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| Around 10% of the world's total fish species can be found just within the Great Barrier Reef. |
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| Starfish can re-grow their arms. In fact, a single arm can regenerate a whole body. |
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| Starfish do not have blood. Their blood is actually filtered sea water. |
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| Starfish don't have brains. Special cells on their skin gather information about their surroundings |
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| Not all animals with the word fish in their names count as fish. |
| Though their names may suggest otherwise, cuttlefish, starfish, and jellyfish aren’t actually fish. Generally-speaking, fishes must have skulls, gills, and fins. Surprisingly, though, not all fishes have proper spines. |
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| In three decades, the world's oceans will contain more discarded plastic than fish when measured by weight, researchers say. |
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| As of 2020, there were 34,000 known fish species around world. That’s more than the number of species in all other vertebrates: birds, reptiles, mammals, and amphibians combined. |
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| Just how man species of fish are there? |
| As of 2020, there were 34,000 known fish species around world. That’s more than the number of species in all other vertebrates: birds, reptiles, mammals, and amphibians combined. |
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| Even Catfish are finicky |
| Taste Buds ? Catfish have a more refined sense of flavor than humans. Our 10,000 taste buds may seem like a lot, but catfish can have as many as 175,000. This helps them find the exact location of their next meal. |
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| A bit of Humor |
| My brother has 2 German Shepherds named Rolex and Timex. You guessed it they are Watch Dogs. |
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From Jan 01, 1999 To Sep 21, 2025
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Jan 2, 2012; 02:28PM - TALK ABOUT IMPACT
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: MARK RAYOR
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The East Cape fish report for the last week of the year
is pretty grim. The north winds gave us a break for a
couple of days but the fish did not.
Reports from the handful of charter boats that fished
off shore was the water is off color, cold and lacking
life. The 32 contestants that fished the beach in
Felipe Valdez's annual sierra tournament only
accounted for one fish.
On a brighter note lets talk about what was.
My old man started me fishing on half day boats at
six years old. It was time spent with my dad that I will
never forget. I'm certain that is part of the reason I
have so much passion for sportfishing fishing today.
In 2011 we were fortunate to introduce fishing the
Sea of Cortez to more young people on our Jen Wren
boats then ever before. Each youth parted with a
positive experience and memories they will always
remember. I believe this will have a life-long impact
on their lives.
It gives me great personal pleasure to help provide
the experience, share in the excitement and see the
smiles on young faces. After their return home from
vacation, it is very rewarding to hear back from
parents about how their kid could hardly wait to share
their fishing experience with friends and also wrote
school reports about their adventure.
For some great photos check out my blog spot:
http://markrayor.blogspot.com/
Mark Rayor
www.teamjenwren.com
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Dec 26, 2011; 01:23PM - THAT'S THE BREAKS
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: MARK RAYOR
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THAT'S THE BREAKS
Wishing all my friends a belated Merry Christmas and
a prosperous New Year.
This has been the windiest week of the year for the
East Cape and there is no fishing activity at this time
to report on.
Reflecting back on our fishing year for 2011, Jen Wren
boats had some good breaks and some bad breaks.
Thankfully some days the fish gods just tossed us
one and I call that a lucky break. I have posted some
images of just a few of the lucky breaks we had this
year.
TO VIEW PHOTOS OF SOME REALLY LUCKY BREAKS
CHECK OUT MY BLOG AT:
http://markrayor.blogspot.com/
Wishing everybody tight lines and lots of lucky breaks
in 2012.
Mark Rayor
teamjenwren.com
markrayor.blogspot.com
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Dec 26, 2011; 12:49PM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
December 19-25, 2011
WEATHER: The clouds and cold weather continued for Christmas week. Our walk on the beach with the dog on Christmas morning was done with a jacket on over my t-shirt and swim shorts since the air was a cool 58 degrees. With mostly cloudy skies this week it was not our typical Cabo weather and some of us were thinking it might actually snow in the mountains, Yeah, sure. Our coldest morning was 57 degrees but it was warming up in the afternoons to almost 85 degrees on a few days, and just 78 degrees on a couple of other days. It seemed strange to walk the beach and see people with their knees drawn up to their chests wearing hoody sweaters and towels over their legs sitting in the beach lounge chairs!
WATER: Just like last week, the swells this week were mixed with some days small ones coming in from the east and other days normal ones coming from the northwest. All in all there were no large swells, the biggest were on the Pacific side at 4-6 feet, the smaller on the Cortez at 1-3 feet. As far as water temps went, the water next to shore out to about 5 miles on the Cortez side between San Lucas and San Jose was cold at 68 degrees. Everywhere else it was 73 degrees with a few warm spots of 76 degrees to the southwest 30 miles.
