Big Fish Continue 722 lb Blue Marlin Caught Today

 

 

These guys look happy and why not, they never expected to catch a 722 lb blue marlin. In fact the last time angler Dave Smith, from Atlanta caught anything close was a 55l lb'er twenty five years ago at Walkers Cay, Bahamas.

 



The fish was caught aboard the 46 ft Bertram Attitude Adjustment three miles from the Herradura which is about eleven miles straight out from Land's End. The fish took a 3.5 Zuker that was green and yellow. This area proved productive for Captain Edgar Renteria,  has been a part of Pisces for over 18 years, started out by hooking up two sailfish, one released, one broke off, followed by a 35 lb dorado. Twelve minutes after putting the lures back in the water, BAM, they got hit out of nowhere by this huge fish that almost spooled them. Fifty-eight year old Dave Smith spoke to us from the boat not long after the fish was on board he was awed by the whole event but thrilled " This fish came out of nowwhere, it almost spooled us but we recovered line; it was a brute - every time we would get it as close as twenty feet, it would take off at full speed and rip off line". Dave is a project supervisor for an industrial flooring company and was here with Tom Montour also from Atlanta and colleagues Jack Bown and Clint Dean from Chattanooga. They do a yearly guys trip to fish and have been to such locations as Costa Rica and the Bahamas but as Dave said "there is nothing like Cabo, its the best, we will definitely be back. I have the utmost respect for the professionalism of the crew". When asked if they had killed the fish or if it had died he replied "It took almost two hours to bring to the boat and the last time, it was very tired, it was done, it floated sideways. I think it's heart exploded". The guys did not have to kill the fish, it was already gone, now the question was how to get it into the boat? Mother nature helped - they opened the transom door and the swells pushed it right in the back of the boat, aided by the flying gaffs they used to secure the fish. Attitude Adjustment forms part of Pisces Fleet.
This is not the only large fish; we got a report of a 600 lb blue marlin taken on a commercial panga at Punta Lobos yesterday.
This bodes well for the upcoming billfish tournaments - but it would be really nice if somehow a release format could be implemented.

Panga Rescued

We are pleased to report that the panga that was almost totally sunk yesterday is well on the way to recovery, shown here a few minutes ago is the rescue operation. Several guys were pulling it on ropes, watched by a group of onlookers.

 

 

The Sun is Out, but Port is Closed!

This is a quick snapshot of the marina taken at 11.00 am, as you can see day is beautiful seas are flat, but the Port Captain closed the port again today. To be honest it did look gray this morning and there was more surge than normal, but right now things are beautiful - we are ready for tomorrow.
Let's go fishing!

What The Rain Did

Today we had intermittent heavy rain and with the ground still humid from the previous rain, we saw a fair bit of damage to dirt roads and flooding on side streets, nevertheless you could still get around without too much of a problem.
Below is a photo of the the entrance to the swanky Puerto Paraiso Mall, situated at the end of Leona Vicario Street, which acts like a direct funnel for the rain straight into its main doors, however, they got wise and erected this barrier, causing the runoff to detour a short way to the boat ramp and the marina.

 

 

This next photo was snapped right in front of our office on the marina and shows what can happen in a heavy rain if you are not checking your panga....



More Giant Fish In Cabo!

Mario, our dockmaster got a call this morning from an excited panga captain, who asked him to come down and take a photo of a large rooster fish a client had caught with him. Happy to oblige Mario went down and came back with this:

Captain Ivan hoists the roosterfish which is almost his size aloft - it weighed 75 lbs.

Captain Ivan got an early start, despite the rain aboard his 22 ft panga "Gloria" with angler John Sato from Palm Springs, Ca. aboard and hooked up this beauty just fifteen feet from shore, on a live caballito at Cerros de Arena. John took 40 minutes to subdue this huge rooster on a Shimano TLD 15 spooled withe 30 lb test line. The fish weighed 75 lbs.

 

 

Shown in this photo John Sato middle, Captain Ivan right and an unidentified friend left



 



 





PORT OPEN!

