Catches Continue to Soar in Cabo

Catch rates are soaring as the weather heats up and it seems like the fishing is keeping pace with it.  Yesterday we had a total of 24 billfish, 22 striped marlin and 2 sailfish. Some of the highlights, were 28 ft Adriana with, 5 striped marlin and 1 sailfish released for the Porter family from Poway, Georgia or how about Valerie for 3 striped marlin, 9 tuna and a doardo. We have a big moon as we write this, usually a sure sign of a slow down at least for billfish and yes, the numbers dipped slightly but the tuna fishing exploded. Today Tracy Ann caught a whopping 45 fish (many released) and then released a striped marlin and boated a doardo for Larry and Kellie Hemmingway from Kingwood, Texas. You know Texans are really smart, they know to get out of town, as it is bloody hot there, much hotter than Cabo and they know that fishing is at its best in the summer months in Mexico. Our fish tally for two days and sixteen trips:
22 striped marlin
2 sailfish
177 yellowfin tuna
27 dorado
20 skipjacks.

If you love to fish now is the time to be here.

Hey, take the skin off first!

 Our local vet Humberto Macias,had visitors from Guadalajara in town and being from here, he knew where to turn to make sure his friends had a successful trip, Pisces of course. They were out on Ruthless and released a striped marlin and caught 8 tuna and a dorado, probably something the vet's city slicker friend had never seen before which is why he was trying to eat it whole....well he wanted fresh fish..

Stop Press....Fishing Was Brilliant Today!

PICSES CAUGHT 22 STRIPED MARLIN BETWEEN SIX BOATS TODAY

 Six Pisces boats went out fishing today and caught
22 Striped Marlin & 1 Sailfish
24 Yellow Fin Tuna (one was 160 lbs)
1 Dorado
1 White Skipjack
Top boat was Rebecca for 8 striped marlin released plus a sailfish for James and Tammy Kiser from Cyprus, Texas.
Followed by Tracy Ann with six striped marlin and six tuna for Amy & Jeremy Ross from Lufkin, Texas.
La Brisa had ten tuna ranging from 10 to 60 lbs, PLUS a tough 160 lb fish that took Holt Jones from Lake Charles, Louisiana two hours to boat.
NOW IS THE TIME TO BE IN CABO AND FISHING WITH PISCES OF COURSE.

Its Here, Latest Fish Report, One Word Superb

JULY 21^st to 27^th, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 99%

DECKHAND MARTIN GONZALEZ MAKING SURE THIS BLUE MARLIN IS RECOVERED FROM THE FIGHT BEFORE LETTING HIS BILL GO

BILLFISH: The only way to describe Cabo fishing this week was superb, with plenty of action to keep anglers busy, with a variety of game fish available. Every boat we sent out, except one who wanted to concentrate solely on finding a big blue marlin, caught fish. The big story this week was that of a 750 lb blue marlin caught by a boat named Acero Azul, we heard about this story and posted the news and received several comments, some angry, asking why the fish was killed. We just reported this story, but thought the captain should give his input. Firstly, the fish may well have been over 750 lbs as that was as high as the scale went, secondly, they crew intended to release this beauty but it died after ninety minutes and almost spooling them three times. They knew they had a dead fish and angler Gary Steelberg from Newport Beach, CA, had his work cut out for him, taking another 40 minutes before the fish appeared belly up at the transom, then another 30 minutes for the crew to manhandle it onto the swim-step. The fish was caught at the 95 spot on a flying fish color lure.  In regular fishing news “La Brisa” released a blue marlin a little under 300 lbs at San Jaime on the Pacific as well as catching five tuna for Heath Jones from Lake Charles, Louisiana. At the start of this report “Rebecca” was hot, releasing three striped marlin, at Migrino then going onto land six tuna and a dorado for James & Nancy Oden from Kaufman, Texas. This same day, “Tracy Ann” had Alyson & Tom Fix from Glendale, Arizona on board who did well to release two striped marlin and a sailfish that was quite large at around 100 lbs, plus six tunas. On July 22^nd “Great Escape Jr.” had an outstanding day with a quadruple billfish count, consisting of three striped marlin and a sailfish for a group of guys from Oregon headed up by Joey Blatner. Captain J.R on “Rebecca” loves to fish striped marlin which is evident by the amount he catches, proving it again on July 23^rd, with his second triple header of the week, plus three tuna for Wendi Tillen Lloyd Wynn & Ken Gregory from Atlanta Georgia & Madison, Alabama….go southerners! Rounding out the week for better than average catches was “C Rod” who fished at Pozo de Cota and  Los Arcos areas catching three striped marlin, six dorado and three tuna for the Reynolds family from Cleburne, Texas.   Fifty seven percent of our charters caught billfish this week, giving us a total of forty five billfish; 41 striped marlin, 3 sailfish and 1 blue marlin, all released

