Weekly Fish Report

June 16^th to June 22^nd, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate for All Species Combined 78%

BILLFISH:  Much better week now that the huge ships are gone and the weather is getting warmer, so is the water bringing the fish a lot closer.

Last week we were going all the way to Destiladeras on the Sea of Cortez, 37 miles from Cabo, now with the warmer water getting closer, so are the fish, we caught most of them at Punta Gorda and the 95 Spot, with really nice catches straight south from the arch only within 3 miles from shore. We had some unusual catches as well, La Brisa, this time captained by Julio Castro from the Tracy Ann caught a 170 lbs Swordfish for Glen & Randy Slomin from Melbourne Beach, FL. On June 19^th, “Andrea” caught and released the first blue marlin and the first sailfish of the season, marlin weighed 180 lbs and the sailfish 100 lbs for Michael Morris & Ben Brewer from San Jose CA, they were trolling at Destiladeras on the Sea of Cortez, Blue marlin was caught on a pink and blue lure and the sailfish with live bait (caballito), same day, Rebecca released 4 striped marlin for Kathryn Gomez, Krystal & Adam Morgens from Chino CA. Good week to be a Californian angler in Cabo. A total of 25 striped marlin were caught, all released, blue marlin and sailfish were released again, only the swordfish was boated. 64% of our boats caught billfish.

Glen & Randy Slomin with their 170 lbs swordfish

OTHER SPECIES: Small game is still a bit slow, however we noticed more Dorado closing in, 40% of the boats caught at least one dorado, all on the small side with an average of 10 lbs, still enough for a sandwich. We are still waiting for the tuna to arrive. Pangas caught roosterfish, seabass and skipjack.

LOCATION: Destiladeras, 11:50, 95spot, 3 miles south from the arch.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Summer weather is kicking in, 91F average all week.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP:  73 to 83F, finally some warm water.

BEST BAIT OR LURE: Caballito, pink and blue lures.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Jorge Narro

Good Fishing Today

Saturday saw some rather nasty seas, as the wind came up and some boats reported waves crashing over the flybridges up beyond San Jose, however, most of our boats fished off of Chileno and the hotel corridor area and did very well further offshore. "Andrea" was out 32 miles and caught two striped marlin, one tuna and one dorado. "Bandito" was 25 miles out and caught four tuna and three dorado. "Ruthless" was 35 miles from the 11.50 and released two striped marlin and caught three tuna and one dorado. Every boat we sent out caught fish, which was great despite the weather. Several had small tuna, the first that we have seen in months. Let's hope they stay.

G20 The Scoop From Cabo

Well it is finally here after months of preparation the date has arrived. There seemed to be more activity leading up to the dates than there was yesterday. Streets were temporarily crowded with soliders and police, but were strangely empty yesterday. I had to take our crews to San Jose to get accredited, that is they take your pic, check you out and give you an I.D badge. This is needed as we have the honor of hosting the first ladies in conjunction with our yacht division,  a project we have been working hard on.

TROOPS CROWD THE HOTEL ZONE OF SAN JOSE , BUT YESTERDAY WERE NOT VERY VISIBLE.

Helicopters flew overhead and battle ships began enforcing the restricted zone; basically we can do bay cruises, go to the Pacific ,or in the Sea of Cortez if we stay five miles off shore. Mario snapped the photos below of a helicopter that flew low over the marina.

Yesterday we got an invitation to the inauguration of the Convention Center, which is just by the booths where you pay on the airport toll road. It doesn't look like much from a distance but up close it is pretty impressive. The president of Mexico, Felipe Calderon officially handed it to the people of Baja California Sur, there were speeches by the mayor, governor and president, who thanked the mayor for donating the land where it now sits. It was completed in a record seven months. The most striking feature is it's living, or green wall, the LARGEST IN THE WORLD.  The president also took the opportunity to mention the cancellation of the Cabo Cortez project, which was a mega development planned for the Cabo Pulmo area.

