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| Around 10% of the world's total fish species can be found just within the Great Barrier Reef. |
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| Starfish can re-grow their arms. In fact, a single arm can regenerate a whole body. |
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| Starfish do not have blood. Their blood is actually filtered sea water. |
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| Starfish don't have brains. Special cells on their skin gather information about their surroundings |
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| Not all animals with the word fish in their names count as fish. |
| Though their names may suggest otherwise, cuttlefish, starfish, and jellyfish aren’t actually fish. Generally-speaking, fishes must have skulls, gills, and fins. Surprisingly, though, not all fishes have proper spines. |
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| In three decades, the world's oceans will contain more discarded plastic than fish when measured by weight, researchers say. |
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| As of 2020, there were 34,000 known fish species around world. That’s more than the number of species in all other vertebrates: birds, reptiles, mammals, and amphibians combined. |
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| Just how man species of fish are there? |
| As of 2020, there were 34,000 known fish species around world. That’s more than the number of species in all other vertebrates: birds, reptiles, mammals, and amphibians combined. |
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| Even Catfish are finicky |
| Taste Buds ? Catfish have a more refined sense of flavor than humans. Our 10,000 taste buds may seem like a lot, but catfish can have as many as 175,000. This helps them find the exact location of their next meal. |
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| A bit of Humor |
| My brother has 2 German Shepherds named Rolex and Timex. You guessed it they are Watch Dogs. |
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From Jan 01, 1999 To Sep 21, 2025
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Jan 28, 2008; 11:10AM - 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. 23-29, 2008
WEATHER: It has been cloudy most of the week so sun seekers were not very happy; I saw a lot of folks that were very burned, thinking that the clouds were stopping the tanning rays. Oh well, at least the clouds helped hold the warmth in and we didn’t see temperatures lower than the mid 60’s at night. At the end of the week early I the morning it was 69 at our house. Daytime highs were around the low to mid 80’s, warm enough that I had no need of a sweater most of the time. With all the clouds I thought that we were going to get some rain but all that happened was a bit of spit, you know, the kind that just dots the dusty windshield on the car? That was early in the week on Tuesday, and it was probably my fault as I had just washed the Jeep when it started.
WATER: There did not appear to be any real change in the water conditions from the week before. The cloud cover made it almost impossible to get an updated sea surface shot from space so reliance on the boats that were fishing was very strong. It appears that the water within 5 miles of the beach on the Pacific side up to just past the Golden Gate Bank remained warmer than that farther offshore and was a nice blue color as well. On the Golden Gate and the San Jaime Bank the water was off color green and quite a bit cooler at 70 degrees and lower. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water was green and off-colored everywhere and the area off of Punta Gorda was reported as almost a brown color by some boats. To the immediate south on an east-west line across the arch the water warmed up and blued up. As you reached 8 miles to the south the temperature rose to 74 degrees. Surface conditions across the area were good since this cloud cover arrived without any wind. Some swells on the Pacific side with a light ripple on top most of the time, but on the Cortez side up past Punta Gorda the wind started howling.
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 off for another week for most of the boats. The fish were found on the Pacific side and to the south but while there were a lot of fish seen on the surface, not many of them were hungry. A few, very few, boats managed to come in with between three and five Marlin flags flying, but most boats were feeling lucky if they were able to get a couple of fish to eat and get one to the boat for a release. The big new for the week is the appearance of some Swordfish. This week several of these fish were spotted on the surface and at least two that I know of were hooked. One was hooked on a live Mackerel while fishing 23 miles to the south and was fought for six hours before the 100-pound leader parted. The Captain estimated to fish at over #300! It’s tough to get a fish like that on Striped Marlin gear!
YELLOWFIN TUNA I overheard a conversation about a private boat being hooked up on a very big Yellowfin just off the Golden Gate Bank on Saturday, and then nothing else. I know a few boats have been having a little luck on fish in the 30-pound class out past the San Jaime Bank, but it has been very inconsistent. The same has been the case on the football sized fish, they have been out there but the bite has been slow, a few fish have been the average with a few boats able to get into double digits.
DORADO: Once again there have been a few fish caught, one or two here and there, but no large numbers have been reported. The best area has been the warm water to the south.
WAHOO: Inconsistent, but there have been some quality fish out there. One boat caught two of them between 80-100 pounds in the warm water 20 miles south and a few other smaller ones were reported from the same area.
INSHORE: The Sierra action picked back up on the Pacific side as schools of fish to 10 pounds have moved in off of the beaches and rocky points to the north of the lighthouse. Double-digit catches were not a problem. Either whole Mackerel rigged with a stinger hook I the tail or large Sardines were needed for the larger fish, hootchies and plugs did not work on fish over six pounds. Off of the Rocky points Snapper have begun to show, it is time for the normal spring spawning groups to begin gathering. A few Yellowtail continue to be caught but the numbers have really dropped off over the past several weeks.
