 |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
| Around 10% of the world's total fish species can be found just within the Great Barrier Reef. |
|
|
|
| Starfish can re-grow their arms. In fact, a single arm can regenerate a whole body. |
|
|
|
| Starfish do not have blood. Their blood is actually filtered sea water. |
|
|
|
| Starfish don't have brains. Special cells on their skin gather information about their surroundings |
|
|
|
| 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. |
|
|
| In three decades, the world's oceans will contain more discarded plastic than fish when measured by weight, researchers say. |
| |
|
|
| 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. |
|
|
|
| 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. |
|
|
| 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. |
|
|
| A bit of Humor |
| My brother has 2 German Shepherds named Rolex and Timex. You guessed it they are Watch Dogs. |
|
|
|
|
|
From Jan 01, 1999 To Sep 21, 2025
|
May 14, 2007; 11:53AM - Cabo Bite Report
|
|
Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
|
|
Author Name: George Landrum
|
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
April 30-May 13, 2007
WEATHER: It’s getting warmer! I have been thinking about getting the air conditioning unit in my bedroom cleaned so it is ready to go. Our daytime highs are getting into the 90’s while the nighttime lows are in the mid 70’s. The humidity hasn’t climbed up there yet so it’s bearable, but the heat should be hitting us soon. This past two weeks has given us partly cloudy skies at the beginning of the month and clearing skies during the past week. No rain of course, and we are back to the prevailing northwesterly winds that start to kick in mid-morning.
WATER: Water temperatures on both sides of the Cape continued to climb these past two weeks. As of the end of this week we were seeing water temperatures on the Cortez side as high as an occasional 81 degrees close to shore and up around the Vinorama, Los Frailles and East Cape areas. A little farther off shore there were consistent 78-degree areas. On the Pacific side the water was warming up as well but didn’t get much higher than 72 degrees. It was also a bit more off color on the Pacific with water close to shore being very green and outside 5 miles from the beach being a blue-green color. It looks as if the warm Cortez water is starting to push over into the Pacific and that could mean good things in the coming week.
BAIT: Almost the only baits available over the past two weeks were smaller Mackerel at the normal $2 per bait. The bait boats were saying the Humboldt Squid have moved in and have made getting bait locally difficult. Most of the bait they have been selling has come from the bait receiver out front, and they are getting low as well. There have been Sardinas available from a few Pangas at the normal $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Almost the only action on Striped Marlin for the past two weeks has been in the area from Inman Banks to the Red Hill area. Early in this time frame the bite was really going off on the Outer Gorda Bank in the afternoon, but things have calmed down quite a bit since then. There have been quite a few fish found still, but they have spread out and are now being seen closer to shore between San Jose and Chileno, out to about 5 miles. Most of the Marlin at the outer Gorda Banks was caught while either drifting along the submerged bait balls with rigged live baits at 100 to 150 feet, or slow trolling rigged dead baits in the same area. Fish that were outside the D’estilledera area at the end of last month moved to the Gorda following the bait balls, but there were still nice big piles of bait up in the shallows off of Punta Gorda in 200-250 feet of water. Most of these Striped Marlin were in the 100-pound class with a few fish found pushing 150 pounds. There were reports of Blue Marlin bites up off of Los Frailles in the warm water but no reports of large fish yet.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: What can I say? I overheard one conversation on the radio this week where one captain was talking to another and mentioned getting into some decent Tuna, but there was no information as to when or where. Other than that, I didn’t hear of any action on the Tuna. Hopefully some of them will show up soon!
DORADO: A Friend of mine caught a couple of Dorado this week, one about 50 pounds and the other about 40 pounds up off of Cabo Pulmo. In our area the fish have been considerably smaller. Yesterday I caught on that might have pushed 10 pounds and it was caught on live bait on the inner Gorda Bank. There have been a few Pangas coming in that got into Dorado very close to shore, but again these have been small fish in the 8-10 pound class. These Dorado were caught in very shallow water while slow trolling live bait for Sierra and Roosterfish.
WAHOO: My same friend who got the two nice Dorado this week also managed to get two nice Wahoo in the same area. One of them was reported as being about 40 pounds and the other about 50 pounds. Other boats have found an occasional fish in the past two weeks but there has been on consistency to the catch, almost all of the fish have been incidental catch.