Boats were able to go out fishing yesterday and did well on dorado more than any other species. Weights were seldom over 25 lbs and the top catch was aboard "Valerie" with seven total. Tuna catches were not bad either with catches ranging from two, to a ten catch day aboard "Ruthless", with weights up to 35 lbs. The only billfish was aboard "Rebecca"; they released a sailfish and caught four dorado for Rhonda Jones and friends from Windsor, Colorado.  Today we saw some rain showers between 4.30 and 7.30 am but boats went out, right now skies are cloudy but no rain, we will have an update on what was caught when the boats return after 3.00 pm

Port Closed

Sad to report that the port was closed today for absolutely no reason....we had anglers chomping at the bit, our whole team was up early and ready to go, lunches ordered, beers and ice stocked, when the Port Captain declared the port closed to navegation! The reason given was Hurriane Miriam located hundreds of miles from us and not likely to come anywhere close. There are no waves, the water is dead calm, no wind and no rain. REALLY, they should go out and take a look not sit and look at a computer screen. They wouldn't even allow the cruise ship passengers to get off, so the ship high-tailed it out of Cabo, adding to the loss of thousands of dollars in much needed revenue for local business. As you can tell we are pretty ticked off.

THIS WEEKS FISH REPORT

Sept 15^th to 21^st, 2012

Amy from Texas released a sailfish and a striped marlin, plus caught a 43 lb wahoo and seven dorado along with her husband, aboard La Brisa.

 

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 94%

BILLFISH: The big story in Cabo this week was not for marlin, but for yellow fin tuna, with the possible new all tackle world record being caught as per our mid-week report, however, we did see an increase on billfish catches with a few more marlin appearing, whereas in previous weeks sailfish have dominated. We even caught a couple of blue marlin, smallish in size, but at least it’s a good sign that more are on the way albeit late. The blue marlin were caught aboard “Tracy Ann” and “Rebecca”. Wayne Francis from Kansas got the first of the week aboard Rebecca on a lemon green lure, fishing off of Punta Ballena and boated a dorado too. The second one was slightly larger aboard “Tracy Ann”, estimated at 200 lbs, released outside of San Jaime, by Jeff Sweeney from Winter Park, Florida after it took a live caballito. These same two boats had some of the best catches of the week; “Tracy Ann” had Brian Holland, Steve Carlson & Steve Kinderman from Florida aboard on September 17^th when they released two striped marlin and a sailfish, before boating a dorado at Pozo de Cota. “Rebecca”  had back to back double marlin days on the 16^th and 17^th; first day for Amy & Chris Renegar from Belton, Texas and the second day for Sarah Crowe & Kala Buser from Perth, Australia. Amy & Chris also did exceptionally well on “La Brisa” off of Elias Calles catching and releasing a striped marlin & a sailfish and caught a wahoo and six dorado also.  September 21^st, saw “Great Escape Jr.” on a roll as they caught and released two striped marlin and reeled in fourteen dorado for Kelly Johns and party from Rockwall, Texas. Overall fifty four percent of Pisces boats caught billfish consisting of 17 striped marlin, 9 sailfish & 2 blue marlin, all but one fish released.

OTHER SPECIES: The big story was the huge yellow fin tuna caught; weight has now been officially confirmed at 427 lbs on a certified scale. The giant fish was caught by Guy Yocom from Dana Point, Ca, aboard his 61 ft Viking, “El Suertudo”, which just happens to mean “the lucky one”, 180 miles off of Cabo on a chunk bait and took just fifty five minutes to tame and have in the boat, perhaps due to the fish being tail wrapped. If the lengthy approval process goes smoothly and we shouldn’t see why it should not, this will the largest ever yellow fin tuna caught on rod and reel. Other tuna catches closer to home dropped substantially this week with just seventeen percent of boats catching from one two nineteen fish - our highest count, by Art Hevener from, Pennsylavania- with weights from 15 to 30 lbs. Our total tuna count this week 34 fish. Dorado catches jumped to an eighty percent catch rate this week, giving us a total fish count for this species of 145 fish. Pozo Cota and Gaspareno proved to be the most productive area for dorado with bait and green colored lures working well. We had a few wahoo this week but none more than 40 lbs, nevertheless a nice catch as one of the best eating fish. Andrea released a 40 lb  hammerheard shark.  We had one angler that missed out on one of his scheduled trips due to the port being closed, so he only got one day out aboard “Tracy Ann”, he was unable to get a billfish, though did manage a dorado, nevertheless, Captain Julio, always wanting to give good service, hooked him up with a beautiful 40 lb roosterfish right from the dock, when they arrived after fishing.

