May 4-10, 2009

Notes:
There are still no reported cases of the Swine Flu here in the Baja, but tourist numbers have remained low anyway. Just as was the case last week the report this week is based on very low numbers of boats going out. We are still seeing a few whales here and there but they are pretty much done for the year.

WEATHER:
It was pretty nice during most of the week with light and scattered clouds, the daytime highs in the mid 80's and nighttime lows in the mid 60's. At the end of the week clouds moved into our area, coming in from the southwest and they were heralded by some pretty strong winds on Saturday. With wind speeds at 25 miles per hour all day long and a heavy cover of clouds it felt as if it might rain, but all we had was about 10 minutes of a light mist.

WATER:
The Pacific side was a tough way to go this week as they weather system made its way toward us. The winds have been pushing the swells all week long and early in the week you knew that something was on it's was as the swells went overhead. A few boats that went out toward the San Jaime Bank reported that conditions were similar to "victory at sea" film clips. It was not comfortable out there and the water was cool as well with surface temperatures in the 67-degree area at the Golden Gate and the San Jaime Banks. Closer to shore on the Pacific side there was a band of cold water pushing its way south along the beach. This cold water was 61 degrees and ran from the beach to three miles out all along the Pacific side, finally turning off to the southwest at the lighthouse. Between the band of cold water and the 95 spot on the Cortez side of the Cape the water slowly warmed up to 72 degrees, and once you went east of there it quickly warmed to 77 degrees. The cold water was also very green with the green slowly fading the warmer the water became.

BAIT:
There was bait available at the normal $3 each with the small Barred Jacks being more prevalent than any other type of bait. These make good cut bait but I don't care for them for much else. There were a few Mackerel, but there were not very many Caballito, both due to the cold water and the full moon. There were supposed to be Sardinas available up in San Jose, but I also heard that their availability was on "who you know " basis.

FISHING:

BILLFISH:
Reports have some Striped Marlin showing up at the Punta Gorda and north of there, in the warmer water. We caught one this week on the Outer Gorda Bank and had another one on the same trip come into the pattern and swirl on a lure. There were plenty of small Skipjack on the bank as well as common Pacific Dolphin. We went as far as Vinorama without seeing any other fish but I had some friends tell me I should have gone about 10 miles farther north. A couple of boats reported seeing Swordfish on the surface around the 95 spot on Thursday but no one was able to get a bite.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:
I did not hear of any boats getting into the Tuna this week locally, but did hear of one boat making a transit from Mazatlan that got into some nice fish about 80 miles from us. The fish were in the 50-pound class and they caught a dozen or so of them.

DORADO:
There were scattered Dorado this week and perhaps 50% of the boats out there were able to get a hook into one of them. These fish were scattered on the Cortez side of the Cape and until we get some floating debris in our area there are not likely to be any large catches.

WAHOO:
The full moon brought about a few hungry Wahoo up around the Punta Gorda area and the Inman Banks area. The usual high speed swimming plugs did not work as well as slow trolled or drifted live bait, but that may have been because more anglers were slow trolling or drifting, huh?

INSHORE:
Inshore fishing was almost non-existent on the Pacific side as wind and swells kept getting stronger and larger, the water became colder and got greener. The action on the Cortez side made up for it a bit though with some decent Yellowtail to 25 pounds being found off of the rocky points as well as some nice Sierra to 9-10 pounds. A scattering of other fish in the mix such as Amberjack, small Roosterfish, Pargo and Grouper made for some interesting trips on the Pangas.

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George & Mary Landrum
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