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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 22, 2025
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Nov 27, 2006; 12:04PM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Nov. 20-26, 2006
WEATHER: Once again we have had perfect weather here in Cabo. Our daytime highs have been in the low 80’s and our lows in the evenings and early mornings have been in the mid 60’s. We have had only occasional clouds this week and the winds have been very light for the most part. We did have one day, the 21st, when the remnants of Tropical Depression Sergio brought strong southeastern winds and seas of 5-7 feet. On the 22nd the wind was gone and the seas had settled down.
WATER: Our water has remained blue and warm this past week and it looks like it may continue through this next week as well. Everywhere you might have gone within a 30-mile radius the water was a consistent 81-83 degrees. Once you got more than 40 miles to the north on the Pacific side it dropped a bit, down to the 78.5-degree range, but it remained blue. On both sides of the cape swells early in the week were between 3-7 feet as a result of Sergio, but as of the end of the week the swells had dropped to 2-4 feet. On Saturday the wind started to pick up again and by Sunday it was pretty bumpy on the Pacific side, also there was a cool water eddy that was about 78 degrees that moved into the area from the southeast on the Cortez side and lay about 15 miles offshore.
BAIT: Once again there was a pretty even mix of Caballito and Mackerel available at the usual $2 per bait. A lot of boats set out without buying any bait and instead, if they were headed to the Golden Gate Banks they caught their own Mackerel and Mackerel Scad there. I did not hear if there were ay Sardinas available this week.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: While the water temperature and color has remained great for Blue Marlin, there were very few of them caught this week. The billfish of the week was Striped Marlin, and they were there in good numbers if you were in the right place at the right time. The main concentration of Striped Marlin seemed to be at the Golden Gate Bank, probably there because of the large amount of bait in the area. Best results came from dropping live bait down to 100-150 feet, just above the massed Mackerel schools. Most boats were able to get two or three fish released a day while a few boats were able to get into double digits. By the weekend the bite had dropped off a bit, on Saturday there were 45 boats on the bank with the results being a bit disappointing, on Sunday there were only 15 boats and only one hookup in the morning, the bite did improve a bit later in the day with the best result being four fish for one of the boats sticking with it. Elsewhere, there were fish found off of the ledge at the lighthouse and while they were coming up and striking on lures, they were not being real aggressive. There were more Striped Marlin to be found within 2 miles of the coastline on the Pacific side and a few boats were catching and releasing between 2 and 6 fish a day up at the Finger Banks. I received four strikes Sunday at the San Jaime Bank for two releases but they were both small fish, one about 75 pounds and the other maybe 50 pounds. Most of the Striped Marlin caught this week were smaller than 100 pounds, but there were a few exceptions.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Yellowfin bite that had been happening at the Gorda Banks tapered off this week. There were still nice fish being caught, but not in the numbers or in the size categories that had been happening the past few weeks. Scattered pods of dolphin to the south of the Cape had produced fish in the 20-35 pound class for those boats willing to go 30 miles, and there were also the same size fish found to the south of the San Jaime Banks, again among the dolphin. Spreader bars and daisy chains produced the best results while a live mackerel dropped back after the first fish hooked up produced the larger fish, some to 50 pounds.
DORADO: Still the fish of the week! Best results came from the Pacific side with most of the action occurring 25 miles up the coast. Slow trolling live bait or trolling bright colored lures at 8 knots were the best way to induce these fish to strike and watching for following fish to drop a live bait to resulted in many double hook-ups. Most of these fish were in the 15-25 pound class. Farther to the north, the Finger Banks continued to produce good numbers of Dorado in the 30 pound class to boats slow trolling live bait, as well as getting some action on Striped Marlin. A good day on the Finger was between 4-12 fish.
WAHOO: I only saw a few Wahoo flags this week and heard of a few fish caught over the radio. There was no concentration of fish and those that were caught were incidental fish.
INSHORE: There was only scattered inshore action this week with a few early season Sierra, a decent Red Snapper bite and a few Grouper and Amberjack. Most of the Pangas were working off the beach for Dorado and a few of them had really outstanding trips! It’s nice when you can go out and catch a half-dozen Dorado, a few Red Snapper and have a Striped Marlin as well and be back in by noon!
NOTES: Great weather and good fishing, it doesn’t get much better than this! If things change the slow way they have been, we should see the fishing continue to improve for Striped Marlin and Tuna over the coming month with a chance of continued Dorado action. Until next week, Tight Lines!
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Nov 20, 2006; 11:46AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Nov. 13-19, 2006
WEATHER: With our daytime highs in the mid 80’s and the lows in the mid to low 60’s just about all I can say is that it is the perfect time of year! We have had only slight breezes this week and only two days with partly cloudy skies. We ended the week with no wind on Sunday, the morning temperature at 64 degrees and no clouds in the sky.
