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From Jan 01, 1999 To May 09, 2008
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Jan 15, 2007; 12:26PM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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Author E-mail: gmlandrum@hotmail.com
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Report Description:
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
January 8-14, 2007
WEATHER: We started this week with some very nice blue skies and ended it on an overcast note. The wind came before the clouds so we had a good breeze on Wednesday and that also dropped the temperature for the day. With the cloud cover through the weekend the heat was trapped so our morning lows at the end of the week were in the low 60’s. The weather guys predict that the clouds will be gone by Tuesday and are expecting the lows to return to the mid to low 50’s. Along with the clouds came some rain, not hard rain, just some spitting, enough to wash off the dust but not cause rivers in the streets.
WATER: We had choppy conditions throughout the area on Wednesday when the clouds first moved in and since the winds were coming from the northwest the Pacific side beyond the lighthouse remained choppy. Close to home in the lea of the Cape things were smoother. The water temperatures remained fairly consistent at 73-74 degrees on both sides of the Cape but as you went farther up the Pacific and the Cortez the water became much more green in color.
BAIT: Bait this week was 75% Mackerel, as the water continues to cool off there will be a change to almost all Mackerel. There were Sardinas available off of Palmilla at the usual $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There wasn’t much difference from this week and last week on the billfish front. There is still a great bite going on at the Golden Gate Bank with giant balls of bait remaining on the edge of the shallows there the Marlin have remained as well. While there are some fish caught while slow trolling live and dead baits, the majority of the Marlin have been caught while drifting with baits deep in the water. These fish have been averaging 120 pounds and have been there for the past three weeks. There have also been Marlin found on the ledge at the lighthouse and the same methods have been working there. In the past week I have seen a lot more tailing fish that in the past month but these fish have not been hungry for our baits. With plenty of Marlin in the area it has not been uncommon for boats to hook and fight 6 or 8 fish a trip. With the deep drifting live bait it becomes important to use circle hooks, this keeps the Marlin from being hooked in the stomach or gills and makes releasing them much easier.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: It has still been slow for the Yellowfin close to home. There are still fish out 35 miles to the south and west but that is a long way to go for most of the boats. I heard reports of nice fish being spotted up to the north around the Finger Bank early in the week but the water has changed since the and the consensus is that they have probably move on. There has been an occasional pick on smaller fish within 20 miles of the Cape when the right Dolphin are found, but it has been a once-in-a-while thing.
DORADO: The Dorado bite really picked up this week and the reason seemed to be floating debris. I was lucky to get in on a decent bite about 5 miles off the beach on the Pacific side early this week when someone found a log. We went through all our bait and limited on Dorado between 15 and 25 pounds. A friend of mine went looking for the Tuna out 35 miles to the west and found a traveling school of Dorado instead. He reported that he went through all his bait as well and ended up with 13 Dorado between 20 and 30 pounds. There have been fish under the Frigate birds as well. Some boats have been coming in with their outriggers loaded with yellow flags as well as a few Marlin and an occasional Wahoo flag.
WAHOO: The Wahoo continued to bite for a few anglers this week as I overheard on conversation on the radio of a five fish catch in water between 80 and 100 feet deep on the Pacific side. The boat was working the beach for Dorado when it found the Wahoo school! There were other fish caught as well, enough so that seeing the red flag was not uncommon this week. Most of the fish were in the 15-25 pound class, but that is good eating!
INSHORE: Inshore fishing continued to produce plenty of Sierra as well as the normal beach fish such as Jacks, Pompano, Ladyfish, small Roosterfish, Pargo and Skipjack. Just off the beach the bite has been good for Dorado and the occasional Wahoo. Almost all the action has occurred on the Pacific side of the Cape.
NOTES: My fingers are crossed. I am writing this on Sunday morning and the Seahawks are playing at 11 am. I had a trip scheduled from 10 am until 3 pm and they just called to cancel so now I get to watch the game! It is overcast and blowing on the Pacific side with an occasional spit of rain, a good day to watch football on the tube. I hope everyone out there has a great week, and check the report next week to see how things are going down there on the tip of the peninsula. Until then, tight lines!
