Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Capt. George Landrum
April 11, 2005
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report
Cabo Bite Report
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT APRIL 4-10, 2005
WEATHER: This week started out just great as far as weather went, but it sure ended up on a windy note. In a continuation of last weeks weather, every day through Thursday was just fine with light breezes in the afternoons and daytime highs in the mid 80’s with night time lows in the high 60’s. On Friday the wind began and it blew all the way through Sunday morning. Coming from the north-west, it was a steady 12-15 knots and dropped the temperature about 10 degrees at night. On Sunday morning I registered 60 degrees at my house! Heck, I was just thinking about hooking up the air conditioner on Wednesday! No rain of course, we don’t expect to get any this time of year.
WATER: The week ended with rough water on the Pacific side all the way to the south, due to the wind. Even in front of Cabo it was rough and didn’t calm down until you were a little way up the Sea of Cortez. Once past the 95 spot outside or Punta Ballena on the inside the water mellowed out quite a bit. The Pacific side was cold with water ranging from the mid 60’s to high 60’s. On the Cortez side it was a bit warmer up to the 1150 and Gorda Banks areas, and then it jumped to 75 degrees.
BAIT: There was no problem getting bait this week, only it was mostly Mackerel, with a few Caballito, and they were the usual $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: What Marlin action we had this week was all Striped Marlin. I was fishing last Sunday and another Captain had a Blue Marlin he estimated at #400 nail a lure and they were able to get several jumps out of him, but that was the only non-Striper I heard of. The few Marlin that were found were either fairly close to Cabo, and I mean within three miles of the shore on the Cortez side, or way up north on the Cortez, up in the East Cape area, 60 miles away. Those fish (the East Cape ones) were just a rumor, I know a couple of boats that went up there looking for them, but have not heard back from them yet. Supposedly the action up there was as good as we had it here two months ago! Close to home there were fish sighted, but they were not in a very hungry mood for the most part.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I find it almost unbelievable that for the third week in a row I could almost repeat word for word the Yellowfin section. Find the Porpoise and you had a shot at Yellowfin. The fish were not large, mostly in the 10-15 pound range with a few smaller and a few larger ones. It took small lures to get them; most of the boats that were successful were jigging hootchies in pink or root beer colors, three inches long. Maybe they were matching the small squid in the area or perhaps there were red crab, but that was almost the only thing that worked. If you did find the Porpoise that were holding fish, you had to work them hard! There were larger fish spotted on the Gorda Banks, Tuna in the 80 pound class, but no one I am aware of had any luck with them except a few of the Pangas from La Playita in San Jose. Those Pangas were able to get Sardinas for bait and were n the banks at gray light in the morning.
DORADO: The few Dorado found this week were almost all associated with floating debris or small kelp fronds. The fish ranged from 10 pounds (and a few even smaller) to 25-30 pounds, but they were scarce. My guesstimate is there may have been one Dorado caught for every 15 boats. Naturally a few boats caught multiple fish, but they were the exception and very lucky.
WAHOO: A few boats had luck on Wahoo, and it was luck, not skill since they were not targeting the fish. The best catch I heard of this week was three fish on one trip, tow of them at #30 and one at #70. For the rest of the boats, there was maybe one Wahoo strike per 20 boats, and one fish caught for 50 boats. Gives you an idea, huh?
INSHORE: There were scattered Sierra schools this week, most of them found on the Cortez side of the Cape but there was decent action as well on the Pacific early in the week before the wind blew up. The fish were averaging 4 pounds with a few to 8 pounds. Good colors were yellow and chartreuse. Some great Pargo action happened around the rocky points for the boats willing to get right in there, and there was good Snapper action as well in water from 150 to 250 feet deep. Some small Roosterfish action happened also, nothing great but there were scattered fish in the 5-15 pound range.
NOTES: Last week I said it was a hit or miss kind of week for fishing, this week I would have to say it was mostly miss. If I could only predict what the fishing would be like I might be rich, as it is I just report how it was. With hindsight I would have to say that I personally would have stayed home the last three days of the week rather than go fishing, but hey, some boats did all right. Our fingers and toes are crossed that the fishing improves soon, and hopefully the wind will die down as well, it is Sunday morning now and it looks like it is starting to slacken off a bit! This weeks report was written to the music of Van Morrison on his 1990 Polydor release “The Best of Van Morrison”. Thanks folks, and until next week, Tight Lines!
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