BAIT: Some Caballito and a few Mackerel were to be had at $3 per bait, mostly boats were getting junk bait for their money so many were going with frozen Ballyhoo instead. There were some Sardinas at $25-$30 a scoop as well.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I am surprised that we have not had concentrations of Marlin in our area since the water is the right temperature, but they just have not made it here yet. Not to say were are not catching any, far from that, it's just that we are not getting double digit numbers in our area. The Striped Marlin are here and the boats that are concentration on them are getting several a day to the boat, but we are not yet seeing the groups of four and more tailing together on the surface. Many of the boats have been concentrating on the usual drop areas such as the flats off of the lighthouse and the ridge at San Cristobal and putting live bait down halfway to the bottom. Others have been working 5 miles from the shore looking for tailing fish. Running a few ballyhoo in the pattern seems to be a very successful method as that added bit of enticement can turn a looker into a biter.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Plenty of fish in the 12-25 pound range are to be found between 5 and 25 miles out and there are larger fish out there too. While catching the smaller ones it is not uncommon to see fish in the 100 pound class breaking the surface as they chase baitfish. The best bets for the smaller fish have been very small red hootchies, trying to imitate the krill that are showing up. On the larger fish it has been more difficult, but dropping back a rigged live bait a half-spool has worked for many boats if there are not other boats to run over the line. Boats hat have been working a kite with a rigged bait under it have also done well on the larger fish. Limits have been very possible on the smaller tuna this week, the larger tuna have been much more difficult to come by. The best areas have been on the Pacific side but I did hear of a few boats that worked the are between the 1150 and the Cabrillo Seamount and found good schools of fish.
DORADO: With the water cooling off fairly rapidly I am not sure how much longer the Dorado are going to be around, but there are still some out there. The warmer water on the Pacific side still holds fish and there are more on the inside than on the outside, but the numbers have dropped since last week. With an average size of 18 pound sand the cooler water the best technique has been to slow troll rigged live bait in areas where Frigate birds are spotted working. There have been limits of Dorado caught this week (2 per angler) but not as many as last week.
WAHOO: While not catching any myself, a few boats we had fishing did manage to get into some Wahoo this week. With the new moon Christmas eve the few days before then did produce some fish averaging 30 pounds. The normal areas such as the Gorda Banks (just on the edge of the cool water) and the rocky points on the Pacific side were popular areas to work and the drop right on the edge of San Lucas bay kicked out a couple of very nice fish for early boats.
INSHORE: Just like last week, the Sierra are starting to bite good and there are some Snapper in there among the rocks if you have the hooks and lead to spare. You are going to hook a lot more than you land and for some reason the Snapper are not swallowing the bait but just chewing on them instead so it was hard to get a good hook-set on them. A few Yellowtail have been reported from the Pacific side so perhaps we will start to see some more action on these great fish as well.
FISH RECIPE: Sometimes posted on the blog Thursday or Friday.
NOTES: Great weather, a large variety of fish to choose from, whales to be watched and not being too crowded this time of year should put visiting us at the top of your travel list! This weeks report was written to the music of Chuck Allen Floyd from his album “Tonight An Angel Fell”, courtesy of my good friends Mark and Allen Bailey. No M. Koch, this is not Mark Bailey from California, it is Mark Bailey from Texas, and he and his family are good, honest friends. Thanks Mark and Allen! Until next week, tight lines!
We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and wish for safe travels for all of your family during the holidays!
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Dec 25, 2011; 04:15PM - Gordo Banks Pangas San Jose del Cabo Dec 25, 2011
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric Bricston
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Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
December 25, 2011
Christmas time is here, everyone is now busy preparing for family events. Families
have been arriving in Los Cabos to enjoy the holiday season, escaping the cold
temperatures to the north. With winter time now having officially started local
weather has also cooled off, though the highs are still pleasantly in the 70s, but
with early morning lows down into the 50s, vacationers do need to remember to dress
accordingly.
Ocean conditions changed rapidly this week, as currents moved in from the north and
dropped water temperatures from 70/76 degrees down to 69/72 degrees. Cooling water
is usually associated with greener off colored currents, and this has been the
situation at this time, most areas off of San Jose del Cabo are now off colored,
towards Cabo San Lucas there has been cleaner blue water, but this has not meant
that this has been where the best action for anglers has been found.
