Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report October 17 - 23, 2015

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 88%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 68%, Tuna 43%, Dorado 11% Other 13%
 

BILLFISH:  An exciting week in Cabo culminating in the Bisbee Black & Blue Marlin Tournament resulting in a huge payday for Costa Rican charter boat Tranquilo, not only did they win the Bisbee Offshore they took third place in the Black & Blue with a 327 lb. blue marlin, but because they were in all the different jackpots they took home more dinero than first or second place - $2,511,462.00 USD was added to the cash they had already won a few days before to give them a grand total of $2,971,662.00 and yes, that is dollars.  First place was taken by local charter boat Rondinella for a 500 lb. blue marlin on the last day for a group of Canadian anglers headed up by Tyler Squire which netted them $356,255.00.  Second place also went to another local charter boat, what a Journey for Texan anglers who landed a 356 lb. blue and took $156,937.00 in prize money.  Although regular charter business was brisk and productive the same could not be said of the tournament fishing resulting in one of the slowest Bisbee’s we can remember.  Of the 121 teams competing over three days only three qualifying fish were weighed in.  Pisces Sportfishing boats competing did quite well with Ruthless releasing a blue marlin each day, unfortunately though the anglers had not entered the release division (take note….always enter the release division).  The top release boat only had two and won $72,000.00!  In regular business we had some superb catches; Tracy Ann released ten striped marlin on the Pacific side for Patrick & Jeanne Neville from Bradenton, Florida on October 17th – this same day the panga Gloria managed to release four marlin for British angler Devine Jones.  Tiburon released a 300 LB blue marlin and boated eight tuna for Barb & Keith Mehlenbacher at the Jaime Bank.  Tracy Ann cranked it up again on October 20th and managed to catch eight striped marlin at Golden Gate for the Roxbergs from Minnesota.  This same day 28 ft. Andrea released five striped marlin up to 180 lbs. for Doug Logan and friends from Seattle, who also boated a dorado.  Though not in the tournament our 35 ft. Cabo Knot Workin landed a 354 LB blue marlin for a group from Texas on a day where no qualifying fish were weighed at the tournament.  Boats fishing in the tournament were only targeting blue and black marlin, so our catch rate is a little lower than it could have been, as there was plenty of striped marlin around.  Pisces anglers caught a total of 135 striped marlin, 11 sailfish and 9 blue marlin.

OTHER SPECIES:  Tuna catches were good this week with a total of 228 fish caught by our anglers, with catches ranging from one to eighteen fish in a day.  A little under half of the boats managed to land this tasty species and some were of a good size which bodes well for the upcoming WON Tuna Tournament.  Flora T II  landed a nice fish that weighed in at 147 LBS which they caught with a skipjack (is that cannibalism?) for angler Andre Gauron.  On October 19th 28 ft. Andrea had a great day for Felix Forjet and friends at San Jaime, where they caught seven tuna up to 110 lbs. and released a striped marlin too.  Cabolero did well with Alaskan anglers on board when they caught nine tuna up to 100 LBS, plus a nice wahoo and sailfish released.  Lots of sharks around at the moment – Bill Collector released five pilot sharks and boated a dozen tuna for Richard Prather & Meli Baum from Texas. Another one of our boats released an aggressive bull shark.  Other catches were the odd roosterfish, skipjacks, wahoo and a couple of early sierra.

LOCATION: San Jaime was the top spot  - also from the Lighthouse to Golden Gate on the Pacific.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: A couple of rough days with wind blowing from both sides now calm.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 85 F
BEST LURES: Live caballito, green, cedar plugs
Based on the catches of Pisces Sportfishing by Tracy Ehrenberg.

Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report October 10 - 16, 2015

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 88%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 92%, Tuna 42%, Dorado 10%, Other 12%

