BILLFISH COUNTS DOMINATED BY STRIPED MARLIN

Aug. 23-29, 2004, Capt. George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

WEATHER: Once again we had a very warm week here in Cabo San Lucas, and there was a threat of rain in the air for a few days as well. Hurricane Frank at the beginning of the week had a few feeder type bands of clouds come over us and we did get a bit of overcast at the beginning of the week and then we had Hurricane Georgette develop to the south and head west, bringing us more clouds and dropping some rain with it‚s feeder bands, but the rain was up toward La Paz and the mountains. So, partly cloudy for most of the week with the night time lows in the high 70‚s and day time highs up to triple digits.

WATER: Cabo San Lucas fishing water temperatures in the area have remained in the mid to high 80‚s all week with the predominate feature being the warm band (by about one degree) that is running along the Sea of Cortez coast from the Gordo Banks, out about 12 miles and wrapping around the Cape to the San Jaime Banks. This water has been 84 to 85 degrees while water elsewhere has been 82-83 degrees. The passing of the Hurricanes to the south of Cabo San Lucas has brought large swells to the area and on Friday they were very large, Saturday the started to die down. Combined with the afternoon winds conditions became uncomfortable later in the day at the end of the week, but not unsafe.

BAIT: No change in bait availability this week, the normal summer Caballito at $2 per bait.

CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING:

BILLFISH: This week was a great one for Marlin, as long as you wanted to catch striped marlin! There were Blues caught, as well as a few Blacks, but they were not common. Cabo San Lucas Striped Marlin were concentrated in the area of the 95 Spot again, and there were some Sailfish as well, just not the numbers as last week. Live bait worked as well as lures did and most boats were able to get one or two to the side for releases. It appeared that there were Blue Marlin if you went much farther out, or up off of Punta Gordo, but as I said, they were scarce.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Tuna were found almost anywhere and everywhere this week, with there being large fish found at Gordo Banks, the 1150 and off of Migraino on the Pacific side. A few of these fish went into triple numbers with a few almost touching #200, but most of the fish were in the 25-40 pound range and a few schools were 40-80 pound fish. Live bait dropped way back hooked up some of the larger fish while Marlin lures accounted for a lot of the schoolies. There were football size fish to be found closer to the beach on the Cortez side and most boats had no trouble getting a few of them.

DORADO: This weeks Dorado section is word for word the same as last week. The Main Cabo San Lucas Dorado action this week was on the Pacific side with some large fish being found on the Cortez side by boats fishing bigger lures for Marlin. Most of the fish on the Pacific side were between 15 and 20 pounds, and a few boats were able to limit out for their anglers. Live bait was the key, with a Caballito being dropped back as soon as a troll caught fish approached the boat. A few Cabo San Lucas fishing boats were lucky enough to find a piece of kelp holding fish, and every day or so one of them came in with lots of yellow flags flying.

WAHOO: There was a brief flurry of Wahoo activity at the middle of the week on fish that were reported to 90 pounds but then the bite dropped off.

INSHORE: The large swells caused by the hurricanes slowed down the inshore Cabo San Lucas fishing this week. Most of the Pangas that went out were looking a few miles out for Yellowfin and Dorado and they did fairly well, but the traditional inshore fish such as Roosterfish, Jack Crevalle and Amberjack were not the focus.

NOTES: All right! With the great Marlin action, the Yellowfin bite picking up and Dorado showing up it has turned out to be a very nice week! If only the Hurricanes stay away maybe it will continue!

