|
Once the water temperatures start to stay above 80 degrees on a consistent basis the big boys (in the case of marlin, big girls) start to move through our area. When we have consistent 82-degree water, with spots reaching 85-86 degrees, my short hair stands on end every time I get out on the ocean. When that deep blue, almost purple color shows in the prop wash, you can never be sure what might decide to eat your offering.
You might be watching the lures for hours, and then suddenly a dark shadow appears under one of them. You yell to let the anglers and crew know there is a fish in the pattern. Everyone gets ready and either the shadow goes away or gets bigger as it gets closer. Once in a while, the shadow continues to grow until you realize that this is going to be a lot larger fish, and a lot longer fight than you first thought
While I might run 30- and 50-pound class outfits most of the year, once the water gets to that magic 80 degrees, it is 50- and 80-pound set-ups in the rod holders. If I have someone who only wants big fish, I'll have Carlos put the 130-pound outfits out, the ones we normally only use in tournaments. Of course, it depends on the angler as well. If they are experienced fishermen and can handle the drag settings on 130 pounds, then that's fine. However, if they have never caught a big fish before, or at least fought one, then I might spend a little time checking them out first!
Ah, the big fish the warm water brings! The water is normally calm and clear, so you can see deep into the ocean. You could have a big blue marlin or black marlin appear and eat the lure, we have them over 800 pounds here, and bigger ones are hooked up every year. It might be a blind strike on a yellowfin tuna over 200 pounds or even a 150-pound Wahoo! That is part of the magic of warm water in Cabo, the fish are here and they are always a surprise when they hook up.
Warm water, big fish, less of a hurricane threat, all these are some of the reasons that the fall season is also tournament season. Of particular interest, (mainly because of the number of boats and the amount of money involved) is the Bisbee's Black and Blue Marlin Tournament, normally fished during the third week of October.
There is a release division here where striped marlin, blue marlin and black marlin all count, but the big money is on the blue and black marlin. The minimum size of a fish brought to the scale is set at 300 pounds and the angler is awarded a point a pound. Fish weighed in under the size limit penalize the angler. There are normally in the range of 200 teams from around the world fishing this tournament, and with prizes that can total over $4 million U.S., the big boys come to play! Last year, one team took home over $3.9 million!
Another great tournament, but involving less money, is the Western Outdoor Tuna Tournament. The entry fee is less and the atmosphere is much more relaxed. This also means that there are a lot more teams involved. With an entry fee of $500 U.S. per team and pretty much "anything goes" rules, it is an "everyman's" tournament. Several years back there were over eight tuna that weighed more than 200 pounds, and two dozen over 100 pounds. The number of fish over the 30-pound minimum were not counted, there were too many! Of course, that was an exceptional year, but the warm water brings in the big boys! The parties are great and the town really gets into the mood, all this during the first week of November.
Of course, there is a down side as well. Along with the warm water, comes the increased chance of bad weather, but that is normally only a problem at the beginning of this season. When things start stirring up to the south of us along the Mexican mainland, our eyes are constantly checking out the latest weather charts and sea-surface temperature charts. Almost every captain I know is an amateur weatherman, and often can predict what will happen over the next week as well or better than the professionals do.
Watching the formation of a low pressure system, looking at the high pressure ridges out over the Pacific, and checking out the surface temperatures, can give you a fairly decent idea of what to expect over the next week, but that is about as far out as anyone wants to go on predictions. Suffice it to say, that we can get an occasional stretch of bad weather this time of year, but it is much less of a factor than in the summer, and as the season flows on, the threat lessens.
It is not just the cruisers that like the fall water either. The local panga crews are happy when we have warm, flat water as well. With the warm water come the sardinas and the mullet. Both of these are excellent baitfish and when they show up things really start hopping just off the beach. Roosterfish pushing the 80-pound range are a possibility as they cruise the water just outside the shore break searching for and feeding heavily on the massive schools of mullet.
Rigging a live mullet on a circle hook and slow trolling a few of them in water shallow and clear enough to see the bottom, can result in seeing the dorsal fin of a Roosterfish appearing behind the bait. They look like striped marlin as the weave back and forth toward the bait, and on the strike you would be hard pressed to tell the difference. A fight with a decent size roosterfish is one you will not forget, they are one of the hardest fighting inshore fish there are. Being a member of the Jack family, they have the stamina and endurance to make you really appreciate them.
The fall is also big yellowfin tuna time, and often there is no need to charter a big boat to get to them. When the water is calm getting a good panga to the Gorda Banks or the San Jaime Banks is not a problem and I have caught 100-pound tuna from pangas before. When the great schools of sardinas appear offshore, and the schools of dolphin and porpoise move in, the action on fish averaging 25-35 pounds can be great within two miles of the beach. So even if it is a bit bouncy at the banks, there is no reason not to go out.
Oh, and did I forget to mention dorado? That would have been a mistake. They have been feeding all summer long, and since they can gain up to 5 pounds per month, the fish we were releasing in April are now in the 30-50-pound class, big enough to get anyone excited when the reel starts to scream as the line rips off on a dorado strike. Watching the lures and seeing that flat head of a big bull slicing through the water for 30 yards as it homes in on your lure is a great thing to see. The dorado give a great acrobatic fight, using their flat body to resist getting pulled to the boat. They are one of the most beautiful fish in the ocean and are also one of the best eating fish.
While on the subject of smaller fish, I have to mention that over the past two years the fall season has brought on a fishery for striped marlin that has been just unbelievable. While the water here in Cabo is still nice and warm, we are normally getting a fall push of cooler water coming down from the north on the California current. At the end of November the water temperature, clarity and the bait concentration in the area of the Finger Banks has been perfect.
This has concentrated the striped marlin. While it is a 40-mile run up the Pacific side of the Cape, the chance of getting 50 shots a day, or more, on striped marlin can cause (and does cause) a lot of anglers to shell out the extra money for a fuel surcharge in order to fish there. A number of boats will overnight on the Finger Bank if the fishing is red-hot because there is nowhere else in the world that you can catch and release that number of marlin in a day.
Fly fishermen in particular love this fishery, with possible triple-digit number of shots at the marlin, they can be almost guaranteed of several releases. I know of one fly fisherman who was able to release 22 striped marlin in one day. Of course, the clue to good fishing here is marching the feed and the marlin are normally balling up huge schools of Pacific sardines. For boaters coming up from Cabo to work this concentration, one of the first stops of the trip is at the Golden Gate Bank to load up on small Pacific mackerel. They are the right size and almost the right color, and if things go well, they can load up 100 baits in the live wells in less than and an hour by using Sabiki bait rigs.
Let me summarize this a little bit. Warm water, clear water, flat water, big fish offshore, big fish inshore, the air temperatures start to mellow out a bit and the humidity starts to drop a bit, the chances of a hurricane affecting us drop a bit and, in my opinion, the big-fish bite drops just a bit as well, but then there is a trade off for everything in life.
The town starts to get busy and there is people watching to do, minds of the greatest fishermen in the world to pick while sitting at a local bar around the marina and all the big, beautiful battlewagons are back in the area for the tournaments. I have been asked many times what I consider my favorite time of the year to go fishing, and here in Cabo it is without a doubt the fall season.
Article by Captain George Landrum
|