NOTES: There were acres of Humboldt Squid reported on the surface feeding on red crab this week, and this may have been a contributing factor in the Swordfish being seen. There are still whales out there and the numbers seem to be increasing. This weeks report was written to the guitar of Marshall Crenshaw on the 1989 Warner release “Good Evening”, great stuff! Until next week, Tight Lines!
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Jan 21, 2008; 10:59AM - 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. 8-21, 2008
WEATHER: For the past two weeks our cool wintertime conditions have continued. Our nighttime lows have been down in the mid 50’s while the daytime highs have reached the high 70’s but have mostly been in the mid to low 70’s. As of the end of this week the skies have been only partly cloudy and we have had no rain. It has become windy in the afternoons but the mornings have been calm for the most part.
WATER: The water close to the beach on the Pacific side has remained warmer than most of the area with an average temperature of 71 degrees out to a distance of three-four miles from the beach at the inside of the Golden Gate Bank area. This warm water extends to the southwest across the San Jaime Bank and then in a thumb-shaped are with the tip 15 miles south of Cabo it warms to 73-74 degrees. The 71-degree water extends into the Sea of Cortez across the 95 Spot but stops short of the 1150. Water outside of this range on both sides of the Cape drops in temperature to the mid and high 60’s. At the end of this week, there was cold and dirty water across the Golden Gate Bank, the Finger Bank and the 1150 and Gorda Banks. The area inshore between Cabo and Punta Gorda was reported as being very dirty and green.
BAIT: Today is the full moon and as usual, as the full moon approaches the number of Caballito available for bait has fallen off. There are still plenty of Mackerel however and all these larger baits are at the normal $2 per bait. I have been told that there were no Sardinas available due to dirty water conditions up in the San Jose area.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite has dropped off quite a bit over the past week and instead of boats coming in with double digit numbers of flags, the high catch boats were getting four or five fish. Most boats were happy to get one or two releases and many were happy just to get a shot at a fish. One of the reasons may have to do with the temperature and clarity of the water in most areas, but the moon phase may have had an effect as well. Most of the Striped Marlin action was taking place between the San Jaime Bank and the 95 Spot and areas to the south of there, down in that warmer water area I mentioned earlier. I also heard form a Captain on a fleet boat that they hooked up a Blue Marlin earlier this week for a short while down in that warmer water, but the fish came off after the first run.
YELLOWFIN TUNA The Yellowfin Tuna that I have heard about have all been from the San Jaime area and for the most part have been football sized fish in the 10 pound range, found mixed in with porpoise. There have been a few fish to 40 pounds mixed in with them as well, but the numbers have been low. I have also hear unconfirmed reports of some nice sized fish being found occasionally 40-50 miles to the south of us. These fish have also been mixed in with porpoise and are reported to be in the 50-60 pound class. As far as I am aware no one has yet gotten into any concentrations of #100 fish in the past two weeks, but we are hoping that it happens soon.
DORADO: The cool water of the past month has really slowed down the Dorado bite as they move south into warmer water. A few fish have been caught every day and for the most part they have been either just off the beach on the Pacific side or in the warmer water due south. The average size has been around 12 pounds with a few fish in the 25-pound class, but most of them are average size. The number of fish per boat is much lower as well, with an average catch of .3 fish per day, or 1 fish per three days of effort. I expect the Dorado to almost disappear as the water continues to cool.
WAHOO: As the full moon approached there were a few Wahoo caught, and there will probably be a few more on the waning side of the moon as well, but they have been incidental fish caught in the open water due south. Wahoo like warm water and just like the Dorado; there are fewer of them around right now than there were earlier in the season. The fish that were caught averaged 40 pounds and were caught on dark colored Marlin lures.
INSHORE: The Yellowtail bite dropped off as the water on the Cortez side of the Cape became dirty. A few have been caught on the Pacific side off of the rocky points on live bait dropped to about 250 feet, but there has been no consistent bite on them. The Sierra bite has slowed down as well with most boats getting only a half-dozen or so per trip. The Pargo are starting to show among the rocks on the Pacific side, and hopefully action on them will improve this coming week as the moon starts to wane.
NOTES: The fishing really slowed down the past two weeks as the water cooled off. Hopefully the Yellowfin will show in force and give us some alternative action, they are overdue based on the past six years catch records. On the positive side, the water conditions have been pretty good! This weeks report was written to the music of Mark Knopfler on his new solo release “Kill To Get Crimson”, a melancholy set of songs, sort of like the fishing the past two weeks! I just returned from visiting my father in Oklahoma City, his birthday was Saturday and it was nice seeing him for his 71st! Happy birthday dad! So, for those of you who were wondering why there was no report last week, now you know! Until next week, tight lines!
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Jan 7, 2008; 10:31AM - 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. 1-7, 2008
WEATHER: Here at the end of the week we are in a wintertime heat wave as our morning temperatures have been in the high 60’s for the past four days and the daytime highs have been in the mid 80’s. The skies have been clear and there has been no rain.
