Fisherman Stabbed by Marlin - Fish Fights Back and Wins

Salvador Benitez has been a mate aboard the 31 ft Bertram "Blue Marlin" for five years. The twenty-four year old, is orginally from Ixtapa, mainland Mexico, but moved here to take advantage of the better job offers of the Cabo sportfishing industry. Last Wednesday was a day like any other, he left the dock along with Captain Luis Olascuaga and six anglers from Texas  and they headed out to the Pacific where they started fishing dorado, four miles offshore in front of Pedregal.They did well and in no time they had five dorado in the boat. They spotted a marlin tail on the surface and Salvador quickly cast a live "caballito" or green jack to the approximately 120 lb striper, hooking it up on the first cast. The rod was passed to one of the anglers and the fish dutifully headed towards the boat. It did not jump, it did not put up much of a fight and after ten minutes they had it to the leader. It was at this time, that the fish felt it was in danger; it sensed the nearby boat, looked up and saw the deckhand, who had the leader in his hand and launched itself skyward in a fury. Salvador reactly quickly and dodged the bill of the fish, at the same time thinking "it will land in the water and try to swim away" WRONG....the fish rebounded, as if it were on a pogo stick and hit him squarely in the side, about five inches below the armpit, with the bill piercing his flesh, before it dropped back into the water and released itself.  Salvador felt a sharp pain and saw a little blood, but being the young macho fisherman that he is, told the captain that he was fine and to keep on fishing. He put the lines out again, but after about ten minutes he was seeing black, felt weak and shook from the tremendous pain he told us he thought "I'm screwed" (pardon the French, just reporting it as we were told). They decided to head back and with a painkiller offered by the tourists aboard, Salvador was able to walk off the boat, where transportation was waiting to take him to the hospital. At the hospital doctors discovered that the marlin bill had entered between two ribs and pierced the pleura, a membrane covering the ribs, which is highly sensitive and appeaerd to have also made a small puncture in the lung, but as the incident took place so quickly, the lung had closed back over itself. They kept him in for observation to make sure the lung would not collapse, cleaned the wound and put in a few stitches before sending him home. We asked him what he had learned from this, to which he replied "never grab an angry marlin".

Salvador Benitez Shown Standing at Rear of Boat, Back to Work Yesterday, After His Battle with a 120 lb Striped Marlin

Update on Oarfish

Medano beach and the surrounding area is a Protected Natural Area, they have park wardens patrolling the area and these are the guys that took the oarfish away. Being a bit over-zealous, they zipped to the beach in panga, unceremoniously loaded the fish on board, took it out two miles and dumped it in the sea! So the scientisits will not be getting the tissue samples they requested. They did mention to us that they had seen another oar fish in the area of the Hotel Hacienda, so maybe we will see another one wash up  in the next few hours. Now that would be something, two in the same day!

Sea Monster Washes Up On Main Beach - Actually it is an Oarfish

Onlookers were stunned by this strange fish.

 

Around 10.15 this morning, Roberto Gonzalez a realtor from Pisces Real Estate, was working very hard, sitting under an umbrella on the main beach of Cabo -El Medano at an open house we are hosting today at Hacienda. He was right in front of Villa 2 when he saw a commotion on the beach and a small crowd gathered at the water's edge. His first thought was, "there's been an accident" then he saw three locals supporting what appeared to him as a monster from the deep. He ran down to get a closer look and saw them  assisting the strange creature, which appeard to be in distress as it struggled for air. The local beach guys, were helping the fish to float, but it continued to drift towards the beach. It really was a sight, being about twenty feet long, silver colored with spots and a bright orange dorsal fin.
Once ashore, it was put back in the water, but Roberto could tell it was not going to last long. A panga from the Protected Areas department came and took it away. We have contacted scientists in La Paz to advise them and they will come and pick it up for studies to be made. These are deep water fish, rarely seen, unless they are dying. This is the first we have heard of to ever wash up on the main beach of Cabo though.

This is what it looked like in the water

This close up shows what appears to be its air bladder in its mouth.
 

New Radio Show is Good News for Baja

Phil Friedman of 976-Tuna is a Baja aficionado and is producing a great new weekly radio show about Baja, what is going on and fishing. We were delighted to be invited to particpate on a weekly basis. This is a refreshing change from all the negative media coverage and shows what a safe and wonderful place our state is. Listen now to the first show (Pisces report is around minute 50) http://www.blogtalkradio.com/philipfriedmanoutdoors/2012/10/05/baja-now-with-phil-friedman

768 lb Black Marlin Caught in Cabo!

18 YEAR OLD DAVID CESENA POSES WITH THE 768 LB BLACK MARLIN

David Cesena, an eighteen year old local boy, from Cabo, must have what is known as beginners luck; he hauled in a 768 lb black marlin this past Saturday aboard the 60 ft Hatteras "Bad Company". Captain Steve Lassley, spoke with us today and said "We were fishing on the Cortez side, pulling baits, when we got hit by something. For ten minutes we had no idea what was on our line. We didn't know if it was a tuna, a marlin or what, until it jumped. Then we knew we had a big fish."
They were out practicing for the upcoming tournaments and young David, was invited along at the last minute, as the owner was unable to make it and extra bodies were needed, never mind that he had no experience.
Captain Steve, was not giving any secrets away so kept the details general and with good reason, he has won the Bisbee Black & blue twice; first in 2000 with a 500 lb black marlin and then in 2006, with two blues that weighed 366 lbs & 422 lbs respectively. He did tell us that he was using 130 lb line and that the fish took two hours to bring to the boat, he added "We really don't like to kill fish, this one was 30 or 40 feet down, when it went belly up. It was done, the fish and the kid, were done - that will be something he never forgets". Fast forward 18 days from now and that fish could very easily have earned them some serious cash. 

Fish Report Roundup

September 29^th to October 5^th, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate for All Species Combined 93%

Numbers in brief:

Billfish: 41% chance – total catch 27

Dorado: 74% chance – total catch 242

Tuna: 20% chance – total catch 60

BLUE MARLIN SEASON IS HERE, THIS ONE IS BEING RELEASED

 BILLFISH: It seems that blue marlin season is upon us, hot weather makes them show up. We started out the week with a bang and as reported earlier in our blog a 722 lb (official weight) was weighed in aboard Pisces 46 ft  Bertram “Attitude Adjustment”, the fish was found 11 miles straight out from Cabo and was this groups fourth fish of the day, after two sailfish and a dorado. The same green colored lure did the trick and got them hooked up to a very strong fish that gave its all before expiring boat-side. Congratulations to fifty eight year old Dave Smith from Atlanta and to his fellow anglers who encouraged him, Tom Montour of Atlanta and Jack Bowen and Clint Dean from Chattanooga. The following day our Pisces 31 ft Cabo “Cabolero”  scored another blue for Dave Wisniewksi from Pella, Iowa around the same area, again a lure fish, this time the famous Petrolero, this fish was just over half the size of the other one at 384 lbs, but nevertheless it would be a qualifier in a tournament. Now a word about blue marlin, yes, we would like to see more of them released and we suggest all anglers do so, but they are more delicate than the stripers and die much more easily in the fight. It is important to catch them as quickly as possible to give them a better chance of surviving; often anglers especially first time marlin fishermen are unprepared for the strength of these creatures and it can feel like you have hooked a truck, so make sure you are in good shape and don’t give up. Pisces “Valerie” had a fabulous day on October 5^th with Tom Johnson from San Ramon, California on board. They fished at Los Arcos and also off the Old Lighthouse and managed to release four sailfish and a blue marlin between three anglers. Again the blue marlin was caught on a dorado colored lure. This same day Pisces  38 ft Blackfin “C Rod” fished just seven miles from the Old Lighthouse and caught a blue marlin around 300 lbs and nine dorado up to 20 lbs for Steve McDonald and friends from Arizona. Our last blue marlin of the week was aboard 28 ft Uniflite Pisces “Adriana” this time for Mike Weals from Redlands, California at Los Arcos. This healthy fish was around 250 lbs and took a purple lure, before being successfully released; they also caught six dorado.  Striped marlin in the 100 to 130 lb class were also caught this week at diverse locations on the Pacific and preferred bait. Sailfish were the most widely caught billfish this week and like the striped marlin wanted live bait or dead ballyhoo on the Pacific. Forty one percent of our anglers caught billfish this week giving us a total of 27, consisting of 14 sails, 8 stripes and 5 blues – all but three billfish were released.

NOTHING LIKE A NICE DORADO ON A HOT SUMMER'S DAY, SHOWN HERE MATE SALVADOR FROM LA BRISA.



