Cabo Bite Report
Capt. George Landrum
October 10, 2011
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
Oct. 3-9, 2011
WEATHER: While the week started out hot and humid things eased up a bit for us at the end of the week. Starting with morning temperatures averaging 88 degrees at the start, we ended up with morning temperatures averaging 82 degrees. Our daytime's were doing the same with the early part of the week seeing heat of 100 degrees and over and at the end of the week we were only seeing mid 90's. We had a bit of cloud cover move in on Saturday and it managed to drop some rain in the mountains and just a bit of mist in a few parts of town.
WATER: At the end of the week the only decision you had to make was where to go to get fish as there was no difference in the water temperature, it was 87-88 degrees everywhere, both on the Pacific side and on the Sea of Cortez side. The main difference was the surface conditions. On the Pacific side we had slightly larger swells early in the week and slight breezes from the northwest and the Cortez side was almost flat with no wind. Later in the week we had some larger swells from Hurricane Jova come into the area. They were coming in from the south so there were a couple of days with a bit of up and down.
BAIT: Caballito, Mullet and Sardines were the live bait available with the bigger baits at the usual $3 each and just a few of the Sardinas at $25 a scoop up in the Palmilla area. Sardinas were hard to come by late in the week due to the large swells hitting the beach.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There are still some Sailfish being found as well as some Striped Marlin and Blues. I heard of some Black Marlin being caught up in the San Jose area but not anything really big, most of them were reported to be in the 200-250 class. The Sailfish were in close to the beach and were caught by boats fishing for Dorado. This is also the area where most of the Striped Marlin were found. Blue Marlin were being found by quite a few boats but once again there were only a few large fish. I was out this week and we had a small Striped Marlin come in on an outrigger lure and a bit later had a small Blue take a tuna lure off the long corner. Both of these fish were found while we were working Porpoise for Yellowfin Tuna just to the east of the San Jaime Bank. We had clients fish for two days and not have a Marlin strike at all so you just never know (they did get plenty of other fish).
YELLOWFIN TUNA: On one day, off the next and it definitely seemed to be a cycle this week. Same area, probably the same fish and the first day it would be a wide open bite, then next day the fish had their mouths sewn shut. Try again just one more time and the wide open bite happened again! Frustrating, yep, for sure, but the fishing was really really good when the fish were hungry! The Tuna were found from the Cortez side on the Inman Bank and Gorda Banks, the Cabrillo Seamount and the 1150 spot, south of Cabo from 6 miles to 35 miles, from 3 miles off the lighthouse on the Pacific to the west side of the San Jaime and farther north past the Golden Gate Banks. There was no one area of concentration, you just had to find the porpoise. Some large fish were brought in, a few over 200 pounds and quite a few in the 80 pound class. Most of the fish were 35040 pounds or 12-20 pounds and many times the schools were mixed. Boats flying kites seemed to get more than their share of the larger fish, but trolled marlin lures definitely brought in some super-sized Tuna as well. Seeing a hole the size of a washtub open up where your lure had been was one way of checking your blood pressure!
DORADO: The Dorado bite could almost be considered wide open as almost any boat that concentrated on these great eating fish had a successful trip. Catching limits was not a problem, in fact many boats managed to double or even triple the legal limit of two per person per day, chancing getting caught and having the fish taken and the boat fined. Most of the fish were found on the Pacific side a fair distance up the shoreline. Finding the area the fish were holding by trolling with lures, then slow trolling the area with live bait was the key. Fish were not super-size, most of them were in the 12-15 pound class, but there were a few that went over 20 pounds and a few that weighed over 50 pounds. There were also a lot that were smaller than 6 pounds. Most boats release these small fish but I did see quite a few of them brought in.
WAHOO: I did not see a lot of Wahoo flags this week but I know there were some caught. One of our clients caught one that was about 25 pounds while fishing for Dorado on Saturday. He and his friend also caught 10 Dorado that day, and came in with two coolers filled with Tuna averaging 30 pounds the day before, so they really had a great time!
INSHORE: There was no change this week on the inshore fishing. Roosterfish, Needle-fish, Bonita, Skipjack, Dorado with a scattering of Grouper and Snapper rounded out the fish inshore. There were no large numbers of any of them except for the Dorado, and there were plenty of them to keep anglers happy. Many of the Pangas went offshore in search of Tuna this week instead of focusing on the inshore fish.
FISH RECIPE: My recipe has been taking too much space so if you want to see it, check out my wordpress blog a little later in the week, or subscribe to the blog and you will receive an email as soon as I post it.
NOTES: I don't think there was an unhappy angler found in Cabo this week. We had some great weather and super fishing to go with it. Lots of the larger yachts are arriving and you see quite a few of these beauties out there getting prepped for the up-coming tournaments. If you are thinking of coming down to fish, now is the time to make your reservations as many of the best charter boats will start to be booked up with tournament dates. Hopefully the great fishing will continue through November!
Until next week, tight lines!
I will be posting more to my blog now http://captgeo.wordpress.com, please go to and subscribe, you will be sent a notice every time I post a new article. Please feel free to send suggestions or if you have any ideas for articles. Thanks George
Cabo San Lucas Fishing Forecast:
1st tournament starts this week, Los Cabos Billfish Tournament
Target Species:
billfish, tuna, dorado, wahoo, and inshore species
More Fishing Reports:
