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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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Jun 16, 2008; 11:00AM - 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
Cabo Fish Report
June 9-15, 2008
WEATHER Our nighttime lows have been in the mid to high 60’s while the daytime highs have been in the mid 80’s, really nice weather all around except that the darn wind has been blowing almost non-stop all week. We have had mostly sunny skies, or partly cloudy if you are a pessimist, all week long.
WATER: We had the cold water off of the Pacific Ocean make a strong intrusion into the Sea of Cortez this week. What had been very nice warm water all along the Cortez side turned into cold green water this week as our temperatures dropped from the high 70’s into the low to mid 60’s. Out in front of town we had the water temperature drop to 61 degrees on Saturday, and the cold water, most of it in the 64-degree range, extended up to the Punta Gorda area. As of the end of the week it had warmed a bit to the low 70’s, but was still green. On the Pacific side the water was rough due to the consistent northwesterly winds, with seas at 4-6 feet and plenty of chop on top of that in the first 10 miles from the beach. Outside the ten miles the swells were still there but the chop disappeared as the wind appeared to be land related.
BAIT: Mackerel and a few Caballito were available at the new price of $3 per bait, and there were nice sized Sardinas at the Palmilla area at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Marlin bite at the beginning of the week was not bad but as soon as the cold water started to wrap around the Cape the fish moved up the sea of Cortez and the ones that stayed around here stopped biting. At the end of the week you were lucky to get a chance to throw bait at a fish.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were no fish at the beginning of the week but at the end of the week there were some football fish found on the Pacific side around the San Jaime Banks. Boats that were brave enough to challenge the 10 mile weather were able to get a decent catch of Yellowfin in the 10-15 pound class just to the south of the San Jaime. Best lures were cedar plugs and small dark colored feathers. The fish were associated with spotted porpoise.
DORADO There were some Dorado found at the end of the week in the warmer water south of the San Jaime Bank in the same area the Yellowfin were found. They were decent fish in the 20-35 pound class and most bit on the same lures as the Yellowfin.
WAHOO: The Wahoo went somewhere else this past week.
INSHORE: This was the type of fishing to do this week as the Sierra bite turned on and the inshore bite on them and on small Yellowtail was almost wide open. Almost all of this bite took place on the Cortez side of the Cape, but for those boats willing to challenge the currents and waves on the Pacific side, there was a decent bite on Snapper up at the el Arco area as well.
NOTES: Inshore was the place to be this week. All our inshore anglers did well if they were willing to catch what was available. The few Roosterfish that were caught were small, probably due to the cooler water, but also due to the cold water all the offshore species made themselves scarce. We just have to keep our fingers crossed that things improve and the water warms back up. Until next week, tight lines!
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Jun 11, 2008; 01:00PM - Puerto Los Cabos La Playita
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Gordo Banks Panga Report
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Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
June 8, 2008
Anglers –
We are now a couple of weeks away from the official start of the summer season. Tourism continues to be in a slump due to the poor economy in United States. Complaints of super high airfares are rampant and with the skyrocketing fuel prices we expect there will not be a solution in the near future. Local weather patterns have been quite pleasant, mostly clear sunny skies, with highs near 90 degrees and lows averaging about 65 degrees. Oceans conditions have been relatively calm in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, this is where the majority of sportfishing fleets are now concentrated. Water temperatures have ranged from 74 to 78 degrees, clarity has fluctuated daily, but general consensus is that it has been favorable. Very extreme tide in recent days, close to a six foot tidal swing, this is about the extreme limit for this region, higher swells has been running as well, particularly on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas.
The striped marlin bite continues to be very strong, especially in the areas off of San Jose del Cabo to Desteladera. The only drawback has been the lack of larger baitfish, though there are large concentrations of bolito that have been encountered on the fishing grounds and they are being jigging up and used with good success as trolling baits. Plenty of mullet now schooling along the shorelines, but these never do make the best offshore baits, though when hungry enough the stripers will take them. The marlin which have been weighing in the 100 to 150 pound range have also readily been striking on live sardinas, which are now of very good size and have been found in over abundant quantities inside the Puerto Los Cabos marina. Larger gamefish could be seen feeding in the midst of the dark clouds of balled up baitfish right in the panga docking area. On one morning there was a monster sized snook that exploded through the bait ball and scattered the baitfish up on to the dry dock and even inside of some moored boats. Lots of smaller roosterfish, sierra and barracuda are now following this bait right inside of the marina.
