MARLIN FISHING HEATS UP WITH GOOD
STRIPED MARLIN ACTION AND A LATE SEASON BLUE

Nov. 26-Dec. 2, 2004, Tracy Ehrenberg, Pisces Fleet, Cabo San Lucas, Baja marlin fishing, Mexico:

Cabo San Lucas marlin fishing picked up substantially this week and we were even surprised with a couple of late season blue marlin.

Dick Landfield fishing aboard "Reel Deal" landed a 482-pound blue marlin, after it took a Marlin Magic lure, 12 miles off Cabo San Lucas' Old Lighthouse.

Tom Raponi, fishing with buddy Michael Santia, both from Danville, California fished this same Cabo San Lucas area and produced a 550-pound blue and a striped marlin, which confirms what we've been saying, the season is ahead of itself by about a month; the first week of January always produces a 500-pound fish.

These weren't the only good catches. A group from Mexico City, consisting of Carlos Lopez, Juan Salles and Manuel Scapachini, along with Alberto Herrera from Madrid, Spain, did amazingly well on their two day trip aboard "Ni Modo." On their first day out, November 28th, they caught seven striped marlin on live bait at San Jaime. The next day out, they did another seven stripers, this time 18 miles off of Los Arcos as well as three dorado and a 300-pound tuna! It doesn't get much better than that.

We had many Cabo San Lucas anglers that did very well. Anthony Nigro and Kathy Valdez released four stripers aboard "Andrea" and boated a dorado. The Piaseki and Mayo families fished together on "Ruthless" and were thrilled to release five striped marlin on November 27th. Double and triple marlin days were had by numerous boats, too many to mention here.

Saying this, there were quite a few "skunks", but pretty much all Cabo San Lucas charter boats that drew a blank, at least saw fish but couldn't get them to bite.

Our overall Cabo San Lucas fishing catch success rate was 82 percent with 67 percent of charters catching marlin. Pisces anglers caught a total of 93 striped marlin, one blue marlin, and two sailfish for a total of 96 billfish. All but three fish were released.

Quite slim pickings on smaller game this week, with just 35 percent of Cabo San Lucas boats catching dorado and even fewer, just 12 percent, catching tuna.

Dorado were found in one's and two's and occasionally in clusters of four. Weights were nothing to get excited about at 15 to 35 pounds. Yellowfin tuna were found on a couple of days, but only a few Cabo San Lucas cruisers were lucky to load up on them. Weights were again average at 15 to 38 pounds. The one exception was the 300 pounder mentioned above. Inshore skipjacks were found and Cabo San Lucas is now starting to see some nice roosters up to 35 pounds and some yellowtail too.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Partly cloudy daytime temps 76-81 F, seas were moderate to calm.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 77 F

BEST LURES: Live bait, green/yellow/ blue/purple.