WATER: On the Sea of Cortez from a line due east of Cabo and north of that line the water was green and cold with the water at 71 degrees and dropping down to 69 degrees off of Punta Gorda. All the banks on the Pacific side, the Finger, Golden Gate and the San Jaime, had water at 73-75 degrees and the water was considerably cleaner. The 95 Spot, 1150 and the Cabrillo Seamount were on the line and for the most part saw the warmer, cleaner water. Surface conditions were good all week long close to home. There was an occasional day of breezy conditions on the Pacific but nothing too uncomfortable. Up on the Sea of Cortez, once you went north of the Punta Gorda area the northerly winds made fishing very uncomfortable.
BAIT: Just like last week, the bait was mostly Mackerel but there were a few Caballito in the mix. These larger baits were the normal $2 per bait. Up in San Jose there were Sardinas available at $25 a scoop, but they were tiny ones with the biggest only 2 inches, better for chum that as bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Striped Marlin were the fish of the week, no doubt about that. Almost every boat that went out caught at least one, and if they wanted to work at it a little bit there was no problem getting into double digit numbers. The great thing about it was you did not have to go far for them. If you wanted to burn the fuel the water allowed a trip to the Finger Bank, and there were still great concentrations of fish there, but closer to home you did almost as well and did not spend so much time in transit. Most boats did just fine drifting live bait but I always like it better when the fish appear in the lure pattern and you get to drop back a rigged bait and see them eat it. We had several clients this week that did just that, only they dropped back a streamer on a fly rod and hooked up!
YELLOWFIN TUNA We still have not seen any solid concentrations of Yellowfin this season. Once in a while a boat will find a school with porpoise but they have been few and far between, and the size of fish has been lacking, most of them have been football fish. They have mostly been found on the Pacific side outside the banks, but a few schools were reported within a mile or two of the coast on that side as well.
DORADO: I saw a few more Dorado flags this week than last week and we are hoping that the water stays clean and above 70 degrees for a while longer, maybe we will continue to find them. I had a friend get two fish in the 30-pound class early in the week up past the Golden Gate Bank, and there are still scattered fish in the 10-15 pound class being caught close to the beach on the Pacific.
WAHOO: I did not hear of any concentrations of Wahoo this reporting period but I did see one of about 70 pounds being wheeled along the Marina in a cooler, a really nice fish!
INSHORE: There was no change in the inshore report for this report period. Sierra were the fish of the week for the inshore fishermen and they were consistently on the feed off of the Solmar-Finesterra beach early in the morning. They seemed to move up to the north later in the day. Yellowtail continued to produce scattered action off of the rocky points on the Cortez side with some decent fish being taken off of Gray Rock and the drop at Chileno.
NOTES: We are seeing more whales every week. The weather has been great, my golf game is sadly lacking consistency and my ears had a treat as I wrote this report while listening to some cuts from the CD collection “Watching the Dark, the history of Richard Thompson”, a 1993 release by RYKODISC. Until next week, tight lines!
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Dec 31, 2007; 11:47AM - 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
Dec. 17-31, 2007
WEATHER: Wintertime in Los Cabos still beats wintertime anywhere to the north of us! Sorry about the one-week no-report zone, I have only missed three reports in 6 years but I am in a transition time, job hunting, Christmas, mom visiting and football play-offs, just too much going on for the last couple of weeks. Anyway, no snow for us in Cabo, things did remain cool however and I felt like it was going to snow on a few mornings when the lows hit the mid 50’s. At least we warmed up to the high 70’s on those days. We did get a bit of cloud cover just at the beginning of this report but now at the end of the year the skies are clear and there is nothing appearing on the horizon.
WATER: On the Pacific side the water has been much warmer with 71-74 degree and fairly blue water. The warmer water at the end of this reporting time was closer to shore and between the San Jaime Bank and us and in a long plume running directly south of the bank. On the Cortez side the water was warm as far as east to the 1150 spot, but became much cooler, down to 67 degrees at the Cabrillo Seamount, cooler and much more green, almost a pea-soup green in places just to the east of the 1150 and along that small temperature break.
BAIT: Bait was mostly Mackerel these past couple of weeks but there were a few Caballito in the mix. These larger baits were the normal $2 per bait. Up in San Jose there were Sardinas available at $25 a scoop, but they were tiny ones with the biggest only 2 inches, better for chum that as bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: As we expected to happen, the Striped Marlin have started to move our way. The bait moved south and the Marlin followed. The bite is still very good at the Finger Bank but there was no need to go that far. At the end of this reporting period there was an excellent bite going on at the San Jaime Bank on fish in the 100-120 pound class with a lot of boats releasing up to 20 Marlin a day. There was great activity on the Golden Gate as well, but there were a few days right around Christmas when the fish moved off of the Bank and the boats really had to search hard to find them. As well as the Golden and the Jaime Banks, there are good concentrations of Striped Marlin appearing off of the points and ledges just off of the beach. With just a hint of wind there are good numbers of tailing fish to be found close to shore in the afternoon. Almost all these fish are feeding on small Mackerel and slow trolling or drifting with these live baits has resulted in the best catches. It is more exciting to run in to bait balls popping up to the surface, but it was not needed in order to catch fish. A few boats were not able or not interested in catching Marlin however and directed their attentions elsewhere, and reported a distinct lack of Marlin anywhere else. Boats going up toward the Vinorama and Punta Gorda area on the Cortez side reported very green water and only a couple of Marlin sighted.
