COLD, GREEN FISHING WATER WRAPS AROUND THE CAPE

May 23-29, 2005, George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

The wind in the Cabo San Lucas vacation area this week was from the northwest and fairly steady most of the week, shifting to the south or southwest in the late afternoons, a steady 10-15 knots most of the time. Day time highs were in the low 90s and high 80s.

This week fishing conditions at Cabo San Lucas were just the same as last week with the exception that the intrusion of cold water we had wrapping around the cape was much stronger, colder, and with green water. With temperatures in the 65 and 66 degree range, this finger extended up to five miles past the outer Gorda Banks. There was a temperature break of almost 5 degrees just along the outside edge of the finger.

Continued northwest winds caused very rough conditions on the Pacific side of the Cape, so rough that few, if any, Cabo San Lucas sportfishing boats tried to fish past the lighthouse.

On the Cortez side fishing conditions were much better if you got past the Chileno area.

Cabo San Lucas bait was back to getting mackerel at the usual $2 per bait and there were some sardinas early in the week at San Jose del Cabo for $20 a bucket.

The cold water intrusion from the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas pushed the Striped Marlin that had been concentrated at Punta Gorda farther up the coast to the Los Frailes area, an easy 40 mile run, easy that is until you turned and came back against the wind and chop! Boats fishing the Frailes area reported a fair early morning bite with two to three fish per day as long as they were there before 10 a.m. There was almost no action after that.

The Yellowfin Tuna that were holding at the Gorda Banks last week seem to have either gone off the bite or gone somewhere else. A few are still being caught but not enough to make the trip worthwhile just for them. There have been small football Yellowfin everywhere along the temperature break on the Cortez side and I have heard guys on the radio discussing finding Tuna in the cold green water on the Pacific side early in the morning.

I think I saw a total of 10 Dorado flags at Cabo San Lucas this week, and that should say it all. Wait for warmer water.

There are still Wahoo out there but they are not holding around the usual structure. Fish are being found off the 50 fathom drop at Red Hill and at Punta Gorda, as well as along the temperature break outside the 95 spot. While fishing there yesterday, and getting beat up in the 50 Viking, we had a double strike on nice fish, losing one lure and landing a Wahoo of about 70 pounds. Making another pass on the spot we hooked up two Bonita and had one of the 8 pound fish sliced cleanly in half by a Wahoo we estimated at over #100 just before trying to lift the Bonita out of the water. An hour later and four miles away we had another Wahoo hooked as part of a double strike. We lost the Wahoo just before the boat but brought in the 10 pound Yellowfin that struck at the same time.

A few Cabo San Lucas charter fishing boats were able to work along the shoreline on the Pacific side up as far as the lighthouse, but the water was rough. There were Sierra and some Yellowtail in the area that provided some action. The Cortez side had better water conditions early in the morning most days and there were Snapper, Grouper and a few Sierra as well.

Swordfish have everyones attention this week and hopefully the winds will die down and allow better sighting of the fish. If the winds do die we should have some great action for the coming week. With such a defined temperature break there should be steady action all along the edge.