Great Fishing This Memorial Day Weekend - Why Aren't You Here?

Cabo is a bit quiet this week-end which is a shame as the fishing is outstanding, the weather beautiful and the town and beaches uncrowded.
Today we saw some excellent fishing, such as that enjoyed by Neil Nelson & Dean Hilde fishing with their sons, from Bosie Idaho. They were out on "C Rod" with Captain Abel, who was sure to make the kids feel welcome, but then all of our captains are great with kids and get a kick out of introducing them to big game fishing.  They ended up with two striped marlin released estimated at 120 and 140 lbs and  a 100 lb pilot shark released. Again the pictures tell a better story of their experience than words can....they sure look like happy campers.

It won't be long before this cute little guy will be able to handle  a marlin all on his own.

Another boat that did well was "Rebecca" with SIX STRIPED MARLIN released today with weights ranging from 110 to 170 lbs all caught on live caballito at the 11.50 spot - the busy anglers were almost an all girl team from  Houston Texas, Crystal and Jade Porter, Lauren, Helena & David Thomas, who they may have brought along as a bodyguard....we can't work out why there were so many guys around when these pics was taken......



Dorado Now Showing Up in Fair Numbers

It was nice to see some dorado showing up, giving anglers something to bring aboard and take home, or to have cooked locally. Not only many boats catching doardo but pretty much all are also releasing striped marlin. Art Whittlesey from Washington state, took his daughters fishing aboard "Ruthless" and had a fabulous time releasing two striped marlin and boating two dorado; one caught by Kendell Whittlesey from Bellvue.  The fish were caught at the 11.50 spot on live bait. The larger dorado was close to 45 lbs.

Jack Rosenblum from New York fishing with friends and family had a fun time on "Yahoo", releasing one striped marlin and boating four nice dorado, seven miles from Cerro Colorado....enjoy the pics below.

Art Whittlesy with his daughters had a great day.

Yahoo did well for Zack Rosenblum from New York, they released one marlin and boated four dorado.

Captain Ricardo Escamilla of Yahoo shows off the largest of four dorado caught aboard his boat.

Art Whittlesy from Washington State with a nice 45 lb dorado caught on Ruthless

Well Known British Actor Robson Green Does Cabo

Robson Green is a household name in the U.K but not quite as well known in the U.S. Robson became a household name during his four year spell as Fusilier Dave Tucker in Soldier, Soldier. A performance of Unchained Melody in an episode of the drama launched him and co-star Jerome Flynn onto a short, but successful, pop career - this one song was at number one in the British charts for seven weeks. His recent TV credits have included Trust, Grafters, Reckless and Rocket Man. Most of our U.S clients will not have heard of any of these programs but a lot when asked, said they  had heard of his fishing show Extreme Fishing, which airs on cable in the U.S.A and Mexico. This week we had the privledge of taking Robson fishing and hooking him up with his first striped marlin, one of four caught aboard "Tracy Ann" on May 25th. Cabo came through as always - deserving it's name of Marlin Captial of the World. We found Robson and his whole crew to be charming, down to earth and fun. They came over to Captain Tony's next to the Pisces office the night after fishing for some delicious fresh tuna prepared many different ways. They had a LOT of fun as the photo below attests to.




The Extreme Fishing Crew, Robson Green the presenter is the one holding the fake dorado, second row, third from the right, Pisces founder Marco Ehrenberg, our very own dockmaster Mario Bañaga second row, first on left.

Great News, Fishing Picks Up!

Cabolero had a fantastic day fishing on May 25th fishing at the 95 spot in the Sea of Cortez releasing four striped marlin for anglers G. Clatworthy & Alan Brooks from Perth, Australia fishing with friends Pipa Cummins & Robert Wiltenoon from Cabo San Lucas.

Extreme Fishing Coming to a Channel Near You Soon

Robson Green is a British T.V presenter of the very popular show "Extreme Fishing". He travels the planet looking to sample every kind of fishing imaginable. Despite traveling far and wide he still had not caught a marlin, that is until today.  After some careful research by his production team, we were honored that he picked Pisces Sportfishing. Out on the "Tracy Ann" today, he challenged Captain Julio to a fish off....Robson and his team were blown away with Cabo and the amount of marlin they saw. Robson ending up catching and releasing two striped marlin ending a six year quest. Great job by the whole Pisces team and by the T.V crew who ended up with some outstanding footage ( and yes Julio won the fish off ).

From Left to Right: Captain Julio Castro, Robson Green, Deckhand Matin Gonzalez, Captain Roberto Sandez

Striped Marlin Bite Takes Off in Cabo!

