MAY 17th to 23rd, 2014
Overall Catch Success Rate 100%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 86%, Dorado 18%, Sharks 36%
BILLFISH: This week saw great fishing in the Los Cabos area, with hotter than normal weather producing some great catches. We did not have as many sheer marlin numbers this week but boats regularly caught between one and four billfish each. The fishing moved a little northward, towards Punta Gorda, but the 11.50 spot still produced the goods too. The marlin are ranging in size from 90 to 180 lbs and are taking live bait. Darren Wyckoff from Spokane, Washington aboard Pisces Rebecca one of a half dozen boats that achieved four marlin in a day - he also caught a nice 30 lb dorado for the table on May 17th. May 19th was a day when we saw big stripers, with La Brisa releasing one just over 180 lbs for Milford Ballard & Steven Jones from Amarillo & Corpus Christ, Texas; their other three marlin were feisty, but not as large. With eighty six percent of boats catching marlin, those that didn’t were deliberately looking for something else - and they succeeded as every boat we sent out caught fish this week. Hot, weather, nice seas - we even saw schools of bait, right on the shoreline of the main beach. It shows the weather is beginning to warm up as we released a couple of sailfish this week. John Ireland reporting seeing 700 lb swordfish that he followed around for an hour and a half trying to get to take his bait – with no success, but we did receive a picture from Bob Manroe who actually caught one, we don’t have the details but it looks to be between 300 -400 lbs. Pisces anglers caught a total of 99 striped marlin & 2 sailfish this week, with all but two fish released.
OTHER SPECIES: What really surprised us this week was the number of sharks, we have never seen shark catches like these, with threshers, hammerheads & pilot sharks being found in with the marlin. We caught a total of 20 sharks this week, with the majority of them released, but boy, did our equipment take a beating. For example, James Haefner, Maurice Sherman & Jeff & Leslie Taylor, were out on Pisces Bill Collector on May 20th and released two striped marlin, a 140 lb thresher shark and a 160 lb thresher shark that took them three hours and forty minutes to subdue. This same day both Ruthless & La Brisa also released a thresher shark as well as marlin. Bill Collector seemed to be the shark boat this week, as they released three pilot sharks up to 180 lbs AND a thresher shark and a striped marlin – all on May 22nd for the Mann family from Detroit. Rebecca earlier in the week released two thresher sharks up to 130 lbs, plus a hammerhead shark and two striped marlin for our good friends Gerald Richmond & John Mason. Please note that there is a ban on hammerhead sharks for any kind of fishing as of May 17th until June 17th, there is also a permanent ban on catching white sharks by any method in Mexico. Dorado catches were on the slow side with just five boats finding fish up to 30 lbs. There were no yellowfin tuna but we did hear of some nice ones in the East Cape are. The pangas that we sent this week did well on skipjacks and also got few jack crevalles and amberjack, plus the odd dorado.
LOCATION: 11.50 spot & Punta Gorda.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Nice – except Thursday when we had some wind in the early morning hours, followed by a little rain. Seas are calm.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP:78 F
BEST LURES: Live bait.
May 10th to 16th, 2014
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 90%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 86%, Dorado 8%, Sharks 12%
BILLFISH: No doubt about it, this past week there was a definite focus on marlin catches. The phenomenal fishing continues aided by much warmer than normal water temperatures, in fact we can’t remember the water being this warm so early in the year, so much so that we are hearing of blue marlin being caught already. Shambala fought & lost one this week and another fleet also had one. In most of the world Friday the 13th is considered “bad luck”, in Mexico however they say “don’t get married or board a boat on Tuesday the 13th” but the fishing this week, threw that saying right out the window, as we it was the most productive, with multiple marlin catches headed up by Ruthless, skippered this day by Captain Julio Castro, while his boat is being rebuilt. Julio managed to get his long time clients Gary & Susan Hall from Washington, hooked up to ten striped marlin at the 11.50 spot. Pisces Rebecca released seven marlin this same day for the Senderak family from Avon, Connecticut & Hollywood, Florida. Bill Collector was in one of the top slots also with six marlin released for Mark Tuttle & the aptly named Robert Fish. La Brisa had Texans on board who released five marlin and a sardine shark that was around 110 LBS. These were the more prominent catches, though the average was two to three marlin per boat per day. Pisces C Rod did well to release eight stripers up to 160 lbs outside of Punta Gorda for the Reynolds family from Midvale, Utah on May 16th. Catches did dip during the full moon but are already rebounding. Pisces anglers caught a total of 126 striped marlin this week, with just two kept.