WATER: Tropical Storm Sergio brought some southern storm swells our way but they were not big ones, mostly 3-6 foot stuff. With a slight swell from the northwest and no wind on the water to speak of things were very nice on the surface regardless of where you went. On Sunday morning the water was like a mirror since there was no wind at all. Surface temperatures were an almost uniform 83-84 degrees within 40 miles of Cabo at the beginning of the week but they dropped by a degree or two at the end of the week. The water was a great blue color everywhere with very little green showing, where it did occur was close to the beach on the Pacific side.
BAIT: There was a pretty even mix of Caballito and Mackerel available this week at the usual $2 per bait. The Sardinas made themselves scarce and here in Cabo were very difficult to find. Up in San Jose they could be had for $20 a scoop instead of $20 a bucket, but there were a lot of boats that were happy just to get a handful.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There are still some Blue Marlin around, but as the water starts cooling down they are becoming a bit scarcer. I had reports of fish to #450 being caught and released (congratulations Lin!) as well as a number of fish in the #200 pound class, but no really large fish this week. Instead, there has been a resurgence of Striped Marlin. One of the best bets early in the week was the area of the Golden Gate Banks where boats were releasing one to five fish a day while drifting with live bait, some deep and some on the surface. There were also a few fish taken with this technique off of the ledge at the lighthouse. The Finger Bank area is beginning to take off, I reported last week that there was a decent bite in that area and it has improved a bit. The bite is still mainly in the afternoon and the fish are a bit scattered since there are not a lot of bait balls in the area, but slow trolling with either live or dead Mackerel has been a great technique. A lot of boats were stopping at the Golden Gate Bank on the way to the Finger Bank in order to make bait.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Inner and the Outer Gorda Banks continued to produce large Yellowfin Tuna to #150 this week, but the average size was #80. It was basically an early bite and either dropping a live Sardine, slow trolling a bridled Skipjack or catching and slow trolling a Chilwilie worked. A few boats were able to get two fish but most of the boats were good for either one big bite or one fish in the boat. The key was to downsize the leader and go with flouro-carbon. There was a fair bite on fish averaging #40 at 35 miles to the south of Cabo at the beginning of the week and these fish were found under Porpoise. I got into some fish in the 30-40 pound range south of the San Jaime on Friday and Saturday after being invited to the party by a friend of mine. He had spotted a couple of the long-range boats out of San Diego in the area; the Shogun was one of them. I did have one pass on a group of fish that resulted in one reel getting spooled and all the other lines going off but loosing all the fish. Must have been some decent fish out there but we were not able to get any of them to the boat. I heard of some good fish being found up at the Finger Banks while slow trolling live Skipjack, but apparently there was a problem keeping the Dorado away form the baits so few of them were caught.
DORADO: The focus for great Dorado action continued to be up the Pacific side at least 20 miles. There were decent fish found closer to home but the numbers and size of fish to the north were worth the run for most anglers. For those willing to pay the fuel premium to get to the Finger Bank area, the results from slow trolling live or dead bait was worth the expense. Of course there were a few boats that were not in the right place at the right time, but most of them were able to get between 6 to 20 fish a trip. What was nice was these fish were averaging between 30-40 pounds! Close to the beach at the 20-mile mark the action continued to be good with fish in the 15-30 pound class providing consistent action. Trolling lures at fairly high speeds got the first fish to hook up, and then dropping back a live bait fooled a few more into biting.
WAHOO: I only saw a few Wahoo flags this week and heard of a few fish caught over the radio. There was no concentration of fish and those that were caught were incidental fish.
INSHORE: There was a good Red Snapper bit inshore for a couple of days early in the week but then the fish moved on. Most of the Pangas have been moving a bit more offshore since we have had very good sea conditions this week. Their concentration has been on Dorado. For those that have been working just off of the beach there has been steady, but not fast, action on Skipjack, Bonita and a few scattered Sierra and small Roosterfish. The best action has been on live Sardinas when they could be found; otherwise hootchies in red were the way to go.
NOTES: The bite continues to improve as well as the weather. If everything keeps up at this pace then we will all be very happy in a few weeks! Happy Thanksgiving wherever you may be and have a safe and enjoyable time with your friend and family! Until next week, Tight Lines!
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Nov 13, 2006; 01:04PM - Gordo Banks Pangas San Jose Del Cabo
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric
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Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
November 12, 2006
Anglers –
Crowds of anglers continue to travel to the Los Cabos area and sportfishing fleets
are operating at near capacity levels. The weather is absolutely ideal now, highs in
the mid 80s, lows in the upper 60s, very little wind and calm ocean conditions. With
the exception of Thursday when a moderate swell kicked up from the distant Tropical
Depression Roy, the rest of the week saw little swell movement. Ocean water
temperatures gradually dropped a couple of degrees, now ranging from 80 to 82
degrees. The majority of charters were catching fish and overall there was an
impressive variety of gamefish accounted for, most common were yellowfin tuna,
dorado, wahoo, skipjack and billfish. Live bait has consisted of caballito and
sardinas and on the fishing grounds there were schools of small trolling sized
chihuil, bolito and skipjack that were proving to be
reliable options for anglers targeting larger fish.