LOCATION: Pozo Cota to Golden Gate on Pacific, some boats went to the Cortez off of Punta Ballena and Cerro Colorado.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Hot and sunny, seas mostly calm, one day with whitecaps on the Pacific.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 85-88 F

BEST LURES: Ballyhoo, Caballito, green colors, flying fish, orange.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

OFFICAL WEIGHT ON THE HUGE YELLOW FIN TUNA HAS BEEN CONFIRMED AS 427 LBS.

We spoke with Captain Greg DiStefano this morning, " I was really stressed, because our own scale had been dropped and was not working right, so it was weighed on Minerva's scale but it had to be verified that it was accurate"
"More than anything, I did not want to be claiming something that was not true, so we were on pins and needles until we got the call Friday afternoon confirming the actual weight of 427 lbs".
All we can say is congratulations guys.

Read the story here http://piscesfleet.blogspot.mx/2012/09/new-all-tackle-world-record-tuna-caught.html

New World Record Tuna Caught Off of Cabo

Guy Yocom from Dana Point, Ca poses with what is unofficially a new all tackle world record yellow fin tuna. Weight has to be verfied between 421.5 and 427 lbs and could be worth $1,000,000.00 in the Mustad Hook a Million Contest a worldwide competition.

 

"El Suertudo", which is Spanish for "the lucky one" is the perfect name for the 61 ft Viking, that belongs to Guy Yocom from Dana Point, California and Guy is the lucky angler that hauled in a monster yellow fin tuna, which looks to be a shoo in for a new all tackle world record, the fish was weighed on two different scales, with local IGFA rep Minerva Saenz present and registered 421.5 and 427 lbs - the scale belonging to the boat was sent off to verify that it is correct and to have the certification checked. Nevertheless either of these weights would make it a new world record. Guy a contractor by trade, is also a hard core angler who knows what he is doing and along with his crew, headed up by Captain Greg DiStefano from San Clemente, went out precisely on a mission to land a large tuna. "El Suertudo" left Cabo on satuday around noon and according to Guy "we headed out looking for schools of porpoise, each time we found them we would postion the boat in front of the school and bait fish with the kites, using "bolitos" and dead flyfishing, when that didn't work we switched to drifting with chunk baits". They ended up 180 miles due south of Cabo and landed a 200 lb tuna on Monday as well as some smaller fish. It was  around 10.45 am on Tuesday, September 18th though, as they were drifting with chunk bait that the monster fish, broke from the deep and Guy got his hook up. Being an experienced angler he worked the fish like a pro and had the yellow fin to the boat and gaffed by the crew in 55 minutes. They started to head back after the fish was in the boat, knowing they had an exceptional catch, reaching Cabo at 8.00 am today, Wednesday. Guy sounded exhausted but excited when we reached him by phone earlier today when asked what his previous record for tuna was he said "two hundred and twelve pounds is my previous record, but my son did get a 350 lb'er on the boat last month". The tackle used was 100 lb test line, with a Shimano Tiagra reel, chunk bait with a mustad hook, which might just make this catch eligible for the Mustad $1,000,000.00 competition which offers registered anglers a chance to win a million dollars if they can catch a certified all tackle world record before September 30th. Way to go guys and great for Cabo, shows that we still have the best fishing in the world.

Its always down to team work shown here from left to right are Dave Poling, Daniel Alvarez, Oswaldo,  Guy Yocom,Pepe de la Pena, Todd Clarke, and Captain Greg DiStefano

Straight From the Dock

News couldn't be any fresher than this: Tracy Ann went out for a half day today, so they are already back. Trey MacDonald from Overland Park, Kansas was on board and was thrilled to release this beautiful sailfish at San Cristobal on a live caballito. Well done Trey!

So How Green is the Desert

After the most rain we have seen in three years the desert looks beautiful, carpeted in green and wildflowers sprouting - a complete transformation.
Here are a few snapshots taken on the way home from work.

Yesterday's Catch

So we just wrote about how the sailfish were outnumbering the marlin, then the next day it changed and we saw some more stripers , Rebecca had two and a tuna at Golden Gate and below is one released aboard Valerie by Elizabeth Groth from Ines, Texas, closer at Gaspareno. Tracy Ann and Ruthless also scored marlin and La Brisa a sailfish.

