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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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Feb 12, 2007; 01:24PM - 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
February 5-11, 2007
WEATHER: Our Daytime highs were from the low to mid 80’s this week with the warmer temps earlier in the week. Nights were a bit warmer as well with our lows in the mid 70’s. Later in the week, especially this weekend, it seemed lower due to strong winds from the southwest. We did not receive any rain this week but did have partly cloudy skies most o the time. It made for some beautiful sunsets on Thursday and Friday. The skies were much clearer on Monday and Tuesday, enough so that on Monday at sunset, 6 of the 8 people aboard the boat I captain (including me) saw the “green flash” as the sun disappeared over the horizon. Pretty cool!
WATER: On the Pacific side of the Cape we had warm water approach all week long from the southwest. The charts show a beautiful 74-degree wall pushing 70 degrees and moving steadily our direction. As of Sunday it was running east-west from the south side of the San Jaime to 8 miles south of the arch and 6 miles to the west of the 95 Spot. With the winds kicking in over the weekend it was too bouncy for most of the boats to go check it out, but if it continues to stay in the area I will be checking it out myself. The Chlorophyll charts show it to bee very clean. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water was cooler with everything inside the 1,000-fathom line between 69 and 71 degrees. The water within two miles of the beach was very green while farther out it was slightly green, definitely off-color.
BAIT: Just like last week, there were Mackerel at $2 per bait and there were occasional Sardinas available up at San Jose if you were there early and they were the normal $20 per scoop. There were a few Caballito in with the mackerel but there were no large numbers of them.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite moved from the Pacific side to the Cortez side this week. Most of the action was taking place between the Arches and the 95 spot, with the concentration at the 95 spot at the end of the week. A good day was three fish but most boats were averaging one release per trip. Dropping down a live bait after releasing a fish resulted in most of the multiple fish catches as where there was one Marlin there were sure to be more, but this method didn’t work later in the week with the strong winds. When the wind kicked the swells up a lot more fish were found tailing on the surface and that became the way the majority of fish were found this weekend. There were quite a few fish striking lures, but it was half-hearted for the most part and the hook-up ratio was pretty poor. Almost every fish caught was stuffed with foot-long squid so that is the reason for the poor lure catches I am sure.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were some fish found later in the week on the Cortez side out toward the Cabrilla Seamount, but it was sure a long way to go on the hope that they were in the area. The fish were associated with Dolphin but were just a bit bigger than footballs, mostly in the 20-pound class. The bite that had been going on at the inner Gorda Banks fell apart on Sunday when the strong wind didn’t allow for a slow, controlled drift, a necessity when fishing chunks for the larger Tuna. The fish that were caught earlier in the week were in the 40-80 pound class. Live Sardinas worked in the same area accounted for an average of three Yellowfin per boat; these fish were in the 15-20 pound class.
DORADO: The Dorado catch continued its decline this week with the cool waters on the Cortez side. A few boats worked the Pacific side offshore and were able to get decent results in the warmer water but it was too rough for them to do much more than troll down swell and pick up an occasional fish. I managed to get one yesterday between the 95 and 1150 spots but the water was a bit too green and it seemed cool at 71 degrees.
WAHOO: None were caught this week that I am aware of although I am sure there were a few.
INSHORE: The Sierra bite continues to slowly improve, but it’s still not red-hot. Most boats are getting a dozen or so per trip, a few get about twice that. For the most part the big inshore fighters have been the Jacks, averaging 20 pounds. A lot of the Pangas were going out for Marlin this week, as they were fairly close, at least they were until the wind picked up this weekend!
NOTES: Whales are everywhere! I can’t believe how many we are seeing every trip this past week. Yesterday (Sunday) there were Humpbacks doing full breech leaps and popping up all over the place, we must have counted several dozen out in the deep water. We saw at least three-dozen Gray whales up along the beaches and one of them did a series of full breech leaps in just 45 feet of water! This weeks report was written to the classical guitar music of Miguel De Hoyos. I had a chance to listen to him this week while we were out to dinner and I was blown away to hear him play Flight Of The Bumble-Bee and Memories Of La Alhambra. His finger-work is just amazing and I ended up buying a couple of his CD’s. His album “Sevilla Suite” has both of those on it and was self produced in 1997 at Pacific Beach Studios in San Diego. Until next week, tight lines!
