Mexico

[administrator]

For immediate release:
w/jpeg photos courtesy of the National Geographic Channel

Tagging billfish for science leads to great white shark research adventure and exciting TV series
Chris Fischer leads “Expedition Great White” on Nat Geo Channel Monday night, Nov. 16th GUADALUPE ISLAND, Baja Mexico, (Nov. 13, 2009) – Avid billfish angler and TV outdoor fishing adventurer Chris Fischer never thought he’d actually be living a scene much like that from Jaws as he kneeled face-to-face handling a huge, live 4,600 pound great white shark.
As a sportsman Fischer has caught and safely released lots of giant black marlin each weighing about 800 lbs, but this great white and the other giant toothy predators that followed were the biggest he’s ever caught, examined and then released 15 minutes later unharmed.
It began when Fischer, a board member for The Billfish Foundation (TBF) was asked by Dr. Michael Domeier to help him tag big black marlin off Panama to follow their migratory habits by satellite. An avid billfisherman and billfish scientist, Domeier happens to be a great white shark scientist as well.
“When he saw Ocean our 126 ft., mothership he asked if I would be able to catch and safely lift a great white shark on it for scientific research he wanted to do,” said Fischer. “We have a hydraulic lift to pick-up a 75,000 lb game boat. I said ‘sure. We can build a fence around the lift and swing a great white over it.’
“I felt we were the only people in the world who can safely capture these giant beasts of the ocean, pick them out of the water and let them go in good shape because of the lift and my crew of very talented world game anglers and captains,” as Fischer described Jody Whitworth and Brett McBride two legendary captains among his team members.
“I self-funded it, because we don’t really know much about great white sharks or other huge fish. It was a kind of a moral obligation to help Dr. Domeier solve this puzzle because I thought we would be the only people in the world who could do it for him. No one has ever had the ability to deliver mature specimens to scientists in remote locations because they are so big.
“Like in the movie Jaws, the first time we saw a shark come in and eat the bait and then take off and drag the buoys under and across the water it was a life-changing moment as an angler. The angling experience of capturing and releasing giant great white sharks is nothing similar to an angling experience of capturing a large pelagic fish. There’s a sense of history, a sense of awe, humility and humbleness. When a shark comes into the pattern under the back of the boat you look over at your bro and you’re all taking a step back. That thing is going to eat and we don’t want anyone to die today,” Fischer said with a smile describing that moment.
They even named the first great white they caught and released Bruce for the mechanical sharks used in the 1975 movie thriller classic.
Like a tenacious angler trying to get his quarry it took Fischer two years of pitching his project before National Geographic bit after seeing his exciting and extensive footage.
“I promised Dr. Domeier I would help him get these tags out and I went back and funded it a second year to help him finish this TV project and continue his science. Because of the severe down turn in the nation’s economy, if I couldn’t sell it I would have to sell my ship and get rid of everything. I was getting down to my last liquid dollars.”
Emulating the late French marine researcher Jacques Cousteau and his 139 ft. Calypso, Cousteau’s filming platform, Fischer describes his new TV series and his ship Ocean as a modern day vessel worthy of worldwide research of huge sharks and pelagic fish.
“And the episodes have the adventures of writer Zane Grey with many elements of the Deadliest Catch.” Fischer has won multiple Emmys for his recent Offshore Adventure series and other shows over this current decade. Actor Paul Walker another TBF board member and avid billfisherman helped on his crew.
“Monday night’s show is kind of a sneak peak during Expedition Week for the 10 hour series to run next summer,” said the highly passionate Fischer for his project. “The show is called Expedition Great White. We caught what we estimated to be a 4,600 lb great white based on length and girth.
“The first thing I did was call my buddies at the IGFA (International Game Fish Association) the world record keeping body, and Salt Water Sportsman magazine and asked them what was the biggest fish ever caught and released alive. Figures were in the 2,000 lb range on recreational tackle. I sent them this picture and they said nothing has been caught and released alive that big. We caught three of them over 4,000 lbs., the three biggest fish ever in history, caught and released alive. A specially designed system is used to keep each alive. The exam includes a blood draw by Dr. Domeier to check hormone levels, measurements, sperm samples taken, and tagging by attaching a tracking antenna to the dorsal fin before releasing.
“So it’s been great as the data is pouring in. Dr. Domeier is beginning to solve the puzzle of the great white shark; where they breed, where they feed, where they give birth so we can look after them and protect these areas. We’re learning so much new science.”
And work continues on the life cycle and migratory habits of billfish.
“Early next year we’re helping Dr. Domeier put out black marlin tags in the Puerto Vallarta fishery,” said Fischer. “He’s an avid big time black marlin and striped marlin angler and an active advisor to the TBF board. We support him and his science anyway we can.”
For more on the show which will be broadcast at 9 pm ET/PT, go to the Nat Geo website at http://channel.nationalgeographic.co...pedition-week/ .
----------------------
More on The Billfish Foundation: TBF is the only non-profit organization dedicated solely to conserving and enhancing billfish populations worldwide. With world headquarters in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., USA, TBF was established in 1986 by the late Winthrop P. Rockefeller, and has a comprehensive network of members and supporters including anglers, captains, mates, scientists, tournament directors, clubs, sport fishing and tourism businesses. By coordinating efforts and speaking with one voice, the organization works for solutions that are good for billfish, not punitive to recreational anglers and good for the local economy.
For more see the TBF web site at www.billfish.org or phone them at 800-438-8247.
###