INSHORE: The inshore water has warmed up along with the offshore water so the Yellowtail bite we had going on last month really tapered off. A few fish are still being caught off of the arch but it really takes commitment to get one, as things are not hot and heavy and the Sea Lions make getting a fish that is hooked up almost impossible to get to the boat. The Sierra bite is still on, but not the numbers we were seeing earlier in the year. A 10 fish trip is still a happening thing, but 20 fish per trip is pretty much over for most of the boats. Bottom fishing is a bit better as there have been more Grouper and Snapper caught than in the previous month. There are also some pretty steady Roosterfish days. These great fighting fish are not large with the average weight being 10 pounds, but when the bite is on it has not been uncommon to have a 10 fish day.
NOTES: I apologize to everyone for missing the report last week. I came down with the flue and it was all I could do to keep working, let alone sit down and write. Things are better now though and I hope it remains that way, being sick sucks. On the note side of things there are two important issues that you need to be aware off. First off, if you need to get a fishing license, try and do it from the states before you come down. For some reason we are now required to go on-line to purchase licenses with a credit card, and there have been a lot of failures happening. Supposedly you can fill in the forms, print out a receipt and then print out your license, but as a few folks have found out, there are some bugs in the system. Paying for a yearly license, a friend printed out his receipt, then inserted the receipt number to print out his yearly license and instead had a yearly license for someone else printed, and it was not valid until November of this year. The good part of this is that they are not checking licenses until this issue is fixed. And by the way, it appears that our state was the only one in Mexico to have the fishing license fees raised at the beginning of the year, if you go on line the cost of a license is the same as it was last year. Hmm??? The other issue that you need to know about is the fact that the Mexican legislature passed the Shark Norma #029. This law allows the commercial fishing of sharks by long-line vessels within the Sea Of Cortez and on the Pacific. Striped Marlin and Dorado are a very significant by-catch of this method of fishing and in many peoples opinion since the value of the by-catch exceeds the value of the targeted species, this law is only a roundabout way for the commercial interests to get into a new market. You can imagine what sustained long lining will do to the “Marlin Capitol of the World” in a few years. Short sightedness on the part of the government and deep pockets of the commercial industry will end up killing sport fishing here unless the government changes its mind. That is not going to happen without a public outcry and if you want to make your voice heard, please contact either Minerva Smith at the Minerva Fleet or Tracy Ehernberg at the Pisces Fleet for information on what you can do to assist in opening the ears of the Mexican government. Until next week, Tight Lines!
|
|
|
May 13, 2007; 05:38PM - Gordo Banks Pangas San Jose Del Cabo
|
|
Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
|
|
Author Name: Eric Brictson
|
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
May 13, 2007
Anglers –
Tourists visiting the Los Cabos area are experiencing paradise like weather conditions, clear sunny skies with high temperatures in the upper 80s. Crowds of people traveling to this Southern Baja resort have been lighter than normal for the month of May. For the past month local water temperatures have been fluctuating greatly, this past week the water is on a warming trend, particularly in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, through the region the water temperature is now ranging from the upper 60s on the lower Pacific to around 75 degrees in the vicinity of the Gordo Banks and up to 78 degrees off of the Los Frailes area.
Offshore action continued to be dominated by striped marlin, very few reports of dorado or yellowfin tuna. Mid week anglers encountered excellent action for striped marlin around the Gordo Banks, striped marlin could be seen feeding on the surface on balled up schools of mackerel. They were found in close proximity to shore, from 3 to 8 miles from shore, striking best on live bait, methods included slow trolling on the surface, casting to tailing or feeding fish, drift fishing bait down deep and others were striking on lures, average marlin caught weighed 100 to 150 pounds and many charters targeting billfish accounted for multiple catches per day. By the weekend this action had dispersed, as the baitfish moved and the fleet was once again scattered in search of the best action.
For the panga fleets the most consistent action continued to be in shallow water of 50 feet or less for a mix of snapper (pargo) species, sierra, jack crevalle, cabrilla and others. Most of these fish weighed less than ten pounds, but there were some exceptions, including one dogtooth snapper that weighed 45 pounds and cabrilla up to 15 pounds. This action was exclusively on bait, mainly sardinas, which were plentiful off of the La Playita area, there are now more schools of mullet moving into inshore waters, which have attracted more roosterfish and jack crevalle along the shoreline.
