Beiträge von CaptGeo

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
May 21-27, 2012

WEATHER: Here at the tip of the Cape the wind blew almost all week long, coming mostly from the northwest but sometimes shifting and coming from the southwest. Gusting to 30 knots at times, it was fairly steady during the middle of the week, only to die off on Sunday morning. As you traveled up the coast toward San Jose the effect was much less noticeable. We had mostly sunny skies this week with the nighttime lows ranging from 62 degrees to 74 degrees and the daytime highs averaged 82 degrees, just about perfect!
WATER: There is not much to say about our water conditions that are good, at least for offshore fishing. The strong currents that came in from the Pacific side last week really have had a lasting effect. The water on the Pacific side from the coastline out to the Golden Gate Banks and the San Jaime Banks remains a cold 56 degrees and green. On the Banks and to the west it warms a bit to 62 degrees but becomes even more dirty green. Up toward San Jose on the Cortez side the water remains in the 62-64 degree range and green while along the beach up to San Jose the water became very green and dirty at the end of the week. Warm water finally appears as you reach Punta Gorda and from the beach out to about three miles it is 75 degrees, continuing on up the coast to Los Frailes. Due to the continuing wind the water on the Pacific side remained mostly unfishable unless you were in a Panga hanging close to the beach, and that was not much more than five miles up, after that it was nasty water with swells at 4-6 feet and the wind gusting to 30 knots. On the Cortez side the swells were much smaller at the start of the week and now at the end of the week we are seeing the effects of Hurricane Bud, now dissipated and very far south of us. The swells continue to build and will remain large for the next couple of days, but here on Sunday we are seeing 6-8 feet from the south. The surfers are happy!
BAIT: Just about the only live bait this week was Caballito at the normal $3 per bait. The large swells at the end of the week almost shut off the Sardina netting and the water is too cold and dirty for the Mackerel, I am surprised to see there are still Caballito out there!
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Well, as I reported last week at the end of the IGFA Offshore Championship, the cold water shocked the Striped Marlin and the bite pretty much shut down with 47 teams releasing only 8 Marlin on the last day. The situation has not changed much as the fish are still scarce in our area. Boats that are targetting Marlin have to run almost 50 miles to get into that warm water toward Los Frailes, and even when they get there, getting a fish to bite is a coin toss. A few fish have been found closer to home in the colder water but these fish have been very reluctant to bite. My guess is that only 20% of the boats are seeing Marlin and out of them, maybe 20% are getting bit. As a result I have been recommending to our anglers that they target something beside Marlin, like inshore fishing for Yellowtail.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Tuna bite remained off this week with only a few football sized fish caught, and most of them were caught in the blind with no porpoise or birds to indicate their presence.
DORADO: I saw no Dorado brought to the docks this week but heard of a few very small ones of about 8 pounds coming from the direction of San Jose. No details on location or bait, just that there were a few small ones.
WAHOO: Dedicated anglers getting to the grounds early up in the Punta Gorda area reported having a few Wahoo bites, and I did have one Captain tell me he lost a lure to a wahoo offshore around the 1150, but I did not hear of any being brought in this week.
INSHORE: There is no doubt in my mind that inshore fishing was the way to go this week as the bite for Yellowtail remained strong on the Cortez side of the Cape and there was still a decent bite on Sierra between the lighthouse and the arch on the Pacific side as well as off of the Cabo Del Sol area. Mix in some decent grouper to 25 pounds, a few nice Snapper and occasionally a school of Pompano moving through and there was pretty consistent action. The lack of Sardines at the end of the week hurt the inshore fishing just a little bit, but not a lot.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: Beach time and I think it will be a problem to keep the puppy from getting into the surf, she loves to swim and the swells might be a bit much today. I wrote this report to the music of her snoring at my feet and the birds chirping outside as the sun comes up! Until next week, tight lines!
Happy Memorial Day to All!
Many thanks to all who have served in the past and present. Your sacrifice can never be repayed.

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
May 14-20, 2012

WEATHER: I may have been premature in my declaration last week that it was summertime in Cabo. The week started with the summer feeling but on Wednesday night the wind started to blow and when we got up on Thursday morning the thermometer showed a cool 67 degrees, the wind blew all day and it never got above 80 degrees that I saw. On Friday morning it dropped still more to a low of 62 degrees, downright chilly for here! The wind started to taper off in the early morning and then died to nothing, it warmed to about 85 degrees and on Saturday we were back to normal with the morning low at 73 degrees, same on Sunday. What was interesting was on Friday a fog bank moved in from the Sea of Cortez. It was just marine fog, not getting much farther than one mile inland, but it moved in really fast as far toward Cabo as Grey Rock, then several hours later moved right on back. There was no rain this week but we did have decent dew in the mornings, as well as some moisture from the fog.
WATER: The water was both perfect and perfectly awful this week. Bad to hear, and worse for anglers, but the currents and winds have a way of doing things you cannot predict. We started the week with wonderful water conditions, which was nice since Cabo was once again hosting the IGFA Offshore Championship. This event involves teams from around the world who must have won a qualifying event to be invited. We started the week with water between Cabo and the East Cape at 75-77 degrees and those temperatures held for Tuesday, but there was a small intrusion of cooler water about 15 miles offshore, just to the outside of the 1150 area. On Wednesday the water to the Gorda Banks had cooled to 70 degrees but at the East Cape we were still seeing 76 degree water. Wednesday night the winds picked up and the current from the Pacific side came on strong so that on Thursday morning the same area between Cabo and San Jose had dropped to 60 degrees and the Punta Gorda/Frailes area was only 65 degrees, and a bit dirty. On the Pacific side the water became very rough due to the winds, at the end of the week we had water as cold as 55 degrees along the coast and extending past the Cape to the southwest 50 miles. That water was very dirty and green. The surface conditions moderated over the weekend but the water remained cold and dirty.
BAIT: Mostly Caballito with some Mullet this week, but there were a few Mackerel showing at the end of the week, probably due to the cool water. In the San Jose area the Sardinas were available at the beginning of the week but the cold water at the end of the week forced them much further north. The larger baits were the normal $3 each while the Sardinas, if you could find them, were running between $20 and $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Probably the best way to explain the Marlin bite this week is with a re-cap of the IGFA Offshore Championship results. Striped Marlin were the target of 47 teams competing for the title and they fished for four days, Monday through Thursday. For the first three days the number of bites increased later and later in the day. This was a result of the warmer water slowly moving away from our area. Day one, Monday, resulted in 139 Striped Marlin released and two Dorado caught. Most of the fish were found around the 1150 to the San Jose Canyon but boats traveling to the Punta Gorda area did even better. On day two there were 152 Striped Marlin released as the anglers and boats zeroed in on the fish concentrations, running there instead of trolling. Once again there were plenty of fish seen in the San Jose Canyon, fewer at the 1150 and the best bite was off of Punta Gorda and the Vinorama area. Day three had the boats running farther as the cool water started to be felt and the results reflected the fact with only 102 released for the day, along with one Dorado caught. On day four the wind was howling and the currents had pushed the cold water across the entire area. All that you heard on the tournament radio channel were questions on water temperatures and if anyone had found fish. The results speak strongly of the Striped Marlins preferred temperature as there were only 8 Striped Marlin released for the day. The bite remained off for the remainder of the week as the cold water maintained its influence in our area.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Offshore action for Yellowfin was slow to non-existent for almost everyone, but a few boats did manage to find some football to 30 pound fish due south early in the week. The fish were mixed with Porpoise but did not remain in the area. There were no Tuna caught by the tournament boats, even though Tuna over #30 were worth points.
DORADO: The few Dorado I saw were caught early in the week before the water temperature dropped. As the tournament results show, there were only three decent Dorado caught by 47 boats fishing for 4 days. All the fish I saw and heard of came from the Sea of Cortez side of the Cape.
WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo caught this week, and the tournament boats fishing Vinorama and Los Frailes were in the perfect zone to get a few, but had no fish reported.
INSHORE: For boats and anglers wanting something besides Marlin this week, inshore was the way to go. Pompano have shown up in good numbers, averaging 6-9 pounds. Great eating fish and fun to fight, most of them, as a mater of fact all of them, were caught on the Cortez side of the Cape. There were some scattered Yellowtail and Sierra as well, but the numbers of Sierra dropped off a bit from last week. Mix in some decent Snapper and some Amberjack and there was action and meals to be had fishing inshore. Oh, there were also some small Roosterfish found as well!
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: It's Sunday and time for the morning beach walk with the pup. I don't think I am going into the water, it's too cold for me but the pup loves it. This weeks report was written to the music of the Eagles off of an old mix CD I have had for a long time. We have our toes and fingers crossed that the currents change again and bring back the warm blue water! Until next week, tight lines!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
May 7-13, 2012

WEATHER: It's summertime! We have had clear skies and warm weather all week long, and the water is warming up as well. With the daytime temperature getting into the mid to high 90's and the nights only dropping to the high 70's we know it's not too long before going to the beach will become an almost daily ritual. It's about the only way to beat the heat without running the AC all day long. Put the sweaters and long pants away and buy new tubes of sunscreen.
WATER: At the end of the week it was clear that warm water has been pushing our way from the east. The surface temperatures on the Sea of Cortez inside the 1,000 fathom line east of the 95 spot is a steady 75-76 degrees. Outside the 1,000 fathom line and from the beach on out north of the 95 spot to the lighthouse on the Pacific side the water is 69-70 degrees. From the lighthouse on the Pacific side an 8 mile wide band of 67 degree water extends from the northeast to the southwest. On the northern side of this line, for about 3 miles, there is a band of cold water at 60 degrees that runs right across the top of the San Jaime Banks. North of this band the water warms a degree or so to 63-64 degrees. Surface conditions throughout the area have been great with small swells and mostly light afternoon winds.
BAIT: Caballito have been the prevailing bait this week with very few Mackerel and a decent supply of Mullet, all at the normal $3 per bait. For boats willing to go the distance and needing Sardines, we were finally seeing some decent size ones from San Jose, but you had to be there early, and they were going for $20-$25 a scoop if you could get them.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: With the moon in it's waning phase we are seeing more Striped Marlin on the surface and they seem more willing to take a bait than they were last week. The favorite area is still between the 1150 and the San Jose Canyon, but there are fish showing up on the 95 spot, probably as the warm water keeps moving to the west the fish will follow. A few boats were finding Marlin very close to the beach, less than two miles out. They were not there in the numbers being found offshore, but they were willing to bite and many boats managed to close out a half day trip by catching one right outside Cabo. In more good news, the warming water may also be bringing in more of the larger Marlin as several boats this week reported catching Blue Marlin. I did not see any of the fish but they were reported to me as being less than 200 pounds and were caught on lures pulled for Striped Marlin. Never forget that there are other billfish out there as well! A private boat went out this week to run some checks on their electrical systems, checking the radar, sonar, FLIR and such and of course they put a couple of lines in the water. Crossing the 95 spot they hooked up a Swordfish that weighed just under 300 pounds, on a lure, at night! You never know what is going to show up!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I did hear of a few boats in the area that lucked into #100 fish while working Dolphin but there were no numbers reported to me, just that a few had been caught. Must be nice to luck into these fish! For the rest of us, Yellowfin were pretty much a hit-or-miss situation. Find the right porpoise pod and you might get a few fish averaging 15 pounds, but there were not many of them out there. Boats fishing inshore trolling Rapallas for Yellowtail caught a few Yellowfin, but once again there were no number of them, just the occasional fish here and there. These were not fish that I would have gone out and targeted this past week, but instead would have been happy to get as a by-catch.
DORADO: I think the Dorado may just be a month away as we are slowly seeing the bite improve. Once the water hits 80 degrees we might see it bust loose, but for now an occasional 30 pound fish with a few smaller ones in the 10 pound class are what we are seeing every day, and that is not per boat, but an average of about 10 boats. They are there, but the numbers are not here yet.
WAHOO: Wahoo were scattered this week with most of the fish reported coming from the warmer water up around the Gorda Banks and Punta Gorda. More were being seen than were being caught, but there were some nice fish reported with weights ranging from 25 to 70 pounds. Sure would be nice to get a couple of Wahoo fillets, I have some ingredients just waiting to use on them for a great meal! The fish that have been caught have mostly been on live bait but a few have been reported caught on lures, and almost all the fish have come from shallow water, less than 350 feet.
INSHORE: Sierra continue to be the inshore fish of the week in our area, but I have heard reports from a few of our boats that have ventured up to the Punta Gorda area that there was a decent bite on Pompano that lasted for a few days. These great eating fish were found close to the beach, averaged 6 pounds and were biting on Sardinas. There are still some Yellowtail being found on the Pacific side of the Cape, but not in the numbers we were seeing several weeks ago, nor in the same size range. Boats are averaging two to three fish per trip and the size has dropped to an average of 12 pounds. Also being found inshore are good numbers of Roosterfish to 20 pounds. Great action on spinning and fly tackle, when you mix in an occasional Jack Crevalle you better be ready!
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: Tawny is snoring at my feet, waiting for the Sunday beach walk, that was my music for this report! Can't keep her waiting, and of course a great Sunday breakfast when we get back, a call to Mom for mothers day and then off to watch the final round of golf at TPC Sawgrass! Have a great week everyone, and Happy Mothers Day! Until next week, tight lines!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
April 30 – May 6, 2012

WEATHER: This was a very strange, yet very great week for weather in Cabo as we received our first rain in almost a year! It was sunny and warm all week with the temperatures at 6 AM in the mid 70's while in the evenings it stayed warm, at 9 PM on Saturday it was still 85 degrees. Our first rain in almost a year arrived unexpectedly on Friday, which for some reason was also the best sea surface temperature shots of the week, amazing with the cloud cover we had. The front moved in from the southwest with heavy cloud combined with plenty of lightning and thunder. The animals were hiding under the bed with all the booms and rolling vibrations! The rain was not a large amount, just enough to get the cars good and dirty with runnels of water coursing down the dust, but it did manage to give the trees and plants a mush needed cleaning, and knocked the dust down for a while. The early part of the week saw mostly cloudy skies and after Friday the skies cleared up and we had sun and fun!
WATER: The water has started to change on us with warm water moving in from the east. Off of the Gorda Banks area we are seeing blue water at 78 degrees, changing to 74 degrees between San Jose and Cabo while in front of Cabo it is 72 degrees. On the Pacific side of the Cape we have 70 degrees below the San Jaime Banks and 67 degrees above it. That colder water above the San Jaime is green and just off the beach inside the Golden Gate Bank not only is it cold,but it is a very dirty red/green color. On the surface the Pacific side has had some swells to 8 feet with most of them averaging 4-6 feet. On the Cortez side of the Cape it has been smaller at 3-5 feet and spaced fairly far apart. The only real bad day on the water this week was on Friday when the front moved through, I would not have wanted to be out there after 1 PM!
BAIT: The usual Caballito and Mackerel with a few Mullet at the normal $3 per bait along with a few Sardines, but they are becoming more and more scarce recently. A few of the bait boats have been carrying frozen Ballyhoo, but you have to be careful as some of them have been frozen, thawed and re-frozen when they don't sell the first day. That kind of bait falls apart very quickly.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Fishing for Striped Marlin was mostly concentrated in the area between the 1150 and the Gorda Banks as that is where the bait was. It was common early in the week to see dozens of fish either sleeping or tailing on the surface and you could actually find a few that were hungry. A good trip early in the week resulted in 4 to 6 releases while an average trip might have one or two. As the week went on and the moon became larger the bite dropped off as did the number of fish seen. I went on Wednesday and we saw 13 fish, resulting in 8 strikes with four of these released. I heard of a Blue Marlin being caught early in the week but do not know the size or where it was supposed to have been caught.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: It is a waiting game for the Yellowfin still, and while there are a few small fish being caught there are no numbers. The only fish I heard of this week were caught 7 miles to the southwest of the arch in the blind, striking on cedar plugs. One boat brought in tree out of five fish and another boated one out of three strikes. The fish were footballs of about 8-10 pounds. I did not hear of any other Yellowfin caught within our normal operating range. By the way, the boat that caught the three Yellowfin also caught and released a Marlin on that cedar plug!
DORADO: Once again there were a few Dorado caught in the warm water in the Sea of Cortez. Small fish were found close to the beach while there were a few larger nice sized fish found offshore by boats fishing for Marlin. No real numbers were reported by any of the boats, but it seems to be a sign of good things to come!
WAHOO: The full moon resulted in a few Wahoo but no large numbers. There were more strikes resulting in cut off lures and baits than there were fish caught! Maybe 15% of the boats had a Wahoo strike and half of those managed to get one to the boat. Average size on the speedsters was 25 pounds.
INSHORE: The Yellowtail bite has dropped off and the Sierra have taken over the position of the fish of the week for the anglers fishing inshore. Not that the Yellowtail aren't out there, it's just that the numbers have dropped off. Toss in an occasional Amberjack, Grouper and a few Snapper and fishing the beach has been the best way to insure having something to eat for dinner! The best areas have been from the lighthouse on the Pacific side to the arch, and on the Sea of Cortes from Chileano Bay to Palmilla Point.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: This weeks report was written to the music of Jack Johnson on the CD “On and On”, still one of my favorites from him. We hope you have a great week and check us out next week for an updated fishing report from Cabo San Lucas. Until then, tight lines!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
April 23-29 2012

