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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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Mar 17, 2008; 02:21PM - 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
March 10-16, 2008
WEATHER: While the week started off great, with the daytime highs to the low 90’s and nighttime lows in the mid 60’s, at the end of the week the clouds moved in and the wind picked up. As of the weekend we were having winds from the northwest to 18-20 mph with partly cloudy skies and the average temperatures had dropped by 8-10 degrees. No rain came with the front system, but it definitely cooled things off.
WATER: As a result of the winds later in the week, what had been smooth 2-4 foot swells with light breezes on the Pacific side turned into sheep farming by Friday. Everywhere you looked there were whitecaps and swells that had kicked up to 4-6 feet with a few larger ones. Boats that fished south of the Cape early in the week started reporting the wind and swell increase on Tuesday and by Thursday the effects were right off the Cape. On the Cortez side, things were a bit nicer, especially in the morning before the wind really got to cranking it up. Outside of 10 miles though the effects came into play and you had to deal with the choppy conditions. As a result of the wind and the strong California current there was a band of very cool water, down as low as 59 degrees right at the lighthouse. Almost made me expect Albacore Tuna! On the Pacific side the water remained cool, between 59 and 65 degrees outside the 1,000-fathom line. This cool water extended south a distance of 30 miles while on the eastern side of the Cape it only went north as far as a line east of Cabo out to the 1150 area. Farther north it warmed a bit to the 68-degree range and out to the south of the Seamount there was a warm spot that had been drifting around all week that had water as warm as 71 degrees.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Striped Marlin this week were found either close to shore, within 10 miles on the Pacific side or far out, past 30 miles to the south. While there were fish spotted, there were not many of them that were hungry. Looking at the flags flying as boats returned for the day and talking to the guys who were out there this week, the fish were either going to eat right away or disappear before you could get a bait to them. My guess is that only 10% of the boats had a decent shot at a Striped Marlin this week and about half of them hooked up, with some of these fish lost. From that I guess you can tell that the percentages were pretty low. I did hear rumors of a large Marlin, either Blue or Black, being landed early in the week. This fish was reported to be in the #400 range but I never heard anything more on it. With water this cold it would be surprising to me to have one out there, but you never know. There were a few more Swordfish hooked this past week in the cool, green water to the southwest with the largest reported at #250. These fish were reported to have eaten live Mackerel.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again it was mostly football Yellowfin this week. The majority of the fish were found south at 30 miles early in the week before the wind picked up. Later in the week the fish may have been there still, but it was too rough for most of the boats to get there. As a result of the wind more boats fished on the Cortez side of the Cape and around the warm water sot south of the Seamount there were reports of fish averaging 25 pounds with a few to 50 pounds mixed in with the white bellied dolphin. There were massive pods of these dolphin reported off of the Pacific side in the area of the San Jaime Banks, but with the pods reported to be 3 or 4 miles wide and long, it was difficult to find any fish with them.
DORADO: I did see several Dorado flags early in the week but nothing over this weekend.
WAHOO: Wahoo are in the same category this week as Dorado, with the red flags seen flying but I believe they were all for Sierra!
INSHORE: There was a giant school of small Yellowtail found on the Pacific side up at Los Arcos early in the week. Thank goodness the wind kicked up, as there may be some of them that escaped to reproduce. A lot of the Pangas were going out and loading up on them, and these were small fish in the 5-pound range. I hated to see this as for many of the guys there was no reasoning with them, it was a “load up while you can, the hell with the stock’ mentality. There were a lot of the Captains however that limited their clients to only a couple of these for dinner, then took off to look for larger fish. My hat is off to these guys; they care about the future of the fishery here. Also inshore there were scattered Pargo up in the rocks as well as a few larger Yellowtail to 40 pounds just off the bottom in 120 feet of water.
NOTES: I hope the winds die down, but it looks as if it may continue to blow for the next four of five days. Normally this type of wind only lasts three days then we get three days of good weather. It remains to be seen if we will have the same pattern this season. There are still whales around but they are getting ready to return to the north. No music this week, I wrote this report to the sounds of the wind blowing, my dog snoring and one of the cats crying for treats. Until next week, tight lines!
