CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
www.flyhooker.com
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
March 7-13, 2011
Weather: Warm again! All right, our morning lows have been in the mid to high 60's, this morning it was 68 degrees as we drove to the marina. Our daytime highs have been warm as well, getting into the high 80's. It's starting to feel like Cabo again as we have had sunny skies all week long and this beautiful weather!
Water: The swells have been small on both sides of the Cape and the wind has been light so there has been excellent surface conditions this past week. The only problem has been the water temperature. On both sides of the Cape the water has been below 70 degrees, around 68 degrees for the most part. It has been slightly warmer up toward the Punta Gorda area on the Cortez side, and we did see an area of 72 degree water for a little while around the 1150 as well, but things are constantly changing. The water on the Pacific side has been pretty green most of the week and we had the small tsunami swell (2 feet) on Friday that some of the guys are saying caused a bit more off-colored water along the beach as well.
Bait: No change in the bait availability. Caballito, a few Mackerel and a scattering of misc. other large baits could be bought at $3 each and if you were quick and lucky you could get a scoop of Sardinas for $25.
FISHING
Billfish: Striped Marlin are still mostly a non-event for us, unlike a few years ago. Boats are still finding fish around the 95 spot to the 1150 and out past there, but they are not biting very well. A lucky boat would get four fish released this week while most of the boats were lucky to see four fish, let alone get one of them to bite. Rigged dead bait seemed to work better than live bait, and one of the reasons may be the large number of squid in the area. You can see them on the depth finder and they are 9-15 inches long, perfect food and easy for the Marlin to feed on. There have been a few scattered fish found elsewhere, but no concentrations.
Yellowfin Tuna: The few Yellowfin tuna that have been found have mostly been smaller fish in the 20 pound class or smaller. There were reports early in the week of a few schools of fish that were a bit larger, averaging 40 pounds, but they appear to have moved out of the area. Most of the dependable action has been in the Punta Gorda, Gorda Banks area with Sardinas as bait. Even then the bite has been fairly slow. Of course there are always exception in any type of fishing, and there was one day last week, Thursday I think, where 6 boats headed south to try and find the porpoise so they could get Tuna and one of them got lucky, ending up with over 20 fish while the other boats skunked out. That's fishing, but it sounds to me as if that boat won't be getting any radio calls about found fish from any of his buddies in the near future!
Dorado: Repeat of last week with a few flags were flying, but just like last week they were mostly for smaller fish caught by boats fishing right along the beach for Sierra. If you stomped on them they might have been stretched to 21 inches and weigh 3 pounds, sigh. There were a few exceptions as some fish in the 20 pound class were caught in the warmer water where the Striped Marlin were found.
Wahoo: The warmer water areas did deliver a few offshore Wahoo this week, in the same area where the Striped Marlin and Dorado were found. Anyone see a pattern here yet?
Inshore: On again, off again, Finnegan? One day great and the next day the fish had moved on, the day after that they were right off the beach in front of the house. Really no rhyme or reason that we could see other than the movement of the bait. Some Yellowtail to 20 pounds up the Pacific coast and a couple of fish to 35 pounds right off the arch in the afternoon (not legal to fish there anymore, got to move fast if the marines show up). The Sierra were really moving around and a few cruisers gave up on the inshore fish as they were not showing up consistently enough, but the Pangas were doing all right. Once in a while a school of larger fish would be found, fish that averaged 6-7 pounds instead of 3-4 pounds. Snapper bit occasionally as well, but as there were mostly just larger baits available what most folks got to see was their baits being bounced around like a volleyball by the fish. Maybe larger Sardinas? Of course then the problem becomes one of casting a light bait like that far enough.
Weeks Fish Recipe: Really simple and really good! Take any white meat fillet, dip in beaten eggs, roll in mashed potato flakes mixed with a bit of dried oregano, quick fry in avocado oil, place on rice or pasta already cooked and top with a healthy serving of grated Parmesan cheese while still hot, then a bit of marinara sauce! A veal Parmesan made with fish!
Notes: The Tsunami was the big news for the week in our town, and our greatest sympathy for the Japanese, suffering the quake, then the Tsunami and now the reactor problems. The only effect we had from the Tsunami was a raising and lowering of the mean water level a foot each way from each of the four waves that passed. Oh, and of course the Port Captain closing the Port until 10:30, half an hour before the first wave was to appear, then opening it only for outgoing vessels so they would not had a problem with the surge inside the Marina. I can't understand why he waited so long for that, and then of course the port remained closed for the rest of the day. The beach was also closed for the entire day. What? Yep, no one was allowed on the beaches so the resort pools and the grass around them were packed with tourists all day long, even after the tsunami swells had passed. Just a little economic hit for fishing charters that could have gone out in the afternoon and the water taxis, and the beach bars, etc. Oh well.......This weeks music is Dick Dale on his 1993 High Tone Records release "Tribal Thunder". Until next week, tight lines!