Beautiful Sunrise at the Start of the Tuna Tournament

Thank You Letter from Alan Drewer

We received a thank you letter from Alan Drewer from Herndon, Virginia; they had a great day on November 3rd  aboard "Ruthless" with  three striped marlin released and six dorado (one released) .. Congratulations and we hope to serve you again in the near future!

Ady -I would like to thank everyone from Pisces Sport fishing for a fantastic day on the sea last week. From your handling of the reservation, to Oscar and Mario at the dock, to our Captain and Mate. We had a blast!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks, Alan

Herndon, Virginia

Latest Fish Report

October 30th to November 5th, 2010

Overall Catch Success Rate 87.72%

BILLFISH: As we had the tuna tournament this week, many of our boats were focusing on the big tuna; which is the reason we saw a decrease on the billfish catch rate; with seventy percent of our boats catching billfish this week – still an excellent percentage anywhere in the world. One of the best days was on November 3rd, when “Andale” did well with eight striped marlin released for Steve Watson and friends from Texas; they also boated twelve dorado at the Golden Gate. “Tracy Ann” also did well this same day with seven striped marlin released for Brent Hooser & his wife from Tyler, TX, who kind of knew what to expect as they had had a warm up session on November 1st when they released five marlin aboard this same boat. We had a couple of blues also on November 3rd, one on board “Adriana” for our client Alexander Apostolopoulos from Athens, Greece; he also released a striped marlin at La Ballena on the Pacific side. David Bick and friends from San Jose, Ca also released a blue marlin aboard “Bill Collector”; they went on to catch a 50 lbs yellow fin tuna for sashimi. On the 4th, Michael Kohl from Tennessee released six striped marlin at Gaspareño aboard “Fearless”; they were also fortunate to catch six dorado between 25 and 30 lbs. On October 31st, Gavin and Linda Clarke, a lovely couple from South Africa, released six striped marlin aboard “Adriana”; the fish took a combination of live bait and tigrillo colors lures. Jeff Kulovitz and Michelle McAfer from Chandler, AZ released six striped marlin aboard “Cabolero” and caught two nice dorado. We had a total of 169 striped marlin, two blues and two sailfish this week. Great numbers and set to climb!

OTHER SPECIES: Billfish were still the top catch this week, leaving dorado in second with forty four percent of our boats catching from one to thirteen fish, with a total of 170 mahi mahi this week. One of the best days was on the 3rd aboard “C-Rod” with a total catch of thirteen dorado between 20 to 25 lbs for George Poppleton and friends from California; they were busy as they also released two striped marlin and caught one yellow fin tuna. On the 5th, “Andrea” did a great job of catching twelve dorado and releasing one striped marlin for a group from Wayne, Indiana. We had better catches of tuna, with twenty four percent of our boats catching between one to fourteen fish- from football size to a 200 pounder. On the 2nd, Bob Barker and Derek Wood from Modesto, CA, out on “C-Rod” caught fourteen yellow fin tuna between 20 and 100 lbs at San Jaime; the fish took a mix of live bait, cedar plugs and blue/white lures. This same day a group from Canada also caught fourteen tuna between the 20 to 80 lbs almost at the same spot, just down from San Jaime, aboard “Cabolero”. A group of friends from Madrid, Spain decided to do a practice day for the Tuna Tournament aboard “Falcon” and they were lucky to catch a 200 lbs tuna; sorry guys that was the wrong day but we bet you had a lot of fun, as they also released four striped marlin at Gaspareño. On the 5th, Zev Hendeles and friends from NY where the first team to weigh a fish during the second day of the tournament with a 150.8 lbs tuna aboard “C-Rod” with captain Abel. A few hours later, “Bill Collector” with David Bick and friends from Arizona brought a 101 lbs tuna to the weigh station. “Shamabala” did great in the tournament for Mike Menas, being the only boat to weigh in three fish over the 100 lbs. The first day with a 133 lbs fish and the second day with a 145 & 149 lbs with a total of winnings of $57,200.00 Congratulations to our captain T.J Dobson!

We had other catches inshore such as rooster fish, wahoo & needle fish.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear, sunny skies, seas mostly calm, except for the first day of the tournament was very windy; but we are back to great weather.