BILLFISH:  An exciting week with the lead up to tournament season preceded by 48 hours of steady rain this past Saturday and Sunday.   Fishing remained steady and varied, with plenty of billfish, including pretty good numbers of small blue marlin, striped marlin and sailfish.  Fishing conditions were not much fun in the rain and many anglers opted to turn around and come back in after only a few hours; those that stuck it out though tended to do well, such as Patrick & Jeanne Neville from Bradenton, Florida who released four striped marlin aboard their favorite boat Tracy Ann .  We don’t easily forget this couple as a few years ago they caught a 700 lbs. plus blue marlin the day before the Bisbee tournament.  Another boat that did well was Hot Rod with both a blue and striped marlin released for Joseph Munck from Alabama.  Daniel Ryan did very well aboard the boat he has been fishing for years Rebecca with a blue marlin released, two striped marlin and fifteen tuna – showing his friend aboard a great day of Cabo fishing.  Tiburon our newest 31 ft. Bertram showed Jeff & Tom from Post Falls, Idaho a great time catching a striped marlin, sailfish, pilot shark and tuna.  Texans always seem to be lucky anglers and this week was no exception – Jennifer and Jeremy from Abilene had a busy day aboard 31 ft. Bertram La Brisa releasing four sailfish and a blue marlin on October 12th, 18 miles from the 150 spot.  Beto Lira new captain aboard Ruthless is already showing his fishing prowess and managed to put Tim and Brenda from Minneapolis, fishing with friends Carolina and Eliel from Cabo on a lot of fish, actually three striped marlin and three sailfish outside the Herradura- all released.  This same day Tracy Ann released three sailfish and a striper and Cabolero had a blue marlin, striped marlin and ten tuna for Dale Hanes from Pennsylvania.  Most unusual catch this week was a spearfish, estimated at 40 lbs., released along with a striped marlin aboard Andrea on October 16th.  Pisces anglers caught a total of 111 billfish this week consisting of 57 striped marlin, 42 sailfish, 11 blue marlin and 1 spearfish  - all but one fish released.  The Los Cabos Billfish Tournament got underway on Wednesday with thirty seven teams signed up for this well run event.  Day one saw Reel Energy come to the scale with a 419 lb. black marlin and plenty of smaller billfish released.  Day two the well-known El  Suertudo team made it back with a 312 lb. blue marlin – the third day did not produce any fish over 300 LBS, so these two fish will take the lion’s share of the purse at the awards dinner scheduled for this Saturday night.  A total of 138 billfish were caught in this three day tournament, all released except for the two qualifying fish.  El Suertudo was across the board and should receive a large payout.  Reel Gold will take the release prize with 1300 points.  Largest tuna was by our very own La Brisa for a beautiful 180 lb. tuna that took the anglers five hours to land, team captain Frank Bono was tired but happy.  As we write this the Bisbee Offshore is in its first day of the two day competition with 94 teams competing. The main event, Bisbee Black & Blue begins first day of fishing on Wednesday.

OTHER SPECIES: Tuna fishing was good this week, which bodes well for the upcoming Tuna Jackpot tournament.  Apart from the 180 LB’er mentioned above, Bill Collector also had a nice 135 lb. tuna in the tournament caught in the same area at San Jaime.  Gary Jones from Australia landed a nice 150 lb. tuna aboard C Rod after it took a purple lure 25 miles out from the Lighthouse.  These were the biggest fish for us this week but there were plenty of other smaller ones, giving us a tuna catch success rate of forty two percent and a total catch of 163 fish.  Dorado catches remain slow, with no qualifiers weighed in the tournament but with a smattering caught by our regular charter clients up to 30 lbs. in weight.  Just a few wahoo caught in the 20 to 30 lb. class and inshore a few roosterfish and skipjacks.

WEATHER: Rain for almost 48 hours at the beginning of this period now clear skies, mostly flat seas and a return to hotter weather.

LOCATION: Pacific from Lands’ End to San Jaime, some boats off of the 11.50 two to 30 miles offshore.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 85-86 F

BEST LURES: live caballito, feathers, cedar plugs, yellow, orange black.

Based on the catches of Pisces Sportfishing by Tracy Ehrenberg.

Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report October 3 - 9, 2015

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 86%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 77%, Tuna 41%, Dorado 15% 

BILLFISH:  It seems that finally summer has come to an end , ushered in by a flurry or rainy days that cool everything off, before the sun re-emerges making the days hot again, but not like they were a few weeks ago.  Fishing remains on track and excellent though not every boat is catching fish every day, nevertheless there was plenty of action on striped marlin which are increasing in number, still a lot of blues around, albeit smaller ones and a good amount of sailfish too.  C Rod was out of the gate at the beginning of this report with two blue marlin released, small at 150-160 lbs., plus a striped marlin and a few tuna at the San Jaime bank for the Titmus family from Las Vegas, on October 3rd.  A couple of days after this we saw lots of action with Cabolero releasing a 230 lb. blue marlin plus two striped marlin as well as boating a 105 lb. tuna for Ohio anglers Gavin, Larry and Keith, 20 to 30 miles out.   This same day Listo had both a blue marlin and a sailfish and a couple of tuna.  Jorge Koosis from Argentina was disappointed to lose a three hour fight he had with a 400 lb. blue marlin on the Pacific side aboard Tiburon.  Billy King and Elizabeth Thomson from New York had a thrilling but tiring day aboard 31 ft. Cabo Cabolero with what seems to be the catch of the week; a blue marlin, three striped marlin and a sailfish released and a tuna boated – all at the Herradura – well done Captain Lupe!  Hot Rod is the newest addition to Pisces, a beautiful 42 ft. Cabo with an outstanding crew who are already proving themselves popular and who wouldn’t be with catches like they had on October 8th with the Hewitt’s and Gowland’s aboard from Austin, Texas.  They release a blue marlin, a striped marlin and landed a couple of tuna, the largest of which was 165 lbs. –bigger than the striped marlin they released.  Pisces Ruthless a 31 ft. Bertram closed out the week with an unbelievable catch for Ernesto and Roxanne Rojas, fishing with Michael Jennings, all from Texas at the 180 spot – their catch consisted of a blue marlin, striped marlin, four pilot sharks, two dorado and one tuna – the sharks and billfish were released.  Pisces anglers caught a total of 78 billfish this week, consisting of 41 striped marlin, 21 sailfish and 16 blue marlin.
 

