Cabo Fish Report
George Landrum

Cabo Fish Report
Oct. 10-16, 2011

WEATHER: As almost always happens at this point in the year, the temperatures dropped this week. I am not sure why, but the middle of October almost always sees this happen, one of the many reasons we look forward to it. Our early morning averages dropped from 83 degrees to 78 degrees while the daytime highs dropped from 100 degrees to the mid 90′s. We saw no rain this week but there were a few clouds in the sky and we dis have some days in the middle of the week when the afternoon breeze picked up, from the northwest early in the week and from the southeast at the end of the week.
WATER: Water conditions were wonderful with the Sea of Cortez showing 87-88 degrees almost everywhere we went, from up around Los Frailles all the way to outside of Cabo. On the Pacific side it was a bit cooler with 84-85 degree water near shore and warmer 86-87 degree water across the San Jaime Bank. With only slight winds almost every day was smooth, and the water was a very deep blue color.
BAIT: Caballito, Mullet and Sardines were the live bait available with the bigger baits at the usual $3 each and Sardinas in Cabo were $25 a small scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: My apologies as I have made an embarrassing mistake on the first draft of my report and listed the fish caught in the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament from 2010 instead of from 2011. I did not fish this tournament and apparently brought up the stats from last year and incorporated them into this years data. Now this is the correct information: Two tournaments over 5 days of fishing with a total of 101 teams with 264 total fishing days. There were a total of 106 Billfish caught and only two of them were over 300 pounds, one was a 503 pound Blue Marlin and the other was a 408 pound Black Marlin. As an average this was 1 billfish per team. Boats that were charter fishing did very well on Striped Marlin and on Sailfish, but the tournament boats were looking for the larger species, therefore the stats are a little skewed if you look at them for an idea of overall bill fishing success.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: The interesting thing about the tuna this week was during the second tournament there were more large fish caught than during the first tournament, but it was tuna instead of marlin! During the 2 day tournament there was a 204 pound Yellowfin taken and on the second day there was a 133, 181 and a 187 pound fish, more large Yellowfin than during the first tournament, even though there were some nice ones taken then as well. A few of the larger fish were caught by anglers fishing for big black marlin on the Gorda Banks, but there were plenty taken from schools found around the San Jaime Banks area as well. Regular charter boats had no problem putting their anglers on some good quality fishing this week, with most of them getting more than enough bite to keep coolers full!
DORADO: The Dorado bite this week was very steady on fish that ran in size from 8 pounds to 25 pounds. There were very few fish over that weight, even though the 2 day tournament had a category for Dorado, they had to meet the 30 pound minimum weight and there were no qualifying fish caught on the first day and only two caught on the second day. We were trying to catch bait early in the morning on both days of the two day tournament and on both days had Dorado swim into our underwater lights to feed on the sardines we were chumming with. We caught three of them on the first day and one on the second day, all before daylight! All the fleet boats fishing normal charters were coming in with riggers full of yellow flags for the Dorado they were catching.
WAHOO: There were not a lot of Wahoo flags flying this week even with the full moon but there were some nice fish caught. During the three day tournament each day saw a fish between 40 and 50 pounds brought to the scale, and there were more than that hooked up. The charter fleet did pretty good as well with fish in the same size range.
INSHORE: Very little inshore fishing change this week with most of the information mirroring last weeks and the week before. Mast Pangas were fishing the fantastic Dorado bite, there were some really good days when the Roosterfish were on with an average of 20 pounds in size. Plenty of Skipjack Tuna and a scattering of bottom fish rounded out the inshore action.