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Mar 10, 2008; 01:04PM - 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
March 3-9, 2008
WEATHER: It was just another great week here in Cabo! I love living here when the weather is like this, the daytime highs in the mid 80’s and the nighttime lows in the high 50’s, it makes me feel good to get up in the morning to a slight chill, and cooking on the grill in the evening is so nice! We had mostly sunny skies this week with no rain seen or felt.
WATER: The water on the Pacific side of the Cape has cooled considerably with the near-shore water 64-65 degrees while farther offshore it warms to a toasty 69 degrees. The near shore cooler water is slightly green while offshore there is a nice blue color. On the Cortez side the water across the 95 spot, the 1150 and Gorda Bank has remained at 66 degrees and green. Off shore at a distance of 30-50 miles the water warms up to 72 degrees and is just slightly tinged with green. Our good deep blue water is to the southwest. Everything appears to be moving slowly to the east with a clockwise rotation. The water has remained nice on the surface on both sides of the Cape with swells of 2-3 feet and light winds.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price. There were Sardinas up around Chileno Bay at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin catch remained slow this week for most of the boats but there were fish found. Most of these were tailing or sleeping fish, and only a few were hungry and bit. These fish were in the cooler water close to shore, most of them found off of the points and drops along the Pacific side of the Cape, but there were also a few fish found just outside the Gorda Bank area. There were a few more Swordfish sighted this week but I did not hear of any boated.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: This past week was almost a repeat of last week as there were plenty of the football size fish to be found offshore. On the Cortez side, out toward and on the edge of the warm water at 30-50 miles the fish were slightly larger at 15-30 pounds with a few fish pushing 40 pounds. To the south of the Cape and to the south of the San Jaime Bank the fish were footballs for the most part with an occasional fish pushing the 25-pound mark. The best action was had with smaller feathers with squid colors as these fish are just stuffed with 4-5 inch squid. Having all the rods go off at the same time was not unusual, but it did take time to get out there and back.
DORADO: There have been a few fish found this week, but no large numbers like a few boats had the week prior. Most of these fish have been found in the warm water to the south and west and have averaged 15 pounds.
WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo this week but I did see several flags flying along with Tuna and Dorado flags so I assume there were some of them caught offshore.
INSHORE: The inshore fishing remained hot this week with large numbers of Sierra and smaller Yellowtail providing plenty of action on both sides of the Cape. Smaller swimming plugs pulled just outside the breaking waves provided lots of action on Sierra to 8 pounds and Yellowtail to 10 pounds. Fishing slow trolled live Mackerel down close to the bottom in 50 feet of water caught fewer, but much larger fish, up to 10 pounds on the Sierra and 35 pounds on the Yellowtail. A few very nice Grouper and Snapper fell to these same methods. Just off the rocky points there was great action on the Bonita to 20 pounds and they bit well on blue-silver irons fished yo-yo style. An occasional big Yellowtail was an added bonus for many anglers.
NOTES: Things continue to improve and I am optimistic it will continue. Now, if only my golf game would hit the next level! This weeks report was written to the music of Alison Krauss Union Station on the 2002 Rounder records release “Live”.
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Mar 3, 2008; 10:28AM - 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
Feb 25-March 2, 2008
WEATHER: It warmed up a bit this past week with several days where our highs were in the mid to high 80’s. On the cooler days we were in the high 70’s, still just about right. In the evening it cooled off quite a bit and on the cold nights we were seeing temperatures in the mid 60’s with a bit of an evening breeze working that made it feel even cooler. There were partly cloudy skies for the first part of the week but it cleared later on. There was no rain, of course.