WEATHER: Well, it looks as if I brought some weather back with me on my return from San Diego. While I was gone we had warm mornings where it was 77 degrees at 6am and the days warmed to the high 90's. Now, at the end of the week our morning high was 61 degrees and the daytime highs look to be in the high 70's. Not only that, but it has been cloudy for most of the week and this weekend the wind really started to blow with heavy gusts on Saturday afternoon, strong winds Sunday morning with the wind laying down a bit by noon.
WATER: With the cloud cover we had no decent sea surface temperature readings from the satellites, any readings we had were made from being on the water. From what we were able to ascertain, the surface temperatures on the Pacific side were in the mid to high 60's, depending on where you were with the cooler water occurring closer to the beach, and the surface conditions while great early in the week, became almost un-fishable by the weekend due to the winds. On the Cortez side things were quite a bit better with the water between 72 and 75 degrees early in the week and dropping an average of one degree for the weekend. Surface conditions were much better than on the Pacific, the winds did not generate a large swell on the Cortez side, just some choppy conditions around the 95 spot and a general choppy aspect in the afternoons.
BAIT: Caballito and Mackerel as well as a few Mullet could be had for $3 per bait. A few of the bait boats had “frozen” ballyhoo for between $3-4, each, but you never know how many times they had been “frozen”.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Still just “OK”, not wide open by any means, and the fish are still showing well from the 95 spot on up the coast on the Cortez side, across the 1150 and the San Jose Canyon. This warmer, very blue water has been showing us a lot of fish, but they have not been very hungry. A decent trip results in a release, a good trip in two releases and one of the best trips I heard of had 4 releases out of 12 bites. The fish have been there in good numbers but have been stuffed on all the squid that is out there. One of the secrets (but not any more!) has to been taking a 13 inch hollow plastic squid shell and stuffing it with some squid from the market, then slow trolling four or five of these so that they just slide on the surface. Match the hatch, right size and right taste, they are used to eating them and they are easier to catch than live Mackerel or Caballito. You just have to let the Marlin chew a bit longer, give them three or four more seconds before letting the line come tight so the circle hook sets in the jaw.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We are still waiting for a decent showing on Yellowfin, and I hope that it happens soon. There were a few footballs caught this week by boats fishing approximately 25 miles to the south, but these were blind strikes with no signs of the fish being there other than a reel suddenly singing out. No porpoise, no birds, and the fish appeared to be moving fairly fast as a quick pass back over the same area seldom produce repeat hook-ups.
DORADO: There were some decent numbers of small fish caught this week, all on the Cortez side of the Cape in the warmer waters. Most of the fish were caught fairly close to the beach, but these were also the smaller fish. Once again the larger fish, though few in number, were caught offshore by boats fishing for Marlin. Everything likes to eat Squid!
WAHOO: Once again there were a few Wahoo caught, and they were found in the warm water around the 1150 area. While not large they were decent size, between 20 and 30 pounds. Farther up the coast on the Pacific side there were small Wahoo caught, small as in Min-hoo, with a large fish going 7 pounds. Wow, almost like a larger Sierra! The East Cape was seeing a few of these little guys.
INSHORE: Still fish of the week, Yellowtail have been the meat and potatoes for the fleet once again. While a few of the Captains are saying the Yellowtail are not biting, everyone we have had out has managed to catch at least three of four of them, and some of them have been as large as 40 pounds! Live bait fished just off the bottom was the key for success, yo-yo'ing iron was not as productive, and slow trolling large lipped, deep diving artificials did not do very well at all. The Sierra bite was on as well with decent numbers of fish being caught, and some of them were very nice sized for the species, coming in at 7-9 pounds, but of course the average was 5-6 pounds. Add in a scattering of Jacks and Grouper and the inshore action was pretty good this week!
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: I am back after a pretty uneventful delivery to San Diego. 9 days, traveling during the day with wonderful weather and only minor problems along the way. Sure is good to be back! This weeks report was written to the music of Adele, a decent mix from the albums 19 and 21. Friday night we had a chance to listen to the Brian Flynn band at the Cabo Lounge and our friend Daniel Touchman stopped by and played a few songs on Brian's guitar. His girlfriend (and my old editor from “Discover” magazine) stepped up to the microphone and wowed us with a fantastic cover of “Me and Bobby McGee”. What a great evening we had. Friends stopped at Zippers in San Jose on the way to the airport yesterday to drop off the kids and grandchild and watched at least three whales playing just off the beach. Nice to know that these are still around.
Until next week, Tight Lines!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
April 16-22, 2012

WEATHER: This has been a beautiful week. The winds have been blowing at night, and settling down as the sun comes up. Early in the week the afternoon high's were staying steady in the mid to hi 80's. Friday the heat index moved up over 90! When I was the marina around 3, it was 96 degrees! Summer is moving in on us.
WATER: The water on the Pacific side has settled down some, but not warm enough to hold the fish. San Jaime and Golden Gate have temps 68-69, which is warmer than the 65 it was last week. While on the Sea of Cortez side, those 70-72 degree waters are moving in closer to Cabo. The seas have been rough in the morning due to winds at night. As the sun comes up the ocean settles down to 1-3 ft seas.
BAIT: Caballito and Mackerel as well as a few Mullet could be had for $3 per bait. A few of the bait boats had “frozen” ballyhoo for between $3-4, each, but you never know how many times they had been “frozen”.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The marlin bite has been just OK. They are there, but not interested in eating much. Although one guy picked up a double bringing lines in the other day. With the warmer waters moving closer to Cabo, the marlin should be getting closer. I didn't see as many shark flags this week. Some of the guys are out catching Bonita to use for live bait on the marlin You just have to find the marlin after finding the tuna! If you want to find them, you still need to head up to the 95-1150 areas. They should be moving closer to Cabo as the waters warm up. There was a couple of swordfish caught this week on the Pacific side. One of them caught with a speargun. LOL, 2 and half hour fight for a 200 lb swordie! As the waters warm up, the swordfish will disappear, they like the cooler waters.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I am not sure when the Yellowfin will make an appearance, but I hope it is soon! Normally at this time we have schools of footballs all over the place but they have not shown up yet. It could be at any time though and our fingers are crossed. Meanwhile what we do have is an occasional school of footballs moving through the area very fast, giving the boats only a quick shot at them. If you are in the right place at the right time you might get a few. Some of the boats are still traveling up to the Inman Banks area and chumming for the larger fish, but they are not having a lot of luck at it. Not touching what George wrote last week, same this week. There are a few Bonita out there, not good to eat, but some guys are using them for love bait for the striped marlin.
DORADO: The Dorado are definitely around early this year. Not hot and heavy yet though. They like those warmer waters, and of course if the water is a little rough, they love to come out and play. With the calmer afternoon seas, there just hasn't been as many caught this week. A few small ones and a couple of the larger scouts. Don't be fooled by the flags flying. There are boats that are flying “yellow” flags for their yellowtail.
WAHOO: I know there was a couple wahoo caught this week, I saw pictures of it being marinated on Facebook.
INSHORE:Once again the Yellowtail are the food fish of the week. I have had most of my boats, stop and fish for a couple for dinner, then head offshore for the marlin. Everyone has been extremely happy. The best bet for fly fishing, guys have been hitting on the sierra and jacks. I haven't seen much else from inshore, mostly because the yellowtail bite is so awesome.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: This weeks fishing report was written by Mary, if you couldn't already tell. George will have stories of his adventures North a little later in the week. I am writing this Saturday afternoon, with Tawny snoring at my feet. We'll still get beach time in the morning. I'm listening to local internet radio station HTTP://www.live365.com/index.live
Watch for Happy Hour, 2 hours of songs about Cabo! Run by a couple of local business women. Jennifer from Cape Marine, Jane from Amiga's del Mar and Carol from Cabo Realty Pro's. Great music all the time! Keeps me working!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
April 9-15, 2012

WEATHER: It has been a windy week if you were fishing on the Pacific side of the Cape as the northwesterly winds blew hard from the start, but appears as if we may get a slight reprieve for a few days. With our highs in the low 90's and the nighttime lows in the low 60's it has not been bad at all, very comfortable to be out and about. No clouds and the wind on the Cortez side of the Cape has been light.
WATER: Surface conditions on the Pacific side were pretty miserable this week with the swells at 4-6 feet and the constant wind blowing. Looking past the arch you could see whitecaps and rollers everywhere, it looked like a sheep farm out there. Look to the east and you would think you were in a different body of water, and in fact you were. The Sea of Cortez, at least in our area, was flat and had only light winds if you were inside the 1,000 fathom line, outside of there you got some of the effects of the wind. Water on the Pacific side was cool to cold at 60-64 degrees, and a bit green as well. On the Cortez side it was warmer at 70 degrees and blue.
BAIT: Caballito and Mackerel as well as a few Mullet could be had for $3 per bait. A few of the bait boats had “frozen” ballyhoo for between $3-4, each, but you never know how many times they had been “frozen”.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Boats were finding the Marlin in the area around the 1150 and to the northeast of there, but the fish were not real aggressive. You might throw a bait at five or six fish before you found one that was interested and willing to bit. Trolled lures would raise fish, but they would not chase for very long. My guess is that approximately 20% of the boats trying for them released Marlin. There were a few boats that managed multiple releases but it was not common. Once again there were plenty of sharks in the area as well with Blue Sharks, Thresher Sharks and small Mako Sharks being caught as often as the Marlin were.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I am not sure when the Yellowfin will make an appearance, but I hope it is soon! Normally at this time we have schools of footballs all over the place but they have not shown up yet. It could be at any time though and our fingers are crossed. Meanwhile what we do have is an occasional school of footballs moving through the area very fast, giving the boats only a quick shot at them. If you are in the right place at the right time you might get a few. Some of the boats are still traveling up to the Inman Banks area and chumming for the larger fish, but they are not having a lot of luck at it.
DORADO: We are still seeing some small ones coming from the warm water on the shoreline on the Cortez side and some larger fish to 40 pounds from the offshore area there. The larger fish are striking lures pulled for Marlin while the smaller fish are coming into the chum lines of boats fishing for Sierra and Yellowfin just off the beach.
WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo being caught this week.
INSHORE: Inshore was the way to go if you wanted to get anything other than Marlin or shark and plenty of boats went this route. With the water very bouncy on the Pacific side the action shifted to the Cortez side of the Cape. Sierra were the most common catch and they bit well on drifted Sardinas and not quite as well on pink and chartreuse hootchis and small Rapallas. The Yellowtail bite was off and on with one day a spot producing a dozen fish for a boat and the next day there only being one caught. It was a matter of looking at the depth finder and moving around. Live bait dropped down to them was the best method once they were found, but yo-yo'ing worked for a few boats. Small Grouper to 6 pounds were common and made quite a few anglers happy and once in a while a 25 pound fish was hooked. There were scattered Snapper as well and all of this action occurred in water 80 to 120 feet deep.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: This weeks report was written to the music of Dr. John from a mix CD a friend loaned to me. Great blues and one of the songs was about fishing! Well, time for the Sunday beach walk with Mary and the puppy, then home for breakfast, off to golf, then home for a grilled dinner with relatives. I hope all of you have just as an enjoyable day, and until next time, have a great week, catch lots of fish, and get those reservations for Cabo made!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
April 2 - 8, 2012

WEATHER: As summer slowly approaches our weather starts to warm up and we had our indications this week that summer will be here soon. We had a high of 94 degrees on Thursday along with a low of 72 degrees in the morning, our highest levels all week. Our average was 64 degrees in the morning and 86 during the day. We had no cloud cover, it was sunny all week long with only light winds for the most part here in Cabo, but with a good afternoon breeze on the Pacific side.
WATER: While we experienced a “feel” of summer weather on land we also received a slight “feel” of summer water out on the fishing grounds as the water off of the San Jose area warmed to as much as 74 degrees this week. Combine that with the small swells and it was almost like fishing in August! Of course the water was not as warm as it will be then and there are no big Blue and Black Marlin around yet, but there were lots of fish in the area. On the Pacific side of the Cape the swells were a bit smaller than those we had last week but the water remained cool and slightly off color. With an average of 64 degrees and an occasional cold spot of 61 degrees from close to the beach to outside of the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks, you did not encounter clean water until 40+ miles offshore. Directly south of Cabo and to the west to a line directly south of San Jose the water warmed a bit to 66 degrees but remained slightly green. East of the line directly south of San Jose the water warmed to 73-74 degrees and was blue. All this was of the end of the week, as the warm water stared much closer to Cabo at the beginning of the week and slowly moved to the east over the 7 days.
BAIT: Caballito and Mackerel as well as a few Mullet could be had for $3 per bait. A few of the bait boats had “frozen” ballyhoo for between $3-4, each, but you never know how many times they had been “frozen”.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The marlin we were seeing last week between the 1150 and Punta Gorda were still there this week, but they were not as hungry as they were last week. The full moon has a strong effect on the feeding patterns and once the moon starts to wane these fish should start to feed again. Meanwhile, it was frustrating to toss bait in front of these fish just to see them ignore it, but once in a while one of the Marlin took an interest and bit. In the same area we were seeing plenty of Thresher sharks, and occasionally one of them would bite. Mix them in with an occasional Mako shark and there was a decent chance to catch something offshore this week.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Still not showing up with any numbers, there were a few football fish to be found mixed in with porpoise, but you really had to check out a large number of porpoise pods before finding Tuna. Once in a while someone would hook into a decent fish over 60 pounds, but they were few and far between. A few boats were making the run from Cabo up to the Inman Banks area and catching Tuna to 60 pounds on drifted Sardines, but it was a real scratch to get one hooked, and there were plenty of times it was a wasted trip, but for those who only wanted to target Yellowfin, it was just about the only game in town.
DORADO: The warm water off of San Jose produced the few Dorado we saw this week with the smaller and more common fish being in the 10 pound class and found close to the beach. I did see several larger Dorado, the biggest being 42 pounds, that were caught offshore by boats fishing for Marlin. There were no numbers on these fish as they were all singles, but as the water warms up there should be more of them around.
WAHOO: Still none that I heard of this week, and I was surprised since Easter is the full moon. Perhaps as with the Marlin, the bite will happen on the waning moon.
INSHORE: Inshore action continued strong this week with Yellowtail to 35 pounds, Sierra that averaged 4 pounds, small Roosterfish of less than 10 pounds and some decent Jack Crevalle to 20 pounds. Almost all the Yellowtail action took place on the Pacific side in water between 80 and 120 feet deep. Finding the fish and then going back over the spot again and again produced numbers, but having a good fish finder on the boat really helped as this week the fish were constantly on the move. Often you had to spend 10 or 15 minutes finding the school after catching one or two fish. As far as the Sierra are concerned, the favorite areas were just off the beach in front of the Diamante Golf Course on the Pacific side and in front of Cabo Real Golf Course on the Cortez side. Small hootchies in ping and chartreuse as well as Sardines worked well. The Roosterfish were small but aggressive, trying to eat any live bait that was slow trolled on the surface, but the best results came from continual casting of plugs into the surf from the boat, and retrieving it in a walk-the-dog style. With an occasional Jack Crevalle crashing the party you never knew what was going to bite!
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe! It's a really great one.
NOTES: This weeks report was written to the music of Mason Proffit on their album “Come and Gone” released by Flaming Arrow Records with some of the music having been recorded as early as 1976. The Talbot brothers were great musicians and a big influence on a lot of us. It's Easter day, time to get cooking!
Have a great week, catch lots of fish, and get those reservations for Cabo made!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
March 19-25, 2012