The Puerto Los Cabos marina project is now in the final stages, everyone is anxious to finally have this project finished. This past week the project has been stalled out due to protests by Green Peace, which has been camped out in the midst of the construction zone, blocking access roads for the heavy equipment. Hard to say what this group is trying to accomplish, it appears that it is much to late to try and halt the project, perhaps they are just trying to increase public awareness and gain media exposure.
The La Playita panga fleet sent out approximately 49 charters for the week and anglers produced a fish count of: 13 striped marlin, 5 dorado, 184 sierra, 13 pompano, 7 amberjack, 3 dogtooth snapper, 244 yellow snapper, 22 huachinango, 4 sheephead, 122 triggerfish, 16 cabrilla, 8 roosterfish and 42 surgeon fish.
Good Fishing, Eric
|
|
|
May 7, 2007; 02:55PM - Gordo Banks Pangas
|
|
Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
|
|
Author Name: Eric Brictson
|
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
May 6, 2007
Anglers –
Weather forecasters were having some difficulty predicting exactly what the wind would do, they were calling for mostly sunny skies with scattered clouds throughout the week and got that part correct, but the wind which they were calling for as being very slight, did pick up out of the north and at times made for choppy conditions offshore. It also switched from out of the south mid week and once again pushed in cooler water from the Pacific, but over the weekend water conditions were on the warming trend again. This seems to have been the same story for the past month, the water starts to clean and warm up and then we have set backs with cooler currents moving back in and scattering the fish in different directions. This past week there were great fluctuations of water temperatures, off of Cabo San Lucas there were areas that dipped down into the low 60s and further north off of the Gordo Banks to Vinorama region there were readings as high as 75 degrees. Conditions are more unstable at this time than they were during the same period last year, we do assume that within a couple of weeks the warming weather will help stabilize things and we will get back to our normal great all around springtime fishing.
With the more favorable water conditions now being in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, this is where the majority of the sportfishing fleets are now concentrating their efforts. Striped marlin remained the most common species found offshore, numbers were down this past week due to various factors, including the rapidly changing water temperatures and the full moon. In recent days fleets were traveling as far north as Los Frailes in search of action. Dorado numbers had increased last week, but once again were very limited. It was also the same story for yellowfin tuna, some fish were seen feeding around the Desteladera Bank, but they were not interested in biting on anything the anglers offered.
The local panga fleets continued to report excellent action on smaller gamefish close to shore and off of the rock piles. Various species of pargo (snapper), jacks, pompano, cabrilla, grouper, triggerfish, amberjack and sierra were the most common catches. Most of these fish were weighing in the 3 to 10 pound range, but several specimens up to 20 pounds were accounted for and at least one grouper of 65 pounds was reported. The areas close to shore off of Cardon and La Salina were particularly productive. A few larger roosterfish are now being reported, mainly single fish spotted chasing baitfish or sierra, we look for an increase in these popular gamefish towards the end of the month.
Whale sharks are now starting to appear on the local fishing grounds, particularly around the Gordo Banks, May and June is typically when these monstrous fish migrate through this area, feeding on the abundant pelagic red crabs and other crustaceans.
The combined panga fleets from La Playita sent out approximately 62 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 2 yellowfin tuna, 8 dorado, 496 various pargo, 36 cabrilla, 18 bonito, 188 sierra, 126 pompano, 8 golden jack, 144 triggerfish, 3 halibut and 15 amberjack.
Good fishing, Eric
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson
Owner/Operator
800 4081199
Los Cabos 1421147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
www.gordobanks.com
|
|
|
Apr 30, 2007; 10:52AM - Cabo Bite Report
|
|
Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
|
|
Author Name: George Landrum
|
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
April 23-29, 2007
WEATHER: Every week is a surprise this time of year. While things were just perfect on the weather front early in the week with nighttime lows in the low 70’s and daytime highs in the high 70’s in the middle of the week that changed. Starting about Thursday the wind here at the Cape picked up and cooled things down quite a bit. On Friday morning it was howling here at home and the thermometer showed 59 degrees. In the afternoon it rose to 78 degrees. Here on Sunday morning the wind finally died down and things have returned to normal. On course we still had mostly sunny skies all week and no rain!