WATER: I fished both sides of the cape this week, on the Cortez side on Wednesday and the Pacific on Friday and they were surprisingly similar as far as surface conditions went. On the Cortez side the water was cool and green out as far as the 95 spot and the 1150, past that point and out to the Cabrilla Seamount things warmed up to 73.4 degrees and were nice and blue. The only problem we had was the fact that we could not find any fish! The surface was almost glassy with current rips easily seen and the swells slight at 1-2 feet but all we ended up with was seeing some common Pacific Dolphin, a few Humpback Whales and two Striped Marlin on the surface. Oh, we did release on 3-pound Dorado. On the Pacific side on Friday the water within three miles of the coast was a bit bumpy and there was a strong cloud line out 15 miles. We went 31 miles out looking for Tuna and other than the first three miles, the swells were slight at 2-4 feet and the water was glassy, almost summer time like. The water was a slight bit cooler at 71 degrees but we did find football-size Tuna to 25 pounds.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price. There were Sardinas up around Chileno Bay at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There was a bit of Striped Marlin action almost every morning for boats the fished the area off of Los Arcos on the Pacific side, but it revolved around the tide change and did not last long on any one day. The lucky boats were getting two releases a day while most others were lucky to get a strike. The nice part of the billfish situation is that the Swordfish are starting to be seen on the surface on a fairly regular basis, and by that I mean regular when compared to normal! Probably one in 15 boats have sighted a Swordfish this week and one boat I know saw three different fish on Tuesday and managed to find one of them hungry, proceeding to catch a Swordfish in the 150-pound class after a fight of 90 minutes.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There are finally Tuna showing up on a regular basis even if they are football size fish. From a distance of 30 to 45 miles at between 150 and 240 degrees from the Arch there have been fish found every day. A few small groups have been found closer but they have not been biting well. On my Friday trip we went 31 miles at 230 degrees to find two separate pods of Dolphin. Both of them held fish with the first pod having fish averaging 20 pounds and the second pod averaging 10 pounds. A triple strike, then the fish in the first pod went down. At the second pod we were covered up with all five lines going off, then a double, then singles for a total of 16 Tuna at the end of the trip with the larges at 25 pounds. A friend of mine found fish at 170 degrees and 45 miles on Wednesday that averaged 25 pounds and picked 16 of them in about an hour before having to return to port
DORADO: The warm water on the Cortez side produced a few Dorado this week but other than one day, Tuesday when a pair of boats found a dead seal and loaded up on 15-pound fish, they have been scarce with just a few fish showing up.
WAHOO: I did hear of one nice Wahoo being caught this week about 35 miles to the south by a boat looking for Tuna. The fish was reported to weigh around 90 pounds. I am sure there were a few others caught, and on Wednesday we had one make a pass at one of our lures, but I had no other confirmed reports of them.
INSHORE: The inshore fishing has remained good for Sierra and Yellowtail. Most of the Yellowtail have been caught by boats fishing swimming plugs for Sierra and these fish have been small, but boats willing to do the work and drift live baits deep off of the rocky points or use iron jigs to “yo-yo” have been getting a few nice fish of up to 30 pounds. The Grouper have started to bite a little better and there are still a few snapper being found in the rocks.
NOTES: Things are starting to look up on the fishing front here in Cabo as we are starting to see some Tuna showing up and the inshore fishing remains good. Our fingers are crossed that things continue to remain on a positive track. My golf game is improving as well; I am now consistently getting under 100 strokes! This weeks report has been written to the music of the Gypsy Kings on the 1995 Nonsuch Records release “The Best Of The Gypsy Kings”.
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Mar 2, 2008; 03:08PM - 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
March 2, 2008
Anglers -
While the United Sates continues to feel the effects of winter, especially towards the eastern seaboard, Southern Baja actually had more of a feeling of spring this past week as we were greeted with the yearʼs first heat wave, temperatures reached into the 80s, clear skies, more than enough sunshine and diminishing northern winds. All this added up to great times to enjoy and take advantage of the outside activities. Ocean conditions were on an improving trend, water temperatures ranged from 67 to 72 degrees and cleaner blue water was returning closer to shore.
The more consistent fishing action was found closer to shore and off the rocky bottom high spots. The striped marlin action continued to be at a standstill, very few marlin were accounted for by the combined fleets. Though there was some encouraging news of reports of yellowfin tuna being caught 25 to 30 miles offshore. These fish were found traveling with porpoise and were nice quality, 20 to 40 pounds, found straight out from Cabo San Lucas to Chileno. Would be nice if this action became consistent and moved closer to shore and of course we are crossing our fingers that the commercial tuna pursein fleet does not get word of this and clean these fish out in one quick sweep.
