Last Fish Report of 2013

DECEMBER 21st to 27th, 2013
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 92%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 35%, Dorado 63%, Tuna 12%, Other 21%

BILLFISH: We had quite a dramatic slowdown on marlin catches this week, down from seventy two percent last week to thirty five percent this week. Now, that is not to say they are not here, they are, but are a little more difficult to catch.  On several days this week mobs of boats could be seen in a tightly packed area off of the Old Lighthouse. The reason is the yearly phenomenon of bottom fishing for marlin. This happens over a few weeks when they are down deep, feeding on plentiful bait at lower depths. A great deal of patience is needed and they will come and touch the baits and even mouth them but getting a hook up has not been easy. Other free swimming marlin have been seen close to shore but didn’t seem much interested in what was offered either. So just as we start to sound gloomy about the marlin bite, Pisces Tracy Ann went and caught an out of season blue marlin that was around 420 LBS. This vessel was out on December 22nd with anglers from Papillion, Nebraska, Jacob Cockle & Mason Becker aboard and headed up to the Herradura where the huge fish hit a blue & white lure. The fish took them one hour and thirty minutes to leader on 60 LB test line. Another notable catch was that of the Sullivan family from Roswell, Georgia, for releasing four striped marlin up to 120 LBS aboard Pisces Yahoo.  There were other catches of usually a single marlin and more rarely two or even three. The bite will get better & meantime the dorado are cooperating. Pisces angler caught a total of 33 billfish this week, all but one released.
OTHER SPECIES: Dorado catches were pretty consistent if you found the right area which seemed to be a mile from shore in the Migrino to Margaritas area. They took a combination of bait and lures – the smaller ones under 15 LBS were released and those kept were in the 15 to 25 LB class. Catches ranged from one to fifteen, the most for any one boat, which was Pisces Rebecca on December 24th for Jack Sullivan and party from Arkansas. Our total dorado catch was 151 fish. Yellow fin tuna put in a brief appearance if you were dedicated at finding them, but only twelve percent of boats caught up to a half dozen football size fish. A 40 LB mako shark was released aboard Ruthless and inshore there were catches of white skipjack (good eating) as well as black skipjack, a few sierra & one 25 LB wahoo.

LOCATION: Old lighthouse, Migrino, Las Margaritas, Los Arcos, Cerro Del Golden.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Skies finally clear, mostly beautiful weather with calm seas.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 74 F
BEST LURES: Live bait, yellow/green, red/white, blue/white.

Latest Fish Report from Pisces in Cabo San Lucas

December 14th to 20th, 2013
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 95%
Numbers at a Glance: Billfish 72%, Dorado 65%, Small Game 16%

 

BILLFISH: This week we had steady marlin catches even though we had a big moon all week – the general rule is that the marlin bite drops off when the moon is big as they have an opportunity to feed all night. The fish were fussier about eating this week, preferring almost exclusively live caballito, they would come up and mouth the dead ballyhoo offered but would not take it or lures.  Plenty of marlin are being seen, mostly solitary fish and sometimes in groups of two or three with the majority seen close to shore, however the hooks ups were occurring about six miles out. One captain told us that that on December 19th they cast bait to twenty five marlin and managed to catch and release four. The majority of them were smaller fish, barely making 100 LBS and the largest no more than 120 LBS. Some of the better catches were for Pisces La Brisa with four striped marlin released for Jeff & Amy Holkan from Casper, Wyoming on December 16th and five released aboard Pisces Tracy Ann as well as four dorado boated, for Jim Gebhardt & family from Washington. A couple of late season sailfish were also released. Overall seventy two percent of our boats caught billfish resulting in a total 56 billfish, all released.

OTHER SPECIES: December signals the arrival of sharks in the area, but for several years we did not see any, that is until last year, when they started to reappear.  Tracy Ann caught a large Thresher shark that was a little over 150 LBS and Ruthless released a 50 LB mako shark. Dorado was steady but decreased a little this week, a pattern that will continue into January. Sixty five percent of boats located dorado and when found the numbers ranged from one to seven or eight, the exception was Bill Collector who caught twenty plus a striped marlin for Ginni Madsen & Michael Davis from Richmond, Canada. Weights on the dorado ranged from 15 to 30 LBS and our total catch was 118 fish. Inshore boats caught the odd striped marlin , skipjacks and needlefish.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Partly cloudy, seas moderate.
LOCATION: Pacific, Los Arcos Cerros de Arena, Golden Gate, Margaritas, Old Lighthouse.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 74 F
BEST LURES: Live caballito, ballyhoo, dorado colored lures, pink/red.

Big Thresher Shark Caught Today

Fishing was great today even though we have full moon tonight, the marlin continued to bite. Angler Brian Robinson from Silver City, New Mexico was thrilled to land this 152 LB thresher shark aboard Pisces Tracy Ann. Brian also released a 120 LB striped marlin off of Cerros de Arena. Top marlin boat today was La Brisa with four striped marlin released for Jeff & Amy Holkan from from Casper Wyoming.

Pisces Fishing Report From Cabo San Lucas

The numbers were pretty good despite less anglers being in town, big moon but they are still biting - read more http://www.piscessportfishing.com/cabo-fishing-report/pisces-fishing-report-december-7th-to-13th

It's Cold Out There, Come to Cabo

This picture says it all, especially if you are freezing your butt off somewhere ...come to Cabo, get out on the water. This beautiful striped marlin was hooked on Tracy Ann by Gary Owen, heading away from the boat and the fight is about to begin - really gives you an idea of what it's like to fish here.

WEEKLY FISH REPORT....MARLIN ALLEY IS ON!

