STRIPED MARLIN BITE TAPERING OFF AS
CABO'S SUMMER FISHING SEASON BEGINS

June 27-July 3, 2005, George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico Fishing Report:

At the end of the week you could tell that the Striped Marlin bite was dying off. There were fewer of them caught even with the good moon phase. There were still fish being found and caught but not in the numbers we were seeing last month. Scattered fish were found at the 1150 and beyond as well as around the San Jaime banks.

A little wind was around the Cabo San Lucas vacation area this week but it was gentle and blowing from the south for the most part at around 5-10 knots. Our day time highs were in the high 90s. We had high humidity accompany some overcast skies.

There is good fishing water on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas with large swells later in the week. The water was blue and the temperature averaged 77 degrees except for just along the shore where it was tinged with green and dropped in temperature to 75 degrees. On the Cortez side of Cabo San Lucas almost the exact same conditions applies, temperature and color wise. There were no significant temperature breaks found.

Blue marlin are starting to show up with a few fish in the 200-400 pound range being caught and released. A good friend of mine reported hooking the largest Black Marlin he has ever seen and loosing the fish, popping the leader at the side of the boat, after a 30 hour fight and the clients had given up.

Yellowfin took the "fish of the week" position. The big boys are still out there with at least two over 200 pounds being landed this week. Of course most of the fish are footballs, but there is always the chance at one of the tequila fish. The big gals have been mixed in with the black porpoise. As normal, small dark feathers for the footballs and the big ones seemed to like live bait or Marlin lures.

There have been some nice dorado taken at Cabo this week. The average size is just around 15 pounds, but the big ones were in the 45-50 pound class. Live bait dropped back after a trolling hook up more often than not brought a second fish to the boat. Best bets were just off shore along the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, or out at the San Jaime banks. There were reports of scattered big fish up around the Punta Gorda area as well.

Not as many wahoo were found as last week, but there were still Wahoo flags flying this week almost every day. Best areas were the Gorda Banks and Punta Gorda. Fish were reported striking in the blind way off shore as well; we got one in the blind on Thursday that was around 55 pounds.

Most of the inshore fishing action at Cabo San Lucas was concentrated on Roosterfish, as the action became red-hot for fish between 25 and 40 pounds almost everywhere along the coast. Working the rocky points on both sides of Cabo San Lucas, as well as the beach areas resulted in almost all the action you could handle on both the Roosterfish and some nice Pargo. A few Sierras and a few Yellowtails were in the mix as well and they were found on the Pacific side of the cape.

Bait was Caballito at $2 per bait with a few Mullet in the mix. Good fishing is here, and while not red hot yet, there looks to be good things happening in the future!