The annual run of larger roosterfish that typically passes through this area during the first part of June has yet to develop. There are large numbers of juvenile sized roosterfish, but only a scattering of larger roosterfish are being encountered by anglers that have been trolling the inshore surf zone with live mullet, the preferred bait. Perhaps by next week we will have better reports in this department.
There has been a lack of pargo close to shore, so far only a handful of dogtooth or mullet snapper have been accounted for, perhaps they will be later this season as well. There are a mix of snapper species being found on the offshore banks, huachinango, yellow snapper and barred pargo. Striking on sardinas and yo-yo jigs. An occasional yellowtail, amberjack and cabrilla are also hitting the decks, some of them weighing over 30 pounds.
Not much to talk about for yellowfin tuna, on some days there are reports of fish seen feeding on the banks, but more often they are not striking, just an occasional tuna in the 10 to 30 pound class being accounted for, these fish were taken on either dead or live sardinas.
Early in the week there were some quality catches of dorado reported, this was when anglers found weed debris in the area of the Gordo Banks that were holding large numbers of do-dos, they were not monsters, but it was fast action for fish in the 10 to 20 pound range. Larger dorado were being found off of San Luis, this is where concentrations of bolito were schooling, one of the dorado favorite meals.
On Sunday, June 1 the annual Dorado Tournament was held out of La Playita. This year the event attracted some 35 teams, mostly pangas, but also a few cruisers. No huge numbers of fish, but at least fifteen respectable dorado were brought to scale by the 1:00 p.m. deadline. Gary Weis from Santa Monica was fishing with Gordo Banks Pangas skipper Chame Pino on the 22 ft. “Killer” and they accounted for the winning dorado, it weighed in at 45.5 pounds, caught on a bolito on the San Luis Bank.
In recent days there has been a early morning wahoo bite that has developed on the Inner Gordo Banks. Anglers with the normal arsenal of high speed wahoo lures have landed one or two ‘hoo at first light, weights have ranged from 25 to 50 pounds.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita / Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 76 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 8 wahoo,
38 striped marlin, 61 dorado, 11 yellowfin tuna, 205 roosterfish, 98 sierra, 8 yellowtail, 7 amberjack, 14 bonito, 204 various pargo species and 18 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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Jun 2, 2008; 10:52AM - 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
Cabo Fish Report
May 26 – June 1, 2008
WEATHER: Things have warmed back up and now we are feeling once again as if we have summer on the way. Our nighttime lows have been in the low 70’s and our daytime highs have been in the mid 90’s, once reaching 99 degrees here at my house. We had scattered clouds in the mornings most days, but things cleared up rapidly.
WATER: We experienced a rapid improvement in water conditions this week as a major push of warm water from the north took place. This warm water displaced much of the cold green water that we had wrapping around the Cape from the Pacific side last week, and has come on strong enough that the entire area to the south of the Cape is now around 76-78 degrees and blue. This warm water has traveled up the Pacific coast past Todo Santos and extends from the beach to about two miles offshore. Farther out it is 72 degrees and still green, in places like pea soup. On the Cortez side of the Cape things have definitely improved with water temperatures within our reach being as high as 84 degrees, and up in the East Cape reaching 86 degrees. This warm water is also clear water and brings with it fish of all kinds. Surface conditions on the Pacific consisted of swells to 6 feet with afternoon winds from the northwest to 14 knots. On the Cortez side the swells were in the 1-3 foot range with slight afternoon winds from the west causing occasional choppy conditions.
BAIT: Mackerel and a few Caballito were available at the new price of $3 per bait, and there were nice sized Sardinas at the Palmilla area at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin have shown back up and the fishing has improved for them as well. The only problem is that the fish are still a considerable distance from us on the Cortez side of the Cape, up around the Punta Gorda area and farther north, in the Vinorama area. This is an easy 30-mile trek, and takes time, but when the tide change happens things have been going off like gangbusters, especially the last half of this week. There is plenty of bait in the area and the preferred method has been to slow troll live mackerel at 2 ˝ knots in the area of heaviest concentration. The fish have been feeding on the surface, but the action is so quick that running and throwing bait has not been effective. The slow troll seems to do better. Those boats that have been using just lures have been getting fish as well, but not as many. With the push of warm water into our area it should not be long before the big girls start to show up! I am really looking forward to some Blue and Black Marlin action this summer!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We are still not seeing any numbers of Yellowfin Tuna, the actions of the Purse Seiners from several week ago seem to have had a very strong effect on this fish’s availability. We can only hope that a new batch of Yellowfin appear soon. Quite a few boats have been looking specifically for them, but the results have been very poor.
