Around 10% of the world's total fish species can be found just within the Great Barrier Reef.
Starfish can re-grow their arms. In fact, a single arm can regenerate a whole body.
Starfish do not have blood. Their blood is actually filtered sea water.
Starfish don't have brains. Special cells on their skin gather information about their surroundings
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.
In three decades, the world's oceans will contain more discarded plastic than fish when measured by weight, researchers say.
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.
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.
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.
A bit of Humor
My brother has 2 German Shepherds named Rolex and Timex. You guessed it they are Watch Dogs.
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
November 12 - 18, 2012
WEATHER: The birds are chirping outside this morning as they are very happy with this 73 degree weather, and so am I! We have been experiencing lows in the low 70's all week long and highs in the high 80's. Great weather, and everyone is commenting on it. We have had mostly clear skies this week with a few offshore and mountain area clouds, along the coastline it has been sunny. The wind has been light to non-existent with an occasional breezy hour or so in the late afternoon.
WATER: On the Pacific side of the Cape the water has been blue and the swells have been small at 3-5 feet early in the week and tapering down to 2-3 feet by weeks end. On the Cortez side the water has been a bit greener, but not really enough to be readily noticeable, and the swells have been 1-3 feet. Water on both sides of the Cape have been 82-84 degrees all week long with no apparent temperature breaks anywhere. With the light winds the water on the Cortez side yesterday looked like a mirror until noon, when a few breezes kicked in. On the Pacific side it was almost as smooth and flat.
BAIT: Our normal $3 each for Caballito and a few Mullet with some Sardines at $25 a bucket if you travel toward San Jose to get them. I know it's expensive, but trying for an hour to make your own bait really takes a chunk out of the fishing time, but it's always your choice. Frozen Ballyhoo at $3 each.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There were Blue Marlin this week as yesterday we had one client who had a double strike on them. Since he was fishing alone one was lost quickly but he managed to get the other one, estimated at between #200-#250 to the boat for pictures and a release. A couple who we had on another boat had a hook-up on another Blue estimated to be in the same size range but lost it after a short fight. Other boats reported strikes as well and these fish were within 3 miles of the beach on the Pacific side, caught while working the area for Dorado. In my report last week I said I had not heard of any Blues or Blacks being caught that week and I was notified via e-mail by a good friend that his Captain, who has caught Black Marlin as large as 742 pounds, had hooked one he estimated at 900 pounds on Thursday of last week. The boat was 15 miles to the south and they fought the fish for 6 hours, bringing it to leader 8 times before the line finally broke. You just never know what you are going to hook into out there! There were some scattered Striped Marlin along the coast line as well, but few of them were willing to eat a live bait, they were more interested in checking out the lures than anything else. Still, there were fish caught and as was the case last week, I thing the sucess rate was about 20%.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The current changed direction according to Captains who have been working the Gorda Banks looking for more of the big Tuna that were there for the Tuna Tournament. The shift in the direction has resulted in a shift in the fish as well and the methods that were taking fish are no longer working, the fish have to be there to catch them! Along the coast line on the Sea of Cortez there has been scattered concentrations of football to #25 Yellowfin, and chumming with Sardines has worked to bring them up where they can be caught. The only problem is weeding through the white Skipjack, but even these white Skipjack are good to eat and fight hard. Unless you are a die-hard big tuna guy, these fish offer lots of action and good table fare as well. Elsewhere the action has been spotty as there have been few Porpoise pods that have been holding tuna. Once in a while one is found and the first boat there has fantastic action on fish to 40 pounds, but for the most part these fish have been absent this week.
DORADO: Dorado have regained their title of “fish of the week”. We went through a three day dry spell as many of our anglers can attest, but that may have been due to the new moon on the 13th. By the 16th the action resumed on the Pacific side close to the beach. Being in the right place at the right time was key to a good catch close to home as the bite was early, and getting a fish hooked quickly resulted in others following it in. In the area from the Arch to Migraino Beach the fish were scattered in small groups. For boats willing to make a run of 1 ½ hours to outside Todo Santos at the end of the week, the action was wide open. A few boat charged a fuel surcharge to go there as that is quite a fuel consuming trip, but if you just chugged your way up there after running for ½ hour you missed the wide open bite, you still caught fish, but not as many. And these fish were decent sized, most of them in the #20 class or better. Boats working the inshore area on the Sea of Cortez caught Dorado while working for Yellowfin, but not in quantity and the fish were not as large. Remember, the limit is two Dorado per angler!
WAHOO: The only Wahoo action I heard of this week was at the end of the week in the Todo Santos area by boats that went there for the Dorado. One boat reported landing 5 Wahoo in one trip, but the fish were smaller sized, in the 12-20 pound class.
INSHORE: I don't think there was any change in the inshore fishing with the exception of a few decent Grouper being caught. Scattered small Roosterfish, not many of them but a few that averaged 10 pounds, a few Sierra on the Pacific side and a few early Yellowtail, not large but in the 10 pound range were pretty much the basis of the catch reported by the few Pangas that actually fish the conventional inshore fishery. Most of the Pangas were going for Dorado and Tuna, good action and more fun.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe! A really good one for Dorado!
NOTES: Thanksgiving is coming up and as we do every year, we are having 30 or so people over to the house for dinner. A 25 pound turkey in the oven, a prime rib on the grill, everyone bringing side dishes and drinks. I forgot what hard work it is to get the house presentable and everything set up. Boy, are we going to be busy this week. I think we will once again have a great time, last year we had 36 people and everyone enjoyed it. I hope your Holiday is a good one as well! Until next week, tight lines!
And as always, George writes this report
and posts it on Sunday morning. So if you
can't wait, click the 'FOLLOW' on the top of the
page! You will know whenever something new is posted!
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
San Jose del Cabo
November 18, 2012
Anglers –
Ideal weather patterns continue to attract crowds of anglers in the
direction of Southern Baja California. Warm sunny skies with temperatures
reaching into the 80s, variable winds, more predominate from out of the
north. Ocean swells were minimal, tidal swings are high now and water
temperatures are ranging from 80 to 84 degrees. Currents are appearing
favorable for an extended fall season, possible into the new year.
Last week WON held their annual Tuna Jackpot Tournament, this event is the
highest stake tuna tournament in the world and definitely lived up to its
billing once again. The majority of the 121 teams concentrated their
efforts on the Gordo Banks, as these fishing grounds had been the only
place where larger yellowfin had been consistently found for the past
month. Local knowledge would definitely be imperative, knowing exactly how
to fish these particular grounds is an art passed down through the
generations. In a story book ending, the local La Playita team aboard the
custom sportfisher “Estrella del Norte” pulled off first place honors with
an incredible super cow that weighed in at 372 pounds, walking away with a
check for $223 thousand dollars. Great achievement for these local anglers,
big congratulations goes out to team members James Rosenwald, Donald
Luhita, Carlos and Eduardo Beltran.
There is only one drawback to this tournament being held during the busy
fall season, as this puts tremendous pressure on the inshore bait source,
namely sardinas, as scores of these teams spend days gathering as many
freshly brined sardinas as possible in order to have the steady chum to
give them the possible edge needed to hook that winning fish. We have
noticed for the past several seasons that immediately following this event
there has been a significant shortage of baitfish available to supply the
busy charter fleets, commercial netters are scrambling to find sufficient
sources. There is a combined factor that these same baitfish follow
migratory patterns, but there is the issue of relentless pressure on the
available source that should be addressed and there should be set limits of
how much of a certain bait source a team can acquire.
Charter fleets have been fishing in areas where they have been able secure
baitfish, some days near Santa Maria and once again they are finding
batfish inshore near Vinorama, either spot has been a long run for boats
departing out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina. Punta Gorda and Iman Bank has
been producing action on yellowfin tuna in the 10 to 18 pound range, mixed
with skipjack and at times the fish are just coming to the surface in brief
periods of flurries. Some charters scratched to get three or four tuna and
others had their limits per angler. The larger sized yellowfin remain on
the Gordo Bank, but have become more elusive, heavy yacht pressure on the
Outer Banks does not make it easy for the normal day charter boats to be
able to drift fish how they normally prefer to do. Every day we are still
seeing a few fish in the 100 to 200 pound class being accounted for, but
this is for quite few boats, not a lot of hook ups considering how many
lines are in the water. We expect these yellowfin tuna to continue to hold
around the Gordo Banks as long as these conditions remain to their liking.
Wahoo have seemed to have had lockjaw this past week, there were scattered
reports of lines being cut off and baits sliced in half, but very few wahoo
have actually been brought in to the docks and this is the time of year
when we expect to see more activity for these prized gamefish. Perhaps we
will benefit from late season action, since water temperatures are still
holding a bit higher than normal.
The combined panga fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent
out approximately 215 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a
fish count of:
--
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson / Operator
619 488-1859
Los Cabos (624) 142-1147
e-mail:gordobanks@yahoo.com
WWW.GORDOBANKS.COM
Nov 12, 2012; 12:22PM - Cabo Bite Report
Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
Author Name: George Landrum
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
November 5 - 11, 2012
WEATHER: I love this time of the year in Cabo. We get the nice cool evenings when the temperature is right around 80 degrees, mornings with a slight chill with low 70's and daytime where you can warm up a bit in the low 90's. No sweaters needed at night, but no air conditioning either! This week we had mostly sunny days with light clouds for most of the week. The winds were light except on Saturday when they freshened up a bit, but they never got strong.
WATER: On the Cortez side of the Cape this week we were seeing water from the beach out to the 1,000 fathom line showing 82.4 to 84.4 degrees while just past this area the water warmed up to the mid 85 degree range and did touch 86 degrees in a few areas. The water was mostly clean and blue with a few of the area in cooler water showing a touch of green, but nothing easy to notice. Add in the flat water with little wind and no swells to speak of and it was like being on a pool table. On the Pacific side it was 81 to 83 degrees all along the coast line from the beach out past the banks. The water was clean and blue with small swells and almost no wind most days. It did blow a bit on Saturday but not hard enough or long enough to get the swells up, just a bit of chop. UPDATE 11/11/12: The wind yesterday continued to blow the rest of the day and increased over the night. We went to the Pacific side this morning and only made it half way past the lighthouse to the Los Arcos area before turning back. Swells had picked up to 4-6 feet with the wind at 15-20 knots. Boats running the beach made it farther up, avoiding the wind chop and current lines, but I can't imagine that the water conditions off the beach were much better. Wind is supposed to lay down to 8-10 knots tomorrow, and like today from the NNW.
