CABO SPORTFISHING BOATS LOOKING
FOR MARLIN ON THE PACIFIC SIDE

June 20-26, 2005, George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas fishing, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

The winds we had been experiencing in the Cabo San Lucas fishing vacation area for the last few weeks finally died out. Daytime highs have been in the mid to high 90s. We had a very slight sprinkle in some parts of Cabo San Lucas on Tuesday, just enough to dot the dust on the windshields.

The Pacific had swells but little if any chop out, and many of Cabo San Lucas sportfishing boats went in the direction of the Golden Gate and San Jaime Banks looking for fish. The water is just a little green close to shore on the Pacific, and a little cooler than the off shore water at 67-70 degrees. Past that it warms to around 72 at the banks and 73-74 degrees just to the south of the Jaime.

On the Cortez side of Cabo San Lucas we have that cool water extending in a plume out to the 95 spot. All the other areas have water in the 72-75 degree range with water up at the East Cape in the 78 degree range. The water color still has a very faint green tinge to it but that should go away soon.

Bait was Caballito at $2 per bait with a few Mullet in the mix.

With the the full moon the Striped Marlin fishing has died down a bit. One of the areas that has been producing them is along the Pacific coast where that cool water and warm water meet. I would venture to guess that one out of 5 boats were able to get hooked up to a Striped Marlin this week, and it was largely a matter of being in the right place at the right time. The water is warming up and the Blue Marlin are starting to show up. A few of them have been coaxed into striking.

Things busted wide open on small Yellowfin tuna in the football class. Almost any boat that tried was able to catch all they wanted and there were a few in the 25 to 35-pound class as well. Most of the action took place south of the arch early in the week and then moved up the Pacific side. The larger fish were found with the Dolphin, and the fish over 200 pounds were not in evidence as the black Porpoise they were associated with last week have moved on.

For quite a few Cabo San Lucas charter fishing boats, Dorado may have been the fish of the week. Most of the action was found on the Pacific side. The main action came as a result of floating Kelp paddies found off shore. As these paddies drifted down from the northern Baja they accumulated a food chain under them and having been untouched until arriving here, they were loaded with fish. The action began on Thursday when boats found the patches up the coast and offshore where the warm water met the cool water. The kelp paddies were anywhere from just a few strands to one we saw that was at least 100 feet in diameter. The fish ran from 10 to 40 pounds with most of them around 15 pounds.

Lots of Cabo San Lucas fishing boats were able to get Wahoo this week. Early in the week it was mostly coastal contour fish, found around the 50 fathom line. At the end of the week the action moved to the kelp paddies.

Most of the inshore fishing action was concentrated on Roosterfish, as the action became red-hot for fish between 25 and 40 pounds almost everywhere along the coast. Working the rocky points on both sides of the cape, as well as the beach areas resulted in almost all the action you could handle on both the Roosterfish and some nice Pargo. A few Sierras and a few Yellowtails were in the mix as well and they were found on the Pacific side of the cape.