WEATHER: We had another great week on the weather front, if you like it 65 degrees in the morning and 85 degrees during the day, with plenty of sun and mostly light winds. If you don't like that kind of weather, then there is something wrong with you! No rain of course, but we did have some wind kick up on Sunday morning.
WATER: At the end of the week surface conditions on the Sea of Cortez side were great with swells at 2-4 feet and no wind chop close to shore, and only a bit in the afternoons farther out than 10 miles. On the Pacific side the swells were 3-6 feet most of the time with some chop on the water the farther north you went. Water temperaturs on the Cortez side were ranging between 70-75 degrees with the warmer water being more to the north or farther out, the cooler water just to the east of a line running along the beach on the Pacific side and extending out over the water from northwest to southeast. On the Pacific side the water was pretty much 66-67 degrees everywhere and a bit on the green side.
BAIT: Caballito and Mackerel as well as a few Mullet could be had for $3 per bait. A few of the bait boats had “frozen” ballyhoo for between $3-4, each, but you never know how many times they had been “frozen”.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: We finally had an up-tick in the catch ratios on Striped Marlin this week. With an increase in numbers seen in the area from the 1150 to outside Punta Gorda came an increase in the number of Marlin that were hungary. This combination provided action that resulted in almost every boat that went looking for a Marlin having success. A few boats did better than others, I know of a few that were releasing up to 5 per day, but most boats were getting one or two releases per trip. The fish were there in pretty good number but were not really hot and heavy in the lures, most of them were caught dropping back live bait to fish that were just checking out the lures. A few were caught by throwing a bait ahead of them while they were tailing downswell. A number of boats started to chase what they thought were marlin feeding, but it ended up that there were a large number of Thresher Sharks in the area feeding as well.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again there were not a large number of Yellowfin Tuna found this week, and it was suprising since there were so many pods of white bellied porpoise to be found. A few boats got into some very small fish, and a few others got lucky and caught one or two fish in the 25 pound class, but there were no large numbers of large sizes reported to me.
DORADO: The warm water on the Cortez side of the Cape did produce some large fish this week, but not very many of them, and there were only a few boats that found them at all. I did see one fish that might have gone 50 pounds and several others that would have been in the 30 pound range, but there were no boats that I heard of that came inwith more than two Dorado, and to be real, most of the fish were smaller ones. Live bait dropped back where a Marlin came up resulted in most of the larger fsh, and boats fishing the shallow reefs and chumming caught most of the smaller fish.
WAHOO: None that I heard of this week, but perhaps the warming water and full moon of spring that is coming up will change these stats.
INSHORE: While the inshore fishing was the best way to go for the past several months due to the large numbers of Sierra and Yellowtail, this week the action dropped off a bit. The better captains were still able to put their anglers on good numbers of fish but overall success rates were down a bit. On the positive note, there was less pressure on these fish since the cruisers were going offshore for Marlin once again. The bite was still fair, with most anglers getting at least one or two nice Yellowtail to 30 pounds, but the better boats were still managing 4 to 6 per trip. Sierra numbers were down a bit as well with only a few boats managing to limit out, but anyone trying was able to get some for dinner. Sea Lions were a problem for boats fishing to the east of the lighthouse on the Pacific side, managing to find and gang up on any fish hooked up. There were decent numbers of small Roosterfish to be found in the surf, and anglers fishing off the beach did fair on Sierra and small Roosterfish early in the week, later in the week large swells caused some issues for the beach fishermen.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe! It's a really great one.
NOTES: It is approaching the end of Spring break and the beginning of Easter Week so things will continue to be a bit rowdy at the beaches for a while. This morning we went on Daylight Saving Time, it was a bit strange and will take a while to get used to. Our friend Brian Flynn (think Santana, Beck, Loverboy, Molly Hatchet, Guess Who) has been busy playing six days a week since he got back from assisting our friend Mike Hill with the recording of his new album “No Bad Days”. They formed a group called Cabo Cowboys with Roger Gillespie on drums, Oliver C. Brown on percussion, Hal Ratliff on keyboards, Brian Flynn on guitar, Ernie Nunez on electric bass, Brian Brazil on harmonica, Miguel Hill on vocals and Rick Dale with backing vocals. You can check it out at cabocowboysmusic.com and see if you like it!
Have a great week, catch lots of fish, and get those reservations for Cabo made!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
March 19-25, 2012

WEATHER: With the week starting off with partly cloudy skies it was nice that things cleared up and warmed up during the week. We had daytime highs in the mid to high 80's while the early morning lows were in the low 60's. We started every day with little if any wind and then as the day progressed the wind slowly increased so that by 3 in the afternoon it was breezy and choppy.
WATER: On the Pacific side this week the swells were fairly steady at 3-5 feet while on the Cortez side, as usual, they averaged 2 feet less at 1-3 feet. On the Pacific side along the beach early in the week we were seeing water in the mid 60's and as the week went on warm water from the Cortez side crept around and forced the cold water north so by the end of the week we were seeing the water in the same area at 71 degrees. Offshore on the Pacific side we had the same effect going on with the warm water pushing out and across the San Jaime Bank, but by the end of the week the stronger currents coming down from the north had severed this plume of warm water, creating a hot spot just to the west of the San Jaime, while the water inshore of there cooled to 66-67 degrees. On the Cortez side the water averaged 72 degrees with a warmer area of 73-74 degree water across the 95 and 1150 areas. We came across a 1 ½ degree temperature change 22 miles to the SSE of Cabo on Tuesday, 68.3 degrees and dirty green to the west and 70 degrees and blue to the east. Had we continued to 38 miles out and to the south, we would have encountered 74 degree and blue water, oh well. Also, in the afternoons the winds picked up and kicked in whitecaps, it was water in your teeth if you were coming home from the south or southeast later in the week.
BAIT: Caballito and Mackerel as well as a few Mullet could be had for $3 per bait. A few of the bait boats had “frozen” ballyhoo for between $3-4, each, but you never know how many times they had been “frozen”.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I did not hear of many Swordfish being seen this week, only two that I know of, and neither of them were hooked up. As far as Striped Marlin go, things are improving slightly with fish being seen around the 95 and 1150 area, right in that warm water (and blue water) area. We caught a small one just off the lighthouse on the Pacific side while on the downhill slide Friday afternoon, it struck a dorado colored lure, then ate a drop back Mackerel. Still, spotting the fins was one thing, getting them to eat another. My guess is that only 20% of the boats had Marlin releases.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: While we did not see a lot of Yellowfin close to home, a few boats that went 40+ miles both to the south and to the west reported finding an occasional pod of Dolphin holding fish to 120 pounds. Most of the fish were smaller, in the 40 to 60 pound class, but there were a few large ones in there. Unfortunately that was too far for most of the boats to go, as well as having to really get beat up on the way home. Also not all of the dolphin had Yellowfin on them, so it was a real gamble to head out there. Closer to home there were a few boats that managed to find football sized fish in open water, and a few that found fish in small pods of dolphin just off the beach. All in all the Yellowfin were scarce. Many people I talked to thought that the Yellowfin and Dorado bite was red hot, but then I explained that many of the boats were flying the yellow Dorado flags for Yellowtail and the white Tuna flags for Sierra.
DORADO: There were a few small Dorado caught this week, but no numbers like last week. If there had been something floating like there was last week (remember the dead whale?) then I am sure that there would have been a lot more action.
WAHOO: ? There may have been a few caught this week but I did not hear of them.
INSHORE: Most of the boats, both Pangas and cruisers, have been focusing their efforts on catching Yellowtail that have been averaging 23 pounds and Sierra that have been averaging 5 pounds. From the arch and on up the Pacific coastline the bite has been good for both species. Pulling small rapallas and hootchies just outside the breakers of the Sierra was good, but using small Caballito with a stinger hook just in front of the tail produced the larger fish. Of course you really went through a lot of bait that way! For the Yellowtail, once again live bait was the best producer. Yo-yo's and diamond jigs produced some fish as did trolling large lipped plugs, but live bait was by far the best. Dropping to just off the bottom in 90 to 130 feet of water brought in fish to 45 pounds, get one of them hooked and you really had a fight on your hands! There were few grouper and snapper this week in our area, but I heard that the fishing for them was decent up around the Punta Gorda area.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: With a nice week on the weather front and some really great inshore fishing we ended up with a great Cabo week. We also had quite a few friends visit and made new ones as well, always a nice thing to have happen. Listening to our friends in the Brian Flynn Band play in the evenings after a day of fishing or golf really topped things off. For my music selection this week I chose to listen to Ernest Ranglin, in particular his rendition of “Stop that Train”, what I have to believe is one of the best ones I have ever heard. Other of his music is great as well. Check him out and see if you don't get moving to the beat also!
Have a great week, catch lots of fish, and get those reservations for Cabo made!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
March 12-18, 2012

WEATHER: The week started out great with clear skies, light winds and the perfect temperatures with the nighttime lows in the low 60's and the daytime highs in the low 80's. As the week progressed we had cloud cover move in, the breeze from the northwest pick up a bit and the temperatures raise a few degrees, along with the humidity moving up a few points. At the end of the week we were beginning to feel the approaching low pressure system as the winds started to blow on Saturday. Hopefully this will pass in a day or two, but it would be nice if there was a bit of rain in it for us!
WATER: As the clouds moved in the last clear water temp shot we received was on Wednesday and it showed 70-71 degrees across our local Sea of Cortez area with a spot of 68 degree water from the beach to 5 miles offshore between Cabo and San Jose. This water was also a bit green. On the Pacific side of the Cape the 71 degree water extended from the beach out to the San Jaime Banks and up to the Golden Gate Banks. From there out to a distance of 45 miles it dropped a bit to 87 degrees and outside of the 45 mile area it dropped again to 65 degrees but became blue again. Surface conditions on the Sea of Cortez were almost glassy most of the week with very little wind and small swells. On the Pacific side the swells were a bit larger at 3-5 feet and some light winds early in the week, growing to strong breezes at the end of the week with significant white caps.
BAIT: Caballito and Mackerel as well as a few Mullet could be had for $3 per bait. A few of the bait boats had “frozen” ballyhoo for between $3-4, each, but you never know how many times they had been “frozen”.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Well, it's still not great but it is getting better as more boats are coming in with Marlin flags flying. A few are reporting getting shots at up to six fish a day and releasing one to three, and a few boats going farther offshore are reporting finding fairly large schools of Striped Marlin but they are not biting well yet. The better area seemed to be off the Vinorama area up the Sea of Cortez, around the 1150 area and 30+ miles to the west on the Pacific side. On a really positive note, there were at least two Swordfish taken this week, with several others seen. One of the Swordfish was in the mid #200 range and the other was reported to be at least twice as large.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Tuna fishing was still slow for most of the boats early in the week with the fleet boats finding football fish in the normal areas such as south of the San Jaime and out past the 1,000 fathom line due south. Later in the week the reports became better with larger fish caught due west at the temperature change and due south at 40 miles. Several fish were caught that went over 100 pounds and there were decent fish to 60 pounds as well. Daisy chains and spreader bars brought good bites as did deep trolled plugs.
DORADO: For a couple of days at least Dorado were kings as a dead whale was found and the massive numbers of small Dorado provided fast action on the acrobats. Most of these small fish were released but there were a few boats that could not control themselves and kept everything they hooked, sigh. Elsewhere there were few Dorado to be found this week, but that may change if the water continues to warm up.
WAHOO: ? There may have been a few caught this week but I did not hear of them.
INSHORE: This week was pretty much a repeat of last weeks inshore action as there was a decent, but not hot bite on Yellowtail. The Sierra action was good on larger fish to 8 pounds, found on both sides of the Cape, and there were a few nice Snapper and Grouper caught as well. Most of the action was on the Pacific side from the lighthouse up to Migraino.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: Good weather except for the end of the week combined with better fishing than we have seen in a few weeks made a lot of anglers happy. The beach is crowded as are the bars and nightspots in town as we experience Spring Break once again. This weeks report was written to the music of Craig Chaquiso on his 2000 release “Panorama”, basicaly a “best of” album of his music up to that time.
Have a great week, catch lots of fish, and get those reservations for Cabo made!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
March 5-11, 2012

WEATHER: Great weather once again with our nighttime lows in the mid 60's and the daytime highs in the mid to high 80's and just a bit of cloud cover during the middle of the week. The winds were variable in direction and strength depending on your location. On Thursday it was blowing hard in San Jose but calm in Cabo, the reverse the next day. We were on the Pacific Thursday and Friday and it was calm with just a slight breeze from the southwest.
WATER: On the Pacific side the water was 71 degrees within four miles of the beach and 73 degrees from there to 8 miles east of the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks. Due south at 12 to 15 miles we had 77 degree water and to the east past the 115o and the Gorda Banks we saw 70 degree water. Surface conditions were good with swells at three to five feet on the Pacific and one to three feet on the Cortez side.
BAIT: Mackerel and Caballito were the baits available at the normal $3 each but there appeared to be few Sardinas available this week. Many of the bait boats would sell only five live baits and try to talk you into buying large frozen ballyhoo as well, but the fishery right now doesn't really need these large ballyhoo.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Still an on and off fishery, the beginning of the week saw quite a few Striped Marlin showing themselves from the arch to San Cristobal on the Pacific side and a few of them were willing to eat. A few boats managed to release as many as three fish while drifting live baits deep but then the fish moved on and the bite stopped. On Thursday we saw a few fish on the south side of the Golden Gate and managed to release one, but on Friday we baited two fish at the San Jaime and east of there with no action at all. Other boats were reporting the same results from all over. Perhaps the full moon on the 8th had something to do with this?
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The area known as the “herradura”, south of the San Jaime held porpoise that were with football Yellowfin early in the week then they moved on. At the end of the week there were reports of the same size fish being found in the warm water 12 to 15 miles to the south of the Cape. No great numbers were caught by any boat, but getting four or five was the average while the fish were there, plus you had shots at a Marlin or two.
DORADO: A repeat of last week as there were scattered Dorado found offshore in the warm 74 degree water. These fish were nice sized, but there sure were not many of them. A few boats caught fish to 30 pounds but they were not there thick enough to focus on, instead they were incidental catches for boats focusing on Marlin and Yellowfin. There were scattered smaller fish to 10 pounds caught near shore by boats fishing for Sierra and Yellowtail, but once again not enough of them for any focused effort.
WAHOO: I was surprised that I heard of no Wahoo caught this week considering the full moon is normally a good time to catch them, and the warmer water we have seen is perfect. Oh well, like last week, what hoo?
INSHORE: I said it best in last weeks report when I made the comment “Things sure can change from week to week”. True words as the great Yellowtail fishing we had been having took a turn toward the down side. Boats were still fishing for them but instead of getting five or six per trip on average, the results were quite a bit worse with many boats not getting any at all. A lucky few were able to catch one or two of them, but that was the exception. There was a better bite on Sierra though, and some of the fish were decent size, up to 8 pounds. Toss in some good Pargo and Grouper fishing and there was action to be had inshore.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: Great weather, decent fishing and smooth seas, what more do you want? Yeah, I know, great fishing would be better, but you don't always get what you want, sometimes you get what you need. Guess what music I listened to this week for the report?
Have a great week, catch lots of fish, and get those reservations for Cabo made!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
February 27 – March 4, 2012

