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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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May 22, 2011; 06:41PM - Summertime fish
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: vseasport
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No footballs, no dinks. This spring has been all
about quality not quantity.
Last week tuna fishing just started to get in gear
when the winds came up and made it impossible
for boats to travel outside to the tuna grounds.
Yesterday the wind subsided and the tuna fishing
picked up right where it had left off. Most fish have
been between 30 and 100 pounds. Normally spring
brings smaller football sized tuna and the larger
fish start to show as summer approaches. Not this
year! It has been straight summertime sized fish.
Something odd, is that the tuna are traveling with
bottlenosed and not the white sided dolphin. As the
sea temp warms, Spotted and Spinner dolphin
should show and that is when it really goes ballistic.
Large schools of summertime sized dorado have
also shown up under patches of sargasso grass and
are cooperating with anglers. None of those little
spring time schoolies, these fish are bending rods
and anglers are getting their moneys worth.
Billfish are also in the game. Huge schools of
greenback mackerel have shown up near Punta
Pescadero and the striped marlin are on the attack.
For photos and a complete report check out my
blog.
Mark Rayor
www.thejenwren.com
www.vistaseasport.com
markrayor.blogspot.com
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May 16, 2011; 11:51AM - 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
May 9-15, 2011
WEATHER: This was a really great week, I don't think it could have been much nicer. Of course, I spent most of it on the water and that was a bit cooler than here on land, but still we had great conditions. It was partly cloudy, more of a high overcast for the middle of the week. Our daytime highs were in the low 90's and the evenings were comfortable at an average of 70 degrees.
WATER: The warm water has stayed with us and we are seeing a steady 76-78 degrees almost everywhere on the Cortez side of the Cape. There was a very nice looking temperature break outside the 1,000 fathom line south of the 95 spot mid-week. Water on the Pacific side had been the same as the Cortez side early in the week, at least in the first 10 miles from shore, but at the end of the week cool water averaging 68 degrees had worked it's way back down the coastline. Outside of 3 miles it remained 72 degrees until you went west of the banks and then it dropped back to 68 degrees. The only problem with fishing on the Pacific side was the wind. Every afternoon the wind started to pick up from the northwest, wrapping around the Cape and coming in from the west if you were fishing the Sea of Cortez. Large swells on the Pacific combined with the wind made fishing there uncomfortable. On the Cortez side it was just bumpy coming home!
BAIT: There was no change in the bait situation this week. A few decent Caballito but mostly junk bait at $3 each. Don't buy the junk bait unless you are desperate. Sardines up at Palmilla at $25 a scoop. Frozen Ballyhoo at $3 or $4 each depending on the supplier.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: While not great, the Striped Marlin fishing has been good, but as in all fishing, being in the right place at the right time has a lot to do with your success rate. Using the right stuff also helps. This week Cabo hosted the IGFA Offshore Championship once again and there were 59 teams from around the world competing for 4 days, using 30 pound test line. There were 292 billfish caught, including 2 Swordfish, 2 Blue Marlin and 6 Sailfish. This was an average of 1.25 billfish per day, per boat. Now remember, these are some of the best teams around. Top teams caught 14 fish , averaging 3.5 marlin per day. Boats not in the tournament did well also, not being limited in the gear they could use. Many private boats did very well, some releasing up to 9 fish per day, but averaging 2 to 3. The top areas early in the week were between the 95 spot and the 1150, and as the week wore on the fish moved to the warm water in front of San Jose, along the edge of the San Jose Canyon. At the end of the week the main mass of fish had moved offshore about 12 miles then slowly drifted off to the east. Best results were had trolling rigged ballyhoo, and if you had them, throwing live Caballito in front of fish sighted on the surface. There were other Swordfish caught besides the two in the tournament, and the 1150 area plus outside the outer Gorda Banks were holding a few.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: At the end of the week there was some action on Yellowfin Tuna in front of Grey Rock, small fish averaging 8-10 pounds and you had to chum them up with Sardinas. There were a few larger fish in there as well, but not many. Porpoise were found offshore outside of the 1150 and Punta Gorda and some of them were holding Tuna to 100 pounds. The average catch was three or four fish at #35 pounds but there were a few larger ones caught. Hopefully this action will move closer our way soon.
DORADO: There were a few Dorado caught this week, almost all of them on the Cortez side of the cape. Small ones were found close to the beach, little guys of around 8 pounds. Offshore a bit farther were larger fish averaging 15 pounds. There were not a lot of them, but enough that you had a decent chance of getting one for dinner.
WAHOO: Full moon is on the 17th so the bite was slowly improving on these sharp-toothed speedsters. Most of the hook-up were lost due to the use of monofiliment leader instead of wire, but enough of the Wahoo bit just right that a few were landed. I know that we lost at least one lure to a Wahoo strike and there were many more that I heard of. The fish were averaging 30 pounds with a few going almost 50 pounds. Once again the warmer water in the Sea of Cortez were where they were found.
INSHORE: That Roosterfish bite just around the corner in front of the Sol-mar continued for the first two days of the week then they went away. Those fish were small at 5 pounds on the average but provided lots of action when Sardinas were used as bait. The Sierra action has slowed down a bit and the Yellowtail have seemed to have moved north up the coast on the Pacific side. Instead, we are getting action from the Jack Crevalle, not good eating but a heck of a fighter! As the middle of the week approached the football Yellowfin showed up in front of Grey Rock and most of the Pangas were running up the coast to Palmilla for Sardinas then running back to chum and drift live bait.
FISH RECIPE: My recipe has been taking too much space so if you want to see it, check out my wordpress blog a little later in the week, or subscribe to the blog and you will receive an email as soon as I post it.
NOTES: Sorry I was a bit late with the report this week but I was on the water for the past 4 days and too tired by the time I got home to do anything other than eat and sleep. As shown above, the fishing continues to improve on all fronts, the weather is great and the water is nice. If you have been thinking about visiting Cabo, this is a great time to do it! This weeks report was written to a mix of mellow music from one of my favorites, ex-surfer Jack Johnson. Until next week, tight lines!
I will be posting more to my blog now, please go to http://captgeo.wordpress.com/ and subscribe, you will be sent a notice every time I post a new article. Please feel free to send suggestions or if you have any ideas for articles. Thanks George
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May 15, 2011; 04:14PM - East Cape Fins to the left, fins to the right
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Mark Rayor
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It has finally happened!
East Cape striped marlin have become aggressive.
For the last couple of days boats targeting marlin
are releasing multiple fish per day. Fish are close as
well. Yesterday afternoon we saw marlin feeding 3
miles from our buoy.
Bigger news is the arrival of yellowfin tuna.
Yesterday to the North, near Punta Perico, El Loco II
found a school of bottlenosed dolphin with large
tuna feeding. They managed two hook ups using
caballitos. On Jen Wren III we landed a 50 pound
class tuna, 20 miles east of Punta Pescadero while
hunting for broadbill. Also several boats traveled
south to San Luis and all had success. The report on
the VHF was lots of tuna feeding on the surface.
Most of the tuna to the South were landed on cedar
plugs and hoochies.
For photos and a complete report go to my blog at:
http://markrayor.blogspot.com/
Mark Rayor
www.thejenwren.com
www.vistaseasport.com
markrayor.blogspot.com
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May 9, 2011; 11:11AM - 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
May 2-8, 2011
WEATHER: We had a few hot days this week as the thermometer hit 103 degrees in our driveway. It's not humid yet but that will come. While there were a couple of hot days, we also had some really nice weather as well. The average here in Cabo was 92 degrees during the day and 78 degrees at night. The floor fan has been on for sleeping and I am about to pull out the dogs floor fan for her during the day. No rain of course and just a couple of days with a high overcast.
