FLY FISHING AT CABO SAN LUCAS GOOD
FOR SIERRA, JACKS, SNAPPERS, AND ROOSTERFISH

Dec. 30, 2004, Grant Hartman, Baja Anglers, Cabo San Lucas Fly Fishing, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

Fly fishing at Cabo San Lucas has been very good over the last few weeks! Plenty of inshore fishing action for big sierra mackerel, jacks, cubera snapper and roosterfish.

The sierra action is hot right now! They are located on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas and the average fish is over 6 pounds, with a few in the 10-pound range. Clouser minnows are the best bet and be sure to use wire as these fish have razor sharp teeth! The jack crevalle are mixed in with the sierras and the fish are running around 10 pounds.

The cubera snappers are on the small side with fishing weighing 8 to 12 pounds. Plenty of action right up on the beach at Cabo San Lucas. They are hitting poppers and Trey Combs Sea- Habits.

The surprise story is the rooster-fishing. Normally the early summer is when we catch big roosterfish, but this year at Cabo San Lucas we have seen many nice roosterfish over 40 lbs.

Last week, Jos Arets from Holland Caught a 55-pound plus roosterfish on the fly from the beach! Jos was using his Sage 10 wt fly rod with his Loop reel.

That day, my boat broke down. Jos graciously gave the day to my other client. Jos and I then took off on one of my Cabo San Lucas beach fishing trips. We put around 150 miles on my truck that day, only to catch that fish 20 miles from Cabo. We fished hard all day in a 25-mile hour wind. Late in the day Jos caught a 1 lb. roosterfish. Then we really fished hard as BIG roosterfish love to eat small baby roosterfish. A few minutes later Jos missed a fish that was at least a foot and half longer than the one he caught. 80 pounds plus. Then this monster hit one of my roosterfish no name flies. The fight was around 15 to 20 minutes long. A very conservative guess on the roosterfish was around 55 pounds, but the fish went 60 inches with 33" around the girth. The formula length X girth squared divided by 800 comes to 81 lbs, but the fish was not that big. It was definitely a world record on 16 lb. tippet. Jos released the fish unharmed.

In the last year I started taking my IGFA hand held scale during my Cabo San Lucas beach fishing trips, as in the past I released many world records. I left the scale at home as the trip was a last minute thought. Go figure. It cost Jos the world record, but he wasn't upset. He wasn't even thinking of harming the fish. Jos ended up with 3 fly caught striped marlin and the 2 fly caught roosterfish.

Yesterday, Greg Murphy from Long Island caught a 30-pound roosterfish on his Sage 10 wt fly rod with a Abel #4N reel. This is Greg's biggest rooster yet.

Cabo San Lucas offshore fishing action for striped marlin has been very good, but slowed down some over the full moon. The marlin have been chasing bait balls to the surface. Live bait has been the best bet, but we are getting a few fish to take the flies also. On some days we are seeing as many as 100 marlin on the surface crashing bait. Heck of a sight! Since the fish have plenty to eat, the can be picky eaters at times.

The dorado are spread out and most folks are catching a few fish a day as bycatch while fishing for striped marlin.