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Feb 11, 2007; 06:01PM - 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
February 11, 2007
Anglers -
After enduring a month long cold spell there was finally some weather to smile about, there was even a hint of spring in the air, high temperatures reached close to 80 degrees and lows were in the 60s. There was plenty of sunshine and the pesky winds from the north diminished, overall anglers found ideal ocean conditions with minimal swells. Water clarity fluctuated from day to day and blue water was now found further from shore. Average water temperature ranged from 69 to 71 degrees. Large concentrations of sardinas and mackerel are schooling in local waters and the most consistent fishing action recently has been while using these baits.
The cruiser fleets were switching most of their effort in the direction of San Jose del Cabo, this is where the striped marlin have been more numerous, found anywhere from Chileno to the Gordo Banks, from 4 to 14 miles offshore. At times dozens of stripers were seen tailing on the surface, more so mid-day when the breeze would pick up some. Casting live mackerel in front of these tailers proved to be the hot ticket. Sizes averaged 100 to 130 pounds. Along with the striped marlin were a few surprising sailfish and a mix of medium to quality sized dorado, still hanging around in the cooler waters. We hope that with the weather now on a warming trend that the water conditions will do the same.
Whale watching continues to be at its peak, especially for humpbacks in the areas from Gordo Banks to Iman. The same areas where sportfishing fleets have been concentrated, these whale at times were putting on incredible displays of aerobatics. Other interests seen were turtles, sea lions, porpoise, manta rays and flying fish.
The panga fleets out of La Playita found the most consistent action switching from the Inner Gordo Banks. This is where they were finding big schools pf yellowfin tuna, some days the fish would come up and feed early and on other days the bite did not happen until late morning, but on most days anglers were able to find good action for tuna ranging from 20 to 40 pounds. Anglers had success on both live and dead sardinas. Also the fish were striking mackerel, but not as aggressively as they were the smaller baitfishes. In the same vicinity of La Fortuna and Iman Banks there was improved bottomfish action for a mix of pargo, cabrilla, bonita and amberjack, still not in large numbers, but a good sign that more of these fish are now showing up in the fish counts. Anglers found that yo-yo style jigs were starting to produce, as well as various baits off the bottom rock piles.
With offshore conditions being nice the fishing productive there were not many anglers targeting inshore, where there has still not been much of any consistent action reported.
The combined La Playita panga fleet sent out approximately 63 pangas for the week and anglers accounted for a fish count of: 3 sailfish, 11 striped marlin, 28 dorado, 58 pargo,
265 yellowfin tuna, 16 amberjack, 22 cabrilla, 32 bonita and 12 hammerhead shark.
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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Feb 5, 2007; 10:55AM - 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
January 29-Febuary 4, 2007
WEATHER: We had a couple of days of cloudy skies early in the week but everything cleared up nicely later on. February 3rd brought a brief one-day change in the wind as it blew up from the east instead of the normal northwest direction and that caused a few complications but it was only a one-day blow. Our daytime highs were in the high 70’s and the nighttime lows in the mid to low 50’s.
WATER: Surface conditions were great almost everywhere and all week long with the exception of choppy water on the Cortez side on Saturday when the wind switched and far out on the Pacific for the rest of the week with the normal northwesterly wind. Even then, it was not bad, just a bit bouncy. On Saturday the water off of Solmar beach and to the lighthouse was mixed up, the normal current down the Pacific coast was countered by the easterly wind and that made things bouncy in there as well. At the end of the week the water on the Pacific side ranged from 67 to 70 degrees while on the Cortez side there was a band of warm water running across the Gorda Banks and to the south across the 1150 area. This water was 72 degrees and fairly blue while right in front of town and up around the inside of the Golden Gate Bank on the Pacific the water was a very ugly green.
BAIT: Just like last week, there were Mackerel at $2 per bait and there were occasional Sardinas available up at San Jose if you were there early and they were the normal $20 per scoop. There were a few Caballito in with the mackerel but there were no large numbers of them.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There were still some Marlin being found on the Golden Gate bank but not in the numbers of the past weeks. The green water moved the bait out and the fish scattered a bit. There were still Striped Marlin being caught off of the lighthouse but it seems that most of them have moved over into the Sea of Cortez. This time of year they start to spend quite a bit of time on the surface and that is beginning now. It has been much easier to spot them as they tail along down swell but sometimes it can be very frustrating to toss live bait after live bait at them and have them refuse every offering. Top boats are coming in with three or four Marlin flags this past week instead of the 6 or 8 we became used to a few weeks ago, but the fishing style is changing as well.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were occasional schools of Yellowfin found offshore on both sides of the Cape this past week as well as directly south, but they have been a long way out there, 20 miles. Closer to home there has been a steady if not hot bite on fish averaging 25 pounds at the Gorda Banks. Anglers using live Sardinas had the best and most consistent results on these fish, but bigger fish are there as well. Using chunk baits on flouro-carbon leader anglers got into an occasional fish to 120 pounds.