With the rapidly changing conditions the fishing action has become more scattered as
well. Earlier in the week there was some great striped marlin action found off of
San Jose del Cabo, this is where schools of baitfish such as mackerel, sardinetas,
chihuil and skipjack were congregated, attracting both billfish and dorado within
several miles of shore. Fleets from all directions were concentrated on this spot,
marlin were hooked while soaking baits down deep, trolling on the surface, as well
as casting into feeding frenzies on the surface, which often occurred mid day and
into the afternoon. As the greener cooler currents swept in, this bite slowed way
down accordingly. The northern winds also kicked up, which is usually the pattern at
this time of year, two or three days of wind, then a couple of days of calmer
conditions, before repeating the same cycle.
On the Gordo Banks anglers found more skipjack than anything else, also plenty of
problems with hungry sea lions, no yellowfin tuna to talk about this week, as dorado
and striped marlin were the main surface species now being encountered. Not much in
the way of bottom action, but we do expect to start scouting out more of the
structure prospects in the coming weeks for some fire cracker sized yellowtail,
amberjack and snapper. Along the shoreline anglers were now finding sierra and
roosterfish, but this action varied from day to day, and depended on the
availability of live sardinas. Dorado were also found at times right in the surf
zone, there were even a reports of dorado up to 15 lbs. being landed by surf anglers
near Punta Gorda, this is the time when dorado can be found closer to shore, where
more baitfish are concentrated. Most of the roosterfish now being hooked into are
juvenile sized, with a handful of them reaching up to 15 pounds.
A handful of wahoo were taken this past week, but most of these fish were more the
sized of sierra, strange to see such smaller sized ‘hoo, wonder where their parents
are? Probably heading south by now.
We are now transitioning into winter time type fishing action, typically we find
quite a wide variety of species, maybe not as large as in the warmer months, but
there can be great light tackle sport and most of the fish are of the good eating
variety. We will anticipate improved inshore action, the time that more numbers of
yellowtail should move in with the cooler currents and striped marlin should
continue to dominate offshore.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent
out approximately 65 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count
of: 27 striped marlin, 4 sailfish, 172 dorado, 9 wahoo, 12 pargo, 15 bonito, 250
black skipjack, 34 roosterfish and 18 sierra.
Good Fishing, Eric
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson
Owner/Operator
800 4081199
Los Cabos 1421147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
www.gordobanks.com
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Dec 25, 2011; 04:12PM - Gordo Banks Pangas San Jose del Cabo Dec 19, 2011
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric Bricston
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Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
December 18, 2011
Crowds of tourists visiting the Los Cabos area are now light, with the official
start of winter next week, cooler temperatures from the north are reminding us that
even in Southern Baja we do have seasons. A cold front has moved in this week and
kept high temperatures below the 75 degree mark, more cloud cover associated with
this front, but no rainfall to speak about. Winds have been averaging 10 to 15 mph
from the north, less than they were at the start of the month. Water temperatures
dropped into the 70 to 74 degree range, cooler off colored greenish currents are
pushing in a southern direction from Los Frailes.
With the lighter crowds this past week, the supply and demand situation for the
available bait has improved. Sardinas were now being found off of northern beaches
by the commercial netters, but with their limited market now, not every day are they
looking for the sardinas, with the easier to find caballito continuing to be found
inside the marina jetty area. The schools of mackerel which had been found off of
San Jose del Cabo the past couple of weeks seemed to have vanished in recent days,
perhaps something to do with the full moon phase or local shrimp trawling
operations. At present time schools of mackerel have returned off of San Jose del
Cabo and there has been a very good striped marlin bites as well, three to found
miles offshore, billfish were balling up bait and feeding on the surface.
Off of San Jose del Cabo there has not been any consistent yellowfin tuna action
found, besides maybe a few fish early in the week taken off of the Gordo Banks,
these tuna were in the 60 to 70 pound class, other fish were seen breezing on the
surface, but they were not interested in biting. As cooler off colored water moved
in there were reports of no tuna even being seen on these banks. There have been
reports of football sized yellowfin tuna being encountered traveling with porpoise
off of Cabo San Lucas, more often 10 miles of further from shore, but this has been
spotty and there have been more consistent catches of striped marlin and dorado on
the Pacific. Some charter boats were releasing as many as three or four stripers in
one morning. Marlin are also being found in the direction of the Gordo Banks, but
not in the same numbers as on the Pacific. Trolling lures and various baits all were
accounting for marlin strikes, fish were averaging 80 to 130
pounds.
