Rare Albino Sailfish Caught on Pisces Boat

This Saturday, November 28th, I received a phone call from our dockmaster, Mario, around 8.00 am to tell me that our 54 ft Bertram "Get Over It" was hooked up to a very weird fish and they asked "what should we do". I immediately got on the phone with the captain Jobe Villavicencio to see what was going on. Jobe was very excited saying they were hooked up to a sailfish that was completely white. Incredulous I got on the internet and found that a couple of "albino" sailfish had been caught before, one aboard a commercial boat in Manzanillo, Mexico and another in Guatemala. The captain wanted to know if he should boat the fish or release it. This put us in a bit of a dilemma; knowing how rare this fish was, we knew that it would be very valuable to local scientists, however we had paying clients on board and the decision had to be theirs, when you charter a boat from Pisces you get to call the shots, it is your boat for the day. The angler, Matt Dye from Alexandria, Virginia, decided to release this, his first every sailfish and a weird one at that and we were happy with his decision. Captain Jobe told me that they were fishing 14 miles off of the Old Lighthouse on the Pacific when they saw the fish jumping they quickly cast a live caballito to it, which it immediately took. He said the way the fish took the bait was very odd. It didn't run or jump, he could not express very well what he meant but said it was just strange. It took them 15 minutes to bring to the boat on 20 lb test and weighed approximately 110 lbs. From what I read these fish are white due to a lake of melanin, but cannot be considered truly albino unless they have pink eyes. Due to the excitement the pictures taken were not the best and there is quite a bit of shadow on the fish making it look darker. I asked the captain about the eyes and he said they were really beautiful, pink with a brown tinge, which is not appreciated in the photographs. Jobe always seems to be in the news, but then again he is a great captain. Both he and brother Cubi (Javier) the mate were named World Offshore Champions, competing against 30 countries, in the IGFA World Offshore Championship held here in Cabo just a few weeks ago.

Fish Report Nov 19-25 th

PISCES FISH REPORT

Overall Catch Success Rate 99%

BILLFISH: Although the actual number of billfish caught this week was lower, because less boats went out the catch success rate was slightly higher, with fifty eight percent of charters catching billfish. Due to the warmer than normal weather we still have some blue marlin hanging around. The most impressive catch was on November 22^nd aboard "La Brisa" a 31 ft Bertram, for Thomas Troclair from Lake Charles, Louisiana. They were fishing just four miles off of San Cristobal and were catching dorado, when the captain spotted something about 900 feet away that was eating dorado. The captain, Rey Winkler, yelled to deckhand Ernesto Alonso to throw a dorado to the huge fish he had seen. Not having time to rig it, Ernesto took one of the dorado they had already boated, quickly attached it over a lure that was already rigged to a 50 International that they had been trolling with and threw it out towards the huge shape they had seen. Five seconds later an enormous fish rocketed out of the water just fifteen feet behind the boat, having taken the dorado and lure all together. The angler, Thomas, pumped and sweated for a little over three hours before they could bring the large blue marlin boat-side, which taped out to 600 lbs –then they released it. From what the crew said it was a real "Old Man and the Sea" scenario and they were thrilled to have released the fish rather than kill it. We had one other blue marlin this week, but much smaller at 200 lbs released aboard "Andale" for Wes Knostman from Houston, who also got eight dorado. On November 22^nd we had a couple of boats that released three striped marlin apiece "Rebecca" (another 31 ft Bertram) for Gerald Richmond from Islamorada Florida, who also caught three dorado. "Tracy Ann" another of our 31 ft Bertrams also released three striped marlin and boated three dorado for Robert and Sara Booms from Illinois. "Tracy Ann" had an exact repeat of this catch earlier in the week for David Palme and Charles Foster from Texas and again on the 25^th for Cody Vickers from San Marcos, Texas. Catches were usually one marlin and between three and six dorado. Pisces anglers caught a total of 57 billfish this week consisting of 53 striped marlin, 2 blue marlin and 2 sailfish.

