Weekly Fish Report

PISCES FISHING REPORT

November 26 to December 2nd, 2009

Overall Catch Success Rate 95%

BILLFISH: This last week was the most exciting of the year for Pisces with two incredible catches that will probably take up the whole fish report, so here goes with copy of what was posted on our blog: On Saturday, November 28th, I received a phone call from our dockmaster, Mario, around 8.00 am to tell me that our 54 ft Bertram "Get Over It" was hooked up to a very weird fish and they asked "what should we do". I immediately got on the phone with the captain Jobe Villavicencio to see what was going on. Jobe was very excited saying they were hooked up to a sailfish that was completely white. Incredulous I got on the internet and found that a couple of "albino" sailfish had been caught before, one aboard a commercial boat in Manzanillo, Mexico and another in Guatemala. The captain wanted to know if he should boat the fish or release it. This put us in a bit of a dilemma; knowing how rare this fish was, we knew that it would be very valuable to local scientists, however we had paying clients on board and the decision had to be theirs, when you charter a boat from Pisces you get to call the shots, it is  your boat for the day. The angler, Matt Dye from Alexandria, Virginia, decided to release this, his first every sailfish and a weird one at that and we were happy with his decision. This group also released a striped marlin and boated a couple of dorado. Captain Jobe told me that they were fishing 14 miles off of the Old Lighthouse on the Pacific when they saw the fish jumping they quickly cast a live caballito to it, which it immediately took. He said the way the fish took the bait was very odd. It didn't run or jump, he could not express very well what he meant but said it was just strange. It took them 15 minutes to bring to the boat on 20 lb test and weighed approximately 110 lbs. From what I read these fish are white due to a lake of melanin, but cannot be considered truly albino unless they have pink eyes.  Due to the excitement the pictures taken were not the best and there is quite a bit of shadow on the fish making it look darker. I asked the captain about the eyes and he said they were really beautiful, pink with a brown tinge, which is not appreciated in the photographs.  Jobe always seems to be in the news, but then again he is a great captain. Both he and brother Cubi (Javier) the mate were named World Offshore Champions, competing against 30 countries, in the IGFA World Offshore Championship held here in Cabo just a few weeks ago. The other really BIG news was that of a BIG fish as follows, again taken from our blog: Nobody expected a fish of this size to show up at the dock yesterday, the Captain didn't even tell us until he had it on board and we thought perhaps there was some exaggeration going on, but then again Julio Gonzalez aboard the 32 foot Cabo "Bill Collector" is one of the best captains at Pisces. They were trolling about one mile from Golden Gate, when they saw the something feeding in the distance, about half a mile from where they were. At first they thought it was a whale or a very big porpoise, so they raced over to see what it was. They realized as they got close that it was a marlin and that it was eating a 20 lb dorado.  The deckhand started to prepare one of the dorado that they had caught earlier in the day, to use as bait, as they thought with a fish this size, they needed something big to attract its attention.  They got as close as six feet while the deckhand was still preparing the bait, but they had lures in the water, they started to circle the fish, going around while they were still preparing the bait. They continued circling the fish; she was oblivious to the boat concentrating on the tasty dorado that she was eating. Captain Julio suddenly dropped the speed of the boat to 6 knots and one of the lures was very close to the fish, they saw when she opened her mouth, the widest they had ever seen and took the lure it was like everything was happening in slow motion.  It was Martha Chisholm's turn in the chair, she is from Singer Island, Florida, despite being in her later season in life, she is very strong and an avid fisherwoman. The fish jumped twice and then started to go down. The tackle was a Shimano Tiagra 80 reel with 100 lb line, 300 lb leader and the lure a 5.5 Zuker, they types used for striped marlin, green, with a white underside. The fish had finished her meal and thought that this lure was another dorado. They started to work the fish, though it wasn't that active. They put as much pressure on the fish as they dared but one hour into the fight, the saw that line was going out very slowly, just with the current, and they were down to half the reel; Captain Julio realized the fish was dead and between all of them, taking turns on the reel they pumped the fish to the surface. It was not tail-wrapped and they assumed that it had died of a heart attack. This was such a shame as the angler and crew had planned on releasing it.  They had to remove the fighting chair to get it into the boat and after 30 minutes of struggling, it was   wave that helped them out working in their favor to push it into the boat. Back at the dock it took a dozen guys to hoist the fish up, but even then, they couldn't clear the bill off of the floor as the fish was so long, to truly let it hang free and get the accurate weight. Nevertheless the fish showed as 865 lbs according to the dock scale, which is not that accurate. In other fishing news forty six percent of our charters caught billfish this week with the Pacific still being the location of choice ; as we write this boats are stacked up off of the Old Lighthouse and it seems as if striped marlin are moving into the area and the preferred bait of mackerel starts to show up. We did have a big moon this week which can be a factor in less billfish being caught, nevertheless there were several boats that had triple marlin days and Dan Ryan from New York and friends, were able to release four in one day aboard "Rebecca". Pisces anglers caught a total of 46 billfish this week consisting of 41 striped marlin, two sailfish and three blue marlin, all released except the huge fish that died.