WATER: It's starting to warm up out there! The latest shot from overhead shows that cold 65 degree water we had on the Pacific side has moved 60 miles north, up past the Finger Bank. Everywhere else we can look at shows a pretty even 75-76 degrees. We did have a brief showing of 82 degree water along the coast up on the Cortez side from Punta Gorda north. Surface conditions have been great with little wind and small swells.
BAIT: A few decent Caballito but mostly junk bait at $3 each. Don't buy the junk bait unless you are desperate. Sardines up at Palmilla at $25 a scoop. Frozen Ballyhoo at $3 or $4 each depending on the supplier.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: In a repeat of last weeks report the Striped Marlin have remained at the 1150, or in the general area all week long. If you have good live bait there is the possibility of action. The boats scoring best are using live bait as drop-backs on fish coming into the lures. A great catch this week was 4 releases but almost everyone was scoring at least one. I pulled on a fish myself this week for an hour on stand-up #30, it just would not give up, a nice fish of over #150, scoring a release with live bait. We also had one of about 130 pounds on a lure. Plenty of Jumper and feeders most days, we had an active feeder right along the side of the boat while I was fighting my fish, but there was no more bait left. What was interesting was the number of Thresher Sharks we saw early in the morning, we must have seen at least 10. We were seeing a lot more Marlin this week as well, and some boats reported seeing over 100 fish during a day's trip. If the warm water continues we might be seeing some Blues and Blacks soon. There were Swordfish seen again this week in the area just tot he north of the Gorda Banks and one boat caught one 6 miles off of Grey Rock as well.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I saw a couple of white flags that may have represented Yellowfin this week, but they may have been for Bonita as well since I heard of no Yellowfin being caught over the radio, nor did anyone I talk to mention any Tuna.
DORADO: A few yellow flags once again indicated the catch of some Dorado, but there was no hot and heavy bite, at least not yet. Warm water means they can't be far behind though. We sure are looking forward to the first school of them coming through!
WAHOO: We are coming through the new moon phase so there were few Wahoo reported, but there were a couple of decent fish caught. The ones I heard about were said to be in the 35 pound class and were caught by boats trolling lures for Striped Marlin.
INSHORE: On the Pacific side there has been a great bite on small Roosterfish to 10 pounds with a few 20 pound fish in the mix and a decent bite on Sierra. The key to action was to get Sardinas as chum and bait, otherwise things were a bit slow. Nice action was had on Jack Crevalle as well, man those fish can fight! The Yellowtail seem to have moved north following the cooler water as the last report I had on any decent action was from the rock points up past Golden Gate Bank.
FISH RECIPE: My recipe has been taking too much space so if you want to see it, check out my wordpress blog a little later in the week, or subscribe to the blog and you wil receive an email as soon as I post it. This week is a good one!
NOTES: The fishing continues to improve and I will be on the water for a few days this week. The whales are pretty much gone now but the fish are showing up! This weeks report was written to the electric speed guitar of Joe Satriani on his 1992 Relativity Records release “The Extremist”. Sometimes you just have to kick it up a notch! Until next week, tight lines!
I will be posting more to my blog now, please go to http://captgeo.wordpress.com/ and subscribe, you will be sent a notice every time I post a new article. Please feel free to send suggestions or if you have any ideas for articles. Thanks George
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May 2, 2011; 12:10PM - 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
April 25 to May 1, 2011
WEATHER: We knew the heat was coming, but just like when it leaves mid-October in an overnight transition, it seemed to have arrived on Saturday! I don't know if this is just a shot time visit, a reminder of what is to come or if it is here full time, but it sure became warm. On Friday morning as we left the house for the marina it was a comfortable 67 degrees, warming to 88 in the afternoon. The weather had been like this all week with just a bit of wind here in town, a bit more out on the Pacific side. Saturday morning there were enough clouds on the horizon that the skies looked a little purple, and the thermometer showed 79 degrees! In the afternoon before getting the car out of the driveway we saw 99 degrees. Hmm, had the floor fan on last night along with the ceiling fan.
WATER: The warming trend has continued as the water on the Sea of Cortez is now averaging 75 degrees. That is good news, and it is also fairly calm on that side as well. On the Pacific side we have 63 degree water near shore to the north of the lighthouse, warming to 65 degrees on top of the San Jaime and Golden Gate banks. Outside of the San Jaime about 10 miles there was a warm water eddy, a spin off from the water on the Cortez side that appeared in the last couple of day, but will probably disappear soon. We had winds from the northwest, our normal wind direction and that made the areas near Cabo on the Pacific side a bit rough for many boats. This was a local effect however as boats that continued on the the north reported flat water, but green, once past the Los Arcos area.
BAIT: On the difficulty of getting bait that we have been having. One of my buddies who runs a charter and gets bait from just one supplier said he has been calling his guy at 5 am to check on what he has, and the guy says he is just getting out to catch bait. Come on man! No wonder the bait is poor! These guys know that the boats need bait, and as long as we are willing to pay $3 each for anything, why should they work hard to get the good stuff. My buddy has gotten to the point of taking a bucket of bait and putting it in the bait tank, then scooping out all the crap bait and handing it back, only paying for the good stuff. Right on! That said, there is some Mackerel if you are verrrrry lucky, some small Caballito and a lot of junk like look-downs and grunts and small jacks. Sardinas are still available for $25 a scoop up toward San Jose for the boats willing to go get them.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin are still out there, just moving around a lot. One day right on top of the 1150, the next 5 miles to the southeast, next day on the 95 then back to the 1150 but a little north. They can be found and if you are one of the lucky boats they can be caught as well. We are not seeing quite the numbers we had last week, no pods of 20 fish, but they are running in small groups of up to 8 or 9 fish, lots of double and triple tailing groups. With large numbers of squid still in the area (check out the depth finders!) it has been difficult to get them to eat, but it can be done if worked at. A few fish have been eating plastic, but most of the ones being caught are being caught on bait, either live or rigged dead bait. A great catch this week would have been four fish, average was one or two. There was a drop in the number of Swordfish sighted on the surface this week, but there were a few caught up off of the Vinorama area. If the warm water trend continues we may start to see some Blue and Black Marlin showing up soon, but don't lay plans to travel here just yet if they are your target.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were mixed results for boats looking for Yellowfin this week. With the large numbers of Marlin in fairly close and the great inshore bite we have been having, very few boats traveled far to search for the Porpoise pods. The Pacific side had mostly green water and slightly rough seas as well so few boats tried to find the fish in that direction. The boats that searched went to the south and the east to fins small pods that only occasionally held fish. The ones they found that held fish produced small Yellowfin to 20 pounds, there were few larger fish reported in the Porpoise. Not to say there were not some large fish caught, just not in any numbers. One boat was reported to have had a double blind strike on top of the 95 spot and ended up with one Yellowfin over 100 pounds and another rover 50 pounds, so they are out there.
DORADO: There continued to be Dorado caught as evidenced by the yellow flags flying off the outriggers of returning boats this week. The most I saw on any one boat, and the best results I could find were three fish a trip. We had one client this week who caught a Dorado of about 25 pounds but saw no others. Most of the fish were caught on the Cortez side in the warmer water and struck on rigged dead bait pulled for Striped Marlin. While the fishing is improving for Dorado they are still not here in numbers, so don't bring a cooler with you expecting to go home with it loaded with 40 pounds of Dorado fillets!
WAHOO: New moon phase has limited the numbers of Wahoo we have been seeing on the dock, but there have been a few incidental fish to 30 pounds. Sure wish I had a nice fillet of Wahoo now!
