FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
July 13-19, 2009
WEATHER: You don't need to be packing any sweatpants or sweaters when you pack for your trip to Cabo if you are coming down in the next few weeks. As the weather last week showed us, summer is here to stay a while. Our daytime highs on land have been over 100 degrees every day, most days topping out at right around 102 degrees while the evenings have been a warm 85 average. There were a few clouds early in the week as a few weather systems passed to the southwest and the east of us, bringing cover from the sun, but no relief from the heat. Getting out on the water made things more livable, be it swimming in the ocean or getting out on a boat. Definitely save the golf courses for early in the day though!
WATER: We did see water temperatures as high as 89 degrees early in the week up around the Punta Gorda area on the Sea of Cortez, but later in the week things cooled down a bit and the same areas on the Cortez side of the Cape had an average of 85 degrees with a few warm spots at 87 degrees. On the Pacific side there was a cool spot just to the north of the lighthouse near shore where the water dropped to 75 degrees later in the week. The water on the Sea of Cortez was a very nice deep blue once you got out past the 1,000-fathom line, a decent blue color inside there, but on the Pacific side the cool water was green and offshore the water had just a bit of a green tinge. Surface conditions on the Pacific were swells at 3-6 feet with chop on top in the later part of the week. The chop and swells wrapped around the Cape and finally tapered off to the east of the 95 spot, once you were toward the 1150 the swells had laid down and the chop had disappeared.
BAIT: Almost all the larger baits this week were Caballito and mullet at the normal $3 per bait. There were Sardinas available up in San Jose at the usual $25 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The numbers of Striped Marlin being seen and caught continue to dwindle, as the water remains warm in our area. Along with the scarcity, the average size of those being seen seems to have dropped a bit as well. The cooler, greenish water on the Pacific side continues to hold more Striped Marlin than the warmer waters on the Sea of Cortez, but they have not been very willing to bite. On the positive side, there seems to be a bit of a better bite starting to happen with the Blue Marlin right about now. I heard of one boat releasing two decent fish on Saturday, and there has been at least a fish per day reported every day for about every 10 boats, that's reported hook-ups, not releases. The warm, blue water on the Cortez side has the fish scattered out, there were no defined current lines or temperature breaks. This has meant that as usual, boats that have wanted to focus on these larger Marlin have been working structure. The 95 spot, the 1150, the Gorda Banks, the Cabrilla Seamount, the Vinorama drop and the 1,000-fathom line have been targeted this week, and with a bit of success.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The fish started to show up in decent numbers this week with most of them football fish on the Cortez side of the Cape. Along with the 10-15 pound fish were occasional fish to 35 pounds and a few schools of fish in the 40-50 pound class. All of them were associated with porpoise, and is usual, the first few boats to the action had action; if you were late you were out of luck. There were also a few larger fish mixed in with the small ones, hooking up to the occasional 80-100 pound fish surprised a few anglers this week. I heard of two fish hooked up that were supposed to be around 200 pounds, but did not get to see them; it may have just been the usual beer talking!
DORADO: For some reason the number of Dorado caught this week dropped off. There were still fish out there but the average per boat dropped to about one instead of the two from last week. Perhaps because no one found anything floating on the surface this week! The fish that were found were scattered out, a mix of both the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific side of the Cape, inshore and offshore. Basically get out on the water and keep your fingers crossed. Working a while under frigate birds increased your odds quite a bit.
WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo this week.
INSHORE: This week the inshore action was a repeat of last week. It was a pick this week with steady action on small Roosterfish averaging 10 pounds and an occasional fish to 40 pounds, a couple of Sierra and small Yellowtail found on the Pacific side and a scattering of Pargo in the mix. There were two days in the middle of the week when the grouper action was decent, but then the fish moved to deeper water. Most of the Pangas were working just offshore looking for Dorado and Tuna action.
Notes: The water has stayed warm, the big fish are starting to show up and we are getting a bit more excited every week! I will be out on the water at least two days this week looking for Blue Marlin and will let you know next week about any luck that we have. Until then, tight lines!