The Gordo Banks were producing consistent catches of yellowfin tuna ranging from 30
to over 100 pounds and with a few over 200 pounds also accounted for. Bad news is
that commercial purse seiner activity has been noticed on the horizon and everyone
is hoping that they remain the legal distance offshore and do not clean out these
fishing grounds that have finally come to life after a long dry spell. The yellowfin
on the banks were striking on sardinas best, with dead bait being better than live,
fished in a chum line, as one would do with chunk bait. The average yellowfin in
recent days being landed from the Gordo Banks has been in the 60 to 100 pound range,
the numbers has not been huge, but the majority of the anglers targeting these
larger grade of tuna in recent days have returned with one or two of them in the
fish box. The bite for the medium sized yellowfin that are averaging 15 to 25
pounds and have been concentrated within one mile of shore from Red Hill to Punta
Gorda has become less productive, there still has been lots of fish seen feeding
and coming up on the chummed sardinas, the fish have been more line shy and harder
to entice. Maybe the latest full moon may have effected the way the fish are
feeding, this was an exceptionally bright moon, most likely the fish were feeding
more at night, making them less active in the morning and then they seemed to go
back on the bite later in the morning, at least this was the noticeable pattern
towards the later part of the week.
Dorado were scattered throughout the same areas where fleets were finding yellowfin
tuna, but not in any significant numbers, though some boats did land up to five of
them, ranging in sizes up to 25 pounds, live bait was best, though of course a few
were striking on medium sized trolled lures as well. Normal catches of dorado were
more like one fish for every couple of boats. Wahoo numbers were even less, though
early in the week anglers did find some good action on these speedsters near Iman
Bank, which means they are in the area. Trolling with Yo-Zuris, Rapalas, Marauders
and skirted lead heads all produced, once the schools were located, resulting in
many multiple strikes. Sizes of the wahoo landed ranged from 25 to 55 pounds. The
rest of the week produced very wahoo, but the backside of the full moon is never the
preferred time for wahoo, so we are anticipating more consistent action in the
coming weeks.
Billfish action for striped marlin was breaking wide open in areas on the Pacific,
as the migration of stripers is now returning in full force from their northerly
trek. Marlin were also found into the Sea of Cortez around the 95 and 1150 spots,
not as many as in the cooler Pacific waters, though sizes were larger, including
stripers up to 180 pounds. San Jose panga fleets reported quite a few sailfish mixed
in with the inshore yellowfin tuna action, sails were weighing in the 50 to 100
pound class and were striking on live sardinas.
Other catches included roosterfish, pargo, pompano, rainbow runner, amberjack,
sailfish, sierra and triggerfish. Though none of these species were numerous, with
the exception of triggerfish.
For the week the combined panga fleets out of La Playita sent out approximately 223
charters, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 7 striped marlin, 22 sailfish
(released), 5 roosterfish, 145 dorado, 495 yellowfin tuna, 18 wahoo, 25 pargo, 6
amberjack, 14 sierra, 8 pompano, 22 rainbow runner, 105 white skipjack and 140
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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Nov 13, 2006; 10:53AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Nov. 6-12, 2006
WEATHER: once again we had paradise type of weather with our night time lows in the high 60’s and our day time highs in the high 80’s to low 90’s with a fairly low humidity level. Almost every day was sunny with a few scattered clouds and light winds.
WATER: The Pacific side saw just a slight chop on water that ranged between 80 and 83 degrees. There was no really strongly defined temperature break, instead there was gradual variations with a plume of the cooler water coming in off of the west toward shore just to the north of the Golden Gate Bank. On the Cortez side of the Cape we had 81.5 to 83 degree water with no defined breaks as well. On both sides of Los Cabos there were slight swells at the beginning of the week and swells at 4-6 feet at the end of the week, most likely a result of a few areas of disturbed weather well to the southeast of us.
