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.
