FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
February 16-22, 2009
WEATHER: This was a beautiful week in Cabo with our nighttime lows in the mid 60's and the daytime highs in the mid 80's. We had a few days with light clouds, no rain and light winds.
WATER: Warm water moved into our area during the week and almost everywhere you went the temperatures were around 75-77 degrees. It was just a slight bit cooler on the northern edge of our fishing area on the Pacific with the area between the northern San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks around 74 degrees and the Finger Bank at 71 degrees and greenish water. On the Cortez side there was a pocket of cool water at the Gorda Banks at 72 degrees.
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: There were still Striped Marlin at the Golden Gate but they were not very hungry this week. You could throw a live bait in front of 20 fish before finding one that would bite. Other areas experienced the same type of results, but the fish were even more scattered. Almost every place you went you could find Marlin on the surface but their mouths remained closed. At a guess, success rates on Striped Marlin were probably around 30% with 3 out of 10 boats releasing a fish.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again the Yellowfin bite remained fairly poor with fish being found in the Gorda Banks and the Inman Banks all week and only a few schools are being found outside. The fish on the banks were quality fish between 30 and 60 pounds, but you had to work your way through all the Bonita to get to them. Sardinas were the ticket with chumming steadily bringing in the fish. Small hooks with light leader had to be used in order to get the Yellowfin to bite, but the light tackle also resulted in quite a few fish being lost.
DORADO: Dorado remained the fish of the week as most boats were returning with between five and ten fish. Anything found floating in the water was likely to hold at least a few Dorado and some of the fish were a very respectable 40-50 pounds. Both sides of the Cape produced fish, and working the current lines was the best way to find floating debris.
WAHOO: I only heard of a few Wahoo being caught, but the couple that I did hear of were very nice fish at around 60 pounds each. These were caught in the open water out 15 or more miles due south.
INSHORE: Inshore fishing this week remained a repeat of last week. Sierra continued to be the inshore fish of the week as the number caught continued to climb. 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 as well as Amberjack around but live bait was the way to go for them, if you could get 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. The water warmed up this week so there could be a continuation of the Dorado bite for a while. I really hope that the Striped Marlin start biting again! I am golfing this afternoon, my fingers are crossed that I can do well and break 100. Maybe it would help if I took some lessons! Mark Knopfler and his 2000 Mercury Records release "Sailing To Philadelphia" were the background for this report.