April 21-27, 2008

WEATHER:   I guess that I probably don’t say this enough, but I have to let you know that this is just about my favorite time of the year for the weather.  We have had morning lows in the mid to high 60’s and our daytime highs have just reached the low 90’s.  The week began with mostly cloudy skies on Monday and on Tuesday afternoon they started to break up.  The wind was kicking in a bit early in the week as well.  The clouds brought no rain and after they were gone the winds were very light, just enough to put a light chop on the water in the afternoon.  The week ended on a very nice note with clear and sunny skies and light winds.

WATER:  The Pacific side of the Cape had swells at 3-5 feet but spaced well apart.  On the Cortez side south of the Punta Gorda area things were nice with swells at 1-3 feet.  On the Pacific early in the week and up past Punta Gorda the winds kicked it up a notch and the water was choppy.  On the Pacific side the water temperatures were lower than on the Cortez side with 69-71 degree water almost everywhere.  The temperature break was a straight line north to south off of the lighthouse on the Pacific side.  East of the break the water warmed to 75 degrees and out at the Cabrillo Seamount late in the week we had some water as warm as 82 degrees for a day or so.

BAIT:  This was a tough week to get bait; the bait boats were working hard at snagging Caballito right at the mouth of the marina and were not having a lot of luck.  I heard of quite a few instances of bait boats charging as much as $5 per bait.  That is high, but not bad if it is the right bait, but the fish definitely preferred Mackerel, and the Caballito are not in very good shape after being snagged.  In other words, bait was scarce this week, and expensive.

FISHING:

 BILLFISH:  Once again there were plenty of Marlin out there but the bite was still off.  There were plenty of squid in the area and the Marlin were stuffed.  A few boats were doing all right on Mackerel (a scarce bait this week) and a few fish were caught on Caballito, but the majority of fish were hooked on artificial lures.  The Striped Marlin were all over the place from a mile off the arch to 5 miles off of Gray Rock, you had no problem finding fish, but they were not very hungry.  On the Billfish side of things, I heard that several weeks ago there were three or four large Blue Marlin, one in the #800 and a couple on the 500-600 pound class caught right out front when these small football Yellowfin first showed up.  I didn’t hear of them at the time, but was told of them yesterday by a very reputable Captain.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:  Yellowfin Tuna were the fish of the week, at least at the beginning of the week, and are also the “rant” fish of the week.  At the start of the week, under the cloudy skies, hordes of football size fish, from 8 to 20 pounds showed up jut off the beach from 2-5 miles from the arch.  All the tuna you wanted were available and everyone limited out on fish.  On Wednesday the Purse Seiners started to show up.  On Wednesday there were 6 boats out there, on Thursday there were 9 boats, on Friday and Saturday there were 13 boats, at least 8 of which were super Seiners over 200 feet long and with spotting helicopters n the decks.  They were fishing these tuna just 2 miles off the beach.  The marines went out and stopped two of the boats and chased them away, but said that the others all had permits to fish there.  These fish have hold that can carry 1,500 TONS of fish.  Needless to say, at the end of the week a good day on the water resulted in a dozen or fewer tuna for the sport fleet.  There were the occasional nice fish; the largest I heard of was a double on fish in the #70 class.

DORADO:   The warm water has resulted in an increase in the numbers of Dorado being caught.  Most boats are getting a fish or two a day; on Saturday we caught four Dorado between 12-18 pounds.  They are in the same area as the tuna and marlin, right in among the Seiners.  A live Caballito dropped back after a hook-up resulted in at least one of our fish, the others bit on bright colored lures.

WAHOO:  There were a few Wahoo caught, again in the warm water out front, but not many of them.  Average size was reported at 25 pounds.

INSHORE: The warmer water resulted in fewer Yellowtail being caught this week, but an increase in the numbers of Roosterfish.  The Roosterfish are still on the small side with an average weight of around 5 pounds.  Live bait was tough to come by so while the Caballito were large, there were not many of them and the ones anglers used were getting pounded hard by the Roosters.  Most of the hook-ups were a result of luck, as the baits were much too large for the fish.  The Sierra bite has dropped off as a result of the warmer water but the Pargo and grouper bite has become better.  With the Tuna so close to shore, many of the Pangas were targeting them, and they had good luck.

NOTES:  The Tuna Seiners had everyone up in arms, especially late in the afternoons when they started to set nets around the few sports fishermen that stayed out.  I had thought that they were not allowed by law to fish any closer than 20 miles form the beach, and not at all within the Sea of Cortez, but I must have misunderstood the rules.  Anyway, I overheard more than one local crew complain and talk about doing something, but since the Marines are letting them fish, it must be legal (right?).  If we saw these numbers between one and 6 miles off of the beach, imagine how many more are just beyond the horizon.  If these boats continue to fish right in front of Cabo, look for the numbers of all species caught by the local sport fishing fleet to drop off quickly.  I remember what just 2 of these boats did to the fishery on top of the Gorda Banks six years ago; it took four years for the fishery there to recover.  The Pangas and fishermen out of San Jose ended up ganging together and throwing rebar anchors into the middle of the Seiners nets while they were fishing and powering out, ripping their nets up.  Until next week, keep your fingers crossed!