DORADO: Dorado remained the number two fish this week as the cooler water continued to move in. Finding blue water was the key this past week and that meant going a bit farther offshore on the Pacific side. A few boats were able to score well on fish averaging 15 pounds when they found floating debris such as tree limbs and chunks of wood, but on average boats were scoring one or two fish between 8 and 20 pounds while trolling lures.
WAHOO: The full moon resulted in a few Wahoo being caught and a few boats actually caught more than one. I saw four flags on one boat and it was reported to me that when the anglers were asked if the flags were for Wahoo or for Sierra they assured the questioner that the were for Wahoo. On the radio I overheard a few conversations about hooks being bitten off and lures being trashed. It seems that most of the fish were being found on the Cortez side of the Cape and mostly close to shore and around the Gorda Banks and Punta Gorda.
INSHORE: The Sierra are beginning to show up in large numbers as the water continues to cool. They were in the blue water, not the green, and they were very close to the beach, almost up in the surf line for the most part. The average size is only 4-5 pounds, but that will increase over time. There were a few areas in the rocks that produced Pargo this week.
NOTES: Larry Carlton on his self-produced album “Sleepwalk” was my choice in music for writing this report to. I have had it for a long time and had forgotten just how much I enjoy his guitar style. It’s Super Bowl Sunday and I have a trip from 9-3 today. I guess that the boat will just have to wait until tomorrow to get cleaned well inside! I don’t really care who wins this game as long as it is a close one and our numbers come up on the board. We are starting plans to re-do the kitchen at home, bring down my Jeep and perhaps take a week vacation sometime this summer. Busy, busy, busy! Until next week, tight lines!
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Jan 30, 2007; 11:22PM - 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
January 28, 2007
Anglers –
The skies cleared after last weeks rain, recently there were scattered clouds and moderate winds from the north, but temperatures continued to be a bit cooler than normal. Mid-week there were a couple of early morning that dipped down to 45 degrees and the daytime highs were maybe reaching the lower 70s. Ocean conditions varied from location, the water temperature continued on a cooling trend and ranged from 67 to 71 degrees throughout the region. The clarity of the water was cleaner in the direction of Cabo San Lucas, though sportfishing operations were fishing in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, as well as the Pacific where the billfish action was still concentrated. Schools of mackerel were found in various locations, anglers were able to jig for them in the mornings or purchase them from the local pangueros. Supplies of sardinas were very limited and spread out, though on most days they were available.
Crowds of anglers were light, perhaps a combination of factors contributed to this. First being the new United States passport regulations, also the recent increase of Mexican fishing licenses could be discouraging, which now cost a steep $ 13 for a one-day license and then we have the wintry weather.
The panga fleets launching from La Playita found the most consistent action in the vicinity of the Gordo Banks and anglers found that there were not many other options since no consistent production was found either off the bottom or along the shoreline. Yellowfin tuna dominated the bite on the Gordo Bank, the fish seemed to be picky at times, but then again at times would go on a frenzy. The quality was very impressive, as the average tuna encountered was in the 25 to 50 pound class. Catches per boat ranged from one or two fish, up to a dozen. Anglers had success with live and dead sardinas, as well as mackerel, but overall more fish were hooked while using chunk bait from freshly caught skipjack, which were on the same fishing grounds.
Dorado were caught in good numbers earlier in the week, most them medium sized fish, with some exceptions, but as the water cooled off, these fish became less active over the weekend and most likely are migrating further south. The majority of the dorado caught hit on trolled or drifted bait, but schools of fish also found by trolling lures.
Billfish action was best on the Pacific side of Cabo, but the striped marlin are also being found off of Chileno and towards the Gordo Banks, following their bait supply. We look for larger concentrations or marlin to move in the direction of the Sea of Cortez in the coming weeks.