BAIT: Same as last week, Caballito and Mullet could be had at $3 each. Once the water cools a few more degrees there should be a few Mackerel showing up as well. There were Sardinas at $25 a bucket and plenty of them as boats were supplying enough for the Tuna Tournament. You could get frozen horse Bally-hoo at $3 each.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I heard of no reports I could verify of any Blue or Black Marlin this week, and I spent two days with a friend looking for only those fish while the W.O.N. Tuna tournament was going on. There were some Striped Marlin caught, but almost all were on the Pacific side, close to the beach. A few boats were dropping live bait down halfway to the bottom or all the way to the bottom and getting a few hook-ups, and there were a few fish spotted tailing that were willing to eat a live bait. Just as last week, I estimate that about 20% or fewer of the boats were able to catch a Striped Marlin this week. There were also few Sailfish, though a couple were caught, and they were found on the Cortez side in the warmer water.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Fish of the week! The only reason they have edged out the Dorado is the number of boats that were targeting them this week. Thursday and Friday were the two fishing days for the Yamaha/Western Outdoor News Tuna Tournament and with 121 teams entered the pressure to find a big fish was heavy. Since practically the only area that has been producing any Yellowfin fish of quality has been the Gordo Banks, my friend Mike of”Renegade Mike” told me it was almost a parking lot with over 70 boats positioned on and around the area on the first day. The pressure was too much for some of the boats on the second day so they left and targeted Dorado and Wahoo instead. The results were impressive with the largest fish caught being 372 pounds! Mike caught the largest Tuna of day one with a #266 and ended up taking second overall along with a fish that would have been fourth place if the money had paid out that far. There were a dozen fish over 200 pounds caught during the tournament, and all but one came from the Gordo area. The tournament has no idea of the numbers of smaller fish but there were plenty of them! Most of these fish were taken by boats that were chunking bonito or chumming with Sardinas, and you were not getting bit if you did not have flouro-carbon leader, the fish were very shy. The only other area that produced Yellowfin was a school on the second day approximately 12 miles to the north of the Golden Gate Bank. I only saw 6 boats working this school, four of them flying kites, but one of the 200 pound fish was caught from this school.
DORADO: I think the results of the Tuna tournament speak of the Dorado fishing as far as size goes as there were no Dorado weighed over 30 pounds, even with $78,000 U.S. on the line the second day. But there were lot's of them out there! Almost all the action was on the Pacific side between the Los Arcos area all the way to Todo Santos. Fishing within two miles of the beach using drifted or slow trolled live bait, or fishing a spread of lures, every boat that tried was able to limit out on fish that ran from 10 to 20 pounds with a few to 25 pounds. As usual, getting the first one hooked up and leaving it in the water behind the boat resulted in more fish coming in and better catches. With most of the boats on the first day concentrating on Yellowfin the pressure on the Dorado was light, but on the second day of the tournament it picked up a bit. Now that the tournament is over you can expect the pressure on the Dorado to return as they are the base of the charter operations this time of year.
WAHOO: Once again Wahoo action was sporadic with quite a few small fish caught and no really large ones. The action was spread out all over the place with fish being caught around the Punta Gordo area and up off of Todo Santos. Looking for them along the 50 fathom line or closer in resulted in fish that were in the 20 pound class. The largest one weighed in during the Tuna tournament was only #30.4 and ended up taking the $78,000 prize in the Wahoo/Dorado category. My math makes that fish worth $2,565.78 a pound!
INSHORE: There was no change in the inshore fishing report for this week . You can almost consider the Yellowfin, Skipjack and Dorado bite as inshore fishing since the main concentration was in less than 300 feet of water, and since it has been so good, few of the Pangas did any fishing right on the beach. Those that did found a few smaller sized Roosterfish, plenty of Needle-fish, a scattering of Jack Crevalle but not a lot of anything else. I did hear of a few Sierra being caught, but not any large numbers.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe! A really good one for Dorado!
NOTES: The tournaments are now over and it is time to settle in for the season. It appears as if both the Tuna and Dorado may be here for a little while longer, at least for the next month or so. Hopefully the Striped Marlin bite will turn on soon. When we start to see more Mackerel in the bait supplies there should be more Striped Marlin showing. Remember, all I do is fishing (with a bit of golf thrown in) so you get a no non-sense, factual report on our conditions every week, and most of the time I have been on the water a day or two myself. I have had a few questions about how I get my information, and after 13 years here I have an amazing number of phone numbers that I work every week, besides by own experience. Combine the calls I make to Captains, I talk to great numbers of anglers, both clients and non-clients to find out how they did and where they went. This weeks report was written to the music of Brian Flynn once again as I am looking forward to his bands concert this Sunday at the outdoor amphitheater in the new cultural center. (Brian has played with Carlos Santana, Jeff Beck, Loverboy, Ralph Dinosaur, The Marshall Tucker Band, Molly Hatchett, Southern Rock Allstars and Guess Who). Looking forward to it! Until next week, tight lines!
And as always, George writes this report
and posts it on Sunday morning. So if you
can't wait, click the 'FOLLOW' on the top of the
page! You will know whenever something new is posted!
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
San Jose del Cabo
November 11, 2012
Anglers
–
This
time period always is one of the busiest of the year for the Los Cabos area, no
exception this season, as anglers from across the globe are arriving by the
plane load, with high expectations of fun times to be had by all. The weather
has been ideal, sunny skies, with highs in the lower 80s. Some moderate winds
blowing out of the north, but for the most part anglers enjoyed comfortable
ocean conditions. The last event of this season’s high stake fishing
tournaments is being held at this time, this is the WON Tuna Jackpot, with some
120 teams participating this year, surely there will be some monster fish
stories developing.
Ocean
currents are remaining a bit warmer than usual for this time period,
temperatures have ranged 82/84 degrees throughout most of the region. Clean
blue water is now moving right in close to the shoreline. Supplies of sardinas
also become scarcer during these high pressure times, just too many charters to
supply live bait to, the resource can be limited and these baitfish also have
their migratory patterns. Waiting for bait was worth the time if you were after
the fast action for the 10 to 20 pound yellowfin tuna, which were found within a
mile of shore, several spots were
holding schooling tuna, area off of Punta Gorda was one of the most productive,
also the Iman Bank had good numbers.
The
majority of charters out of San Jose del Cabo were concentrating on the inshore
grounds, where the yellowfin tuna dominated the action, lots of skipjack were
mixed in and there were scattered small schools of dorado. Wahoo were showing
more signs of activity, The Iman Bank early in the morning was one of the reefs
where these fish are now being encountered, many juvenile sized wahoo in the
area, a few wahoo in the 40 to 50 pound class were landed. Slow trolling trap
rigged larger sized baitfish or higher speed troll with Rapalas, purple once
again has been the hot pattern.
The
only place where anyone has heard about seeing or catching larger sized
yellowfin tuna in the Sothern Baja region has been on the Gordo Banks, this
action has been going on for the last month, tuna to over 300 pounds have been
taken, with scores of fish in the 150 to 250 pound class accounted for. Heavy
pressure on these yellowfin makes them even more finicky. All of these tuna are
striking on various baits, chunk, strip, whole baits, dead and live, active chumming
necessary to entice the fish to feed. The panga fleets did account for several
fish over 200 pounds this past week, the way the conditions seem now, this bite
could last through the next month.
Only
limited action being found off the bottom now, with a handful of amberjack,
snapper and cabrilla being the most common species, most of these fish were in
the 5 to 15 pound class. A few early season sierra are starting to patrol
inshore waters.
The combined panga fleets out of La Playita,
Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent out approximately 245 charters for the week, with
anglers accounting for a fish count of:
16 wahoo, 7 sailfish, 405 dorado, 1580
yellowfin tuna, 13 amberjack, 5 dogtooth snapper, 22 cabrilla, 22 sierra, 8
roosterfish, 20 pargo and 1250 skipjack .
Good Fishing, Eric
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson
Owner/Operator
619 488-1859
Los Cabos 011 52 624 142-1147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
gordobanks@gmail.com
WWW.GORDOBANKS.COM
Nov 5, 2012; 11:23AM - Cabo Bite Report
Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
Author Name: George Landrum
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
October 29-November 4, 2012
WEATHER: It was a pleasure this week to be out and about in Cabo as our daytime highs never seemed to top the mid 90's. That was the middle of the day and even then there was so little humidity it did not feel hot. At night we got into the mid 70's, not cool enough for a sweater but perfect for walking around. As a matter of fact, this week was perfect for hanging at the beach, getting out on the golf course or spending time on the water. With clear skies all week long plenty of visitors were able to work on their tans as well.
WATER: The Pacific side of the Cape had swells at 2-5 feet all week long, and with light breezes from the northwest most of the week there was some slight chop late in the day, but never anything uncomfortable. The water between San Jaime and Golden Gate Banks averaged 82 degrees while the water right along the beach was several degrees warmer. On the Cortez side the water was several degrees warmer at 85 degrees at the beginning of the week and dropping an average of ½ to 1 degree at the end of the week. With swells at small to non-existent the water was almost like glass with light wind riffles until Saturday. On Saturday the wind changed direction and started coming from the East. This gave a bit of chop to the water but with the small swells it was nothing to worry about. As the week went on the currents pushed the warmer water from the Cortez side across the tip of the Cape and it's influence was starting to be felt directly off of the Cape, which had been a continuation of the Pacific side early in the week.
