CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING BOATS FIND
STRIPED MARLIN CONCENTRATED OFF PUNTA GORDA

May 9-15, 2005, George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas fishing, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

Day time highs at Cabo San Lucas were in the mid to low 90s and nighttime lows were in the high 60s. Most of the week the wind was out of the northwest and it picked up a bit in the afternoons.

This week water on the Pacific side of the cape was still much cooler than on the Cortez side, with the average temperature at 67-68 degrees, while on the Cortez side the water has been mostly between 74-78 degrees. The temperature break runs from the light house on the Pacific side in a SSW direction and keeps going for over 40 miles.

Surface conditions on the Pacific side have been a bit rough due to the fairly steady winds but the Sea of Cortez has been really smooth and with almost no wind chop.

Early in the week getting bait at Cabo San Lucas was not a problem, mostly it was Caballito at the usual $2 per bait. Later in the week if you were late getting out some boats ended up leaving with no bait at all.

Striped Marlin were again the fish of the week. There was a great concentration of them up to the north on the Cortez side, around the Punta Gorda area. At any one time you could see between 60 and 80 boats working the area, and many of them were hooked up.

At the end of the week the striped marlin started to take off around the 1150 spot, not as concentrated as the fish at the Punta Gorda, but they were there in numbers strong enough to make it a first stop destination for a lot of the boats. Average marlin catch was two per boat, but many of the boats were releasing four and five per day.

Once again there were football sized yellowfin tuna showing up under the dolphin. It was not uncommon to limit out on tuna in the 10-25 pound range. Most of the fish were found near the temperature break south of the cape about 25 miles, where the water was a bit bumpy. There were nice fish holding on the Gorda Banks as well, but they were very picky.

There are a few more dorado showing up every week. As the water continues to warm they should start to come on strong. Dorado averaged 15 pounds and were striking bright colored lures.

A few wahoo caught went to 80 pounds and there were a lot of surprised anglers when they checked lures and found that there was nothing at the leader, a wahoo had sliced through the leader and taken the lure without them even noticing.

There was not a lot of change in the inshore fishing at Cabo San Lucas. There are still a few sierra being found on the Pacific side of the cape and a few roosterfish as well. Everyone I talked to that had been Panga fishing said that they had good action, and pretty steady at that on a good mix of fish.

We are having the Rolex/IGFA Championship Tournament in Cabo this coming week. Four days of fishing for 74 teams from around the world. It is being filmed by the Outdoor Network for an hour-long special later in the season. I will be running the video boat if things don't change.