FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
February 9-15, 2009
WEATHER: Once again we had partly cloudy skies this week, not enough of them to block the sun, but enough to make for great sunsets. Our daytime highs were in the low 80's while the lowest I saw in the early mornings was a cool 58 degrees.
WATER: The wind was still blowing at the beginning of the week but as the days wore on the speed and intensity dropped so that at the end of the week the water was once again almost flat with small swells and very little wind chop, at least most days. Everywhere we looked the water was in the 72-73 degree range and there was no dark green anywhere.
BAIT: Mackerel were the bait of the week this week and they were the usual $3 per bait. Sardinas were available as well from bait boats up at the Palmilla area at $25 a bucket.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The bite at the Golden Gate Bank for Striped Marlin remained slower than it has been with good days bringing release numbers of 3 or 5 fish per boat. The bite at the Finger Bank was reported to be excellent, as there is much less pressure up there. Other than the Golden Gate, Striped Marlin close to us were scattered, a few were found off of Los Arcos, a few off of El Faro, a few off of Palmilla, you get the idea, right? Most boats were getting at least a strike or two but the focus for a lot of the boats changed with the drop in the number of bites, the Captains preferring to go for numbers instead of size and targeting other species.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I did see a few Tuna flags this week but did not see any of the Tuna that were brought in. I was told that they were mostly football and small school fish to 30 pounds. There were some found up around the Inman bank and out toward the Cabrilla Seamount as well as a few scattered schools mixed with Dolphin on the 1,000 fathom line south of the San Jaime Bank. The fish at the Inman bank were caught with heavy chumming of Sardinas, and Sardinas used as live bait, the other fish were caught on small feathers in dark colors.
DORADO: There were quite a few more Dorado caught this week than I had expected, but the results were because of the finding of three objects in the water. A dead whale was found in the middle of the week around the 1150 spot and delivered a large number of decent sized Dorado to the boats when live bait was used around it. There was a large section of rope found just off of the Solmar Beach that produced a great number of fish until someone decided to pick it up and take it home. Also found in the same area a bit later was half a bucket, the number of fish around it kept quite a few anglers happy that day.
WAHOO: I thought I was seeing a larger number of Wahoo flags this week than last week, but on closer inspection they proved to be shark flags. Quite a few pup Makos were caught this week, with most of them released. Very few Wahoo were reported being found, and those that were found were in the usual spots off of Gray Rock and up around Punta Gorda with the Inman Bank being the most productive area.
INSHORE: Sierra continued to be the inshore fish of the week as the number caught continued to climb. One of the best spots this week was off of the El Dorado development on the Cortez side of the Cape. Most anglers were able to catch limits on fish that ran to 8 pounds. There were also quite a few small Roosterfish and Jack Crevalle around but live bait was the way to go for them, if you could bet really small Mackerel or Caballito. Most captains for all the species available preferred heavy Chumming with Sardinas.
NOTES: There are still plenty of whales to be seen out there and they have been putting on quite a show most days. The whale harassment league of small water taxis and glass bottom boats seems to have tapered off a bit, good news for the whales. This weeks report was written to the music of James Hunter on his 2008 Concord release "The Hard Way". My favorite song on this English bluesmans album is the last track, "Strange But True". Until next week, tight lines!