BAIT: Caballito and Mullet could be had at $3 each, but the number of Mullet seem to be dropping off. Once the water cools a few more degrees there should be a few Mackerel showing up as well. There were Sardinas at $25 a bucket and you could get frozen horse Bally-hoo at $3 each.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The number of Striped Marlin caught this week was not impressive, my guess is that about 20% of the boats managed to get a billfish. A few boats managed to get their anglers into two fish, but they were the exception. Most of the action seemed to happen on the Pacific side right in the transition zone between the warm and slightly cooler water off of the beach, but there were also fish found on the Cortez side at the 95 Spot and the 1150, though those fish were more likely to just look at a lure or bait than eat. There are still a few Sailfish around as well, but once again they are not in the numbers we were seeing a month ago. I did not hear of any large Blue or Black Marlin being caught this week, but there were several small ones reported released, and I did see several small Blues brought into the main dock area.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There has been a very good bite on football sized Yellowfin tuna from 8 to 15 pounds near shore between Grey Rock and Palmilla this week. These Yellowfin are mixed in with “White” Skipjack in the same size range and have offered anglers great action all morning long as long as the Sardinas chum lasts. With these Skipjack being good eating, unlike the “Black” Skipjack (with the three black spots at the base of the pectoral fin) there has been plenty of good eating fish available. For larger Yellowfin almost the only other option was working the grounds at the Gorda Banks. There were not a large number of fish caught every day, but there were quality fish. Putting in the time while drifting live baits or slow trolling a down-rigger or chunking cut bait and Sardinas sometimes resulted in a cow Yellowfin over 200 pounds. Offshore the action was extremely slow as the pods of porpoise that were found tended not to have any fish associated with them. There were a few exceptions, but the fish were not large ones, mainly in the 20-30 pound class. I guess you can figure out where most of the boats in this weeks Tuna tournament are going to be fishing, huh?
DORADO: Good one week and not the next, then good again, what can we say? The Dorado action this week was very good with almost everyone wanting them coming in with limits. There was a lot of consistent, but scattered action along the Pacific coastline as boats worked their way from the arch all the way to Todo Santos. One fish here, two fish there, and so on until a limit was had. A few boats were able to find floating debris offshore and filled limits working one spot, but most boats on the Pacific had to cover ground. On the Cortez side, boats that were working the Yellowfin and Skipjack just off the beach also had some good Dorado action as the chumming attracted these fish as well. It seems that the fish found on the Pacific side were slightly larger averaging 15 pounds while the fish with the tuna were averaging 10 pounds.
WAHOO: Wahoo action was sporadic this week, unlike the action last week. A few fish were caught, and the heavy chumming by boats fishing tuna brought Wahoo as well as the Dorado into the area. There were a few baits cut off that the anglers never knew had been touched as the razor toothed fish swiftly sliced through the light mono leader, but still a few were landed. Boats trolling Rapallas and Marauders did fair as they worked the drop-offs along the beach and pulled them over the high spots, but a lot of time was spent for just a few fish overall.
INSHORE: You can almost consider the Yellowfin, Skipjack and Dorado bite as inshore fishing since the main concentration was in less than 300 feet of water, and since it has been so good, few of the Pangas did any fishing right on the beach. Those that did found a few smaller sized Roosterfish, plenty of Needle-fish, a scattering of Jack Crevalle but not a lot of anything else. I did hear of a few Sierra being caught, but not any large numbers.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: The big news this week is the Yamaha/Western Outdoor News Tuna Tournament. It is only $800 to enter so it is affordable to everyone, which has made it known as the Blue-Collar or Working Mans tournament. There are jackpots, drawings, prizes and parties galore. Registration is on Wednesday with the fishing taking place on Thursday and Friday with the awards ceremony on Saturday. You can get more information at the official website, www.loscabostunajackpot.com. It makes for a hectic week, and it's lots of fun. I have know teams to put together enough money to enter and never fish or plan to fish, they just want a chance to win the prizes and attend the parties! I will give the results in next weeks report if you want to check it out. This weeks report was written to the music of violinist Alex Dupue and guitarist Miguel De Hoyos on their album “Underground Whispers in A”. Google these guys and check out the music! Until next week, tight lines!
And as always, George writes this report
and posts it on Sunday morning. So if you
can't wait, click the 'FOLLOW' on the top of the
page! You will know whenever something new is posted!
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
San Jose del Cabo
November 4, 2012
Anglers –
The Los Cabos area is now bustling with anglers, visitors are enjoying
pristine weather conditions and with no new threatening storms forming at
this time, it appears this same favorable pattern will continue. Mornings
are cooler, light sweatshirt are recommended, skies have been clear,
pleasantly warm, reaching the low 80’s. Trade winds at daybreak were from
offshore and then the breeze would shift from out of the north/northeast.
At times the seas were choppy in the direction of Iman and the East Cape.
Ocean water temperatures were averaging 81/84 degrees and clean blue water
is now found within a mile shore.
Anglers found comfortable seas, particularly closer to shore, where some of
the most consistent fishing action for the past few weeks has been. The
grounds off of Santa Maria to Cerro Colorado have produced a quality mix of
yellowfin tuna, skipjack, dorado and wahoo. No significant numbers of wahoo
yet, but everyday some are being hooked into on trolled lures, Rapala XRaps
in purple have been taking a good share of strikes. The majority of the
wahoo strikes reportedly were taken earlier in the day, then the action on
the yellowfin tuna skipjack and dorado dominated the bite. Yellowfin tuna
in the 10 to 16 lb. class were schooling with what the locals refer to as
“white skipjack”, very feisty aggressive fish which are fair eating as
well, unlike the black skipjack
The recent full moon was exceptionally bright and seemed to slow the action
down a notch or two. Heavy boat pressure now as well, Los Cabos is no
longer the small fishing town it was, hard to keep a hot spot secret, the
word is out that the cow sized yellowfin tuna are schooling on the Gordo
Banks. Everyday tuna of 200 pounds are being landed, no great numbers, but
there are a handful of impressive sized tuna being landed daily. Some days
more than others, at times the yellowfin would show breezing the surface or
be seen feeding in the chunk bait slick, these fish are present in force,
but are finicky to bite, all of these larger grade of tuna are striking on
various baits, live, dead, chunk or combinations. Anglers are now mainly
drift fishing baits while chumming, normally a recipe of sardinas mixed
with chunks of skipjack. It is wise to use heavier 80 pound tackle,
fluorocarbon 80 to 120 lb. has been most common leader, as these tuna
became progressively more line shy through the past week. Largest yellowfin
tuna brought in this week for the local panga fleet was landed by Michael
Brady of Pasadena and weighed in at 280 pounds. Brady was fishing aboard
the 23 ft. “Katie” with skipper Jesus Pino on the Gordo Banks, fish
apparently hit on a couple of dead sardinas mixed with a piece of skipjack
chunk bait. Other specimens up to 260 lb. were brought to the docks and of
course many big fish were lost after long battles due to broken lines or
pulled hooks.
During the full moon period baitfish are often harder to find, they seem to
scatter into deeper waters. Despite having to search harder, bait netters
were able to find sufficient supplies of sardinas and these have definitely
been the choice of bait necessary for the inshore football tuna, skipjack
and dorado action. Larger concentrations of schooling sardinas were found
from Palmilla, towards Santa Maria, on some days pangeros were able to find
the baitfish in close proximity of the PLC jetty entrance. Depending on
where charters were able to obtain bait dictated on which fishing grounds
were in practical range. For this reason not that many numbers of charters
did fish the Iman to San Luis area this past week, those that did had mixed
reports, encountering wind chop, some anglers reported one or two fish and
others caught eight to ten. A mix of dorado, tuna and a chance at wahoo.
The yellowfin found around Iman Bank were larger than the fish off of Santa
Maria, some of these were to 20/25 pounds.
Not much bottom action these days, with tuna and other surface species now
available most charters are targeting these fish. As water temperatures
drop a few degrees we expect some better options for bottom dwellers to
open up.
The combined panga fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent
out approximately 182 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a
fish count of:
--
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson / Operator
619 488-1859
Los Cabos (624) 142-1147
e-mail:gordobanks@yahoo.com
WWW.GORDOBANKS.COM
Oct 29, 2012; 12:58PM - Cabo Bite Report
Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
Author Name: George Landrum
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
October 23 - 28, 2012
WEATHER: I really don't know what to say except to mention what a great pleasure it has been to once again get through the heat and humidity that summer time brings to us here in the southern part of the Baja Peninsula. When our nighttime lows stay in the mid 70's and the daytime highs stay in the low 90's it is about as good as it gets, compared to what we had for the past three months. In another few months we will be even cooler as the temperature at night drops to the low 60's, but this weather I would prefer to have year round! We had very light clouds this week and while the beginning of the week started off a bit windy, by the end of the week we were experiencing just light breezes. The week started with moderate winds from the northwest, picking up in the afternoon, and ended with light breezes from the northeast in the morning, dying to nothing in the afternoon.
WATER: On the Sea of Cortez side of the Cape we had water at 84-85 degrees inside the 1,000 fathom line most of the week, with the exception on Friday when a hot spot of 87 degree water formed across the 1150 to the 95 spot and out to the 1,000 fathom line. For most of the week there was a good temperature break at the 1,000 fathom line as well with the water to the northeast being 2 degrees warmer than the water to the southwest. Surface conditions on the Cortez side were great all week as well with swells at 2-4 feet early in the week and dropping to 1-3 feet later in the week. On the Pacific side we were seeing the water between the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks at 84-85 degrees with swells at 3-6 feet early in the week and dropping to 2-4 feet later in the week. In between the Cortez and the Pacific we had a late intrusion of cooler water at 82-83 degrees, coming in to almost three miles of the arch. The water was slightly cleaner on the Pacific side than it was on the Cortez side this week.
BAIT: Same bait report as last week. Sardines could be had here in Cabo this week, probably due to the demand of the tournament boats who use them to catch skip jack and small Yellowfin for bait. A scooped bucket would set you back $25, but they were in much better shape than the Sardines we were getting earlier in the week from bait boats farther north. Caballito and Mullet could be had easily at $3 each, and there were frozen Bally-hoo for $3 each.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Our big money Marlin tournament season is over now that the Bisbee Black and Blue is finished, at least the tournaments for big Marlin. Next week is a small tournament with the Trip Advisor website members, then the W.O.N. Tuna tournament in November. Next year we will see more tournaments that focus on Striped Marlin in the Spring. Statistics can do funny things to your thinking, and as I did last week in the report, this week I am going to lay a few more on you, based on the three day Black and Blue tournament that just finished. There was 106 teams fishing three days for 318 boat days on the water, with big Marlin as the focus. There were 67 billfish caught, 1 Spearfish, 4 Sailfish, 4 Black Marlin, 19 Blue Marlin and 39 Striped Marlin. Based on this, it took 4.75 boat days to get a Marlin this week. Pretty sad stats, and when there was only one Marlin caught over 300 pounds it almost makes me cry. (The team that caught the 2.4 million dollar fish is not crying!) Once again I have to remind you that the stats for normal charters would be much better as the focus for most of the boats in the tournament was big Blue or Black Marlin over 300 pounds, or numbers of smaller sized Blues or Blacks. None of these boats focused on Striped Marlin, which is the most common species here, as evidenced by the comparative number caught during the Tournament. In conclusion, while the possibility of getting a Blue or Black to the boat was fairly small, the chances of hooking into a Striped Marlin, if you focused on that, was fairly good, probably at twice the rate of the Marlin hook-ups experienced by the tournament anglers.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: With the Black and Blue Tournament going on, and since Tuna did not count in any category, the pressure on the Tuna was pretty slack. Not that there were many out there, but those that were caught were pretty decent fish. There were scattered pods of Dolphin to the south 30 miles and to the west the same distance, and some of these pods produced a few Yellowfin to 35 pounds, but once again the focus for big fish was on the Gorda Banks area. Charter boats drifting, slow trolling or flying live bait off of kites were getting the occasional bite from fish that occasionally exceeded 300 pounds (314 for one boat) but most of them were between 100 and 200 pounds. It took a while, you had to have patience. One of our friends worked the area for two days and managed to get a nice 158 pound fish.
