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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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Nov 26, 2007; 10:24AM - 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. 19-25, 2007
WEATHER: Our mornings have been cool at an average of 60 degrees while the daytime highs have been in the high 70’s and low 80’s. We had scattered clouds this week with just a splatter of rain, enough to mark the windshields, on Thursday. The wind started to blow out of the north pretty strong early in the week and then at the weekend it dropped down in intensity and came from the southeast for a while.
WATER: The water temperature has started to drop and on the Cortez side of the Cape we are seeing water in the 77-78 degree range. Once you get up the coast toward the Punta Gorda area it warms up to 80 degrees. On the Pacific side the water out to a distance of 40 miles is in the 73-76 degree range, but nice and clean. The water temperature up at the finger bank has dropped to 71-72 degrees. The Pacific side was pretty choppy during the middle of the week due to the winds we experienced and as the wind shifted it became a bit choppy on the Cortez side over the weekend. None of it was really rough, but it was uncomfortable for many anglers.
BAIT: Most of the bait this week was Mackerel, the full moon made catching the Caballito a bit more difficult. The price was the normal $2 per bait. Very nice Sardinas were available up at the Palmilla point for $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Both the Finger Bank and the Golden Gate Bank continued to deliver massive amounts of Striped Marlin, but at the Golden Gate you had to deal with the crowds. There were as many as 60 boats at a time on top of the bank and a couple of dozen more just off the edges, 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: The bite on football Yellowfin continued this week with heavy concentrations of them found off of the Palmilla Point in 300 feet of water. Sardines were the bait of choice and sometimes heavy chumming was needed to get them to bite. There were also plenty of Green Jacks and Skipjack along with some Bonito mixed in with the Yellowfin. There are continued reports of large Yellowfin well up the Pacific side and we are still waiting for them to come within charter range. An occasional 50-60 pound fish has been caught among Porpoise on the Pacific side so hopefully things will continue to improve.
DORADO: As the water continues to cool down the Dorado bite has dropped off a bit. There are still multiple fish days and most boats have been getting at least a couple of fish, but the large numbers every day seem to be a thing of the past. The fish that are being found are still in the same areas, close to the beach on the Pacific side and up around the Gorda Banks on the Cortez side. Bright colored lures and live Mackerel have been the preferred lures and baits, but there have been plenty of Dorado caught on Sardinas by anglers fishing for the football Yellowfin as well.
WAHOO: The full moon really helped the Wahoo bite this week and there were reports of pretty hot action on these tasty speedsters from boats that fished up at the Inman Banks and the Gorda Banks. Preferred baits were live Mackerel Scad (chiwillies) on light wire leaders but dark colored lures were also catching fish. Wahoo were also reported by boats working the points on both sides of the Cape, and the fish were nice ones, averaging 40 pounds.
INSHORE: Small Roosterfish and football Yellowfin continue to provide most of the action for Panga anglers, but as the water temperature continues to drop look for the Sierra and Yellowtail action to start.
Notes: Wintertime is coming to Cabo and we are starting to see the changes in the fishing patterns that come with the cooler weather. I am looking forward to fishing for tailing Striped Marlin again and getting into some decent sized Yellowfin. My golf game is improving as well, and it is nice to not be sweating by the time you reach the 10th hole! Until next week, tight lines!
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Nov 19, 2007; 10:30AM - san jose del cabo panga reports
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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 18, 2007
Anglers -
Southern Baja was full of activity this past week, with the most notable event on the schedule being the 40 th annual running of the Score International Baja 1000 off-road race, which for only the second time in history finished in the city of Cabo San Lucas. Thousands of visitors were greeted with perfect weather conditions, clear skies, with high temperatures in the 80s. The Puerto Los Cabos Marina was now attracting more sport fishers and pleasure yachts, some as large as 100 feet, as several dozen of the larger vessels were moored inside the nearly completed marina. Local panga fleets were in the midst of their busiest time of the year and anglers were enjoying excellent all around catches. Ocean swells were very slight and water temperatures varied from 76 on the Banks off the Pacific to as high as 82 degrees in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, just north of San Jose del Cabo. Live bait supplies were once again plentiful, with a mix of sardinas, caballito and mackerel available, commercial pangueros were now experimenting with new techniques of using lights to attract the sardinas to the surface off of the Puerto Los Cabos jetties during the predawn hours from 4:00 to 5:00 a.m. and have been able to net quantiies of quality sized sardinas.
With the exception of some scattered striped marlin action found off of the Chileno and San Jose del Cabo areas, the main center of billfish activity continues to be found off of the Pacific, particularly on the Golden Gate Bank and north to the Finger Bank. This is where schools of mackerel are now concentrated, enticing the marlin into the feeding mood, charters are accounting for multiple marlin catches of 4,5,6 or 8 fish on a regular basis.
