. Over the three days prior the bait had moved off the bank toward land and the Marlin followed them. With three anglers aboard we were able to release 10 Striped Marlin to 160 pounds and one Blue Marlin of #200 in just about four hours. There were bait balls everywhere and the birds were working them hard. While hooked up on a double with one angler at the bow and another in the cockpit I watched as a group of a dozen Stripers fed on a ball of bait within 50 feet of the boat and several of the group chased the baits under the boat as I watched from the tower. Great stuff! After the hurricane it appeared that things dropped off a bit as the conditions had changed but the fish were still in the area. A few boats were coming in flying 8 flags and a lot more were stringing up four flags from the outriggers. It appears that the fish are still in the same area but the increased swells from the hurricane broke up the bait concentrations a bit and it was a bit harder to find the concentrations of bait. A good depth sounder helped a lot. Another technique that had good results was trolling a slightly higher than normal speed with the lures, 9.5 knots instead of the usual 7.5-8 knots. For some reason that seemed to kick the Marlins appetite into gear and they would bite on the plastic at that speed instead of ignoring it.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were still football fish to be found before and after the storm and we did well on the fish from 8-12 pounds on the east side of the San Jaime and the south side of the Golden Gate prior to the weather hitting us. These fish were not associated with Porpoise; they were schooled in the open and were moving around fast. After the storm they were still in the same areas and dark colored feathers worked well on them but red was the color of choice as red was out-bit by a factor of 5-3 over other colors.
DORADO: Once again the Dorado bite was consistent and with the amount of debris in the water it will likely improve as far as finding concentrations of fish. Stray couples in the 40-50 pound class were found both before and after the storm, but there were concentrations of small fish in the 8-pound class found under the small debris after the storm. This means that we should be seeing quite a few fish in the perfect 12-20 pound class within the next 90 days and our fingers are crossed for that to happen.
WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo this week, but there were probably a few caught, the water and moon were right for them.
INSHORE: No inshore fishing due to rough and dirty water caused by the storm this week, but the Roosterfish should really be stirred up within the next week.
An email I received this week, another way to help let the government know.
Hello Cabo Anglers!
The Billfish Foundation is working to ensure the future of Cabo's amazing billfishing. Efforts have been made before in Mexico to pass laws that would hurt Los Cabos fantastic fishing. While these efforts have all failed, we want to prevent future threats. Local charter companies have identified you as a Cabo angler. Can you please help us by taking a few minutes to complete a survey? The results will be used to help pass stronger conservation laws intended to improve fishing success rates and the Cabo fishing experience. All responses will be completely confidential.
To take the survey, please click: http://www.southwickassociates.com/surveys/cabo_survey/Default.aspx?sicd=AJJMEI-73 . The Billfish Foundation has hired Southwick Associates to administer the surveys. We sincerely appreciate your help in protecting Cabos unique fishery, and hope to see you fishing again in Los Cabos.