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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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Oct 8, 2007; 11:08AM - 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 1-7, 2007
WEATHER: Our temperatures continue to cool a bit as we start into October, normally we notice the first cool day on the 15th, but we don’t mind it starting a bit early. We have been very fortunate this year to experience a fairly cool summer. This week our daytime highs were in the high 80’s, occasionally touching the low 90’s and our nighttime lows were in the mid 70’s. A few cloudy days occurred during the middle of the week that threatened us with rain, but they dropped their water over the Sea of Cortez instead of on us.
WATER: As the weather has cooled off the water has warmed up. On the Cortez side of the Cape we have had temperatures as high as 90 degrees in some spots, but for the most part it has averaged 85-86 degrees and has been a deep blue color. On the Pacific side it has been cooler with most of the water in range of the fleets between 80-83 degrees with the cooler water farther north. Surface conditions at the end of the week were not great though as we had winds from the west-northwest develop Friday morning and it was like a sheep farm out there Friday and Saturday. The wind settled on Sunday but it was still choppy.
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: 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: At the end of the week there was a decent school of Yellowfin found at the Golden Gat Bank but you really took a pounding to get to them. Reports were the fish were averaging 20 pounds and most boats were able to get a dozen or more. Yellowfin were also found to the north side of the Cabrilla Seamount among porpoise and again, they averaged 20 pounds with a few larger fish to 50 pounds in the mix. For boats that were able to do multi-day trips up the Pacific side, the Ridge and Morgan Banks reportedly had fish in the 80 pound class holding deep, small Skipjack run on downriggers were the ticket for a few of the private boats that ventured that way and worked the fish.
DORADO: 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. As was usual, bright colored lures trolled at 9 knots and better brought in the first fish and live bait dropped behind the first fish caught managed to get quite a few anglers hooked into doubles or triples. Also as normal, anything found floating on the surface was worth working and at the end of the week there were a couple of logs found just to the outside of the 95 Spot that supplied a lot of action on fish averaging 25 pounds. On Wednesday there was a school of fish found just one mile off of the Arch and that kept boats busy for the day working fish in the 15-pound class.
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.
INSHORE: Inshore action remained slow for most of the week, at least for the traditional fish. There was a good bite for Dorado just off the beach, at least until Thursday morning, and then the wind really started to kick in. The remainder of the week the action shifted to the Cortez side and things became really slow with the exception of a good bite on Skipjack and a few Bonita.
Notes: I love baseball during the playoffs; it is fun watching the best of the best. My golf game is getting better but this is the time of year when I get busy on the water so I know that the golf is going to suffer. Oh well, the paycheck is worth it! I know that I have been running the following for the past three weeks, but if you have not yet had a chance, or have been reluctant to go to the attached web site, please take the time this week to fill in the survey, it’s important for our fisheries here. Thanks for your support, and until next week, tight lines!
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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Oct 1, 2007; 12:01PM - Gordo banks pangas San Jose Del Cabo
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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
September 30, 2007
Anglers –
Much the same story this past week, warm tropical weather, high humidity and through the first part of the week anglers enjoyed very comfortable offshore ocean conditions for the increasing crowds to take advantage of wide open dorado action, as well as a mix of other species. Water temperatures are now averaging close to 84 degrees throughout most of the region and supplies of live sardinas remained abundant off of the Puerto Los Cabos area. Over the weekend there was Tropical Storm Juliette that developed out west of the southern Baja peninsula and it did not seem to pose any problems for land as it is projected stay offshore and weaken as it enters cooler waters. There was some local rain squalls that moved in on Saturday night and into Sunday, this created some rougher seas, but still a handful charters headed out to see what they could find.
Dorado action seemed to be found in all directions, anywhere from one to 12 miles offshore, striking well on a variety of lures and the various available baits. Sizes ranging from 5 to 40 pounds, with many smaller fish being released. Most of the fish being landed were more in the 5 to 20 pound range. One of the more consistent places were the fishing grounds between La Fortuna and Iman Bank. It was common to see charters account for a dozen of more dorado in one outing. Yellowfin tuna action was more hit or miss, most boats averaged just one or two yellowfin per trip in the 12 to 15 pound class, but other anglers reported better success on the tuna, one problem was having to deal with all of the aggressive black skipjack were dominating the surface activity where the tuna had been more prevalent in recent weeks.
There was a mix of billfish found as well. Mainly blue marlin, sailfish and striped marlin. The best marlin action was for striped marlin around the corner on the Pacific, but there were also fair numbers being found off of Chileno and sailfish seemed to prefer the warmer waters in the direction of the Sea of Cortez. Also an occasional wahoo strike was reported, with a handful of 25 to 40 pound fish being accounted for, the fall season is typically when these largest members of the mackerel family become more active and scores of anglers arrive to specifically target this elusive highly sought after game fish.
