SPORTFISHING BOATS FINDING MIXED FISH SPECIES
ACTION ON BOTH THE PACIFIC AND CORTEZ SIDES

Aug. 6, 2004, Tracy Ehrenberg, Pisces Fleet, Cabo San Lucas fishing, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

The fishing in Cabo San Lucas is good right now, resulting in an overall catch success rate for us of ninety percent, however, only twenty-six percent of boats caught billfish.

This is really not that bad, but we would like to see a few more blue marlin.

Still the Cabo San Lucas water temperature is between 82-83 F; once it increases I think we will be seeing more fish. Our friends in Puerto Vallarta reported a huge black marlin; though unable to be weighed on a scale the fish taped out to 940 lbs and was caught by Keith Bishop, from San Diego, California, taking three half hours to bring to the boat; with the fish dying during the fight. Keith caught the fish on a live 15 lb yellowfin attached to 100 lb line using a downrigger.

Here in Cabo San Lucas we didn't have anything as big as this, but we did see fair action on both striped marlin and sailfish, with a few blues mixed in too.

The problem right now is that no one area has been defined. One day Cabo San Lucas boats fished up in the Sea of Cortez between Cabo Real and Punta Gorda, the next they fished the Pacific between San Jaime and the Old Lighthouse, with catch rates similar, regardless of where they chose to fish. Cabo San Lucas boats fishing the same area, had differing results, one would catch a marlin, plus tuna and dorado whilst the other would draw a blank, or get a lone dorado. When the captains were asked they put it down to "suerte" or luck.

It seems like we are in a transitional stage, but we know the fish are, there as proved by the grander caught just a few weeks ago. On July 31st aboard, "Tracy Ann" Captain Tim Lulewicz, from Kenosha, WI fished along with his family and was very pleased to release a blue marlin and a sailfish as well as boating four dorados.

On August 2nd, they were out aboard "Ruthless" and got three tunas up to 70 lbs as well as a couple of big dorado around the 45 lb mark.

A good day of Cabo San Lucas fishing was had by Jorge Garcia & Kyara Romeu from Scarsdale, N.Y, aboard "Valerie" on August 3rd; they release a sailfish and striped marlin, as well as a mako shark and boated a 45 lb dorado.

An average catch this week at Cabo San Lucas was a striped marlin along with two or three dorado or tuna.

Pisces anglers caught a total of fifteen striped marlin, four sailfish and one blue marlin, all were released.

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado and tuna made up the bulk of our catches this week.

Sixty-four percent of charters caught dorado with catches of one to seven fish per boat, with the average working out to be about four fish per outing. Weights were good from 20 to 55 lbs, taking a combination of bait and lures over a widespread area - total number of dorado caught was 104, with smaller fish being released.

Tuna catches were quite close with fifty-five percent of boats catching fish in the 30 to 70 lb class, however, when found boats averaged more fish per vessel with five or six fish not unusual. The majority was caught on the Pacific side from Pozo de Cota to Golden Gate, total amount caught was 160.

Wahoo catches were spotty with just three for us, weights on the small side at 25 to 40 lbs. Not many pangas fishing out of Cabo San Lucas this week, but their catches consisted of a few roosters, skipjacks and smaller dorado.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Hot, skies, partly cloudy, Pacific side 4-6 feet, but otherwise pretty calm.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 82 F

BEST LURES: Live bait, petrolero, cedar plugs for tuna, yellow/green.