Sharks in Cabo!

This approximate 100 lb shark was caught aboard Pisces Bill Collector at the Jaime Bank by Nathan Adams from Denver. This beautiful fish was released....but who knows what kind of shark it is? Just a few days ago we had a 200 lb mako, now this one. Looks like sharks are making a come back in this area.

Fish Report

February 16th to 22nd, 2012
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 89%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 20%, Tuna 23%, Dorado 16%, Small Game 66%

This is a Clown Hawkfish, or Mero Chino Caught this week at Migrino from the beach with guide Wesley

BILLFISH: This week we saw a definite slow down on marlin catches, as the season begins to change bringing colder water and some windy days. Some days it was too rough to make it up to Golden Gate were captains suspected marlin could be found but the bumpy ride was just not worth it to some anglers who preferred to stick closer to port and fish for smaller game. Even some of our top producers drew a blank this week and ended up whale watching, despite trying. However, as always we had some great catches; early in the week, on February 19th, Ben & Pamela Simmons from Fairfield, North Carolina had an outstanding day aboard Pisces Bill Collector, releasing five striped marlin on live mackerel at the Golden Gate. This same day Kris Couilliard from Belchertown, Massachusetts, was in the same area aboard Shambala and with friends was able to release four striped marlin in the 120 to 160 lb category. Pisces Rebecca always seems to be consistent and proved it by releasing four marlin for Randy & Don Brockman, from Lake View, California as well as hooking them up to thirteen yellow fin tuna and a skipjack on February 17th. Pisces Fearless also deserves a mention for releasing three striped marlin, also at the Golden Gate for a group from Florida. Pisces Andrea, a 28 ft. boat had an interesting day for Jenna & Jamie from Toronto, Canada, releasing two striped marlin and a hammerhead shark.  Other marlin catches were of a single striped marlin giving us a total count of 27 fish this week- all released.

The humble sierra is actually a lot of fun on light tackle and great to eat - the most common catch this week.

OTHER SPECIES: Tuna catches were slightly better than those of marlin and dorado with twenty three percent of charters catching between one and twenty yellow fin in the 20 to 30 lb class. William Black from Scotland, had a superb day with Captain J.R aboard Pisces Rebecca, but had to go a long way for it.  They caught and released a striped marlin, and hooked seventeen tuna and a dorado 28 to 34 miles offshore using live bait for the marlin and a combination of cedar plugs and feathers for the tuna and dorado. Bill Collector had twenty tuna twenty miles out from the Lighthouse for Benjamin Troy from San Jose, California. Our total tuna catch this week was of 182 fish. Dorado catches are winding down with boats seldom catching more than a single fish, though Pisces Valerie was the exception with six up to twenty pounds. Outstanding catch of the week probably goes to Pisces Cabolero on February 22nd for anglers Charles Gallagher & Chris Gallardo from Crete, Illinois and Scott Erickson from Oreno, Minnesota, who caught a 200 lb mako shark; this group also released a striped marlin and caught two yellow fin tuna and ten sierra. There were quite a few sharks this week; we had a couple of makos, a hammerhead and a sardine shark, the juveniles were released and the one taken on Cabolero was the biggest we have seen in a long time. Inshore fishing was where we saw our most prolific catches this week with lots of sierra – in fact we totaled 228 of them. Boats fished inshore for these and had a lot of fun on light tackle, managing to hook up to 35 in a day (many released). We also had grouper, cabrilla, roosterfish, lots of skipjack and jack crevalle. Our inshore guide Wesley had great catches all week, the most outstanding being that of three hawk fish as well as some good size, sierra and jack crevalle. This new service is proving to be extremely popular so pre-booking is a must so as not to be disappointed.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Partly cloudy, seas moderate to rough.
LOCATION: Golden Gate, San Jaime, Old Lighthouse 20 miles out, shoreline from Lighthouse to Migrino.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP; 70-73 F
BEST LURES: live bait, cedar plugs, guacamayo, white & blue, feathers, green.

They Thought They Were Fishing for Tuna

An Orono, Minnesota man, Scott Erickson thought he was fishing for tuna at the Jaime Bank, when the bait was snatched by a strong fish, which turned out to be this approximately 200 lb Mako Shark. This was not the only catch aboard Cabolero, they also had two yellow fin tunas and en sierra on February 22nd.

Go Bill Collector!

Go Bill Collector! Benjamin & Pamela Simmons from Fairfield North Carolina, released six marlin yesterday at the Golden Gate. Shown here thnking the crew and proudly displaying their flags. Weather has turned hot, so we may see a resurgence of marlin instread of slipping into the March doldrums.

