November 16-22, 2009
WEATHER: It was a great week to be outside or on the water as our highs were in the high 80's and the lows in the low 70's. It actually hit 68 degrees one morning; almost cool enough for me to get out a long sleeve sweater to wear! We had mostly clear skies and sunny days except for the end of the week when some clouds moved in.
WATER: Water on the Pacific side of the cape had a slight swell of 2-5 feet. Near shore and out to the Golden Gate and San Jaime bank the water was in the 80-81 degree range, west of there it dropped to 77-78 degrees. Near the shore the water was great with little wind until late in the day, outside the wind picked up earlier and it was occasionally rough in the afternoons. On the Cortez side of the cape the water was 80-82 degrees everywhere you went with just small swells and light winds.
BAIT: Bait this week was mostly Caballito but there were some Mackerel showing up from the bait boats. The prices remained at $3 per bait and there were some Sardinas available in San Jose at $25 a bucket.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There has not been a good bite for billfish this week but there have been some caught. Mostly Striped Marlin and fairly close to shore on the Pacific side, the fish have been scattered up and down the coast. On Saturday a private boat fought and landed a 650-pound Blue Marlin in about 600 feet of water just north of the Golden Gate Bank. We had decent luck ourselves with a release on a Striped Marlin on Thursday, going one for two but spotting no tails, the strikes we had were on lures. On Saturday we had no marlin action at all but watched part of the fight on the big Blue. There have been a few fish on the Cortez side of the Cape but not any numbers there either, just scattered fish here and there.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Tuna were scarce this week but toward the end of the week there were a few schools found to the southwest of the San Jaime Bank along the 1,000-fathom line and the temperature break. Most of the fish were footballs to 30 pounds but there were a few fish that pushed the 60-80 pound mark. Live bait got the larger fish to bite and the first boats to the area caught them. Elsewhere there were just a few fish found under scattered Porpoise.
DORADO: The Dorado have moved a little farther to the north every day on the Pacific side. Early in the week they were concentrated close to the shore just to the north of Los Arcos. As of this weekend the larger mass of fish had moved up as far as Cerritos beach and could be found in water from 50 to 200 feet in depth. The bite was not wide open but it was a fairly steady pick on fish that ranged between 8 and 25 pounds in size. Dropping back live bait as the first fish was being brought in accounted for about half of the fish landed.
WAHOO: There were a few Wahoo caught this week but there were more lost than landed. That is to be expected from the razor tooth gang when you are rigged for Dorado, mono leader just can't handle them very well. A few fish were found offshore but most of the action occurred close to the beach around the rocky points on both sides of the Cape.
INSHORE: Pangas have been having good luck on the Cortez side for large Sierra and there have been a few large Roosterfish found on the Pacific side. Most of the inshore action has been with snapper and small Roosterfish as well as Dorado.
NOTES: My apologies to everyone for there not being a fish report last week, but I was up in the states for a friends wedding. On Friday I got the chance to play the newest golf course in Cabo, the Diamante. Boy, what an experience that was! This has to be the nicest course I have ever played and the service was out of this world. I have no doubt this is the best course in Mexico and it should easily be ranked in the top 100 in the world, if not in the top 50. It is a Davis Love III design with a true links look and feel. If you only have the chance to play one course when you come here, make it this one, the price is very reasonable for Cabo and you will not regret it, believe me on this! I wrote this weeks report to the music of Mark David Manders on his CD "Cannonball", yet another great gift from Mark Baily! Until next week, tight lines