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Jan 9, 2007; 11:42PM - Gordo Banks Pangas San Jose Del Cabo
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric
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Author E-mail: emails
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Report Description:
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
January 7, 2007
Anglers –
With the start of the New Year there has been good-sized crowds of tourists visiting the Los Cabos area and they were enjoyed mostly sunny skies and ideal wintertime weather conditions. It is the time of year when the north wind kicks up and this season has not been any different, with breezes ranging from 10 to 20 miles per hour for the majority of the week. Water temperatures are now steadily dropping and are averaging from 71 to 74 degrees, clarity has been stirred up and greenish, particularly in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, the cleanest and warmest areas are on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas. There have been sufficient supplies of live bait, with both mackerel and sardinas available most days.
Despite the decent crowds of tourists, there were not that many anglers in town, fleets out of the Cabo Marina were busier than were the operations to the north, this is because the better action was found in the water near Cabo, especially for the consistent striped marlin action that was found from Chileno, to the old lighthouse and towards the Golden Gate Bank.
Striped marlin counts continued to be respectable, but were down from previous reports, possibly due to the full moon and greener water that had moved in. Most of the stripers were found anywhere from 3 to 12 miles from shore while trolling lures and dropping back baits once fish came into the lure spread, others were hooked while casting to tailing fish or by drifting baits down deeper. Sizes of the marlin ranged from 90 to 140 pounds. Dorado were also found in smaller schools in the same areas and charters were averaging one or two of them in their daily catch, with weights averaging 10 to 20 pounds. With the cooling water temperatures this is the time when dorado become more scattered and numbers of them caught fall off accordingly.
Yellowfin tuna action also dropped off, there were a couple of days when the tuna came up late in the morning and provided some action, but they were not consistent and there were more skipjack dominating the action on the Gordo Banks and Iman where the yellowfin had been biting the previous week. The few tuna that were accounted for were striking on either chunk bait or sardinas and ranged in the 15 to 40 pound class.
With the offshore surface action tapering off anglers are starting to search for action closer to shore and off the bottom. So far this option has proved to be hit or miss, there should be more sierra moving in, now that cooler water and more baitfish are congregating along the shoreline, but so far the numbers of sierra have been disappointing. There were some quality pompano up to 15 pounds taken off of the Cardon area, but this was from one small area and the fish would only bite for a short period each morning and with the strong northerly winds gusting it was not easy to stay on the spot. Anglers using yo-yo jigs over the various rock piles hooked into a few cabrilla, pargo and amberjack and we anticipate doing more of this style of fishing in the next couple of months.
The combined panga fleets from La Playita beach reported sending out approximately 37 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 5 striped marlin, 1 wahoo, 24 yellowfin tuna, 145 skipjack, 38 dorado, 42 pargo, 15 cabrilla, 26 pompano, 65 sierra, 8 roosterfish, 16 bonito and 11 amberjack.
Good fishing, Eric
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson
Owner/Operator
800 4081199
Los Cabos 1421147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
www.gordobanks.com
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Jan 8, 2007; 11:23AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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Author E-mail: gmlandrum@hotmail.com
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Report Description:
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
January 1-7, 2007
WEATHER: The New Year started out a little bit cool with a fairly stiff northwest breeze pushing around the high 50’s nighttime temperatures. During the daytime we had warmer weather, most days reaching the low 80’s. At the end of the week we had some strong cloud cover move in and on Friday night the wind that brought it in our area really blew.
WATER: The Pacific side of the Cape remained warmer than the Cortez side for the second straight week with the Pacific being in the mid 70’s almost everywhere and the Cortez in the low 70’s. The Pacific side was choppy on Friday and the area in front of the arch had some very confused water on Saturday as winds up at the East Cape pushed up some swells from the northeast.
BAIT: Bait this week was 75% Mackerel, as the water continues to cool off there will be a change to almost all Mackerel. There were Sardinas available off of Palmilla at the usual $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There was a little bit of slack in the bite at the start of the year on the Striped Marlin, but by the 7th it had reverted to what we were experiencing at Christmas. The Striped Marlin have been concentrated off of the Cabo Falso ledge and this has resulted in the majority of the fleet boats working within sight of the Arch. A few of the fish have come while bottom fishing live bait on the drift and quite a few more have come while slow trolling live or dead baits. The most exciting fishing has been the action under the Frigate piles. Suddenly the Frigates dive on the feeding Marlin as they chase the bait to the surface and the boats run to the spot and throw out live bait. When there are a lot of boats out, like in the middle of the day, this can be a tough way to get a fish and the traffic is pretty dense, but in the afternoons when things clear out a bit it can be a real blast! The fishing has been good enough on the Marlin that many of the boats have been releasing double digit numbers right here close to home. During the middle of the week the bite here died off a bit and the 95 spot went off, but that bite was short lived as the fish moved back to the lighthouse.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Strangely enough, the Yellowfin Bite has still not really taken off like it usually does this time of year. I went out on Wednesday and found a couple of pods of white bellied dolphin at 26 and 32 miles to the west and managed to get a couple of football fish out of them. With the dolphin sleeping and the bite a slow pick, we reeled the line in and continued cruising to the west. At a distance of 41 miles from Cabo we found a big pod of spinner dolphin and then had a blast on Yellowfin between 15 and 45 pounds. Being the only boat there helped as we could use lighter line and not worry about it. With a few frigates and lots of gannets on the fish it was no problem getting back to them after landing one. Other boats stayed with the first group we found and continued the slow pick. I heard that the same thing had happened with the 30-mile fish over the past several days and there had been nothing large found. A few decent fish are continuing to be caught at the inner Gorda, but the action there is very slow.