For the fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos, their mainstay has been for
dorado, these fish were found in good numbers throughout the week, Particularly from
Punta Gorda to La Fortuna, most charters were catching limits and releasing other
fish as well, lures and bait are working equally well. Sizes ranged up to 25 pounds,
average dorado was 10 to 12 pounds.
Strong currents made it difficult to concentrate on any bottom action, but we expect
to do more of this as winter conditions settle in. Sierra are making a stronger
showing now along the inshore stretches, this action should become steady during the
coming months. Roosterfish continue to be found while trolling baits closer to
shore, most of these fish are now weighing less than ten pounds, a handful of large
specimens, though they are strong fighters and fun sport on light tackle.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent
out approximately 53 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count
of:
14 striped marlin, 285 dorado, 6 wahoo, 6 yellowfin tuna, 3 yellowtail, 36
roosterfish, 12 bonito and 44 sierra.
Good Fishing, Eric
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson
Owner/Operator
800 4081199
Los Cabos 1421147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
www.gordobanks.com
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Dec 19, 2011; 11:35AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
December 12-18, 2011
WEATHER: We had a week of cloudy skies and it seemed that the only sunshine that lasted very long happened Thursday afternoon. The rest of the week we kept thinking that it would begin raining any moment. That said, we still had great temperatures as the early morning lows were in the high 60's and the daytime highs in the high 80's. We did get just a little spit of rain, dotting the windshields of the cars and showing you how dusty they were, but nothing heavy here in town. There were some breezy mornings as well, not enough to keep you off the water but enough to have an effect on the golf courses!
WATER: The swells this week were mixed with some days small ones coming in from the east and other days normal ones coming from the northwest. All in all there were no large swells, the biggest were on the Pacific side at 4-6 feet, the smaller on the Cortez at 1-3 feet. Water temperatures were the key this week as the warmest water we had was to the southwest 20 miles, there it warmed to 77 degrees. Elsewhere it stayed fairly stable at 74 degrees with the water directly to the south of the Cape a bit cooler at 73 degrees.
BAIT: Some Caballito and a few Mackerel were to be had at $3 per bait, mostly boats were getting junk bait for their money so many were going with frozen Ballyhoo instead. There were some Sardinas at $25-$30 a scoop as well.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Still waiting! The word from private boats working the area to the north of Mag Bay is that the fish are there, one boat reported releasing 50 Striped Marlin in one day, but the concentrations have not yet moved this far south. The boats that are going out are releasing between one and four per day and the methods have varied. Some boats have done well by dropping a live bait to 250 feet off the points and have been getting one or two per day, others are running a rigged ballyhoo on the long line and are getting bit on that. Some boats are having better luck pulling plastic lures and dropping back rigged bait to fish that come into the pattern and that won't bite on the lures. Anyway that is being used seems to work for a few fish, the trick is to find them! Almost all the action we have seen has come from the Pacific side but there have been a few showing up on the 95 spot and the 1150.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We are still experiencing very good fishing for Yellowfin Tuna, and there are still some large fish out there. Of course most of the boats are getting fish between 12 and 25 pounds with a few in the 60 pound range but there have been several fish this week that have been over 200 pounds. Most of these larger fish have been caught by boats flying a kite. The majority of the schools have been found between 14 and 24 miles to the south and west among spotted and spinner dolphin, the white bellied dolphin have not seemed to have as many fish with them. If you are thinking about getting some tuna it's time to get here, we expect the purse seiners to start back in operation the first of the year, but right now it's possible to limit out on every trip. That's no guarantee of course as the tide can have a strong effect on your success. At the end of the week the bite was good early in the morning and then as the tide changed the bite turned off.
DORADO: There are still plenty of Dorado out there even thought the water has cooled down, the trick is getting them to eat! Boats that have concentrated on pulling lures have not been having a lot of luck. The best way has been to slow troll a live bait or two, hooking one up and leaving him in the water to attract other Dorado. It's possible to limit out at two fish per angler this way, and the fish are fairly decent size at 15-25 pounds. Most of the effort has been on the Pacific side but I did hear of some decent fishing happening off of the Palmilla area.
WAHOO: The Wahoo bite died off this week as the moon started waning, but there were still a few caught, just no large ones. Those that were hooked up came from the usual areas, just off the beach along the rocky areas and off of the shallow sea-mounts like the Gorda Banks.
INSHORE: Sierra are starting to bite good and there are some Snapper in there among the rocks if you have the hooks and lead to spare. Most of the Pangas are fishing live bait for Dorado and venturing offshore for Tuna and Marlin as the fishing for these have been pretty good and the water comfortable.
