Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Capt. George Landrum
January 30, 2006
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report
Cabo Bite Report
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
Jan 23-29, 2006
WEATHER: All the way through Wednesday we had great weather here with sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80’s during the daytime and in the mid 60’s at night. Wednesday evening the clouds started moving in and early Thursday morning the wind started to blow as a front moved through the area. At right around 5 AM the rain started and we had a good downpour for an hour, then it just drizzled all the way through Saturday morning. The rain was just right, not so heavy that it washed things out and long enough that everything got a good soaking. I imagine that the desert will be extremely colorful in about two weeks! At the end of the week we have partly cloudy skies with daytime highs in the high 70’s and nighttime lows around 60 degrees.
WATER: We still have cold green water on the Cortez side of the Cape with the water from Gorda Bank and to the south at 67-68 degrees. South of us and out to 30 miles on the Pacific side it warms to 73 degrees and is still pretty blue. You know the water is good when there are plenty of flying fish to be seen, and that is the case once you get about 25 miles out to the southwest. We did have choppy conditions Thursday morning when the wind blew through, but it calmed right down on Friday with just a medium swell from the Northwest. Not many boats fished the Cortez side offshore due to the cold green water but out to 15 miles offshore the conditions were pretty good, farther than that and you started to run into a bit of northeast swell and effects from the East Cape area.
BAIT: There was a mix of Mackerel and Caballito available this week at the normal $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Fishing for Striped Marlin had it’s effort concentrated at the Golden Gate Bank this week, with up to 60 boats working the drift on Tuesday and Wednesday. With bait packed everywhere around the bank it was the best shot available, but as the week wore on the bite dropped off. On Saturday there were only about 40 boats working the drift and few of them were able to get bit. There was a fair showing of tailing Marlin in closer to shore directly to the east and 3 miles off the beach, but it was still not close to wide open. At the end of the week it appeared that there was about a 30% success ratio for boats targeting the Striped Marlin, not great numbers but almost everyone was seeing fish, even though they were difficult to hook.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There was a brief two day flurry of decent Tuna in the 50-90 pound class on Thursday and Friday 28 miles to the southwest, and they were associated with several different porpoise pods in the area. Only about 6 boats got into the action as the fish were moving about quite rapidly, on Saturday they were nowhere to be found. There were few fish found elsewhere later in the week, but in the first few days a few nice fish to 200 pounds were caught on the southern edge of the San Jaime Bank. Best bets were soaking live bait at the edge of the bank or dropping bait back at least 150 yards from the boat in front of the rapidly moving pods of porpoise.
DORADO:
Once again there were few Dorado flags to be seen and the cooling water may be a good part of the reason. Of course, if we see some kelp paddies or something floating that may change in an instant so everyone is constantly scanning the surface. While there were few Dorado caught, the ones that were boated were nice fish to 50 pounds, and they were found by watching the Frigate birds, running to the birds when they dove and slow trolling a live Mackerel through the area.
WAHOO: There were a few fish to 50 pounds found just off the beach on the Pacific side this week, but once again there were no large numbers of heavy concentration of them.
INSHORE: The Sierra and Pargo bite was on this week and the Pangas were having a great time with Sierra to 10 pounds and Pargo to 30 pounds just off the beach. Live bait for both species worked best but there was also good action for the Pargo by using large, deep diving Rapallas. Best action was seen from the lighthouse on the Pacific side and to the north of there.
NOTES: In brief, slow offshore action but some great inshore fishing this week. This weeks report written to the music of Dave Roberts on the 1982 WEA Japan release “All Dressed Up”. Love Lukathers Guitar work! Until next week, GO SEAHAWKS!!!
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