LOCATION: Pacific Side - Golden Gate, Lighthouse, Los Arcos, Migriño, Gaspareño, Todos Santos, Cabrillo, La Ballena, Pescadero, Pozo Cota, Elias Calles

Sea of Cortez: Punta Gorda


AVERAGE WATER TEMP. 83 F


BEST LURES; Feathers, cedar plugs, tigrillo, petrolero, green, purple, all colors, blue/white, black/blue, red/black, green/yellow, guacamayo, huchis; live bait caballito and ballyhoo


Based on the catches of Pisces by Ale Almada & Tracy Ehrenberg

Zev Hendeles and friends from NY where the first team to weigh a fish during the second day of the tournament with a 150.8 lbs tuna aboard “C-Rod”

David Bick and friends from Arizona brought a 101 lbs tuna to the weigh station; they fished aboard "Bill Collector"

Final Standings W.O.N Jackpot Tuna Tournament 2010

The fishing part of the Tuna Tournament is over and to be honest a very successful tournament took place. With 118 teams, this is the tournament with most entries in Cabo this year. This tournament is really a lot of fun and although there are some great cash prizes, it is really more about having a good time, entering a tournament and being part of a group who love fishing, Cabo and of course catching fish. This year weather was on the rough side both days but a lot of catches were produced. Thirty-eight qualifying tuna were weighed in, with twenty six over 100 lbs, making this a tournament record for big fish.

The second day was exciting and heartbreaking as each fish that came in was the biggest, giving the anglers a high and boosting their spirits as they counted their winnings in their heads, that is until the next boat pulled up with a fish… that topped theirs and so it went throughout the day, with…pretty much each fish was bigger. The climax came when Reel Deal, showed up with good friend and local businessman John Pentz aboard, making it just under the wire, of the scale closing at 6.00 pm with what turned out to be the winner a 208 lb fish….John was jubilant, he has been in this tournament many times and was thrilled to finally take top honors. Second place angler Dick Landfield is from Yorba Linda and a part time Cabo resident for over 20 years. Team aboard Shambala were the winners of this tournament two years ago for angler Mike Menas from Idaho and the team aboard Karma, were the top anglers in 2006 with a 316 lb tuna for angler Jamie Greer from Dayton, Ohio..

John’s fish will be worth $116,500.00 tonight at the awards banquet.

These are the final standings and payouts:

FIRST PLACE: 208 lbTuna: Reel Deal Total Winnings $116,500.00 includes optional jackpots.

SECOND PLACE: 192 lb Tuna: Reel Quest Total Winnings $4,600.00 did not win any jackpots.

THIRD PLACE: 182.4 lb Tuna: Fishtales Total Winnings $2,300.00 not entered in jackpots.

DAILY JACKPOT WINNERS FOR TUNA

180 lbs Afishonado Day One $500 & $1000 pots: Total Winnings $44,600.00

133 lbs Day One & 140 lbs Day Two: Shambala $3000/$10,000 day one $10,000 Day Two Total Winnings $57,200.00

158.30 lbs Day Two Minerva V $3000.00 & $5000.00 Total Winnings $63,200.00

167.70 lbs. Day One Karma $2000.00 & $5000.00 Total Winnings $70,800.00

WAHOO DAY ONE: 34.8 lbs Marea Total Winnings $32,000.00

WAHOO DAY TWO: 56.8 lbs Mucho Bueno Total Winnings $32,000.00

DORADO: No qualifying fish weighed in.

First picture shows the 208 lb tuna caught by local businessman John Pentz aboard Reel Deal at Gordo Banks....this fish is worth $116,500.00 . The second photo shows the biggest wahoo of the tournament 56.8 lbs aboard Mucho Bueno for angler Scott McPherson, wins them  $32,000.00. The third picture shows our very own Shambala did great in the tournament, the only boat to weigh in three fish over 100 lbs.

Winner of the tournament tells how they did it...

Did you have friends fish in this tournament and want to see how they did? Check out our register of all fish weighed in. Remember this are fish WEIGHED IN, many smaller tuna were released as well as dorado and striped marlin. Weather today is much better, in fact Valerie hooked up a 200 lb Tuna today….a day too late.

Day One W.O.N Tuna Tournament

This year's tuna tournament saw 119 teams head out early this morning to compete for almost $400,000.00 in prize money over the two day event. We were honored to have the Governor of Baja California Sur, the Mayor of Los Cabos and the Port Captian on board the start boat to fire the triple shotgun flares which signaled the beginnig of fishing.  Weather which was beautiful soon turned rough with whitecaps clearly visible outside the mouth of the harbor.
Big fish started to show up after the scale opened at 2.00 pm and the tally for the day was 12 fish over 100 lbs.
 Day one results were as follows:
1st Place Afishonado a 35 ft Bertram with a 180 lb yellow fin tuna. Optional jackpots $44,600.00
2nd Place Karma a 35 ft Cabo with a 167 lb tuna. Optional jackpots $70,800.00
3rd Place Shambala a 60 ft Hatteras with a 133 lbs fish. Optional jackpots $41,200.00

Marea took the wahoo prize today with a  34.8 lb fish which  earned them $32,000.00.....worth almost $1000.00 per pound....wow. That's more expensive than a top sushi fish.
All results are unofficial........until Saturday night.