DORADO: The bite picked up for the New Year with most boats finding fish just off the beach on the Pacific side where the warmer water is. Best results were had by slow trolling live bait. Jeff DeBrown, a professional fly fishing guide from the “Reel Baja” on the East Cape had four Dorado on the fly yesterday for his clients and our buddy Lance from “Baja Anglers” put his client on a 40 pound fish the day before. The boat next to us found a pallet floating about 30 miles up the Pacific yesterday and caught limits of fish in the #30 range as well as some Yellowfin while fishing live baits and dropping jigs deep into the water.
WAHOO: The full moon we have just had resulted in more Wahoo than we have seen in quite a while, but none of them were very large. The average size was 30 pounds with some as small as 10 pounds. The banks and ledges on the Pacific side were where the fish were found.
INSHORE: My friend Jeff was able to pit his clients on 6 different species of fish the other day. Sierra, Dorado, Pompano, Skipjack, Ladyfish and Jacks all came to the fly for them. Normal tackle produced the same results for others and there were a few snapper and grouper as well as small roosterfish in the mix. Most of the action, if not all of it, happened on the Pacific side of the Cape.
NOTES: This weeks report was written to the music of CCR on a three CD set titled “36 All-Time Greatest Hits” from Fantasy Music, 2000. Thanks for the great Christmas present sis! To everyone, I hope missing one week was all right; I had a lot of things happening at the end of the year! Until next week, tight lines and “Go Seahawks”!
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Dec 31, 2006; 01:27PM - Gordo Banks Pangas San Jose Del Cabo
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric
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Author E-mail: emails
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Report Description:
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
Happy New Year’s !
December 31, 2006
Anglers –
The southern Baja California peninsula is now busy with large crowds of tourists that are visiting for the holiday season and trying to escape the chilly weather that has been sweeping across the United States. Days were mostly sunny with highs of about 75 degrees, as usual for this time of year there was wind on and off from both the north and south. Water temperatures were ranging from 73 to 76 degrees, with the warmest areas now being found off of Cabo San Lucas and around the corner on the Pacific. Water clarity was clean and blue on the Pacific and outside of Cabo San Lucas, but further into the Sea of Cortez conditions were green and murky from the cooler currents being blown in from the north. Sportfishing fleets were not all that busy, despite the crowds, there were not that many anglers in town. Fleets searched for the most productive fishing grounds and were scattered off of the Pacific and into the Sea of Cortez. Schools of mackerel continued to attract big numbers of striped marlin on the Pacific side of Cabo and the baitfish schools are now starting to move off of San Jose del Cabo as well. Sardinas were the most common bait being used for medium sized gamefish and were available on most mornings, though supplies were not as plentiful as they had been during the past week.
The most common species found on the Pacific were striped marlin, concentrated from El Faro to Golden Gate Bank. The areas from the Gordo Banks to Iman saw yellowfin tuna and dorado dominating the action, some days it seemed the tuna were more active while on others it was the dorado that provided more action. Windy conditions limited where fleets could comfortably fish on certain days. Anglers had best success by slow trolling or drift fishing with bait. The dorado were averaging 8 to 20 pounds, but there were some larger fish mixed in, some panga charters landed as many as 5 or 6 which is very respectable for this time of year. Though the average catch was more like one or two dorado, with approximately the same number of tuna. The average size of the yellowfin tuna being landed was 15 to 50 pounds.
Other action included a mix of bottomfish and inshore species, though none of these were very numerous. It is now the time of year where larger schools of sierra should be arriving along local beaches. With the offshore fishing remaining fairly productive and relatively close to shore more anglers are targeting these species rather than going after inshore or bottomfish that have not been prevalent.
