GOOD WINTER MARLIN SEASON HOPED
FOR IN THE CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING AREA

Nov. 29-Dec. 5, 2004, Capt. George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas marlin fishing, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

Marlin, Marlin, Marlin! If things go as they did last year Cabo San Lucas marlin action should continue through February as the fish move through the area. Just after the full moon looks like a good bet if you are planning a Cabo San Lucas fishing trip. January's full moon is the 25th and February's full moon is the 23rd. Second best time would be around the new moon as well.

Again striped marlin were the fish of the week at Cabo San Lucas. Almost every Cabo San Lucas charter boat out there got shots at Marlin on every trip. The fish are passing through Cabo San Lucas and while they have been moving around there are a few areas that seem to hold them on a daily basis. The ledge off of the Lighthouse on the Pacific has been one such place, as has the point just to the north, San Cristobel.

Quite a few Cabo San Lucas boats were just parking and dropping down live Mackerel and getting at least one good bite per boat. While that is not exciting fishing to me, it does produce results. The big producer was the frigate birds working just off shore, from 1 to 5 miles out.

Cabo San Lucas Striped Marlin have been in big packs, following the Mackerel schools. Running to the diving birds and tossing out live bait resulted in many boats getting fish counts as high as 6-9 fish a day. Of course some also got no fish, but that was the best shot this week. These fish have been a bit smaller on the average, with most weighing less than 100 pounds and being around 100 to 110 inches long, tip to tip.

Mostly cloudy skies this week gave Cabo San Lucas a bit of a break from the sun, but there was still enough showing through for everyone to work on their tans! The cloud cover brought us a bit of a rise in our evening temperatures as our lows barely reached the high 60s and kept our daytime temps low as well with the average at 83 degrees. No rain was dropped on Cabo San Lucas from the clouds but you could see a bit come down in the mountains.

There was little change in Cabo San Lucas water temperatures this week as the Pacific remained just a bit cooler than the Sea of Cortez side. On the Pacific the average temperature was still 77 degrees with cooler water found to the west of the San Jaime Banks. The water was calm with low rolling swells and no wind chop. On the Sea of Cortez the water averaged 78-79 degrees but due to the mostly northeast winds it did develop a bit of a chop later in the day, but there were few swells of any size.

Bait was almost all Mackerel this week with a few Sardinas as well. Big baits were $2 each while the Sardinas were $20-25 a scoop.

Porpoise were the key once again for Cabo San Lucas yellowfin tuna but most of them have been far offshore, just like they were last week. One exception was inside the Golden Gate Banks where for a few days during the middle of the week a big pod stayed around and anyone who got there early was able to pick up all the football Yellowfin they wanted. Other scattered groups were found 20+ miles off Cabo San Lucas to the south and the sizes were a bit bigger with some of the fish in the 35 pound class. Feathers and cedar plugs worked, and the dark colors were better.

Just like last week the Dorado have become a bit scarce around Cabo San Lucas. There seems to be more of them close to shore, almost right on the beach on both side of Cabo San Lucas than there are off shore. Of course, finding something floating in the water sure helps out but this week those floating objects were a bit scarce. We had fair luck this week trolling feathers and small lures close in to the beach at higher than normal speeds, around 9-9.5 knots and were picking up a fish or two every day. There was nothing really big, most of them in the 15 pound class, but great for dinner.

There were very few wahoo caught this week here in Cabo San Lucas, and those that were brought in were all in the 35-40 pound class. There were maybe one or two flags a day for the entire fleet.

With the water calm on the Pacific side and the Marlin close in, a lot of Cabo San Lucas Pangas were targeting the Billfish. Also the Dorado action was fair for the boats working live bait along the beach and there were a few reported Sierra biting the tails off the live bait when the Cabo San Lucas fishing boats got too close. I had several nice Roosterfish reported to me, fish in the 40 pound class, but I did not see the fish myself. The fishing action was supposed to have taken place on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas in front of the Pueblo Bonito Sunset resort.

DAILY CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING RESULTS (4 BOATS): Striped Marlin: 8 fish released, one fish kept (#80-#140); Yellowfin Tuna: 5 fish kept (#10-#15); Dorado: 2 fish kept (#12-#15).

"FLY HOOKER" CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING REPORT FOR DECEMBER 1, 2004

Lonnie Hanson and Doug Shore shared the "FLY HOOKER" today and the action was a bit slow for them. They managed to get one Dorado that weighed about 12 pounds to the boat. Doug has never caught a fish bigger than 10 pounds so he really wanted a big fish and Juan and Manuel were able to hook him up to one. A Striped Marlin gave him the action but Lonnie said that Doug was so busy staring at the jumping Marlin that he forgot to reel! Oh well, Doug is going again on Sunday so maybe he will get the "big one" then!

"FLY HOOKER" CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING REPORT FOR DECEMBER 2, 2004

Peggy Bennit, her Dad, Mom and Husband were our anglers on the "FLY HOOKER" today, and they are fishing on Friday and Saturday as well. Marlin are the target for this trip and everyone was ready to go first thing in the morning. Today was Juan's day off though, and the Deckhand that had been arranged for did not show up so we had a last minute fill in. Pancho works on one of the other boats on our dock but is a good fisherman. Manuel went up the Pacific coast toward the Golden Gate banks then out to the San Jaime area. They saw one Marlin that would not eat a bait and they got into the football Yellowfin, ending up with five of them ranging from 10 to 15 pounds, plus four big Skipjack. Hopefully there will be a bit more Marlin action tomorrow!

"FLY HOOKER" CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING REPORT FOR DECEMBER 3, 2004

Juan and Manuel were on the boat today and Manuel decided to work the area off of Los Arcos on the Pacific side of the Cape. The rocky point there has been holding lots of bait and yesterday on the radio his friends said that they had been getting Marlin bites. There were lots of Frigate birds working the area and there ended up being almost 50 boats working about 5 miles of area. There was a lot of bait around and they ended up with three fish hooked up, one at 8 am, one at 9 am and one a few minutes after 10. All the fish were tagged and released. Good action early in the morning but it died off afterward. Let's hope that there is at least one more fish out there for them tomorrow so everyone gets to fight one!

"FLY HOOKER" FISH REPORT FOR DECEMBER 4, 2004

Peggy Bennit, her Dad, Mom and Husband were out today for the final of three days and the action they had was just unbelievable! Juan and Manuel decided to head just a little farther up the coast and avoid the crowd of boat all jockeying for a spot under a feeding Frigate bird and it really paid off for them. One Dorado ended up in the boat early in the trip and then the action was all Marlin. One fish was hooked up and released at around 8 am, another at 9 am. One more fish came in on the lures and Juan dropped back a bait that got eaten. That fish was fought to the boat for a tag and release. Somewhere in there another fish was hooked up then came off not far from the boat. At about 10 am they hooked one more Striped Marlin on a trolled lure, then another one, then one more and finally the fourth line went off! Four Marlin on at once! Think there was a bit of action in the cockpit? Juan orchestrated the weaving in and out of the lines as Manuel tried to keep the boat in the best position possible for all four fish. One of the fish came off finally but they were able to get the other three to the boat for two tag and releases but the other fish had swallowed the lure and was bleeding pretty heavily so the boated that one. What a day! Six Striped Marlin to the boat with five released and one fish kept. One Dorado for dinner! I noticed that there were not enough flags on the boat for all the fish, but that's not a bad thing. Everyone had a great time and accused Juan and Manuel of saving the best for last, just teasing them along for the final day of fishing! Thanks guys, we are glad you had such a good time and look forward to your getting a chance to come down again next year!