Cabo Bite Report
Capt. George Landrum
December 31, 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
Dec 24 - 30, 2012
WEATHER: It has been an overcast week here in Cabo, and while it did not get cold enough to snow, a lot of us who live here full time are wearing long sleeved shirts and long pants to keep nice and warm. I know it's a bit laughable, but when it gets into the low 60's in the evenings we feel cold. With the overcast came a bit of wind on Thursday evening and Friday morning but then it calmed right down. Of course it has been cloudy all week, but a front moving down toward us from California may just end up pushing all this cloud cover away in a few days. And, well, there may be a bit of rain later today or tomorrow, at least the forecasters are saying it may happen. The clouds and weather are coming in from the southwest, just as they were doing last week and we can see a few areas of heavy precipitation approaching, it depends on how strong the front moving toward us is and how quickly it moves. Our daytime highs have been in the low 80's.
WATER: The water temperatures were pretty steady this week as from the shoreline out to 12 miles from inside the Golden Gate to Punta Gorda the water was a consistent 77 degrees. North of Punta Gordo the water cooled to 75 degrees and north of Golden Gate Banks it cooled to 76 degrees. Out past the 12 mile line from the San Jaime Banks and to the southeast the water warmed to 79 degrees. The water was fairly blue everywhere with the exception of past Punta Gordo, once you got into the 75 degree water the color turned a very dirty green. Surface conditions were good everywhere with the exception on Thursday afternoon on the Pacific side when it became very choppy due to wind. Swells were fairly small at 2-4 feet on the Pacific side most of the week with a pick-up to 4-6 feet Thursday morning and on the Cortez side they remained at 1-3 feet until you got past Punta Gorda, then they picked up to 2-5 feet as wind kicked them up on the East Cape.
BAIT: No change in the bait availability this week from last week. There was plenty of Caballito, a few Mackerel and a very limited supply of Sardina. The bigger baits were the usual $3 each while the Sardinas, if you could find a boat with some to sell, were going for $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I have no confirmation of this from any f captains yet, but according to someone who was watching, and knows what a Striped Marlin and a Black Marlin looks like, there was a bite on Black Marlin of 200 pounds off of the marina in San Jose on Friday. He says he saw several Striped Marlin brought in but that there were at least five, maybe six, Black Marlin brought in as well, they were all in the 200 pound range and they were reported to have been caught pretty close to shore. I would not be surprised too much, but it seems the water is too cold for there to be many of them around. I will do a bit more checking this week, but he swears they were not Striped Marlin and that the anglers were talking about the "white meat" of the fish. Elsewhere the Striped Marlin fishery has been steady, if just a bit slow. Many boats are coming in flying release flags, but there are also a lot of fish being boated as tends to happen during the holidays, the crews want the fish for parties and guilt the anglers into keeping them. Hey guys, it's your trip and you are paying, so just say "release"! Anyway, many of the fish have been found close to the beach, within several miles in most cases as they concentrate on the schools of bait along the shoreline. There has been no big concentration on them for most of the week, but for the first two days of the week the area off of Palmilla was reported to be holding large numbers of tailing fish that were willing to bite. A few boats came back from that area flying four flags!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We have finally had some Tuna show up! Not large numbers, or really big fish, but the kind of fish that keep anglers coming back for more. These are fish in the 15 to 35 pound class, large enough to put up a good fight on the right gear and enough of them to be able to take some fillets back home. I don't think I have seen a catch yet, at least on a regular basis that would allow you to fill a cooler (yes, I know a few boats have done it, but not many), but combine the Tuna with the Dorado and it is possible to get a full cooler of fillets. Of course Lady Luck has to pay a visit, but that's all part of fishing anyway! The fish have been found mixed in with the Porpoise and most of them have been along that 12 mile line from the San Jaime Banks and to the southeast of there. Cedar plugs, rapallas, dark colored hootchies and live bait have all caught numbers of fish with the larger fish coming on live bait or off of boats flying a kite. I did hear of some nice big fish still being caught at the Gordo Banks, but still not any large numbers, just the occasional nice cow sized fish.
DORADO: I heard that the Dorado bite off of San Jose was really good this week as there were plenty of fish found that ranged from 15 to 25 pounds. Combine that with the few Cow Tuna and the "Black Marlin" bite and that may have been the place to go. Too bad it's at least 1 ½ hours up there for most of the boats, otherwise more would go to check it out. Closer to home the Dorado have been spread out with most of the fish found just off the beach on the Pacific side, out to about 2 miles. Quite a few boats were getting limits, but most of them were getting at least three or four nice sized fish. Slow trolling live bait was still the best method, with doing so under working Frigate Birds being the most productive. There were plenty of fish in the 10 to 15 pound class with a few fish approaching 30 pounds in the boats as well.
WAHOO: The Wahoo bite was very good this week, at least in the San Jose area. Part of that could be due to the number of boats working the shoreline for Dorado and "Black Marlin", after all, that's the Wahoo's preferred area. There were fewer fish caught in our area, but there were some nice ones brought in as we went through the full moon phase on Friday. Rapallas and Marauders in dark colors worked well and if you had a bit of a wire trace on your live bait you stood a chance of bringing in one as well, just less of a chance of getting Marlin or Dorado.
INSHORE: I did not hear of anyone working the shoreline this week as the fishing for everything else was so good and the inshore fishing just so-so, but there were a few smaller Roosterfish and a few Sierra showing up. At this rate we should be seeing many more of these toothy little fish soon, and hopefully more Yellowtail as well.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this months recipe!
NOTES: One of the reasons the fishing out of San Jose may be so good is the heavy winds up on the East Cape, the strong currents produced and the cold, green water. All of these combined may be pushing the fish that were there down toward us, and San Jose is the first concentration of anglers they get too. If that is the case, and the trend continues, we may be seeing a lot more fish in our area as well soon! Meanwhile, have a happy new year! Until next year, tight lines!
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