The wall is a vertical garden with thousands of plants, that are still growing in. The wall is both outisde and inside the main walkway of the center and is not only attractive, but helps with insulation and produces oxygen.  The roof has many solar panels and in theory these should provide fifty percent of the energy needed to run this place. There are specially designed windows near the roof, that provide indirect natual lighting. The most fabulous thing about this center is the view from the common areas. We were thrilled to find Pisces featured on the touch screens throughout the common areas. These screens are information for visitors, with general information what to do and where to to.

We were able to go into the area where the summit will actually take place and see where the world leaders will sit.

 We got a chance to pose with the G20 backdrop and flags and I even gave a speech....to an empty room...

On Sunday morning at 8.00 am a bus carrying Federal Police crashed in the Costa Azul area. It was a horrible accident, closing down the road for a while. It appears at this time the accident was due to speeding. The bus was rented and flipped completely over, with its fifteen passengers. Ten policemen were injured, two seriously.

As we write this the B20 has begun, that his not a typo, B20 is the business 20 which is an event parallel to the leaders summit. Tonight President Felipe Calderon will host a dinner for the top business leaders in the world. Don't ask how but we got an invitation so will be back tomorrow with more news.



Pisces Weekly Fish Report

June 9^th to June 15^th, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate for All Species Combined 60%

BILLFISH:  Wow, for months we have been listening and watching in the news about the G20 Summit and it’s finally here. We are very excited to have Los Cabos as the host of such an important event. Anyway, back to the fishing, this week the water temperature dropped down a bit and the catch rate slowed down, a few captains think it had something to do that there are some major battleships cruising around the Sea of Cortes and may have caused the fish to move, so we are still on the lookout. As we mentioned before on our Blog and Facebook page, due to the G20 Summit, there is a restricted area from Punta Ballena to Punta Gorda and 5 miles from shore, so fishing goes on, they can discuss world economy while we reel our 150lbs striped marlins. There a few nice catches, “Tracy Ann” releasing 2 striped marlin on June 12^th for Eric Dusin & Greg Boiselle from Yakima WA, and again the “Tracy Ann” releasing 3 stripeys for Michael, Taylor and Kevin Morgan from Pace FL on June 14^th. This week 60% of our anglers caught striped marlin, a total of 20 marlin were caught, all of them released.

OTHER SPECIES: Still not a lot of action on the small game, however we saw a few hammerhead sharks, average of 45lbs, Spanish mackerel is back and although the season is not quite in yet, 21% of the boats caught Dorado, most of them with pink lures, all between 10 to 20lbs. Only one yellow fin tuna this week.

LOCATION: Herradura, 11:50 spot, Sea of Cortes.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear sunny sky, wind has been on the calm side, 4 to 6 knots picking up a little bit un the afternoons.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP:  69 to 73 F

BEST BAIT OR LURE: Pink lures, small yellow tail, caballito.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Jorge Narro

G20 Summit, are we going fishing?

Recently we have received several calls from clients worried about the G20 affecting their fishing trips.
Some news are reporting that the port will be closed to all traffic, but the truth is there is only a small restricted area from Punta Ballena to Punta Gorda, and 5 miles from shore, as you can see in the image below.

Restricted area for ocean traffic during the G20 Summit.

At the moment, the fishing ground continued towards the Sea Of Cortez at the 11:50 spot and Desitladeras, so do not be worried, we are still going fishing, and we are still going to the good fishing grounds, all it takes is a small detour.