DORADO: The Dorado bite experienced a sudden drop this week and I am not sure why. Plenty of charters were working both the inside and the outside area of the Pacific coastline and most were lucky to get three or four fish, there were no really large concentrations found. Boats that did well were ones that were willing to lose their first fish to get more. Leaving that first fish in the water and slow trolling it 30 feet behind the boat until more fish appeared was the trick, and it works much of the time. We had one fly-fishing client this week who did very well, it's often hard to get enough shots at a fish on the fly rod, but if your target is Dorado, this method as well as heavily chumming with Sardines works very well. On the Cortez side there were Dorado appearing in fair numbers off of the Cabo Del Sol area as tournament boats were heavily chumming the area early in the morning attempting to get those big Skipjack for live bait. With 30 or 40 boats tossing Sardinia in the water the Dorado came in and there were quite a few caught. I didn't see any really large Dorado come in, or hear of any large ones, most of the fish were between 10 and 15 pounds, but there were a couple of big fish caught by tournament boats, at least I assume they were big as the teams reported the hook-ups on the radio before reporting them as non-qualifying species.
WAHOO: The full moon did produce more Wahoo than were caught last week. During the tournament our team caught a 60 pound fish the first day. While not worth any money in the tournament, it sure was good to eat! Other boats reported hooking up Wahoo as well, and there were a decent number caught by the charter fleet. I did hear of one boat getting two 30 pound fish one day. The action on these fish was scattered and not concentrated in any one area.
INSHORE: The slow down in the Dorado bite had many of the panga anglers crying this week. Last week was absolutely great, but there was a dearth of action off the beach this week. One of the saving graces was that area off of Cabo Real early in the morning as the numbers of white Skipjack and scattered Dorado at least produced action. For the normal inshore species such as Roosterfish, Jacks, Grouper and Snapper, the action was slow as well. Fishing on the Cortez side of the Cape just off the beach produced most of the action as this was the side of the Cape that was holding the Sardinia schools.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: In a couple of days I am going to produce a short blog with some number crunching concerning the tournaments we have just had, so check it out. I had a great time fishing this week, just wish our team, “Sporty Game” had gotten our big bite on Thursday hooked up. Oh well, next year! We did get that nice Wahoo as well as a Dorado while bait fishing, so there were fish in the boat, just not the right kind. I would like to thank Mary for keeping the blog updated with the tournament results while I was out fishing, great job honey! Also, a big thank you to Mark Bailey for turning me on to the group “Two Tons of Steel”, this is the first time I had heard of them. Based out of San Antonio, they are described as a “rockabilly” group. However you want to describe them, they are fun to listen to! Until next week, tight lines! Oh, don't forget that Cabo has changed their time already, last night we set our clock back when we went to sleep. This is one week earlier than in the states, so don't get confused when you get down here!
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
San Jose del Cabo
October 28, 2012
Anglers –
The Los Cabos area is now bustling with visiting anglers, this is peak fall
season, weather conditions are once again ideal, after last week’s deluge
from Hurricane Paul, the horizon remains clear, days have been sunny,
cooler early in the morning, but by afternoon temperatures warm to 85
degrees. Over 700 anglers participated in this year’s Bisbee Black and Blue
event, look for many stories to be told, as there is always some sort of
drama involved. Sportfishing charters are traveling in all directions now,
from the Pacific grounds to Los Frailes, in search of that special catch of
a lifetime.
There are more persistent winds now starting to blow out of the north,
typical fall conditions, maybe a bit earlier than normal. This combined
with shorter daylight hours has also contributed to a cooling trend for the
ocean, now averaging about 80 degrees outside of Cabo San Lucas and up to
82/84 degrees in the direction of the Sea of Cortez.
This annual cooling trend of local ocean currents is what usually triggers
the elusive wahoo into becoming more active. We have seen more wahoo in
recent days, still not a wide open bite, but considering the heavy pressure
and still slightly off colored post storm waters, there has been some
decent action found for these speedsters. Some charters reported as many as
a half of dozen strikes and up to four wahoo landed. The ‘hoo were striking
various baitfish, as well as trolled skirted lead heads or Rapalas. Most of
the wahoo landed were in the 20 to 40 pound class, there were some small
juveniles mixed in, nice gesture to release these, also there were at least
several wahoo over 50 pounds accounted for. We look for this action to peak
during the next couple of months, wahoo typically stay in the Southern Baja
area until the ocean temperatures drop into the lower 70 degree range,
which on a warm water year can be into January.
This past week started off with a flurry of big yellowfin tuna being landed
off of the Gordo Banks, there were several fish in the 250 pound class
weighed in, with others in the 100 to 230 lb. range. There were reports of
a couple of super cows over 300 pounds accounted for by private
sportfishers. There has been a better chance now at hooking into a big tuna
as a big marlin, which are the species that tournament teams are searching
for, only marlin weighing over 300 pounds count in the Bisbee Jackpot. The
yellowfin were striking on chunk bait, sardinas, chihuil, skipjack and
cocinero. The tuna bite slowed during the heavy pressure of the Bisbee,
this next week will be the time WON Tuna Jackpot teams search out and plan
strategy for the big Tuna event slated for the second week of November,
looks like this year our local teams will have an advantage, having the
knowledge of how to fish the Gordo Banks when the fish become spooked form
heavy boat pressure.
Normal everyday charters have been fishing off of Santa Maria for a
combination of skipjack, yellowfin tuna, dorado and wahoo, this action is
all within several miles of shore. The yellowfin tuna have had to battle
the aggressive skipjack to reach the bait, most of the yellowfin in this
area have been 10 to 15 pounds, striking on sardinas. Dorado and wahoo are
also hitting baits, as well as lures being trolling around the perimeter of
the charters that were drift fishing with bait. The Iman Bank was another
popular area being concentrated on, slightly larger grade of yellowfin, up
to 25 pounds, with skipjack, dorado and wahoo in the vicinity. There has
been only an occasional amberjack, cabrilla or dog snapper off the bottom.
The bait situation for obtaining live sardinas always become stressed
during this busy period, on some days the commercial netters found sardinas
off of the PLC Marina jetties, but this has not been as consistent as the
sources found from Palmilla towards Santa Maria, this situation has a
direct bearing on which direction the boats launching out of La Playita can
practically reach once they do secure their daily bait rations.
The combined panga fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent
out approximately 212 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a
fish count of:
--
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson / Operator
619 488-1859
Los Cabos (624) 142-1147
e-mail:gordobanks@yahoo.com
WWW.GORDOBANKS.COM
Oct 22, 2012; 12:15PM - Cabo Bite Report
Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
Author Name: George Landrum
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
October 14-22, 2012
WEATHER: Once again the great weather continues! This week our nighttime lows were in the mid 70's and the daytime highs stayed in the low 90's. Combine that with a humidity level that has been in the mid to high 20% range, sunny skies and light breezes and you can understand why this is the perfect time to be here. Not only that, but if you are a fisherman, the action this week, and normally this time of year, has been great!
WATER: On the Pacific side of the Cape this week we had blue water, really blue to the north of the lighthouse and just a slightly off-color blue closer to home, at least late in the week. Very early in the week the water close to home and off of the lighthouse was a dirty green. This was probably due to the large swells produced by the passing of Hurricane Paul. Later in the week the water on the Pacific had swells in the 2-5 foot range with a bit of wind picking up in the afternoons putting some chop on the water within 6 miles of the beach, but it was a bit smoother farther offshore. Water temperatures have been between 81 degrees offshore to the north to 85 degrees 10 miles off the beach inside the San Jaime Bank area. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water has been just a bit off color with an occasional spot of dirty water, but for the most part very fishable. The temperatures have been 85 degrees with a few areas showing as high as 88 degrees. Swells have been small to non-existent at 1-3 feet with no wind within 20 miles of shore.
