COLD CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING WATER
TEMPERATURES DOWN TO ABOUT 68 DEGREES

March 28-April 3, 2005, George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas fishing, Baja Calfornia Sur, Mexico:

Cabo San Lucas had great fishing weather this week, with almost no wind and calm seas. There were some small swells from the northwest and some wind swell from the east once you were to the south of Cabo San Lucas, but it was very comfortable. Daytime highs were in the mid to low 80s while the night time lows were in the mid 60s.

Cabo San Lucas had cold fishing water at the end of the week on the Pacific side. From just south of the San Jaime Banks on up, the fishing water stayed in the mid 60s. In close to the coast it warmed up by a few degrees. Due south of Cabo San Lucas the fishing water was 68 to 70 degrees. On the east side of Cabo San Lucas, fishing water remained 68-70 degrees until you got 30 miles off shore, then it was 71-73 degrees.

There was no problem getting bait this week. It was Caballito, nice size ones, and they were the usual $2 per bait.

While billfish are still not being caught in large numbers at Cabo San Lucas, the fish have moved closer to home. There was a concentration of Striped Marlin within 7 miles of the Cabo San Lucas lighthouse on the Pacific side this week, lots of jumpers in there but they were difficult to catch. Lucky boats were able to get hooked up to one that stayed hooked, sometimes to several. Some of the guys think that there is so much giant squid in the area that the Marlin are full.

There were Swordfish sighted this week again, but I did not hear of anyone catching them. There may have been some landed though, some of the boats did nighttime fishing this week.

Look for the Porpoise and if you get lucky there will be Tuna mixed in. Many of the Porpoise pods found did not have any Tuna with them, so you often had to try and find as many pods as possible. Those fish that were caught were mostly in the 10-15 pound range with a few to 40 pounds. Cedar plugs and feathers worked and boats that were able to get a good bite going found themselves able to catch a limit. Other boats, not so lucky, ended up a trip with just one Tuna in the box.

The kelp finally moved to the south of the San Jaime and into the warmer fishing waters, there were a fair number of Dorado, some of them very nice fish, found while fishing under a few paddies. Most of the fish were small ones, from 6 pounds and up. The problem was finding a paddy that held fish! You might work a couple of dozen of them, and they were mostly small ones, before you found one that had fish under it. Getting hit on a lure was a start, but most of the boats had better luck soaking live bait around them.

Cabo San Lucas had the best fishing day I have seen in a long time on Wednesday as far as the Wahoo catch is concerned! One Cabo San Lucas boat found a big kelp and there must have been several dozen big Wahoo, ranging in size from 60 to 105 pounds taken from it. For the rest of the week there were scattered fish found here and there under kelp as well as along the drop off on the Cortez side of Cabo San Lucas.

There were scattered Sierra schools this week, most of them found on the Cortez side of the Cape. The fish were averaging 4 pounds with a few to 8 pounds. A few decent bottom fish were caught as well but most Cabo San Lucas Pangas were fishing offshore since the water was in great condition.

It was a hit or miss kind of week fishing, not a lot of fish for most Cabo San Lucas sportfishing boats and a few of them were very lucky and really got into the Tuna, Dorado and Wahoo.

There are still Humpback whales out there but they are continuing to thin out.