Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Capt. Tracy Ehrenberg
April 16, 2004
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report

April 9th to 15th, 2004



BILLFISH: The good news is that there is Iots of action for anglers in Cabo right now, but unfortunately not on marlin, rather on tuna. Nevertheless, there are always some exceptions and some anglers did very well. We are happy to report, that at last we got a couple of those elusive swordfish, which have been teasing us for the past few weeks. First up, was aboard 86 ft “Felina”, (goes to show you can fish from boats this large), Jeff Leitzinger from Los Angeles cast a live “caballito” to the swordie, that they spotted 20 miles off of Redhill and being the lucky kind of guy that he is (he caught a 650 lb black marlin on this vessel back at the end of November) it took it on the very first cast. Being his first broadbill, Jeff fought this fish very carefully; not wanting to break it off, taking him three hours to boat – estimated size was 150 lbs. The second swordfish was taken aboard 42 ft “Ni Modo” on April 13th by Richard Webb from Parger, Arizona – this time 15 miles out from Punta Gorda, again on a live “caballito”, taking one hour and forty five minutes to land on 30 lb test. Weight on this one was a little larger at just over 200 lbs. Marlin fishing was again scattered, with some sighted over a widespread area but not that many caught, in fact we had just ten total at Pisces with all but one released. Weights were good at 130 to 160 lbs. Ray Espinoza from Chula Vista , Ca. had a lucky day out on “Valerie” on April 10th, catching and releasing two stripers and landing six tuna. “Rebecca” was the hot boat again this week, with a striped marlin, seven tuna and a dorado, twenty-two miles straight out from the arch, on April 13th, for Chris Harris from Yreka, Ca. This same day, “Karina” scored big, for Riando Penn, from Tracy, Ca. with a striped marlin, a dorado and sixteen tuna. On the 14th, “Rebecca” released a striped marlin and landed five tuna for Mr. Hennessy, this time twelve miles out from the arch. Our overall catch rate for all species combined was ninety-three percent, with eighteen percent of charters catching billfish.



OTHER SPECIES: Again it was a hot tuna week, but sizes were in the football range of 15 to 30 lbs and as such a fair amount were released. Some concerns were raised as to how many tuna are allowed per angler and the limit is five per person, though you may catch and release as many as you wish. This is not being strictly enforced and some boats were including the crew as anglers. But the moral here is, only take what you are going to eat. Altogether we had a little over four hundred yellowfin this week and eighty percent of charters caught this species. Dorado fishing was quite a bit slower with twenty-eight percent of boats finding these, with weights good at 25 to 55 lbs – when a catch was made it was usually just a single fish and occasionally two. Inshore yellowtail, amberjack, skipjacks and a few sierra were caught. A nice 90 lb wahoo was also boated aboard “Felina” (with lucky Jeff Leitzinger and party), after taking a blue/silver, flying fish lure.



WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear skies most of the week, pretty windy, seas on the rough side.



LOCATION: Starting out at Chileno and 95 spot, then moving to 28 miles out from Redhill, Punta Gorda, Palmilla, 14 miles off of San Jose ,15 to 22 miles out from the arch.



AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 69-72 F



BEST LURES: Live bait, cedar plugs, blue/white.

More Fishing Reports:

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