INSHORE: Inshore fishing continued to provide the most angling action on average this week as the Sierra and Yellowtail both bit well. Most of the action for both species took place on the Pacific side of the Cape. Using Sardinas for chum and bait the Sierra action was fast and furious at time on fish that averaged 5 pounds. A few schools of larger fish to 8 or 9 pounds were in there as well. Chumming and then drifting either a live or dead sardine resulted in steady hook-up, while trolling hootchies or small swimming plugs was quite a bit slower. When chumming with the 'dines there were quite a number of small Roosterfish showing up as well, most of them less than 5 pounds, but putting up a good fight. The Rocky points, or underwater rock piles were the places to try for Yellowtail. Yo-yo'ing in 180 to 200 feet of water produced fish to 35 pounds this week. We had several Panga charters that came in early as the anglers got tired or cranking on these hard fighting fish. We also had one client who got lucky and got into some great quality Pargo action right in the rocks. Requiring extremely accurate casting, he managed to bring out 5 Pargo that averaged 15 pounds each, with one of them about 25 pounds. Way to go Isaac!
FISH RECIPE: Still in the Keep it simple mode, this is one of the most basic fish recipe's you will ever find, and it produces great results. Visitors who don't have a lot to cook with can do this one. Go out and buy a jar of Italian Salad dressing, not the creamy one if you are trying to lose weight, but that works as well. Put your fish fillet in a zip-lock bag with a large dose of the salad dressing, shake it around and let it marinate in the cooler or fridge for a few hours. Put it on a plate, pop it in the microwave and serve with a small green salad using the rest of the dressing! Too easy? Add more stuff!
NOTES: I look forward to continued improvement in the fishing and catching. My fingers are crossed that the Marlin start to bite and more Dorado start to show. Hopefully the Tuna will come in closer and then things will be just peachy! Meanwhile I will continue to enjoy the hot and heavy inshore action we have been getting. This weeks report was written to the music of Captain Sam Crutchfield. An old favorite of mine, and one that gets me in the mood to fish, it was published by Sea Notes Inc at Jonbur Publishing and is titled “Hooked On Fishing”. Until next week, Tight lines. Oh, and by the way, I now have a few articles appearing under my by-line at Yahoo Associated Content, so please check me out there as well.
I will be posting more to my blog now, please go to http://captgeo.wordpress.com/ and subscribe, you will be sent a notice every time I post a new article. Please feel free to send suggestions or if you have any ideas for articles. Thanks George
Congratulations to the US Navy Seals and the CIA for pulling off the most important operation in the world we live in. I'm sure God already had a plan for this person, we just had to help him along. Thank you to all of our Military and God Bless America!
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
May 1, 2011
Anglers –
We noticed a slight increase in spring time crowds traveling to Southern Baja,
but still the numbers of visitors are far below normal. The latest upgrade in
travel advisories to Mexico by the U.S. state department is definitely not
helping the situation. The Los Cabos region is not the area that any of this
cartel activity has been reportedly occurring and remains a very safe travel
destination for tourists looking to enjoy themselves at one of the many world
class resorts.
The weather is now perfect, daytime highs to 85 degrees, clear sunny skies,
minimal winds and cooler evenings dropping to 65 degrees. Water temperatures
have varied from the upper 60s off of the Pacific up into the mid 70s in the
direction of Sea of Cortez, off of San Jose del Cabo.
With weather patterns progressively warming we are now starting to see some long
awaited offshore action showing promising signs of breaking wide open. Striped
marlin are being found in good numbers anywhere from 10 to 20 miles offshore,
anglers found spots of feeders and tailing marlin. Many boats were landing
multiple striped marlin per day, the majority of these fish were being hooked up
on various bait fish, small percentage were striking on trolled lures. Sizes
ranged from 90 to150 pounds. The fishing grounds off of the Palmilla Point area
seemed to have the larger concentration of billfish in recent days.
Further north off of San Luis Bank to Vinorama anglers were finding some quality
sized yellowfin tuna. No significant numbers yet, but a good sign to see some
tuna in the fish counts after such a long absence. Tuna to over 100 pounds were
landed, with most of the tuna being in the 20 to 80 pound class. Schools of
bolito are congregated on these same fishing grounds and this has been the hot
bait for these yellowfin. Anglers were jigging up their up own bolito, then
using them to slowly troll the same banks. Tuna were also hooked into while
drift fishing with sardinas and on yo-yo jigs. A few nice dorado were also
accounted for and there were even a handful of wahoo strikes reported, though
most of them resulted in lost fish stories.
Inshore action, which had carried fleets through much of the winter season as
the most consistent action available, has continued off the beach stretches
between San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, though the action has tapered off,
with average catches per charter down to anywhere from 2 to 8 fish. Nice to
finally have some other options offshore opening up.
In recent days the larger sized yellowtail resumed biting on the Outer Gordo
Bank, these yellows were all in the 30 plus pound range, striking on yo-yos and
larger baitfish.There were also a mix of cabrilla, amberjack and snapper to
round out the bite off of the rock piles.
There were more options for bait now, sardinas, moonfish, caballito, mullet,
bolito, chihuil and even some mackerel on limited basis. Things are looking up,
ready to bust wide open at anytime, great time to now visit this area, light
crowds, ideal weather and a variety of fishing options.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out
approximately 69 charters for the week and anglers reported a fish count of:
17striped marlin, 10 hammerhead shark, 32 yellowfin tuna, 5 dorado, 23
yellowtail, 33 amberjack, 54 pargo, 17 cabrilla, 11 grouper, 152 sierra, 15
roosterfish, 18 jack crevalle and 8 pompano.
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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Apr 25, 2011; 12:00PM - 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
April 18-24, 2011
WEATHER: What great weather we had for Easter week! Our daytime highs managed to reach just over the mid 90's for a few days and the evening lows managed to touch the mid 60's, really nice stuff! There was almost no cloud cover so it was nice and sunny all week.
WATER: Good news! We are seeing a warming trend and that means that the fishing is getting better. As the reports below show, warmer water most of the time means better fishing, until it gets too warm, of course. As of the end of the week the water on the Pacific side had warmed from the 62 degrees we had last week to 64-67 degrees. The only issue we had this week was surface conditions, as for part of the week evening winds made it a little rough to go offshore in the mornings. Inshore it was quite a bit better with just swells and not so much chop. On the Cortez side the warm water that had eased in up off of Vinorama continued it move in our direction, During the middle of the day we were getting water temperatures in the high 70's, dropping to the low 70's at night. This warm water moved south to the Gorda Banks and just a bit south of there, winding it's way to the 1150. Surface conditions were great as well with only small swells and a bit of wind chop later in the day.