OTHER SPECIES: Yellow fin tuna catches, still topped the tables this week with seventy one percent of boat catching between one and twenty seven fish normally in the 12 to 25 lb class, with cedar plugs the most popular hook up method as well as regular lures. “Tracy Ann” caught the most in one day, 27, for Kevin Love and friends from Humble, Texas fishing off of the Old Lighthouse and San Cristobal. There was disappointment for Derrick Baker from Missoula, Montana – he hooked an enormous tuna aboard “Valerie” at the Jaime Bank, that he struggled and sweat over for almost six hours, before losing it. His consolation prize were four smaller fish up to 25 lbs. The big one that got away took a live caballito.  Our total tuna count was 202 fish. Dorado catches were at thirty five percent with catches of one to seven fish and weights up to 45 lbs, though more commonly between 18 and 25 lbs, on the Pacific at various spots. Just one wahoo this week, smallish at 30 lbs for an angler from Hawaii, aboard “Falcon”. Inshore not much happening or we are simply not fishing there, though there were a few roosters up to 50 lbs and some white skipjacks.

LOCATION: Pacific, Old Lighthouse to San Jaime, 95 spot on Cortez.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: We had some beautiful days where the sea didn’t even look like it was moving, then towards the end of the week some warm breezes on the Pacific strong enough to produce whitecaps. It is still cooler than normal for this time of year and still not a drop of rain for Cabo San Lucas.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 79 F in the areas we are fishing.

BEST LURES: Caballito, cedar plugs, silver, green colors.

The Captain's Story Behind the 750 lb Blue Marlin

Yesterday we posted a story about a large blue marlin caught in Cabo. We got several comments about the fish not being released. We have been able to communicate with the captain who told us the following:
"We were fishing the 95 bank on Tuesday morning and afternoon.  Dave Hanson called me told me that he had been catching blue marlin there all week.  We were grinding the high spot up when just before the tide our deckhand Pancho shouted up to me and told me he had just seen a big blue under the teasers.  For what seemed like 2 minutes straight the massive blue marlin punished the teasers with at least 6 passes.  We were all amazed by the size but had to idea the fish was as big as it was.  Finally after what seemed like an eternity the fish dropped back behind the outrigger jig,  Custom Steve Elkins Junior pop in the flying fish color, and inhaled the jig.  The fish never really took to the air as the fight was deep.  We only got a look at the fish once when it came out of the water in the distance.  We all thought the fish was between 400-500 pounds.  About 90 minutes into the flight after almost getting spooled 3 times the fight changed dramatically.  It was apparent the fish had perished and we were just reeling in dead weight from the deep.  It was very unfortunate for us as we had every intent on releasing the fish back to the ocean.  When the fish finally appeared belly up off the transom we were all shocked at the actual size.  It took us 30 minutes to wrestle the fish on the swim step.  Once we heard the weight at the scales we were all shocked.  We had tapped the fish out somewhere between 750-800.  We didn't hear about the scale bottoming out at 750 until we were on our way home to Newport.  The crew and I all agree that it was an amazing fish and the number didn't matter.  We would have been much happier with a healthy release.
The crew consisted of
Captain Rob Petrina
Angler Gary Steelberg
Mate Pancho
Mate Ken Cicchelli
Chef Stacey Fetterman
Moral Support D'ette Steelberg"

750 lb Blue Marlin Caught In Cabo, or was it more?

This 750 lb blue marlin was photographed at the main dock yesterday and did not get seen by many people, but Carlos from Marinas de Baja was kind enough to pass this on to us with the comment "Well it might have been bigger actually, because our scale only goes up to 750 lbs then it stops. When they hung the fish the needle instantly sprung to 750 lb and couldn't go anymore, as that's the limit. So perhaps it was a bit bigger". Nobody will ever know now, but this large blue marlin was caught aboard a spectacular 98 ft Queenship "Acero Azul" - definitely one of the most impressive sportfishers in Los Cabos. Captain Rob Pertrina was at the helm for what seemed to be a short time for a fish of this size, two hours and ten minutes. the angler was Gary Steelberg from Newport Beach, Ca. We are waiting for a callback from Captain Rob to fill us in on the details.

