Fish Report June 7th to 13th

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species combined 89%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 54%, Tuna 32%, Dorado 24%

BILLFISH: This week the very first Pelagic Summer Slam tournament was held in Cabo, a fledgling touranment seeking to promote sportfishing & local charter boats at an affordable price. Twenty eight vessels entered and the event was well received. Top boat was Go Deeper with ten marlin released and winnings of $9502.00. In the gamefish division third place was for a 58 lb wahoo aboard Sneak Attack which netted winnings of $585.00 followed by a 89 lb tuna aboard Bob Marlin which won $1462.00 then a 104 lb tuna aboard Ripper, also entered in the jackpots, who won $9802.00. One of the best Pisces catches this week was that of Timothy & Tony Cain fishing with  Bruce Esser from San Antonio, Texas. They were out on Listo on June 10th & released an approxmate 200 lb blue marlin, two striped marlin and boated a dorado. June 11th was a good day too, when Pisces Rebecca release five striped marlin for Gordon Clark and friends from California, who also caught a 26 lb tuna. Other boats caught between one and four marlin each, but catches were not always easy. We had windy weather then it got super hot as a hurricane formed south of Baja, causing huge waves for the last couple of days of this report. The catches were spread out from the 11.50 spot on the Cortez side to Golden Gate on the Pacific. Pisces anglers caught a total of 59 billfish this week, with ll but one released. Respectable catches seeing as we had full moon and an abrupt water temperature change.
OTHER SPECIES: It was great to see some nice tuna catches this week with Pisces Andrea the top boat for boating an impressive 187 lb'er for Scott Gayer from Kenai, Alaska, one of eighteen he caught outside of San Jaime - his other fish ranged from 18 to 20 lbs only. Brett Simmons from Colorado got a work out from a 200 lb plus tuna that he fought for ove two hours, before losing it; he didn't draw a blank though, as he also releaed a striped marlin aboad Andrea close to the Golden Gate. For sheer numbers the tuna outnumbered all other gamefish in Cabo this week, with 125, caught by out anglers. Dorado catches were fair to good with twenty four percent of our boats catching from one to eleven up to 40 lbs. Chris Kaminski from Valparaiso, Indiana has been fishing aboard Ruthless with captain Leon for years and we can see why; he was able to catch eleven dorado, a tuna and a nice 40 lb wahoo. Inshore there were some big jack crevalle up to 50 lbs, as well as the odd roosterfish and skipjack.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Hot, a.c is on at night already, skies clear, seas had some swells mid to end of week.
LOCATION: 11.50 spot to Golden Gate, San Jaime for tuna.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 73 F
BEST LURES: live bait for marlin, cedar plugs for tuna, green colored lures and live bait for dorado.
Base on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Fish Report May 24th to June 6th

May 24^th to June 6^th, 2014

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 88%

Numbers at a glance: Billfish 62%, Dorado 17%, Tuna 14%, Small Game 22%

BILLFISH: This fish report covers a two week period, as we were at our new secret location last week; an undiscovered & incredible Baja fishery where we shall begin operations shortly.   The Cabo fishery remained robust this period with plenty of striped marlin, sharks and even a few sailfish making an appearance, all this despite a sudden sharp drop in water temperatures around Land’s End, where satellite images show a distinct cold pocket of water. Nevertheless a lot of boats did well, as they headed out to the temperature breaks and found in the most part smaller stripers. At the start of this period boats headed into the Sea of Cortez and fished the 11.50 spot, which is where Jeremy Ross, released four marlin in the 120 to 130 lb. class aboard Pisces Ruthless. The next day out this same boat released two marlin plus a 70 lb. sailfish for anglers from Austin, Texas. Catches increased slightly and on May 26^th Mark Chiavetta had six to the boat (Bill Collector) up to 150 lbs., which were successfully released.  Next day out it was five released for 28 ft. Adriana and anglers Brent Crafton & the Watters brothers. Hayden Watson from Bend, Oregon caught and released five striped marlin on May 29th ranging from 60 to 110 lbs. aboard Pisces Listo. At the end of May, the temperature dropped and boats headed in the other direction up to the Pacific where more free swimming marlin were found mixed in with dorado and smaller game. Pisces Rebecca was the one to hit gold off of Cerritos, with six marlin released for Billy & Diego Lagarde, Jorge Sanchez, Luis Garcia – just shows we go wherever the fish are. This same day Pisces Listo headed to Golden Gate and released four marlin & a pilot shark as well as boating a nice 40 lb. dorado. The fish were not as concentrated as they had been on the Cortez side being found from the Old Lighthouse to Golden Gate.  Sixty two percent of our boats caught billfish resulting in catches of 139 striped marlin & 5 sailfish – all but two marlin were released.