Not much action reported off the bottom, though a few nice grouper were landed and a mix of pargo species. This in the same area of La Fortuna to Iman where there was surface action highlighting the activity.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita sent out approximately 82 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 blue marlin, 3 striped marlin, 9 sailfish, 2 wahoo, 8 grouper, 34 various pargo, 155 yellowfin tuna and 810 dorado.
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 1, 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
Sept. 24-30, 2007
WEATHER: It seems that every week this time of year offers something a little bit different. An example was that at the start of this week we were recovering from the anticipated effects of Hurricane (later Tropical Storm, and then Tropical Depression, Ivo) which ended up consisting of some good sized swells and cloud cover along with a light sprinkling of rain. The middle of the week was back to normal with sunshine and hot, high 90’s daytime temps and mid 80’s in the evenings. At the end of the week we were back to cloudy skies and sprinkling of rain, Sunday morning saw the rain starting at 2 am and there was a resulting drop in the temperature to a very comfortable mid 80 degrees.
WATER: The start of the week saw the remanents of Tropical Depression Ivo bring in the last of the large swells with 6 feet on the Pacific side and at all south-western exposures. The rest of the week had swells from the west and north-west at 3-5 feet with plenty of space between them. At the approach of the weekend the swells picked up once again as there was a area of convection move over us bring in the rain and a slight breeze, along with an increase in swells resulting from the formation of Tropical Storm Juliette well to the southwest of us. Water temperatures on the Sea of Cortez were 85-88 degrees and on the Pacific side of the Cape we had 81-85 degrees with no strong breaks. The water on the Pacific side, besides being just a little bit cooler, also had a slightly greener cast to them.
BAIT: This week we had plenty of Mackerel available as well as some Mullet at the normal $2 per bait and there were plenty of Sardinas available at the normal $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite continued this week but moved a bit farther to the north on the Pacific side, up pas the Golden Gate and toward the Finger Bank. Boats focusing on them were able to release as many as 6 fish per boat but it was a bit farther to run than last week. There were still fish found clioser to home though, and every boat out there had a chance to catch one. There were still Sailfish to be found and the bite improved on Blue and Black Marlin as well. I had a four day trip early in the week and we released a Striper on the first day, went one for three on Blue Marlin the second day (releasing one of about #200), one for two on Sailfish on day three and on the fourth and final day, two for two on Black Marlin, releasing one of about #180 at Estilladera and then tail-wrapping one and having it die, then boating it, weighing out at #265, at the Outer Gorda Banks.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Finally these fish are starting to show. There have been plenty of the football-sized fish out there and boats have had a lot of luck on the Pacific side around the San Jaime and inside the Golden Gate. These fish are associated with Porpoise, as is the norm. There have also been some nice school fish in the 40-100 pound range caught a little farther out in the same areas, but normally to the first few boat to get there. I also heard of some very nice fish in the #150-#200 class caught by Pangas working out of La Playita and fishing the Inman Banks area using live Skipjack as bait. Not red hot action, but consistent enough that there were boats fishing there every day, all day hoping to hook one of these nice fish up.
DORADO: Steady and consistent action was to be had on the Pacific side of the Cape this week on fish between 12 and 25 pounds with a few fish in the 50 range. From just off the beach to out at the Banks and farther, the larger fish seemed to be a bit farther out, the smaller fish closer to shore. Finding debris in the water was a sure bet with the wash-out from the rain dropped by Ivo. If the debris was large enough you could be sure of at least a fish or two and a few boats were able to find small schools concentrated under the floatsam, boating limits of two Dorado per angler (of course no one exceeded the limit, sigh)
WAHOO: Just like last week, there were scattered Wahoo again this week and they were mostly caught by boats working close to shore for the Dorado. The largest fish I heard of was 40 pounds and most of them were half that. These speedsters were not common but a few boats were flying two flags at a time. I imagine that if you had targeted these fish this week there might have been some decent action.
INSHORE: A repeat of last week. Inshore fishing remained slow for the traditional species this week as the number of Roosterfish was down and the Pargo just were not on the bite. Most of the Pangas were focusing on Dorado and did have fine action with them. Bottom action was slow as well with mostly small snapper and an occasional Amberjack and Grouper in the mix.
Notes: This weeks report was written to the blues, swing, jinking and jiving music of “We are Mighty Lester” on their 2007 self produced album. Check them out at www.mightylesterband.com, it will be worth your while. Meanwhile, efforts have been made before in Mexico to pass laws that would hurt Los Cabos fantastic fishing. While these efforts have all failed, we want to prevent future threats.. Can you please help us by taking a few minutes to complete a survey? The results will be used to help pass stronger conservation laws intended to improve fishing success rates and the Cabo fishing experience. All responses will be completely confidential.
