Cabo Bite Report

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[font "Times New Roman"][center]Capt George Landrum[/center] [center]Fly Hooker Sportfishing[/center] [center]gmlandrum@hotmail.com[/center] [center]www.flyhooker.com[/center] [left][/left][/font][font "Times New Roman"][size 2] [center] [/center] [center] [/center][/size][/font][font "Times New Roman"] [left]CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 29-MARCH 6, 2004[/left] [left][/left] [left] [/left] [left] [/left] [left]WEATHER: Spring winds are here as every morning around 10 it has started to blow. That doesn’t mean the water get rough every day, just that the wind chill is a factor. Well, if you are acclimated to the tropics it’s a factor. I see people every day walking around in shorts and tee-shirts while I am in my jacket and they just laugh at me. Then again, I am not subjecting myself to -20 degrees and snow, am I? Our coldest morning this week was 52 degrees and we did have one day when it warmed up to a very comfortable 86 degrees! Early in the week it was mostly cloudy but it sure cleared up later on.[/left] [left][/left] [left]WATER: Water to the west on the Pacific side as well as to the east on the Cortez side remained in the high 60’s all week. There was water in the low 70’s to the south of us at around 20-25 miles and it was up against colder inside water in the 68 degree range. This made for a very defined temperature break that ran almost due east-west. The San Jaime and Gorda Banks both had water in the 68 degree range while the Golden Gate was around 66 degrees. Surface conditions were fair to good on the Pacific and good on the Cortez this week with swells occasionally to 6 feet to the west but much smaller due south and to the east. At the end of the week the cool green Pacific water swung around the Cape and intruded on the Cortez side. The water warmed up to 71 degrees but remained green between Cabo and San Jose. Up around Punta Gorda it stayed blue. Also, a finger of warm water swung up on Saturday and ran across the San Jaime and Golden Gate Banks, bringing temperatures in the low 70’s.[/left] [left][/left] [left]BAIT: Almost all the bait this week was Caballito at the normal $2 per bait, and they were the smaller baits, not the large 1/2 pound fish.[/left] [left][/left] [left]FISHING[/left] [left][/left] [left]BILLFISH: We had another slow week on Striped Marlin, and it is hard to say exactly why. One school of thought is the factory ships that were allowed by the government to harvest Sardinas up in the Mag Bay area (to the tune of 400,000 tons this year) took so much of the food the Marlin feed on that the Billfish went elsewhere. The water temps are right, but last year (before the factory ships) the Striped Marlin fishing was excellent in January, February and March. There are still a few fish being caught, but not in the numbers that we were expecting. Those fish were are finding seem to have a preference for squid colored lures and have not shown a lot of interest in the live baits presented to them. There are still some Blue Marlin being found far to the south in the warm water, but they are not thick by any means, just about what you would expect from 73-74 degree water.[/left] [left][/left] [left]YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were still more Tuna flags flying this week than flags for any other type of fish, but even their numbers seemed to be down a bit, at least compared to last weeks bite. There were some quality fish found though, and even though the bite was a bit slower, the Tuna have still retained their title of "Fish of the Week". Most of the fish were found along the temperature break 25-30 miles south or just offshore on the Pacific side, and almost all (but not quite) were found associated with Porpoise. Small feathers were working on both the larger fish and on the footballs, and spreader bars worked when the activity started to drop. I had reports of some fine action on fish in the 40 pound range by guys dropping jigs and yo-yo’ing on marks at 60-100 feet.[/left] [left][/left] [left]DORADO: The loose kelp paddies were the key to finding Dorado this week, just as they have been for the past two weeks. If you were the first boat there, the fishing could be awesome! A few nice paddies were found on the temperature break south of the Cape and a lot of boats were able to limit on the Dorado while using live bait. As the bite fell off, chunks worked. We are hoping that in a week the action will heat up again and kelp broken off by the large storm swells off of southern California work their way downhill toward us.[/left] [left][/left] [left]WAHOO: Full moon, Wahoo. I saw a few fish boated this week that were in the 60-70 pound class and most of the fish reported to me were found close to shore (within 1 mile) or on the San Jaime and Gorda banks. Marauders and Marlin lures in dark colors were the best bet for these toothy rockets.[/left] [left][/left] [left]IN SHORE: Still a few Sierra being caught on the Pacific side, but not a red hot bite by any means, plus the water off the beach is a little rough. There was a half-way decent bite on Yellowtail off the arch for a few days. Reports of Pargo off the beach up by Chileno continue to make the rounds, but I have yet to see any of the fish caught there, or talk to anyone who has first hand knowledge.[/left] [left][/left]

NOTES: All I have in my note section this week is the music I listened to while writing this report. A client of mine gave me a copy of the latest CD that he has worked on and I have had a hard time trying to type and boogie at the same time. "Cheap Yellow Mustard", produced in 2003 by Cheap Yellow Mustard , Parkway Records, and recorded at the Bakersfield Music School and Recording Studio is a funky Jazz/Rock fusion album that I have been listening to over and over and over. It is all instrumental with song titles "Cheap Yellow Mustard", "Tweaky Weird Pinched Nerve Thingy", "Soundscape", "Sunny Funk", "Blues on the Halfshell" and "Funky Munky". Cameron Melville is Keyboards and gave me the copy, Jerry Mulkins is the Composer and Guitarist, Tommy "Dr. Groove" Smith on Bass, Ruben Fernandez on Percussion, Bruce Milburn on Drums and Ken Basuano on Trumpets and Flute. Thanks Cameron, you made my week! Until next week, tight lines and good music![/font]
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