FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
May 18-24, 2009
Notes: Well, we finally had a reported case of swine flu in Cabo and guess what? Yep, it was a tourist that brought it with him! I just knew it was going to happen! Anyway, just the one case and it had no effect on any of the fishing. One good thing this week was the fact that the inshore fishing was great and the Marlin started to bite pretty good for the offshore guys. Check below for a little more detail.
WEATHER: We really had a great week as we got a bit of rain at the beginning. Not of lot of it, mind you, but it was enough to make everyone get their car washed right afterward as the rain spots made the dust covering them easy to see. Combine the rain with a bit of fog and it was a nice cool start. As the week wore on the clouds and fog moved away and it started to warm up. At the start of the week the nighttime lows were in the high 60's and low 70's, at the end of the week it was in the high 70's while the daytime highs at the end of the week were in the low to mid 90's. Combine the temperatures with light winds and it was a very nice week to be here.
WATER: The water on the Pacific side of the Cape was off-color out to the San Jaime bank this week, once past there to the west the water cleaned up a lot and was nice and blue. On the Cortez side the water was a bit off color out to 10 miles offshore then it cleaned up as well. The cold-water plume along the Pacific shoreline continued through Saturday with temperatures in the mid 60's up to 2 miles from shore but on Sunday the warmer water from the Cortez side pushed the cold water back and it warmed to a very nice 70-71 degrees. At the end of the week the water around the San Jaime bank was 74 degrees; it was 73 degrees at the Golden Gate Bank. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water was a nice warm 76-78 degrees everywhere wit the exception of a ridge of 81-84 degree water that ran from the Grey Rock south to the west side of the 95 spot and continued south at least 40 miles. Surface conditions on both side of the Cape were just great at the end of the week with small swells through Saturday, then some larger ones coming in on Sunday but with very little wind pushing them.
BAIT: We had a nice mix of different size Caballito this week and it was nice to be able to get the smaller ones for inshore fishing. There had been some very good small Mackerel available at the bait barge, but according to all the boat captains all the guys that work there got drunk on Thursday night and did not show for work on Friday, so, no Mackerel were available that day. Bait was costing the usual $3 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: This week was almost a repeat of last week. The Striped Marlin was still showing in good numbers on the Cortez side of the Cape from the 95 spot and past the 1150 spot. Most of them seemed to be mixed in with an enormous pod of common Pacific Dolphin that moved in, probably feeding on the same squid. The difference this week was that the Marlin were willing to eat live bait. As a result there were more fish hooked up this week that last week and most boats were releasing two to four fish a day. Later in the week the action was starting later in the day so boats that stayed out an extra hour or so were doing much batter than the boats that came in early.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: As with the billfish report, there was little change in the Tuna report from last week. Yellowfin of any size were a no show with the exception of some football fish found to the west of the San Jaime. These footballs were not associated with any Dolphin and the two boats that did get into them on Saturday were not able to track them for long and as a result were limited to only a half-dozen fish apiece.
DORADO: Wow, it seems that everything is a repeat of last weeks report and the Dorado are not exception. Find something floating on the water and you might get lucky, and the chances of this happening in the warm water of the Sea Of Cortez were much greater than in the cooler waters of the Pacific. A couple of boats were able to find some small debris and picked up a few fish each, but for the most part there the chances were about 10% of getting one stray Dorado.
WAHOO: Once again, what Wahoo?
INSHORE: Like I said, everything is a repeat of last week. Fishing from a Panga was the way to go this week. I fished just to the north of the lighthouse on Friday and caught a 19-pound and a 13-pound Pargo in the rocks at the lighthouse. One of the Pangas we use got into a nice school pf Pargo late in the day farther up the beach and had 10 fish over 20 pounds for his two anglers. Small live Caballito were the way to go. The Yellowtail bite dropped off a bit and the fish were scattered. Trolling Rapallas at 6 knots found some of the fish and then working yo-yo's in the area would result in a few more bites. There were some bigger skipjack just outside the 50-foot depth that made a few reels scream as well. On the Cortez side there were scattered Sierra between Cabo and San Jose and past San Jose they were getting into some decent Bonita.