Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Capt. George Landrum
March 20, 2006
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report
Cabo Bite Report
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
March 6-12, 2006
WEATHER: I said last week that it looked like our normal spring weather had started and it continued this week. The first part of the week was great with just a few clouds and light wind. On Friday night the cloud deck moved over us, the wind started to blow, and it blew pretty darn good, and is still blowing at around 15-25 from the NW. Our lows have been in the low 60’s and this weekend the highs were only in the mid 70’s, earlier in the week we were in the mid 80’s. There has been no rain with the clouds and if things continue as they have been, this wind should be gone in a day or two and we will have great weather for another three or four days.
WATER: Until the wind started on Friday night the Pacific side was in great shape with swells at 4-6 feet spaced well apart, on Saturday it looked like a ripe cotton field with some sheep in there! The Cortez side of the Cape had better surface conditions, at least in close to shore, and the later in the day it got this weekend the closer in the rough water came as the wind slowly moved around and started coming from the west. Earlier in the week the Cortez side had great conditions and we had a plume of very war, 78-degree water move onto the Cabrillo Seamount. Everywhere else on the Cortez side it was in the 73-74 degree range. On the Pacific side we still had the cold California current keeping 67 degree water between the San Jaime bank, and us but west of the San Jaime and occasionally on top of it the water was 70-71 degrees.
BAIT: Bait was still tough to get on occasion, at least the good stuff. There was quite a bit of what I call “junk” bait available, like lookdowns and small snapper-like fish. The baits were the normal $2 per bait and if you got good stuff it was mixed Caballito and Mackerel.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Billfish seem to have continued the pattern of last week with one day being great and the next being slower, but overall things seem to have improved quite a bit. The main concentration of effort has remained on the Cortez side where the water temps have continued to be in the 74-degree range. Most of the action has come from either the Estellidera area up the coast or in a triangle between the Outer Gorda Bank, the Cabrillo Seamount and the 1150 spot. One of the reasons may be the 78-degree water that moved in to the Seamount, but whatever the reason, that is where the fish have been. One friend of mine went toward the Seamount on Thursday, without any live bait, and said that they had 38 bites from the Striped Marlin, releasing two and jumping off five others. He thinks that if he had live bait they would have worn their arms out as most of the fish were very aggressive on the lures but he just couldn’t get solid hook-ups. The next day action slowed, as they were only able to get 8 bites in the same area while boats working more toward the Outer Gorda were getting 15-18 bites a day. Wednesday was very slow, most boats saw no fish and were lucky to get bit at all, so go figure!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Tuna bite was still slow this week with very few fish being brought in. I did have a Capt. Report to me they got into fish in the #150-#200 class out near the San Jaime mid-week, but couldn’t get them to bite on anything, he said there were fish breaking the water on both sides of the boat and it was extremely frustration. Hey, I know that feeling! Another friend of mine got lucky in the same area and landed two nice fish over #100, but that was pretty much the extent of the Tuna action this week.
DORADO: There were still a few nice Dorado found this week, but there were places they should have been that had no fish. As an example, a Capt. found a long-dead seal on the Cortez side that did not have even one Dorado around it, and on the same day found several pieced of debris that should have held Dorado but there were no fish under them as well. There were still fish out there as attested to by the flags flown, but they were scattered, not concentrated in one place. Most of the ones caught ranged in size from 20 to 30 pounds.
WAHOO: There were a few Wahoo caught this week out in the warm water on the Cortez side, and they were nice fish in the 40-pound class. No concentrations were found and they were incidental catches hooked while fishing for Marlin.
INSHORE: There was good fishing inshore for Sierra as almost all Pangas were able to catch a dozen or so, along with an occasional small Roosterfish in the 5-10 pound class. Boats soaking live bait in 100 feet off of the points were able to get some decent Yellowtail to 20 pounds along with a decent number of big Bonito and Skipjack. The Jack Crevalle continued to cruise outside the breakers in large packs and if you got into them they were able to supply plenty of hard fighting action. There were a few boats bottom fishing and they were able to get onto some grouper to 10 pounds along with a few Amberjack.
NOTES: It’s still not wide open but the bite is definitely improving. You just need to keep your fingers crossed with the wind, sometimes it helps and sometimes it hurts the fishing. The new moon will be the 29th so perhaps the Tuna bite will improve this week, and the Marlin bite should defiantly continue to get better. This weeks report was written to the interesting music of Andrew Bird on the 2005 Righteous Babe Records CD release, “The Mysterious Production Of Eggs”. Until next week, tight lines!
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