NOVEMBER 30TH to DECEMBER 6th, 2014
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 99%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 89%, Dorado 74%, Other 15%

 BILLFISH: Cabo is living up to its name of “Marlin Alley” with multipl...e hook-ups of striped marlin ranging in size from 90 to 180 LBS, with an average catch of three marlin per boat per day. The fish varied in energy and strength; anglers reported some fish as coming to the boat easily, whilst others were feisty and gave the anglers a beating. All the action is on the Pacific ranging from the Old Lighthouse to Golden Gate with caballito and ballyhoo usually ensuring a hook up, to a degree that eighty nine percent of our charters caught striped marlin this week. Pisces 31ft Bertram La Brisa was the hot boat this week with nine striped marlin released in the Las Margaritas & Migrino areas for the Berger family from Katy, Texas on November 30th. A couple of days later this same boat released another seven marlin, plus caught a dorado for Elizabeth & Harold Kennedy from De Cobb, Washington. Pisces Rebecca, another 31 ft. Bertram had two great days; on December 1st they released seven and caught two dorados off of Margaritas for Helmut Witte & family from Colorado Springs, then on December 3rd this same group released another seven marlin. Wow now that is great fishing for a family, fourteen marlin in two days fishing. This catches were the better ones of the week, but there were plenty of other boats that had five in a day plus an odd dorado here and there. Pisces anglers caught a total of 142 striped marlin this week; all released.

 OTHER SPECIES: We are pleased that the dorado are sticking around though the numbers dropped considerably this week, that is for sheer numbers, because even with the drop seventy four percent of charters still managed to hook between one and nine fish. Weights on the dorado ranged from 10 to 30 LBS. The more numerous catches were offshore 15 miles out with this species taking live bait and green colored lures. Pisces anglers caught a total of 117 dorado this week. A big commercial tuna boat was in the area, which meant there was blood in the water that attracted marine life. Two boats Halcon & La Brisa capitalized on this and managed to have great wahoo days. Halcon had six wahoo up to 40 lbs., plus seven dorado and five yellow fin tuna for Jimmy Dean from Tennessee. La Brisa had four wahoo up to 30 LBS plus five dorado, twenty three miles offshore near the tuna seiner for Charles Strickland & party from Denver, Colorado. Other than the dorado and wahoo the only other fish we caught were a few skipjacks.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Partly cloudy, seas were up and down, some days beautiful and others choppy when the wind came up.
LOCATION: Pacific, Old Lighthouse inshore up to Golden Gate and 23 miles out from Lighthouse.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 77 F
BEST LURES: Live caballito, dead ballyhoo, green colored lures, rapalas for the wahoo

FISH REPORT

Nov 16th to 22nd, 2013
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 94%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 65%, Dorado84%, Tuna 6%, Small Game 16%

BILLFISH:  A bit of an up and down week for billfish as we transition into what is really our fall. Full moon during this past week slowed things down for a few days, plus some changes in the water temperatures and currents, nevertheless sixty five percent of boats did catch striped marlin. Pisces Tracy Ann had the highest scoring marlin day on November 18th, when they released six stripers for Bruce Tysor from Sidney Iowa.  They fished in the Los Arcos area and caught their fish on live caballito. Fearless was not far behind with five striped marlin released plus six dorado near the lighthouse for Victor Carrera & friends from Dallas, Texas. Pisces Rebecca had back to back four marlin days with a half dozen dorado as a bonus each day for Aline & Stefan Apostol from Rumania & Marina Sedic & Mike Gormley from Vancouver, Canada. Other boats caught from one to three marlin, with catches predominantly on the Pacific on live bait; the nice thing was that nearly every boat was able to pick up something for the table as well. Pisces anglers caught a total of 113 striped marlin this week all released.

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado remains the top gamefish in Cabo right now with eighty four percent of our charters catching this species in the 10 to 30 LB class. Depending on the location an average catch could be from one to ten dorado with our top producer being Bill Collector for angler Mark Chiavetta with twenty one fish in a day (ten released) & friends. Our total dorado count this week was 434 fish. Tuna catches were super slow with just six percent of charters even able to find them and when found the catches were one or two fish and if you were lucky perhaps six, football size fish.  Several wahoo were caught with sizes ranging from 30 to 45 LBS. We are starting to see more activity on the inshore fishing with rooster fish, jack crevalle, sierra and skipjacks caught – a sure indicator of changing water temperatures.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: We did not have perfect weather which we expect at this time of year. Skies were partly cloudy and seas were choppy on several days.
LOCATION: Golden Gate, Los Arcos, Gaspareno, San Jaime, Las Margaritas, Pozo Cota.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 75 – 80 F
BEST LURES: Live caballito, ballyhoo, green & yellow lures.

You Don't Always Need a Rod & Reel to Catch a Nice Fish

 

 

 

Here in Nathan Visser's own words is the account of how he caught this beautiful grouper.

 

"Got this hog on a recent trip to Bahia Magdalena.  We started out at 5:00AM and left for a 3hr trip to the Thetis Bank.  The previous week, the captain reports seeing school of 30+ wahoo under the boat is 80 degree water.   When we got there the water was 74 degrees.  After 4 hours of diving, throwing chunk bait and flashers, we had 0 wahoo sightings.  We decided to try our luck with the grouper off the San Carlos Channel .  I was diving shallow in about 30 feet of water when I saw 4 grouper about 20-25 pounds each.  As I approached I saw a much larger grouper moving quickly away from the school.  I followed for about 20 yards and after losing sight decided to circle back for the 20-25 pounders.  I had 4 below me and dove down to pick out dinner.  As I descended, the larger grouper came back and rushed me, with his pectoral and dorsal fins fully extended.  He came within 5 feet of me before turning broadside and offering a perfect shot behind the gills.  He ran about 50 yards before poorly selecting a cave he could barely fit into.  The captain saw my buoy skipping across the water and came immediately over in the panga.  I stayed on the surface and applied tension to the line while the captain went to pick up Luis Espinosa to help me.  Luis arrived to assist and went down immediately to inspect without knowing what I had.  As he was diving down, I pulled on the line and the grouper came out of the cave face to face with Luis.  While he admitted afterwards he was torn between helping me and “accidently” cutting my line, he effectively applied the coup de grâce and I got the fish of a lifetime."

