CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
www.flyhooker.com
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
December 20-26, 2010
Weather: No, no snow from Santa even though to us who have lived in the tropics for so long felt as if it was going to happen any minute as we had a few mornings where it was just below 60 degrees. I am layered up as I sit here on the keyboard, and am debating with myself about taking our retriever on her Sunday beach walk. Our daytime highs were in the mid 80's, which was nice, but I still got a bit chilled when the wind blew. We had that happen for a few days early in the week, nothing strong, but enough to ruffle up the water.
Water: The cool green water we had last week in front of us has continued on through this week, but the currents have caused it to form a large plume as cool as 68 degrees and running along the Pacific coast and continuing on in a southeasterly direction at least 50 miles once past us. The water on either side of this cool plume has been as warm as 75 degrees and blue. Surface conditions this week were excellent as the winds that plagued us last week finally let up.
Bait: Bait was a bit of a problem to get at times this week. It may have been due to the holiday atmosphere as the bait boats were not going out early, instead content to catch a few fish for their regular clients then returning home. There were small Caballito here in Cabo, if you wanted larger ones, or more bait than just a few you had to make the run up to San Jose. Prices were normal at $3 per bait, but I hate paying that for "look-downs" and 5" Caballito.
FISHING
Billfish: Striped Marlin were an on one day, off the next, then on again event this week. Just before the water turned the bite was great with plenty of fish being seen in the Migraino are on the Pacific side, then overnight the water turned over and became cool and green. Poof, they were gone. Two days later they were back but would not bite. Next day gone again, but appeared 5 miles off the lighthouse and were biting well. Sigh, why is it so hard to figure out what something with such a small brain is going to do? When the bite was on the boats that had the right bait were getting three or four releases, others with the wrong bait might get one or two bites. One day rigged ballyhoo worked well, the next day they would not touch anything except 10" Caballito. Almost all the action took place on the Pacific side of the Cape.
Yellowfin Tuna: Again, this was a very on-off fishery this week as the schools moved constantly. One day they were 4 miles off the beach to the south, then next day 25 miles out and the following day over on the Pacific side just inside the San Jaime Bank. I did not hear of any large fish but there were decent fish to 35 pounds caught. If you were in them at the right time all the lines would go off and you could limit out fairly quickly. It also helped if you were one of the first boats there! We had one client who only caught one small football size fish his first day, but went again two days later and got tired of reeling them in.
Dorado: The cool water has really shut down the Dorado bite even though a few fish are still being caught. They are being found in the warmer water but the number of fish is down quite a bit. The size has averaged 12 pounds with a few fish larger and smaller. The area around Punta Gorda and San Jose seems to be holding more fish than elsewhere, but the warm water to the southwest of the Cape has it's share as well.
Wahoo: No Wahoo were seen or reported to me this week, but there are always a few out there.
Inshore: It seems as if Sierra were almost the only fish to be found in numbers this week as the Pangas concentrated on the beach areas on the Pacific side. The boats fishing the Cortez side did well on a variety of fish, from Dorado to small Yellowfin and little Roosters as as well as a variety of less wanted fish like Lady fish, Needle fish and Skipjack. Chumming with Sardinas brought on this action in the Palmilla and Inman areas.
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.
Jean-Luc Ponty was my music selection for this week as his electric and classic violin playing on the 1982 Atlantic Records "Mystical Adventures" caught my ear once again. Until next week, tight lines!
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