STRIPED MARLIN FISHING SURFACES AT THE GOLDEN GATE BANK

Dec. 1, 2006, Tracy Ehrenberg, Pisces Fleet, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

We had another really excellent fishing week in Cabo, with plenty of striped marlin in the area.

Last week our boats bottom fished for them at the Golden Gate Bank by weighting the line with a lead sinker. This week the striped marlin fishing changed somewhat with fish moving closer to the surface, and the preferred method for catching them was drifting with live bait.

Striped marlin was by far the most abundant sport fish at Cabo San Lucas, with 78 percent of Pisces Fleet charters hooking up to between 1 and 8 marlin per day.

Our total catch for this period was 152 striped marlin, of between 120 and 180 pound, of which only one was kept; the rest of the striped marlin were all released and all 4 sailfish were also released.

To get a "mention" this week you had to catch 4 or more striped marlin in a day. This is great fishing by anyone's standards.

Pisces Fleet had two groups fishing on "Ni Modo" that could be considered anglers of the week

On November 27th, Diane and Paul Manning from Dandridge, Virginia, released a total of 8 striped marlin and also boated 1 dorado.

The next day out, Jerry Crowe Sr. from Redondo Beach, California, fished with Matthew Miller from Missouri and caught and released 7 striped marlin and a sailfish, as well as landing 2 dorado for an outstanding Cabo San Lucas fishing day.

The Pisces charter boat "Valerie" released 6 striped marlin on Nov. 30th for Andrew and David Swartout, who were fishing with Derek Paulin, all from Minnesota.

The charter boat "Rebecca" had J.P. Lapeyre from San Diego fishing aboard along with Nick Galler and JD Clapan from El Cajon, California, on Nov. 26th, when they were fortunate to release 5 striped marlin plus a sailfish.

Other Pisces Fleet boats averaged 1 to 4 striped marlin each, plus the odd dorado here and there.

After striped marlin, dorado were the next most common sport fish caught at Cabo San Lucas this week, although we did see quite a sharp decline in dorado numbers overall, with a total of 60 fish caught this week, less than half of the number caught last week.

Thirty-eight percent of Pisces Fleet sportfishing boats found between 1 and 5 dorado in the 15 to 25-pound class.

Yellowfin tuna catches were slow at Cabo San Lucas. The boat "C Rod" headed out 35 miles from Land's End and managed to boat 12 tuna for John Schladen on November 25th.

We caught a few wahoo this week. Our boat "Tracy Ann" had 2 smaller wahoo, up to 25 pounds, as well as a tuna and 2 marlin released for Bill Connor and Susan Giorno from Connecticut and New York, respectively.

The boat "Reel Heaven" had a nice wahoo that hit 60 pounds as well as 4 dorado and 1 marlin for Brian McEnroe and William Lucas, both from Arizona.

Inshore pangas fishing around Cabo San Lucas caught roosterfish, sierra and skipjacks this week.

Pisces boats fished the Pacific side, from Land's End to the Golden Gate Bank. The Golden Gate was definitely the hot spot.

Cabo San Lucas weather was partly cloudy this week. Seas were on the choppy side at the start of the week and are mostly calm now as long as the wind stays down. We feel like summer is over and there is an early morning chill in the air.

Pisces boats fished in an average water temperature of 77 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.