FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
August 6-12, 2007
WEATHER: Summertime is definitely here as we had daytime highs in the mid to high 90's and nighttime lows averaging in the mid to low 80's. We did record a nighttime low of 74 degrees here at the house on Wednesday morning, but I attribute that to the fact that we had a storm come and cross over us from the mainland and it lowered temperatures across the board for at least one day. It also brought easterly winds on Wednesday and Thursday that mad for some fairly rough and choppy conditions out in front of town. There was quite a bit of rain in the mountains as a result of the storm but we did not receive anything more that a slight splatter here in town as a result.
WATER: Let's start with surface conditions first. On the Pacific side we had swells from the northwest and winds at 10-15 knots up until Tuesday night. When the storm from the East moved through the swells remained the same but there was no chop on top of them. You had to be up the Pacific side past San Cristobal before you realized the difference, but it was definitely there. On the Cortez side of the cape we had very choppy and rough conditions starting on Wednesday, getting very rough on Thursday and tapering off in Friday, and back to normal by Saturday. Sea temperatures were averaging 82-86 degrees on the Cortez side of the Cape and between 77 and 81 degrees on the Pacific side of the Cape.
BAIT: There was no problem getting bait this week with plenty of Mackerel, Caballito, Mullet and Sardinas. The bigger baits were the normal $2 per bait while the Sardinas were $25 per scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Striped Marlin action continued to be pretty much wide open for the boats this week and it has me confused. Normally when the water get this warm the Stripers have all but disappeared and we are lucky to get into a decent Blue Marlin bite this early in the season, but it appears that everything is still a little bit late. Most of the Striped Marlin have been in the 90-110 pound class but there has been an occasional fish to 180 pounds. These fish have been close to shore on the Cortez side of the Cape and there was no problem at all getting their interest before the storm moved in even if you were trolling plastic lures. After the storm came thought, the fish seemed to spread out a bit and live bait worked better then plastics died. Most of the fish that came to boatside coughed up squid in the 8-12 inch range so lures in the red color range worked a lot better than other colors for almost every species targeted this week. There were also a few small Blue Marlin caught and released, we had out third of the season on my boat, a small fish of about 120 pounds. There were fish reported between 180 and 500 pounds though and the reports were scattered as to location.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: If you wanted football Yellowfin Tuna, this was the week to be here. Fish in the 6-12 pound class were found almost everywhere on the Cortez side early in the week and they were not associated with any porpoise schools, instead they were associated with structure. If you concentrated on the 300-foot curve along the Cortez side you were guaranteed to get bit on theses fish. The vest results were to be had on feathers in dark colors and trolled in the 7-knot range. Some boats reported catches in the 20-30 fish numbers. An occasional fish went 15 pounds but these were the exception. As the week went on the bite moves across the Cape and at the end of the week most of the action occurred between the arch and the lighthouse.
DORADO: The Dorado action continued to improve as the water warmed and the fish have been a bit larger on average as well. We caught a couple of fish this week that were over #40 and it seemed that every other boat returning to the marina had at least one yellow flag flying.
WAHOO: Just rumors again, I think it is a moon phase thing.
INSHORE: Good to excellent Roosterfish were available on the Pacific side between the arch and the lighthouse on fish between 5 and 25 pounds. The baitfish moved in close to the beach and brought the Roosters with them. Other inshore action was spotty as most of the Pangas were concentration on the "close to shore" pelagic fish.
NOTES: For the third time in 8 years I got to see Orcas here in Cabo. On Wednesday morning we left the Marina and spotted a small pod of 8 Orcas just inside off of Lovers Beach. We followed them for 30 minutes as the crossed in front of the arch and continued to the west on the Pacific side. I managed to get one good picture of the big male in the group, there was also a female it a calf. Needless to say, that made out trip! On everything else related to fishing, the reports above tell the story. Go Seahawks!