FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
May 25-31, 2009
WEATHER: Once again we had a strange week with the weather. At the start of the week the wind began to blow pretty hard at 15-20 knots from the northwest and that brought the temperatures down. Our early morning lows were in the low 60's, here at the house on Wednesday I registered 61 degrees. Our highs during the day stayed in the low to mid 80's. Thursday evening the wind started to slow down and Friday around noon it stopped. Saturday morning the coolest I saw was 72 degrees and it warmed right up to 92-95 in the afternoon. No rain this week.
WATER: At the beginning of the week there was a large plume of cold water coming across the tip of the peninsula and the water three miles off the Cape was a cool 63 degrees while farther up the Pacific side there was 57-degree water off the beach at Los Arcos. The currents changed and at the end of the week everything had warmed up by ten degrees as we had 77-degree water off the Cape and the beach temperatures on the Pacific side had warmed to 70 degrees. With the wind blowing as hard as it was no one wanted to fish that cold water early in the week anyway, it looked like victory at sea out there. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water was warmer with the current pushing out the cold plume we had early so that at the end of the week from the beach to the 95 spot and the 1150 it was averaging 77 degrees and just outside of there it was 75 degrees. At the end of the week the wind had died, the surface conditions on the Pacific had calmed right down and the Cortez side was almost flat.
BAIT: There was a decent mix of Caballito and Mackerel this week at the normal $3 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: You wanted Striped Marlin this past week? Well, we had them by the dozens between the 95 spot and the 1150, but they were not as interested in biting later in the week. The boats were throwing baits every five minutes to fish on the surface but finding one that has hungry took time. Some boats were able to catch and release three of four early in the week but the numbers dropped at the end of the week. One possible reason is the amount of bait out there. Squid were showing on the depth sounders and you could see the Marlin around them, occasionally balling them up a bit so the Marlin were stuffing themselves and were not really in the mood to expend energy chasing lures or lively little Caballito and Mackerel. Putting out artificial squid as lures brought more attention, and this week I am going to try some of the real stuff inside of the artificial, perhaps that will work! At the end of the week the Marlin had moved closer to town and they were pretty concentrated three to four miles off of the Cape.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Sorry to say it but there were very few if any Tuna found by the boats fishing this week. We did see several Tuna Seiners anchored in the bay early in the week, the big ones with helicopters on them, and at the end of the week there was one small one anchored out there, so somewhere there are Tuna, just not here.
DORADO: Dorado were scarce this week but there were a few caught at the end of the week as the water warmed up. A good catch was two or three fish but most boats were happy to get the chance at one.
WAHOO: Once again, what Wahoo? On the bright side we are coming up on the full moon so maybe there will be a decent bite this coming week as the moon gets bigger and the water warms up.
INSHORE: The Pacific side was basically un-fishable the early part of the week but at the end, starting on Saturday the seas had calmed enough that the Pangas were able to get back to the area that were producing last week. There were still Pargo in the rocks and live bait was the way to go. You had to button down the drag on these guys or they would rock you right away. There were some nice sized Jack Crevalle in with them as well. On the Cortez side the Roosterfish started to show up and they ranged from 5 to 35 pounds. Live bait slow trolled in 15-30 feet of water brought fish to the boat for pictures. There were very few Sierra caught and the Yellowtail bite slowed way down close to home.
Notes: This weeks report was written to the music of Jack Johnson on his 2004 Universal release "In Between Dreams". I can't believe I just heard of him a few weeks ago! There seem to be more tourists coming in now, which is a very good thing for Cabo since we have been almost dead for the last month. The government has finally gotten around to tearing up Marina Blvd so you can't drive through the middle of town. The good thing is that they have made the side streets one way with no parking so traffic moves along pretty well. Until next week, tight lines!