MORE BLUE MARLIN MOVING INTO CABO WATERS

Aug. 4, 2006, Tracy Ehrenberg, Pisces Fleet Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

As predicted, Cabo San Lucas did see an increase of blue marlin as we entered the month of August. The biggest blue marlin this week was caught just 3 miles off Cabo, straight out from Land's End aboard charter boat Ruthless. This blue marlin weighed a very decent 400 pounds and took Jeff Jones almost an hour to bring to the boat.

Although billfish catches weren't fabulous, they were still the most abundant sport fish in Cabo San Lucas, with 46 percent of anglers catching mostly striped marlin.

Pisces anglers caught a total of 42 billfish this week consisting of 36 stripes and 7 blues.

"Valerie" released a nice blue marlin for Michael Cotton from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, this time on the Cortez side off of the 95 spot.

"Chinaco" had an outstanding day on July 28th, with one blue marlin released and eleven tuna boated in the 20-25 pound size.

Another boat that did well on Los Cabos blue marlin was "Cabolero". Greg Johnson from Nicholls, Georgia, fought two fish in the 200 to 280 pound class, as well as four tuna, ranging from 30 to 70 pounds, off of the Old Lighthouse.

Our success rate for all species combined was 89 percent.

As expected at this time of year, fishing at Cabo San Lucas is a mixed bag.

The top striped marlin boat was "Ni Modo" with 4 on the last day of July for Tom Gramlich from Yardley, Pennsylvania, while fishing with Jorge Cantu from Mexico. All of these fish were caught on live bait, 6.5 miles off Red Hill.

Thirty-four percent of our charters caught yellowfin tuna and we are starting to see some decent size fish in the 50 to 70 pound category. Most of the catches were 1 or 2 fish, with the more fortunate anglers getting up to 11 tuna in a day.

Dorado catches were a little lower at 27 percent, with catches of 1 or 2 fish, some as big as 60 pound.

Inshore fishing at Cabo San Lucas was rather slow with just a few skipjacks and roosterfish.

Obtaining live bait became a problem late in the week, as the Cabo bait guys couldn't catch any. We quickly went through our stock of frozen ballyhoo, but a young entrepreneur showed up on the dock to sell to those who couldn't get the live ones.

Cabo San Lucas had clear, sunny skies this week. Everything is beautiful and green after the rains, with some whitecaps in the mornings, and calmer in the afternoons.

The best fishing locations were at Chileno, 5-15 miles off of Old Lighthouse, San Jaime Bank, Destiladeras, the 11.50 spot, the 95 spot, Cabeza de Ballena, Chileno, and Santa Maria. Average fishing water temperature was 78 to 80 degrees.

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from Cabo San Lucas and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for Cabo San Lucas may be found at Mexfish.com's main Cabo San Lucas page.