TBF PR counsel - Pete Johnson, Johnson Communications
Scottsdale, Ariz., USA
480-951-3654 (ph) -- JohnsonCom@aol.com

Editors: please credit the National Geographic Channel for the following photos:

Captions:
1-2 – Chris Fischer holds one of the special hooks used for the safe catch and release of the great white sharks during the filming of Expedition Great White. (photo credit: © National Geographic Channel)

2 -2 -- GUADALUPE ISLAND, Baja Mexico: (Left to right) Crew member, Chad Kiesel and expert angler, Chris Fischer tag a 14 ft female great white shark to track her to breeding grounds. The hydration hose in the shark's mouth keeps it alive while the team measures, tags, and takes blood samples. (photo credit: © National Geographic Channel/ Chris Ross)

5 – 4 -- GUADALUPE ISLAND, Baja Mexico: Crew member, Jody Whitworth lifts the nose of a great white shark while Captain Brett McBride removes the hydration hose that keeps the shark alive on deck. (photo credit: © National Geographic Channel/ Chris Ross)

[captgeo]

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
November 2-8, 2009


WEATHER: Our nice weather remained with us this week as we saw high temperatures in the mid to high 80’s and the lows in the low 70’s. One morning, Tuesday I think, the data on the truck dash showed 68 degrees. We had no rain this week and mostly sunny skies with light winds from the west and northwest.
WATER: The Pacific side has had a bit of a swell compared with the Cortez side, around 3-5 feet most of the time and in the late afternoons the wind has picked up just a little bit causing some whitecaps on top of the swells. The Cortez side of the Cape has remained calm. The water on the Pacific side has remained several degrees cooler on average than that of the Cortez side. Water close to the beach on the Pacific has been in the 78-79 degree range and rising a degree or so a little farther offshore. On the Cortez side the near-beach water has been 80 degrees and offshore it has been 81-82 degrees.
BAIT: We had a full moon this week so Caballito were tough to get and there were no Mackerel. When you were able to get the larger baits they were going for $3 each or more, depending on what the bait guys could get away with, there was a two day Tuna tournament at the end of the week that caused prices to go up a bit. There were Sardinas available at $25 or more per scoop; again the price depended on the tournament boats needs.
FISHING:

BILLFISH: There was a Black Marlin reported to have been caught on the Gorda Bank during the Tuna tournament that ended up weighing over 650 pounds. Ah, just little late to get any big money for that girl in a tournament! That was the only large Billfish I heard about this week, most of the action was on Striped Marlin and a few Sailfish. There were fish found scattered about all along the Pacific side, no strong concentrations were found anywhere. Getting a billfish strike was the average luck; a few boats were able to get one or two to the boat for a release.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The big news on the Tuna front was the capture of a Yellowfin during the first day of the W.O.N. tournament that weighed 383 pounds! That fish was a real toad and was reported to have been caught while fishing with a live Bollito on the surface at the Gorda Banks. There were no other fish caught over 200 pounds and not really that many over 100 pounds. Most of the fish found were in among porpoise to the west of the San Jaime Banks and to the south of the Cape approximately 35 miles. There were 104 boats entered in the tournament so pretty much all the areas got covered.
DORADO: The Dorado bite has slowed down a little overall, but a few boats are continuing to do extremely well when finding debris on the surface. One boat found a dead turtle on the surface and loaded up on decent size Dorado averaging 20 pounds. For the most part the numbers are down, a good trip is five to 10 fish and the average size is now down to 10 pounds. During the Tuna Tournament there were only two Dorado weighed in over 30 pounds.
WAHOO: The Wahoo bite was good for the boats that targeted them and for everyone else it was an incidental catch. I have one friend that managed 15 Wahoo in three days, loosing a lot more than that, and the largest one was 85 pounds. During the Tuna Tournament the largest to come to the scales was 61 pounds. Working the high spots and the steep drops with either high-speed lures of slow trolled live bait on wire leader was the key for Wahoo.
INSHORE: It appears that the size of the Roosterfish shrinks week by week. The week before last they were averaging 5-10 pounds and this past week anglers were lucky to get one that weighed 5 pounds. The lack of larger baits may have had something to do with that though, as a small sardina tends to be a quick snack for a small roosterfish. Other inshore fish have yet to really arrive, there are a few Sierras being caught and an occasional small Yellowtail, but neither in any numbers. Most of the Pangas are concentrating on Dorado at the moment.
NOTES: Once again my thanks to Mark Bailey for the music selection this week. This week it is the music of 1100 Springs on a cd he labeled “Country Jams” Thanks Mark! Until next week, tight lines!