FISH RECIPE: posted on the blog Thursday or Friday.
NOTES: Whales, cloudy skies and fish, not our normal Cabo weather, but everything else is the same! This weeks report was written to the music of Steppenwolf from a facebook friend who keeps posting clips! Thanks to everyone for reading, and tight lines!
We would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and safe travels for all of your family!
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Dec 19, 2011; 09:43AM - BAJA OR ALASKA
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: MARK RAYOR
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Baja or Alaska?
There is only a small handful of charter fishing boats
still in the water on the East Cape. Without daily
departures there has not been reports of conditions
off shore.
The beach has been a different story and you almost
have to take a number to get a good fishing spot. The
sea life has been putting on an incredible show with
birds diving and fish in a feeding frenzy driving huge
schools of sardines to the waters edge. Sierra
Mackerel, rooster fish, ladyfish, and jack cravelle have
all been in the mix.
For the entire week I have awakened to voices of
fishermen on the beach. As dawn unfolds fishermen
can be seen lined up almost shoulder to shoulder.
The sight reminds me of fishing for salmon on the
rivers of Alaska. One big difference is not having to
look over your shoulder for bears. The hot spot has
been up and down the coast near Vista Del Mar right
in front of our home.
'The early bird catches the worm' as the beach bite
starts at first light and shuts off as soon as the sun is
above the horizon. Some anglers have been using
rods and reels while others are hand lining. I have
had good luck with a sardine patterned fly but a
chrome 3 inch lure made from a broken car antenna
has been most popular along with Crocodiles and
Rapalas. As full speed as the bite has been the fish
are shying away from lures rigged with wire. The
sharp teeth of the sierra has made it costly but it is
the price that has to be paid for success.
Luis Sylva told me his son has been waking him up
evey morning at 5AM to get to the beach. Luis is a
very talented fisherman and it looks like the kid just
might be a chip off the old block.
Mark Rayor
www.teamjenwren.com]www.teamjenwren.com
http://markrayor.blogspot.com
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Dec 12, 2011; 10:58PM - THE WITCH DOCTOR
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: MARK RAYOR
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THE WITCH-DOCTOR
Mark Rayor owner of Jen Wren Sportfishing bringing
you an East Cape NON-fish report. The wind has
blown so hard this week it has not been fishable most
of the week.
I'm happy to say our timing was good and we were
able to use the last calm day to get Jen Wren III out of
the water. It is sad but our season is over and we
won't resume charter fishing until March.
I do want to share an experience we had while fishing
last week along with some pretty cool photos. One of
our last days out there slow trolling for marlin with
skipjack for bait we were not having any luck. I
decided to try putting out a Witch-Doctor teaser. It is
a rather large mirrored thing that rocks back and
forth while being trolled and reflects sun light. In the
right conditions it looks like a strobe going off in the
water behind the boat.
We were fishing with a group of about a half dozen
boats on the La Ribera high spot. After a short period
of time a pod of orcas cruised by. Apparently our
teaser caught one of the whales eyes and the pod
came a bit closer. Before we knew it the whole pod
was in our pattern nudging our baits and checking us
out. One whale even came up almost to our swim
step and gently pushed on the Witch-Doctor. If it
attracted the orcas this has to be an effective tool to
attract marlin as well.
Now that we are not charter fishing and have our
cruisers in dry dock for the winter I will still try to get
out on calm days. I can use one of our small tenders
and fish the shoreline for sierra and a little further off
shore when the weather allows. I'll do my best to try
and continue to post reports as to what fishing
conditions are like on the East Cape.
Yesterday the seas starting to calm and it looks like
we might get a break for a day or two before the wind
ramps up again. Sierra fishing was good up and
down the beach today for tin boaters and beach
fisherman.
Mark Rayor
http://markrayor.blogspot.com
www.teamjenwren.com
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Dec 12, 2011; 11:17AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
December 5-11, 2011
WEATHER: The closer we get to Christmas the cooler we seem to get. Our low for the week was 61 degrees in the early morning, enough to make us wear light jackets to the Marina in the morning! I know, I know, but when you have lived in the warm stuff as long as we have you get acclimated and when it drops into the low 60's it's COLD! Later in the week clouds moved in and it warmed up 10 degrees as the heat was trapped. Our daytime highs have been in the mid 80's, just about perfect as far as I am concerned. Early in the week we had mostly sunny skies. Early Saturday morning it was cloudy, a solid layer over us so we missed the lunar eclipse.