DORADO: There has been very good Dorado action in the same area as the Striped Marlin, but closer in toward the beach. Within the 300-foot depths around the Vinorama area the bite has been good on fish to 45 pounds, with most of the fish in the 20-25 pound class. Fast moving lures in bright colors have done well when fished back in the pattern, and as happens most of the time, a live bait dropped back once the lure-caught fish is close to the boat has often resulted in multiple fish hooked up.
WAHOO: Wahoo were the big surprise this week as they have followed the warm water and are now to be found off the Vinorama area, just like the Dorado and Striped Marlin. The best results have been had by the Pangas out of La Playita in San Jose as they have been leaving the marina early and have been catching Chilwilie at the inner Gorda Bank at first light, then running to the Iman Bank area and slow trolling these mackerel scad. Many of the Pangas were catching multiple fish in the 30-40 pound class every morning. For the boats coming into the area from Cabo Sa Lucas, the best results were to be had by trolling Magnum Rapallas and Marauders close to the boat at higher than normal trolling speeds, around 9-10 knots, and having a small, heavy lure off of the outriggers. The best catch I heard of by a cruiser from our area was 6 fish in the 30-50 pound class in one trip. I did see a larger fish come in, one that was reasonably in the 80-pound class.
INSHORE: The inshore action continued to be good on the Cortez side of the Cape for white Bonita and Roosterfish, with some boats doing well on some leftover Sierra as well. These are surprising, as the water has warmed up well past the normal temperature for them. Fishing bait off the bottom has had good results for anglers targeting Grouper and Amberjack, with many of the Grouper being in the 30-pound class. The best areas for the bottom fishing has been off the rock piles at the points, one of the most fished has been right off of Palmilla. Roosterfish action has been going off very well on the sandy beaches at La Playita and to the north of there in the La Laguna area. Best results for them has been by using live mullet slow trolled behind the boat, or some of the large Sardinas that can be bought up there.
NOTES: We are experiencing a definite improvement in our fishing, and things are looking good. On a slightly different note, rumor has it that the marines have stopped several charter boats from fishing closer than three miles from the beach on the Pacific side this week, forcing them to return to the Marina, or moving farther out. I am going to do a little checking this week and find out what is going on. I also heard that they stopped a 28 foot cruiser that was fishing 25 miles offshore while looking for tuna and told him to move in closer as he was not allowed to be that far out. Hmm, guess that is another thing to check on, but at least that one makes sense to me. No music for me this week as I am writing this very early in the morning prior to a fishing trip and my wife is still sleeping in the next room! Until next week, tight lines!
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May 26, 2008; 03:07PM - Gordo Banks Panga report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: eric
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Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
May 25, 2008
Anglers -
Only four weeks to go and we will be into the official summer season, weather is always somewhat unpredictable this time of year, some wind out of the north and then some very gusty winds from the south, actually at times making it unfishable on the Pacific waters off of Cabo San Lucas and closing the port on Wednesday and Thursday, while on the same days, just 20 miles to the north the ocean conditions were not bad. Water temperatures had been steadily warming, ranging from 75 to 80 degrees, warmest currents being found north of the Gordo Banks. The winds from the south, which blew as hard as forty to fifty miles per hour, pushed in cooler Pacific and dropped water temperatures by ten degrees over night. Now since the winds have resided the water conditions are slowly improving, but this does not happen in one day, can take at least several days for it to return how it was. Crowds of anglers did increase some this past week, enjoying mostly sunny skies with highs ranging from 75 to 85 degrees, though the number of tourists visiting the Los Cabos area is still not like past spring seasons.
Over this full moon period the surf conditions also increased, this made it more difficult for the commercial pangueros to net sardinas, which typically congregate inside the surf zone. Supplies were somewhat limited, but still it was enough for anglers to catch some quality sized fish. Much of the action in recent days has been centered on the Inner Gordo Banks. This is where schools of yellowfin tuna had moved in. Despite there being several commercial seiners working this spot for a few days, they apparently did not capture all of the yellowfin. There were significant numbers of tuna seen feeding on the banks, most of them being in the 20 to 50 pound class. With the abundance of baitfish, squid, bolito and others being prevalent, as well as combined with the very bright moon, this had the fish finicky at times, one day they would hardly seem interested in any bait offerings, at least during the morning hours, but then the very next day they would go back on the bite, readily striking the sardinas. Tuna are feeding machines and you really never know when they will go on the chew, though one thing is for sure they will be feeding at some point during the day or night. Anglers found that drifting with either live or fresh dead sardinas was the most productive technique, with average catches ranging from one to six tuna per charter.