[captgeo]

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
October 26-November 1, 2009


WEATHER: As we expect this time of year, the weather has gotten off of the summer schedule and we now have the cool fall weather comforting us. Our temperature this morning was 68 degrees, earlier in the week it was a steady 70 degrees while the daytime highs have been in the mid to high 80’s with little humidity. No wonder so many people come and visit this time of year! We had mostly clear skies this week with a little wind from the northwest early in the week.
WATER: The seas have been nice at an average of three-foot swells with a little afternoon chop on top of that on the Pacific side and an average of 1 foot less on the Cortez side of the Cape. There was an intrusion of cool water from the Pacific side across the tip of the Cape this week and at an average of 80 degrees it crept close to the beach in a narrow 3 mile wide band as far as San Jose then bent to the east in a 10-mile wide band extending from the Gorda Banks to the 1150. To the southwest of this cool band the temperature was 82 degrees, sort of a pocket of warmer water 30 miles by 30 miles. Out on the Pacific the water 15 miles to the west of the San Jaime Bank, along the 1,000-fathom line, was also a warm 82 degrees while inside that area it was 80 degrees. Surprisingly, the warmer water was a little green this week while the cooler water was bluer.
BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were the usual $3 per bait and there were some Sardinas available up in San Jose at $25 a bucket, or here in Cabo at $30 a half bucket.
FISHING:

BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite as well as Blue and Black Marlin dropped off this week. It may have something to do with the full moon. As the water cooled we expected the big girls to slow down but the Striped Marlin should be picking up. Maybe soon the big groups will start to show. The Striped Marlin that were caught were found on the Pacific side fairly close to the beach by boats looking for Dorado. Small groups of two to six fish were spotted on the surface but only one in 10 or 12 showed any interest in eating a live bait and very few of them showed any interest at all in lures. A few boats did all right, releasing two or three fish per trip, but we have not yet seen the numbers of fish as we have over the past three years.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Yellowfin were scattered out this week, some fish were found as close as two miles from the lighthouse and there were other out 30+ miles to the west. Almost all the fish were found with Porpoise, there were a few unassociated schools found but it was hard to keep on the fish without the mammals to show you where they were headed. Most of the fish caught were football to school size fish, from 8 to 40 pounds with an occasional 60-80 pound fish in the mix. A few boats that got to the schools first did all right with an occasional larger fish to 130 pounds. At the end of the week the bite slowed down and the fish were harder to find. On Saturday it was reported that there were three purse seiners working the area so the bite may be off for a while. That too bad as we have the yearly Tuna Tournament coming up next week.
DORADO: The Dorado bite was wide open early on, boats were catching all they could handle and were releasing anything under 10 pounds (at least most of the boats were). Later in the week the water started to cool and the bite slowed down. With the moon getting larger the bite moved to the afternoon as well so it often seemed that there were no more Dorado around, at least at the end of the week for the first few hours of a trip, A few boats managed to do extremely well after finding a dead turtle on one day and a log on another day, both of which were holding major numbers of fish under them. Even with the slow bite late in the week, most of the boats were able to catch near-limits of fish averaging 12 pounds.
WAHOO: The full moon brought the Wahoo bite back as there were more fish found late in the week than earlier in the week. Most of the fish averaged 30 pounds and were found near the points by boats working for Dorado.
INSHORE: With the great water conditions most of the Pangas were trying their best to put clients on the Dorado and Tuna early in the week. At the end of the week with the bite moving toward the afternoon, the morning boats returned to the near shore ground and targeted Roosterfish, Sierra and Snapper. Most of the Roosterfish were on the small size with an average of 10 pounds but there were some nicer fish found in the Cabo bay near the RIU resort beach. These fish reportedly were in the 30-4o pound class. The Sierra were still small at an average of 4 pounds and were found farther up the Cortez side of the Cape. The main species of snapper found this week were the smaller Yellowtail Snapper but there were a few Cuberra and Barred Pargo in the catch as well.
NOTES: Once again my thanks to Mark Bailey for the music selection this week. The 2008 release by Smith Entertainment of the album “Ain’t In It For The Money” by the Texas group “Micky and the Motorcars” kept me tapping my toes as my fingers worked the keyboard. Until next week, tight lines!

