Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Weekly fishing reports for the week of 24-30 January 2011 from Picante Sportfishing

>

Yellowfin Tuna are, again, the fish of the week down here in Cabo San Lucas. Cabo fishing is again showing its true colors with another fine week of tuna fishing. 

After the full moon the tuna bite started ramping back up. Schools of porpoise were holding tuna. Then just a few days later, the marlin were, again, biting.

We had some interesting happenings during this week. We had a Striped Marlin in the boat harbor a few days ago. Then a day later a 6 foot shark was seen swimming around the marina.  But  this last week, tuna still were king. Many boats were in double digits.

There was also a sprinkling of some other Cabo fishing favorites like a nice Dorado, some Roosterfish, Sierra and Snapper. We had a few cloudy days which may have helped the fishing. 

Why do fish start biting? How about tides, wind, barometric pressure and, of course, the moon?

There are lots of theories about the full moon’s affect on marlin fishing. There is even a scientific article done on the marlin fishing in Cabo San Lucas from October 1987 to June 1989. Their conclusions suggest that there is no real significant affect of the full moon on Striped Marlin Fishing. The information was gathered from 13 fishing boats totaling 3377 fishing trips. Other studies are referenced on sport fishing for billfish, commercial fishing for tuna, bait fishing, billfish in Florida, the Caribbean and the Atlantic ocean.  They concluded that only in some cases was there a relationship between catch success and the lunar cycle.

 In their study they assumed there was a relationship between the moon and Striped Marlin fishing.  But from their results they concluded there is, statistically, no significant difference between catches at different phases of the full moon. In other words there are small differences, but not that great. Just a short few notes from their study will illustrate their findings. During the full moon the average catches per unit effort were 1.8 fish per boat. During the waning moon 2.0 fish per unit effort, new moon 2.1 fish catch per unit effort, and during the Waxing moon 2.5 catch per unit effort. So there is slight difference, but not a significant difference.

What does that mean to fishermen?  There is a difference in catch rates among the different phases, but not enough to cancel a trip or even plan a trip. There are a lot more variables that can have affects besides the moon. So don’t plan your trip using just the one variable. Check with your favorite charter company to see how they are doing. Pick a reputable company and talk with them.