WATER: Surface conditions this week on both sides of the Cape were very good with only slight swells on the Cortez side and swells at 3-5 feet on the Pacific side. The Pacific side did experience a bit of chop in the afternoons as the wind seemed to start picking up around 10AM. Just as our air temperatures seem to drop as we get toward Christmas, so do the water temperatures. The water just off the tip of the Cape seems to be 77-78 degrees and extend all across our fishing area from Los Frailles up to Todo Santos out a distance of 20 miles. Outside of that area it drops a bit to about 75 degrees. That is the way it was at the end of the week at least. We started the week with a band of cooler water (75 degrees) running along the beach on the Pacific side, it extended out about 2 miles. This cool water had disappeared by the end of the week.
BAIT: It was a hit or miss approach this week when it came to getting bait. There were not many days when you could get a good quality live bait, there was a lot of junk showing up from the bait boats. If you were early, lucky and had a captain and deckhand with good eyes it was possible to get some decent Caballito at the usual $3 per bait. There were some mullet and a few, very few, Mackerel available, also at $3 per bait. Sardinas were also there at $25-$30 a scoop depending on the supplier. A few of the bait boats had thawed horse Ballyhoo at $3-$4 per bait as well.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: We keep waiting for the hoards of Striped Marlin to come down to us but there has not been a strong showing in our area as of this date. A few boats that have gone a bit farther up the line have encountered decent concentrations and have done well, but the distances involved right now put these fish out of reach of the daily charter trips. Hopefully as the water continues to cool the fish will come our way. For the moment we have to be content with an average of one to two Striped Marlin per trip for the boats that concentrate on them. The best results this week have come on trolled Ballyhoo and good live bait tossed in front of tailing fish. Almost all the action has happened on the Pacific side, but it has been a bit spread out. A few boats on half day trips have been lucky and found fish just off the lighthouse, but others have blanked in the same area. Some boats have found three or four fish to release up to the north past the Golden Gate Banks and others in the same area have nor seen a fish, so you can see that there is a lot of luck involved right now. We hope the concentrations arrive soon, it sure would be nice to be seeing double digit releases every day!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There are still large fish out there as several boats have proven this week, it's just that you have to find which tree they are hiding behind. Get it? There is not any kind of pattern to these larger Yellowfin with the exception of the Gorda Banks, and there it has been a matter of putting in the time with the right bait and terminal gear. Offshore it has been a matter of finding the right pod of porpoise to work. There are plenty of pods out there but not all of them hold Tuna, and not all of those have large fish, and those that do have large fish often have fish that will just wave their fins at you and smirk. You like being frustrated? Try fishing just for large Tuna and you will be happy. There have been plenty of the small variety out thee but once again it has been a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Some boats are coming in with one or two footballs, others with five or six and once in a while a boat will have several larger #30-#40 fish aboard. The large fish, those over #100 pounds, have been there as well, but as I said they have been spread out. These larger fish have been coming in from boats using kites for the most part,but a few of them have been caught on trolled lures.
DORADO: Still the mainstay of the fleet boats, they are beginning to make themselves a bit more scarce. While several weeks ago it was common to come in with a near-limit load of fish, this week most of the boats have been lucky to get two or three fish and some have actually caught none at all. I think it is a matter of the water cooling off, but then I have to blame it on something! The boats that have done the best have been leaving the first fish hooked up in the water and dropped bait behind the boat, using the first fish as a teaser to bring in more Dorado. This method has worked well, but you always run the risk of loosing that first fish as a few anglers have found out! The best fishing for Dorado has still been on the Pacific side close to the beach.
WAHOO: There was actually a pretty decent Wahoo bite this week as we had the full moon at the end of the week. A lot of these were very small fish, I saw one come off a boat that I first mistook for a Sierra, was it not for the strong bars on the side I would have not known it was a Wahoo, perhaps it would have pushed the scale to 4 pounds, Sad, but there you go. Most of the fish that were caught were larger than that, averaging 25 pounds but even though there were more this week, they still were not common. The best areas were on top of the Gorda Banks and along the rocky points on the Pacific coast. A fair number were found offshore under the shark floats.
INSHORE: Inshore fishing at the beginning of the week was pretty good with a great showing of Sierra up off the beach at Migrineo, some good Snapper fishing among the rocks on the Pacific side as well as a few scattered small Roosterfish and a lot of Pompano. This was when we had that band of cool water running along the beach on the Pacific side. Mid-week things turned around for several days as the water switched, warmed a bit and became gin-clear along the shoreline and very few fish were caught. At the end of the week it has settled down again and while there were still no Sierra, the Snapper and Pompano had begin to bite again. The largest number of fish caught though seemed to be the Mexican Marlin (also know as needle-fish).