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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Sep 24, 2007; 11:14AM - 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
Sept. 17-23, 2007
WEATHER: We once again were treated to normal summertime weather in Cabo, with our daytime highs in the mid to upper 90’s and nighttime low in the mid 80’s. Combine that with a fairly high humidity level and things were nice and sweaty most of the week. As the week drew to a close we were all watching the slowly approaching Hurricane Ivo, which then became Tropical Storm Ivo, den finally regressed into merely a Tropical Depression, much to our relief! Cloudy skies with a bit of rain are just what we need!
WATER: Surface conditions were great all week with the swells increasing just a bit to a possible six feet at the weekend due to the effects of Ivo. Water temperatures on the Cortez side of the Cape and around the Pacific side to the southern edge of Golden Gate Bank were a steady 84-85 degrees. At the end of the week there was a very defined temperature and color break on top of the Golden Gate. This temperature break started as an eddy of cold water off of the Cape mid-week and has been pushed to the north over the course of the past few days.
BAIT: Exactly the same as last week, the prevailing bait this week was Caballito at $2 per bait, Mullet at $2 per bait and Sardinas at $25 per scoop. A few boats were able to make their own Mackerel during their fishing trips and these seemed to be the bait preferred by the fish.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The story of the week, and possibly of the month, continues to be the unprecedented number of Striped Marlin being caught. While Cabo is known as the marlin capitol of the world for a good reason, having these numbers so close and at this time of year is simply amazing. Boats that wanted Striped Marlin only had to go to the Golden Gate Bank, and between the Bank and the shoreline this week to get into simply incredible action. Most of you who read my reports know that I am pretty even in reporting the action, right? Well, when I have clients that can go out and release 13 Stripes one day and 15 the next, and do it during a normal charter, then that’s something to shout about. These numbers were not abnormal either; a lot of boats were getting into that kind of action. Bait balls were everywhere and the Marlin were busting into them all over the place. Slow trolled live baits, drop-backs into the lure pattern when the lures were pulled at 9 knots and dropping live bait around the bait balls all worked extremely well on these concentrated fish. While the action on Striped Marlin was hot, the Blues have been slow to show, but we did have one boat that hooked up and landed one of about #250 and then hooked and fought for a few minutes another on of about #400. This action was at the 95 spot and was not typical. Most boats were not finding any Blues, and normally at this time of year we would be having reports of 60% of the fleet having a blue into the spread. A friend of mine caught a #565 pound Black on Friday while fishing around the Gorda Banks, the first large Black I have heard of so far this year.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We are finally beginning to see some Yellowfin action, and it is about time! There are still football fish to 20 pounds but the buzz this week was about the fish in the #80-#150 class that were found as close as 5 miles from the arch. These fish were associated with porpoise and they moved back and forth between the lighthouse and the San Jaime Banks for about four day in the middle of the week. First boats into them were usually able to hang one or two fish, the largest I heard of was #180 but I was also told by a credible source that there was one fish in the #250 caught. The fish moved on later in the week but it was a good introduction to what we can expect in the near future. Other fish were found on a consistent basis at the San Jaime Banks and they were in the 40-60 pound range and I did have one report of a boat going to the Cabrilla Seamount and finding some fish that size there was well. The best baits were live Mackerel but most of the boats had to resort to live Caballito. Mackerel seemed to out-fish the Caballito by about two to one.
DORADO: The Dorado action remained consistent this week and most of the action took place on the Pacific side. Just like last week the fish seemed to be concentrated close to the beach, within three miles out for the most part. Ranging in size from little slippers of 6 pounds to some very nice Bulls of #60, the average was #20. Bright lures and live bait were the best producers. The debris in the water that was north of the Golden Gate Bank last week and I found unproductive at the time has finally started to produce some nice fish as well. Boats venturing just to the north of the bank early in the week were getting some decent schooling fish under some of the larger debris, and what is nice is that the current line seems to be holding the stuff in the same area!
WAHOO: There were scattered Wahoo again this week and they were mostly caught by boats working close to shore for the Dorado. The largest fish I heard of was 40 pounds and most of them were half that. These speedsters were not common but a few boats were flying two flags at a time. I imagine that if you had targeted these fish this week there might have been some decent action.
INSHORE: Inshore fishing remained slow for the traditional species this week as the number of Roosterfish was down and the Pargo just were not on the bite. Most of the Pangas were focusing on Dorado and did have fine action with them. Bottom action was slow as well with mostly small snapper and an occasional Amberjack and Grouper in the mix.
Notes: I have a four-day trip starting Saturday and will have a bit of information next week about conditions and fishing up around the East Cape if you are interested in checking back then. I just hope the wind from the Tropical Depression stays away! Also, please take the time to check out the link below and fill out the survey, your help is needed.
Hello Cabo Anglers!
The Billfish Foundation is working to ensure the future of Cabo's amazing bill fishing. Efforts have been made before in Mexico to pass laws that would hurt Los Cabos fantastic fishing. While these efforts have all failed, we want to prevent future threats. Local charter companies have identified you as a Cabo angler. Can you please help us by taking a few minutes to complete a survey? The results will be used to help pass stronger conservation laws intended to improve fishing success rates and the Cabo fishing experience. All responses will be completely confidential.
