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| Around 10% of the world's total fish species can be found just within the Great Barrier Reef. |
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| Starfish can re-grow their arms. In fact, a single arm can regenerate a whole body. |
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| Starfish do not have blood. Their blood is actually filtered sea water. |
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| Starfish don't have brains. Special cells on their skin gather information about their surroundings |
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| Not all animals with the word fish in their names count as fish. |
| Though their names may suggest otherwise, cuttlefish, starfish, and jellyfish aren’t actually fish. Generally-speaking, fishes must have skulls, gills, and fins. Surprisingly, though, not all fishes have proper spines. |
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| In three decades, the world's oceans will contain more discarded plastic than fish when measured by weight, researchers say. |
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| As of 2020, there were 34,000 known fish species around world. That’s more than the number of species in all other vertebrates: birds, reptiles, mammals, and amphibians combined. |
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| Just how man species of fish are there? |
| As of 2020, there were 34,000 known fish species around world. That’s more than the number of species in all other vertebrates: birds, reptiles, mammals, and amphibians combined. |
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| Even Catfish are finicky |
| Taste Buds ? Catfish have a more refined sense of flavor than humans. Our 10,000 taste buds may seem like a lot, but catfish can have as many as 175,000. This helps them find the exact location of their next meal. |
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| A bit of Humor |
| My brother has 2 German Shepherds named Rolex and Timex. You guessed it they are Watch Dogs. |
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From Jan 01, 1999 To Apr 30, 2024
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Dec 16, 2013; 12:11PM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Capt. George Landrum
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
Dec. 9 - 15, 2013
WEATHER: Occasionally sunny skies this past week brought a few mornings of what have been the coldest of the season to this point. I was getting reading in the low 60's, as low as 62 degrees on Thursday morning, as I went to the marina at 5:30 am. It warmed up later on of course and we ended up averaging 82 degrees during the mostly cloudy days early in the week and in the 85-86 degree range later in the week. We had a bit of wind blow in on Thursday as well, mostly affecting us in the afternoon, and continuing on into Friday and Saturday. I did not notice much of a breeze this morning. We did not get any real rain from these clouds, but it did spit a bit on us on Monday, just enough to spot up the windshields on the cars.
WATER: The first few days of this week were a continuation of last weeks water as far as temperatures were concerned. On Monday the water on the Pacific side of the Cape was in the 78-79 degree range from the beach on out to the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks, to the west of there it dropped by four degrees very quickly. That was the only temperature break in our area. On Tuesday that started to change and by the end of the week our entire area was seeing water temperatures in the 77 degree range, from far west of those banks to up past the Gorda Banks area in the Sea of Cortez. The water color has been a bit off of “blue”, more of a blue with a green tinge to it, almost a glacial water look to it.
BAIT: Caballito and a few Mackerel make up the choice of live baits this past week, and you were lucky to get the Mackerel. The price was the normal $3 each.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Lots of Striped Marlin were being seen this week but not many of them wanted to bite. The Pacific side continued to be the best area to find these fish, and the usual bait holding areas were worked hard by the fleets. The ledge at the lighthouse and the canyon just on the north side, the ridge at Los Arcos, the drop at Migraino and the Golden Gate Bank all had fish, but few boats were getting bit, at least compared to how the action had been. In addition, we were seeing lots of small Striped Marlin, and I mean some of these fish were in the 40-50 pound class. When you did find a hungry fish it was aggressive and would readily bite on the lure or live bait, but these fish were few and far between. If you were fishing for Marlin this week your day consisted of throwing live bait at Marlin you saw on the surface, slow trolling live bait in one of the areas listed above or running out to one of the bait balls signaled by the swooping Frigate birds. The action was scattered up and down the Pacific coastline with little action seen on the Cortez side.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Well, we are starting to see a very slow improvement in the catch of Yellowfin Tuna as more porpoise show in our area. The fish are still mostly footballs in the 6-10 pound class, but when you get into them they bite well. Its just hard to get real excited when your limit on these small fish is 5 per person, and if you fill that limit you are done keeping any fish for the rest of the day. Get into one of the pods of porpoise that hold Tuna and you never know what might bite though, there could be some much larger fish out on the edges, as a few lucky anglers found out this week, with Tuna to 80 pounds occasionally grabbing a passing lure, or gobbling a bait dropped in front of the traveling pods of porpoise. For the large Tuna, the Gorda Banks appeared to be the place to go as there was a short bite for a few days there. If you could work the area with chunks you stood a chance to catch fish that went as large as 260 pounds, but the success ration was not very high. Then again, these were very large fish!
DORADO: There was little change in the Dorado action this past week from the week before. Lots of small 6 to 8 pound fish continued striking lures and trying to eat live bait on the Pacific side of the Cape. Most boats were shaking these fish off and waiting for larger ones to bite and since the limit is two per angler the small fish could fill a limit quickly. Getting a bigger Dorado this past week has been a matter of working harder and smarter. The larger fish continue to be found farther to the north, inside the Golden Gate area from the beach out to about two miles. Many boats that were slow trolling live bait, or drifting weighted live baits for Marlin were getting the larger Dorado. Working staggered depths with down-riggers and z-wings during a slow troll with live bait was effective, and you could be surprised at any time with either Marlin, Dorado, Tuna, Wahoo or if you were close to the beach, a large Snapper or Grouper.
WAHOO: The bite was not what it has been, and the fish seemed to be a bit smaller, at least the ones that were caught. I heard a couple of anglers call them wee-hoos as they had caught a couple of them that were only 8-10 pounds. I expect the bite to be a bit better for these fish this coming week as we approach the full moon, but I have been wrong many times before. The Wahoo that were caught were found in the usual haunts, on top of the high spots and along the drop-offs, but there were also some caught out on the flats in 100 feet of water, so you just never know.
INSHORE: The Roosterfish made themselves scarce this week, at least early in the day they were hard to find. The ones that were found were once again the smaller ones in the 5-6 pound class, there were not many larger 20-30 pound fish found. Boats that were going up to the Marguerite area and the Migraino area were doing well when they found schools of Sierra, and some of these fish were decent size for the species at 6-9 pounds, but there were also schools of small 2-5 pound fish. Either size of Sierra were capable of ruining any hootchie skirts used, and could make a swimming Rapallas look decades old after a few fish had been caught. Most of these fish were tight to the beach. There were also some true Red Snapper being found off the beach. Boats bottom bouncing strip baits in 60-120 feet of water were having decent luck on Snapper to 5 pounds with an occasional fish to 10 pounds.
FISH RECIPE: I don't have a new recipe this week, but feel free to check out ones listed on my previous reports, they are all good. If I used one I found on the internet I give credit for it, and actually used the recipe, then listed it only if I would serve it again!
