FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
July 2 - 8, 2012
WEATHER: Summer!! For those of you who have been here before, you know what that means. For those that are thinking about coming to visit, let me fill you in a bit. Summer in Cabo means warmth, as in 95 to 102 degrees in the daytime. This morning at 7AM it is 86 degrees and 66% humidity, it will get warmer, up to 100 degrees if yesterday is anything to go by. It also means sunny skies. While we had a few high clouds in our area this week, they didn't block the sunshine. I just came back from bringing a boat from La Paz and it was raining in the East Cape, but nothing here in Cabo. It also means light winds, perfect for fishing, and warm seas, just what we have been waiting for!
WATER: Warm, blue water is here! It took a while to show up, and it may be gone in a few days for a while, but for now it is a reason to rejoice. We have gotten tired of the cool green water and now we have water worth going fishing in. At least on the Cortez side of the Cape. On the Pacific side it is 78 degrees on the San Jaime Bank and 71 degrees on the Golden Gate Bank, but the water is still off-green in color, if not downright dirty in the cooler water. The warm water we have on the Cortez side pushed across the tip of the Cape into the Pacific side for a distance of about 10 miles toward the west at the end of the week. At it's western edge this warm water is 81 degrees, go east a little distance and we have 85 degrees across the area almost everywhere you look. And not only is it 85 degrees, it's almost clear blue, not quite there yet, but much better than it has been. Perhaps just a few more days left for it to clear up all the way. Along with the warm, clear water we have been blessed with almost no wind, so the surface conditions have been great. Some small ground swells at 1-3 feet from the south have been about it.
BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were available at the normal $3 per bait and there were plenty of green Jacks if you wanted them.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: With the clearing water the daily expectation of a Blue Marlin appearing in the pattern has increased. A few anglers this week found these much anticipated fish visiting their lures and a few actually bit! It's nice to have a big one on the end of the line, and quite a bit different experience than that of fighting a Striped Marlin, which we still have around and are now managing to catch. All in all a real improvement over the past several months billfish action. While none of the Blue Marlin reported were large, on both the way up and on the way back from La Paz I marked some very large Marlin on the depth sounder, much larger than any Striped Marlin, so as the warm water continues, and as the water continues to clean up we should start to see more of these fish in our area. Working current lines and bottom structure continues to be the main method of locating both the Blue and Striped Marlin. The best areas therefore have been the 95 spot, the 1150 and offshore along the 1,000 fathom line. The Inner and Outer Gorda Banks should start to go off in a little while as well, as soon as the temperature has stabilized and the Black Marlin show up.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: This is one fish that has had me confused this week. On both the way up and the way back from La Paz, and in our area according to the Captains and the fishermen, there were very little Dolphin and few Dolphin pods reported. Since these pods are our main Tuna indicator does this mean the fish are not here or does it mean they will arrive when we start to see more Dolphin? Well, there are a few fish here, just not in any large numbers, the ones that are being caught are in the 10-20 pound class and are being caught in the blind. On the few occasions when Dolphin pods have been reported and they have had fish on them, the fishing has been great. This tells me that as soon as we start seeing good numbers of Dolphin pods we will start to see more Tuna, and a better quality of fish. My fingers are crossed!
DORADO: Every week the Dorado catch improves, and as the warm water has arrived we are going to see an upswing in the numbers as well as the sizes of Dorado caught. One again the key has been objects floating in the water, be it a piece of wood, a dead seal or a shark buoy. Any and all of these held fish when found this week and the dead seal had a great number of good size fish associated with it. Also finding frigate birds working and diving were a great indicator of Dorado as the fish chased flying fish out of the water and the frigates swooped down to catch them. Getting into an area where this was taking place gave a good chance of a hook-up if a live bait was thrown out and slow trolled around.
WAHOO: On both the way up and on the way back I pulled lures for Wahoo since we were traveling close to the shore, but had no strikes from them at all! I heard reports of a few being caught this week but not about where or on what.
INSHORE: Sierra action this week was decent inshore, but not great, and there was good action on a mix of bottom fish from snapper to grouper to trigger-fish. A few Yellowtail on the Pacific side, but no large ones that I heard of, and good numbers or Roosterfish all along the shoreline on the Cortez side.
FISH RECIPE: Check the blog for this weeks recipe!
NOTES: Fishing is improving finally and we are seeing the expected increase in water temperature and clarity. On a slightly negative note, all the fish we caught on our delivery were stuffed with red crab, and on the depth sounder I could see shoals of both them and of squid. Red crab means the fish are getting fat and happy just swimming through the clouds of crab with their mouth open, they don't have to work had for a meal. This in turn means that you have to be very lucky to hook one up on a lure, making a live bait the choice for finicky fish. This weeks music selection is the Dixie Chicks, I listened to one of their albums for 20 hours straight during the delivery, if I had known I would have brought my own CD collection, but in the end they are very good musicians. Until next week, tight lines!