OUTDOOR NOTES : It’s the Season to Go Fishing for Marlin Off Cabo San Lucas

Those spending the holidays in Cabo San Lucas are discovering this is the best time to go fishing. Conditions are ideal--no crowds and lots of marlin.

“Fishing is excellent but business, it’s the other side of the coin,” said LaWanda Josephson of the Tortuga Finistera Fleet.

Striped marlin fishing is “red-hot,” according to the fleet’s owner, Darrell Primrose.

Primrose said the hotel boats in the area--most are fishing off the Cabo Falso Lighthouse--are averaging three to five stripers a day.

Dave Paster of Los Angeles fished for three days aboard the Tortuga II, catching and releasing 14 marlin.

For variety’s sake, dorado ranging from 10 to 40 pounds are readily striking trolled lures.

What do marlin eat?

The December issue of Salt Water Sportsman magazine has an interview with Wayne Witzell, a biologist with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration in Miami.

Witzell told writer Larry Larsen that in his years on the water--from Massachusetts to Texas, throughout the Caribbean and the Bahamas--he has learned that marlin are not as discriminating as he had previously thought.

Once he watched a 125-pound blue marlin trying to attack a porcupine fish that had inflated itself to dissuade the marlin.

Larsen’s description: “The unfortunate porcupine fish had puffed itself up to about one foot in diameter and was bobbing on the surface, while beneath it the dark shadow of the marlin circled.

“The blue eventually moved up underneath the porcupine fish and began whacking it with its bill. The inflated fish was batted into the air three or four times as the marlin continued its harassment.”

The marlin finally gave up as Witzell moved his boat in for a closer look.

Sampling tournament-caught blue marlin, Witzell has found in their stomachs huge quantities of deep sea squid, some as long as three feet.

“It’s not unusual to find 50 or 100 squid beaks, which look like little parrot beaks, in the stomach of a blue (marlin),” he told Larsen.

Dolphinfish and skipjack tuna to 10 pounds are a common part of the marlin’s diet.

Not so common: The foot-long swordfish--estimated to be about 40 days old--found inside the stomach of a 390-pound blue marlin that was caught in the Bahamas.

Several years ago, Witzell said, a 400-pound blue marlin had swallowed a three-foot white marlin. The blue had the whole 40-pound white marlin in its stomach.

Ralph Rosenlund of Portland, Ore., recommends that Americans planning to tour Europe in a recreational vehicle ship one over and sell it there afterward.

“It costs only $700 to ship one but $1,000 to $1,500 a week to rent one,” Rosenlund said.

Rosenlund and his wife Nancy have written a 450-page guide: “Travel Europe With Your Motor Home.” They will be at the 26th annual Anaheim Sports, Vacation & RV Show Jan. 5 through Jan. 13.

Along with the usual fishing, hunting and adventure activities, the show will feature outdoor products.

Show hours: Saturdays noon-10 p.m., Sundays noon-6 p.m., weekdays 2-10 p.m. Admission: adults $6.95, children ages 6-15 $2.25, under 6 free and seniors $5 on weekdays.

Briefly

WILDLIFE--The Volunteer Desert Water and Wildlife Survey has eight projects planned from January through July. A cooperative effort of the Department of Fish and Game and the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep, the group builds and maintains water holes for desert wildlife. The next project is scheduled Jan. 26-27, replacing two big-game guzzlers in the Whipple Mountains. Details: (213) 256-0463.

FLY-FISHING--Dan Michaels will present a slide show on the bountiful fishing in southwest Alaska at Greg Lilly’s in Tustin Jan. 5. No admission charge. Details, (714) 669-1006. . . . The Sierra Pacific Fly Fishers will start their 20th annual free beginners’ fly-tying class Feb. 13 at the Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks Park Senior Citizen Center. The seven-week course will be conducted from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. each Wednesday night for seven weeks. Students must provide their own equipment, which may cost $100-150. Details, (818) 983-1880.

HUNTING--Ducks, at San Diego City Lakes: Otay--40 hunters, 75 ducks, seven limits of mostly gadwall, some greenwings and spoonbill. Sutherland: One hunter, one pintail. Information: (619) 465-4500.