The La Playita panga fleets sent out approximately 76 charters during the past week with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 90 yellowfin tuna, 98 dorado, 92 sierra, 62 pargo, 12 cabrilla and 8 amberjack.
Good Fishing, Eric
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson
Owner/Operator
800 4081199
Los Cabos 1421147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
www.gordobanks.com
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Dec 28, 2006; 02:02PM - Gordo Banks Pangas San Jose Del Cabo
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric
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Author E-mail: emails
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Report Description:
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
December 24, 2006
Anglers –
Officially the winter season starts this week and as icy conditions grip many areas throughout the United States tourists are traveling to Los Cabos in search of warm sunshine. Most days have been clear, with plenty of sun, intermittent cloud cover, temperatures have ranged from lows near 60 degree, to highs in the upper 70s. The week started out with minimal winds from the north, but by mid-week the breeze steadily increased, ranging briskly from 15 to 20 miles per hour. These conditions pushed in cooler water and stirred the clarity, water temperatures averaged from 74 to 78 degrees, this also limited where San Jose del Cabo fleets could comfortably fish.
There were ample supplies of sardinas being found from La Salinas to Palmilla and mackerel were available from the Can San Lucas marina. Combined daily catches included striped marlin, dorado, yellowfin tuna, skipjack, sierra and a mix of bottom species.
La Playita panga fleets found the most consistent action around the Gordo Banks, through last weekend the action considerably picked up for yellowfin tuna and dorado. Catches were not huge in numbers, but quality was impressive, average sized was in the 20 to 50 pound range and the majority of the dorado taken was in the 10 to 20 pound class. Some panga anglers accounted for catches of 4 to 8 yellowfin per day, with average numbers of dorado being slightly less than were the tuna.
We expect the inshore action on sierra to improve as the water continues on a cooling trend and as more concentrations of baitfish move in along the beaches. At this time there are sierra and smaller roosterfish, but with offshore fishing still productive, not many charters have concentrated on the smaller species close in.
Bottomfishing did not produce too much consistent action, a strong current may have contributed to this, and anglers found mainly smaller snapper or triggerfish off the bottom rock piles.
Striped marlin dominated the action on the Pacific, all the way from the Old Lighthouse to Golden Gate, charters were landing multiple marlin per outing, most successful technique was drifting with live bait down deep, marlin were also found into the Sea of Cortez, but in fewer numbers.
La Playita panga fleets launched approximately 65 this week, anglers accounted for a fish count of: 136 yellowfin tuna, 134 dorado, 11 striped marlin, 3 sailfish, 295 skipjack, 42 pargo, 36 triggerfish, 5 amberjack, 17 cabrilla, 16 roosterfish and 60 sierra.
Good Fishing, Eric
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson
Owner/Operator
800 4081199
Los Cabos 1421147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
www.gordobanks.com |
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Dec 24, 2006; 01:56AM - Gordo Banks Pangas San Jose Del Cabo
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric
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Author E-mail: emails
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Report Description:
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
December 17, 2006
Anglers –
As the Christmas Holiday approaches there were still only slight crowds of tourists traveling to Los Cabos, we expect the numbers of vacationers to increase in the next couple of weeks. The wind was not as strong this past week and for the most part anglers encountered comfortable conditions on the ocean. Skies were clear, lots of sunshine, with high temperatures close to 80 degrees, ideal conditions compared to reports across the United States, though early in the morning it has dipped into the upper 50s and low 60s, so it is recommended to bring appropriate clothing.
Sportfishing fleets are fishing in a wide area, from El Faro to the Golden Gate on the Pacific, to the Gordo Banks in the direction of the Sea of Cortez. Striped marlin, dorado and yellowfin tuna were the most common species being found offshore, while closer to shore there was a mix of sierra and roosterfish, off the bottom it was mostly triggerfish and smaller pargo. Live bait that was available consisted of mackerel out of the Cabo San Lucas marina and sardinas for the panga fleets out of San Jose, early in the week the sardinas became scarce, smaller in size as well, located along the rocky beaches from Palmilla to Santa Maria. The water clarity improved a bit, but was still a little greenish and off colored off of San Jose, with the warmer and cleaner water now being found off of Cabo and towards the Pacific. Water temperatures ranged from 74 to 78 degrees, with the coolest areas being found from Los Frailes and to the north.