Mixed in with the tuna counts were a few varieties of pargo, yellowtail, cabrilla, amberjack, striped marlin, sailfish and dorado. Dorado were still mostly found in ones or twos, though sizes were generally very respectable, with the majority of the fish being in the 15 to 25 pound range. Marlin bite slowed over the full moon phase, but still many charters accounted for one, two or three marlin during a days outing, action centered from the area off of Chileno to Desteladera. Sailfish were found scattered throughout the area, more numbers moving in with the warmer waters, some sails were encountered within one mile of shore.
Inshore action included a mix of sierra, jack crevalle, roosterfish and bonito. Numbers of roosters were down, perhaps because of the higher surf that stirred up the inshore conditions. There are more schools of mullet now migrating into local waters and this most certainly will attract the larger roosterfish in the coming weeks, as well as the gladiator dogtooth snappers.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 66 charters for the week with anglers reporting a fish count of:
1 wahoo, 9 sailfish, 11 striped marlin, 2 mako shark, 96 yellowfin tuna, 42 dorado, 12 cabrilla, 79 various pargo species, 15 yellowtail, 11 amberjack, 13 jack crevalle, 19 Mexican bonito, 22 roosterfish and 34 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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May 26, 2008; 11:30AM - 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
Cabo Fish Report
May 19-25, 2008
WEATHER: This week brought us cooler weather than we have had for a while. Our nights were down in the low 60’s; I saw our thermometer read 61 degrees here at the house one morning. Our daytime highs were in the high 80’s. On Wednesday the wind started to blow, and blow hard, from the northwest, occasionally shifting more from the west. That lasted until Friday morning, and then it became nice again.
WATER: Ugly is the term I have to use for our water conditions this past week, I sure hope things improve quickly. On the Pacific side of the Cape we have had the warmest water at 72 degrees, and that has been in a big circulation just to the south of the San Jaime Bank. It got as cold as 58 degrees right next to the beach just above the lighthouse mid-week. With the cold water comes color, and for the most part the water was very green. The current from the Pacific side must have been extra strong this week; the full moon may have had a lot to do with that. Anyway, the cold water from the Pacific started to push up into the Sea of Cortez, causing green/blue banding out as far as 50 miles and up the coast until the Vinorama area off of Punta Gorda. The warm water up there was 72 to 74 degrees. The farther up the coastline you went, the better things became. The wind that kicked in on Wednesday made offshore conditions miserable as well. On Wednesday you could not fish on the Pacific side if you wanted to, and things were not much better on Thursday, to the point that the Port Captain closed the Port until 11 am Thursday.
BAIT: Mackerel and Caballito were available at the new price of $3 per bait, and there were Sardinas at the Palmilla area at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Before the winds and currents moved the fish, the WCBRT, held on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, had the top team release 57 Striped Marlin over the three days. The second place team released 34 and the third place team released 27 fish. These were professional teams fishing on the same boat every day. In comparison, last year the top two boats tied at 33 releases each. During the tournament the fish seemed to be holding just to the east and north of the 1150 spot. When the wind and currents started, the fish moved way up to the north. There were almost no Marlin caught after Tuesday, and at the end of the week boats had to travel 2 ˝ hours up the coast to find any fish. The bright spot is that it seems the warm water is moving back in our direction and the fish that are being found are starting to feed again. Hopefully next week things will be better.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again the bite on Yellowfin was slow; I saw very few white flags flying from the outriggers this week. The few Tuna flags I did see were for Bonita. I discovered this while looking at the fish carts coming off the docks with fish from the boats flying these flags. I heard of no Yellowfin being found in our area this week.
DORADO: The cold green water moved the Dorado out as well; this week was a bust for them. A couple of fish were caught, but they were found a long distance away, up in the warmer water off of Punta Gorda.
WAHOO: The cold water moved the Wahoo out as well, even up at Punta Gorda the bite was not happening, and normally the full moon and structure there provide decent action.
INSHORE: This was the only bright spot at the end of the week for us. On the Pacific side, if you went past the lighthouse you were out of luck, but off of the Pedregal and the arch there were schools (small) of Pargo and groups of Yellowtail For any other inshore action you needed to make the trip up the coast of the Sea of Cortez, and even then, during the middle of the week, it was a long trip home against the swell sand the wind. If you did get up there, the fishing for Roosterfish to 30 pounds, Sierra to 8 pounds, the occasional Amberjack, lots of Jack Crevalle and a few Pacific Barracuda made the trip worthwhile.
NOTES: This was one of the worst fishing weeks I can remember having had in quite a while. Maybe that is the reason for listening to Stevie Ray Vaughn while writing this report; a little blues goes a long way! The bright spot is that it appears that the warm water is moving back our way! Until next week, tight lines!