Whales are now in their peak migrations, with high numbers of both Grey and Humpbacks being seen throughout the area. Giant squid are being found outside of Cabo San Lucas, to over 40 pounds and quite a few mako sharks are being hooked into as well, they also show up when the mackerel are plentiful.
So far this season has proved disappointing for inshore action, there have been surprisingly low numbers of sierra being found along the beach stretches of San Jose del Cabo, we can just hope that these popular gamefish are behind schedule and will show up in force soon.
The combined panga fleet from La Playita sent out approximately 49 charters for the week, with anglers catching a total of: 1 sailfish, 11 striped marlin, 12 mako shark, 135 skipjack, 115 yellowfin tuna, 42 dorado, 52 pargo, 9 cabrilla, 15 sierra and 6 amberjack.
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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Jan 29, 2007; 10:19AM - 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
January 22-28, 2007
WEATHER: We started the week with clouds on Monday and Tuesday and ended the week with clouds on Sunday, but in between the skis were blue and clear! Our nighttime low was 50 degrees and our daytime high was 82 in the sun with no wind. The daytime average was around 76 degrees. Even with the clouds there was no rain to speak of, we did get a little spit on Monday night, just enough to dot the dust on the window of the truck. I know I have lived in the tropics for the last 25 years and my blood is thin, but even friends from the cold climes were wearing sweatshirts in the evenings during the middle of the week.
WATER: Our highs on the water temps were in the 74 degree range while the lows were around 67 degrees, not a lot of difference and there were no really strong temperature changes, no breaks to speak of. The cooler water was closer to the beach on both the Pacific sand the Sea of Cortez, on the Pacific the warmer water was on top of the San Jaime Bank while the Cortez side had the warm water around the 1150 and Cabrillo Seamount. The winds were mainly from the north and northwest so the calmer water was this side of the lighthouse on the Pacific side and this side of the Punta Gorda area on the Cortez side of the cape.
BAIT: Mackerel at $2 per bait and there were occasional Sardinas available up at San Jose if you were there early and they were the normal $20 per scoop. There were a few Caballito in with the mackerel but there were no large numbers of them.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: You had no need to travel very far this week for Striped Marlin as they seemed to be heavily concentrated between the Punta Cristobal area and the Arches, down to Punta Ballena. Almost all the fish were within three miles of the shore and anglers drifting live bait had the best action. Second best was trolling lures and a surprising third best was slow trolling dead bait. Most boats were able to entice at least a few Marlin into eating their offerings and the better boats (or those with better luck) were able to get releases in the range of one per hour. I loved it, close, steady action on fish averaging 120 pounds and since you did not have to run for an hour each way there was more time with bait or lures in the water which translates into more chances to hook up!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Yellowfin were scarce this week once again although I did hear of a few boats getting into a bit of action drifting live sardines or cut bait up at the Gorda Banks. There was a bit of action there a few weeks ago and it appears that a few of those fish decided to stick around, but not in any numbers. For the most part, as I walked around the Marina and asked the anglers and Captains about the tuna flags I saw flying, the answer would come back that they were flown for Skipjack and Bonita.
DORADO: Dorado were kicked down to the number two fish of the week, just behind the Striped Marlin. While there are still fish out there, they are not being found in the numbers were seeing a few weeks ago. There were still steady numbers being caught, and the best results seemed to come from the Pangas as they were fishing slow trolled live bait close to the beach and the Dorado seemed to be in there looking for food. The average size was up just a bit at 15 pounds and there seemed to be about two to three fish per boat for those that tried to target them.
WAHOO: What Hoo? Every Wahoo flag that I saw and enquired about this week ended up being flown for a Sierra. Hew, cool water and the wrong moon phase means that the bite is off, what can I say. It’s not like we get large numbers of these fish all the time anyway.
INSHORE: I had a few inshore groups this week and as an average, there were a couple of Dorado, some decent Sierra, a few Snapper and the occasional decent Roosterfish action to be had. The Sierra bite is very iffy, if you find the schools you can do well, but the schools are pretty scattered. The Dorado are close to the beach and that makes them a good target. There are enough Marlin in close that a lot of the Pangas that would normally target the standard inshore species are going for the Billfish instead.
NOTES: No football this weekend so I am sort of at loose ends. I golfed this morning; I think that I am going to have a few words with my friends that told me this was a fun game. Maybe I just need to spend MORE money on lessons, sigh. We are going to the beach this afternoon so the dog gets some exercise and then it is time to be lazy. Grill the ribs, drink a couple of cocktails and sit back with a good book and nice music in the background. Maybe some Pink Floyd? Until next week, tight lines!
