FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
October 6-12, 2008
WEATHER: This was an interesting week on the weather front as we had a scare from Hurricane Norbert and were keeping an eye on Tropical Storm Odile. Norbert ended up passing well to the north, bringing only several days of cloudy skies, gusty winds and a little bit of rain. Oh, and some big swells! Odile looks as if she is going to dissipate well to the south and west of us and should not effect us in any way. As expected, although several days early, the temperature dropped and the humidity dropped as well. This morning on the way to the golf course we had a reading of 74 degrees, at least 10 degrees less than anytime in the past four months! The skies were sunny and the weather perfect.
WATER: The end of the week saw the Port Captain close the port for Friday and Saturday due to the effects of Hurricane Norbert. Prior to that the Pacific side was seeing small swells at 3-5 feet with winds from the northwest at 5-10 knots, the Cortez side had swells at 1-3 feet with slight winds, variable in direction and speed. Hurricane Norbert pushed the swells to 10-12 feet for Friday, and winds gusted to 30 knots on Friday and Saturday. The Port Captain opened the port at 7:00 am Sunday. Water temperatures on the Cortez side of the Cape were in the 86 degree range on average, and on the Pacific side out to the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks it averaged 85 degrees with a 2 degree drop outside, to the west and to the north, of those banks.
BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were available at the normal $3 each but on a few days they were a bit harder to get. Boats going up the Pacific side were stopping at the Golden Gate Bank to make bait as there were some small, scattered schools of Mackerel down deep.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The beginning of the week saw a continuation of the hot Striped Marlin bite we had been having at the Golden Gate and the Finger Banks. As I write this we are waiting to see if the storm conditions caused the fish to move off as we have several boats out fishing today. Our fingers are crossed that the port being closed for several days, and the lack of rain in our immediate area will have given the fish a break and they will be ready to eat when our clients get to the grounds. There were a few more Blue Marlin caught early in the week before the weather moved in, but none of them were large ones according to what I heard, most of them were in the 200-250 pound class. Almost all the action on billfish this week occurred on the Pacific side with the exception of a few Blue Marlin up around the Punta Gorda area.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Early in the week reports were coming in about a few nice schools of Yellowfin Tuna to 50 pounds outside of the San Jaime Banks, and to the south of the Banks. There were a few fish caught by the first boats on the scene at the Golden Gate Bank as well. We will have to wait and see if these fish remain in the area after having the fishing shut down for several days.
DORADO: Once again there were still some decent Dorado to be found with the average size a bit smaller than expected at 12 pounds, but the number of fish was down as well. Most boats were happy to get three to five fish per trip; the exceptional catch may have been 10 fish if the anglers were lucky enough to get into a school of fish. There is a decent chance that the rains from Hurricane Norbert, as it passed across land to the north, may have washed out a lot of debris from the arroyos and we may have some decent concentrations of Dorado under this floating debris in the coming week. The California current should bring this debris into our area in three or four days.
WAHOO: My fingers are crossed that the full moon will bring on the Wahoo bite, but for right now it is wait and see. Hurricane Norbert may have had an effect on these sensitive fish.
INSHORE: Early in the week the inshore action was decent with small Roosterfish to 15 pounds and an occasional 40-50 pound fish being caught on the Cortez side of the Cape. Bottom fishing was poor so most of the Pangas were working several miles off of the beach for Dorado and Marlin.
NOTES: It looks like the beginning of a decent fall fishery here in Cabo, as long as the rough weather stays away! The water temperatures are perfect, the water is blue and the fish are out there. With the drop in our air temperatures and the humidity things are downright decent in town and on the water! Until next week, Tight Lines!