Fish Report for 11-23-2012

Striped Marlin are coming with greater frequency in Cabo

11-23-2012
Larry Edwards

The striper action is in the beginning stages with more & more fish showing up everyday and while not overly eager to bite just yet, the action is keeping the anglers on their toes. Most of the action focused on the Cabo Falso drop-off area with good feeder action on the surface but with 90% of the fish being taken down deep using sinkers and drifting with live bait. It's an abnormally unusual way to fish for marlin but it does work well in the Cabo San Lucas fishing grounds from time to time. High boat for the week was the "Fish Cabo", releasing 9 stripers for 4 fishing days and followed bby the "Tuna Time" with 4 stripers released, 1 sailfish released, 3 dorado and 8 skipjack for 5 days fishing. The overall fish counts for a total of 38 days fished reflected a total of 23 stripers, (22 released) 1 sailfish released, 1 roosterfish, 8 skipjack, 26 yellowfin tuna and 81 dorado.

Cabo Climate: Partly cloudy days with cool evenings and mornings but toasty warm days. Temps stable at 63 nights to 88 daytime highs.

Sea Conditions: Warm waters persist on the Pacific side, wrapping Cabo San Lucas and up to the Gorda Banks area, towards the Sea of Cortez, and extending offshore to the 1000 fathom curve and beyond, reflecting temperatures about 86 degrees from the shoreline to about 20 miles or so and then falling off to 82-83 degrees. Surface conditions are near perfect with light & variable sea breezes and small swell conditions on both sides of the peninsula. We had an interesting report from the Magdalena Bay area that the striped marlin are thick in the offshore areas with sea temps in the 78-79 degree mode, which is a perfect temp for those fish. As that sea temp water moves down the line toward the finger banks and the Golden Gate, the stripers should move right in with the schools of Pacific greenback mackerel. We are already seeing some mackerel on the banks and at the Cabo Falso Drop-Off, so it shouldn't be too long.

Best Fishing Area: Again this past week, the better fishing remained on the Pacific side of Cabo and extended all the way from the Herradura to the south of Cabo to Pozo de Cota, to the northeast of the Golden Gate Bank and closer to shore. However, the real hot bite area this past week was close to Cabo and just outside the Cabo Falso Drop-Off.

Best Lure/Bait: Drifting with sinkers and near the bottom while using live caballitos for bait was producing the most billfish. Lots of quick feeders throughout this area but they were popping up & down so quick it was very difficult to get on top of the spots.

Live Bait Supply: Bait supply remains very good for caballitos at the $3.00 per bait rate.


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