Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
www.flyhooker.com
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
Feb. 15-21, 2010
Weather:
All right, finally a week with no rain but I think I like it better when we
get one day, at least! We had mostly sunny skies (even though I did not see
much of them) with our daytime highs in the high 70's, occasionally
touching the low 80's and our nighttime lows were in the high 50's.
Water:
We had interesting things happening with our water temperatures this past week.
Contrary to our normal pattern this time of year, the water on the Sea of Cortez
was, on average, cooler than that of the Pacific side, at least within 30 miles of shore.
On the Pacific side we were seeing an average of 74-76 degrees and on the Cortez
side it was averaging 72 degrees. There were a couple of anomalies however as at
the end of the week there appeared to be an intrusion of very warm (for this time of
year) 78-80 degree water at the end of the week from the east. This warm water
appeared 15 miles off of Punta Gorda as well as across the Cabrillo Seamount and
up to the 1150 spot.
Bait:
Caballito were the bait of the week at the usual $3 each and there were
some Sardinas available in the San Jose area at the normal $25 per scoop.
There were few if any Mackerel to be found this week.
FISHING
Billfish:
Marlin and Sailfish continued to be scarce this week and while a few were spotted
as well as caught, there were no large numbers of them anywhere. It appears that we
are not going to see a repeat of the fantastic Striped Marlin fishery we have been this
time of the year for the past three years, or if we do it means that everything else is
going to be all contrary for the rest of the year as well. The few fish that were caught
this week were found up in the Punta Gorda and Gorda Banks area as well as very close
to the beach on the Pacific side up around the Golden Gate Bank.
Yellowfin Tuna:
News for the Yellowfin Tuna fishermen is still bad as this week was a repeat of the
last week. The catch on Tuna is still spotty, a few fish found here and a few found there,
mostly it seems to be a matter of luck by boats that are actually in the historically
producing areas such as west of the San Jaime, due south 40 miles and outside the
1,000 fathom line anywhere on the Cortez side. The fish that were found were smaller
school fish to 35 pounds, but most of them were footballs at 5-15 pounds. All the fish
found were associated with porpoise.
Dorado:
The good news for the week was the reappearance of the warm water and a few
more Dorado showing up, and most of them were actually worth catching. If you
remember, last week there was a large school of very small fish at Gray Rock, well,
those fish were either all caught or got smart and moved on. This warm water brought
in some larger fish, and while the numbers have not been high, the fish have been
quality fish in the 25-40 pound class. A few of these fish were found on the Pacific
side around the sea mounts in the warm water, but the better ones came in on the warm
water flow from the east, and at the end of the week the area around the 1150, Cabrillo
Seamount and outside Punta Gorda were the places to be. Most of the fish were
hooked on lures being trolled for Striped Marlin, but there were some hooked up on
live bait as they followed a lure-caught fish in.
Wahoo:
Surprisingly there were still Wahoo to be caught out there. Most of those I heard of
were incidental catches, but at least they were there. The fish were not large, averaging
just under 25 pounds, but there were a few larger ones reported in the warm water
offshore. As incidental catches, most of them were caught on lures pulled for Tuna or
Striped Marlin, resulting in the majority of hook-ups being lost due to sliced leaders.
Inshore:
Overall the inshore fishery was the way to go this week if you wanted action, but
that didn't work for everyone. Unlike the last several weeks where the fish would
concentrate in one area for several days, this past week the fish seemed to be constantly
on the move. The Sierra, Yellowtail and Amberjack would be in one place in the
morning and 2 miles away in the afternoon. This may be due to the changing water
temperature moving the bait around, but for whatever reason one day could be red-hot
and the next ice-cold.
Notes:
The whales are still providing thrills and if you were fishing offshore that was a
good thing as sometimes that was the only action you might see. There were whales
inshore as well so combine the inshore action with the whale action and this week
inshore was the place to be. Things might change this coming week with the warm
water moving in, we will just have to wait and see how long that lasts. I didn't get out
much myself this week as I was down for 5 days with a nasty cold. I am feeling better
now and listening to Jack Johnson on his 2000 Everloving Records release "Brushfire
Fairytales" helped me feel better! Until next week, tight lines!