Cabo San Lucas Fish count for the week (5 boats):

Striped Marlin: 9 fish released

Sailfish: 1 fish released

Dorado: I fish kept

Yellowfin Tuna: 12 fish kept

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

Greg and his wife Chris are back in Cabo this week. Greg says he really needed this trip, he was starting to stress out at work and relaxation was in order. He is fishing today, tomorrow and Thursday with us and the goals for this trip are to catch a Sailfish and a Blue Marlin. This is the best time of year to try and accomplish both goals and today he was able to get half of them taken care of. Chris stayed at the resort and Greg took of out of the marina at about 6:30. Juan and Manuel headed toward the 95 Spot as there had been a lot of action in the area over the past few days. There were still fish there today and it did not take long before they hooked into a Sailfish! Andy Cline got Juan to start using his secret method several years ago, and now when things are right Juan does well with it, today things were right. They were able to get several other Sailfish into the spread but could not get a solid hook up, but they were able to get one Striped Marlin to the boat for a release. Other fish were seen but were not interested. Greg has invited me to go with him tomorrow as he like some company. I‚ll let you know how we do!

"FLY HOOKER" CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING FOR AUGUST 24, 2004

Today Greg W and I went fishing. Juan and Manuel headed out to the 95 Spot again, this time to search for a Blue Marlin for Greg to put on his „caught‰ list. We started to cruise out and around 6 miles out started to see lots of current rips. Manuel spotted a sleeping fish and we slowed to throw bait. Of course the sleepers don‚t bite very often and this one stayed true to form, going down as we arrived. With one fish spotted on the surface and all the rips in the area, we decided to start trolling. This was at 6:50. At 7:00 we had a small Striped Marlin hit on the stinger (bridge rod). The fish kept coming back on the lure (Andy Cline special) until finally Greg was able to get a good hook set on it. The fish did not take long to get to the boat as it was a little overpowered by the heavy gear and it only weighed around 70 pounds. A quick release and it was 7:15 with the possibility of getting skunked put away for the day. Our next action came at 8:00 when again the stinger got hit, but this was a bigger fish and hooked up right away. Greg is a good angler so this Striped Marlin that we estimated at #120 only took him about 15 minutes and after a couple of good pictures along the side of the boat it was released. Amazingly enough, our next strike was almost exactly one hour later as the stinger was again struck and the fish hooked up after a few attempts. This time the Striped Marlin put up quite a show on the surface with lots of jumping and running. Greg kept the pressure up and had the fish to the side of the boat in about 25 minutes. I joked with him that either the fish were getting bigger or he was getting tired, but it was the fish getting bigger! The Striped Marlin that we released was around #140! 30 minutes later we had a bull Dorado of about 30 pounds hit on the stinger (what was wrong with the rest of our lures?) but after about 10 minutes and getting him half way to the boat he was able to throw the hook on one of his jumps. Shoot, that was dinner swimming away! We continued trolling and we were getting real close to the 1150 area when Manuel spotted birds and Dolphin in the distance. As we got closer we were able to see the action as well and discussed changing out one lure just in case there were Tuna in there and they were willing to bite. Greg decided to put out his Dixie Dancer (a High-5 special) and leave the rest of the big stuff out there. We finally got into the Dolphin, they were the large gray ones with the big spots, and there were no other boats there! All right, first boat on the scene, and as we made our pass where the birds were, both outriggers and the flat line got slammed! Nice sized swirls on the lures showed that these were not football fish, except for the one that I fought and then lost! Juan and Greg continued to fight their fish and shortly I was able to gaff Juan‚s fish, about 25 pounds, then Greg‚s fish, about 30 pounds. Sashimi in the boat! The lures were put back in the water as the fish were bled and Manuel called a few boats to let them know where the action was. In the distance you could see the diesel smoke as boats came running in. We were able to get one more pass on the fish before the other boats got there, and this time it was a double strike. Bigger swirls than last time and the fish were a bit larger also. Both of the fish that came to the boat were around #40 and again they were bled and the lures placed back out. By then there were around 7 or 8 other boats working the fish, and at least five of them were hooked up. Right after getting the lures back in the water the right rigger lure got slammed. Manuel kept the boat going, hoping for a multiple hook up, but then we saw the silver flashing and knew that it was not a Tuna, instead we had hooked the fourth Marlin of the day! Another boat just a short distance away watched as we fought the fish and had lots of surface action while they fought the Tuna they had hooked up. Oh what a day! Several more passes on the Tuna resulted in two more for the box, one of them around #40 and one around #25, plus Greg lost one quite a bit larger when the hook pulled half way to the boat. One time during the action while Greg was fighting fish I put out a live bait. It was taken almost right away but I didn‚t get a good hook up. I put another bait on and hooked it by the tail so it would go down and it ended up getting mauled, but again, I did not get a solid hook up. By now it was noon and we were 28 miles out, had caught and released four Striped Marlin (four for four!), lost a Dorado and three Tuna and had six nice Tuna in the box. We changed to all bigger Marlin lures and started the troll home. As we came top about 15 miles out we had one more Striped Marlin come in on the left rigger and pop the line from the clip. The fish then went to the stinger lure and tried that several times. Juan dropped back a live bait and about two minutes later we were hooked up to the fifth Striped Marlin of the day! It was a fairly quick fight because even though it was light line (#40), the fish weighed about the same! Juan held it up for a quick photo and then we released it and watched it swim away. It was time to pull in the lures and run in. Maybe Greg will get his Blue Marlin on Thursday; he sure had the practice today! Oh, and did I mention that all this was done stand-up style? Scroll on down and on Thursday I‚ll let you know how Greg did on his last day.

