Striped and Blue Marlin at Cabo San Lucas
Capt. Tracy Ehrenberg
October 5, 2008
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report
Overall Catch Success Rate 99%
BILLFISH: Cabo is enjoying excellent fishing at the moment. With plenty of action on both billfish and dorado. Although blue marlin have not been plentiful we did have three this week which is a good sign for the upcoming tournaments, though none of these would have made the minimum weight requirement of 300 lbs. Adriana Moya, our reservations manager, headed up the all woman Asupesca team for last week-ends tournament out of San Jose and although their objective was dorado, Ady, battled a blue marlin for an hour and forty five minutes after it took a blue and white lure, 20 miles off of Punta Gorda. The fish really gave her a workout making it a personal battle. During one of the fish's jumps it got wrapped with the line and unfortunately came up dead, estimated at 250 lbs. "Eureka" also had a blue marlin, this same day, September 28th, but theirs was caught on the Pacific by Miguel Angel Camino and the Cabo Mil radio team, this one was released and estimated at 230 lbs. The third one was also around 250 lbs and was caught aboard "Fish On" on a black and red lure by Jeron Siegert from Denver, Colorado. We are also starting to see the massing of striped marlin, expected a bit later in the year, at the Finger Banks and reaching down to the Golden Gate. "Rebecca" took anglers Jon Svendsen, Rich Danish and Butch Newell up to the Finger Banks on October 1st, where action was fast and furious leading to them releasing an incredible twenty one striped marlin and five dorado in one day. The day before "Tracy Ann" sticking much closer released six striped marlin at the Golden Gate for Patrick and Jean Neville from Bradenton, Florida. Seventy five percent of charters caught billfish this week, consisting of 93 striped marlin, 7 sailfish and 3 blue marlin; all but two fish were released.
OTHER SPECIES: Dorado continues to be plentiful but have dropped in numbers. This week seventy five percent of anglers got dorado with catches of one to twelve per boat. Weights were from 15 to 30 lbs average and our total catch was 201 fish. Found both on the Cortez and Pacific. Yellow fin tuna catches were up slightly this week with twenty four percent of boat catching fish up to 40 lbs. Catches were from one to ten fish per boat. Some large squid to 40 lbs were caught plus a few snappers.
WEATHER: Some very hot days with air temps as high as 98 F, but as we close this report we are beginning to feel a slight cooling off. Skies mostly clear, seas calm.
LOCATION: Golden Gate, Punta Gorda, Finger Banks.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 85 F
BEST LURES: Live mackerel, green lures, cedar plugs, blue/white.
OVERALL CATCH SUCCESS RATE 100%
BILLFISH: After a cooler spell after our recent rains, the heat has returned in full force and with it the fishing. Every single boat out this week has success in catching fish. For the first time in a few weeks we had some blue marlin, probably due to the hotter weather. Both of the blues caught by Pisces boats were the same day, September 18th; first was a 350 lb blue caught by Riaz Mamdani from Calgary, Canada 20 miles offshore just past the Old Lighthouse on the Pacific aboard "Andale", who also caught twelve dorado with his friends. "Bottom Line" also did exceedingly well this day, Mike Menas and friends were aboard and released a 200 lb blue marlin on a live caballito at Punta Gorda and then went on to release sixty, yes sixty dorado and ten yellow fin tuna…..this group was a bit tired. Now "Bottom Line" is definitely the boat of the month so far, not only for this superb day but also for September 24th with eleven striped marlin and one sailfish released as well as ten dorado. The marlin and sailfish were caught on ballyhoo at Golden Gate on the Pacific for anglers Arthur & Maggie Rudolph from Charleston, S.C fishing with Mary & Fred Milner from New York. Other notable catches were for "Bill Collector" on September 21st with four striped marlin released, plus ten dorado at Golden Gate for the Poen's & Gurney's from Texas. "Ruthless" also did well on September 19th for Sean Emerson from Nipono, California and Tony Wood from Arroyo Grande, Ca catching and releasing two striped marlin, one sailfish and sixteen dorado. Anglers were thrilled with the fishing this week and we are unable to mention them all, but seventy one percent of charters caught billfish, giving us a total of 76 striped marlin, 13 sailfish and 2 blue marlin all but one released.
OTHER SPECIES: Dorado continues to reign in Cabo waters with unbelievable numbers of fish ranging from 15 to 40 lbs caught on a daily basis. Pisces anglers totaled a whopping 468 fish caught, with a great many released. They were found both on the Cortez side and on the Pacific, though boats fished mainly on the Pacific. Lures in the green range worked well as well as live bait. The average catch was 6-8 fish per boat. Ninety one percent of charters caught dorado, making it the number one fish in Cabo. Yellow fin tuna were around but in much lesser numbers with fourteen percent of boats finding fish in the 20 to 50 lb class; the average catch was one to two fish. We started to see some squid this week, with a half dozen fish around the 30 lb mark. We had one 40 lb wahoo and five roosterfish.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Hot, average daily high was 92 F air temp. Skies partly cloudy, seas generally calm.
LOCATION: Overwhelmingly Golden Gate, the odd boat at Los Arcos and Punta Gorda.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 84.5 F
BEST LURES: Live bait, green, blue/white, green/black
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