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado remains the number one catch in Cabo with eighty three percent of our boats catching between one and twenty five in a day. Weights are from 15 to 30 lbs and they are spread out from the Old Lighthouse, some very close to shore, to Golden Gate and can also be picked up on the Cortez side. Tuna catches were on the slow side with just the "Bill Collector" loading up on these for Mark Chiavetta from San Jose, California on November 29^th, when they headed out 36 miles in the direction of the 210 spot and managed to get fourteen between 25 and 30 lbs, as well as on dorado and release two striped marlin. Again fair amounts of wahoo near Migriño up to 40 lbs. Roosterfish to 30 lbs inshore as well as a few skipjacks and sierra.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Partly overcast, now clear, seas calm.

BEST LOCATION: Gaspareño, Elias Calles, Migriño, Los Arcos, Golden Gate.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 77 F

BEST LURES: Live bait, green colored lures.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Mako Sharks Put in an Appearance

Now that we are into December we should start to see an increase on sharks, mostly Mako's but there will be some hammerheads too. This one was caught yesterday, December 5^th by George Bond from, Fort Worth, Texas and weighed approximately 80 lbs. George fished aboard our 38 ft Blackfin "C Rod" and did very well; besides catching the shark he also released one striped marlin and caught eleven dorados with friends that were on the boat with him. Weather is picture perfect right now and seas are dead calm. Photo taken by our Dockmaster Mario Bañaga

Iversons from Folsom, California

We fished with Pisces on November 23, 2009. We fished with Captain Martin on the El Bandito, and had an incredible time. We caught 8 beautiful Dorado and one terrific Marlin. It is the first time I have gone fishing for Dorado and I was so excited about that but the fact that we spotted and caught a marlin was the thrill of my fishing life.

Thank you Pisces for a wonderful trip. We will all fish with you again: Louise Iverson Folsom, California

Comment from Iverson Family, Folsom Ca.

Another Picture of the Big Fish

Shown here angler Martha Chisholm from Singer Island Florida with her monster marlin catch.

Giant Blue Marlin….Biggest in Years Caught in Cabo

Nobody expected a fish of this size to show up at the dock yesterday, the Captain didn't even tell us until he had it on board and we thought perhaps there was some exaggeration going on, but then again Julio Gonzalez aboard the 32 foot Cabo "Bill Collector" is one of the best captains at Pisces. They were trolling about one mile from Golden Gate, when they saw the something feeding in the distance, about half a mile from where they were. At first they thought it was a whale or a very big porpoise, so they raced over to see what it was. They realized as they got close that it was a marlin and that it was eating a 20 lb dorado. The deckhand started to prepare one of the dorado that they had caught earlier in the day, to use as bait, as they thought with a fish this size, they needed something big to attract its attention. They got as close as six feet while the deckhand was still preparing the bait, but they had lures in the water, they started to circle the fish, going around while they were still preparing the bait. They continued circling the fish; she was oblivious to the boat concentrating on the tasty dorado that she was eating. Captain Julio suddenly dropped the speed of the boat to 6 knots and one of the lures was very close to the fish, they saw when she opened her mouth, the widest they had ever seen and took the lure it was like everything was happening in slow motion. It was Martha Chisholm's turn in the chair, she is from Singer Island, Florida, despite being in her later season in life, she is very strong and an avid fisherwoman. The fish jumped twice and then started to go down. The tackle was a Shimano Tiagra 80 reel with 100 lb line, 300 lb leader and the lure a 5.5 Zuker, the type used for striped marlin, green, with a white underside. The fish had finished her meal and thought that this lure was another dorado. They started to work the fish, though it wasn't that active. They put as much pressure on the fish as they dared but one hour into the fight, the saw that line was going out very slowly, just with the current, and they were down to half the reel; Captain Julio realized the fish was dead and between all of them, taking turns on the reel they pumped the fish to the surface. It was not tail-wrapped and they assumed that it had died of a heart attack. This was such a shame as the angler and crew had planned on releasing it. They had to remove the fighting chair to get it into the boat and after 30 minutes of struggling, it was wave that helped them out working in their favor to push it into the boat. Back at the dock it took a dozen guys to hoist the fish up, but even then, they couldn't clear the bill off of the floor as the fish was so long, to truly let it hang free and get the accurate weight. Nevertheless the fish showed as 865 lbs according to the dock scale, which is not that accurate.

