Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Capt. Tracy Ehrenberg
June 4, 2002
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report

WEEKLY FISH REPORT MAY 23RD TO 30TH 2002

BILLFISH: A fairly decent week here in Cabo, with a total of forty striped marlin for Pisces anglers, with weights ranging from 80 to 180 lbs. However, only forty-seven percent of charters caught marlin, maybe a good number in other parts of the world, but we are used to more here in Cabo. Every other boat or so, had one and less occasionally two striped marlin per day. With the fish spread out – start of this report, 20 miles out from the Old Lighthouse on the Pacific and by the end of this period off of Punta Gorda. Full moon was on May 26th, so on the days leading up to this and a few days afterwards, catches did slow, as fish gorged on bait during the nighttime hours and were less hungry during the day. Good amounts of marlin were spotted, but getting them to bite was quite another thing. After the introduction of circle hooks last week, in the Rolex/IGFA tournament, captains continue to experiment with this concept, new to them – they seem positive about them, so it looks like we will see a gradual change to these. Several captains have commented that they hurt the fish less and that the fish won’t die as often, besides from the feedback we got, the successful hook up ratio is much higher with this type of hook, than with the traditional “j’ hook. Michael Messina, fulfilled his dream this week, the only thing he wanted was to get a marlin – Mike from East Syracuse, New York, chartered “Andrea” just by himself and was thrilled to release two striped marlin and boat a 50 lb dorado, all before noon, on May 30th.

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado catches are on the increase. They are not being found in schools, but pretty much every boat had one to three – others did even better, Rafael Betancourt’s party had nine aboard “Andrea” on May 26th. Weights ranged from 15 to 50 lbs. Yellowfin tuna showed a slight increase with one’ and two’s caught over a widespread area, however, the sizes were on the small side, at 15 to 25 lbs. We did have quite a few mako sharks this week, sizes were from 60 to 90 lbs. Quite a strange thing to see, this past week, was a huge elephant seal right in the bay of Cabo, who was spotted with a shark, that he had bitten in half in his mouth. This same day a seal was seen in the same area, with a 30 lb dorado that he was killing on the surface, again in the bay. It is quite unusual to see this so close to port. Roosterfish are really starting to take off, with had good catches on a couple of days, when it was too rough to fish offshore. Boats concentrated around the Old Lighthouse and had catches of up to five. Largest for us was a 65 lb’ er taken on Adriana by Tom Judish.

LOCATION: Old Lighthouse to Punta Gorda.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Good at the start of the week, then turning really rough on Monday, as we experienced gusty winds all night and into the next day. Hurricane Alma skirted by us mid week and caused big swells for a few days. Weather is now calm, with clear sunny skies and good seas.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 77 F

BEST LURES: Live Bait for marlin and roosters, assorted lures dorado.

Based on the catches of Pisces Fleet By Tracy Ehrenberg

More Fishing Reports:

• All Reports by Capt. Tracy Ehrenberg
• Cabo San Lucas Fishing Reports
• Mexico Fishing Reports
• Browse All Fishing Reports