BAIT: Sardines could be had here in Cabo this week, probably due to the demand of the tournament boats who use them to catch skip jack and small Yellowfin for bait. A scooped bucket would set you back $25, but they were in much better shape than the Sardines we were getting earlier in the week from bait boats farther north. Caballito and Mullet could be had easily at $3 each, and there were frozen Bally-hoo for $3 each.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I am going to give some data here, then some explanations, so be ready. First off, there were two Billfish tournaments held in Cabo this week, the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament, scheduled for three days but fished only two days due to swells from the passing of Hurricane Paul on Tuesday, the first day scheduled. The second tournament was the Bisbee Los Cabos Offshore Tournament, fished on Saturday and Sunday. This tournament is the reason the report is a day late, I was fishing in it. What we have then are 37 boats fishing the first tournament for two days and 80 boats fishing the second for 2 days, a total of 234 fishing days. During that time frame there were a total of 51 billfish either brought in or released, an average of just under 1 fish for four days of fishing. That's not a great statistic, especially for an area known as the billfish capital of the world, but here is a quick explanation. Most of the boats fishing these tournaments were fishing for large Marlin. There were three fish weighed in over 300 pounds among the 51 caught, a 483 pound Black Marlin, a 583 and a 565 pound Blue Marlin. 1 Black Marlin, 12 Blue Marlin, 23 Striped Marlin and 13 Sailfish were released. These numbers would have been much higher, if the weights smaller, if the target for the tournaments would have been numbers instead of size. On the boat I fished, we only pulled very large lures for a reason. Elephants eat peanuts, but so do monkeys, and we only wanted elephants, so we did not pull anything a monkey could eat. Many boats did the same thing. So there you go, for a tournament, 1 fish per 4 days is a bit slow here, but the average was higher for regular charters. The catch per unit of effort was about the same for both tournaments, so it appears that the moon phase has not had a great effect so far. That could change for the Black and Blue Tournament coming up this week as the moon will be just before full instead of coming off new phase into the first quarter.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin were the high point of the past week for many boats fishing, both in the tournaments and regular charters. Some stats for you that might make you thing about coming down and entering the Tuna Tournament the first week of November: 4 tournament days of fishing, with very few boats targeting Yellowfin resulted in tuna weighing 247 and 227 in the first tournament, and in the second tournament the top five weighed in were 314, 299, 276, 234 and 218. That's 7 fish over 200 pounds, a better success ratio by 100% than that of large Marlin. This is not counting the fish that were under 200 pounds! Many of these large fish were caught off of the inner and outer Gorda Banks, an area that has been producing some large fish for the past few weeks. Slow trolling live skip jack and Bolito on the surface or on down-riggers produced the hook-ups. The success rates on the hook-ups is probably higher than normal for a couple of reasons. One is that most of the tuna were caught by boats trying to catch a large Black Marlin, so the gear was much stronger than that used by normal charters, and the fact that most of the baits were fished on very strong flouro-carbon leader, 400 to 500 pound breaking strength. There were Tuna caught in other areas as well, and some of them were very nice sized, with a few in the 100 class and most in the 25-35 pound class. Boats working the outside of the Cabrillo Seamount, the south side of the San Jaime Bank and the north side of the Golden Gate Bank found dolphin pods that held fish. Some of the dolphin looked like a catch would be guaranteed, dolphin feeding everywhere and hundreds of birds working, only to produce no strikes, but if you kept searching you would find a pod with fish on it eventually. Making a 20 to 30 mile run to get to the fish was the only issue, once out there it was a matter of time for most boats. Small lures, large lures, it didn't seem to matter, if the fish were hungry they would eat. If not, go find the next school.
DORADO: It might be a tie this week for fish of the week between the excellent Tuna fishing we have been experiencing and the large numbers of Dorado that showed up once again. It did take a couple of days at the start of the week for the fishing to pick back up after the passing of Hurricane Paul, but it did get better. Not all boats were able to get limits but most were able to get enough Dorado to keep anglers happy, then on Friday one boat found a very large dead whale just to the south of the Golden Gate Bank. Mike reported that he saw “thousands” of Dorado around the whale when he arrived, the first boat on the scene. They released all the small ones and kept their limit of fish over 20 pounds, eventually releasing 25 fish that were smaller. Other boats came in on the action and did very well, and on Saturday it was a parking lot, albeit a stinky one if you were downwind, but by the afternoon the bite had died off. Still, most of the boats were able to catch limits of good sized fish for two days. Elsewhere, there was a decent bite along the Pacific shoreline out to two miles from the Los Arcos area to Todo Santos, and a scattering of fish on the Cortez side. The tournaments had Dorado of 54, 45, 42, 41 and 40 pounds as the top 5 fish for the second tournament and 42, 39 and 28 for the first tournament. Imagine the numbers if Dorado had been the target instead of Marlin!
WAHOO: We did not hear of any Wahoo being caught in the tournaments this week, even though there was a category for them in the first tournament. Also, there were none I heard of from the charter fleets, but possibly a few were caught.
INSHORE: Early in the week the large surf conditions from the passing of Hurricane Paul made fishing close to the shore dangerous. Later in the week there were some small Roosterfish as well as some Amberjack caught, and a half-way decent bite on Snapper and Grouper by those fishing the bottom. Most of the Pangas in the early and mid week were fishing just offshore for Dorado. At the end of the week the fishing outside of the Cabo Real area in 200 feet of water turned on for football Yellowfin and large White Skipjack, something for the tournament boats to keep in mind next week!
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: This report may be a bit longer than normal, but it has been a while since I have had this many days on the water in a row. Being out there makes it so much more detailed, just wish I was fishing myself four or five days a week instead of one or two if I am lucky! Our fingers are crossed for a big fish in the coming Black and Blue tournament, we will be fishing Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. If you want to follow the live action you can log onto the Bisbee website and click on “live action”. Hopefully you will see “Sporty Game” on the leader-board! OK, off to post this and then get the lawn cut. My music for this week was “Black Joe Lewis and the Honey Bears” on their CD “Scandalous” on Lost Highway Records. He sounds like the new James Brown! Thanks for the CD Mark! Until next week, tight lines!
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
San Jose del Cabo
October 21, 2012
Anglers –
Crowds of visiting anglers are increasing daily, all are arriving
anticipating the exciting tournament season in Los Cabos. We were fooled
over last weekend by a storm system which developed into Hurricane Paul.
This late season front appeared to be harmlessly headed off to the west,
but turned back towards land and caused havoc throughout the Baja
Peninsula. Southern Baja received substantial rainfall on Monday and
especially on Tuesday morning, along with wind gusts to 40 mph, Los Cabos
was fortunate, as this was from the backside of Paul, other areas to north
suffered much more damage. Ports were closed for Monday and Tuesday, with
operations resuming on Wednesday morning. Once again road crews are working
overtime to clean up the mess from flooding.
Swells peaked at about 4 meters on Tuesday morning, but with each passing
day ocean conditions are settling and clarity is improving, water had
become very murky from the desert run off. Blue water is being reported
again and we expect action to improve as conditions rebound. Ocean water
temperatures are now averaging 85 to 87 degrees. Baitfish have become more
scattered after the recent storm passed through. Sardinas were now being
found most commonly off of the beaches from Palmilla to Santa Maria.
Before the storm there had been a great bite for yellowfin tuna off of the
Cabeza Ballena and Santa Maria area. The tuna were mostly in the 10 to 15
pound range, with lots of skipjack mixed in and a few dorado. These fish
would hit on trolled rapala or hoochies, but the live sardinas were the
best bet for really getting into the fast action. The fishing grounds north
of Punta Gorda were starting to feel some affect from north winds, pushing
baitfish down and stirring up the water, with the live sardinas being in
the other direction, this is when the bite off of Santa Maria came to life
last week, very fun action on light tackle for the football model yellowfin
tuna, though the skipjack proved to be even too numerous to deal with at
times.
On Wednesday, the first day fleets resumed charter operations, even though
live sardinas were scarce, there were good numbers of yellowfin caught off
of Santa Maria, the bite had picked right off from how it had been
pre-storm. However the next day, Thursday, the skipjack completely
dominated the action and most people never even saw a tuna, besides scores
of the feisty skipjack there was an average of one dorado per boat was
accounted for. We do expect to see the larger tuna to become active once
again on the Gordo Banks.
With offshore conditions once again quickly improving, we are anticipating
some great action to develop just in time for the crowds of anxious anglers
to take advantage of. Next week is the Bisbee Black and Blue event, the
granddaddy of all billfish tournaments in the world, will be interesting to
follow all of the story lines that develop from this year’s jackpot.
This was a rain shortened week, then we were dealing with murky water
conditions that slowed down the action, we are now just waiting for things
to get back on track and hoping that we have no more rainfall for a while.
Weather is great now, cooler mornings, with warm sunny days and no new
storm on the horizon.
The combined panga fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent
out approximately 108 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a
fish count of:
--
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson / Operator
619 488-1859
Los Cabos (624) 142-1147
e-mail:gordobanks@yahoo.com
WWW.GORDOBANKS.COM
Oct 15, 2012; 11:51AM - Cabo Bite Report
Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
Author Name: George Landrum
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
October 8 - 14, 2012
WEATHER: With the early morning lows in the high 70's and daytime highs reaching the high 90's it's plain that our fall weather has arrived. Soon we should be seeing the highs drop to the low 90's and then we will be in paradise! At this time of the year we still have a slight chance of a bit more bad weather, but our fingers are crossed that Tropical Storm Paul, 665 miles to the south of us continues going to the west and leaves us alone. We had no rain this week in Cabo but there were some scattered showers up in the mountains. With mostly sunny skies we enjoyed the light winds and smooth water.
WATER: Both sides of the Cape had great conditions this week with a bit more of a breeze on the Pacific side, just enough for the most part to keep anglers comfortable and put a light chop on the water in the afternoons. The swells on the Pacific were small at 2-6 feet and spaced well apart. The water was clean and blue compared to the Cortez side of the Cape and the water temperatures averaged a degree cooler at 84-86 degrees with the warmer water laying along the shoreline. On the Cortez side the water was 85-87 degrees with the cooler water toward Cabo San Lucas, and while not as clean as that on the Pacific side, appeared blue. The swells on the Cortez side were small at 2-4 feet. The swells may pick up just a bit later in the week as Tropical Storm Paul may have an effect on their size, but being storm swells they will be spaced well apart.
BAIT: Finally there were some Sardinas available this week since the swell went down, but you had to travel toward San Jose to get them. A scoop would set you back between 25-30 U.S. But they sure came in handy depending on what you were fishing for. Here at home the usual Caballito and Mullet could be had for $3 each, and there were some very large horse bally-hoo at $3 each as well.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Now for the good stuff as far as tournament anglers are concerned. Sorry guys, good news and bad news for you. First the bad news, there have been no large Blue or Black Marlin brought in this week that I have heard of. Maybe that's good news though, it means that they are still out there! The good news is that there have been plenty of small Blue Marlin caught, and most of them have been released. For anglers that are entering the release categories in the tournaments this is very good news, and for everyone else it is good news as well. In my experience, when you find packs of these small male Blue Marlin there is a big female somewhere in the area. Almost without exception Blue marlin over 300 pounds are female and 100% of the Blue Marlin over 400 pounds are female. The males are like dog heat packs and somewhere in the area there is a big female. I did hear of a big Black Marlin being lost on the Gorda Banks, so there are sure to be plenty of boats working both the inner and outer banks during the tournaments.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The only large Yellowfin Tuna I have heard of in the past week came from the Gorda Banks area from boats fishing with live baits and chunk baits. There were fish caught every day but there was no real set time for the bite to happen. Many boats spent all morning fishing the area only to leave at 1pm to get home at 3pm and find that the bite started at 2pm. Hey, it's fishing, that happens often! Many boats went offshore as far as 40 miles looking for schools and they occasionally found one, but the fish were just average size, 10 to 35 pounds, and many pods of porpoise had to be found before finding one that held fish. Unless you were lucky, of course. Closer to home it was nice to find the small football Yellowfin and Bonita showing up on the usual inshore grounds between San Jose and Grey Rock. These Yellowfin were between 10 and 20 pounds and almost the only way to get them to bite was by using Sardinas. The bite was neither steady nor consistent, but many of the boats managed to get four or five Yellowfin in the box for clients. This is great news for the tournament teams as we have had a dearth of these fish in our area, and they are a favorite of teams looking to slow troll on the banks and drop-offs.