Tight lines!
Pisces Staff

Week Fishing Roundup

May 26^th to June 1^st, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate for All Species Combined 82%

STRIPED MARLIN WERE THE NUMBER ONE CATCH THIS WEEK

BILLFISH:  It was  a bit of an up and down week this report; the fish had moved on, giving up residence of the 11.50 spot, the most popular location for marlin for over a month. It took skippers a couple of days to re-locate them, as they were following warmer water and had moved further up into the Sea of Cortez to Destiladeras. This pattern was reflected in our daily fish reports, with quite a lot of boats “skunked” at the beginning of this period, and then catches gradually increased as the week went on. “Tracy Ann” kept their name up there though, when they released three striped marlin at Punta Gorda on May 28^th for George Vargas, Otto Tellez & Joshua Rendon; all on live jurel.  Jon Svendson, from Scottsdale, Arizona, fishing alone aboard “Rebecca” had his hands full and his arms tired, as the expert crew guided him to release five striped marlin and a jack crevalle at Destiladeres on ballyhoo. Jacksonville, Florida anglers Bill, Mike & Will Burgsteiner, out on May 31^st aboard “Tracy Ann” caught and released four striped marlin on a combination of caballito and ballyhoo, with their fish ranging in size from 120 to 150 lbs. We had plenty of other boats that had one and two marlin and “Valerie” closed out the week with a triple-header on striped marlin on a trip donated to our local marines for Marine Day which is June 1^st.  Fifty six percent of our anglers caught marlin this week giving us a total catch of 41fish; all but two released.

JON SVENDSEN FROM SCOTTSDALE, AZ, WAS OUR TOP ANGLER, SINGLE HANDED, HE RELEASED FIVE MARLIN

OTHER SPECIES: Pretty slim pickings on smaller game this week, as the Pacific continued to be foggy and windy, meaning the seas were no picnic. Nevertheless at the end of the week there were some good catches of roosterfish, with the panga “Gloria I” catching five up to 20 lbs plus a nice yellowtail. Offshore catches for larger small game, such as dorado and tuna were slow with just a couple of football size tuna and a couple of dorado up to 40 lbs.  We also had a couple of small sharks at Gordo banks, one hammerhead and one mako, both under 50 lbs that were released. Several jack crevalle were also caught.

ROOSTERFISH WERE THE TOP SMALL GAME CATCH THIS WEEK

LOCATION: Marlin, Punta Gorda and Destiladeras. Smaller game inshore from Land’s End to the Old Lighthouse.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: We have two climates on the Baja, Pacific and Sea of Cortez and they are very different. Pacific this week was cold, windy and foggy, whilst on the Cortez side they had a bit of a heat wave and calm seas.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP:  72 to 78 F on Cortez, Pacific as low as 68 F

BEST BAIT OR LURE: caballito, ballyhoo & jurelito.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Unusual Catch

Yesterday the "Andrea" was out with regular Pisces anglers Butch & Kriste Bustamante from Huntingdon Beach, Ca.  They were up at Destiladeres and had already released two striped marlin, when Captain Orlando spotted a loose buoy. Being a good captain he knows that fish often congregate under floating objects, especially dorado. So they sped on over and found about fifteen dorado under the buoy. The dropped some caballito to the dorado, but had no takers, then they tried with "jurelito" or small jack crevalle (the bottom fish in the photo below), but again could not get a hook up. Then the crew noticed an unusual, fast, bait fish and quickly got out their Lucky Joe's and managed to catch one instantly. They dropped this new striped bait back to the dorado and got an immediate hook up.  However, they spotted sharks down below the dorado and the rest of the school disappeaed in a heartbeat. They had not used this bait before and had only seen it a few years back. The distinctive stripes had them asking questions and they said they had never seen such a fast little fish. The fish in question is a pilot fish and we found some interesting information about it, courtesy of Wikipedia:

The pilot fish (Naucrates ductor) is a carnivorous commensal fish in the family Carangidae.^[1] It is widely distributed and lives in warm or tropical open seas.