WEATHER: We once again started the week with gusty days and partly cloudy skies, but by the end of the week we had great weather. With lows in the mid 60's and highs in the high 80's you could not ask for more perfect weather! As the week worked it's way toward the end, the winds started to die off a bit and when they did start each day, it was later and later. As I said, at the end of the week it was as god as you can get!
WATER: At the end of the week the water along the Pacific side from the shore out to the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks showed a pretty even 71 degrees as far north as Todo Santos. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water remained the same 71 degrees but extended much farther offshore, out to the 1,000 fathom line, and then it warmed up to 74 degrees just to our south.
BAIT: Mackerel and Caballito were the baits available at the normal $3 each and there were actually some decent numbers of Sardines to be found at the normal $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: One day the bite is on, the next day it is off, no consistency in anything except in the area the fish were found. Most of the fish were in the area between the 95 Spot and the 1150. Catches varied between 0 and 3 fish per boat and more fish were seen than were caught. The best bait appeared to be Mackerel, but at times they would ignore the mackerel and only eat a Caballito, other times they would not eat anything. There are some decent schools of Mackerel showing up on the Pacific side but for some reason not a lot of Marlin are in the same areas.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: These fish were pretty much non-existent for much of the week, at least until Saturday. All of a sudden, less than 6 miles off the arch several schools showed up and the boats that were there managed to limit out on fish to 25 pounds. Cedar plugs and small feathers were the key to multiple hook-ups. Elsewhere Yellowfin were scarce to absent.
DORADO: There were scattered Dorado found offshore in the warm 74 degree water, and these fish were nice sized, but there sure were not many of them. A few boats managed to catch fish to 30 pounds but they were not there thick enough to focus on, instead they were incidental catches for boats focusing on Marlin. There were scattered smaller fish to 10 pounds caught near shore by boats fishing for Sierra and Yellowtail, but once again not enough of them for any focused effort.
WAHOO: What Hoo? No reports this week, at least from anyone I heard from.
INSHORE: Well, things sure can change from week to week. This week Yellowtail re-gained the title of fish of the week, but you had to go to the Pacific side to have a decent shot at them. On the Cortez side of the Cape things inshore pretty much were concentrated on Sierra, Snapper and Grouper. Up in the San Jose area the water was calm, there were few Yellowfin or Yellowtail and it seems that the effort was mainly in the area of the San Louis Bank. On the Pacific side the yellowtail were fairly thick, and with a good depth sounder a boat could get on the fish time after time. Spread out between the arch and Marguerite, fishing in water between 120 and 200 feet in depth brought in consistent catches of fish between 15 and 30 pounds, often limits for anglers. A mix of live bait, yo-yo's and diamond jigs did well. There were Sierra in the area as well for anglers whose arms grew too tired to reel in another Yellowtail!
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: Perfect weather at the end of the week as well as some absolutely great inshore fishing. Now if only the Striped Marlin would show up in force and the Tuna arrive and stay it would be perfect fishing as well, but we will take what we can get, and that is not at all bad right now! Full moon is in four days so if the warm water stays we might see a decent showing of Wahoo, we will just have to wait and see.
Have a great week, catch lots of fish, and get those reservations for Cabo made!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
February 20 - 26, 2012

WEATHER: This was a strange week as one day the wind was howling and the next it was calm. I was fishing with friends on a Panga Thursday, nice when we left the marina and by 9am there were whitecaps everywhere. It seemed that the winds did not really start blowing hard until about 10am, and sometimes the switched direction 180 degrees. There was no way to forecast this and every trip was a crap-shoot as to how the water was going to be. We did have sunny skies all week with just a bit of cloud cover on Tuesday and Saturday. Highs were in the mid 80's and lows were in the low 60's.
WATER: As of the end of the week that large area of warm water which had been approaching from the east had entered and begun to affect our area. Starting about Tuesday the water from the Gorda Point area in a line to the southwest had 74 degree water on the east side and 66 degree water on the west side. At the end of the week this warm water had pushed it's way along the Cortez side until we had 70 degree water inside of the 1,000 fathom line and 74 degree water outside the line with a still existing plume of the warm water running from Punta Gorda through the 1150 and southward. On the Pacific side the 69 degree water expanded to the north and west as well, with water inside of boundaries set by Todo Santos, the Golden Gate Bank and the San Jaime Bank and to the south being a steady 69 degrees. Outside of these areas the water dropped several degrees to 67. Surface conditions varied widely due to the inconsistent winds, rough as a cob on the Pacific side one day, smooth there and rough on the Cortez side the next.
BAIT: Mackerel and Caballito were the baits available at the normal $3 each and there were actually some decent numbers of Sardines to be found at the normal $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Most of the boats had a great deal of difficulty finding Marlin this past week, my guess is that perhaps only 10-15% of them managed to get a Striped Marlin to eat. There were, however, a few magicians out there. T.J. Managed to be consistent in getting four to six fish per trip and a few other boats (not many) managed to hook up every trip. For the most part though, the fleet boats were not very successful close to home and the fish were scarce. The best areas appeared to be off the San Jose Canyon early in the week, as well as outside the 95 and 1150 area, and it is possible that the better catches were had up in the Vinorama area, a long way from home for us.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Except for two days, the Tuna were absent in any numbers in our area. The exception was Thursday and Friday when several pods of Porpoise 6 miles out from the arch managed to produce a few fish in the 15-25 pound class. Not great numbers, with the better boats only getting three or four fish, but better than we have seen in several weeks. I heard that the bite that had been happening up on the Inman Bank for Yellowfin had dropped off quite a bit as well, and combined with the wind boats fishing there were lucky to get one fish to the boat while using live Sardines and chunk baits.
DORADO: The warm water that moved in brought some Dorado with it as evidenced by quite a few fish caught out by the 95 and 1150 that weighed 25-30 pounds. There were still a few small fish found close to shore in the San Jose area but other than that, almost nothing was happening with the Dorado. The ones caught offshore were hooked by boats fishing for Striped Marlin.
WAHOO: I did hear of four nice Wahoo caught this week, all in the 60 pound range. All of them were caught just outside the 1150 and 95 spot in the warmer water when it first moved into our area at the beginning of the week.
INSHORE: Yellowtail lost the title of fish of the week as the bite dropped off considerably. Most of the schooling fish had been coming from just off the arch, and that is supposed to be a no-fishing zone. I guess after seeing 35-40 boats fishing out there for four days in a row, the marines decided to do something about it and started chasing the boats away. Just as well it appears, because the fish had either been caught out or had moved on to a different area. Boats that extended their search range found more fish up around the Los Arcos and Margarita area. Larger fish to 35 pounds were caught while trolling large-lipped plugs under diving pelicans and frigates while smaller fish were caught while drifting live mackerel and Caballito. We managed to get one Yellowtail that weighed 23 pounds during our windy Thursday trip, as well a one Amberjack and several more good bites. Sierra are still available and one of the favorite area depending on the wind conditions has been just outside of the Chileno Beach area. There were some decent grouper caught this week by the inshore fishermen as well, one of them almost 150 pounds!
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: Great temperatures, if just the wind would settle down! Inshore fishing has been fine while offshore has been sketchy, but there are some nice fish to be caught. Lets see what this area of warm water brings us in the next week!
Have a great week, catch lots of fish, and get those reservations for Cabo made!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
February 13 - 19, 2012

WEATHER: It's only February but the March winds have started. On Tuesday a breeze started up and continued to grow stronger throughout the morning, to the point that the Port Captain closed us to the exit of Pangas about 11AM. The clouds started to move in during the afternoon and we had cloudy skies with a stiff wind on Wednesday, Thursday the clouds had gone away but the wind was still blowing. Bu Saturday the winds had died down so there was just wind in the afternoon, and that was not too strong. The wind also brought us cold weather, I believe that on Wednesday the warmest we saw was 71 degrees while the coldest we reached was 51 degrees. Of course last year we got down to 47 degrees so we do have a little to be thankful of!
WATER: At the end of the week there was a band of 65 degree water running along the beach on the Pacific side that extended out a distance of 8 miles. West of there, across the Golden Gate and San Jaime banks to warmed just a touch to 66 degrees. Right in front of the Cape we had 68 degrees while farther up on the Cortez side, from Red Hill to the 1150 and across to Punta Gorda the water was a balmy 72 degrees. The cool water on the Pacific was slightly green while the water on the Cortez side was a nice blue color.
BAIT: Mackerel and Caballito were the baits available at the normal $3 each and there was a very limited supply of Sardinas to be found if you went to San Jose.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: While the bait stays away so do the Marlin and very few Striped Marlin were caught this week, at least in comparison to years past. Not that there were not fish out there, boats reported seeing three or four per day, but they are not eating. On Tuesday I watched the boats coming in and saw only one Marlin flag flying for about 20 boats. The fish that were caught this week seemed to bite live bait rather than striking lure, at least most of them did. And, to toss a bit of surprise into the fishing pot out there, a 575 pound Blue Marlin was brought in by a boat on Thursday. I did not get much information on the fish but assume it was caught in the warmer water on the Cortez side of the Cape.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Way offshore and far away were the Yellowfin Tuna this week. You either traveled 35 miles to the south and west or 35 miles up the coast on the Cortez side. Either direction it was a crap-shoot as if you did find the fish they would not always bit. To the south and west boats were looking for, and occasionally finding pods of porpoise, and some of them held fish. A good location might result in three or four of them, and once in a while a dozen or so, but the sizes were not great averaging just 12 pounds. Boats traveling up the Sea of Cortez were going to the Inman Bank area, chumming and drifting with Sardinas and chunk bait. Light leader and a quite boat were the key to these fish which were in the 30-50 pound class, but shy. You had to weed your way through the skip-jack, but at least you had a shot.
DORADO: I thought that the Dorado were gone, but there were a few caught this week, a big surprise since the water is so cool. Most of the fish I saw and heard of were small ones, less than 10 pounds but there were a few that may have been 18 pounds or so. Anglers getting them were fishing for Yellowtail just off the beach or Yellowfin up by the Inman Banks. Live bait was the key but some of them bit on chunks baits as well.
WAHOO: I did not see or hear of a Wahoo caught this week, but don't doubt there were a few caught. All the red and orange flags I saw were being flown for Sierra.
INSHORE: Yellowtail were the fish of the week but shared the title with Sierra. More Sierra than Yellowtail, but the Yellowtail were larger and fought harder. Almost all the action on both species happen just off the beach on the Pacific side on the cool water. Both live bait and yo-yo's worked and the clue as always was to be in the right spot. Finding marks on the depth sounder, or drifting until a bite happened was necessary, then figuring out the current and drift and going over the spot time after time resulted in some fine catches. One of the boats we had out had one angler aboard and landed 5 Yellowtail that were between 15 and 25 pounds, a real nice result for 5 hours fishing. Other species available were grouper and snapper as well as some small rooster-fish.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: Cold weather or not, it's nice that we have some fish to target out there, and Yellowtail is not only great to eat, they also fight like the devil! Offshore fishing was sketchy this week, the best fishing occurred near the beach, and there was the added bonus of being able to watch the whales as well. Thanks for reading the blog and the report!
Have a great week, catch lots of fish, and get those reservations for Cabo made!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
February 6-12, 2012

WEATHER: We started last week with some very nice weather and then mid week we had some heavy clouds and rain move in. Wednesday was cloudy and had some decent rain in a few areas around here, up to an inch in scattered locations, but only a light scattering here in town. During the week were the low's were in the 50's while highs were lucky to break the 80 degree mark early in the week, but by Saturday we had gotten 82 degrees showing here at the house. Late in the week saw some heavy wind from the north, the rest of the week it had been from the west.
WATER: The water on the Cortez side of the Cape changed this week after the cold front that brought us rain moved through. Early in the week there had been a hot area of 74 degree water just inside the 1,000 fathom line as well as a hot spot on top of the San Jaime Bank on the Pacific side. At the end of the week the water across our area had cooled to an average of 70 degrees on both side of the Cape with a cooler band of 68 degree water running along the beach on the Pacific side. Surface conditions early in the week were great but as the cold and rain moved in so did the wind and by Wednesday the Pacific side had really gotten rough and choppy, but it had calmed down by Friday. On the Cortez side the same conditions occurred but with less effect, and then at the end of the week the winds switched and started to come from the north, bringing up choppy conditions from San Jose and northward.
BAIT: Mackerel and Caballito were the baits available at the normal $3 each and there was a very limited supply of Sardinas to be found if you went to San Jose.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: It appears that the Striped Marlin are scarce this week as few boats were returning with blue flags flying. Those that were getting fish were finding them offshore from 10 to 20 miles on both sides of the Cape, but there seemed to be slightly higher concentrations around the 1150 and 95 spots than in other areas. Fish were spotted on the surface on the Pacific side but most of them were not in the feeding mood, ignoring lures and live bait. My best guess is that less than 15% of the boats managed to hook a billfish this week, but not for lack of trying.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Just like last week, the offshore fishing for Yellowfin remained slow. There were pods of porpoise out there but you were only able to catch fish if you were in the right spot at the right time. The first boat to a school might get four of five fish and the second boat get nothing, or the first boat might just get one fish, it varied, but most of the porpoise found had no fish under them. Just like last week, the best action on Yellowfin seemed to happen close to the beach on the Cortez side up at the Inman Banks. Boats from San Jose were fishing there and an occasional boat from Cabo went the distance to try, but even for them it was scratchy fishing with fish from 20 to 80 pounds being the result of weeding through the skip-jack that were everywhere. Drifted Sardinas and chunks of skip-jack fished on fluro-carbon leader was the key.
DORADO: The fishing for Dorado remained slow this week, just like last week. Very few are being caught and the majority of them are no larger than 10 pounds. Close to shore on the Pacific side and along the beach off of Palmilla have been where the majority of fish have been and the best results have been from drifting with live sardinas and chumming heavily. There have been a few fish in the 15-20 pound class, but they have been the exception.
WAHOO: Most of the red or orange flags we have seen have been for Sierra or Shark instead of for Wahoo. The water is just on the cool side of the Wahoo preference so there have been very few of them caught this week.
INSHORE: A repeat of last week with as many Sierra as you want, there does not seem to be a scarcity of them! Of course they are small, most between 2 and 4 pounds, but great smoked or used for ceviche. Trolling small hootchies or rapallas right outside the surf break resulted in most of the fish, but live bait on wire leader also worked. There were some very nice Yellowtail caught as well, but most of them were caught on live bait dropped down to just off the bottom on the rock piles. Unlike last week, iron worked just off the bottom did produce some fish, but unless it was blue/silver you worked your arms off for little result. There were some small Roosterfish as well as some Pompano and skip jack inshore. Those that targeted bottom fish managed to find snapper to 20 pounds in the rock piles right on the beach and there were plenty of trigger fish in water between 60 and 120 feet deep as well as some grouper to 15 pounds.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe! We made a quick trip to Mag Bay and came home with fresh shrimp, Yummy!!!!
NOTES: Football is over for the year so it's time to watch some golf and maybe play a few rounds, get in some time on the water to catch some Yellowtail and do some cooking on the grill on Sundays. Great weather and some fine inshore fishing should result in a fine week to come. This weeks report was written the the sounds of Tawny snoring at my feet, waiting for the trip to the beach and some swimming.
Have a great week, catch lots of fish, and get those reservations for Cabo made!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
January 23-29, 2012