[puertovallartafish]

fishing report October 31 2009

Mahi mahi, yellowfin tuna, sailfish and big black marlin
it is high season and everything is out there you can do a short day
inside the bay and still catch a dozen dorado! off the point of punta de mita
you find the right line and the smaller mahi mahi are jumping in the boat, go
a little further to corbetena and you will find smaller tuna 40-100lb range sailfish 90-110 lbs
and bigger mahi mahi up to 50 lbs, the bank has been day to day every day is a
little different we went last tuesday and it was hot with Wahoo and tuna, the
next day just alot of bait we caught one 240+ yellowfin tuna so the big ones are there
you just need to pick the right day, but if the big tuna cows are there gauranteed our
crew will put You on them! Puerto Vallarta is holding the 54th annual sailfish
and marlin tournament starting november 11th with over 400,000 dollars in
prizes plus daily sailfish, marlin, yellowfin tuna, and mahi mahi jackpots.
for more info on the tournament please email info@puertovallartafish.com
that is all for now until we catch the next big fish tight lines.

[captgeo]

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Oct 19-25, 2009


WEATHER: Two close calls in two weeks means we got really lucky when it came to weather this week. As Monday opened we awoke to the sounds of heavy thunder and lightning flashes with heavy rain as the first band of Hurricane Rick came over us. For the next two days we watched as Rick finally lost energy and started moving off to the south of us. We received lots of gentle rain and then the skies cleared. On Wednesday afternoon the last feeder band went over the top of us and once again we received several hours of heavy rain. The remainder of the week was sunny and we had nighttime temperatures in the mid 70’s and daytime highs in the high 80’s with light winds.
WATER: We had rough water at the start of the week as Hurricane Rick approached. The swells built up and the Port closed through noon Wednesday due to the high winds and sloppy sea conditions. On Thursday the swells were back to normal size and the skies were clear. At the end of the week the water was in great shape with small swells and no wind chop. Water temperatures on the Cortez side of the Cape averaged 85 degrees to 25 miles south of land then dropped to 83 degrees. The warmer water wrapped around the Cape on the Pacific side and we had continued temperatures of 85 degrees 10 to 15 miles off the beach there. Once past the San Jaime and the Golden Gate banks to the west the temperature dropped to 81 degrees.
BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were the usual $3 per bait and there were some Sardinas available up in San Jose at $25 a bucket, or here in Cabo at $30 a half bucket. Prices seem to go up in tournament time for Sardinas, as they are needed to catch the small tunas used for baiting the big Marlin.
FISHING:

BILLFISH: This week was the Bisbee Black and Blue Marlin tournament. We were postponed a day due to Hurricane Rick but this tournament really shows the state of billfish in our area as they are the only fish that count, and you have some of the best fishermen and fishing teams in the world competing, at least for the big marlin. I guess it’s possible that Hurricane Rick caused things to change because while the week before there were plenty of Black Marlin caught on the Gorda Banks, the boats that fished there this week got goose eggs for their efforts. With 89 teams competing for three days there were only two fish brought in that weighed over the 300-pound minimum, one on the first day at #375 and one on the third day at #305. It’s pretty sad that 267 fishing days had those results. There were smaller fish caught, we released a Striped Marlin on the first day and a small Blue Marlin on the third day and there were plenty of hook-ups reported, but no big fish. Most of the action seemed to have shifted to the Pacific side this week as the current pushed the warm water up the coast.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again the number of Tuna was down from last week but when you could find them they bit pretty well. We had one couple who got into the fish on Thursday about 20 miles to the southwest and they were able to come in with one fish of 100 pounds, one of 80 pounds and plenty of smaller fish. On their second day they had all smaller fish. Another group we had out got into the fish but were unable to get a bite all day long, ending up with a goose egg for the day. Most of the fish were found on the Pacific side within 25 miles of the shore, but there was a nice school reported out at the temperature break to the west of the San Jaime Bank. Another big fish was caught by one of the boats in the Bisbee tournament. They boated the large Yellowfin after 1-½ hours of fighting on #130 line so it had to be a beast but I never heard the weight.
DORADO: The Dorado bite dropped off a lot this week, the storm seemed to have scattered them. Perhaps this coming week will allow them to school up again and the action will improve. A few boats were still able to show well on these fish with limits of two per angler, but they were not the norm for the week. The action that occurred was on the Pacific side of the Cape fairly close to shore in the warm water.
WAHOO: I only heard of a couple of Wahoo being caught this week, and those were found in the open water by boats looking for Blue Marlin.
INSHORE: Dorado continued to be the main focus of Pangas this week as they were still present in fair numbers, though small in size, close to the beach. A few of the Pangas ventured offshore on the Pacific side looking for Yellowfin and did well. Action inshore did not pick up until the very end of the week due to churned up conditions, but there was a bite for small Sierra up toward San Jose and there was some decent grouper fishing along the Cortez coast.
NOTES: Our prayers were answered as Hurricane Rick downgraded from a category five to a category one and passed well to the south of us. The rain it brought was a blessing; gentle enough to soak into the ground without causing bad run-off. The Bisbee tournament was a bust with low numbers of boats and even lower numbers of fish. The next tournament coming up is the Tuna Tournament the first week of November so everyone is now gearing up for that! My thanks to Mark Bailey for bringing me some new CD’s to listen to. This weeks report was written to the great country music of Danny Balis on his 2009 self released album “Too Much Living”. Great stuff! Until next week, tight lines!

