Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report

Capt. George Landrum

Fly Hooker Sportfishing

www.flyhooker.com

gmlandrum@hotmail.com

Feb. 15-21, 2010

Weather:

All right, finally a week with no rain but I think I like it better when we

get one day, at least! We had mostly sunny skies (even though I did not see

much of them) with our daytime highs in the high 70's, occasionally

touching the low 80's and our nighttime lows were in the high 50's.

Water:

We had interesting things happening with our water temperatures this past week.

Contrary to our normal pattern this time of year, the water on the Sea of Cortez

was, on average, cooler than that of the Pacific side, at least within 30 miles of shore.

On the Pacific side we were seeing an average of 74-76 degrees and on the Cortez

side it was averaging 72 degrees. There were a couple of anomalies however as at

the end of the week there appeared to be an intrusion of very warm (for this time of

year) 78-80 degree water at the end of the week from the east. This warm water

appeared 15 miles off of Punta Gorda as well as across the Cabrillo Seamount and

up to the 1150 spot.

Bait:

Caballito were the bait of the week at the usual $3 each and there were

some Sardinas available in the San Jose area at the normal $25 per scoop.

There were few if any Mackerel to be found this week.

FISHING

Billfish:

Marlin and Sailfish continued to be scarce this week and while a few were spotted

as well as caught, there were no large numbers of them anywhere. It appears that we

are not going to see a repeat of the fantastic Striped Marlin fishery we have been this

time of the year for the past three years, or if we do it means that everything else is

going to be all contrary for the rest of the year as well. The few fish that were caught

this week were found up in the Punta Gorda and Gorda Banks area as well as very close

to the beach on the Pacific side up around the Golden Gate Bank.

Yellowfin Tuna:

News for the Yellowfin Tuna fishermen is still bad as this week was a repeat of the

last week. The catch on Tuna is still spotty, a few fish found here and a few found there,

mostly it seems to be a matter of luck by boats that are actually in the historically

producing areas such as west of the San Jaime, due south 40 miles and outside the

1,000 fathom line anywhere on the Cortez side. The fish that were found were smaller

school fish to 35 pounds, but most of them were footballs at 5-15 pounds. All the fish

found were associated with porpoise.

Dorado:

The good news for the week was the reappearance of the warm water and a few

more Dorado showing up, and most of them were actually worth catching. If you

remember, last week there was a large school of very small fish at Gray Rock, well,

those fish were either all caught or got smart and moved on. This warm water brought

in some larger fish, and while the numbers have not been high, the fish have been

quality fish in the 25-40 pound class. A few of these fish were found on the Pacific

side around the sea mounts in the warm water, but the better ones came in on the warm

water flow from the east, and at the end of the week the area around the 1150, Cabrillo

Seamount and outside Punta Gorda were the places to be. Most of the fish were

hooked on lures being trolled for Striped Marlin, but there were some hooked up on

live bait as they followed a lure-caught fish in.

Wahoo:

Surprisingly there were still Wahoo to be caught out there. Most of those I heard of

were incidental catches, but at least they were there. The fish were not large, averaging

just under 25 pounds, but there were a few larger ones reported in the warm water

offshore. As incidental catches, most of them were caught on lures pulled for Tuna or

Striped Marlin, resulting in the majority of hook-ups being lost due to sliced leaders.

Inshore:

Overall the inshore fishery was the way to go this week if you wanted action, but

that didn't work for everyone. Unlike the last several weeks where the fish would

concentrate in one area for several days, this past week the fish seemed to be constantly

on the move. The Sierra, Yellowtail and Amberjack would be in one place in the

morning and 2 miles away in the afternoon. This may be due to the changing water

temperature moving the bait around, but for whatever reason one day could be red-hot

and the next ice-cold.

Notes:

The whales are still providing thrills and if you were fishing offshore that was a

good thing as sometimes that was the only action you might see. There were whales

inshore as well so combine the inshore action with the whale action and this week

inshore was the place to be. Things might change this coming week with the warm

water moving in, we will just have to wait and see how long that lasts. I didn't get out

much myself this week as I was down for 5 days with a nasty cold. I am feeling better

now and listening to Jack Johnson on his 2000 Everloving Records release "Brushfire

Fairytales" helped me feel better! Until next week, tight lines!