For the San Jose del Cabo fleets the most consistent fishing was found from the Gordo Banks to Iman, with La Fortuna and Iman highlighting the action for the week. The mainstay of the catch was yellowfin tuna that were striking on live sardinas and were weighing in the 10 to 20 pound range, charters had average counts of 8 to 15 tuna per morning. A few larger yellowfin were encountered as well, including one specimen over 100 pounds taken on Friday from a panga while trolling a small sized skipjack for bait. A couple of other big tuna were hooked into while using chunk bait, but these fish were lost due to various reasons, one crazy tuna apparently thought he was a dorado and after feeling the point of the hook it decided to go acrobatic and did a series of spectacular jumps before gaining its freedom.
Dorado counts tapered off slightly, with most of the do-dos being found in the same areas where the yellowfin were encountered, small schools of these colorful fish were attracted by the chummed sardinas, most of the dorado accounted for weighed fifteen pounds or less.
The most exciting fishing news to report was that the elusive wahoo have finally decided to wake up and get into the action. Anglers found good prospects for these speedsters off the La Fortuna, Iman and San Luis reefs. Many of the wahoo were being hooked into on the unconventional method of sardina baits on direct monofilament; surprisingly quite a few were actually landed this way. Of course when anglers switched to using wire leader with the smaller baifish, the weary wahoo did not show any interest. Slow trolling with smaller sized black skipjack on trap hooked rigs also proved to be productive and resulted in some of the larger sized wahoo that were accounted for. The standard array of wahoo lures such as, Marauders, Yo-Zuris, Rapalas and custom rigged skirted lead heads were also accounting for their share of ʽhoo strikes. The majority of the wahoo now being landed were weighing in the respectable 30 to 60 pound class.
Other action included limited counts of pargo, amberjack, cabrilla, sierra and grouper. Several larger sized gulf grouper to over 100 pounds were landed by the local commercial panga fleet, using whole tuna and needlefish for bait , rigged with heavy leaders on stout hand lines in order to muscle them away from their sharp rocky caves.
The combined panga fleets from La Playita sent out approximately 196 charters for the week and anglers accounted for a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 3 sailfish, 5 roosterfish,
11 amberjack, 68 pargo (various species), 23 cabrilla, 26 sierra, 404 dorado, 1,660 yellowfin tuna and 87 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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Nov 19, 2007; 10:19AM - 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. 12-18, 2007
WEATHER: Now I remember why we have all the tourists come and visit us this time of year, the weather is great! Our morning pre-sunrise temperature this morning was 70 degrees and at noon we had only 87 degrees, sunny skies and a very light wind here in town. It does not get much better than this. There was no rain this week but we did have the wind pick up a bit at the end of the week, mostly from the northwest.
WATER: The water remained in the 80-83 degree range for another week. The water on the Pacific side was in the 83-degree range across the San Jaime and Golden Gate band and up to the Finger Bank area. Inside close to shore it dropped a degree and farther out it dropped a degree. On the Cortez side the temperature was a pretty constant 82-83 degrees anywhere within range. Later in the week the surface conditions worsened on the Pacific side as the swells kicked up a bit and the wind started to blow, early in the week you could go anywhere at a good speed.
BAIT: Larger baits were a pretty even mix of Caballito and Mackerel at the normal $2 per bait and there were plenty of Sardinas available as well both in Cabo and up in San Jose at $20 a scoop. If you wanted to catch your own bait there were plenty of Mackerel to be found just in front of the lighthouse on the Pacific side in 100 feet of water.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The good news on the Marlin front is that the fish have definitely moved onto the Golden Gate Bank. There are giant bait balls deep over the top of the bank and small broken balls of bait on the surface. Most boats have been having good results by either deep drifting a live Mackerel caught on the spot or running to fish feeding on the surface and tossing bait to them. I think the average per boat was about 5 fish for the day. Boats willing to go the extra distance were still having great fishing up at the Finger Bank, but unless all you wanted was Marlin, the Gate offered a better variety.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were still plenty of football Tuna just at the outer edge of San Lucas bay in water that was 200 feet in depth, just on the edge of the drop. These fish were biting well on Sardines early in the morning and averaged 12 pounds. Later in the day they seemed to stray a bit to the north and small feathers worked better. There were reports of slightly larger fish farther offshore, but the reports of cow Tuna were limited to private boats working the banks far to the north, well outside charter range. Hopefully these fish will come down to our area as the water temperature drops.