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May 19, 2008; 12:45PM - 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
Cabo Fish Report
May 12-18, 2008
WEATHER: Our daytime highs have been in the mid to low 90’s while the nighttime lows have been around 72 degrees. We also had mostly sunny clouds this week, a nice change from the past month. Light winds have been from the northwest, just enough to cause an afternoon chop on the water, but nothing big.
WATER: There was an enormous difference in the water temperature between the Pacific side and the Cortez side of the Cape this week, and it was strongest just off the beach. In the area just off the beach at the Golden Gate Bank we saw water as cold as 55 degrees while the water on the Cortez side was pretty evenly at 77 degrees. Offshore there was a difference as well, but not as large. On the Pacific side, north of a line between the Cape and just to the south of the San Jaime Banks we had water temperatures in the low 60’s and just to the south it warmed up to the low 70’s. On the Cortez side from the arch to the 95 spot and then south and west, we had pretty much 80-82 degrees everywhere you went. The area between these two extremes was a mixed bag of 68-72 degree water. As is normal, the cooler water had much more of a green tinge while the warmer water remained blue.
BAIT: Mackerel and Caballito were available at the new price of $3 per bait, and there were Sardinas at the Palmilla area at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: We just finished the 2008 ROLEX/IGFA Offshore Championship Fishing Tournament this week. There were 63 teams fishing for 4 days, a total of 232 fishing days, and the result was approximately 350 Striped Marlin released. At an average of 1 Ľ fish per day this was just about the same as in the 2003 tournament when they averaged 1 ˝ fish per day per boat. The top team in this year’s tournament released a total of 13 Marlin and 1 sailfish over the four days. We had the World Billfish Catch and Release Championship Tournament start this weekend and we will see how they do as well, I’ll report the results next week. Meanwhile, the fish this week were found from just off of Gray Rock to outside between Gorda Bank and the 1150 Spot. They were not feeding well, as a matter of fact we had clients on Friday who said they saw over 100 fish but could not get one of them to eat. Maybe it was a sign, but the last day of the tournament was on Friday as well, and that was reported as being the slowest for them.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again the bite on Yellowfin was slow; I saw very few white flags flying from the outriggers this week.
DORADO: As the water continues to warm the Dorado continue to show up in larger numbers. Almost every boat that went out this week was flying at least one Dorado flag on its return, and most of the fish were decent size. We had clients catch one of about 60 pounds on Wednesday, and another group on Thursday caught two fish averaging 40 pounds each. The warm water on the Cortez side was the location and both slow trolled live bait and fast moving bright colored lures in smaller sizes worked well.
WAHOO: There were some decent Wahoo caught this week and most of them came from either the Gorda Banks of the Punta Gorda area. Darker colored lures and slow trolled live bait worked on fish ranging from 25 to 50 pounds. There were not a lot of them, but enough to make a little more effort worth it. Maybe 25% of the boats fishing for them lucked into fish.
INSHORE: Yellowtail in the 8-10 pound class were to be found from the arch in front and up to the lighthouse on the Pacific side. There may be more fish farther north, but there was no reason to travel that far. Live bait, small Caballito and Mackerel, were the best baits if you did not have large Sardinas, but small Rapallas worked as well. Just off the arch there was a decent concentration of small Roosterfish in the 10 pound class and they were biting on the live baits as well as a few that were caught on fly gear. Up on the Cortez side, in the warmer water, there were a few larger Roosterfish caught and released, fish that ran from 30 to 50 pounds. The best bite on these larger fish was in the afternoon. Anglers working for Snapper and Grouper just off the bottom had decent luck using chunks of bait and yo-yoing jigs in 110 to 200 feet of water along any of the points in that direction. These fish were between 5 and 15 pounds in size. A few surprise Amberjack moved in as well, generating some scorching runs and burned thumbs!
NOTES: Good news this week was no Seiners in the area; the bad news is that the reason they were not here is that there are no Tuna! Maybe they got all of them last week? Sometime soon we should have new schools move into the area, it can’t be too soon for me! Sorry to the few of you who will get this late, but we had the computer crash yesterday and my wife spent all day getting it back in shape. Thanks dear! Until next week, tight lines!
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May 12, 2008; 11:33AM - 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
Cabo Fish Report
May 5-11, 2008
WEATHER: It looks like things are changing a bit down here. This week we had mostly cloudy skies, a bit of wind at the middle of the week and no rain, but it felt like it should have rained. Our nighttime lows varied between 68 and 75 degrees while the daytime highs were in the high 80’s to low 90’s. With the cloud cover the humidity kicked up a notch.