"FLY HOOKER" CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING REPORT FOR AUGUST 25, 2004

Michael Jackson (no, not him) and friends were our anglers on the Fly Hooker today. Michael last fished with us 5 years ago, right after we had bought the boat. The goal for the day was to get a fish and have a good time on the water. Juan and Manuel went looking in the same area where they have been having such great success the last few days, out around the 95 Spot and the 1150. I received a call from Juan around 10:30 that they had just lost the lure we had been running in the stinger position, the one we had been getting so many fish on. He said (Michael confirmed it) that a very large Wahoo, estimated at #100, had made one jump on the lure and cut it off. At that time they had already released one Marlin and lost another one. As of the end of the day they lost another Wahoo due to the fish severing the leader. Michael and friends were happy with the released fish, they had good action and the water was nice. All in all a good day! We hope to see Michael again soon!

"FLY HOOKER" CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING REPORT FOR AUGUST 26, 2004

Today was Greg‚s last day of fishing aboard the Fly Hooker and his last shot this trip for a Blue Marlin. Juan and Manuel went a little to the south of the 95 Spot hoping to find one there but on the way out they came across a wooden pallet floating on top of the water. There was another boat there already but Juan noticed that the other boat was only trolling, not using live bait. Manuel pulled up to the pallet and Juan tossed out a live bait and it was soon eaten by a Dorado about 15 pounds in size. Another bait was put out and a larger fish estimated at 40 pounds was hooked up. Unfortunately that fish came off after a few jumps and that was the end of the Dorado action. Later in the morning the came across a school of Yellowfin Tuna and caught six fish from the school, ranging in size from #8 to #40. That looked like all the action for the day as they turned toward home, but on the way in a Striped Marlin tried to eat the stinger lure. Greg pinned a live bait on and dropped it back. When the bait was in position Manuel slowed the boat. The Marlin made one attempt to eat the bait and Greg tried to set the hook. No luck, but the bait was still on. The fish came back again and this time Juan told Greg to wait about 6 seconds before setting the hook. Greg did that and was hooked up! The fight was about 15 minutes on a #120 Striped Marlin. That makes 7 Striped Marlin and one Sailfish for Greg, along with a dozen Tuna and a Dorado in three days of fishing, not a bad count at all! Thanks Greg, we hope we get to see you again next year, and of course it will be time for that Blue Marlin!

"FLY HOOKER" CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING REPORT FOR AUGUST 27, 2004

Today we were part of a larger group, totaling three boats and we had four anglers aboard. Juan and Manuel headed out to the same area they had found the Tuna yesterday but were not able to get to the fish in time to get bit. As normal, the first few boats there caught the fish and later boats just got to watch porpoise! They caught no Tuna, but they were able to catch, tag and release a Striped Marlin for the day‚s effort. Our next scheduled trip is on Sunday, I'll let you know if things change out there then!