DORADO: The Dorado were scattered this week and the best bite remained on the Pacific side just off the beach 20 miles up. Boats that slow trolled live Mackerel did well, averaging 5 fish per boat with an occasional Striped Marlin in the mix. On the Cortez side there was no real concentration of fish except for the Inman Bank area, and even there, there were no large numbers. The fish averaged 12 pounds this week.
WAHOO: There were a few more Wahoo caught this week than last week and most of them were in the 30-pound class. The depths of 100-150 feet just off the beach around rocky points seemed to be holding the most fish, but it was a matter of being there at the right time, and that was unpredictable.
INSHORE: In a repeat of last week, the football size Yellowfin Tuna were the target of most of the Pangas this week, but there were still plenty of Roosterfish to be found on both sides of the Cape. At the end of the week most of the Pangas were fishing on the Cortez side due to the wind.
Notes: This was pretty much a repeat of the last weeks report and action. My only question is, why aren’t you here yet? Until next week, tight lines! (p.s. shot a 99 this morning!)
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Nov 12, 2007; 10:09AM - 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. 5-11, 2007
WEATHER: Now I remember why we have all the tourists come and visit us this time of year, the weather is great! Our morning pre-sunrise temperature this morning was 70 degrees and at noon we had only 87 degrees, sunny skies and a very light wind here in town. It does not get much better than this. There was no rain this week but we did have the wind pick up a bit at the end of the week, mostly from the northwest.
WATER: The water remained in the 80-83 degree range for another week. The water on the Pacific side was in the 83-degree range across the San Jaime and Golden Gate band and up to the Finger Bank area. Inside close to shore it dropped a degree and farther out it dropped a degree. On the Cortez side the temperature was a pretty constant 82-83 degrees anywhere within range. Later in the week the surface conditions worsened on the Pacific side as the swells kicked up a bit and the wind started to blow, early in the week you could go anywhere at a good speed.
BAIT: Larger baits were a pretty even mix of Caballito and Mackerel at the normal $2 per bait and there were plenty of Sardinas available as well both in Cabo and up in San Jose at $20 a scoop. If you wanted to catch your own bait there were plenty of Mackerel to be found just in front of the lighthouse on the Pacific side in 100 feet of water.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: This weeks billfish report is almost an exact repeat of last weeks. I had a couple of days where I was able to get to the finger banks to check out the reported Striped Marlin action and found that the reports had not been exaggerated. There were balls of bait everywhere and as soon as you got onto the shallows there were feeding Marlin everywhere you looked. On both trips we ran out of bait quickly and due to time restraints returned to trolling lures. We did not go more than 10 minutes before hooking into singles and doubles. We may have been able to get triple hookups but did not want to put three lines out. There were still Striped Marlin on the Golden Gate bank and toward the shore from there for the boats that were not able to make the long run to the Finger Bank but the conditions were a bit more crowded and the fish a bit more scattered. A few Blue Marlin were reported form the Cortez side of the Cape and I did hear of one nice Black Marlin being caught and released by a boat drifting bait for Striped Marlin and the Golden Gate Bank.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin were the fish of the week as we had the Western Outdoors Tuna Tournament take place on Thursday and Friday. With 127 teams entered as last I heard and there being no mile boundaries, boats were able to range wherever they wanted in order to find Tuna. This worked for at least four boats as there were four Tuna weighed that were over 100 pounds. The largest was #189, the second was #172, the third in the #150 range and the fourth (out of the money) was #135. There were plenty of fish that were over the qualifying weight of 40 pounds but almost all of these school fish were found at least 30 miles out. Closer to home there were plenty of football sized fish to be had just outside Gray Rock and up on the Pacific side just off the beach are by boats chumming with Sardinas and fly-lining live ones on small diameter leader.
DORADO: The Dorado were scattered this week and the best bite remained on the Pacific side just off the beach 20 miles up. Boats that slow trolled live Mackerel did well, averaging 5 fish per boat with an occasional Striped Marlin in the mix. On the Cortez side there was no real concentration of fish except for the Inman Bank area, and even there, there were no large numbers. The fish averaged 12 pounds this week.
WAHOO: The Wahoo bite really dropped off this week but that may have been because most of the boats were concentrating offshore for the Yellowfin. There were still a few of them caught, but there were no concentrations of fish out there.
INSHORE: In a repeat of last week, the football size Yellowfin Tuna were the target of most of the Pangas this week, but there were still plenty of Roosterfish to be found on both sides of the Cape. At the end of the week most of the Pangas were fishing on the Cortez side due to the wind.