Schools of nice sized sierra had moved into the areas north of Punta Gorda, especially at San Luis, but sure enough the commercial gillnetters from the fish camps in this same uncontrolled region did quick work on these fish. It is incredible they can still get away with this indiscriminating destructive form of fishing, amazingly we have not heard of any trapped whales, since there have been so many in the area now and they frequent these same inshore waters.
Surf conditions increased in recent days and this made it difficult for the pangueros to net sardinas. For anglers that were able to obtain sardinas they found limited action close to shore, a mix of sierra, roosterfish and yellowtail, most of these species were weighing less than ten pounds.
Larger yellowtail in the 25 to 40 pound class were holding on the rocky high spots throughout the area and anglers working iron yo-yos or drift fishing with live mackerel landed some of these brutes, though numbers were not significant, all of these fish were quality. Mixed in were amberjack of 10 to 40 pounds and more huachinango (red snapper) are now being accounted for, these fish are striking bait or yo-yoʼs and weighing 6 to 12 pounds. Mexican bonito have continued to be the most numerous fish found on the rock piles, striking on iron jigs near the surface to the middle of the water column. Once located these fish were very aggressive and hard to keep off the lines, ranging 4 to 6 pounds. To round out the bottom action there were a few cabrilla, these fish usually are more abundant at this time, but have been running behind schedule, we expect they will become more prevalent as the currents slack up some and the water conditions stabilize. In the mean time anglers that are familiar with techniques involved in working the yo-yo jigs, they have been producing the majority of the quality fish that are now being accounted for.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 62 charters for the week and anglers reported a fish count of: 3 hammerhead shark, 13 cabrilla, 21 amberjack, 22 yellowtail, 142 huachinango, 410 Mexican bonito, 52 sierra and 15 roosterfish.
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 2, 2008; 03:06PM - 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
February 23, 2008
Anglers -
The winter chill across the United States is encouraging people to head south in search of warmer temperatures, as Los Cabos hotels are now reporting 70 to 100 percent occupancy rates. Not a great number of these tourists are anglers, because sportfishing fleets have seen only moderate crowds. Of course the fact that the all around fishing action recently has been sub Cabo standards has not made anglers anxious to get out on the water. Skies have been clear and sunny, lows are dropping to a chilly 50 degrees early in the morning, but by mid day temperatures were reaching into the upper 70s. Whale watching has continued to be at peak season and many visitors have been taking advantage of these opportunities to observe the giant mammals. Live bait became scarcer over this full moon period, but limited amounts of both sardinas and mackerel were available on most days.
The better fishing action this past week was found closer to shore, as offshore there was not much going on, there were fair numbers of striped marlin seen, but it was another matter trying to get them to bite. A handful of small mako sharks were on the offshore fishing grounds as well. Water temperatures fluctuated, but generally was on a cooling trend, averaging 62 to 68 degrees, the conditions were murky green in much of the area, particularly in the direction of the Sea of Cortez. The strong current continued to be a problem for anglers trying to effectively drift fish over the bottom rock piles, but when the current did slack up there were some opportunities to hook into some large fish, namely yellowtail, amberjack or quality sized huachinango. The San Jose del Cabo commercial panga fleet searched hard for red crabs drifting to the surface, not many were found, but the limited amounts that were able to be netted were used very productively for nice catches of red snapper (huachinango) in the 6 to 12 pound class, a value commercial species.
Mexcian bonito were the most common catch for anglers working yo-yo jigs off of the rock piles from San Luis to the Gordo Banks, these fish averaged 3 to 6 pounds and once found provided some fast and furious action. On these same spots there were larger yellowtail and amberjack lurking, several fish in the 30 to 40 pound class were landed and numerous other hook ups resulted in cut off lines due to these powerful bottom dwellers reaching the sharp rock out croppings before anglers could manage to turn their heads.
