FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
October 29-Nov. 4, 2007
WEATHER: Our weather remained beautiful this past week as the daytime highs were in the low 90's and high 80's while the nighttime lows were in the low 70's. At the end of the week we had some wind that made the weather perfect, but chopped up the Pacific side as the wind was from the northwest.
WATER: Water temperatures were from 80-83 degrees pretty much anywhere you went at the end of the week. On the Pacific side this meant out to the San Jaime and on the Cortez side it meant up to the Inman Bank area and out to the Seamount. On the Cortez side this warm water was slightly off-color but better color was found on the Pacific. As the week came to a close the wind picked up from the northwest and the Pacific side became pretty choppy with conditions that were uncomfortable for a lot of folks, seas at 4-6 feet with 15 knots of wind.
BAIT: Larger baits were a pretty even mix of Caballito and Mackerel at the normal $2 per bait and there were plenty of Sardinas available as well both in Cabo and up in San Jose at $20 a scoop. If you wanted to catch your own bait there were plenty of Mackerel to be found just in front of the lighthouse on the Pacific side in 100 feet of water.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There were still Blue Marlin to be had this past week but the big news was the continued Striped Marlin bite. The Golden Gate bank turned back on as the Mackerel moved back on top and boats concentrating their efforts were rewarded with 5-8 releases a day. Drifting or slow trolling live Mackerel worked, as did soaking live bait deep with 8 ounce torpedo sinkers. With the bait pushed up to the surface, running in on the Frigate birds as the suddenly swooped down resulted in a large number of hook-ups as well, but brought some tempers flaring as the speeding boats cut through the crowds drifting. While the action was good there, the beginning of the week brought us reports of wide-open action from the Finger Banks. There were reports of 30-50 fish days but unfortunately (for the fishermen) the winds kicked in and few boats were making the trip due to rough conditions at the end of the week. I hope to get a chance to try it out this coming week as I will be fishing every day, and will head up there if the conditions permit.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were no reports of large Tuna that I heard of this week, but the action on football fish was wide open at the inner Gorda and the Inman Banks during the middle of the week. Chumming with Sardinas and then fly lining live Sardinas on light line had fish coolers being filled during the middle of the week. I was a day late getting in on the bite and when I did get there on Friday it was almost all Green Jacks and Skipjack. That was still fun on light tackle but not what we were looking for. On the way back home we came across a large pod of porpoise that held a lot of fish and ended up getting a dozen of the footballs for the anglers. There were reports of school-sized fish to 35 pounds along the western edge of the San Jaime banks, but the water conditions resulted in few boats trying for them.
DORADO: Early in the week the Dorado bite was wide open on the Pacific side, close to the beach in less than 200 feet on water, past the Golden Gate bank. A dozen or more fish per trip was easy and early in the week the water was great. As things became rough fewer boats were making it up there and closer to home the bite was not quite as good. Boats were still able to get Dorado but it was more on the 2-5 fish per boat level. There were some nice Dorado in the 40-pound class found on the Cortez side of the cape out 4-6 miles off the beach and they seemed to prefer bright colored lures in slightly larger sizes than normal.
WAHOO: My deckhand and I farmed a Wahoo this week, one about 25 pounds and we heard of quite a few other boats getting fish of the same size up in the area where the Dorado were found. Of course there were a lot of bite-offs as well but it did seem that about 10% of the boats managed to hang onto one. As usual, dark colored lures seemed to work better.
INSHORE: The football size Yellowfin Tuna were the target of most of the Pangas this week, but there were still plenty of Roosterfish to be found on both sides of the Cape. At the end of the week most of the Pangas were fishing on the Cortez side due to the wind.
Notes: I am going to be busy fishing this coming week so will have more first-hand experiences for next weeks report. Until then, tight lines!