First Blue Marlin of Season off Cabo

Capt. Tracy Ehrenberg
July 11, 2008
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report

JULY 4th to 10th, 2008

OVERALL CATCH SUCCESS RATE 75%
BILLFISH: A bit of a strange week, with some good catches, but with tropical weather off of our shores on July 3rd and 4th the port was closed meaning out catch rates were lower than normal. Boats starting out this period fishing off of the Old Lighthouse but by mid week after not having continuing success, most opted to go all the way up the Cortez to Destiladeras seeking warmer water and better catches. We are in mid July and the weather is still cool enough to sleep without air conditioning, so the indicators are once we get really hot temperatures the fishing will take off in a spectacular way. Our top boat this week was 31 ft "La Brisa", who caught our first blue marlin of the season; the fish was estimated at 220 lb and then released along with two striped marlin and a 40 lb dorado which was landed. The anglers were Brody and Terry Dunn from Port Clinton, Ohio, fishing on July 5th fishing between Land's End and the 95 spot. Being such an up and down week it was rare for boats to get more than one marlin, in fact just twenty eight percent of charters hooked up to billfish. On July 8th, 31 ft "Ruthless" released two stripers and boated two dorado and three tuna for Karen and Lawrence Cockill from Union, Connecticut at Destiladeras. The only other boat that had two marlin was 48 ft "Eureka" with two stripers released at the same area on July 5th as well as a dorado caught for the McAlpines from Auckland, New Zealand. Pisces anglers caught a total of 17 striped marlin this week, all but one released and one blue marlin and a sailfish, released.
OTHER SPECIES: Actually dorado catches were slightly better than those of marlin this past week, with thirty eight percent of charters catching between one and three fish. Most were caught whilst trolling for marlin, but the nice thing is the size, for the first time in awhile we saw fish up to 50 lbs. Tuna catches picked up a bit this week, with catches at twenty one percent. "La Brisa" was our top tuna boat with 12 fish between 15 and 30 lbs caught on a combination of cedar plugs, hoochis and different color lures 12 miles off of the Old Lighthouse on July 6th. Inshore fishing didn't' yield much other than roosterfish and a few sierra.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Partly cloudy, seas mostly calm with some chop on the Pacific.
LOCATION: Destiladeras, Los Frailes, 11.50 spot, 20 miles 120 spot.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 77%}
BEST LURES: Live bait for striped marlin, dorado liked the guacamaya type lures (green/yellow/orange), cedar plugs for tuna.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg.

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