MOST CHARTER BOATS ARE WORKING THE PACIFIC SIDE GOLDEN GATE BANK

Dec. 20-26, 2004, Capt. George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas, Baja Sur, Mexico:

The Cabo San Lucas Striped Marlin bite dropped off a bit from the action we had last week, but that was mostly because the fish have been moving around a lot. Once you found the fish, it was an average of three bites per boat for Cabo San Lucas fishing boats, except for the first couple of boats to the action, and some of them were getting multiple hook ups. Early in the week all the fishing action was up the coast on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, with most of the boats working the area to the inside of the Golden Gate Banks. Getting there early was the key, as late in the morning the wind started to blow hard. As the week went on, the fish moved south of Cabo San Lucas and at the end of the week the fishing action was centered about five miles to the south of the 95 Spot, then moved off to the southwest. Most of the bites were on live Mackerel, but rigged Ballyhoo got some attention as well, and lures seemed to fill in third place.

This week's fishing on Cabo San Lucas' Yellowfin tuna is a repeat of last week's with the exception that there was a bit of very early morning action had within 500 meters of the arch on football fish, using both feathers and iron. There were more yellowfin tuna found this week by Cabo San Lucas charter fishing boats than there were last week, but the big ones have not shown up yet. Almost all the Yellowfin caught this week were football fish or smaller school fish, the largest fish I saw was around 40 pounds. There were reports of a few large fish found out past the San Jaime Banks, but I never did find out who caught them. The fish closer to home were found in Porpoise pods and bit fairly well on small feathers. The best Cabo San Lucas tuna fishing action this week seemed to be on the Pacific side about 15 miles out, but there was some good action had as well on the Sea of Cortez up around the Gorda Banks. At the Gorda, Sardinas were the ticket for a good catch and for some reason the fish were just a bit larger up there.

Dorado were not the fish of the week at Cabo San Lucas, but there were still some nice fish being found mixed in with the striped marlin. These Dorado were averaging 20 pounds with a few to the 45 pound mark. Live mackerel caught their attention, and many anglers hooked up thinking that there was a Striped Marlin at the end of the line. A few fish were found close to shore on both sides of Cabo San Lucas but the fishing action on them was not as strong as it was last week.

Very few Wahoo were caught this week at Cabo San Lucas, and those that were found were incidental fish in the 30 to 40-pound class, close to shore on the Cortez side.

Cabo San Lucas inshore fishing remained slow this week but there are some Sierra beginning to show up. A few scattered roosterfish and jack crevalle round up the major species caught next to the beach and most of the Cabo San Lucas Pangas have been heading out a bit farther looking for Dorado and Striped Marlin.

Cabo San Lucas had mostly sunny skies this week with our high temperatures in the high 70s to low 80s and our nighttime lows in the low 60s. Cold enough to make you want a sweater and remember why we live where it is warm! No rain this week of course, but it did look like we might have gotten a bit up in the mountains. Cabo San Lucas had pretty strong afternoon breezes from the southeast on most afternoons later in the week.

At the beginning of the week the water temperature was warmer than it had been for the past several weeks, but later on it cooled off again. Our highest Cabo San Lucas water temperatures were at the beginning of the week when we saw 78-degree water temperatures all along the coast on both the Pacific and the Sea of Cortez. Now, at the end of the week, the highest water temperature I could find was 75 degrees, and that was 30 miles to the south. We still have a band of warm water running along the Pacific coast out to a distance of around 20 miles to the west of Cabo San Lucas and 10 miles farther up the coast. The water temperature break seems to have run across the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Bank all week.

Once again almost the only fishing bait available at Cabo San Lucas was Mackerel. They have been the normal $2 per bait.