WATER: Surface conditions on the Pacific side of the Cape were nice at the beginning of the week and very choppy at the end of the week due to the wind I mentioned above. Most of the fishing was done on the Cortez side of the Cape anyway due to the color of the water on the Pacific. For the most part the temperature was in the 64-68 degree range and very off color, with the water close to shore almost pea soup green. On the Cortez side of the Cape things were quite a bit better. The wind that was coming from the northwest had little effect on the water and from five miles past the arch, almost at the 95 spot and continuing eastward, the water to the north was warm, in the 71-74 degree range and most definitely cleaner.
BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito this week at the usual $2 each. Some of these Mackerel were small ones and it was nice to have a selection. There were also plenty of Sardinas this week at the normal $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Most of the Striped Marlin action moved a bit farther to the northeast as the cool, green water pushed the bait around. The best action occurred within five miles of the shoreline between Santa Maria beach and San Jose with cleaner, warmer water giving up better catches. Most of the fleet was able to get a hook into at least a couple of fish per trip and there were a lot of three and four fish days, as well as a few reported 10 fish released days. Plenty of fish were being spotted on the surface but they were not in a real feeding mood. Boats fish right along side each other could have totally different results, depending on the mood of the fish they were tossing bait at. Drop-back baits accounted for about half of the fish, about a quarter of the fish came on jig strikes and the other were caught on thrown live bait. Once again slow trolled dead baits were working very well; with the marlin full they seemed to be able to slurp down dead bait without having to work hard for it. The Marlin were averaging 110 pounds with a few larger fish in the 150-pound class.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I did see a few Yellowfin flags this week but I have no idea where the fish were found as I could not find anyone that had actually caught one! Hopefully this situation will change soon.
DORADO: A few scattered fish on the Cortez side of the Cape up around the Gorda Banks area were all I heard about.
WAHOO: As with the Yellowfin and the Dorado, there were a few Wahoo caught but I have no information on where or how. For some reason it is difficult to find anyone who actually caught these fish, I am just seeing a few flags flying, and on the Wahoo, some of these flags could be for Sierra.
INSHORE: There are still plenty of Yellowtail at the arch but the Sea Lions have been harvesting more of them than the anglers have been, plus those guys have been taking the live baits as well. Most of the guys have given up on the arch and have been working the rocky points on the Cortez side of the Cape for these tasty fish. Both live bait and using yo-yo jigs have worked. The Sierra action has continued, but not quite as wide open as a few weeks ago. The average catch now is about a dozen fish per trip along with scattered Jack Crevalle. There have been a lot of Mullet showing up in the Marina so it won’t be long before the larger Roosterfish start to show. Right now the average size on these guys is about 10 pounds with a few in the 30-pound range being caught every day. The big story around the Marina this week was a boat that brought in a 100 pound Cabrilla from just off of the arch. That is one old fish for sure.
NOTES: I am listening to Joe Cocker again this week, Jimmy got me hooked last week as I had not listened to the “Organic” album in a long time, it has to be one of his best ever, released in 1996 by Sony Music. Striped Marlin were the fish of the week, no doubt about it. I hope to get up to southern California in the next three weeks to pick up my Jeep and tow it down, do a little shopping while I am there. Depending on when I go and return, I may be missing a report, but I’ll let you know. Meanwhile, have a great time if you manage to get out on the water and remember, don’t kill your limit, limit your kill! Until next week, tight lines!
|
|
|
Apr 23, 2007; 11:02AM - Cabo Bite Report
|
|
Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
|
|
Author Name: George Landrum
|
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
April 16-22, 2007
WEATHER: Our perfect weather continued this week with our daytime highs in the high 80’s to low 90’s with scattered clouds and light winds. Our nighttime lows were in the mid to low 70’s, really perfect evenings for sitting out on the patio with friends. Of course we had no rain this week although we did feel the presence on Thursday, but those clouds ended up dropping their load up in the mountains, great for later in the year as it percolates into the aquifer.
WATER: Things can sure change quickly out on the ocean. We still had large swells on the Pacific side of the Cape, and if you went up past the Punta Gorda area you confronted some decent size stuff getting pushed down the Sea of Cortez. This meant that they met about six or so miles off shore between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose. Inside that5 range there was really nice water, outside there it could be pretty mixed up. According to reports and personnel observation, the water on the Pacific side =was cold and pretty green this week. The Cortez side had good water around the 1150 area and just to the inside of there; otherwise it was a bit off color.
BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito this week at the usual $2 each. Some of these Mackerel were small ones and it was nice to have a selection. There were also plenty of Sardinas this week at the normal $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Striped Marlin were the fish of the week but the action definitely dropped off. Water on the Pacific side became cooler and definitely off color. This pushed the fish south and at the end of the week we had fish showing up on the Cortez side of the Cape between the 95 spot and the 1150 area. The water here was blue and right at 73 degrees. The number of fish spotted tailing on the surface dropped dramatically and the better catches were only in the 3 fish range instead of the 15 fish range from last week. Live bait dropped back to fish that appeared in the lure pattern worked, and the better lure results came from the Guacamaya colors. We had good luck with dead bait rigged behind Islander lures in the shotgun position, often if a fish lost interest in a lure or live bait it would come back on the dead bait.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Well, like I said earlier, things sure can change quickly. The Pacific side bite at the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks ended as the cool green water moved in and the fish did not appear anywhere else. I hear rumors of a few fish being found 40 miles to the south, but after looking at the temperature and chlorophyll charts I thing that may be exactly that, rumors, or if the fish were really there it was a fluke. Anyway, Tuna were a non-event this week as far as I am aware.
DORADO: There were a few scattered Dorado caught this week. I know because I caught one of them on Saturday. The very few fish found were on the Cortez side within 5 miles of the beach, just on the edge of the off colored water.
WAHOO: Once again I heard of a few Wahoo caught this week, but have no information on who, what, when, where or how. Just full of good information, aren’t I?
INSHORE: The Sierra action continued but not as quite the hot pace as last week. There were plenty of fish to be found and most of them were in the 5-6 pound range and the best action was on the Cortez side and had by boats using Sardinas as bait. Bottom fishing was good with plenty of snapper and small grouper. We saw some local hand-line fishermen catch five fish in the 100-pound class; they must have been anchored right over the honeyhole! There was good action on Yellowtail off of the arch and off of the Gray-rock area. The better catches were made on live bait and the best boats were getting up to 8 fish in the 20-30 pound class per trip as well as a mix of Snapper and Sierra.
NOTES: All right, golf lessons will help. Enough already, all right? On the fishing scene, inshore action picked up this week and it was a good thing as at the end of the week offshore action deteriorated. With my fingers crossed I am hoping that the Tuna will show up in numbers soon. This weeks report was written to the music of Joe Cocker on his 1996 Sony release “Organic”. I hope the New Jersey boys, especially Jimmy, enjoy the sounds! Until next week, tight lines!
|
|
|
Apr 16, 2007; 11:51AM - Cabo Bite Report
|
|
Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
|
|
Author Name: George Landrum
|
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
April 9-15, 2007
WEATHER: We had great weather this week. Not too cold, not too warm, just right! Our nighttime lows were in the mid 60’s while the daytime highs were in the mid 80’s, we stay pretty evenly 20 degrees difference most of the time. A little cloud cover but only later in the week. No rain of course, but a little of that would be nice.
WATER: We really had some big swells this week, at least early on and until mid-week, things died down a bit at the end. There was no wind to speak of later in the week and it appeared that most of it was close to home; once you got a ways up on the Pacific side it just laid down. Our water temperature has been a bit cool right in front of town as we had a cold plume pushing from the Cape toward the south for most of the week, but by the weekend we were at 68-70 degrees everywhere within charter range.
BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito this week at the usual $2 each. I didn’t hear of any Sardinas available.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Marlin bite at the San Jaime Bank dropped off and the fish moved a bit. During the middle and early part of the week there was good action on the edge of the cold-water plume atop the 95 spot, a lot of boats were getting two to five Stripers a day there. On the Pacific side the bite moved up to the Golden Gate Bank, and there were rumors that the Finger Bank was starting to produce a lot of fish once again. Most of the action with the Striped Marlin was on bait, and at the Golden Gate it was on deep drifted live bait, elsewhere slow trolled dead bait got most of the attention.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Well, we still have not had a really strong appearance of school Tuna, but there has been some action on the San Jaime and the Golden Gate. Early in the week there were Tuna in the 60-100 pound range popping up at the Jaime, but the fish were spooky. A few boats got fish but more were seen than were hooked. Later in the week, around Thursday, there were nicer fish showing up at the Golden Gate. Once again they were appearing on the surface at infrequent intervals, but a few boats were able to catch some while using 50# flouro-carbon leader and live bait dropped deep. These same boats were loosing lots of rigs due to cut off’s from small Mako sharks and brief fights with Striped Marlin that wore through the leaders, but that was the way to get the Tuna to bite. Most of the fish were over #100 and I heard of a few in the #200 class but never saw one.