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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Sep 17, 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
Sept. 10-16, 2007
WEATHER: We are back to summertime weather with our daytime highs in the mid to high 90’s. There was a report of low 100’s just to the north of us toward San Jose on Friday. Nights have been a bit cooler with the lows in the low 80’s, but with little wind toward the end of the week it seemed a lot warmer than that. We have had partially cloudy skies with no rain. Forecasts for the next week are a repeat of the same.
WATER: Surface conditions have been great, especially toward the end of the week with the winds light and variable. Swells have been from the west-southwest at 2-4 feet and the water has been a bit warmer than last week. We did have a plume of warm water run across the 95 spot at the end of the week with the temperature there at 85-86 degrees. On the Pacific side up past the Golden Gate Bank there was a defined temperature and color break. At 5 miles north of the bank the water became a deep blue and changed from 78 degrees to 82 degrees in the middle of the week. There was a lot of debris from the hurricane in the well-defined current line, but it was too new to hold and bait or fish. At the same time the water at the San Jaime Banks and toward the Cape was an off-color green but even at 76 degrees was holding fish on the contour lines. On the Cortez side of the Cape we had a warm, blue water plume that ran from the Cabrillo Seamount across the 1150 and onto the 95 spot. At the end of the week things had changed quite a bit and the warm water was closer to home with 83-84 degree water across all the banks both on the Pacific side and the Cortez side of the Cape. The water just off the arch to five miles to the east and 10 miles to the west was cooler at 80 degrees.
BAIT: Prevailing bait this week was Caballito at $2 per bait, Mullet at $2 per bait and Sardinas at $25 per scoop. A few boats were able to make their own Mackerel during their fishing trips and these seemed to be the bait preferred by the fish.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The week began with good fishing for Striped Marlin on the inside of the Golden Gate bank and then the bite slowly shifted to the south. At the end of the week there were still a few Stripers being found at the Gate but there were more fish to the south and east of the Cape, even though the water was more off-colored. A few boats released as many as 8 fish per trip working the area between the Cape and the 95 spot and there were scattered fish on the surface on the Pacific side around the Gate and within 4 miles of the beach. There were reports of some decent Blue Marlin being found as well. I heard a story of one Panga working off of the 95 spot that released two blues, one estimated at #250 and the other at #450 early in the week.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Football fish were still the order of the day for most of the boats, but finding them on a regular basis was a problem. To the north on the Cortez side of the Cape around the Punta Gorda area there were fish scattered around. Not associated with porpoise, they were found by trolling in the blind. Once one was hooked up the crew threw out live Sardinas to try and chum up the fish. The largest of these were reported at around 30 pounds. The good news is that on Friday there were some decent fish found on the west side of the San Jaime Banks at a distance of 30 miles from Cabo. The first boat to these fish caught 5 Yellowfin estimated between 45 and 60 pounds. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come!
DORADO: The Dorado bite was scattered again but the best results were had by boats working close to the beach on the Pacific side of the Cape. Most of the fish were in the 12-20 pound class with occasional fish to 40 pounds being reported. Hooking a fish on a trolled lure then drifting back live bait while keeping the hooked fish close to the boat resulted in some of the better catches. A good day this week was three or four Dorado while a great day was 6 fish. Most of the boats were happy to get two Dorado in the box. Things might improve over time as the debris to the north of the Golden Gate Ban works its way south.
WAHOO: I saw a few Wahoo in the 20-25 pound class come in this week and the new moon may have had a great deal to do with it. I also hear radio reports of larger fish being hooked up but biting through the mono leader being run on the Marlin lures. These Wahoo were reported from the various Banks, in the warm water areas.
INSHORE: The bite was still off after the dirty water from the hurricane. I was hoping that the Rooster fishing would pick back up but it remained slow this week. Most of the Pangas resorted to focusing on Dorado and Striped Marlin within 5 miles of shore.
Hello Cabo Anglers!
The Billfish Foundation is working to ensure the future of Cabo's amazing bill fishing. Efforts have been made before in Mexico to pass laws that would hurt Los Cabos fantastic fishing. While these efforts have all failed, we want to prevent future threats. Local charter companies have identified you as a Cabo angler. Can you please help us by taking a few minutes to complete a survey? The results will be used to help pass stronger conservation laws intended to improve fishing success rates and the Cabo fishing experience. All responses will be completely confidential.
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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Sep 10, 2007; 11:40AM - 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
August 27-Sept. 09, 2007
NOTES This report will start out with the note section as I need to apologize up front to all those of you who read my report on a weekly basis. With Hurricane Henrietta coming and the preparations needed last week as well as the beginning of football season I was in a bit of a time bind. Now that the squeeze is over I have the time to get a report out to you. What follows is mostly an update on present conditions, what was in the past remains in the past and unless you were here it will have no bearing on your fishing decisions in the future. By the way, this week’s music is an eclectic mix from a CD lent to me by my golf buddy Roy Johnson, we have had Patty Cline, Neil Diamond, Neil Young and Merle Haggard coming through the speakers this morning! Thanks Roy!
WEATHER: As I mentioned in the Note section above, we had to deal with Hurricane Henrietta this past week. She came through on Tuesday with winds gusting to 85 mph, not too bad, and she dropped about 5 inches of rain on us. Once again, not a bad amount and it was scattered over two days, that allowed a lot of it to soak into the ground and limited the damage to the roads from runoff. Prior to the Hurricane we had winds from the northwest at an average of 8 knots, not quite enough to put a chop on the water but after Henrietta the winds were light and variable. We had winds from the southeast on Sunday morning but earlier in the week they were mostly from the northwest. Our temperatures have been great with the daytime highs in the mid 90’s and nighttime lows in the low 80’s. The humidity was high after the hurricane and in the early mornings but for the rest of the time it was not bad at all.
WATER: We just had a hurricane so what can I say? Prior to the hurricane we had swells from the west at 2-4 feet, during the hurricane they were 10-12 feet from the south, after the hurricane they were 4-8 from the southeast and then they shifted back to normal at 2-4 from the northwest. The water temperatures were more affected by the storm that the surface conditions over the long run. Where before the hurricane we had surface temps in the low 80’s at the Golden Gate Banks on the Pacific side, after the storm went through the temps dropped to 76 degrees. This was pretty much the pattern across the board. Up at the Gorda Banks we had water temps in the mid 80’s prior to the storm and afterwards we were seeing 80 degrees. The water clarity changed just a bit and the biggest change was the amount of debris in the water. There was quite a large amount of small trash washed out to sea and it littered the water close to shore.
BAIT: Prior to the hurricane bait was no problem, immediately after the storm there was no bait available but things have improved over the last few days. There are Caballito and some Mackerel at the normal $2 per bait and there were some Sardinas as well in the last few days at the normal $25 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The two days before Hurricane Henrietta struck us the Striped Marlin bite was wide open. The last time I saw the bite this good was two years ago when the Finger Bank was going off. The day before the Hurricane we fished the area three miles off the beach just to the inside of Golden Gate Banks. Over the three days prior the bait had moved off the bank toward land and the Marlin followed them. With three anglers aboard we were able to release 10 Striped Marlin to 160 pounds and one Blue Marlin of #200 in just about four hours. There were bait balls everywhere and the birds were working them hard. While hooked up on a double with one angler at the bow and another in the cockpit I watched as a group of a dozen Stripers fed on a ball of bait within 50 feet of the boat and several of the group chased the baits under the boat as I watched from the tower. Great stuff! After the hurricane it appeared that things dropped off a bit as the conditions had changed but the fish were still in the area. A few boats were coming in flying 8 flags and a lot more were stringing up four flags from the outriggers. It appears that the fish are still in the same area but the increased swells from the hurricane broke up the bait concentrations a bit and it was a bit harder to find the concentrations of bait. A good depth sounder helped a lot. Another technique that had good results was trolling a slightly higher than normal speed with the lures, 9.5 knots instead of the usual 7.5-8 knots. For some reason that seemed to kick the Marlins appetite into gear and they would bite on the plastic at that speed instead of ignoring it.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were still football fish to be found before and after the storm and we did well on the fish from 8-12 pounds on the east side of the San Jaime and the south side of the Golden Gate prior to the weather hitting us. These fish were not associated with Porpoise; they were schooled in the open and were moving around fast. After the storm they were still in the same areas and dark colored feathers worked well on them but red was the color of choice as red was out-bit by a factor of 5-3 over other colors.
DORADO: Once again the Dorado bite was consistent and with the amount of debris in the water it will likely improve as far as finding concentrations of fish. Stray couples in the 40-50 pound class were found both before and after the storm, but there were concentrations of small fish in the 8-pound class found under the small debris after the storm. This means that we should be seeing quite a few fish in the perfect 12-20 pound class within the next 90 days and our fingers are crossed for that to happen.
WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo this week, but there were probably a few caught, the water and moon were right for them.
INSHORE: No inshore fishing due to rough and dirty water caused by the storm this week, but the Roosterfish should really be stirred up within the next week.
An email I received this week, another way to help let the government know.
Hello Cabo Anglers!
The Billfish Foundation is working to ensure the future of Cabo's amazing billfishing. Efforts have been made before in Mexico to pass laws that would hurt Los Cabos fantastic fishing. While these efforts have all failed, we want to prevent future threats. Local charter companies have identified you as a Cabo angler. Can you please help us by taking a few minutes to complete a survey? The results will be used to help pass stronger conservation laws intended to improve fishing success rates and the Cabo fishing experience. All responses will be completely confidential.