Cabo Fish Report
Sept. 5-11, 2011
George Landrum
WEATHER: We had a hot week here in Cabo as our daytime highs were in the mid to high 90′s and the nighttime lows only got down to 85 degrees. Our cloud cover varied as weather from the mainland appeared intermittently, ever few days a new cloud deck comes over and we get a bit muggy for a day. No rain here in town this week, but I bet there was some up in the mountains!
WATER: After a strange change in the water temperatures last week, we are back to about what we expect for this time of year. On the Sea of Cortez the water is a very consistent 88 degrees while the Pacific side as a band of cold water along the beach that reads as 83 degrees. The warm 88 degree water from the Cortez side has a finger running up the Pacific side across the San Jaime Bank and up to the western edge of the Golden Gate Bank. This finer of warm water extends out to almost the 1,000 fathom line, then the temperature drops to 83 degrees again. This week the swells have been small and the winds light so the fishing conditions have been fantastic!
BAIT: Caballito, Mullet and Sardines were the live bait available with the bigger baits at the usual $3 each and the Sardinas at $25 a scoop up in the Palmilla area.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There are plenty of Striped Marlin being seen but not all of them have been hungry. A few boats have tossed baits to as many as 8 fish per trip and have been lucky to get three hooked up and released, for most boats just getting one released has been a reason for celebration. As far as the larger Marlin go, some Blacks are beginning to show up off the Gorda Banks and the Punta Gorda area and there have been Blue Marlin attacking lures both to the south of Cabo and around the warm water plume on the Pacific side. Most of these larger fish a=have been in the 200-300 pound class, but there have been reports of some in the magic 300+ category as well. Lures have been the best stuff to use on the Blue Marlin and the Black Marlin really like slow trolled live Skipjack.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Strangely enough, Yellowfin Tuna have remained our fish of the week. I mean that because we have been seeing Purse Seiners setting on schools out here, and we are still catching some nice Tuna, in spite of them. There have been some very nice fish reported from the area of the Finger Banks, but that is a long haul for the fleet guys on a fingers crossed trip when there is good fishing closer to home. Boats fishing the Pacific side have been catching fish ranging from 10 to 100 pounds with most of them in the 20-30 pound class while trolling cedar plugs and feathers around porpoise and dolphin. The larger fish have been hooked on slow trolled live bait and live bait dropped back after hooking up to a trolled fish, but the very largest fish have been taken while fishing under a kite. We had clients this week who caught 5 Yellowfin between 30 and 60 pounds and several small one, the larger fish all coming from using the kite. Other boats working a bit farther out to the south reported larger fish over 100 pounds coming from under a kite.
DORADO: The Dorado bite did not change this week as there were still plenty of fish to be caught, you just had to be fishing the right areas get them. Almost all the big numbers were found within 2 miles of the beach on the Pacific side up past the Arcos area. Big numbers do not mean big fish though as most of these Dorado were in the 10 pound class with a few much smaller as well. The larger fish were found farther offshore, but were scattered, no concentrated, Boats that did well on the larger fish were looking for feeding frigate birds and running to them, tossing out live bait and slow trolling the area. Also, almost anything you found floating this week was likely to have fish under it. A few boats were able to get into small groups of Dorado averaging 25 pounds and catching 3 or 4 for the fish box.
WAHOO: Once again I did not hear of any Wahoo, but we are approaching the full moon and it is the right time of year, so I expect that to change this week.
INSHORE: Some Roosterfish as well as a scattering of Snapper and Grouper have kept most inshore anglers a little busy, but with the water conditions the way they are most of the Pangas are going offshore looking for the larger Dorado and some of those great Yellowfin Tuna.

Cabo Fish Report
August 22-28, 2011
George Landrum
WEATHER: Wow, almost a repeat of last weeks weather, who would have thought that? Strangely enough, it is because of clouds and a bit of rain instead of bright and sunny. Once again we were in mostly cloudy conditions and had a bit of rain at the end of the week. A series of small storms moved over us, coming from the mainland and brought rain to the mountains and a bit of a sprinkle to us. Even without the sun shining brightly it was easy to get sunburned as many people found out! Our nighttime low were in the mid 80′s while the daytime highs were approaching 100 degrees.