OTHER SPECIES: We had plenty of action on smaller game this week and it was nice to see the tuna finally making an appearance which should have happened in April. The cooler water also brought a surge in inshore catches for species such as rooster fish, jack crevalle, skipjack and amberjack. The roosters were from 10 to as large as a 46 lb’er caught aboard Andre by Roger Skaggs and were found off of the Lighthouse.  We had mixed shark catches again this week with the largest being threshers up to 110 lbs.  also caught on Andrea by Monte Brosmer from San Antonio, Texas.  We had a small pilot shark as well as a hammerhead all released. Dorado catches were at seventeen percent with our two top boats catching thirteen apiece, Rebecca & the panga Gloria – with two kept per angler and the rest released. Other boats caught between one and four, usually no more than 20 lbs. in weight. The tuna catches were sporadic with just fourteen percent of boats catching between one and eighteen fish also no bigger than 20 lbs. and found at one their favorite spots, San Jaime on the Pacific. We had a handful of wahoo, but none of any real size at 30 lbs. average.

LOCATION: Starting out 11.50 spot to Punta Gorda then changing to the Old Lighthouse to Golden Gate.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Was baking hot, now much cooler with winds on the Pacific seas are a little choppy.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: from 82F down to 68F around Cabo and 73 F at Golden Gate now.

BEST LURES: Live bait, ballyhoo, blue & white feather for tuna, cedar plugs, red and black for wahoo.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Why so many sharks - see the Fish Report here:

MAY 17th to 23rd, 2014
Overall Catch Success Rate 100%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 86%, Dorado 18%, Sharks 36%

BILLFISH: This week saw great fishing in the Los Cabos area, with hotter than normal weather producing some great catches. We did not have as many sheer marlin numbers this week but boats regularly caught between one and four billfish each. The fishing moved a little northward, towards Punta Gorda, but the 11.50 spot still produced the goods too. The marlin are ranging in size from 90 to  180 lbs and are taking live bait. Darren Wyckoff from Spokane, Washington aboard Pisces Rebecca one of a half dozen boats that achieved four marlin in a day  - he also caught a nice 30 lb dorado for the table on May 17th. May 19th was a day when we saw big stripers, with La Brisa releasing one just over 180 lbs for Milford Ballard & Steven Jones from Amarillo & Corpus Christ, Texas; their other three marlin were feisty, but not as large. With eighty six percent of boats catching marlin, those that didn’t were deliberately looking for something else  - and they succeeded as every boat we sent out caught fish this week. Hot, weather, nice seas  - we even saw schools of bait, right on the shoreline of the main beach. It shows the weather is beginning to warm up as we released a couple of sailfish this week. John Ireland reporting seeing  700 lb swordfish that he followed around for an hour and a half trying to get to take his bait – with no success, but we did receive a picture from Bob Manroe who actually caught one, we don’t have the details but it looks to be between 300 -400 lbs. Pisces anglers caught a total of 99 striped marlin & 2 sailfish this week, with all but two fish released.
OTHER SPECIES: What really surprised us this week was the number of sharks, we have never seen shark catches like these, with threshers, hammerheads & pilot sharks being found in with the marlin. We caught a total of 20 sharks this week, with the majority of them released, but boy, did our equipment take a beating.  For example, James Haefner, Maurice Sherman & Jeff & Leslie Taylor, were out on Pisces Bill Collector on May 20th and released two striped marlin, a 140 lb thresher shark and a 160 lb thresher shark that took them three hours and forty minutes to subdue. This same day both Ruthless & La Brisa also released a thresher shark as well as marlin. Bill Collector seemed to be the shark boat this week, as they released three pilot sharks up to 180 lbs AND a thresher shark and a striped marlin – all on May 22nd for the Mann family from Detroit.  Rebecca earlier in the week released two thresher sharks up to 130 lbs, plus a hammerhead shark and two striped marlin for our good friends Gerald Richmond & John Mason. Please note that there is a ban on hammerhead sharks for any kind of fishing as of May 17th until June 17th, there is also a permanent ban on catching white sharks by any method in Mexico.  Dorado catches were on the slow side with just five boats finding fish up to 30 lbs. There were no yellowfin tuna but we did hear of some nice ones in the East Cape are. The pangas that we sent this week did well on skipjacks and also got few jack crevalles and amberjack, plus the odd dorado.
LOCATION: 11.50 spot & Punta Gorda.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Nice – except Thursday when we had some wind in the early morning hours, followed by a little rain. Seas are calm.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP:78 F
BEST LURES: Live bait.