Here's The Fish Report

BILLFISH: This week we saw a drop on marlin catches down from seventy plus percent last week to forty percent this week, but we are not worried, this is normal for this time of year. In fact we are happy that catches are still as good as they are. As we approach March we expect some wind and water temperatures to drop below 70F which will bring in bountiful catches of smaller game, so for the time being we are enjoying the marlin that we have. Fishing patterns are unpredictable though, so with the water temperature running above average, perhaps the marlin will continue to feed. Top billfish boat this week was Pisces 35 ft. Valerie with a great day at Golden Gate that produced five striped marlin caught on live mackerel, for Scott Buchanan & Bobby West from Texas.  Scott Thompson from Houston, another Texan, released three striped marlin aboard Pisces Shambala as well as a dorado, while fishing with the Slades from Southampton, Bermuda. Another boat that had a fabulous day was Pisces Rebecca on February 15th; they released both a striped marlin and a sailfish, the only one of the week, as well as catching twelve yellow fin tuna and a dorado for Brian Mendez & Kristine Jaques from Escondido, California.  As mentioned above, a little less than half the boats found marlin this week and when found, it was usually a single fish in the 120 to 160 lb. category, though some boats did have double marlin days such as Tracy Ann, with two for David & Chris Olsen from Alberta, Canada.  Pisces anglers caught a total of 31 billfish, with all but one released. In 2012 for this same week we only caught one marlin!  So no complaints here.
 
OTHER SPECIES: Anglers were most likely to encounter dorado more than any other species this week with catches varying from one to eleven fish. They were found in various locations and weighed from 15 to 35 lbs.   Pisces Adriana was the top dorado boat with eleven caught in front of Santa Maria on the Cortez side on a combination of live caballito and blue and white lures by John Pedlow and party from Bellingham, WA. Our total dorado count was fifty fish. Yellow fin tuna catches were steady with forty two percent catching football size fish. As is often the case, when found, they were in schools meaning if the captain was skilled and approached them right you could load up on them. Tracy Ann had 35 for the Olsen’s from Canada, also mentioned above and Bill Collector had a whopping 40 fish for Carlos Assad and friends visiting from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Our total tuna catch reflecting these good numbers, giving us a total count of 269 yellow fin for the week. Pisces Ruthless had the largest wahoo we have caught in a while (this boat has a knack for wahoo) at 70 lbs. for George McIntosh from Canada who shared the boat with Claude Wayne.  Inshore we started to see good catches of red snapper, sierra, jack crevalle, sierra and skipjacks. Another member of the Brazilian party, Mattheus Assad went surf fishing with our expert guide Wesley an caught three jack crevalles up to 20 lbs., a roosterfish and sierra all from the beach near the desal plant.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: We had some overcast and slightly colder days, with seas a bit choppy, conditions now are picture perfect.
LOCATION: The Pacific is still the place of choice, with San Jaime and Golden Gate popular, though Santa Maria did produce some good catches, inshore was from the Old Light house to Migrino.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 69 F
BEST LURES: Live bait, cedar plugs, blue/white, feathers, green colors.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Some Pics from Today

Fishing season is beginning to change as attested to by these photos of some of the catches today - shown here some red snapper taken on a panga and some lovely grouper caught aboard Pisces Tracy Ann by Mark Urey from The Woodlands, Texas.

Catch of the Day!

Catch of the Day: was this beautiful 70 lb wahoo caught aboard Pisces Ruthless by George McIntosh from Canada who shared the boat with Claude Wayne from Houston, who caught a tuna. The 'hoo took a guacamayo lure at San Jaime.

Beautiful Sunset Tonight Feb 15th

The sunset tonight was breathtaking and we just had to share it with all those who cannot be here.

These Guys are Serious....

These guys are serious...really, they loaded up with 35 tuna and a dorado aboard the Tracy Ann  - pictured here is David Olsen and friends from Alberta, Canada and a couple of local beggars.....the pelicans that is...what else did you think we meant?

Youngster Catches Marlin on Half Day Trip

So last week we had the story of the senior citizens out on a half day trip that hauled in the 987 lb marlin....this is a completely different story. The Huska family were visiting from Edmonton, Canada and dad Scott, took eleven year old daughter Tegan out for a half day of fishing, whilst mom and brother stayed back at the hotel. Despite rough seas and only four hours booked aboard Pisces 28 ft Andrea, Tegan did exceptionally well to release a 130 lb striped marlin, four miles off of Cerro Blanco - as well as catching four sierra. There are grown men that have never done that. Well done Tegan.

