CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
www.flyhooker.com
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
November 15-21, 2010
Weather: It is cooling down now, and it seems to be happening a little bit faster than last year. Our morning lows have been down to 65 degrees while the daytime highs have been as high as the mid 90's, quite a bit of variation. This week we had mostly sunny skies and no rain.
Water: Our surface temperatures were great this week with the average on the Sea of Cortez at 80 degrees almost everywhere you looked. On the Pacific side there was a band of warm water running up the beach and about two miles out that was 78 degrees, and farther out it dropped to 73-74 degrees. The San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks were 74 degrees.
Bait: Caballito this week ranged from decent size to fish only 6" long, and the bait guys still want $3 each. Still no mackerel available, but hopefully there will be some soon. I know that the bait boats in San Jose are still getting Sardinas, but don't know what the cost is.
FISHING
Billfish: The largest Marlin I heard of this week was Black that was caught around the 1150 area and weighed in over 500 pounds. There were a few other Blacks and Blues caught, but I did not hear of any large ones, mostly small fish in the 200-250 class. The good news was the numbers of Striped Marlin that were found on the Pacific side of the Cape. Most of them were found just on the edge of that warm water band I mentioned earlier, about two miles or so from shore. Early in the week they were fairly close to home, around the Los Arcos area, as the week went on they slowly moved to the north and as of Saturday were being found outside of Los Migrianos. Boats checking on the Golden Gate and Finger Banks have reported that there is still no concentrations of bait on those humps although there are some areas that have small schools. The lack of mackerel for bait has hindered anglers abilities to hook up, but even so, a good day has meant releasing two to four fish, and a great day has been up to six Striped Marlin releases.
Yellowfin Tuna: The bite on Yellowfin Tuna has been an on-off event this past week. One day they are in one area, the next day the same area is as dead as can be. Pods of Dolphin holding Tuna have been found everywhere this week, and the most consistent area has been a slice of water from directly south of us to just to the south of the San Jaime Banks. This area also encompasses a strong temperature break/current line that keeps moving around. There have been some nice fish taken from these schools, up to #150, but most of them have been in the 20 pound class. There are still fish being found in the San Jose area as well, and boats working the humps there have been doing well using Sardinas as chum and live bait.
Dorado: Not the fish of the week for several weeks now, the numbers continue to be low and the fish small, with an average size of only 10 pounds. There have been decent concentrations of them on the Cortez side of the Cape close to the beach, and Gray rock up to Palmilla has been providing action on these smaller fish. Some boats have been coming in with limits of these, with an occasional fish to 20 pounds. On the Pacific side the fish have been a bit larger on average, but there have been fewer of them.
Wahoo: For a lot of the fishermen this week Wahoo have been the highlight of the trip. If they managed to get out early they had a really good chance to get one of these speedsters. There have been more Wahoo caught in the past two weeks than I have seen in years, and the fish are decent size. We had one client that went out in the morning and was back at 10:30 with one #50 and one #25 pound as well as a Dorado. Some boats have been getting three or four fish a day, but almost all the action has been early morning. Dark colored lures, swimming plugs and live mackerel scad have been the good stuff to use, and the mackerel scad (chilwillies) have been the key to larger fish. Most of the action has taken place along the coast in the Sea of Cortez.
Inshore: Inshore fishing has been a repeat of the past months action as once again as Roosterfish in the petite size with an occasional fish to 35 pounds, Lady fish, decent sized Sierra, small Yellowfin, Bonito, Skip jack, occasional Snapper and Grouper along with a patchwork of Dorado and Striped Marlin made up most of the inshore catch. Most of the effort took place on the Pacific side of the Cape and for shear numbers, Sierra were the fish of the week inshore.
Notes: If you are getting your own fishing licenses, you must have pesos!!! The people that sell the licenses around the marina can no longer take dollars from anyone. Get pesos the day before! No one has change for your US $100 at 6AM.
Fleetwood Mac's "Rumors" album was my pick of the day for listening while writing this report so I am in the mood to take Mary and Tawny for a walk on the beach now! Until next week, tight lines!
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