Fish Report for 6-18-2012

The water conditions at Cabo are still affecting the fishing

6-18-2012
George Landrum

WEATHER:
It was a very warm week, a preview of the summer to come as the highs were in the mid 90′s and the lows only down to the high 70′s. Add in some humidity and it was a bit sticky. We had mostly clear skies with clouds moving into our area at the very end of the week. We had no rain, as is normal, but it sure would be nice to get a bit right now, things are getting pretty dry around here.

WATER:
The water is still in transition between the cool winter conditions and the warm, blue summer status we so look forward to. Some years this event only takes a couple of weeks to settle out, this year it appears we are in for a slightly longer event, perhaps a 6 week transition time, a bit longer than normal but not rare. When this happens we get dirty brown, red or green water that is warm, and sometimes cool blue water, the reverse of normal conditions. A strong sub-surface current may swing against an underwater shelf and force up cool/warm water in an area that has been experiencing the opposite conditions, or the surface currents can change directions and strength overnight. Both of these events have been seen this week and the result is unpredictable conditions for fishing. At the end of this week we saw the water in front of Cabo change from 75 degrees on Monday to 67 degrees on Saturday. On the East Cape we saw 81 degrees on the 10th, 68 degrees on the 15th and back to 77 degrees on the 16th. When these type of events happen fishing becomes a hunt, you have to cover a lot of water to find any fish, where they may have been found the day before is no indicator of where they will be the next day. The only real positive point to make concerning this weeks ocean conditions is the fact that the wind was not too strong, all areas around Cabo were fishable.

BAIT:
Caballito and Mullet were available at the normal $3 per bait.

FISHING:

BILLFISH:

Offshore fishing for Marlin this past week was an exercise in patience, something any fisherman need in abundance. In our case the fish were not in the same area every day, and when you did find a Marlin or two, getting them to bite was difficult. There were fish caught, but not any numbers. As was the case last week, the best area was outside the 1,000 fathom line where the water cleared up just a bit. Just because there were more fish there did not mean they bit better, just that you felt you were in the right spot because you saw more! The catch was scattered from all over, from way outside at 40 miles to just off the beach in 200 feet of water. No rhyme or reason, just plain luck. I thought that with the water in this condition there would be more Swordfish caught, but reported sightings were rare.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:
I heard of no Yellowfin again this week. If the water cleans up we should start to see these fish show in numbers. I know that several weeks ago when the water at the East Cape was clean they were seeing good numbers of fish in decent size categories, so it is just a matter of time and patience.

DORADO:
In a repeat of last weeks opening line in the Dorado category, things change from week to week. This week there were a few Dorado found, but they were found on the Pacific side of Cabo, closer to the beach. No great numbers, or very large fish, but there were a few caught. I did not hear of any large fish caught this week, as opposed to last week.

WAHOO:
I haven't seen one of these fish in quite a while, and did not hear of any caught this past week.

INSHORE:
While slow, this type of fishing out-shown the offshore fishing by a wide margin. Scattered Sierra and Roosterfish were the mainstays of the inshore fishery while an occasional Yellowtail, Amberjack and Snapper lent a bit of anticipation about what was biting. The off-color water kept the bite down according to the Panga Captains. Almost all the fishing was on the Pacific side as the area from the beach to 3 miles offshore from Gray Rock to Puerto Los Cabos was closed to boats due to security issues surrounding the G20 economic conference.

NOTES:
Patience fishermen, patience! These water conditions will not last forever! We have had few fishermen this week due to the G20 conference, and do not expect many more visitors until next weekend. Hopefully the water conditions will have settled by then and the fish will be in full feeding mode! Keeping our fingers crossed this hard may mean loss of circulation and bruising, but if it works it's worth it! Well, off to the beach for our Sunday morning stroll, check out the report next week to see if the finger crossing has worked!

Until then, tight lines!


< Previous Report Next Report >





More Reports

6-11-2012
WEATHER: As is typical this time of year, the weather has varied from day to day with some mornings starting out in the high 70's and warming to the high 90's and the next morning the thermometer showing a cooler 65 degrees. What has not changed is the skies, partly cloudy most of the week, really clearing up at the end of the week. We have also had quite high humidity some mornings, enough so that it...... Read More

6-5-2012
WEATHER: We sure had a changeable week on the weather front. One day the morning high was 76 degrees and the next it was 64 degrees, one day sunny, the next cloudy with fog. One day it was peaceful with little wind, the next morning it was howling. The beginning of the week was a nice recovery from the wind of last week, but it returned on Friday, and it blew hard. As I sit...... Read More