Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report Dec 5 - 11, 2015

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 99%

Numbers at a glance: Billfish 25%, Dorado 83%, Tuna 10%, Other 19%

 

 

BILLFISH:  The flurry of marlin activity we saw a couple of weeks ago, when boats reported multiple hook-ups did not last and we saw a substantial drop on billfish catches, however, we know fish are in the area, they are just not super hungry.  Besides, the majority of boats are concentrating on the sure thing which was dorado.  Nevertheless, we had some great catches and we were pleased to encounter a few late season blue marlin, still in the area due to warmer water temperatures.  Attitude Adjustment, a 46 ft. Bertram, had a double marlin day at San Jaime for anglers Philip Davis and Richard Ward – releasing a large striped marlin each, around 160 LBS as well as a pilot shark and six skipjacks.  This same day, December 9th it was our panga Poseidon fishing the other direction, on the edge of the 95 spot that released a small blue marlin, after it took a purple colored lure for long time Pisces friend Bob Sallis from Canada.  Next day out Pisces Ruthless had a blue marlin, this time on the Pacific, with this fish also taking a lure for Barry Reddick from Texas.  Not to be outdone, Tracy Ann went the opposite direction to the other boats and headed to Punta Gorda where they released three striped marlin on live bait, for Stephen Oppenheim and friends from California.  Top catch of the week though has to go to Pisces Bill Collector; they fished at San Jaime on December 11th and released an approximate 200 LB blue marlin, a striped marlin, a pilot shark and boated seven yellowfin tuna; for Paul Linden, Brandon Long and Joe Janovich from Nebraska.  Basically the billfish were spread out this week being found on both the Cortez and Pacific sides with more boats fishing the Pacific due to the strong dorado bite. A few sailfish were also caught.  Blue marlin tended to take lures whereas striped marlin and sailfish preferred live bait. Twenty five percent of Pisces anglers caught a total of 24 billfish consisting of 19 striped marlin, 3 blue marlin and 2 sailfish, all released.

OTHER SPECIES: Anglers had fun this week with double and triple hook ups on dorado up to 25 LBS, which is great as they had been conspicuously absent from our shores for months.  Catches concentrated on the Pacific from La Lobera up to Golden Gate, with areas like Elias Calles, Pozo de Cota and Migrino seeing most action. Tracy Ann had a busy day for Bob Sallis and party at Cerritos as they caught seventeen dorado in the 15 to 22 LB class, six released with a combination of bait and lures working.  Ruthless also had seventeen dorado, caught on December 8th at Gaspareno; five were released for William Hanner and Donovan Smith and friends.  Catches per boat ranged from one to fourteen with some exceptions; the average catch was around seven fish per boat.  Dorado was the most common catch this week with eighty three percent of our charters catching a total of 425 fish.  Some yellowfin tuna were caught this week, mostly at one of the spots famous for them, San Jaime.  The catches were of football size fish, no more than 15 LBS and catches of up to seven fish resulting in a total catch of 39 fish for ten percent of the boats.  A couple of boats had great mixed catches starting with Bill Collector on December 5th with Boston, Mass. Anglers Seth & Chris Frattasio on board; they did very well to release a 170 LB striped marlin, a pilot shark, boat four dorado and catch seven yellowfin tuna and thirteen skipjacks.  The Kilburg party from Scottsdale, Arizona had an outstanding day on Valerie with a sailfish released, four yellowfin tuna, two dorado and ten skipjacks (eight released).  Other catches were closer to shore and consisted of mainly skipjack and the odd sierra here and there.

LOCATION: Mostly Pacific, Gaspareno, La Lobera, Elias Calles, San Jaime, on the Cortez 95 spot and Punta Gorda.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear skies, with the exception of a sudden and heavy downpour accompanied by light winds on Friday night, seas mostly calm.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 79 F (first time below 80 F in months)

BEST LURES: Live caballito, pink/blue, purple, green/red, yellow, cedar plugs.

Based on the catches of Pisces Sportfishing by Tracy Ehrenberg.

