BOTTOM FISHING FOR STRIPED MARLIN AT THE GOLDEN GATE BANK

Nov. 23, 2006, Tracy Ehrenberg, Pisces Fleet, Cabo San Lucas, Baja Sur, Mexico:

We've had a fabulous week of fishing at Cabo. As we predicted a couple weeks ago the Cabo San Lucas striped marlin bite has taken off in full force, although has yet to reach it's maximum potential.

Pisces Fleet charter fishing boats this week were busy fishing mostly at the Golden Gate north of Cabo San Lucas on the Pacific side of Baja, loading up on stripers but also finding sailfish and the odd blue marlin, as well as good amounts of dorado.

Nearly every striped marlin is taking live bait and strange as it may seem, Cabo sportfishing boats are bottom fishing for them. This happens once a year for a period of about 2 weeks. We also had a few groupers in the 30 pounds class pulled up from the bottom at the Cabo San Lucas Golden Gate Bank.

Pisces Fleet anglers caught a total of 173 Cabo San Lucas striped marlin, 12 sailfish and 2 blue marlin, for a total of 187 billfish, of which 2 stripers were boated. Only one Pisces Fleet boat was "skunked," giving us an overall catch success rate of 99 percent and a billfish catch rate of 84 percent.

Our star fishing boat of the week was "Ni Modo" which hustled at the Golden Gate Bank and produced 12 striped marlin and one sailfish released on November 22nd, for a group from Texas, including a mix of children, ladies and guys. They came off of the boat in a daze but excited.

Next day out, this same boat, "Ni Modo," released 11 striped marlin for Robert Lux from Minnesota, who was fishing with youngsters Jessa, Tyler and McKinsey.

On Nov. 17th, "Ni Modo" had also scored a very decent 7 marlin releases for anglers Michael Stuart of Calabasas, Calif., Rick Cook of Angoura, and Mike Grossman of Woodland Hills.

The Pisces Fleet charter boat "Andrea" had 5 striped marlin releases on Nov. 21st for Cabo San Lucas anglers James and Kemp from England.

Our Cabo San Lucas charter boat "Rebecca" had 4 striped marlin and one sailfish for Gerry Richmond from Oceanside, Calif.

"Valerie" released a fair size blue marlin closer to Cabo by the Old Lighthouse.

Quadruple and triple marlin release days were common this week at Cabo San Lucas, which means anglers are very pleased.

After striped marlin, dorado were the next most widely caught fish at Cabo this week with 36 percent of Pisces boats catching between 1 and 14 fish. Dorado sizes were from 15 to 30 pounds, and they are taking a combination of lures and bait. Our total catch on dorado was 137 fish.

Yellowfin tuna catches were quite a bit slower with just 10 percent of Pisces boats finding average size fish from 12 to 25 pounds.

The boat "Yahoo" also caught a 45 pound Humboldt giant squid.

Inshore fishing around Cabo San Lucas produced roosterfish, skipjacks, and bonitas.

Cabo San Lucas fishing area weather was clear, sunny, and with seas mostly calm. The Golden Gate was the number one fishing area. The average water temperature was 81 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.