Notes: Striped Marlin fishing on the Pacific side ant the Finger Banks was wide open this week, double digit numbers for all boats that were able to make the trip. The wind picked up at the end of the week but is supposed to lay back down on Monday so our fingers are crossed that the fish will remain in the area, or come closer to us. I saw my first Gray Whales of the season on Tuesday, a pair of very large 50’ animals just off of the lighthouse on the Pacific side. Until next week, tight lines!
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Nov 5, 2007; 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
October 29-Nov. 4, 2007
WEATHER: Our weather remained beautiful this past week as the daytime highs were in the low 90’s and high 80’s while the nighttime lows were in the low 70’s. At the end of the week we had some wind that made the weather perfect, but chopped up the Pacific side as the wind was from the northwest.
WATER: Water temperatures were from 80-83 degrees pretty much anywhere you went at the end of the week. On the Pacific side this meant out to the San Jaime and on the Cortez side it meant up to the Inman Bank area and out to the Seamount. On the Cortez side this warm water was slightly off-color but better color was found on the Pacific. As the week came to a close the wind picked up from the northwest and the Pacific side became pretty choppy with conditions that were uncomfortable for a lot of folks, seas at 4-6 feet with 15 knots of wind.
BAIT: Larger baits were a pretty even mix of Caballito and Mackerel at the normal $2 per bait and there were plenty of Sardinas available as well both in Cabo and up in San Jose at $20 a scoop. If you wanted to catch your own bait there were plenty of Mackerel to be found just in front of the lighthouse on the Pacific side in 100 feet of water.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There were still Blue Marlin to be had this past week but the big news was the continued Striped Marlin bite. The Golden Gate bank turned back on as the Mackerel moved back on top and boats concentrating their efforts were rewarded with 5-8 releases a day. Drifting or slow trolling live Mackerel worked, as did soaking live bait deep with 8 ounce torpedo sinkers. With the bait pushed up to the surface, running in on the Frigate birds as the suddenly swooped down resulted in a large number of hook-ups as well, but brought some tempers flaring as the speeding boats cut through the crowds drifting. While the action was good there, the beginning of the week brought us reports of wide-open action from the Finger Banks. There were reports of 30-50 fish days but unfortunately (for the fishermen) the winds kicked in and few boats were making the trip due to rough conditions at the end of the week. I hope to get a chance to try it out this coming week as I will be fishing every day, and will head up there if the conditions permit.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were no reports of large Tuna that I heard of this week, but the action on football fish was wide open at the inner Gorda and the Inman Banks during the middle of the week. Chumming with Sardinas and then fly lining live Sardinas on light line had fish coolers being filled during the middle of the week. I was a day late getting in on the bite and when I did get there on Friday it was almost all Green Jacks and Skipjack. That was still fun on light tackle but not what we were looking for. On the way back home we came across a large pod of porpoise that held a lot of fish and ended up getting a dozen of the footballs for the anglers. There were reports of school-sized fish to 35 pounds along the western edge of the San Jaime banks, but the water conditions resulted in few boats trying for them.
DORADO: Early in the week the Dorado bite was wide open on the Pacific side, close to the beach in less than 200 feet on water, past the Golden Gate bank. A dozen or more fish per trip was easy and early in the week the water was great. As things became rough fewer boats were making it up there and closer to home the bite was not quite as good. Boats were still able to get Dorado but it was more on the 2-5 fish per boat level. There were some nice Dorado in the 40-pound class found on the Cortez side of the cape out 4-6 miles off the beach and they seemed to prefer bright colored lures in slightly larger sizes than normal.
WAHOO: My deckhand and I farmed a Wahoo this week, one about 25 pounds and we heard of quite a few other boats getting fish of the same size up in the area where the Dorado were found. Of course there were a lot of bite-offs as well but it did seem that about 10% of the boats managed to hang onto one. As usual, dark colored lures seemed to work better.
INSHORE: The football size Yellowfin Tuna were the target of most of the Pangas this week, but there were still plenty of Roosterfish to be found on both sides of the Cape. At the end of the week most of the Pangas were fishing on the Cortez side due to the wind.
Notes: I am going to be busy fishing this coming week so will have more first-hand experiences for next weeks report. Until then, tight lines!
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Oct 29, 2007; 01:05PM - Gordo Banks Panga Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: eric
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October 28, 2007
Anglers -
Los Cabos was overwhelmed with visiting anglers this past week as the worldʼs richest marlin tournament, the Bisbee Black and Blue was being held. The event lived up to all of the hype and expectations, with lots of fun, drama and large pay outs for participants. On November 8 and 9 the Western Outdoor News will be sponsoring the annual Tuna Jackpot event, with anticipations high for another great tournament. Then following this will be the grueling off road race of the Baja 1000, which for the first time since the year 2000 will be finishing in Cab San Lucas, so needless to say there will be more than enough excitement in this area over the next two weeks.