Fish Report, we've been trying to post this for days......

November 8th to November 15th,2013
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 94%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 86%, Dorado 55%, Tuna 8%, Wahoo 12%

BILLFISH: Wow a fabulous week for billfish, which is good and bad, bad for those hoping to catch tuna that were in the tournament but great for those who were targeting the big fish, or in some cases not targeting, such as Justin Long from Roseville California who was fishing with Mike Vise & Richard Wade aboard the Tracy Ann. They were participating in the tuna tournament when they hooked a large blue marlin at Golden Gate, the fish got tail wrapped and expired, forcing them to hand-line it up and boat it; a dead marlin is rarely seen on this particular boat as they prefer to release. The fish was sizeable though at between 470 and 500 LBS. A couple of days after the tournament fishing turned pretty tough and they were hard to locate, but a look at Terrafin charts showing sea surface temperatures gave the clues as to why, as the current and temperature breaks had changed, making closer to shore a better option. Pisces La Brisa found this out and had an amazing day for Joel Hershey & friends with a blue marlin, three striped marlin, four dorados and a wahoo. A few days later the bite was back on at Golden Gate when Roger Wright from Alabama released nine striped marlin on live caballito and ballyhoo. This same day Tracy Ann released six striped marlin and boated five dorado for Hans Scemfelth from Sweden.  The Swedes have been doing very well – Anders Lundgren a long time Pisces client, caught & released an approximate 250 LB blue marlin, plus a striped marlin and dorado on November 13th. Next day out  November 14th the fishing  was outstanding, with Rebecca releasing eight stripers and boating five dorado, for Roger Wright again. Tracy Ann released six this day with Anders Lundgren aboard & La Brisa had a 200 LB plus blue marlin, two striped marlin and a dorado for Beth Carver from Beals, Maine. Matthew Tonkin from Mercer Island, Washington was out on C Rod this day and caught a 332 LB blue marlin and five dorados. There were many great catches with boats regularly having triple billfish days. Eighty six percent of our charters caught billfish consisting of 169 striped marlin, 5 blue marlin & 11 sailfish.

OTHER SPECIES:  After marlin dorado were the next most likely fish you could encounter this week in Cabo with catches ranging from one to sixteen fish in the 10 to 25 LB class, which explains why no qualifying dorado were weighed in at the Tuna Tournament.  Nearly all the catches were on the Pacific  with lure and bait working. Our total dorado count was 185 fish, which shows that the numbers are on their way down. Tuna catches were slow as the competitors in the tournament would tell you just eight percent of our boats found tuna with the only sizeable one aboard Andrea at 172 LBS which took second place in the tournament. We were out the day after the tournament and despite being able to locate huge schools of spinner dolphins & being able to see tuna schools underneath them on the radar, they were not biting.  Wahoo catches were on the up with twelve percent of boats were able to find wahoo, with weights topping out around 35 LBS.
LOCATION: Pacific, Lighthouse to Golden Gate.
WEATHER: Some cloudy days, seas moderate to calm.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 82 F
BEST LURES: Live bait, frozen ballyhoo, petrolero, green colors, pink.

In Memory of Jerry Dotson -This Letter Moved Us All

 

 

This email we received today really moved us all...thanks Kim for sharing.
"Sorry it took so long to post a review but I was able to do that today. We enjoyed fishing with you guys and would definitely book with you again.
I recently just f...ound out that my dad went on a fishing trip in March 3, 2006 and booked the Andrea with you guys. Oddly enough we happened to book the Andrea with you guys too last October, without even knowing. What makes this so meaningful is my dad passed away December of 2012 after struggling with Stage 4 tongue cancer for 9 months. It makes me wonder if he wasn't right there with us encouraging the fish to take the bait. Its incredible to think that my dad sat in the same spot 7 years ago. It amazes me to think of how small the world really is and little things really do mean a lot. I have attached the bill fish foundation release certificate with my dads name, Jerry Dotson, on it.
Another amazing thing that happened on the boat was my boyfriend of 7 years proposed to me, even while he was feeling a lil under the weather.
Anyways just thought I would share these wonderful memories with you.
Thanks again,
Kim Dotson"

SWEDISH INVASION?

Swedish invasion in Mexico? The Swedes did it again, this beautiful striped marlin was caught & released by a very excited Kjell aboard Pisces Rebecca.

Another Blue Marlin on the Tracy Ann

So, here's a different blue marlin on Tracy Ann, caught yesterday...this one was safely released. Proud angler is Roger Sturk from Sweden.

