Cabo san lucas
March 4th to March 10th, 2005

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Sunny, daytime temps in the low 80’s, nighttime in the low 60’s, seas were a bit rough with whitecaps on the Pacific a couple of days due to the wind.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 68F.
BEST LURES: Cedar plugs, green/yellow, live bait.

BILLFISH
We had a dramatic slow down on marlin fishing this week, but then again this is what we expect during March. Nevertheless we did have a catch rate of fifteen percent on marlin, which is a lot better than last year – we didn’t’ catch a single billfish this same time last year. We only had a couple of boats that had more than one marlin; starting with “Rebecca” on March 5th for Cathy Sahr and Trevor Buzzell from Minnesota. This same day “Adriana” also has two for Vincent and John Joyce from the U.K. The other catches were spread out with nobody doing more than one marlin, despite some sightings and even hook-ups. Practically everybody went to the Pacific up to the San Jaime area where yellowfin tuna had been reported. On March 9th, “Valerie” kept her guests busy with a striped marlin, 21 tuna and 3 skipjacks, for Wilson Brett Smith and party from Midland, Texas. With the colder weather the marlin bite will probably remain slow over the next couple of week, but the slack should be taken up by other species. Pisces anglers caught a total of thirteen striped marlin this week of which twelve were released.

OTHER SPECIES:
Yellowfin tuna were very welcome this week, with fifty-five percent of charters hooking up to fish from 15 to 70 lbs, with the average being around 20 lbs. The lighthouse to San Jamie on the Pacific was the most popular area, though some boats went up to Golden Gate too and some tuna were also found on the Cortez side by Chileno. They took cedar plugs and medium size lures. Catches on yellow fin ranged from one to twenty fish per boat, with the average around four or five. Chris Tarbell on the “Andrea” had the biggest fish, at 70 lbs on March 4th. We totaled two hundred and one yellowfin.....the type of catch we have in April usually. Dorado catches picked up a bit this week with eighteen percent of charters catching fish in the 15 to 25 lb class. They were almost exclusively incidental catches whilst trolling for marlin, however, “Ni Modo” found a school, 15 miles off the lighthouse, for Todd Keppy and were able to get fifteen to the boat. “La Brisa” had a beautiful 80 lb wahoo on the 10th a well as nine tuna for Ellen & Michael Rothman from Boca Raton, fishing with Robert & Cindy Troyer from Omaha. Inshore the pangas got a variety of fish such as sierra, red snapper, cabrilla and some rooster fish.