Latest Fish Report

JULY 14^th to 20^th, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 99%

TUNA WERE KING THIS WEEK AND THIS ONE WAS WELL AND TRULY HOOKED

BILLFISH: Fishing was fantastic in Cabo this week with boats coming back with outriggers full of flags, so much so, that on some days there was not enough room to hang everything needed. However, the biggest catch this week was not marlin but tuna. Nevertheless we had some good billfish catches which lead to a thirty seven percent success rate for the most sought after sportfish. Matthew Neeson from El Paso, Texas was out on one of the finest sportfishing boats in the harbor, 61 ft Viking “El Gallo” on July 14^th and did very well to release our first blue marlin of the week. The fish took a black and green lure just below the Jaime Bank on the Pacific. Not only did Matthew and his friends get the nicest billfish of the week, they also boated five yellow fin tuna. The only other blue was picked up by Ernie Sandoval from San Diego, on his way out to the East Cape for the dorado tournament aboard “Cabolero”; this one was estimated at 265 lbs. Corey and Karik Weatherly from Baytown, Texas did very well the next day out to release two striped marlin 30 miles offshore and also land a small dorado. “Ruthless” had an enviable day on July 20^th for Dennis Carrillo and friends from La Fuente, California, when they released our only sailfish of the week, as well as a Mako shark and then boated three tuna and one 35 lb dorado. Dace Shuck and Adam Cripps, both from Tennessee were out the same day on “Valerie” and did extremely well to release two striped marlin in the 100 to 120 lb class as well as three dorado up to 45 lbs and nine yellow fin tuna at the Golden Gate…now those guys were busy; it doesn’t get much better than that. When billfish were caught, it was seldom more than a single fish, but then again, most boats wanted to take advantage of the fabulous tuna catches. Pisces anglers caught a total of 17 striped marlin, two blues and one sail. All were released.

OTHER SPECIES: The dorado shoot out took place this weekend at Los Barriles on the East Cape which was well attended. Ernie Sandoval did a practice day on “Cabolero “the day before and caught two sailfish and a 53 lb bull dorado, of course a day early. Nobody in the tournament the next day could produce a fish of that size and the eventual winner ended up being a 41 lb specimen, netting the lucky angler $69,000 and a brand new pickup truck. Dorado catches off of Cabo showed a marked increase with forty two percent of boats catching between one and four fish from 10 to 40 lbs. The exception was “Tracy Ann” for Patrick Cummings and friends from Moscow, ID who caught ten up to 45 lbs plus three tuna and also released a striped marlin – now that’s a great day. Yellow fin tuna, however, was king in Cabo this week with a whopping eighty five percent of boats catching between one and thirty five fish. On July 18^th “Rebecca” caught 35 football size tuna for Mike Fronsoe and friends as well as landing two medium size dorado at the Golden Gate. Next day out say Chic, Jamie and Scott McSherry from Scotland catch thirty tuna, release a striped marlin and a bonita to boot. Our total tuna count was 362 fish.

LOCATION: A big change this week, as boats concentrated on the wide open tuna bite and headed up the Pacific to Golden Gate, Herradura and San Jaime also produced good catches.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Some days super-hot when we have tropical weather below us, but then breezy on the Pacific, seas moderate.

WATER TEMPS: Pacific 78 F Cortez 82 F

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

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Doing Something Different in Cabo

Mary Beth and Nicholas Hazeldine are Brits that leave in Mallorca Spain. They have been fishing with Pisces for a few years now and made a trip to Cabo last month close to the G20 dates. They were having breakfast at Captain Tonys when we spotted them and asked them if they would like to join us for a last minute practice run for the First Ladies Cruise. We had the task of taking all the first ladies on a cruise during this important event. Protocol had to be observed, so we had to practice with real people, to see where each person would sit and stand and how the spaces worked aboard the beautiful 105 ft Sunseeker yacht "Polly" that forms part of our yacht division. So we caught Mary Beth and Nicholas off guard, slapped a sticker on them to represent Chile and the European Union and took them off to a little cruise to the arch aboard the luxury yacht. Judging by the pictures thought they didn't seem to mind too much.

Nicholas and Mary Beth, were pressed into volunteer service

They weren't the only ones, also in this line up, the manager of Squid Roe Billy, our in house legal council Patricia, Captain Jim Lilys wife Carolyn and Roberto from Pisces Real Estate amongst others.

Cruising on the beautifull yacht Polly

Great Pic Dolphin Following Boat

Mario snapped this cool photo fourteen mile off of the Cerros de Arena on the Pacific, where a school of dolphins helped the "Attitude Adjustment" get hooked up to five yellow fin tuna, by showing them where the fish were.
The boat looks great in this photo and the dolphin jumping near the boat, was captured with perfect timing by our dockmaster Mario.