Here's the Fish Report

FEBRUARY 2ND TO 8TH, 2013

Overall Catch Success Rate 96%
Numbers at a glance: Marlin 78%, Tuna 17%, Dorado 24%

BILLFISH: We had a spectacular week for marlin, with some superb catches at Golden Gate. Pisces “Fearless” had reels screaming as they released marlin after marlin for Mike Decardenas & Tom Scott, from Miami & Dallas, respectively, until the exhausted anglers had totaled sixteen fish between 110 and 150 lbs during their day charter on February 3rd. This same day we saw other boats have excellent catches too, such as Pisces Adriana who released seven marlin for Jason & Kim Gumm, Brian & Duane Ford, from Kentucky. Another Texas angler, Gary Anderson, also from Dallas, managed to release six stripers aboard Pisces Shambala. Good weather and a good supply of live mackerel as bait, seemed to contribute to the boats excellent success. The following day, February 4th, saw catches to continue in the same vein, again for Pisces Shambala with another six marlin. Pisces Rebecca, a 31 ft Bertram released seven, making her top boat of the day for a group from Champaign, Illinois consisting of Dana, Scott, Kevin and Bill. Second highest catch of the week went to Pisces Tracy Ann, with eleven striped marlin released and a dorado boated on February 5th for the McNeil’s & Anderson’s from Gilbert, Mn. Seventy eight percent of the boats got marlin with catches ranging from one to sixteen, as mentioned above, with the average being two to four per boat per day. Towards the end of the week the weather cooled and the wind picked up on the Pacific, forcing boats to seek alternative fishing grounds, though some, such as Rebecca, battled up the coast and managed to catch seven marlin for the second time this week; this time for George Fussell from Florida. Due to the less than perfect conditions, some anglers preferred smoother water, or decided to go for smaller game closer to Cabo. Pisces anglers caught a total of 140 striped marlin this week – all were released.

OTHER SPECIES: After marlin, the next most likely species that anglers encountered was dorado, but not in sheer numbers like the marlin or even tuna. Catches were usually just one or two fish up to 30 lbs and occasionally three – twenty four percent of charter boats caught dorado. They were found trolling over a wide area, tending to be free swimming rather than in schools. Tuna catches were regular with seventeen percent of boats finding schools of varying size leading to some great catches. Pisces Yahoo, did the best on this species catching thirty five up to 20 lbs at San Jaime, as well as releasing a marlin for John Vipiana & friends from San Rafael, Ca. Another boat that did really well was Pisces Bill Collector with thirty caught and fifteen released for Michael Williams from Australia. We had just one small wahoo & some skipjacks, plus two nice grouper aboard Cabolero. Surf fishing on the other hand was very good for guide Wesley, who on the last day of this report caught and released fourteen sierra, two jack crevalle and one rooster fish for a lone fisherman – we are now accepting bookings for surf fishing, contact us for details.
LOCATION: Golden Gate, San Jaime, Migrino, Los Arcos,30 miles from Lighthouse.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Skies mostly clear & sunny, seas calm, whitecaps at the end of the week on the Pacific.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 72 F
BEST LURES: Live mackerel, green & blue lures, cedar plugs.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

John R, Please Contact Us

John R, you left us a comment in regard to the massive marlin. Please send us your phone number or email to info@piscesgroupcabo.com so that we can get your opinion. We related the story as told to us by the captain - we would love to talk to you.

Two Marlin Same Time, Different Directions.....What do we Do?

 

 

Dave Nolt from Lone Tree, Colorado, didn't have anbody to go fishing with so we teamed him up with C.J Jones another single angler looking for a partner to charter a boat. They ended up going out on Pisces La Brisa on Feb 4th...here is what happened in their own words:

"Hi Oscar, Dave wanted me to send this in hopes you found it worthy of posting on your blog!!  I wasn't sure how many yards of line on a spool.... Dave guessed 500 or 600.Caught and released 4 marlin. A double hook up with one going east and the other going west. Both spools were on their last thread (600  yards of fishing line about to snap in both directions) the first mate grabbed a buoy, tied it to Daves pole and threw the pole over board....now his marlin is swimming away with pole and buoy attached. Captain then headed toward CJ's marlin while CJ reeled in all that line.... 30 minutes caught and released. Then La Brisa (the boat) full speed back 3 miles, found the buoy....used a gaff to pull back our rod and Dave reeled him in.... exciting to say the very least. Both fish released safely".

