Cabo Bite Report
Capt. George Landrum
March 26, 2012
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
March 19-25, 2012
WEATHER: With the week starting off with partly cloudy skies it was nice that things cleared up and warmed up during the week. We had daytime highs in the mid to high 80's while the early morning lows were in the low 60's. We started every day with little if any wind and then as the day progressed the wind slowly increased so that by 3 in the afternoon it was breezy and choppy.
WATER: On the Pacific side this week the swells were fairly steady at 3-5 feet while on the Cortez side, as usual, they averaged 2 feet less at 1-3 feet. On the Pacific side along the beach early in the week we were seeing water in the mid 60's and as the week went on warm water from the Cortez side crept around and forced the cold water north so by the end of the week we were seeing the water in the same area at 71 degrees. Offshore on the Pacific side we had the same effect going on with the warm water pushing out and across the San Jaime Bank, but by the end of the week the stronger currents coming down from the north had severed this plume of warm water, creating a hot spot just to the west of the San Jaime, while the water inshore of there cooled to 66-67 degrees. On the Cortez side the water averaged 72 degrees with a warmer area of 73-74 degree water across the 95 and 1150 areas. We came across a 1 ½ degree temperature change 22 miles to the SSE of Cabo on Tuesday, 68.3 degrees and dirty green to the west and 70 degrees and blue to the east. Had we continued to 38 miles out and to the south, we would have encountered 74 degree and blue water, oh well. Also, in the afternoons the winds picked up and kicked in whitecaps, it was water in your teeth if you were coming home from the south or southeast later in the week.
BAIT: Caballito and Mackerel as well as a few Mullet could be had for $3 per bait. A few of the bait boats had "frozen" ballyhoo for between $3-4, each, but you never know how many times they had been "frozen".
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I did not hear of many Swordfish being seen this week, only two that I know of, and neither of them were hooked up. As far as Striped Marlin go, things are improving slightly with fish being seen around the 95 and 1150 area, right in that warm water (and blue water) area. We caught a small one just off the lighthouse on the Pacific side while on the downhill slide Friday afternoon, it struck a dorado colored lure, then ate a drop back Mackerel. Still, spotting the fins was one thing, getting them to eat another. My guess is that only 20% of the boats had Marlin releases.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: While we did not see a lot of Yellowfin close to home, a few boats that went 40+ miles both to the south and to the west reported finding an occasional pod of Dolphin holding fish to 120 pounds. Most of the fish were smaller, in the 40 to 60 pound class, but there were a few large ones in there. Unfortunately that was too far for most of the boats to go, as well as having to really get beat up on the way home. Also not all of the dolphin had Yellowfin on them, so it was a real gamble to head out there. Closer to home there were a few boats that managed to find football sized fish in open water, and a few that found fish in small pods of dolphin just off the beach. All in all the Yellowfin were scarce. Many people I talked to thought that the Yellowfin and Dorado bite was red hot, but then I explained that many of the boats were flying the yellow Dorado flags for Yellowtail and the white Tuna flags for Sierra.
DORADO: There were a few small Dorado caught this week, but no numbers like last week. If there had been something floating like there was last week (remember the dead whale?) then I am sure that there would have been a lot more action.
WAHOO: ? There may have been a few caught this week but I did not hear of them.
INSHORE: Most of the boats, both Pangas and cruisers, have been focusing their efforts on catching Yellowtail that have been averaging 23 pounds and Sierra that have been averaging 5 pounds. From the arch and on up the Pacific coastline the bite has been good for both species. Pulling small rapallas and hootchies just outside the breakers of the Sierra was good, but using small Caballito with a stinger hook just in front of the tail produced the larger fish. Of course you really went through a lot of bait that way! For the Yellowtail, once again live bait was the best producer. Yo-yo's and diamond jigs produced some fish as did trolling large lipped plugs, but live bait was by far the best. Dropping to just off the bottom in 90 to 130 feet of water brought in fish to 45 pounds, get one of them hooked and you really had a fight on your hands! There were few grouper and snapper this week in our area, but I heard that the fishing for them was decent up around the Punta Gorda area.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: With a nice week on the weather front and some really great inshore fishing we ended up with a great Cabo week. We also had quite a few friends visit and made new ones as well, always a nice thing to have happen. Listening to our friends in the Brian Flynn Band play in the evenings after a day of fishing or golf really topped things off. For my music selection this week I chose to listen to Ernest Ranglin, in particular his rendition of "Stop that Train", what I have to believe is one of the best ones I have ever heard. Other of his music is great as well. Check him out and see if you don't get moving to the beat also!
Have a great week, catch lots of fish, and get those reservations for Cabo made!
Target Species:
billfish, tuna, dorado, wahoo, and inshore species
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