BAIT: It was still difficult to get any good supply of decent large baits here, most of the stuff the bait boats had were look-downs and grunts, there were only a few Mackerel and Caballito to be found. Of course it was the usual $3 per bait, even for the poor baits. Sardinas were available here, but they were more expensive than getting them to the north. Most of the boats that wanted Sardinas were traveling to Palmilla to get them. There were large ones and small ones, and whichever you wanted were $25 to $30 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: We finally have some good news to report about the billfish! There were Striped Marlin found at the tail end of the week before last, but the bite was still an on-off situation, and I did not want to really say much since only a few boats were doing well. So.....this week it finally went off, great Striped Marlin fishing was to be had on the Gorda Banks to the 1150 and all the way down to the 95 spot. There were jumpers, tailers and feeders all through the area and they were finally hungry. While before a good catch for the better boats was three or four fish, this week the better results were in double digits! Plenty of fish were found to throw baits at, if you had the baits. Many of the boats were pulling rigged ballyhoo or tuna belly strips and getting bit. These fish were also going after lures. A few guys were saying things were wide open, but that is just in comparison to what we have experienced for the past three months. Average boats were releasing a couple of fish a day, whereas in a wide open bite everyone is in double digits! Anyway, another bright spot on the billfish front is the appearance of Swordfish. Most of them have been found up off of Vinorama and Punta Gorda on the surface. There have been several caught every day and more lost. One boat caught three over two days, all on the surface. I have no idea how long this is going to last but last week it was good!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Another bright spot for the week was the showing of some Yellowfin, finally. The 95 spot to the 1150 had scattered schools of footballs with some larger fish to 40 pounds in the mix. Of course the first boats to the schools did the best, but the bite did not totally shut down and most anglers were able to get one or two into the fish box. Farther up the coast off of the Gorda Banks there were scattered schools as well, and some of them held fish to 100 pounds. A slightly different method was needed on the larger fish, just trolling lures or chumming with Sardinas did not work. Setting out a kite or using a helium balloon to get the bait well away from the boat brought some bites from these larger fish. Boats that were willing to brave the choppy water on the Pacific side of the Cape got into some larger footballs, to 25 pounds, just to the south of the San Jaime Bank, but the choppy water made it difficult to follow the pods of Porpoise used to find the action.
DORADO: We finally saw a few Dorado hit the docks this past week. The warm water that moved in brought everything with it and Dorado were not an exception. While not there in great numbers as the water is still a bit cool, there were fish caught that weighed up to 20 pounds. Most of them were in the 10-12 pound class however, and were mixed in with both the Yellowfin and the Marlin. If the warm water remains, or gets even warmer, there is a chance the bite on Dorado will get better. I am not going to say that for sure though, because if there is one thing I have learned in over 35 years fishing offshore is to never predict! I just say what happened, I can't see into the future, if I could I'd be rich!
WAHOO: I saw more orange flags flying this week than last week, but I did not see any Wahoo hit the docks. That does not mean there were not any caught, after all with that warmer water and our just coming off of the full moon there should be Wahoo out there. I just did not see any of them, and none of my good friends told me of catching any. So, probably most of the orange flags I saw were for Sierra, but there is a good chance some of them were for Wahoo.
INSHORE: It was nice to have a good variety of inshore fishing to choose from. If you decided to go up the Pacific coastline you had a good chance to get into decent Yellowtail. Up off of the rocky points working iron in water to 200 feet resulted in some really steady action on fish to 25 pounds. One of my buddies said he did well with 10 fish between 20-28 pounds in two hours, with most of them coming right off the bottom, and lost a few more that rocked him. (good going Cubby!) If you decided to go after Sierra instead of Yellowtail all you had to do was go up the Cortez coastline a little way. Sardinas for chum brought the fish around, but the best bites were had by using dead ones, drifted back on a bit of wire leader. Mono leader got bit more often but also resulted in a lot few sharp-toothed fish in the boat. A few grouper were found by the Pangas as well as a few snapper.
FISH RECIPE: Simple is better, and much faster in food preparation. One of the simplest recipes I have for fish involves the use of just oil, salt and pepper. We had Sierra fillets Saturday night courtesy of one of our clients and as it was late when we got home I wanted something quick and simple, but with a twist. Sierra have no scales so I left the skin on but trimmed out the bloodline and ribs. Any fish with scales, get rid of them first. I then brushed the fish with avocado oil, then a light touch of sesame oil. Dust on the salt and pepper, oil the grill and away we go! Combined with some french fries and a small salad of tomato wedges, romaine, black olives and crumbled blue cheese and we had a meal fit for a king!
NOTES: What a great week! Wonderful weather, the fishing really picking up on all fronts and lots of people in for the Easter week. It has been quite a while since we have seen the fishing this good and it has everyone excited. If you want to go offshore for billfish, they are there. If you want Tuna there is a very good chance at them, and the possibility of a big one. Yellowtail and Sierra continue to bite for those that want some meat on the table or just don't feel like spending a full day fishing. It really does not get much better than this! If you were hesitating about coming down to fish, go ahead and do it. Of course there is no guarantee that the fishing will continue to be this good when you get here, but then again there never is a guarantee about fishing! This weeks report was written to some sounds I haven't heard in a while, but one of my wife's favorites. The CD is a 1986 Chrysalis Records release of Billy Idol titled “Whiplash Smile”. Good sounds! Until next week, tight lines!
I will be posting more to my blog now, please go to http://captgeo.wordpress.com/ and subscribe, you will be sent a notice every time I post a new article. Please feel free to send suggestions or if you have any ideas for articles. Thanks George
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
April 25, 2011
Anglers -
Vacationers visiting the Los Cabos area are being welcomed with ideal spring
time weather conditions, clear sunny skies and temperatures in the 80s. The
southern winds slacked up in recent and this made for calmer seas. Ocean
currents have been swift and changing rapidly, water temperatures have ranged
from 68 degrees off of the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas to 78 degrees offshore
in the direction of the 1150 Bank and the Cabrillo Seamount.
Anglers have been patiently waiting for offshore action to turn on, starting to
see some signs of encouragement the past week, more porpoise activity, at times
being associated with yellowfin tuna schools. Strong numbers of striped marlin
being spotted, even though the hook up percentage was low, fish not aggressively
feeding on the surface now. An occasional wahoo strike was being reported from
these porpoise pods as well, most of which were the larger sized dark porpoise.
At this rate of activity, if weather patterns stabilize in the coming weeks, we
could be in for wide open action.
The big talk around town now from offshore anglers has been the daytime
swordfish encountered the past couple of weeks. This has been mainly a deal
being targeted on larger sportfishers, reports of over a dozen swords landed
this past week alone, some weighing as large as 350 pounds. These fish were
spotted on the surface on the fishing grounds outside of San Jose del Cabo and
towards the East Cape, not that far out, 15 to 20 miles from shore. This has got
to be one of the better bites on the swordfish in this area in many years, not
many places in the world offer such chances at baiting up one of these elusive
gladiators on the surface during the daytime. It will be interesting to see if
these numbers hold up through the month. East Cape charters reported that the
gamefish they are now catching offshore are plugged with medium sized squids,
particularly the striped marlin. The season’s first quality sized dorado are now
appearing in the counts off of that region. Squid is always a favorite food
source for all pelagic gamefish, especially so for swordfish, feeding at depths
during the dark hours and lazily sunning on the surface during the daytime, in
the digestive mode, but still whiling to strike various available baits, like
caballito, bolito, skipjack etc..
The majority of the day charters are now finding that the most consistent all
around action is closer to shore. A variety of species such as sierra,
roosterfish, jack crevalle, pompano, pargo, cabrilla, amberjack, yellowtail,
grouper and others were being found near the rocky beach stretches. Drift
fishing over the rock piles, using both bait and yo-yo iron jigs have been
producing a mixed bag of species, no huge numbers, all good eating, with a
handful of grouper to over 30 pounds. The Palmilla Point and Red Hill area was
one of the most popular this past week, this is also where supplies of sardinas
are being netted in the a.m. A few striped marlin were even hooked in this spot,
within a half mile of shore, greenish waters, apparently some bait source has
been attracting these billfish in close.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out
approximately 66 charters for the week and anglers reported a fish count of: 8
hammerhead shark, 8 yellowfin tuna, 3 dorado, 21 yellowtail,11 amberjack, 76
pargo, 65 cabrilla, 10 grouper, 244 sierra, 18 roosterfish, 8 jack crevalle and
8 pompano.