BAIT: Caballito and Mackerel were available at the usual $2 per bait and there were Sardinas at $20 a bucket, both at the mouth of the harbor and up off of Palmilla and La Playita.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I didn’t hear of any really large fish being caught this week, but the Striped Marlin bite has started to pick up a bit. As far as the Blue and Black Marlin are concerned there are still fish out there, but most of them were averaging between 200 and 250 pounds, with an occasional fish in the low 400’s. As I said, the Striped Marlin bite has picked up a bit with a lot of boats finding fish off of the Golden Gate Bank while deep dropping live Caballito and Mackerel. An average of one to two fish per boat for the boats willing to stick it out all day was the norm, but there were boats that tried for hours with no positive results. Many of these boats were able to get a billfish after leaving the area and putting lures in the water. As with most fishing, tide change seemed to make a major difference. A few boats have begun to make runs to the Finger Banks on a regular basis, hoping to be at the spot when the Striped Marlin move into the area in force. So far the bite has been good, but not as spectacular as we saw last year. The bite in the middle of the week was in the afternoon after the tide change and the half-dozen boats at the bank reported releasing between four and 10 fish in an afternoon as well as being attacked by large schools of Dorado.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were still some school and football fish to be found in the San Jose area, ion the Inman Banks and just off the beach at La Playita, to be specific. These fish were biting on Sardinas after being chummed to the boat. In other areas the key was to find the porpoise and hope you marked Tuna under them on the depth sounder. There was a nice pod of Porpoise off the arch about two miles in the middle of the week and a few boats were able to get hooked up to fish in the #100 range by dropping live Mackerel down to 100 feet in front of the moving school. Most of the boats coming into the Porpoise were just pulling lures or trying to drop bait back behind the boat on the surface, but the deep baits produced while the shallow ones did not.
DORADO: The Dorado continue to provide action for boats fishing the Pacific side of the Cape with most of the action continuing to be 20 miles up the coast. Smaller lure in bright colors as well as slow trolled live and dead bait worked well with many boats coming in with limits of two nice fish per client. A few boats were able to score extremely nice fish in the 30-40 pound class when they came across floating debris such and pieces of lumber and strands of Kelp, but most of the fish were associated with current lines. The bite has gotten better at the Finger Banks as schools of baitfish have started to move into the area. Most of these fish are in the 20-30 pound class. The Dorado bite on the Cortez side of the Cape has been sporadic with most of the fish found being close to the shore.
WAHOO: There were a couple of days at the beginning of the week when the Wahoo started to make a showing up in the San Jose area, but that bite shut off just as quickly as it started. Elsewhere, there have only been a few Wahoo found, and they have been incidental catches.
INSHORE: Once again we have seen a scattering of Sierra showing up inshore and the Red Snapper bite has started to pickup as well. There are a few Roosterfish still around but I have not heard of any large ones lately. Most of the Pangas that have been working inshore have done best while using live Sardinas as bait and have had very mixed bags with Sierra, Red Snapper, Triggerfish, an occasional Grouper and a few Amberjack being in the cooler at the end of the day.
NOTES: Things are looking up as the water cools and the weather gets better. We are hoping that the bite continues to improve and finally go wide open on the Striped Marlin and that the Tuna start to show up in force. It’s hard to predict what is going to happen so I just report on what has been. This weeks report was written to the music of the Stray Cats on their 1982 self-titled album from Arista Records. Until next week, Tight Lines!
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Nov 6, 2006; 09:44AM - 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
Oct. 30-Nov. 5, 2006
WEATHER: We had beautiful fall weather this week with our nighttime lows in the low 70’s and daytime highs in the mid 80’s with just a few light winds. No rainfall and only scattered clouds made for some excellent days. This was also the week of the full moon and this morning the moon was setting as the sun was rising.
WATER: Water on the Pacific side of the Cape was almost uniformly 81-83 degrees while on the Cortez side we saw mostly 83 degrees. There has been a fairly consistent temperature break on the Pacific side at 220 degrees out by the 1,000-fathom edge going from 82 degrees shore-side to 80 degrees to the west. Surface conditions have been very good with only slight swells and almost no chop.
BAIT: Caballito and Mackerel were available at the usual $2 per bait and there were Sardinas at $20 a bucket, both at the mouth of the harbor and up off of Palmilla and La Playita.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There were a few large fish, both Blue and Black Marlin found this week but I did not hear of any real big ones with the exception of a reported 1,000 pound Blue at the beginning of the week. This fish was reported to have been hung and weighed at the main dock but I have not seen a picture or heard any more information on that fish. Most of the Blues and Blacks that have been caught have been in the #200-#300 class. There was a decent bite on Striped Marlin at the end of the week at the Gorda Banks by boats soaking live bait while hoping for a large Tuna and there were scattered fish found off the edges of the banks and just within two miles of the shore on the Pacific side. A fair concentration of Mackerel on the Golden Gate Bank resulted in a large number of fleet boats soaking bait on the shallow spot with mixed results. A few boats came in with three of four flags flying and a few boats caught nothing.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Tuna tournament resulted in one fish of #318 pounds, one of #204 and two fish over #100 along with several fish between #46 and #100. There were not the numbers of fish found that we have had in recent years. There were quite a few nice fish in the 20-30 pound range found among Porpoise pods offshore along with a few of the larger #60-90 pound fish but all the larger ones came on live bait at the Gorda Bank.