OTHER SPECIES:  After billfish tuna were the next most likely catch and just like last week, fewer boats found tuna but when they did they managed to catch between one and twelve.  Several large fish were caught, which makes us eager for November to be her and the Tuna Tournament to start – many qualifiers being taken right now.  Pisces Tracy Ann had a respectable 180 lb. tuna, taken on an orange and black lure, on October 3rd 38 miles out for Gavin Narburgh from Ohio.  Bruce Chounick from Florida had his work cut out for him aboard Valerie on October 4th with five tuna, the largest at 160 lbs., plus a striped marlin released, ten miles out from the Old Lighthouse.  La Brisa and Cabolero also had 100 lb. plus fish this week along with several other boats.  Not much happening on small game but then again we weren’t really trying with offshore fishing so good.  Just one wahoo for us this week, plus a hammerhead shark released along with the pilot sharks mentioned in this report.

LOCATION:  Pacific, San Jaime, straight out from the Lighthouse 5 to 40 miles, Herradura, Migrino, Margaritas, 95 spot.
WEATHER CONDITIONS:  Partly cloudy, seas calm to moderate, some rain.
AVERAGE WATERTEMP: 86 F
BEST LURES: Live caballito, pink blue, greens, tigrillo, red/black, ballyhoo, chiwillie.
Based on the catches of Pisces Sportfishing by Tracy Ehrenberg.

Shark Bitten Tuna! Shark Bitten Tuna!

Long time Pisces angler Rick Walsh from Cleveland was out aboard Pisces Valerie about 30 miles out from Land's End trolling a small blue and white Hoochi (squid lure) when it was slammed by a large tuna.  Rick went to work reeling hard, knowing he was in for a long fight it the fish managed to get its head turned away, even though it was down deep.  After about 20 minutes of muscle tiring work, the crew and angler knew something had changed, the line went slack.  Then they spotted coming up from the depths four of five pilot sharks that were attacking the fish as they reeled it towards the boat, now as a dead weight - the guys wanted this fish and they did not plan on sharing their hard work with freeloaders.  Captain Roberto quickly put the boat into reverse to scare the sharks off and they successfully got it on board, albeit missing a few pounds.

White Marlin in Cabo - The Scientists Respond

The mystery on white marlin in Cabo continues... We sent photos to the fisheries scientists of some of the small unidentified billfish being caught in Cabo in the last week - some captains swear they are white marlin, others spearfish, others juvenile stripers - however, after looking at the photos they say they are NOT striped marlin. The one the top photo was released aboard Tracy Ann, the one of the bottom is a picture sent to us from another fleet. Scientists are planning a trip down to Cabo in the next few days.  We will keep you posted.

White Marlin in Cabo - The Mystery Continues

The mystery about white marlin in Cabo (we wrote about it here) continues..... other opinions about the so called "white" marlin are "hatchet marlin" volunteered by WON Tuna Tournament weigh master Mike Packard and long bill spearfish, which we think it could be - both are plausible and yes there is such a thing as a hatchet marlin and long bill spearfish, but they are also supposed to be in the Atlantic.  I guess we have to ask the scientists?  What do you think, please research and post your comments.  We found this link useful.

Very Rare White Marlin Spotted in Cabo?

 

Captain Julio Castro of the Pisces Tracy Ann, says this is the 3^rd fish he has caught like this in 31 years, locally they call these white marlin, but are they? This species is only supposed to occur in the Atlantic, so what do you think? Is it a white marlin or a juvenile striped marlin?

Yesterday Andrew and Paul from Charleston were two lucky anglers with an amazing fishing day aboard Tracy Ann! They caught and released a very rare “WHITE MARLIN” (60-70 lbs)- in fact it is so rare, that our captain Julio Castro says that it’s his 3rd wh...ite marlin in all of his 31 years as a fisherman - and man he has been fishing a lot!

It was the first white marlin for our deckhand Martin and for Andrew and Paul. 

They tagged the fish under the Gray Fish Tag program and we'll follow up on the story with more info from our anglers, so stay tuned! 

Just to mention that Andrew & Paul didn't stop with 'only' a white marlin - they caught and released 2 blue marlin (200-210 lbs) and 1 striped marlin (180-190 lbs), and they kept three yellowfin tunas for a well-deserved dinner! 