DORADO: I have changed the status of the Dorado from fish of the week to fish of the month! While not every boat this week limited out, there were many more that did than did not. Most of our anglers this week had limits of Dorado between 10 and 20 pounds in the boat by 9:30 in the morning, then went out looking for Sailfish, Striped Marlin and Tuna. Most of the Dorado fishing occurred on the Pacific side close to the shore, between the lighthouse and inside the Golden Gate Bank, working outside of that area produced fewer fish, but on the average they were larger, some going as high as 50 pounds. Rigged bally-hoo were the best bait overall, and bright lures trolled at fairly high speeds of 9-10 knots did the trick as well.
WAHOO: Wahoo continued to show up in the catch of many of the boats this week, but on average they were not large fish like we see in the spring. In fact, there were quite a few of what I call Wee-Hoo, fish in the 3-5 pound class caught. Almost all the fish were found close to the beach by boats working for Dorado, at least those that were found on the Pacific side. On the Cortez side quite a few were hooked by boats drifting bait or chunks for Yellowfin Tuna on the Gorda Banks or the mounts farther to the north.
INSHORE: In a repeat of last week, there were scattered Roosterfish in the areas beaches, both on the Pacific side and the Sea of Cortez, but most of the pangas were working just off the beach on the Pacific side for Dorado first, then checking in the surf zone for Snapper and Roosterfish. If anglers wanted Yellowfin a choice had to be made between the Pacific and the Cortez side, as all the Yellowfin were on the Cortex side. Boats that did focus on the inshore fish reported few bottom fish to be found.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: My music choice for this week was a girl my wife heard sing jazz at a firefighters fundraiser. She was so impressed she bought me the CD, and I like it so much I am sharing it with you. Her name is Divier Guive, the CD is self titled and produced here in Cabo at “Home Studio”. If you want a chance to check her out, go to www.reverbnation/divierguive and click on the song Humo azul. By the way, Brian Flynn is here for just a few weeks more before he goes on hid European tour, so if you are here and want to hear him and Mauricio play, get in while the getting is good. Check him out at his site www.brianflynnband. Tournament season is here and coming up in the next several weeks are the Los Cabo Offshore Tournament and the Bisbee Black and Blue Tournament. I will be fishing both so please, keep you fingers crossed for my team, “Sporty Game”! Until next week, tight lines!
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
San Jose del Cabo
October 14, 2012
Anglers –
We are seeing larger crowds of anglers arriving daily, as this is now the
start of the peak fall season, time when weather patterns stabilize,
fishing is great and there is much excitement with the many high stake
tournaments just around the corner. Weather is more comfortable now,
mornings actually have a slight chill to them, days are clear and warm and
breezes are predominately from the north. Ocean water temperature is
ranging from 85 to 88 degrees, warmest areas in the direction of San Jose
del Cabo. There is a low pressure system forming to the south at this time,
but it looks as though it will head west and stay clear of the Baja
Peninsula. There has been a trend for the last few years that late season
storms have developed later in October, with the water being so warm,
anything could happen, we will hope that they stay clear of impacting our
area.
Fleets are fishing in all directions, off of San Jose the best areas have
been either around the Iman Bank or on the Gordo banks, though in recent
days there has been a bite developing from Palmilla to Santa Maria. Most
common species being found are dorado and yellowfin tuna, with a few
sailfish, wahoo and miscellaneous bottomfish mixed in. There have been
sardinas available, some days north near Vinorama and also now being found
off of Palmilla Point, this has opened up more options of where charters
can plan to concentrate their efforts. Lots of boat pressure in all
directions now and we have seen up to a couple of dozen East Cape area
cruisers making the long run south to fish on the Iman Bank, which must
mean that there has not been much action going on in their local waters.
The yellowfin tuna bite has been up and down, lots of skipjack mixed in and
also some pesky aggressive sea lions to deal with. Most of the yellowfin
near Iman and towards Santa Maria have been in the 10 to 20 lb. range, the
larger tuna are hanging around the Gordo Banks, everyday there have been a
handful of fish accounted for that have been in the 100 to 200 plus pound
range, at times biting early and other days preferred to come up and feed
late in the day, no big numbers, but there is a chance at a very large
yellowfin, these fish have been hitting on larger sized whole baits, as
well as on drifted chunk bait. Many stories were told of big fish being
lost.
Average catches per day on the smaller grade of tuna found closer to shore
while using sardinas for bait varied from one or two fish on as many as 15
fish per boat. Action varied from each location every day, depending on
bait supply, sea lion problem and the aggressive skipjack.
Dorado were more numerous on a daily basis, heard of some fast action on
the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas and there were quite a few dorado around
the Iman area as well, most of the dorado were medium sized, 5 to 20
pounds, a few exceptions of larger bulls accounted for. Once found these
fish would readily strike on lures and bait. Remember to respect the two
fish limit per person for dorado, also try to release as many of the
smaller fish as possible, particularly the females, easily identified by
their rounded forehead, versus the squared off heads of the males. These
fish start to spawn as juveniles and grow up to five pounds a month,
important to conserve the future of this fishery.
Not much being found off the bottom recently, perhaps the water temperature
is too warm and the fish are hiding in the structure or seeking out deeper
cooler areas, hard to say what is going on, a few amberjack, snapper,
cabrilla, triggerfish and even a couple of yellowtail and roosterfish
hanging over the rock piles.
Wahoo are started to show, every day we are seeing a few of them brought
in, some hitting on lures, such as Rapalas, others are striking on baits in
the same area where the tuna and dorado are found, Many of the wahoo have
been smaller than what we normally see, though some of them were up to 30
pounds.
Billfish action has been spread out, we know of one nice black marlin that
was lost on the Gordo Banks, hear about more blue marlin showing off of
Cabo San Lucas, off of San Jose’s grounds there have been a few sailfish
and striped marlin encountered. Lots of skipjack on the grounds and with
the football sized tuna around, we do expect to see some more black and
blue marlin to appear.
The combined panga fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent
out approximately 202 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a
fish count of:
--
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson / Operator
619 488-1859
Los Cabos (624) 142-1147
e-mail:gordobanks@yahoo.com
WWW.GORDOBANKS.COM
Oct 8, 2012; 11:48AM - Cabo Bite Report
Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
Author Name: George Landrum
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
October 1 – 7, 2012
WEATHER: The feel of fall continued this week as we saw low temperatures of 78 degrees in the early morning hours. Like I said last week, normally we can expect the drop in temperature and humidity sometime around Oct. 15, this is just a hint of things to come. Meanwhile, the mornings have been great with cool weather and low humidity combined with a light breeze. As the day goes on the heat cranks up and we have been seeing some mid-days readings at 100 degrees, along with a slight increase in humidity. The winds have remained light, but fairly consistent, just switching directions throughout the day.
WATER: The large swells we were experiencing last week tapered down and they are now just 2-4 feet in all areas. If no more storms come into our area we can expect smooth sea conditions to continue this coming week. The small swells and lack of rain have helped clear up the inshore waters in most areas, and there has been more floating debris found drifting into our area due to the heavy rains from Tropical Storm Miriam that went ashore well to the north of us two weeks ago. It takes a while for some of this to reach our area since it has to travel 200-300 miles, but when it does arrive it has been in the water long enough to attract a great amount of sea life underneath. On the Pacific side of the Cape we have experienced beautiful blue water with temperatures averaging 85 degrees. On the Cortez side of the Cape we are seeing 86-87 degrees with the water only slightly off color, but still blue.
BAIT: Live bait was readily available with Caballito and Mullet at the normal $3 each as well as some frozen Ballyhoo at $3 each as well. With smoother surf conditions there have been some Sardinas available in San Jose, but you have to be very early, and it helps to make arrangements ahead of time since supplies are limited.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Well. While there are still decent numbers of Sailfish and Striped Marlin showing up on the Pacific side of the Cape, there have been no large Blue Marlin reported to me this past week from that area. There have been plenty of small Blues however, and this is a good sign. Almost without exception Blue or Black Marlin that weigh over 300 pounds are female, and usually have as few as two or as many as ten smaller males somewhere in the area. Boats have been hooking up quite a few small male fish, and I have had reports of much larger fish coming in on trolled lures but not hooking up. I didn't have any luck on Blues this week, but that might change this next week! Meanwhile, on Tuesday there was a Black Marlin reported as weighing 640 pounds caught by a boat out of San Jose. This is the first large Black I have heard of since the end of the East Cape Bisbee tournament. The day after the tournament ended there was a decent fish caught on the outer Gorda Bank, but I have heard of nothing since then. Hopefully this is a good sign for the tournaments coming up!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: In our local area the Yellowfin Tuna fishing has been a disappointment. Boats are having to search long, hard and far away to find any pods of Dolphin that are holding fish. Perhaps as few as 10% of the pods found have had any Yellowfin on them, and most of these fish have been football to 20 pound size. A few boats have been putting in the time required to go to Gorda Banks and fish live bait and chunks there, hoping to get into the big fish bite, and a few have had decent luck on fish that have gone just over 200 pounds. There have been fish over 100 pounds as well, but you have to have the patience to wait for these guys, and more boats get skunked than catch anything. There are reports of occasional schools of fish showing up just to the north of Punta Gorda as well, but there has been no consistency to them. Walking the marina in the afternoons checking on our clients I sometimes see boats flying a rigger full of white flags and get excited, but this week when I ask the anglers (or the crews of the boat next to the one with the flags) it usually turns out to be nice size Bonita or White Skipjack instead.
