RAINY WEATHER VISITS MEXICO'S
CABO SAN LUCAS VACATION AREA

Jan. 17-23, 2005, Capt. George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

Cabo San Lucas had rain this week! On Tuesday, the wind started to blow strong from the west and then the clouds rolled in on Wednesday. In the evening, the drops started coming down sporadically and dotted the windshields on the cars. When we woke up on Thursday morning the streets of Cabo San Lucas were wet and there were puddles in the low lying areas. All the plants got dusted off and Cabo San Lucas fishing boats had a soft water rinse. That was the big news. Other than that, things have remained about the same with Cabo San Lucas night time lows in the low to mid-60s and our day time highs in the mid-80s.

Cabo San Lucas fishing water conditions were very good this week on both sides of the cape with the exception of Tuesday when the winds picked up before the front moved in. There was a strongly defined temperature break over the San Jaime banks but there was no fish in the area in the latter half of the week.

The SST sea surface water temperature near shore at Cabo San Lucas has been in the 72-73 degree range and a bit farther off shore the water warmed to 75-77 degrees. This warm water area was shaped like an upside down horseshoe at the cape and ran about 8 miles off shore.

This week the bait at Cabo San Lucas has been almost all Mackerel with just a few very small Caballito in the mix. The price has been the normal $2 per bait.

This weeks report is almost identical to last weeks! Wednesday was a banner day of fishing at Cabo San Lucas for Striped Marlin, as the fish were packed up and close to home. The area to fish was within 8 miles of shore just off the arch to the Cabo San Lucas lighthouse, and they were feeding heavily. Most Cabo San Lucas fishing boats that worked the area were able to get at least several fish hooked up and almost everyone came in flying at least two Marlin flags.

The most I heard of on one boat was 9 striped marlin released that day, and they were biting anything offered, even dead bait on a drop back. That night the wind kicked up and by the morning the fish had scattered. The bite from Thursday on was not as good with the fish moving off the spot, but there were still a few fish in the area. It seemed that the fish started a slow move to the east and at the end of the week the Pacific side was pretty much dead and the action had moved to the area of the 95 spot.

There was very little Tuna fishing action at Cabo San Lucas this week, at least on anything of size. Every day a few charter fishing boats were flying Tuna flags and when asked, the anglers all said they were for small, football size fish. There were yellowfin tuna at the Golden Gate Banks area and also a few miles off shore around the Los Arcos area on the Pacific and the fish were associated with Porpoise. One of the Private fishing boats worked well to the west of the San Jaime at the end of the week and found nothing out there at all. We sure thought that the temperature break would be holding fish. Sigh.

Dorado (mahi-mahi) fishing action picked up this week and the action was close to Cabo San Lucas. The edge of the warm water band as close as 8 miles out held fish this week and most charter boats that worked the area were able to get at least a few dorado in the boat. Most of the dorado were on the small side, less than 12 pounds, but there were a few in the 20-30 pound class as well. Almost any thing bright colored worked on them.

Inshore fishing at Cabo San Lucas was slow this week but with the water being as calm as it has been, most of the Cabo San Lucas Pangas have been working the off shore waters.

There was a slow down on the sierra bite but you could still get a few fish in the 3-5 pound class if you were in the right spot. Every thing else was spotty.