Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Capt. George Landrum
December 19, 2005
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report
Cabo Bite Report
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Dec. 12-18, 2005
WEATHER: This last week continued mostly cloudy as bands of clouds moved over us from the NW. It felt as though we should have gotten just a little bit of rain, but nope, not yet! Our daytime highs have been right around 80 degrees while the nighttime lows have been right at 60 degrees.
WATER: On the Pacific side we have had mixed conditions with one day being great with small swells and little or no wind and the next there being lumpy conditions with a fair chop on top of it. The water temperature has been warmer on the Pacific with most of the water between the Golden Gate and the Jaime and south at right around 74-75 degrees. There were a few cool spots down to 71, but they were few and far between. Most of the water has been nice and blue. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water has been a bit greener with the area between the 1150 and the Gorda Banks being off color and 72-73 degrees. That water temperature extends out to the area of the Cabrillo Seamount. The surface water conditions on the Cortez side have been good right in front of town but as you traveled up the Cape it got a bit more choppy as there were very windy conditions past the Punta Gorda area.
BAIT: There was no trouble getting bait this week as all the bait boats had plenty of Mackerel, at the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The bite at the Lighthouse on the Pacific side has continued to improve as the Striped Marlin move closer. It is still a drift bait fishery for the most part with an occasional bait boil on the surface with Frigates diving to mark the spot. Running to the action and tossing a live Mackerel in the middle usually resulted in a hook-up for the first boat on the scene. In other area, the action at the Finger Bank continued with Striped Marlin balling up Sardinas. I made it up there on Thursday and we released 17 fish ranging from 60 to 130 pounds while fishing with live Mackerel, tossing them to the feeders. There have been a few fish showing off the points on the Pacific side while the action on billfish on the Cortez side has been almost non-existent.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Water conditions farther up on the Pacific side kept the one private boat that was going up to check out the large Tuna action from making the trip, so I don’t know if it is worth an overnight trip to find these reported bruisers, but closer to home there has been good to fair action on football and school size fish. The area around the San Jaime Bank continues to produce fish ranging from 10-40 pounds on lures and boats trying to drop bait deep, around 100 feet, are getting the occasional bite on fish to 100 pounds. These fish are associated with porpoise of course. Even closer to home, we had a fair bite at the end of the week on Tuna to 40 pounds just off the lighthouse on the Pacific side. The Marlin drift fishermen were getting the occasional fish to 40 pounds and then a decent pod of porpoise moved in and the surface action got good for two days. The best lures seemed to be dark colored and between 6 and 8 inches in length.
DORADO: The continued cold water has made the Dorado bite almost a thing of the imagination. This had to have been one of the worst Dorado seasons in quite some time as there was only a short timeframe, maybe one month, when you could be assured of a Dorado.
WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo being caught this week.
INSHORE: Most of the Pangas have been fishing the ledge at the lighthouse and have been catching Marlin and Tuna. For those working the shore, Sierra averaging 5 pounds have continued to provide action, an occasional 8-pound fish keeps the hopes up. There have also been some nice Pargo to 20 pounds being caught out of the rocks along all the points.
NOTES: The focus continues to be on Striped Marlin and Yellowfin Tuna offshore while the inshore prospects are looking good for more and larger Sierra and the occasional Yellowtail as the water temperature continues to drop. The whales are moving into our area in larger numbers as well, and by Christmas you should be guaranteed a sight of one on any trip. This weeks report was written to the rocking guitar and vocals of Johnny Winter on the 1991 Virgin Records release “Let Me In”. Until next week, Tight Lines!
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