Cabo Fish Report
July 4-10, 2011
WEATHER: Warm. Need more information, well all right. Our morning lows have been in the low 80′s and the daytime highs in the high 90′s. We had very little wind this week but did have quite a bit of cloud cover early in the week with sunny skies from Thursday on to the end of the week. We had a pretty good shower on Monday and that was the end of the rain.
WATER: The water was 82-84 degrees almost everywhere you could go, on the Pacific side that was everything in range inside the 1,000 fathom line and on the Cortez side it was all the water out to a distance of 30 miles south of Cabo and 50 miles south of Punta Gorda and eastward as far as you could travel. Once you got past five miles off the beach on the Cortez side the water was blue, inside it was just slightly tinged with green. The swells were decent size at 3-6 feet but there was very little wind on top of them and they were spaced well apart.
BAIT: Mackerel and Mullet were easy to get this week at the normal $3 per bait, there were no Sardinas and only a few Mackerel to be had.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Well, thing are constantly changing on the ocean and as the warm water moved into our area the Billfishing changed a bit as well. We are still seeing Striped Marlin close to home, as a matter of fact one of the boats hooked two Striped Marlin within 100 meters of Lands End on Wednesday. Most of the Striped Marlin have been very close to home, but there are not the numbers we were seeing last week, and they are not as hungry. What we are seeing more of is Blue Marlin. A boat caught one over 600 pounds this week and quite a few smaller ones between 200 and 300 pounds were released. Not that they were caught by every boat out there, no it’s not that easy! But there were Blues to be had if you were in the right place using the right stuff. Most of the action on these Blue Marlin occurred between 5 and 25 miles out, around the Tuna. Naturally they were following their bait!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Not much of a change from last week as far as the Yellowfin are concerned. Between 5 and 25 miles to the south and southwest, find the porpoise and you were getting bit. The porpoise were all over the p[lace, finding the right pod to work was the key. The white bellied porpoise were moving fast and it was hard to get bit in them, but the spotted porpoise were easier to work and the fish were a bit more co-operative. Smaller lure in dark colors worked great on these fish that averaged 15 pounds, with large ones reaching 30 pounds. There were a few big ones caught as well, fish that reached over the 100 pound mark, but they were not in among the small ones.
DORADO: Dorado continue to come into our area and there are some nice ones out there! We had a young client who caught his first one the other day, it was Saturday, and the fish weighed just over 60 pounds! Now he is spoiled for life and probably expects every one he catches to be that large! Not every boat is bringing home Dorado, but the ones that are getting them are catching nice ones. Most of the action has been out past the 5 mile area, and on the Cortez side of the Cape.
WAHOO: Once again I did not hear of any Wahoo being caught this week.
INSHORE: Roosterfish to 60 pounds, Amberjack, Jack Crevalle, Bonito, Grouper, Snapper, all the inshore fish are showing in the reports this week. The ones not there are the cooler water fish such as Yellowtail and Sierra. Slow trolling live bait is the key to getting most of the fish except the bottom species, and those were biting on butterfly jigs.
Cabo Fish Report
May 30- June 5, 2011
George Landrum
WEATHER: Sure am glad I am here and not there! With nighttime lows in the low 70′s and daytime highs in the mid 90′s, humidity most day around 35% it just doesn’t get much better than this. We had sunny skies all week long and at the start of the week we had a steady, but not too strong wind from the northwest. Today is going to be the hottest of the week though, as it is 77 degrees and not even 7 am yet!
WATER: On the Cortez side of the Cape, almost in a line running due east of us, the water to the north was 80 degrees until you got off of the Los Frailles area offshore. There it warmed to 84 degrees at the end of the week. South of that line it dropped to 74 degrees except for an intrusion from the Pacific side that ran right along the 1,000 fathom line where it dropped to 70 degrees. On the Pacific side of the Cape it was 66-70 degrees everywhere. Early in the week the Pacific side was a bit rough with large swells and some steady wind, but the swells died down late in the week as did the wind. On the Cortez side of the Cape the wind had little effect later in the week but at the beginning it made for a few days of rough riding back to Cabo if you went east to fish.
BAIT: There was a decent availability on Caballito this week at the normal $3 per bait, some Sardinas were found in the Palmilla area at $25 a scoop and of course you could get frozen ballyhoo at $3 each.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I did not hear of any Swordfish being caught this week but there may have been a few. Most of the boats were concentrating on the Striped marlin that were being found up to the east in the Destillidera area. The best catches were in double digits but most boats were getting between 3 and 5 releases per day, with a lot of fish just giving quick strikes and not hooking up. Most of the action for the fleet boats was on lures and the fish were averaging a little bit larger at 130 pounds instead of the normal 110 pounds. The action fluctuated a bit day to day and the fish moved around a bit as well. While the concentrations were in the Destillidera area, there were fish found closer to home also. Scattered Striped marlin were found all over the place and it seemed that most of them were willing to hit a lure or bait, but the concentrations were not there for large numbers to be caught. For the boats not making the long trek to the concentrations, a release average of 1 per boat was the norm. There were still Sailfish being caught in the San Jose area as well, mainly closer to the beach and the structure with small pods of three or four fish coming in to attack lures. Not a lot of them but enough that any trip had the chance of catching one.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We finally had some decent numbers of Yellowfin show up. To the east of us there have been occasional breezers, schools of fish that are traveling just under the surface, pushing the water so that it looks like a gust of wind is traveling through. If you see one of them, the chances of hooking up fish are good, just throw a live bait in the water in front of the school. Boats that were finding them and doing that were getting fish averaging 45 pounds with an occasional jumbo over 100 pounds. Most of the boats are catching smaller fish close to home. The area from 2 to 6 miles off the beach between the arch and Chileano Bay produced plenty of blind strikes on fish that averaged 18 pounds, a few smaller than that but nice fish anyway. Almost anything worked, lures big and small, live bait, rigged dead bait, it was just a matter of getting a strike and then working the area. A good catch was a dozen fish, a big catch was limits for everyone.
DORADO: Every week the numbers increase, and this week the size increased as well. There were quite a few fish in the 40-50 pound class caught, and a lot of fish in the 12-20 pound class. The warm water on the Cortez side of the Cape was producing almost all the fish with the larger ones found offshore and the smaller ones closer to the beach.
WAHOO: It sounded as if the Wahoo bite was decent this week if you were fishing out at Punta Gorda. Boats that concentrated their effort on the 50 fathom line and worked it hard with swimming plugs and lead head lures were getting between two and five fish per day, most of them in the 30 pound class with an occasional fish to 60 pounds. There were a few others caught offshore but there were no concentrations out there, just incidental catches.
INSHORE: Roosterfish were the stars of the week for the inshore fishermen as some of the larger fish arrived with the warmer water. In the white water you could see fish to 40 pounds cruising for something to eat and getting a live bait in there usually resulted in a hook-up. Almost all of the sandy beaches were producing the Roosterfish, but the average size was 15 pounds, the larger ones were not as common. There were also some nice snapper caught in the rocks if you were able to get a bait in there, but the large swells early in the week made that a bit difficult. Many of the Pangas were fishing for Yellowfin Tuna since they were so close and biting so well.
