PACIFIC SIDE STRIPED MARLIN FISHING BY THE CHARTER BOAT FALCON

Jan. 7, 2007, Mike Connolly, charter boat Falcon, Cabo San Lucas (Los Cabos), Baja California Sur, Mexico:

Cabo San Lucas striped marlin fishing fell off a little during the full moon this week.

There are still marlin around. It just takes more effort and patience to hook them.

The bait is staying deeper and it is more difficult to find, for one thing. Mackerel schools in the top 100 feet of the water column, that often mean that marlin are nearby, were found only with great difficulty.

Most of the marlin caught at both the Golden Gate Bank and at Cabo Falso were caught simply by drifting mackerel without paying to much attention to the location of bait schools. If it was your day, this worked well.

Cabo San Lucas fishing boats are still coming home with plenty of blue flags flying.

The Golden Gate Bank had the most fishing pressure during the week, with 40 or more boats drifting bait there every day.

Striped marlin counts were good for the patient captains, with plenty of doubles and some triples throughout the fleet during the day.

On the charter boat Falcon, with Capt. Manuel Romero, the counts went from 3 to 7 marlin per day with a couple of dorado mixed in, and 1 large sailfish.

The Ni Modo and other top Cabo San Lucas sportfishing boats had similar counts at the Gate.

There was one report of 8 jig fish, marlin, and 4 releases at the 95 spot on Wednesday. The boat Success, Cubby Puhl, put his friends and family on 19 yellowfin tuna at 17 miles and 210 degrees. That area seemed hold up and was a good place to begin during the week. Cub's tuna were around 30 pounds, with the largest at 48 pounds.

Over all Cabo had pretty decent dorado fishing. The dorado are liable to be anywhere.

It is about time for some wahoo but very few are being landed so far. Just in case, when dragging lures use wire.

Cabo San Lucas fishing has been good but probably will improve as the full moon fades away.

(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.