It seems like we have some incredible fishing right now and as long as it stays warm and the bait supply good, we see now reason why it should not stabilize and get even better. Today Krista Nalder from Roy, Utah had a fabulous day aboard "Ruthless" with Captain Julio Castro standing in for Captain Leon and regular mate Beto Lira & Tracy Ann mate Martin Gonzalez. They did extremely well to catch and release seven striped marlin, a pilot shark and boat a dorado....pretty tiring day, but boy does Krista look happy.

Krista Nalder from Roy Utah with friend in foreground Beto Lira
At back Captain Julio and Mate Martin Gonzalez

Mexico’s Dorado and Anglers Win!

BY ROBIN WADE

WON Staff Writer

CABO SAN LUCAS-- In a long drawn out battle between the commercial and sportfishing industries, yesterday in Michoacán, Mexico, the government met in a third round of public forums to decide the fate of the sportfishing industry but amending Article 68. Guess what-we won!

“The Department of Mexican Fisheries decided to violate their own laws by allowing the commercial fishing industry to illegally harvest dorado,” Vince Radice, producer of the El Oro de Cortez (The Gold of Cortez) documentary said. You may remember WON ran an article about the video depicting the greed and corruption of a few, helping to destroy the last relatively abundant fish in the Sea of Cortes. If you missed it, here is a link to the latest version http://sancarlos.tv/portfolio/a-fish-made-of-gold/

“Twenty five years ago, some far-sighted Mexican legislators decided that tourism and sportfishing jobs were more sustainable and lucrative than commercial fishing jobs and created Article 68 in the general law of the Mexican fisheries,” Radice said. “This made it illegal to commercially fish six species of fish in Mexico; sailfish, marlin, roosterfish, swordfish, sabalo, and dorado.”

The less than stellar oversight of the commercial fishermen’s efforts created a decline in their catches and they turned their attention to the wanton take of dorado. There is a very lucrative, illegal market in the United States for them and both governments seemed to look the other way.

“I have filed a Freedom of Information Act with NOAA through lawyers from the Center for Biological Diversity out of San Francisco to receive documents regarding their investigations related to dorado crossing into the U.S.,” Radice said. “Once we have these documents we will know what our options are against the U.S. Feds. and make America close the border to dorado imports. They have to enforce the Lacey Act as long as Article 68 remains intact.”

It’s long and complicated but the jest of it is there were “language loop holes” based on the fact that in some areas, there is no enforcement available, and given the bad economy, “needy commercial fishermen” were legally allowed to fish for dorado. What the findings turned up during the public forums though, was that only a few (and none of the needy) were benefiting from the loop holes.

So onto Friday’s victory! Victory number one: Based on his “poor performance,” the Fisheries Commission voted to request Federal Legislators to ask Ramon Corral, Head of the National Commission of Fisheries to step down.

Victory number two: After hearing testimony and presentations regarding the alleged “economical benefits of commercial dorado take” to the coastal communities, it was determined that only a few were reaping any rewards from NOM 029 and the words “social justification” were stripped from the amendment.

“This victory is truly amazing considering we only heard of the forum two weeks ago,” Minerva Saenz, President of the Los Cabos Sportfishing Union said. “Representation from many distant areas of Mexico rallied together with a single e-mail, and attended the forum creating an incredible united front against the commercialization of dorado. In attendance were sportfishing leaders from Manzanillo, Culiacan, Loreto, the East Cape, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico City and many other areas,” Saenz said.

Of the many representatives there Friday, 85 percent voted in favor of supporting the sportfishing industry over the commercial industry. “It's a well deserved victory for all of Mexico’s sportfishing interests, anglers from everywhere, boat owners, charter companies, airlines, hotels, marinas, fuel docks, and an endless list of trickle down benefits,” Cortez Yacht Charters said.

Anglers are reminded there are still ways to continue to protect Mexico’s sportfishing. One is to go online and take the national survey called “Angler Economic Survey” after they return from trips here. These statistics will be compiled to scientifically prove the importance of the angler dollar. http://surveys.questionpro.com/akira/TakeSurvey?id=1751677&rd=66335670

And before you come down if anywhere in the state of Baja Sur is your destination, don’t buy your license online. Baja Sur is the only state in Mexico where a special Marina Resources fund (FORMA) is set up. This special “pool of funds” allows the licensing money to stay within the state for resource management and funding marine law enforcement, such as gas for patrols. Every area has licenses available locally, usually through your outfitter, so please consider this option when you can.