The week started off with gusty winds blowing out of the north, similar to the Santa Ana conditions that plagued Southern California and contributed to fueling such disastrous brush fires. Ocean water temperatures varied from 80 to 84 degrees and sportfishing fleets were working areas from the Golden Gate and Jaime Banks on the Pacific to the Gordo Banks, Iman and Vinorama in the direction of the Sea of Cortez. The persistent north winds contributed to pushing in a greenish current in the areas north of the Gordo Banks and slowed down the action accordingly over the weekend. Supplies of sardinas remained abundant off of the San Jose Estuary area and this is the bait that produced best results for the local panga fleets. The action was mainly either on the Inner Gordo Bank or north on the Iman, also closer to shore off of Punta Gorda, yellowfin tuna was the most common species being encountered, most of the fish were averaging 8 to 15 pounds, but on some days a larger grade of tuna was found mixed in, with a handful of yellowfin in the 35 to 80 pound class accounted for. Of course there was a lot of pressure on these fishing grounds by the larger sportfishers participating in the tournaments and at times this caused the fish to go down, the action was definitely best early in the morning before all of the crowds showed up.
Dorado were found in the same area as the tuna, but were not as numerous and most of the fish were smaller in size, with a few exceptions of specimens over 20 pounds. A scattering of wahoo were found early in the week by angers trolling lures between Iman and Vinorama, but after the water changed color to a murky green this bite shut down as well. Other action included rainbow runners up to 20 pounds, dog tooth snapper to 45 pounds, sailfish to 100 pounds, cabrilla to 12 pounds, yellowtail snapper and sierra.
There were billfish reported from the Gordo Banks area, but the action on the Pacific was more consistent, particularly for striped marlin, where charter boats were accounting for a half dozen or more stripers per outing.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita sent out approximately 63 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 3 sailfish, 2 striped marlin,
8 wahoo, 98 dorado, 405 yellowfin tuna, 12 rainbow runner, 18 cabrilla, 15 dogtooth snapper, 33 yellowtail snapper and 18 sierra.
Good Fishing, Eric
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson
Owner/Operator
800 4081199
Los Cabos 1421147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
www.gordobanks.com
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Oct 29, 2007; 10:47AM - 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
October 22-28, 2007
WEATHER: This morning when I got up to go to the golf course it was 72 degrees here at the house and 69 degrees at the course. When I got in the truck to leave the course at 11 am it was 98 degrees. I guess that can give you an idea of the weather this week, huh? No rain, clear skies and at the end of the week there was almost no wind.
WATER: The Sea of Cortez was showing a pretty even 85 degrees anywhere within range of a day trip and the surface conditions were excellent at the end of the week. At the beginning of the week the wind was from the north and it was pretty choppy on the outside. The wind and a 2-knot current brought green water to the inside through the middle of the week, conditions improved at the end of the week. On the Pacific side the warm water had pushed well past the San Jaime Bank and across the Golden Gate bank. From the inside of the Golden Gate and up the coast out a distance of about three miles the water remained in the 84-degree range. The only true bleu water I saw this week was outside the 1150 on the Cortez side, elsewhere it was a slightly off color blue.
BAIT: You could get Caballito this week for $2 per bait but by far the quickest selling bait was Sardinas. They were bringing a premium price as all the boats wanted several scoops to use for catching tuna, in turn using the tuna as bait for Marlin during the Bisbee Black and Blue tournament. Because of this, locally the Sardinas were going for about the equivalent of $50 per big scoop, compared to $25 per decent scoop. Boats willing to make the 30-minute run toward San Jose got a better price and better-conditioned bait, a good scoop for $25.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Results form the Bisbee Black and Blue tournament told the true tale this week. With 167 boats fishing for three days there were 6 fish over #300 weighed, the largest of them was #620 and was reported to have been caught out toward the Cabrillo Seamount on the Cortez side of the Cape. Most of the reports called in over the radio were of fish caught either in front of the Cape or over on the Pacific side. I believe that the green colored water close to shore on the Cortez side had a lot of boats fishing the Pacific instead. On the first day all the qualifying fish were reported to have been caught on the Pacific side close to shore. There were plenty of Striped Marlin on the Golden Gate bank for the first two days of the tournament and then the fish closed their mouths and moved on.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: With most of the boats this week focusing on Marlin there were only a few looking for Yellowfin Tuna offshore. There were plenty of small fish, football size caught by boats making bait up on the Pacific side close to shore inside the Golden Gate Bank. The last day of the tournament had a couple of boats reporting hook-up on unidentified fish that ended up being large Yellowfin. These fish were either blind strikes or found with a few black porpoise and were found around the 95 spot, just 8 miles from Cabo.
