Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Capt. Tracy Ehrenberg
September 5, 2003
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report

BILLFISH: A pretty decent week to report, though again we did have some rough weather, in fact the effects of tropical depression 11, were worse than those of Hurricane Ignacio. On September 3rd boats headed out under a drizzling rain, followed by some heavy downpours, the problem thought, were the waves and wind, coming from all directions, which sent most vessels scurrying back to port, before mid-day. Those that stuck it out, such as “Karina”, released a striped marlin and boated a wahoo, while “Tracy Ann” also released a marlin and boated a dorado, but generally it was only the most seasoned of fishermen that could take the seas. The following day weather had improved greatly, but the Port Captain closed the port ……again we had anglers waiting at the dock - but they finally gave the o.k by 9.00 am to open the harbor and those anglers still keen got a chance to go out. The most outstanding day this period was August 29th. This day “La Brisa” released three striped marlin and boated two dorado for Ray & Joni Makar from San Diego, Ca. Adam Kwasman, fishing with dad Donald, both from Tucson, Arizona were pleased to catch both a blue and striped marlin and boat a 45 lbs dorado, this time on “Adriana”. Heather & Matthew Adamson from, Red Oak, Texas, had a variety of fish aboard “Ruthless” ; releasing a striped marlin late in the day, after boating three 50 lbs dorado (see photo below), four yellowfin tuna and three skipjacks. The boats mentioned here for their catches on the 29th, fished three distinct locations – the Old Lighthouse on the Pacific, 18 miles of San Jose and 17 miles off of Cabo Real. Next day out “Valerie” had a super day, releasing four sailfish and boating a dorado for Jeffery Cozzar and friends from California. This boat was obviously on a roll as the next day they released three stripers and boated three dorado for David Bates from Nevada. We were a little surprised by the lack of blues this week, but think the weather could have had something to do with this. Early in the week, one of our boats reported 12 sailfish strikes, but none stuck. Our overall catch success rate this week was eighty-nine percent for all species combined. So some boats did get “skunked”, nobody catches fish all the time and often we find that the hot boat one week, is the one that blanks out the following. The catch success rate for billfish was forty-four percent. Pisces anglers caught a total of 29 striped marlin, 6 sailfish and 2 blue marlin, all but two stripers were released.

OTHER SPECIES: It was nice to see an increase on dorado this week, not just in numbers but also in size. Forty-six percent of boats landed dorado (not many of these are released) with the average catch being one or two per boat, with weights from 25 to 50 lbs. Fewer boats caught yellowfin tuna, twenty-seven percent, but when they did find them they caught good numbers, resulting in a total of ninety-nine for Pisces, double of the amount of dorado. Boats caught from two to thirteen in the 20 to 30 lb class. We had quite a lot of wahoo this week with about fifteen percent of boats landing these, weight were average at 40 to 60 lbs. Pangas are still experiencing slow fishing with the water still a little dirty inshore.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Story conditions on September 3rd, hot, seas moderate.

LOCATION: Period started off of Cabo Real and Palmilla, with others closer to Cabo, before switching to 7- 12 miles off of the Old Lighthouse, boats then went to San Jaime and Golden Gate and ended up the week close to the Lighthouse again.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP:83 F

BEST LURES: Live bait, green/yellow, orange, red, purple/black.

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