YELLOWFIN TUNA Once again at the end of this reporting period the football size Yellowfin were reported appearing up outside of San Jose, but the bite was sporadic, the size of available Sardines apparently had a strong effect on the bite. There were fish in the 15-20 pound class reported from the south side of the San Jaime Banks mixed in with pods of Porpoise but the moved around fast. A few boats going north on the Pacific side toward the Finger Bank reported fish in the 80 pound class but they were scattered out and the boats had a difficult time getting bit on these fish.
DORADO: Once again there were a few Dorado found but for the most part these were small fish, less than 15 pounds. A few boats caught one or two fish, most boats had none. The fish that were caught were found in the warmer water on the Pacific side and were caught on live Mackerel with a couple coming on bright colored lures.
WAHOO: I saw no Wahoo flags this week that were for Wahoo, I did see quite a few that were flown for Sierra.
INSHORE: There was no change in the inshore report for this report period. Sierra were the fish of the week for the inshore fishermen and they were consistently on the feed off of the Solmar-Finesterra beach early in the morning. They seemed to move up to the north later in the day. Yellowtail continued to produce scattered action off of the rocky points on the Cortez side with some decent fish being taken off of Gray Rock and the drop at Chileno.
NOTES: There are whales out there so be careful early in the mornings. Quite a few Makos (small ones) have been seen and caught at the Golden Gate Bank, averaging 30 pounds. Santa was nice to me this year; I must have been a good boy. No complaints but I am looking for a new boat to captain. This report was written to a variety of music from my collection so I don’t get into a rut! Until next week, tight lines!
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Dec 20, 2007; 01:24PM - 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
December 16, 2007
Anglers -
Light crowds of tourists were now traveling to Los Cabos and this past week they saw
a change in weather patterns, as a cold front from the north attributed to dropping temperatures to the mid 50s in the early mornings, with daytime highs or about 75 degrees. Still very comfortable compared to many areas across the United States, people get spoiled in Southern Baja and anytime you actually feel the need to possible put on pair of paints, instead of shorts, we consider it quite wintry. Northern winds have become more steady, most days picking up to 10 or 15 miles per hour by mid day, there were reports from the East Cape region of winds even stronger than this, even to the point that charter boats were not even launching. Ocean water temperatures ranged from 71 to 74 degrees throughout most of the area and clarity varied from the day to day, there were encouraging reports over the weekend that the water was cleaning and nice and blue in the vicinity of the Iman Bank.
The week started off with a couple of slower days for the fleets searching areas north of Punta Gorda, as the wind created choppy conditions and stirred up the water. The live sardinas continued to be found along the rocky beach stretches from Palmilla to Chileno, they were available in sufficient quantities everyday. By mid week a new bite developed for yellowfin tuna, in very close proximity to shore, within one to two miles from the beaches, straight out in front of the San Jose del Cabo / La Playita / Puerto Los Cabos areas. Pangas and cruisers alike were catching limits and more of yellowfin tuna in the 10 to 20 pound size. Using the live sardinas was the ticket to success, drift fishing while fly lining or using light sinkers to get your bait down a little deeper. This same area also saw a few striped marlin up to 120 pounds accounted for, as well as a handful of dorado up to 20 pounds. Often times small krill / shrimp will congregate in this region and this in turn attracts the yellowfin and other game fish, even though at this time it is the tuna that continue to dominate the action.
With the water clarity now reportedly improving in the areas to the north of Punta Gorda, we are still holding out hope that the wahoo will decide to cooperate and go on one last bite before they all decide to migrate in a southerly direction. In fact on Saturday a commercial panguero reported seeing a free swimming school of over one dozen wahoo on the Iman Bank, but was not able to hook any of them, at least this means they are still around and with this coming full moon phase chances are that a few will be hooked into during this coming week.
Other catches included a mix of pargo, cabrilla, triggerfish, bonito, sierra and amberjack. Though most of the week the popular bottom spots were not productive due to windy conditions and fast drifts. The better bottom action was found closer to shore had most of these fish were under ten pounds, though they produced very tasty fillets.
There were still some great reports of striped marlin action from areas on the Pacific, though it was not like it had been, many fish were seen, but they could not be enticed, the influx of cooler water had the baitfish and the marlin on the move, look for the action to pick back up in closer proximity to Cabo San Lucas and in the direction of Chileno.