The action for striped marlin was excellent for anglers fishing off of the old light house on the Pacific, best bet was soaking live mackerel down deep, it was common for charters to catch several or more marlin per day, sizes averaged from 80 to 130 pounds, a few marlin were also found from Red Hill to Santa Maria, though not nearly in the numbers as on the Pacific.
Wahoo were virtually nonexistent off of San Jose, but a handful of them were reportedly striking on lures in the bluer waters outside of the Cabo San Lucas Arches and further around the corner on the Pacific.
Dorado counts were scattered last week, with some boats landing as many as 2 to 4 fish in the 8 to 25 lb. class, the majority of boats did not account for more than an average of one or two dorado, many of the fish being found were closer to shore where the baitfish were now congregating.
Yellowfin tuna were found offshore traveling with schools of porpoise, as far as 20 to 30 miles out and once found would readily strike on trolled lures and bait, tuna ranged in sizes to over 50 pounds. There were also schools of yellowfin found close to shore over structure, but this bite was not consistent from day to day, some days the tuna would come up to feed early in the morning and then on other days they would not bite until mid-day. The Inner Gordo Banks continued to hold yellowfin tuna, though these fish have had a mind of their own and were very moody, biting when they feel like it, for most of the week anglers had the best success while drift fishing over the high spot with fresh dead sardinas, while actively chumming with a smorgasbord of various baits. Pangueros reported seeing giant squid on the bank, one big squid was found flapping on the surface and was free gaffed. Tuna were also hooking into on strip of giant squid and chunks of cocinero and skipjack. For most of the week these fish were wary and anglers were lucky to land one or two per morning, though over the weekend the bite did improve, with some pangas landing over half of dozen fish.
On Saturday, December16th, there was a local fishing tournament organized out of Palmilla beach, this was an event in a series of Government Cups being held through Baja California, free entry fee, only a fishing license required and exclusively for smaller boats and pangas. This latest event had over 60 pangas entered with the top prize being a brand new 22 ft. panga and motor, second prize of $ 2,000, with other prizes including new rods with Penn International reels offered through tenth place. The tournament targeted all gamefish with the exception of striped marlin. Local La Playita skipper Tony Miranda on his new panga “ Hooker” proved that skill and a little luck can be the right combination, as Tony took home both first and second place honors with a 51 ˝ pound and 50 ˝ pound yellowfin tuna, taking home the new panga with motor and an extra $2,000 in cash, just in time for Christmas! Hugo Pino captured third place with a 50-pound dogtooth snapper that weighed ounces less than Tony’s second place yellowfin.
The annual migration of humpback and gray whales is now arriving in the Los Cabos region and this is offering additional entertainment for anglers and sightseers alike.
Off of La Playita there were approximately 43 total pangas launched this week, with anglers catching a total of; 3 sailfish, 33 striped marlin, 58 yellowfin tuna, 125 skipjack, 44 dorado, 33 pargo, 65 triggerfish, 12 amberjack, 16 cabrilla, 2 grouper, 15 roosterfish and 66 sierra.
Good Fishing, Eric
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Dec 18, 2006; 11:58AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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Author E-mail: gmlandrum@hotmail.com
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Report Description:
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Dec.11-17, 2006
WEATHER: We had sunny skies at the beginning of the week with very little wind. Our daytime highs were in the low 80’s while our nighttime lows averaged 63 degrees. At the end of the week we had a front move through and on Sunday the wind picked up from the northwest at 15-20 knots and the swells kicked up as well, but the skies were clear. That changed this morning as I woke up to mostly cloudy skies with little wind. The weather charts show this cloudy condition to remain for a few days at least.
WATER: There was very little change in the sea temperatures this week, almost exactly the same as last week with the exception of a push of warm water from the south has extended the warm water up to the Punta Gorda area on the Cortez side and past the Finger Banks on the Pacific. Our average temperature on the Cortez side of the Cape has been about 76 degrees inside the 1,000-fathom line. Just off of the beach it has been much cooler, as low as 73 degrees in some spots. On the Pacific side of the Cape it has been a bit warmer with the average temperature being 78 degrees with a band of slightly cooler water just off of the beach. Over all our water temperatures seemed to have dropped several degrees this week, but they can change at any time.
