Cabo Fishing Report January 23, 2012

All of the saltier folks down here in Cabo have their feelers out for as much information as they can get from up north. All eyes are on Magdelena bay as we are trying to determine the number of striped marlin and pacific sailfish we will see this season. Cabo is known as the marlin capitol of the world due to the fact that we have Marlin Year round. We do have two peak seasons however, one in the summer and one in the winter. The summer season is more well known as this is the season for the monster blue and black marlin, but the winter season is when the action really heats up!! An average day charter between the end of January and the mid March can have release numbers of 20 plus marlin per boat per day!! The key is aggressive navigation, attention to all the technology you can get your hands on and a never ending supply of live bait with a well practiced crew that move and cast in unison. It really is a ballet of the high seas, with information coming from the satellites first then utilizing the radar on board to spot birds farther out than the eye can see. The next bit is a breakneck run to the location of the birds, once you arrive it is an experience all its own as the Captain maneuvers the boat in ways you would never think possible and the crew uses the direction of the diving birds and the clues given off by the pursuing sea lions to know which direction the hard packed shoal (the balled up schools of bait fish) are moving. The bait fish are balled up and running because they are being herded and pushed to the surface by pods of circling striped marlin. As the marlin push the bait fish into an ever shrinking column of water and approach the surface they create an explosion on the surface of feeding marlin, sea lions and birds. You then join the dance and add a boat with live baits being thrown in the precise location of the bait balls movement, careful to avoid the birds and sea lions as bait fish cost 3 dollars a piece! An experienced crew that is willing to work hard can, in proper conditions can keep the livewell full and two or three anglers hooked up at a time for hours on end. Some of the winter crews down here can run 20 hookups per hour with a three mate team and six anglers cranking like mad. The key to a good winter season is teamwork, preparation, and a strong work ethic. The things to look for in a good charter crew for big numbers of striped marlin are three to four open faced reels in the bait casting class, two speeds are preferable, lots of pre rigged section of leader material and circle hooks and a separate rod and reel set up with a sabiki rig for catching baits out on the water.

As I said all eyes are up north right now and the rest of the research is being done here at home, one thing is knowing how many are coming the next step is determining how much bait is around and what kind of water temps are we seeing in the past couple of weeks and what can we expect in the weeks to come? These factors will determine how long we will be able to hold the fish that move south. If the water is cold and the numbers of bait fish are low the swarm will come in wipe out the bait schools we have on hand and move on to warmer waters and larger bait schools. If we have nice warm water and heavy supplies of bait we can expect to hold huge numbers of fish and hold them for months on end, until the squid show up in mid march.

This year looks like it will be a moderate year, bait schools are rebounding. Mackerel numbers are still vey low, but caboitas are readily available. The bad news this year is the water temps, they are unseasonably low which gives us a slower metabolism rate for our marlin. This means the fish will be here they just will not be able to feed very fast, they will be on the surface waiting for the last meal to digest while the next two or three meals get cast right to them. (this is good in one way as it does not allow the marlin to swarm the bait fish and diminish their numbers) This keeps the fish in our area for a longer amount of time and we will see a ton of them. The name of the game will be timing and perseverance. Once a fish is located it must be baited and tracked for as long as possible, it may not eat on the first attempt or two, but it will eat again. Look for a team of guys that have all the data they can get their hands on and work a large area and be willing to fish later in the day, once the rest of the fleets move off the ratio of fish to free meals moves in your favor. Good luck and tight lines

Slippery Lizzard Sportfishing