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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Aug 27, 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
August 20-26, 2007
WEATHER: Everyone was surprised this week as our weather was more reminiscent of May than of August. Our daytime highs were in the mid 80’s and our nighttime lows were in the low 70’s, really very nice. Part of that was due to the cloud cover we have had this week as we had a couple of small systems pass to the north bringing rain to the mountains and cloud cover to us. At the end of the week we had the experience repeated as the remnants of Hurricane Dean again passed to the north of us bringing two days of cloudy skies and cool breezes. We had a slight spattering of rain, more of a slight sprinkle than anything else, here in Cabo but it came down pretty heavily in the mountains and I was told that it rained hard in La Paz as well.
WATER: We had a couple of days with large swells from the southwest early in the week and then they shifted and came from the west. The winds remained out of the northwest for the most part and this put a chop on the water on the Pacific side of the Cape. On the Cortez side the surface conditions remained fairly nice with water close to home being smooth and calm. Surface temperatures remained warmer on the Cortez side of the Cape with water inside the 1,000-fathom line being between 79 and 82 degrees. On the Pacific side the water was cooler with closer to shore at 74-75 degrees and out around the Golden Gate Bank being right at 80 degrees.
BAIT: There was no problem getting bait this week with plenty of Mackerel, Caballito, Mullet and Sardinas. The bigger baits were the normal $2 per bait while the Sardinas were $25 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I had an exciting day on the water this week when we went up the Pacific side to find the Striped Marlin that had been close to the coast. I went past the Golden Gate Bank on the inside, cruising along looking for signs of fish. I finally found a mass of bait on the surface being worked by birds but it was a giant school of Sardinas and the only fish feeding on them were small Skipjacks, not what we were looking for. We turned to the southwest and as we approached the Gate I could see plenty of boats there on Radar. We arrived at noon and there wee boats hooking up all over the place and there were solid bait marks at 200 feet, large schools of Mackerel on the scope. We had a couple of bites while slow trolling bait but I was waiting for the fleet boats to leave so we could work the feeders that were popping up now and then. At 2 pm there were only a couple of us left and then things got interesting. Without all the boats there to chase them down, the Marlin would come up in packs and feed. The birds would pile up and there was even a finback whale feeding there! We would pull up to the action and drop back a live bait and ten seconds later the line would come tight on a Marlin. We released two Stripers fairly quickly and then had a long fight with a small Blue Marlin of about 200 pounds. Our angler was tired after that and we headed in, but if we had stayed I have no doubt that it could have been a double digit day. There were scattered fish caught in other areas on both the Cortez side and the Pacific, but for several days the Gate was the place to be.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Still scattered, there were reports of some fish in the 25 pound class being found out toward the Cabrilla Seamount on the Cortez side and fish a slight bit smaller at the south end of the San Jaime Banks. A few boats did wide sweeps far offshore in both directions and found fish, but nothing to make a long trip worth it. The fish that were found were biting on cedar plugs and small hootchies, the smaller fish were eating the hootchies that were being jigged, and of course red was a favorite color for them (think squid).
DORADO: While not wide open, the Dorado action was consistent. Almost everyone was able to find a fish or two and most of the action was closer to the beach than you would think. As a matter of fact, there were probably more Dorado caught by the Pangas than by the cruisers, at least this week. The fish found offshore were larger on the average, but a bit scarcer.
WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo this week, but there were probably a few caught, the water and moon were right for them.
INSHORE: Just like last week and the week before. Good to excellent Roosterfish were available on the Pacific side between the arch and the lighthouse on fish between 5 and 25 pounds. The baitfish moved in close to the beach and brought the Roosters with them. Other inshore action was spotty as most of the Pangas were concentration on the “close to shore” pelagic fish.
NOTES: Great weather, good fishing, it’s been an allaround nice week to be here. I finally got a new roof on the house (2 layers of torch down) so I am ready for any rain that might come our way and not have to be putting pots and towels all over the house to catch the leaks. My Jeep is finally here and the new steering components should be in next week. Then it is time to get into the mountains and see all the flowers and green growth the rain brought us! As far as my music this week, I went back to the classics and my selection was the Fleetwood Mac album “Rumors”. Until next week, Tight Lines!
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Aug 20, 2007; 11:27AM - 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
August 13-19, 2007
WEATHER: Our week started our as a normal summer week and weekend up with a taste of our Hurricane season weather, only without the wind. Monday and the rest of the weekdays were just great with sunny skies and temperatures in the high 90’s during the daytime and in the low 80’s at night. On Saturday and Sunday we had the edge of a storm system come across us as the system came across from the mainland and turned up the Sea of Cortez. This system brought us cloudy skies and a scattering of rain on Saturday with a fairly decent rain on Saturday night. The wind shifted around from the northeast and the daytime temperature dropped to the high 80;s and nighttime lows went to the mid 70;s.