NOTES: I guess this was the week for small fish. Small Marlin, Tuna, Dorado, Wahoo and Sierra. Add in that the bite was off just a bit and many boats were scratching hard to put clients on some decent fish this week. Of course there are always a few boats that are in the right place at the right time, that is what keeps us going as anglers, right? We will keep crossed fingers that the Mackerel will show up, because usually the big fish follow the bait! Seeing the number of small fish is also a good thing as this implies a good spawning season, and plenty of fish for the future! Come on down for the holidays, with plenty of whales to be seen and steady action on small fish and the chance to catch something big, it sure beats sitting in a freezing cold car waiting for it to warm up! This report was writing to the country music sounds of George Jones. Until next week, tight lines!
And as always, George writes this report
and posts to the blog on Sunday morning. So if you
can't wait, click the 'FOLLOW' on the top of the blog
page! You will know whenever something new is posted!
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
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Dec 15, 2013; 12:33AM - GORDO BANKS PANGAS San Jose del Cabo December 8, 2013
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric Brictson
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GORDO BANKS PANGAS
San Jose del Cabo
December 8, 2013
Anglers –
Despite being the week after Thanksgiving there are still good numbers of tourists
in town, many simply looking for the warmer weather, as much of the northern
territories are now enduring icy wintry conditions. Local weather has been great,
mostly sunny days, some scattered cloud cover, highs averaging 80 degrees. Winds
were now predominately blowing from the north, this past week the breeze was
moderate and anglers enjoyed nice ocean conditions, this is the time of year when
there are cycles of gusty winds which last several days. Los Cabos is situated on
the Southern Peninsula, when offshore fishing grounds are blown out from too much
wind, there can be other options found in more protected areas.
Sportfishing fleets are now fishing all of the normal grounds in various directions,
ocean temperature is now steady throughout the region, from the Pacific banks to Los
Frailes, averaging in the 78/79 degree range, no great temperature break, conditions
are a bit warmer than normal, though we do expect to see a cooling trend as days now
progressively become shorter. Bait supplies have varied a bit from day to day,
caballito and sardinas have been available recently on a regular basis, sardinas
have been found towards Los Frailes and the commercial fleet has been delivering
them to panga charters on Iman to Vinorama. Other bait options included ballyhoo,
slabs of squid, chihuil and skipjack. Overall the bait situation has improved.
San Jose del Cabo fleets have been fishing mainly on the grounds from Santa Maria,
where there has been steady action for striped marlin, with dorado and a few wahoo
mixed in, more numbers of charters were now heading in the direction of the Iman
Bank, where the odds of finding yellowfin tuna were best, anglers were drift fishing
with striped squid or sardinas, the tuna were averaging 10 to 20 pounds, striking
more readily on lighter leaders, catches varied from one or two per boat, up to 15
fish, matter of being in the right place when the fish were in the feeding mood. On
Thursday there was one 100 pound class yellowfin tuna landed off the Gordo Banks,
first larger grade tuna we have heard about for the past couple of weeks, maybe a
chance still at a cow. Dorado were found on these same grounds and scattered
throughout the area, smaller sized schools, most of the fish were10 pounds or less,
though there were exceptions of larger bulls landed. Trolling medium sized lures or
larger sized baitfish was a productive technique for finding the dorado.
Wahoo are doing what they commonly do, remain elusive even during the supposedly
peak season. These fish are definitely in the area, there are hook ups being
reported daily, just no huge numbers or with any consistency, holding on the ledges,
along drop offs, over structure, normally encountered in water depths from 100 to
200 feet. Trolling with rapalas, skirted lead heads and with rigged larger sized
baitfish are what these fish will commonly strike on, rapid strikes, like no other,
many lost strikes, happen so fast, either on or off. With the water temperatures now
in the preferred range for wahoo we are optimistic that on any given day these fish
could become more increasingly active. Anglers recently have been fortunate to lane
one or two of these fish, the wahoo being brought in have been averaging in the 20
to 40 pound range.
Off the bottom structure, across the Iman Bank, anglers reported more success while
dropping larger baitfish, caballito, skipjack or chihuil, near the bottom, there
were amberjack, grouper and dogtooth snapper accounted for, no big numbers, but
quality fish in the 30 to 60 pound class. A couple of yellowtail were reported by
the commercial fleets fishing in deeper waters for snapper, these yellows were over
30 pounds, home guard fish, holding in the cooler depths. Several nice sized sierra
were taken on the offshore banks, a bit out of their normal habitat closer to shore.
Quite a few bonito now on the same grounds, mixed with yellowfin tuna and black
skipjack, this is normally a sign of cooling waters, as sierra become plentiful
along the beaches.
Many whales now being spotted, these whales are just showing in greater numbers,
arriving from their northern grounds, we are also seeing other sea life, including
manta rays, sea lions, turtles and lots of birds.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent
out approximately 135 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a
fish count of: 11 striped marlin, 2 sailfish, 39 wahoo, 190 bonito, 15 cabrilla, 13
amberjack, 2 dogtooth snapper,45 sierra, 260 dorado and 445 yellowfin tuna.
Good fishing, Eric
--
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson / Operator
619 488-1859
Los Cabos (624) 142-1147
e-mail:gordobanks@yahoo.com
WWW.GORDOBANKS.COM
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Dec 9, 2013; 12:13PM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Capt. George Landrum
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
Dec. 2 - 8, 2013
WEATHER: Partly sunny skies once again, and while most of our friend and clients in the U.S. were shivering we were enjoying temperatures in the high 70's and low 80's during the daytime. We did our shivering at night after the sun had set and the breeze cooled us off. It seems my blood has thinned a bit as 72 degrees makes me get goose bumps and put on long sleeved shirts or a light jacket or sweater. Please don't make fun of those of us who walk around with a sweater on while you gambol about in your swimsuits! I know we look funny while walking the beach but at least there is no snow or ice on the ground!
WATER: The Pacific side has had little change in water temperature this week, the water to the inside of the San Jaime and Golden Gate Banks is still warmer than elsewhere on the Pacific at a fairly consistent 78-79 degrees, down a degree or two from last week, but that's what happens in the winter here. Outside of the banks, to the west, the temperature has been in the 72-73 range, with this cooler water once again being a bit cleaner than the warmer inside water. Afternoon winds have had a fairly strong effect on the surface conditions as well with the swells in the mornings at 2-5 feet, but after the winds start (around noon every day) the wind chop picks up and we get a bit of cross swell of 1-2 feet from the wind that makes for interesting rides home. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water has been a consistent 78-79 degrees with a few spots peaking at 80 degrees. Surface conditions have been much better with swells staying in the 3 foot range and the wind chop not having much, if any effect once you get to the west and north of the 95 spot. The water on this side of the Cape has been a bit off-color, tending toward a clean green instead of a deep blue.