The pilot fish congregates around sharks, rays, and sea turtles, where it eats ectoparasites on, and leftovers around the host species;^[2] younger pilot fish are usually associated with jellyfish and drifting seaweeds.^[3] They are also known to follow ships, sometimes for long distances; one was found in County Cork, Ireland,^[4] and many pilot fish have been sighted on the shores of England.^[5][6] Their fondness for ships led the ancients to believe that they would navigate a ship to its desired course.^[7]
The pilot fish is of a dark blue to blackish-silver colour, with the belly being lighter in colour.^[8][9][10] The pilot fish is also known to have a temporary variation of colour when excited; its dark-coloured bars disappear, and its body turns a silvery-white colour, with three broad blue patches on its back.^[11] It is easily recognisable by its distinctive traverse bands,^[12] which are of a much darker colour than the rest of the body, and number between five and seven.^[9] The pilot fish can grow up to 60–70 cm in length.^[13]
The pilot fish is harmless to human beings^[14] and is said to be good eating;^[15][16] however, the fish is difficult to land because of its erratic behaviour when caught.^[17]

Pilot fish swimming with an oceanic whitetip shark

While pilot fish can be seen with all manner of sharks, they are said to prefer accompanying the oceanic whitetip, Carcharhinus longimanus.^[18] The pilot fish's relationship with sharks is a mutualist one; the pilot fish gains protection from predators, while the shark gains freedom from parasites.^[19] It was often said by sailors that sharks and pilot fish share something like a "close companionship";^[20] there were even tales of this fish following ships which had captured "their" shark for up to six weeks^[21] and showing signs of distress in its absence.^[22][23]
Whatever the veracity of such reports, it is extremely rare that a shark will feed on a pilot fish,^[24] and smaller pilot fish are frequently observed swimming into sharks' mouths to clean away fragments of food from between their teeth.

Great Fishing Today!

Today we had some fantastic catches which was nice to see, as the water had turned a bit cold and we did not do that well last week, but today was a whole different ball game. We saw the biggest dorado that we have seen in months come in aboard La Brisa, caught by Robert Katusak from Brownsville, Texas. The fish was caught a long way up the coast at Destiladeres on a guacamaya lure and was around the 40 lb mark. Shown in the photo also is Captain Rey Winkler, on the left, who has been with Pisces since he was young and skinny, 29 years ago.

Another boat that did really well was Rebecca, who caught and released five striped marlin and a jack crevalle, making them our top boat today. The lucky angler was Jon Svendson, from Scottsdale, Arizon. They caught the marlin on ballyhoo and the jack crevalle on a lure; the water temperature was 78 degrees. Captain J.R is on the left, angler in the center and deckhand Luis Cota on the right.

Creighton Lawhead is one of Pisces most faithful clients and probably caught more marlin with us than any other single angler. Creighton from Carlsbad, California fishing with Brandon Yount each released a marlin today. Shown in the photo is Creighton holding a 150 lb striped marlin with deckhand Martin Gonzalez in the foreground.







The Latest News

MAY 19^th to 25^th, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate for All Species Combined 73%

THIS BEAUTIFUL STRIPED MARLIN, WAS RELEASED BY ONE OF OUR DUTCH ANGLERS DURING THE EUROPEAN SEA ANGLERS DUTCH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

BILLFISH: As noted in last week’s fish report, fishing dropped off abruptly on the last day of the IGFA World Offshore Championship, when only eight marlin were caught and that vein continued for several days as we were blasted by blustery winds and fog on the Pacific as well as whitecaps on the Cortez side for several days. Nevertheless fifty percent of anglers did catch marlin this week with the catches generally one or two fish per boat; the only exception was “La Brisa” on May 22^nd for Jaap Hoorenman & Bernard Kortman from Holland who were here participating in the European Federation of Sea Anglers, Dutch National Championship – Jaap, in his eighties, ended up taking first place amongst a field of very skilled and experienced anglers. Fishing for this group ended up being very good; we were honored to have them fish with Pisces for this prestigious event which combined five days of panga fishing inshore, followed by three days of cruisers offshore. The final tally for the Dutchmen was 75 roosterfish, 16 chopos, 14 sierras, 10 jack crevalles, 6 skipjacks, 1 sea bass, 3 bonitas, 13 pompano, 11 striped marlin, 2 dorado and 1 yellowfin tuna – not bad for eleven guys fishing 12 lb test on the pangas and 30 lb test on the cruisers, quite an achievement in fact. Overall a little under half of the boats caught striped marlin between the 11.50 spot and Punta Gorda. Pisces anglers caught and released 34 striped marlin this week. Weights on the striped marlin ranged from 90 to 110 lbs.

