March 24th to 31st Fish Report

Overall Catch Success Rate 85%

BILLFISH: It’s a bit hard to write this section this week as marlin catches were slow….however, as we close this report, there have been better catches of striped marlin and a couple of sailfish. Our total tally for the days covered in this report was just three fish. “Andrea” had two of these, the first for Tim and Terry Veenstra from Prince George, Canada, at Punta Gorda on live bait. The other aboard this boat was on March 28th, in the complete opposite direction at Jaime Banks, caught by Edwin Baxter from Pennsauken, New Jersey, also on live bait. The third marlin of the week was aboard “Ruthless” on March 31st just four miles off of Los Arcos, by the Patrick & Deisato brothers all from Colorado….as well as the marlin they got a cabrilla and a couple of chopos. March is traditionally the slowest month of the year for marlin, so the catches are not too surprising; however, water temperatures continue to be higher than normal for this time of year which could be a contributing factor. All the marlin caught were released.

OTHER SPECIES: The top big game catch in Cabo this week was yellowfin tuna, with “Tracy Ann” being the top scorer but in order to achieve this, they had to go a long way; 43-45 miles out from Cerro Blanco. On March 30th this boat caught ten up to 30 lbs with a combination of feathers, cedar plugs and lures for John & Jeannie Coogle, Ron &Diana Techa from Omaha Nebraska. Next day out they managed to get another eight with cedar plugs and tiger type lures for the Stacke family from Chicago, Illinois. Other catches of tuna ranged from one to five fish giving us a catch success rate of twenty two percent for this species. Dorado catches dropped down this week, resulting in just three single catches. Smaller species inshore accounted for forty nine percent of all catches this week. The number one catch was sierra or Spanish mackerel with boats catching up to eighteen in a day. Not to be sniffed at; this species is fun on light tackle and delicious to eat. Other inshore catches were of “chopos”, jack crevalle, pompano, cabrilla and triggerfish.
PHOTOS SHOW OUR TOP TWO BOATS THIS WEEK, ANDREA FOR MARLIN AND TRACY ANN FOR TUNA.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Hot and sunny, seas calm.

LOCATION: No one set location both the Cortez and Pacific: 36-45 miles off of Cerro Blanco, San Cristobal, 95 spot, Punta Gorda, Los Arcos, 95 spot, Jaime Banks, Las Margaritas plus others.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 71 F

BEST LURES: Live bait for marlin, cedar plugs, feathers, petroleros, tigrillos, guacamayas.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Latest Fish Report

PISCES FISH REPORT


MARCH 11th to 23rd, 2010

OVERALL CATCH SUCCESS RATE 91%

BILLFISH: Well there has been plenty of activity fishing wise, just not for the big game that Cabo is famous for. Marlin were again few and far between as we go through the March “doldrums”. Even when spotted it was frustrating for anglers as at times they could see marlin within six feet of the boat and would cast bait over and over again, dead, live, whatever they could, but still the marlin would just look and swim off. Nevertheless we did have a couple of boats that did very well managing to find fish that were actually hungry. On March 17th “Bill Collector” headed up to Punta Gorda with Mark Chiavetta on board from San Jose, California, where he was fortunate to release three striped marlin on live caballito (not marlin’s favorite bait); they also got four skipjacks. Next up were Josef & Rachel Poncik from Richmond, Texas, who were here on their honeymoon. They went out on “Tracy Ann” and ended up 30 miles out from Cerro Blanco, where they managed to release two striped marlin, the first for each one of them, also with live caballito. On March 20th, “Andrea” released three marlin just five miles off of Cerro Colorado for James Collazo from Queen Creek, Arizona, sharing the boat with Tifanie Tuchshere & Melissa Hernandez from McMinnville, Oregon. This was one of those times when things worked out perfectly where we were able to pair people up via our boat share program and each person got a fish. As seen from the catches mentioned above, fish were not in one location but in diverse areas. Just eighteen percent of charters caught marlin this week, giving us a total of 18 caught, with all but one 110 lb fish released.