DORADO: The Dorado fishing has continued to be wide open on the Pacific side of the Cape. With a federal limit of only two of these fish per angler, many boats are picking up their limits first thing in the morning and then heading offshore to look for marlin and tuna. The action on Dorado to 25 pounds has been great from just off the arch all the way to inside the Golden Gate Banks, and there has been decent fishing for larger fish to 50 pounds farther offshore. Normally floating debris will hold good numbers of fish, and spotting something in the water gets the pulse pounding. Not all debris will hold, but the chances are good it will. Seeing frigate birds working one area and swooping down is the best signal you can get that there are fish in the area. Ballyhoo rigged behind a plastic skirt or a lure designed to run ahead of the bait works magic on the larger fish, and if you catch a few small skip-jack, cutting strips of them and running them the same way is magic on the smaller fish as well.
WAHOO: The full moon gave us the results we expected on Wahoo as several boats caught two or more of these speedsters. The action was spread out all over our area, from the flats up at Punta Gorda to the sea-mounts on the Pacific side, and everywhere in between. There were not hordes of these fish, but the chances were better than ever that you were going to have a shot at one. One boat managed to get six Wahoo that averaged 30 pounds, now that's Wahoo fishing! Sorry, but I can't tell you exactly where or what they used, I promised the Captain not to, but I saw the fish. Rigged baits got cut off quickly if the Wahoo were in the area, and once that happened, working that same area with lures like Marauders and Rapallas rigged on wire leader paid off. A good search lure was a blue/white Islander with a ballyhoo rigged inside and trolled in the shotgun position, set back about 150 yards. You have to be aware of other boats in the area to do this (in order to not get cut off), but it can pay off big time.
INSHORE: There were scattered Roosterfish in the areas beaches, both on the Pacific side and the Sea of Cortez, but most of the pangas were working just off the beach for Dorado first, then checking in the surf zone for Snapper and Roosterfish.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: Music of the week was Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown on his 2001 Universal release “Back To Bogalusa”. This is some really fine blues, and I asked my friend Brian Flynn (The Brian Flynn Band) about him because Brian is like a guitar player encyclopedia. Brian had played with him before Clarence died about six years ago and Brian said Clarence was one of the finest blues guitar players he has met. Listen to this CD and you might agree with Brian and myself. Thanks for reading this weeks report, issue #500 and something, coming at you every Sunday since January 2000 except for those week when we have not had power. Until next week, tight lines!
Oct 5, 2012; 01:32AM - Tuna Frenzy
Category: Panama
Author Name: Shane Cameron Jarvis
Propiedad de Paradise Lodge's clients experience another huge Yellowfin Tuna frenzy! aboard the TOP Cat here in the Gulf of Chiriqui, Panama!
On May 11, 2012 while fishing 25 miles from the lodge here on Isla Paridas we came across a massive boil of Yellowfin Tunas, Porpoises, and birds desimating a bait ball of Blue Runners and Goggle Eyes. Hundreds of 50 to 100 pound Yellowfin Tunas jumping and feeding until the baitball is gone. Enjoy!
Captain Shane Jarvis
Propiedad de Paradise Lodge
Isla Paridas, Panama
http://www.FishPanamaToday.com
Oct 1, 2012; 11:25AM - Cabo Bite Report
Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
Author Name: George Landrum
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
Sept 24 - 30, 2012
WEATHER: We are starting into the season of change, but while during this weekend we felt the temperature drop a few degrees, we still have a few weeks to go. As proof that storm season is not over yet, this week we had two systems that affected our area. The first was the passing of Miriam well to the west of us, the closest we came was 400 miles, but we did get some clouds and a bit of scattered rain, as well as some huge swells. As soon as Miriam had passed and was to the north, another system started up to the south of us. When initially seen this system appeared organized but had not been given a name or number. It covered approximately 350 miles north to south and was extremely heavy with rain, and we all took a deep breath and crossed our fingers. Eventually named Norman after it came along our side, it was very fast moving and too a sharp bend to the east so all we received was the moisture from the northernmost banding, but that was enough to drop up to 3 inches of water on us in 2 days. Our already soaked soil had a bit of a job trying to absorb this new onslaught so the run-off was heavy and once again the streets were not looking pretty after it passed. If this system had gone over the top of us there may have been some severe water damage to the area, but we got lucky. At the start of the week we were seeing the daytime highs in the high 90's and nighttime lows in the low 80's. At the end of the week both temperatures had dropped by 5 degrees. It sure feels nice now, but who know how long that will last! Most years you can almost set your clock by the weather change right October 15 so we may still have a few weeks before the change is permanent.
WATER: The passing of Hurricane Miriam to the west brought us large swells, large enough that the Port Captain decided to close the port on Tuesday. It looked decent out there to us, just large, long period swells, but for safety he closed it. On Wednesday it re-opened and there were still large swells but also heavy rains and wind, maybe the decision was made a day early, but that is the way it goes. With the approach of Tropical Storm Norman he once again closed the port on Friday, and for good reason this time. Heavy winds and lots of rain would have made fishing a bit dicey. With the cloud cover from these systems over our area it was difficult to get a good satellite shot but at the end of the week there was enough o get an idea. On the Pacific side of the Cape the water was 83-84 degrees from the beach to the banks and 82-83 degrees on the banks. Due south of the Cape we had 84=85 degree water while west of us it appeared an even 86 degrees. The main difference was the color of the water, mostly due to run-off from the heavy rain at the end of the week. Along the coast on the Cortez side of the Cape the water was green and dirty out to 8 miles, and extremely dirty within the first mile of the beach. On the Pacific side the water near the beach was still very dirty out at least one to two miles, but past there it cleaned up great. There were large swells on both sides of the Cape early in the week and these later tapered off greatly so that at the end of the week we were seeing only 5-8 foot swells with some winds to 12 knots on them.
BAIT: Live bait was a bit scarce this week due to water conditions but what could be found was Caballito and Mullet at the normal $3 each as well as some frozen Ballyhoo at $3 each as well.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Overall, the fishing appeared much better early in the week than late in the week, but on Saturday there was a Blue Marlin brought in that was reported to weigh in the region of 730 pounds. I did not see the fish nor did I get information on the who, what when where or how, but as soon as I do I will get it out on the blog. Early in the week there were decent numbers of Striped Marlin as well as Sailfish and we had one group fishing who caught small Blue Marlin (about 180 pounds each) two days in a row. The last day of the week for my report, Saturday, had slow Bill fishing results for us with just one Sailfish coming into the pattern for three boats, and one large hook being straightened out by an unidentified very large fish. As soon as the water cleans up things should get better as early in the week most of the billfish action took place pretty close to shore on the Pacific side.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again early in the week was better fishing as most boats were coming in with limits of Yellowfin that ranged from 12 to 30 pounds with a few to 80 pounds in the mix. Most of the small fish were found close to the beach, sometimes in the open and not associated with and Dolphin. Most of the larger fish were found farther offshore and were under Dolphin. In both instances the best bites were had on small lures from 3-5 inches in length and pink in color. Most likely the reason was the number of squid in the water, almost every fish we caught was choked with squid this size, so it made perfect sense to “match the hatch”. The largest fish of all were caught by boats that were flying a kite to get the lures away from the boat and in clean water.
DORADO: While the Tuna fishing at the beginning of the week was impressive, Dorado regained their title of fish of the week as I do not think there was a boat our there that did not have a chance to come in with limits, and most of the fish found were good size at 12-25 pounds. A few larger fish snuck in as I did see one at least 50 pound fish brought to the dock and there were others in the 30-40 pound class as well. Early in the week the water close to the beach on the Pacific side held most of the fish for us but at the end of the week everything had changed due to the run-off from the storm. The bite dropped off severely on Saturday, the best result I saw was three fish of about 15 pounds each. With Miriam dropping good amounts of water to the north of us it might suddenly switch right back on as we get floating debris that is washed out of the arroyos coming into our area. If this happens, and the water has a chance to clean up the fishing might just be fantastic.
WAHOO: Full moon was the 28th so we expected good results on Wahoo, and considering the number of days that there were to fish and the condition of the water the results were pretty darn good. Most of our clients had a shot at least, but with Wahoo you can never be sure, baits chopped in half, lure skirts sliced and mono-filament leader cut as if with a knife were the most common signs we saw of the presence of these fish. We did have one client that managed two Wahoo of about 40 pounds on two separate days, and he was fishing rigged ballyhoo on circle hooks. The leader was frayed but the hook lodged in the corner of the Wahoos mouth and they were able to bring the fish to the boat without getting cut off.
INSHORE: Strong currents and dirty water once again had an effect on the inshore bottom action and the numbers of Roosterfish available had dropped off. Many if not most of the Pangas were working just off the beach for Dorado and a few ventured offshore for Tuna and Marlin once the winds had died down.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: OK, my music of the week was Professor Longhair on his CD “New Orleans Piano”, a 1989 Atlantic records release. Brought to me by our friend Ed, this is the best piano music I have listened to in a very long time. My favorite cut is #14, “Longhair's Blues-Rhumba”, talk about getting you moving your feet, wow! Hopefully we have good weather this week and the fishing returns to what it was before this last storm came through. I would also like to thank everyone who let me know that someone else based in Cabo is using my format, I already knew, and it is a bit of a compliment, just as long as they don't plagiarize, whats there to do about it. Until next week, tight lines!
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
San Jose del Cabo
September 30, 2012
Anglers –
As we have now officially began the Fall season, this last week has been
more tropical than anything else. Hurricane Miriam swept past on the
Pacific side of the Peninsula, some 400 miles from Cabo San Lucas, it was a
category three storm and a strong swells developed, no winds from this, but
as the system weaken, clouds shifted towards the east and brought up to
four inches of additional rainfall to the area. At the same time Miriam was
downgraded to a depression, there was TS Norman developing quickly, within
90 miles of Cabo San Lucas, bringing more thundershowers and wind gusts to
30 mph as it passed just south of the Baja as it continued towards the
mainland Mazatlan region. The roads had just been cleared from the last
storms, now we will all be busy once again cleaning up. Most all
sportfishing activity was canceled for Thursday and Friday, hoping
conditions improve for the weekend.