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Jan 22, 2007; 11:51AM - 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
January 15-21, 2007
WEATHER: If you remember, we ended last week with clouds moving into our area. Well, the jet stream that brought them to us stayed overhead almost the whole week. People who were looking forward to sunny skies and a chance to lay out on the beach and get a tan were disappointed as the only sunny day we had all week was Saturday after 2 pm and Sunday. It looks as if the jet stream will move back over us in another day or so. With the clouds came wet weather. Not enough rain fell to make the streets run with small rivers, but there was enough to get everything wet and it really had a chance to soak in. Of course this means that in a few weeks the desert will be blooming and everything will be green! Because of the clouds our temperatures did not change much, our daytime highs were in the mid 70’s while the night time lows were around the mid to low 60’s.
WATER: With the jet stream and clouds came the wind. It was more northerly than usual so if you were on the water this side of Punta Cristobal on the Pacific side of the Cape the surface conditions were not bad. Past there it got choppy and sloppy. The same held true for surface conditions on the Cortez side once you got up to the Punta Gorda area. Water temperatures were a fairly steady 71-72 degrees everywhere with the exception of a warm eddy just to the south and west of the San Jaime Bank, there the water warmed up to 74 degrees. Just to the north of there, to the west of the Golden Gate Bank, it cooled off to 68-69 degrees. As is normal, the cool water was off color while the warmer water had a nice blue to it.
BAIT: Bait this week was 75% Mackerel, as the water continues to cool off there will be a change to almost all Mackerel. There were Sardinas available off of Palmilla at the usual $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite has remained excellent, as the fish have moved closer to us. The bite is still happening at the Golden Gate Bank and boats drifting bait on the top are still hooking up, but the choppy conditions have brought a lot of fish to the surface and now there are tailing fish everywhere. Reports from a few private boats that have been spending the entire day out on the water are that the fish are very active just to the inside (shoreward) of the Golden Gate. I sent a half-day on the water Friday and had tailing fish all over the place at the Punta Cristobal area and they were being very active and hungry as well. There are still fish being found at the ledge at the lighthouse, but there is very little bait stacked up there at the moment. There are some good balls of bait off the edge about a half-mile, and boats with good sonar have been doing well staying on top of the bait. For anglers with less seaworthy constitutions, the calmer waters just to the south of the Cape have also provided plenty of action with catches of two to four Marlin a day and they have been less than four miles offshore. There were reports of one small Blue Marlin of about 200 pounds being caught this week and it was from the Punta Cristobal area.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were a few Yellowfin caught this week but they were far from shore, almost 35 miles to the west in the warm water edge off of the San Jaime. A few football fish were found closer to home but that was about it for the Tuna this week.
DORADO: The Dorado bite continued this week; boats working close to the beach on the Pacific side had the best results. Bright colored lures run at 8-8 ½ knots worked well as did slow trolling live bait in areas where fish were seen. Most of the Dorado were in the 15-pound class but there was an occasional boat that hit a pocket of bigger fish in the 40-pound class. With the choppy conditions it was more difficult to spot floating debris so there were not quite the number of fish found that there were last week, but the numbers were still very good.
WAHOO: We have just come to the new moon phase so the Wahoo bite has been slow. There were a couple of fish caught this week, but most of the red flags that I saw as Wahoo flags turned out to be for Sierra.
INSHORE: The Sierra bite has started to turn on finally as the water has continued to cool. There has also been a fair bite on Pargo in close at the rocky points. Getting right up in the rocks and tossing out live bait has resulted in hookups for almost everyone, but the choppy conditions have made it a thrill ride as well.
NOTES: The poor Seahawks couldn’t get it done, sigh. It was a hell of a game though, and fun to watch. I had no voice left on Monday morning! Today will be a great one as well with the two games going on. I’ll watch them after golf this morning. I still have my fingers crossed that some day I’ll break 100. On the f9ishing side of the notes, there are Whales everywhere out there right now, we are seeing both Gray and Humpbacks every trip. A sight I will never forget is coming up on what appeared to be a floating mass of kelp, only to find that it was a vast school of Humboldt Squid, all of them at least three feet long. They were on the surface and what I thought was kelp were their tentacles and fins breaking the water as they fed on pelagic red crab. We slowed the boat to see them better and got bit on both the short corner lures! Not a great fight on #50 tackle, but it was a lot of fun when we went to smaller gear. Until next week, tight lines!