Incredible Striped Marlin Bite in Cabo

The striped marlin bite went crazy in Cabo this week-end as the famous Golden Gate lived up to it's name and produced multiple catches of fish in the 100 to 160 lb class. On Sunday the 3rd of February, Pisces 50 ft Viking "Fearless", release SIXTEEN striped marlin, all taken on live mackerel for Mike Decardenes from Miami, Florida and Tom Scott from Dallas, Texas. Other boats released between two and seven fish each, giving us a total of 76 striped marlin all released over the last three days. Come on down, if it's your dream to catch a marlin now is the time.

Gibbons Addison About to Release a Beautiful Striped Marlin he also released a  500 lb Blue Marlin aboard Tracy Ann

Massive Marlin Caught in Cabo by Senior Citizens!

Left to Right: Deckhand Alejandro Suarez, Captain Manuel "El Chichi" Dominguez and Jaime Dominguez Photo by Mario Banaga- all rights reserved

Unknown to the fishing community an epic battle was taking place off the Cabo coast yesterday with a monster marlin. A 32 ft charter boat "Ziggy", left the dock Saturday morning on what was supposed to be a half day, or four hour trip. The anglers all senior citizens from Phoenix, Arizona, were no spring chickens and if Captain Manuel Dominguez, understood them correctly, the youngest was 82 years old. They headed up the Pacific to look for tuna as the clients had requested. Manuel, also know as "Chichi" is a very experienced captain and had fifteen tuna on board before long for the two couples - Sergent & Sandy Snagirett, John & Edie Rayno. It was 1.20 pm in the afternoon and they were nine miles off of Cabo; time to bring the lines in. Suddenly they got a hit on their right outrigger, their homemade flying fish lure - the line started to peel off the reel at an alarming speed. Captain Manuel said "I thought it was a big tuna, because we had big porpoises around us".  Forty minutes later the fish jumped and  they saw that it was a large blue marlin "I thought it was around 800 lbs, because I´ve caught two around that size before", said the captain. The first tourist to fight the fish only lasted about ten minutes before surrendering to the brute beast and was relieved by Jaime, Captain Manuel´s 18 year old son, along in training as a deckhand. Jaime did a little better as he fought the fish with his 80 lb tackle and managed to crank for  three hours. Then another of the tourists had a go, but loosened the drag and the line quickly bunched up making a "bird's nest", forming a knot that stripped one of the rod guides of it's inner liner. Deckhand Alejandro Suarez took over and quickly rectified the situation and continued to fight the fish for another hour. By now it was getting late and the captain was worried that he might run out of diesel as the fish had taken them eleven miles out and he had no idea how much longer the fight would go on. He called his friend Julio Castro, captain of Tracy Ann from Pisces Sportfishing and asked for help. The diesel dock was closed so Julio, along with his son Abrahn and fellow captain Jose Ramon of Pisces Rebecca, went to the gas station to buy some diesel and headed out on the Tracy Ann to assist the Ziggy. They located the boat easily with the GPS  and were there to assist thirty minutes later, around 6.00 pm. The crew and anglers of Ziggy where happy to get reinforcements & encouraged the Pisces boys to help fight the fish. Julio stayed on his boat but Abrahn and Jose Ramon climbed aboard and both took turns at fighting the fish for a total of two hours, before realizing they had an important soccer match to play in & needed to get back (gives you an idea of how important this game is in Mexico). They left the Ziggy with promises of phone contact help until the game was over. Captain Manuel decided it was up to him to get the job done, climbed down from the bridge and went to work putting a lot of pressure on the fish. At 9.00 pm he felt the fish shaking it's head and knew it was jumping - he got the fish boat side, handed the rod to his deckhand and went back to the controls, while his crew gaffed the fish. They now had a new problem on their hands; how to get the marlin on to the swim step or in the boat. They struggled for half an hour before giving up and tying the head only to the swim step and starting the sixteen mile trip home in the dark. Good to their word the Pisces boys were there to lend a hand when they finally pulled into their slip at 1.30 am on Sunday morning. There was no way to weigh the fish at that hour, so between them all they hauled the massive fish up onto the concrete dock and left it in the custody of the night watchman, before waving goodbye to the dazed anglers who headed off to their hotel. What a surprise everybody got on Sunday morning to see that huge fish lying there. At 8.30 am there was enough help to get the fish weighed and it was hauled up on the marina scale where it registered 987 lbs. Now, it had sat out all night on the dock so at least ten percent of its body weight had been lost, meaning it was at least 1085 lbs putting it in the top five largest fish ever caught in Cabo. - 
Note: Pisces did not kill this fish, we are reporting this story only. 

