FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Sept. 21 - 28, 2009
WEATHER: We started this week with clear skies, had a small squall come through and wreaked havoc on us Friday morning. We had thunder and lightning, along with a decent rain for about a couple hours. Along with that came the wind. Apparently they were still parasailing during the squall. One boat crashed on the rocks by the arch, the folks dropped into the water and were rescued, but it was enough for the Port Captain to close the harbor and tell everyone to come back. After sitting around for an hour looking at flat calm water, he reopened the port. Some called it a day, and some headed back out fishing. Our daytime highs were in the high 90's to low 100's again, while the nighttime lows were in the mid 80's.
WATER: Early in the week the seas were big but spaced far apart coming from TS Noro off to the west of us. Seas are back to normal now 1-6 feet, slow rollers. Water temps aaround 89-90 in the Sea of Cortez around the Gordo Banks to 1150, 95 and past Cabo up the Pacific to Golden Gate. Slightly cooler temps out at San Jaime in the mid 80's
BAIT: Almost all the larger baits this week were Caballito and mullet at the normal $3 per bait. Sardinas available at the usual $30, if you are heading up towards San Jose, they are not bringing them down to Cabo.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: With the warmer waters coming back the Striped marlin bite has dropped off again. They are all over the place but being finicky eaters. Bouncing bait off their noses, just gets you "the look" before they swim away. Head of one 550 brought in on Friday. Makes me sad when people still kill these beauties for a couple tacos. Just a reminder to everyone, those fish over 300 #'s are the female breeding stock! Take your picture at the side of the boat and let her swim away. Fish like that are the future of marlin fishing.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Tuna were the fish of the week with almost every boat being able to get into them. Sizes ranged from 230 pounds to 15 pounds with most of the larger fish being caught on live bait dropped in front of the moving pods of Spinner Dolphin or Spotted Dolphin. Report from San Jose of a 357lb Yellowfin brought in up there. And this was the story until Thursday night when 3 purse seiners moved in the Pacific side with their helicopters. Not a tuna flag flying Friday or Saturday. Ok last minute update, I did get a report Sunday afternoon, that were a couple boats that finally found tuna late Saturday, so hopefully they will make a quick comeback this time.
DORADO: Dorado were an off and on event this week, one day there would be plenty and then the next day they could not be found. When you could find them they seemed to be close to the shore on the Pacific side in the warmer water. Averaging 12-15 pounds, there were enough larger ones out there to make things interesting. Lures accounted for the first fish for most boats and then live bait dropped back usually accounted for the next one or two. Boats that did well on Dorado were catching between five and ten per trip and releasing two or three of the smaller fish. Same this week as last week.
WAHOO: I saw some nice wahoo come in this week. We had one client bring in a nice 50 lb fish, and I saw a few more in the 20-30 lb range.
INSHORE: A repeat of last week's inshore report. Most of the Panga Captains are doing well on Dorado and Tuna since they are close to shore. There are still some decent Roosterfish being found and a few snapper and some nice 8-10 lb grouper as well. Not many marlin offshore but one panga released a sailfish and a striped marlin! The Pacific side has been the favorite side of the Cape this week.
NOTES: The week started off great with lots of fish being caught all different kinds. It's amazing how a couple of purse seiners setting their nets scares most of the fish off for a couple days. Hopefully the did not completely deplete the stocks as they have done in the past. 5 cruise ships coming to Cabo today, bringing a much needed boost to the local economy!. This weeks report was written while listening to a new CD our clients brought down, flashback to the 60's with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Greatest Hits. Brought to you by Curb records 1990. Until next week, tight lines!