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado continue to be the top catch in Cabo and this week ninety four percent of charters caught between one and twelve in the 15 to 30 lb class. The total count for this species was 361 fish. The dorado are hungry and taking anything; live bait, green colored lures, or petroleros. Found at Gaspareño, Pozo de Cota and as far as Golden Gate. Tuna catches were slow with just five boats finding this species. The boat that did best on this "Marea" went the opposite direction to the other boats and caught eleven at Cabeza de Ballena along with six dorado for Steffen Neumann from Los Angeles, Ca. Wahoo catches were pretty good this week, especially around Gaspareño; "Attitude Adjustment" caught three smallish ones plus six dorado for Ron Nichols from Houston, Texas. Some of the other wahoo caught were up to 45 lbs. A 55 lb mako shark was also caught as well as some roosterfish and skipjacks.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Mostly clear skies, calm seas.

LOCATION: Pacific, Old Lighthouse to Golden Gate, better spots Gaspareño and Pozo de Cota.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 79 F

BEST LURES: Live caballito, green colored lures, petroleros.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

 

Fish Report

Pisces Fish Report

November 11th to 18th, 2009

Overall Catch Success Rate 99%

(Photo shown is of Ron Smart from Granbury, Tx with a 50 lb wahoo he caught aboard Ruthless)

BILLFISH: Weather is still hotter than normal in Cabo right now and so far the striped marlin have not shown up "en masse" as they did last year. However, reports from friends fishing Mag Bay tell us that they are thick up there and should not take too long to make their way down to us. Nevertheless catch rates are climbing slowly but surely, with the billfish catch rate this week at fifty five percent. This was not a problem though as pretty much all boats loaded up on dorado, some tuna and wahoo as well as a little over half catching marlin and some getting more than their fair share. "Get Over It" release eight striped marlin at the Golden Gate on November 17^th for James Deluccini from Grove, California fishing with Mark Campbell and Ross Kline from Reno, Nevada; all were caught on live bait…. the day before on this same boat these guys released three stripers and caught twelve dorado. It comes as no surprise that this boat did well, seeing as the crew were crowned IGFA World Offshore Champions last week. Angler of the week though has to go to Johnny Mack Powers from Rockwall, Texas. During his six days fishing aboard "Bill Collector" and "Spartacus" he released one black marlin, estimated at 250 lbs, ten striped marlin, twenty six dorado, four wahoo up to 45 lbs and fifteen tuna, the largest over 100 lbs. "Rebecca" released four striped marlin on November 11^th and there were several boats that had triple marlin days, such as "Andrea" and "La Brisa". Other boats had fabulous mixed bag days, such as "Great Escape Jr" on the 12^th with two striped marlin released, three dorado, three tuna and a wahoo, or "Rebecca" with three marlin released, five dorado and a wahoo on the 13^th for Claire Land and Gerald Richmond from Islamorada, Florida. "Andale" was our only boat this week to have a blue marlin, though it was on the small side, released and estimated at 150 lbs. Pisces anglers caught a total of 92 billfish this week consisting of 88 striped marlin, 2 sailfish, 1 blue marlin and 1 black marlin.

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado continues to totally dominate the sportfishing scene at Land's End; our final tally this week was a whopping 590, with many released to stay within allowed quotas. Weights are average at 15 to 35 lbs with catches ranging from one to twenty fish per boat. Ninety three percent of charters caught dorado. Green colored and Petrolero lures worked best and dorado were found on both the Cortez and Pacific with larger concentrations on the Pacific side. Yellowfin tuna catches were on the slow side with twenty one percent of boats finding football size fish and with catches of no more than eight per boat. The only exception to size were those caught by Johnny Mack Powers aboard Bill Collector, when he headed the opposite way to most boats and went to Gordo Banks where he got fish to 100 lbs on feathers and cedar plugs. We had 14 wahoo this week but sizes are no more than 40 lbs. Roosterfish are picking up nicely close to shore near the Lighthouse. The only other catch to speak of was some skipjack.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Seas were choppy with whitecaps on the Pacific at the start of this report but are now dead calm. Clear, sunny skies.