The combined panga fleets sent out approximately 48 charters for the week and anglers accounted for a fish count of: 2 wahoo, 3 striped marlin, 18 sierra, 24 bonito, 15 cabrilla, 7 amberjack, 46 triggerfish, 58 various pargo species, 18 dorado and 395 yellowfin tuna.
Good Fishing, Eric
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson
Owner/Operator
800 4081199
Los Cabos 1421147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
www.gordobanks.com
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Dec 20, 2007; 01:17PM - San Jose Del Cabo Panga report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: eric bricston
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Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
December 9, 2007
Anglers -
While downtown Cabo San Lucas remained busy with visiting tourists, a large percentage of them arriving via cruise ships, twenty miles north in San Jose del Cabo things have been relatively quiet. Though holiday decorations are up and local residents are starting their annual shopping sprees. No rain this week as had been predicted, though there was quite a bit of cloud cover, high temperatures were averaging in the upper 70s. Water clarity continued to be murky and greenish closer to shore inside the Sea of Cortez, ocean temperatures ranged from the low 70s up to about 76 degrees. Larger swells did sweep in off of Cabo San Lucas, but did not get too far inside of the Gulf side of peninsula. Live sardinas were now being found from Palmilla to Chileno and were very scarce off of the La Playita and Puerto Los Cabos area.
The action for striped marlin continued on the Pacific, moving a bit closer off of Los Arcos, boats targeting the stripers were accounting for multiple fish days on a regular basis. The marlin were striking best on live mackerel, but others were striking artificial lures. A scattering of dorado mixed in throughout the region, most of these fish were ranging 10 to 20 pounds and being found in ones or twos.
For the fleets out of San Jose del Cabo the dominate action continued to be for yellowfin tuna. The hot bite off of Palmilla point became less consistent, though on some days the tuna were found there, fleets found better action on the San Luis Bank and off of Punta Gorda, this bite was exclusively on bait, so it was worth while patiently waiting and searching for the sardinas early in the morning. The average sized yellowfin were around 8 to 14 pounds, but there was also another grade of tuna mixed in that ranged up over 20 pounds. Panga anglers accounted for average daily catches of anywhere from 6 to 20 fish per boat.
There was a bonus for anglers fishing in the vicinity of La Fortuna on Wednesday and Thursday, as good numbers of yellowtail were found schooling underneath where the yellowfin tuna were found, these yellows were readily striking on yo-yo jigs and bait, weighing up to 25 pounds. There were also reports of yellowtail found off of Los Arcos, Chileno and Palmilla. Though the hot action for the jacks off of La Fortuna only lasted two days. A handful of amberjack, cabrilla and pargo rounded out the action off of the rock piles.
Surf fishermen continued to report good early morning action for sierra and jacks off the beaches where the schools of sardinas were congregating.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita sent out approximately 53 charters for the week and anglers reported a fish count of: 34 sierra, 18 cabrilla,
114 pargo, 16 amberjack, 69 yellowtail, 62 dorado, 44 bonito and 645 yellowfin tuna.
Good Fishing, Eric
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson
Owner/Operator
800 4081199
Los Cabos 1421147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
www.gordobanks.com
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Dec 17, 2007; 11:17AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Dec. 10-16, 2007
WEATHER: We are keeping true to having rain at least once a week again as the week started out with quite the lightning storm on Monday morning. I thought that we might just have a lot of noise and then the rain let loose on us. Not quite gully-washers but scattered times with real heavy downpours for about ten minutes at a time. It was heavy enough to wash a lot of dirt into the roads, later in the week it was dusty in town as things dried off. We had partly sunny skies for the rest of the week, enough cloud cover to keep the warm air trapped so out nighttime lows didn’t get lower than the low 60’s and the daytime highs were in the low 80’s.
WATER: Surface conditions were good except for the start of the week. The lightning and rain worked the sea on the Pacific side up pretty good, lots of wind to go with the rain. A few days later it was great everywhere. The water within 15 miles of the cape has been a steady 74 degrees. Farther offshore on the Pacific, past the Golden Gate and the San Jaime Banks, it dropped to 69 degrees. On the Cortez side offshore it was 72 degrees, but close in it was 74 degrees. Water color has remained a decent blue across the Banks on the Pacific side, the warm water closer to home has been a bit off-color, and up around the Punta Gorda area the water had a strong greenish tinge.
BAIT: Once again there was a pretty good mix of bait with both Mackerel and Caballito available. The Mackerel were large ones and many boats opted to catch their own smaller ones if they were going to be fishing the banks on the Pacific side. The prices from the bait boats remained the same at $2 per bait. Sardinas were available later in the week from bait boast up in the Palmilla area at the usual $25 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite has remained wide open on the Finger Bank on the Pacific side, but it is such a long run for the fleet boats that very few have been going. The average there has been in the double-digit area in numbers of releases. The bite that had been happening on the Golden Gate dropped off to practically a standstill as the bait moved off the bank and in toward shore. The fish moved with them and now the close to home bite is within three miles of the beach on the Pacific side and extending down to just outside the lighthouse. Slow trolled or drifted live baits have been the best producer but a lot of luck is being had by boats pulling lures as well, dropping back live bait to fish that appear in the spread. One of the problems we see occasionally is lots of fish on the surface that don’t want to eat, and one way to get them excited is to troll lures at a faster speed. A few boats had luck doing that during the middle of the week, finding that lures pulled at ten and eleven knots got those fish to bite.