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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Apr 18, 2011; 11:45AM - 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
April 11-17, 2011
WEATHER: A nice change was in store for us at the start of the week. The winds quit and the air warmed up. Our lows for the week were in the mid 60's while the highs were in the mid 90's. We had a little overcast so you didn't really feel the sun, but as many tourists found out at the end of the day, she was shining!
WATER: That cold water current we had along the shoreline on the Pacific side last week shifted offshore and at the end of the week the eastern edge, at 63 degrees, ran right across the top of both the Golden Gate Bank and the San Jaime Bank. The water inside of there, between the edge and the shoreline is now showing 70 degrees. This 70 degree water crosses the tip of the Cape at a distance of 25 miles, outside the 1,000 fathom line, and extends all the way up the Cortez side with a little warmer water, at 73 degrees, just south of the Gorda Banks. Surface conditions were much better this week on the Pacific side since the winds died down and it was almost glassy on the Cortez side.
BAIT: It was still difficult to get any good bait this week. I am not sure why, but out of 30 that would be swimming in the bait boats tank, only a few would be the right kind. At $3 each, most of us just had to say no, and instead went with strip baits or frozen ballyhoo. There were nice Sardinas available for $25 a scoop up at the Palmilla area.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin did move in a lot closer to us this week, but they were still hard to get a bite from. Many of the Pangas were trying for them as a change of pace from Sierra and Yellowtail, but after a day or so of frustration went back to fishing for the inshore fish. At a distance of only 5 miles off the arch, you were able to spend a lot of time working the fish, and if you had the right bait (see above) and good luck you were able to release a few fish each trip. For the most part though, the fish were very closed mouthed and would just roll and look at you then swim away. Maybe they are stuffed with squid? I don't know, just know that there are a lot of frustrated anglers and crews out there!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Tuna were not the fish of the week! There were few found, and those that were found were not very large with an average weight of only 12 pounds. A few larger fish were caught, but not on a steady basis or in any numbers. Most of the larger fish were found while drifting live Sardinas after chumming heavily, and that action was occurring around the Gorda Banks area.
DORADO: I still didn't see any Dorado flags this week.
WAHOO: Once again the red/orange flags I saw this week were for Sierra and Sharks, not wahoo.
INSHORE: With the change in the weather and the sea conditions there was a lot more pressure on the Pacific side, but there was a reason for that. The Yellowtail bite was good up around the Marguerite area with fish ranging in size from 12 to 20 pounds. A good trip resulted in a double digit catch with more lost. Using iron was the way to go, and you got your arms very tired reeling these up as fast as you could! Sierra were still biting off the Sol-mar area and farther to the north, the bite on the Cortez side dropped off a bit. There were a few decent bottom fish like Grouper and Snapper caught as well, most of them on live Sardinas.
FISH RECIPE: One of my favorite snacks, and sometimes a meal, is fish ceviche. Everyone has a different way of doing it. In Guam we would use soy sauce, wasabi, yellow mustard, lots of lemon juice and crushed onion, adding minced red pepper to taste. Once that was to our tastes, we would add diced tuna. Here in Cabo it is a mix of soy sauce, diced onion, diced tomato, chopped cilantro and lime juice, then adding the diced fish, either sierra of whatever the catch of the day is. All of it is done to taste, and then the mix is allowed to sit for an hour to cook the fish in the lime juice and have the flavors meld. Serve with tortilla chips or saltines and there you go. Make sure there are cold beers handy!
NOTES: The weather could not be any better! We are seeing between one and four cruise ships a day most days, but those numbers are soon to taper off to only a ship a week as they finish moving up to Alaska for the summer season. The whales are becoming more scarce as they too move on toward more northerly waters. The beaches are quiet in the mornings, but with Easter week coming up that is going to change quickly. Going to the beach during “Semana Santa” (Easter Week) is a Mexican tradition and we have major numbers of visitors from the mainland come over on the ferries and on planes. The beaches become packed, and on some of them the family's just camp out. In town, the police do not allow any parking within two blocks of the beach, and all the wave runner operations are shut down in order to protect the swimmers. While that is going on it becomes a bit hectic, but always fun to watch and really gives us a chance to meet people. On that note, this weeks fish report is done. This one was written to the music of Chuck Allen Floyd on his first studio release “Tonight an Angle Fell”. Thanks to Allen Bailey for the copy, and I like it so much I used it again! Until next week, tight lines!
I will be posting more to my blog now, please go to http://captgeo.wordpress.com/ and subscribe, you will be sent a notice every time I post a new article. Please feel free to send suggestions or if you have any ideas for articles. Thanks George
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
April 17, 2011
As days become progressively longer, with rising daytime temperatures, this is transition time in Southern Baja, when conditions fluctuate from day to. There was a warming trend for a few days, then this switced to cooler winds off of the Pacific, common pattern during spring. Daytime highs ranged from 75 to 85 degrees, an ideal all around climate now. Ocean currents have averaged 66 to 72 degrees, warmer areas found offshore of the Gordo Banks towards Los Frailes. Crowds of tourists are lighter now, as spring break winds down. Though this coming week is the Easter Holiday and the local tradition of camping on the beaches will be in full swing.
More favorable ocean currents were found north of Punta Gorda, warming water to 74 degrees, encouraging with many schools of unidentified baitfish on these fishing grounds, greater numbers of striped marlin were encountered on the surface, often in groups of several fish or more, but these billfish were not showing much interest in biting. Perhaps having so much natural food source the stripers are just not hungry now and with full moon this weekend it is hard to predict what might happen.
There has been some reports of smaller sized yellowfin tuna found traveling with porpoise, Outside of the Gordo Banks and to the north, first boats on the scene were scoring. On Saturday a couple of panga charters scouted areas towards Vinorama and outside of San Luis they encountered schooling yellowfin tuna, they did account for a pair of fifty pound class yellowfin for their efforts, a couple of other strikes were lost. These tuna hit on either sardinas or bolito, which were found near these same fishing grounds. This is a bit of encouraging news and possibly will develop into something more consistent. Still a very hit of miss deal, there have been choppy conditions at times further offshore. Few dorado or wahoo to speak of either. There continued to be consistent action found for sierra along the rocky beach stretches, trolling with sardinas was the most productive method for this.
Drift fishing over shallow water rock piles with sardinas produced a mixed bag of pargo, cabrilla, grouper, amberjack, yellowtail, bonito, triggerfish and pompano. These are all great eating species, most of the fish averaged less than ten pounds, but there were a handful of grouper, yellowtail and amberjack that did top the 30 pound mark, including one 60 pound class grouper. Anglers had varying success using yo-yo style iron jigs, this was harder work, but also this produced a number of quality fish.
Schools of sardinas were concentrated near Palmilla Point, somewhat limited supplies, but available most days and fresh dead sardinas were offered by the $10 bag at the panga docking area in La Playita. No schools of mullet reported yet, still a bit early for them. This is the tail end of whale migration now, actually there have been quite a few sightings recently, but these mammals will all be migrating towards their northern feeding grounds in the coming weeks.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 52 charters this past week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
5 mako shark, 12 hammerhead shark, 3 yellowfin tuna, 13 bonito, 19 amberjack, 29 yellowtail, 6 pompano, 18 pargo, 14 roosterfish, 29 cabrilla, 9 grouper and 165 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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Apr 11, 2011; 12:17PM - 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
April 3-10, 2011
WEATHER: It was a windy week here in Cabo. It started on Monday and did not let up until this Sunday morning. It was also blowing hard up at the East Cape according to the reports I got. Add in some cloud cover early in the week, thick enough that we were almost positive we were going to get some rain and it was about as far from the sunny beach scene as you could imagine happening here. And moisture? Well, there was no rain but we did get some misting on the car windows and when I was at Cabo Real Golf course Friday and Saturday we did have some fog move in off the shoreline! Cool winds, clouds, hmm, not much to say about that!