WEATHER: Our cool winter days continue as the nighttime temps are down in the mid 50's. The good news is that the days have been warming up nicely and we are seeing 80+ degrees in the daytime. The winds have been moderate from the northwest and occasionally early in the morning a light breeze springs up from the northeast. We did experience a bit of cloud cover toward the end of the week and it appears as if the coming week may cool things down just a bit more.
WATER: Both sides of the Cape are seeing water between 69 and 70 degrees with the cooler water right in front of us. On the Pacific side the warmer water is on the San Jaime Bank and to the southwest of there, on the Cortez side it extends from Chileno Bay up to Los Frailles and out to the 1,000 fathom line. Surface conditions have been great on the Cortez side with small swells and smooth water. On the Pacific side the water has been a bit more rough with swells at 2-5 feet and a bit of wind chop starting mid-morning.
BAIT: No change from last week, small Caballito, some Mackerel and some junk baits were available at $3 each, frozen horse Ballyhoo could be had for between $3 and $4 each and there were some sardines to be found toward San Jose at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: We had one day this week where it looked as if things were really starting to take off, but the next day the bubble had already burst. Early in the week the Golden Gate Bank had bait all over the place and there were feeding Marlin, cruising Marlin and birds working the bait boils everywhere. Boats were getting multiple hook-ups and releasing between three and six fish in a trip. The next day almost 35 boats made the trip and there were about two or three fish caught. What a disappointment! There were occasional fish showing up to the south of the San Jaime Bank as well as near the shore on the Pacific side. I also heard reports that off of the San Jose Canyon there had been some fish showing up. All the week long, except for one day, it was a matter of putting in the time and keeping your fingers crossed.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: As the warm water on the Pacific side shifted back toward the southwest the fish moved as well. The cruiser were having to travel 35 to 40 miles to get into the fish, and even then there was no guarantee you could find them since many of the porpoise pods did not have fish on them. To go along with that, many of the fish were in the football class instead of schooling fish, 10-15 pounds instead of 15-30 pounds. That's a long run for a few small fish. I did hear that on Friday and Saturday, the end of our week, the action picked up at the Inman Bank up off Punta Gorda on the Cortez side. Boats drifting the Bank and chumming with Sardinas were getting into some decent Yellowfin Tuna, a few to 80 pounds, but you still had to week through the skip jack for them. A good morning would result in five or six decent fish.
DORADO: Very few are being caught and the majority of them are no larger than 10 pounds. Close to shore on the Pacific side and along the beach off of Palmilla have been where the majority of fish have been and the best results have been from drifting with live sardinas and chumming heavily.
WAHOO: Most of the red or orange flags we have seen have been for Sierra or Shark instead of for Wahoo. The water is just on the cool side of the Wahoo preference so there have been very few of them caught this week.
INSHORE: Go out and catch as many Sierra as you want, there does not seem to be a scarcity of them! Of course they are small, but great smoked or used for ceviche. Trolling small hootchies or rapallas right outside the surf break resulted in most of the fish, but live bait on wire leader also worked. There were some very nice Yellowtail caught as well, but almost everyone of them was caught on live bait dropped down to just off the bottom on the rock piles. Anglers were reporting that yo-yo'ing iron was not working at all. There were some small Roosterfish as well as some Pompano and skip jack inshore. Those that targeted bottom fish managed to find snapper to 20 pounds in the rock piles right on the beach and there were plenty of trigger fish in water between 60 and 120 feet deep as well as some grouper to 15 pounds.
FISH RECIPE: Mary's post this week was a Snapper recipe with poblano rice! That combination was fantastic and we will be doing that one again as soon as we get some more snapper!
NOTES: Superbowl today! I am just hoping for a good game and don't really care who wins. I take that back, I hope we win on one of the squares we bought at Tanga-Tanga! Leaving the house soon for the Sunday walk on the beach, then home for breakfast, some gardening and then down to watch the game. Music for the week was thanks to Mark Rau who loaned me the CD “Lower Case Letters” by guitarist Shawn Hopper, released by Favored Nations Records. Thanks Mark, great acoustic guitar!
Have a great week, catch lots of fish, and get those reservations for Cabo made!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
January 23-29, 2012

WEATHER: Having just returned from visiting family in Oklahoma I thought I would be nice and warm when I got back here, but I found myself wearing a sweater all day yesterday even though everyone else was walking around in t-shirts. Guess it may take a while for me to thaw out! It was actually pretty nice this week with our daytime highs in the mid 80's and the lows in the mid 60's. I was told that it was cloudy and a bit breezy earlier in the week and that I brought the sun back with me when I returned Tuesday. Since then we have had mostly sunny skies with a bit of a breeze starting up in the middle of the morning.
WATER: I ran a loop on the water temperatures this week and it appears that the warm water we have been seeing just to the west of the San Jaime bank earlier in the week has slowly moved toward us, to the point that it is now on top of the San Jaime. This is 70 degree water, three degrees warmer that the expanse of ocean between the Banks and Cabo. Right along the beach on the Pacific side we are seeing much cooler water at 63 degrees, but this only extend off the beach about a mile. The water on the Pacific side has been a very nice blue while the water immediately off the Cape has been greenish and the water in the Sea of Cortez has had a slight green tinge. Right in San Lucas bay we have 64 degree water, I am not gong swimming anytime soon, I don't want to freeze! Swells on the Pacific side have been moderate at an average of 3-5 feet, slightly larger in the current lines off the points and down current of the sea-mounts. On the Cortez side they have been smaller as normal at 2-4 feet.
BAIT: No change from last week, small Caballito, some Mackerel and some junk baits were available at $3 each, frozen horse Ballyhoo could be had for between $3 and $4 each and there were a few sardines to be found toward San Jose at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Normally in the cooler water, this week they Striped Marlin seem to have concentrated (if you can call it that) in the warmer water atop the San Jaime Bank and just offshore in the San Jose Canyon. Still not there in great numbers, and still very picky due to all the 15 inch squid they have been feeding on, it is tough to get them to bite. With patience and enough fish to present to, some of the boats managed to release as many as four fish during a charter, but most of them were happy to get one or two releases. One thing the presence of this size squid signifies is that sometime soon we should start seeing more Swordfish, as these squid are the perfect prey for them. They also seem to show up in the slightly green water so I expect the next one caught will be from outside the Gorda Banks.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: With the warm water on the Pacific side moving in closer to us the run to the fish has lessened, but that does not mean that running to the warm water will guarantee you Yellowfin. The fish are scattered out in the porpoise and not all the porpoise have tuna associated with them. As you can see it is a bit of a crap-shoot, but if you do manage to get into the fish there have been some nice ones to 60 pounds being caught. Of course those are the exception, most of the fish have been between 12 and 25 pounds with a decent number of them 20-40 pounds. On the Cortez side of the Cape the most and steadiest action has taken place up on the Inman bank area. Chumming with sardinas from a dead, quiet boat while using very light flouro-carbon leader as small as 20 pound test has resulted in quite a few hook-ups on fish to 80 pounds. The only problem has been weeding through all the Bonita and skip jack to get to the Yellowfin! On a positive note, this also allows you to start using chunks if you run out of sardinas.
DORADO: I am very surprised that we are still seeing any Dorado at all coming in to the docks as the water is much cooler than they normally like. While there have been a few nice fish in the 20# and over size class, most of the fish have been 10#'s or less. The focus of those fishing for Dorado has shifted from the Pacific side to the Cortez side, mainly due to the very clod water just off the beach on the Pacific side. Boats working the rocky points off of Palmilla and off of Punta Gorda while chumming heavily have been having the best luck with an occasional limit for their anglers, but as I said, most of these have been small fish.
WAHOO: New moon phase is here so most of the red or orange flags we have seen have been for Sierra. The water is just on the cool side of the Wahoo preference so there have been very few of them caught this week.
INSHORE: The good news is that the Sierra bite is going good on small fish, there has been no problem with most anglers being able to limit out on these little razor-tooth fish. Also good news is the showing of Yellowtail along the rocky areas, some of them very nice size as well. I had a report of a boat that landed two of the, both over 25 pounds while fishing for Yellowfin Tuna on the Gorda Bank, and decent size schools of smaller fish averaging 8-10 pounds on the Pacific side. Small Roosterfish to 12 pounds have been schooling along the beach between Grey Rock and Cabo Del Sol as well. Toss in some nice snapper going up to 25 pounds and some scattered bottom fish as well and there is action and food to be had fishing along the beach!
FISH RECIPE: Mary posted a shrimp recipe we had this week, wow was that good stuff!
NOTES: Superbowl is not going to be as interesting as I was hoping since there will not be a west coast team this year, but I had a great time watching the playoffs with my Dad. I am glad to be back in the land of warmth and will be walking the beach this morning with Mary and our pup Tawny and our friends Mark and Shar. I wont be going in the water since it is too cool for me, but the pup will have a great time as usual. This weeks report was written to the music of Ernest Ranglin, check out some of his music on you-tube! “Below the Baseline” is awesome as well as my favorite, “Catch That Train”. Until next week, tight lines!
Have a great week, catch lots of fish, and get those reservations for Cabo made!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
January 16 - 22, 2012

WEATHER: The week started off nice warm and sunny. Temps in the low 80's. Moving towards the end of the week the cloud cover moved in and out temps were a mid to hi 70's. Which isn't bad unless the wind picks up. For the most part, it is beautiful weather of course. We don't get anything else here in Cabo! These high clouds have made for some awesome sunrise and sunset pictures.
WATER: The warmer waters have been south and around to San Jaime Bank, temps 73-75, while Gordo Banks is cooling off with only 70 degree water. The warmer water is holding the striped marlin.
BAIT: Small Caballito, some Mackerel and some junk baits were available at $3 each, frozen horse Ballyhoo could be had for between $3 and $4 each and there were a few sardines to be found toward San Jose at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Billfish finally picked up this week. The warm waters out by San Jaime Bank are holding marlin. A few boats are catching them. They have lots of squid to feed on, so you need to work them to take your bait.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Pretty much the same as last week, if this is what you want to target. Probably the fish of the week in terms of numbers, at least for the off-shore species, they were not the fish of the week in terms of size. Most of the fish found were football sized, and they were being very picky when it came to feeding. Scattered pods of Porpoise were found from just off the beach to 30 miles out on the Pacific side and one out of three held these smaller fish. The key to success was small hootchies, as small as two inches fished on 20 pound leader. With the fish ranging in size from 6 to 15 pounds you still got a good fight if you were using the lighter tackle, but if one of the very few fish in the 35 pound class happened to bite. Boats traveled up to 50 miles to the west trying to find larger fish in the warmer water but did not have any success.
DORADO: They are still hanging around. Most likely because of the 70 + degree water is still around. As our water temps drop into the 60's they will disappear until June. I saw a couple of really nice ones in the 25-30 lb range, but most of them are in the l0 lb range.
WAHOO: Lots of wahoo flags this week, of course this time of year, mostly they are flown for sierra. The sierra seem a little small to me this year, but still some decent numbers being caught.
INSHORE: Most of my inshore clients this week have been fly-fishing. The roosterfish are here along with sierra. Make sure you bring sinking leader. Snappers showing up if you know where to get them. They have been catching a few small tuna and dorado inshore also.
FISH RECIPE: I wasn't happy with what I came up with last week, so I didn't post it. Tried to do some dorado with a balsamic vinegar and honey sauce. I used fresh honey instead of store bought and it came out way too sweet. I'll try again and get it right. Tawny on the other hand loved it!
NOTES: Report is a little short this week as it usually is when I write it. George is visiting his family in Oklahoma city. I am not as creative as he is. He will be back writing the reports next week! Tight lines, I am off to take Tawny for her Sunday romp at the beach so she will sleep through football. (am I a bad Mom?) Rooting for the 49er's today. I think the Superbowl needs a West Coast Team.
Have a great week, catch lots of fish, and get those reservations for Cabo made!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
January 9-15, 2012

