December 10th to 17th, 2009
Overall Catch Success Rate 100%
BILLFISH: We had a couple of important things happen this week and both were in regard to the same boat. Firstly, "Bill Collector" our 32 ft Cabo, or rather the Captain Julio Gonzalez was named Top Captain Worldwide, by the Billfish Foundation for most striped marlin released in 2009. Then on December 14th, the "Bill Collector" had a double hook up on spearfish (short bill Pacific variety) at Destiladeres in the Sea of Cortez. These are the only spearfish that we know of that were caught this year in Los Cabos. The crew had heard a report of marlin in that area, the opposite of where most boats are currently fishing, so they decided to check it out. The crew told me the fish came out of nowhere; they thought they saw a dorado or something on the surface so circled the area and suddenly got two strikes at the same time on the lures, one a green/yellow the other a "petrolero". Seeing as they were rigged for striped marlin, the tackle was way too much for these little guys, taking just a couple of minutes to bring them to the boat for release. Captain Julio said they were about 25 lbs each and really beautiful. The anglers were Stuart and Ryan Moore from Aurora, Illinois and they also caught five small tuna. This is the same boat that caught an almost 900 lb blue marlin a couple of weeks ago. The good news this week is that every boat caught boat of some description with fifty nine percent of boats catching billfish, almost without exception, striped marlin. Boat of the week for striped marlin was 31 ft "Tracy Ann". On December 16th, this boat released seven striped marlin and a sailfish, all on live bait at Los Arcos for Thomas McLaughlin and Mandy Moy from San Francisco, Ca. Next day out they released three for Hannah Simpkins & David Grilliot from Anchorage, Alaska, also at Los Arcos. The only other boat with a triple marlin day was "Rebecca" on the 16th for Randi Church, Ginger Pung & Gene Montgomery, all from Minnesota ; they also caught a couple of yellowfin and a dorado. To be honest the marlin fishing has not taken off like we would like it to, but we think this is due to the continuing warm weather, with water temps still around 78 F when they should be closer to 70 F. Once we get that colder weather, the bite should be better. There were several boats with a single marlin but dorado edged them out slightly. Pisces anglers caught a total of 43 billfish this week, consisting of 40 striped, 2 spearfish and 1 sailfish.
OTHER SPECIES: Dorado were the number one catch in Cabo this week with sixty six percent of charters catching between one and eight, with weights average at 18 to 25 lbs. "Ruthless" had eight at Migriño for Terry Pearce from Buellton California on the 15th. Our total dorado catch was 95 fish and we should see a decline on this species from now on. We did have a showing of yellowfin tuna, which was a bit unusual, or we are normally concentrating on marlin at this time of year. Twenty nine percent of boats found these fish with an average weight of 20 lbs, found at several different locations. Top boat was "Tracy Ann" on the 11th with fourteen at Chileno, on the Cortez side for James Green from New York, fishing with Thomas Cypolisk from Centerville, Montana. Inshore we had a couple of tuna and a solitary 35 lb wahoo.
LOCATION: Los Arcos, La Ballena, Migriño, Pozo de Cota, Punta Gorda, Faro Viejo, outside Golden Gate.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Perfect, calm seas, blue skies.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 78 F
BEST LURES: Live caballito, green lures, petroleros.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg
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