Nice Fish!

What do we do when there aren't many clients in town? Well we go fishing of course! Shown here is Abrahan Castro, with a lovely 42 lb yellow tail caught yesterday. Abrahan is the deckhand aboard 28 ft Andrea and also the son of long time captain Julio Castro, from Tracy Ann. Guess you could say fishing is in his blood.

Fish Report

February 4th to 10th, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate 83.33%
BILLFISH: Marlin was on the slow side this week as the water temperature dropped down to less than ideal for billfish. The full moon worked against us too, with hungry fish feasting at night then not being as hungry during daylight hours. The moon reached its zenith and is now waning, which means the fish should be getting hungry again. Just four striped marlin were caught this week, with “Bill Collector” releasing one on February 4th for John Mixon from Walton Beach, FL. On the February 6th, “Great Escape Jr” released one for Mark Corrigan from Boston, MA. The last two were released by Karl Pool, Ryan Hohimer & Curtis King from Kenewick, WA aboard the “Tracy Ann” who also landed a very nice 30 lb wahoo. A total of 4 billfish were caught this week, all released. Billfish success rate 16.66%
OTHER SPECIES: After a great week for tuna, they decided to go even further, last catches being at 40 to 50 miles out. Only the “Bill Collector” found 3 yellowfin tunas by the end of the week at San Jaime banks on the Pacific side and they were about 10 lbs each. The rest of the fleet did really good on small game, plenty of sierras or Spanish Mackerel, skipjack and yummy yellowtail are around for you to catch and cook.

LOCATION: Old lighthouse, Los Arcos, San Jaime, Balmaceda, ½ mile from Solmar Beach.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: 72 - 82F, Sunny days all week except in the early hours of Wednesday morning when we experienced cold weather and very unusual thunder and lightning, followed by light rain. The lowest temperature recorded was 55F on Sunday.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 68 - 72F

BEST LURES: Live bait, caballito, mackerel, huchis. Lures: Petrolero.

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

A Roundup of Today, Fishing, Yachting, Moon?

Today was a beautiful and pefect Baja day, clear sunny skies, calm seas and the smart people were here in Cabo enjoying themselves. Here are some photos from today, explaining a little about our lives.

Michelle Gottstein from Gardner Kansas caught this spectacular yellowtail aboard Andrea; this is one of the best eating fish around.

Rick Miller from Belton Texas, went out on a panga and caught both yellowtail and sierra.

These guys from New York did not go fishing but signed up for a cruise aboard Fearless Jr. looks like the captain let them drive the boat....their faces say it all.

Wahoo caught aboard Tracy Ann, shown here with his prize is Curtis King from Washington State.

Hands down Tracy Ann was our top boat today; they released two striped marlin plus the wahoo above out from the Jaime Bank - shown here are Ryan Hoeimer, Karl Pool, Curtis King, Captain Julio deckhands Fernando & Martin...and we are missing one persons name.

If all this great fishing wasn't enough this was the view as we closed the office tonight. What a moon! This photo snapped by my trusty Blackberry.

920 Lb Tuna Caught by Solo Fisherman

Before everybody gets excited, this was not in Cabo in fact it's a species we don't even get here, but we thought this was so impressive that we wanted to share this with you.

 The huge bluefin was caught off of Argus Banks, Bermuda on February 1st by Andrew Card, who unbelieveably only took two hours to get this giant on 80 lb test. The fish was ten feet long and was attacked by sharks, so imagine what it could have weighed.  Andrew was fishing alone so radioed for help from another boat, who helped him get it aboard. A crane was used to hoist it from the boat to the dock.

FISH REPORT

January 28 to February 3rd, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate for All Species Combined 72%

Does this lady look happy or what? Mary Jo Bower, from Pennsylvania, released a striped marlin aboard Valerie, she was one of our top anglers this week.

It's O.K fishy don't worry, Ernesto (the deckhand) is not going to kiss you....we will let you go in a second after we get the photo with angler Edmund Metzgar...warmer here than Williamsport Pennsylvania, right Edmund?

BILLFISH: Fishing seasons are certainly hard to predict right now, but with only a few anglers in town and the moon getting bigger every night, it wasn’t that surprising that we only had a catch rate of eighteen percent for billfish this week. Anglers of the week were Maurice & Mary Jo Bower, fishing with Edmund Metzgar from Williamsport, Pennsylvania. They were out on February 1st aboard “Valerie” and did very well to release three striped marlin ranging from 100 to 150 lbs at the Golden Gate, caught on a combination of live mackerel and caballito. This same day Liz Fedora from Manhasset, New York released two marlin in the 100 to 130 lb class 35 miles out from the Old Lighthouse; both fish took live bait. January 28th was also a pretty good day with “Fearless” getting two marlin in the complete opposite direction at Destilderas for Mike Robert from Fort Mill, South Carolina fishing with Keith Buettner from Greensburg, Pennsylvania. “Andrea” also fished this same area and was able to release two striped marlin for Kevin McAlpin and Ashley Keessar from Canada. Basically marlin were found both on the Pacific and Cortez side but not in great numbers and a key to getting a hook up was having fresh live bait.
OTHER SPECIES: For sheer numbers yellow fin tuna was the most plentiful fish this week giving us a total count of seventy nine fish. Catches were good, if you went a really long way though. “Bill Collector” did just this going 47 miles out with Philip Carter, from Stamford, Connecticut aboard; they had success though, catching twenty seven tuna on a combination of cedar plugs and lures. Weights are not that big though at 8 to 20 lbs. “Tracy Ann” had a decent catch too, with seventeen up to 25 lbs, 40 miles out from Cerro Blanco. Twenty percent of charters caught tuna with catches ranging from 8 to 20 plus fish. Dorado catches were also at twenty percent, but when found the numbers were lesser, in fact no more than three fish. Inshore there were plenty of skipjacks as well as some smallish red snappers, sierras a few roosterfish and bonita.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Seas mostly calm, skies partly cloudy.

LOCATION:Destiladeras, 25 to 46 miles out from Lighthouse and Cerro Blanco as well as the 210 and 230 spot, Punta Gorda, Golden Gate, San Jaime.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 70 F

BEST LURES: Live bait, cedar plugs, green.

Two Of Our Most Popular Boats

Pictured below are two of our most popular boats the Rebecca & Valerie, both are Bertrams, very sea-worthy, reliable boats, with hulls that can live forever.  You don't have to fish on a fancy, new or modern boat, these do just fine and produce a lot of fish, as the flags attest to, plus they are great value for money. This is what a regular afternoon looks like in our world. This photo was snapped as clients disembarked and you can see Captain Roberto waving goodbye on the far right.

Strange Fish Surfaces in Cabo

It wasn't until a few years ago that we had ever seen anything like this in Cabo and everybody was baffled. Now a few years later this is the third that has come to our attention and we now know that this odd looking creature is a ratfish or chimera, though there are differing opinions as to which sub-species it is. These catches always cause a stir amongst scientists and they will be visiting the Pisces headquarters tomorrow to take measurements and samples of this newly caught specimen.  This one appears to be a female as it is lacking the "clasper" on the forehead that males have; then again a previous ratfish had four "chicken" like feet,  once the scientists examine it we will have better information.  This ratfish was brought to us by Captain Francisco Rodriguez, who was out on a trip with clients from Mexico City, aboard his 27 ft "Viviana", when he spotted it on the surface two miles before Golden Gate and about six miles offshore. They motored over to investigate as it floated on the surface and lifted it aboard, it was barely alive so they put it back in the water, but it just floated sideways. Francisco said that in his 30 years of fishing he had "never seen anything like it", but that this mother a native of Cabo San Lucas had heard of tales when she was a girl of a strange sea creature with a "dog like head" which he thought it might be. He remembered that he had seen a  photo of  a Pisces captain with a similar fish and decided to bring it in to us.Take a look at the pictures below:

 Here the fish is on ice waiting for the scientists to get here.

 In this photo you can really appreciate the overall length

 A close up of the  head reveals the strange markings and large eye.

 Oscar, whatever you do, don't kiss it!

 You see why, the breath does not look too fresh.

 The strange front flippers looked jointed like a turtle with  no shell

 We don't know what this is but will have an answer soon

Looks fresh here and you can see the markings more clearly

The funny little back flippers/fins probably assist in scuffling along the bottom.

So What Are Your Buddies Doing in Pennsylvania?

A picture is worth a thousand words and we would agree when it comes to these pictures, taken today aboard "Rebecca", of Maurice Bower from Montourville, Pa.  He released this beauty at Destiladeres after a 45 minute battle.