BAIT: While Caballito remains the most common of the larger baits (which are selling for the normal $3 each) there are a few more Mackerel showing up in the bottoms of the bait boats. Still not very common yet, there should be more soon as the water continues to cool. Other than those two species, your choice is Green Jacks and small Pompano. I have not heard of any Sardines available locally, but there might have been some available up in San Jose.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There was not much change this week from last weeks Billfish report. They still seem to be hanging out along the temperature break on the Pacific side, but there are small concentrations as well along the coast at the normal high spots such as right off the Lighthouse on the peanut shaped ledge and on the ridge running straight out from Los Arcos farther up the coast. There is a small bump to the inside/north of the Golden Gate that has also been producing a few fish, not to mention the small concentrations atop the Golden Gate Bank. I have heard from a few boats that made the run that there are some decent concentrations found this wee at the Finger Bank as well, but it has just been rumors, third hand information, so I have not been able to confirm it. The key to getting a Marlin (and they have all been Striped Marlin) has been to keep an eye on the sky and an eye on the depth finder. When you see the Frigate birds start to swoop, head there, as the fish are beginning to force a bait ball to the surface. If you see a bait ball on the depth sounder, stay there until the Marlin force it to the surface. Basicly, follow the bait, the fish will be where the food is. Sight fishing by spotting tail and fin tips and tossing a bit also worked well, and often produced double hook-ups. Seeing a “picket fence” with several fish in a row is beginning to become more common and offers a good chance at multiple hook-ups. The preferred bait has been Mackerel, but the fish will eat Caballito as well if they are hungry, the smaller baits seem to get eaten more often than the larger ones. Fish found just off the beach are suckers for the small Pompano, it seems to be a matter of “matching-the-hatch”, so to speak.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I am still being patient, I have no choice. There are a few football to 25 pound fish around, but the chances of getting into them are small as the pods of porpoise they have been found with are scattered all over the place. I know of Pangas working the Dorado inside that have spotted small groups of porpoise and have hooked and landed several Yellowfin to 25 pounds, and cruiser going 30 miles off the beach doing the same thing. Some boats have reported finding pods of porpoise that cover acres of water but have not had any fish under them, while they find just a few porpoise that have given up four to six small Yellowfin. No rhyme or reason to it, just chance as far as I can tell.
DORADO: Lots of small 6 to 8 pound fish have been striking lures and trying to eat live bait on the Pacific side of the Cape. The warmer, cleaner water has kept them around, trying the warm water on the Cortez side has not resulted in as many fish and the water is more green there as well. Getting a bigger Dorado this past week has been a matter of working harder and smarter. The plume of warm water running up the coast seems to taper to a point around Todo Santos, and boats going that far up have seen slightly larger fish. It may be a matter of the narrowing warm water concentrating the fish, but the fish caught toward the north have been consistently in the 12-15 pound class. Closer to home, in order to get the larger fish, you have had to make a slight change in tactics. Boats that were fishing using wire line or torpedo sinkers to get jet-head lures and swimming plugs down deep for Wahoo were hooking a few larger Dorado, some to 30 pounds, while boats pounding the surface were only getting the little guys. Having noticed this, quite a few boats began running down-riggers and Z-Wings with live bait to attract the larger Dorado. The only problem with this is that if there were Wahoo around, they would get the bait bitten in half or the leader cut without ever noticing it happen. Also, it is a great method for catching Striped Marlin as well and often one of these would gulp the bait. For anglers only wanting to fish for meat fish, this was not what they wanted. Well, I have always been happy to catch something rather than nothing, and would never turn my nose up at catching a Marlin!
WAHOO: These fish are still here, and still biting, but you have to be in the right place, at the right time, using the right gear in order to have a decent shot at them. We just came off the new moon on the third, and have the full moon coming up around the 17th, so the bite should, repeat, should, be good then for these speedsters. The right place means along steep drop-offs, high spots on the bottom, ridges projecting out from shore and canyons running right up to the beach. The right time has been just before and just after tide change, when the water starts moving again. The right gear means lures with a short trace of wire leader to prevent cut-offs, lures or swimming plugs that will go deep, the deeper the better, and run at speed. If using live bait, make sure there is a trailing hook wired to the front hook as to prevent having the bait cut in half without hooking up, and running the bait deep.
INSHORE: There were some decent sized Roosterfish reported this week, by decent I mean in the 18-25 pound class, but they were still out numbered by the little 5-6 pound fish. There were many more Sierra showing up as well with some of the fish coming in reaching the 8 pound mark on the scales, but most of them were 4-5 pounds. The Snapper bite dropped off, perhaps due to the new moon, but should improve once the full moon comes around. Once again, if you get into the stacks of Snapper that happen during the full moon, please limit your catch as these are spawning concentrations. I have not heard of any large Yellowtail this week but there have been fish to 10 pounds caught, and they are becoming more common every week. It should not be long before we start to see larger fish on a consistent basis.
FISH RECIPE: Simple is the key work. This is about as simple as it gets. Take a Dorado fillet cut to meal size (or Snapper, or Wahoo), marinate it for about 30 minutes in fresh lemon juice. Dust it with salt and pepper, then again with some smoked Paprika (I have a big bottle of Penzy's in the cupboard) and cook it in a frying pan with a couple of tablespoons of oil (I like using the Avocado Oil they have here at Cost-Co). Serve it up with some potatoes that have been diced small and dusted with Thyme and a bit of Paprika as well as with a small salad. Easy, tasty and good for you!
NOTES: I have forgotten to mention in my last two reports that the Whales are here! Grey Whales close to the beach and Humpback Whales farther out, both species have been putting on good shows for us on a daily basis. This weeks report was written to the music of “Two Tons Of Steel” on their CD “Not That Lucky”. A bit of Texas Rockabilly to keep my toes a tapping!
P.S. I was reminded by several anglers and Captains this evening that I forgot to mention the presence of three Tuna Pens that were fished on Saturday and today. I didn’t forget them, I just had a momentary lapse of memory, it happens when you get older. Anyway, there have been three pens being towed from the west and toward the east. Two of them, the front two, appear to have fish in them, and most of the boats going to fish the pens have been working behind the front two. The last pen appears to to be empty. The bite at these pens has been enjoyed by the first few boats to arrive, plenty of Dorado, some Striped Marlin and a decent Wahoo bite. There have also been some football sized yellowfin tuna scattered around within 1/2 mile of the pens, enough to provide lots of action and limits on these small, 5 to 8 pound fish. The Dorado were decent size with the larger fish being caught by the first boats on the scene Saturday, smaller fish today. The same thing occurred with Wahoo as there were decent numbers in good sizes for the first boats on the scene. As the bite died off, boats that were willing to drop jigs and work behind the nets continued to catch fish. These Tuna Pens were 17 miles to the south of Cabo this morning, headed east, who knows where they will be tomorrow. Mince this report is about what has happened I needed to up date the report, but don’t expect this to be the case for the coming week. Thank you for the comments, and tight lines.
And as always, George writes this report
and posts to the blog on Sunday morning. So if you
can't wait, click the 'FOLLOW' on the top of the blog
page! You will know whenever something new is posted!
