PISCES FLEET FINDS GOOD STRIPED MARLIN FISHING AT THE GOLDEN GATE BANK

Dec. 18, 2006, Tracy Ehrenberg, Pisces Fleet, Cabo San Lucas, Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

Pisces Fleet had stupendous fishing in Cabo San Lucas this week, with all but one charter boat catching fish and a whopping 88 percent of all boats hooking up to striped marlin. We are not just talking the odd marlin here and there. We are talking serious numbers.

This week, Pisces Fleet anglers caught a total of 127 striped marlin and 1 sailfish, all but two of the striped marlin, at 130 pounds and 150 pounds respectively were released.

Cabo San Lucas sportfishing improved as the week progressed and by the last day of this report, we were seeing striped marlin catches in the double-digits.

For example, the charter boat "Falcon" caught and released 11 striped marlin at the Golden Gate Bank north of Cabo for local angler Michael Connolly.

This same fishing day, December 14th, our 28-foot charter boat "Adriana" released an unbelievable 9 striped marlin for Kerry Dixon, from Nottingham, England, whose fishing partner was John Wochter from New Jersey.

The amusing thing is that Kerry had never caught a marlin before, and he had phoned us from England, rather nervous, and informed us that it was his dream to catch a marlin.

We told him to come on down to Cabo San Lucas and not to worry, that we would look after him. You could say that his expectations were a bit more than fulfilled during his 9-marlin release day on the Adriana.

Not be left out, the Pisces charter fishing boat "Rebecca" also did very well, fishing on the December 14th and catching and releasing 9 striped marlin for George Fee and Jean Gurney from New Jersey. The Rebecca also boated 3 dorado in the 20 to 30 pound class.

Again the fishing action was almost exclusively on the Pacific Ocean side of Cabo San Lucas, at Golden Gate Bank, with live bait.

There were also a couple of good fishing days off of the Old Lighthouse, or Faro Viejo, closer to Cabo, but the bite didn't last at this location and boats decided to stick with the more certain Golden Gate Bank. Local sportfishing boats averaged one to three striped marlin per day, with many quadruple catches for a number of charters.

Cabo San Lucas Yellowfin tuna fishing was on the slow side this week, with just 10 percent of Pisces Fleet boats having any luck with this species. The Pisces boat that did best on tuna was "Andrea" with 8 yellowfin ranging from 20 to 45 pounds, caught on a combination of bait and lures about 14 miles off of Faro Viejo.

Dorado catches were pretty good at Cabo San Lucas this week, with 57 percent of Pisces fishing boats catching between one and four dorado of between 15 and 30 pounds.

Most of these dorado were found mixed in with the marlin at the Golden Gate Bank.

Pisces Fleet did not have many anglers fishing inshore this week, but those that did caught a few skipjack, roosterfish, and one grouper.

Cabo San Lucas vacation fishing area weather was perfect and clear, with sunny skies and calm seas. The average water temperature fished was 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.