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Jan 21, 2007; 10:43PM - 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
January 21, 2007
Anglers –
Tourists that were vacationing in Los Cabos this past week definitely found out that Southern Baja does indeed have a winter season. Temperatures plummeted into the 50s and daytime highs often did not even reach 70 degrees, which is very rare for this tropical paradise. There was not much sunshine this week, mostly cloudy and during the later part of the week there was rain, it did not amount to that much measurable rainfall, since it was mostly steady drizzle, but some areas did report over one inch of rain and it was enough to wash the dust off of the vegetation and keep the dust down for a while. Winds continued to blow from the north, averaging 10 to 15 miles per hour, this contributed to plummeting the water temperature to the 70 to 71 range and also made for cloudy greener water conditions.
Live bait supplies for sardinas and mackerel were adequate on most days, though sardinas were more scattered and pangueros had to search for them and often did not find them until later in the morning. Mackerel are now schooling off of San Jose del Cabo and on most days anglers were able to jig up sufficient supplies.
Despite the cold wintry conditions anglers actually had good reports of offshore action for this time of year, the main species were striped marlin, dorado and a handful of yellowfin tuna. Marlin were scattered throughout the area, anywhere from 2 to 10 miles from shore, often seen riding the wind swells or tailing on the surface and would strike on dropped back baits, often they seemed to have lock jaw, but at other times with persistence they would take the bait. Most of the marlin hooked into were weighing in the 80 to 130 pound class. With the increased bait activity on the local fishing grounds there has been respectable numbers of dorado being accounted for, we will see how long that lasts now that the water temperature is near the 70 degree mark, which typically is the time when these tropical fish head further south in search of more temperate conditions. Dorado were striking on various medium sized lures and on whole and strip baits, average fish were 5 to 15 pounds, but a few fish up to 30 pounds were also mixed in.
There were reports of yellowfin tuna from the Gordo Banks, they were not numerous, but some boats accounted for up to three fish while using chunk bait or sardinas, tough using live sardinas though because of the pesky skipjack. The yellowfin that were landed weighed in the 20 to 60 pound range. Good numbers of tuna also came up closer to shore off of Punta Gorda, but these fish proved to be very shy about biting the baits with hooks in them, though they would readily feed on the free swimming chum.
There still was no consistent bottom or inshore action being found, though there was a mix of cabrilla, pargo, sierra and roosterfish found in limited numbers. Earlier in the week when the wind made for uncomfortable offshore conditions anglers reports some excellent action for roosterfish up to 20 pounds while trolling with mackerel along the beach stretches from La Laguna to La Playita.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita sent out approximately 44 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 18 striped marlin, 3 mako sharks, 22 yellowfin tuna, 92 dorado, 14 bonito, 6 amberjack, 9 pompano, 12 cabrilla, 18 sierra, 28 roosterfish, 38 pargo and 32 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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Jan 15, 2007; 07:29PM - 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
January 14, 2007
Anglers –
The weather patterns throughout much of the United States have been unusual this winter, with some areas reporting record heat waves, while other states have reported some of the chilliest temperatures in recent history. In general the Los Cabos area has had a mild winter with very pleasant conditions, but this last week was a bit crazy, there were cool days, winds out of the north as usual, then calm and unseasonably warm days mid–week, before turning chilly with drizzling rain over the weekend. Tourists continue to arrive in substantial numbers and the area is bustling with business, though there were not as many anglers at this time. The air temperature varied from 55 to 80 degrees and the water temperature was in the 72 to 75 degree range, slightly warmer than the previous week. A cleaner and warmer current pushed into the lower Sea of Cortez and this dramatically helped to improve the fishing action off of the San Jose del Cabo area.
Live bait supplies were a bit inconsistent, though on most days sufficient supplies of mackerel and sardinas were available, but the size and amount of bait received did vary.
Striped marlin action has now spread out, with the fish being found scattered from the Pacific into the Sea of Cortez, many charters were accounting for multiple billfish days. Striped marlin up to 140 pounds were striking on trolled lures, live mackerel and even sardinas, they were seen tailing on the surface, riding swells, or lighting up into the lure spread, the majority located from 3 to 12 miles from shore. Schools of mackerel are now being found in the normal holding areas and this should only attract more gamefish in the coming weeks.
