Cabo Bite Report

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING

Captain George Landrum

gmlandrum@hotmail.com

www.flyhooker.com

http://captgeo.wordpress.com/

Cabo Fish Report

Dec. 9 - 15, 2013

WEATHER: Occasionally sunny skies this past week brought a few mornings of what have been the coldest of the season to this point. I was getting reading in the low 60's, as low as 62 degrees on Thursday morning, as I went to the marina at 5:30 am. It warmed up later on of course and we ended up averaging 82 degrees during the mostly cloudy days early in the week and in the 85-86 degree range later in the week. We had a bit of wind blow in on Thursday as well, mostly affecting us in the afternoon, and continuing on into Friday and Saturday. I did not notice much of a breeze this morning. We did not get any real rain from these clouds, but it did spit a bit on us on Monday, just enough to spot up the windshields on the cars.

WATER: The first few days of this week were a continuation of last weeks water as far as temperatures were concerned. On Monday the water on the Pacific side of the Cape was in the 78-79 degree range from the beach on out to the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks, to the west of there it dropped by four degrees very quickly. That was the only temperature break in our area. On Tuesday that started to change and by the end of the week our entire area was seeing water temperatures in the 77 degree range, from far west of those banks to up past the Gorda Banks area in the Sea of Cortez. The water color has been a bit off of "blue", more of a blue with a green tinge to it, almost a glacial water look to it.

BAIT: Caballito and a few Mackerel make up the choice of live baits this past week, and you were lucky to get the Mackerel. The price was the normal $3 each.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: Lots of Striped Marlin were being seen this week but not many of them wanted to bite. The Pacific side continued to be the best area to find these fish, and the usual bait holding areas were worked hard by the fleets. The ledge at the lighthouse and the canyon just on the north side, the ridge at Los Arcos, the drop at Migraino and the Golden Gate Bank all had fish, but few boats were getting bit, at least compared to how the action had been. In addition, we were seeing lots of small Striped Marlin, and I mean some of these fish were in the 40-50 pound class. When you did find a hungry fish it was aggressive and would readily bite on the lure or live bait, but these fish were few and far between. If you were fishing for Marlin this week your day consisted of throwing live bait at Marlin you saw on the surface, slow trolling live bait in one of the areas listed above or running out to one of the bait balls signaled by the swooping Frigate birds. The action was scattered up and down the Pacific coastline with little action seen on the Cortez side.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Well, we are starting to see a very slow improvement in the catch of Yellowfin Tuna as more porpoise show in our area. The fish are still mostly footballs in the 6-10 pound class, but when you get into them they bite well. Its just hard to get real excited when your limit on these small fish is 5 per person, and if you fill that limit you are done keeping any fish for the rest of the day. Get into one of the pods of porpoise that hold Tuna and you never know what might bite though, there could be some much larger fish out on the edges, as a few lucky anglers found out this week, with Tuna to 80 pounds occasionally grabbing a passing lure, or gobbling a bait dropped in front of the traveling pods of porpoise. For the large Tuna, the Gorda Banks appeared to be the place to go as there was a short bite for a few days there. If you could work the area with chunks you stood a chance to catch fish that went as large as 260 pounds, but the success ration was not very high. Then again, these were very large fish!

DORADO: There was little change in the Dorado action this past week from the week before. Lots of small 6 to 8 pound fish continued striking lures and trying to eat live bait on the Pacific side of the Cape. Most boats were shaking these fish off and waiting for larger ones to bite and since the limit is two per angler the small fish could fill a limit quickly. Getting a bigger Dorado this past week has been a matter of working harder and smarter. The larger fish continue to be found farther to the north, inside the Golden Gate area from the beach out to about two miles. Many boats that were slow trolling live bait, or drifting weighted live baits for Marlin were getting the larger Dorado. Working staggered depths with down-riggers and z-wings during a slow troll with live bait was effective, and you could be surprised at any time with either Marlin, Dorado, Tuna, Wahoo or if you were close to the beach, a large Snapper or Grouper.

WAHOO: The bite was not what it has been, and the fish seemed to be a bit smaller, at least the ones that were caught. I heard a couple of anglers call them wee-hoos as they had caught a couple of them that were only 8-10 pounds. I expect the bite to be a bit better for these fish this coming week as we approach the full moon, but I have been wrong many times before. The Wahoo that were caught were found in the usual haunts, on top of the high spots and along the drop-offs, but there were also some caught out on the flats in 100 feet of water, so you just never know.

INSHORE: The Roosterfish made themselves scarce this week, at least early in the day they were hard to find. The ones that were found were once again the smaller ones in the 5-6 pound class, there were not many larger 20-30 pound fish found. Boats that were going up to the Marguerite area and the Migraino area were doing well when they found schools of Sierra, and some of these fish were decent size for the species at 6-9 pounds, but there were also schools of small 2-5 pound fish. Either size of Sierra were capable of ruining any hootchie skirts used, and could make a swimming Rapallas look decades old after a few fish had been caught. Most of these fish were tight to the beach. There were also some true Red Snapper being found off the beach. Boats bottom bouncing strip baits in 60-120 feet of water were having decent luck on Snapper to 5 pounds with an occasional fish to 10 pounds.

FISH RECIPE: I don't have a new recipe this week, but feel free to check out ones listed on my previous reports, they are all good. If I used one I found on the internet I give credit for it, and actually used the recipe, then listed it only if I would serve it again!

NOTES: I guess this was the week for small fish. Small Marlin, Tuna, Dorado, Wahoo and Sierra. Add in that the bite was off just a bit and many boats were scratching hard to put clients on some decent fish this week. Of course there are always a few boats that are in the right place at the right time, that is what keeps us going as anglers, right? We will keep crossed fingers that the Mackerel will show up, because usually the big fish follow the bait! Seeing the number of small fish is also a good thing as this implies a good spawning season, and plenty of fish for the future! Come on down for the holidays, with plenty of whales to be seen and steady action on small fish and the chance to catch something big, it sure beats sitting in a freezing cold car waiting for it to warm up! This report was writing to the country music sounds of George Jones. Until next week, tight lines!

Cabo Bite Report

More Fishing Reports:

About The Author: Captain George Landrum