Fishing Roundup

March 16 to 22nd, 2013

Overall Catch Success Rate 90%
 Numbers at a glance: Billfish 13%, Tuna 54%, Dorado 29%, Small Game 19%

Twist and Shout! Beautiful Striped Marlin hooked aboard Valerie

 

BILLFISH: March is notoriously slow for marlin, but we have had some obliging fish that have stuck around, resulting in some nice catches. All the marlin catches were in the calmer seas of the Cortez with Punta Gorda proving to be one of the best areas. March 20th was surprisingly good for some boats, when Pisces Bill Collector had five striped marlin and boated a dorado for John Davies and Brian Rodgers from Minnesota. This same day Tracy Ann released three stripers for long time Pisces client Steve Roorda from Minneapolis – the fish were from 120 to 140 lbs. and took live mackerel.  Next day out Pisces Adriana had two marlin and a dorado, also at Punta Gorda for Tammie Rydberg & Shelly Anderson from Minnesota – go girls! Bill Collector didn’t miss a beat and went on to release three striped marlin this day for Robert Thurgood from Dallas, who fished with Chris Vansumeron from Bay City, Michigan. The big billfish story this week though was the one that got away (isn’t always). Shawn Promer, Scott Murphy & Paul Bloch are from the colder climes of Wisconsin and headed to Cabo where they booked Pisces 31 ft. Bertram La Brisa. They had heard that the tuna bite was good and headed out offshore, twenty nine miles in fact, to a place known as the 240 spot. They soon loaded up with twenty tunas in the 10 to 20 lb. class and also managed to hook and boat a 20 lb. dorado, when deckhand Salvador spotted a swordfish on the surface, quickly put a live mackerel on his bait rod and cast it expertly to the slow moving fish. Within seconds he had a hook up and the battle began……it lasted five hours, until the approximate 350 lb. fish was lost and swam down to deeper water. Frustrating, but a great adventure giving these guys a story to tell back on land, plus they had the consolation of the fish boated earlier in the day; perhaps not quite as tasty as the swordfish, but nevertheless plenty of fillets to take home. The marlin bite was not consistent and again this week, many boats preferred to try for tuna, which had better odds. With the moon getting bigger every night and the wind picking up, we may be in for a few tough days, but then again this is Cabo – anything can happen. Thirteen percent of our boats caught striped marlin between 100 and 150 lbs. resulting in a total of sixteen marlin released.

Tuna were the number one catch again, this week we totaled 531.

OTHER SPECIES: Yellow fin tuna catches retained the top spot again this week in Cabo, with our total fish count not as high at last week but nevertheless pretty good with 531 fish caught. The sizes on the tuna are still of school size at 10 to 25 lbs. with cedar plugs proving to be unbeatable in getting them to bite. They were found in various places such as San Jaime and off of the Old Lighthouse & even 40 miles off of Lands End. Top tuna boat this week was Rebecca, with 35 fish caught, some released on March 22nd at San Jaime for Kevin Powers and friends from Klamath Falls, Oregon.  Dorado catches were had by twenty nine percent of the boats, but when found they were seldom more than one or two fish, picked up trolling. Pisces Andrea had four up to 20 lbs., plus a striped marlin released for Javier Caldera from Irving, Texas. Inshore not much was happening for the boats, with just a few skipjacks.

Rene Perez from Tijuana did extremely well to catch this 18 lb dorado from the beach.

SURF FISHING: We had four surf fishing trips this week with Wesley that produced 12 jack crevalle, 12 sierra and 1 dorado. The jack crevalle were up to 20 lbs. The dorado was caught by Rene Perez from Tijuana, a significant catch from the beach.  The fish weighed approximately 18 lbs. and took a Shimano Orca lure. The dorado was chasing ballyhoo and probably didn’t even know it was hooked as Rene had it up on the beach so fast. Guide Wesley told us that he had “only once caught a dorado from the beach” himself and was pretty amazed at Rene’s catch.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear sunny skies, windy most days, seas on the Pacific choppy.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 66-67 F
BEST LURES: Live mackerel, cedar plugs, and feathers.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg