Cabo Bite Report

[CaptGeo]

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
Cabo Fish Report
October 26-November 1, 2009


WEATHER: As we expect this time of year, the weather has gotten off of the summer schedule and we now have the cool fall weather comforting us. Our temperature this morning was 68 degrees, earlier in the week it was a steady 70 degrees while the daytime highs have been in the mid to high 80’s with little humidity. No wonder so many people come and visit this time of year! We had mostly clear skies this week with a little wind from the northwest early in the week.
WATER: The seas have been nice at an average of three-foot swells with a little afternoon chop on top of that on the Pacific side and an average of 1 foot less on the Cortez side of the Cape. There was an intrusion of cool water from the Pacific side across the tip of the Cape this week and at an average of 80 degrees it crept close to the beach in a narrow 3 mile wide band as far as San Jose then bent to the east in a 10-mile wide band extending from the Gorda Banks to the 1150. To the southwest of this cool band the temperature was 82 degrees, sort of a pocket of warmer water 30 miles by 30 miles. Out on the Pacific the water 15 miles to the west of the San Jaime Bank, along the 1,000-fathom line, was also a warm 82 degrees while inside that area it was 80 degrees. Surprisingly, the warmer water was a little green this week while the cooler water was bluer.
BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were the usual $3 per bait and there were some Sardinas available up in San Jose at $25 a bucket, or here in Cabo at $30 a half bucket.
FISHING:

BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite as well as Blue and Black Marlin dropped off this week. It may have something to do with the full moon. As the water cooled we expected the big girls to slow down but the Striped Marlin should be picking up. Maybe soon the big groups will start to show. The Striped Marlin that were caught were found on the Pacific side fairly close to the beach by boats looking for Dorado. Small groups of two to six fish were spotted on the surface but only one in 10 or 12 showed any interest in eating a live bait and very few of them showed any interest at all in lures. A few boats did all right, releasing two or three fish per trip, but we have not yet seen the numbers of fish as we have over the past three years.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Yellowfin were scattered out this week, some fish were found as close as two miles from the lighthouse and there were other out 30+ miles to the west. Almost all the fish were found with Porpoise, there were a few unassociated schools found but it was hard to keep on the fish without the mammals to show you where they were headed. Most of the fish caught were football to school size fish, from 8 to 40 pounds with an occasional 60-80 pound fish in the mix. A few boats that got to the schools first did all right with an occasional larger fish to 130 pounds. At the end of the week the bite slowed down and the fish were harder to find. On Saturday it was reported that there were three purse seiners working the area so the bite may be off for a while. That too bad as we have the yearly Tuna Tournament coming up next week.
DORADO: The Dorado bite was wide open early on, boats were catching all they could handle and were releasing anything under 10 pounds (at least most of the boats were). Later in the week the water started to cool and the bite slowed down. With the moon getting larger the bite moved to the afternoon as well so it often seemed that there were no more Dorado around, at least at the end of the week for the first few hours of a trip, A few boats managed to do extremely well after finding a dead turtle on one day and a log on another day, both of which were holding major numbers of fish under them. Even with the slow bite late in the week, most of the boats were able to catch near-limits of fish averaging 12 pounds.
WAHOO: The full moon brought the Wahoo bite back as there were more fish found late in the week than earlier in the week. Most of the fish averaged 30 pounds and were found near the points by boats working for Dorado.
INSHORE: With the great water conditions most of the Pangas were trying their best to put clients on the Dorado and Tuna early in the week. At the end of the week with the bite moving toward the afternoon, the morning boats returned to the near shore ground and targeted Roosterfish, Sierra and Snapper. Most of the Roosterfish were on the small size with an average of 10 pounds but there were some nicer fish found in the Cabo bay near the RIU resort beach. These fish reportedly were in the 30-4o pound class. The Sierra were still small at an average of 4 pounds and were found farther up the Cortez side of the Cape. The main species of snapper found this week were the smaller Yellowtail Snapper but there were a few Cuberra and Barred Pargo in the catch as well.
NOTES: Once again my thanks to Mark Bailey for the music selection this week. The 2008 release by Smith Entertainment of the album “Ain’t In It For The Money” by the Texas group “Micky and the Motorcars” kept me tapping my toes as my fingers worked the keyboard. Until next week, tight lines!