WATER: On the Sea of Cortez we had water temperatures in the high 80’s over most of the area. From San Jose and to the south there was almost a wall where the temperature changed from 85 to 83 degrees. This warm water pushed across the Cape toward the Pacific side on a small plume that extended 5 miles offshore and 5 miles into the Pacific. On the Pacific side the water was 80-82 degrees. Both sides of the cape had excellent surface conditions early in the week but over the weekend the Cortez side saw considerable chop and building swells due to the northeastern winds.
BAIT: There was no problem getting bait this week with plenty of Mackerel, Caballito, Mullet and Sardinas. The bigger baits were the normal $2 per bait while the Sardinas were $25 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: We are still seeing large numbers of Striped Marlin out on the water, very strange for this time of year, but at least they are there and they are biting. The major mass of fish has moved to the Pacific side of the Cape, just off the beach between the Lighthouse and the Golden Gate Bank. The bite has been an even mix between lures and live bait with most of the bait caught fish coming into the lure pattern and eating drop-backs. An average catch has been two Striped Marlin per day with a few boats scoring five or six. Also, there are finally some nice sized Blue and Black Marlin showing up. Most of these fish have been in the area of the various Banks and fairly evenly scattered.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again the Tuna bite dropped off, our great showing of football-sized fish came to a screeching halt with the change in the weather. There are still some fish out there, but not tin the numbers we were seeing last week. A few scattered schools of larger fish have been found on the Pacific side of the Cape outside the San Jaime Banks, but it has been a 40 mile run with not a great chance of success in finding them. If you did find them, larger cedar plugs and Striped Marlin sized lures in dark colors worked best.
DORADO: As the water warms up the Dorado action is one thing you can count on, and the water is just about perfect right now. Every boat I have seen come into the Marina has had at least one yellow flag flying, and a few that were in the right spot at the right time had both outriggers loaded with them. Most of the action on Dorado has been on the Pacific side of the Cape and close to shore. Fish in the 20-40 pound class have been eating bright colored lures, and the occasional larger fish has bitten on live bait dropped back after seeing Frigate birds working an area.
WAHOO: There were a few nice fish caught this week and hopefully next month things will improve. The fish I saw were in the 40-60 pound class and were found at the edge of the Pacific side banks, caught by boats working the edges for Marlin.
INSHORE: Just like last week. Good to excellent Roosterfish were available on the Pacific side between the arch and the lighthouse on fish between 5 and 25 pounds. The baitfish moved in close to the beach and brought the Roosters with them. Other inshore action was spotty as most of the Pangas were concentration on the “close to shore” pelagic fish.
NOTES: Keep an eye on the weather; this is the time of year when things can turn quickly. I love fishing in August and September, there are some of the biggest fish of the year here now and there is not as much pressure on them as there is in October. Until next week, tight lines! P.S., if you get a chance to listen to music by Miguel de Hoyos, take advantage of the opportunity, you won’t regret it!
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Aug 13, 2007; 02:16PM - 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
August 6-12, 2007
WEATHER: Summertime is definitely here as we had daytime highs in the mid to high 90’s and nighttime lows averaging in the mid to low 80’s. We did record a nighttime low of 74 degrees here at the house on Wednesday morning, but I attribute that to the fact that we had a storm come and cross over us from the mainland and it lowered temperatures across the board for at least one day. It also brought easterly winds on Wednesday and Thursday that mad for some fairly rough and choppy conditions out in front of town. There was quite a bit of rain in the mountains as a result of the storm but we did not receive anything more that a slight splatter here in town as a result.
WATER: Let’s start with surface conditions first. On the Pacific side we had swells from the northwest and winds at 10-15 knots up until Tuesday night. When the storm from the East moved through the swells remained the same but there was no chop on top of them. You had to be up the Pacific side past San Cristobal before you realized the difference, but it was definitely there. On the Cortez side of the cape we had very choppy and rough conditions starting on Wednesday, getting very rough on Thursday and tapering off in Friday, and back to normal by Saturday. Sea temperatures were averaging 82-86 degrees on the Cortez side of the Cape and between 77 and 81 degrees on the Pacific side of the Cape.
BAIT: There was no problem getting bait this week with plenty of Mackerel, Caballito, Mullet and Sardinas. The bigger baits were the normal $2 per bait while the Sardinas were $25 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Striped Marlin action continued to be pretty much wide open for the boats this week and it has me confused. Normally when the water get this warm the Stripers have all but disappeared and we are lucky to get into a decent Blue Marlin bite this early in the season, but it appears that everything is still a little bit late. Most of the Striped Marlin have been in the 90-110 pound class but there has been an occasional fish to 180 pounds. These fish have been close to shore on the Cortez side of the Cape and there was no problem at all getting their interest before the storm moved in even if you were trolling plastic lures. After the storm came thought, the fish seemed to spread out a bit and live bait worked better then plastics died. Most of the fish that came to boatside coughed up squid in the 8-12 inch range so lures in the red color range worked a lot better than other colors for almost every species targeted this week. There were also a few small Blue Marlin caught and released, we had out third of the season on my boat, a small fish of about 120 pounds. There were fish reported between 180 and 500 pounds though and the reports were scattered as to location.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: If you wanted football Yellowfin Tuna, this was the week to be here. Fish in the 6-12 pound class were found almost everywhere on the Cortez side early in the week and they were not associated with any porpoise schools, instead they were associated with structure. If you concentrated on the 300-foot curve along the Cortez side you were guaranteed to get bit on theses fish. The vest results were to be had on feathers in dark colors and trolled in the 7-knot range. Some boats reported catches in the 20-30 fish numbers. An occasional fish went 15 pounds but these were the exception. As the week went on the bite moves across the Cape and at the end of the week most of the action occurred between the arch and the lighthouse.