Dorado appeared in greater numbers, scattered throughout the area, striking on lures and various baits, most of the fish were in the 5 to 20 pound class, but some impressive sized bulls up to fifty pounds were also accounted for. The Pacific produced big numbers of dorado this past week, but many of these fish were also found off of San Jose where the warmer water had moved in.
La Playita panga fleets were not very busy this past week, but it was not because of the slower fishing that plagued the area last week. The Gordo Banks once again came to life, anglers found great action on yellowfin tuna on both the Inner and Outer Banks. The yellowfin were averaging 20 to 40 pounds and there were several tuna to over 140 pounds also accounted for. The skipjack were so thick that it was impossible to fish with live sardinas for the tuna, drift fishing with chunk bait of skipjack proved to be the best technique for the tuna, also anglers had some success using whole small skipjacks for bait, this produced some of the larger fish.
On Saturday, Jan. 13 th, there was another Government Cup local tournament held, this time it was based out of Cabo San Lucas. The top results were the same as the recent event held from La Playita, as once again La Playita panguero Tony Miranda on his super panga “Hooker” was not to be denied and pulled off his second victory in a row with a 141 pound yellowfin tuna that was taken from the Outer Gordo Bank on chunk bait. His team also once again took home the first place prize of a 22 ft. panga with motor, congratulations to Tony and his crew for a well deserved and hard earned victory.
Strong currents made it more difficult to work the bottom rock piles, though there was a mix of pargo, amberjack, cabrilla and pompano accounted for, though there was no consistency to this action.
Along the shoreline there were some sierra and roosterfish found while trolling lures and bait, the numbers were not huge but at least it provided another option on the days when it was too windy further offshore, actually some of the roosters were as large as 15 pounds, fun sport on light tackle.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita sent out approximately 48 charters for the week, with anglers accounted for a fish count of: 12 striped marlin, 66 sierra, 18 pompano, 10 cabrilla, 36 pargo, 11 amberjack, 45 bonito, 105 yellowfin tuna, 112 dorado and 1 wahoo.
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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Jan 15, 2007; 12:26PM - 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
January 8-14, 2007
WEATHER: We started this week with some very nice blue skies and ended it on an overcast note. The wind came before the clouds so we had a good breeze on Wednesday and that also dropped the temperature for the day. With the cloud cover through the weekend the heat was trapped so our morning lows at the end of the week were in the low 60’s. The weather guys predict that the clouds will be gone by Tuesday and are expecting the lows to return to the mid to low 50’s. Along with the clouds came some rain, not hard rain, just some spitting, enough to wash off the dust but not cause rivers in the streets.
WATER: We had choppy conditions throughout the area on Wednesday when the clouds first moved in and since the winds were coming from the northwest the Pacific side beyond the lighthouse remained choppy. Close to home in the lea of the Cape things were smoother. The water temperatures remained fairly consistent at 73-74 degrees on both sides of the Cape but as you went farther up the Pacific and the Cortez the water became much more green in color.
BAIT: Bait this week was 75% Mackerel, as the water continues to cool off there will be a change to almost all Mackerel. There were Sardinas available off of Palmilla at the usual $20 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There wasn’t much difference from this week and last week on the billfish front. There is still a great bite going on at the Golden Gate Bank with giant balls of bait remaining on the edge of the shallows there the Marlin have remained as well. While there are some fish caught while slow trolling live and dead baits, the majority of the Marlin have been caught while drifting with baits deep in the water. These fish have been averaging 120 pounds and have been there for the past three weeks. There have also been Marlin found on the ledge at the lighthouse and the same methods have been working there. In the past week I have seen a lot more tailing fish that in the past month but these fish have not been hungry for our baits. With plenty of Marlin in the area it has not been uncommon for boats to hook and fight 6 or 8 fish a trip. With the deep drifting live bait it becomes important to use circle hooks, this keeps the Marlin from being hooked in the stomach or gills and makes releasing them much easier.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: It has still been slow for the Yellowfin close to home. There are still fish out 35 miles to the south and west but that is a long way to go for most of the boats. I heard reports of nice fish being spotted up to the north around the Finger Bank early in the week but the water has changed since the and the consensus is that they have probably move on. There has been an occasional pick on smaller fish within 20 miles of the Cape when the right Dolphin are found, but it has been a once-in-a-while thing.