WATER: The Pacific side of the Cape was cooler than the Cortez side at 68-70 degrees and was off color as well. The greenish water wrapped around the Cape through the middle of the week and crossed into the area of the 95 spot. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water was much warmer, and the farther up to the north you went, the warmer it got. In the area of Punta Gorda and the Gorda Banks we were marking water as warm as 81 degrees, and it was blue water. Elsewhere on the Cortez side (offshore) the water was in the high 70’s and pretty clear.
BAIT: Mackerel and Caballito were available at the new price of $3 per bait, and there were Sardinas at the Palmilla are at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There were a lot of Marlin to be seen on the surface up in the Palmilla area close to shore but they were stuffed with squid and did not want to eat. Lucky boats were catching one or two per trip. There were a few decent Sailfish coming from the same area as well. There was not a lot of action on the billfish front but I am awaiting reports from a few friends that went up to fish the warm water on the Cortez side, they should be back early this coming week. My fingers are crossed.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: A few boats caught a few small football sized fish after the seiners left the area. Overheard on the radio were reports of them talking to each other and bragging about stuffed holds, guess they took all the fish.
DORADO: A few small fish were caught close to home, but the concentrations we had earlier were with the Tuna, guess the seiners got most of them too. I am hoping the warmer water to the north on the Cortez side holds more and they will work their way down to us.
WAHOO: What Hoo? New moon phase.
INSHORE: Green water on the Pacific side had most of the Pangas fishing the Cortez up around Palmilla point. These boats were getting some decent Sierra and Amberjack as well as some Snapper and Grouper. Bait of choice was Sardinas.
NOTES: Bad news was the seiners showed up again and wrapped all of the fish, the government allows it and now we don’t have anything to fish for. The good news is that the water is warming up and we should have a new mass of fish moving into our area soon. I really don’t know how else to put it other than the fishing this past week was extremely poor. My fingers are crossed that the government does something to regulate the encroachment of Seiners into the sport fishing areas. Tuna from the seiners goes for $480 a ton to the packing plants; wonder how much that same fish is worth in income from sport fishing? Enough said, I don’t want to get into trouble. Until next week, keep your fingers crossed for tight lines!
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May 12, 2008; 01:09AM - Gordo Banks Panga report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: eric
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Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
May 11, 2008
Anglers -
Ideal time to visit Southern Baja, clear sunny skies with highs in the 80s, crowds are lighter than usual and fishing action is steady enough to please most serious anglers.
Ocean conditions have been a bit unpredictable, but on most days anglers were able to find comfortable seas. Water temperatures ranged from 73 to 77 degrees, with the warmest currents now found near Los Frailes. Mackerel were scarcer, but sardinas remained plentiful, particularly in the area of the Puerto Los Cabos Marina Jetties.
Striped marlin were found in significant numbers from La Fortuna to Desteladera, the marlin could be seen feeding and at times anglers were able to jig up their own bait when they were found schooling on the surface. The cruiser fleets launching from Cabo San Lucas had better access to larger baitfish such as mackerel and caballito, so they were able to target the billfish more efficiently.
The local panga fleets had a variety of options, one of them was on the Inner Gordo Banks, where they targeted yellowtail and dorado ranging in the 20 to 40 pound class These fish were hooked into while slow trolling sardinas on the surface. The yellowtail were seen in significant numbers, but were proving a bit finicky and lighter tackle resulted in more hook ups, but also more lost fish, because these yellowtail were extremely powerful and found many different ways of gaining their freedom, one of them by going straight down and cutting anglers lines off on the nearby rocky high spots. There were a few days early in the week where cross winds resulted in choppy conditions and some anglers opted to fish in more protected areas closer to shore. There was good action found for sierra, roosterfish, yellowtail and Mexican bonito found off of Palmilla and to Chileno. Most of these fish were ten pounds of less, but provided great sport on lighter tackle, again trolling with live sardinas was the best technique, though yo-yos and rapalas also produced well.
After the yellowfin tuna schools were all but decimated last week by the seiner fleets
Working the fishing grounds near Cabo San Lucas there were new schools of tuna that moved back into this same region, only to be followed once again by the commercial seiners, not the dozen or more vessels that had initially raped the area the previous week, but nevertheless several of the larger sized seiners with their helicopter pads on top. This situation seems to be turning more political, common sense would acknowledge that these vessels stay clear of such a populated tourist zone, but authorities higher up apparently are showing how influential they really are and that these are their oceans and they will do as they please. Maybe it is time for the U.S. residents to consider boycotting purchasing tuna that is captured from Mexican waters.
