Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report January 16 - 22, 2016

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 

Numbers at a glance: Billfish 37%, Tuna 43%, Dorado 16%, Other 24%

 

Noel Luck

BILLFISH:  Marlin fishing this week was not an easy thing, with a big moon and fussy eaters it was hard to get a hook up.  Fish were seen but both the marlin and bait were hard to hook up.  We heard reports of marlin activity before the sun came up but once it was daylight their activity slowed down, giving credence to the belief that when there is a big moon they feed at night and are not hungry during the day.  Nevertheless thirty seven percent of our charters were able to find and fight striped marlin.  We also heard of a 400 LB blue marlin caught this week; an exception on a slow day.  Pisces Rebecca had one of the best catches of the week on January 18th, when they released three striped marlin between 100 and 130 LBS between Pozo de Cota and Margaritas for Justin Tidwell and friends from Arizona.  Equaling the Rebecca was latest edition to the fleet Hot Rod who released three marlin up to 150 LBS a little further up the coast at Golden Gate for Kirk Kindred and party from California. Other catches were of one or two marlin per boat, when found, giving us a total of 31 striped marlin.

OTHER SPECIES: What kept anglers busy this week, if the anglers didn’t mind a long ride out offshore was the yellowfin tuna.  Boats could load up on huge numbers of small tuna with the occasional larger fish mixed in.  Pisces Ruthless for example caught forty eight tuna (many released) thirty miles out from Land’s End for Scott Lindsey and friends from Illinois.  Randy Wolf  and buddies from California had perhaps one of the best days of the week aboard Pisces Valerie, they released a striped marlin and then went on to muscle in forty two forty two tuna on January 22nd at San Jaime.  Others catches were of five to twenty five fish, with plenty of double digit catches – our total tuna catch was of 316 fish with forty three percent of charters finding this species.  Dorado catches continue to slow with just ten boats finding one or two fish, which is normal for this time of year.  We had a nice size wahoo again this week, this time aboard Knot Workin which weighed in at 62 LBS caught by Bradley Lukkasson from San Francisco.  Inshore the boats had varied catches with triggerfish by the dozen, some ladyfish, skipjacks, yellowtail, sheep heads, grouper and snappers.

LOCATION: Pacific from Old Lighthouse to Golden Gate and offshore up to 35 miles.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear skies, seas moderate.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 75 F

BEST LURES: Live bait, cedar plugs, and feathers.

Based on catches of Pisces Sportfishing by Tracy Ehrenberg.

 

Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report January 9 - 15, 2016

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined: 95%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 67%, Dorado 24%, Tuna 17%, Other 38%

BILLFISH:  This week Cabo enjoyed beautiful weather with sunny skies, cool nights and mostly calm seas which produced some great catches for our anglers – nearly every boat out caught fish this week.  Pisces anglers enjoyed a successful day fishing ninety five percent of the time this period.  Catch of the week was that of Ed Purcell from Milwaukee, Wisconsin – a lake angler who had the thrill of his life when he hooked up an out of season black marlin aboard Pisces Ruthless. The fish took dead bait at San Jaime and took about forty minutes to bring to the boat – weight was just under 300 LBS, well done Ed!  Striped marlin were the species anglers were most likely to encounter this past week with steady catches of up to three fish between and 100 and 140 LBS. Pisces Ruthless was having a good week not only did they get the black marlin, but they also released three striped marlin at La Antena, two on live bait and one on a petrolero lure for a group from California headed up by David Moore. The Brown family from Austin, Texas fished a little further at Golden Gate, aboard Pisces Andrea and were also able to release three marlin and boat a dorado.  Tracy Ann always seems to make the fish report and this week is no exception; they had a triple marlin day on January 15th for David Bales and friends from San Diego also fishing at Golden Gate on the Pacific. The Gibsons from Texas had a fabulous day aboard Pisces Valerie with three striped marlin ranging in size from 80 to 140 LBS off of Las Margaritas. Pisces anglers caught a total of 70 striped marlin and 1 black marlin this week.