Fish Hard to Weigh, Estimated at 500 LBS

 

Julio Castro on the Tracy Ann is a strong proponent of catch & release and it is rare that you see a dead marlin on the back of his boat. This big blue however was hooked during the tuna tournament, got tail-wrapped and died, so was brought on board. Justin Long from Roseveille, Ca. was the angler. We had a hard time weighing it but calculated between 470 and 500 LBS

 

 

 

 

WEEKLY FISH REPORT

NOVEMBER 2ND TO 7TH 2013
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 97%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 74%, Dorado 58%, Tuna 18%

BILLFISH: We had some pretty spectacular billfish catches this week, as we finally felt the weather turn from summer to autumn/winter. After a couple of sweltering hot days,  rain fell on Cabo on November 3rd & the port was closed, but once it was reopened you could tell the weather had changed and the marlin bite was on.  Pisces Adriana had a spectacular day on November 7th, releasing SIX striped marlin & SEVEN sailfish, off the lighthouse on a combination of live and dead bait as well as green and yellow lures.  We also had many boats with fast & furious striped marlin action such as Pisces Rebecca with Joe Capizio & Sarah Mindick from San Diego aboard, on November 6th, who did very well to release five striped marlin off of Migrino & to boat two dorado. Valerie, was up there too with five marlin released, three tuna & a dorado for Jason Riha, Brandon Brooks & Rafael Guardardo. Bill Collector, Yahoo, C Rod & Fearless also had days this week when they released five marlin each plus a dorado or small yellow fin tuna, all this at a time when the tuna tournament was supposed to be the focus.  We had many great catches of one to three fish throughout the week and it was a struggle for boats in the tuna tournament to keep the billfish off of their lines, such as Pisces Andrea, who ended up taking second place in the tournament – they hooked a 400 LB blue marlin on a petrolero lure, which they released, before hooking their large tuna on the same rod & reel.  Seventy four percent of our boats caught billfish, consisting of 125 striped marlin, 2 blue marlin & 8 sailfish.

OTHER SPECIES: The main event this week was the WON Tuna Tournament, in which 135 boats participated. Tuna pickings were slim though and we did not see the slew of huge fish as we have in the past couple of years. Some days the schools were not too hard to find, but they were small fish in the 10 to 20 lb. class with only a handful of fish making the 100 LB plus mark this year.  Our anglers caught a total of 96 yellowfin tuna which means when they were found they could catch a number of them – up to a couple of dozen, but finding them was the hard part, or better said, getting them to bite. Eighteen percent of our charters hooked tuna. Dorado numbers have started to decline though are still here in good numbers, with fifty eight percent of our charters catching from one to ten fish. All were on the small side thought, a fact proven in the tuna tournament where not one dorado could make the minimum weight of 30 LBS. Our anglers caught a total of ninety nine dorado. Wahoo catches were not bad, but no big ones for us in the tournament, just in the days leading up to it when we had fish from 35 to 50 LBS. Pisces La Brisa released two sharks this week, one a 75 LB pilot shark & the other an 80 LB hammerhead.
LOCATION: Pacific, lighthouse to Golden Gate
WEATHER: Port closed one day, rain on Thursday, and seas on the rough side.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 81 F
BEST LURES: Live caballito, ballyhoo, green colors, petrolero.

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS OF TUNA TOURNAMENT & PRIZES

These are the unofficial results that will be given tonight - we don't think there will be any changes, so this will not be confirmed until tonight.

 

 

Winning fish is pictured here with team Reel Quest, who weighed in this beauty 15 mins before the event was over. Congratulations this team are finally first place after participating every year.
1ST PLACE REEL QUEST 192.4 LBS WINNINGS $242,960.00
2ND PLACE PISCES ANDREA 172.6 LBS WINNINGS $5,360.00
3RD PLACE REINA DE WAHOO 170 LBS WINNINGS $2,680.00
DAY ONE JACKPOT $500, 1K, 2K EL DIABLO 131.9 LBS, $83,400
DAY ONE JACKPOT 3K, 5K, 10K BOB MARLIN 85.7 LBS $114,000.00
DAY ONE WAHOO KOI SUSHI 52.6 LBS $46,800.00
DAY TWO WAHOO CHEERS 1 39.6 LBS $46,800.00

 

DAY TWO ACTION IN THE TUNA TOURNAMENT

Pisces Andrea in lead at 15th annual Tuna Tournament....with a 172.6 LB tuna caught by Keith Gelfand from Richmond, Texas. First time in the tournament - their fish was caught outside San Jaime on a petrolero lure. They also released a 400 LB blue marlin on the same rod, reel & lure shortly before they hooked the tuna.

DAY ONE RESULTS OF THE TUNA TOURNAMENT

BIGGEST FISH OF THE DAY, THOUGH NOT THE BIGGEST MONEY WINNER FOR DAY ONE.

Leader in Day One Tuna Jackpot is a 147.8 LBS tuna caught by the Reel Medicine, this fish however, is not entered in the jackpots only the straight tournament entry. El Diablo, weighed in a 131.9 LBS tuna which makes them the winner in the ...5K, 1K & 2K daily jackpots, however team Fat Farmers will take more money for their 85.7 LB tuna as they had the biggest fish in the 3K, 5K & 10K pots. Irish Goodbye had been in the lead with their 123.10 LB fish the first 100 LB plus fish to the scale today, but they were displaced by the Diablo fish. Largest wahoo today was 52.6 LBS aboard Koi Sushi which should earn them around $47,000. Biggest fish of the day is pictured here. Today there were five qualifying tuna and two qualifying wahoo.

TUNA TOURNAMENT GETS UNDERWAY

W.O.N Tuna Jackpot Tuna Tournament kicked off today with 135 boats participating -as always the tournament is already fun. For the first time in the tournament's history boats took off under cloudy and slightly rainy skies. One boat came in around 10.30 am, as they didn't read the rules about the scale not opening until 2.00 pm. We went ahead and weighed it for them on our Pisces scale and it came up slightly short at 25 LBS, if it had gone over 30 LBS, it could have potentially been worth $46,000.00 - but let's wait and see what comes in later today.