Photos show the shotgun start and day one scorboard.

Weigh in this year is in a new location, in front of Hotel Tesoro next to No Worries and the lighthouse.

Latest Fish Report

Pisces Fish Report

October 23rd to 29th, 2010


Overall Catch Success Rate 100%

BILLFISH: What a week we had; lots of marlin on the Pacific side and everybody catching fish. Marlin was the top catch this week with eighty percent of our boats catching billfish. One of the best days was on the 28th aboard “Tracy Ann” for Robert and Joshua Hancik, Peter Tarricone and Kim Huzikel from Punta Gorda, FL who released thirteen striped marlin at Punta Lobos; they also boated one dorado… congratulations guys! On the 25th, again on “Tracy Ann”, Jerry, Kevin & Justin Carter from San Diego, Ca released twelve striped marlin 32 miles out by Punta Lobos. “Tracy Ann” had another twelve striped marlin released day at the end of the week on the 29th for Ranger and Roxanna Stein from Miami, FL. “Tracy Ann” was definitely the hot boat this week, as on the 26th they scored again…for James, Rick and Thomas Pfluger & friends from Philadelphia, PA releasing ten striped marlin all on the Pacific side. The fish took a combination of live bait & green colored lures. On the 23rd Dennis McCarty, Mike Dewitt & Jim Bacon from Oregon were lucky to release eight striped marlin in front of Todos Santos. We had great fishing for “Shambala” on the 24th with seven striped marlin and one sailfish released and a catch of eleven dorado, a few released and seven between 20 to 40 lbs at Todos Santos for Martin Furhken and family from Cabo San Lucas. Jason, Kelly & Steven Krueger from Lincoln, NE released seven striped marlin and one sailfish and kept one dorado for dinner aboard “Rebecca” on the 26th. This same day aboard “C-Rod” Michelle Shelton and friends from Salt Lake City, UT released also seven striped marlin, boated two dorado and one wahoo by the Golden Gate spot. “Rebecca” did very well on the 8th catching and releasing eight striped marlin for Mark Richards, Michael and Tammy Korns from Dallas, TX. “Adriana” did well too for a group from Alberta, Canada with eight striped marlin released and three dorado to take back home. We had a total of 234 striped marlin and six sailfish in this week, most of them released except two.

OTHER SPECIES: Everybody was so busy with billfish, that dorado had a bit of a decrease, with sixty eight percent of our boats catching from one to eleven fish, with a total of 180 this week. One of the best days was on the 25th aboard “Valerie” for Brian and Andre LeCault from San Diego, CA who caught ten dorado between 20 to 25 lbs on green lures at the Golden Gate; they also released six striped marlin! On the 23rd Todd Glass and friends from Elko, MN caught seven dorado, one 35lb wahoo and released one striped marlin aboard “Cabolero” at Migriño and the Golden Gate area. The next day Josh Stephens and John Potest from Orlando, FL caught nine nice dorado between 25 to 40 lbs and released two striped marlin aboard. It was slow for tuna this week, with only five percent of our boats were lucky to catch a couple of tunas. This is due to the fact that marlin fishing is so hot right now that boats are not really trying for them. Nevertheless we know there are lots of big ones out there and we will see a good showing at next week in the Tuna Tournament on Nov. 4th & 5th. On the 28th “Bill Collector” did well for Steve Fimbrez and friends from Modesto, CA with four yellow fin tuna between 40 to 80 lbs, two dorado and one 40 lb wahoo on the Cortez side near Cerro Colorado . We had good catches for wahoo, with sixteen percent of our boats catching between one to three fish. On the 25th “Ruthless” caught one fifty pounder for Lee and Craig Kitchens from Texas; they had a busy day as they also released four striped marlin and boated five dorado. This same day “Cabolero” also caught a 50 lb wahoo for Richard, Dale and Brenda Glass from Canada and also had three striped marlin released one sailfish and one dorado at the Golden Gate. We had other catches inshore such as roosters, jack cravalle, red snapper & needle fish.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear, sunny skies, seas mostly calm, a couple of windy days.

LOCATION: Pacific Side - Golden Gate, Lighthouse, Margaritas, Migriño, Gaspareño, Todos Santos, Punta Lobos, La Ballena, Pescadero

Sea of Cortez: Cerro Colorado


AVERAGE WATER TEMP. 83 F


BEST LURES; Feathers, cedar plugs, tigrillo, petrolero, green, purple, green/yellow, blue/white, black/red, green/yellow, guacamayo

For live bait mackerel, caballito, ballyhoo, sardines


Based on the catches of Pisces by Ale Almada & Tracy Ehrenberg.

