Cabo san lucas
May 21st to May 27th, 2004

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear, sunny skies, flat seas, blue water.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 72-73 on the Cortez, Pacific 66-67 F
BEST LURES: Live bait, dead bait, petroleros.

BILLFISH
We had a pretty fabulous week here in Cabo, with over eighty-two percent of charters catching striped marlin and an overall catch success rate for all species combined of ninety-one percent. The stripers were thick between Punta Gorda and Boca Salada, near Destiladeres, with charters spotting 20 to 25 fish in a day. Getting them to bite wasn’t that easy though, here is plenty of bait in the water, small skipjacks and squid, so the fish are pretty full; however it was a matter of being persistent. Live bait, tended to work the best though fish did also accept dead bait and occasionally a lure. The fish did get a little fussier towards the end of this report and the occasional boat did get “skunked”, much to the angler’s frustration – but if they’re not hungry, they’re not hungry. One of the top anglers this week was John Daniel from Thomasville, Georgia – in his two days fishing aboard “Ni Modo” he released a total of eight striped marlin. Gerald Richmond from Las Vegas and part time Cabo resident also released four aboard 28 ft “Andrea” on May 24th. There were quite a few boats with triple marlin days too, though the norm was 1-2 per boat. Weights were good, from 150 to as high as a 200 plus pounder, released by Creighton Lawhead from Carlsbad, aboard “Adriana”. Pisces anglers caught a total of eighty-two striped marlin of which eighty were released.

OTHER SPECIES:
At the beginning of this report there were a few boats that found yellowfin tuna, which was refreshing after so many marlin. They were small at 8 to 30 lbs, but when found boats caught as many as ten, between Land’s End and Chileno. They decreased as the week went on, with just the odd one here and there picked up whilst trolling, though boats did report seeing schools up past San Jose. Dorado fishing was on the slow side, again with just the odd one here and there picked up trolling; with weights from 20 to 45 lbs. Inshore it was mostly sierra, some skipjacks and a few roosters.