BLUE MARLIN ON THE RISE IN CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING WATERS

Aug. 26, 2006, Tracy Ehrenberg, Pisces Fleet, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

The ratio of blue marlin catches at Cabo San Lucas continues to increase, with a gradual climb on blue marlin that we haven't seen here in quite a few years.

This week Pisces Fleet charter fishing boats saw an overall catch success rate of all species combined of 87 percent with 66 percent catching marlin or sailfish.

Hurricane Ileana threatened our Los Cabos coast at midweek, causing the port to be closed briefly on Wednesday. However at the time the port was closed, Cabo sportfishing boats were already out fishing and didn't come back until they were done.

Fishing that day was outstanding off Los Cabos, with some large swells but lots of marlin and sailfish close to Cabo. In fact quite a few boats went out, caught a blue marlin and were back by 11 a.m.

Everybody was on standby the next day to see if the port would open, but seeing as the storm was over 200 miles away from Cabo San Lucas, we didn't really experience any ill effects and the boats were allowed out the following day.

Most of the blue marlin being caught were in the 150 to 200 pound class, but we did have three over 300 pounds, all released.

The first blue marlin was aboard "Reel Heaven" on August 18th, a fish that took out all the line and snapped it, but my quick thinking husband Marco, quickly tied it onto another rod and they were able to get it to the boat in less than hour before releasing it. This fish took a dead bait, at Destiladeras.

El Gallo, a 61 foot, Viking also released a nice blue marlin for Adam Couper on August 24th this time at Punta Gorda.

Our Pisces Fleet charter boat "Valerie," fishing much closer at Cabeza de Ballena, was able to release both a blue marlin and striped marlin this same day for Homero Barrera and Shawn Earl, from Texas.

Towards the end of the week the Cabo San Lucas boat "Rebecca" released two blue marlin off of Cabo Real for Nick and Charlotte Grindstuff also from Texas.

"Andrea" had a hot sailfish day with five strikes, three resulting in catch and releases for Phillip and Jim Jarvis from Colorado.

Live bait was scarce this week as bait sellers' pangas were unable to fish for a couple of days due to the big swells. In most cases frozen bait was available instead.

Pisces Fleet had another spearfish again this week, this time aboard the 50 foot Viking, "Sr. Moment", again, pretty small at 40 pounds.

Pisces Fleet anglers at Cabo San Lucas caught a total of 54 billfish this week consisting of 21 striped marlin, 20 blue marlin, 12 sailfish, and 1 spearfish, all but one blue marlin and 3 stripers were released.

We had average catches on other species of game fish this week, with a climb on dorado catches and a decrease on tuna.

Thirty-five percent of Pisces Fleet sportfishing boats caught dorado but it was rarely more than one or two fish. "Ni Modo" had the only notable dorado catch with two fish in the 50 to 60 pound class, and the other fish around the 20 pound mark.

Yellowfin tuna catches dropped a little this week, to 22 percent of boats fishing, but when found boats could catch up to eight in the 15 to 35 pound class.

Cabo San Lucas inshore pangas caught dorado and skipjacks.

The Cabo fishing area had calm seas except for Wednesday and Thursday, with skies partly cloudy, hot and humid. Most boats fished from Destiladeras to the Old Lighthouse, and the majority of catches were on the Sea of Cortez side. Water temperatures averaged 85 degrees. Live bait worked best for sailfish and striped marlin, blue marlin took an assortment of lures, and dorado were caught with small marlin lures, tuna feathers and cedar plugs.

(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.