LOCATION: San Jaime, Golden Gate, Gaspareño, Migriño, Punta Gorda.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 79 F

BEST LURES: Live bait for striped marlin, assorted lures dorado, cedar plugs and feathers for tuna.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Great Day Aboard Bill Collector

Pictured here is our good friend Johnny Mack Powers from Rockwall, Texas. He loves to fish on Bill Collector and counts down the days and minutes between fishing trips. He had a great day on November 16th catching and releasing a black marlin estimated at 250 lbs, plus boating three nice tuna, shown here, that weighed 40, 80 and 100 lbs respectively, three dorado between 25 and 35 lbs, plus a bunch of skipjacks that he released.

Mexico World Champions

Shown here is the winning team of the IGFA World Offshore Championship. Photo on the stage shows the team, plus local dignitaries including Secretary of Tourism Alberto Treviño. The other photo shows the anglers showing off their Championship Rings, they also received diamond accented Reactor Watches valued at $5000.00 each and individual bronze Bodo Muche (bodostudio.com) trophies. The awards given for this tournament are not money, but rather prizes, fishing apparel and likewise provided by the sponsors.

IGFA World Offshore Championship Ends

The World Offshore Championship concluded today at 3.00 pm and we now have the official results.

1^st Place Mexico, with a local team from Los Cabos with 14 marlin released over the four day event. The team consisted of Hernando "el conejo" (rabbit) Gonzalez, Jobe Villavicencio, Cubi Villavicencio, Oscar Daccarrett and Drew Andrews. None of these guys are strangers to success. Up until last week, Jobe held the record for the largest tuna caught in the WON Tuna Tournament, until fellow angler Oscar broke that record last week with a 383 lb tuna. Jobe and Cubi are brothers and Hernando is their cousin. These three formed the crew aboard our very popular charter boat "Ni Modo" for many years and they are now the crew aboard "Get Over It". You could not get a more experienced team than these guys that fish this area pretty much every day. CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR LOCAL BOYS AND FRIENDS!

2^nd Place Guatemala for ten marlin released.

3^rd Place Brazil for nine marlin released.

Looks like the Latin guys are on a roll.

Fish Report Oct 29 to November 10th, 2009

Overall Catch Success Rate 96%

BILLFISH: Firstly our apologies for the fish report being out late, but this is going to be worth reading…..we have been very much involved with the recent tournaments which has absorbed a lot of our time.

Right now the weather is warmer than it should be for November and it appears as if the season is about three to four weeks behind what it should be. Many of you may recall that last November was a record breaking one for us, with an incredible number of striped marlin, 2050 in fact, for Pisces, in this month alone. That is not the situation this year but we are still having fantastic fishing but more along the lines of what we catch in October. So if all goes as with think it will, late November or December will be the month we see an explosion on striped marlin catches. We are not complaining though, this last period produced the biggest blue marlin we have caught all year, just a week late for the big tournaments…..isn't that always the case…but there is always next year. The weekend after the Bisbee "Andale" had a 475 lb blue marlin and seven dorado at the Golden Gate for Ron McCall and friends from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Next day out "Attitude Adjustment" fished just beyond the Golden Gate and landed a large blue, which though not officially weighed, was calculated at 550 to 600 lbs, as well as five dorado for Marsha & Stacy Steward, Ken Hoffman & Sheryl Johnson, all from Illinois. This same boat had a 250 lb blue, a striped marlin, 15 tuna and a dorado later in the week for Donny McVelfy & friends from Parker, Colorado. Other boats that released blue marlin between 200 and 300 lbs later in the week were Falcon, Tracy Ann and Bandito. With the IGFA World Offshore Championship currently underway boats were eager to start practicing for striped marlin, for this all release on billfish tournament and some did very well. On November 4^th "Tracy Ann" released four striped marlin off of Los Arcos for Jeremiah & Tess Hawkins from Des plains, Illinois. "Bill Collector" fishing this same area released six striped marlin and got four dorado for Sandro Onofaro and friends from Rome Italy, a team practicing for the IGFA event. There were other boats that also had up to three marlin in a day plus some sailfish. Despite these great catches the marlin bite could be better; there are plenty of fish, but they are dorado and tuna. Twenty nine percent of charters caught billfish this week consisting of 53 striped marlin, six blue marlin and four sailfish.

