Pacific golden gate to old lighthouse, some catches on the 11.50 on the Cortez side too
November 5th to November 10th, 2005

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear sunny skies, warm days, nights cooling, seas mostly calm with some chop in the afternoons

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 77 F.

BEST LURES: Live bait.

BILLFISH
Wow - What a fabulous week we've had here in Cabo…..fishing for striped marlin was outstanding this week, giving us our highest numbers for the year, with a total of 174 striped marlin this week. Some of our boats had the kind of day that when you tell people they don t quite believe you, but it s true. Greg Burnett from Lake Havasu, Arizona, fishing with his brother in law Eric, caught and released 14 striped marlin on Nov. 5th and followed up with another 7 released the following day plus three dorado. Blue Thunder released 13 on the 8th, at the finger bank on the Pacific. Thomas Matthew Hardy from Centerville, Maryland, caught his first marlin aboard Tracy Ann, when he was just 7 years old. Back again in Cabo with dad and now 12 years old, this youngster did incredibly well to release 26 striped marlin over three days, of course on Tracy Ann. At the end of the week Ni Modo was again the high boat with 12 striped marlin released for Amanda and Jimmy Meeks from Florida. Nearly every boat caught between one and three striped marlin, though there was the odd boat here and there got skunked. Golden Gate was the most productive area, some boats when further up the Pacific to the Finger Banks, located about 54 miles from Cabo, but this was where the marlin were thickest – meaning it is just a question of a week or two until they are here in full force, about one month earlier than usual. Eighty percent of the marlin were caught up on the surface with live bait – with the other twenty percent, also on bait but deeper down. Our overall catch success rate for all species combined this week was a very decent ninety percent, with eighty eight percent of charters catching striped marlin. Pisces anglers caught a total of 174 striped marlin of which 170 were released – we also released one blue marlin.

OTHER SPECIES:
Fishing on smaller game was not that great, but dorado catches were not bad with thirty two percent of charters landing fish in the 15 to 45 lb class. Catches were one to three fish and one boat, Libre did get ten in one day. Found both on the Pacific and Cortez side, nearly all were picked up trolling. Yellowfin tuna catches were slow with just ten percent of boats picking up a fish here and there we did have one boat that found tuna just 6 miles off of Land s End and boated 12 fish from 20 to 50 lbs. Wahoo catches were quite good with several fish to 50 lbs. Inshore pangas did well on roosters to 30 lbs as well as picking up a stray marlin from time to time.