Largest Tuna So Far of the Year, Caught in San Jose

These impressive photos show a HUGE tuna caught yesterday by a group of Candians, at Gordo Banks. Cabo John, Mike Nelson & Ken Bond took four hours & 35 minutes to reel in this cow on  80 lb test, using a Penn International 30 SW, standing up and taking turns at the fish.  The hook up occurrred at 8.20 am.  First picture shows the thrilled but exhausted group from left to right  Ken Bond from Calgary, John Penny from Toronto & part time Cabo Resident  &  Mike Nelson from Texas,...John told us "It was the most exciting fight ever". The second photo shows the girth of the fish on the fillet table and the third picture is perhaps the most unusual, of a close up of the monster tuna's throat. It is interesting to note that the fish was caught from a super panga, showing that you don't need a big boat to catch a big fish. This is very encouraging for participants of the WON Tuna Tournament coming up next week......they are out there.

Bisbee Prize Money Breakdown

3rd Place :C-Bandit was the top boat in prize money earning $614,613 for third place, due to the different jackpots they enetered.

4th Place Dream Weaver: earned $440,238 due to the different jackpots they entered, across the board.

2nd Day $10,000 Jackpot Winner: Team Tiger Spirit $255,000 after the $10,000 Daily Jackpot rolled over.

1st Place: Team Rehab earned first place tournament honors and $254,905 in prize money.

2nd Place Based on several categories (except the $10,000) , including second place tournament and daily jackpots, team a Reelaxe won $176,530.

Sporty Game took the Day 2 $10,000 jackpot prize. Sporty Game's winnings totaled $127,500.

El Lobo, first place and $37,846 in the release division

Bisbee Tournament Update .......We're Back!

We have had a frustrating 24 hours as were experienced technical problems and could not post to our blog, but finally have this resolved (thanks Jorge).

Day two saw boats screaming out of the harbor again and it wasn't long before "Great Escape" the boat with the 800 lb marlin, that was disqualified from the night before was hooked up again. Before noon they were at the scale to hang a 430 lb blue marlin, "what a story" we thought "poetic justice, they have the prize snatched from them and then go on to win anyway"; it's been done before....years ago, before the scale closed at a certain time, a boat hooked up to  a giant marlin that it battled well into the wee hours of the morning. At 3.00 am the reel froze and they lost the fish. A dispirited team limped back into harbor with few people noticing except those keeping a radio vigil (no gps tracking systems back in those days). One of the anglers was so disappointed that he couldn't go back out, but the rest of the team were back on their boat with just a couple of hours sleep. Ten minutes before lines were out on the last day of the event, they radioed in a hook-up.....there was a lot of skepticism......people thought they were just trying to buy more fishing time, but it was true and they ended up with a 600 lb plus marlin and won the tournament......so we wishfully thought that there would be a repeat of this scenario from years before.....but it didn't happen.  Great Escape led throughout most of the day, until Dreamweaver,  a 32 ft Blackfin and who also happened to be in all the jackpots showed up with a 484 lb black marlin putting them in first for the day and giving them a payday of $411,655.00. 
The third day did not see as much action.....even though our ears pricked up when we heard that "Fisherman" had a fish....they are serious....they won the Los Cabos Billfish last week with a 713 lb fish, they won the IGFA Offshore this year and last year, and also made history in the Tuna Tournament last year with the second biggest yellowfin ever caught at 383 lbs - a few pounds shy of the all tackle world record.  Team Rehab had also been fighting a fish, which they already had on board and were on their way in to weigh.  This is the thing in tournaments, you need to decide to bring your fish in immediately or stay and not lose fishing time, as you have the chance of another fish. If you stay out the fish starts to lose weight; I have personally seen fish that lose up to 40 lbs, which can make a big difference in a payout....Rehab's fish was a 347 lb black marlin, which added to the fish they had from day one of 560 lbs, gave them a total of 907 points...NOT a 907 lb marlin as people assumed from the Catch Stat page, nevertheless putting them into first place overall. At this stage, Rehab's fish was weighed and nobody knew what team Fisherman had; they had been experiencing their own problems as on day two they lost an engine but continued to fish...on the way back in, the second engine went, so that going into day three, their team was together, but not on their own boat. It was impossible to use their 35 ft Cabo so they ended up on a 60 ft Viking, that was loaned to them. Two other boats reported fish as boated, along with Fisherman, which was the one everybody was waiting for.
A huge crowd started to congregate around the scale at the marina, with plenty of activity, beer sales and bikini clad young women to keep the fisherman and public hanging around. Finally team Fisherman showed up with their fish and we all held our breath as it was hoisted up....we could see it wasn't that big, but would it make the 300 lb minimum? The red numbers on the digital display flickered back and forth and then stopped at 290 lbs.....so a non-qualifier. The other two teams that had boated fish decided not to weigh them, meaning they were also underweight.  Team Rehab will be looking at a pretty big pay off as they will take all the monies in the pot from day three. 
Tonight is the awards ceremony and we will bring you details of the payouts as soon as we have them, top five places are below...but remember there are different categories so full prize money won't be know until tonight.

