CLOUDY WEATHER BRINGS WELCOME COOLER FISHING
CONDITIONS TO THE CABO SAN LUCAS AREA OF BAJA

July 24, 2004, George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas fishing, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

WEATHER: The week at Cabo San Lucas was mostly cloudy every day and windy as well. That was not a bad thing as it kept us cool, and we did without the air conditioner this week. Our daytime highs were in the mid to high 90‚s while our night time lows were in the mid to high 70‚s. With all the clouds we thought that there was going to be a bit of rain at Cabo San Lucas itself, but it looked as if it all dumped up in the mountains.

WATER: The week started with Warm water in the 84 degree range right in front of Cabo San Lucas, but as the week went on this water disappeared and as of now the warmest we have within 20 miles is 80 degrees. Up the coast on the Cortez side it gets to 85 degrees, up around Punta Gorda, and there are a couple of small spots where it reaches 82 degrees on the Gorda Banks, but other than that almost everything is in the 79-80 degree range. The water is nice and blue though! Surface conditions on the Pacific and offshore on the Cortez side have been a bit choppy in the afternoons as the wind picks up, but it has been fishable.

BAIT: Plenty of Caballito available at the normal $2, some Mullet at the same price and I heard that one of the bait boats had some Sardinas as well, and that they were pretty proud of them.

CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING:

BILLFISH: Last week's fishing around Cabo San Lucas was great for Billfish, but this weeks fishing definitely dropped off. Maybe it is the moon phase (the new moon was the 17th), maybe it is the water (temps dropped), but there were a lot of boats disappointed in the action this week. Of course there are always exceptions, and I did see a few Cabo San Lucas fishing boats come in with two or three Marlin flags flying. The fish that were found were in the warm water and that meant going at least 25 miles out and up on the Cortez side. Live bait worked well on the Striped Marlin that were found, with lures coming in a decidedly second place. Due to the water temps changing, the Blue Marlin were scarce unless you had the time and range to get up around the East Cape.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Footballs and small school fish were the catch this week for most Cabo San Lucas fishing boats. The best action was out around the 1150 spot in Porpoise schools and those fish were also the slightly larger ones, with most of the in the 25 pound class. Closer to home there were footballs found while trolling blind and the action could be fairly steady on them if you used small hootchies. Almost all of this action was on the Cortez side of the Cape.

DORADO: This week was almost a repeat of last week as far as action on the Dorado go. There was good fishing to be found not far from Cabo San Lucas up around the Westin and Punta Gorda areas. The fish were averaging 15 pounds with a few big ones and a few small ones in there, and the boats that worked it were getting 3-6 fish per trip. Offshore there were larger fish, but fewer of them. Bright colored feathers and small Marlin lures worked well on the Dorado this week (as they do almost every week!).

WAHOO: I saw almost no Wahoo flags this week, and did not talk to anyone who had Wahoo strikes.

INSHORE: Dorado and small Tuna seemed to be the targeted species for Cabo San Lucas Pangas this week, but there was still some decent inshore action taking place for the boats targeting Roosterfish and Jack Crevalle. Roosterfish were averaging 15 pounds with a few really nice ones in the 30+ pound class being caught as well, but there were more Jacks being found than Roosters, and they were a bit bigger on average as well! The bottom fishing was pretty much „pick here, pick there‰ kind of thing, with a little of everything and not a lot of any one species being caught.

NOTES: Cabo San Lucas fishing was a lot slower this week than last week, but the weather is starting to clear up so maybe the fishing will get better as well.

Fly Hooker Daily Cabo San Lucas Fishing Results:

(Three Boats: 1 Striped Marlin tagged and released (#120); 7 Dorado kept (#10 - #35); 1 Yellowfin kept (#10); 1 Hammerhead Shark released (7 feet).

"FLY HOOKER" CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING REPORT FOR JULY 21, 2004

The Hasko group is fishing with us today and they will be fishing again on the 23. Marlin is the target for both days, but of course no fish will be refused! Juan and Manuel went offshore today, straying as far out as 18 miles in search of fish willing to bite. Slightly choppy conditions and some nice swells, combined with a fairly good overcast slowed down the ability to sight Marlin tailing on the surface, and the water was just a bit cooler out there as well. The only action of the day was sighting one fish tailing and that one refused to eat. We sure hope things are better on Friday!

"FLY HOOKER" CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING REPORT FOR JULY 22, 2004:

Mark Bailey and his wife Sue are our anglers for the day and Mark sure would like to tangle with a Marlin! They were supposed to fish on another boat today, but the Captain was a no-show and they went with us instead. It was Juan‚s day off so Manuel had to get a replacement marinero and came up with Estephan („Tebby‰). Mark was impressed with him and so was Manuel. With those recommendations we were able to hook him up with a full-time job on a friend‚s boat. Back to the Bailey‚s trip though, Manuel and Tebby went north on the Sea of Cortez and worked the area off of Palmilla. Not getting out until 7:30 was odd, but things worked out all right. There were plenty of Dorado in the area and Mark got two fish in the 20-25 pound class in the boat, had two more around 12-15 pounds and then several „peanuts‰ of about 6-8 pounds. One small Yellowfin Tuna chewed on a lure and managed to get himself hooked and then Manuel saw a Hammerhead shark. The guys asked Mark if he wanted to try and catch it so he gave it a shot. Not very impressed with the fight of a Hammerhead, Mark said „It was like fighting a bucket‰. Maybe if it had been a Mako things would have been different! Anyway, they go the Shark to the side of the boat for a couple of pictures then released it. Mark said they had seen one Marlin all day and it would not eat, but he and Sue had fun. Thanks guys, we are glad things worked out for you!

"FLY HOOKER" CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING REPORT FOR 23 JULY, 2004:

This was the Hasko groups second day of fishing and now the pressure was on. All four guys wanted a shot at a Marlin but the bite had been off. This was surprising because on Sunday it had been going off strong! Juan and Manuel talked to a few of the other Captains on the radio and headed offshore again, this time 25 miles to the east, out around the 1150 spot. Juan said there was a lot of Marlin in the area and they had two on at one time, both hooked on live bait. One of the fish was fought to the boat for a successful tag and release. Unfortunately the dog gear on the other TLD 25 stripped and they were not able to get any line on the reel. Juan had to try and hand line the fish and the line ended up breaking. There were other fish in the area but they would not eat. They guys were also able to get one nice Dorado that Juan said would have been around 25 pounds, and lost one other „Big‰ one that hit a large Marlin lure but did not hook up well. At least the guys were able to get some action on the Billfish today, much better than on Wednesday. And now there is a new TLD 25 on the boat. Until next week, tight lines!