YELLOWFIN TUNA A scattering of football fish showed up again just to the north of the Gorda Banks on the Cortez side of the cape but there were also scattered fish on the Pacific, just no big numbers or consistently large sizes yet. The football Yellowfin were 10-15 pounds with an occasional 20-pound fish and Sardinas were the way to go. Chumming heavily with both live and dead Sardinas would bring the fish up, then a live one pinned on a small #2 silver hook on 20-pound floura-carbon leader would get bit quickly, heavier leader did not produce as well.
DORADO: There were a few scattered fish, but the numbers were smaller than last week. As the water cools these will become an exception in the catch rather than a targeted fish. Most of the ones that were found were on the Sea of Cortez up around the Punta Gorda area, but a few fish shoed up in the warm water on the Pacific as well. The best lures were smaller ones in bright colors, bright feathers worked for many boats. Small Dorado were found mixed with the football Tuna as well and readily ate Sardinas presented for Tuna.
WAHOO: I saw no Wahoo flags this week that were for Wahoo, I did see quite a few that were flown for Sierra.
INSHORE: Sierra were the fish of the week for the inshore fishermen and they were consistently on the feed off of the Solmar-Finesterra beach early in the morning. They seemed to move up to the north later in the day. Yellowtail continued to produce scattered action off of the rocky points on the Cortez side with some decent fish being taken off of Gray Rock and the drop at Chileno.
NOTES: The air temperature continues to slowly drop and I have started to wear a jacket in the evenings and the mornings, now I am starting to think about long pants as well. Slippers in the house to keep my toes warm too! It is cool to me but then I have lived in the tropics for the past 22 years, most of you would consider it balmy here. This weeks report was written while listening to selections from several different albums by one of my favorite musicians, Marl Knopfler. Until next week, have a great Christmas and I hope Santa keeps your line tight!
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Dec 10, 2007; 12:58PM - 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
Dec. 3-9, 2007
WEATHER: We had rain every week at the beginning of this year and it is starting to look like we will have it every week at the end of the year as well. Our week ended with cloudy skies and one of those beautiful light, soaking rains that are so good for the plants here in the desert. It was actually cloudy for most of the week and that kept the temperatures perfect, with our nighttime lows around 64 degrees and our daytime highs in the high 70’s. It appears that we are at the end of a band of clouds and rain moving up to the northeast and there is a small circulation coming down our direction from the north that will force the remainder of this band of weather to the southeast.
WATER: The cloudy skies this week did not allow very good satellite shots of the sea surface temperature, but what we did get showed what I expected to see, lower temperatures across the region. According to the shots, and from seeing the water first hand on both sides of the cape this week, our average temperature on the Pacific side has dropped to 76 degrees, down from the 77 degrees last week. At the end of the week it was lower due to the heavy cloud cover. On the Cortez side of the cape it seems to have averaged about the same but the warm water extend much farther off shore than the 25-30 miles we saw on the Pacific side. At the end of the week the surface conditions on both sides of the cape were excellent, swells at four to six feet on the Pacific side but spaced very far apart and no wind chop. On the Cortez side the swells were 1-3 feet and far apart with only a light breeze to ruffle the water. The water color almost everywhere you went was tinted green, with a very heavy green cast to it close to shore on the Pacific side.
BAIT: Once again there was a pretty good mix of bait with both Mackerel and Caballito available. The Mackerel were large ones and many boats opted to catch their own smaller ones if they were going to be fishing the banks on the Pacific side. The prices from the bait boats remained the same at $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: This weeks Marlin report is a copy of last weeks report, which was a copy of the week before. What this means is that the Striped Marlin fishery is just wide open right now. Both the Finger Bank and the Golden Gate Bank continued to deliver massive amounts of Striped Marlin. A good day at the Gate resulted in at least two Marlin and some boats were getting seven or eight fish released. I fished it on Thursday and released four fish out of 7 raised, and all of them were either on lures or on bait dropped back to fish raised on lures. We saw no tailing fish but most of the boats were either drifting bait or slow trolling it, and quite a few were in combat mode, running and gunning for feeding marlin when they forced the bait balls to the surface and the birds started diving. A lot of boats tried that, but without a Kevlar armored hull II was not interested. The Finger Bank was a double-digit fishery with everyone making the run and having enough bait being able to hook into as many fish as they could handle. Reports from the mini-WCBRT tournament of 5 boats on the 7th and 8th were a wide open bite with the top angler releasing 59 Striped Marlin in one day out of the reported 190 releases that day for the top boat and 330 releases for them in two days. There were a reported 1,157 Striped Marlin released among the five boats over two days. Now is that wide-open fishing or what? Elsewhere the fish were scattered but still available, we had fish from the Punta Gorda area all the way around the Cape.