OTHER SPECIES: The best big game catch this week was yellowfin tuna. Thirty percent of boats caught between one and eighteen fish in the 15 to 25 lb class. Top tuna boat was “Valerie” for 18 and 1 dorado at the 95 spot for Scott Zivic and David Pathworth from Iowa City. “Tracy Ann” came second with 17 for Judy Davis and friends from Victoria, Canada, thirty miles out from Land’s End. Total tuna count was 106 fish. Dorado catches were on the slow side with just five caught, all random catches whilst trolling for marlin or tuna. As expected in March, the inshore fishing can be very good and boats loaded up on sierra, taken on lighter tackle, thirty five percent of charters caught sierra up to 12 lbs with catches ranging from a solitary fish to a whopping fifty-six aboard “Andrea”….of course the majority were released –final count was 322 sierra. Catches on large squid were also high and on a couple of days you didn´t even have to board a boat, you could just drag them out of the surf on the main beach. For some strange reason, the annual squid run brought them the closest to shore that we have seen in decades resulting in them washing up on the Medano Beach. Those fishing aboard boats had fun pulling in these hefty and strong fighters, with catches of up to twenty in a day up to 40 lbs. We know of one angler and crewman who were unceremoniously squirted with squid ink, the crewman taking a direct hit in his open mouth, whilst getting ready to release one of these creatures. Other small game catches were pargo, cabrilla, triggerfish, skipjack, jack crevalle, roosterfish and yellowtail.

LOCATION: Diverse, Gordo Banks, Chileno, Cerro Blanco, 95 Spot, Morros Prietos, 11.50 spot, Palmilla, Las Margaritas, slightly more activity on the Cortez side this period.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Pretty nice, some beautiful days but with marked differences in weather, one day windy on the Pacific smooth on the Cortez and vice versa.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 69 F

BEST LURES: Live bait for marlin, cedar plugs and petrolero lures for tuna, hoochis and rapalas for squid and sierra.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

PHOTOS SHOWN ARE OF JOSEF & RACHEL PONCIK FROM RICHMOND, TEXAS...BOTH CAUGHT THEIR FIRST EVER MARLIN ON THEIR HONEYMOON ABOARD TRACY ANN.

Fishing Report for March 1st to 10th, 2010.

Pisces Fish Report

March 1st to 10th, 2010

Overall Catch Success Rate 89.4%
BILLFISH: This week we saw a marked improvement on billfish catches with forty percent of charters catching marlin, up considerably from last week’s fourteen percent. Our little 28 ft “Andrea” was on a roll this week, being our best marlin producer with a total of seven; they even caught two the same day, plus a mako shark, for Jeff Crawford and Ryan Hunt from Burlington, Vermont. They fished very close in at just two and a half miles from Pedregal on March 7^th.  However, as mentioned in our last few fish reports, the fish are not sticking to one location. “Andrea” did well close in as mentioned above, but then went a couple of hours up the coast the next day to get another marlin at Golden Gate for Jay Harvey and friends from Senela, Illinois. We had a couple of other boats that also caught two marlin in a day; “Attitude Adjustment” on March 7^th, was fishing four miles off of Los Arcos with the Walker family aboard from Beaumont, Texas when they were able to release two striped marlin, just over 100 lbs, that took live bait. They then came closer to shore to catch seven sierra.  “Yahoo” out on March 8^th, fished a completely different location, this time in the Sea of Cortez at the 95 spot  with Dan Sheard and John McGraner on board, both from New Jersey, who were fortunate to release a striped marlin each that had taken live mackerel.  Despite the improvement on the marlin front we did have some slow days, such as March 9^th when several boats drew a blank.  Pisces anglers caught a total of 25 striped marlin this week of which all but one was released. A couple of boats spotted swordfish but had no luck in getting them to bite.
OTHER SPECIES: After marlin, yellowfin tuna were the next most likely catch on the big game scene. Even though less boats caught tuna, when they did the quantities of fish were higher, with catches of up to eighteen fish in the 18 to 30 lb class.  With better catches tending to be offshore; “C Rod” caught the eighteen mentioned above but had to go 38 miles offshore to do so, for Tom Johnson and friends from Phoenix, Arizona.  A combination of rapalas, feathers, and regular lures all worked. Of course the tuna did not stay put, but were also found in the Sea of Cortez and other diverse locations. Dorado catches slowed down quite a lot this week with just seventeen percent of charters catching an odd fish here and there.  Inshore fishing remains good and in fact there were some days that were so windy and rough, it was practically the only option.  The most abundant inshore catch was sierra, as well as some triggerfish, roosterfish, skipjacks and jack crevalles.  Not to mention large squid up to 40 lbs and a few small mako sharks.
LOCATION: No one set location though Pacific tended to be more productive.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Partly overcast, windy, seas on the rough side, now calming, rain on March 6^th.
AVERGE WATER TEMP: 69-70 F
BEST LURES:  Live bait for marlin, hoochis, rapalas inshore, assorted feathers.
 Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Dutch Angler, Wout Van Etten gives this Striped Marlin a smooch, although where not to sure the Marlin is to happy about it!