ONE OF 75 ROOSTERFISH RELEASED BY OUR DUTCH ANGLERS

OTHER SPECIES:  The section above gives you an idea of how the inshore fishing was, but we did have a little bit of action offshore too. For the first time in months we caught some yellowfin tuna; several boats had one and two fish but they were small at 10 to 20 lbs.  Some dorado were also caught but again not very large at up to 22 lbs.

A HUGE YELLOWTAIL FOR ANOTHER DUTCH ANGLER

LOCATION: 11.50 spot, 95 spot, Punta Gorda, Land’s End to Old Lighthouse

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear sunny skies, windy, cold and foggy on the Pacific, Cortez whitecaps on three consecutive days.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 67 to 69 F, which explains the slowdown on fishing.

BEST LURES: caballito, ballyhoo, jurelito, cedar plugs, guacayamos.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Latest Fishing Update & Tournament News

May 12^th to 18^th, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate 80%

This Local Team From Cabo, Released 37 Marlin to Clinch their Fourth Consecutive World Title

BILLFISH: This week was an exciting and active week in Cabo, with lots of international visitors in town. Before the week for the IGFA World Offshore Championship kicked off, we began hosting a group from Holland who decided to have fun competing against each other aboard pangas and now this week they will go on to use 31ft Bertrams in their informal event. The IGFA tournament kicked off on Monday with 48 teams signed up from all over the world. First day saw fast and furious action with hook ups reported before 8.00 am and Pisces “Valerie” taking the top spot for releasing eleven striped marlin for the Cabo team, seeking their fourth consecutive title as world champions. On the first day of the event 139 striped marlin were released; an impressive number. Day two was even better with 152 striped marlin released. Day three saw the Cabo team on the Pisces 42 ft Bertam “Yahoo” managing to release fifteen marlin, other outstanding boats for us in the first few days were “Great Escape Jr.” releasing twelve marlin in one day and “Rebecca” for releasing nine. The fourth day of the tournament saw the fishing shut down as a cold wind blew from the Pacific, which was blanketed in fog, as water temperatures dropped.  From a third day catch of 102 marlin it dropped to just 8 on the final day. The winners were for the fourth time, the Cabo team with a whopping 7400 points for catching  37 marlin, with the second place team from Spain totaling 19 marlin and 3800 points and third place with 3600 points going to Portuguese team for 18 marlin. In our regular Pisces news our anglers caught a total of 151 striped marlin this week, all released as well as one sailfish with the last two days slowing down considerably due to the colder weather.

Michael Carreno from Danville , Ca. Released his first marlin aboard Valerie, May 20th. Approx 150 lbs, this healthy fish was successfully released.

OTHER SPECIES:  Not much by way of dorado or tuna this week, with just three dorado and one small tuna but inshore the pangas we sent out did very well at the start of the week, until the cold weather hit.  We had a roosterfish bonanza this week totaling 85 caught and released, with Salsa being the top producer; eleven in one day for Jaap Hoorenman and Bernand Kortmann from Holland. The weights on the roosters are 10 to 25 lbs. Also plenty of activity on skipjacks, jack crevalle, fair amounts of yellowtail, sierra and one boat had thirteen pompano released in on day.  A 200 lb mako shark was released aboard Petrolero.

LOCATION: 11.50 and Punta Gorda for marlin, small game from Land’s End to the Old Lighthouse.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Nice on Cortez until Friday, Pacific whitecaps and fog, now calmer.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 67-73 F

BEST LURES: ballyhoo, caballito, and hoochis.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg