Wednesday, February 26, 2014

We Don't Want to be Cruel........But....

We don't wan't to be cruel to those of you freezing in other parts of the world right now, but this photo was snapped this morning, by Rebecca from Cabo San Lucas, as she waited to board our 31 ft Bertram, Rebecca before a day of fishing - come on down; we are only a plane ride away.


Ten Marlin on One Boat!

FEBRUARY 9TH to 21st, 2014
Overall Catch Success Rate 93%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 71%, Tuna 12%, Dorado 11%, Small Game 32% 


BILLFISH: This week’s report covers a two week period as we were at a boat show last week and couldn’t get this out – the good news is that we have had some superb fishing. The stripe marlin bit was particularly good, even though we did have a few boats “skunked” right around full moon, but on the other hand we had a couple of boats that released as many as ten in a day. Top catch was Pisces Bill Collector, a 32 ft. Cabo Express, with ten marlin released along with a 175 lb. thresher shark for Mark Chiavetta from San Jose, California. The other top boat was also a Cabo, this time a 35 ft. flybridge, Listo, which also released then striped marlin for Barlet Sequeira, Jason & Jennifer Hammonds, Kasandra Hutson & Kelly & Matt Thomas, all from Houston. The first week of this report, boats switched from the Pacific to the 11.50 spot on the Cortez side, mainly due to some gusty winds on the Pacific, but as we write this Golden Gate on the Pacific is again, the location of choice for most boats willing to go up the coast and not settle for close by small game. The boats are using mixed live bait, with mackerel their first choice, but also taking along caballito & sardines. Catches ranged from one to ten fish with many boats in the four, five & six fish category. Seventy on percent of our boats caught striped marlin this week, giving us a total catch of 229 stripers, with all but one released.
OTHERS SPECIES: As mentioned in our fish report header, ninety three percent of our charters caught fish of some type and even though marlin was the most likely catch we still had several boats that did quite well on tuna. Pisces 31ft Bertram, Tracy Ann, always seems to make the fish report – this week she had more tuna than anybody else, as this crew don’t mind going the extra mile, sometimes traveling 40 miles to where they think they will find tuna –this is exactly what they did for Dennis Albin from Washington and ended up catching him & John Lodrige 29 tuna up to 20 lbs. as well as releasing a striped marlin. Just twelve percent of our charters found tuna and generally they were far out, twenty five to forty miles, with catches of one to fifteen fish the norm. Dorado catches were slightly slower with eleven percent of boats hooking these, generally when trolling for marlin, the difference here though, was that when found catches were rarely more than one or two fish. We are still seeing lots of sharks them most we can remember in a decade. Hunters Hoshiko from San Diego hooked an approximately 110 lb. thresher shark & released a smaller hammerhead and a striped marlin.  A couple of small mako sharks were also released by the fleet. Inshore thirty two percent of our boats caught sierra, bonita, skipjacks , needle fish, some roosters and the odd yellowtail.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Partly cloudy skies, warm, seas somewhat choppy in the afternoons, some whitecaps on the Pacific when windy.
LOCATION: Golden Gate, 11.50 spot, 20-40 miles off lighthouse, inshore near lighthouse & migrino.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 72 F
BEST LURES: Live mackerel, sardines, caballito, cedar plugs, green colored lures.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Sunday, February 09, 2014

First Spear Fish of the Year Caught

FEBRUARY 1ST TO 7TH, 2014
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 80%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 60%, Tuna 10%, Dorado 20%, Other 18%

Paul Boswell from Canada, releases his first striped marlin aboard Pisces Rebecca

BILLFISH: We had a pretty decent week, even though numbers are a bit lower this report, but this was directly linked to bad weather on February 5th, when we had cloudy skies, wind & choppy seas, causing even our most productive boats to come back with nothing, nevertheless other days we saw some really good fishing. The most exciting catch this week was of a 60 LB short bill spearfish, caught and released aboard Pisces Petrolero on February 1st by Shari Miller from Peoria, Arizona. The unexpected catch took place sixteen miles outside of Santa Maria Bay on the Cortez side when the fish took a trolled “guacamaya” colored lure & was quickly let go. This is an extremely rare catch; usually no more than two a year are caught for the entire Cabo fleet. Striped marlin catches remained good at Golden Gate as long weather allowed the boats to get up there, on some days it was very windy and cold meaning that most anglers simply did not want to get beaten up to  get there. Nevertheless we had some great catches- the Adams family from Encinitas, California had a great day aboard Pisces Yahoo, releasing five striped marlin between 100 and 170 lbs., at Golden Gate on February 6th, using live mackerel for bait, making these guys our anglers of the week. Deanna Beasley from Austin, Texas fishing with friends had a great time releasing four marlin & boating one dorado for the dinner table aboard Pisces La Brisa. The 31 ft. Bertram Tracy Ann also achieved a high catch day with four striped marlin for Curtis Matthew & Frank Ulhorn from South Carolina.  Sixty percent of other boats caught between one and three striped marlin each, giving us a total of 71 released plus the spearfish.
OTHER SPECIES: Although we still have tuna and dorado around, the numbers arestarting to decrease, that said, we do expect another strong tuna run right around April. Only a half dozen boats found tuna this week & when found it was feast or famine, they eight caught one or two or did the opposite and caught fifteen to twenty five. Sizes were small at 15 to 25 lbs. slightly more boats caught dorado, giving us a catch rate of twenty percent, but the catches were of a single fish in the 15 to 30 lb. class.  Pisces Tracy Ann caught an 80 lb. mako shark for Parker Jones from Raleigh, North Carolina and one other mako was released for the fleet. The inshore fishing is starting to pick up and we saw some red snapper, yellowtail, bonita, skipjack & sierra in moderate numbers.
LOCATION: Pacific, Golden Gate, inshore Light House to Gaspareno.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Feels like winter has arrived in Cabo, some chilly evenings, a couple of windy days and rough seas, however, at the end of this report, we had returned to our normal beautiful weather.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 71-72 F
BEST LURES: Live mackerel, green/orange lures, cedar plugs.