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
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Dec 2, 2013; 11:57AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Capt. George Landrum
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
Nov. 26 – Dec. 1, 2013
WEATHER: Once again we had a week with partly sunny skies. If I were a pessimist I would have said partly cloudy skies, but I am a fisherman and we fishermen have to be optimistic, that's just part of the sport. Anyway, partly sunny with our nighttime lows dipping into the mid 60's while the daytime highs have been just touching the 85 degree range on the thermometer on the patio. We ended last week with a spattering of rain as I finished the report but we have had none since then. It appears as if we have a chance of a bit of precipitation coming on Tuesday or Wednesday, but who knows, it could just as well be sunny and hot, but the animations (hurricane) for the eastern Pacific show some clouds working our way.
WATER: Everyone I talked to this week said that the water wherever they went was almost glassy and calm the whole trip. I know that in the afternoons the water on the Pacific side received a bit of wind that caused some chop, but the swells stayed down and it was comfortable everywhere. As far as water temperatures go, the Sea of Cortez side of the Cape was a fairly steady 81 degrees within 5 miles of the beach and 82 degrees farther out than that. The big news is the temperature break on the Pacific side. If you ran a line just on the eastern edge of the San Jaime Banks and northward to just to the eastern edge of the Golden Gate Banks you would have been on the break, at least at the end of the week. Inside (eastern side) of the break the water was 80 degrees, outside of the line it was 76 degrees, and there was not much blending, it was a fairly sharply defined break. Not surprisingly for this time of year, the cooler water was cleaner, a bit more blue to it. This is the opposite of what we see when the water begins to warm back up in the late spring.
BAIT: Caballito remain the most common of the larger baits, but there are still a few Mackerel showing up on the bait boats. As the water continues to cool we should start seeing many more of them, and fewer of the Caballito. There has also been a mix of misc. baits, a few Look-downs, a few green Jacks, a few small Pompano and of course this time of year some strips of Humboldt Squid. The live bait has been selling for the normal $3 per bait, there has been some frozen ballyhoo at the same price and the squid has been all over the place, depending on who you are buying it from.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Remember me mentioning how nice it was to not have to say, “You should have been here last week” last week? Well I had to say it this week, at least for the start of the week. The fishing for Striped Marlin went from red-hot to lukewarm almost overnight as soon as that had been written. It took until this Friday for the action to return, but it finally did. I have no idea why the bite dropped off, but boats that had been getting 5 to 6 releases per trip were suddenly only getting one, or sometimes none at all. During this time frame the temperature break slowly moved to the west, to where it is now, and it may have been the slow movement that threw everyone off. Now the fish are being found on the cool side of the break, or right on the edge of the warm water. Yesterday we had clients that hooked no Marlin on Thanksgiving release four and unfortunately tail wrap a fifth fish that died during the fight. Other boats were reporting the return of the bait-balls as well and once again the Frigate birds were pointing out the right locations to fish. This meant it was only an hour run to the break giving anglers plenty of time to find the Marlin concentrations.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I keep telling myself “Self, be patient, the Yellowfin should show up anytime now”, but it is hard to be patient, I want my Sashimi now, dang it. Guess I will just have to continue waiting unless someone stumbles onto a pod of porpoise holding Tuna. It has been happening now and then this past week, and the Tuna have been footballs to 15 pounds, but they have been scarce for everyone. When a boat has found the Tuna they have been quiet about it until they have caught a few, then finally they will announce it on the radio. Everyone within 8 miles then piles on the school and puts them down. My fingers remain crossed that these fish will return soon, and in force.
DORADO: The action on Dorado went had in hand with the action on Striped Marlin this week. As soon as the week started the action dropped to a standstill, but thankfully the bite returned at the end of the week. While the Marlin action moved offshore with the temperature break, the Dorado stayed in the warmer water near the beach. Most boats were finding them from 100 feet to two miles out. I hate to keep repeating myself, but the best way to catch them continues to be trolling lures until one is hooked up, then leaving that first fish out and dropping a live bait back about 50 feet behind it in order to catch others that may be with it. Second most productive (and what happens quite often when the fish are playing hard to get) is boating the first fish so there is something for dinner, then working the area with slow trolled live bait. Where there is one, there is usually another, especially on the larger of the species. Dorado, once they get to about 18 pound or so, seem to start spreading out and you will only find two or three packed together, and the really large fish in the 40 range will be loners.
WAHOO: At the end of the week the Wahoo action picked up for boats working the shallow waters close to the beach. This may be due to the moon once again approaching the new phase, which will be on Dec. 1st. Once again many anglers and crew were surprised to pull in a live bait only to find it had been bitten cleanly in half, or find a lure that had the skirts chopped off. Crews that decided to forgo fishing for Dorado and concentrate on Wahoo changed to wire leaders and either fished their lures on wire lines as well, or placed heavy 24 ounce torpedo sinkers ahead of the lures, running the main line to a swivel, attaching the sinker then attaching the lure to the sinkers other end with another swivel. Working the shallows at 8 to 10 knots with this setup caught a lot of the Wahoo brought in at the end of this week. These fish were not giants, with the larger of them reaching 45 pounds, but the average was a decent 25 pounds.
INSHORE: The little Roosterfish we have been catching continue to bite small lures just off the beach, and there is a decent chance of running into a school of larger fish in the 15-18 pound class while fishing just outside the breakers with live bait. As long as the water on the beach remains fairly warm this bite should continue. While we are still seeing small Sierra and small Yellowtail, they have not been plentiful. Once the water temperature starts to drop we should see an increase in numbers on these fish. I am hoping that the snapper bite will turn on in a couple of weeks when we have the full moon once again, often this time of year the snapper start to school on the high spots in spawning congregations. When this happens the action can really turn on, but please, if you manage to be there at the right time, try to limit your catch, not catch your limit. These are spawning aggregations after all, and we do want fish in the coming years!
FISH RECIPE: Can you say “smoked”? As easy as pie (easier, actually as there is no cooking involved), making a sandwich using smoked tuna or dorado flaked into some mayo (I like using wasabi mayo, check last weeks recipe for that) with some diced celery and onion is magnificent. Use croissants instead of regular bread for a meal you would be willing to pay big bucks for.
NOTES: I hope your thanksgiving was as great as ours was, if you live where it is celebrated. We had a lot to be thankful for this year, and friends to share with at the house. Now, if those darn Tuna would just show up I could have Sashimi for Christmas, Ho-Ho-Ho! This weeks report was written to the music of Mark Knopfler on his second solo release, the 2002 “Sailing To America”. I hope you like it! Until next week, tight lines!
And as always, George writes this report
and posts to the blog on Sunday morning. So if you
can't wait, click the 'FOLLOW' on the top of the blog
page! You will know whenever something new is posted!
