GOOD MARLIN ACTION AVERAGED 3 TO 5
FISH PER DAY FOR SOME PISCES BOATS

Jan. 14-20, 2005, Tracy Ehrenberg, Pisces Fleet, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

We had another excellent fishing week here in Cabo San Lucas, with an overall fishing success rate of 92 percent for all species combined, which means just a few boats got "skunked." Even then, these Cabo San Lucas fishing boats saw fish, but just couldn't find one hungry enough to bite.

Striped marlin dominated the fishing at Cabo San Lucas, with several boats having three to five fish in one day as well as smaller game.

Francis and Daniel Ryan from Armenia, New York, had multiple hookups on January 15th aboard "Adriana" releasing a total of five marlin at the Golden Gate.

Next day out "Ni Modo" had four striped marlin for Scott Abercrombie.

Steve Rhodes fishing with Stanley Ross and Louis Fiore, all from New York has a great four days aboard "Adriana"; they totaled eight striped marlin, three dorado, one yellowfin tuna, two hammerhead sharks, a sea bass and 45 pound roosterfish. They went home very happy.

"Karina" had a Cabo San Lucas quadruple striped marlin fishing day for James Cushman and friends from Colorado on the 18th and "Valerie" followed up with a four striped marlin day this time, for Steven Rama and buddies on the 20th.

As we approach full moon we expect that the bite will slow somewhat, as the marlin will be feeding during the nighttime. Also we have been seeing quite a lot of squid in the Cabo San Lucas fishing area, which is a marlin food staple. However, right now the bite remains on. Most of the fish caught at Cabo San Lucas this week took live bait and fishing concentrated between Golden Gate and Land's End.

Pisces anglers caught a total of 106 striped marlin this week, with just one fish boated the rest released. We also released a solitary sailfish. Seventy-nine percent of charters caught marlin.

It's nice to see the boats catching sharks; we went through several years, where we hardly saw any as they fell prey to commercial fishing boats. Right now though, we are seeing and catching Mako shark and hammerhead shark, as well as the odd thresher shark here and there. Thankfully pretty much all of the sharks are being released. The weight on the Mako's is averaging 70 pounds, and not much more on the hammerheads.

We were pleasantly surprised by an influx of yellowfin tuna. This is not to say that catches were great. Only 15 percent of our Cabo San Lucas fishing boats caught them, but there was some size to them. "Karina" boated a 100-pound fish for Harry Culver from Texas on the 16th . When found, between the Old Lighthouse and Golden Gate our Cabo San Lucas charter boats averaged a half-dozen yellowfin tuna each, with some getting up to 15 in the 30 pound to 50 pound class.

Dorado (mahi-mahi) catches were a little higher with 19 percent of charters catching fish around the 18 to 25 pound mark, but the catches were seldom more than one or two dorado. Just one smallish wahoo for us at 28 pound and inshore fishing was on the slow side, but some sierras, roosters and skipjacks.

Our best Cabo San Lucas fishing location was from Golden Gate to Land's End on the Pacific. Cabo San Lucas skies were partly cloudy, with seas mostly calm, day time temperatures low 80s, nighttime temps low 70's, 66 just before dawn. The average ocean water temperature was 74 degrees, and the best bait at Cabo San Lucas was live bait.