FISH RECIPE: posted on the blog Thursday or Friday. We have been really busy the past several weeks and promise to get a new one up this week! Really!
NOTES: Once again we experienced near perfect weather and very good fishing. The whales have started to put on the shows we love and the water has been in great shape. Christmas is coming up and maybe if you have been god this year, Santa will give you a trip to Cabo for a present! This weeks report was written to a mix of Texas rock-a-billy music, courtesy of my friend Mark Bailey. Oh, that's right, delivered to me by Mark and recorded by his son Alan! Thanks guys! Until next week, tight lines!
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
December 11, 2011
Late fall has brought cooler temperatures and more unpredictable winds sweeping
through Southern Baja, back to back cold fronts from the north, no rain, just
scattered cloud cover, at this time conditions have settled and anglers are enjoying
much more comfortable conditions. Currents are now on a cooling trend, average water
temperature has been 75 to 79 throughout most of the region, still a bit warmer than
usually for this same time frame. Clean blue water is being found within one mile of
shore.
Schooling mackerel are now on the local fishing grounds, mixed with sardinetas.
Smaller sardinas are also being found in limited quantities by the commercial fleet.
The number of visiting anglers dropped way off compared to previous weeks, as people
now prepare for the holiday season. Inside the jetty channel of the Puerto Los Cabos
Marina there has been plentiful supplies of caballito, wonder how long this resource
can hold up with so many throw nets being used in this small area?
Local charters have been concentrating their efforts from Santa Maria, Gordo Banks,
La Fortuna to Iman Bank. Most common species this past week has been dorado, found
while trolling lures and by slow trolling or drift fishing various baits. Numbers
were up from past week, still varied from day to day as to the best locations, if
anglers did find any type of floating debris they were pretty much guaranteed of
having wide open action. Charter had varied success of one or two dorado, up to a
dozen or more. Sizes ranged from small juvenile fish to 30 pound bulls. These same
fishing grounds produced a few wahoo, many smaller sized ‘hoo in the area, not often
to we see wahoo of ten pounds, they normally are more in the 30 to 40 pounds range.
The handful of wahoo that are being accounted for have hit on yo-yo’s, trolled baits
and high speed lures, such as Rapala X Rap’s. With the water temperatures still
favorably warm, we are optimistic that wahoo will
become more active, as there is lots of baitfish in the area and there is now
lighter angling pressure.
Yellowfin tuna action was slow during the recent cold fronts, but tuna are still in
the area and with the weather now calmed down for a couple of days we are
anticipating hearing more reports of yellowfin catches. On Thursday, several pangas
charters hooked into tuna on the Gordo Banks and at least three quality tuna in the
one hundred pound class were landed.
Not much bottom action being done recently, but as conditions stabilized some
anglers did report action on cabrilla, yellowtail and pargo. There are still a few
home guard yellowtail biting on the Gordo Banks, lots of hammerhead sharks competing
for baits though, at time making it impossible to keep a bait in the zone where the
yellows were found.
Striped marlin are arriving in larger numbers, following their favored food source,
with all of the mackerel now in the area we do expect to see another great year for
marlin. Still a few sailfish and larger marlin around, one black marlin was lost
from a La Playita panga on Wednesday
Roosterfish have been found in surprisingly good numbers for this time of year, The
beach stretches in front of the hotel zone off of San Jose del Cabo produced action
for roosterfish up to 20 pounds, trolling live caballito was the best bet to find
the better grade of roosters. Sierra were now arriving in increased numbers, as they
prefer the cooling water temperatures, typically these fish school in this area
through May, they average two or three pounds, but can do grow to 15 pounds and are
very aggressive fighters on light tackle.
More and more whale sightings now, as humpback and gray whales are now arriving to
their breeding grounds after spending the summer feeding in Alaskan waters.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent
out approximately 70 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count
of:
15 striped marlín, 3 sailfish, 264 dorado, 15 wahoo, 12 yellowfin tuna, 18 pargo, 10
cabrilla, 16 bonito, 9 yellowtail, 106 roosterfish and 36 sierra.
Good Fishing, Eric
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson
Owner/Operator
800 4081199
Los Cabos 1421147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
www.gordobanks.com
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Dec 5, 2011; 11:08AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
November 28 – December 4, 2011
WEATHER: Today was the low of the week as far as I saw with a temperature of 67 degrees at 6AM. We had warmer mornings earlier, some as warm as 78 degrees but the average was about 71 degrees. Daytime highs averaged 86 degrees with a couple of days getting into the low 90's. On Thursday clouds moved into the area but earlier in the week was sunny. Monday was a windy day all day but the rest of the week the breeze did not start up until about noon.
