ROUGH SEAS BESET SPORT BOATS FISHING THE CABO AREA

April 4-10, 2005, George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico Fishing:

In a continuation of last week's fishing weather at Cabo San Lucas, every day through Thursday was just fine with light breezes in the afternoons and daytime highs in the mid 80s with nighttime lows in the high 60s. On Friday the wind began and it blew all the way through Sunday morning, steady 12-15 knots.

The fishing week at Cabo San Lucas ended with rough water on the Pacific side all the way to the south. Even in front of Cabo it was rough and didn't calm down until you were a little way up the Sea of Cortez. Once past the 95 spot outside or Punta Ballena on the inside the water mellowed out quite a bit. The Pacific side was cold with water ranging from the mid 60s to high 60s. On the Cortez side it was a bit warmer up to the 1150 and Gorda Banks areas, and then it jumped to 75 degrees.

There was no problem getting bait this week at Cabo San Lucas, only it was mostly Mackerel, with a few Caballito, and they were the usual $2 per bait.

Marlin fishing at Cabo San Lucas this week was all Striped Marlin. I was fishing last Sunday and another captain had a Blue Marlin he estimated at 400 pounds nail a lure and they were able to get several jumps out of him, but that was the only non-Striper I heard of. The few Marlin that were found were either fairly close to Cabo, and I mean within three miles of the shore on the Cortez side, or way up north on the Cortez, up in the East Cape area, 60 miles away.

Find the Porpoise and you had a shot at Yellowfin Tuna. The fish were not large, mostly in the 10-15 pound range with a few smaller and a few larger ones. Most of the Cabo San Lucas charter fishing boats that were successful were jigging hoochies in pink or root beer colors, three inches long. Maybe they were matching the small squid in the area or perhaps there were red crab, but that was almost the only thing that worked. If you did find the Porpoise that were holding fish, you had to work them hard! There were larger fish spotted on the Gorda Banks, Tuna in the 80 pound class, but no one I am aware of had any luck with them except a few of the Pangas from La Playita in San Jose. Those Pangas were able to get Sardinas for bait and were fishing on the banks at gray light in the morning.

The few Dorado found this week in the Cabo San Lucas sportfishing area were almost all associated with floating debris or small kelp fronds. The fish ranged from 10 pounds, and a few even smaller, to 25-30 pounds, but they were scarce. My guesstimate is there may have been one Dorado caught for every 15 boats. Naturally a few boats caught multiple fish, but they were the exception and very lucky.

A few Cabo San Lucas fishing boats had luck on Wahoo, and it was luck, not skill since they were not targeting the fish. The best catch I heard of this week was three fish on one trip. For the rest of the boats, there was maybe one Wahoo strike per 20 boats, and one fish caught for 50 boats.

There were scattered inshore Sierra schools this week, most of them found while fishing on the Cortez side of Cabo San Lucas but there was decent action as well on the Pacific early in the week before the wind blew up. The fish were averaging 4 pounds with a few to 8 pounds. Some small Roosterfish action happened also, nothing great but there were scattered fish in the 5-15 pound range.

Last week I said it was a hit or miss kind of week for fishing, this week I would have to say it was mostly miss. With hindsight I would have to say that I personally would have stayed home the last three days of the week rather than go fishing, but hey, some boats did all right.