This Week's Fish Report

JULY 7^th to 13^th, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species 92%

Raquel Almada from Cabo San Lucas, Relased this big striped marlin aboard Rebecca on July 10th, deckhand Luis Cota is shown on the right.

BILLFISH: We had an active week with lots of action but mostly on tuna; nevertheless we saw a strong start to the summer season with a flurry of sailfish catches. There is no doubt that summer is here with blistering heat nearly every day, but we are not complaining as we know it signals good catches will be coming up. Some of the best catches were during some of the roughest seas of the week, on July 10^th when boats headed to the Herradura  “Ruthless” released two striped marlin on “jurelito”  and caught four yellow fin tuna for Josh Campbell from Kamloops, Canada and this same day Rebecca Ehrenberg and friends from Mexico City and Cabo, fished her namesake boat “Rebecca” and ended up having one of our best catches of the week, releasing two striped marlin, including a first time billfish for Pablo Bauche and eleven yellowfin tuna, going the opposite direction to the other boats and fishing between six and twenty miles off of the Old Lighthouse on the Pacific. “Rebecca” also did well on July 9^th, for Peter Downie and friends from Singapore, releasing a small sailfish, but boating five tuna and an enviable 45 lb wahoo.  Daniel Malloy from Dallas fished “Ruthless” earlier in the week and did very well to release a mid-size sailfish, a striped marlin and boats five tuna at the 11.50 spot. Striped marlin are currently still the number on billfish catch in Cabo but we should start to see a few blues mixed in here and there as we progress into summer. Pisces anglers caught a total of twenty billfish, consisting of 15 striped marlin and 5 sailfish. Fifty percent of boats caught billfish.

Anneka Ehrenberg from Mexico City with her first ever tuna aboard Rebecca on July 10th

OTHER SPECIES:  Yellow fin tuna edged out striped marlin catches this week with sixty percent of boats hooking up to football size fish. However, when found good numbers were generally caught with boats landing from one to fourteen fish. They were spread out but the boats headed to the Herradura for several days, resulting in good catches. “Cabolero” had an excellent day on July 12^th catching our second wahoo of the week for John Lindahl from Island City, Tennessee; he also released a striped marlin and boated four tuna. “Rebecca” was the hot boat this week, proving the skill of the crew again on July 7^th for Ed and Justin Barringer from Ohio, who ended up with a lot of fish, ten tuna, five dorado and a striped marlin released thirty miles out from the 11.50 spot. Now we know that the limit is two dorado per angler to boat (release as many as you like), but our captains and mates also have licenses meaning the quota can be higher if the anglers want to boat a few more fish. The dorado were generally small to medium size and catches were seldom more than one or two fish. Twenty four percent of boats caught dorado this week. Our total tuna count was 150 fish, overwhelming out total dorado count of 15 fish. Boats fished offshore so we don’t have much to report inshore except a couple of roosterfish up to 20 lbs  on a half day trip by “La Brisa” as well a few skipjack.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Hot, some cloud cover, seas rough to moderate.

LOCATION: Mostly Cortez side, Herradura, El Tule, 11.50 spot, Old Lighthouse.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 79-83 F

BEST LURES: Caballito and Jurelito for striped marlin and sailfish, thought he odd one took a lure, tuna liked cedar plugs, dorado green and orange lures.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Divers Are Safe!

Great news this morning, the five divers lost at sea yesterday are on-shore and safe. We have a more accurate picture this morning.  The group began their first dive amongst big swells and strong currents at Punta Gorda six miles offshore, close to San Jose Del Cabo, the captain of the dive boat soon lost sight of them and reported them missing at 11.00 am, which is when the intense search began. Unfortunately there were no aircraft available for search and rescue - they were scheduled to arrive today, but will not be required now.

The group stayed together and swam for fourteen hours, into the early morning hours of today, Friday, thankfully in warm water. Some sources say the group managed to swim to shore and this is still unclear at this stage, but this is what we heard on the radio. The group was led by Rene Marin, (Mexican) divemaster, a German woman who resides in Los Cabos, Lucia Maron who is hospitalized suffering from severe sunburn, British tourists Michael Kiernan (father) and Dan Kiernan (son) and Australian, Neil Monroe are exhausted and resting at their hotels. Great news for the divers, their families and Los Cabos as a tourist destination.

