LATE WINTER MARLIN FISHING AT THE TIP OF BAJA

March 9-15, 2007, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico, Pisces Fleet, Tracy Ehrenberg:

The Cabo San Lucas Mexican vacation area at the tip of Baja California had a slight improvement on fishing this week, probably due to the waning of the full moon. Striped marlin continue to be the number one sportfishing catch in the area.

Pisces Fleet's overall catch success rate for all fish species combined was a decent 80 percent. These are good numbers, although in Cabo San Lucas we are used to outstanding fishing year round.

Fishing around the tip of the Baja California peninsula right now is very good for this time of year. We have not experienced the March doldrums of previous years.

Fifty-eight percent of Pisces Fleet charter fishing boats caught striped marlin, usually one or two fish in the 130 to 170 pound class.

The charter boat "C Rod" was one of our top producers with a couple of back-to-back days, with 3 marlin released per day. On March 13th, they released three for the Williams family at the San Jaime Bank. This was an enviable catch as this day ended up being the worse of the week, with a lot of boats coming back with nothing.

Next day out they repeated, this time for Tom Johnson, and again at the Jaime Bank.

On March 15th, the charter boat "Rebecca" had a triple marlin header while fishing a little further up the coast at the Golden Gate Bank for Michelle and Bruce Robertson from Bozeman, Michigan. The boat "Valerie" had three at the Jaime Bank for Fran and Michael Varlop from Richmond, Virginia.

Practically all the marlin caught took live bait.

At the beginning of this Cabo fishing period, charter boats fished on the Sea of Cortez side at the 95 and 1150 spots, as well as in front of Santa Maria, where they were able to pick up some school size yellowfin tuna and the odd marlin.

Some Cabo San Lucas fishing boats went up as far north as Los Frailes but did not do well.

Just after midweek the boats switched to the Pacific side of the Baja peninsula and had better numbers on marlin.

Pisces Fleet anglers caught a total of 54 striped marlin this week of which 51 were released.

On another note, for those interested in conservation, the head of Mexican fisheries declared this week that he will support the initiative that we proposed for the non-commercialization of marlin at a national level. If approved this will mean it will become illegal in Mexico to sell marlin even if caught "incidentally."

Pisces Fleet had some yellowfin tuna catches this week but only a dozen boats or so were fortunate to hook up to them. When the tuna were found, boats could get up to eight in the 15 to 25 pound class.

The charter boat "Falcon" caught eight tuna at the 95 spot as well as releasing one striped marlin for Tony Miller from Petaluma, Calif., on March 12th.

The boat "Rebecca" caught seven tuna and released two striped marlin, 20 miles straight out from Baja Land's End for Brian Donley and John Grindstaff from Ohio.

We are seeing some small sharks again, usually Mako's no more than 45 pounds, and all are being released.

Cabo San Lucas inshore fishing boats are catching average amounts of roosterfish, sierra, and skipjacks.

Cabo San Lucas had clear, sunny skies, with some days very hot, like July, and seas calm on the Cortez side, although we did have wind, fog and whitecaps on the Pacific side later in the week. The average water temperature was 69 to 70 degrees.