WATER: One of those small storms that blew in from the mainland brought Tuesday noon misery to some anglers who decided to come in and hunker down. The storm passed in two hours but blew hard, bringing in 5 foot wind swells with gusts to 40 mph. Here and then gone! The rest of the week was fine with swells slowly increasing in size over the week and coming from the south. They were spaced far enough apart that they were comfortable, Water on the Cortez side averaged 88 degrees inshore and 87 degrees offshore. On the Pacific side the inshore water was 83-84 degrees while the water offshore was averaging 82 degrees.
BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were the baits of the week with no Mackerel being found due to the warm waters. Everything was the normal $3 per bait. There were also some decent Sardinas to the north around Palmilla at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Striped Marlin were found on the Pacific side this week, but not in any great numbers as would be expected with our water temperatures. Scattered around, some boats were able to release two fish, a lot of boats released one and many, many others had no luck. Small Blue Marlin were scattered in the area of the 1150 and they did not get a lot of pressure since most boats fished the Pacific side of the Cape. I heard of at least one Black Marlin being released this week, caught on down-rigged live Bonita at the Gorda Bank it was estimated at 300 pounds.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: This has been an on and off fishery for the past week. Based on some other reports I went to the Imam Banks twice this week hoping to get into some of the reported 60-100 pound Tuna that were said to be there. Chum hard with Sardines, use 40 pound flouro-carbon leader and they were supposed to bite. Not a working proposition for me, but I did see a few Tuna that averaged 25 pounds caught, as well as a few Dorado and a couple of Marlin. On Friday I was off to the south side of the San Jaime Bank and watched a purse seiner from Mazatlan named the “Aztec 10” brail 40-100 pound tuns from their net after making a set. We did not get any Tuna that day. Saturday things turned around and the Tuna bite took off from the shore to 15 miles out between the arch and the Golden Gate Bank. Many boats managed to limit out on fish that averaged 25 pounds. Of course, I went to the Imam banks instead, oops.
DORADO: Later in the week anglers were getting as many Dorado as they wanted if they worked the the pacific shoreline north of the Golden Gate. Most of them were small but there were quite a few that were in the 15 pound class. Shark buoys to the south of the Golden Gate held some nice fish as well. There were scattered Dorado reported from the area of the 1150 during the middle of the week.
WAHOO: Once again a few fish were reported, and the probable reason was the number of boats fishing inshore on the Pacific side for Dorado. Have enough boats hit the area and chances are one or two of them are going to find a Wahoo.
INSHORE: Just like last week, inshore action this week consisted of Bonita, Skipjack, some nice schools of Roosterfish that averaged 15 pounds with scattered Dorado and Yellowfin. Most of the action early in the week took place on the Pacific side from the lighthouse up to Los Arcos.

Cabo Fish Report
July 25-31, 2011
George Landrum

WEATHER: I got up this morning to 84 degrees and 80% humidity, whew, good thing the fan was on! Our nights have been warm like that this week, and the days even warmer. With a few days of partly cloudy skies, the best place to be was out on the water, at least there was a little breeze outside on the Pacific! We have a tropical depression forming to the south of us, five-E, that is projected to stay well south but form into a hurricane on Wednesday. We will probably get some surf again, but like the last one, no rain.
WATER: Warm water has come our way! With an average of 87 degrees on the Cortez side of the Cape, it actually rose above 91 degrees up at the East Cape in a few areas. On the Pacific side here we have warm water wrapping around the Cape and working it’s way to the north. 83 degree water is inside of the San Jaime Bank and across the Golden Gate Bank, and the water outside of there drops down to a cool 80 degrees, and to the south of us if you get outside of 25 miles it drops as low as 75 degrees.
BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were the baits of the week with a few Mackerel in the mix. Everything was the normal $3 per bait. There were also some decent Sardinas to the north around Palmilla at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: There were plenty of Striped Marlin and quite a few small Blue Marlin and Sailfish showing up this week, but they were not always hungry. The larger fish were scarce this week, and the results of the Bisbee East Cape Tournament bear that out. With 62 teams fishing three days only one fish over 300 pounds was caught. That’s 186 fishing days for a Blue Marlin that was just over 500 pounds. Locally there was a small concentration of Striped Marlin just off of Gray Rock between ½ mile and 2 miles. That group of fish was there mid-week but apparently moved off on Saturday. On an interesting note, the Marlin bite seems to have been better in the afternoon this week.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Still around and biting! Not every trip resulted in lots of fish, but the boats that were able to get to the dolphin first really had a good chance at fish to 80 pounds this week. Of course most of the fish were smaller than that with an average of 20 pounds, but still, there were some really nice fish being brought in. Most of the action was along the temperature break to the south of us as well as around the San Jaime Bank. Small feathers worked great for the average fish but deep dropped live bait, dropped ahead of slow traveling schools of fish, as well as run under kites seemed to get the larger ones interested.
DORADO: Once again fish of the week, and we are really happy about that! Most of the action took place on the Pacific side close to the beach and the fish were a decent average of 12 pounds with a few lager showing up. The larger fish were 45-50 pounds and about every third boat managed to get one that size. Best action came on slow trolled live bait, but bright colored medium size lures run at 10 knots managed to get some action and worked well to find the concentrations of fish. My guess is that the boats were averaging 6 fish per trip with the better catches being limits and very few boats not getting any Dorado at all.
WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo being caught this week.
INSHORE: Most of the Pangas were focusing on Dorado this week but those that tried for the normal inshore species like Roosterfish, Grouper and Snapper found that the bite was better in the afternoon. Good action was on the Pacific side of the Cape but there was some decent Roosterfish action off of Cabo Real as well. Most of the Roosterfish were smaller ones at 15 pounds but there were a couple of times when schools of 50 pound fish moved in and caused some excitement.