OTHER SPECIES: Dorado was by far the most prolific fish in our waters this week and why not, it’s the right time for it and the right conditions, in fact seventy four percent of our boats caught between one and seventeen with weights ranging from 18 to 40 lbs - one medium size dorado goes a long way when it comes to dinner time, it is very mild tasting, easy to cook and moist. Remaining floating debris from the rains made dorado easy to spot as they congregating underneath it as well as being found spread out on the Pacific side. The majority of dorado took lures, though some preferred ballyhoo. Our total dorado count was 242 fish or to put it another one around 4840 lbs! Tuna catches were at twenty percent this week with boats catching between one and thirteen, though none were of notable size. With only a twenty percent chance at tuna it was only a few fortunate boats that found them, such as Pisces 31 ft Bertram “Rebecca” fishing seven miles off of Elias Calles, with Jon Svendson & friends from Scottsdale, Arizona on board; they caught 13 yellow fin up to 25 lbs, one dorado and four skipjacks. Total tuna tally was 68 fish.  It was nice to see a bit more activity on wahoo this period, though again, no really big fish with the average 30 to 35 lbs. “Falcon” caught the largest one at 44 lbs on a petrolero lure at Cerro de Arena for Manuel Green from Dallas – they also caught six dorado.

LOCATION: Mostly Pacific from Land’s End to San Jaime.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Hot and sunny, seas calm.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 86 F

BEST LURES: Green/yellow, petrolero, purple, live caballito, frozen ballyhoo.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

So What Do They Do With All That Fish?

Last weekend we reported a 722 lb blue marlin, that was caught aboard Pisces Attitude Adjustment. As our post read, the fish died after a two hour battle as the angler brought it to the boat for the umpteenth time. So what do you do with 722 lb's of fish? Well first of all by the time the fish is skinned, filleted, head and tail removed, the weight of the fish is reduced considerably. The anglers told us that they wanted none to go to waste, they took some fillets over to Captain Tony's to get them cooked and left the crew to distribute the rest. Now, crews and anglers cannot sell fish, caught on a sportfishing license, as the name implies it is not for commercial exploitation. Most of the fisherman here are related or are friends, so the crews were thrilled to receive pounds of fish and it was split up among many families. With the summer being on the slow side and not that many trips for a sizeable part of the Cabo fleet, this fish was received thankfully, packed carefully and frozen for a lot of families to enjoy for weeks to come. So just how far did that fish go? Well one of the sizeable fillets - see below- should feed 12 people, figure 8 fillets per side of the fish, 16 total, so 192 people and depending on the size of the portions perhaps a lot more.

Big Fish Continue 722 lb Blue Marlin Caught Today

 

 

These guys look happy and why not, they never expected to catch a 722 lb blue marlin. In fact the last time angler Dave Smith, from Atlanta caught anything close was a 55l lb'er twenty five years ago at Walkers Cay, Bahamas.

 



The fish was caught aboard the 46 ft Bertram Attitude Adjustment three miles from the Herradura which is about eleven miles straight out from Land's End. The fish took a 3.5 Zuker that was green and yellow. This area proved productive for Captain Edgar Renteria,  has been a part of Pisces for over 18 years, started out by hooking up two sailfish, one released, one broke off, followed by a 35 lb dorado. Twelve minutes after putting the lures back in the water, BAM, they got hit out of nowhere by this huge fish that almost spooled them. Fifty-eight year old Dave Smith spoke to us from the boat not long after the fish was on board he was awed by the whole event but thrilled " This fish came out of nowwhere, it almost spooled us but we recovered line; it was a brute - every time we would get it as close as twenty feet, it would take off at full speed and rip off line". Dave is a project supervisor for an industrial flooring company and was here with Tom Montour also from Atlanta and colleagues Jack Bown and Clint Dean from Chattanooga. They do a yearly guys trip to fish and have been to such locations as Costa Rica and the Bahamas but as Dave said "there is nothing like Cabo, its the best, we will definitely be back. I have the utmost respect for the professionalism of the crew". When asked if they had killed the fish or if it had died he replied "It took almost two hours to bring to the boat and the last time, it was very tired, it was done, it floated sideways. I think it's heart exploded". The guys did not have to kill the fish, it was already gone, now the question was how to get it into the boat? Mother nature helped - they opened the transom door and the swells pushed it right in the back of the boat, aided by the flying gaffs they used to secure the fish. Attitude Adjustment forms part of Pisces Fleet.
This is not the only large fish; we got a report of a 600 lb blue marlin taken on a commercial panga at Punta Lobos yesterday.
This bodes well for the upcoming billfish tournaments - but it would be really nice if somehow a release format could be implemented.

Panga Rescued

We are pleased to report that the panga that was almost totally sunk yesterday is well on the way to recovery, shown here a few minutes ago is the rescue operation. Several guys were pulling it on ropes, watched by a group of onlookers.

 

 

The Sun is Out, but Port is Closed!

This is a quick snapshot of the marina taken at 11.00 am, as you can see day is beautiful seas are flat, but the Port Captain closed the port again today. To be honest it did look gray this morning and there was more surge than normal, but right now things are beautiful - we are ready for tomorrow.
Let's go fishing!