DORADO: I did not see a yellow flag flying from any outrigger this week, unless it was on a boat that had not gone out in a long while.
WAHOO:I heard of a few Wahoo caught this week, but have no information on who, what, when, where or how. Just full of good information, aren’t I?
INSHORE: Sierra fishing was wide open this week with later in the week being better. A couple of Pangas were coming in after five hours with 40 fish! Fishing for other species was slow, but with Sierra action like that, who cared?
NOTES: Almost no Whale action remains, there are still a lot of small Mako sharks around, I expect there to be some warming of the water soon and maybe a few more Tuna showing up. Meanwhile, I am almost regretting ever taking up the game of golf except for the fact that I get to enjoy some great scenery. Maybe some lessons would help? Until next week, tight lines!
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2007; 02:24PM - Gordo Banks Pangas San Jose Del Cabo
|
|
Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
|
|
Author Name: Eric
|
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
April 15, 2007
Anglers –
As the annual spring vacation period comes to an end the weather continues to be in transition period and actually a bit cooler than normal for this time of year. Daytime highs have been reaching close to 80 degrees and cool breezes from off the ocean have made it feel a bit wintry at times. The water temperatures have ranged from 68 to 71 degrees throughout most of the area, strong currents were changing water clarity rapidly, over the weekend the water was clearing and blue around the vicinity of the Gordo Banks. The unusually high swell of last week has resided and surf conditions are now light and back to normal for the month of April. Sportfishing fleets were finding scattered action from on the Pacific, around Jaime Banks and into to Sea of Cortez to Desteladera. There were good supplies of mackerel and sardinas available and the sardinas were of very healthy size.
Striped marlin was the most consistent fish found offshore, though the bite varied from day to day, Jaime Bank, Chileno 95 spot and the Desteladera Bank were some of the more productive areas. Trolling surface lures while looking for signs of billfish and having live baits ready to throw or drop back were the best techniques. Some days there were yellowfin tuna found further offshore, mainly traveling with porpoise, but at times just by blind strikes. Though the tuna action was not as consistent as was striped marlin. Dorado were even more scarce than were the tuna, as can be expected in the cooler water conditions, though a few single fish were accounted for, and they were in no particular area, from inshore to offshore.
The inshore action for pangas continued to be very good, the majority of the fish were not large (3 to 10 lb.), but they provided great sport on lighter tackle and fishing with live sardinas proved to be the best method of getting into the action. The most common inshore species recently were sierra, yellow snapper, pompano, barred pargo, cabrilla, jack crevalle and triggerfish. The best action was found in fifty feet of water or less while either drifting or slow trolling with sardinas. The majority of charters accounted for a variety of species and anywhere for 10 to 20 fish total.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita sent out approximately 56 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 3 striped marlin, 6 yellowfin tuna, 11 dorado, 39 bonito, 8 amberjack, 28 cabrilla, 9 grouper, 285 mixed pargo species, 152 sierra, 15 jack crevalle, 34 triggerfish and 88 pompano.
Good Fishing, Eric
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson
Owner/Operator
800 4081199
Los Cabos 1421147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
www.gordobanks.com
|
|
|
Apr 9, 2007; 12:04PM - Cabo Bite Report
|
|
Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
|
|
Author Name: George Landrum
|
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
April 2-8, 2007
WEATHER: Things can sure change quickly down here and this week was a perfect example of it. At the start of the week we were feeling as if summer had already arrived but by Wednesday evening the wind started to blow and the temperatures dropped. We have had nighttime lows in the low 60’s since then and daytime highs in the low to mid 80’s. The wind hasn’t really stopped except for early in the morning around first light, and then it picks up again. It has been blowing from the west at a fairly steady 15-20 mph with higher gusts.
