by Kris Jop,
Reel-Time Contributor

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The Cabo Connection

A Fly Fishing Quest for Striped Marlin and Other Bluewater Species in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. . .

Striped Marlin

Dorado

Roosterfish
& Other Species

Prime Fishing Times
in Cabo San Lucas

The first 25 minutes and last 10 minutes of the fight (when marlin like to display acrobatic abilities) are critical.

 Click here to view englarged versions of the photos.

Hooking a striped marlin on a fly is the beginning of a long battle.

A selection of lures that fooled many striped marlin.

Discuss Marlin and Dorado tactics on the Reel-Talk BBS:
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...and don't forget to check Capt. Kris Jop's weekly contributions to the Cape Cod FishWire reports!

Cape Cod FishWire

Some of my favorite flies for billfish.

After striking a popper and fighting for 25 minutes, a nice dorado is photographed before its release.

Approximately ten million years ago, an earthquake shifted a huge land mass from what is now mainland Mexico leaving a slender finger of land which stretches almost 1,000 miles from north to south. Today, the peninsula is known as Baja California. The gaping space between the land masses became the See of Cortez: one of the youngest seas and a unique fish trap. The waters of the Sea of Cortez are warmed in the shallow basin that stretches about 100 miles between mainland Mexico and Baja California. At the southernmost tip of the peninsula, where the Pacific Ocean and Sea of Cortez meet, is the little town of Cabo San Lucas.

The waters around Cabo provide ideal conditions for gamefish: tropical currents carry schools of bait relatively close to the coastline and ledges and banks submerged in the nutrient rich waters provide excellent environments for blue water fishing. In the underwater canyons of the Gordo Banks east from Cabo and the Golden Gate Banks on the Pacific side, water currents collide with pinnacles bringing nutrient-rich waters to the surface and attracting squid and small bait fish (sardines, anchovies and mackerel) which are followed by larger predators. This area is frequently visited by migratory tuna, dorado, and marlin which swim up into the Sea of Cortez to feed and to spawn. Other fish species found in the area include: roosterfish, pargo, jacks, yellowtail, sierra (or Spanish mackerel), pompano, wahoo, and sailfish.

Striped Marlin

Cabo is universally acknowledged as the striped marlin capital of the world, and deservedly so, since more marlin caught there than any other place on earth. The majority of marlin are caught on artificial lures and bait, but with increasing frequency, marlin are also being taken on the fly.

Trolling hookless lures using conventional rods is the primary technique for teasing marlin to the surface. The market is flooded with different artificial lures, and color combinations of plastic skirts and styles of heads are myriad. No single lure is always productive, but medium size petroleros (AL Lures) are used most frequently by the Cabo skippers. As in most open ocean fishing areas, dark colored lures are trolled early in the morning or during cloudy days. As light intensity increases, lures with brighter colored skirts are used unless particular colors are proving to attract fish..

When my anglers wanted to catch marlin on the fly, I would troll two lures and one or two teasers on flat lines. One of these teasers was a turbo teaser with a Boony bird in front. The second flat line was a chain of Mold Craft flying fish or squid daisy chain followed by petrolero or Sevenstrand Pro series lures. During my last month of guiding in Cabo, I also started using a lure made by Evan Brown (three time winner of the Bisbee Blue and Black Marlin Tournament) from PVC pipe 2.5 inches in diameter and 5 inches long. A skirt is fitted onto the back of pipe but the lure's most important feature is a compartment behind the head which is stuffed with a sponge soaked in fish oil. The oil is released during trolling and marlin seem to be more aggressive and stay excited longer when they come up on this lure. Marlin display their excitement by pulsing neon colors down the sides of their bodies, which makes them appear to be illuminated.

When a marlin comes up behind one of two lures I take the rod the fish is following and try to bring it slowly to the boat. At the same time the fisherman and the skipper clear the remaining lure and teasers. If the marlin loses interest in the lure, I would toss the hookless bait, usually a mackerel, to attract the marlin back within the casting range.

Usually the whole teasing process lasts less than 30 seconds after which the fly fisherman casts a fly. Accurately placing the fly within five feet of the fish is very important as is the subsequent stripping. Each situation is different and so the stripping action is dependent on the behavior and reaction of the fish. Blue and white Deceivers 12 to 15 inches in length are usually the most productive flies for teased marlin.

While the technique described above was the norm, for a few days in February 1998, we did not need to tease marlin at all. Marlin were abundant and feeding on the surface and could be located by watching for diving frigate birds. For these few days, the fishing was nothing short of spectacular: casting dead or dazed bait within the area of surface feeding, called "bait balls", was sufficient for a hookup. At these locations fly fishermen were able to hook marlin just by casting the fly in the vicinity of feeding marlin and short stripping the line.  My favorite fly in this situation was the Cam Sigler Pink Popper. 

The average striped marlin weighs about 150 pounds so I used a 14-weight Scott or Biscayne Bay rod, and a 16- or 20-pound tippet. In addition, my Steve Abel 4.5 Rapid Retrieve reel with a large-diameter arbor never failed. My line consisted of 25 feet   of billfish line attached to 50-pound Spider Wire. The leader was constructed of 3 feet of butt section, a class tippet, and a heavy shock tippet of 100 or 125-pound test. The class tippet was made by tying double Bimini twists, one within the first foot of the butt section and one at the end of butt section. The connection between the class tippet and shock leader is made by 3 to 5 half Huffnagle knots and one full Huffnagle knot.

Dorado

The second most exciting fish on the fly in Cabo is the dorado. For the most part, dorado are not a very selective feeders and will strike at practically any offering, especially if the fish is teased up correctly. Larger fish of 35 pounds or more, however, can be picky. In these situations, I recommend changing flies immediately after the first refusal and trying with the next fly, not by casting and stripping but by sweeping the rod sideways rapidly so that the fly rapidly travels 10 feet or so. This will often entice a larger dorado to strike the fly. My favorite was a silver pencil popper.

The most common teasing technique for dorado includes trolling small skirted lures or feathers to cover relatively large areas. When a dorado is hooked on trolling gear and fish are traveling in schools, it is safe to assume that other fish will be attracted to the boat. Dorado have the habit of following a member of the group that has been hooked (I often noticed while fishing for striped bass in New England that hooked fish attracted others that wanted a piece of the bait). Bringing a hooked dorado close to the boat allows fly fishermen to present a fly to the following fish. In most cases this results in a strike.

If dorado are present in the area but refuse artificial lures, I used bait to tease them. My first choice is skipjack and although catching skipjack can be time consuming, the rewards can be great. Trolling small light green hoochies was very effective for catching skipjack, which were then live-trolled at a very slow speed. Trolling slowly limits the area of coverage but the trolling speed can be significantly increased by using dead skipjack skipped on the surface. I often dropped a flat line with a large marauder dressed with silver tape on both sides of the lure. When the dorado appear, both the skipjack and teaser are quickly pulled out of the water, the boat is taken out of the gear, and hookless live caballito are chummed to keep the dorado close to the boat.

In places where dorado might concentrate, like around floating objects or shark buoys, a handful of sardines will usually do the trick. After throwing the sardines, I wait a couple of minutes to see the results of chumming.

For dorado and other blue water fish I recommend 12-weight outfits, rigged with good quality saltwater reels which should be matched to the weight of the rod. The reel should be able to hold a minimum of 300 yards of 30-pound Dacron backing in addition to the fly line. Scientific Anglers Bluewater, Tarpon Taper, or Cortland Intermediate Big Game Saltwater lines are all good for this type of fishing. The leader that I recommend is 4 feet long made of one size (16 or 20 pound) monofilament. Only two knots are used: the Bimini twist at the butt section and the uni-knot for attaching the fly to the leader. Since no one knows when the world record could be caught, all leaders are made from RIO IGFA monofilament.

Steve Abel has a reason to smile, this nice rooster fell for a 3" Clouser (a sand eel imitation).

Teasing roosterfish...

Happy client after a 40 minutes battle with a jack crevalle.

Very good eating and not a bad looking pargo or cubera snapper.

Roosterfish

Because of its fighting capabilities and beauty, roosterfish (or gallo as the Spanish call them) are the most prized inshore species in Cabo. Their dorsal fin consist of seven elongated flexible spines that resemble a rooster comb. Quite a few of my clients wanted to fish only for these prizes.

Actively feeding roosters signal by "busting bait" close to the surface near shore. They are relatively easy targets for the fly fisherman. We would position the boat close to the surface action for casting. Sometimes, especially when I could predict the direction of the surface action, we would stay put in a location and wait until feeding fish would come to us. Actively feeding roosters are not tremendously picky, brown and white or silver and white Deceivers or tan and white Clouser Minnows worked well.