Superb Marlin Catches in Cabo

May 10th to 16th, 2014
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 90%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 86%, Dorado 8%, Sharks 12%

BILLFISH: No doubt about it, this past week there was a definite focus on marlin catches.  The phenomenal fishing continues aided by much warmer than normal water temperatures, in fact we can’t remember the water being this warm so early in the year, so much so that we are hearing of blue marlin being caught already.  Shambala fought & lost one this week and another fleet also had one. In most of the world Friday the 13th is considered “bad luck”, in Mexico however they say “don’t get married or board a boat on Tuesday the 13th” but the fishing this week, threw that saying right out the window, as we it was the most productive, with multiple marlin catches headed up by Ruthless, skippered this day by Captain Julio Castro, while his boat is being rebuilt.  Julio managed to get his long time clients Gary & Susan Hall from Washington, hooked up to ten striped marlin at the 11.50 spot. Pisces Rebecca released seven marlin this same day for the Senderak family from Avon, Connecticut & Hollywood, Florida. Bill Collector was in one of the top slots also with six marlin released for Mark Tuttle & the aptly named Robert Fish.  La Brisa had Texans on board who released five marlin and a sardine shark that was around 110 LBS.  These were the more prominent catches, though the average was two to three marlin per boat per day.  Pisces C Rod did well to release eight stripers up to 160 lbs outside of Punta Gorda for the Reynolds family from Midvale, Utah on May 16th.  Catches did dip during the full moon but are already rebounding.  Pisces anglers caught a total of 126 striped marlin this week, with just two kept.

OTHER SPECIES: There has not been a lot of action on smaller game as the marlin fishing has been so good, that boats concentrated on what equaled success.  Dorado catches were on the slow side with just a handful making it back to the dock; on very nice one was caught by Steven Sandoval from San Diego – his fish was caught on a dead caballito four miles out from Santa Maria and weighed 49 LBS.  More sharks were caught than dorado this week; generally in December & January is when we see small makos and some threshers but as the water gets warmer we see more of a variety.  George Day, David Morse & Joseph Acevedo from South Lake Texas caught two pilot sharks on May 16th, aboard Pisces Bill Collector that were quite large at 130-140 lbs.; they also released a striped marlin and quite an unusual catch of a sting ray. Ruthless had a small 50 lb. pilot shark & the panga Gloria released a 40 lb. mako. We did hear of a few nice size tuna being caught at the East Cape, but there were none in Cabo.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Hot, with daytime temps in the high 80’s, clear blue skies, seas calm with some chop on the Pacific.
LOCATION: 11.50 spot to Punta Gorda.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP:  78-79 F
BEST LURES:  live bait.