WATER: We still had swells on the Pacific side large enough to bring surfers to our area, and now with the wind on top of that the Pacific side of the Cape looks like a sheep farm, or maybe that should be a sheep feedlot, everywhere you look it is white. With the wind from the west there is not really any way to get in calm water, the only really calm stuff is close to shore on the Cortez side of the Cape. The water on the Pacific side cooled off to around 68-69 degrees and there is an area just in front of the Cape that extends out to the 95 spot that has water as cold as 62-63 degrees. The warm water is up around Punta Gorda and out to the east past the Cabrilla Seamount, but with the wind like it is, it’s a tough go and return.
BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito this week at the usual $2 each. I didn’t hear of any Sardinas available.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The San Jaime and Golden Gate banks were still holding great amounts of Striped Marlin at the beginning of the week and the bite continued, even through the heavy winds. Almost all the boats that went early in the week were able to get hooked up to at least one or two and most boats did a bit better than that. The best result I heard of was a boat with 18 releases on the Golden Gate. Reportedly, the best results were on dead bait back in the shotgun position and drop-backs on fish raised to the lures. Many boats started drifting bait early in the week but later on the water was too bouncy and rough to fish in the trough so everyone switched to trolled lures or slow trolled live bait. I am not sure what this wind is going to do with the fish, but if it follows last years pattern it should push the fish to the Cortez side and we should start to have decent action closer to home, and hopefully in calmer waters. We sighted a few tailing Marlin at the end of the week less than a mile from shore off of the Cabo Real area so more may be showing soon. I heard of a Blue Marlin from up around the Punta Gorda area and there are Striped Marlin there as well, just not in the numbers we were finding on the Pacific banks.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The only Tuna I heard about or saw this week came from the San Jaime Banks. One of the fleet boats brought in a nice #80 fish on Saturday that they hooked on live bait. They said they had several more bites but the fish were lost due to the rough conditions.
DORADO: Repeat: No changes from last week as the lucky boats were catching one fish a day but they were good size, in the 30-40 pound class. There was no concentration of fish and they were scattered.
WAHOO: Repeat: I did not hear of any Wahoo this week.
INSHORE: Repeat: Even the inshore fishing was spotty this week. There were some Sierra, a few Yellowtail and a scattering of bottom fish, but no great catches to be had.
NOTES: Be careful what you hope for is a lesson I learned this week! I was hoping that the fishing would improve and it did, but the downside was the increase in the wind and the change in its direction. If the wind dies down things should be good once again. This weeks report was written to the music of the Jeff Healy band from the soundtrack of the movie “Roadhouse”. Until next week, tight lines!
|
|
|
Apr 2, 2007; 04:50PM - Gordo Banks Pangas San Jose Del Cabo
|
|
Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
|
|
Author Name: Eric
|
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
April 1, 2007
Anglers –
The official local spring break vacation has now started and vacationing tourists are also arriving in large numbers to the Los Cabos area. As the weather is steadily warming everybody is excited to get involved more in outdoor activities. This coming weekend is when local families traditionally pack up camping provisions and head for the beaches, though access to many of their favorite locations is now limited due to all of the development along the coastal stretches. This past week the weather was not as crazy and unpredictable as it was last week, there was none of the thick marine fog or heavy south winds to deal with, though the north wind did blow at an average of 10 to 15 miles per hour for most of the period. The water conditions are on an improving trend, clearing and averaging 68 to 71 degrees, as the days start to heat up we expect the water temperature to warm accordingly.
The fishing action was not quite as exciting this week for the San Jose del Cabo panga fleets, last week the red crabs attracted huachinango (red snapper) to the surface, but this week the action was more spread out. The most consistent bite was early morning action for yellow snapper close to shore off of Cardon while drifting with sardinas in about fifty feet of water, these fish were particularly aggressive the first couple hours in the mornings, tough fighters on light tackle, averaging 4 to 8 pounds. Mixed in the same area there were also some leopard grouper (cabrilla), barred pargo, flag cabrilla, sierra, roosterfish, surgeon fish and amberjack. On the rock piles a bit further from shore, in 100 to 150 feet of water anglers using yo-yo iron jigs reported mixed success for cabrilla, pargo and amberjack.
Very few dorado encountered in recent days, yellowfin tuna were scattered as well, with some action being found offshore traveling with schooling porpoise, not a consistent bite and the yellowfin that were encountered were mostly in the 10 to 20 pounds range. No tuna were reported closer to shore or on the Gordo Banks. A couple of 20 to 30 pound wahoo were caught off of Punta Gorda on trolled mackerel, but apparently this was just a case of being in the right place at the right time.
