Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 99%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 95%, Dorado 28%, Tuna 28%, Small Game 8%
BILLFISH: This has been the best week of the year so far for fishing; “wow!” is all we can say and even we, used to the great Cabo fishery, are astounded at how good the catches have been. Our total marlin catch this week was 344 fish – all but two were released. Not only that Pisces Speedwell fought a 500 lb. blue marlin for four hours before it finally broke off. As we close out our week, Pisces Rebecca has a swordfish hooked up also. Usually a catch of three marlin would be worthy of mention in the weekly report, but this period the fishing was so good that it took a catch of eight marlin or more to get a special mention – not taking away from all the other great catches. The big plus this week was the appearance of schools of yellow fin tuna, so a catch of two or three marlin, plus several tuna was a distinct possibility. Top marlin day was after the threat of Hurricane Cosme, when the port was fully re-opened, June 29th. This day saw Pisces Listo release 16 marlin and catch 1 dorado for Keith Rhodes, participating in the Stars & Stripes Tournament. This same day Pisces Bill Collector and released 10 marlin for John Manzi, whilst Great Escape had 9, Great Escape Jr and Ruthless had 8 stripers each. Pisces Rebecca did very well this week releasing 9 striped marlin and catching 3 tuna and 1 doardo for Travis Prudhomme & Kyle Boultinghouse from Texas on July 1st, before going on to release 8 marlin for David Lavern from Houston, on July 5th, who also caught 5 tuna at the 11.50 spot. Pisces Valerie had an 8 marlin day for Rob & Laurie Hohos Brad & Patricia Summer & Kevin & Audrey Hall, all from Texas – with the marlin taking live caballito. Fishing was from the 95 spot to Destiladeras, with live bait and frozen ballyhoo accounting for the majority of catches. Ninety five percent of our boats caught billfish this week, breaking down into 344 striped marlin, 1 sailfish and 1 blue marlin lost.
OTHER SPECIES: July 4th was when the yellow fin tuna put in an appearance for few days when boats regularly caught between 8 and 25 footballs size fish outside the 11.50 spot. Top tuna boat was Pisces Rebecca with a total of 30 at the 120 spot, plus two striped marlin for Iman Dolatshahi & friends from Columbia, Maryland. The bite was hot for a couple of days, before the schools moved on and out of range, but that doesn’t mean there are more right behind them. Pisces boats caught a total of 212 yellow fin tuna, for twenty eight percent of our charters – showing the catches per boat were high in quantity. The same percentage of boats caught dorado, the difference being that when found the catches were seldom more than one or two fish, but they were generally good size fish in the 20 to 50 lb. class. Pisces Tracy Ann had a very nice 55 lb. dorado for Devon, who is from San Antonio, Texas. Because our boats were concentrating offshore, we sent just a few pangas inshore, though there was not much action as the surf was stirred up after the big swells. They did catch a few sierra, bonita, jack crevalle & released baby hammerhead and roosterfish.
LOCATION: Sea of Cortez, 95 spot to Destiladeras.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Skies clear, seas on the rough side close to port but smoother once you got offshore.
AVERAGE WATE TEMP: 75 F
BEST LURES: Live caballito or mackerel, frozen ballyhoo, cedar plugs for tuna, caballito & green/yellow lures for dorado.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg
