OVERALL SPORTFISHING CATCH RATE HITS
99 PERCENT FOR PISCES FLEET'S CABO SAN LUCAS BOATS

Oct. 1-7, 2004, Tracy Ehrenberg, Pisces Fleet, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur fishing, Mexico:

Fishing this week was pretty much a repeat of last week, in that we had lots of action, resulting in an overall catch success rate for all species combined of 99%, however again it was mostly dorado, with just 24% of boats catching billfish.

Some big fish are out there though, we heard of a 650 lb blue marlin caught aboard "Bad Company" and "Tracy Ann" had a 400 lb blue on October 6th for Mr. Blight from Cornwall, England, 20 miles off of Cabeza Ballena - the fish took a tiger colored lure.

These were not the only blues, "Ensueno" had two blues, at Punta Gorda for Walter Viestal from San Antonio; one was released, the other boated. "Kathy Too" also scored an approximate 300 lb blue for Roger Farmer, on October 5th, in the same area.

Other good Cabo San Lucas catches this week were by "La Brisa" on October 3rd, for Jeremy Whitt and party, with two sailfish released, a striped marlin, plus three dorado in the 30 to 50 lb class, in the complete opposite direction, Golden Gate on the Pacific.

It seems that the blue marlin are being found in warmer water on the Cortez side, off of San Jose and Punta Gorda - however this could be hit or miss, so most Cabo San Lucas fishing boats opted to fish the Pacific side, where catches of smaller game, along with sailfish and striped marlin were much more sure.

Pisces anglers caught a total of 24 billfish, consisted of 13 striped marlin, 7 sailfish and 6 blue marlin, all but three fish were released.

As mentioned above, dorado ruled again this week with 92% of boats fighting fish in the 15 to 50 lb class. They were found over a widespread area, but the Pacific produced more catches. The average catch being 4-6 fish per boat.

Yellow fin tuna catches were fair with 26% of boats landing fish in the 18 to 35 lb category; best catches were at Golden Gate and San Jaime, with one to three fish per boat when found and occasionally up to nine. Lures intended for marlin snagged most of them.

Wahoo catches were good this week, and we saw many boats having double wahoo days. Size of the wahoo is better too, with some fish reaching 60 and 70 lbs.

A few roosters in shore as well as good numbers of white skipjacks. One of the boats also caught a smallish hammerhead shark, that was 60 lbs. Speaking of which it probably went unnoticed in the U.S but a massive great white shark was caught by panga fishermen north of Santa Rosalia, at a place called Santa Maria- the fish was 20 feet long, locals calculated the fish to be one and a half tons and the photo in the local paper seems to bear this out. Estimated weight was 1500.00 lbs.

LOCATION: Land's End to Golden Gate, Cabeza de Ballena, Punta Gorda.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear, sunny skies, seas good on the Cortez, some whitecaps early morning and afternoon on Pacific.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 79-83 F

BEST LURES: Live bait, green/yellow, orange/black.