GAME FISH SCATTERED AND ON THE MOVE
IN THE CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING AREA

Jan. 2, 2004, Capt. George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas fishing, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

A friend of mine caught a 500-pound Blue Marlin this week, 33 miles to the south of Cabo San Lucas in 77 degree water! It just goes to show you never know when the big boy (or girl) will show up! Nice fish Dan!

The Cabo San Lucas Striped Marlin bite has been sporadic as the fish move first one way then another. There was fairly consistent action out near the San Jaime Banks this week and there were a lot of sleepers found. The fish that were tailing were moving fast and it took concentration to get a bait in front of them. The bite seemed to be mainly on live bait, but some of the fish came to dark colored lures. Dan's big fish was on a blue/silver lure though, so you never know.

The water conditions at Cabo San Lucas this week seemed to be fairly constant throughout our cruising range, with sea water temperatures in the 74-75 degree range. There was no defined temperature break, but there were a few Cabo San Lucas fishing areas where the water was a degree or two warmer. Sea surface conditions on the Pacific side got a bit rough in the afternoons when a westerly wind would spring up, sometimes from the northwest and sometimes from the southwest. The Sea of Cortez side of Cabo San Lucas was consistently calm, except when the wind was from the southwest.

Cabo San Lucas fishing weather was a bit unusual for this time of year as we had mostly cloudy skies during the middle of the week with some actual rain falling on Wednesday night. Not a lot, but it was enough to knock the dust off of everything in most parts of Cabo San Lucas. The rest of the week was partly to mostly cloudy with night time lows in the mid-60s and day time highs in the low-80s.

There were scattered football tuna to 25 pounds under porpoise on the Sea of Cortez side of Cabo San Lucas less than 5 miles from shore during the middle of the week ended up in some fish boxes this week, but over all the Yellowfin tuna action was a bit slow. Some fish were reported from almost all Cabo San Lucas fishing areas this week, but there was no steady bite, and no really large fish have been showing up yet.

Dorado (mahi-mahi) fishing action moved away from Cabo San Lucas this week with most of the fish being found at lest 15 miles up either coast. On the Pacific side there was a good bite taking place inside the Golden Gate Banks and one day, Friday, there was a chunk of floating wood found 8 miles farther north that held quite a nice load of fish. On the Cortes side of Cabo San Lucas, the action was off of the Westin and slowly moved up toward Punta Gorda. Most of the fish were small but there were enough fish over 20 pounds to make a good fight and a decent stock for the house.

Very few Wahoo were caught at Cabo San Lucas this week, and those that were found were incidental fish in the 30-40 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 small scattered Roosterfish (and one at 35 pounds) were caught by clients on a Panga fishing the Pacific coast this week. Jack Crevalle, Snapper and Pompano round up the major species caught next to the beach and most of the Pangas have been heading out a bit farther looking for Dorado and Striped Marlin.

This week the bait at Cabo San Lucas was a mix of Caballito and Mackerel. They have been the normal $2 per bait.