DORADO: I thought the bite on Dorado was wide open up at the Finger Bank based on an incomplete mid-week but found out via radio conversations after making the run up that the bite had been in the area of the Bank around a dead Pilot Whale. You always have to check out anything floating if you are looking for Dorado and the boat that found the whale ended up with 15 fish in the 20-30 pound range and lost twice as many more. Other than floating debris for a few lucky boats, it was a matter of one or two fish per boat. At least close to home that is. Quite a few boats were making 30 mile runs up the Pacific side and while working just off the shoreline they were able to get into decent action on fish from 10-20 pounds with a few boats making catches of 10 or more fish.
WAHOO: Very surprisingly there were very few Wahoo caught even though this is a fall full moon and we expect there to be some nice fish out there. No Wahoo over #40 was weighed in during the Tuna tournament and I heard of very few being caught at all. Last minute update, talked to a friend last night and they started biting up around Gordo Banks yesterday.
INSHORE: Exactly the same as last week as far as inshore fishing is concerned. Slow fishing inshore with a few Dorado, Skipjack and Yellowfin, some early season Sierra and a scattering of misc. bottom species. The better inshore fishing has been reported up toward San Jose.
NOTES: There has been a good variety of fish but not any numbers of a particular species except for a few boats lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. As the water cools over the next few weeks we should start seeing more Tuna, Striped Marlin and inshore should start producing more Sierra. Our fingers are crossed that it doesn’t take too long! Until next week, Tight Lines!
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Nov 6, 2006; 01:13AM - Gordo Banks Pangas San Jose Del Cabo
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric
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Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
November 5, 2006
Anglers –
Anglers were arriving in Los Cabos by the hundreds and excitement was in the air
with anticipation of the mega dollar Western Outdoor News Jackpot Tuna Tournament.
The weather was close to perfect, paradise like, clear sunny skies with high
temperatures in the upper 80s. Ocean water temperatures ranged from 82 to 84
degrees, only slight swells, there was some wind further offshore to deal with, but
overall conditions would have to be considered to be ideal. Live bait consisted of
sardinas, caballito and some mullet. The fishing action was good enough to satisfy
most anglers, though more variety would be a bonus, as the main catch recently has
been yellowfin tuna, as the water temperatures drops we do expect more species to
become active. Fleets were now spreading out more than in previous weeks, action has
ranged from the Pacific and into the Sea of Cortez, anywhere within one mile of
shore to as far out as fifty miles.
San Jose panga fleets were concentrating their efforts around the Gordo Banks, close
to shore off of La Playita to Punta Gorda and north to the Iman Bank. The incredible
bite for yellowfin tuna that has gone on for over three weeks now and has been
within paddling distance of the beach, straight out front of La Playita, is now
finally starting to taper off, though good numbers of tuna are still being seen,
they are just more shy and not so eager to bite. Catches this week on these inshore
tuna varied from 3 or 4 fish per boat up to a dozen and average sizes were in the 15
to 25 pound range.
Further offshore the cruiser fleet was finding some larger yellowfin tuna traveling
with porpoise, but so far this bite was hit or miss, though at times did produce
several quality-sized tuna. The Outer Gordo Bank was perhaps the most consistent
area to produce larger yellowfin tuna this past week, though the numbers of fish
landed was not huge, there were some world class specimens accounted for. On Monday,
Oct. 30 th, angler Mike Mahoney from Emeryville, Ca. was trolling with a live
skipjack from the panga “Killer” with Gordo Banks Pangas skipper Chame Pino when he
hooked into a monster sized fish that they battled for close to two hours on 80
pound tackle before finally bringing to gaff. Back at the beach the big yellowfin
was officially weighed in at 310 pounds. At least a couple of dozen other tuna were
also taken from the Gordo Banks this week that ranged form 75 to 210 pounds.
Dorado counts were down for how they normally would be at this time of year, but a
couple of very nice sized bulls were reported from the Pacific, one of 55 pounds and
another of 70 pounds. The dorado on the Sea of Cortez side were smaller sized,
anywhere from 5 to 20 pounds and not very numerous.
Wahoo continued to be scarce, but have shown signs of coming to life. On Saturday, a
panga fishing the Iman Bank had a quadruple hook up while trolling lures, though
they only landed two of the fish, which were in the 35 to 40 pound range, this was a
very encouraging sign that maybe these prized gamefish will start become more
active.
Other catches included a fluke 40-pound class roosterfish caught while bottomfishing
in 200 feet of water and a mix of smaller pargo species. Off the beach there were a
couple of nice sized snook landed off of the San Jose Estuary area, including one
40-pounder, sierra are biting early in the morning in the same area.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita beach sent out approximately 208
charters for the week with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 3 striped marlin,
8 sailfish, 12 wahoo, 92 dorado, 835 yellowfin tuna, 110 white skipjack, 6 dogtooth
snapper, 8 amberjack, 5 grouper, 16 cabrilla, 25 sierra, 2 roosterfish and 15
rainbow runners.