YELLOWFIN TUNA The big school of football Yellowfin Tuna we had so much fun with last week moved on and boats returning to the area were lucky to get one fish on Monday. There were still a lot of Bonito and Skipjack to be caught but the good stuff disappeared overnight. They did show up to the inside of the Inner Gorda Bank at the end of the week but in much smaller numbers and you had to work hard and chum heavily to get a bite happening. Once again there were reports of larger fish to the north of us on the Pacific side. A minimum run of 60 miles was required and then you had to keep your fingers crossed, but there were reports of fish in the 150-pound class under porpoise.
DORADO: The cool green water has made catching a Dorado a scarce happening. A few boats are getting multiple fish but most boats are lucky to get one. There was no concentration as the reports were scattered, a few small fish close to shore on the Pacific side in the green water, a few larger fish from the Pacific side banks and a few scattered small fish among the football Tuna on the Cortez side. I think the Dorado bite is pretty much ended for the season, but there will still be a fish found once in a while until the end of the year, and by then the water will be too cold.
WAHOO: Not only did I hear of some decent Wahoo being caught this week, I actually got one of them for my anglers! It was a fish of 42 pounds and we caught it on a dark green/black straight runner off of the short outrigger position while fishing for the Striped Marlin on the Golden Gate Bank. I heard other boats talking over the radio this week and they were reporting an occasional fish as well. A few fish were also caught up around the Punta Gorda area.
INSHORE: With the cool water come the Sierra and Yellowtail and both of them were present this week. Pangas were working just off the beach from the Arch to the lighthouse on the Pacific side and having great luck with Sierra ranging in size from 2 to 6 pounds. Yellowtail were found off of the rocky points. Boats fishing with live bait off of the arch ended up feeding the sea lions more often than getting their fish in the boat as the creatures were voracious and would not go away. Hey, with all that food swimming around so close, who can blame them! The few fish from the arch that actually were brought into the boat were caught on heavier gear while fishing with Rapallas.
Notes: Things are really going to get green around here because of the rain we have been getting, so instead of a white Christmas we will have a green one! Of course one of the problems with getting this kind of rain is it brings on those big bumbling flies, the ones that are almost too big to fly. The Whales are still out there every trip and that is a great thing to see. The Seahawks won again and that was a great thing to see! I played the 2 CD’s from the “Alison Krauss Union Station Live”, 2002 Rounder records release while writing this report and that was a great thing to hear! Until next week, I hope great things happen to you and your line stays tight!
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Dec 3, 2007; 12:00PM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Nov. 26- Dec. 2, 2007
WEATHER: This was an interesting week as we actually had some nice rain! A weather system drifted over us from the mainland during the middle of the week and brought cloudy skies and two days of intermittent rain, more than just the usual spit that spots the windshields. This rain came down strong on Friday afternoon but was soft, very little run-off occurred, most of it soaked into the ground, washing everything and making it green again. You know that the plants will stay green for a while now! This system showed up on Wednesday and was preceded by some fairly strong winds but as it settled in over us it became nice again. Our daytime highs were in the mid 80’s and the nighttime lows were in the mid 70’s.
WATER: Water temperatures on both side of the cape out to a distance of about 20 miles remained about 77 degrees. The water up toward the Finger Bank on the Pacific side was cooler, down to about 72 degrees and 20 miles to the south it dropped a bit to around 75 degrees. The winds brought in by the weather system were from the northwest at 15-20 knots and that caused some choppy conditions on the Pacific side. A system far away from us also brought in some swells from the southwest.
BAIT: The large baits this week were a pretty even mix of Mackerel and Caballito. The price was the normal $2 per bait. Very nice Sardinas were available up at the Palmilla point for $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: This weeks Marlin report is a copy of last weeks report. The wind did have an effect on the number of boats that fished the Pacific side however. Both the Finger Bank and the Golden Gate Bank continued to deliver massive amounts of Striped Marlin. There were fewer boats on top of the bank than last week due to the slightly choppy conditions, probably a couple of dozen or so instead of 50 or 60, all either running to the feeders as they popped up or drifting with live baits deep. The bite at the Gate did drop off just a tad at the end of the week but that may have had more to due with the wind than with the numbers of fish. A good day at the Gate resulted in at least two Marlin and some boats were getting seven or eight fish released. The Finger Bank was a double-digit fishery with everyone making the run and having enough bait being able to hook into as many fish as they could handle. Elsewhere the fish were scattered but still available, we had fish from the Punta Gorda area all the way around the Cape, and as the water continues to cool down I expect that the Striped Marlin bite will only get better.
