SUMMER SEASON LIVE BAIT IS ALMOST ALL
CABALLITOS FOR CABO SAN LUCAS SPORTFISHING BOATS

July 25-31, 2005, George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing report, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

It feels like summer in Cabo. Daytime highs have been in the high 90s. We actually had a little bit of rain on Thursday, just enough to spot the windshields.

On the Sea of Cortez side of Cabo San Lucas we have seen 85 degree fishing water this week. The warm water is wrapping around the Cape and water to 82 degrees is extending across the San Jaime Bank. Farther up on the Pacific side Golden Gate Bank is 79-80 degrees.

Once again bait was almost all caballito this week. The caballito bait has been schooled up very thick and most of the baits we were getting had been snagged. There were some small Mackerel available at times. Both baits were the normal $2 per bait.

Striped Marlin seem to be following the temperature breaks and they were right in front of Cabo San Lucas early in the week. They have moved up the Pacific coast a bit and are also on the cool side of the temp break to the south-southwest. Most of these Striped Marlin have been in the 70 pound range but a few have pushed 180 pounds. The good news is that there have been Blue Marlin caught on a fairly regular basis by the boats that have been searching for them. We should be getting more action from both the Blue and Black Marlin as the water stays warm.

Scattered small football yellowfin tuna have been right in front of Cabo San Lucas and also among the pods of Porpoise. There have been larger fish out there but it takes a run of 40-50 miles to get to them.

We were seeing a lot more Dorado this week, and they have been close to home as well. The majority of the fish have been small, around 8-10 pounds, but there have been fish in the 50 pound class caught as well.

Some Roosters are still out there and they have been pretty decent size. The beaches on the Pacific have had most of the inshore action with the Roosterfish, Pompano, Pargo and Grouper biting pretty well. Fresh Mullet slow trolled alive was the key to getting into the Roosterfish and any of the small live baits fished on the bottom resulted in action from the Pargo and Grouper.

Things are looking up on the fishing front as the warm water has arrived. Of course there is a downside to that as well. If we get tropical storm action to the south, there is no cold water around us to keep it away. Guess we just have to keep our fingers crossed!