DORADO: The Dorado bite really picked up this week and the reason seemed to be floating debris. I was lucky to get in on a decent bite about 5 miles off the beach on the Pacific side early this week when someone found a log. We went through all our bait and limited on Dorado between 15 and 25 pounds. A friend of mine went looking for the Tuna out 35 miles to the west and found a traveling school of Dorado instead. He reported that he went through all his bait as well and ended up with 13 Dorado between 20 and 30 pounds. There have been fish under the Frigate birds as well. Some boats have been coming in with their outriggers loaded with yellow flags as well as a few Marlin and an occasional Wahoo flag.
WAHOO: The Wahoo continued to bite for a few anglers this week as I overheard on conversation on the radio of a five fish catch in water between 80 and 100 feet deep on the Pacific side. The boat was working the beach for Dorado when it found the Wahoo school! There were other fish caught as well, enough so that seeing the red flag was not uncommon this week. Most of the fish were in the 15-25 pound class, but that is good eating!
INSHORE: Inshore fishing continued to produce plenty of Sierra as well as the normal beach fish such as Jacks, Pompano, Ladyfish, small Roosterfish, Pargo and Skipjack. Just off the beach the bite has been good for Dorado and the occasional Wahoo. Almost all the action has occurred on the Pacific side of the Cape.
NOTES: My fingers are crossed. I am writing this on Sunday morning and the Seahawks are playing at 11 am. I had a trip scheduled from 10 am until 3 pm and they just called to cancel so now I get to watch the game! It is overcast and blowing on the Pacific side with an occasional spit of rain, a good day to watch football on the tube. I hope everyone out there has a great week, and check the report next week to see how things are going down there on the tip of the peninsula. Until then, tight lines!
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Jan 9, 2007; 11:42PM - 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
January 7, 2007
Anglers –
With the start of the New Year there has been good-sized crowds of tourists visiting the Los Cabos area and they were enjoyed mostly sunny skies and ideal wintertime weather conditions. It is the time of year when the north wind kicks up and this season has not been any different, with breezes ranging from 10 to 20 miles per hour for the majority of the week. Water temperatures are now steadily dropping and are averaging from 71 to 74 degrees, clarity has been stirred up and greenish, particularly in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, the cleanest and warmest areas are on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas. There have been sufficient supplies of live bait, with both mackerel and sardinas available most days.
Despite the decent crowds of tourists, there were not that many anglers in town, fleets out of the Cabo Marina were busier than were the operations to the north, this is because the better action was found in the water near Cabo, especially for the consistent striped marlin action that was found from Chileno, to the old lighthouse and towards the Golden Gate Bank.
Striped marlin counts continued to be respectable, but were down from previous reports, possibly due to the full moon and greener water that had moved in. Most of the stripers were found anywhere from 3 to 12 miles from shore while trolling lures and dropping back baits once fish came into the lure spread, others were hooked while casting to tailing fish or by drifting baits down deeper. Sizes of the marlin ranged from 90 to 140 pounds. Dorado were also found in smaller schools in the same areas and charters were averaging one or two of them in their daily catch, with weights averaging 10 to 20 pounds. With the cooling water temperatures this is the time when dorado become more scattered and numbers of them caught fall off accordingly.
Yellowfin tuna action also dropped off, there were a couple of days when the tuna came up late in the morning and provided some action, but they were not consistent and there were more skipjack dominating the action on the Gordo Banks and Iman where the yellowfin had been biting the previous week. The few tuna that were accounted for were striking on either chunk bait or sardinas and ranged in the 15 to 40 pound class.
With the offshore surface action tapering off anglers are starting to search for action closer to shore and off the bottom. So far this option has proved to be hit or miss, there should be more sierra moving in, now that cooler water and more baitfish are congregating along the shoreline, but so far the numbers of sierra have been disappointing. There were some quality pompano up to 15 pounds taken off of the Cardon area, but this was from one small area and the fish would only bite for a short period each morning and with the strong northerly winds gusting it was not easy to stay on the spot. Anglers using yo-yo jigs over the various rock piles hooked into a few cabrilla, pargo and amberjack and we anticipate doing more of this style of fishing in the next couple of months.
The combined panga fleets from La Playita beach reported sending out approximately 37 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 5 striped marlin, 1 wahoo, 24 yellowfin tuna, 145 skipjack, 38 dorado, 42 pargo, 15 cabrilla, 26 pompano, 65 sierra, 8 roosterfish, 16 bonito and 11 amberjack.
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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