The fish spent the night on the dock, where it lost at least ten percent of its body weight. Photo by Mario Banaga - all rights reserved

Fish Report

JANUARY 26TH TO FEBRUARY 1ST, 2013
Overall Catch Success Rate 99%
Numbers at a glance: Marlin 65%, Dorado 61%, Tuna 17%
BILLFISH: We have not had a lot of anglers in town, which is shame because fishing is good and we know it is cold everywhere else – it is worth coming to Cabo for a weekend right now. Striped marlin catches were good throughout the week with boats averaging one to two each on most days in the 100 to 160 lb class. Thankfully live mackerel was readily available which we believe to a positive factor in the catch rate.  Los Arcos and Golden Gate seemed to be the way to go, but strangely enough, on January 29th boats did an about face and fished the other extreme of Destiladeres on the Cortez side where they found marlin, before switching back to the Pacific the following day. There is a micro climate around Cabo; the seas and calm and there is no wind, but once you pass San Jose it is windy. The best marlin day was at the end of this report when we saw Pisces Adriana, a 28 ft boat catch and release four striped marlin for a couple that described themselves as “a desert lizard and a polar bear” Suzy Hertzman from Arizona and Patrik Hertzman from Sweden, who travelled from Europe to release these four fish at the Golden Gate. This same day we saw Pisces Great Escape Jr release three marlin for Kevin & Jamie Henderson from Greenacres, Washington as well as Pisces Andrea releasing three marlin, plus two skipjacks for Wayne & Warren Gyorfi from Canada. Sixty five percent of our boats caught striped marlin this week resulting in a total of 25 stripers, all of which were released.

OTHER SPECIES: It was great to have a revival on the tuna this week; commercial tuna seiners swept through him over a week ago and swept them all up, but I guess a new school moved into the area of San Jaime, resulting in some great catches. Tom Shave and his friends from Fort McMurray, Canada, were out on Pisces Tracy Ann and loaded up with 23 tuna, releasing some and also boating a dorado, they even saw a marlin but couldn’t get a hook up. This same day Pisces Bill Collector really went overboard catching 50 tuna of which they released 30, plus ten dorado were caught, for Mark Chiavetta & friends from Jose, California. Tuna were not found but a lot of boats, but when located the catches were excellent – just seventeen percent of charters caught yellowfin but the total catch was of 100 fish. You had a better chance of catching dorado this week; sixty one percent of boats, in fact did and catches ranged from one to fourteen fish, with weights between 15 and 30 lbs. One of the best spots for these was two miles offshore at Los Arcos on the Pacific. Charter boats also caught white skipjack in shore – in other words the type you can eat, as well as a few sierra. We are now offering surf/beach fishing with an expert guide, American born, Mexico raised, Wesley is now available for excursion with groups of up to four anglers and usually has high success rates. This week he caught jack crevalle up to 20 lbs, red and dog tooth snapper and even a large roosterfish. He has success catching sharks from the beach too, with some large copper sharks in the last month.
LOCATION: Pacific - Los Arcos, Migrino, San Jaime, Golden Gate; Cortez Punta Gorda, Destilideras.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 72 F
BEST LURES: Live mackerel, green lure, ballyhoo, cedar plugs, and feathers.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Well Done Julio Castro

Gray Taxidermy works with captains all over the world, so it was an honor for them to pick Julio Castro from Tracy Ann, as their captain of the month.
Then again, it will probably come as no surprise to those of you who fish with him. Shown with Julio is General Manager of Gray, Bill Dobbelear against the backdrop of the Pisces office.

No We Didn't Catch This One

No, we didn't catch this one, but snapped this great pic of a humpback whale just half a mile off shore - amazing that these are on our doorstep.... (photo by Tracy)

Fishing Today

We had great fishing today with the production per boat very high. Our total catch for four boats was:
Ten Striped Marlin
Eleven Yellow Fin Tuna
One Dorado
Two Skipjacks.
Boats headed up the Pacific to the Golden Gate and used live mackerel to give them these great catches on marlin. The tuna were 22 miles off the lighthouse and took cedar plugs.
Top boat today was Pisces Adriana, a 28 ft Uniflite for Patrik & Suzanne Hertzman, from Sweden, with four striped marlin released between 100 and 160 lbs.

All That's Missing is You

Twenty-eight foot Andrea leaving to go fishing this morning, looking forward to an active day. Yesterday, San Jaime was productive giving us 89 tuna, 25 dorado, 4 skipjack and 1 striped marlin for four boats out. Come on down, fishing is great, weather is unbeatable.