CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING BOATS CHASING TUNA ON THE PACIFIC SIDE

July 11, 2004, Tracy Ehrenberg, Pisces Fleet, Cabo San Lucas fishing report, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

BILLFISH: A bit of a strange week here in Cabo San Lucas, it started out fabulous, with boats fishing near Santa Maria, but then the following day switching to the Pacific, to the area between Golden Gate and San Jaime and others fishing off of the Old Lighthouse, then we had a couple of days when it turned very windy and hardly any marlin were spotted, though boats did continue to catch smaller game.

The fishing stayed on the Pacific of Cabo San Lucas, with many vessels chasing the yellowfin tuna schools that had been sighted, but it was an uphill struggle through rough seas to get to them. The last few days of this report, Cabo San Lucas boats again headed into the Sea of Cortez and met with luck. Anglers of the week were the Zifferblatt family from Punta Gorda, Florida.

Dad Harry, did very well to land a 525 lb blue marlin, six miles off of San Cristobal on a black and silver lure, aboard "Valerie" on July 6th, 11 year old Devon released a sizeable striped marlin the day before and eight year Austin, caught an 80 lb Mako shark; not to be left out mom boated a 20 lb dorado, all aboard "Valerie".

This wasn't the only blue marlin action we had on Saturday, July 10th, you could feel in the air that it was going to be a great fishing day, the water was an incredible blue and it was hot.

This day "Tracy Ann" had a 200 lb plus blue. Rob Seas from Belgrade Mt was aboard "La Brisa" and managed to release a blue and striped marlin as well as boat a dorado. Not Robert Anastasia from Poway, Ca. did well on "Andrea" releasing an approximate 350 lb blue as well as a striped marlin.

One day before this "Rebecca" was the hot boat, releasing a black marlin and two stripers for a group of anglers from Houston. And so it went with many people doing well, with striped marlin, double catches of sailfish, way too many people to mention here. Not anglers were happy we did have some boats skunked, especially during couple of days, were boats were hard pressed to decide where to fish, opting for the Pacific or Sea of Cortez, but then again these transitions of location are always hard and it is a question of luck.

Our overall catch success rate for all species combined was ninety-percent, with forty four percent of charters catching billfish. Pisces anglers caught a total of 44 striped marlin, 5 blue marlin, 2 black marlin and 4 sailfish, a total of 55 billfish of which 50 were released.

OTHER SPECIES: On smaller game we are seeing more Cabo San Lucas dorado than anything else, with some fish pretty big, getting as large as 55 lbs, others averaged 20 lbs. A regular catch was one or two fish, picked up whilst trolling, with a little over half the boats finding this species. We had a nice burst of yellowfin tuna catches, with the best day being July 5th, when boats landed up to nine in a day. Top catch was by Larry Keppner from Charlottesville, Virginia, for an impressive, 8 yellowfin, the largest being 120 lbs, plus he released two striped marlin to boot, all aboard "Rebecca". Quite a few wahoo this week, as usual picked up trolling for marlin, still, only about five percent of charters caught these, the most prized eating fish in this area. Weights were average at 40-65 lbs. Inshore pangas are catching roosters, small dorado and skipjack.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Most of the week you could see a pronounced wind line out on the horizon, which moved in mid-week. Seas were rough at that time, but are now beautiful, calm, blue and sunny skies.

LOCATION: Take your pick it was mixed up this week, Santa Maria, Chileno, Golden Gate, San Jaime, Faro Viejo, San Jose, Destiladeres, Cabeza de Ballena.

BEST LURES: Many strikes on lures this week, popular colors were, silver/gray, red/brown, guacamaya, petrolero, live mackerel.