2005 IGFA/ROLEX OFFSHORE CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT HELD THIS WEEK

May 22, 2005, George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico Fishing:

Cabo San Lucas had daytime highs in the mid 80s and for most of the week it was windy, mostly from the northwest but late in the week from the southwest.

The surface conditions had the continued northwest winds causing very rough conditions on the Pacific side of the Cape, so rough that few, if any, boats tried to fish past the lighthouse.

On the Cortez side the conditions were much better if you got past the Chileno area. Up in the Punta Gorda and Gorda Banks area it was almost glasslike with just a bit of a bump and no wind chop.

Having the water between 63 and 67 degrees on the Pacific side was not a problem since the conditions were so rough.

Once again Cabo San Lucas anglers had a difficult time getting local bait this week. At the end of last week the large seiner that supplies the Solmar fleet and long range boats with bait arrived with a load of mackerel and it was a good thing, as the local bait supply almost dried up. At the end of the week those supplies were almost gone as well and many boats that left a bit late could not get bait.

This week Cabo San Lucas had the 2005 IGFA/Rolex Offshore Championship Tournament here and it was an all-release format with over 70 teams from around the world. The top boat for any one day had 11 releases and many of them had three or four with a couple of boats having seven or eight.

The areas the fish were caught remained the same as last week with the biggest concentration just off shore up at Punta Gorda, around the 50-100 fathom line. The difference from last week was that this week the big concentration of Mackerel schools were gone; there were just small bait balls in the area so it was had to catch live bait. One Cabo San Lucas sportfishing boat did get a Blue Marlin estimated at 250 pounds and released it after a two hour fight on #30 test line.

Once again there were football sized yellowfin tuna showing up under the Dolphin, but not every pod held fish and not all the fish found would bite. When they did 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 fish. Nice Yellowfin from 30 to 100 pounds could be seen busting the water but the only anglers having any luck on them were the Panga fishermen out of San Jose who were there at gray light in the morning and using Sardinas for bait on #60 fluorocarbon leader.

Very few Dorado were caught at Cabo San Lucas this week and they were not very large. With 70 tournament boats fishing four days, on day one only 8 Dorado were caught, and most of them were less than 10 pounds. We should see more action as the water continues to warm.

Wahoo were out there this week and there were still a number of them caught out at Punta Gorda and around the inner Gorda Banks and the Red Hill area.

Inshore fishing at Cabo San Lucas had mixed action on Roosterfish, small Dorado, Skipjack Tuna, Jack Crevalle and a few Sierra, with an occasional nice sized Grouper tossed in. I saw a couple of Grouper in the 60-80 pound class that were taken this week, one on a slab yo-yoed in 80 feet of water and the other on a live bait at around the same depth. Almost all the action was on the Sea of Cortez side since the Pacific was so rough and cold.