Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report - Fly Hooker Sport Fishing

Updated every Monday, our Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report lets you know what is biting and on what bait.

by Capt George Landrum • Fly Hooker Sportfishing

August 16-22, 2010

Weather: Once again we had a little rain during the week, but this time it was just enough to spot the windshields, just enough that it turned to mud when you tried the wipers out. Like last week, the rain occurred on Thursday. While that was all we had here in town, fishermen reported quite a few clouds dropping the wet stuff offshore the same day, and during both day around Thursday you could see it coming down in the mountains. That said, the rest of the week was mostly sunny with daytime highs in the mid 90's and nighttime lows in the mid to low 80's. As we approach the end of August everyone is surprised, but happy, that we have had no close calls with storms yet. They bring much needed rain, but sometimes too much in a short time, and can really mess up the fishing for a few days.

Water: We had a big change over the past week as the water started to really warm up. On the Cortez side of the Cape you will find 85 degree water everywhere until you get south of latitude 22.4, then it drops to 80 degrees. On the Pacific side the 85 degree water drops a degree to 84, but goes across both the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks. Just to the west and to the north of those two banks the temperature drops to 80 degrees. We have had some weather in the mainland that affected us this week, causing large swells and strong winds on Tuesday, both coming from the east-northeast and making the seas too rough to fish in the afternoon. That was a one day event, but we still have some large swells from the west that have made near-shore fishing on the Pacific side uncomfortable.

Bait: The full moon made getting good bait hard this week. For our normal $30 we are getting trash fish with just a couple of decent Mullet or Caballito, and then only getting 8 baits instead of 10. The large swells made Sardinas unavailable for at least half of the week.

FISHING

Billfish: The Marlin are still out there as one of our friends released a Black Marlin estimated at +500 pounds earlier in the week while working the temperature break to the south. Striped Marlin have made a re-appearance at the Golden Gate and surrounding areas as most boats have been coming in with at least two releases per day, and some of them more than a half-dozen per day. Live bait tossed at the tailers has been the key, but if the bait balls form on the bank like they have before things could really take off. Elsewhere the fish have been scattered out. Black Marlin in the small size have been found near shore between Cabo and the Los Frailles area, averaging 150-200 pounds, Blue Marlin in the same size range have been found on a regular basis, with a few in the #300 class just a few mile farther out and have been concentrated to the north of the temperature break.

Yellowfin Tuna: There are still some Quality fish in the #100+ class being found in the San Jose area between the Gorda Banks and the Inman Banks, but most of them have been smaller, ranging in size from 15 to 30 pounds. These same size fish have been found elsewhere as well, with fish showing from the south by the 1,000 fathom line to the San Jaime Banks area. While that action has not been wide open, everyone who has gone looking for them seems to have been able to catch a few.

Dorado: On the Pacific side the Dorado action just started to open up good with a lot of fish being found within 5 miles of the beach and larger fish being found a bit farther offshore. We had one boat of clients this week who released two Striped Marlin and then proceeded to land three Dorado, one #50, one #35 and one #15 fish. The fish are scattered all over the place, but finding one usually means there are more close by!

Wahoo: There were a few nice Wahoo this week, mostly caught by boats working close to the beach or at the Gorda and Inman Banks. With an average of 30 pounds, they were not large, but were a nice surprise for those fishing for Tuna and Dorado.

Inshore: The large swells we experienced made getting right on the beach difficult so the Roosterfish action was down a bit, but there were Dorado to take their place just a short way out.

Notes: We have been watching the formation of tropical depressions to the south of us this week. Now that the water has warmed up to 85 degrees the chance of one of them heading our direction increases. Our fingers are crossed for just some rain, and we are watching TS Frank right now. Keeping our fingers crossed, until next week, Tight Lines! This report was written while listing to a mix of Jack Johnson sounds!

Just came to our attention you can now buy fishing licenses online. Some Spanish required...won't let me buy quantities, as it looks like you can only buy one at a time. I only played on the website for a mew minutes this morning, look great for those yearly licenses!!! Thanks David for the website

https://www2.ebajacalifornia.gob.mx/Pesca/

11-52-624-147-5614 cell phone
011-52-624-143-8271 home and fax
044-624-147-5614 or 143-8271 in Cabo

Capt. George Landrum:
gmlandrum@hotmail.com