CaptGeo - 10-8-2012 at 07:45 AM
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
October 1 – 7, 2012
WEATHER: The feel of fall continued this week as we saw low temperatures of 78 degrees in the early morning hours. Like I said last week, normally we
can expect the drop in temperature and humidity sometime around Oct. 15, this is just a hint of things to come. Meanwhile, the mornings have been
great with cool weather and low humidity combined with a light breeze. As the day goes on the heat cranks up and we have been seeing some mid-days
readings at 100 degrees, along with a slight increase in humidity. The winds have remained light, but fairly consistent, just switching directions
throughout the day.
WATER: The large swells we were experiencing last week tapered down and they are now just 2-4 feet in all areas. If no more storms come into our
area we can expect smooth sea conditions to continue this coming week. The small swells and lack of rain have helped clear up the inshore waters in
most areas, and there has been more floating debris found drifting into our area due to the heavy rains from Tropical Storm Miriam that went ashore
well to the north of us two weeks ago. It takes a while for some of this to reach our area since it has to travel 200-300 miles, but when it does
arrive it has been in the water long enough to attract a great amount of sea life underneath. On the Pacific side of the Cape we have experienced
beautiful blue water with temperatures averaging 85 degrees. On the Cortez side of the Cape we are seeing 86-87 degrees with the water only slightly
off color, but still blue.
BAIT: Live bait was readily available with Caballito and Mullet at the normal $3 each as well as some frozen Ballyhoo at $3 each as well. With
smoother surf conditions there have been some Sardinas available in San Jose, but you have to be very early, and it helps to make arrangements ahead
of time since supplies are limited.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Well. While there are still decent numbers of Sailfish and Striped Marlin showing up on the Pacific side of the Cape, there have been no
large Blue Marlin reported to me this past week from that area. There have been plenty of small Blues however, and this is a good sign. Almost
without exception Blue or Black Marlin that weigh over 300 pounds are female, and usually have as few as two or as many as ten smaller males somewhere
in the area. Boats have been hooking up quite a few small male fish, and I have had reports of much larger fish coming in on trolled lures but not
hooking up. I didn't have any luck on Blues this week, but that might change this next week! Meanwhile, on Tuesday there was a Black Marlin reported
as weighing 640 pounds caught by a boat out of San Jose. This is the first large Black I have heard of since the end of the East Cape Bisbee
tournament. The day after the tournament ended there was a decent fish caught on the outer Gorda Bank, but I have heard of nothing since then.
Hopefully this is a good sign for the tournaments coming up!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: In our local area the Yellowfin Tuna fishing has been a disappointment. Boats are having to search long, hard and far away to find
any pods of Dolphin that are holding fish. Perhaps as few as 10% of the pods found have had any Yellowfin on them, and most of these fish have been
football to 20 pound size. A few boats have been putting in the time required to go to Gorda Banks and fish live bait and chunks there, hoping to get
into the big fish bite, and a few have had decent luck on fish that have gone just over 200 pounds. There have been fish over 100 pounds as well, but
you have to have the patience to wait for these guys, and more boats get skunked than catch anything. There are reports of occasional schools of fish
showing up just to the north of Punta Gorda as well, but there has been no consistency to them. Walking the marina in the afternoons checking on our
clients I sometimes see boats flying a rigger full of white flags and get excited, but this week when I ask the anglers (or the crews of the boat next
to the one with the flags) it usually turns out to be nice size Bonita or White Skipjack instead.
DORADO: The Dorado fishing has continued to be wide open on the Pacific side of the Cape. With a federal limit of only two of these fish per angler,
many boats are picking up their limits first thing in the morning and then heading offshore to look for marlin and tuna. The action on Dorado to 25
pounds has been great from just off the arch all the way to inside the Golden Gate Banks, and there has been decent fishing for larger fish to 50
pounds farther offshore. Normally floating debris will hold good numbers of fish, and spotting something in the water gets the pulse pounding. Not
all debris will hold, but the chances are good it will. Seeing frigate birds working one area and swooping down is the best signal you can get that
there are fish in the area. Ballyhoo rigged behind a plastic skirt or a lure designed to run ahead of the bait works magic on the larger fish, and if
you catch a few small skip-jack, cutting strips of them and running them the same way is magic on the smaller fish as well.
WAHOO: The full moon gave us the results we expected on Wahoo as several boats caught two or more of these speedsters. The action was spread out all
over our area, from the flats up at Punta Gorda to the sea-mounts on the Pacific side, and everywhere in between. There were not hordes of these
fish, but the chances were better than ever that you were going to have a shot at one. One boat managed to get six Wahoo that averaged 30 pounds, now
that's Wahoo fishing! Sorry, but I can't tell you exactly where or what they used, I promised the Captain not to, but I saw the fish. Rigged baits
got cut off quickly if the Wahoo were in the area, and once that happened, working that same area with lures like Marauders and Rapallas rigged on
wire leader paid off. A good search lure was a blue/white Islander with a ballyhoo rigged inside and trolled in the shotgun position, set back about
150 yards. You have to be aware of other boats in the area to do this (in order to not get cut off), but it can pay off big time.