"C-Rod" our 38 ft Blackfin, looked great as she took off in the recent I.G.F.A World Offshore Championship, skipper Abel Ramirez is shown on the bridge.

Latest Fish Report

May 14th to 20th, 2011


Overall Catch Success Rate 93.20 % for All Species Combined

BILLFISH: Almost everybody caught fish this week, giving us a significant increase in our success rate with marlin still being the number one catch in Cabo. Fifty two percent of our boats caught billfish. “Shambala” did well this week, as they released three striped marlin on the 19th for the Parson´s family from Melbourne, FL; congratulations to Joanne Parson as she released one striper as a birthday gift. The same day, “C-Rod” also had a triple marlin day for Jeff & Harry Hartman and Chris Woodfin from Ballwin, MO; their fish were released in the Sea of Cortez between the 95 spot and San Jose area- they had a fantastic day with one hammerhead released, two yellow fin tuna and one dorado to boot. The next day, Charlie Stoll and friends from Florida had a great time aboard “Attitude Adjustment” with two striped marlin released one sailfish and one 20 lbs yellow fin tuna; the fish took a combination of lures and live bait. On the 16th, “Falcon” released two striped marlin and two jack crevalle for a group from Florida and Tennessee at the 11:50 Spot. Pierre & Coco Lacroix and friends from Denver, CO had a double marlin header and boated three yellow fin tuna 3 miles out from Chileno aboard our luxury 80 ft vessel “Mick” – goes to show these larger yachts are not just pretty they can perform too. Pisces anglers caught 22 striped marlin and 1 sailfish this week, all but one released.

OTHER SPECIES: We were right on the money in our last report and dorado and yellow fin tuna are back in Cabo waters with thirty eight percent of our anglers catching dorado or tuna. Best day was on the 19th aboard “Rebecca” for Robert Mendez, Kelly Gregg and Jon Jewitt from San Diego, CA with five dorado from 10 t 35 lbs (two of them were released); they also were lucky to release a striped marlin and boat four yellow fin tuna in the 20-30 lbs class; the fish was caught at Cabeza Ballena. On the 14th Steve Andrews and friends from Illinois had three dorado between 20-30 lbs aboard “Valerie”; they also released one striped marlin three miles out from Cerro Blanco; the fish took blue/white lures and the marlin took live bait. May 18th saw “La Brisa” have a triple dorado day for Andrew & Margaret McKown and friends from Beverly, MA; they had lots of fun reeling in five nice 30 lbs tuna and then went on to release a striped marlin. On the 17th Scott Mayer and friends from Washington boated three yellow fin tuna between 20 – 30 lbs aboard “La Brisa”; the fish took cedar plugs and black/red lures at the 95 spot. We had a total of 20 dorado and 25 yellow fin tuna this week.

We had a nice 40 lb wahoo on the 19th for a group from Houston, TX aboard “Mick”; they caught the fish at out from Santa Maria bay with a black/red lure.

As to other species, we had hammer head shark, sierra, bonita, jack crevalle, skipjacks, rooster fish.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear, sunny skies with some windy days. Some white caps on the Pacific side.

LOCATION: Pacific Side – Herradura

Sea of Cortez – 11:50 Spot, Palmilla, Punta Gorda, Chileno, 95 Spot, Cerro Blanco, San Jose, Cabeza Ballena, Sta. Maria

AVERAGE WATER TEMP. 76 F

BEST LURES: Green/yellow, green/black, cedar plugs, feathers, squid, purple, yellow, volador, hoochis, white/blue, red/black,

Live bait: caballito, ballyhoo, sardines , yellow tail

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

"La Brisa” have a triple dorado day for Andrew & Margaret McKown and friends from Beverly, MA; they had lots of fun reeling in five nice 30 lbs tuna and then went on to release a striped marlin.

Robert Mendez, Kelly Gregg and Jon Jewitt from San Diego, CA had a great day with five dorado from 10 t 35 lbs (two of them were released); they also were lucky to release a striped marlin and boat four yellow fin tuna in the 20-30 lbs class