390 LB GROUPER SHOT BY LOCAL SPEAR-FISHERMAN

This massive fish was shot by local Nathan Visser - the monster tipped the scales at 390 LBS, here is the story in Nathan's own words:
 "Got this cow in 45 feet of water about 30 miles north of Todos Santos on the Pacific.  It took 4 shots and 3 guys to bring him to the surface.  After I put the first spear in it dragged me and Roberto Contreras around for 10 minutes before Luis Espinosa could get close enough and take another shot.  Before he got back to the surface, my spear pulled out.  Roberto then went down with his gun and put the third shot in.  Meanwhile I reloaded my gun and went back down with my spear (which now had a broken/bent flopper) to put the 4^th shot in it.  He then floated to the surface and it was over"

Fishing Shows Improvement April 26th to May 2nd, 2014

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 87.5%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 73%, Dorado 14%, Small Game 11%
 

BILLFISH: The week started out a little shaky with boats not quite sure where to go as the marlin were spread out and hard to locate, so they headed up towards San Jose where the odd marlin was found as well as a bit of small game inshore.  Pisces Rebecca was one of the fortunate boats to actually find fish off of La Playita on April 27th. They caught and released four striped marlin up to 120 lbs. and boated a dorado for John Majewski, Al Ainsworth & Jay Long from Waco, Texas.  This crew knew there were on to something and headed back to this spot a couple of days later, where this time they managed to release five marlin, up to 160 lbs. for Thomas Migas from Idaho. Things changed mid-week though, when the crews discovered that the marlin had returned to one of their old haunts, the 11.50 spot and to a lesser degree the 95 spot. This day saw Robert & Christina Marshall from Temple, Texas achieve one of the best catches of the week aboard Pisces Listo, with five marlin and a 70 lb. sailfish released. This same day Rebecca, La Brisa & C Rod all released four marlin apiece making for very satisfied clients all round. It as was a shame that there were less people out fishing this week, there seemed to be a lot of people in town but many opted to stay on the beach. May 1st, a national holiday in Mexico, saw La Brisa hook Chris & Janice Smith from Sahuarita, Arizona up to four marlin, which they released.  C Rod out the following day released another four marlin, fairly big in size with one fish estimated at over 160 lbs. for Brian Crawford and party from Gulfport Mississippi.  Seventy three percent of our boats caught marlin this week giving us a total of 85 striped marlin and one 1 sailfish.
OTHER SPECIES: Boat focused on billfish more than anything else this week, nevertheless there was some dorado caught, only fair with just fourteen percent of boats hooking usually a single fish, no more than 25 lbs.  La Brisa caught a smallish 25 lb. wahoo and inshore there were some jack crevalle, skipjacks & needlefish. Surf fisherman Wesley had a day where his guests caught five jack crevalle and two red snapper.
LOCATION: Sea of Cortez, La Playita, 11.50 and 95 spot.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 74 -75 F
WEATHER CONDITIONS: clear sunny skies, seas moderate, turning calm.
BEST LURES: Live

Windy Week in Cabo , but the Marlin are still Here

April 12th to 18th 2014
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 78%Numbers at a glance: Marlin 76%, Dorado 8%, Other 2%

BILLFISH:  Although catch numbers were lower this week than the previous one, we were still very pleased with the fishing, because we had a full moon and some very windy weather – normally a recipe for poor catches - yet seventy six percent of our charters caught marlin. Not only that, we had some outstanding catches, such as those aboard Pisces Rebecca, who released seven striped marlin on April 12th for the Haran family from Dallas, Texas. All of their fish were released at the 11.50 spot after taking live bait or ballyhoo – these were our anglers of the week. This same day Pisces Valerie did not fare too badly either, releasing four marlin up to 120 lbs. for Gary Allison from Las Vegas. Next day out Rebecca was again the top boat, this time with four marlin for Duncan, Denisse & Christopher Roberts from Frisco, Colorado.  The wind blew for several days, typical for March, meaning we had several boats turn around with sea-sick anglers, nevertheless we were able to catch eight night striped marlin with all but one released.
OTHER SPECIES:  Well this section will be short as marlin dominated and this is what the captains concentrated on. We did have a few dorado – Ted Marsella, Brian Halligan & Tito Barilacchi caught two up to 25 lbs. at the 11.50 spot and also released three marlin, on, and you guessed it….Rebecca. Just eight percent of our boats caught dorado and almost without exception it would be a single fish, picked up when trolling for marlin. The only other fish we caught this week was a 150 lb. thresher shark caught by Craig Everly from Washington D.C aboard Bill Collector.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Windy and rough.
LOCATION: 11.50 spot was the main place and some days Destiladeras.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 73 F
BEST LURES: Live caballito, frozen ballyhoo.

Superb Marlin Catches

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 95%
Numbers at a glance: Marlin 92%, Dorado 3%, Other/Small Game 10%

BILLFISH: This week was FANTASTIC for striped marlin catches in Cabo, with nearly every boat catching between one and six in a day, resulting in a lot of happy anglers. Best day of the week was April 5th, when thirty nine marlin were released, between nine of our boats!  The fish seemed to be parked at the 11.50 spot on the Cortez side, though occasionally the odd one was found towards Punta Gorda. Pisces Valerie, Ruthless & Bill Collector all had a half dozen marlin each caught on a combination of live caballito and frozen ballyhoo on April 5th. Next day out Bill Collector equaled this number again for anger Ross Kline from Reno, Nevada. John & Tamara Moskites, fishing with Todd Turner, all from North Carolina, were very pleased to release six marlin up to 140 lbs. aboard Pisces La Brisa on April 7th. This same boat followed up the next day with another six, this time for Russian angler Aleks Bezzubenko, with fish ranging from 90 to 130 lbs. Yahoo was not to be left out, as they also scored six for Michael Walters & Jennifer Smith from Texas also at the 11.50 spot. With the big moon coming on now though, we are likely to see a slight drop off in catches in the coming days. Ninety two percent of our anglers caught marlin this week, giving us a total catch of 193    fish, all released except one.

OTHER SPECIES: Because the marlin bit was such a sure thing, very few boats targeted other species, with tuna practically non-existent and dorado extremely sparse, out catches were very low for these species, with just three dorado and zero tuna. Inshore the pangas we sent caught a few sierra, jack crevalle & skipjacks. We did have some sharks though; Michael Bartlett from West Chester, PA released an 80 lb. pilot shark as well as three marlin, with his buddies Leo Cole & Bob McCullen.  La Brisa had the Russian guys out again, the time Aleks Bezzubenko was accompanied by  Nail Muzafarov &Nail Khakimzyanov (yes our dockmasters had a lot of fun spelling those ones) on April 10th when they released two striped marlin and a 150 lb. sardine shark, and they also caught a 152 lb. thresher shark, which they kept.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear & calm.
LOCATION: 11.50 Spot.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 73 F
BEST LURES: Live caballito & frozen ballyhoo

Marlin Catches are Up!

March 29th to April 4th, 2014
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 91.4%
Numbers at a glance: Marlin 83%, Dorado 21%, Small Game 7%

BILLFISH: Wow what a comeback the marlin fishing made this week; we had great catches for most boats, though we did have a few that got “skunked” due to anglers getting sea sick and asking to come back, or simply not finding hungry fish.  It would seem unusual that marlin fishing is so good, until we check back out trusty archives, which show that fishing was the same last year and moderately good the year before. Timothy Miller & Michael, Jacob & Connor Grauweis from Minnesota, were out aboard Pisces Rebecca, a boat always in our top five and were fortunate to catch and release seven striped marlin and be back in port before 2.00 pm. They fished five miles off of San Jose and caught their fish on a combination of ballyhoo and caballito. Captain J. R and the Rebecca were obviously onto something as a couple of days later, on April 2nd, they caught and released a total of six striped marlin & dorado for ecstatic, lone angler John Batchelder from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Well we have to say the Minnesotans were on a roll this week, looks like our high catch anglers were all from that state.  On April 3rd we had Steve, Linda, John & Matt Olmstead from Minnesota out aboard C Rod, fishing at the 11.50 spot where they released six striped marlin in the 100 to 130 lb. class. This same day Pisces Ruthless had Gerry Sexton from Maple Grove, Minnesota aboard and he also released six marlin in the 90 to 130 lb. category. Keith & Donna Kramer though, are from Aurora, Colorado, but that didn’t stop them from releasing six striped marlin aboard La Brisa.  All the high number marlin catches were on the Cortez side between the 11.50 spot and Destiladeras, though we should mention there were plenty of other boats that caught two, three or four marlin, all respectable catches. Eighty three percent of our boats caught striped marlin this week giving us a total of 139 fish released. 