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
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Dec 1, 2013; 08:02PM - GORDO BANKS PANGAS San Jose del Cabo December 1, 2013
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric Brictson
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GORDO BANKS PANGAS
San Jose del Cabo
December 1, 2013
Anglers –
Thanksgiving vacationers visiting Los Cabos this week were greeted with
pristine weather conditions. As much of the United States was being
impacted by powerful storms, in Southern Baja the climate has been ideal,
highs ranging 75/80 degrees, scattered early day cloud cover, with plenty
of sunshine the rest of the day. Early in the week there were strong
gusting winds whipping in from the north, this limited angler’s options for
a few days, later in the week the winds resided and ocean conditions were
much more comfortable.
Water temperatures were ranging from 76 degrees on the Pacific to 79/80
degrees off of San Jose del Cabo and towards Los Frailes. Live caballito
and other jacks have been available, should not be long before we see
schools of mackerel appearing on local grounds. Sardinas are starting to be
found in closer proximity, but this is still a day to day situation on
quantity and exactly where these baitfish are located. Squid and ballyhoo
have been offered at the dock area, overall the bait situation has
improved, with lighter pressure in coming weeks, this should give the
resource a chance to rebound some.
The Iman Bank has been the most productive spot recently. There have been
wahoo, dorado, yellowfin tuna and billfish all found on these banks. Most
plentiful fish have been the tuna, these yellowfin are ranging from 10 to
20 pounds, anglers had best results while drift fishing with strips of cut
squid or with sardinas, we are starting to see the commercial panga fleet
from near Los Frailes traveling south to Iman Bank with supplies of freshly
netted sardinas for sale, this proved to be the best bet for finding wide
open surface action. Lots of bonito and skipjack were also schooling on the
same local grounds. Roaming dorado were found scattered throughout the
region, not in big numbers, most dorado were under 15 lb., though a handful
of larger dorado were mixed in.
We are still in peak season for the elusive wahoo, so far these fish have
not gone on any extended consistent wide open bite, though things appear to
shaping up in the direction of some quality wahoo action in the coming
weeks. Everyday these fish are being encountered in limited numbers,
individual charters have landed up to several fish per morning, while
loosing other strikes as well, most anglers were fortunate to land just one
of these speedsters. Of the wahoo being brought in, weights have averaged
25 lb. to 45 lb. The majority of wahoo strikes recently have come on slow
trolled baits, caballito or chihuil and there has been a recent trend of
more wahoo hook ups being reported later in the morning, versus the
traditional first daylight action.
Ocean temperatures have been on a slow cooling trend, we have seen
conditions remain a couple of degrees warmer than would be expected during
this time frame, we do expect to see temperatures continue to fall, as days
are now progressively becoming shorter and with northerly winds becoming
more frequent it will not be long before we experience transition time
again. The annual migration of whales is now arriving in the first wave and
will be peaking in the coming months, as these mammals arrive from their
northern feeding grounds to give berth to their offspring in the
subtropical waters of Southern Baja California.
With the offshore surface action continuing to be the most productive deal,
we are not seeing much bottom action reported. Sierra action is now an
inshore option for anglers having live sardinas.
Striped marlin action was wide open on certain areas, from the Pacific
grounds, multiple catch days were common and also these schooling fish are
now moving in the direction of San Jose del Cabo, marlin are being found
within a couple miles of shore, striking on trolled lures and various
baitfish, the late morning action has been most productive.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos
Marina sent out approximately 138 charters for this past week, with anglers
accounting for a fish count of: 23 striped marlin, 3 sailfish, 47 wahoo,
140 bonito, 10 cabrilla, 7 amberjack, 28 pargo, 22 sierra, 110 dorado and
610 yellowfin tuna.
Good fishing, Eric
--
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson / Operator
619 488-1859
Los Cabos (624) 142-1147
e-mail:gordobanks@yahoo.com
WWW.GORDOBANKS.COM
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Nov 25, 2013; 11:47AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Capt. George Landrum
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
Nov. 18 - 24, 2013
WEATHER: We have been under partly cloudy skies for most of the week and it has been rather nice! I know that everyone loves the sun, and while you can still get a tan while it's cloudy, it's just not the same. However, from a fisherman's point of view, these partly cloudy skies help in several ways. Number one is less glare on the water, making it easier to see and find fish indicators such as bird piles, fin tips and tails and porpoise in the distance. Second is that without the direct sun, it is more comfortable on the water! Our daytime highs have been in the mid 80's while nighttime lows have been in the mid to low 70's, and, it's been much less humid than it was last week!
WATER: With no storms in the area the swells died back down to what we expect this time of year, 3-5 feet on the Pacific side of the Cape and 1-3 feet on the Cortez side. At least in our area that is. If you travel far enough up the Cortez you eventually end up on the East Cape, and there the wind has kicked things up so that a bumpy ride is almost a guarantee. Locally the water temperatures have remained steady with water from the Arch on the Pacific side to Los Frailes being 81-82 degrees, and outside of 10 miles by Los Frailes being several degrees warmer. We have had a cool spot of water hovering right on top of the 95 spot all week long, it has been 76 degrees and slightly off color. On the Pacific side the water has been blue and 76 degrees with slightly warmer 78 degree water to the west side of the San Jaime Banks.
BAIT: Caballito, Tortilla Chips (baby Pompano), a few Mackerel and assorted other small fish have been the larger live baits available at the usual $3 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Billfish action remained red hot this past week and you did not have to go far to get to the action as many boats fishing only half days, or anglers fishing on Pangas were able to find decent sized Striped Marlin close to home. With water temperatures at a perfect 76 degrees and blue, the area from the lighthouse to inside the Golden Gate Bank on the Pacific side of the Cape was a perfect area to focus efforts. At times I did hear complaints from anglers looking for meat fish that the Striped Marlin were getting in the way! Schools of baby Pompano, small Mackerel and Caballito close to the beach meant that the Striped Marlin were close as well. With the usual combat fishing we see this time of year, when every boat in the area races to be the first one on the scene, when the high flying Frigates suddenly appear, swooping down on escaping bait, it was exciting, although a bit nerve wracking. Fortunately the fish were thick enough that you did not need to compete in the “speed boat challenge”. Hanging around an area that everyone had just left was a perfect way to make sure you caught a fish with less competition. Slow trolling or drifting through an area everyone had just left gave you a great shot at fish, as the noise and commotion caused by so many boats in one spot drove the fish and the bait under surface. They came back up in a little while, so if you stuck it out you hooked up. The closer to the beach you were, the more likely you were to catch something on the little Pompanos, slightly farther off the beach the Caballito worked and if you were several miles out then Mackerel were the bait of choice. Fish were thick enough off of Los Arcos ridge, Golden Gate Bank and the lighthouse ledge that dropping live bait to 100 feet or more on the drift was a very productive technique. Please remember though, if you are using live bait and drifting like this, ask the crews to use circle hooks. This is less stressful on the Marlin and makes a safe release much easier. Also, please don't remove the fish from the water for a picture before releasing it, the internal organs are normally supported by the bouyancy of the water, and the weight when removed can tear the connective tissue holding them in place. Many charters stress catch and release for Billfish. We do as well, but with the understanding that there will be a few fatalities to the fish, and if fishing in a big money tournament we may take one or two. I just hate to see pictures of people holding a Marlin out of the water, then bragging that they “release” all the fish their anglers catch. Maybe, but what condition are those fish in?
