On The Hook
By Captain George Landrum
Oh how I love summertime! Blue skies, bright sun and warm water––this is the best time of year in Cabo if you are a fisherman. When the water gets a deep, cobalt blue and its temperature starts to stay in the mid 80’s, you know every time you leave the harbor that you are going to have a chance at a trophy marlin or a big cow of a tuna.
There is nothing quite like trolling along on slowly rolling swells, the sun coming from the direction you are heading, lighting up the depths behind the lures, just a slight wind riffle on the water and then seeing a dark shape slowly get bigger and bigger as it approaches one of the lures in the pattern. Having that bill come out of the water, as a mouth the size of a five-gallon bucket engulfs the lure, sends chills up and down your spine. A blue marlin’s initial run, with jump after jump, gray-hounding for the horizon at unbelievable speed, is awe-inspiring, and it can make you wonder why in the heck you decided to go fishing today!
Often I hear a potential angler say “Um, Captain, it’s all right if someone else wants to reel on this fish, I’m not feeling my best right now.” The same thing can happen when a hole the size of a Volkswagen opens up under one of the lures, as a 200-pound yellowfin tuna opens its mouth and swallows your lure. There is no jumping then, just a non-stop scream of the reel as the beast heads for the bottom of the ocean, the reel getting hot as the drag plates expand, the mate dumping water on the reel to cool it off and the line disappearing so quickly that you wonder if the fish is going to take it all.
If either of these scenarios sounds like one that you wish to be a part of, then this is the time of year for you. For blue marlin, there are several areas that hold the fish every year. A combination of water temperature, underwater structure and bait can make the ridge between the Golden Gate Bank and the San Jaime Bank on the Pacific side a real hot spot. To the east of a line between the two banks, lies a deep canyon, dropping to over a mile in depth. The mouth of this canyon turns to the north and comes close to shore just to the east of the Golden Gate Bank.
This area is a dependable one and every year fish over 500 pounds are taken here; most of them caught on deep-drifted live bonita. Back on the ridge the most popular fishing method is trolling lures, as there is approximately 10 miles of edge to work. To the west of the line, the bottom slowly slopes away and the currents from the north tend to push nutrients up the slope until they encounter the top of the ridge. There, they roil to the surface, attracting small fish, which in turn attract small tuna, a favorite meal of the blue marlin.
On the Sea of Cortés side of the Cape, one of the hot spots is the Gorda Banks. Both the Inner and Outer Gorda will hold fish, but my favorite is the Outer Bank. With the bottom coming up to 220 feet in depth, this is another place where baitfishes congregate as the currents push nutrients to the surface. Tidal flow is more important here than on the Pacific, as the daily flow up into and down out of the Sea of Cortés affects the location of the bait and the feeding pattern of the marlin. To improve your chances, try to fish here for at least one hour before and after high or low tide.
If you are hoping to hook up to a giant yellowfin tuna, you need to work the same areas as you would for blue marlin, but there are a few changes. Both of these fish feed on the same baitfish (basically anything smaller than themselves). Instead of working the ridges, try and stay on the edges of the banks. If you can determine the direction of the water flow, try and stay on either the down current edge, up to a mile off the bank, or right on top of the bank edge on the up-current side.
The bigger tuna stay deeper in the water column than the smaller fish, so the best way to get bait in front of them is to use a downrigger, taking live bait up to 250 feet down. Trolling lures work also, but not as well as live bait. Large tuna limit their time on the surface and the best way to get hooked up on lures is to find a pod of dolphin that is actively feeding. The dolphin follow the tuna and wait for them to push bait to the surface, then come in and feed at the same time. Most of the tuna associated with dolphin are smaller, but occasionally a big one will be hooked up.
Catching fish to 40 pounds and then having a 200-pound fish latch on to a lure is a great surprise; you just have to hope the gear can handle it! These dolphin pods can most often be located along temperature breaks or current lines as they travel through our area. Watching the horizon for small splashes and seeing different groups of birds all heading in the same direction is a good clue that there is something going on out there, but the best way to tell that the tuna are up, is seeing boat after boat getting up on plane and speeding off in the same direction!
Remember, it’s nice to have the skill to land a big fish, but I always believe that it’s better to be lucky and hook one up!
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