[captgeo]

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Oct 12-18, 2009


WEATHER: We had a break last week as we expected Tropical Storm Patricia to come over the top of us. She did, but only as a remnant low-pressure system, thank goodness she fell apart early. She did bring three days of gentle rain, and the hills are bright green now. Due to the swells and gusty winds the Captain of the Port closed the port Wednesday and Thursday morning. We were hoping the clouds would help lower the temperatures a bit and they did for a few days, then we were back to the mid 90’s with high humidity during the daytime and the mid 80’s at night. Now we have something else to worry about, and we can only hope that Hurricane Rick, a category five hurricane at this time, and 555 miles away and with core winds at 180 mph, either gets directed more to the west or falls apart soon. As of now we are expected to get a very close pass mid-day Wednesday with core winds at 125 mph, and storm force winds out to 140 miles from the center.
WATER: Choppy water was the norm early in the week and things finally mellowed out on Friday. We had swells at 2-5 feet on the Pacific, 1-3 feet on the Cortez side with winds that varied direction, occasionally from the east but mostly from the northwest or north. The water on both sides of the Cape was in the 84-85 degree range at the end of the week, as far as you could fish on the Cortez side and out to 35 miles from shore on the Pacific side. Once past that 35 miles it dropped to 81 degrees.
BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were the usual $3 per bait and there were some Sardinas available up in San Jose at $25 a bucket, or here in Cabo at $30 a half bucket. Prices seem to go up in tournament time for Sardinas, as they are needed to catch the small tunas used for baiting the big Marlin.
FISHING:

BILLFISH: There were still plenty of Striped Marlin out there but getting them to bite was sometimes difficult. Most boats were able to hook and release at least one fish per day, and a few boats were releasing two or three per trip. They really seemed to like the Pacific side of the Cape close to the shoreline, as did the occasional Sailfish. The Larger Marlin were in different areas. Running the ridge between the San Jaime and Golden Gate Banks brought up quite a few Blue Marlin this week with a couple of fish that were in the 200-300 pound category. The biggest fish were the Black Marlin, and there seemed to be more of them than this time last year. The Los Cabos Billfish Tournament was two days this year due to the port being closed for the first half of the first day, but there were four Black Marlin weighed that were over #300 with the largest at #550, all on live bait and all at the Outer Gorda Banks.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: While the number of Yellowfin caught this week dropped off from last weeks catch, there were some quality fish taken. Among the 39 boats fishing the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament there were four Yellowfin over 100 pounds. Earlier in the week there was a reported cow over #300 taken from the Gorda Banks area. Most fish found were smaller, in the 20-35 pound class and were found with porpoise. Good areas were to the south between 8 miles to 30 miles.
DORADO: Once again Dorado were the fish of the week as the action was wide open on fish ranging in size from 4 pounds to 25 pounds with an occasional 45 pound fish tossed in. Almost all the action was on the Pacific side where the water was a bit on the rough side once again. Limits were common as was boats going way over the established limit of 2 fish per angler. Many boats left Dorado in order to catch something different!
WAHOO: Surprisingly we still had a decent Wahoo bite happening this week as fish averaging 30 pounds were caught on both sides of the Cape. Working structure was the best method, back and forth across peaks and drop-offs with heavy lures.
INSHORE: Dorado were the target of almost every Panga Captain and angler I talked to this week. With the bite as good as it is and with a few billfish to toss in for some action there was little effort made to work the beach for Roosterfish or the bottom for Snapper and Grouper.
NOTES: Please keep your fingers crossed that Hurricane Rick does not hurt us too bad. We just had one huge noisy squall come, part of the feeder bands Cats and dogs hiding everywhere! We may end up with a one-day Bisbee tournament as the fishing is supposed to be on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Maybe we will be able to fish on Friday at least! This weeks report was written to an album first released in 1971, “L.A. Woman” by the Doors. I thought the song “Riders On The Storm” was appropriate. Until next week, tight lines.