WEEKLY FISH REPORT

OCTOBER 26TH TO NOVEMBER 1ST, 2013
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 96%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 68%, Tuna 34%, Dorado 70%

BILLFISH: Weather remains warm in Cabo which accounts for blue marlin catches that continued throughout this past week, whilst at the same time we saw an increase on striped marlin caches, with a few sailfish thrown into the mix.  Pisces Cabolero, a 31 ft. Cabo, had a an outstanding da for David Wisniewski & Ken Neighring  from Place Pella,  Iowa on October 28th, when they were fishing  twenty two miles from the Old Lighthouse – they released two blue marlin estimated at 300 and 260 LBS respectively; both took lures.  Paul Linden out on Pisces Attitude Adjustment released a blue marlin in the same area, also on a lure.  The last day of October Pisces Rebecca had a fantastic day with a blue & striped marlin released a 40 LB wahoo and a dorado for John & Rich Dibenadeto & Howard King from Maine. October 31st was one of the best days this report;  La Brisa released three striped marlin and caught four dorado and two skipjacks for Doug Rubino from Houston, Texas.  Valerie this day and anglers from South Africa who did will to have a striped marlin triple header.  Tracy Ann & Bill Collector also had triple striped marlin days with some dorado and tuna the same day.  Average catches on striped marlin was one or two fish and occasionally up to three; these numbers should start to climb as we transition towards winter.   The majority of the catches were on the Pacific side, the stripers & sailfish preferred bait, whereas all the blue marlin were caught on lures. Sixty eight percent of our boats caught billfish, giving us a total catch of 73: Striped marlin 67, blue marlin 4, and sailfish 2.

OTHER SPECIES:  Dorado remained the top catch, though the sheer numbers have dropped to catches mostly in single digits.  In previous weeks it had been common to see catches of twenty plus fish, but this week the most anybody caught was twelve. Sizes were on the small side at 12 to 25 LBS with catches on the Pacific.   Seventy percent of our charters caught dorado giving us a total of 233 fish. Yellow fin tuna catches picked up with lots of school size fish, though none of the bigger ones were caught; hopefully they are keeping a low profile until the tournament next week.  Top boat was Andrea with twenty seven in a day 25 miles out for John Hopkins from San Antonio. Catches ranged from one to twenty plus fish, with the faithful cedar plug the most effective way of catching fish in the 15 to 25 lb. class.  Thirty four percent of boats caught tuna, giving us a total count of 236 fish. The only other catches were a few 30-40 lb. wahoo and the odd skipjack.
LOCATION: Pacific, Lighthouse, Gaspareno San Cristobal up as far to Golden Gate – Cortez, Cabeza de Ballena.
WEATHER CONDTIONS: Sunny and hot, seas calm with some chop in the afternoons.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 82 F
BEST LURES: live caballito, cedar plugs, petrolero, red/black, green

Countdown Begins for Tuna Tournament

 

 

Hoping for lots of these next week, for the WON Jackpot Tuna Tournament to be held Thursday & Friday - this one was caught aboard Pisces Speedwell by John Whittle from Houston and weighed 148 LBS, he would be smiling even more if it was a week later.

PLEASE NOTE, YOU NEED TO SIGN UN IN THE U.S FOR THE TOURNAMENT , www.loscabostunajackpot.com



October 19th to 25th, 2013
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 51%, Dorado 74%, Tuna 30%, Wahoo 10%
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 94%

BILLFISH: Wow, what a week! As most of you know Bisbee took place this past week and we have written a lot about it already, but not everybody enters the big bucks competition, so how did our regular clients do? In one word, fabulous. We had some of the best catches of the year, starting with Pisces Rebecca with a 566 LB blue marlin the day before the Bisbee Tournament, for angler George Hansen from Idaho Falls. Captain Jose Ramon saw the fish jump a mile away and thought it was a manta ray, as they got closer he realized it was a blue marlin that was feeding and quickly dropped back a tuna they had boated earlier in the day.  George went to work and after about an hour, the crew realized there was something wrong; the fish had died. They pulled in the line by hand to find that the leader had wrapped around the tail, meaning the fish had been pulled backwards and drowned. Next day Giles Patterson from Cincinnati was fishing aboard Pisces La Brisa and was having fun with his group setting out cedar plugs and pulling in school size tuna. As he was reeling in a 15 lb. tuna, a huge marlin emerged from the depths and swallowed his tuna, cedar plug and all. Giles puffed away for over four hours until the fish could not be seen and was not reacting; the marlin had expired and again they guys had to hand line it up. To their surprise it was much bigger than they thought tipping the scales at 591 LBS. Next day out, it was another 31 ft. Bertram this time Pisces Tracy Ann, that had a blue marlin, but they were successful in releasing the approximately 360 LB fish. Attitude Adjustment & La Brisa went on to release blue marlin around the 300 LB mark later in the week and Shambala had three blues a little under 300 LBS which they released. It was nice to see a return of the striped marlin this past week too, the catches being usually a single fish plus numbers of dorado or tuna; some boats had two fish and only Yahoo managed to release three in one day. Our total billfish catch was of 65 fish, consisting of 51 striped marlin, 11 blue marlin & 4 sailfish.

OTHER SPECIES: Great numbers again this week on dorado, making it our number one catch with seventy four percent of boats catching between one and twenty five fish between 15 and 35 LBS; our total dorado catch was 535 fish. Pacific side was were the dorado were concentrated with bait & green colored lures working well. Yellow fin tuna catches took a step up this week, which is great news for the upcoming tuna tournament.   Thirty percent of boats found school size fish and had fun catching up to thirty five in a day. Some fish were large, such as a 125 lb’er caught aboard Pisces Ruthless by Richard Hartley from South Africa – our total tuna count was 298.  Wahoo catches complimented the rest of the catches with ten percent of our boats catching fish up to 40 lbs.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear skies, seas mostly calm, with some chop in the afternoons.
LOCATION: Pacific, lighthouse to San Jaime.
BEST LURES: Petrolero, green, live bait, cedar plugs.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 83 F

The Story Behind the 774 LB Winning Fish

Captain Kevin "Cubby" Pahl on right, First Lady Angler to win Bisbee Linda Williams & John Williams right, proud of his wife  - he almost had a
"heart attack" when he heard they had won.