WEATHER: The weather had a few fluctuations this week as our lows varied from 57 to 71 degrees depending on the amount of cloud cover and the wind. With a cloud deck that moved in during the middle of the week we had warmer weather with early in the week being the coolest. Daytime highs were pretty much the same with an average of 82 degrees. We did experience a little spit of rain on Friday evening and early Saturday morning with more being felt toward San Jose than here in San Lucas.
WATER: Surface conditions were pretty good this week with the exception of Saturday when we had some strange winds happen. Early in the morning until about 8AM the wind was almost gale force blowing from the north up in the Sea of Cortez causing great amounts of chop on the water and some larger than normal swells, then it died off. About 11 AM it returned for 30 minutes but in the opposite direction, coming in from the south, then we were back to normal light winds. Sea surface temperatures on the Cortez side were 74 degrees inside the 1,000 fathom lone and 73 degrees outside that area. On the Pacific side there were three bands of water, 72 degrees close to the beach and then out to the banks, 71 degree water across the San Jaime and the Golden Gate, then warm 76 degree water to the west of the San Jaime on the 1,000 fathom line.
BAIT: Small Caballito, some Mackerel and some junk baits were available at $3 each, frozen horse Ballyhoo could be had for between $3 and $4 each and there were a few sardines to be found toward San Jose at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Fishing is so strange, one day they are there and the next day they are gone. This past week they seemed to have been gone, maybe on vacation to visit relatives. There were still some Striped Marlin being caught, but my guess is that only 20-30% of the boats were getting hooked up, and most of the action was incidental with fish being seen while targeting other species. Scattered fish were found on the Pacific side from one to three miles off the beach by boats working that area for Dorado and there were still a few small concentrations scattered about to the north 25-35 miles. A few fish were reported from the Palmilla area toward the end of the week but they were not biting well. Perhaps the full moon had something to do with the bite not being on. We had one fly fisherman who had a fish come into the teasers but just eyeballed his fly, then refused to eat a live bait. Go figure....
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Probably the fish of the week in terms of numbers, at least for the off-shore species, they were not the fish of the week in terms of size. Most of the fish found were football sized, and they were being very picky when it came to feeding. Scattered pods of Porpoise were found from just off the beach to 30 miles out on the Pacific side and one out of three held these smaller fish. The key to success was small hootchies, as small as two inches fished on 20 pound leader. With the fish ranging in size from 6 to 15 pounds you still got a good fight if you were using the lighter tackle, but if one of the very few fish in the 35 pound class happened to bite, well, Katy bar the door, you were in for a struggle and more than likely were going to lose the fish. Boats traveled up to 50 miles to the west trying to find larger fish in the warmer water but did not have any success.
DORADO: This week was almost a repeat of last week's action as the fish are small and few in number. As the water continues to cool we will observe this trend continue. The best concentrations of Dorado were found off of the Palmilla area close to the beach. Chumming heavily with Sardinas brought the fish around then it was a matter of getting them to eat. Since the limit is two Dorado per person, it was hard to justify the run up there and the time spent just to catch some of these fish which averaged 8 pounds. On the Pacific side there were fish scattered between just off the beach to three miles out, most of them in the warmer water up above San Cristobal. Slow trolled live bait worked if you were willing to put in the time, at least there were plenty of whales to watch while waiting for a bite!
WAHOO: I saw a couple of Wahoo flags flying this week but there is a distinct possibility they were for Sierra as I did not hear of any Wahoo caught.
INSHORE: While the offshore fishing has been spotty and mostly consists of smaller members of normally larger species, the inshore fishing has been pretty darn good. While most of them are not large, we have been having great success with Sierra, almost everyone has been able to limit out on these fish. Average size is under 5 pounds but there have been a few schools out there that have been averaging 7-8 pounds. As well as the Sierra, there have been some decent reports of Yellowtail being caught on the Pacific side, some of the fish over 30 pounds. An average, at least this week, was 15 pounds but while there were good numbers out there, not all the boats that were trying for them had success. You had to fish a rock or ledge in 150-250 feet of water that showed marks on the depth sounder and make repeated drifts over it. With the target area so small it was easy to get off the mark and only end up with one or two fish. Also, jigging or yo-yo'ing was the way to get to the fish and not a lot of anglers are familiar with the correct method of working these lures. Also on these rock-piles were Grouper, some to 30 pounds and they were just as likely to grab a lure and tangle in the rocks as a Yellowtail was! A scattering of Roosterfish were reported but no large numbers, and there was plenty of action on Bonito and Skipjack.
FISH RECIPE: Most often posted on the blog on Thursdays, check it out once in a while to see what is new!
NOTES: While the fishing has slowed down, the weather has been great! All we need is for the Marlin to start biting and we will be having a great season. With the inshore species picking up the slack it is almost impossible to get skunked out there, but you have to be patient. Plenty of Dolphin to watch offshore, whales along the beach, good water conditions, it all makes for a nice day on the water. Return with fish for dinner and it's a success! This weeks report was written to the sounds of Sirius Radio channel 6. Until next week, tight lines!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
January 2 - 8, 2012

WEATHER: Our lows this week were in the mid 60's and the highs in the mid 80's, just about perfect once again! If you want to get away from that cold white stuff come on down! We had partly cloudy skies mid-week but the week started and ended with plenty of sun. It was a bit strange though in the fact that for the past several years we have had at least one day of at least sprinkles in each of the first four weeks of the year, now we have broken that pattern.
WATER: The swells stayed small all around the cape, in fact they were so small on the Sea of Cortez side between San Jose and San Lucas that it almost seemed we were on a lake. On Saturday the water on that side looked like a mirror as well with almost no wind ripples. On the Pacific side the swells were 2-4 feet and again with almost no wind for most of the week. The breeze did kick up just a little bit on Sunday morning but it only put a small chop on the almost flat water for a short time. At the end of the week water temperatures almost across the entire fishing area were 71 degrees with the exception of cooler, greener water of 70 degrees in the area of the Golden Gate Banks, a small intrusion of 73-74 degree water on the 95 spot and south of there. To get to any consistent 74-76 degree water you had to go 50 miles to the southwest.
BAIT: Small Caballito, some Mackerel and some junk baits were available at $3 each, frozen horse Ballyhoo could be had for between $3 and $4 each and there were a few sardines to be found toward San Jose at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite is still down from what we were seeing at the beginning of the week before when some boats were getting double digit numbers just to the inside of the Golden Gate and slightly north along the beach, but the fish seemed to have started biting again as this week toward the end of the week a few boats fishing the same area were getting between two and five releases per day. Of course there were a few scattered fish elsewhere, but this seemed to be the best place to go for a good shot. There was a problem however. You HAD to have the right bait to get them, they were not biting on lures or on junk baits or on Caballito, they were focused on Mackerel. If you were not at the bait boats early, or could not find and mackerel in the area to catch on your own, you may as well give it up, the fish were that picky. But....if you had the right stuff and were there early you stood a decent chance of getting bit. Naturally our fingers are crossed that more Mackerel maker it into our area and the fish follow them. On another good note, we had a Panga fishing on the 3rd that spotted and tried to bait what is the first Swordfish I have heard of this year. The Captain and experienced angler both estimated the fish at between 400 and 500 pounds and found him on the Pacific side just off the lighthouse. They baited the fish only to have it sink out after several attempts to get it to eat both dead and live bait. A sign of things to come?
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The great bite we had last week continued into the beginning of this week as boats were able to get on decent quality fish of between 25-35 pounds only 18 to 25 miles offshore on the Pacific side. How quickly things can change! Almost the next day the currents changed and the larger fish were gone, only to be found in the warmer 74 degree water 40+ miles to the southwest. Closer to home there were still Yellowfin to be caught but they were smaller fish in the 8-15 pound class, and even they were being a bit picky. I did not hear of any reports of Yellowfin coming from the Sea of Cortez side of the Cape, even the Gorda Banks did not seem to have any of the home guard fish on it. If you did get into the smaller Yellowfin the best lure was small hootchies in darker colors, small red being one of the favorites.
DORADO: The Dorado bite continues to wind down as the water cools. And the fish are getting smaller. On the Cortez side the fish were found between Red Hill (the Westin Resort) and the Gorda Banks. These were small fish, a 10 pound fish was cause for celebration and they were not easy to come by. The best bait was sardines. Chumming heavily and fly-lining them on light flouro-carbon leader resulted in limits of these smaller fish. On the Pacific side the fish were slightly larger, but not much, and there were fewer of them. Slow trolling live bait just off the beach in 200 feet of water resulted in most of the better catches, and a large fish this week would have been 15 pounds with most of them barely reaching 10 pounds in size.
WAHOO: I saw a couple of Wahoo flags flying this week but there is a distinct possibility they were for Sierra as I did not hear of any Wahoo caught.
INSHORE: The good news is that there are some decent Yellowtail out there, just not a lot of them yet. One boat trolling lures just off the beach landed a fish of about 30 pounds during the middle of the week and several Pangas reported fish to 20 pounds, but not in any numbers. A few larger Roosterfish to 30 pounds were caught while drifting live bait along the beach searching for Yellowtail and Dorado and there were fair numbers of smaller fish right on the beach. Sierra have started to make a showing along the sandy stretches of the beach as well but the sizes have been small, so far only one school of large fish has been reported. Most of the ones I have heard of have been in the 3-4 pound class.
FISH RECIPE: Mary just posted a great recipe of a Dorado lettuce wrap, darn that was good stuff! Hopefully we will have another recipe up this week as well, hope it is as good!
NOTES: This has been a good week for fishing, not great, but pretty good. Mostly a matter of the right place at the right time, as it most often is. With great weather, good fishing, whales to watch and the holiday crowds gone it is pretty darn nice! Time to take the pup to the beach for the Sunday walk, home for a good breakfast and a Bloody Mary then down to town for some football! This weeks report was written to the sounds of and the feel of my pup panting and nosing me to “get done now dad, it's time for the beach!”. Until next week, tight lines!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
December 26, 2011 – January 2, 2012

WEATHER: It was a great start to the new year as our high on the 1st was 92 degrees here at home. Our low for the day was a balmy 78 degrees. The week started out slightly cooler but warmed as the week went along. The skies also started to clear up and we had a full day of sunshine to begin the new year.
WATER: Swells on the Pacific side were small at 2-5 feet and even smaller on the Cortez side at 1-3 feet. The water in the Sea of Cortez was a steady 74 degrees except for a small area around the Gorda Banks that was 72 degrees and slightly green. Right in front of the Cape t was a warmer 76 degrees and a plume of this warmer water ran up the coastline on the Pacific side for about 10 miles and offshore about 8 miles. From there the warm water continued on a slightly cooler note, around 74 degrees for another 10-15 miles and out about 2 miles. There was an area of cooler water that ran from the north side of the Golden Gate to the south of the San Jaime Banks at the 1,000 fathom line that was slightly green and 71 degrees.
BAIT: Same as last week, some Caballito and a few Mackerel were to be had at $3 per bait, mostly boats were getting junk bait for their money so many were going with frozen Ballyhoo instead. There were some Sardinas at $25-$30 a scoop as well.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: We finally had a few days of really good Striped Marlin fishing at the beginning of the week, a few boats released double digit numbers. These fish were just offshore up past the Golden Gate Bank. There were feeders and tailers, all eating Mackerel. About the only way to get these numbers of fish was to catch your own bait on the spot as they were pretty much fixated on these baits. There were good numbers of mackerel the first day the fish were found but the numbers dropped for the next two days ad so did the numbers of fish caught, down to between five and no fish after 3 days. Hopefully more bait and more fish will work their way down towards us soon.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Most boat after Tuna were heading out 25-35 miles at 190-210 degrees, out where the warmer water was at the beginning of the week. There were good numbers of fish out there, some to 60 pounds but most of them in the 20-25 pound class. Limits were possible and many anglers were able to do very well. We found a school between the lighthouse and Golden Gate Bank that had a good mix of fish and caught 8 them between 12 and 40 pounds. A few boats did very well using Sardines but most were using cedar plugs and small lures. When things got tough spreader bars worked and so did very small red hootchies.
DORADO: It's hard to believe but there is still a decent Dorado bite out there. The key s to fish just off of the beach on the Pacific side until you catch one, then slow troll the area with live bait. Some boats are continuing to catch limits using this method. Boats that are sticking to just lures are catching a few as well, but not nearly as many. An average size fish this past week was about 15 pounds. There were also Dorado to be found off of Palmilla and Gray Rock on the Cortez side.
WAHOO: I saw a couple of Wahoo flags flying this week but there is a distinct possibility they were for Sierra as I did not hear of any Wahoo caught.
INSHORE: There was no change in the inshore report this week as the Sierra bite continues to develop on the Pacific side, the Snapper are still biting in among the rocks on the Pacific side and there are a few more Yellowtail caught every day. There were a couple of days early in the week when big Roosterfish were reported up in the Red Hill area on the Cortez side but that bite only lasted two days, then the fish disappeared.
FISH RECIPE: Sometimes posted on the blog Thursday or Friday.
NOTES: It is a great start to the new year as the fishing continues to improve along with the weather. The whales are making their seasonal showing so there is always that bonus on a fishing trip. FYI, the cost of a daily fishing license has increased to 148 pesos, this price increase went into effect Dec. 26th with no notice.
We hope everyone had a safe and happy start to the new year! Until next week, tight lines!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
December 19-25, 2011

WEATHER: The clouds and cold weather continued for Christmas week. Our walk on the beach with the dog on Christmas morning was done with a jacket on over my t-shirt and swim shorts since the air was a cool 58 degrees. With mostly cloudy skies this week it was not our typical Cabo weather and some of us were thinking it might actually snow in the mountains, Yeah, sure. Our coldest morning was 57 degrees but it was warming up in the afternoons to almost 85 degrees on a few days, and just 78 degrees on a couple of other days. It seemed strange to walk the beach and see people with their knees drawn up to their chests wearing hoody sweaters and towels over their legs sitting in the beach lounge chairs!
WATER: Just like last week, the swells this week were mixed with some days small ones coming in from the east and other days normal ones coming from the northwest. All in all there were no large swells, the biggest were on the Pacific side at 4-6 feet, the smaller on the Cortez at 1-3 feet. As far as water temps went, the water next to shore out to about 5 miles on the Cortez side between San Lucas and San Jose was cold at 68 degrees. Everywhere else it was 73 degrees with a few warm spots of 76 degrees to the southwest 30 miles.
BAIT: Some Caballito and a few Mackerel were to be had at $3 per bait, mostly boats were getting junk bait for their money so many were going with frozen Ballyhoo instead. There were some Sardinas at $25-$30 a scoop as well.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I am surprised that we have not had concentrations of Marlin in our area since the water is the right temperature, but they just have not made it here yet. Not to say were are not catching any, far from that, it's just that we are not getting double digit numbers in our area. The Striped Marlin are here and the boats that are concentration on them are getting several a day to the boat, but we are not yet seeing the groups of four and more tailing together on the surface. Many of the boats have been concentrating on the usual drop areas such as the flats off of the lighthouse and the ridge at San Cristobal and putting live bait down halfway to the bottom. Others have been working 5 miles from the shore looking for tailing fish. Running a few ballyhoo in the pattern seems to be a very successful method as that added bit of enticement can turn a looker into a biter.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Plenty of fish in the 12-25 pound range are to be found between 5 and 25 miles out and there are larger fish out there too. While catching the smaller ones it is not uncommon to see fish in the 100 pound class breaking the surface as they chase baitfish. The best bets for the smaller fish have been very small red hootchies, trying to imitate the krill that are showing up. On the larger fish it has been more difficult, but dropping back a rigged live bait a half-spool has worked for many boats if there are not other boats to run over the line. Boats hat have been working a kite with a rigged bait under it have also done well on the larger fish. Limits have been very possible on the smaller tuna this week, the larger tuna have been much more difficult to come by. The best areas have been on the Pacific side but I did hear of a few boats that worked the are between the 1150 and the Cabrillo Seamount and found good schools of fish.
DORADO: With the water cooling off fairly rapidly I am not sure how much longer the Dorado are going to be around, but there are still some out there. The warmer water on the Pacific side still holds fish and there are more on the inside than on the outside, but the numbers have dropped since last week. With an average size of 18 pound sand the cooler water the best technique has been to slow troll rigged live bait in areas where Frigate birds are spotted working. There have been limits of Dorado caught this week (2 per angler) but not as many as last week.
WAHOO: While not catching any myself, a few boats we had fishing did manage to get into some Wahoo this week. With the new moon Christmas eve the few days before then did produce some fish averaging 30 pounds. The normal areas such as the Gorda Banks (just on the edge of the cool water) and the rocky points on the Pacific side were popular areas to work and the drop right on the edge of San Lucas bay kicked out a couple of very nice fish for early boats.
INSHORE: Just like last week, the Sierra are starting to bite good and there are some Snapper in there among the rocks if you have the hooks and lead to spare. You are going to hook a lot more than you land and for some reason the Snapper are not swallowing the bait but just chewing on them instead so it was hard to get a good hook-set on them. A few Yellowtail have been reported from the Pacific side so perhaps we will start to see some more action on these great fish as well.
FISH RECIPE: Sometimes posted on the blog Thursday or Friday.
NOTES: Great weather, a large variety of fish to choose from, whales to be watched and not being too crowded this time of year should put visiting us at the top of your travel list! This weeks report was written to the music of Chuck Allen Floyd from his album “Tonight An Angel Fell”, courtesy of my good friends Mark and Allen Bailey. No M. Koch, this is not Mark Bailey from California, it is Mark Bailey from Texas, and he and his family are good, honest friends. Thanks Mark and Allen! Until next week, tight lines!
We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and wish for safe travels for all of your family during the holidays!

:santa:

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
December 12-18, 2011

WEATHER: We had a week of cloudy skies and it seemed that the only sunshine that lasted very long happened Thursday afternoon. The rest of the week we kept thinking that it would begin raining any moment. That said, we still had great temperatures as the early morning lows were in the high 60's and the daytime highs in the high 80's. We did get just a little spit of rain, dotting the windshields of the cars and showing you how dusty they were, but nothing heavy here in town. There were some breezy mornings as well, not enough to keep you off the water but enough to have an effect on the golf courses!
WATER: The swells this week were mixed with some days small ones coming in from the east and other days normal ones coming from the northwest. All in all there were no large swells, the biggest were on the Pacific side at 4-6 feet, the smaller on the Cortez at 1-3 feet. Water temperatures were the key this week as the warmest water we had was to the southwest 20+ miles, there it warmed to 77 degrees. Elsewhere it stayed fairly stable at 74 degrees with the water directly to the south of the Cape a bit cooler at 73 degrees.
BAIT: Some Caballito and a few Mackerel were to be had at $3 per bait, mostly boats were getting junk bait for their money so many were going with frozen Ballyhoo instead. There were some Sardinas at $25-$30 a scoop as well.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Still waiting! The word from private boats working the area to the north of Mag Bay is that the fish are there, one boat reported releasing 50 Striped Marlin in one day, but the concentrations have not yet moved this far south. The boats that are going out are releasing between one and four per day and the methods have varied. Some boats have done well by dropping a live bait to 250 feet off the points and have been getting one or two per day, others are running a rigged ballyhoo on the long line and are getting bit on that. Some boats are having better luck pulling plastic lures and dropping back rigged bait to fish that come into the pattern and that won't bite on the lures. Anyway that is being used seems to work for a few fish, the trick is to find them! Almost all the action we have seen has come from the Pacific side but there have been a few showing up on the 95 spot and the 1150.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We are still experiencing very good fishing for Yellowfin Tuna, and there are still some large fish out there. Of course most of the boats are getting fish between 12 and 25 pounds with a few in the 60 pound range but there have been several fish this week that have been over 200 pounds. Most of these larger fish have been caught by boats flying a kite. The majority of the schools have been found between 14 and 24 miles to the south and west among spotted and spinner dolphin, the white bellied dolphin have not seemed to have as many fish with them. If you are thinking about getting some tuna it's time to get here, we expect the purse seiners to start back in operation the first of the year, but right now it's possible to limit out on every trip. That's no guarantee of course as the tide can have a strong effect on your success. At the end of the week the bite was good early in the morning and then as the tide changed the bite turned off.
DORADO: There are still plenty of Dorado out there even thought the water has cooled down, the trick is getting them to eat! Boats that have concentrated on pulling lures have not been having a lot of luck. The best way has been to slow troll a live bait or two, hooking one up and leaving him in the water to attract other Dorado. It's possible to limit out at two fish per angler this way, and the fish are fairly decent size at 15-25 pounds. Most of the effort has been on the Pacific side but I did hear of some decent fishing happening off of the Palmilla area.
WAHOO: The Wahoo bite died off this week as the moon started waning, but there were still a few caught, just no large ones. Those that were hooked up came from the usual areas, just off the beach along the rocky areas and off of the shallow sea-mounts like the Gorda Banks.
INSHORE: Sierra are starting to bite good and there are some Snapper in there among the rocks if you have the hooks and lead to spare. Most of the Pangas are fishing live bait for Dorado and venturing offshore for Tuna and Marlin as the fishing for these have been pretty good and the water comfortable.
FISH RECIPE: posted on the blog Thursday or Friday.
NOTES: Whales, cloudy skies and fish, not our normal Cabo weather, but everything else is the same! This weeks report was written to the music of Steppenwolf from a facebook friend who keeps posting clips! Thanks to everyone for reading, and tight lines!
We would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and safe travels for all of your family!

:santa: FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
December 5-11, 2011

WEATHER: The closer we get to Christmas the cooler we seem to get. Our low for the week was 61 degrees in the early morning, enough to make us wear light jackets to the Marina in the morning! I know, I know, but when you have lived in the warm stuff as long as we have you get acclimated and when it drops into the low 60's it's COLD! Later in the week clouds moved in and it warmed up 10 degrees as the heat was trapped. Our daytime highs have been in the mid 80's, just about perfect as far as I am concerned. Early in the week we had mostly sunny skies. Early Saturday morning it was cloudy, a solid layer over us so we missed the lunar eclipse.
WATER: Surface conditions this week on both sides of the Cape were very good with only slight swells on the Cortez side and swells at 3-5 feet on the Pacific side. The Pacific side did experience a bit of chop in the afternoons as the wind seemed to start picking up around 10AM. Just as our air temperatures seem to drop as we get toward Christmas, so do the water temperatures. The water just off the tip of the Cape seems to be 77-78 degrees and extend all across our fishing area from Los Frailles up to Todo Santos out a distance of 20 miles. Outside of that area it drops a bit to about 75 degrees. That is the way it was at the end of the week at least. We started the week with a band of cooler water (75 degrees) running along the beach on the Pacific side, it extended out about 2 miles. This cool water had disappeared by the end of the week.
BAIT: It was a hit or miss approach this week when it came to getting bait. There were not many days when you could get a good quality live bait, there was a lot of junk showing up from the bait boats. If you were early, lucky and had a captain and deckhand with good eyes it was possible to get some decent Caballito at the usual $3 per bait. There were some mullet and a few, very few, Mackerel available, also at $3 per bait. Sardinas were also there at $25-$30 a scoop depending on the supplier. A few of the bait boats had thawed horse Ballyhoo at $3-$4 per bait as well.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: We keep waiting for the hoards of Striped Marlin to come down to us but there has not been a strong showing in our area as of this date. A few boats that have gone a bit farther up the line have encountered decent concentrations and have done well, but the distances involved right now put these fish out of reach of the daily charter trips. Hopefully as the water continues to cool the fish will come our way. For the moment we have to be content with an average of one to two Striped Marlin per trip for the boats that concentrate on them. The best results this week have come on trolled Ballyhoo and good live bait tossed in front of tailing fish. Almost all the action has happened on the Pacific side, but it has been a bit spread out. A few boats on half day trips have been lucky and found fish just off the lighthouse, but others have blanked in the same area. Some boats have found three or four fish to release up to the north past the Golden Gate Banks and others in the same area have nor seen a fish, so you can see that there is a lot of luck involved right now. We hope the concentrations arrive soon, it sure would be nice to be seeing double digit releases every day!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There are still large fish out there as several boats have proven this week, it's just that you have to find which tree they are hiding behind. Get it? There is not any kind of pattern to these larger Yellowfin with the exception of the Gorda Banks, and there it has been a matter of putting in the time with the right bait and terminal gear. Offshore it has been a matter of finding the right pod of porpoise to work. There are plenty of pods out there but not all of them hold Tuna, and not all of those have large fish, and those that do have large fish often have fish that will just wave their fins at you and smirk. You like being frustrated? Try fishing just for large Tuna and you will be happy. There have been plenty of the small variety out thee but once again it has been a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Some boats are coming in with one or two footballs, others with five or six and once in a while a boat will have several larger #30-#40 fish aboard. The large fish, those over #100 pounds, have been there as well, but as I said they have been spread out. These larger fish have been coming in from boats using kites for the most part,but a few of them have been caught on trolled lures.
DORADO: Still the mainstay of the fleet boats, they are beginning to make themselves a bit more scarce. While several weeks ago it was common to come in with a near-limit load of fish, this week most of the boats have been lucky to get two or three fish and some have actually caught none at all. I think it is a matter of the water cooling off, but then I have to blame it on something! The boats that have done the best have been leaving the first fish hooked up in the water and dropped bait behind the boat, using the first fish as a teaser to bring in more Dorado. This method has worked well, but you always run the risk of loosing that first fish as a few anglers have found out! The best fishing for Dorado has still been on the Pacific side close to the beach.
WAHOO: There was actually a pretty decent Wahoo bite this week as we had the full moon at the end of the week. A lot of these were very small fish, I saw one come off a boat that I first mistook for a Sierra, was it not for the strong bars on the side I would have not known it was a Wahoo, perhaps it would have pushed the scale to 4 pounds, Sad, but there you go. Most of the fish that were caught were larger than that, averaging 25 pounds but even though there were more this week, they still were not common. The best areas were on top of the Gorda Banks and along the rocky points on the Pacific coast. A fair number were found offshore under the shark floats.
INSHORE: Inshore fishing at the beginning of the week was pretty good with a great showing of Sierra up off the beach at Migrineo, some good Snapper fishing among the rocks on the Pacific side as well as a few scattered small Roosterfish and a lot of Pompano. This was when we had that band of cool water running along the beach on the Pacific side. Mid-week things turned around for several days as the water switched, warmed a bit and became gin-clear along the shoreline and very few fish were caught. At the end of the week it has settled down again and while there were still no Sierra, the Snapper and Pompano had begin to bite again. The largest number of fish caught though seemed to be the Mexican Marlin (also know as needle-fish).
FISH RECIPE: posted on the blog Thursday or Friday. We have been really busy the past several weeks and promise to get a new one up this week! Really!
NOTES: Once again we experienced near perfect weather and very good fishing. The whales have started to put on the shows we love and the water has been in great shape. Christmas is coming up and maybe if you have been god this year, Santa will give you a trip to Cabo for a present! This weeks report was written to a mix of Texas rock-a-billy music, courtesy of my friend Mark Bailey. Oh, that's right, delivered to me by Mark and recorded by his son Alan! Thanks guys! Until next week, tight lines!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
November 28 – December 4, 2011

WEATHER: Today was the low of the week as far as I saw with a temperature of 67 degrees at 6AM. We had warmer mornings earlier, some as warm as 78 degrees but the average was about 71 degrees. Daytime highs averaged 86 degrees with a couple of days getting into the low 90's. On Thursday clouds moved into the area but earlier in the week was sunny. Monday was a windy day all day but the rest of the week the breeze did not start up until about noon.
WATER: The week started out strange as on Monday the winds from the east that had started out light on Sunday really kicked in and started blowing. With the wind came the swells and chop, and coming from the east it was not comfortable on the Cortez side of the Cape at all. Winds to 25 knots and seas at 4-6 feet resulted in the Port Captain closing the Port to the entry and exit of Pangas. The main reason was that it was unsafe for the water taxis and the glass bottom boats in the bay. On Tuesday things returned to normal and the wind switched back and started to come again from the northwest. Water temperatures on the Sea of Cortez were warmer than on the Pacific side with most areas showing 81 degrees. On the Pacific the warmer water was close to shore inside the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks and was 80 degrees. Outside the Banks the water cooled to 78 degrees.
BAIT: Most of the bait is still very small Caballito and junk fish but there have been a few Mackerel showing up, just not enough to depend on. The cost is still around $3 per bait. Some Sardines can be had here at $25 a scoop but better deals can be found by going to San Jose if you are going to be fishing in that direction. $20 can get you a full scoop up there, but if you are going to be fishing on the Pacific side it's not worth the time.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There was no change in the situation with the Striped Marlin this past week as we continue to have reports of good numbers of Striped Marlin appearing to the north of us on the Pacific side. Some of the fleet boats are starting to get multiple fish on their day trips, occasionally as many as four or five releases, but they are still having to a way to get to them. Most of the action has been on live bait tossed in front of tailing fish, bu there has been decent action reported on lures as well. Quite a few boats have begun to drop live bait toward the bottom at the Golden Gate and the Los Arcos area hoping to intercept feeding fish that are not showing on the surface.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: This weeks result on Yellowfin Tuna can be show by a recap of the just completed one day Toyota Tundra Tuna Tournament, sponsored by Toyota and Monex. The fishing was on Saturday and since it was the inaugural tournament there was not a lot of notice given. 33 boats competed and with an entry fee of $2,500 pesos and jackpots of $500 and $1,000 pesos it was affordable. It was Tuna only and payouts were on the three largest fish. Fishing started at 7AM and lines out was at 4PM, scales closed at 6PM. The largest fish was caught on the Curandero III and weighed #275. Shark's Parlour weighed the second place fish at #212 as well as a #191. Third place was a #208 caught on the Bad Medicine. There were several other fish over #150 brought in and scores of fish from #30 to #80. We had one client fishing and they limited out on fish averaging #30 and hooked several larger ones. These were just the tournament fish, the fleet did pretty good as well and there were several fish reported over #200. I also had an unconfirmed report of a very large Yellowfin of #400 being caught earlier in the week by a commercial Panga using #200 test hand-lines fishing the Gorda Banks. The majority of the tournament fish came from the Pacific side to the north of the Golden Gate but there were a few, including one of the prize winners that were caught at the Gorda Banks. So there you go, we still have good Yellowfin fishing even though it's December!
DORADO: For most of the fleet boats the Dorado were the fish of the week once again, both because of the numbers out there and because they could be found closer to home. The boats that are getting the slightly larger fish are going offshore and looking for feeding Frigate Birds. They are not getting large numbers but there are some quality fish out there. One example is a boat getting 6 Dorado that averaged 25 pounds, but most of the boats are getting the smaller fish close to the beach. Live bait is the key here, but many of the smaller fish are coming in on hootchies and then the boats are leaving one in the water and feeding chunks of Bonita to keep the action going.
WAHOO: Not as many Wahoo this week as last week, the bunch that were being caught off of Palmilla Point seemed to have either moved on or stopped biting. There were some fish caught close to the beach on the Pacific side, but as usual most of them were lost due to mono leaders.
INSHORE: Dorado were the target for most of the Pangas but there is a decent Snapper bite starting as well as a few Sierra starting to show up. Football Yellowfin just off the beach has attracted quite a few of these small boat anglers as well.
FISH RECIPE: posted on the blog Thursday or Friday. We have been really busy the past several weeks and promise to get a new one up this week!
NOTES: Great weather, good water conditions and great fishing made for a fantastic week. The whales are showing up, not a lot of them yet but we are seeing a few every day we go out. This weeks report was written to the music of Radney Foster on his new album “Revival”. Excellent music and thanks once again to Mark Bailey for his continued support of my music habit! Until next week, tight lines!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
November 21-27, 2011