[captgeo]

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Oct 5-11, 2009


WEATHER: We had a week with no influences from storms finally! Well, with the passing of Olaf we did get some very nice cool weather early last week, so nice in fact that we felt that we might just be getting into the fall weather pattern, but that was a short lived wish. At the beginning of the week we had our nighttime lows in the low 70’s with low humidity as well, and light breezes, perfect evening weather. The daytime highs were in the mid 80’s and also with low humidity, even though we had a fair amount of cloud cover. Later in the week things warmed up almost 10 degrees across the board. At the beginning of the week the wind was from the southwest, then it started to shift around and come from the northwest at 15-20 knots in the afternoons with lighter winds in the mornings. In the afternoons late in the week, Thursday and Friday in particular, the wind shifted hard and blew at about 15-20 knots from the east, surprising everyone.
P.S. Update: Since writing the report an area of disturbed weather to the southeast has been designated as Tropical Storm Patricia and is expected to move over or very near the southern tip of the peninsula (that’s us!) on Tuesday evening with winds to 50 knots, gusting to 60 knots, and it looks like there is a lot of rain with it.
WATER: The water was choppy almost all week on the Pacific side and in the afternoons on the Cortez side of the Cape this week. At times it looked as if there were sheep feeding all over the place out there as everywhere you looked there were whitecaps. I was fishing on Monday and when we went out in the morning toward the Gorda Banks the water was perfect, when we started to come back in the afternoon we were taking an occasional dose of water on the fly bridge of the 40’ Blackwatch I was on. The same thing happened for boats that went to the Pacific side later in the week as they faced winds from the east on their way back, hugging the beach helped them a little bit. Early in the week the water temperatures close to shore on the Pacific side were cool at 77-80 degrees between the beach and the offshore banks while the water on the Sea of Cortez remained a steady 85 degrees everywhere. This changed late in the week and on the weekend the warm water from the Sea of Cortez had wrapped its way around the Cape so that we had 83-85 degree water everywhere on the Cortez side as well as from the San Jaime and Golden Gate Banks to the beach on the Pacific side. Outside the Banks the water dropped quickly to 79-80 degrees. Surprisingly enough, the water on the Cortez side of the Cape was slightly green, even though it was the warmer water for most of the week.
BAIT: Almost all the larger baits this week were Caballito and mullet at the normal $3 per bait and they were occasionally hard to come by, perhaps the product of coming off the full moon. There were Sardinas available at San Jose if you got there early, at the normal $25 per bucket.
FISHING:

