FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com www.flyhooker.com http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
Sept. 9 – 14, 2015
SYNOPSIS: We have been catching pretty much everything this week as the Tuna have shown up, there are still Blue, Black and Striped Marlin as well as Sailfish offshore (and sometimes next to the beach!), the Dorado have been on and off but when on the action has been great and there are still a few Wahoo being caught! No hype, just what has been going on, read below for more information.
WEATHER: This week was a lot cooler than last weekend we actually saw a couple of morning of temperatures below 80, 79 to be exact, but enough of a drop that it was noticeable. Our daytime heat was not too bad as most days we reached the mid 90’s, much better than 100+ degrees we were seeing last week. The cause of this change was a series of storms, first we had feeder bands from Hurricane Linda finish passing by early in the week bringing in clouds and a few good long soaks from the rain and then from mid week to now we had storms coming to us from the mainland. These storms were not raining out before they go to us, which is the usual, instead the brought us several days of good rain. Good for the plants rain, not good for downtown Cabo though. Downtown floods easily with a bit of rain and it flooded several times this week. Those of you who have been here when this happens know what I am talking about, and the cleanup is a mess. The very positive side of this rain is that the desert is green and flowering!
WATER: Water temperatures have ranged from 89 degrees on the Gordo Banks to 82 degrees just off of the San Jaime Banks. At the end of the reporting period there appeared to be a decent temperature break halfway between Cabo and San Jose that runs due south with 89 degree water to the east and 86 degree water to the west. Currents appear to be pushing northwestward through that area, breaking to the west on the west side of the break and to the northeast on the east side. Directly in front of Cabo we are seeing temps in the 85-86 degree range. Much of what I have just written is an interpretation of past events combined with what I have been told or seen myself as the cloud cover most of the week did not allow good shots of the area.
BAIT: Almost all the bait available during this time was either Caballito or Lisa (goggle-eyed scad or mullet) at the normal $3 per bait. There was also frozen ballyhoo at $3 each from a few of the bait boats. There had also been very small Sardinas (or similar small forage fish) available in San Jose for boats getting there early, at $25 a scoop. The amount of these small baits declined late in the week as all the rain caused the beach waters to get a bit off colored.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Marlin fishing has been great this week! The bite for Blue Marlin was not quite as hot as it was last week but has still been very good. The Striped Marlin seem to be showing a bit more of an appetite and there are still Sailfish to be found. The area of the San Jose Canyon appeared to be the hot spot for Blue Marlin bites and working the area with the usual array of larger plastic lures was the best way to get bit by one of these fish, with the added chance of an occasional Striped Marlin. Speaking of Striped Marlin, the area from the 95 Spot to the San Jaime Banks was a great area to work, even if it is a very large area to cover. Tossing live bait at tailing fish was the best way to hook up, but plastics worked well also. Black/green and petrolero were the hot color combinations for most of the boats getting lure action. Sailfish were scattered with a few being found everywhere, but there seemed to be just a few more coming from the Cortes side of the Cape.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: What a nice week for Tuna fishing as the boats that ventured a long way offshore had about a 50% chance of running into a school of fish in the 40-80 pound class (but once in a while seeing nothing or only footballs size fish). By a long way I mean 30 miles and more. Closer to home and much easier to get too were the footballs, running between 8 and 20 pounds. Many of them were found just off the beach a mile or so, and they were one of the hot tickets for Panga fishermen this week. Limits or near limits of five fish per person were not unusual although most boats were getting two or three per angler. For these football fish, small hootchies in red or orange or small cedar plugs seemed to be the preferred lures.
DORADO: With a smile on my face I can say that there is a marked improvement on the Dorado bite as most boats were able to get at least one. Only a month ago we were crying because there might be only one caught among the fleet for the day. That has changed and the fish are beginning to show up. Several friends were catching three to five fish per trip and the sizes were decent. There were still a few small ones in the catches, but also many larger 20 pound fish! Multiple fish catches relied on working the first fish caught correctly in order to keep other fish in the school close to the boat. Hooking up, gaffing the fish and continuing on up the coast was not the way to get more than one fish unless you got lucky!
WAHOO: Moon phase and currents are the name of the game when it comes to catching Wahoo, and of course working the correct area at the right time! Last week the Wahoo bite was great, this week it really tapered off as we came into the new moon phase. There were a few fish caught, but not nearly the numbers we saw last week. Hopefully this coming week will be good as we get a waxing moon. The Wahoo that were caught were found in the normal and expected areas, and most of them by boats that were first to the area. Working the ledges and drop offs in 300 feet of water, and sometimes as shallow as 100 feet served up decent results, and there were a few nice size fish in the 40 pound class caught in the blind by boats fishing offshore for Marlin and Tuna.
INSHORE: Inshore fishing was a bit off this week as the downpours caused the near shore water to become off-color. There were a few spots with clean water that were holding smaller Roosterfish but most of the pangas were concentrated on Tuna and Dorado.
NOTES: Hopefully in October I will be running a 35′ Luhrs, to be named the “Susie Q”. We are in the process of updating and repair which should be done in four weeks or less, and once the paperwork is done it will be available for charter with me as the Captain. When it happens I will post pictures of the boat and rates.
If you are planning on booking a fishing trip soon (or later in the year), contact me to see what I can set you up with. I offer fishing charters for people with any type of experience on the water at reasonable rates, and service is the name of the game to me!
My music of the week is the album “Live” from “The New Riders Of The Purple Sage”, recorded in 1982. My kind of music!
The information I use in these reports are obtained in many different ways, some from personal experience, some from my clients and Captains who are out every day, and some from on-line subscription services such as Fish-Track, BuoyWeather and SurfZone as well as HurricaneZone. I, and only I, am responsible for any errors made, as I sift all this information and compile it.
Thank you very much for checking out my report, and if you would like to book a charter, check out www.flyhooker.com, I have just re-vamped the web site , it is still under development, but there will be new photos, articles, tips and techniques every week starting next month.
If you want to get the report every week, go to my blog at www.captgeo.wordpress.com and sign up! No spam, I do not share your e-mail and you can un-subscribe at any time!
Meanwhile, Tight lines!
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Fishing Charters
From USA:
011-52 (624) 143-8271
Cell Phone: 011-52 (624) 147-5614
From Cabo: 044 (624) 147-5614
E-mail: gmlandrum@hotmail.com
Website: www.flyhooker.com
Blog: captgeo.wordpress.com/
On Los Cabos Guide:
www.loscabosguide.com/flyhooker/