Rare Albino Sailfish Caught on Pisces Boat

This Saturday, November 28th, I received a phone call from our dockmaster, Mario, around 8.00 am to tell me that our 54 ft Bertram "Get Over It" was hooked up to a very weird fish and they asked "what should we do". I immediately got on the phone with the captain Jobe Villavicencio to see what was going on. Jobe was very excited saying they were hooked up to a sailfish that was completely white. Incredulous I got on the internet and found that a couple of "albino" sailfish had been caught before, one aboard a commercial boat in Manzanillo, Mexico and another in Guatemala. The captain wanted to know if he should boat the fish or release it. This put us in a bit of a dilemma; knowing how rare this fish was, we knew that it would be very valuable to local scientists, however we had paying clients on board and the decision had to be theirs, when you charter a boat from Pisces you get to call the shots, it is your boat for the day. The angler, Matt Dye from Alexandria, Virginia, decided to release this, his first every sailfish and a weird one at that and we were happy with his decision. Captain Jobe told me that they were fishing 14 miles off of the Old Lighthouse on the Pacific when they saw the fish jumping they quickly cast a live caballito to it, which it immediately took. He said the way the fish took the bait was very odd. It didn't run or jump, he could not express very well what he meant but said it was just strange. It took them 15 minutes to bring to the boat on 20 lb test and weighed approximately 110 lbs. From what I read these fish are white due to a lake of melanin, but cannot be considered truly albino unless they have pink eyes. Due to the excitement the pictures taken were not the best and there is quite a bit of shadow on the fish making it look darker. I asked the captain about the eyes and he said they were really beautiful, pink with a brown tinge, which is not appreciated in the photographs. Jobe always seems to be in the news, but then again he is a great captain. Both he and brother Cubi (Javier) the mate were named World Offshore Champions, competing against 30 countries, in the IGFA World Offshore Championship held here in Cabo just a few weeks ago.

Fish Report Nov 19-25 th

PISCES FISH REPORT

Overall Catch Success Rate 99%

BILLFISH: Although the actual number of billfish caught this week was lower, because less boats went out the catch success rate was slightly higher, with fifty eight percent of charters catching billfish. Due to the warmer than normal weather we still have some blue marlin hanging around. The most impressive catch was on November 22^nd aboard "La Brisa" a 31 ft Bertram, for Thomas Troclair from Lake Charles, Louisiana. They were fishing just four miles off of San Cristobal and were catching dorado, when the captain spotted something about 900 feet away that was eating dorado. The captain, Rey Winkler, yelled to deckhand Ernesto Alonso to throw a dorado to the huge fish he had seen. Not having time to rig it, Ernesto took one of the dorado they had already boated, quickly attached it over a lure that was already rigged to a 50 International that they had been trolling with and threw it out towards the huge shape they had seen. Five seconds later an enormous fish rocketed out of the water just fifteen feet behind the boat, having taken the dorado and lure all together. The angler, Thomas, pumped and sweated for a little over three hours before they could bring the large blue marlin boat-side, which taped out to 600 lbs –then they released it. From what the crew said it was a real "Old Man and the Sea" scenario and they were thrilled to have released the fish rather than kill it. We had one other blue marlin this week, but much smaller at 200 lbs released aboard "Andale" for Wes Knostman from Houston, who also got eight dorado. On November 22^nd we had a couple of boats that released three striped marlin apiece "Rebecca" (another 31 ft Bertram) for Gerald Richmond from Islamorada Florida, who also caught three dorado. "Tracy Ann" another of our 31 ft Bertrams also released three striped marlin and boated three dorado for Robert and Sara Booms from Illinois. "Tracy Ann" had an exact repeat of this catch earlier in the week for David Palme and Charles Foster from Texas and again on the 25^th for Cody Vickers from San Marcos, Texas. Catches were usually one marlin and between three and six dorado. Pisces anglers caught a total of 57 billfish this week consisting of 53 striped marlin, 2 blue marlin and 2 sailfish.