Before the weather turned for the worse charter fleets were catching good
number of dorado and yellowfin tuna were also being found. Larger yellowfin
are now in the area, including on the Gordo Banks, they have been more
active in the afternoon for the past week, but a few nice tuna were also
hooked earlier in the day. All strikes were coming on baits, preferably
live cocinero, bolito, skpjack, caballito of chihuil. Everyday a handful of
larger tuna from 80 to 250 pounds were being accounted for, most of these
fish were taken by local pangeros specifically targeting these fish.
Sardinas were harder to obtain with the higher surf conditions, this is
what the smaller sized yellowfin tuna around the Iman Bank have preferred,
this action was also best later on in the morning. Lots of skipjack to deal
with, some of them the species locals refer to as white skipjack, good
eating, similar to yellowfin, most are less than ten pounds though. Giant
squid have once again moved into the area, though they are north, off of
Los Frailes, the commercial pangeros are catching them daily now and some
of the sport charters from San Jose del Cabo were able to purchase them and
had mixed success using them for bait.
Dorado were the most numerous fish found, scattered throughout the entire
zone, ranging in sizes to over 30 pounds, though the majority of the dorado
were in the 5 to 15 pound range. There will certainly be more floating
debris found after these latest floods, this always help produce the food
chain, which in turn can attract gamefish. A few wahoo were found early in
the week, with ocean temperatures still in the upper 80s these fish prove
to be sluggish and not as active as they become when the water drops into
the upper 70s.
A few sailfish and striped marlin are on the offshore fishing grounds, no
black or blue marlin really to speak of recently, this is the time we
should hear about some black marlin be seen lurking around the high spots,
such as the Gordo Banks. Not much off the bottom, a few dogtooth snapper
and other miscellaneous pargo.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos
Marina sent out approximately 38 charters for the week, with anglers
accounting for a fish count of:
114 dorado, 79 yellowfin tuna, 25 various pargo species and 3 roosterfish.
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
Sep 24, 2012; 11:54AM - Cabo Bite Report
Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
Author Name: George Landrum
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
Sept 17 - 23, 2012
WEATHER: We had some really great weather this week if you are in the mood for some heat and humidity! At the start of the week there was a good breeze from the northwest but by Wednesday it was still and muggy with sunny skies. That's not the perfect weather but pretty good if you are out on the ocean! Our daytime highs were in the mid to high 90's while the nighttime lows were in the low 80's. It seems as the week went on the early morning temps were a bit lower than at the start of the week and perhaps the humidity a bit less as well.
WATER: On the Cortez side of the Cape this week it was calm but with a few humping swells, spaced well apart at the start of the week. On the Pacific side it was a different story as the northwest winds on Monday and Tuesday made the fishing uncomfortable. On Monday it was like a sheep farm out there but the conditions steadily improved as the days went on. By yesterday it was like a lake with small, long period swells and no wind. On the Cortez side it was glassy. Water clarity was the big issue this week. At the start of the week we had a monster area of very green water from the Punta Gorda area in the Cortez all the way to the Cape and it extended out to the 1,000 fathom line. Currents coming down from the north pushed this green water around the Cape and up into the Pacific side, traveling about 7 miles a day. This water clarity issue was the largest factor affecting where the boats went to find fish, the preferred area was to the west, then north side of the dirty water as it worked it's way around the Cape. By Friday most of the boats were having to travel as far up the coast as Cerritos Beach to get to the north side of the clean water, but the water close to home and at the banks had cleared up.
BAIT: Caballito were available early in the week for $3 each and there were frozen horse ballyhoo for the same price.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There was decent action on both Sailfish and Striped Marlin this week on the Pacific side but I did not hear of much happening on the Cortez side. Fish were found from close to the beach in 40 fathoms of water to 5 miles offshore, but there was little action outside that zone. I fished 4 days for Blue or Black Marlin with no results at all, but heard of a few boats getting strikes from big billfish. Most of the billfish found inshore were striking lures pulled for Dorado, but they were the perfect size!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I think that Yellowfin Tuna have definitely taken the top spot and became the fish of the week. On Wednesday a potential world record was brought in to the marina. The boat had reportedly been out on it's third multiday trip targeting a world record and this trip it paid off 180 miles offshore while chunking with cut bait in a pod of black porpoise. While I am not 100% positive, it was told to me that the scale that weighed the fish at 427 pounds had been certified at the time and sent up to be re-certified after weighing the fish. Such a nice fish, but there were good fish closer to home as well. We had clients out on Tuesday who brought in one that weighed 156 pounds and brought two that weighed 85 pounds each on Wednesday. One of the Pangas we book on a regular basis returned on Saturday with a tuna the scaled out at 280 pounds, and caught on #40 test line! Not all the fish caught were that large, nor did all the boats fishing for them get Yellowfin, but those that did found quality fish that averaged 25 pounds. Almost 100% of the action was on the Pacific side of the Cape between the south side of the San Jaime Bank and the Cerritos Beach area to the north, in the clean water with dolphin around.
DORADO: If it were not for the fact that the fishing for Tuna was so impressive, Dorado would have remained my choice for fish of the week. Once again almost all the action occurred on the Pacific side of the Cape and for almost the entire week, at least through Friday it happened on the north side of the dirty water, right on the edge. There were some fish caught on the outside in the clean water but the concentrations were inshore. On Saturday the dirty water had moved far enough to the north and been filtered enough that the boats did not require such a long run and were able to find good numbers closer to home. Many boats were able to limit out on fish at averaged several pounds over what they were catching last week, most of the fish were in the 10-15 pound range with a few really big ones in there. Live bait worked along the edge where the fish were concentrated worked early in the week and later on there was decent action on bright lures.
WAHOO: This week we were coming from the new moon to the first quarter and we did have a little spurt of Wahoo action, something we have not seen for a few weeks. Most of the fish were caught offshore around the banks but there were a few fish picked up right on the beach. Most of the fish were between 20 and 45 pounds and were incidental catches made while fishing for Tuna and Dorado.
INSHORE: Strong currents once again had an effect on the inshore bottom action and the numbers of Roosterfish available had dropped off. Many if not most of the Pangas were working just off the beach for Dorado and a few ventured offshore for Tuna and Marlin once the winds had died down.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: This week I have no music going but there is a lot of anticipation as one of my clients brought me 10 new CD's that I am going to start using and playing. A very esoteric mix of stuff, everything from Doobie Brothers to Yo-Yo Ma to Ry Cooder to Johnny Cash and Carlos Santana. Looking forward to it! Of course, being Sunday morning the pup is at my knee with her head resting on my leg looking at me with that look, “It's time for the beach, Dad, hurry up!”. So, until next week, stay safe and have a great time. Until then, tight lines!
Be sure to check the blog to see some of those big tuna!
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
San Jose del Cabo
September 23, 2012
Anglers –
There has been mixed crowds of anglers, surfers and just normal traveling
sun worshipping tourists enjoying the clear tropical weather for the past
week. The area is now lush green due to all of the recent rainfall,
humidity is high, but there a hint of fall in the air now, as early
mornings are cooler. Swells are moderate, there was very little wind at
all, just a slight afternoon breeze. There is a new low pressure system
forming at this time, should become Tropical Storm Miriam in the new few
days, this is projected to follow a path off to the west, keeping it clear
of any land. Ocean clarity has cleared up now along the coast, this is
where it had been clouded by the entire desert run off. Blue water has been
found within several miles of shore and water temperatures are averaging 88
degrees throughout most of the region.
The most exciting news of the week was on Wednesday morning, this is when a
crew aboard the 61 ft. “EL Suertudo” brought in a new world record sized
yellowfin tuna to Cabo San Lucas. The record catch was weighed in on two
different scales, 421 lb. and 427 lb. respectably, after certification the
final weight will be listed, either way this fish appears to be shoe in for
the new all-tackle IGFA record. Congratulations go out to angler Guy Yocom,
from Dana Point, Ca. and to the rest of his crew aboard his yacht, this is
an unbelievable accomplishment. These anglers were specifically targeting
big yellowfin tuna and appear to have also qualified for the “Hook a
Million”, one million dollar prize sponsored by Mustad Hook Company for any
new world record tuna caught worldwide before the end of September, 2012,
this definitely added to their motivation of going the extra miles to the
fishing grounds where the giants lurk.
Conditions are really shaping up nice now, as weather has settled, each day
the water is looking better, there is an abundance of baitfish scattered
throughout the area, more skipjack than anything else. Caballito are being
found near the marina jetty and sardinas are now being netted along the
shoreline, near Palmilla and north towards Vinorama.
For the panga fleets departing out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina they have
encountered more consistent action near Iman Bank and north to Vinorama,
though the bite has been up and down and below local late summer standards.
There has been a recent trend of the better action coming later in the day.
Mort common catches were dorado or yellowfin tuna, the majority of the fish
ranged 10 to 20 pounds, a few larger specimens mixed in. Live sardinas was
the best bet for this bite. There are big yellowfin on the Gordo Banks, but
they have proved very elusive, at times they were seen feeding in chum
lines, but they did not want to bite baited hooks. At least one tuna close
to 200 lb. was accounted for this week, it was landed on an afternoon
private charter. Tuna often become spooky on these shallow banks in clear
water, but they can also all of a sudden decide to bite just like that on
any given day, pressure is light now and we are encouraged to see this
larger grade of tuna now present on the local grounds.
A few sailfish and striped marlin found on these same grounds, but no big
numbers, basically just incidental catches. As well as a few wahoo now
being seen free swimming around drifting boats, but several were landed in
recent days, so we expect something to happen with these speedy fish to
become more active as fall weather transitions.
Not much bottom action found now, besides dropping larger baits over
structure for a chance at winning the battle against a dogtooth snapper.
Should be the time we hear about some grouper as well and we also usually
expect to see some amberjack in the mix. Just as we have seen now for the
last few seasons, we heard about a handful of nice sized roosterfish being
hooked into further offshore over the rocky high spots, this is out of
their normal feeding zone close to shore, I suppose they are adapting to
where they can find sustainable food supply.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos
Marina sent out approximately 61 charters for the week, with anglers
accounting for a fish count of: 3 striped marlin, 6 sailfish, 3 wahoo, 7
amberjack, 8 dogtooth snapper, 12 cabrilla, 137 dorado, 78 yellowfin tuna,
43 various pargo species and 4 roosterfish.
Good Fishing, Eric
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GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson / Operator
619 488-1859
Los Cabos (624) 142-1147
e-mail:gordobanks@yahoo.com
WWW.GORDOBANKS.COM