Inshore there were more sierra moving in with the cooler waters, striking on rapalas, hoochies, casting jigs and live bait. Average sizes were from 1 to 3 pounds, but there some monsters mixed in, with several specimens in the 8 to 10 pound range accounted for. Smaller sized yellowtail of 1 to 4 pounds were encountered along the inshore stretches as well and provided fun sport in light tackle. To round out the inshore activity there were juvenile roosterfish found, trolling live sardinas was the best option for these fun little gamefish, with catch and release being the sporting rule for them. Fly angling enthusiasts also got into this inshore action, as many of the roosters, sierra and a few yellowtail were also reportedly taken by fly casters.
The local panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos reported sending out approximately 41 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
2 striped marlin, 3 mako shark, 11 amberjack, 15 yellowtail, 265 Mexican bonito, 162 sierra, 42 roosterfish, 8 cabrilla and 25 combined pargo species.
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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Feb 25, 2008; 11:29AM - 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
Feb 18-24, 2008
WEATHER: We had a few clouds in the sky this week, but not enough to call it cloudy, just enough to make things cool. Our daytime highs were in the low 80’s and the nighttime lows were in the high 50’s. Light winds on shore kept things nice and comfortable while at sea on the Pacific side things were a little bumpy as the winds were from the northwest and kicked up a light chop.
WATER: The wind died down this week so surface conditions were much better on both the Pacific and the Cortez sides of the Cape. On the Pacific swells were 3-5 feet with a light chop while the Cortez had swells at 1-3 feet with almost no chop in the morning and offshore chop in the afternoons. Water temperatures on the Pacific side were warmer, almost averaging 68 degrees up to 10 miles offshore and out a bit farther it dropped to 67 degrees. The water close to shore, in the warmer area, was very green, almost brown in some areas. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water was 64-65 degrees out to 4 miles from the shore and farther than that, across the Gorda Bank and the 1150 spot the water warmed up to 69 degrees. There is a plume of cool, off-colored water running south from the Cape, but the water out 5 miles to the south side of the 1,000-fathom line warmed to 71 degrees. While the warm water was on both sides of the Cape, the only really blue water was on the Pacific side out past the San Jaime Bank.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price. There were Sardinas up around Chileno Bay at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: About the only thing I have to say for the past weeks bill fishing is that it was almost non-existent. Not that there weren’t people out trying, it’s just that the few fish that were found were not interested in eating. The full moon may have had something to do with it perhaps, it’s been know to have an effect, but it’s not really an explanation of why the fish have mostly disappeared. Perhaps the much cooler than normal water has something to do with it as well? One bright spot is that the green, cool water has brought about more sightings of Swordfish, but I have not heard of anyone actually hooking one up in a legal sort of way, but a few guys did hook fish by snagging them, then proceeded to loose them after several hours of fighting time. These Swordfish have been seen in the cool water plume running directly south from the Cape.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: No change this week from last week on the Tuna situation. There are still only football fish being found out there, and most of them have been between 18 to 30 miles to the south. Boats working westward past the banks were not doing well with only an occasional pod of porpoise showing, and few of them holding fish. Once again red hootchies were the best bet for these fish as most of the stomach contents were found to be red crab.
DORADO: I did not hear of any Dorado being caught this week, and saw no new yellow flags flying. I am sure there were a few, but no reports were heard by me.
WAHOO: Once again I didn’t hear of any Wahoo this week. The flags you see flying are for “Mexican Wahoo”, or better known as sierra.
INSHORE: Just like last week, with the exception of more small Yellowtail being caught by guys pulling small swimming plugs for Sierra. Mexican Wahoo, also known as Sierra, have been the mainstay of the Panga fleet this week with most boats able to get at least a half-dozen or more. Yellowtail action dropped off again, it seems to be a “good one week, slow the next” type of fishery. Snapper fishing has again improved and there are a few more grouper being found by those targeting bottom fish. The usual smaller Roosterfish to 5 pounds, some small barracuda and Bonita have rounded out the catches inshore.
NOTES: Well, the nice weather continued for this past week as we had hoped, but the fishing has been very “off”, compared to the usual activity we get this time of year. The best bet has been fishing inshore; a lot of trips have been saved by targeting Sierra after six hours of looking for Marlin and Tuna. Fishing inshore also gets you up close to the whales, and that is always a lot of fun. This weeks report was written to the music of Boz Scaggs on his 1994 Virgin Records release, “Some Changes”. Until next week, Tight Lines!