BILLFISH: The billfish bite dropped off quite a bit this past week, perhaps due to the full moon. There were Sailfish and Striped Marlin found close to home and close to shore, just not in any number and the ones that were found were not in a very hungry mood. We should have been seeing more Black and Blue Marlin than we have been, but once again the full moon had an effect on that. Now that we are in the last quarter perhaps things will get better with these larger billfish. Don’t get me wrong; there are still Marlin and Sailfish out there, just not in great numbers. There have been all species caught everyday, with the exception of Black Marlin, just no really large specimens or in large numbers.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: This was a nice week for a number of boats that went out and got into the Tuna. The bite got quite a bit better late in the week with fish showing up close to home and in a feeding mood. As close as two miles from the arch there were pods of porpoise holding fish that averaged 30 pounds. We had clients on two days bring in Tuna that weighed over 100 pounds, one of them scaled out at 150 pounds. The rough water conditions extended the fight as did the fact the fish were caught on #30 test line. Live bait was the key to the larger fish while the smaller fish often turned their noses up at normal sized lures and demanded small hootchies in red or pink. At the end of the week the Tuna had worked their way to 24 miles offshore toward the southeast.
DORADO: Dorado were the fish of the week as the action was wide open on fish ranging in size from 4 pounds to 25 pounds with an occasional 45 pound fish tossed in. I heard of one boat that landed a fish over 70 pounds but did not see the fish or a photo. Almost all the action was on the Pacific side where the water was a bit on the rough side. To my surprise it seemed that dark colored lures worked better this week for those using artificial lures. Many of the boats opted to catch a few skipjack and chunk them up for chum, and then using strips for bait as the Dorado showed up. It was no problem at all to limit out, and with the action this hot and heavy many of the boats went overboard and caught three or four time their limit (two Dorado per angler). There were scattered Dorado offshore as well, and boats that caught Dorado limits early and headed offshore for something else still caught them 20 miles out.
WAHOO: We still had a decent Wahoo bite happening this week as fish averaging 30 pounds were caught on both sides of the Cape. Working structure was the best method, back and forth across peaks and drop-offs with heavy lures. Trolling at a higher than normal speed kept many of the nuisance small Dorado off the hooks. 9.5 to 11 knots worked for us, and we still got larger Dorado as well as Striped Marlin hook-ups at that speed.
INSHORE: There was a three day showing of football Yellowfin and decent sized Dorado off of the Cabo Del Sol beaches during the middle of the week and Pangas that made the run to San Jose for Sardinas did well with plenty of both species of fish showing up in the catches. There were even a few Wahoo caught this way. Those willing to work their way offshore and brave the seas did well trolling lures for the smaller Tuna and a few Pangas managed to get Yellowfin to 60 pounds with live bait when the fish were close to shore. Most of the Pangas focused on Dorado as the water conditions made working very close to the beach uncomfortable.
NOTES: The hills and desert are nice and green and there are flowers coming up everywhere. If you are coming down, take a day and get out into the surrounding area to check it out. There are plenty of companies that do excursions into the hills. On the fishing side of things, it’s finally happening, the Tuna are here and have been biting well, there are plenty of Dorado around, and in my mind that means that as the new moon approaches the large Marlin should be starting to feed. We have the bait in Tuna and Dorado, the water temperature is right and the moon should be perfect! Lets keep our fingers crossed! This weeks report was written to the blues of Taj Mahal on the 2000 Sony Music release “The Best Of Taj Mahal”. My great thanks to Tom Hispanski for bringing me this CD as well as the ones I have been using for my reports for the past three weeks, and the one I will use next week, thanks Tom I hope Herman gets a Marlin on the next trip! Until next week, tight lines

[bajafly]

Endless Season Update 10/10/2009
REPORT #1186 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

Brian Kelley, wearing the white cap, with three of his buddies celebrating his 50th birthday with a fat one …Mark Rayor.

The first serious north wind of the season arrived late this week along with grouchy seas that caused short days for some.

Still seem to be enough fish around to keep things interesting; it is just tougher to find them. There were a few porpoise schools found closer to shore that did produce

some tuna for the first handful of boats that found them.

Dorado action was also a little sketchy with most boats finding only a few, if any, but there are still some skipjack and football sized tuna out in front of the lighthouse.

As usual the beach was trashed from the wind waves which created difficult conditions for the beach walkers.

The good news is the winds are predicted to subside soon and hopefully the bite will pick right back up.

Current East Cape Weather http://tiny.cc/EastCapeWeather303

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Well so much for the quickie trip last Friday. By the time I arrived at the border a small tropical depression, Olaf, had turned and was headed on an erratic path for Baja’s

midsection.

Since my trip only allowed for a few days of fishing with little or no wiggle room, I delayed the trip until this Monday.

Turned out to be a good call; Olaf dumped plenty of rain from Cuidad Constitution to Mulege. There were a few washouts and one group driving down reported 30 water

crossings during their trip from the border to East Cape.

The storm left unsettled conditions but they seem to have dissipated by the end of the week.

So I will be driving down the peninsula Monday, the 12th, with a stop planned in Mulege to check out some rumors of large snook appearing in the Santa Rosalia River.

Then on to Lopez Mateos to fish both beach and offshore for three days with Lance Peterson, our Mexico Guide.

I will return on Monday, the 19th, and should have an update on the aftermath of the recent storms.

Current Magdalena Bay Weather http://tiny.cc/MagBayWeather150

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The 80° blue water has cooled down a bit from last week, and has moved in very close to the beach. This should improve the fishing, but we have had a series of hard

rains and wind and a full moon period, combined with few clients fishing. An accurate picture of the fishing action is hard to describe at best.

The average for sailfish is about one or two a day per boat, and few nice size dorado are also being taken.

