FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
December 12-18, 2011
WEATHER: We had a week of cloudy skies and it seemed that the only sunshine that lasted very long happened Thursday afternoon. The rest of the week we kept thinking that it would begin raining any moment. That said, we still had great temperatures as the early morning lows were in the high 60's and the daytime highs in the high 80's. We did get just a little spit of rain, dotting the windshields of the cars and showing you how dusty they were, but nothing heavy here in town. There were some breezy mornings as well, not enough to keep you off the water but enough to have an effect on the golf courses!
WATER: The swells this week were mixed with some days small ones coming in from the east and other days normal ones coming from the northwest. All in all there were no large swells, the biggest were on the Pacific side at 4-6 feet, the smaller on the Cortez at 1-3 feet. Water temperatures were the key this week as the warmest water we had was to the southwest 20+ miles, there it warmed to 77 degrees. Elsewhere it stayed fairly stable at 74 degrees with the water directly to the south of the Cape a bit cooler at 73 degrees.
BAIT: Some Caballito and a few Mackerel were to be had at $3 per bait, mostly boats were getting junk bait for their money so many were going with frozen Ballyhoo instead. There were some Sardinas at $25-$30 a scoop as well.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Still waiting! The word from private boats working the area to the north of Mag Bay is that the fish are there, one boat reported releasing 50 Striped Marlin in one day, but the concentrations have not yet moved this far south. The boats that are going out are releasing between one and four per day and the methods have varied. Some boats have done well by dropping a live bait to 250 feet off the points and have been getting one or two per day, others are running a rigged ballyhoo on the long line and are getting bit on that. Some boats are having better luck pulling plastic lures and dropping back rigged bait to fish that come into the pattern and that won't bite on the lures. Anyway that is being used seems to work for a few fish, the trick is to find them! Almost all the action we have seen has come from the Pacific side but there have been a few showing up on the 95 spot and the 1150.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We are still experiencing very good fishing for Yellowfin Tuna, and there are still some large fish out there. Of course most of the boats are getting fish between 12 and 25 pounds with a few in the 60 pound range but there have been several fish this week that have been over 200 pounds. Most of these larger fish have been caught by boats flying a kite. The majority of the schools have been found between 14 and 24 miles to the south and west among spotted and spinner dolphin, the white bellied dolphin have not seemed to have as many fish with them. If you are thinking about getting some tuna it's time to get here, we expect the purse seiners to start back in operation the first of the year, but right now it's possible to limit out on every trip. That's no guarantee of course as the tide can have a strong effect on your success. At the end of the week the bite was good early in the morning and then as the tide changed the bite turned off.
DORADO: There are still plenty of Dorado out there even thought the water has cooled down, the trick is getting them to eat! Boats that have concentrated on pulling lures have not been having a lot of luck. The best way has been to slow troll a live bait or two, hooking one up and leaving him in the water to attract other Dorado. It's possible to limit out at two fish per angler this way, and the fish are fairly decent size at 15-25 pounds. Most of the effort has been on the Pacific side but I did hear of some decent fishing happening off of the Palmilla area.
WAHOO: The Wahoo bite died off this week as the moon started waning, but there were still a few caught, just no large ones. Those that were hooked up came from the usual areas, just off the beach along the rocky areas and off of the shallow sea-mounts like the Gorda Banks.
INSHORE: Sierra are starting to bite good and there are some Snapper in there among the rocks if you have the hooks and lead to spare. Most of the Pangas are fishing live bait for Dorado and venturing offshore for Tuna and Marlin as the fishing for these have been pretty good and the water comfortable.
FISH RECIPE: posted on the blog Thursday or Friday.
NOTES: Whales, cloudy skies and fish, not our normal Cabo weather, but everything else is the same! This weeks report was written to the music of Steppenwolf from a facebook friend who keeps posting clips! Thanks to everyone for reading, and tight lines!
We would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and safe travels for all of your family!