Joy was evident in the voice of Captain Kevin “Cubby” Pahl captain of the 60 ft. Hatteras II Success, when we reached him by phone the day after his team had landed the winning 774 LB fish, in the Bisbee Black & Blue Tournament – the second largest qualifier in the competition’s 33 year history.

As tends to happen in the world’s richest billfish tournament, everybody was kept guessing right up until the end, especially as Martha McNab, a well know local woman angler looked set to be a shoo in to be the first ever female to win the Super Bowl of fishing, with her 525 LB blue marlin caught on day two of the three day event. That milestone was to be reached, but surprisingly not by Martha, but by Linda Williams from Rancho Cucamonga, California.

Captain Cubby told us that he had fished the Pacific the two previous days as everybody knew that several big blues from the charter fleet had  been caught there as well as the fish landed by Martha aboard Retriever; he fished all the well- known spots and came up blank. On the last day of the tournament he thought “the clock is ticking and at least a hundred boats are turning right to the Pacific, I am going to go the other way, up to Destiladeras, the water looks good and there is no traffic”. Team Success worked the area trolling their lures without action so Cubby systematically worked his way to the outer Gordo as the clock ticked on and with only thirty five minutes left to go in the tournament, the water behind the boat exploded as a massive marlin charged the Petrolero lure with its mouth wide open. “Everybody saw it bite” said Cubby, “my team were all in their positions and we were all watching the lures; I drive the boat standing backwards so I can see them. We could see that the fish was over 500 lbs. and it jumped at least six times, which is a lot for a fish of that size. We had the fish to the wire in an hour, but it was still strong and headed away from us, so we decided to let it go more time. After about another hour we had it in the corner and threw all the metal (gaffs) we had into it; we didn’t want to take any chances. The team did their job perfectly and the hardest thing was getting it into the boat, no easy feat with an almost 800 LB fish”.

 

Cubby praised his crew consisting of his Mexican deckhand Antonio “Pelon” Zuniga, his brother Craig Pahl who was aboard as an angler along with Dave Reid, who is a captain on another boat,  Jan Howard and of course owner of II Success, Linda Williams. Cubby stated “Linda loves to fish and this could not have happened to a nicer or more generous person. The guys on the dock respect Linda for her fishing skills. This is a dream come true for her, she was thrilled just to participate, definitely something on her bucket list.” Linda’s husband John, who owns a house framing company, had urged her to fly down to fish the tournament, which she did bringing along friend Jan Howard. He was totally shocked to get a phone call to say they had won and flew into Cabo Saturday to be present for the awards ceremony.

 

Captain Kevin “Cubby” Pahl is well known and liked around Cabo; the 51 year old is originally from Carlsbad, California and grew up fishing out of Oceanside. He has been a professional skipper in Cabo for the past 29 years and this win is the highlight of his fishing career and his largest fish to date. This day almost didn’t happen though, as last year he underwent his second hip replacement surgery, during which he contracted a severe infection, followed by an adverse reaction to the drugs given him, which put him in the critical care unit for six days. There was a moment when he thought it was a possibility that he would never fish again, making this victory even sweeter.



Payout At Bisbee Black & Blue

 

TEAM II SUCCESS CELBRATES THEIR FIRST PLACE VICTORY.
 

 

Biggest check at Bisbee tonight was $1,185,862.00 - here are the results.
1st Place II Success 774 lb blue marlin $368,675.00
2nd Place Retriever 525 lb blue marlin $1,185,862.00

DESPITE BEING NUDGED OUT OF FIRST PLACE, TEAM RETRIEVER STILL HAD THE BIGGEST PAYDAY

 3rd Place Marlin Queen 343 lb black marlin $34,762.00
 

4th Place Go Deep 323 lb blue marlin $9,270.00
5th Place Sea Angel 313 lb blue marlin $966,689.00 (no that is not a typo)

TEAM SEA ANGEL HAD ONE OF THE LARGEST PAYOUTS EVER FOR 5TH PLACE

 1st Place release 3 blues the sailboat Titan $63,575.00
2nd Place release 3 blues Shambala $21,993.00
3rd Place release 3 blues Reel Pain II $12,218.00
Release is decided on who caught first when places are tied like this.

Massive 774 LB Blue Marlin Gives Female Angler Surprise Victory in Bisbee Black & Blue

PHOTO BY GARY GRAHAM

Massive 774 LBS blue marlin gives surprise late hour victory for lady angler Linda Williams aboard Success in Bisbee Black & Blue. This will take 1st place but won't necessarily pay most money because of the optional categories they were or were not entered in. Stay tuned for tournament payout results.

525 LB FISH NETS LOCAL WOMAN 1.2 MILLION DOLLARS

Why does this woman look so happy? Perhaps because she just caught a fish worth 1.2 Million Dollars...Martha McNabb was thrilled last night after landing the biggest fish so far in the 2013 Bisbee Black & Blue; even though she  is not entered across the board, it appears that her fish caught yesterday, weighing 525 LBS will net her a big pay day. Who knows, if no larger fish are caught today, the last day of the competition,  the fish will be worth even more. Martha is a die hard fisherwoman and should she win will be the first female ever to win the Bisbee. Martha is no stranger to success though, this five foot two powerhouse landed a 635 lb blue marlin several years ago in the Bisbee, but was bumped to second place by a boat that caught two fish in the 300 -350 lb plus range, that when added together beat the weight of her fish. Martha loves fishing in Cabo aboard her 61 ft Viking "Retriever" with her crew of local Mexican guys. GIRL POWER, in what is mostly a macho world.