A variety of snapper were found, though this bite was not consistent from day to day, a couple of days saw anglers catching nice pargo near the surface on the Gordo Banks, also a few pompano, cabrilla and amberjack mixed in.
The combined panga fleet launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 55 charters for the week and anglers reported a fish count of:
2 mako sharks, 8 striped marlin, 17 yellowfin tuna, 142 yellowtail, 24 dorado, 8 pompano, 13 cabrilla, 6 amberjack, 78 Mexican bonito, 74 roosterfish and 122 sierra.
Good Fishing, Eric
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May 6, 2008; 02:13AM - San Jose Del Cabo Panga Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: eric
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Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
May 4, 2008
Anglers -
Tourism continues to be at below normal levels due to the poor economy in the U.S. The area endured a heat wave this past weekend, just as residents throughout Southern California felt. Ocean conditions were mostly calm with cleaner water moving closer to shore, water temperatures ranged up to to 76 degrees, continuing to steadily warm as the summer season approaches.
Anglers are finding a variety of species, from yellowfin tuna, dorado and striped marlin offshore, to sierra, yellowtail, roosterfish and pargo closer to shore. Sardinas remained abundant around the Puerto Los Cabos Marina jetties. Mackerel were scarce, there were some smaller sized skipjack that could be caught on the fishing grounds for use as bait for striped marlin. Most charters were accounting for one to two dorado per outing, sizes ranged up to 25 pounds, fish were striking a variety of lures as well as trolled baits. The bite for small sized yellowtail continued to be strong off the main beach hotel resort area off of San Jose del Cabo, mixed in were Mexican bonito. The Inner Gordo Banks area was producing a handful of 30 pound class yellowtail for anglers working yo-yo iron jigs, a few huachinango (red snapper) were taken by this same manner. Over the weekend anglers reported seeing yellowfin tuna in the 200 pound range feeding and breezing on the surface of the Banks, but these fish could not be enticed into taking any offerings, even though they would feed on chummed sardinas. One grouper of 130 pounds was landed on 30 pound tackle off of Palmilla Point, the story was that a small sized yellowtail hit on a trolled rapala and once hooked headed to deeper water, where the grouper ambushed the fish and became hooked on the same set up, lucky to land such a specimen on such light tackle.
Last week we talked about the Mexican Navy patrol continuing to seemingly pick on the local La Playita panga fleets, inspecting the same pangas over and over again for their proper paper work, fishing permits, safety equipment etc... Not exactly the best method to help promote the already slack tourist industry. Over the weekend a true crime was witnessed in the areas just offshore of Santa Maria to Chileno, this is the region where the yellowfin tuna had finally moved in and were producing limit style fishing action for the local sportfishing fleets, not overly large fish, but very fun and tasty, averaging 10 to 20 pounds. A commercial fleet consisting of one dozen full sized purseiners moved within two to five miles from shore, proceeding to set their nets and capture hundreds of tons of these juvenile sized yellowfin that could of have provided continued action for the sportfishing fleets for months to come. But, they have all but been decimating now, only a few straggler tuna are now being caught. What a shame that the government still has not put an end to this type of corruption, it makes you wonder if the Navy armada was paid off with some mordida to look the other way, but how could they expect to get away such a crime in front of such a large city where they were operating in such easy view of everyone? Even if these commercial vessels did have legal permits to fish in these waters, you would think that they would have intelligence and courtesy not to do so blatantly in plain sight of so many people. The same Navy patrol boat captain who has been in charge of harassing the local panga fleets was asked why these purseiners were allowed to come so close to shore and set their gear, his answer was simply that they are paying good money so they deserve these fish. Great, that really makes the sportfishing community feel good, we definitely know where their priorities are. All we can do is let the public know what has happened and hope that somehow we can put the pressure on the authorities to do their jobs. In a real world this rogue Navy Captain should be detained and all of the puseiners involved should face punishment, including confiscation of their vessels. Doubtful anything will even come of this, it did appear on National T.V. and in the local papers, so perhaps fleet commanders will feel some pressure.
The local panga fleet launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 41 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a catch of: 2 mako shark, 17 striped marlin, 36 dorado, 124 yellowtail, 118 Mexican bonito, 166 yellowfin tuna, 18 roosterfish, 7 pompano,122 sierra, 28 combined pargo species and 12 cabrilla.