WATER: At the end of the week there was a cold 60 degree current sweeping down the Pacific coastline. The current extended this cold water as far as 40 miles to the southwest. Coldest close to shore 64 degree water extended to the west as far out as the outer edges of the San Jaime and Golden Gate Banks. On the Cortez side of the Cape it is 72 degrees close to the beach, 70 degrees any farther out than 5 miles and when you get up around the Punta Gorda area it warms a bit to 73 degrees. Surface conditions on the Pacific side were choppy to rough because of the winds so most of the cruisers were fishing the Sea Of Cortez. Some of the Pangas were hugging the shoreline and fishing as far north on the Pacific side as Punta San Cristobal.
BAIT: Bait, at least good live bait was hard to come by this week. Many of the boats were going with frozen Ballyhoo instead, at least you could get those, but they were expensive at $4 each. There were a few live baits of the larger size, but not much in the way of quality baits. Toward San Jose you could get decent Sardinas, and the farther you got from Cabo the more you got for your money.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Well, the Striped Marlin did finally show up, but they are a long way offshore and they still are not very hungry. The question we have is how long they are going to stay in the area, and will they get hungry? A trip of 30 miles has been needed to get to them, and that is a trip out to the Cabrillo Seamount area, making for a choppy ride home afterward, but boats that have been doing the trip have been seeing between 12 and 20 fish per trip and getting 5-6 bites, averaging 3 releases per trip. High boat for the week managed to get 10 releases in one day, but that was a full day trip on a private boat. Lures have worked for a few of the fish but the right live bait has been the big producer. That live bait has been hard to get so some of the private boats have been spending the time to try and catch their own, a time consuming proposition that can ruin a normal charter trip.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were scattered Yellowfin Tuna found, but still nothing in any size or numbers. It is quite possible that they are out there on the Pacific side but the water has been rough and few boats have been willing to go out there and get beat up on slim chance of finding fish. The area of the Gorda Banks has been producing an occasional Yellowfin Tuna, but better luck has been had for large Bonita, some of them going 12 pounds.
DORADO: I didn't see any Dorado flags this week.
WAHOO: The red/orange flags I saw this week were for Sierra and Sharks, not wahoo.
INSHORE: Still the way to go if you want action, the sea conditions really changed where most of the Pangas went. On the Pacific side you could hug the beach and get as far north as Punta San Cristobal for some Sierra and a decent Yellowtail bite. There were also a few Snapper to be found in the rocks between there and the arch, but the swells kept many boats from getting close enough to fish for them. You had to be a hardy, determined soul to fish the Pacific side! On the Cortez side there were fish as well, but there seemed to be a few less Sierra than we had last week, at least in the spots where they had been found last week! Most of the boats were working hard to get a few fish and Sardinas were definitely the key to success.
FISH RECIPE: My thanks to Sam Choy for the recipe this week, my wife found the basic recipe in one of his cookbooks many years ago and when we manage to get the ingredients it is our hands down favorite fish dish. You need some white meat fillets, preferably Wahoo but Dorado works fine as well. Also a couple of Mangos, fresh is best but canned will do, minced Macadamia nuts, a couple of eggs, some cilantro, vinegar, sugar, finely minced hot red chillies, butter, lime and fix up a pot of rice! Start by cutting the fillets to portion size, then slicing a pita like pocket into the side of each one. Warm the butter, add lime juice to the butter as well as some minced cilantro, chill in the fridge for a while until firm, then place an equal amount into the pocket of each fillet. Dip the fillets in flour, dip in an egg wash then roll in the minced nuts. Place in a pan and cook for a couple of minutes on each side, just until the nuts brown, then remove to a glass pan to be placed in the oven at 275 degrees for about 10 minutes. Take the Mango (sliced and chunked), place ½ in the blender, add some more cilantro, a bit of white vinegar, a bit of sugar, red chillies to taste, blend then place in a saucepan and heat. When the fish is done, remove and place on top of cooked rice, mix the remaining chunked mango with the sauce and spoon on top of the fillets!
NOTES: Inshore, inshore, inshore, sigh, and inshore once again. On the bright side the Striped Marlin have shown up, our fingers are crossed that they come in closer and start to bite. We are getting ready to take the kid for her weekly Sunday morning walk on the beach, Bloody Mary's when we get back and I am done washing drying and brushing her, a very nice breakfast, they off to town to watch the last round of the Masters. My music for this weeks report was the sound of the wind blowing through the palm trees out back, maybe I need to wear long pants to the beach this morning! Until next week, tight lines!
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
April 10, 2011
Ideal spring time conditions now greeting anglers that are visiting Southern
Baja. Sunny skies are reaching high temperatures into the 80s. Wind patterns
were now weakening off of the San Jose del Cabo, this is where ocean condition
were calmer. Winds recently have prevailed more from the south, creating cooler
and rougher waters on the Pacific. Ocean water temperatures overall are now on a
warming trend, particularly in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, averaging
from 65 degrees on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, warming up to 78 degree
just south of Los Frailes. It is the time of year when conditions can change
rapidly. Typically the warmer currents push into the East Cape area first and
then swift in the direction of Los Cabos by late spring.
Some larger sized baitfish such as mullet, caballito and moonfish were starting
to move into the Puerto Los Cabos Marina channel, this is always a favorable
sign. Schools of sardinas have become scattered, but have been available in
limited supplies and continued to be the bait of choice for the inshore and
structure fishing that has been the most productive option for anglers now for
the past month.
Anglers found a good variety of fish close to shore while drifting or slow
trolling bait. Also there was fair success reported for anglers retrieving yo-yo
jigs off of the rock piles. Most common catches were yellowtail, amberjack,
skipjack, bonito, sierra, jack crevalle,
pargo, cabrilla, grouper and triggerfish. Most fish averaged 3 to 8 pounds,
though there were larger specimens to over 30 pounds accounted for, namely
yellowtail or grouper. As always, many larger fish were reportedly lost by cut
lines in the rocks. Overall this winter/spring season was improved over last for
all around bottom and inshore action. With water temperatures now warming we do
anticipate to start concentrating more on offshore action.
There were more frequent reports of porpoise activity being found offshore, with
some scattered encounters with yellowfin tuna, most of this was found too far
for local fleets, we are all looking forward to this type of action to move
within range. Billfish were being found throughout the region, but not in any
large concentrations, striped marlin action was more often encountered 10 to 20
miles from shore, but still very hit or miss. There was more talk about
swordfish encounters this past week, more actual sightings than hook ups,
straight off of San Jose del Cabo 20 miles plus miles from shore, also north
towards Cabrillo Sea Mount and Desteladera Bank was an area where the swords
were seen.
We have not seen any dorado to speak of either, that should change soon, a
couple reports of wahoo strikes being taken in the areas of warmer waters
towards Los Frailes.Not much action found on the Gordo Banks, still a chance of
a larger sized yellowtail, but this was a deal where anglers would be looking
for a chance at one trophy fish, no big numbers, with more sharks and sea lions
making prospects more challenging.