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Tuna are definitely the low spot of our present fishery, at least for the past week. A few fish are being caught at the high spots on the Gordo Banks, but you may end up putting in days of effort to get one, but its a pretty sure thing you will be feeding the sea lions. Farther up the line off of Punta Gorda there has been an occasional flurry of football sized Yellowfin on the high spots, but nothing I have heard of indicates consistent action. Even boats that have been traveling 40 miles offshore have been having a bit of trouble finding Porpoise pods that have held fish. Those that have been able to fish pods that hold Yellowfin have done fairly decent using live bait dropped in front of the traveling schools and flying a kite over the advancing front of these pods of Porpoise. The usual lures pulled while trolling have not been nearly as successful, but when they have worked, they have been dark colored lures for the most part, dark purple or green hootchies, or medium sized 5” lures in dark colors. For some reason cedar plugs have not been very hot for the past week.
DORADO: I believe you could make a good case for either Striped Marlin or Dorado as being our “Fish of the Week” this past week, as they both have been found in the same areas and both of them have provided plenty of action. This week the Dorado action picked back up, with any angler that wanted to catch a limit finding it no problem at all, the only difficulty was holding off on the 10-12 pound fish until one of the 20 pound plus fish hooked up. Normally we would be working the Frigate birds for Dorado, but with the Striped Marlin being as thick as they have been the Frigates have been on them instead. The best way to ensure a good catch on Dorado was to troll a 5” to 7” lure at slightly higher speeds, often 10 knots or better, until hooking up a Dorado, then working the same are with slow trolled live bait. The only problem (and what a problem to have!) were the number of Striped Marlin that would come in and eat bait intended for Dorado. Many of the boats were working the area between the Arch and the desalinization plant on the Pacific side, and going no further than that to get limits on decent Dorado (legal limit is two Dorado per person).
WAHOO: There was no change in the Wahoo report for this week, it is a repeat of last weeks action as the occasional Wahoo continued to surprise anglers, and crews as well, as these toothy fish managed to snip many lures from leaders without anyone noticing! Boats that were using wire leader, or just happened to get hooked right, were bringing back fish averaging 30 pounds. There were not a lot of them, but enough to make each strike a possibility.
INSHORE: Small Roosterfish still dominate the beach fishery but there have been occasional schools of fish in the 15-18 pound class show up, to the enjoyment of the anglers! Combine these Roosterfish with some decent Red Snapper action in the rocks and if you did not want Marlin or Dorado you had options. Or maybe you were just tired of catching Striped Marlin and Dorado and wanted something different. While I do not recommend it for cruisers, Pangas were able to get right in tight to the rocks in order to sling out a small weight with live bait into the pockets among the rocks. There were many snags and break-offs, but there were also some very nice Snapper to be found as well. A few Sierra and a few Yellowtail continue to be caught, the numbers go up just a bit every week, and the size on both seems to be improving slightly.
FISH RECIPE: Seared Tuna with Sesame seeds: Just about as simple as you can make it (my favorite kind!) Recipe posted on the blog in a few minutes.
NOTES: Can you say “Red Hot”? I normally avoid using those words, but since I am not predicting, just reporting, I feel they are appropriate for this past weeks fishing action. Add in the unusual number of whales that are showing up early and it has been great to be on the water! We are approaching Thanksgiving, and we have many things to be thankful for this year. We hope to have 20-30 people over for dinner Thursday once again, and one of the things to be thankful for is the number of friends that we do have. It is time like these months past that you really come to appreciate who they are, and what they do for you. On that note I would like to wish all our U.S. Friends “Happy Thanksgiving”, and offer thanks to all our Canadian and Mexican friends for their continued support this year. This weeks report is written to the music of Roger Creagor on a mixed CD given to me by a good friend. Until next week, Tight Lines!
And as always, George writes this report
and posts to the blog on Sunday morning. So if you
can't wait, click the 'FOLLOW' on the top of the blog
page! You will know whenever something new is posted!
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
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Nov 25, 2013; 12:29AM - GORDO BANKS PANGAS San Jose del Cabo November 24, 2013
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric Brictson
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GORDO BANKS PANGAS
San Jose del Cabo
November 24, 2013
Anglers –
As we enter Thanksgiving Holiday week we are seeing a steady flow of
tourists arriving, it has been a busy fall season, next week is typically
when crowds will lighten, as many people will start preparing the Christmas
Holiday season. Los Cabos weather has been pristine, highs of 80 degrees,
with lows in the 60s, scattered cloud cover, but plenty of sunshine as
well, very nice climate now, how you wish you could feel and enjoy year
round. Winds are now prevalent from the north, though recently have been
moderate and anglers were enjoying comfortable ocean conditions most days.
Sportfishing fleets were traveling in all directions, targeting the normal
offshore fishing grounds, finding a mix of billfish, striped marlin, blue
marlin and sailfish were all reported, with multiple billfish days reported
from charters targeting the Pacific grounds. Water temperature are now on a
cooling trend, down to 75 degrees on the Pacific and still averaging right
about 80 degrees off of San Jose del Cabo and north towards Los Frailes.
Bait suppliers have been working overtime to obtain sufficient supplies and
variety for the full load of charters. Sardinas were being hauled in from
northern areas and were being sold by the bag, as brined fresh dead bait,
also there were limited supplies of live sardinas just in recent days being
offered. These baits have been working well for the for yellowfin tuna on
the grounds off of La Fortuna and the Iman Bank, combined with strips of
giant squid, also available at the dock in the morning, along with ballyhoo
and caballito. Drift fishing while chumming and fly lining baits has been
the most successful technique for finding yellowfin tuna in the 10 to 20
pound class, catches were a bit sporadic, some days fish would bite late
and on others the action was best early. Light leaders of 25/30 lb. worked
best. Catches ranged from a 2 or 3, up to 15 fish per boat. After last
week’s new local record 386 lb. yellowfin was brought in, the action for
the larger cow tuna on the Gordo Banks has been almost zero, surely a
combination of factors are contributing to the slower action, cooling
waters, heavy boat pressure, from pangas to large sportfishers, hungry sea
lions, dive operations anchoring on high spot and ever increasing numbers
of spear fishermen also concentrating on these same banks, this combined
with the fact that we have just not seen as many numbers of these giant
tuna this season.
Last weekend Wahoo Tournament out of La Playita was a success, a 54 lb.
specimen won jackpot honors. This weekend there is a new inaugural
tournament being held, Los Cabos Big Game. Anglers renting a charter boat
can enter free of charge, with $25 K in prize money guarantee, sounds like
a great deal. Anglers can enter one or both dates, participating charters
can depart from Cabos San Lucas, Puerto Los Cabos or Buena Vista. Will be
interesting to see how this goes, maybe next year with further advance
notice in order to promote increased interest, this could be a popular
format, with free entry, it is a no loose proposition, though the 7:30 a.m.
departure time was not to the liking of anglers wishing to target the ever
elusive wahoo.