By they way angler Carl Riley of the 800 lb marlin is in the hospital suffering from chronic back pain and broken thumb.

Top 5 Teams

Rehab — John Stonecipher — 560 & 347 lb. black marlin

Reelaxe — Jose Almanza — 599 lb. black marlin

C-Bandit — Buzz Colton — 549 lb. black marlin
Dream Weaver — John Boratto — 484 lb. black marlin
KW's Karma — Ron Pascoe — 431 lb. black marlin

PHOTO SHOW LAST NIGHTS CROWD AT THE SCALE FOR TOURNAMENT FINAL

Drama On First Day of Bisbee

The 30th year of the Bisbee Black & Blue Jackpot Tournament got underway Wedenesday with 103 teams lining up off of Land's End for the traditional shotgun start, full of expectation and hope, especially as a lot of big fish have been taken lately.  It was early afternoon when the first qualifying fish was back at the scale, a 371 lb blue for lady angler Andrea Fletcher followed by a  431 lb black marlin caught by Ron Pasco, aboard Karma, who went into the lead, not to last though, as other boats started to show up with  fish. Not long after the 5.00 pm lines out signal, Reelaxe showed up with a very nice 599 lb black marlin putting them into first place, however not many people had noticed that  "Great Escape" a 48 ft Cabo,  which charters through Pisces had hooked up a little afer 3.00 pm, was still working away at a large fish.The group aboard came from  Houston and it was their first foray into the Bisbee Tournament.  They  had hooked a stiped marlin a little after 1.00 pm which got off pretty quickly but  trolled on towards Gordo Banks. About two miles south of the Gordo they were dragging lures, including one favorite of deckhand Manuel, which he had brought from Los Barriles the day before, when a giant marlin came up behind the boat and snatched the lure..being trolled from a 130 Penn International rigged with 100 lb line. Angler Carl Riley was in the chair and set to work on taming the large blue. The fish never jumped and after about a hour they realized it was dead. Now the work began for angler Carl who had to pump up the deadweight of a very large marlin, completely unassisted. The clock ticked on and still the exhausted Carl forced his screaming muscles to keep going...finally after five hours they had the fish at the boat and the ordeal began of trying to get it on board. I spoke to the crew on the phone and was told "it's a really big fish"
ok...how big "700-800 lb" was the answer I got  from crewman Ricardo Agundez...so  now it was a question of if they could make it back in time, before the  9.00 pm deadline. They were off of San Jose, the wind had come up a bit and they had a full load aboard of anglers, crew and now after much effort, a large fish.  The boat began racing back to Cabo in the evening darkness, over a 1000 people eagerly awaited at the marina, and Wayne Bisbee was on the dock with his stopwatch....we willed them to go faster and imagined that we would see their lights at any second, but it was not to be...the 9.00 pm deadline came and the fish was automatically disqualifed. The boat came into view at nine minutes after nine to everybody's dismay....well except the team that was now in first place....and all could see that this was easily the largest fish of the day.
After photos and jostling by the crowed the fish was finally hung up, where it registered an amazing 800 lbs. What a  heartbreak for anglers and crew...this fish would have netted them $433,635 for day one and more for what would have been in all likelyhood the largest fish of the tournament. Angler Carl Riley was exhuasted & glassy eyed. He told me "I'm not in that good of shape, I should have worked out; I just want a massage and to got to bed" this team's attitude was incredible, all things considered, "we're here to have fun" they said...the crew were very disappointed but there is always tomorrow.

Today's standings ended up as follows:
1st Reelaxe with a 599 lb black.
2nd Rehab with a 560 lb black
3rd  C-Bandit with a 549 lb black.
4th  Karma with a 431 lb black
5th Super Natural with a 431 lb blue
6th Tiger Spirit with a 427 lb black
7th Caliente with a 397 lb blue
8th Fisheman with a 351 black

Photos show the 800 lb fish that was not allowed for getting back nine minutes late....diasppointed is not the word.