Sierra was the main species found patrolling the shore line, Santa Maria was one
of the better spots to find larger sierra of 4 to 8 pounds, striking best on
sardinas. There were increasing numbers of schooling jack crevalle that were
attracted to inshore bait schools. Most of the roosterfish found continue to be
of the small variety, as more mullet migrate into local waters, this will
attract the larger sized roosterfish.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out
approximately 59 charters this past week, with anglers reporting a fish count
of:
5 mako shark, 12 hammerhead shark, 22 bonito, 26 amberjack, 12 pompano, 18 jack
crevalle, 82 pargo, 26 roosterfish, 22 cabrilla, 84 yellowtail, 144 skipjack and
195 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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Apr 4, 2011; 12:40PM - 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
March 28-April 3, 2011
WEATHER: Great weather at the start of the week continued on until the weekend arrived. Then we had a few clouds move in, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped several degrees in the night. For most of the week our morning lows were around 69 degrees and the daytime highs in the low 90's. On Saturday the wind picked up and the morning low was 63 degrees and Sunday we had a high of 85 degrees.
WATER: We had calm water on both sides of the Cape early in the week but as the days went on the wind slowly started to pick up and by Friday the wind, from the northwest, had kicked up the swells on the Pacific side and the currents had brought cold water into our region. On Saturday the water on the Pacific was rough and close to shore was only 60 degrees. Water on the Sea of Cortez was choppy and a bit warmer at 70 degrees and up around Los Frailles there appeared an area of warmer water at 76 degrees.
BAIT: Some Caballito and Mackerel at the normal $3 per bait, and if you went past the bait boats supplying Sardinas to the Pangas outside Cabo Real you could get a decent amount of Sardinas for $25 instead of just a hand full. The Dines were decent size also, some of them 4” long.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Mid week there was a brief showing of Marlin up in the Los Frailles area, a 50 mile trip out of Cabo. Boats were seeing plenty of fish but they were not hungry. A good trip to the are for those few days might have resulted in a couple of hook-ups and a release. Later in the week you could travel 70 miles in one direction and end the day with just one Marlin if you were lucky. It has not been good fishing for Marlin this year, I just hope that things get better when the water warms up and the Blues and Blacks show up, Of course, that will be a few months from now, but my fingers will remain crossed!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Here one day, gone the next, sort of like the Marlin this week. If you were in the right place at the right time you could catch Tuna, the problem was that there was no way to predict that time or place! Once in a while one of the boats would get into a school of fish ad limit out on Yellowfin ranging in size from 8 to 25 pounds, other time you could go all day without getting a bite. Due south past the 1,000 fathom line and around the Gorda Banks and Punta Gorda were areas where some fish were found, but not in any great numbers or with any consistency.
DORADO: I didn't see any Dorado flags this week.
WAHOO: The red/orange flags I saw this week were for Sierra and Sharks, not wahoo.
INSHORE: Once again the inshore fishing was the way to go this past week. At least there were fish there to be caught! The Sierra bite was good on the Cortez side if you chummed heavily with Sardinas the free-lined a live one behind the boat with a light wire leader to protect from getting cut-off. Limits were easy to get on fish ranging in size from three to six pounds. Yellowtail were the other inshore fish of the week. The little firecrackers (4-8 pounds) were everywhere, almost every rock-pile held them, and in the slightly deeper water you could fish fish that went to 30 pounds.
FISH RECEIPE: For my recipe this week I share my version of fish balls. Unlike last weeks, this one uses fresh fish instead of leftovers, and you need to use sticky sushi rice instead of long grain white rice. Take a fillet of fresh fish with all skin and bloodline removed, cube it into 1” cubes. Cook enough sushi rice to make as many balls as you want. Dampen you hands and form a ball with some rice, press your thumb into it and place a cube of fish in the center, close the opening. Dip the ball in beaten egg, roll in flour and deep fry until golden brown. Remove and set on paper towels to drain oil. Use either homemade or store bought tarter sauce and have a ball! The outside of the ball is crispy, the fish tender and the rice holds it all together. A little soy and wasabi also work as sauce for this.
NOTES: Inshore was once again the way to go, but sometime soon the offshore should start to happen! There are still plenty of whales to be seen, I watched a mother and calf Humpback yesterday as they breached, tail lobbed and had a great time off of Cabo Real. While there I had a chance to watch pro golfer Steve Ames work on the range, wow, what a smooth swing! The Cabo Cultural Center had it's grand opening and it's first concert this week as the “Mariachi Vargas De Tecalitlan” played a free 90 minute show. Great music, my wife and friends all bought CD's and got their autographs! Their next show was the next night in Mexico City. This means of course that they are my choice for writing this report, and the CD is titled “Romantico Boleros” . Until next week, tight lines!
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
April 3, 2011
Pristine weather conditions in the Los Cabos area has attracted below than
normal spring break vacationers. The tourists that have made the trip were
enjoying plenty of warm sunshine, daytime highs in the low 80s. Winds were
prevalent from the south and anglers reported rough ocean conditions on the
Pacific, while in the direction of San Jose del Cabo seas were much calmer. We
look forward to the coming months which offer some of the most ideal weather
patterns, more significant is the incredible variety of fishing options for
anglers.
This week the fishing report was pretty much the same as last, ocean currents
ranged from 68 to 71 degrees through most of the region, with warmer spocts
found 10 to 20 miles off of the Gordo Banks to Desteladera. Water was cooler and
murkier closer to shore, cleaner blue water was found ten miles offshore.
Despite finding clearer waters offshore, there was not much action for gamefish
such as striped marlin, dorado, yellowfin tuna or wahoo. Only scattered reports
of striped marlin, fewer dorado or tuna. It is that time of year now, when the
offshore action has just not taken off yet. We anticipate improvement in the
near future, as spring time days are progressively warming. No schooling
baitfish being found offshore now, lack of flying fish, mackerel or bolito, no
food source to attract the larger game at this time.
Sardinas were harder to find, scattered schools near VInorama and from Palmilla
to Chileno, surf conditions also made it more difficult for the netters. These
baitfish were the preferred choice for the inshore fishing and with some
patience.were obtainable daily. At the panga docking area in La Playita they
were selling fresh brined sardinas by the bag for $10, early in the morning,
this was a good option for drift fishing over the shallow rock piles.
For the past few weeks offshore action was not consistently producing much or
anything and anglers found that there was a much better chance at catching fish
closer to shore. Most common species being sierra, scattered along the coastline
from Cabo to San Jose and north, striking on sardinas, hoochies and rapalas.
Other species found close to shore near rocky structure were yellow snapper,
pompano, bonito, cabrilla, dogtooth snapper, barred pargo, yellowtail,
triggerfish and the list goes on. The majority of these fish were in the 3 to 8
pound range, occasionally a larger yellowtail, amberjack or grouper up to 40
pounds. Anglers found success on dead and live bait, as well as working yo-yo
iron off of the deeper rocks. Charters averaged ten to twenty fish in the
overall catch, most all of the species taken being very good eating varieties.
Still quite a few numbers of humpback whales in the area, we expect they will be
migrating north soon. Lots of manta rays were seen jumping, sea lions hanging
out on the fishing grounds, a few hammerhead, thresher and mako sharks making a
presence to add diversity.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent
out approximately 57 charters this past week, with anglers reporting a fish
count of: 2 mako shark, 1 thresher shark, 8 hammerhead shark, 2 dorado, 17
amberjack, 16 pompano, 135 pargo, 25 roosterfish, 20 triggerfish, 28 cabrilla,
56 yellowtail, 14 bonito and 390 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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Mar 28, 2011; 12:43PM - 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
March 21-27, 2011
WEATHER: Once again things were looking great both in the daytime and at night. Of course it cooled off just a bit at the tail end of the week, right after we had put the quilt away, but not so much that we really needed it. We did have some cloud cover move in at the end of the week as well, some high cover that never threatened rain, but did manage to fool some of the spring breakers into thinking they would not get burned!
