PISCES FISH REPORT July 30th to August 5th, 2011

Overall Catch Success Rate 83%

BILLFISH: This week we kept receiving calls from concerned clients about a new storm they saw on the news, however, no sign of rain in Cabo, Thursday was a bit cloudy but no rain at all. The billfish count went up this week with almost 52% of the charters coming back with blue flags. We had an amazing start, the “Tracy Ann” released one Blue marlin estimated at 250lbs and landed two yellow fin tuna for Larry Hemingway from Kingwood TX. Later on the week the “Rebecca” caught a 300lbs Blue for Rick Walsh from Ohio and the next day, the “Adriana” caught a 220lbs Blue marlin for our friend Edward John Friesen from British Columbia, Canada. On August 3^rd the “Great Escape” released one Striped Marlin , one Sailfish and landed 8 Dorados for Allison Baumgarten from Dellaire, TX. “Tracy Ann “ released 3 stripeys on the 5^th for Jillian Rifkin and Chanel Boyd from Los Angeles CA, same day “Ruthless” released 2 striped marlin for our good friend Dr. Jorge Garcia from Chicago IL, “Adriana” released one sailfish and one striped marlin for Kirk & Kristina Erickson from San Jose CA. A total of 23 Billfish were caught, 19 were released.

OTHER SPECIES: Small game catches dropped a little bit this week, 56% of the boats caught Dorado but only 20% of them caught yellow fin tuna. Dorado is scattered all around from Destiladeras on the Sea of Cortes to Elias Calles on the Pacific side. Average catch of Dorado was of 4 fish per boat although “Ruthless” caught 10 of them for Peter Beatle from Tauranga, New Zeland. On July 30^th “La Brisa” caught 6 dorados and a 45lbs Wahoo for Lance Lerud from Great Falls, MT.

Megan Platt's party  with a 50 lb Bull Dorado.

Caught aboard the "Great Escape" 

LOCATION: Sea of Cortes; Destiladeras, Chileno Bay, Herradura, on the Pacific at Los Arcos, 
Golden Gate, Elias Calles.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Hot and sunny except for Thursday with 6 hours of clouds.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 88F

BEST LURES: Purple lures, live bait, cedar plugs.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg & Jorge Narro

Pisces Weekly Fish Report July 23rd to July 29th, 2011

Overall Catch Success Rate 90%

BILLFISH: Hot, hot, hot, hot, this week felt like popcorn in the microwave, one more degree and we would have gone puff! The “storm” we had scheduled for last week didn’t bring anything but heat and little bit of wind on the 23^rd so the authorities decided to close the port that day leaving nothing but frustrated fisherman as the seas were perfectly fit for fishing. Anyway, we had a great start this week, we saw a lot of tuna and dorado flags and a few billfish. “Tracy Ann” released one pacific sailfish estimated at 100lbs and a striped marlin at 140lbs and landed 2 dorados, one of them of 44lbs for our good friends Leocadio Perez and Whadzen Carrasquillo from Puerto Rico. Then on the 26^th “Tracy Ann” caught a 180lbs Blue, 3 tunas, one dorado and released a striped marlin for Michael McKown from Star, ID and Rick Martin from Neenah, WI. Hold on ladies, its Rick, not Ricky Martin. The next day “Ruthless” caught a 250lbs Blue for Tim Dold from Annapolis MD, also released a striped marlin and landed one Dorado and one tuna for his father David Dold. This week 40% of the boats caught billfish, a total of 10 striped marlin, 8 were released, 3 pacific sailfish, all released and 2 blue marlin were kept by the clients.

OTHER SPECIES: Very good week for dorado, 77% of the boats caught at least one, best caches were for “La Brisa” with 7 Dorados between 12-16lbs for Steve Murray and Paul Smulhante from Los Angeles, CA, and for the “C-ROD” with 7 dorados 15-20lbs and 8 skipkacks for the Gallardo Family from Mexico City. Tuna catches droped a little with only 37% of the fleet catching this specie, however we had some nice catches, on the 24^th “Adriana” landed 14 yellowfin between 20-30lbs for Kraig Willett from San Diego, CA, can’t imagine how many BBQ’s he’s gonna throw at home. On the inshore, pangas were catching roosterfish, skipjack, dorado and few yellowfin tuna.

