FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
May 14-20, 2007
WEATHER: O.K., we have had partly cloudy skies for most of the week but as we came closer to the end of the week the winds picked up and the skies started to clear a bit. As of this morning, we had an early morning cool temperature of 58 degrees here at the house, yesterday our low was at 64 degrees. One of the reasons for the lowering temperatures has been a strong wind from the Pacific, it is always a few degrees cooler, often as much as ten degrees when we have the northwesterly wind coming through town. Our daytime highs have ranged from a high of 96 degrees top a low of 82 degrees, again depending on the wind.
WATER: Water temperatures of 64 degrees on the Pacific side of the Cape combined with green water and rough conditions have made the Pacific an untouched region for most of the week. Immediately to the south of the Cape things warmed up a bit to 70 degrees but the water has still been a bit off-color. If you headed due east from Cabo you had temperatures that were consistently in the 74 degree range with just a tinge of green and if you went up the coast on the Cortez side things warmed up and blued out a lot. From the coast out to a distance of five miles from Cabo to San Jose the water was an occasional 80 degrees (mostly in the 78 degree range) and blue, outside of that it dropped to 74 degrees. Once you got past the Punta Gorda area it warmed to 80+ degrees and became a deep blue for the most part.
BAIT: Smaller Mackerel were the normal $2 per bait, there were few if any Caballito around and there were some large Mullet at the $2 per bait price. A few bait Pangas were selling Sardinas brought down from San Jose at $20 a scoop, but these went quick to the fishing Pangas, and if you wanted Sardinas you needed to make arrangements in advance.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I almost don't know what to say about the fishing this past week, not just for Billfish but also for all of the species. I had a friend spend three days fishing the East Cape area offshore and only catch one small Blue Marlin, estimated at #100. I spent the day fishing on Thursday and had one unidentified knockdown out at the Cabrillo Seamount. A couple of other friend went skunked as well on various days this week. Then I had a couple go on a Panga yesterday and land a #200 pound Striped Marlin yesterday at the last minute, right in front of Cabo. The Marlin bite is off, way off, and I am not sure of the reason. The fish that have been found have been in the warm water boundary from Cabo to San Jose out 5 miles and then again up to the Punta Gorda and Vinorama area within five miles of the beach. There have been fish there but they have not been real hungry. We have a couple of release tournaments coming up at the end of the month and there are a few teams pre-fishing for them. One of these teams reported releasing 7 Striped Marlin up around the Vinorama area.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Who knows? A few fish were caught this week but there was no consistency to location or method, one day they were there and the next day they were gone. Most of the fish that were caught were in the football size range, I did not hear of anything larger than 35 pounds. Where-o-where have these fish gone?
DORADO: Just like last week, there were some small Dorado found close to the beach and a few scattered large ones off shore. I had one the size of my shoe come out from under a turtle and strike a swivel, when we turned around and dropped a live bait back the bait was bigger than the Dorado!
WAHOO: There were a few scattered Wahoo in the 20-30 pound class reported this week but I did not see any of the fish myself. Who Knows?
INSHORE: We are still finding some Sierra inshore on the Cortez side and a good day will result in 6-10 fish in the 6 pound class. A few Yellowtails are still being caught off of the arch and the lighthouse on the Pacific side, but you have to get both the bait and the hooked fish past the Sea Lions. Up around the Punta Gorda area the bottom fishing has been fair, but still nothing to write home about.
NOTES: Fishing this past week left a lot to be desired. All right, let me be honest, it sucked. There were a lot of boats coming in skunked, and knowing the fishing, listening to the radio and seeing what is going on out there, I find it difficult to believe that some fleets are still reporting outstanding action. Honestly, there are a few boats that have done well on one day, but I don't know of any of them that have been hammering the fish on every trip. I hope things change quickly as we have the four day IGFA Offshore Tournament happening this week and then the World Championship Release Tournament right afterward. Our fingers are crossed, I hope yours are as well!
As for our shark longline lining law, you can go to this website for updates.
http://www.billfish.org/new/NewsArticle.asp?ArticleID=60