IT'S A 100-MILE ROUND TRIP BUT THE FINGER BANK
IS PRODUCING RAPID-FIRE MARLIN BITES FOR CABO BOATS

Nov. 6-13, 2005, George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico Fishing Report:

The Cabo San Lucas sportfishing vacation area had daytime highs in the low 90s and our nighttime lows in the low 70s, with a few high clouds late in the week but no rain.

On the Pacific side it the fishing water was choppy most of the time with the winds coming consistently out of the northwest. For the most part the water offshore was nice and blue. Offshore out to the Golden Gate Banks and the San Jaime Banks the water was 77-78 degrees and past that it dropped to 74-75 degrees.

On the Cortez side of Cabo San Lucas the water stayed very nice all day with minimal swells and water temperatures around 81-83 degrees.

There were plenty of Mackerel available at the normal $2 per bait and there were also a few Caballito as well.

This week the fishing buzz has been about the Striped Marlin fishing at the Finger Bank.

If you have always wanted to get into a great striped marlin bite, now is the time! I don't have any idea how long it will last, nor how the weather will affect being able to get there, but the Finger Bank is going off. Buck up the cash for the trip and just do it! Best results during the week were by boats getting there early and staying late, 18 to 21 fish released a day.

It is a 100-mile round trip from Cabo San Lucas and takes several hours of cruising to get there. Frigate birds are everywhere and Striped Marlin slurping down big Sardinas like they were candy. We had about 20 bites in four hours, went through our 10 live baits in the first hour and then had to figure out which lures would work. There were Dolphin and Whales, massive bait balls and Marlin everywhere! I overheard one boat say that they had 80 bites in one day! That does not mean that they were all hookups though, the fish were pretty focused on the Sardinas.

There was marlin fishing decent action as well on the Golden Gate Banks with most of Cabo San Lucas sportfishing boats there soaking live Mackerel and getting a few bites each trip. A great day on the Golden Gate was four or five Marlin. Most boats hooked one or two fish.

There was also Striped Marlin action just off the coast in the green water as there were bait balls in that area as well.

As far as Black or Blue Marlin were concerned, the warmer water on the Sea of Cortez had a few, but there was little else there in any quantity so most of the fleet continued to work the Pacific side.

There were two very nice yellowfin tuna caught out past the San Jaime Bank during the middle of the week, one weighed 250 pounds and the other was 280 pounds. I saw quite a few football fish come in as well as a few fish in the 40-60 pound class. Those big fish hit slow trolled live bait on the outside of the porpoise schools.

There were some nice dorado caught this week from both the Golden Gate Bank and the Finger Banks. I saw one Dorado swimming with the Striped Marlin at the Finger, and at first I mistook him for a Marlin! He must have been at least 70 pounds! There was also decent action on Dorado close to home just off the beach, with the favorite method being to troll along until a hookup occurs then slow trolling the area with live bait.

I caught a Wahoo this week at the Finger bank and heard of some others caught there as well, but there was no wide-open bite anywhere I heard of.

Most Cabo San Lucas charter fishing Pangas were fishing just offshore for Tuna and Dorado, but there was fair action in among the rocks for Pargo, with a few Roosterfish and a couple of Sierra in the mix.