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 June 20th to 26th, 2015

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 98%

Numbers at a glance: Billfish 16%, Tuna 80%, Dorado 4%, Other 12%

BILLFISH:  Another great week for fishing in Cabo!  Or we should call it the Tuna week!  We have been waiting for the tuna to appear down in our waters and did not disappoint to our anglers at all, but let's come back to our Billfish which was great.  Carl Smith and Joseph McCorvey from Hockley, Texas fought a Blue Marlin weight estimated over 180 lb. aboard Pisces Ruthless with our beloved Leon Camacho who yesterday put again a Blue in his line participating with the Stars and Stripes Tournament.  Brad Rau from Minneapolis released another blue, weight estimated of 250 lb. at Palmilla area.  Pisces Adriana boat got a blue marlin 14 miles out of Cabo Real with a “clown lure”, (local name by the Cabo crews) with a variety of colors.  The Striped Marlin has been spreading in different areas of the sea of Cortes to the Pacific side, from  Palmilla, to the 11.50 spot, in front of the Cabo Bay going out about 30 miles out, the Old light House spot and other fishing grounds over the Pacific side all the way to San Jaime.  The Marlin is everywhere and this is a glance of the upcoming high season!  On June 22nd Pisces Flora T with Captain “Toto” put Brad Jauer´s group in action with two striped marlin released and one yellow fin tuna at the 95 spot, visiting from San Antonio, Tx.  We had two sailfish released in the same fishing ground aboard the 28ft Adriana, weight estimated  60 lb. for Ana, Jennifer y Tony Gonzalez visiting from Alburqueque, New Mexico.  The Billfish was spotted mainly with live bait, the traditional “caballito”.  Pisces Cabolero did fantastic releasing three striped marlin weight estimated 130 lb., six dorados and two tunas with the group of Brian Nugent, Barker, Allison, Brock and Couch from Florida and Georgia.
 
16% of our boats caught billfish this week breaking down in 45 striped marlin,  3 blue marlin one of them was lost during the fight and two sailfish total of 50 billfish.  All the fish were successfully released but one that unfortunately got wrapped in the line.
 
OTHER SPECIES:  The yellow fin tuna was outstanding and impressive, boats spot from six, twelve, and twenty tunas per vessel!  Tim Gray, Gary Chawk from Palo Alto, Ca. shared Pisces Adriana boat with Ashley and Dominic Richard from Orange County and managed tunas from 20, 30 50 and 80 lb.  Dominic was celebrating his birthday!, what a way to spend the day reeling huge tunas!  Outside of the 180 spot Pisces C Rod found tunas from 10 to 130 and 150 lb. for The Solomon family visiting from Alpharetta, Georgia;  Tracy Ann reeled a 100 lb. with Dylan and Thomas Eads and Mark and Markus McGuire from San Clemente, Ca. give them a good fight.  Again with Tracy Ann Bobby Samuel´s group from Midland, Texas fought 130 and 150 lb. tunas, 30 miles out of the 95 spot.  Pisces Bill Collector did good catching tunas ranging in the 160 lb. outside of the 11.50 spot with Michael and Becky Hurley from Virginia.  31ft Rebecca with Jr. and Luis  did their own action with tunas of 130 lb., 21 miles out of the Cerro with the group of Carter, Beavers and Baxter from North Richland Hills, Tx.  Aboard Pisces Valerie Amy and Troy Strawn and Kelly & Mike Ayers fought 2 tunas of 180 lb. for over 3 hours!  On the 11.50 spot 35 miles out.  As to Dorado or Mahi Mahi our crews were able to spot some and caught about 20-25 lbs 28 miles out to the South with 31ft La Brisa with Hazlett and Kline party visiting from Dana Point, Ca. and C Rod great and tasty catch!
 
80% of our boats caught tuna, breaking down in 256 tunas and 10 dorados.  Our crews released three pilot sharks in Punta Gorda between 60-90 lb aboard Ruthless with the group of Noynaert & Gidley visiting from College Station, Tx. And aboard Bill Collector with Erika Fritz and Barret Blevins, New Braunfles, Tx. Panga Salsa had a good day with Tom Eads group bringing amberjack, sierra and skipjacks ranging from 5 to 10 lb. and panga Gloria did great with one rooster, one red snapper and needlefish from 20 to 18 lb. with Clay Montgomery from Minnesota.
 
WEATHER: The summer started officially, a little windy over the Sea of Cortes and Pacific side which gives a nice cool sensation to everybody local and tourists. Calm seas.
LOCATION: San Jaime, 180 spot, 210 spot, Cabrillo,35 miles out Old light house, for tuna, marlin were found from the 11.50 spot, 95 spot, 30 miles out of the hill, the Old Lighthouse to Punta Gorda.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 82 F
BEST LURES: live caballito, orange/black, green, guacamayo, payaso, green-blue and cedar plugs.
 
Based on the catches of Pisces Sportfishing by Tracy Ehrenberg.