BAIT: Bait this week was 75% Mackerel, as the water continues to cool off there will be a change to almost all Mackerel. I did not hear of any Sardines being available locally.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I said last week that the Striped Marlin bite at the Golden Gate had fallen off a bit, but a few boats were there at the right time early in the week when it really went off. The bite was early in the morning at the beginning of the week and started later each day. The best result I heard of from an individual boat was 30 releases in one day; most of the boats there at the same time scored double digits. There was no reason to go that far later in the week as the bait and fish continue to pile up off of Cabo Falso. That was a good thing on Sunday as the weather picked up and almost no one was able to make the trip to the Golden Gate. I found a few fish between the Gate and the San Jaime Bank but the water was pretty bouncy. The fish at the Cabo Falso ledge were being caught while drifting bait deep early in the day, by trolling live and dead bait during the middle of the day and by running to feeders popping up with Frigate birds diving on the later in the afternoon. That was nice fishing as we were out of the wind and rough water and later in the day there were fewer boats around.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were reports of good fish being caught in the last seven days, but none of the big ones were for me! There were fish found at all the banks and between them as well, but they were all associated with Porpoise, nothing was reported as being blind strikes. One boat fishing the San Jaime with hand lines (think Panga here) did well with one fish of #160 and many others around #35-#40 while boats working 13 miles due south around the 1,000-fathom line got into fish averaging #40 for a few days. I did not hear any reports of fish at the Gorda Banks, but I am sure there were some there as well.
DORADO: I think that the Dorado’s designation as “fish of the week” has finally changed because of the great Striped Marlin showing. There were still Dorado being caught, and they were good-sized fish, but the numbers we had been seeing for the past month were just not there. Most of the fish were taken between the beach and 6 miles off shore or on the banks, a few groups were found out at the 1,000-fathom line as well. The key this week to finding the Dorado was to look for working Frigate birds. Tossing live bait into the water under the birds or slow trolling in the area seemed to work most of the time.
WAHOO: I had no reports of Wahoo this week.
INSHORE: Sierra are taking over as the inshore fish now, and the bite has been better where the water has been a little cooler. Of course this means that most of the time you have to get a little distance away from town, but the bite was decent up at the lighthouse for a few boats. I had a report from one fisherman of a 25 fish morning while fishing on a Panga with live bait and hootchies. The annual Sierra tournament is this coming Saturday, the 23rd. No boats larger than 24 feet allowed, $150 entry fee for a team of up to three anglers, lines in at 4 pm and out at 6 pm and you must be in line to weigh you fish no later than 6:20. %60 of the entry fees go to the largest Sierra, %20 to the smallest, %10 for food and drinks and %10 to the organizers. I was lucky and caught the smallest one last year on a last minute entry; the tournament was a lot of fun!
NOTES: Happy Holidays! I will try to get a report out next week, but as Monday is Christmas morning, It might be a day or two later than normal. Until then, Tight lines!
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Dec 11, 2006; 11:14AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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Author E-mail: gmlandrum@hotmail.com
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Report Description:
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Dec. 04-10, 2006
WEATHER: I just love this time of the year! In the morning it is almost cool enough to need a light jacket or sweater since it has been 60 degrees the past few mornings. In the day it never seems to get much above 80 degrees in the direct sun and there is just a slight breeze in the afternoons and evenings. We have had only partly cloudy skies this week and of course, no rain. I don’t believe I have seen conditions much better than this for a long time!
WATER: The water is cooling down the farther we get into the winter season and of course things change quickly. Our average temperature on the Cortez side of the Cape has been about 76 degrees inside the 1,000 fathom line, outside of there, past the Cabrillo Seamount, it is a few degrees warmer. Just off of the beach it has been much cooler, as low as 73 degrees in some spots. On the Pacific side of the Cape it has been a bit warmer with the average temperature being 78 degrees with a band of slightly cooler water just off of the beach. Over all our water temperatures seemed to have dropped several degrees this week, but they can change at any time. Surface conditions were excellent with just a slight swell and little if any wind chop.