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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May 5, 2008; 10:48AM - 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
Cabo Fish Report
April 28-May 4, 2008
WEATHER: We had just another week in paradise with our daytime highs varying between 90-95 early in the week and 85-90 later in the week. Our nighttime lows varied as well with 75 early in the week and 65 later in the week. That nighttime low of 75 on Monday and Tuesday night forced us to turn on the air conditioner! We had partly cloudy skies all week long with winds at 10-15 knots from the northwest with occasional higher gusts.
WATER: There was little change in the surface conditions from last week. The Pacific side of the Cape had swells at 3-5 feet and the Cortez side had 1-3 foot swells. The water temperature on the Cortez side was a pretty even 74-76 degrees from the shore out to around 12 miles, then it became 67-69 degrees for another 12-20miles, then there was a pretty strong break where it warmed right back up. On the Pacific side the temperature remained around 66-69 degrees. On the Pacific side from the Golden Gate and across the San Jaime Bank and toward the beach the water was a fairly dirty green, the closer to shore you got the dirtier it got. This plume of cool, green water extended to the south of the Cape keeping the water outside the 1,000-fathom line that dirty green.
BAIT: There was plenty of bait this week as the larger boat brought in plenty of Mackerel to sell to the Panga bait boats. With the small moon the bait boats were able to catch plenty of Caballito as well. This week the bait was the usual $2 per bait. When we purchased bait on Saturday, our supplier informed us that as of this coming Wednesday all the boats were raising their prices to $3 per bait. Keep in mind there has not been a raise in the bait price for almost 8 years, so this is not unexpected.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Once again the billfish were very easy to find this week, all you had to do was get out on the water. From just off of the lighthouse on the Pacific side around the Cape to the Punta Gorda area they were everywhere. Early in the week they were on the surface sleeping and tailing. Unfortunately, they were also full! They may have been stuffing themselves on squid once again, but for whatever the reason, you could throw baits to 25-30 fish and be lucky to find one or two that were hungry. A few boats resorted to drifting live baits deep, and this technique did work a little better than trolling lures while casting bait to fish on the surface. As the week went on the fish seemed to move up the Cortez coast just a bit and then back to in front of the arch. At the end of the week the ratio of fish baited and fish hooked improved a bit and most boats that tried to work Marlin were able to catch between two and four per trip, definitely an improvement over earlier in the week. Mackerel was the bait of choice; Caballito just didn’t seem to get the fish interested. The Striped Marlin averaged around 120 pounds.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: At the beginning of this week all the purse seiners we had out front last week had gone north, leaving us with just “scales drifting down” where before we had great fishing. Of course the fish were not around, they had all moved out or had been scooped up in the nets! Well, on the positive side, on Saturday this week the fish re-appeared just two miles out off the arch and lighthouse. These fish were also a bit larger with most of them between 20-30 pounds with a few pushing 40 pounds. One hour in the fish resulted in 16 Yellowfin for one of our groups of anglers. Almost anything worked, as these fish were very hungry. I went up on the Cortez side on Saturday and we got into a very larges group of dolphin with birds everywhere and large schools of bait showing up on the depth sounder. No Yellowfin though, and I could see two super seiners just on the horizon to the north, off of Los Frailles. I wonder if they had already gotten all the fish?
DORADO: The warmer water out front brought more dorado into our area and most boats were able to get at least one or two fish per trip. One of my friends was fishing up off the Punta Gorda area earlier in the week and found a dead whale that had been around long enough to attract quite a collection of life under it and was able to limit out on fish averaging 15 pounds. There were a few fish in the 30- pound range there as well. Everywhere else the bite was just all right with bright colored lures and live bait fished for Marlin getting the most fish.
WAHOO: The moon phase might be wrong for Wahoo this last week as I did not hear of any of them being caught.
INSHORE: Our anglers tat fished off of Pangas this week continued to do well with a varied catch including Roosterfish to 15 pounds, Sierra to 8 pounds, Yellowtail to 15 pounds and an assortment of bottom fish such as snapper and grouper to 10 pounds. The majority of the fish were found just off the beach on the Pacific side but when the late afternoon winds kicked in the afternoon trips worked off of Gray Rock and Cabo del Sol for the same type of fish. On Saturday, when the Yellowfin showed up so close to the arch, almost every Panga out there was in the mix, and they all did well. Quite a few of the Pangas were working just off the beach for Marlin as well throughout the week, and were averaging just about the same as the cruisers.
NOTES: The Seiners left, that’s good news, there are Tuna out front again, that’s good news! Live bait is going up in price on Wednesday, that’s bad news! I’m done with this week’s report, that’s good news! Until next week, tight lines! Give a listen to the music of an old Fender Stratocaster player, Dick Dale on his album “Spatial Disorientation”, that’s weird news!
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