525 LB BLUE MARLIN FRONT RUNNER IN BISBEES ON DAY TWO

This is the frontrunner in the Bisbee 525 LBS blue marlin, which held throughout day two. Angler is Martha McNabb who paid us a huge compliment by saying "we knew where to go because we have been following your reports". Martha's fish was caught on a lure and took her an hour to boat aboard her privately owned vessel, a 61 ft Viking called "Retreiver". Martha's crew are all local Mexican guys from Cabo and the East Cape.
Pisces 31 ft Bertram Tracy Ann on regular charter released a 360 lb blue marlin yesterday and our Attitude Adjustment released a 300 lb fish too....hmmm three days, three Bertrams, three qualifiers if they had been in the tournament - I guess that's fishing.

2.4 Million Dollar Fish First Day of Bisbee - but it's not in the tournament

591  LB BLUE MARLIN CAUGHT ABOARD LA BRISA

La Brisa catches a 2.4 million fish first day of the Bisbee Black & Blue ...but is not in the tournament. No qualifying fish were weighed  in on day one of the richest billfish tournament in the world. Our regular Pisces charters went about their business as usual. La Brisa had anglers from Cincinnati, Ohio on board and 37 year old Giles Patterson, a homebuilder by trade was hooked up to a 15 lb tuna that had bitten a cedar plug, when a blue marlin exploded from the depths and engulfed it. Giles muscled away for four and a half hours, bringing the fish to the boat nine times, before the fish dove and did not surface again. The crew realized that the fish had died and spent some time hand-lining it up.

CROWS MOBBED THE ANGLER TODAY

Back at the scale the fish was bigger than expected, as crowds mobbed the stunned angler who said " that was the most unbelievable fight of my life" as the scale registered 591 LBS. Pretty amazing seeing as none of the 109 boats entered in the tournament caught a qualifying fish today and we had a really nice fish yesterday too at 566 lbs - two fish, two days, both on Pisces 31 ft Bertrams possibly the finest sportfisher ever built.

LOOK AT THE WIDTH OF THAT TAIL

Huge Marlin Caught on Eve of Bisbee Black & Blue

Huge fish caught on the eve of the 33rd edition of the Bisbee Black & Blue.  We were down at the dock this afternoon when we heard that Pisces 31 ft Bertram, Rebecca was approaching the dock with big fish. Just a couple of minutes later in motored Rebecca with a huge fish laying across the cockpit, it was so large that it's head had to be angled up to fit - basically the length of the fish was more than the width of the boat. Captain Jose Ramon told us he had been fishing about 21 miles out from Cabo with the same anglers that had been with him on the previous two days, when he saw something about a mile away, jump out of the water. At first he thought it was a manta ray, but they picked up lines and sped over to investigate.  The fish first hit a green & lime lure, then Jose Ramon, quickly rigged one of the tuna they had caught earlier in the day and dropped it back to the large fish, who inhaled it, giving them a solid hook up.  Thirty six year old George Hanson from Idaho Falls, was given the rod and he steadfastly fought the big fish on  80 lb test for an hour before the crew realized the fish had died - they then brought it up by hand lining it between them. At the surface they realized that the fish was tail wrapped and had drowned.  They put a tail rope around it and hoisted it into the boat and headed back to shore. Other anglers on board were Gary Barnes, Dave Rankin & Eugene Hanson.  George who works with his dad Eugene in their recycling business, had set the trip up for his dad & his friends and they were not disappointed -
with 35 tuna, 9 dorado, 1 striped marlin and of course the 566 lb blue marlin caught by George, during their three days charter with Pisces who added "this was a trip of a lifetime"

Bisbee Offshore Won by a Tuna & 33 LB Dorado?

Bisbee Offshore - won by a tuna? Incredible but true....ninety nine boats competed over Saturday & Sunday in the tournament known as the "little Bisbee", what is attractive about this two day event is you can get in it for as little as $1,500 and across the board is only $10,500 - not small, but a fraction of what it costs in the Black & Blue ($71,000). Many of the captains put up the money themselves to be able to fish this and get valuable pre-fish knowledge. This year however, there were no big blue marlin in sight. Four underweight fish were brought to the scale, but not one of them could reach the 300 lb minimum weight limit. The rules state that if no eligible billfish are caught the monies roll over to the gamefish categories. So it ended up that a 201 lb tuna and a 33 lb dorado won $110,000.00 each - maybe the biggest payday every for a small dorado. We spoke with the team that caught the large tuna, Donald Whitter, owner of Wahoo Loco and the boat Estrella del Norte, which is not your typical Cabo sportfisher. Donald built the boat himself, a 32 ft Carolina design using a cold mold made out of wood, then wrapping it with fiberglass. The boat has two 300 Yamaha outboards & can reach a speed of 40 knots. The tuna was caught by team member Gonzalo Castillo, a local guy out of La Playita. Donald and Estrella del Norte are no strangers to success, they took first place last year in the WON Tuna Tournament with a massive 372 lb fish. Asked about his strategy Donald said "Our intention was never to catch a marlin, we were going strictly for tuna, that is what we are good at. We figured that most of the boats would enter the gamefish category so there would be a big pay out. We fished five days (three in the Los Cabos Billfish before this event) to catch a fish of that size. We caught it at the inner Gordo on live bait, we had it to the boat, stuck the gaff in it, but it broke it & straightened the hook , then dove down about 100 feet we went to work again". After an hour and fifteen minutes they had it at the boat again, this time they used a flying gaff as well as a second gaff. Good thinking and good work, that secured them a $110,000.00 pay day. Bisbee Black & Blue starts tomorrow and the absence of the big fish is a little worrying, however, with a massive storm down below us, it may push fish this way.