Cabo Fish Report
July 11-17, 2011
George Landrum

WEATHER: This was a pretty nice week, even though it was warm. Our daytime highs were in the high 90′s and the nighttime lows in the high 70′s, but it was still cooler than in a lot of the states. Quite a heatwave you have going on up there, come to Cabo and cool down! We had partly to mostly cloudy skies at the end of the week but plenty of sun during the middle of the week and the week started off with a light sprinkle on Monday, just enough to spot up the cars.
WATER: We had an early week upwelling of cool water along the beach on the Pacific side where the water went from 80 degrees down to 73 degrees and it has been slow to get back up there. This cool water wrapped around the Cape for a few days, cooking the water in the bay, but then the warm water from the Sea of Cortez took over and replaced the cool bay water. The Pacific near-shore water remains a bit cooler than we have on the Cortez side, staying in the high 70′s. On the Cortez side of the Cape we have been seeing water temperatures ranging from 80 to 85 degrees with the warmer water coming from farther to the east mid week. Surface conditions on both side of the Cape were good this week with light winds in the afternoon bringing some small whitecaps on the Pacific side. The swells got smaller as the week progressed and at the end of the week we were seeing swells of 1-3 feet on the Cortez side and 3-5 feet on the Pacific.
BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were the baits of the week with a few Mackerel in the mix. Everything was the normal $3 per bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite has fallen off as we expect when the water gets over 80 degrees, but there are still some to be found. My guess, based on what I have been seeing is a success rate of about 35%. I have not seen very many boats flying multiple flags, two at the most, and the fish have been scattered. Best results on the Striped Marlin have been from the area of cool water on the Pacific side close to the beach. There have been more frequent attacks on lure from the larger Marlin as well! Reports of Blue Marlin up to 500 pounds taking Yellowfin Tuna as they are being reeled in gives you a reason to get out there, but they have not yet arrived in any numbers, just an occasional fish or so. Smaller Blue Marlin and possibly a few Black Marlin have been reported attacking lures pulled around the Tuna schools, maybe it’s time to down-rig a few Tuna on the banks?
YELLOWFIN TUNA: A bright star for our fishing this week was the Yellowfin Tuna action. As is normal with these fish, first boats to the action had the best luck, and finding the action for the most part consisted of finding Porpoise. Find those mammals and you stood a fair chance of getting into Yellowfin that averaged 15 pounds and once in a while jumped over the 40 pound mark. I did hear reports of a few larger fish coming from the area outside of Punta Gorda, fish that went over the 100 pound mark. Almost anyone that wanted Tuna this week were able to get a few, and some anglers limited out. On a worry note, the purse seiners nave started to show up, but that means that there are more fish on the way, just hope they don’t get them all before we have a chance at some!
DORADO: Another bright spot this week was the number of Dorado we have been seeing, and pretty nice fish for the most part at an average of 12 pounds. There have been a few really small ones that bode well for the next few months as they get larger, and of course the 40 pound fish that get everyone all excited. The majority of the larger Dorado are being found on the Cortez side in the warmer water and the smaller fish are being found close to the beach.
WAHOO: Full moon this week did bring out reports of some Wahoo being caught out there. As far as I could determine there was no concentrated effort for them, most of the fish were incidental catches made while fishing for other species.
INSHORE: Inshore fishing was a repeat of last week with the inclusion of a few more Dorado showing up. Roosterfish to 60 pounds, Amberjack, Jack Crevalle, Bonito, Grouper, Snapper, all the inshore fish are showing in the reports this week. The ones not there are the cooler water fish such as Yellowtail and Sierra. Slow trolling live bait is the key to getting most of the fish except the bottom species, and those were biting on butterfly jigs.

