FORTY-TWO CABO SAN LUCAS CHARTER BOATS
COUNTED FISHING ON THE GOLDEN GATE BANK

Nov. 21-27, 2005, George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas, Baja Sur, Mexico Report:

The Cabo San Lucas fishing area had sunny days with the highs in the low 80s. The wind did pickup just a bit this week, but not bad. Cabo San Lucas fishing water on the Pacific side did chop up just a little bit, but there were no swells. The water temperature on the Pacific side stayed pretty much around the 74-76 degree range while the Cortez side of Cabo San Lucas we had water around 80 degrees to around 77 degrees.

Bait was an even mix between Caballito and Mackerel this week at the normal $2 per bait. If you left the marina early you had no problem making plenty of mackerel just north of the Cabo San Lucas lighthouse or up on the Golden Gate Bank.

The Striped Marlin seem to have started disappearing from the Golden Gate Bank. There were Cabo San Lucas sportfishing 42 boats soaking bait on the bank when I was out there on Wednesday. We picked up two Striped Marlin on Tuesday but only had one hookup Wednesday. Reports from other boats that have been there since midweek are that the bite has dropped off quite a bit. On the up side, there have been more fish reported along the shore, with many boats finding tailing fish between Punta San Cristobal and the lighthouse from 1 to 5 miles off shore.

The striped marlin bite up at the Finger Bank is still taking place, but fewer boats were going there this week since the wind did start picking up. The bite there was also reported to have dropped off a bit, but who can really complain about 10 fish days instead of 15 fish days!

On the Cortez side of Cabo San Lucas there have been a few Sailfish and a few Striped Marlin reported from up around the Gorda Bank area and just to the north, but no wide-open action. I did not hear of any reports of Blues or Blacks, but that does not mean there were none hooked up.

It was hit and miss on almost every other species of fish this week I saw a few boats come in with multiple flags for Tuna and saw fish ranging from 25 to 50 pounds being unloaded. The fish were reported all over the place.

There were a few Cabo San Lucas charter fishing boats that really got into the Dorado this week and the fish they found were under floating Kelp. Once in a while we get a patch come through that has broken off from up north and by the time it arrives in our area it is normally holding quite a concentration of fish.

Looking at all the red flags flying at the marina this week you would think that the Wahoo action has just busted wide open. That is not the case because the flags are being flown for that they call "shallow water Wahoo," or in other words, Sierra.

It appears that the Sierra bite has started with quite a few small ones in the 3-5 pound range being caught at Cabo San Lucas this week. There have also been reports of a few Roosterfish still around as well as some Yellowtail beginning to show up.

I have been seeing whales on almost every trip this past week, and saw my first Gray Whales on Wednesday, really close to the beach off of Punta San Cristobal.