OTHER SPECIES: There has not been a lot of action on smaller game as the marlin fishing has been so good, that boats concentrated on what equaled success. Dorado catches were on the slow side with just a handful making it back to the dock; on very nice one was caught by Steven Sandoval from San Diego – his fish was caught on a dead caballito four miles out from Santa Maria and weighed 49 LBS. More sharks were caught than dorado this week; generally in December & January is when we see small makos and some threshers but as the water gets warmer we see more of a variety. George Day, David Morse & Joseph Acevedo from South Lake Texas caught two pilot sharks on May 16th, aboard Pisces Bill Collector that were quite large at 130-140 lbs.; they also released a striped marlin and quite an unusual catch of a sting ray. Ruthless had a small 50 lb. pilot shark & the panga Gloria released a 40 lb. mako. We did hear of a few nice size tuna being caught at the East Cape, but there were none in Cabo.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Hot, with daytime temps in the high 80’s, clear blue skies, seas calm with some chop on the Pacific.
LOCATION: 11.50 spot to Punta Gorda.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 78-79 F
BEST LURES: live bait.
This massive fish was shot by local Nathan Visser - the monster tipped the scales at 390 LBS, here is the story in Nathan's own words:
"Got this cow in 45 feet of water about 30 miles
north of Todos Santos on the Pacific. It took 4 shots and 3 guys to bring
him to the surface. After I put the first spear in it dragged me and Roberto
Contreras around for 10 minutes before Luis Espinosa could get close enough and
take another shot. Before he got back to the surface, my spear pulled
out. Roberto then went down with his gun and put the third shot in.
Meanwhile I reloaded my gun and went back down with my spear (which now had a
broken/bent flopper) to put the 4th shot in it. He then
floated to the surface and it was over"
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 87.5%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 73%, Dorado 14%, Small Game 11%
BILLFISH: The week started out a little shaky with boats not quite sure where to go as the marlin were spread out and hard to locate, so they headed up towards San Jose where the odd marlin was found as well as a bit of small game inshore. Pisces Rebecca was one of the fortunate boats to actually find fish off of La Playita on April 27th. They caught and released four striped marlin up to 120 lbs. and boated a dorado for John Majewski, Al Ainsworth & Jay Long from Waco, Texas. This crew knew there were on to something and headed back to this spot a couple of days later, where this time they managed to release five marlin, up to 160 lbs. for Thomas Migas from Idaho. Things changed mid-week though, when the crews discovered that the marlin had returned to one of their old haunts, the 11.50 spot and to a lesser degree the 95 spot. This day saw Robert & Christina Marshall from Temple, Texas achieve one of the best catches of the week aboard Pisces Listo, with five marlin and a 70 lb. sailfish released. This same day Rebecca, La Brisa & C Rod all released four marlin apiece making for very satisfied clients all round. It as was a shame that there were less people out fishing this week, there seemed to be a lot of people in town but many opted to stay on the beach. May 1st, a national holiday in Mexico, saw La Brisa hook Chris & Janice Smith from Sahuarita, Arizona up to four marlin, which they released. C Rod out the following day released another four marlin, fairly big in size with one fish estimated at over 160 lbs. for Brian Crawford and party from Gulfport Mississippi. Seventy three percent of our boats caught marlin this week giving us a total of 85 striped marlin and one 1 sailfish.
OTHER SPECIES: Boat focused on billfish more than anything else this week, nevertheless there was some dorado caught, only fair with just fourteen percent of boats hooking usually a single fish, no more than 25 lbs. La Brisa caught a smallish 25 lb. wahoo and inshore there were some jack crevalle, skipjacks & needlefish. Surf fisherman Wesley had a day where his guests caught five jack crevalle and two red snapper.
LOCATION: Sea of Cortez, La Playita, 11.50 and 95 spot.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 74 -75 F
WEATHER CONDITIONS: clear sunny skies, seas moderate, turning calm.
BEST LURES: Live
