Cabo san lucas

[yellerfin]

Hello,
fished the gordo bank 2 days nov 15 and 16,caught, between 2 anglers
38 yellowfin tuna (to 30lbs.)
04 dorado (to 25lbs.)
02 wahoo (to50lbs.)
and to round thing's out some Snapper as well!
Xcelent Fishing!,ran out of a lot of bait quick!!

[Warren_Brantley]

No Marlin........what should one do: read on!

Just returned Wednesday from 5 days offshore in Cabo. Weather was fine and all is well in town. The marlin catch ratio is down below 10% and 2 of the days only a few were caught; the other 3 days no boats caught any marlin that I am aware of.

So it gave me an opportunity (after giving all we had day one) to track down other species; nearshore trolling, shark chumming and drifting, offshore for YF Tuna, etc.; which I had not done previously. Had an absolute blast and have the bruises to show for it. Following 'nada' on day one (only saw 1 marlin/not hungry) I managed to catch blue sharks, yellowtails, skipjack (great chum), YF Tuna (I should have just stayed at the hotel that day and payed someone to beat the ____ out of me - had a boat load!!); amberjack, dorado, and probably a few I cannot think of. Hoped for a Rooster and a mako but could not find any.

Literally filled the fishbox three days running with extras in the bait box and stacked under the fish box one day. Came to 88 fish with a conservative estimate of 1300 pounds gross weight. One person fishing. When the big boys (marlins) aren't in town, go for the others. I released a blue shark one day that would have overflowed the fishbox by itself (caught up by Golden Gate on a hardtail). They do not fight like a mako or a blacktip shark but will certainly do in a pinch.

This was all accomplished with ease on the least expensive boat in the fleet. With effort we could have doubled that amount. It's called 'fishing' and if the marlin are not in town I'll gladly spend my time fighting what is available. I'll be back June 6th.........with luck the marlin will be back well before then.

I monitored Cabo Magic, El Budster, Pisces (12%), and fished alongside those beautiful boats from Marlin Masters (they have a great center mount console boat); and they were just as "unsuccessful" with marlin as I was. Fortunately we have double digits in stripies on our catch list already.

Now as to the cause (the lowest I have ever seen) I have to speculate. It was a new moon so they were not feeding at night. I have never seen as many gray whales in so the krill must have been thick; but I do not think marlin feed on such. And there were few schools of bait. Stripies have the best low temp tolerance of any marlin species; so 70 degree water should not account for it. I would like your ideas. Someone postulated they were full of squid but I saw no squid when drifting and a friend who bottom fished caught pargo only and no Humboldt squid. Also no squid in the stomach contents of any other species at the cleaning tables or the scrap drums for 5 days; when I went over to get genetic samples for Dr. Shivji with the Guy Harvey Institute at NOVA Univeristy.

However, I had a blast!! It's simple - catch what is available if what you came for is out of town. As far at those YF Tuna; any more and I would have been in that ambulance dockside instead of one of those passed out drunks from the cruise ships.

Tight lines/regards, Doc