FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
January 4-10, 2010
WEATHER: It seems as if we have settled into the winter weather fairly well as for the past month we have been consistently in the low 60's at night and the mid 80's during the day. This past week had us happy with mostly sunny skies and light winds.
WATER: There were no large swells this week; everywhere you went it was an average of 2-3 feet on the Pacific and 1-3 feet on the Cortez side. Along the beach on the Pacific side it was an average of 77 degrees with an occasional spot of 76-degree water. On the Cortez side it was a little cooler with a cool area from just to the north of Cabo all the way up to San Jose where the water was 76 degrees.
BAIT: Caballito were still the most common bait available but there were a few Mackerel to be found, all at the normal $3 per bait. There were Sardinas up in the Palmilla area at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I heard of a Black Marlin in the #450 range being caught at the very beginning of the week between the 95 spot and the 1150 area but the larger Marlin were few and far between. As the water continues to cool I expect the numbers to reduce even further, but as long as there are large baits in the area there is a chance at a Blue or Black Marlin. The bite on the Striped Marlin has been very sporadic this week as one day the bite is on and the next day it is off. The favorite and best producing area continues to be from the lighthouse on the Pacific side to the lighthouse on the Cortez side. Boats that have been drifting with baits deep have had most of the luck, as it seem the fish are feeding deep. Fish on the troll have been caught, but not in the numbers as on deep drifted live bait. The expected action at the Finger and Golden Gate Banks has yet to happen, and it may be a while before it does.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin fishing this week was a repeat of last week. Football fish were the fish most often caught but there were a few boats that got into fish in the 30-40 pound range. All Yellowfin were few and far between this week but the Pacific side between the Golden Gate and the San Jaime Bank seemed to produce more than other areas, at least areas that were reachable by the day charters. The Gorda Banks were reported to continue to produce an occasional larger fish, up to 100 pounds, but it was a scratch fishery, nothing steady.
DORADO: Our wide open bite on Dorado stopped at the beginning of the week before last and i9t has not gotten any better since then. The cooling waters have had a lot to do with this and I don't expect the bite to get much better unless you are able to find something floating that has been in the water a long time. Most boats were happy to get several Dorado and a few were lucky to get a half-dozen or so during a trip. We had fly fishermen this week who caught a few on the fly every day after hooking one on the troll, casting to following fish resulted in some nice fish in the 10-18 pound class. Most of this action occurred just up the beach on the Pacific side.
WAHOO: There were a couple of days this past week when I heard of boats getting one or two fish a day, most of them coming from the area of Gray Rock, and they were biting regular Marlin lures, or getting hooked on drifted live bait. Other than those two days, there were few Wahoo in our area. I heard of reports of decent catches from the San Jose area though, with some fish on the Gorda Banks and others around the Punta Gorda area.
INSHORE: The Sierra bite picked up, but you had to go a ways up the Pacific coast to get into the numbers. From Migraino and to the north the numbers were good with limits happening on a regular basis. There were reports of some small Roosterfish, but the water is starting to cool down and the action on the bigger fish is cooling as well.
NOTES: The fishing is still not great, but it has improved over the first week of the year, and hopefully this is a trend that will continue. The whales are giving a good show every day; the weather is great, even if it is cool enough for a sweater in the evening. This weeks report was written to the music of Ernest Ranglin from his album "Grooving". Until next week, tight lines!