DORADO: Once again almost all the Dorado action was found on the Pacific side, and the farther north you went the better the bite was. Charters working the inside were getting four to 14 fish per trip and the size averaged 15 pounds with a few fish in the 40 range being caught as well. Boats working live bait deep found a few nice fish as well on the Cortez side up around the Punta Gorda area, but it was very scattered and there was no consistency to the catch in that area.
WAHOO: I was surprised that there was not more Wahoo reported this week as we just went through the full moon phase, but I only heard a few calls on the radio. With so many boats working close to shore on the Pacific side it just goes to show that there were not that many of these tasty fish around.
INSHORE: A repeat of last week. The inshore Roosterfish bite started up again with most of the fish in the small range at 5-10 pounds but almost everyone that targeted the Roosters were able to release at least one or two in the 30 pound class. Dorado were plentiful just a bit farther off the beach and an average catch consisted of four or five per Panga. Plenty of Bonita and Skipjack with a few football Yellowfin rounded out the inshore fishery.
Notes: The tournaments are over for the month and there is only one more to go. The Tuna tournament is the most fun of the bunch and is in November so we get a short rest. With a couple of weeks with no practice my golf game is really bad. My wife won a free ride at the ”Baja Wide Open” and gave them to my buddy and I. This is an off-road course where you drive a “Baja Buggy”, doing jumps and taking some great s-turns and hairpin turns on a sand track, over hills and down arroyos. It was such a blast! But now my back hurts a bit and that is my excuse for the bad golf game today! If you are interested in the results of the Bisbee Black and Blue tournament go to www.bisbees.com. Until next week, tight lines!
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Oct 22, 2007; 12:18PM - 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
October 15-21, 2007
WEATHER: Our weather this past week was just what we were expecting for this time of year. It seems that on the 15th of October every year (or really close to that date) Mother Nature throws the switch that cools up down. Our daytime highs averaged 86 degrees while the nighttime lows were in the low 70’s. I think that is about as good as you can get. We had sunny days with a light overcast in the middle of the week. Winds were from the north and the northwest at an average of 10 knots. Up the coast on the Cortez side past Punta Gorda it was a bit brisker at about 20 knots from the north. We are keeping our eye on Tropical Storm Kiko, hoping it is downgraded and turns to the west.
WATER: We were in great shape for most of the week on the Cortez side with small swells and light breezes until you got past Punta Gorda. Up there the wind kicked in and it got a little choppy. On the Pacific side the wind was not too bad early in the week, it was a bit bouncy up until Wednesday, and then everything mellowed out. There were still some good size chopped swells as a result of shore reflection along the points, but farther offshore and to the north things were very nice. On the Cortez side of the Cape the temperature was a very even 85 degrees on the surface. On the Pacific side at the end of the week that warm water had finally extended out to the San Jaime Bank. For 10 miles or so to the west of the San Jaime, extending up the coastline across the Golden Gate Bank and approximately 5 miles off the beach all the way up past Todo Santos there was a band of water in the 82-85 degree range.
BAIT: As far as buying from the bait boats the most common bait was Caballito. A few boats had Mackerel but they were easier to catch yourself than buy if you were in the right place. The big baits were averaging $2 per bait. There were also Sardinas around, both here in Cabo and up to the north outside San Joes. They were priced at $25 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: With the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament held this week it was easy to find what was happening on the billfish front, and on all the rest of the species as well. There was a #560 Blue Marlin and others of #400, #360 and #330 weighed in and a Striped Marlin of #202. The first day of the tournament had 36 released billfish, the second had 42 releases and I am not sure how many were released the third day, but it was more. The top three release boats were all in the double-digit range. Most of the Blue Marlin action was found around the 95 spot and farther up the Sea of Cortez but there were a few found on the Pacific side close to shore in that warm water band. The majority of the Striped Marlin reported were on the Pacific side with Golden Gate Bank being the hot spot.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again there was spotty action on Yellowfin Tuna of any size. Football fish were found close to shore by tournament boats making live bait just off of Gray Rock as well as up off of the Inman Bank. These fish were chummed up using Sardinas. A few slightly larger fish were found among Porpoise on the Pacific side of the Cape and the tournament had the two largest Tuna weighed in at just under #100 for the largest and #70 for second largest. I am not sure if these fish were found with Porpoise or were caught while soaking live bait.