WATER: On both the Pacific side and the Cortez side of the Cape the swells were small and the winds light. The only real determination that needed to be made was where you thought you could find the fish. On the Pacific side the water was green out to 8 miles, then lightened up so that by the time you were at either the San Jaime or the Golden Gate Banks the water was a beautiful blue, the color you expect to get in the summer with 80 degree water, only this water was just 68-70 degrees. The green water closer to shore was between 64-66 degrees. To the south of us the cold green water plumed and spread out from the 1,000 fathom line to 20 miles south of there. Inside the 1,000 fathom line the water was a bit warmer at 69-70 degrees, but still off-color. Most of the boats ended up trying for the blue water on the Pacific side, either that or going up to the Punta Gorda area and dealing with the off-color water.
BAIT: Getting good bait was still a chore for the guys who catch it and often unless you were one of the first boats to your regular supplier you ended up with a mix of good and not so good baits (at $3 each). Some Caballito, a few Mackerel, a few Mullet, some grunts and look-downs and a few jacks. Sardinas were a bit tough to get as well most days and $25 did not get you very many.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Early in the week there was a short lived Striped Marlin bite on the Pacific side just to the east of the San Jaime Bank, but it was over almost before it started and boats that went to the area hoping to find the fish again the next day did not fare well. If you were one of the lucky boats there the day the bite happened you might have gotten to release between three and four Striped Marlin out of 6 bites. Sad to say, but 3 years ago I would not have even needed to mention that, boats were getting double digit releases every day back then. On the bright side, the cool water did bring in more sightings of Swordfish, and there were several nice ones caught early in the week. I know of one that weighed almost 200 pounds and another that was just over 300 pounds. More were seen but refused to eat.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin were almost a bright spot for us this week, and they did end up being the pot of gold for a few boats as we had a couple of schools show up at the south end of the San Jaime Bank as well as right on top. Most of the fish were footballs but we did have a few boats that got into fish that averaged 30 pounds with an occasional one to 50 pounds. Then there were the schools where you could see the fish breaking the surface all around but would not bite a thing. And then there were the disappointments as you went to an area, worked it hard for several hours with no luck, left to check out another school only to hear on the radio an hour later that the bite had finally turned on back where you had just been! Sorry bout that, but mother nature has a way of keeping us humble, doesn't she?
DORADO: I only saw a couple of Dorado flags this week. Those fish must have been lost and it was natures way of weeding out the gene pool.
WAHOO: We just came off of the full moon but I did not hear of any Wahoo in the last week. Cold water? Who know the reason but the fish were not biting, at least that I heard of.
INSHORE: Still the way to go this past week for most anglers, you were guaranteed action if you decided to fish along the beach. With the catch ranging from Sierra to Yellowtail to Snappers to Grouper and Trigger fish there was always something to bend a rod. Combine that with the fact that it is less expensive and it was no wonder most of the Pangas were busy this week! The fishing was good enough that Sierra and Yellow tail were being caught from the beach on the Pacific side! Most of the Sierra were between 3 and 6 pounds and while there were not many larger than that, there were plenty of them to be caught. Both the Cortez side and the Pacific side of the Cape had good results for these toothy little guys, and Sardinas were the best bet for getting bit, but hootchies in green or yellow worked as well. For the Snapper, throwing a live bait in among the rocks worked, but sometimes all you could do was keep your fingers crossed and hopped they would bit as sometimes they were really picky. The Yellowtail ranged in size from firecracker 5 pound fish to very nice 30-35 pound rod benders. Live bait and iron slabs or butterfly jigs were all working well.
FISH RECEIPE: Using leftover white meat fish (I prefer Wahoo but any white meat will do), flake or crumble it up until you have at least 2 cups. Cook up 1 ½ cups of sushi rice and let cool. Mince 1 tablespoon of fresh dill, mix with ¼ cup of mayo, then mix it all together, salt and pepper to taste. This is a very nice, cool side dish in small amounts, or a great entree if you have plenty of leftover fish.
NOTES: While the offshore fishing was slow, the up-tick in the Yellowfin bite was a sign of things to come (I say that with my fingers crossed!). Swordfish are the ultimate billfish, and are not common anywhere for sport fishermen, so having them show up here is a bit special. There is always a chance that you will be the lucky angler next time out. If I was just looking for action this past week, I would have definitely gone inshore on a Panga. Plenty of action, fish that are good to eat and the trips are short, only 5 hours. On another note, the whales are beginning to head back north and we are seeing fewer each trip. This weeks report was written to the music of Chuck Allen Floyd on his first studio release “Tonight an Angle Fell”. Thanks to Allen Bailey for the great music, and others I will be using in the weeks to come! Until next week, tight lines!
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
March 25, 2011
Anglers –
Warm sunny days dominated the first week of spring, crowds or tourist were
lighter than normal and anglers found that the all around fishing action was
slower than the previous week. Perhaps the larger than normal full moon had
something do with this, hard to say. This period is always the time when
conditions are rapidly changing, winds have been light, though currents have
been pushing in off colored waters and there has been a lack of baitfish on the
offshore fishing grounds.
Water temperatures continue to fluctuate, one day there is a warming trend, the
next day cooler waters push back in, up and down, water temperatures have ranged
from 65 to 72 degrees, the coolest areas around the corner of Cabo San Lucas, on
the Pacific and the warmer waters being encountered offshore of San Jose del
Cabo. Supplies of sardinas were scattered, these baitfish were more prevalent
near Vinorama, but those schools have moved on and recently more bait is being
found off of Palmilla Point. No schooling mackerel in local waters and only
minimal supplies of caballito are being found.
The only real action that anglers found with any consistency was close to shore
for sierra and shallow water structure species, though this bite was hit or miss
as well. Charters had average combined catches of 3 or 4 fish, up to 20, with
the most common fish being sierra or pargo. Anglers had best success using
sardinas, though a percentage of fish were hitting on rapalas. Most of the
sierra caught were in the 2 to 4 pound class, with a handful of exceptions on
specimens up to 10 pounds accounted for.
Off the shallow rock piles there were various pargo species, triggerfish,
pompano and cabrilla found while drift fishing with dead or live bait. These
fish were mostly under ten pounds, but provided fun action and great eating
fillets. During the later part of last week larger sized yellowtail in the 25 to
35 pound range were found schooling on the Outer Gordo Banks. These yellows
would come to the surface chasing baitfish, but would vanish as quickly as they
appeared. They were striking on fly lined sardinas, but they proved finicky and
anglers were fortunate to land one or two of these fish, some boats accounted
for up to five fish, many other fish were lost due to broken lines, these
yellowtail always seem to know exactly where the closest rock out cropping is.
Extremely powerful jacks, after being hooked up on the surface in 200 feet of
water they are still able to peel the 40 to 60 pound line off far enough to
reach the structure and eventually their freedom. These particular fish only
would take the live sardinas, no yo-yos or anything seemed to work. This bite
tapered off through the week, with only a few fish accounted for and most of
them were early in the day.
There was better yellowtail action reported out of Cabo San Lucas, just around
from the Arches, yo-yos, rapalas and bait were working on these fish. Though
offshore action was tough, very few dorado, tuna, wahoo or marlin to speak of.
With the warming days we will surely see action improve in the coming weeks.
March is always a hit or miss time for offshore action in the Los Cabos area,
this slow period is not unprecedented, bottom line is if the food source is not
here you just are not going to find many game fish.
The combined panga fleet launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out
approximately 60 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
10 hammerhead shark, 3 mako shark, 28 yellowtail, 91 pargo (red snapper), 25
cabrilla,
12 bonito, 125 sierra, 18 roosterfish and 16 jack crevalle.
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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