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 31, 2006; 11:16AM - 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
Oct. 23-29, 2006
WEATHER: As we had expected, Hurricane Paul did have an effect on us last week. It slowed down quickly and fell apart, bringing us only some rain, winds to 45 knots and big swells, but the port was closed from Tuesday morning until Wednesday at 2 pm. Both the winds and the seas diminished quickly and things were back to Normal Thursday morning. Our daytime highs were in the low 80’s and the nighttime lows were in the low to mid 70’s.
WATER: The beginning of the week had us with warm water across the entire cape with most of it in the 85-86 degree range and with small swells. The effects of Paul were to cool off the water several degrees and bring in some swells at 4-6 feet with an occasional 6-9 set. These were storm swells and spaced some distance apart so it was not really rough, just lumpy. The water within reach of most of the fleet at the end of the week was in the 82-83 degree range and almost all of it outside ½ mile from shore was blue.
BAIT: Caballito were available at the usual $2 per bait and there were Sardinas at $20 a bucket, both at the mouth of the harbor and up off of Palmilla and La Playita.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Probably the best way to give you an idea of the bill fishing this past week is to post results of the Bisbee Black and Blue Tournament. The normal three days of fishing were cut to two days due to the port closure on Wednesday so the 183 teams only fished for two days total. That is 366 fishing days total. There were 152 billfish caught, a reported 64 Blue Marlin, 6 Black Marlin, 61 Striped Marlin and 21 sailfish. This is .4 billfish per team per day. Not great fishing, that’s for sure. There were three marlin over #300 weighed and one of them barely made it at #301. That gives you an idea of how the Marlin fishing was this past week.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Yellowfin action off of La Playita continued on an erratic basis with most of the fish biting around the tide change. They were school fish in the 20-30 pound class. There were larger fish found out at the Inner and Outer Gorda Banks as well as at the Inman, but you had to have the right bait for the cows that went up to #250. There were several of these nice fish caught this past week. In other areas, Porpoise pods 30 miles to the south had fish in them that averaged 35 pounds and gave quite a few people a lot of fun. Boats dropping live Mackerel deep on the Golden Gate Banks for Striped Marlin also came up with a few nice Yellowfin to #80.
DORADO: There were still plenty of Dorado to be found but you had to farther up the Pacific side to get into them. I tried the area inside the Golden Gate Bank on Saturday with poor results only to find that the action had moved another 10 miles up the coast. The fish are averaging 15 pounds with some of them in the #40 class, but 30 miles is a way to run. There were scattered fish closer to home but not in any numbers.
WAHOO: There were still scattered Wahoo around as we caught one that was about #65 on the second day of the Bisbee. No concentrations yet, maybe on the November moon?
INSHORE: Slow fishing inshore with a few Dorado, Skipjack and Yellowfin, some early season Sierra and a scattering of misc. bottom species. The better inshore fishing has been reported up toward San Jose.
NOTES: Sorry the report is late; a two-day case of some virus had me laid out since Sunday morning. Until next week, Tight Lines
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Oct 30, 2006; 12:30PM - Gordo Banks Pangas San Jose Del Cabo
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric
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October 29, 2006
Anglers –
Lots of activity now in Los Cabos, thousands of anglers traveling south now to get
in on the excitement of the world’s richest marlin tournament, the Bisbee’s Black
and Blue. Sportfishing operations, including both cruiser and panga fleets, have
been operating at capacity levels. The week started off with the formation of a late
season Hurricane named Paul, originally it developed in an area southwest of Cabo
San Lucas, but then changed course and headed in the direction of the Southern Baja
peninsula, gradually loosing strength and on Wednesday morning when it passed within
some 50 miles of Cabo it was a mere tropical depression. Paul’s main impact was
rainfall, anywhere from 1 to 4 inches of measurable rain fell in various areas,
ocean conditions were stormy and the Cabo marina was shut down for the days of
Tuesday and Wednesday and there was also no launching of panga fleets in any of the
locations out of San Jose del Cabo, this meant a lot of lost business since
fleets had full schedules of charters scheduled for those days. Fleet operators
were very busy trying to reschedule and accommodate clients the best they could. By
Thursday fleets were back in action and the Bisbee tournament was changed to a
two-day event instead of the normal three-day. Friday we experienced wind up to 18
miles an hour from the north, the first significant blow from that direction of the
season, this made for rough seas, but over the weekend conditions settled back down
and were ideal once again. Water temperatures were still a bit above average for
late October, ranging from 84 to 86 degrees.
Tournament time also means heavy pressure on the bait supplies and the local fishing
grounds. Despite the storm scattering schools of sardinas into new locations the
commercial pangueros were able to find sufficient supplies. Yellowfin tuna remained
the dominant catch for the charter fleet and most of the action continued to be off
of San Jose within one mile of shore from off the Estuary to La Laguna. Before the
storm, on Monday the bite was wide open for yellowfin tuna in the 20 to 25 pound
class, but since the storm the action has dropped off considerably, the size of the
tuna was also down to about an 10 to 15 pound average. The color of the water is a
little murky, but not bad, the main factor in the bite slowing down seems to be the
build up of a heavy concentration of boats, since this apparently has been the only
area that is producing any consistent action. Charter boats over the weekend reports
average catches of tuna down to 2 to 5 per boat.
Only a handful of dorado were found mixed in and most of them were smaller fish,
some larger bulls were reported further offshore and more so on the Pacific by boats
targeting billfish.
Local San Jose del Cabo pangueros reported that the yellowfin tuna were coming up
and biting early, but once the cruisers and yachts from Cabo San Lucas have been
arriving the action has quickly vanishing. Apparently these Cabo operators have a
different set of rules of courtesy while fishing. It is pretty much common sense
that if you see other boats with fish feeding in a chum line and hooking fish that
you do not motor right through the boiling fish, but that is not how many of these
cruiser skippers operate, they go right into the boiling fish and scatter the bite
for everybody. You would think that they would have the knowledge that it would be
more courteous to just go up current and start chumming themselves and drift through
the same area, apparently not, they have their own set of protocols.
Wahoo season continues to show no signs of coming to life and everyone is just
crossing their fingers that it will be late season for these elusive gamefish.
Other miscellaneous catches included a mix of pargo species, amberjack, sierra,
rainbow runners, sailfish, grouper, skipjack, pompano, triggerfish and cabrilla.
The combined panga fleet launching off of La Playita beach sent out approximately
154 charters for the week, with anglers accounted for a fish count of: 3 wahoo, 1
roosterfish, 2 striped marlin, 11 sailfish, 54 dorado, 860 yellowfin tuna, 225
skipjack, 24 pargo, 8 cabrilla, 4 grouper, 16 sierra, 14 rainbow runners, 7 pompano,
8 amberjack and 15 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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Oct 23, 2006; 10:20AM - 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
Oct. 16-22, 2006
WEATHER: I know why everyone likes to start coming to Cabo in October, it is because of the weather! We have had daytime highs in the high 80’s and nighttime lows in the low 70’s all week. It was actually cool enough on Saturday morning that my deckhand and myself wore long-sleeve shirts. We have had partly cloudy skies with a slight breeze in the mornings and almost no wind in the afternoons, then a slight breeze in the evening. Just what the doctor ordered. Of course it looks like this pattern may not continue for long as there is the possibility that tropical storm Paul could pass our way Tuesday, the day before the beginning of the Bisbee Black and Blue tournament. It might be a hurricane by then and forecasts call for it to be 200 miles to the southwest on Tuesday morning, continuing in our direction. All our fingers are crossed!
WATER: Warm water on the Cortez side, up to a solid 86 degrees were the norm with great surface conditions, a slight swell and an offshore wind only early in the morning. On the Pacific side the swells were a bit larger and there was a little more wind but nothing major. Water temperatures were 85 degrees up to 35 miles offshore and up towards the finger banks, then just a bit farther they dropped a degree or two.
BAIT: Caballito were available at the usual $2 per bait and there were Sardinas at $20 a bucket, both at the mouth of the harbor and up off of Palmilla and La Playita.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Probably the best way to clue you in on the marlin bite is by the results of a couple of tournaments. We had the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament this week and there were over100 boats participating. There were three qualifying Marlin caught (over #300) and they were all caught on the first day. The largest fish was over #430 and was caught aboard a 31’ Bertram. This weekend is the Bisbee/Lapicolla Offshore tournament with 64 boats entered and on the first day only one almost qualifying fish at #295 was brought to the scales. During both tournaments there were plenty of Striped Marlin, smaller Blues and a few Blacks and Sailfish caught, but no real beast fish reported. There was a lot of effort on the Pacific side out at the Banks and as a result most of the fish were from those areas.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We had great fishing for school Yellowfin this week up in the San Jose area off of La Playita to La Laguna. The fish were close to shore and at one time I saw 60 boats working several spots. The average catch was five or six fish between 15 and 30 pounds with a few larger ones in the mix. Light line or floura-carbon leaders with small hooks and a split shot on every other line brought the fish to the boat. It’s exciting to see the fish boil on the chum right where your bait is at then hearing the reels start to scream. There was on monster caught on the first day of the Los Cabos Billfish tournament as a Yellowfin Tuna that topped the scales at #315 was brought in by John Bulla on the “Go Deep” before noon.