WATER: The week started out strange as on Monday the winds from the east that had started out light on Sunday really kicked in and started blowing. With the wind came the swells and chop, and coming from the east it was not comfortable on the Cortez side of the Cape at all. Winds to 25 knots and seas at 4-6 feet resulted in the Port Captain closing the Port to the entry and exit of Pangas. The main reason was that it was unsafe for the water taxis and the glass bottom boats in the bay. On Tuesday things returned to normal and the wind switched back and started to come again from the northwest. Water temperatures on the Sea of Cortez were warmer than on the Pacific side with most areas showing 81 degrees. On the Pacific the warmer water was close to shore inside the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks and was 80 degrees. Outside the Banks the water cooled to 78 degrees.
BAIT: Most of the bait is still very small Caballito and junk fish but there have been a few Mackerel showing up, just not enough to depend on. The cost is still around $3 per bait. Some Sardines can be had here at $25 a scoop but better deals can be found by going to San Jose if you are going to be fishing in that direction. $20 can get you a full scoop up there, but if you are going to be fishing on the Pacific side it's not worth the time.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There was no change in the situation with the Striped Marlin this past week as we continue to have reports of good numbers of Striped Marlin appearing to the north of us on the Pacific side. Some of the fleet boats are starting to get multiple fish on their day trips, occasionally as many as four or five releases, but they are still having to a way to get to them. Most of the action has been on live bait tossed in front of tailing fish, bu there has been decent action reported on lures as well. Quite a few boats have begun to drop live bait toward the bottom at the Golden Gate and the Los Arcos area hoping to intercept feeding fish that are not showing on the surface.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: This weeks result on Yellowfin Tuna can be show by a recap of the just completed one day Toyota Tundra Tuna Tournament, sponsored by Toyota and Monex. The fishing was on Saturday and since it was the inaugural tournament there was not a lot of notice given. 33 boats competed and with an entry fee of $2,500 pesos and jackpots of $500 and $1,000 pesos it was affordable. It was Tuna only and payouts were on the three largest fish. Fishing started at 7AM and lines out was at 4PM, scales closed at 6PM. The largest fish was caught on the Curandero III and weighed #275. Shark's Parlour weighed the second place fish at #212 as well as a #191. Third place was a #208 caught on the Bad Medicine. There were several other fish over #150 brought in and scores of fish from #30 to #80. We had one client fishing and they limited out on fish averaging #30 and hooked several larger ones. These were just the tournament fish, the fleet did pretty good as well and there were several fish reported over #200. I also had an unconfirmed report of a very large Yellowfin of #400 being caught earlier in the week by a commercial Panga using #200 test hand-lines fishing the Gorda Banks. The majority of the tournament fish came from the Pacific side to the north of the Golden Gate but there were a few, including one of the prize winners that were caught at the Gorda Banks. So there you go, we still have good Yellowfin fishing even though it's December!
DORADO: For most of the fleet boats the Dorado were the fish of the week once again, both because of the numbers out there and because they could be found closer to home. The boats that are getting the slightly larger fish are going offshore and looking for feeding Frigate Birds. They are not getting large numbers but there are some quality fish out there. One example is a boat getting 6 Dorado that averaged 25 pounds, but most of the boats are getting the smaller fish close to the beach. Live bait is the key here, but many of the smaller fish are coming in on hootchies and then the boats are leaving one in the water and feeding chunks of Bonita to keep the action going.
WAHOO: Not as many Wahoo this week as last week, the bunch that were being caught off of Palmilla Point seemed to have either moved on or stopped biting. There were some fish caught close to the beach on the Pacific side, but as usual most of them were lost due to mono leaders.
INSHORE: Dorado were the target for most of the Pangas but there is a decent Snapper bite starting as well as a few Sierra starting to show up. Football Yellowfin just off the beach has attracted quite a few of these small boat anglers as well.
FISH RECIPE: posted on the blog Thursday or Friday. We have been really busy the past several weeks and promise to get a new one up this week!
NOTES: Great weather, good water conditions and great fishing made for a fantastic week. The whales are showing up, not a lot of them yet but we are seeing a few every day we go out. This weeks report was written to the music of Radney Foster on his new album “Revival”. Excellent music and thanks once again to Mark Bailey for his continued support of my music habit! Until next week, tight lines!
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