The marlin took live caballito, and their lucky fishing spot was 42 miles outside of  the Cerro. 

What an amazing day, great job team!

Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report September 19 - October 2, 2015

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 82%

Numbers at a glance: Billfish 64%, Tuna 42%, Dorado 11%, Other 14%

 

BILLFISH: Before summer began there was some trepidation as to how the “El Nino” current would affect fishing, plus dire predictions for an active hurricane season.  So far the fears have been unfounded and in fact we are enjoyed some of the best summer fishing in years.  We don’t really have four seasons in Cabo, its’ summer – hot from July to mid-October and then spring from November to June, of course in varying degrees.  Southern California has also benefited from warmer than normal sea and air temperature and last week we saw two blue marlin hung up in San Diego in the 300 to 650 lb. class, unheard of in years.  This report Cabo saw several days of rain and a day when the Port Captain closed the port.  There were up and down days, with the down days tending to be after commercial tuna boats had swept the area, but the plentiful days outnumbered the slow days with billfish the most likely hook up.  We had many outstanding catches and are not able to mention them all, but Pisces Tracy Ann, a 31 ft. Bertram, definitely gets the top boat award this report.  On October 1st South Carolina anglers Andrew Feix and Paul Long were out with Captain Julio Castro aboard Tracy Ann and had travelled further than most boats venture; they were out 42 miles but it was well worth it.  They managed to release two blue marlin, a striped marlin and what appeared to be a white marlin – however, the consensus is that it was probably a juvenile striped marlin, as white marlin are only found in the Atlantic.  Without a tissue sample it is impossible to tell, but the anglers thought it better to release all their billfish.  They did however keep three tunas for the table.  Now that’s an incredible day of fishing!  Next day out Tracy Ann had Minneapolis anglers Bradley and Daniel Rhoades on board, along with Stephen Lawles they headed offshore again this time 38 miles and again did well, releasing two blue marlin and boating a 50 lb. tuna.  Earlier in the week this same boat released a blue marlin, sailfish, pilot shark and boated a dorado for Los Angeles anglers Juden Valdez and Mike Revilla.  Jason Allard and John Quillard from Michigan headed out on La Brisa towards the 95 spot; a nice blue marlin came up and inhaled two of the live baits they had set out.  The fish was a nice size at just over 300 lbs.  This wasn’t  the only nice blue,  Bill Collector a 32 ft. Cabo, released a 300 lb. blue marlin for Texas anglers Jeff & John Black as well as boating three tuna up to 45 lbs.  On September 22nd this same boat released two sailfish, a striped marlin, two pilot sharks and boated a dorado for Crystal and Jason from Apple Valley, California.  A really rare catch this week was a tiny baby striped marlin, weighing no more than 10 lbs., it was safely released aboard Tiburon by Edward Coleman and friends North Carolina September 26th, but this wasn’t the only one, Mike Hansen fishing aboard Adriana also released a slightly bigger baby, around 15 lbs. just below San Jaime. Larry and Deana Lybarger from Coco Beach, Florida had an outstanding day aboard La Brisa on September 21st – having a grand slam of a blue marlin, striped marlin and two sailfish released, plus a tuna kept.  These were some of the best catches and we could go on and on.  Of course we did have some boats “skunked” but even those that didn’t catch at least saw fish.  Pisces anglers caught a total of 105 billfish, consisting of 39 striped marlin, 18 blue marlin and 48 sailfish. All but three fish were released.

 

OTHER SPECIES:  Fewer boats caught tuna than marlin or sailfish but when they did catch tuna the numbers were better, with catches of up to fourteen yellowfin per boat.  Not only were they numerous many were of a good size. Pisces  C Rod was the only boat out on a rainy and stormy day (port was closed to all boats under 38 feet) despite the weather they did really well for a group of anglers from Georgia, catching twenty tuna ranging from 10 lbs. all the way up to an impressive 171 lb. fish.  Bill Collector had a nice day for tuna 38 miles offshore, for Mark Chiavetta and friends from San Jose, California; they managed to boat six tuna ranging in size from 25 to 150 lbs.  Worthy of mention also is Shambala’s 136 lb. tuna caught at San Jaime by Mark Moncilovic and friends. Pisces anglers caught a total of 271 tuna this week. Dorado catches were on the slow side with just 14 caught for our fleet.  There were several wahoo up to 50 lbs. as well as a few roosterfish snappers, skipjacks and triggerfish. 

LOCATION: Mostly Pacific from Land’s End to Golden Gate, San Jaime, 30-40 miles out, 95 spot.

WEATHER:  Partly cloudy, hot, mostly calm seas, several rainy days.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 86 F

BEST LURES: Live caballito, orange/black, blue/white, green/yellow, cedar plugs.

Based on the catches of Pisces Sportfishing by Tracy Ehrenberg.