CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
www.flyhooker.com
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
December 13-19, 2010
Weather: Almost Christmas and still no snow, what is going on? Oh well, I guess with daytime temps in the mid 80's and nights around the low 60's we won't be seeing much of that white stuff anytime soon. Breaks my heart (not!). We had mostly sunny skies this week and starting on Monday we experienced quite a bit of wind, most of it coming from the northwest. On Saturday it swung a bit and came from the east then died off and now it is nice and calm.
Water: All week long we have had a small area of cold water right in front of Cabo. The water has been 68 degrees while everywhere else it has been 71 degrees. The only other area of cold water we have seen is to the west of the San Jaime Bank where it was also 68 degrees. This cold water in front of us has also been off-color with a lot of green. The Pacific side of the Cape has continued to have good blue water while on the Cortez side up to the north, around the east cape, it has started to become greenish as well. When the wind started to blow on Tuesday the Pacific side became very rough and hard to fish. Most boats stayed to the south and the Cortez side of the Cape.
Bait: Caballito, Mackerel and Mullet were all available at the usual $3 each. There were a few Sardinas in San Jose at $25 a scoop.
FISHING
Billfish: We still are not seeing the numbers of Striped Marlin we expected, but we may have been spoiled with the success of the past several years. I don't know if it is a current issue, a bait issue or a commercial fishing issue, but they just have not been there in great numbers. We are still seeing fish, and they are still not biting well though. Most boats are seeing several dozen per trip but are lucky if they hook up one or two. And, surprisingly, there are still big fish around. We had clients fish on Thursday who found the Pacific side too rough, and the target was Striped Marlin. They turned to the Cortez side and ended up with a Black Marlin of #450 instead. It was a 40 minute fight for Bill Cook.
Yellowfin Tuna: While there were not a lot of Tuna caught this week, the boats that did get into them did very well, limiting out on fish that ranged from football to school size. Most of the action occurred to the south of Cabo or out to the west. Of course the problem was the water conditions. The winds we had made the swells large, sometimes 7-9 feet and there was chop on it, a lot of chop. The type of conditions I sometimes describe as a field of sheep. Anyway, there were fish out there, and they were biting steadily, but you had to be strong. Some of the Yellowfin went 50 pounds but the average was 20 pounds.
Dorado: Once again scarce, the numbers continue to drop as the water cools down. Fish were still found, and occasionally a boat found a small school and caught limits on fish to 15 pounds, but that was not the norm. Most boats were lucky to get a Dorado strike, and the success ratio was around 15 percent. Close to the beach on the Cortez side and just off of San Jose close to the beach were the best areas. Fish were found close to the beach on the Pacific side, but the water was rough most of the week.
Wahoo: No Wahoo were seen or reported to me this week, but there are always a few out there.
Inshore: Sierra are still the inshore stars, and are likely to continue to be so until the Yellowtail show in greater numbers. Right now you are able to get your fill of Sierra using either Sardinas, small rapallas or hootchies, but the sizes are not much larger than 6 pounds. There are still firecracker Yellowtail showing up and the Amberjack are biting, but no large fish, just in the 10-15 pound class. A few of the Pangas are getting into some Snapper to 10 pounds in the rocks, but the swells and winds have made that a "sometime" event.
Notes: If you are getting your own fishing licenses, you must have pesos!!! The people that sell the licenses around the marina can no longer take dollars from anyone. Get pesos the day before! No one has change for your US $100 at 6AM.
Music this week was a variety of Christmas songs as I wrote this and Mary baked cookies! Merry Christmas, I hope Santa is good to you!
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