DORADO: There were still plenty of Dorado around this week and most of the action was still on the Pacific side of the Cape. It seemed that most of the cruisers were going up the coast 15 miles and starting to work the water inside the Golden Gate area. I had a friend on a Panga who fished just three miles of the lighthouse on the Pacific side and he got 7 Dorado in five hours but several of them were little dinks of #8 and #10, the others were nice ones of #20 . Live bait slow trolled after catching one fish worked, as did trolling dark colored pushing plugs.
WAHOO: I heard quite a few Wahoo being called in on the radio during the tournaments and almost all of them came from the San Jaime Banks area. The fish averaged 30 pounds. The largest caught during the Los Cabos tournament weighed in at 79.8 pounds.
INSHORE: Just as last week, there were still a few Roosterfish being reported this week but with there being so many Dorado and Tuna close in it was hard to get the Captains of the Pangas to target anything else.
NOTES: Bisbee Black and Blue is coming up, keep your fingers crossed the Hurricane Paul does not grow up to be a big boy and ruin our fun! Until next week, Tight Lines!
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Oct 22, 2006; 02:35PM - Gordo Banks Pangas San Jose Del Cabo
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric
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Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
October 22, 2006
Anglers –
Visiting anglers are now arriving in swarms to the Los Cabos area and sportfishing
fleets are operating at near capacity levels. The annual tournaments are under way
and the typical fall excitement can be felt in the air. With everything set to go
off just as planned there could be some changes in schedules as there is now a late
season tropical storm that has developed off the west side of the peninsula, it is
named John and at this time is less than 500 miles from Cabo San Lucas and though
its projected path is not certain, officials are predicting that it will turn back
towards the northeast and follow a direct course skimming the southern Baja and then
heading towards the mainland Mexico. We thought the tropical storm season was over,
but with the water temperatures remaining warmer than normal, now averaging 84 to 86
degrees, there was always that chance of a hurricane still developing. We will hope
for the best, that this storm causes no significant damage and passes
by quickly, though a little more rain would be welcome, as the landscape that had
been so brilliantly tropical green has been fading recently.
The fishing action has been spread out from the Pacific and into the Sea of Cortez.
There has been more dorado action found on the Pacific, with fish to over 30 pounds
being found, though numbers were not huge, most charters were landing anywhere from
2 to 6 dorado per outing. Yellowfin tuna was the most common species found, with the
largest schools of 10 to 20 pound fish being located off the San Jose del Cabo area
and north to Punta Gorda, the action has tapered off compared to the past couple of
weeks, but still this has been the most consistent bite and boats continue to come
from as far away as Buena Vista to get in on the activity, which has been within one
mile of shore. Average catches per boat ranged from 5 to 15 tuna per morning, with
the action being best earlier in the morning before nearly one hundred boats of all
types swarmed onto the area.
There was some encouraging and exciting news reported from the Outer Gordo Banks, as
early in the week there were two monster gorilla sized yellowfin tuna accounted for,
one weighed in at 310 pounds and the other weighed a whopping 350 pounds, both of
these fish were caught from cruisers based out of Cabo San Lucas and while trolling
with live skipjack for bait. We had first hand reports because these fish were
hooked into while fishing right along pangas based off of La Playita. Perhaps this
will be the area that produces the big tuna for the upcoming WON Tuna Tournament,
though at this time very few of these larger tuna are actually being hooked into.
The billfish bite has continued to be slow, though there is a chance of variety, as
there were blue, black and striped marlin, as well as sailfish in the region. There
was one 500 pound class black marlin lost from a Gordo Banks Panga on Monday, this
was after a three hour battle and having the fish right alongside the boat and
actually getting a gaff partially into the fish’s head, only to have it take off and
break through the leader. Another heartbreak occurred on Saturday off of a Palmilla
based cruiser, after a battle lasting over five hours they had a black marlin that
was estimated to be as large as 800 pounds break through 400 pound leader material
that was attached to the petrolero pattern lure, this fish struck the lure in the
vicinity of the Outer Gordo Banks.
Wahoo action was very slim pickings, only a few scattered fish being accounted for,
still not in any significant numbers and not practical to exclusively target. We are
hoping that they become more active soon, because this is the season when they
typically are more abundant.
Bottomfishing did not produce much to speak of either, only a handful of smaller
pargo species, triggerfish and cabrilla. On Friday there was a 35-pound class
roosterfish taken from a panga while chunk bait fishing on the Iman Bank, this was
definitely a fluke and it is not the normal method or area where roosters are found.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita beach sent out 205 charters for
the week and anglers accounted for a fish count of: 3 striped marlin, 9 sailfish, 6
wahoo, 3 roosterfish, 15 sierra, 155 various pargo, 18 cabrilla, 1,440 yellowfin
tuna, 760 various species of skipjack and 74 dorado.
Good fishing, Eric
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