Does this look like love or what? This fish looks extremely healthy and is estimated at 170 lbs. Caught on a live caballito.

Now fully on board, you can see the pure joy this catch gave Maurice as he gets to briefly hold the fish. The crew handles the fish expertly so as not to damage it and you can see deckhand Luis, on the right, loves his job. Fish was safely released.

Latest Fishing Update

These January mornings have been beautiful. This is the mouth of the marina, with bait boats waiting to sell their catch from the night before.

January 14th to 27th, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate for All Species Combined 85%

BILLFISH: Fishing in Cabo for marlin has improved a lot but still has a long way to go; nevertheless we had some encouraging daily fish reports this period. Blue marlin season is from July to mid November, nevertheless pretty much without exception a blue marlin, usually very large is caught in January. Well this year was no exception though the fish was small, right around the 200 lb mark, caught aboard “Adriana” on January 18th after it took a purple lure 18 miles out from the Old Lighthouse by Jeff Bliss from Lapeer, Mi, the blue was released before Jeff went on to catch six yellow-fin tuna. Our other 28 ft boat “Andrea”, also did very well, fishing on the other side of our fishing spectrum at Destiladeras on the Cortez, where they released three striped marlin and caught three skipjacks for Glen Burmeister and John Nelson from Colorado. Richard Patrick from Lowestoft, England had a good day releasing a striped marlin and catching four dorado and three skipjacks on January 26th. This same day “Rebecca” produced the goods for Kyle Hammling and Alan Klein from Manda, North Dakota; releasing two striped marlin on live caballito, two dorados and six skipjacks. The day before this “Tracy Ann” was the top boat with three striped marlin caught and released between Punta Gorda and Destiladeres on the Cortez, one dorado and three skipjacks for Karry Allison from Davenport, Florida. “Rebecca” rounded out the week with a double marlin day at Cerro Colorado fro Jeff Kernochan from Los Angeles. We are starting to see some big stripers, “Ruthless” reported a 170 lb’er released at Destiladeres for Stuart Drummond from Vancouver. Looking over our numbers for this period we see that the majority of marlin were in the Sea of Cortez, quite unusual for this time of year, whilst tuna and other game fish tended to be on the Pacific. Pisces anglers thirty two percent of charters caught marlin this report, resulting in 16 marlin released.

Crew of Tracy Ann, Julio and Martin took out La Brisa and got fifteen tuna for Edwin Holman & Co. from Atlanta, Georgia.

OTHER SPECIES: We are known for picking up on unusual fish stories, they somehow find their way to us. This period we were advised of a strange fish found, by the boat Viviana, they brought the fish to us to examine and to keep for scientists; this is now the third of this species that we have seen over the last few years. The odd looking creature is a chimera or ratfish and judging by what we’ve seen before this one is a female, as it lacks the clasper on the forehead sported by males. These are deep water fish, never seen here before until three years ago. They are usually found on the surface where they are dying and just scooped up and taken aboard. As of now we don’t have all the details but will follow up with them as soon as we locate the fishermen on board and will post the pictures at that time. In regular fishing news dorado fishing was actually quite good with half of the boats catching from one to eleven up to 25 lbs; they took live bait and green lures, with most found on the Cortez side. Our total dorado tally was 75 fish. Yellow fin tuna catches were fair with twenty eight percent of our boats catching from one to seventeen up to 25 lbs. “La Brisa” caught fifteen but had to travel thirty three miles off of the lighthouse to find them- cedar plugs were the most effective method of hooking up. Lots of skipjacks around but the black type not considered good eating. Some roosterfish and sierra.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear sunny skies, seas calm on Cortez, some choppy days on the Pacific.

LOCATION: Golden Gate, 20-30 miles off of Lighthouse, San Jaime, Destiladeres.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 68-70 F

BEST LURES: Live caballito, jurelito, green, petrolero, huchis, cedar plugs.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg



A Man At Peace With His Work

Pictured here is Roberto Sandez (also known al "El Jefe" or boss). Roberto is captain of our 35 ft Bertram Valerie and has been with Pisces for over 20 years. He is a great fisherman and an even greater person. I heard some excellent advice given to a young person recently, which as "Find what you love to do and then figure out a way to get paid doing it. Great advice. Roberto loves his job and who wouldn't with an office like his!