Fish Report for 10-3-2011

Noteworth Black Marlin, + an "on again, off again" tuna bite & a steady Dorado bite at Cabo

10-3-2011
George Landrum

WEATHER:
Another week of hot weather following the heat of last week! Two more weeks before traditionally it starts cooling down again. This week we once again saw most days of over 100 degrees in town. Most anglers were happy to get on the water where it was at least 10 degrees cooler. We had a few days of partly cloudy skies, but the clouds for the most part were high in the sky. On Wednesday we did get a bit of a surprise as the clouds moved right in on us and spit some rain here in town. Just to the north a bit there was actually a pretty good downpour and of course, there was plenty in the mountains.

WATER:
The Cortes side of the Cape this week was mostly 88 degrees out to the 1150 and the 95 spot and then it dropped a degree to 87 to the east of there, not a big difference, but there you go. On the Pacific side there was a band of cooler 85 degree water along the beach extending out a mile or two, then it rose to 86-87 degrees until you got a few miles to the west of the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks, then it dropped to 86 degrees. As you can see, there were no strong temperature breaks out there this week. Surface conditions were pretty darn good except for the large swells at the start of the week, a result of the passing of Hurricane Hillary to the west. The rest of the week saw reduced swells spaced far apart and only light wind chop for the most part.

BAIT:
Caballito, Mullet and Sardines were the live bait available with the bigger baits at the usual $3 each and just a few of the Sardinas at $25 a scoop up in the Palmilla area. Sardinas were hard to come by early in the week due to the large swells hitting the beach.

FISHING:

BILLFISH:

Of course the big news of the week on the Marlin front was the capture of a fish variously called a Blue and then a Black, between 855 and 1,213 pounds. Maybe someday we will get a real, certified scale that can weigh fish like this installed at the marina. For more information on this fish go to my blog at www.captgeo.wordpress.com. I did not hear of any other large Marlin brought in or fought this week but I am sure there were a few more. I do know that there were a scattering of Sailfish around as well as some Striped Marlin. Not large numbers, nor large fish, but there were some billfish out there to be caught. One of the best days I heard of was a 3 for 5 release on Striped Marlin in one day, all on live bait, all on the Pacific side. I heard late yesterday of a credible rumor, more big blue and black marlin coming in, too bad they are being brought to the scales. I personally have not seen any though. but it is a good sign for upcoming tournaments!

YELLOWFIN TUNA:
This week was a hot one for the Yellowfin Tuna, last week was a cold one! And then, just to top things off, the bite turned off on Saturday! There were scattered schools of porpoise holding Yellowfin all week on the Pacific side and to the south as well as the west, basicly they were scattered all over the place. We had clients who caught Tuna on Friday early in the morning that would have worn them out if they had stayed with the school. Back on the water on Saturday and could not find one fish! Word is that there have been quite a few Purse Seiners working out there, but to have that many fish gone overnight has to be something other than just the commercial guys.

DORADO:
Once again the fish of the week, but just because the Tuna bite was not a steady one. The Dorado were steady as every time you went out you could catch them. Most of them were not large, averaging perhaps 10 pounds, but there were plenty of them to be found close to the beach on the Pacific side. Just like last week, a few boats got into schools of fish that were larger with an average of 15-18 pounds, but there were not as many of them and they were found a bit farther offshore.

WAHOO:
The new moon phase was really quiet for Wahoo and I only heard of two fish caught. One of them was small at 20 pounds, I am not sure of the size of the other fish, and they were caught close to shore by boats that were targeting Dorado.

INSHORE:
Roosterfish, Needle-fish, Bonita, Skipjack, Dorado with a scattering of Grouper and Snapper rounded out the fish inshore this week. There were no large numbers of any of them except for the Dorado, and there were plenty of them to keep anglers happy. Many of the Pangas went offshore in search of Tuna this week instead of focusing on the inshore fish. Early in the week this was really the case since we had the large swells hitting the coastline.

NOTES:
Well, so much for the hope of a Seahawk perfect losing season, guess we now have to hope for the team to get it together and win a few. I was really hoping for first pick in next years draft, sigh. We had a busy week this past week and there were plenty of fish out there as you can tell from the list above. Some big Tuna, big Marlin and plenty of good eating Dorado. If it were not for the heat things would be perfect! My music for this report was once again (for the 12th time) Brian Flynn! He will be playing at our favorite bar, Tanga-Tanga this afternoon after the football games! Southern Rock at it's finest! I'll take a few pictures to post on the blog later on.

Until next week, tight lines!


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