DORADO: The best Dorado action was on the Pacific side along the current-temperature break. There were some pieces of wood found that held fish and a few boats really enjoyed great action off of them. I passed up one such spot because there were already 15 boats working it, but returning later in the day we were still able to get 6 nice fish there. Even without the wood, fishing for Dorado within 4 miles of the coast was good, at least up until the end of the week, then things dropped off a bit. Largest fish of the Tournament at the end of day two was just under #40.
WAHOO: Quite a few Wahoo were caught this week and the average size was about 25 pounds. Close to shore along the current line on the Pacific and on the flats edge up at Punta Gorda were the best spots. Dark lures and of course the usual Marauders and Rapallas worked great on these speedsters. Largest fish of the Tournament was just under #60.
INSHORE: A repeat of last week. The inshore Roosterfish bite started up again with most of the fish in the small range at 5-10 pounds but almost everyone that targeted the Roosters were able to release at least one or two in the 30 pound class. Dorado were plentiful just a bit farther off the beach and an average catch consisted of four or five per Panga. Plenty of Bonita and Skipjack with a few football Yellowfin rounded out the inshore fishery.
Notes: Tournament time again and I am busy. Bisbee’s Black and Blue is this coming week. I’ll let you know how much we won next week! Until then, tight lines!
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Oct 19, 2007; 08:24AM - Gordo Banks panga reports
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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
October 14, 2007
Anglers –
Which each passing day the crowds of anglers are increasing, as the fall season is now official here and the mega buck tournaments are just around the corner. Visitors have been greeted within near perfect weather conditions, warm days and clear sunny skies. It is also the time when the north winds start to become predominant, just like clockwork they are starting to pick up, but so far have not been a nuisance, averaging only 6 to 10 miles per hour. Water temperatures ranged from 83 to 86 degrees, ocean swells were minimal, though there was quite a strong current running south out of the Sea of Cortez. At this time there is a tropical low pressure system located several hundred miles southwest of Manzanillo and it is appearing to show signs of some development, though it does look like it will most likely continue on a westerly track and miss the Baja Peninsula.
Live bait supplies have been sufficient, with caballito, sardinas and mullet available. Sportfishing fleets are now fishing in directions of the Pacific and the Sea Of Cortez. The striped marlin action continued to be excellent on the Pacific, towards Golden Gate Bank, the stripers were striking aggressively on lures and bait, with catches of six or more fish per charters common. Good numbers of dorado were also found from just around Los Arcos to south of El Faro.
The panga fleets based out of San Jose del Cabo concentrated most of their efforts from Palmilla, Gordo Banks and north to Iman Bank. Good fish counts held up throughout the first part of the week, most common catches were yellowfin tuna and dorado, with a mix of billfish and bottom species, though the later part of the week and through the weekend this action dropped way off, going from an average of over a 12 combined fish to just two or three, hard to say where the fish have gone, conditions have not really changed much and bait supply has been good. Pangueros will have to do some more scouting to find some more consistent action for the coming week. The Inner Gordo Bank had been producing early limits on yellowfin tuna, most of them in the 10 to 15 pound class, but with a handful of larger specimens up to 50 pounds accounted for. This bite on the Bank completely diminished, with the better action switching north to the Iman Bank, but then over the weekend that bite also dropped way off and reports of better tuna action off of Palmilla came in. Anglers seemed to have better success on sardinas, but the fish were also striking on a variety of medium sized lures.
One of the more unusual catches of the week was a 50 pound roosterfish that hit a sardina that was being trolled on the surface near the Iman Bank, every season in October we do hear of a handful of roosterfish being taken further offshore, away from their normal inshore habitat. On the same bank, off the bottom, there was a mix of pargo, cabrilla and dogtooth snapper being accounted for. As well as a few early season sierra starting to appear in the fish counts. Not many reports of any wahoo action this past week, it is the time of year when these fish normally become more active.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita sent out approximately 76 charters for the week with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 8 sailfish, 9 striped marlin, 1 roosterfish, 2 wahoo, 6 sierra, 5 surgeonfish, 31 cabrilla, 42 pargo, 6 dogtooth snapper, 92 dorado and 236 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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Oct 15, 2007; 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
October 8-14, 2007
WEATHER: Nights have been a very comfortable mid 70’s for most of the week with a few evenings seeing a drop of a few degrees more. Our daytime highs have been in the mid to high 80’s. Winds have been out of the northwest for most of the week with a one day shift on Saturday when the came from the east. Wind speeds have been in the 10-knot range in the mid afternoon. No rain for the week, and if things hold as true as some folks say, tomorrow we should see the annual October 15 temperature drop. Long time residents say that every October 15 the average daytime temperature drops 5 degrees, almost like clockwork. Hmm…
WATER: Surface conditions on the Pacific side of the Cape were choppy early in the week and later on they quieted down a bit. Early in the mornings the water was rough up to the Cristobal area and then it smoothed out, later in the day the winds picked up a bit and it became choppy all the way up the line. As the week drew to a close things smoothed out and while there were still whitecaps, they were farther apart and pretty much confined to the current lines. Speaking of current lines, we had a fairly well defined break this week, all week long. It ran on both side of the Cape from five miles offshore from San Jose to Cabo on the Cortez side of the Cape and from just to the north of the Golden Gate to Cabo on the Pacific side. Inside the five-mile area and extending in a swath 10 miles wide from the tip of the Cape to at least 60 miles to the southwest the water was a very even 85 degrees. Outside this swath on the Pacific side the temperature dropped to 81-82 degrees and was quite a bit bluer and on the Cortez side it dropped to 83 degrees with about the same clarity.