Latest Fish Report - IGFA Tournament

May 7th to 13th, 2011


Overall Catch Success Rate 69.87 % for All Species Combined

BILLFISH: We had a big tournament this week, the IGFA World Offshore Championship; there were fifty nine teams from all over the world – Spain, Italy, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Angola, Croatia, USA, Mexico and many more. All billfish are released, circle hooks must be used to increase the survival of the fish and certified 30 lb test line must be used. Smaller game fish such as tuna, dorado and wahoo can be boated during the event. Anglers do not get to choose which boat they fish on; a draw is done amongst local charter boats and the anglers rotate to different boats each day. To be invited to enter you have to win a qualifying event anywhere in the world. Fishing was fantastic, compared to last year, this was actually the first time there was even swordfish in the area. This year hook up ratio for the event was of 83.43% with a total of 292 billfish released - 282 striped marlin, 6 sailfish, 2 blue marlin and 2 swordfish. As to the smaller game there was 6 dorado, 3 yellow fin tuna and 1 wahoo which they have to be more than 30 lbs to qualify. Two swordfish were caught during the event, which is a feat on 30 lb test and we are proud that our very own “Tracy Ann” caught one of these two broabills. Another first this year was a tie for first place.


1st Place Team, Islamorada Fish Club Captain's Cup Sailfish Tourn from Florida with 17 marlin released.



1st Place Team - last year, IGFA Offshore World Champions 2010 with 17 marlin released.



2nd Place Team, again with only 1 billfish less- for IGFA Offshore World Championship2010-2nd Place from Bahamas with 16 marlin released



3rd Place Team , IGFA Offshore World Champions 2008 from USA with 12 marlin released.


The top dorado weighed in was caught by Carl Cavossa from Falmouth, MA representing the Falmouth Offshore Grand Prix was 39.10 lbs.

The top tuna weighed in was caught by Flavio campos from a team from Brazil and weighed 226.20 caught on a spinning rod!

The top wahoo weighed in was caught by Jury Kozlov from Russia, representing the 60th Ernest Hemingway International Billfish Tourn and was 43.50 lbs.

Back to regular news, marlin is still the top catch of this week with fifty four percent of our Pisces boats catch billfish. “Tracy Ann” did a very good job on the tournament being one of the boats that had a swordfish (YES, two swordfish in 10 days!) for the Senagal team, which gave them 500 points. Julio Castro was the top 6th captain in the tournament. “Tracy Ann” was the top billfish boat this week with eight striped marlin and one swordfish released. One of the best days was on the 12th with three striped marlin released for a group from USA, two of them were released by Palmilla and one out of the 11:50 spot. On the 10th they released one swordfish and one striped marlin for the Senegal team at the 11:50 spot; the fish took ballyhoos. “Great Escape Jr” did very good as well on this tourney with nine striped marlin released; Captain Ricardo Agundez was the 10th top captain. They had two triple marlin day, one on the 9th with three striped marlin released for a group from Brazil at the 11:50 spot; the fish took a mix of pink lures and mullet. On the 12th, last day they released three more stripers for a group from Florida and also boated three yellow fin tuna in the 30 lbs test range.”C-Rod” had a triple marlin day too, for the Papua New Guinea team on the 11th. Pisces anglers had at total of fifty eight billfish all released.

OTHER SPECIES: Looks like the dorado bite it’s starting to pick up, as we had more than couple this week. “Cabolero” ended on 3rd place for the heaviest dorado on the tournament with a 34.5 dorado for one of the groups from Italy. On the 13th, Dan Growny and friends from Albuquerque, NM caught a BIG dorado which probably would won the heaviest dorado category, approximately weighed 50 lbs aboard “Great Escape”. Finally, the yellow fin tuna are back as twenty one percent of our boats caught caught between one to nine tuna in the 15 – 40 lbs range. One of the best day was on the 13th for Craig & Lindsey Klement and friends from Georgia with nine yellow fin tuna between 20 to 30 lbs aboard “La Brisa; the fish took cedar plugs and feathers at the Herradura spot. They also boated one 25 lbs dorado and had plenty of fillets to take back home. On the 11th, “Bandito” scored with nine tuna for a group from Los Angeles, CA at the same spot. We had a total of 43 yellow fin tuna. On the 9th, Michael & Kristen Peck and friends from Connecticut boated a 30 lbs wahoo aboard “Bandito” and they also reeled in a 30 lbs dorado; the fish took a mix of lures.

As to other species, we had wahoo and rooster fish.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear, sunny skies with warmer weather, some windy days at the end of the week

LOCATION: Pacific Side – Herradura, Ventanas

Sea of Cortez – 11:50 Spot, Palmilla, Punta Gorda, Chileno, Barco Varado,

AVERAGE WATER TEMP. 75.5 F


BEST LURES: Green/yellow, green/black, tigrillo, petrolero, cedar plugs, feathers, squid, guacamayo, purple, pink,



Live bait: caballito, ballyhood and mullet



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

Craig & Lindsey Klement and friends from Valdosta, GA had plenty fillets to take back home