Roosters can be also teased up to the surface. Catching teased roosterfish is not easy and requires good team work and a lot of luck. They are teased with hookless caballito slowly trolled 20-30 yards behind the stern.  To locate roosters, the bait is trolled 50 to 300 yards from the shore in a zig-zag fashion. Live bait is kept constantly in sight. To keep visual contact with the bait the leader is only 4 feet long and at the swivel I would attach a small piece of a blue or green plastic bag.

When roosterfish come up for the bait, the boat engine is taken out of gear, and the bait is retrieved to keep the bait intact and the fish excited. Approximately 30 feet from the boat, the bait is poppde out of the water allowing the fly fisherman to cast the fly.

Yellowfin Tuna

Yellowfin tend to swim mostly in the upper layers of the ocean and the fly fisherman has a good chance of hooking up with tuna on the surface. To locate a school of breaking fish, we would watch for diving or circling frigates or the presence of spinner porpoises. It is important to position the boat near the breaking fish. If the tuna do not move fast, and instead, feed within a particular area, a fly fishermen has a chance to catch them as live sardines would usually bring them within the casting range. I would often throw individual sardines at the same spot 10 feet from the boat. Sardines swim longer on the top if at least one of their eyeballs is removed. Fly fishermen either cast close to the breaking fish or if the fish are not visible on the surface, in the proximity where the sardines were dispersed. My favorite fly for tuna is the olive and white Clouser Minnow from 1 - 3 inches long.

Inshore Fly Fishing Opportunities

As in most places, ocean inshore feeding activity is regulated by tidal phases and currents moving during incoming or outgoing tides. Moving water stirs up the bottom and brings up food like worms and crabs for predators.

The best places to fish are steep sloping beaches where waves brake practically at the shoreline or on rocky stretches. Commotion on the surface is an obvious signal of feeding sprees. Usually, casting the fly in the middle of this surface activity results in a strike. Gamefish in these conditions lose some of their natural inhibitions and are more likely to strike the fly. Most inshore species feed on anchovies and sardines, therefore fly patterns should resemble these baitfish. I use a wire leader (single strain up to 30 pounds) for sierra and needlefish.

Sometimes while cruising the inshore areas we were able to spot brown carpets of fish called pargo or cubera snapper. Once detected, we would create a chum slick by cutting sardines or caballito into a small pieces and dropping them overboard every few seconds. Pargo eat practically anything, but sardines are their favorite food. They feed in relatively deep water between 10 and 30 feet so fast sinking line with weighted flies, like Clousers, are especially effective. Pargo can also be teased by slow trolling caballito on the surface and in this situation, Deceiver patterns that resemble live bait are most effective.

This past winter the fishing season in Cabo was somehow affected by El Nino. Usually the best blue and black marlin fishing in Cabo occurs in October and November. This year was different, and although some blue and black marlin were caught during these months, the most consistent results with these big brutes occurred in January. Even the best skippers could not find marlin during the annual Bisbee's Tournament, the largest marlin tournament in the world. During these three days of fishing by 187 boats, only two marlin that qualified for the prize money were caught .

If you are planning a trip, this year's dearth of blue and black marlin should not  discourage fly fishermen from coming to Cabo in October or November. During these months I encountered the most consistent fishing for dorado, yellowfin tuna, wahoo and roosterfish. During December and January, striped marlin and sailfish started to show up and inshore fishing for pargo, sierra mackerel, jack crevalle and amberjacks was also good. Then much to our surprise, most of February and the beginning of March produced phenomenal striped marlin fishing. I had days when we hooked up several marlin on the fly, and one day with 7 marlin caught on conventional tackle. This spectacular marlin fishing had been delayed by approximately 2 months, which was probably caused by El Nino. In addition to great marlin fishing during January, February and March, we were frequently also catching dorado, yellowfin tuna, sierra mackerel, and jacks.

Capt. Kris Jop has a Phd. in Environmental Toxicology, has written 50 peer reviewed articles and is known for his work on the Exxon Valdez cleanup. He guides during the summers on Cape Cod, fishing the hotspots of Buzzards Bay, the Elizabeths and the Monomoy Flats for strped bass. He is a sponsor of the weekly Cape Cod FishWire reports, where he shares his vast experience. He has written an article on Blue Flyfishing in Costa Rica for Reel-Time. Visit his web site here.