BAIT: There was some Mackerel available this week but they were not lasting long in the bait tanks. Most of the boats were getting Caballito and both baits were the normal $2 per bait. There were Sardinas available as well at the normal $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: This week was a total repeat of last weeks report; things did not change at all on the billfish front. Late in the week there was a good bite on Blue and Striped Marlin at the Gorda Banks, there were tailing Stripers to be found on the 95 Spot and there were Sailfish 6 miles off of the Arch. Billfish were scattered all over the place but the bottom structure seemed to be the place to find them this week. While I did not go there myself, I heard reports of a very good Striped Marlin bite up at the Finger Bank early in the week with many boats getting double digit numbers of fish released. Our best lure color this week was Bleeding Mackerel for the Sailfish and Striped Marlin and Purple-Blue-Silver for the Blue and Black Marlin.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were no large Tuna reported this week but there were schools of footballs scattered from the Cabrilla Seamount on the Cortez side to the area just to the north of the Golden Gate Bank on the Pacific side. All these fish were associated with porpoise and were averaging 15 pounds. A few larger fish in the 50-pound class were caught but there were not many of them.
DORADO: Once again there were Dorado scattered just about everywhere but the best concentrations were on the Pacific side 3 miles off the beach inside the Golden Gate Bank and north of there. In the middle of the week there was a log and an uprooted tree found to the inside of the Bank, and they were about five miles from each other, right on the current-color-temp break. It was a bonanza on Dorado for the first few boats there every day and even with 15 boats working the debris fish were caught by everyone. Not until the area became a parking lot with over 30 boats in a half-mile area did the bite drop off, but it renewed every day. The fish ran in size from small 5 pounders (please let the babies go!) to nice fish in the 15-18 pound class. Almost everyone was able to get a few fish in the box but a few greedy boats reported keeping 30-40 fish each. With only four anglers on the boat and two crew, these guys were killing 5-6 times the legal limit. Live bait was the key to getting these fish to bite early ion the day and later on live bait fished off of downriggers or dropped on 6 ounces of lead hooked anglers up to the by then hook-shy fish.
WAHOO: We did not have a full moon this week so the bite on Wahoo was a bit off compared to what it had been, but still, boats that worked the 100 fathom and shallower areas just off the beach on the Pacific side, and the Gorda Banks area on the Cortez side were able to report some action on these speedsters. The best lures were swimming plugs such as Marauders and big Rapalla countdowns run close to the boat, mostly within the first three wakes. A few boats reported two fish out of three or four strikes and the fish averaged 25 pounds.
INSHORE: The inshore Roosterfish bite started up again with most of the fish in the small range at 5-10 pounds but almost everyone that targeted the Roosters were able to release at least one or two in the 30 pound class. Dorado were plentiful just a bit farther off the beach and an average catch consisted of four or five per Panga. Plenty of Bonita and Skipjack with a few football Yellowfin rounded out the inshore fishery.
Notes: I am getting older and the last few days have taken their toll on me. With tournament time coming up it’s not going to get any better. I have been watching the baseball playoffs every night and staying up until midnight really hurts, and I get up before 5 am every morning. Sigh, to be young again! For those who have not done so yet, please check out the web site linked below, it is for a good cause, our continued ability to call ourselves the “Marlin Capitol of the World”.
To take the survey, please click: http://www.southwickassociates.com/surveys/cabo_survey/Default.aspx?sicd=AJJMEI-73. The Billfish Foundation has hired Southwick Associates to administer the surveys. We sincerely appreciate your help in protecting Cabos unique fishery, and hope to see you fishing again in Los Cabos.
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