FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum

E-mail: george@flyhooker.com – www.flyhooker.com – captgeo.wordpress.com/

Cabo Fish Report
May 19 – 25, 2015

SYNOPSIS: Finally! We have been sitting here with our fingers crossed for the past several months waiting for the fishing in Cabo San Lucas to improve, and this week it finally happened! From Striped Marlin to Wahoo, the fishing has improved so much that I have a hard time containing my excitement. Take a few minutes and check out the details below!

WEATHER: Truly a beautiful week in Cabo San Lucas as our early morning temps were in the low 70’s with daytime highs in the mid to high 80’s. How could it be any better? Well, give us occasional partly cloudy skies, light morning breezes, clear blue water and clean white sand and it’s what I imagine heaven to be like. I don’t know what your weather is like at home (unless you are from Texas or Oklahoma, and then I just feel sorry for you), but I would bet it is much better here!

WATER: As you continue to read the rest of the Cabo Fish Report I think you may find the reasons for the massively improved fishing here in the water section. Not so much in the water temperatures, as they have changed only a little, but in the currents, and I will get to that in a minute. First, the water temperatures on the Pacific side of the Cape have continued with little change, with water close to the Cape at 71-72 degrees and water farther north, from the Golden Gate Banks to the inside off of Los Arcos at 72-73. degrees. From the arches to San Jose up to 20 miles offshore it has been in the 74 degree range for most of the week and much farther to the south and east we are seeing 78 degree water. Checking the charts earlier in the week we could see 80-82 degree water sitting out there. Now, the interesting part is this, the currents have changed! Our normal water flow is strong from the northwest along the Pacific side, medium currents running east to west across the Cape from Punta Gorda to Cabo San Lucas, then melding with the Pacific side currents to go south, and the currents up north past Punta Gorda running from southeast to North. This week they shifted! At the end of the week we saw strong currents from the south and southeast heading directly to the Cape, then splitting around us like we were a rock in a river. There is a big gyreabout 150 miles to the east that is assisting in this push of water from the southeast as well as one about 200 miles to the south-southwest. Since these gyres spin in a counterclockwise motion they are bringing the warmer, clean water from the south to our area. This has had an amazing effect on our fishing as you can see below!

BAIT: Very little change on the bait availability with live Caballito at $3 each and frozen Ballyhoo costing the same.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: The last Cabo Fish Report I wrote said we had great numbers of Striped Marlin in the area, and boats were seeing lots of them every day, but they would not eat. My theory (and that of many others based on fish stomach contents and sonar readings) was that these fish were stuffing themselves on squid, and with such easy fast food meals available they were not willing to expend the effort to chase down a live bait. This week they went on the chew! I think the current change may have pushed the squid from easy reach and now the great numbers of Marlin we were seeing are hungry and willing to eat. Most of the fish are still being found from the 1150 to 95 spots, but now they are also in numbers right out front and on the Pacific side. Most of the boats came in this week with one or two release flags flying, but many of them also had four to six releases per day! This is a giant change from the one in 10 we were seeing last month. Not only Striped Marlin are showing up though, there have been decent numbers of Blue Marlin, a few Black Marlin as well as Sailfish. These other species are not in great numbers, but there is a chance on every trip of hooking one up.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: We are beginning to see more Yellowfin coming in as they come closer to us. Most of the ones being caught are still football size, and are being found both by blind strikes and around Porpoise. Still not great numbers, but much better than we were seeing earlier in the month. Also, there are some bigger fish for you to hook up with as was proven by one of the fleet boats this week, as they brought in a Yellowfin that appeared to be just over 150 pounds. It was reported as having been caught while trolling among the Black Porpoise, and they are always worth making a few passes through for this very reason. San Jaime Bank and the area to the southeast have been showing us some fish, as well as along the 1,000 fathom line outside of the 95 and 1150 spots. I heard of one boat making the trip to the Cabrillo Seamount (a long trip at 50 miles) and finding a great pod of Porpoise that resulted in limits of Tuna averaging 35 pounds, and having several strikes from Blue Marlin.

DORADO: While Dorado remain scarce, there were a few caught, and with this warmer water moving into our area there should be more of them showing up soon!

WAHOO: These fish were the surprise of the week, if not of the year or several years as boats were catching so many that a lot of inexperienced anglers thought getting several nice Wahoo per trip was normal! I believe that the shifting currents pushed fish that normally would be offshore up to the beach where they were easier to find. Pretty much anyone wanting to catch a Wahoo this week got one, it all depended on the boat staying and working the right areas and structure. I heard one boat caught and kept nine of these fish (way over his limit), but most boats followed the regulations, happy just to get a few of these great tasting speedsters! Everything was working, live Caballito, live Sardinas (those who could get them), surface lures and swimming plugs, and a few guys caught them while working vertical jigs! The normal areas, high spots and drop offs just off the beaches, and the high spots farther offshore as well, were producing these fish which ranged from 15 to 60 pounds. I was really surprised as well since we are not at the full moon, instead we are in the waxing moon phase with the full moon not expected until the 31st. This means that if the currents hold for a few more days the Wahoo should really take off!

INSHORE: Inshore action remained decent with some good Snapper and Grouper being caught, as well as plenty of big Triggerfish if you were fishing on the bottom. Surface fishing inshore was mostly for Bonita and Skipjack, but a few larger Sierra were landed as well.

NOTES: I am going to start posting the report on Mondays instead of on Sundays from now on as we seem to be having more trips on the weekends and I like having the best information possible to share with you. The more anglers who get out, the better my information is. The fishing pressure is still light, so if you want to get on the water there is plenty of room! I offer fishing charters for people with any type of experience on the water at reasonable rates, and service is the name of the game to me!

My music of the week is Joe Bonamassa on his CD “An Acoustic Evening At The Vienna Opera House”. This is a CD and musician I keep coming back to on a regular basis, and if you like modern blues and have not heard Joe, you need to treat yourself! Someday I will get a chance to go to one of his concerts.

The information I use in these reports are obtained in many different ways, some from personal experience, some from my clients and Captains who are out every day, and some from on-line subscription services such as Fish-Track, BuoyWeather and SurfZone as well as HurricaneZone. I, and only I, am responsible for any errors made, as I sift all this information and compile it.

Thank you very much for checking out my report, and if you would like to book a charter, check out www.flyhooker.com, I have just re-vamped the web site , it is still under development, but there will be new photos, articles, tips and techniques every week starting next month.

If you want to get the report every week, go to my blog at www.captgeo.wordpress.com  and sign up! No spam, I do not share your e-mail and you can un-subscribe at any time!

Meanwhile, Tight lines!

FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
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E-mail: george@flyhooker.com – www.flyhooker.com – captgeo.wordpress.com/
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