OTHER SPECIES: This period saw the 11^th Annual Western Outdoor News Jackpot Tuna Tournament take place. This was a hugely successful event with 104 teams participating, the only tournament in California and Baja to see growth in what is considered a slow year all around. This fun event is a tournament accessible to anyone, with a reasonable $700 entry fee and optional daily jackpots, plus you don't need a fancy boat and the rules are flexible so you don't have to worry about somebody touching your line, or handing the rod to a friend if you get tired. The weather was perfect on the first day November 5^th and you could feel the anticipation and certainty that big fish were going to be caught. I got a call from one of the boats at 10.30 on the first day, Oscar Daccarrett, aboard "Fisherman" called to say that his team had a big fish on at the Gordo Bank, he told me "at least 300 lbs", but then decided to hang up rather than jinx himself and said he would call back when they had it on board. Forty minutes later he called back to tell me they had it on board and that he thought it would surpass the current tournament record of 318 lbs. This was great news as Costa Del Mar sunglasses, one of the sponsors said they would give a bonus prize of $50,000.00 to anybody beating the tournament record. "Fisherman" was the first boat to the scale when it opened at 2.00 pm and nobody was prepared for the monster fish that they had on board. When hoisted up the electronic scale registered an amazing 383 lbs! This is just u 5 lbs under the all tackle world record, making it the largest tuna caught not only in Los Cabos, but in the whole of Mexico. It was 74" long and had a girth of 62" and had a zillion photographs taken of it by passersby's who posed with it like it was a celebrity. Everybody knew this would be a tough fish to beat, but team "Fisherman" was not in all of the jackpots so there was still a shot at prize money and of course the wahoo/dorado division which ended up being won by our very own "Ruthless" with a 61.2 lb wahoo. The prizes were distributed as follows:

Team Fisherman 383 lb Tuna $119, 480.00 plus the $50,000 bonus for $169,480

Team Spartacus 122 lb Tuna $32,080.00

Team Express 102.3 lb Tuna $30,636.00

Team Doctor Pescado II 38 lb Wahoo Day One $33,200.00

Team Alejandra 98.7 lb Tuna $35,600.00

Team Ruthless 61.2 lb Wahoo Day two $33,200.00

Team Tantrum 90.3 lb tuna $25,200.00

Team Bullrider $25,200.00 85.5 lb tuna.

Team El Loco II 51.1 lb Tuna $21,600.00

A great time was had by all and the event was honored by the Governors presence along with other dignitaries; the first time he has attended a Tournament Awards Banquet.

Dorado catches were number one this week with eighty five percent of boats catching from one to twenty with weights ranging from 15 to 35 lbs. The total dorado count for this period for Pisces was 591 fish caught, with many smaller ones released. Tuna catches were slower with twenty five percent of charters catching between one and fifteen in a day, the average size being 25 lbs. "Bill Collector" did have a very nice tuna four days before the tournament a 220 lb fish caught just two miles off of the Old Lighthouse on a green and yellow lure for Gary Geringer from Wichita Kansas. It was a good week for wahoo, with "La Brisa" catching four in a day for Walt Wade from Temecula California, going after the wahoo prize in the tournament, but just edged out by "Ruthless". Weights on wahoo were fairly small with most under 40 lbs. We also had some roosterfish up to 20 lbs and a few amberjacks.

LOCATION: Mostly Pacific from Los Arcos to Golden Gate and Punta Gorda on the Cortez side for big tuna.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Beautiful, clear sunny skies, calm seas.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 80 F

BEST LURES: Green/yellow, live bait, rapalas.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Winning Wahoo at the Tuna Tournament

Well we were finally able to download the pictures of our winning wahoo for team Ruthless and veteran captain Leon Camacho and deckhand Beto Lira. Leon has been with Pisces since we started in La Paz 30 years ago, so I guess you could say he has some experience. We will have the amounts on winnings up on the blog soon as we get a sneak preview before the awards dinner. The Governor of Baja California Sur will be attending the dinner the very first tournament dinner he has attended. This is in recognition of Western Outdoor News and their years of dedication and promotion of Baja. Enjoy the photos.

