MORE BLUE MARLIN CAUGHT AS BIG FISHING TOURNAMENT SEASON APPROACHES

Oct. 14, 2006, George Landrum, Fly Hooker Sportfishing, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

Sea conditions on both sides of Cabo San Lucas were great this week with the Pacific side being a bit bumpier with the wind out of the northwest. On the Sea of Cortez side it was almost like a lake most of the time. Water temperatures on the Cortez side were 85-86 degrees everywhere with no temperature breaks. On the Pacific side the warm water wrapped around the San Jaime and the Golden Gate banks. Outside of these banks the water temperature dropped a degree but there was no real edge anywhere.

Again, there were still quite a few Striped Marlin around, a bit of a surprise as water temperatures are much higher than these fish normally like. The striped marlin were more prevalent on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas.

There were a lot more blue marlin reported this week but that may have been an effect of more boats searching for them, with the tournaments coming up and teams getting into the practice mode. There seems to be a lot of effort spent on the Cortez side. I was surprised not to hear of more Black Marlin being hooked up.

Lots of Dorado were caught at Cabo San Lucas this week. Almost all the heavy action was on the Pacific side. There was also good dorado fishing from Gray Rock on the Cortez side back to the Arch. Most of the fish were averaging 15 pounds, with a few in the 30-pound class. I did see one fish weighed at 56 pounds. Most boats that worked for Dorado were able to limit out easily.

Yellowfin tuna were closer to home this week. You did not need to cover 50 miles of water looking for Porpoise. The fish that were up at Punta Gorda have moved closer with quite a bit of action happening within a mile of the beach from La Playita to just outside the Chileno area. Sardinas were the ticket, as well as light line. Chumming with the live Sardinas then flylining baits or putting ones out with a split-shot on the line worked well on these fish from 15-40 pounds. There were also yellowfin tuna reported much larger, but very few of them were brought in. The largest I heard of being landed was right at 80 pounds.

There are still a few Roosterfish being reported inshore this week but with there being so many Dorado and Tuna close in it was hard to get the captains of the pangas to target anything else.

There were Caballito baits available most days if you were early. With the full moon just past, it was a bit easier to get bait this week. I saw a few Mackerel floating in the marina but I don't know if they were tossed out of the bait wells of boats coming down from up north. There were plenty of Sardinas available at Palmilla and La Playita.

There was little change in Cabo San Lucas weather this week as daytime highs were in the low 90s and lows were in the low 70s. We had some cloud cover the last half of the week and that, combined with just a bit of wind kept things feeling comparatively cool.

(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.