CABO SEES A VERY SHARP 17-DEGREE WATER TEMPERATURE
DIFFERENTIAL BETWEEN PACIFIC AND CORTEZ SIDES

June 6-12, 2005, George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico Fishing:

We still have the wind that has been pestering us for so long in the Cabo San Lucas vacation area, and we wish it would go away! The breeze has been pretty steady from the WNW all week with the exception of two nights when it died down. Night time lows at Cabo San Lucas have been in the range of 58-62 degrees. Daytime highs have been up to 91.

If you drew a line across the peninsula a few miles above Cabo San Lucas, you would see a 17 degree water temperature difference, with 57 degrees along the Pacific coast and 74 degrees on the Sea of Cortez. Guess that almost tells the whole story, huh? The cold water is green and there is not a lot of good, solid blue water around the Cabo San Lucas fishing area, at least not until you get way off shore, up around the East Cape. The Pacific has been almost un-fishable; the few boats that have gone out there in the mornings have had a quick return.

Cabo San Lucas is back to getting Mackerel bait at the usual $2 per bait and there were some Sardinas early in the week at San Jose for $20 a bucket.

Striped Marlin were the Billfish of the week. The Striped Marlin were in the warmer water starting from the Gordo Banks area to up around the Destiladeras area. A lot more fish were seen than were hooked. Some Cabo San Lucas charter fishing boats were getting up to four fish a day and a few boats reported as many as six. Live bait was the favorite and lures came in second with green/yellow working well.

There was a good bite for football Yellowfin from 8-15 pounds along the temperature-color break 18 miles out from Cabo San Lucas at 160 degrees early in the week, but charter fishing boats working the area later on reported little luck. An occasional fish was caught around the Gorda area but there was nothing consistent. Finding the Dolphin was the key, but only one out of 6 pods held any Tuna.

Just like last week and the week before, I think I saw a total of 15 Dorado flags flown by Cabo San Lucas fishing boats this week, and that should say it all. Wait for warmer water.

Rough water on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas made most of the inshore fishing boats concentrate on the area from the lighthouse and around to the arch, plus along the beach on the Cortez side of the Cape. There were still Sierra being caught and some of them were very nice sized, from 6-10 pounds. The cold water brought the Yellowtail with it. The bite turned on fairly well in the middle of the week with fish being found from the lighthouse to Gray Rock. Live bait dropped deep and iron worked deep caught the most fish, but trolling plugs along the coast in 60-100 feet of water worked well also.

There were Roosterfish caught on the Cortez side. Fish to 40 pounds were reported both from pangas and from the beach. Red Snapper were biting as well if you could get a live bait right into the rocks and not get snagged.