FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
February 2-8, 2009
WEATHER: The week started out nice and sunny every day and along came Friday and the clouds tried to move in, giving us partly cloudy skies over the weekend. We knew it was coming as the winds really started to pick up on Thursday. Our nighttime lows for the week averaged in the low 60's and the daytime highs averaged in the mid to low 80's.
WATER: The water continued to cool down this week. At the end of the week we were seeing temperatures in the low 70's, mostly around 72 and 73 degrees along the shoreline on the Cortez side of the Cape. The water about 5 miles out on the same side was around 75 degrees. The same conditions occurred on the Pacific side of the Cape except the temperatures averaged one degree less. We had great conditions on the surface at the start of the week but by the weekend the winds had really started to howl and the Pacific side ended up almost un-fishable on Saturday. The wind seemed to die down over Saturday night but the water was still very rough on the Pacific side. On the Sea of Cortez the water was great up outside of San Jose.
BAIT: Mackerel were the bait of the week this week and they were the usual $3 per bait. Sardinas were available as well from bait boats up at the Palmilla area at $25 a bucket.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Finger Bank was still reported to be a wide-open bite on Striped Marlin by the boats that went there early in the week. Many of these boats reported releasing up to 20 fish per trip. The fishing at the Golden Gate Bank dropped off quite a bit as the fish have appeared to have moved off in search of baitfish, but there were still quite a few being caught, definitely better fishing there than anywhere else in easy reach. A good day at the Gate resulted in 4-6 fish per boat while the average was 2-3 fish. Water conditions allowed only a few brave (or foolish) anglers to get to the fish on Friday and Saturday and while they hooked up while at the Gate, the water conditions made fighting the fish problematical. There were Striped Marlin reported off of the ledge at the Westin and a few boats were doing all right drifting live bait at depths of 50-100 feet.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I saw almost no Tuna flags on boats returning to the harbor this week but a few Captains reported hearing of fish up in the Punta Gorda area, just like last week, but the bite was definitely slower according to what was heard on the radio. A couple of boats reported catching several small Tuna to 20 pound in the blind while trolling around the 1150 area looking for Dorado, but there were no schools to be found.
DORADO: Water conditions on the Pacific at the end of the week forced many of the boats to fish on the Cortez side of the Cape and as a result there were many more Dorado caught that last week from the same area. Most boats were coming in with at least two, and often as many as five Dorado. Average size was 18 pounds and there were a few that went as large as 40 pounds. Blind trolling with bright colored lures at speeds averaging 8.5 knots worked well on these fish to first find them, then slow trolling live bait in the same area often produced more.
WAHOO: I talked to one angler this week that told me he had caught a dozen small Wahoo, after asking a few questions I had to tell him they were large Sierra. There were a few fish taken however, and the bite was scattered between the Gray Rock and Punta Gorda, only a few fish were reported on the Pacific side early in the week.
INSHORE: As listed above, the Sierra bite has really begun to take off, at least it had started too until the wind kicked in. The same goes for the Pargo in the rocks, most of the activity had been on the Pacific side. The Cortez side still delivered a decent amount of these fish, but not to the number count from the Pacific side. Amazingly enough, there have still been quite a few Roosterfish caught. While not the large fish we get later in the year, these fish have been in the 6-12 pound class and have been biting well on slow trolled live bait, if the bait survives the Sierra attacks!
NOTES: Last week I reported on seeing my first Gray Whales of the year. A fellow Captain reported seeing a mother and her calf being harassed by the little boat fleet just outside the rocks, with about 10 boats right on top of the two whales. They separated the calf from the mother and the calf was repeatedly breaching and looking for its mom, to the point that it was exhausted. There are laws on the books about this, but apparently no enforcement, sigh. This weeks report was written to the music of Norah Jones on her album, "Feels Like Home". Until next week, tight lines!