INSHORE: There were scattered Roosterfish in the areas beaches, both on the Pacific side and the Sea of Cortez, but most of the pangas were working
just off the beach for Dorado first, then checking in the surf zone for Snapper and Roosterfish.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: Music of the week was Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown on his 2001 Universal release “Back To Bogalusa”. This is some really fine blues, and I
asked my friend Brian Flynn (The Brian Flynn Band) about him because Brian is like a guitar player encyclopedia. Brian had played with him before
Clarence died about six years ago and Brian said Clarence was one of the finest blues guitar players he has met. Listen to this CD and you might
agree with Brian and myself. Thanks for reading this weeks report, issue #500 and something, coming at you every Sunday since January 2000 except for
those week when we have not had power. Until next week, tight lines!
luv2fish - 10-8-2012 at 01:37 PM
During the Bisbee Fishing Tournaments, what are the rules as far as catch and release ?? And if the Bill fish are released how do the officials know
the weight and size ??
CaptGeo - 10-9-2012 at 08:28 AM
Minimum qualifying weight for either Blue or Black Marlin (the only qualifying species) is 300 pounds. If the fish is under 300 pounds it must be
released, and if the boat is entered in the release catagory any released fish is worth 300 points regardless of size (photos must be taken to verify
the species). If the team thinks the fish is over 300 pounds and brings the fish to the scales for weight and the fish is over 300 pounds, it
receives 1 point per pound. If the fish is brought to the scales for weight and it is under 300 pounds the team is penalized 25 points plus 2 points
for every pound under 300 pounds. A fish estimated by the team to be over 300 pounds and actually weighing 280 pounds would bring the team a negative
65 points, the 25 for being under 300 and 2 points X 20 pounds. This means that their next fish would have to weigh 365 pounds just to bring them
back to an even 300 points they would have received for releasing the small fish, or that they would have to release their next two fish to have a
total of 535 points (300 X 2 - 65), or some combination of the two.
watizname - 10-9-2012 at 09:03 AM
It would be nice to have Billcollector step in and give us all a sermon regarding killing marlin. Gosh, 25 points penalty for killing a fish under
300 pounds? AND it sounds like you would have to bring in more than one fish per boat to get yourself back to even.
I'd really like to hear from Billcollector on this issue, as he/she just SLAMMED Baja Blanca a week or so ago about killing marlin.
Sorry about hy-jacking your thread CaptGeo, but the rant last week from Billcollector regarding killing Marlin was so harsh, that I had to make the
comparison. 
CaptGeo - 10-9-2012 at 02:15 PM
I didn't see the post, but I like to release marlin myself, don't care to eat them and even though in the past I killed everyone that I caught (20+
years ago) now, as long as they are healthy and will recover I release them. Many studies have been done using satellite tags that release over time
and it is amazing what the larger species of billfish can recover from, and how fragile the smaller species are. Pretty much every Striped Marlin
that was tagged when healthy and not bleeding recovered, even those that had thrown out their stomachs (they do this in nature to rid themselves of
spiny fish) but if they had been bleeding at all, mortality was almost 100%. This is opposed to Blue and Black Marlin that would recover even when
bleeding heavily as long as the wound was not in the gills. One more reason to use non-offset circle hooks in live biats and rigged baits. Having
said that, these are still fish, not people, and if killing one now and then makes me some money in a tournament, it's going to get a gaff if I have a
chance. Last year there were almost 300 boat days fishing the Bisbee Black and Blue and there were only 6 billfish killed.
2011 Final Standings
1st Place
Bad Medicine, angler Luis Arballo: $394,090.00
409 lb. blue marlin, Day 1 $200, $500, $1,000, $2,000 Jackpots
2nd Place
Tiger Spirit, angler Luis Alberto Liera: $1,162,842.50
395 lb. blue marlin, Day 1, 2 and 3 $5,000 & $10,000 Jackpots
3rd Place
Pegasus, angler Vicente Rangel, $283,752.50
329 lb. blue marlin, Day 2 $200, $500, $1,000, $2,000 Jackpots
4th Place
El Lobo, angler Steve Skola: $259,745.00
313 lb. blue marlin, Day 3 $200, $500, $1,000, $2,000 Jackpots
With that kind of money on the line, I release into the boat! The commercial long-line boats kill more Blue Marlin in a day than the sportfishermen
in Cabo kill in a year. If you really want to have an effect on the billfish population, refuse to by the meat!