OTHER SPECIES:  Because the marlin bite was on, this is what most of our boats targeted, plus action for other offshore species was a bit slow, nevertheless twenty percent of the boats managed to find a dorado here and there, with two boats catching three. They were standard size at 15 to 25 lbs. Only one wahoo was caught this week & that was a 45 lb. specimen hooked by David Brady from Alabama, aboard Petrolero. Inshore we just had a few roosterfish, sierras and skipjacks.
LOCATION: Cortez, 11.50 to Destiladereas, inshore San Cristobal to Los Arcos.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Some cold weather and choppy seas this week on intermittent days.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 72 -73 F
BEST LURES:  live caballito, frozen ballyhoo.

Catches are up! Weekly Fish Report March 22nd to March 28th, 2014

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 78%
Numbers at a glance: Marlin 49%, Dorado 23%, Small Game 30%

BILLFISH: We are pleased to report an improvement in the fishing this week, as the moon waned we still had some hit or miss days but also some outstanding ones. The water never really got cold so now with the moon gone all the signs are that the fishing will take an upturn. To start out the period Pisces Listo headed to the 95 spot on the Cortez side where they did well to release four marlin from 120 150 lbs. for Robert Russell & Todd Miller from Las Vegas & Kingwood Texas, respectively. This same day Pisces Rebecca had a great day too, a little further out at the Herradura, where they released three stripers and boated six dorado for Candy Johnson and friends from Dress, Idaho. Next day out Listo had the same anglers on board and not having luck at the 95 spot they motored further north and parallel to shore, which was the right move, as they ended up releasing six marlin, on live bait in front of La Playita. After this fishing dropped off again, with Punta Gorda producing a few marlin, but not for everyone. It was in this area that the Rebecca caught one of the largest stripers of the week; the fish caught & released by Patrick Mitchell from Illinois was right at the 200 lb. mark, it was estimated, and he was fortunate to get a couple of dorado too. On a day when very few boats caught fish Pisces La Brisa, dug deep and managed to catch the first ever marlin for fifteen year old Nathan Soby from Calgary, Canada and as if that wasn’t enough they caught a nice wahoo for his dad Chris, a mako shark for his mom, Tracey, & then to round out the day, Nathan landed a dorado for the table – thanks Captain Rey & Deckhand Salvador for helping this family to fulfill a dream. On March 27th, Anthony Spiegelberg from Wyoming, new he was on the right boat, Rebecca, when they released five striped marlin and boated two dorado, twenty miles from the 150 spot.   A lone sailfish was caught by Rick Kiersh from Houston, Texas at the Herradura as well as two striped marlin, aboard Pisces Valerie.  A group of friends got together, who are usually spread out between New York, California & Arizona and booked Listo, the 35 ft. Cabo for March 28t; they were not disappointed as they ended up releasing six striped marlin at the 11.50 spot – well done Scott, Greg, Steve, Nick, James & Alex. Forty nine percent of our boats caught marlin this week, giving us a total catch of 71 fish released plus a sailfish.

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado had all but disappeared from the Pacific but this week when boats fished the Cortez the catches were much better, with fairly regular catches of one to three fish; the exception being Rebecca, with six, mentioned above. The dorado are liking live bait at the moment, with the odd one caught on a lure. There was plenty of inshore action for sierra, a few roosters, and lots of skipjacks, fair amounts of jack crevalle, an odd needle fish, yellowtail & grouper. We had a few wahoo this week, but none more than 40 lbs. Just one Mako shark around 40 lbs. caught on La Brisa.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear, sunny skies, except on March 28th when it was partially cloudy, seas calm to moderate.
LOCATION: Herradura, Punta Gorda, Palmilla, 95 spot, Cerro Colorado, Los Arcos, Old Lighthouse.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: Warm at 72-74 F
BEST LURES: Live bait.