FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
November 17-23, 2008
WEATHER: It just doesn't get any better than this! Our daytime highs were in the mid 80's while the evening and early morning lows were as far down as 68 degrees but averaged 70 degrees. At the end of the week we had mostly cloudy skies, which kept things cool as well and gave us some wonderful sunsets!
WATER: Swells on both sides of the Cape were between 1 and 3 feet this week and spaced fairly far apart. We had only light winds for the most part and combined with the small swells, we had some great surface conditions. The water on the Pacific side seemed to cool off a bit between 2 to 3 miles offshore and out across the San Jaime Bank, running an average of 76 degrees. Inside that area, and outside to the west, it averaged 78 degrees. On the Cortez side we saw an average of 81 degrees.
BAIT: Most of what was available this week was Caballito, but the Marlin were fixated on Mackerel, so most of the Caballito were not used. You could catch your own Mackerel at the Golden Gate Bank or, if you had a good depth sounder, at the lighthouse.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Striped Marlin remain the fish of the week with most boats getting at least four of five fish per trip. Boats that really worked it hard and concentrated on them were getting into the double digits again. Most of the fish were still at the Golden Gate Bank, but there was a decent showing at the lighthouse on the Pacific side as well. The bait keeps moving and the fish follow them so as the currents changed the Striped Marlin appeared in different areas, following the bait. Live bait was the key to a decent catch, and using circle hooks with flouro-carbon leaders really made a difference!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Close to our area there were scattered schools of football to school sized tuna found among the Porpoise. From outside the 95 spot along the 1,000-fathom curve to 8 miles to the west of the Golden Gate Bank there were scattered pods of Porpoise, and about half of them held fish. Occasionally a pod would come through closer to shore and the fist couple of boats would do well, but the later boats just got to see the mammals playing. There were confirmed reports of larger Yellowfin to #150 north of the Golden Gate Bank, but that was to far for most of the fleet boats to go, the reports were from private yachts.
DORADO: The bite picked up just a bit this week for the Dorado with most of the action shifting to 2-3 miles off of the beach on the Pacific side between the lighthouse and the El Arco area. Live bait and bright colored lures in smaller sizes worked very well. Many boats slow trolled live bait and caught a decent mix of both Striped Marlin and Dorado.
WAHOO: I saw a few fish this week in the 50-pound class but there were not a lot of Wahoo flags flying from the boats at the end of the day. Boats that had gone out looking for Tuna caught the Wahoo that I saw.
INSHORE: There were a few more nice Roosterfish caught on the Pacific side of the Cape along the beach between the arch and the lighthouse, just like last week. As well as Roosterfish, there has been a showing of Sierra and a few Yellowtails. A few Pangas reported big Grouper were biting on the rock piles if you fished big live bait, but most of the fish were rocking the anglers and breaking off.
NOTES: We have had a wonderful week as the weather has been just great and the fishing has been almost wide open. I had a chance to golf at Palmilla and while my score was not great, I had a fantastic time on the course. I have tiled the dining room where I pulled up the baseboards (termites) and the border looks great, and yesterday finished painting it. Now we are almost ready for Thanksgiving and all the folks we have invited over! Until next week, tight lines, and try giving a listen to some Allison Krause and Union Station if you can find the time!