Cabo Fish Report
July 4-10, 2011
George Landrum

WEATHER: Warm. Need more information, well all right. Our morning lows have been in the low 80′s and the daytime highs in the high 90′s. We had very little wind this week but did have quite a bit of cloud cover early in the week with sunny skies from Thursday on to the end of the week. We had a pretty good shower on Monday and that was the end of the rain.
WATER: The water was 82-84 degrees almost everywhere you could go, on the Pacific side that was everything in range inside the 1,000 fathom line and on the Cortez side it was all the water out to a distance of 30 miles south of Cabo and 50 miles south of Punta Gorda and eastward as far as you could travel. Once you got past five miles off the beach on the Cortez side the water was blue, inside it was just slightly tinged with green. The swells were decent size at 3-6 feet but there was very little wind on top of them and they were spaced well apart.
BAIT: Mackerel and Mullet were easy to get this week at the normal $3 per bait, there were no Sardinas and only a few Mackerel to be had.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Well, thing are constantly changing on the ocean and as the warm water moved into our area the Billfishing changed a bit as well. We are still seeing Striped Marlin close to home, as a matter of fact one of the boats hooked two Striped Marlin within 100 meters of Lands End on Wednesday. Most of the Striped Marlin have been very close to home, but there are not the numbers we were seeing last week, and they are not as hungry. What we are seeing more of is Blue Marlin. A boat caught one over 600 pounds this week and quite a few smaller ones between 200 and 300 pounds were released. Not that they were caught by every boat out there, no it’s not that easy! But there were Blues to be had if you were in the right place using the right stuff. Most of the action on these Blue Marlin occurred between 5 and 25 miles out, around the Tuna. Naturally they were following their bait!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Not much of a change from last week as far as the Yellowfin are concerned. Between 5 and 25 miles to the south and southwest, find the porpoise and you were getting bit. The porpoise were all over the p[lace, finding the right pod to work was the key. The white bellied porpoise were moving fast and it was hard to get bit in them, but the spotted porpoise were easier to work and the fish were a bit more co-operative. Smaller lure in dark colors worked great on these fish that averaged 15 pounds, with large ones reaching 30 pounds. There were a few big ones caught as well, fish that reached over the 100 pound mark, but they were not in among the small ones.
DORADO: Dorado continue to come into our area and there are some nice ones out there! We had a young client who caught his first one the other day, it was Saturday, and the fish weighed just over 60 pounds! Now he is spoiled for life and probably expects every one he catches to be that large! Not every boat is bringing home Dorado, but the ones that are getting them are catching nice ones. Most of the action has been out past the 5 mile area, and on the Cortez side of the Cape.
WAHOO: Once again I did not hear of any Wahoo being caught this week.
INSHORE: Roosterfish to 60 pounds, Amberjack, Jack Crevalle, Bonito, Grouper, Snapper, all the inshore fish are showing in the reports this week. The ones not there are the cooler water fish such as Yellowtail and Sierra. Slow trolling live bait is the key to getting most of the fish except the bottom species, and those were biting on butterfly jigs.

