April 12th to 18th 2014
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 78%Numbers at a glance: Marlin 76%, Dorado 8%, Other 2%
BILLFISH: Although catch numbers were lower this week than the previous one, we were still very pleased with the fishing, because we had a full moon and some very windy weather – normally a recipe for poor catches - yet seventy six percent of our charters caught marlin. Not only that, we had some outstanding catches, such as those aboard Pisces Rebecca, who released seven striped marlin on April 12th for the Haran family from Dallas, Texas. All of their fish were released at the 11.50 spot after taking live bait or ballyhoo – these were our anglers of the week. This same day Pisces Valerie did not fare too badly either, releasing four marlin up to 120 lbs. for Gary Allison from Las Vegas. Next day out Rebecca was again the top boat, this time with four marlin for Duncan, Denisse & Christopher Roberts from Frisco, Colorado. The wind blew for several days, typical for March, meaning we had several boats turn around with sea-sick anglers, nevertheless we were able to catch eight night striped marlin with all but one released.
OTHER SPECIES: Well this section will be short as marlin dominated and this is what the captains concentrated on. We did have a few dorado – Ted Marsella, Brian Halligan & Tito Barilacchi caught two up to 25 lbs. at the 11.50 spot and also released three marlin, on, and you guessed it….Rebecca. Just eight percent of our boats caught dorado and almost without exception it would be a single fish, picked up when trolling for marlin. The only other fish we caught this week was a 150 lb. thresher shark caught by Craig Everly from Washington D.C aboard Bill Collector.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Windy and rough.
LOCATION: 11.50 spot was the main place and some days Destiladeras.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 73 F
BEST LURES: Live caballito, frozen ballyhoo.
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 95%
Numbers at a glance: Marlin 92%, Dorado 3%, Other/Small Game 10%
BILLFISH: This week was FANTASTIC for striped marlin catches in Cabo, with nearly every boat catching between one and six in a day, resulting in a lot of happy anglers. Best day of the week was April 5th, when thirty nine marlin were released, between nine of our boats! The fish seemed to be parked at the 11.50 spot on the Cortez side, though occasionally the odd one was found towards Punta Gorda. Pisces Valerie, Ruthless & Bill Collector all had a half dozen marlin each caught on a combination of live caballito and frozen ballyhoo on April 5th. Next day out Bill Collector equaled this number again for anger Ross Kline from Reno, Nevada. John & Tamara Moskites, fishing with Todd Turner, all from North Carolina, were very pleased to release six marlin up to 140 lbs. aboard Pisces La Brisa on April 7th. This same boat followed up the next day with another six, this time for Russian angler Aleks Bezzubenko, with fish ranging from 90 to 130 lbs. Yahoo was not to be left out, as they also scored six for Michael Walters & Jennifer Smith from Texas also at the 11.50 spot. With the big moon coming on now though, we are likely to see a slight drop off in catches in the coming days. Ninety two percent of our anglers caught marlin this week, giving us a total catch of 193 fish, all released except one.
OTHER SPECIES: Because the marlin bit was such a sure thing, very few boats targeted other species, with tuna practically non-existent and dorado extremely sparse, out catches were very low for these species, with just three dorado and zero tuna. Inshore the pangas we sent caught a few sierra, jack crevalle & skipjacks. We did have some sharks though; Michael Bartlett from West Chester, PA released an 80 lb. pilot shark as well as three marlin, with his buddies Leo Cole & Bob McCullen. La Brisa had the Russian guys out again, the time Aleks Bezzubenko was accompanied by Nail Muzafarov &Nail Khakimzyanov (yes our dockmasters had a lot of fun spelling those ones) on April 10th when they released two striped marlin and a 150 lb. sardine shark, and they also caught a 152 lb. thresher shark, which they kept.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear & calm.
LOCATION: 11.50 Spot.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 73 F
BEST LURES: Live caballito & frozen ballyhoo
March 29th to April 4th, 2014
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 91.4%
Numbers at a glance: Marlin 83%, Dorado 21%, Small Game 7%
BILLFISH: Wow what a comeback the marlin fishing made this week; we had great catches for most boats, though we did have a few that got “skunked” due to anglers getting sea sick and asking to come back, or simply not finding hungry fish. It would seem unusual that marlin fishing is so good, until we check back out trusty archives, which show that fishing was the same last year and moderately good the year before. Timothy Miller & Michael, Jacob & Connor Grauweis from Minnesota, were out aboard Pisces Rebecca, a boat always in our top five and were fortunate to catch and release seven striped marlin and be back in port before 2.00 pm. They fished five miles off of San Jose and caught their fish on a combination of ballyhoo and caballito. Captain J. R and the Rebecca were obviously onto something as a couple of days later, on April 2nd, they caught and released a total of six striped marlin & dorado for ecstatic, lone angler John Batchelder from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Well we have to say the Minnesotans were on a roll this week, looks like our high catch anglers were all from that state. On April 3rd we had Steve, Linda, John & Matt Olmstead from Minnesota out aboard C Rod, fishing at the 11.50 spot where they released six striped marlin in the 100 to 130 lb. class. This same day Pisces Ruthless had Gerry Sexton from Maple Grove, Minnesota aboard and he also released six marlin in the 90 to 130 lb. category. Keith & Donna Kramer though, are from Aurora, Colorado, but that didn’t stop them from releasing six striped marlin aboard La Brisa. All the high number marlin catches were on the Cortez side between the 11.50 spot and Destiladeras, though we should mention there were plenty of other boats that caught two, three or four marlin, all respectable catches. Eighty three percent of our boats caught striped marlin this week giving us a total of 139 fish released.
OTHER SPECIES: Because the marlin bite was on, this is what most of our boats targeted, plus action for other offshore species was a bit slow, nevertheless twenty percent of the boats managed to find a dorado here and there, with two boats catching three. They were standard size at 15 to 25 lbs. Only one wahoo was caught this week & that was a 45 lb. specimen hooked by David Brady from Alabama, aboard Petrolero. Inshore we just had a few roosterfish, sierras and skipjacks.
LOCATION: Cortez, 11.50 to Destiladereas, inshore San Cristobal to Los Arcos.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Some cold weather and choppy seas this week on intermittent days.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 72 -73 F
BEST LURES: live caballito, frozen ballyhoo.