Help Needed to Locate Divers

Disturbing news out of Cabo tonight. We just heard on the Televisa news that five divers are missing in the Punta Gorda area as strong currents and big swells developed today. They went in for an hour dive and did not come back, according to the news, the group was led by an American divemaster, with a British father and son, a German woman and a Mexican man.  They gave the names of each person, but we were not quick enough to write them down (we can remember some of them but prefer not to post them at this time). The search started this afternoon, but was called off after it got dark. Navy helicopters will be out early tomorrow scouring the area. We ask that all boats fishing keep an eye out for these missing divers and call in on channel 16 on the vhf radio , or phone us at Pisces 143 1288  so we can put you in touch with the  authorities; please note your GPS coordinates. Remember with strong currents they could be anywhere not necessarily in the same area. Let's keep them in our prayers. Thank you

Weekly Fish Report

June 30^th to July 6^th, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate for All Species Combined 71.42%

BILLFISH:  This week we had the full moon, round and shinning as beautiful as always, reflecting itself over the ocean, messing up our catch rate. Sorry, we are fishermen, no honeymooners, we want the moon gone so we can catch a bunch of fish. Still though, we had some nice catches, “Rebecca” released a striped marlin and a pacific sailfish estimated at 130 lbs for Addie Ashmore from Atlanta GA and Wesley Pritchett from Johns Island SC, for a pacific sailfish, that is a very, very nice size, average is from 75 to 90 lbs. “Andrea” released 2 sailfish and landed 3 dorados for Matt & Jane Kovaks. Catch of the week goes to “Bill Collector” landing 7 yellow fin tunas and releasing a sword fish estimated at 200 lbs for Daniel Willett from Mt. Pleasant SC.

A total of 27 billfish were caught this week by Pisces anglers, 26 were released. Billfish success rate 60%

Matt & Jane Kovacs from Austin TX.

OTHER SPECIES: Small game catch rate suffered as well with the full moon, with all the fish feeding at night, gets harder to catch them in the morning. “La Brisa” landed 8 dorados for Charles Kaberline from Williston ND, the rest of the catches were between 2 and 4 dorados. Until last week, we were catching the tuna and dorado around the same spot as the marlin, dorado is still at Destiladers along the marlin but the yellow fin tunas moved apart, most of the catches were closer to Cabo, around the 11:50 spot so we are figuring out where to get them, however, most clients have been more interested on the marlin so we have not really chased after the tuna.

LOCATION: Destiladeras, 11:50, Punta Gorda.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear sunny sky, 91F average.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP:  80 to 86F.

BEST BAIT OR LURE: Caballito.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Jorge Narro

Weekly fish Report June 23rd to 29th 2012

June 23^rd to June 29^th, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate for All Species Combined 84.90%

BILLFISH:  Awesome week for fishing in Cabo, striped marlin, swordfish and now dorado and yellow fin tuna are finally here!

We did not see as many billfish as the past week, they are moving around and we are on the lookout, however 45% of our boats caught billfish, many of them releasing 2 in one day like “Andrea” on the 23^rd, with 2 stripeys released and one tuna and one dorado landed for Kenneth Kisseberth from Swanton OH, “Ruthless” also releasing two and landed 3 tunas and a dorado for Logan Jager & Emery Sanford from San Francisco CA, the next day Patricia O’Connell and Michael That from Ft. Pierce FL kept 3 yellow fins and released 2 marlin aboard the “Valerie”, but the catch of the week goes to our 42ft Bertram “Yahoo”, releasing one striped marlin, landed 6 dorados and 6 yellow fin tunas and a 150 lbs swordfish for Ryan Tucker from Midland TX and Meryl Schafer from Cleveland OH. On June 27^th, again “Yahoo” with Captain Ricardo Escamilla released 2 striped marlin and landed 4 very nice size dorados, from 20 to 45 lbs for local guys Marianne Pfeil-Schneider and Alexander Schwarzer from San Jose del Cabo. A total of 27 billfish were caugh, 26 were released.

OTHER SPECIES: Oh boy! Dorado sure knows how to make a comeback, 65% of the boats catching at least one of these golden-soon-to-be-tacos beauties, average size was 15 to 20 lbs with the occasional 30 lb’ers. Boat with most Dorado’s in one day was “Rebecca” with Captain JR Alucano and angler our really good friend Gerald Richmond from Morada Fl. Biggest “small game” fish this week was a 43 lbs Bull Dorado caught by Hanson Hanger from Chandler AZ aboard the “C-ROD”. Yellow fin tuna is also back! Way too late if you ask me, last June we caught over 800 of them and we are just starting to arrive, still 47% of the boats caught tuna, most of them were football size, but as I said, they are just starting to arrive.  

Gerald Richmond with his pals Capt. JR Alucano. (right) and Luis Cota (left)

LOCATION: Destiladeras, 95spot, 35 miles south from the arch.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear sunny sky, 91F average.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP:  79 to 83F, keeps getting warmer.

BEST BAIT OR LURE: Caballito, small yellow tail, green and yellow lures.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Jorge Narro