Cabo Fish Report
May 30- June 5, 2011
George Landrum

WEATHER: Sure am glad I am here and not there! With nighttime lows in the low 70′s and daytime highs in the mid 90′s, humidity most day around 35% it just doesn’t get much better than this. We had sunny skies all week long and at the start of the week we had a steady, but not too strong wind from the northwest. Today is going to be the hottest of the week though, as it is 77 degrees and not even 7 am yet!
WATER: On the Cortez side of the Cape, almost in a line running due east of us, the water to the north was 80 degrees until you got off of the Los Frailles area offshore. There it warmed to 84 degrees at the end of the week. South of that line it dropped to 74 degrees except for an intrusion from the Pacific side that ran right along the 1,000 fathom line where it dropped to 70 degrees. On the Pacific side of the Cape it was 66-70 degrees everywhere. Early in the week the Pacific side was a bit rough with large swells and some steady wind, but the swells died down late in the week as did the wind. On the Cortez side of the Cape the wind had little effect later in the week but at the beginning it made for a few days of rough riding back to Cabo if you went east to fish.
BAIT: There was a decent availability on Caballito this week at the normal $3 per bait, some Sardinas were found in the Palmilla area at $25 a scoop and of course you could get frozen ballyhoo at $3 each.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I did not hear of any Swordfish being caught this week but there may have been a few. Most of the boats were concentrating on the Striped marlin that were being found up to the east in the Destillidera area. The best catches were in double digits but most boats were getting between 3 and 5 releases per day, with a lot of fish just giving quick strikes and not hooking up. Most of the action for the fleet boats was on lures and the fish were averaging a little bit larger at 130 pounds instead of the normal 110 pounds. The action fluctuated a bit day to day and the fish moved around a bit as well. While the concentrations were in the Destillidera area, there were fish found closer to home also. Scattered Striped marlin were found all over the place and it seemed that most of them were willing to hit a lure or bait, but the concentrations were not there for large numbers to be caught. For the boats not making the long trek to the concentrations, a release average of 1 per boat was the norm. There were still Sailfish being caught in the San Jose area as well, mainly closer to the beach and the structure with small pods of three or four fish coming in to attack lures. Not a lot of them but enough that any trip had the chance of catching one.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We finally had some decent numbers of Yellowfin show up. To the east of us there have been occasional breezers, schools of fish that are traveling just under the surface, pushing the water so that it looks like a gust of wind is traveling through. If you see one of them, the chances of hooking up fish are good, just throw a live bait in the water in front of the school. Boats that were finding them and doing that were getting fish averaging 45 pounds with an occasional jumbo over 100 pounds. Most of the boats are catching smaller fish close to home. The area from 2 to 6 miles off the beach between the arch and Chileano Bay produced plenty of blind strikes on fish that averaged 18 pounds, a few smaller than that but nice fish anyway. Almost anything worked, lures big and small, live bait, rigged dead bait, it was just a matter of getting a strike and then working the area. A good catch was a dozen fish, a big catch was limits for everyone.
DORADO: Every week the numbers increase, and this week the size increased as well. There were quite a few fish in the 40-50 pound class caught, and a lot of fish in the 12-20 pound class. The warm water on the Cortez side of the Cape was producing almost all the fish with the larger ones found offshore and the smaller ones closer to the beach.
WAHOO: It sounded as if the Wahoo bite was decent this week if you were fishing out at Punta Gorda. Boats that concentrated their effort on the 50 fathom line and worked it hard with swimming plugs and lead head lures were getting between two and five fish per day, most of them in the 30 pound class with an occasional fish to 60 pounds. There were a few others caught offshore but there were no concentrations out there, just incidental catches.
INSHORE: Roosterfish were the stars of the week for the inshore fishermen as some of the larger fish arrived with the warmer water. In the white water you could see fish to 40 pounds cruising for something to eat and getting a live bait in there usually resulted in a hook-up. Almost all of the sandy beaches were producing the Roosterfish, but the average size was 15 pounds, the larger ones were not as common. There were also some nice snapper caught in the rocks if you were able to get a bait in there, but the large swells early in the week made that a bit difficult. Many of the Pangas were fishing for Yellowfin Tuna since they were so close and biting so well.
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