Tuna Tournament Comes to an End

This was the second and final day of the tuna tournament and as expected nothing could come close to the monster fish taken yesterday which retains its first place status. We will have a full round up tomorrow. The dorado/wahoo prize will go to our 31 ft Bertram Ruthless for bringing a 61.2 lb wahoo to the scale for angler Carl Johnson from Phoneix Arizona, from what I can see this fish will net them $44,000.00 Photos shown here are of the shotgun start this morning.

History Made in the Tuna Tournament

The first day of fishing is over and boy what a day. I got a phone call from well know local angler and personality Oscar Daccarrett at around 10.30 am today and he said "Tracy we have a good fish on, around 300 lbs", not wanting to jinx himself he said "I'll call back when we've got it on board" and hour and half later he told me that had boated it and he thought it would surpass the current Tuna Tournament record of 318 lbs. I told him to take it easy and slow down to wrap the fish in wet towels and to conserve it as best they could as the scale would not be open til 2.00 pm. I knew that he had bought a special ticket from Costa del Mar one of the sponsors, which was an oppotional deal, where if you get a fish over the current record of 318, they kick in $50,000.00 to the prize money... not bad for a $50.00 ticket going to charity....but what were the odds of beating the 318? Well in my mind it could be done. Judging by the number of big tuna we had seen coming in over the last couple of months and the perfect fishing weather....blue, blue seas, no wind and still on the hot side. Figuring I had some time I got to work doing some chores out of the office, until I got a phone call from Mike at Tournament Control....who was laughing and saying can you believe it the fish is 383 lbs....just five pounds short of the all tackle world record. INCREDIBLE... I rushed off to the dock to see the fish in person and to congratulate the anglers, all local guys from San Jose. The fish was taken at the Gordo Banks on 100 lb test on a Penn International 80 two speed and a bent butt rod. The fish took what is know as a "bullito" which is a small tuna or bonita that was approximately 2 lbs. The fish took one hour and 35 minutes to boat. The main angler on this fish was Hugo Pino, also Augustin Pino and Oscar Daccarrett. See, this tournament is about fun and they needed three guys to muscle this brute up to the boat. The fish is worth approximately $175,000.00 to this team from "Fisherman" a 35 ft Cabo skippered by Alfredo "Perico" Sanchez. The length of the fish was 74" and the girth was 62". This team however, was not entered in all the jackpots, so a 102 lb fish caught by Mel and Judy Ostberg who are entered in everything look like they will take $44,000.00. Spartacus also brought a nice fish to the scale, weighing in at 122.4 lbs, they are entered across the board they also weighed in an 87 lb 'er so we will see where they stand.

Photos show the team of Fisherman and myself and Oscar Daccarrett, from this shot it give you a good idea of the size in comparison to people.

Tuna Tournament Begins!

Today was the first day of fishing of the Western Outdoor News Jackpot Tuna Tournament now in its' 11th year. The check-in was at the Tesoro Hotel and there was a great turnout of 104 teams, making it the only tournament to actually increase in size this year and also the largest tournament of the year. We love this tournament because it's all about fun as well as fishing. Lots of local boats particpate and the entry fees are accessable to pretty much anybody with the minimum being $700.000 and the maximum of $23,200.00 if you enter all the jackpots. The organizers throw parties every night for the particpants, not just an awards dinner and we see anglers return year after year. The control boat was Oceanus and we were away from the dock aboard her by 6.00 am to start checking in the teams, which can be a bit chaotic with 104 vessels coming at you all at the same time. They have to be visually checked off by the control boat and hold up their team number as they go by. It's a lot of fun to wave to friends and captains we know and there is a lot of excitement in the air. The State Secretary of Tourism was on board to fire the flare for the shotgun start. I got roped into being the tournament control operator to check in boats, but it was quite fun actually. I have already heard from a couple of boats hooked up to large tuna but the scale won't open until 2.00 pm, so we will keep you posted.

Tracy Ehrenberg