BAIT: A fairly even mix of Mackerel and Caballito were available at the normal $2 per bait. I did not hear of any Sardinas in the area.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite that was happening for boats fishing the Golden Gate Bank has fallen off a bit more than last week, there are still some fish there but you are really scratching to get them. Fortunately for us, the mass of fish seems to have moved closer to home and there are now fish being caught daily off of the light-house ledge using the same technique of deep dropping live bait and drifting across the holding area. The size of the fish has varied between 60 pounds to 130 pounds with a few of the fish way on the other side of both ends of that range. I heard of one Striped Marlin of #30 being released and one of #220 being released. As far as other billfish are concerned, I have not heard of any Blue or Black Marlin in the past week, but there have been some Sailfish appearing in the area, I had a good Panga captain report that he had released one that he thought would have been an easy #200, the size of a large Striped Marlin!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We finally had some Yellowfin show up this week! On Thursday a few boats found the fish 13 miles to the west-southwest mixed in with a few porpoise. There were birds working the area and the fish were feeding hard on Mackerel and Flying Fish. With only a few boats there the first day the fishing was good. The fish were so thick and aggressive that boats were able to scoop bait from the water as they were taking shelter under the boats! The fish varied in size from 25 pounds to 60 pounds with a few fish on either size of that range. Friday the fish were still there but only the first couple of boats had any bites, on Saturday it was a repeat. We had a client that was the fist to the fish and he managed to score 8 fish between 25 and 70 pounds, the second boat there caught two fish and the other 15-20 boats that showed up caught maybe 5 fish between them.
DORADO: Even thought the Yellowfin finally showed up, Dorado remained the fish of the week due to the consistency of the catch. Most boats were able to get at lest one or two Dorado in the box, a few did quite a bit better than that. The bite has remained on the Pacific side and has appeared better closer to the beach, up around 15-25 miles to the north of Cabo. The fish are hitting bright colored lures and slow trolled live bait and have been averaging 20 pounds.
WAHOO: I saw the smallest Wahoo I have seen in a long time this week when the same client who got into the Tuna caught a 4-˝ pound fish on Tuesday. With 5 days of fishing Lance was able to get at least one of every species available, nice job Lance! Other than that, there were not very many Wahoo reported from our area. I had heard that there was a halfway decent bite up at the Inman Banks, but had no confirmed reports of those fish.
INSHORE: There are Sierra showing up, and starting to show in decent numbers, but the target for most of the boats fishing inshore this week has been Snapper and Grouper. None of these have been large fish and not in huge numbers either, but at least they are great eating.
NOTES: Our Striped Marlin and Yellowfin Tuna fishing continues to improve every week, my fingers are crossed that it continues. Meanwhile the holidays are coming up and with my mother coming to visit for Christmas, a lot of my time between fishing and working on the boat will be taken up with getting the house ready for the visit! Until next week, Tight Lines!
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Dec 10, 2006; 01:48PM - Gordo Banks Pangas San Jose Del Cabo
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric
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Author E-mail: emails
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Report Description:
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
December 10, 2006
Anglers –
Moderate crowds of tourists are traveling to Los Cabos and they are being greeted with lots of sunshine, high temperatures of 80 degrees, very enjoyable considering the reports of freezing and wet conditions across most of the United States. North winds continue to prevail, but were not as persistent as last week, in recent days the winds averaged in the 8 to 12 miles per hour range. These winds have helped cooler and dirtier currents to push in from the north and the water clarity was now green and murky on the Sea of Cortez side of the peninsula, with the cleaner water now being found off the Pacific.
Sportfishing fleets searched in all directions, looking to find the best possible action for striped marlin, dorado, and yellowfin tuna, overall the numbers of fish caught was less than two weeks ago, which is not unexpected for this time of year when there is the transition from the Fall to Winter season. Live sardinas were being netted from Palmilla to Santa Maria and was still the bait of choice for the medium sized gamefish. Water temperatures are now ranging from 74 to 78 degrees, with the coolest band being located close to shore off of San Jose del Cabo. Swells were practically non-existent along the beaches and the cooler water has attracted more numbers of sierra and smaller roosterfish.
Yellowfin tuna were found in various locations from Cabo San Lucas to Santa Maria and north to the Gordo Banks area, sometimes associated with porpoise, but more often they were located in schools closer to shore while chumming sardinas to bring them to the surface, often they would bite early and then shut down by mid-morning, sea lions were particularly a nuisance off of Santa Maria to Cabeza Ballena, at times making it nearly impossible to land a fish without having it eaten. Tuna were not overly abundant and the average fish being landed weighed 10 to 40 pounds, white and black skipjack were mixed in with the yellowfin and were weighing up to 10 pounds. Over the weekend anglers scouted out the Gordo Banks which had not shown any results earlier in the week, but with water clarity showing some improvement they accounted for some larger yellowfin tuna while drift fishing with live and dead sardinas, these fish ranged from 25 to 90 pounds, some pangas landed up to four or five tuna.
Dorado action improved some, maybe because more anglers were starting to troll lures and larger baits, such as bolito or skipjack. Dorado up to 50 pounds were caught, but most of the fish were found in smaller schools and more of them were in the 10 to 25 pound class, with charters that targeted them averaging anywhere from one to three dorado per day. These fish were striking on lures and various baits at about an equal ratio.