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Feb 18, 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
Feb 11-17, 2008
WEATHER: We had partly cloudy skies early in the week, then things cleared up at the weekend and it was bright and sunny. We also had quite a bit of wind from the northwest up until the weekend; it then died down here in town. There was no rain associated with the early week cloudy conditions.
WATER: Surface conditions on the Pacific side of the Cape were rougher than they had been last week due to the continuing wind. Choppy seas, running at 4-6 feet with 12-15 knots on top made for unstable footing and a lot of spray and pounding while running to and from the banks. On the Sea of Cortez the surface conditions were much better, but there were few boats fishing the area due to green, cold water. With the surface temperatures at 67-69 degrees all the way up to Punta Gorda, and down to 64 degrees north of there, the fishing was not very good. On the Pacific side things were warmer and the water a bit clearer, but the cool water seems to be working its way toward us there as well. There remains a plume of warm 71 degree water running from across the Golden Gate bank to three miles outside the lighthouse as well as an area on the western edge of the San Jaime bank that is as warm, but the warm water seems to be receding southward.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price. There were Sardinas up around Chileno Bay at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Striped Marlin have continued to remain scarce with the only concentration found atop the Golden Gate Bank, and there were not many of them willing to eat. Most boats fished the bank with slow drifted live Mackerel caught on the site and felt they were doing well with a couple of Marlin bites and possibly one or two releases. Boats using smaller diameter floura-carbon leader with circle hooks were having better luck than others with most of them able to get up to a half-dozen bites a day for up to that many releases. Running to feeding Marlin, marked by the diving birds, was not as productive as the fish did not stay up long. On Saturday and Sunday there were up to 60 boats working the bank with most of them only getting one or two bites, and almost all of them having sick anglers on board due to the surface conditions.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There are still only football fish being found out there, and most of them have been between 18 to 30 miles to the south. Boats working westward past the banks were not doing well with only an occasional pod of porpoise showing, and few of them holding fish. Once again red hootchies were the best bet for these fish as most of the stomach contents were found to be red crab.
DORADO: I did not see any Dorado myself, but I did overhear one conversation concerning a decent catch made by a boat that found a piece of wood in the water 30 miles to the south, and they were apparently able to pick off 5 fish between 15-20 pounds.
WAHOO: Once again I didn’t hear of any Wahoo this week. The flags you see flying are for “Mexican Wahoo”, or better known as sierra.
INSHORE: Mexican Wahoo, also known as Sierra, have been the mainstay of the Panga fleet this week with most boats able to get at least a half-dozen or more. Yellowtail action dropped off again, it seems to be a “good one week, slow the next” type of fishery. Snapper fishing has again improved and there are a few more grouper being found by those targeting bottom fish. The usual smaller Roosterfish to 5 pounds, some small barracuda and Bonita have rounded out the catches inshore.
NOTES: Still lots of whales out there, everyone is seeing them during the fishing charters. There are also quite a few small Mako Sharks being caught at the Golden Gate Bank, but I have not heard of any large ones. This weeks report was written to the music of “Mighty Lester” on their 2006 release “We are Mighty Lester”, released by themselves, some really swinging blues! Until next week, keep your fingers crossed that the fishing picks up and the nice weather continues! Tight Lines!
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Feb 11, 2008; 11:22AM - 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
Feb 4-10, 2008
WEATHER: It felt like winter this week even though it never got below 56 degrees. Maybe it’s just that I am used to the warm weather now. Our lows, alt least the lowest I saw, was 58 degrees, but with a bit of wind on it, it felt colder. Our daytime highs were in the high 70’s and most of the week we had partly cloudy skies most of the week. On the 9th the skies actually cleared enough for the sea-surface temp charts to come through on the Terrafin web site.
