FLY HOOKER LOS CABOS SPORTFISHING REPORT

Feb. 12-18, 2007, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico, Fly Hooker Sport Fishing, George Landrum:

Mexico's Cabo San Lucas vacation area was partly cloudy all week. It was enough to spot windshields and get the docks wet. Daytime high air temperatures were in the low 80s and the nighttime lows in the 60-degree range.

At the beginning of the week, winds were blowing heavily from either the northwest or the southeast. At the end of the week the water was calm everywhere around Cabo.

On the Pacific side of the southern Baja peninsula there were large swells early in the week but they had disappeared by the weekend.

Water temperatures around Cabo San Lucas were much cooler from the beach to 15 miles out on the Pacific side, with 64 degrees seen in this area. Farther offshore the water warmed up to 74 degrees, but as it swung past the cape of Baja it cooled to 72 degrees and remained offshore. At 30 miles the water warmed to 74 degrees directly south of us.

On the Sea of Cortez side of Cabo San Lucas, the water had temperatures around 70 degrees.

Cabo had mackerel bait available at $2 each. There were a few Caballito mixed in with the mackerel. Sardinas were available up at San Jose if you were there early at normal $20 per scoop.

Billfish action moved to the Sea of Cortez side of Cabo San Lucas this week as is normal for this time of year. With the water a little bit better color than on the Pacific side the fish seemed to be holding in the area bounded by the 95 spot, the 1150, and San Jose del Cabo.

Most Cabo San Lucas fleet boats worked this area all week with mixed results. Boats were getting hit on trolled lures. Feeders would occasionally pop up. There were quite a few squid still in the area and as a result lure strikes were still not very aggressive.

I heard of only three areas this week that held Yellowfin Tuna. One was the San Jaime Bank early in the week. A few brave boats were able to punch through nasty water and get to the warmer, calmer water in that area and they found plenty of school Tuna. Since there were only a few boats working them the tuna stayed up and the boats did well.

Dorado continued to decline in numbers this week in these Mexican waters. On the average it looked like there were about two Dorado for every three boats. The action was on the Cortez side of the Cabo San Lucas out around the 1150 spot.

Once again no wahoo were reported this week that I am aware of, although I am sure there were a few caught.

The inshore Sierra bite started to sizzle this week with a lot of the Pangas coming in with limits of five sierra each, or more in some cases. Along with the Sierra came a mixed bag of inshore species including an occasional small Roosterfish.

Yellowtail finally made a decent showing for Cabo San Lucas inshore boats. All it took was the right water temperature. Catches of 2 to 10 yellowtail in the 8 to 25 pound class were made on jigs and live bait dropped down to 50 or 60 feet. Rocky points produced best for boats working water 100 to 200 feet deep.

Last week the Whales were everywhere around Cabo San Lucas, but this week they seemed to have almost disappeared. There are still plenty of them, but the heavy concentration seemed to have moved on up the Pacific side of Baja, heading north.