YELLOWFIN TUNA I had a blast with the football sized Yellowfin Tuna (8-15 pounds) that were packed up on the point at Palmilla this week. The action was consistent every day with the fish between 1 and two miles off the beach. Sardinas were the way to go for lots of fish and trolling feathers worked also. We had no problem catching as many as we wanted in a couple of hours and they were a blast on light tackle. As far as larger fish go, there was a report of one boat getting several fish in the 100 pound class, but no one was saying where they were found. Several boats worked the west side to 35 miles and south the same distance and reported that while the water was perfect, there were no signs of life out there. It seams that you had to go up the Pacific quite a way to get into the larger fish, or stay out until the fleet boats were gone for the home-guard fish to come to the surface at the San Jaime and the Golden Gate.
DORADO: The Dorado continue to thin out in numbers but a few boats are still getting into multiple fish days. The key this week was to look for Frigate birds working offshore if you wanted larger fish, and working close to the beach with small lures if you were interested in the smaller size Dorado. A good catch this week would have been three or four fish in the boat, but most boats were happy to get one.
WAHOO: There were fewer Wahoo reported this week, just a few were caught actually and the moon phase probably had everything to do with that. The few fish that were caught were in the 40-pound class and were caught up around the Punta Gorda area, at least the ones I heard of were.
INSHORE: We did have a day in the middle of the week where the Yellowtail showed up strong at the arch and boats were having great action on feathers and live bait, but those fish moved on quickly. There was also good Sierra action off of the lighthouse and the Pedregal beach. Some small Roosterfish were still being caught but I did not hear of any large ones this week. Most of the Pangas worked the football Yellowfin off of Palmilla and fished off the beach for Sierra.
Notes: This report was written to the new Eagles release “Long Road Out Of Eden”, a really great listen! Whales are starting to show up, I am seeing them every trip now. Football season is winding up soon and Christmas is just around the corner, my mom is coming to visit for Christmas so it is time to really clean the house up (boy I hate doing that!). My golf game yesterday was a train-wreck but I think I get a chance to redeem myself on Thursday. Until next week, have a great time and keep thinking of us down here with no snow!
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Nov 26, 2007; 02:44PM - 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
November 25, 2007
Anglers -
Thanksgiving week in Los Cabos always seems to be busy with visiting families and this year was no exception, though this is also typically the period when tourism starts to slow down for several weeks as people start to gear up for the coming Christmas Holiday season and priorities are sidetracked. Up until this past weekend the local weather conditions would have to have been considered to be ideal and warmer than usual, the north winds have been virtually a non factor up until now and accordingly water temperatures have continued to hold at the 80 degree mark. On Saturday there was a cold front that moved through, it started with winds out of the west to northwest and by mid morning had switched from the south, with gusts to over 25 miles per hour, this created very sloppy ocean conditions and for a long wet boat ride home for the sportfishing fleets that were fishing in the direction of the Sea of Cortez on the Iman or La Fortuna Banks. By Sunday morning the wind had laid down with only a residue of wind chop remaining. Throughout the region the water temperature were now in the 76 degree (Pacific side), to 80 degrees off of the San Jose del Cabo area.
Live sardinas became scattered off of the Puerto Los Cabos rock jetties where these baitfish had been so abundant for the last couple of months. This week commercial pangueros were having to go has far as Chileno Bay to find the preferred baitfish, this meant the panga fleets from La Playita were having to back track to Palmilla where they would meet up with the bait suppliers and then head back towards the northern fishing grounds of La Fortuna and Iman. It was worth the time spent obtaining the live sardinas because this was the bait of choice for the yellowfin tuna action, drift fishing while chumming was the most productive technique and anglers found excellent action for tuna in the 10 to 20 pound range. Some tuna up to 30 pounds were found and one 59 pound specimen was also accounted for by a Gordo Banks Panga. The yellowfin definitely were the most dominate speices this week, dorado numbers dropped substantially, though some fish in the 5 to 15 pound class were still encountered, much of this action was in the same general area as where the tuna were schooling.
Anglers accounted for respectable numbers of wahoo through the first part of the week, but over the weekend on the full moon this action dropped off. Early in the week a fair percentage of charters reported catching one or even two wahoo per outing, most of these fish were striking on Marauders, skirted led heads, Yo-Zuris, Rapalas or rigged ballyhoo and live skipjack. Average size ranged from 25 to 40 pounds. If the north winds do not become too relentless in the coming weeks we are hoping the wahoo will remain active into the month of December, typically the week following the full moon is not the most favorable time, but by the first of December we are optimistic that the bite will turn back on.
The billfish action continues to be found on the banks off the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, as fleets were scores multiple catches of striped marlin on a daily basis.
Other catches included limited numbers of sierra, cabrilla, pargo and triggerfish.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita sent out approximately 116 charters for the week with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 1sailfish,
1 mako shark, 1,245 yellowfin tuna, 92 dorado, 64 pargo, 22 cabrilla, 32 triggerfish, 48 sierra, 7 amberjack and 44 wahoo.
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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