Other action included drifting larger baits off the bottom structure for a
chance at hooking into a grouper or amberjack, though numbers were not
high, there were some impressive fish accounted for, amberjack to 40 lb.
and grouper to 70 lb. Inshore this past week we have seen more sierra
moving in, striking on trolled hoochies, as well as sardinas. A couple very
nice sized sierra of 8 to 9 lb. were brought in.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos
Marina sent out approximately 180 charters for this past week, with anglers
accounting for a fish count of: 9 striped marlin, 6 sailfish, 55 wahoo, 125
bonito, 6 roosterfish, 15 cabrilla, 8 grouper, 32 sierra, 170 dorado and
410 yellowfin tuna.
Good fishing, Eric
--
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson / Operator
619 488-1859
Los Cabos (624) 142-1147
e-mail:gordobanks@yahoo.com
WWW.GORDOBANKS.COM
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Nov 20, 2013; 05:35PM - GORDO BANKS PANGAS San Jose del Cabo November 17, 2013
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric Brictson
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GORDO BANKS PANGAS
San Jose del Cabo
November 17, 2013
Anglers –
As we near the Thanksgiving Holiday there continue to be large crowds of
anglers visiting the area, now being greeted with ideal weather conditions,
winds resided and anglers enjoyed comfortable seas, with water temperatures
averaging 80 degrees. Presently there is yet another low pressure spot some
400 miles to the southwest, threatening to push moisture into Southern
Baja, we have seen plenty of rainfall already, hopefully this will be
minimal. Heavy road construction on the main Hwy 1 now, so be cautious of
this.
Charter fleets have been fishing the grounds off the Pacific to Gordo Banks
and Vinorama in the direction of the Sea of Cortez. Wide open striped
marlin action was reported for fleets out of Cabo San Lucas while fishing
the Pacific banks, double digit catches were common. Dorado were found
spread throughout the area, a bit sporadic from day to day where the better
action was encountered, many dorado now in the 5 to 15 lb. class, some
larger bulls up to 20 lb. mixed in.
The more consistent all around action was found around the Iman Bank, this
is where yellowfin tuna up to 25 lb. were schooling, also dorado, wahoo,
sailfish and striped marlin were all found in this general vicinity. Drift
fishing with a mix of strip squid, fresh dead sardinas, which just started
being available this week, imported from as far as La Paz, they have proved
to be a good choice, other options included ballyhoo and caballito. Catches
were ranging from a couple fish per boat, up to 15, depending where you
happen to be, often the tuna were biting later in the morning, around 11:00
a.m., just like a switch was thrown, the yellowfin would decide to feed,
becoming active on the turn of the tide and change of current.
Skipjack have been prevalent on the fishing grounds and were being used for
chumming and chunk fishing, particularly on the Gordo Banks, where the
super cow sized yellowfin tuna have been lurking. On Tuesday local angler
Memo Rueda, aboard a 24 ft. center console named “Koi Sushi” hooked into a
super cow yellowfin tuna while drifting on the Gordo Banks, after a brutal
two hour battle Memo landed the monster which we officially weighed in at a
whopping 386 lb., this is the largest yellowfin tuna that we have weighed
in out of La Playita, the previous local record was a 378 lb. fish about
four years ago. I believe a couple of 400 lb. tuna have been brought into
Puerto Los Cabos Marina, though these were yellowfin tuna were taken off
large sportfishers from PV or distant banks, not from our local grounds.
These larger sized yellowfin have not been as numerous this season, though
everyday there have been hook ups, one or two, up to four or five. Chunks
of squid or skipjack, as well as whole baits have all accounted for
strikes. Other tuna taken from these banks this past week weighed 80 to 250
pounds.
Wahoo are definitely in the area, but recently they have not been wanting
to strike often, any slight change in water conditions could trigger these
elusive fish into action, this is peak season now for these highly sought
after gamefish. Limited numbers have been brought to the docks this past
week, though just yesterday one panga arrived with four large wahoo,
largest about 60 pounds. This Sunday is the annual Wahoo Tournament in La
Playita, so surely a team will need a fifty pound plus wahoo to win this
event, along with jackpot prize money is a new VW compact car up for grabs.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos
Marina sent out approximately 204 charters for this past week, with anglers
accounting for a fish count of: 17 striped marlin, 14 sailfish, 29 wahoo,
450 bonito, 1 yellowtail, 22 pargo, 8 rainbow runner, 4 roosterfish, 18
cabrilla, 18 sierra, 405 dorado and 540 yellowfin tuna.
Good fishing, Eric
--
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson / Operator
619 488-1859
Los Cabos (624) 142-1147
e-mail:gordobanks@yahoo.com
WWW.GORDOBANKS.COM
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Nov 20, 2013; 05:32PM - GORDO BANKS PANGAS San Jose del Cabo November 10, 2013
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric
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GORDO BANKS PANGAS
San Jose del Cabo
November 10, 2013
Anglers –
Weather patterns in Southern Baja California can often be unpredictable and
this past weekend we witnessed a surprise formation of a late season
tropical storm develop off to the west, before shifting directions and
heading east, passing just offshore of Cabo San Lucas on Sunday afternoon.
Tropical Storm Sonia made landfall near Culiacan, Sinaloa and was then
downgraded to a depression. This was an unusual event for this time of
year, though not unprecedented; remember the monsoon rains 20 years ago on
November 4, this drenched 25 inches of rainfall in 12 hours over San Jose
del Cabo. This latest system did drop up to 2 to 3 inches of rainfall in
isolated areas and there were steady winds of 30 mph plus, but this did not
last long and as the storm quickly moved past conditions cleared rapidly.
Ocean swells never did increase very much, winds apparently were not strong
enough to generate high swells. Conditions became stormy through Sunday
morning the local ports were officially closed to all smaller crafts and
did not reopen until about 7 a.m. on Monday. This was an inconvenience to
hundreds of anglers who were all set to go fishing on Sunday, this was an
act of Mother Nature and we were all fortunate that this only shut down
operations for one day.
The local climate has now settled and conditions are nearly perfect, sunny
skies, temperatures ranging from lows in the upper 60s to highs of about 84
degrees. Breezes were now predominately blowing out of the north, ranging
up to 15 mph. Ocean water temperatures were in 80/82 degree range
throughout the region, not much variance. Baitfish were now in extremely
high demand with so many numbers of charters to supply. Live caballito were
available, sardinas were very limited, schools of these baitfish are now
being found near Cabo San Lucas, only a percentage of charters were able to
obtain these baits. Other options for anglers were slabs of squid for strip
bait fishing and ballyhoo for troll rigging.
