CABO ESCAPES BIG TROPICAL WEATHER

Sept. 2, 2006, Tracy Ehrenberg, Pisces Fleet, Cabo San Lucas, Baja, Mexico:

Hurricane John looked like it was coming straight for us as a category four. It then wavered between a two and a three. All the prognostics had a direct hit on Cabo San Lucas with 135 m.p.h. winds. However, we couldn't believe what was going on, as it was only 60 miles away and we had no wind, no waves here on the Pacific, and only a bit of rain. Weird. We were feeling no ill effects. When power stays on you know that something is amiss.

John turned more to the right just as it got to the Baja coast and hit the East Cape. The eye is very small. Hurricane force winds only extend outwards 25 miles and tropical storm force winds extend out 80 miles.

We did get tropical type weather in the early morning hours of today, Saturday, Sept. 2nd, with winds about 35 to 40 m.p.h. and rain, but not the heavy penetrating type.

Seas are rougher now than yesterday with whitecaps on the Pacific caused by the wind.

Right now we are still experiencing some wind and light rain. Reminds me of back home, typical English weather. It feels odd because instead of approaching from the south the wind and rain are coming down from the Pacific. Heavier rains just kicked in.

It was a good week for fishing at Cabo San Lucas, despite there being fewer anglers in town.

Hot August weather usually brings good fishing at Cabo for a variety of species and we were not disappointed.

Pisces Fleet's overall catch rate for all fish species combined was a very decent 93 percent, with 59 percent of charters catching billfish. Catches of blue marlin, striped marlin and sailfish were pretty evenly divided.

The charter boat "Ruthless" fished 11 miles off of San Jose del Cabo on Aug. 25th and did well to release both a blue marlin and striped marlin as well as boat 4 yellowfin tuna. The same day, "C Rod" had a triple-header on sailfish released at the 95 spot for Ryan Marion and Steven Van Dertoon from Zeeland, Michigan.

The next day "Ruthless" was again the hot boat with another blue marlin released, estimated at 250 plus, plus a 30 pound wahoo for Scott Fletcher from Resaca, Calif.

The "Adriana" headed to the hot area off of San Jose, 12 miles out and managed to release two blue marlin on lures.

Most Cabo San Lucas billfish catches were on the Cortez side.

Pisces Fleet anglers caught a total of 15 striped marlin, 11 blue marlin and 11 sailfish, and all but one blue marlin were released.

We had a nice increase on dorado this week with 45 percent of boats catching between 1 and 8 dorado per day. The better numbers of dorado were found on the Pacific side between Pozo de Cota and the Jaime Banks. Some larger dorado were taken while trolling for marlin, usually single fish, on the Cortez side. Pisces anglers caught a total of 84 dorado this week.

Yellowfin tuna catches were down, maybe due to the presence of commercial tuna boats in the area. Catches were from 1 to 14 fish of 20 to as large as 50 pounds, with a catch rate of 20 percent.

It was nice to see some wahoo this week. Seven percent of charters caught wahoo and weights were smallish at 30 to 60 pounds.

Our boats fished from the Golden Gate bank on the Pacific to Destiladeras on the Cortez side, in practically the whole gamut of our usual fishing spots. Water temperatures averaged 85 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.