DORADO: The Dorado action continued to improve as the water warmed and the fish have been a bit larger on average as well. We caught a couple of fish this week that were over #40 and it seemed that every other boat returning to the marina had at least one yellow flag flying.
WAHOO: Just rumors again, I think it is a moon phase thing.
INSHORE: Good to excellent Roosterfish were available on the Pacific side between the arch and the lighthouse on fish between 5 and 25 pounds. The baitfish moved in close to the beach and brought the Roosters with them. Other inshore action was spotty as most of the Pangas were concentration on the “close to shore” pelagic fish.
NOTES: For the third time in 8 years I got to see Orcas here in Cabo. On Wednesday morning we left the Marina and spotted a small pod of 8 Orcas just inside off of Lovers Beach. We followed them for 30 minutes as the crossed in front of the arch and continued to the west on the Pacific side. I managed to get one good picture of the big male in the group, there was also a female it a calf. Needless to say, that made out trip! On everything else related to fishing, the reports above tell the story. Go Seahawks!
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Aug 6, 2007; 06:43PM - Gordo Banks Pangas
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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
August 5, 2007
Anglers –
There were no new tropical storm systems on the horizon at this time and light crowds of tourists were enjoying very pleasant summer time conditions, lots of sunshine with some scattered clouds and light breezes picking up in the afternoon. Ocean water temperatures have warmed up into the lower 80s and for the next couple of months we will need to monitor weather reports closely, as this is the time when hurricanes historically can develop in a hurry, hard to predict more than a few days ahead of time.
Live sardinas were again plentiful off of the Puerto Los Cabos jetties and on the offshore fishing grounds there were bolito and flying fish. Sportfishing fleets have been fishing in all different directions, but the most consistent action recently was found from Chileno to San Luis. With the warmer clean blue water there were much better counts of dorado reported this past week, striking on trolled lures and all types of baitfish. Charters were accounting for one, two, three or even four nice sized dorado per trip, many of them weighing 30 to 50 pounds. Yellowfin tuna were still scarce, but there were more reports of them being found, blind strikes while trolling lures closer to shore, on fish ranging in size from 5 to 50 pounds, also some tuna mixed with porpoise further offshore, including some yellowfin in the 100 to 200 pound class that were seen feeding off of the La Fortuna area early in the week, but disappeared as quickly as they had come up.
Striped marlin continued to dominate the billfish action, being found as close to one mile from shore, striking the normal array of lures and baits, ranging from 60 to 150 pounds, surprising to see so many stripers hanging around this far into the summer, typically most of them have migrated north by this time. This week also had several reports of larger black and blue marlin hook ups, in the vicinity of the Gordo Banks and north to Vinorama. On Friday skipper Jesus Pino of Gordo Banks Pangas hooked into a monster black marlin estimated to weigh over 600 pounds while trolling a bolito on the Inner Gordo Bank, the battle lasted over one hour before the fish broke the light 80 pound leader. Several blue marlin to over 300 pounds were also lost when hooked up on too light of tackle. There were sailfish moving into the area as well, attracted by the warm currents and abundant baitfish supply.
Nor much to report close in along the beaches, except some hog sized jack crevalle. There were some nice huachinango being accounted for off the rock piles while using yo-yo jigs and bait off of the bottom, also a handful of cabrilla and amberjack.
Surf fishermen reported the seasons first action off of the San Jose Estuary for snook, as at least several fish up to 30 pounds were reportedly landed while fishing in the area between the southern Puerto Los Cabos jetty and Hotel Presidente.
The marina construction continues, with the main emphasis now being on dredge work in the channel itself and the extension of the channel’s southern rock entrance which engineers say needs to be extended close to one hundred more yards in order to block the southern swells from entered directly into the marina.
The La Playita panga fleets sent out approximately 58 panga charters for the week and anglers accounted for a fish count of: 19 striped marlin, 4 sailfish, 77 dorado, 22 yellowfin tuna, 9 amberjack, 16 cabrilla, 46 huachinango, 32 yellowtail snapper, 12 jack crevalle, 5 hammerhead shark and 25 triggerfish.
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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