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado continue to be the top catch in Cabo and this week ninety four percent of charters caught between one and twelve in the 15 to 30 lb class. The total count for this species was 361 fish. The dorado are hungry and taking anything; live bait, green colored lures, or petroleros. Found at Gaspareño, Pozo de Cota and as far as Golden Gate. Tuna catches were slow with just five boats finding this species. The boat that did best on this "Marea" went the opposite direction to the other boats and caught eleven at Cabeza de Ballena along with six dorado for Steffen Neumann from Los Angeles, Ca. Wahoo catches were pretty good this week, especially around Gaspareño; "Attitude Adjustment" caught three smallish ones plus six dorado for Ron Nichols from Houston, Texas. Some of the other wahoo caught were up to 45 lbs. A 55 lb mako shark was also caught as well as some roosterfish and skipjacks.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Mostly clear skies, calm seas.

LOCATION: Pacific, Old Lighthouse to Golden Gate, better spots Gaspareño and Pozo de Cota.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 79 F

BEST LURES: Live caballito, green colored lures, petroleros.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

 

Fish Report

Pisces Fish Report

November 11th to 18th, 2009

Overall Catch Success Rate 99%

(Photo shown is of Ron Smart from Granbury, Tx with a 50 lb wahoo he caught aboard Ruthless)

BILLFISH: Weather is still hotter than normal in Cabo right now and so far the striped marlin have not shown up "en masse" as they did last year. However, reports from friends fishing Mag Bay tell us that they are thick up there and should not take too long to make their way down to us. Nevertheless catch rates are climbing slowly but surely, with the billfish catch rate this week at fifty five percent. This was not a problem though as pretty much all boats loaded up on dorado, some tuna and wahoo as well as a little over half catching marlin and some getting more than their fair share. "Get Over It" release eight striped marlin at the Golden Gate on November 17^th for James Deluccini from Grove, California fishing with Mark Campbell and Ross Kline from Reno, Nevada; all were caught on live bait…. the day before on this same boat these guys released three stripers and caught twelve dorado. It comes as no surprise that this boat did well, seeing as the crew were crowned IGFA World Offshore Champions last week. Angler of the week though has to go to Johnny Mack Powers from Rockwall, Texas. During his six days fishing aboard "Bill Collector" and "Spartacus" he released one black marlin, estimated at 250 lbs, ten striped marlin, twenty six dorado, four wahoo up to 45 lbs and fifteen tuna, the largest over 100 lbs. "Rebecca" released four striped marlin on November 11^th and there were several boats that had triple marlin days, such as "Andrea" and "La Brisa". Other boats had fabulous mixed bag days, such as "Great Escape Jr" on the 12^th with two striped marlin released, three dorado, three tuna and a wahoo, or "Rebecca" with three marlin released, five dorado and a wahoo on the 13^th for Claire Land and Gerald Richmond from Islamorada, Florida. "Andale" was our only boat this week to have a blue marlin, though it was on the small side, released and estimated at 150 lbs. Pisces anglers caught a total of 92 billfish this week consisting of 88 striped marlin, 2 sailfish, 1 blue marlin and 1 black marlin.

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado continues to totally dominate the sportfishing scene at Land's End; our final tally this week was a whopping 590, with many released to stay within allowed quotas. Weights are average at 15 to 35 lbs with catches ranging from one to twenty fish per boat. Ninety three percent of charters caught dorado. Green colored and Petrolero lures worked best and dorado were found on both the Cortez and Pacific with larger concentrations on the Pacific side. Yellowfin tuna catches were on the slow side with twenty one percent of boats finding football size fish and with catches of no more than eight per boat. The only exception to size were those caught by Johnny Mack Powers aboard Bill Collector, when he headed the opposite way to most boats and went to Gordo Banks where he got fish to 100 lbs on feathers and cedar plugs. We had 14 wahoo this week but sizes are no more than 40 lbs. Roosterfish are picking up nicely close to shore near the Lighthouse. The only other catch to speak of was some skipjack.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Seas were choppy with whitecaps on the Pacific at the start of this report but are now dead calm. Clear, sunny skies.

LOCATION: San Jaime, Golden Gate, Gaspareño, Migriño, Punta Gorda.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 79 F

BEST LURES: Live bait for striped marlin, assorted lures dorado, cedar plugs and feathers for tuna.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Great Day Aboard Bill Collector

Pictured here is our good friend Johnny Mack Powers from Rockwall, Texas. He loves to fish on Bill Collector and counts down the days and minutes between fishing trips. He had a great day on November 16th catching and releasing a black marlin estimated at 250 lbs, plus boating three nice tuna, shown here, that weighed 40, 80 and 100 lbs respectively, three dorado between 25 and 35 lbs, plus a bunch of skipjacks that he released.