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Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Capt. George Landrum
July 31, 2006
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report
Cabo Bite Report
FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
[email protected]
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
July 24-30, 2006
WEATHER: Well, Tropical Storm Emilia did have an effect on us since she passed just 70 miles to the west on her way up the Pacific coast. She brought some large swells with her and some much needed rain. Unfortunately the swells and wind caused the Port Captain to close the port on Tuesday and it did not re-open until after 9 in the morning on Wednesday, by then a lot of the boats had already cancelled their trips. Monday was the big surprise though as the morning started out nice, and everyone knew that there was a storm in the area. Around 10 in the morning the clouds started moving faster and the wind picked up, by noon we had 35-knot winds with a lot of rain blowing around. She lowered the air temperatures but after she passed we went right back to hot and humid. Now at the end of the week we are seeing daytime temperatures in the high 90’s and humidity at 65% and better. Our nighttime lows have been in the low 80’s but with a bit of a breeze that makes it bearable.
WATER: Storm Swells, a major noun this week as Emilia kicked the waters up and brought big seas along with rain to our coastal areas. Late in the week the effects of Emilia could still be seen with the erosion of a lot of the beaches, the off-colored water close to the beach and some scattered debris washed out form the arroyos. Water temperatures at the end of the week had changed from the beginning, as there was a hot spot off of the Gorda banks and a cold spot just around the arch on the Pacific side. The Gorda Banks had water temperatures of 88 degrees, the tail end of a band of warm water running 10 miles offshore down around the East Cape. Just off the lighthouse we had an upwelling of deep, cold water out to a distance of about 8 miles with the coldest areas only showing 74 degrees and green. Out farther on the Pacific the San Jaime and the Golden Gate banks are showing temperatures of 81-83 degrees and with a bit bluer water. At the end of the week the swells from Tropical Storm Emilia had died down and the water was almost like a lake out there.
BAIT: There were some Sardinas available up to the north around the Palmilla area at $20 a scoop and locally there were Caballito and Mullet available every day at the normal $2 per bait. A few trips of the Francesca (the big net boat) resulted in Mackerel being available for about three days. The live bait remained at an average of $2 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Blue Marlin, Black Marlin, Striped Marlin and a few Sailfish, what more could you want? There are almost as many Blue Marlin being found as Striped Marlin, and there have been some big ones hooked up. It has been almost all lure action as the live baiters are waiting for tournament time before devoting an entire day to soaking a bug Tuna for bait. There have been a few scattered Black Marlin found as well as a few Sailfish. Most of the Black Marlin have been found within the 100 fathom line as expected, most of the larger Blue Marlin have been found off of the ridge and Banks on the Pacific side and around the 1,000 fathom line around the Cape. With the football and slightly larger Yellowfin Tuna showing up, the big girls are starting to get hungry!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Yellowfin were the fish of the week this past week. There were no big fish reported that I heard of but there were plenty of fish ranging in size from 8 pounds to 30 pounds with the average somewhere around 20 pounds. Most boats were able to return to port with limits if the angers were willing to stay out and fish, those boats that were not able to get into the Tuna either left late or made the wrong guess about where the fish were (or were just going for a boat ride to begin with!). Most of the fish were found with the Porpoise and the first boats to the fish always did better than the later boats. A good catch was 10 fish of 15-25 pounds along with a shot at a Marlin. The best areas seemed to be directly south along the warm water-cold water boundary formed by the upwelling.
DORADO: There were a lot of Dorado to be found close to shore on both the Pacific and the Cortez side of the Cape. Most of the fish were small at 8-10 pounds but there were the larger groups arriving occasionally, and enough of them to make it interesting. Finding the first fish was the key to Dorado as there was almost always some friend swimming around in the same area. Artificial lures connected up the first fish but live bait and cut bait got most of the fish into the boats.
WAHOO: What Hoo?
INSHORE: The upwelling of cold water along the Pacific side of the Cape really put the inshore fishing off and the few boats that did try and target the traditional species such as Roosterfish and Trevally had a much better time of it when they concentrated on the Cortez side of the Cape. Most of the Pangas were going offshore to try for the Yellow Fin Tuna.
NOTES: The fishing continues to improve on a daily basis. Hopefully the passing of Emilia will break loose some kelp fronds from up north and give us some structure to work. Meanwhile, the East Cape Bisbee tournament will be taking place this coming week. I have a couple of good buddies fishing in it and my fingers are crossed for them. Unfortunately I am not fishing it, I thought that I was going to be fishing all the tournaments this year but things just did not work out that way, sigh. Until next week, Tight Lines!
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