Fish Report

September 8^th to 14^th, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate 100%

BILLFISH: A surprise this week was the number of sailfish, surpassing those of striped marlin; several boats had two and three each as well as smaller game. Weather was again hot in Cabo but as a general rule of thumb, hot weather produces great catches – in fact every boat we sent out caught fish of some sort. We were again refreshed by rain at the end of the week, but thankfully without a storm, nevertheless the Port Captain chose to keep the port closed on Friday, due to larger than average waves. September 8^th was one of the top days when “Cabolero” caught and released three sailfish up to 90 lbs, as well as boating three dorado and a tuna. The sailfish took ballyhoo, the dorado green and orange lures and the tuna a sardine – great fishing for Mitch Sandifer and friends from San Clemente, Ca.  Our second triple sailfish catch was aboard “Falcon” for Chase Galbraith and Tom Lippincott, from Dallas and Houston respectively. They fished the same area “herradura” using the same methods as above. This same day “Rebecca” chose to go to a different spot and picked the 95 spot for anglers Ralph Mundia from Yorba Linda, Ca and Paul Paulson from Gary, Indiana. Captain J.R kept these guys busy, releasing a striped marlin and a sailfish, ten yellowfin tuna of football size and a skipjack. Other notable catches were aboard “La Brisa” on September 11^th with two sailfish released, eight tunas and eight dorado caught, outside the Golden Gate for Connie Jones & Mike Salia from Phoenix, Arizona. Annette Warren from Golden, Colorado booked the “Andrea” for her party and was pleased with the days result of one striped marlin released, fourteen tunas, three dorado and a skipjack; they fished on the Pacific between Migrino and Elias Calles.  Pisces anglers caught a total of 6 striped marlin and 14 sailfish. Fifty four percent of our boats caught billfish.

OTHERS SPECIES: Yellow fin tuna was the top catch in Cabo this week, with sixty one percent of charters catching between one and twenty five fish. The majority of the tuna were from ten to twenty five pounds, but there were exceptions, such as hefty 110 lb er caught by Richard Mantell from Huntington Beach, California, aboard “Cabolero” which too a white squid type lure seventeen miles from Land’s End.  For sheer numbers “Andrea” came out on top  with 24 in a day, plus 8 white skipjack and a dorado  for Rocky Warren and party from Golden, Colorado. Our total tuna count this week was 175 fish, even with some commercial boats in the area. Dorado catches were high, as expected in summer months with fifty seven percent of our boats catching between one and twenty five fish, with weights seldom over 25 lbs. “Tracy Ann” headed up the dorado chart with twenty five in a day just half a mile from Los Arcos for Garret Kusak from Victoria Texas who along with friends also released a striped marlin – feathers and live caballito did the trick on the dorado. Our total count for dorado was 80 fish this week. The only boat to have a wahoo this week was “Great Escape Jr” with angler Troy Clay on board, who also caught six dorado; the wahoo was on the small side at 30 lbs. The only other catches were of skipjack with most the white variety which are good to eat.

LOCATION: Pozo Cota, Elias Calles Gaspareno, Herradura, 95, 11.50 spot – most catches on the Pacific.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Cloudy, hot, some rain, skies now clear.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 81-86 F

BEST LURES: Ballyhoo, caballito, cedar plugs, feathers, green/orange, purple/black.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Big Boys Are Around

Weather is hot in Cabo right now but fishing is even hotter. In the first photo is Richard Mantel (sorry Richard we didn't wan to tell you that your name means tablecloth in Spanish) from Huntington Beach, Ca with a sizeable yellow fin tuna that came in around 110 lbs, however in this weather it probably felt like a 200 lb fish. Richard was fishing aboard our 31 ft Cabo, "Cabolero" with  captain Lupe ,shown in the second photo standing in the fish blood,;caught 17 miles off of Lands End on a white squid lure. Richard was good though - it only took him 40 minutes to land. He also caught four smaller tunas.

Dreams do come true!

You know fishing in Cabo is usually a once in a lifetime experience for many anglers. Angler Raymond Vega from Odessa TX, his dream was to catch either a marlin or a sailfish, he was worried as yesterday the port was closed due to rain, and did not open until today around 7am, so we called our clients, let them know it was OK to go and all went out. Unfortunately, Mrs. Vega got seasick and the boat came back to shore at 9:45am, but Ray had waited his whole life to this chance and decided to go back out by himself, and after 20 minutes trolling, deckhand Martín spotted a sailfish going after the lures, he immediately threw a line with live bait and hit the sail right in the mouth, Ray took the rod and within 35 minutes, he got his sail on the boat and made his dream come true. He was aboard the Tracy Ann, this time captained by Nicolas Winkler.