BILLFISH ACTION DIPS TO 37 PERCENT OF CHARTERS FOR PISCES FLEET BOATS

July 1-7, 2005, Tracy Ehrenberg, Pisces Fleet, Cabo San Lucas fishing, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

This week of fishing in the Cabo San Lucas vacation area wasn't that fabulous for billfish, with just 37 percent of Pisces charters managing to hook up to something large.

We did however have some interesting catches. On July 3rd, Les and Cindy Keppner, regulars at this time of year, were very fortunate to catch and release four striped marlin aboard "Rebecca".

Next day out the Horton family from Oklahoma City, were out looking for tuna aboard "Ensueno" and had headed up to the well known tuna grounds of Jaime Bank, they were very surprised when a large blue marlin, hit the trolled orange and black lure. Between Jon, Alex and Michael, it took them an hour to muscle the fish up to the boat, which they later found out weighed 400 lbs.

This same day, "Rebecca" again scored, this time with three striped marlin for Brian and Marsha Hill, 29 miles out from San Jose.

July 7th turned out to be a good Cabo San Lucas fishing day for Stephen, Mary and Jonathon Arnold, from Texas; they fished on 28 ft "Adriana" and were thrilled to release one blue and two striped marlin.

Our most unusual catch this week was aboard "La Brisa" and was a short bill spearfish, caught by Rob King from Verona, Wisc. The fish was very kindly released, as was a striped marlin caught by Rob's brother.

Fishing at Cabo San Lucas was on the consistent side though, as there was not one set location to fish, some boats headed up into the rougher, cooler Pacific, whilst others went off of San Jose and still others off of Land's End. There was just no rhyme or reason to it this week. It was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time, with a hungry fish in front of you.

Our overall catch success rate for all species combined was 70 percent this week. Pisces anglers caught a total of 35 striped marlin, with all but one released, two blue marlin, one released and the spearfish, also released.

Fishing was not that great on smaller game either, with dorado catches quite a bit higher than tuna, but lower than marlin. Twenty-seven percent of Pisces charter fishing boats caught dorado, with the normal catch one or two fish. The average weight was 20-30 pounds, though some were as large as 60 pounds.

Yellowfin tuna fishing was spread out, with catches of not more than six fish in a day and usually around two or three fish, football size and sometimes as large as 50 pounds. There was just one wahoo for us this week and inshore just the odd amberjack. Fishing was slow on pangas.

The Cabo San Lucas vacation area has gone back to spring type weather. Summer just does not want to start. The Pacific has been foggy nearly every morning, with cooler breezes, and the Cortez has it's windy days too. Seas were moderate to rough. Skies were partly cloudy.

Towards the end of the week most Cabo San Lucas sportfishing boats opted to fish the Pacific. The average water temperature was 72 degrees.