PISCES BOATS SCORE 94 PERCENT CATCH RATE
DESPITE STORMY SEAS AND A DAY OF PORT CLOSURE

Sept. 17-23, 2004, Tracy Ehrenberg, Pisces Fleet, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

BILLFISH: Right now Cabo San Lucas fishing is spot on for this time of year...quite a few encounters with huge fish, ever improving amounts of smaller blues, as well as a nice mix of striped marlin and sailfish, but more than anything else lots of small game.

First day of this Cabo San Lucas fishing report, we had a hurricane off of our coast, causing the port to be closed. We had a couple of hours of rain, a light wind and some fair sized swells, causing the authorities to close down the Cabo San Lucas marina for safety. Next day, fishing was right back on.

Our overall Cabo San Lucas catch success rate this week was a high ninety-four percent with forty-two percent of boats hooking billfish. We had several blue marlin in the 300-400 lb class aboard, Valerie, Rebecca and Ruthless.

John Benner from Webster Texas, was very fortunate to release two Cabo San Lucas blue marlin and boat two dorados aboard "Karina". This same boat fought a huge fish estimated at 800 plus pounds, for Shirley Beck from Washington, before losing the fish 12 miles off of Land's Ends (the fish took a chocolate colored lure, close in at three miles from shore).

Paul Martin from London did exceptionally well aboard a Cabo San Lucas panga on September 23rd releasing two striped marlin, one sailfish and two dorado.

Most of the action was again on the Pacific but many of the hook up's on big fish were on the Cortez side between Chileno and Gordo.

Pisces anglers caught a total of nine blue marlin, six released, fifteen striped marlin all released and nine sailfish all released.

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado was king this week, with seventy-five percent of charters catching fish in the 15 to 65 lb class, with the average weight around 25 lbs. They were found over a widespread area around Cabo San Lucas with both lures and bait functioning. The average catch was one to three fish per boat, but there were many that got between six and nine too.

Cabo San Lucas yellowfin tuna catches weren't as high at forty-two percent and we didn't see any huge fish, though quite a few were up to fifty pounds. When found anglers caught slightly more than on dorado, with the average catch being four fish. Most of the tuna were found on the Pacific side.

Steady wahoo catches, though they were not plentiful, weights were 20 to 40 lbs. Inshore a few roosters, skipjacks, dorado and even billfish for the pangas.

LOCATION: Basically the top Cabo San Lucas fishing spot was around the Old Lighthouse and surrounding areas, from two to 20 miles offshore, also some good fishing off of Chileno for blues.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Beautiful. Sunny, mostly clear skies, nice blue water, seas calm.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 84 F

BEST LURES: Petrolero, guacamaya, chocolate, live bait.