LOCATION: Fish seem to be scattered, boats were fishing from Destiladeras at San Jose del Cabo, all the way to Golden Gate at the Pacific Side. Hot spots in between were Herradura, Chileno Bay, 95spot, Los Arcos, Morro Prieto.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Hot and sunny.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 81 to 83F

BEST LURES: Purple lures, live bait, cedar plugs.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg & Jorge Narro

Great Fishing Today Despite Rough Seas

Summer brings hot days and great fishing action as well as family members for holidays. Shown here is Tracy's niece Victoria, 15 years old with her first saltwater fish, cutting a good impression on the waterfront.

The family were out aboard "Rebecca" despite 18 knot winds today they fared well. Joe Dubeau aged 13 managed to release a 100 lb sailfish that took him twenty minutes to bring to the boat.

The whole family were all smiles back at the dock.



Fish Report July 16th to July 22nd

Overall Catch Success Rate 89%

BILLFISH: At the close of this report, Hurricane Dora was adjacent to our shores and gradually weakening, however we have seen no ill effects. Nevertheless the Port Captain closed the port today, leaving many anglers frustrated, as the seas are fine; yesterday waves were bigger. We were hoping for some much needed rain, but only got a two minute light shower this morning. “Tracy Ann” had a great start to the week, releasing an approximate 200 lb blue marlin, which took a yellow lure, followed by a sailfish and then went on to land thirteen yellow-fin tuna for Christopher and Courtney Nash from Houston, Texas – this couple was pretty tired at the end of the day. A couple of days later,  this same boat released two striped marlin, a lemon shark and boated a 30 lb Dorado for Karen and Breanne Carr from Richmond, also Texas (it’s no secret that Texans tend to be very lucky at fishing in Cabo). On July 19^th, the “C-ROD” released three striped marlin, all rather large at  around 160 lbs for the Thiel family from The Colony, (Texas again). They also brought aboard a couple of smallish dorado for the table. Our good friends and clients Bob Dicheck and David Naccaroto from New York and California, respectively, had a great time aboard “La Brisa”, releasing one marlin and landing eight tuna and one dorado. “Tracy Ann” did it again on July 19^th,  releasing a large blue marlin, estimated at 300 lbs, on the same yellow lure, they had caught their first blue of the week on; this time at San Jaime where they also caught three dorado and two skipjack for John Carroll  & friends from Pittsburgh, NJ.  This was the only boat in our fleet to catch blue marlin this week. Forty six percent of our charters caught billfish this week giving us a total of 15 striped marlin released, 2 blue marlin released, and 5 pacific sailfish; 3 were released.

OTHER SPECIES: This week was a bit slower in regard for quantities of smaller game but the overall catch rate for non-billfish species did climb a little Forty six percent of boats found tuna whilst forty nine percent got a dorado or two. Earlier in the week produced better catches with tuna catches considered good between nine and thirteen tuna. “Andrea” had a nice day with 15 tunas as well as releasing a sailfish for Howard Dickey from Deleon, Texas.  Average catch was two to four tunas per boat and one or two dorado. We had some skipjack and a few rooster fish close to shore.

Captain Orlando Murillo with a 40lbs Dorado

LOCATION: Early in the week the Cortez side, 11:50, Herradura and Cabrillo, by the end of the 

week, on the Pacific side at Margaritas, Old Lighthouse and Los Arcos.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear sunny skies most of the week, a bit cloudy by the end.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 81 to 84F

BEST LURES: Blue marlin were caught on yellow lures, live bait for stripers and lures for small game.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg & Jorge Narro

Pisces Weekly Fish Report July 9th to July 15th, 2011

Overall Catch Success Rate 95%


BILLFISH: Another great week to be fishing in Cabo, catches continue to climb overall, though we did see a bit of a drop on billfish catches. We have striped marlin, pacific sailfish, blue marlin and lots of yellowfin tuna. On the 9th, Adriana released the first sailfish of the week for Colonel Ted Simendinger from Denver CO, and it was a big one, estimated at 100 lbs, whereas the norm would be around 60 to 70 lbs, they also caught 6 tunas from 20 to 25lbs. On July 11th, Cabolero was one of the headliners in the fish report again releasing a blue marlin estimated at 360 lbs (not as large as the 650 lb’er they caught last week but nevertheless one of the few blues caught) and landing 4 tunas, making it worthwhile for anglers Derek Barlow who traveled all the way from Western Australia. Cabolero, seems to be on a run right now; they took a trip to the East Cape and released 1 blue marlin, 3 pacific sailfish, 2 striped marlin and boated a Wahoo and one Dorado for Ernie Sandoval, from Rancho Santa Fe, California. Forty four percent of boats caught billfish this week. Striped marlin weighed an average of 130lbs. Pisces boats released 16 out of 19 striped marlin, 2 out of 2 blue marlin and 4 out of 6 pacific sailfish. Making a total of 22 out of 27 billfish released.