OTHER SPECIES: Although dorado was pretty steady this week, we can see that they are starting to wind down.  Catches were seldom of more than one to three fish with weights up to 20 LBS.  Twenty four percent of our boats caught dorado for a total catch of 28 fish.  Yellow fin tuna catches were on the slow side and you had to go to San Jaime to find them – Pisces Bill Collector had one of the best days when they caught a dozen for the Haith family from Boise, Idaho – the fish were football size and took cedar plugs and feathers. Other catches were of between one and ten fish.  Just a couple of small wahoo were caught this week. Sharks seem to be moving back into the area – we had the first pilot shark that we have seen in weeks.  Inshore we are starting to get some small mako sharks. Pangas are starting to see great inshore action with multiple catches of ladyfish, skipjacks, small snappers and groupers.

LOCATION: Pacific, lighthouse to Golden Gate.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear, sunny skies, mostly calm seas.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP:  75 F
Based on the catches of Pisces Sportfishing by Tracy Ehrenberg.

Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report January 2 - 8, 2016

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 94%

Numbers at a glance: Billfish 65%, Dorado 58%, Tuna 13%, Other 18%

BILLFISH: Fishing in 2016 got off to a good with steady catches of striped marlin and dorado and a nice appearance of tuna too.  Weather seems to be back on track and we have been experiencing cool evenings and brisk early mornings which the fish seem to like.  The marlin bite is not in super strong swing but is totally acceptable with sixty five percent of the boats catching between one and three striped marlin in a day, with the odd sailfish here and there along with some late season blue marlin.  Water temperature is still a little warmer than normal - it should be 70 F but is right around 74 F, which may explain why we haven’t seen the mass migration from further north that usually takes place around this time.  On January 2nd, Pisces Tracy Ann released three striped marlin, all on the small side, just before San Jaime, for good friend Rick Walsh, who also boated a small tuna.  This same day, new addition to the fleet Hot Rod released two striped marlin and caught two dorado and a wahoo; a very satisfactory day for a group of Tennessee anglers.  Next day out 28 ft. Andrea fished a different area between one and seven miles off of Land’s End and managed to catch three striped marlin, bigger at 120 to 140 LBS for Isaac and May visiting from Denver.  Another boat with a triple marlin day was La Brisa with the Levine family from Austin on board.  Their marlin ranged from 100 to 140 LBS and were caught on live caballito at Pozo de Cota on the Pacific side – the two dorado they landed took lures.  This same boat repeated their success with three marlin on January 8th for Matt and Hunter Robinson from Texas as they fished at Los Arcos.  The fish released were from 80 to 140 LBS and all took live bait.  Pisces anglers caught a total of 77 billfish this week, consisting of 74 striped marlin and 3 sailfish.  Marlin was the top sportfish catch this week for Pisces anglers.

OTHER SPECIES: After marlin, dorado was the most likely catch, the difference here was that multiple catches were more likely with catches of up to nine fish per day as large as 25 LBS.  West Bend, Wisconsin anglers James, Jason, Sam & Steve were pleased to catch nine dorado near La Antena as well as release a striped marlin aboard Pisces Andrea.  La Brisa, fishing a little closer at Migrino managed eighty dorado this same day for Simendinger family, all on live bait.  Our total dorado count this week was 140 fish.  Yellowfin tuna showed up at one of their favorite haunts, San Jaime, but were not a sure thing.  Ruthless released one of the smallest yellowfin tunas we have ever seen at around 2 LBS.  One of the top tuna producers was C Rod who had twenty tunas up to 20 LBS at San Jaime for the Bradley family from Texas, who used both cedar plugs and kite to get hooked up.  It was interesting to see a different species of tuna close to the yellowfin, skipjacks; usually found closer to shore.   Thirteen percent of our charters found yellowfin and when encountered catches of up to twenty fish could be had, resulting in a total tuna catch of 97fish.  The skipjacks weren’t found by so many boats, but when you hit the school you could load up, in fact our anglers caught 88 of these little guys, with many released; they are strong on light tackle.  The BIG STORY this week is the largest wahoo we have seen in 15 years – the monster fish hit a Chiwillie lure off of Margaritas with such ferocity that the crew thought it was a sea lion at first. Dean Reed from Cape Canaveral reeled in this beauty on Tracy Ann, which when weighed on a certified scale was 87 LBS!  Several other smaller wahoo were caught this week but none came close to this one.  Pangas inshore were able to catch stray marlin plus a few sierra and pompano.

LOCATION:  Pacific from Lands’ End to San Jaime.

WEATHER: Light rain on New Year’s Day, partly cloudy skies that cleared midweek with some chop on the Pacific depending on wind.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP:  74 F

BEST LURES:  Live bait.

Based on the catches of Pisces Sportfishing by Tracy Ehrenberg.