STRIPED MARLIN CONCENTRATIONS
PRESENT ABOUT 24 MILES SOUTHEAST OF CABO

Feb. 13-19, 2005, Capt. George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas, Baja Sur, Mexico:

Finally a fishing week with no rain! Cabo San Lucas did have pretty heavy condensation most mornings but no rain falling from the sky. Most of the week was partly cloudy with daytime highs were in the high 70s and nighttime lows were in the 60 degree range.

Cabo San Lucas had great surface conditions this week with almost no swell and very little wind chop with the exception of Friday afternoon when the wind picked up as a small piece of cloud cover blew in. Most of the week the wind was at 5-10 knots so the chop was small. The Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas remained cool with a bit of warmer water moving in up to the north of the Golden Gate Banks late in the week. On the Cortez side there was a 20 mile wide band of cooler water in the 71-73 degree range running off the coast from the shore line. Once past the cool water there was water steadily in the 75 degree range and it curved in to the Punta Gorda area.

Mackerel and some small Caballito were the baits of the week at the normal $2 per bait.

The good fishing for the concentration of striped marlin that were south of Cabo San Lucas last week seemed to have moved a bit farther out and to the east. This week we were running almost 24 miles to the east-southeast, where the water turned 74 degrees and out to the 1,000 fathom line. On each Cabo San Lucas sport fishing trip to the area this week there were feeding fish everywhere, tails popping up, swirls in the water and occasional free-jumping fish. There were a lot of fish but they were being picky.

Getting to the area early definitely improved the chance of hooking up, but as it always is, being in the right place at the right time sure helped. The Striped Marlin were feeding on small baits so most of the time you threw a Mackerel at them they ignored it. Trolling very small hoochies or feathers with single hooks started working for a lot of the boats, as well as trolling small Mackerel fillets. High speed trolling small lures at 9-10 knots produced marlin for some Cabo fishing boats as well. With all the striped marlin in the area you would have thought it would be a snap to get hooked up, but on average half the boats went fishless, but not without trying hard. A few Cabo San Lucas charter fishing boats with the right techniques and the right timing did well with three to four fish per boat.

Some yellowfin tuna were found this week off Cabo San Lucas, but they were very far off shore. There were reports of football to 30 pound fish being found 35 miles and farther to the west, past the San Jaime banks and also some found to the north of the San Jaime and to the north of the Golden Gate Banks. The fish were mixed in with Porpoise and that was the key. Of course not all Porpoise pods held Tuna and it was not uncommon to have to work four or five groups of Porpoise before finding a pod that held Tuna. On some of the pods you could see fish on the sonar but they would not come up and bite, instead they stayed 100-150 feet deep. Once you found fish that were up, small feathers and cedar plugs worked fine.

Just as it was last week, fishing close in on both sides of Cabo San Lucas produced dorado (mahi-mahi). The fish were not large but they were there consistently. Fishing in water from 60-150 feet in depth with small bright lures or slow trolling live Mackerel enabled several Cabo San Lucas boats to score fish counts as high as 8 fish per boat. The Dorado ranged from 6-20 pounds. A few larger fish were picked up off shore with weights ranging from 15-50 pounds.

A few wahoo were reported this week in fishing at Cabo San Lucas but there were no large amounts of them found, nor any large concentration of fish.

In Cabo San Lucas inshore sportfishing, there were no changes from last week as Sierra once again are the inshore fish of the week. Cabo anglers have been able to catch as many as they want. The Pacific side of the coast has been going off from the lighthouse up to Migrino on fish from three to six pounds. Small green hoochies live Sardinas and small Rapalas have all been working well, just don't forget to use wire leader! There were also some nice Pargo found up in the rocks at the points with the sizes from 5-10 pounds. They were caught on live bait pitched in around the boilers.

Whales, Porpoise, Turtles and Marlin made it almost like Sea World at Cabo San Lucas this week! The water was great, the fishing decent and almost everyone that went out had fun.