OTHER SPECIES: Tuna was great this week, 82% of the boats came back with this species with an average of 3 tunas per boat between 20 to 25 lbs. The catch of the week goes to Captain Rey Winkler on La Brisa, who caught a 200 lbs tuna for Michael & Brian Cole and Mick & Alexa Reed from Norm Bend, Oregon. They fought for it for 5 ½ hours, hooked it up at 8am and finally got it to the boat at 1:30pm. Dorado is making appearance again but not in large quantities, only 30% of the boats caught Dorado between 20 and 40lbs. On the inshore report, pangas are catching mostly tuna and roosterfish, and an occasional sailfish.

LOCATION: Punta Gorda, Destiladeras and Herradura, Sea of Cortes.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Hot, sunny, seas calm, one day light rain.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 81 to 84F

BEST LURES: live bait, cedar plugs, green combinations.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg & Jorge Narro

For The Skeptics Out There; New Cyclops Shark Photos

Shark expert Dr. Felipe Galvan holds the shark where the gill slits can be clearly seen

Dr. Felipe Galvan records the measurements of the unusual catch

Dr. Galvan from the Mexican Institute of Sciences shows the front view of a clearly, slightly deteriorated shark.

The original photo, where the shark looks much fresher and cute in fact.

The unusual bull shark fetus that we posted a couple of weeks ago continues to get a lot of attention. People from Europe are especially fascinated by it and we have been contacted by people in England and France this week by different publications wanting to know more about it.

We have had a lot of skeptics telling us that this is a joke, that a "cabbage patch doll must be missing an eye somewhere" etc but this is real and these new photos seem to prove it. Dr. Felipe Galvan a respected scientist stated "This is extremely rare, as far as I know less than 50 examples of an abnormality like this have been recorded".  He went on to add, "The water in the Sea of Cortez is one of the cleanest in the world, so it is not likely that this is a factor". Once the paper on this has been accepted and published we shall share with you here.

Fish Report: June 24th to July 8th

Overall Catch Success Rate 92%


BILLFISH: Wow what great fishing we are experiencing right now. As always, when the weather hots up so does the fishing. We have been experiencing high temperatures and even a sprinkling of rain and it was on this day that we had our catch of the week, an impressive 650 lb blue marlin aboard “Cabolero” caught by Andrew and Steven Wigger (father and son) from Nashville, Tennessee, just three miles off of Land’s End on a black and yellow lure, taking them 55 minutes to bring to the boat on 80 lb test, not only did they catch his huge fish but a striped marlin also, released by Katie Wigger- what an incredible family memory for this group! We have not seen such a big blue so early in the year for many years. This was an enviable catch but others were not left out with some great catches of striped marlin and even a sailfish. We were thrilled for the guy that caught the sailfish as he had traveled all the way from Redcar, England. Alec Connell visiting with wife Dot to celebrate their anniversary, told me “I have to catch a marlin, I have been trying for years” – being the kind chap that he is, he shared his boat with two people he met and it turned out that THEY caught a marlin each, while Alec sat by watching, aboard the “Tracy Ann”, though he did get a sailfish. His good deed was rewarded though, a few days later when he went out on the “Rebecca” on July 5th, a day before going home, when he released three striped marlin and caught twelve tuna. “Shambala” did really well this week, releasing six striped marlin in the “Stars and Stripes” charity event on June 24th as well as catching four tuna for John Modjeski and friends close to the 95 spot. On July 2nd this same boat released four striped marlin twelve miles off of Land’s End for Mark Miller from Houston, Texas. “Adriana” did well to release three marlin, just five miles off of La Playita, all on live bait, for Steve Gray from Bauxite, Arkansas & Karen Webb from Hernando, Mississippi. Catches were not so close for Audrey and Steven Sowada from Cottage Grove, Minnesota who went forty eight miles out from the lighthouse to catch and release two striped marlin, one dorado and seven tuna aboard “Tracy Ann”. Forty nine percent of charters caught marlin with most catches one or two fish, though as shown above, others did a little better. Pisces total billfish catch was 74, breaking down into 72 striped marlin, 1 blue marlin and 1 sailfish; all but three fish were released.

