PLENTY OF BILLFISH CAUGHT ON THE SEA OF
CORTEZ SIDE BY SPORTFISHING BOATS AT CABO

Aug. 20-26, 2004, Tracy Ehrenberg, Pisces Fleet, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

BILLFISH: Another fabulous week here in Cabo San Lucas, with plenty of billfish to go round.

Pisces anglers caught a total of ninety-four - consisting of forty four striped marlin, forty three sailfish and seven blue marlin; of these ninety one were released, with one of each species boated.

The chances of landing a marlin or sailfish were high at Cabo San Lucas, at eighty-two percent (our overall catch success rate for all species combined was ninety-three percent).

There were a few Cabo San Lucas fishing boats that were "skunked", but even then most baited fish, but just didn't happen to find ones that were terribly hungry.

On August 21st, "Blue Thunder" had a 400 lb blue, which unfortunately died, as well as releasing a striped marlin - angler was Thomas Mangold.

Michael Mathews from Ridgelands, Mississippi, was our angler of the week, fishing alone aboard "Tracy Ann" he managed to tally seven billfish over four days, with one day a grand slam of a blue, striped and sail on August 22nd, for a total of one blue, four sails and two stripes.

Charles "Dee" Alessandro with new bride Sarah, from Mt. Pleasant, S.C, enjoyed their honeymoon whilst fishing aboard "Tracy Ann" -they scored a grand slam of a blue, striped and sail on August 24th.

Another notable Cabo San Lucas fishing catch was by Creighton Koreski from Ga, fishing with his friends from Alaska, aboard "Ruthless", they released four striped marlin and a sailfish on the 24th also.

The best overall Cabo San Lucas fishing day was had by Ernesto Bautista and Eric Fontana, aboard "Ni Modo", again on the 24th, with four sailfish and one 280 lb blue.

Most of the action was found on the Cortez side between Cerro Colorado and the 11.50 spot, however there are fish all over the place; marlin have been spotted by the sunset cruise boats, less than a quarter mile from shore by Solmar.

OTHER SPECIES: There is not an abundance of smaller game right now at Cabo San Lucas, but after marlin, dorado were the most numerous gamefish, with a little over thirty percent of charters hooking up, to fish in the 20 to 40 lb class. Pretty much all were incidental catches whilst trolling for marlin, as it was seldom that more than one per boat was caught.

Cabo San Lucas tuna catches were quite a bit slower, with just twelve percent of boats catching fish in the 20 to 30 lb category. When found charters caught between two to seven, with the Pacific, Golden Gate area producing most numbers.

There were even fewer wahoo around, with just four for our fleet -weights were from 35 to 60 lbs. Inshore pangas caught the odd striped marlin, some nice roosters and smaller dorado.

LOCATION: 1150 spot, 10-15 miles off of San Jose, Cerro Colorado, 95 spot, Cabo Real, off of the Old Lighthouse.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Hot, sunny, seas mostly calm, turning a little rough on the way back in.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 85 F.