Estrella del Norte is not your typical Cabo sportfisher.

Pancho The Sea Lion Nabs Prize Winning Tuna

Don't be fooled by the sweet face, Pancho is a professional fish snatcher.

 



 

 

Pancho has been a naughty boy! Don't let that sweet face fool you....Pancho snatched a tuna that was about to be weighed in as a prize winning fish during the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament. Team Ole Ole backed into the dock with a qualifyin...g tuna of around 35 lbs, they handed it to the dock worker, who grabbed it by the tail and swung around to put it in his fish cart. In one smooth movement, Pancho who had been stalking the boat, erupted from the water like a speeding bullet, snatched the tuna and disappeared. Definitely making team Ole Ole candidates for the hard luck award - we figured the tuna was worth close to $7,000.00 if it had made it to the scale.

This is not when he stole the tuna, this was another day, but gives an idea of the real size of  Pancho and other sea lions in the area.

 

PRIZE GIVING LOS CABOS BILLFISH TOURNAMENT

 

 

Prize monies for the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament
1st Extraction 625 lb blue marlin $295,425.00
2nd Expedition 516 lb blue marlin $27,000.00
1st in release Chupacabra $39,150.00
2nd in release Galati $5,400.00
3rd in release Cisco$3,600....00
Daily release Reel Quest $6,075.00
Tuna Day 1 & 2 39 lb & 65 lbs Reel Gold $20,081.00
Day 1 Wahoo Miss Behavin 26.5 lbs $6,693.00
Day 2 Wahoo El Suertudo 32.8 lbs $6,693.00
Day 3 Wahoo Minerva II 34.5 lbs $6,693.00



Oct 12th to 18th, 2013
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 95%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 10%, Dorado 92% Tuna 2%, Wahoo 9%

 

 

BILLFISH: We had low numbers of billfish this week, which is unusual, but we are pretty certain this was caused by a late season tropical storm.  Just before the storm though we had some nice catches such as those aboard Pisces Fearless on October 12th, when the group from Intrepid Investment released three striped marlin & caught a wahoo & seven dorado. This same day Phil Musial from Houston released two striped marlin and caught three dorado aboard Pisces Adriana & Patrick and Jean Neville from Bradenton, Florida, also had a nice day aboard Pisces Tracy Ann with a striped marlin released and thirteen dorado to the boat. The port was closed on October 14th but we experienced pretty heavy rains the day before too, which messed the water up and cooled it down. So our great striped marlin and sailfish bite turned off, as the fish looked for cleaner water and we had to wait for the beautiful blue water they like, to return. This started to happen towards the end of this report, but otherwise we might as well call this the dorado report. That said this week saw the first of the big fishing tournaments the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament. The tournament started on Oct 16th and forty boats participated – again due to the weather in previous days only two qualifying fish were weighed in, both on day one of the event. Team Extraction pulled in with a sizeable blue marlin that tipped the scale at 625 lbs. putting them in first place which held true throughout the competition. Angler Tom Lansing from Phoenix was thrilled as was his captain Hiram Montano. Neither Tom nor Hiram are new to fishing success having a string of places in recent years in all the tournaments. Hiram’s brother, Bruce was a crewmember aboard Expedition who touched the dock an hour after the big fish was weighed. Angler Glenn Richardson from Abbeville Louisiana had fought his large blue for three hours and would end up taking second place overall with his 516 lb. fish. Chupacabra took the top release honors and there were also categories for wahoo, dorado and tuna. All places are not official until tonight when the awards banquet takes place. As we write this the second tournament of the fall season is underway, the Bisbee Offshore where around 90 boats are competing in this two day event, before the main event set to start on October 23rd. The tournament taking place right now used to be called the “little Bisbee”; we hardly think it warrants this name anymore. Going back to regular fishing, as mentioned above the striped marlin began to show up as the weather got back to normal. Only ten percent of charters caught marlin this week and we had a single sailfish aboard Yahoo. Total marlin count was sixteen stripers. Our overall catch success rate for all species was ninety five percent, the only boats that did not catch anything, were those specifically targeting big blue marlin.

OTHER SPECIES: The dorado fishing was in complete contrast to that of marlin, but then again, they like the debris that washes into the sea during and after storms and have a penchant for hanging out under stuff floating making them easy pickings for pretty much every boat. The weights on this species were usually in the 12 to 30 lb. class with the standard catch around nine fish per day, though some caught as many as twenty one. The Pacific was the top spot to find dorado with a combination of lures and bait working.  Ninety two percent of our boats caught dorado, with many of the smaller fish released. Our total dorado count was 694 fish. Tuna catches were slow this week with just a couple of boats finding a few smaller fish, as usual C Rod was the top tuna boat with twelve caught in one day. Wahoo catches were better than those of tuna with nine percent of boats catching fish in the 30 to 50 lb. class. Wesley had some nice surf fishing trips where he was successful in catching roosterfish, needlefish & jack crevalle.
LOCATION: Pacific – lighthouse to Golden Gate.
WEATHER: Rain for two days, seas bumpy for a couple of days afterwards, right now so gorgeous it takes your breath away. Blue, calm seas, clear skies.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 83 F
BEST LURES: green, live caballito, white/blue, petrolero, ballyhoo