OTHER SPECIES: Tuna were the mainstay of fishing this week with sixty percent of boats catching from one to twenty fish, generally of the football class, 20 to 30 lbs, though as usual there were some exceptions such as “Adriana” who had a 200 lb fish caught 18 miles off of the Old Lighthouse for Ryan Simon and Frankie Lusma from Crowley, Louisiana – they also caught four other regular tuna and a dorado. Most of the tuna catches were off of Land’s End to the Old Lighthouse varying from three to twenty miles out. Our total tuna count was a very respectable 463 fish. Dorado catches were slower with just twenty eight percent with the catches usually one or two fish and every now and then three. There are some good size dorado, such as a 50 lb’er caught on “La Brisa” outside the 95 spot on a pink and blue lure by Gee Bezuidenhout, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida and a 48 lb fish caught on “Adriana” 18 miles of the Old Lighthouse by Ryan Patton, from Troy Missouri. Other fish caught were bonitas and roosterfish inshore and a solitary 30 lb wahoo as well as a silky shark, that was released.

LOCATION: Three to fifty miles out from Lands End and the Lighthouse, 95 spot, Palmilla, Punta Gorda,

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Hot, sunny, seas calm, one day light rain.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 81 F

BEST LURES: live bait, cedar plugs, green combinations.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

650 lb Blue Marlin - First Big One of Season

Yesterday the weather was hot and muggy and we got the first smattering of rain we have had in 11 months.

The Wigger family from Nashville, Tennessee had been out for a half day on La Brisa and like it so much wanted to go out again, this time they ended up on Cabolero our 31 ft Cabo. They were fishing just three miles off of Lands End, when they had a monster marlin come up hard on a yellow and black lure. Andrew and Steven shared the work struggling for 55 minutes until the fish was at the leader. Back on shore the father and son combo were shocked to learn that their catch was close to 650 lbs. Katie Wigger, also released a striped marlin, just two miles off of Lands End. Good job Captain Lupe!

The Wigger Family from Nashville with the 650 lbs blue marlin caught aboard Cabolero

Cyclops Shark Update

The interest in the weird shark has been amazing, thousands of people have seen the photos and we have been contacted by different organizations, publications and individuals from around the world. There are a lot skeptics but we assure you that this is real.

We just spoke to the commercial fisherman who caught the bull shark that had the albino one-eyed baby inside of it and he filled in some of the details for us. The mother bull shark was caught on what is known locally as a "simplera", this is a large cork buoy which is attached to a sack of sand as an anchor to keep it on the bottom, a smaller buoy is then attached horizontally to the main buoy by a line, with a  smaller  vertical line hanging down with a hook on it. The hook was baited with ballyhoo. The fisherman set the equipment up off of Isla Cerralvo then went back later to see what he had caught. When they reached this "simplera" and brought it up there was a dead female bullshark that weighed 286 lbs and was almost ten feet long. Back at the beach where the shark was filleted they found ten pups inside of her. All of them normal except for the one posted here, which was albino and had the one "eye". The fisherman told me that this one would have been born first, due to the position it was in -first in line at the exit, but that he doubted that it would have survived. Scientists currently have it in their possession and are performing tests.

It's sad to hear of this large female with pups inside killed, but this was taken by a commercial fishing skiff (panga) and this is how the fisherman makes a living to take care of his family. All parts of the shark are used, including the skin. The meat is salted and sent to mainland Mexico where it is usually sold as bacalo or "cod".

General Area where the female Bull-Shark was caught

Pisces Sportfishing will continue to bring you more on this story as it unfolds.

Update on the Freak Shark

Shark expert Felipe Galvan sent us an e-mail saying he has seen this shark and tried to buy it from the fisherman, who was unwilling to part with it, however he did agree for the scientists to do some studies on the shark. At first they thought the "eye" might have been fused nasal cavities, but now they are going to do some testing to see if the "eye" is actually that, or if it is part of the tissue. They already have a scientific manuscript that is under revision for publication. We will keep you updated as more information becomes available.