Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Capt. Tracy Ehrenberg
September 15, 2003
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report

September 5th to 11th, 2003

BILLFISH: A pretty fabulous week here in Cabo…..with an overall catch success rate of ninety-three percent for all species combined, with forty-five percent of boats catching billfish. It was a great week with a bit of everything black marlin, blue marlin, striped marlin and sailfish, not to mention the copious amounts of small game. Weather is great right now, calm seas, blue water, blue skies and HOT, just what the fish like. Top story this week has to be the “The Not So Old Man and The Sea” (I have to be careful here, how else can you describe 40) – Michael Theodore from Malibu and part-time Cabo resident, was fishing with his sister Gabrielle aboard “La Brisa” on September 10th. They were twelve miles off of the Old Lighthouse, when they noticed what they assumed to be a striped marlin fin, slicing through the water towards a trolled “Petrolero” lure, it came up and tapped it, by which time they had readied a live mackerel on the 20 lb reel; they dropped it back and registered a solid hook-up at 7.50 am. What ensued next was a battle of epic proportions – Michael is a seasoned fisherman fishing Cabo at least 20 times a year and even his was amazed by the strength of this fish, which they soon found out was an extremely large blue marlin. The tug of war went on hour after hour, by two o’clock in the afternoon, all supplies of water and food were used up on the boat and Michael battled on in the blazing sun, sometimes gaining line, sometimes-losing line. Eventually the rod tip snapped on the live bait rig (30 lb test), the quick thinking crew, hurriedly tied it to another rig – a maneuver usually used on smaller fish and only attempted by crews with experience, it worked and they fought on. They had been on it so long that they thought it had died, but as if to prove them wrong it came up out of the water just 15 feet behind the boat – Michael swears that the width of the fish was at least 3 ½ feet on one side, giving it an overall girth of around 7 feet and that it’s length was 13 feet; using the formula girth squared x length divided by 800 - puts the fish at well over 1000 lbs - however it’s very hard to judge, when the fish is in the water. The captain when asked said conservatively that it was at least 700 lbs. By 6.50 pm, “La Brisa” was located 32 miles off of the Lighthouse, the fish had increased in strength instead of getting tired, it appeared one last time 20 feet behind the boat before the line snapped and it disappeared in a matter of seconds. Michael was not too disappointed – he came away with a lot of respect for that fish, they competed, the fish won…… we still have a huge fish swimming out there, that will live to take on somebody else. Other great catches were had this week, especially on September 5th, when “Valerie” released a 250 lb black and a striped marlin for Craig Ennis and Curt Simmons from New Jersey and North Carolina respectively. This same day “Ruthless” had a mixed bag for Joe Lobianco from Woodbury, N.J with a sailfish released, a nice 50 lb wahoo and three yellowfin tuna. “La Brisa” & “Andrea” each released a blue marlin apiece this day in the 200 to 300 lb class. “Ruthless” also had a black marlin, estimated at 200 lbs for Jeff Sturman from Bayville N.J on the 10th - a couple of days before this Chuck Sturman Jr. had released a 300 lb blue marlin on this same boat. September 8th, was a pretty good day for variety catches: “Tracy Ann” had one striped released, 6 tunas, a dorado and a skipjack for Curtis Knight from Oregon, Darren Norcross from Reno fishing with Eddie Dossey, released two stripers and landed 3 dorado and a 45 lb wahoo aboard “Andrea”. “Adriana” had one striped marlin that was tail-wrapped, 3 tunas and a wahoo, and three dorado strikes which were lost…so all in all a pretty busy day. Pisces anglers had a total of seven blue marlin, two black marlin, two sailfish and nineteen striped marlin this week, with just two fish taken back to the dock.

OTHER SPECIES: Quite an increase on yellowfin tuna this week, with fifty-two percent of charters catching, making these the most abundant sport fish this report. Most boats from one to five tuna, though occasionally they got as many as thirteen, weights are mid-range at 30 to 60 lbs and sometimes higher. The largest was caught by Herb Hamic from Lakeland, Florida on September 7th aboard “Valerie”, weighing in at 100 lbs. Dorado catches were fair, with thirty-six percent of charters landing fish in the 20 to 40 lb class over a widespread area. Good catches on wahoo with about 15% of the boats catching fish in the 40 to 50 lb class.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Hot, humid, skies clear in the mornings with clouds gathering over the mountains in the afternoons. Seas calm.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 83-84 F

BEST LURES: Live bait, peterolero’s, red/orange, yellow/green.

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