October 13-19, 2008
WEATHER: The week started with morning temperatures in the mid 70's and ended with the temps in the high 70's, a slight warming over the course of the week. Daytimes saw a slightly larger change with daytime temps up to the high 90's, but with low humidity compared to last month. We had mostly sunny skies this week with no rain at all.
WATER: The water on both sides of the cape was a little bumpy at the start of the week but by this weekend things had gotten really nice. On the Pacific side we had a slight swell at 2-4 feet and a slight chop early in the mornings and late in the afternoons while on the Cortez side the water remained almost flat with swells at 1-3 feet and spaced far apart. Once you got north past the Punta Gorda, Los Frailles area the wind kicked in a bit and there was some chop on the water, but close to home it was like a lake. Water temperatures on the Cortez side were in the 86-87 degree range almost everywhere and on the Pacific side the water was a fairly even 85 degrees except for just below and to the west of the San Jaime Bank where it dropped to 82 degrees.
BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were available at the normal $3 each but on a few days they were a bit harder to get. Boats going up the Pacific side were stopping at the Golden Gate Bank to make bait as there were some small, scattered schools of Mackerel down deep.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There were still plenty of Striped Marlin at the Golden Gate Bank but as the days went along the bite dropped off. Early in the week boats were releasing five or six fish on a geed day but by the end of the week a two fish day was a good one. The fish were still there, you could see them on the depth sounder and on the surface, but they were not biting as well. Farther to the north at the Finger Bank, the same situation was occurring, but there the difference was in the baits available. At the Finger Bank the Marlin were feeding on Sardinas, and would often just ignore a Mackerel or Caballito because they were so focused on the small fish. On the big fish front, there were quite a few medium sized Blue and Black marlin released, with the majority of them being Blue Marlin in the 200-250 pound class. The Los Cabos Billfish Tournament, held over three days, had only one qualifying marlin caught, a #415 Black that ended up taking all the jackpots for the three days as well as the big fish prize, a nice total of over $500,000 u.s. Saturday was the first day of the two-day little Bisbee tournament, with only 20 something boats entered? With the #415 Black being caught on the Outer Gorda Bank on live bait, every boat in this tournament was there fishing the same way. There were two fish weighed in on Saturday, the largest was a #385 Black. The other fish did not quite make the grade, weighing in at a short #295, five pounds shy. The winning fish on Sunday was a #514 Black ,same area, same method.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: This was almost a repeat of last weeks results with most of the fish caught being found to the south of the San Jaime Banks among Porpoise pods. The first boats on the fish did well with catches ranging from 6 to 10 fish with an average weight of 20 pounds, the larger fish going 30 pounds. If you were the third or fourth boat on the scene you might get one or two fish, if you were later than that you were out of luck. There was one very nice fish caught this week during the Los Cabos Tournament, a Yellowfin weighing in at 181 pounds, but I could not get the information on where or how it was caught.
DORADO: The number of Dorado being caught this week fluctuated day to day, but overall the numbers are down a little bit unless you went far up the Pacific side. The passing of Hurricane Norbert did was quite a bit of debris into the water, but the inshore current changed and at a movement of 2 knots, pushed the debris to the north and out to the west. Locally the best bite has been on the Pacific side from 2 to 4 miles off the beach. Finding feeding Frigate birds in that area was a sure indicator of Dorado and slow trolling live baits under the birds, or pulling lures in the area usually resulted in hooking up, with the fish averaging 12 pounds. I did hookup one nice Dorado this week, in the 50-pound class, but it got away after charging the boat like a Marlin. The largest Dorado caught during the Los Cabos Tournament was 57 pounds.
WAHOO: I heard good things this week about Wahoo up around the Punta Gorda and Inman Banks, with quite a few of the local Pangas getting one or two fish in the 40 pound class each day. They were getting good results on swimming plugs like Rapallas and Marauders, and there were a few large fish hooked up as well. The largest Wahoo brought in during the Los Cabos Tournament weighed in at 44 pounds.
INSHORE: Almost every Panga captain I talked to this week was working off the beach for Dorado and Striped Marlin. Only one went and fished the beach and he told me that the Roosterfish bite was off, releasing only three small fish outside of the Westin Hotel on the Cortez side.
NOTES: This is the Bisbee Black and Blue Tournament week so there will be a lot of pressure on the fish, and if this last weeks results are any indicator, you will probably be able to walk from boat to boat on the Outer Gorda Bank. My golf game is not improving, so after having been semi-retired for the past year and driving my wife nuts, I am ready to get back to full time work. If anyone out there has a full time Captain position that needs filled (preferably here in Cabo or San Jose) drop me an e-mail with a phone number and I'll give you a call. Until next week, tight lines!