Local fleets were finding more consistent action on the fishing ground from
Santa Maria to Vinorama, versus the grounds on the Pacific. Overall the
action has been below normal standards, factors related to the relentless
winds and lack of sardinas, strong currents and gamefish migration patterns
all seem to play into this situation. We have seen signs of improvement the
past couple of days, more dorado being encountered than other species, most
of these fish under 15 lb., with an occasional bull up to 20 pounds.
Charters were using a mix of trolled lures, as well as drift fishing and
slow trolling various baits. Average catches ranged from 2 to 8 fish per
boat. Wahoo were scarce this past week, though everyday a handful were
accounted for. Areas near Iman to San Luis seemed to provide the best
chances for wahoo, anglers trolling rapalas and live baits reported
strikes, these fish have been averaging 25 to 50 pounds. We anticipate a
full other month of wahoo action, as water temperatures are still in
favorable range.
Yellowfin tuna action was not as consistent as would be expected, though
these fish are schooling in several areas, winds have not helped, the lack
of sardinas seems to be the main issue, but these factors can also change
on a daily basis, just as the weather can. Squid has been available at the
dock area most mornings and this has been used for chumming and strip bait
fishing for the yellowfin tuna, as well as dorado and others, even billfish
have been hooked into on these strips of squid. There are smaller grades of
yellowfin on the Iman, San Luis and Vinorama grounds, these fish ranged 10
to 20 pounds, though most anglers were fortunate to hook into these tuna,
they proved finicky this past week.
The larger yellowfin are congregated on the Gordo Banks, though they have
not been nearly as numerous this season as they have been in recent years,
though this is still the spot where you have the best chance at hooking
into a cow. Everyday there are reports of a handful of larger tuna hook
ups, many of which are lost after extended tug of war battles. Last cow we
weighed for the local panga fleet area was a 314 lb. on Saturday, Nov. 2.
We typically see these cow sized tuna stay in the area into the first half
of December, water temperatures and food source seem to determine when
these schooling fish migrate south.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos
Marina sent out approximately 210 charters for this past week, with anglers
accounting for a fish count of: 13 striped marlin, 11 sailfish, 16 wahoo,
32 bonito, 18 pargo, 12 rainbow runner, 20 triggerfish, 12 cabrilla, 22
sierra, 460 dorado and 145 yellowfin tuna.
Good fishing, Eric
--
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson / Operator
619 488-1859
Los Cabos (624) 142-1147
e-mail:gordobanks@yahoo.com
WWW.GORDOBANKS.COM
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Nov 18, 2013; 12:37PM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Capt. George Landrum
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
Nov. 12 - 17, 2013
WEATHER: The humidity we experienced at the tail end of last week decided to stay with us a while longer. We did have a couple of good days in the middle of the week when it dropped a few points, and that coincided with a 10 degree drop in the temperature, it quickly returned as it warmed back up. At the start and the end of this week our highs during the day was in the high 80's and the cool nights were still at 77 degrees. During the middle of the week we had two days where it was in the low 80's during the day and dropped to 68 degrees at night. On Saturday we had clouds move in from the southwest and they trapped the heat and humidity, and stayed around on Sunday. These clouds brought us a bit of wind on Saturday as well.
WATER: There were some bigger swells on the Pacific side this week, sometimes getting to 7 feet, but most of the week staying in the 3-5 feet class, plus there was little wind on top so almost no chop. On the Cortez side of the cape the swells remained small with the average at 3 feet and an occasional 5 foot swells, with little wind. Water temperatures on the Cortez side of the Cape stayed around 81 degrees and this warm water continued around the Cape into the Pacific side, across the San Jaime Bank. Everything to the north of the San Jaime showed a few degrees cooler, but the water was blue.
BAIT: Cabillito, a few Mackerel and a mix of other baits could be had for $3 each.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: If you have never caught a Marlin before and want a chance to get at least one (almost a guarantee) then you needed to be here this past week. From just off the beach to 3 miles offshore, from the lighthouse to Todo Santos and on the Golden Gate Bank the Striped Marlin have been feeding heavily on schools of Mackerel and Sardinas. Spotting feeding Frigate birds was the primary method used, once spotted feeding, the boats raced to the spot and threw out live bait, hoping to hook-up while the bait ball was on the surface. It did become a zoo after a while as boats raced to one spot to throw bait. Many boats opted for a more tranquil style of Marlin fishing and just drifted the area with rigged baits dropped down to 100 feet. Both methods worked very well, but running to the feeding fish was more exciting. My guess is that any boat that wanted to catch a Marlin this week was able to do so, and many boats caught two, three or four Marlin per trip.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We are still seeing mostly football size Yellowfin Tuna, and our fingers remain crossed that the big ones (or at least bigger ones) will show up soon. A few boats continue to soak bait on the high spots at the Gordo Banks, but risk having their live baits eaten by the seals in the area. Many boats have been venturing offshore on the Pacific side, traveling as far as 40 miles offshore trying to find schools of Tuna willing to bite. Very few have succeeded.
DORADO: Dorado have to share “fish of the week” honors with Striped Marlin this week, but at least they are back to making up a larger percentage of the catch. Action had tapered off a bit last week, but they seem to be here in force once again. For boats trying to get some meat, fishing that band of water on the Pacific side from the beach to 3 miles out has been the most productive. Since this is the area the Marlin have been in as well, its no surprise that boats catching one species were catching the other as well. There were plenty of limits to be had and the action was pretty steady throughout the day.
WAHOO: The occasional Wahoo continued to surprise anglers, and crews as well, as these toothy fish managed to snip many lures from leaders without anyone noticing! Boats that were using wire leader, or just happened to get hooked right, were bringing back fish averaging 30 pounds. There were not a lot of them, but enough to make each strike a possibility.
INSHORE: There is little change in this weeks inshore report from last weeks with the exception of the Marlin action. When the fish get close like this everyone gets in on the game, and it was not unusual this week for the Pangas to release several Striped Marlin each trip. We are still seeing a few more Sierra and small Yellowtail every week. With the Dorado action being so good just off the beach, there has not been much in the way of effort next to the beach so it is hard to tell exactly what is there, but reports from a few of the Panga captains I know show that there are still small Roosterfish (less than 5 pounds) and a scattering of Amberjack and Snapper.
FISH RECIPE: I am going to post this weeks fish recipe as a separate post on the blog, so check it out if you are looking for something new to try!
NOTES: Our fishing right now is about as good as it gets, with the exception of Tuna, so if you have any free time, get down this way for a couple of days fishing! You never want to hear the words “you should have been here last week”, and I never like having to say them, so treat yourself to an early Christmas present. Seahawks are playing Minnesota this afternoon so I will be watching that game, sure would be nice to see the Hawks win another one! This weeks report was written to the music of Alex DePue and Miguel De Hoyas on their CD “Underground Whispers”. Until next week, tight lines!
And as always, George writes this report
and posts to the blog on Sunday morning. So if you
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