Tuesday, November 19, 2013

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.