ACTION FOR STRIPED MARLIN DROPS
OFF TOWARD THE END OF THE WEEK

Jan, 3-9, 2004, Capt. George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

As the fishing week progressed the Cabo San Lucas Striped Marlin bite continued to drop off, and at the end of the week most sportfishing boats that were having good luck were flying one or two striped marlin flags, with an occasional boat flying three.

Quite a few Cabo San Lucas charter boats came in flying no flags at all, let alone a Striped Marlin flag. The bite happened near to home at the end of the week, with most of the fishing action taking place within 8 miles of the coast. Many Cabo San Lucas fishing boats were just flying past the fish as they tried to get out to the high spots. Live bait dropped back to fish coming into the lures was the way most of the fish were caught; there were not a lot of tailers found. A few sailfish were caught up around the Gorda Banks but there were not any big concentrations of them.

Cabo San Lucas sportfishing area water within 20 miles of the coast on both sides of the Cape was pretty steady at 72-73 degrees this week, and there was a band of warm water to 76 degrees just past that distance on the Cortez side. On the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, once you got up past the Golden Gate Bank the sea water temperature dropped to 71 degrees and the same thing happened on the Cortez side once you got past Punta Gorda.

This has been the coldest week of the year so far at Cabo San Lucas. When the early morning thermometer shows 55 degrees, its cold! Our daytime highs have been into the low-80s and high-70s so that has been fine. Cabo San Lucas had mostly clear days this week with a few light clouds and at the end of the week the wind that had been coming up in the afternoons had disappeared.

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

Yellowfin tuna fishing action at Gorda Banks on fish to 80 pounds happened early in the morning this week, but you had to be there at gray light and have either sardina or chiwuiliies (Mackerel Scad) to have any luck on these fish. There were fish in the 35-45 pound class found between 30 and 40 miles to the west of Cabo San Lucas during the middle of the week, but they were moving around a lot. A few fish were found up around and just to the north of the Golden Gate Banks as well. The best baits for the Tuna this week were feathers in dark colors if you were trolling and Sardinas and Chiwillies if you were live baiting.

Cabo San Lucas dorado (mahi-mahi) fishing action dropped off as the water continues to cool. Scattered small fish were found near shore, less than 1 mile off the beach on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, but these fish were averaging only around 6-8 pounds. Bright lures trolled at 8+ knots brought the hungry kids to the pattern. Matching the tackle to the fish gave some good action but on heavy gear it was boring. There were a few larger fish found off shore, up to 30 pounds, but there were no large numbers of them this week, at least that I heard of.

While there were not many, if any Wahoo flags flying from the riggers of the Cabo San Lucas fleet boats, there were private boats that managed to get into decent bites on the speedsters of the ocean. Most of the action was near shore on the Pacific side or on the edge of the Banks on the Pacific side. High speed heavy lures worked right on the 40-50 fathom edge brought as many as four fish per boat into the fish box. Of course not everyone caught; it's always a matter of the right place at the right time!

The Sierra bite finally turned on at Cabo San Lucas, at least for those willing to make a bit of a trip up the coast on the Pacific side. Up around Margarita and farther the fish were concentrated in water between 15 and 25 feet deep, some of the guys were having good luck casting from shore. Hootchies in green or chartreuse were killers. Most of the fish were about 4-5 pounds, no real big ones, but hopefully they will show up soon. There were pompano and Jacks in the mix as well. Many of the Pangas were mixing the Sierra fishing with Dorado action by working the sierra early then trolling back a little further off the coast on the way home.

The Whales are here and every trip I have been out on we have had great sightseeing for the Gray and Humpbacks. It is an awesome sight to have a big Humpback do a full breach only 100 yards away! Cabo San Lucas fishing was a bit off this week but as we pass the new moon on the 10th I hope it picks up.