Inshore, there are a lot of small jack crevalle, and even a few sierra, but the roosterfish bite also seems to have died off. However, we also had strong surf all this last

week, so the roosters have moved offshore, and should move back in when the moon phase affects the surf to a lesser degree.…Ed Kunze

Current Zihuatanejo Weather http://tiny.cc/zihuatanejo582

[puertovallartafish]

Puerto Vallarta fishing for Marlin and yellowfin tuna. We left the docks at 5 am and reached the Bank by about 6:45 am, there was bait all over as soon as we put the lines in the water we reeled in 5 bonita's rigged them up and starting trolling, live bait a couple teasers and black and purple black bart lures, at 8 am we had our first bite a huge dorado about 50 lbs , 5 minutes later we hooked a nice 60 lb Yellowfin tuna, then a big marlin struck it was a nice blue about 200 lbs we did not boat it but an hour later we had another strike this time a nice 400 + lb black marlin it took Mark about 2 hours to pull it in and i was surpized when he still had enough energy to nail 3 more tuna's after that! What a day we got to the docks around 6 pm total 1 black marlin, 6 yellow fin tuna and 1 big Dorado! tournement season is here and Puerto Vallarta will be holding its 54th anuual marlin and sailfish tournament November 12th here in the Marina Vallarta with over $300,000 dollars in prizes we should have a great turnout. this is the big Puerto Vallarta fishing season those 500 + marlins, and 300+ tunas you read about are always caught between September and December we are always excited to see what record fish will be pulled out of PV this year!

[captgeo]

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Sept. 21 - 28, 2009


WEATHER: Tropical Storm Olaf was the influence this week as it slowly worked it’s way up the Pacific side of Baja California, finally crawling across the central part of the peninsula before going off onto the mainland. At the slow speed Olaf was moving, we received lots of clouds and some more much needed rain. With light rains every other day and an occasional one-hour drench, the whole of Baja California Sur is looking clean and green! Our daytime highs dropped a bit due to the clouds and averaged 95 degrees with an occasional short jump to over 100 when the sun showed itself. Nights were in the low 80’s. Winds were from the west and southwest for the middle of the week through the end of the week due to the trailing feeder bands from Olaf.
WATER: Long slow rollers were the word of the week for most of the time with the water on Friday becoming very confused and rough on the Pacific side as the wind finally switched directions. Seas averaged 2-5 feet on the Pacific and 1-3 feet on the Sea of Cortez. Water temperatures were down a bit due to the cloud cover and also they were hard to get unless you were actually on the water for the same reason. What we did see was temperatures on the Pacific side at mostly 79-80 degrees while the Cortez side was 76 degrees inshore and out to 10 miles along most of the coast with a plume of warm water to 82 degrees intruding across the 1150 and Cabrillo Seamount from the southeast.
BAIT: Almost all the larger baits this week were Caballito and mullet at the normal $3 per bait.
FISHING:

BILLFISH: Striped Marlin and Sailfish were found rather close to shore on the Pacific side once again. There were reports of some decent Blue and Black Marlin being hooked up on the Cortez side up in the San Jose area, but I did not get to confirm that, just rumors I heard. The water conditions on the Pacific side at the end of the week had many of the boats focusing their efforts on the Cortez side of the Cape and it appears as if there are a few Striped Marlin and Sailfish to be found there as well, just not in the numbers we were seeing on the Pacific. Like the fish found to the west, these fish were not really in the eating mood either, drop a bait on their heads and the odds were 20% for a hook-up.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: While the Tina Seiners the week before last caused a couple of days of no Tuna action, they seemed to have returned a few days later. Still not in the numbers we saw before the seiners came through, they are being found in decent numbers farther offshore on the Pacific side. Running 30-40 miles in the choppy conditions we had was not in the books for most of the boats though, and few of them made it out to the fish, therefore there were few Tuna flags flying. Heading out between 175 and 210 degrees for 30 miles put you in the area, then it was a job to find the porpoise, when the chop started they seemed to disappear!
DORADO: Dorado action was good at the end of the week. These fish seem to like the conditions a bit choppy and most boats were coming in with at least four or five fish, averaging 12-15 pounds with good numbers of larger fish to 40 pounds. Most of the action was on the Pacific side of the Cape close to the beach.
WAHOO: There were some nice fish last week and with the full moon on the 4th, there should be more this week. Most of the Wahoo taken this week were found by boats working just of the beach fishing for Dorado, so you know there were a lot of fish lost due to small diameter Mono leaders!
INSHORE: The Pangas were not doing a lot of inshore fishing this week as the conditions were a bit rough, but there were some decent catches of small grouper and snapper made by boats working the bottom. For Pangas that were surface fishing, most of them were working just off the beach for Dorado and the occasional Striped Marlin and Sailfish.
NOTES: I love the rain that we have been getting, it is just the right volume and scattered out so that it soaks into the ground instead of washing everything away. It has caused a bit of a problem with the road construction however, and for those of you who actually expected the crews to meet the August 1 completion deadline, this is Mexico, we will be lucky if it is finished by the end of October! Full moon in October this week should mean Wahoo in decent numbers and, hopefully, some big Marlin showing up! This weeks report was written to the music of the king of blues, B.B. King on the 2008 Geffen Records release, “One Kind Favor”. Until next week, tight lines!