Wahoo season never really happened this fall season, basically only a flurry of activity early in November, this past week there were reports of a few scattered fish being hooked on lures, typically closer to Cabo San Lucas, but that was only for a day or two and now with the cooling water temperatures we could find that it will be even more difficult to find any cooperative wahoo this late in the year.
Striped marlin dominated the billfish action, though it was mainly on the Pacific, from El Faro to the Golden Gate Bank. Schools of mackerel were found balled up on the surface at times and this created a feeding frenzy, it was common for charters to account for several marlin and even as many as six in one outing. A good percentage of stripers were also striking on trolled lures.
Inshore there were increased numbers of sierra and roosterfish showing up, most of them less than
5 pounds, but scrappy fighters on light tackle. Off the bottom anglers had mixed success while using bait and yo-yo jigs for cabrilla, pargo, pompano, triggerfish and grouper.
There were approximately 69 total panga charters launched this week by the combined panga fleets of La Playita. Anglers accounted for a fish count of: 7 striped marlin, 8 sailfish, 64 dorado, 32 yellowfin tuna, 190 skipjack, 24 cabrilla, 5 amberjack, 16 pompano, 135 triggerfish, 82 pargo, 185 sierra and 28 roosterfish.
Good Fishing, Eric
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson
Owner/Operator
800 4081199
Los Cabos 1421147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
www.gordobanks.com |
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Dec 4, 2006; 08:30PM - Gordo Banks Pangas San Jose Del Cabo
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric
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Author E-mail: emails
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Report Description:
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
December 3, 2006
Anglers –
Typically the week after Thanksgiving is a period when there are less people traveling
on vacation, as they start preparing for the Christmas Holiday Season, surprisingly at
this time there still are good crowds of tourists in the Los Cabos area. The north winds were relentless starting on Wednesday night, blowing through the weekend, at times gusting up to 25 miles per hour. Generally the days were cooler, highs of about 75 degrees, water temperatures are still warm, averaging from 79 to 81 degrees, but we expect that this cooler weather will now put the water on cooling trend. The all around fishing action was like the weather, the bite was flat out cold for most of the week. Fish counts dropped off considerably and with the winds fleets were limited where they could concentrate their efforts. Charters were spread out in all directions trying to locate the best possible action and for the most part they found that inshore was the best bet, as more sierra were now moving in along the local beaches.
Live sardinas were now being found along the beaches from Red Hill to Santa Maria, and off of the San Jose del Cabo Estuary, but at times anglers had to wait patiently in order to obtain their daily supplies.
Daily catches included sierra, yellowfin tuna, skipjack and dorado, striped marlin, amberjack, cabrilla, pargo, triggerfish, pompano and rainbow runners. The panga fleets found the most consistent action inshore for sierra of 2 to 5 pounds from Punta Gorda to Red Hill with a combination of live sardinas, rapalas and hoochies.
The action for yellowfin tuna has slowed down to a standstill, with only an odd fish here and there, most them were hooked on sardinas in the areas from La Fortuna to Iman and the average weight of the few tuna that were landed ranged from 15 to 30 pounds, an exception was a 75 pound yellowfin tuna that was caught by Bill Gray of Cottonwood, California on Friday while fishing with skipper Jesus on the super panga “ Katie” from Gordo Banks Pangas.
Dorado action was scattered as well, early in the week there were some respectable catches accounted for, as a few charters ended up with five or six fish for the day, with weights up to 25 pounds, though after the strong northerly winds kicked up this made the water turn off colored and slowed the action considerably.
With the cooler and greener water conditions it was tough to find wahoo, but everyday there was talk of a couple of them being seen or hooked into. We were optimistic that this coming full moon would entice the wahoo into action, but so far that has not been the case.
Cruisers out of Cabo San Lucas reported good action for striped marlin, but the fish were to the north, ten or more miles, striking best on live baits that were being drifted down deep.
The panga fleets from La Playita sent out approximately 116 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 2 wahoo, 65 dorado, 55 yellowfin tuna, 135 skipjack, 16 amberjack, 14 cabrilla, 365 sierra, 42 yellowtail snapper, 38 pompano,
15 rainbow runner and 205 triggerfish.
Good fishing, Eric
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson
Owner/Operator
800 4081199
Los Cabos 1421147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
www.gordobanks.com |
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