Early in the week there were concentrations of mackerel found around the Outer Gordo Bank and this attracted striped marlin, which were encountered feeding on the balled up baitfish. This activity vanished and the billfish action once again became spread out to areas of the Pacific and off of Chileno. With the coming full moon we expect this next week will also prove a bit more difficult for the striped marlin action.
Whales are still providing entertainment, though their numbers have diminished some. Several commercial shrimp trawlers have been in the area and if you were able to make the right connection there were some good deals on freshly caught shrimp available.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita sent out approximately 56 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 8 striped marlin, 3 mako shark, 11 dorado, 15 amberjack, 14 bonito, 33 cabrilla, 10 pompano, 8 surgeonfish, 14 roosterfish, 86 sierra, 2 wahoo and 295 pargo (various species).
Good Fishing, Eric
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson
Owner/Operator
800 4081199
Los Cabos 1421147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
www.gordobanks.com
|
|
|
Apr 2, 2007; 01:02PM - Cabo Bite Report
|
|
Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
|
|
Author Name: George Landrum
|
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
March 26 to April 1, 2007
WEATHER: This weeks weather was a great prelude to summer as the winds were light, the sun was out and our daytime temperatures were in the mid 80’s. Of course things are going to warm up, but what a great introduction! Nighttime lows were in the high 60’s and the light winds we had were mostly from the east and northeast, a bit unusual but welcome as it made water conditions on the Pacific very nice.
WATER: The Pacific side had a bit of a swell at the beginning of the week with some sets reaching 6 feet, but they were spread apart so it was not too bad. I was able to run to the San Jaime bank in the 58’ at 20 knots without pounding and after you got outside the current line it mellowed out. The Pacific side was 69-71 degrees with a band of warm water running from the coast out to the San Jaime Bank and it looked like a hook running from there to the south, tapering smaller as it bent to the southeast. To the west of this warm band the water averaged 68 degrees. On the Cortez side of the Cape things were warmer as the water from the Cape and up to the Punta Gorda area, and out to a distance of 30 miles was a fairly consistent 71 degrees. To the southeast of the Cape there was an area of cooler, greener water from the 95 Spot and extending south 30 miles and east-west 15 miles.
BAIT: We had a good mix of live bait available this week with Mullet, Caballito and Mackerel all readily available at the normal $2 per bait. There were very few Sardinas and they were $25 a scoop from a few boats up at San Jose.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There was no change in the location of the Striped Marlin from last week as they were still holding on the San Jaime Bank on the Pacific side and around the Punta Gorda and Gorda Banks area on the Cortez side. Most of the boats were fishing the San Jaime Bank as it was a shorter run to the fish and there were massive amounts of bait in the area. Trolling lures and drifting live baits both accounted for fish and often there were multiple hook-ups. Boats were averaging two to three Marlin per trip and some of them were decent size fish. I had one release this week on a Striped Marlin of about #180. It was surprising considering how much bait was in the area, but the fish were fairly aggressive when attacking the lures. There were a few Blue Marlin reported from the Punta Gorda area and I did hear of one Blue caught just on the inside of the San Jaime this week. There should be more Blues as well as a few Blacks showing up as the water warms.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Tuna fishing was slow this week but at least we were seeing some of them. At the San Jaime Bank fish from 50 to 80 pounds would pop up every now and then causing a lot of commotion, but no one as far as I heard had any luck getting them to bite. Guys were trying drifting live baits at 300 feet, chunking for them and yo-yoing as well with no luck. In the San Jose area there were smaller fish to 25 pounds reported but the only guys having any luck on them were the ones using Sardinas on #20 flouro-carbon leaders.
DORADO: No change from last week as the lucky boats were catching one fish a day but they were good size, in the 30-40 pound class. There was no concentration of fish and they were scattered.
WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo this week.
INSHORE: Even the inshore fishing was spotty this week. There was some Sierra, a few Yellowtail and a scattering of bottom fish, but no great catches to be had.
NOTES: This makes three weeks in a row with very little change in the fishing. Hopefully things pick up soon! The bright spot for the week was having the Striped Marlin bite turn on and the water being in great condition at the same time. Until next week, tight lines!
|
|
|
|
