LATE SEASON BLUE MARLIN WEIGHING ABOUT
600 POUNDS IS LANDED OFF THE TIP OF BAJA

Dec. 6-12, 2004, Capt. George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas sportfishing, Mexico:

Once again Cabo San Lucas had great fishing weather, and of course that is one of the reasons we live here. Cabo San Lucas had night time lows to 58 degrees and our day time highs reached the high 70s and may have pushed into the mid 80s at the end of the week. There were partly to mostly cloudy skies early in the week but it cleared up nicely toward the end.

Cabo San Lucas fishing water continued to cool this past week as the Pacific temperatures dropped to an average of 74 degrees and the Cortez side of the Cape averaged at 78 degrees. There was a temperature break, but not a strongly defined one, that ran from the tip of Cabo San Lucas toward the southwest with the warmer water on the eastern side. Cabo San Lucas surface conditions were great for the most part, but there were a few mornings when the water was a bit choppy due to the night time winds.

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.

This week's Cabo San Lucas fishing report on Marlin is almost a repeat of last week's with the exception that I actually heard of a nice blue marlin of over 600 pounds being caught. The fish died after 4 hours on 50-pound tackle, but it is a sign that there is still a chance for one of the beasts! For the most part though, it was a striped marlin kind of week at Cabo San Lucas. As was the case last week. The fish were bunched up with feeders popping up here and there as they followed the bait around. The key once again was to spot the feeding Frigate birds and tossing bait at the spot they were diving on, or slow trolling live bait in the area. The fish were moving around though, and the location of the bait changed from day to day. One day the concentration would be 20 miles out of Cabo San Lucas, the next day just 3 miles off shore. I would say that almost every Cabo San Lucas charter boat that tried had a shot at least a few times a trip to get hooked up to a Marlin, and some of the boats caught and released from 4 to 6 a day.

It was an off week for yellowfin tuna as few fish were found at Cabo San Lucas and those that were found were small. There were reports from long range boats out of California of great action on big fish farther north from us, so there is hope. As the water cools the fish should get closer to Cabo San Lucas and we might be able to get into some of those big toads, the ones over 150 pounds!

Cooler water means fewer dorado and the bite continues to taper off at Cabo San Lucas. There are still fish out there but most Cabo San Lucas fishing boats are lucky to get one a day, and the size is around 15-20 pounds. Most of them have been found close to shore, less than a mile out and slow trolled live bait or fast trolled feathers have worked well.

As a repeat of last week's Wahoo report, 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 Cabo San Lucas charter boat fleet.

With fair water conditions on the Pacific side and the inshore bite not really have taken off yet, most of the Cabo San Lucas Pangas have been working either farther off shore for Marlin or close in for Dorado. There have been reports of some Sierra showing up, a bit more action on them than there was last week, but the Yellowtail are not here yet. Cabo San Lucas bottom fishing was slow with only a few decent Grouper and Snapper reported.

Cabo San Lucas weather is great, the Marlin bite is going great guns and the water is in good condition. It sure makes me feel good about being here! Now if only those big Tuna would show up things would be perfect!