Cabo Bite Report FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING Captain George Landrum [email protected] Cabo Fish Report Sept. 26-Oct. 2, 2005 WEATHER: Well, we did have a change in weather this week! We started off with highs in the 100-degree range, little wind and high humidity but ended up with highs in the mid 90’s, heavy wind and high humidity! That happens when a Hurricane brushes us. Hurricane Otis passed to the west of us bringing heavy cloud cover, some rain (a reported inch in Cabo, higher elsewhere) and strong winds. While conditions were good on Thursday, the Port Captain closed the port on Friday and it has been closed for Saturday and Sunday as well. Hopefully he will re-open it on Monday. WATER: I can only describe what we had on hand at the beginning of the week as the cloud cover from the hurricane has blocked any signals from being received from the satellites, and of course with the hurricane the water has been un-fished for the past three days. Prior to the weather turning bad the water temperatures on the Sea of Cortez were right around the 86-87 degree mark while on the Pacific side the warm water had pushed up past the Golden Gate Bank with temperatures in the 86 range. The swells had been 4-5 feet and the surface conditions very good with only a slight chop. Right now we have swells at 8-10 feet and winds from 20-30 mph from the SSE and they expect the wind to change and come from due south by tonight. BAIT: Bait was readily available at the beginning of the week, who knows what it will be like if they re-open the port tomorrow. Normal price of $2 per bait. FISHING: BILLFISH: The hotspot for the final day of fishing this week was on the Pacific side, up on the inside of the Golden Gate Bank and beyond. The water temperature was right and there were Striped Marlin all over the place. Most of the fish came on live bait thrown to tailing fish but there were almost as many caught by dropping back a live bait to fish appearing in the lure pattern. There was a Blue Marlin caught reported to be in the 400# category as well, and there were scattered fish elsewhere. My friend Jeff DeBrown of “Reel Baja” was guiding a group of fly fishermen on Wednesday and they caught what Jeff called “maybe a #25 on a good day” Striped Marlin on the fly and had shots a couple of others. They also had on of around #140 on for several minutes on Thursday when 4 of them appeared in the teaser pattern at the same time. YELLOWFIN TUNA: I got lucky last week and while fishing on the Pacific side on the south end of the San Jaime I found a pod of Pacific Spotted Dolphin that had a nice school of Tuna associated with it. There were more birds with these fish than I have seen in a long time and we were the only boat there. We ended up with 7 fish between #40 and #90, and then came in. Other than that, there were almost no Tuna reported except for some footballs close to shore on the Cortez side. DORADO: Dorado were probably the fish of the week last week as almost every boat out caught at least on. Of course most of them were small fish, but there were some nice ones scattered around. Most of the action came from 25-28 miles to the south where there was a small color change and plenty of bait. This area is also well known for converging currents so there is often floating debris to be found. Wonder what it will be like this time next week as the debris washed out from the arroyos via the hurricane rains start to form and hold fish? WAHOO: The inshore fishery for the Striped Marlin also had quite a few Wahoo as many boats reported loosing up to three Marlin jigs due to Wahoo teeth on mono leader. Since the activity was primarily aimed at Marlin, few Wahoo were actually landed, but those that did hit the decks were nice fish in the 40-50 pound class. INSHORE: Most of the Pangas were again fishing slightly offshore for pelagics at the beginning of the week, and of course the inshore shut down with the hurricane. It may take a week or so before it gets any good again as all the storm swells make getting close to the beach tricky and the runoff from the arroyos makes things a bit murky. NOTES: Three days of no fishing due to the approach and passing of Otis gave me a bit of time to do some boat work, and of course to check out some music. One of my favorite websites is www.guitarnoise.com and they had a review of a new album titled “Sixty Six Steps” by Leo Kottke and Mike Gordon. Now that is some great music! Until next week, Tight Lines!