WEATHER: The low I saw this week was 65 degrees at 6 AM, the high I saw was 88 degrees at 4PM. With partly cloudy skies most of the week, we had a dry Thanksgiving but on Friday the clouds finally came together and let loose with some rain. San Jose got most of it but there was enough here in San Lucas to wet everything down good.
WATER: The Sea of Cortez was calm this week, for the most part, unless you got too far to the north. Then it was reported that the wind kicked in and it became a bit choppy and sloppy. I was not there myself but a few boats that went to the Los Frailles area reported those conditions. On the Pacific side the water was in great shape most of the week but on Wednesday and Thursday the offshore water was large and there was a bit of wind on top of it, enough that several good fishermen reported conditions as “rough”. The swells were Saturday were smaller but and the seas became a bit confused offshore. Water temperatures at the end of the week on the Pacific side ranged from 77 degrees along the beach to 75 degrees between the Golden Gate and the San Jaime Bank. On the Cortez side we saw 77 degrees along the beach, 80 degrees up around Los Frailles and outside the 1,000 fathom line south of the Cabrillo Seamount.
BAIT: We finally started getting some bait but they have been very small Caballito, and the bait guys are still very proud of them, asking 2-3 dollars each for bait that is 6 inches. There are also green jacks which I think are pretty much a wasted bait, so the Caballito have been the way to go, perfect size for the small Dorado we have been seeing. There have also been Ballyhoo at between 3-4 U.S. Each, but you had to check close on the quality of these baits as some of them had been frozen and thawed repeatedly.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: We have reports of good numbers of Striped Marlin appearing to the north of us on the Pacific side. Some of the fleet boats are starting to get multiple fish on their day trips, occasionally as many as four or five releases, but they are still having to a way to get to them. As we get closer to Christmas these fish should start to get closer to us and it won't be a matter of running for two hours to get to them. Most of the action has been on live bait tossed in front of tailing fish, bu there has been decent action reported on lures as well. I heard of s few more small Blue Marlin caught this week but not as many as last week. With so many boats focusing on Tuna and Dorado on the Pacific side, the warmer water on the Sea of Cortez has been given a miss by most of the boats.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin are a fish that can drive you crazy, one day there and biting, the next day there but with their mouths closed and the very next day gone to somewhere else. That was the way it seemed to work this week almost everywhere. There was an off-on bite at the Gorda Banks with an occasional fish to 180 pounds that I heard of, there may have been larger ones as well, but it was a matter of putting in the time. On the Pacific side at the beginning of the week there were good schools of fish to the south side of the San Jaime Bank and to the northwest of the Golden Gate Bank, at the end of the week these schools were still there but the big fish were not biting and the smaller ones would only eat once in a while. At the end of the week the larger fish were scattered within 4 miles of the beach. Find a small pod of Dolphin and if you were lucky you might get a bite from a 180 pound fish.
DORADO: No different from last week, but the numbers are getting slightly smaller. Also, the size remains on the small side with an average weight of only 10 pounds. What they lack in size they make up for in numbers though, these are still the bread and butter of the charter fleet. Most of the fish have been found close to the beach, within a mile or less, and the standard technique of trolling lures at speed until a strike happens, then working the area with slow trolled live bait continues to work well. Limits of two Dorado per angler have not been difficult to come by.
WAHOO: The secret is out, there are Wahoo off of Palmilla point and they were biting this week. Most of the fish were in the 25-35 pound class and the best action was had by boats slow trolling live baits on light wire leader with a trailing hook pinned near the tail, There were more bites using mono leader, but most of these fish were lost. A good trip would result in one or two Wahoo per boats, a great trip sometimes resulted in three or four fish. I doubt this will continue for long and the only reason I am saying anything now is because as of Saturday there were 15 boats that I counted working the area where last week there were only two or three.
INSHORE: Just like last week, very little change. The water continues to cool so hopefully there will be some Sierra and Yellowtail showing in numbers in the weeks to come. Meanwhile, most of the Pangas are going after Dorado since they are close and plentiful (even if they are small on average). We did have one Panga catch a Roosterfish estimated at 60 pounds for a good release while fishing in 60 feet of water off of the Sol-mar Resort.
FISH RECIPE: posted on the blog Thursday or Friday. We have been really busy the past several weeks and promise to get a new one up this week!
NOTES: Great weather this week was really appreciated for our Thanksgiving dinner, all 33 of us were grateful! If things continue as they are we should have good fishing for quite a while. This weeks report was written to the music of Adele on her album “One and Only”. Until next week, tight lines!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
November 14-20, 2011

WEATHER: Would you like the evenings to be in the high 60's, the daytime in the mid 80's, mostly clear skies with no rain and light winds? Well, come on down!
WATER: At the end of the week the water in the Sea of Cortez to the east of Punta Gorda was the warmest in our area with a surface temperature of 82-83 degrees. Closer to home, the area inside the 1,000 fathom line in the Sea of Cortez had water that was 80-81 degrees while outside the 1,000 fathom line it cooled to 78-79 degrees. On the Pacific side there was a thin band of cool water along the shore with 78 degree water, then it quickly rose to 80 degrees. Surface conditions were great with 2-4 foot swells and only a light breeze. In close to shore in the afternoons it chopped up a bit but offshore remained smooth.
BAIT: We finally started getting some bait but they have been very small Caballito, and the bait guys are still very proud of them, asking 2-3 dollars each for bait that is 6 inches. There are also green jacks which I think are pretty much a wasted bait, so the Caballito have been the way to go, perfect size for the small Dorado we have been seeing.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: While the Striped Marlin fishing has not gotten red hot yet, hopefully it is a matter of time. Boats going up the beach toward Todo Santos are seeing more and more fish out there, most of them fairly close to the beach. On Captain fishing a few hours Sunday saw 6 on the surface by the lighthouse but they would not bite. Some of the boats have been releasing two or three a day and seeing many more. There are still some Blue Marlin around as well as I can attest to personally. Sunday we were fishing south of the San Jaime Bank and hooked up young Brice (14 years old) to his first Blue Marlin and after 40 minutes released one we estimated at 250 pounds. Other boats reported hook-ups in the same area over the course of the week as well.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Still an off and on fishery, the Yellowfin have been hard to figure out. My deckhand fished another boat at the start of the week and reported a steady bite on fish ranging from 80 to 300 pounds at the Inner Gorda Bank, but on Friday the bite totally shut off. There were reports of large Tuna being found on the Pacific side to the north and inside of the Golden Gate Bank but the fish moved out fast, only a few boats getting into the action. On Sunday we were fishing on the south side of the San Jaime and found a good pod of Spinner Dolphin and managed to catch 17 footballs between 12 and 20 pounds. Like most fishing it was a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
DORADO: Still the bread and butter of the fleet and the Pangas, this has been an off and on bite as well. At the beginning of the week there were plenty of fish showing along the beach on the Pacific side, but it seemed to be mostly a live bait fishery, find one by trolling then working the area with live bait while keeping the first one hooked up behind the boat. Of course it helped to find something floating in the water and that happened to several boats this weed as a tree trunk was found to the north of the Golden Gate and it produced plenty of fish for the first few boats that got there. Closer to home there are still plenty of Dorado but the average size is much smaller. One of the Panga Captains reported 7 Dorado in three hours with only two of the fish larger than 15 pounds while another managed to get 17 of them under his commercial license with all the fish being under 10 pounds. So, they are there, but they are small.
WAHOO: There were some average size Wahoo in the 25-30 pound class reported this week by the boats working the beach areas for Dorado, but most of the fish hooked were lost. One of the larger boats, first on the scene of the tree trunk, reported catching five We-hoo's off of it, lol!
INSHORE: The water continues to cool so hopefully there will be some Sierra and Yellowtail showing in numbers in the weeks to come. Meanwhile, most of the Pangas are going after Dorado since they are close and plentiful (even if they are small on average).
FISH RECIPE: posted on the blog Thursday or Friday. We have been really busy the past several weeks and promise to get a new one up this week!
NOTES: Once again great weather for the week, decent fishing and good water. Perfect combination and it makes me think about our friends the Shorts and Lawrences up in Alaska. Mike Short reported removing 14 inches of snow from his truck last week and yesterday had 3 degree weather. Get back here where it's warm, what do you think you are, Polar Bears? My thanks once again to Mark Bailey for the music selection of the week as I listened once again to the Rodeo Clown Dropouts. Until next week, tight lines!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
November 7-13, 2011

WEATHER: Wow, it just keeps getting better every day! Daytime highs in the low 90's and nighttime lows in the low 70's, does it really get any better than this? We had partly cloudy skies for most of the week and toward the end of the week we had some really blustery days, Saturday was a bit windy in the afternoon. No rain here in town but it looked as if there might have been some in the mountains.
WATER: Surface temperatures were 84 degrees close to Cabo from the shore to about 5-8 miles out, then they dropped to 81-82 degrees. The water stayed at 84 degrees up toward San Jose. On the Pacific side it was in the cooler side with most of the water 81 to 82 degrees. Thee was a plume of warm 84 degree water that ran from the tip of the Cape toward the west and across the southern end of the San Jaime Bank for several days. Mid week the water on the Pacific side was a bit on the rough side due to the winds, but it calmed down at the end of the week. Swells on the Pacific side were in the 4-6 foot range and in the 2-3 foot range on the Sea of Cortez.
BAIT: It was still tough to get good bait this week, some of the bait guys were bringing it down from San Jose but by the time it got here after an hour of running full bore and pounding and slapping on the way it was a bit beat up and did not last long in the bait tanks. It's hard to justify spending $30 on live bait just to have it die within 4 hours so a lot of anglers were opting to just buy a few and see if they would be able to catch something else to use later on. Caballito and Mullet were $3 each, or sometimes $4 each depending on the supplier. There were some sardinas, but not many and they were pricy at around $35 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Small Blue and Black Marlin as well as a decent showing of Sailfish combined with an increasing number of Striped Marlin kept anglers excited this week. The big news was the increase in the number of Striped Marlin being caught. For the boats that were able to get farther up the coast toward the north side of the Golden Gate Bank there were plenty of Striped Marlin to see, and many of them were hungry. A good day was three releases, a great day was 5 releases but the average was one or two per day. Mackerel are beginning to show up and the water is cooling down so perhaps we are going to have a good season on these billfish. Some of the private boats that have been fishing in the Mag Bay area have reported that the Striped Marlin bite is almost wide open so if the fish continue to move in our direction....well, remember 4 years ago? Look out buddy, better put new line on them reels!!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: What a change! One week the Tuna fishing was world class and then it tanked for five or six days. I don't know the reason but the fleet was getting skunked just three days after one of the best Tuna Tournaments we have had in a long time. At least by the end of the week the fish had started to show up again. This is not to say that there were no Tuna being caught because there were, and they were nice ones, it's just that the school fish we had been seeing in the 25-40 pound class seemed to have disappeared. Boats were still getting some of the larger fish in the 100-200+ class. We had one party that caught a 65 and 45 pound tuna and that made everyone happy because it had been slow.
DORADO: The Dorado continue to bite and have become the bread and butter of the charter fleet for the past few weeks. Most of the fish have come on live bait slow trolled in areas where the fish have been found after getting strike on a lure. Averaging 12 pounds, they have not been large but there have been enough of them for most anglers to limit out if they want to. A few larger fish have been caught but anything over 30 pounds has been rare. Almost all the action has been on the Pacific side of the Cape between the lighthouse and the inside of the Golden Gate Bank.
WAHOO: Never a very common fish, the approach and arrival of the full moon helped in the catching of Wahoo this week. My guess is that about 50% of the boats fishing close to shore for Dorado had at least on bite from a Wahoo. The problem of course is the razor sharp teeth these fish have. Slow trolling a live bait on 80 pound monofiliment line is not the ideal way to keep one hooked up! If you use a wire leader you won't catch very many Dorado, so there were quite a few bite offs from Wahoo. Nothing is quite as frustrating as seeing a splash behind your bait and pulling it in just to find that the back half has been surgically removed.
INSHORE: Still no reports of Sierra that I have heard of, but we did have a client that managed to get a 20 pound Yellowtail this week by jigging close to the bottom in 200 feet of water. Most of the Pangas were focused on the Dorado and Marlin because they were close to shore and not far from home.
FISH RECIPE: posted on the blog Thursday or Friday. We have been really busy the past several weeks and promise to get a new one up this week!
NOTES: Let's see. Perfect weather, great fishing, sunshine, the whales are beginning to show up, guess it's time to make travel plans! We hope you manage to take advantage of our present conditions and visit Cabo soon. This weeks report was written to the music of Cory Morrow on his 2010 release “Brand New Me”. You really need to check him out, my heartfelt thanks to Mark Bailey (once again) for introducing me to this album! Until next week, tight lines!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
October 31-November 6, 2011

WEATHER: What great weather! Our nighttime lows have been in the low 70's while the daytime highs have pushed the mid 90's on a few days but have been in the low 90's most of the time. No rain, a few clouds and not a lot of wind, just a light breeze. I really don't think it gets any better than that!
WATER: Surface conditions have been great this week with normal swells from the west at 2-4 feet and a light breeze in the afternoon from the northwest at 10 knots. Water on the Pacific side of the Cape has averaged 8 degrees from three miles off the beach and out, in close it has been 82 degrees. On the Sea of Cortez things have averaged just a bit higher with the warm water at 85 degrees from the shore to the 1,000 fathom line, from the 95 spot and to the north. Outside of there it has been 83 degrees.
BAIT: Just like last week, bait, at least good live bait was hard to come by. The tournaments we have just had really stressed the ability of the bait boats, or perhaps they just got a bit lazy the past few weeks, after all, they have to be making a lot of money at the price they charge. There were a few live baits of the larger size, but not much in the way of quality baits. Toward San Jose you could get decent Sardinas at a better price, there was a high demand here because of the tuna tournament and the price was high.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Some decent size fish were caught during the Western Outdoor News Tuna Tournament by boats looking for big Tuna. I heard of one fight with a Blue Marlin estimated at 450 pounds and another with a Black Marlin estimated at right around 500 pounds. There were smaller fish caught as well with a number of Blues in the 150-250 pound class. Not as many Striped Marlin were caught as were seen, they tended to ignore the lures and go for live bait instead, unlike the Sailfish who would jump on anything that came their way. I don't mean it to sound as if there were billfish everywhere, there weren't, but there were enough of them out there that every anglers stood a decent chance of catching one. Most of the fish were found on the Pacific side, but the Black Marlin were all reported from the area around Punta Gorda.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Big fish and plenty of them were the words of the week as we had two days of full on tournament Tuna fishing. Results posted by the Western Outdoor News Tuna Tournament only showed the larger fish, but there were PLENTY of ones in the fish boxes that never reached the scales. With a minimum qualifying weight of 30 pounds 108 boats fishing two days managed to weigh three Tuna over 200 pounds, all caught on the second day. The largest at 213 pounds took home 36K, second place overall took home 158K for their 206 pound cow and third place overall had a fish that weighed 205 pounds and was worth 21K. The second place fish was brought in just minutes before the scale closed and since they were across the board in all the jackpots they took all the money for the second day. There were plenty of fish caught that were over 100 pounds and uncounted numbers in the 40-80 pound class. A 48 pound fish took home 36K since it was the only qualifying fish caught by a boat entered in the 10K jackpot on the first day. Almost all the action happened on the Pacific side this week but there were fish caught at the Gorda Banks and due south of us, but the majority were to the west.
DORADO: Once again it was almost impossible to avoid catching a Dorado, but it appeared difficult for any of the 108 boats in the tournament to get one over 30 pounds since none that size were weighed in. With no really large fish reported there was no shortage of smaller fish out there, most of them in the 10-18 pound class. An average trip resulted in several of these per person, most anglers catching their limit, or at least as many as they wanted. Once again most of the action happened on the Pacific side. Great results were had by pulling lures up the coast until getting a bite, then drifting or slow trolling the area with live bait.
WAHOO: I was truly surprised that the largest Wahoo weighed during the tournament was only 55.5 pounds the first day and under 40 pounds the second day, but they still managed to make 26K for each of their teams. There were many other Wahoo caught by boats entered in the tournament, as well as by daily charter boats, but none that were very big. On average the Wahoo brought in were in the 20-25 pound class. Not every boat caught one, but there were enough out there that you stood a good chance.
INSHORE: Just like last week. The water temperatures are staying warm, so still some nice Roosterfish around, snapper, groupers, almost November, but I haven't seen any sierra yet. The Dorado fishing is also good close to shore.
FISH RECIPE: posted on the blog Thursday or Friday.
NOTES: Most of the focus this week was on Tuna, and for good reason. The water is perfect and the fish are here! Toss in the numbers of Dorado and the Wahoo that are being caught and it is hard to pick a better time to get on down here with an empty cooler to fill with fish. We have seen a few Humpback Whales this week so those giants should start putting on a decent side show soon. If the weather and fishing gets any better I will think I dies and went to heaven! Many thanks from me to Mark Bailey for the re-supply of CD's! This week's report was written to the music of the Rodeo Clown Dropouts, strange but true.