BILLFISH ACTION EVENLY SPLIT BETWEEN STRIPED MARLIN AND SAILFISH

Aug. 13-19, 2004, Tracy Ehrenberg, Pisces Fleet, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

BILLFISH: Wow...what a fabulous week of Cabo San Lucas fishing. As predicted as the heat of summer increases, so did the fishing, giving us an overall catch success rate of ninety-five percent for all species combined and with seventy-nine percent of boats catching billfish, with an almost even split between striped marlin and sailfish.

There were some sizeable blues too; Larry Cohen, fished out of Cabo San Lucas aboard "Mousetrap" last week-end, along with his guest Avie Prince from Los Angeles, for them fishing couldn't have been hotter, starting out with a striped marlin and sailfish release, followed by a 450 lb blue marlin release the next day and on their final day a 650 lb marlin released by deckhand Benjamin Gonzalez.

Angler of the week though was Johnny Powers, A.K.A Mr. Lucky from Rockwall, Texas. In his four days of Cabo San Lucas fishing aboard "Rebecca", Johnny released a total of thirteen billfish, consisting of eight striped marlin and five sailfish.

Dennis and Jason Singleton from San Diego, Ca. did pretty well too, aboard "Valerie", first day out they caught a 280 lb blue marlin, released a striper and boated a dorado. Second day out they had three sailfish and two striped marlin released.

To date 2004 is shaping up to be one of the best sailfish years in recent Cabo San Lucas fishing history. Most of the fishing was on the Cortez side from Chileno to Punta Gorda, with Cerro Colorado being one of the hottest spots.

In the latter part of the week, some of the captains reported seeing up to 30 fish in a day, mostly stripers and sails. The fish were excited by the lures but usually ending up biting on live bait. The ratio was about 60% on bait and 40% on lures. Pisces anglers caught a total of 107 Cabo San Lucas billfish this week, consisting of 57 stripers of which 55 were released, 46 sailfish, all released and 4 blues, with 3 released.

OTHER SPECIES: Not a great deal of Cabo San Lucas fishing activity on smaller game this week - after billfish, dorado was the most widely caught species, with thirty-six percent of charters picking up a single fish whilst trolling for marlin. It was seldom that anybody got more than one, though "Libre" did have a ten fish day on August 17th for Derrel Luce from Waco, Texas, as well as a Cabo San Lucas striped marlin. Weights were average at 20 to 40 lbs.

Cabo San Lucas tuna fishing was slower with just twelve percent of charters finding these, usually off of the Old Lighthouse on the Pacific, at the close of the week. The average catch was two, though some had as many as eight in the 20 to 35 lb class.

Just a few smallish wahoo, around the 30 lb mark. Inshore pangas some dorado and jack crevalle.

CABO SAN LUCAS WEATHER CONDITIONS: Hot, sunny, seas mostly calm, nice breeze picking up on the Pacific in the afternoons.

LOCATION: Cerro Colorado, Chileno, 12 miles off of San Jose.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 82-84 F

BEST LURES: Live bait, petrolero, green/yellow, red/black.