Monday, September 23, 2013

Huge Tuna Caught This Week in Cabo


September 14th to 20th, 2013

Numbers at a glance: Billfish 72%, Dorado 85%, Tuna 18%

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 99%

BILLFISH: Cabo was again plagued by tropical weather this week, causing the port to be closed partly on the 17th and fully on the 18th & 19th, frustrating for anglers and crews alike, but we are thankful that no major damage was sustained.  Just before the rains and wind we had some pretty spectacular fishing days. Pisces Valerie out on September 14th with Bryan Koehn, Julie Garchynski & Ron Hasber from San Antonio, Texas on board, had an amazing day with a grand slam consisting of a 312 lb. blue marlin which took a purple lure, two striped marlin a sailfish & three dorado, fishing at the 95 spot and Herradura. This same day proved to be the best of the period – for instance Pisces La Brisa had five striped marlin up to 130 lbs., a sailfish, a dorado & two tuna for Chris & Amy Renegar. On par this day too was Adriana, with four sailfish, two striped marlin & a dorado for Tim, Larry & Travis Pierce from Seattle, WA. Luis Nunez from Panama had a blast aboard Tracy Ann on September 16th with two striped marlin, a sailfish & eighteen dorado from 15 to 50 lbs. Other boats had one marlin or sail plus dorado. Action was great if the port had been open, as it is we fished only half the days we normally would which is reflected in the numbers. Nevertheless ninety nine percent of boat caught fish; just one “skunked” which our dock master Abraham swears is because the anglers took bananas on the boat (captains are superstitious about this). Pisces boats caught a total of 44 billfish this week, consisting of 30 striped marlin, 13 sailfish & 1 blue marlin.

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado was king this week as boats loaded up on double digit catches of fish ranging from 15 to 52 lbs. They love to congregate under floating debris making them easy to locate after rainy weather. On September 16th John Raymond from Cumming, Georgia, along with friends, were kept busy aboard Pisces Andrea with thirty four fish to the boat caught on a combination of lures and bait at Las Margaritas on the Pacific side – half of the fish were released. Next day out this same boat had twenty eight dorado plus a striped marlin for Robert Deal Jr. & Scott Appert. Top dorado anglers of the week though, were Cruz Hernandez & Ron Hasber (yes same guy mentioned in the billfish section) for catching thirty six dorado at Gaspareno. It should be noted that many of these dorado are released as they surpass the limit.  Eighty five percent of our charters caught dorado giving us a total count of 335 fish. Tuna catches were on the slow side with eighteen percent catching a few footballs here and there. There was however, one impressive exception of a 266 LB heavyweight caught at 95 spot by Australian angler Grant Potter, who is from Banbury. The fish took live bait on 60 lb.  test and took one hour and ten minutes to be brought to the boat Halcon on September 20th.   A couple of small wahoo were caught just shy of 30 lbs.  Inshore just a few skipjacks were caught and those surf fishing with guide Wesley were able to catch jack crevalle.

LOCATION: 95 & Herradura seemed better for marlin, dorado were found in diverse locations but in greater amounts on the Pacific.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Port closed on three days due to tropical storms, seas now returning to normal.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 85 F

BEST LURES: live bait, green/yellow, petrolero, purple.