WATER: I did not see anything warmer than 70 degrees this week, and most of that was a plume coming up from the south and running from 20 miles due south to the southern end of the San Jaime Bank. Inside that band it dropped to 67 and 67 degrees. On the Cortez side of the Cape it was a consistent 68 degrees until you got past the Punta Gorda area, and then it dropped to a very cool 63 and 64 degrees. The surface conditions were great with small swells from the Northwest on the Pacific side and almost pool-table smoothness on the Cortez at the end of the week.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price. There were Sardinas up around Chileno Bay at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Boats looking for Marlin were really having to scratch for them this week, and I mean that they were difficult to get to bite, not that they were hard to find. Some boats working deep bait on the Golden Gate Bank had luck, but it was not steady by any means. There were also some hungry fish found close to shore, within two miles, along the points on the Pacific side. Boats venturing farther offshore were seeing quite a few fish in small groups of two or three at a time, but they had lockjaw and most refused to bite. As an example, a large private yacht that has placed in quite a few tournaments spent 12 hours late in the week fishing for marlin, from 6 am until 6 pm and were only able to find two hungry fish, and that was a double hook-up.
YELLOWFIN TUNA The porpoise are starting to show up in fair numbers but not all the pods have Yellowfin with them. Fishing south of the San Jaime and west of there boats are finding pods of between 20 and several thousand porpoise. There have been Tuna of between 15 and 30 pounds caught among the mammals, but I did not hear of any large ones yet, and a good day so far has been getting eight or ten of these fish to bite. Most boats are having a hard time getting hooked up to them though as they have been feeding fairly heavily on red crab, according to the guys who have opened up the ones they catch. As a result, the small hootchies in red colors have worked best on these smaller Tuna.
DORADO: A few fish now and then, no steady action but the fish that have been taken have been from the warmer water areas.
WAHOO: I didn’t hear of any Wahoo this week. The flags you see flying are for “Mexican wahoo”, or better known as sierra.
INSHORE: Mexican Wahoo, also known as Sierra, have been the mainstay of the Panga fleet this week with most boats able to get at least a half-dozen or more. Yellowtail action is picking up once again with several fish to 40 pounds being boats as well as a few nice grouper to 50 pounds. The usual smaller Roosterfish to 5 pounds, some small barracuda and Bonita have rounded out the catches inshore.
NOTES: Whales, whales, whales and porpoise, there have been plenty of these out there for anglers that get bored of not catching fish this week. Well, for some of them at least! I am taking off for L.A. to re-new my Captains License and will be coming back in the middle of the week, maybe fishing will have gotten better by then! Until next week, tight lines!
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Feb 4, 2008; 12:34PM - 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
Jan. 29-Feb 4, 2008
WEATHER: We finally had a couple of days where the sun actually shined all day long. The middle of the week was special, no clouds and it warmed up a bit. Our morning lows have been around the low 60’s to high 50’s, colder when there were no clouds. The highs for the days have been between the low and high 70’s with one day where it reached 82 degrees here at the house. Cloudy early in the week and at the end of the week.
WATER: Surface conditions on both sides of the Cape were good this week with slight swells and only light winds. On the Pacific side the water temperatures were in the 70-71 degree range with a light tinge of green to them while on the Cortez side the water was about a degree or two warmer and clearer. Due south at a distance of 20 miles the water warmed up to 74 degrees and became blue.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price. There were Sardinas up around Chileno Bay at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite remained slow, the concentrations of fish have moved and no one has been able to find them yet. Well, except for one day early in the week when only 10 boats were at the Golden Gate Bank and the Marlin re-appeared for the day. The action was pretty good on Monday and the top boats released double-digit numbers. That shut right back down though, as on Tuesday almost 40 boats worked the bank and there were only about ten fish released. Most boats have been happy to release one or two Marlin per trip and a few lucky (or good) ones have been in the 3 or 4 release range. The bite has been on a mix of live bait and lures with many of the live bait fish coming on deep dropped baits or slow trolled live baits on the Golden Gate Bank.
YELLOWFIN TUNA Well, for most of the boats out there a few football Tuna are all that they have been able to get onto, but every once in a while a larger fish in the 30 –pound range is hooked up. These fish are almost all with Porpoise and there are not many of them found right now. I sure hope things change soon as Tuna are one of our staples this time of year. The area due south to 35 miles has been the best producing, but the action has started to swing into the Sea of Cortez direction, perhaps following the warmer water movement.
DORADO: A few fish now and then, no steady action but the fish that have been taken have been from the warmer water areas.
WAHOO: I have heard of a few boats getting Wahoo in the warm water to the south, but there has been no numbers, just a fish now and then in the 40-pound class.
INSHORE: Sierra, small Roosterfish, Ladyfish, Snapper and some Bonita have been the inshore production this week. The Sierra bite has been on and off on the Pacific side but the best results have been while using Sardinas as bait. Snapper are being found in the rocks, I mean right up in there, and a lot of them are being lost due to that fact.
NOTES: There are more whales showing up, I had a good time watching them while sitting in the Cost-Co parking lot waiting for my wife yesterday! The Humboldt Squid are still around feeding on the red crabs and Swordfish are still being sighted, but I didn’t hear of anyone catching on this week. Until next week, Tight Lines!
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Jan 31, 2008; 12:19AM - 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
January 27, 2008
Anglers -
Wintertime in Los Cabos continues to see only moderate numbers of tourists and they have been enjoying pleasant weather conditions, scattered cloud cover and actually on Tuesday there was light rainfall throughout the morning, high temperatures have averaged 75 degrees. Winds have been predominately from the north, ranging from 10 to 20 miles an hour, this has continued to push in cooler ocean currents off of San Jose del Cabo, now averaging 68 degrees, outside of the 95 spot off of Chileno there is a temperature break of 73 degrees. There were mackerel, sardinas and some caballito available for live bait, mackerel being the best choice for offshore billfish action and sardinas the better option for the smaller gamefish inshore.
Anglers reported improved action close to shore for sierra and roosterfish. Sierra were striking best on trolled sardinas, but would also hit on lures such as Rapalas, hoochies and yo-yoʼs. The area just off of Punta Gorda has produced some particularly large sierra in recent days, a handful of specimens in the 7 to 10 pound class. The local beach stretches were holding schools of roosterfish, just south of Punta Gorda off of La Laguna, has been a hot spot for the roosters which have been running in the 4 to 6 pound range, a few larger fish mixed in, fun action on light tackle.
La Playita panga fleets were limited on what options were practical and productive, most charters were doing a mix of inshore trolling and drift fishing over the rock piles from La Fortuna to San Luis. With the north wind being prevalent, you had to choose the right time to be able to fish effectively off these bottom spots. When the conditions cooperated, anglers using yo-yo type iron jigs accounted for some quality catches of huachinango (red snapper), amberjack, Mexican Bonito and cabrilla, with the majority of these species weighing 8 to 15 pounds.
Whale watching is now at its peak, both humpback and grays, also there have been manta rays, sea lions and porpoise to add to the entertainment. On the offshore fishing grounds many marlin were seen free jumping, repeating jumping high out of the water, for no apparent reason except just for the fun of it, always exciting to witness. The action for striped marlin is continuing to shift closer to Cabo San Lucas and into the lower Sea of Cortez, charters working the waters around the 95 spot have been averaging one or two stripers per outing, while on the Pacific some boats are still scoring double digit catch and releases. These same areas are also producing late season action for dorado, with some anglers reporting as many as four dorado in the 15 to 20 pound class while trolling marlin type clones and medium sized feathers.
Not much going on for yellowfin tuna, a handful of reports of anglers finding tuna mixed underneath schools of porpoise further offshore, these fish were in the 15 to 20 pound class. The action off of Vinormama, which had been producing good numbers of tuna on Rapalas and sardinas came to a standstill, as only a few yellowfin were reported by the entire La Playita fleet. The Mexican bonito were basically the closest species that the panga anglers were finding that were related to the yellowfin, once located the action could be fast and furious on yo-yo jigs for these scrappy fighters that averaged 4 to 7 pounds.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 46 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 9 yellowfin tuna, 205 Mexican bonito, 25 amberjack, 11 yellowtail, 21 cabrilla, 82 pargo (huachinango), 9 dorado, 184 roosterfish and 148 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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