Jay Harvey Testimonial

Tracy
Buenos Días

Attached is one of the fish that we got on the Adriana Tuesday with Captain Orlando and Abraham. Orlando and Abraham are great guys who are true sportsman in every meaning of the word. They helped our USA/Canadian Team not only bring in this Marlin after 2.5 hours but we also caught a nice Dorado and the crew made several attempts on the way back when we came across yet another school of not so hungry Marlin! The trip was beyond my expectations and it was great to meet you as well.

Happy Fishing,

Jay Harvey
Seneca Illinois

 

*Please note the Boat was actually Andrea not the Adriana, and the Marlin died after a lenghty fight.

Tsunami Videos

Here are some videos on youtube of the Tsunami effects here in the Cabo San Lucas marina, it was generated from the massive earthquake in Chile on Saturday.

February 18th to 28th,2010

Overall Catch Success Rate 86%

BILLFISH: Last week we talked about how the fishing was "March like", now we are practically in March and it hasn't changed. We often refer to this as the March doldrums, but in reality there is lots of activity on the fishing front, just not for marlin. There has been no one location where boats were sure to spot marlin and we are not seeing them congregate in any one area. As an example let's look at some of the locations of where marlin were caught; the envy of everybody this week was "Andrea" for catching and releasing two striped marlin for Brian, Jason & Pat Garret from Breton, Canada – one of their fish was hooked up outside the Golden Gate and the other three miles out from Las Margaritas. Later in the week this same boat released a striper twelve miles out from Golden Gate where they were also very fortunate to get eight yellowfin tuna for Lee Pearson from Paynesville, Florida. "Falcon" on the other hand, went the opposite direction, into the Sea of Cortez and released a striped marlin at the Herradura. This same day "Rebecca" released a marlin eighteen miles from where Falcon got their fish and at the same time "Tracy Ann" released a marlin thirty five miles from the Old Lighthouse. So you couldn't really get a wider range if you tried as each of the locations mentioned above is at the limit of day charter range and all in completely different areas. This is probably why our billfish catch rate was a low fourteen percent, consisting of a total of eight fish, all released.

OTHER SPECIES: Catches for other traditional catches, considered staples of the Cabo fishery were also only average with twenty percent of boats catching dorado, though seldom more than a single fish in the 15 to 25 lb class. Yellowfin tuna catches were on par with that of marlin with fourteen percent of boats hooking fish up to 30 lbs, but the difference here was that when found they could catch up to thirteen in a day. "No Big Deal" was the top tuna boat with thirteen caught, plus two dorado four miles out from the Old Lighthouse for Gary Wade from Pickering, Ohio, fishing with friends. We had several sharks this week "Andrea" taking top honors again, this time for two mako sharks for Naomi Kretzwieser & Paul Handley from Canada, one was very big at 130 lbs and the other was estimated at 60 lbs, they also caught six sierras, all between Gaspareño and Golden Gate. "C-Rod" released the only hammerhead shark, estimated at 60 lbs and also caught a dorado, 20 miles from Moro Prieto for Steve Henager from Kennewick, Washington. Now, a big story……do you remember the odd ratfish from last year? Well another one appeared this week, at almost the exact same location. This time Fish Cabo was out between eight and nine miles from Cerro Blanco, looking for marlin, when they saw birds in a feeding frenzy on the surface of the water, they zipped over there and immediately recognized as that what the birds were pecking at was a ratfish. It was already dead and starting to decompose, so the deckhand carefully scooped it up in his bait net to bring back to shore, where we have it safely stored for scientists to pick up. This one was larger than the previous one and did not have the feather/lure type thing on its forehead like the previous one. Going back to regular news, the small game catches were excellent with well over eighty percent of boats catching a mixture of sierra, roosterfish, large squid, sea bass, snappers, bonitas and even a solitary wahoo. "Rebecca" fished at Punta Lobos near Todos Santos and caught and released twenty roosterfish, two sierras and a tuna for Matt & Stacey Osiecki, from Tallahassee, Florida – what a fun and active day they had. "La Brisa" fished half a mile from Chileno and landed five large squids, the biggest topping out at 40 lbs (that's a lot of calamari!) and also got three sierra and a roosterfish for Robert Mabry & Dennis Jones from South Whitley, Indiana.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Beautiful, clear sunny skies, windy some days, seas calm to moderate. Very weird…..we were affected by the Tsunami caused by the earthquake in Chile. On February 27^th, starting at noon and lasting until 2.00 pm, the water level in the marina would rise and fall, sucking back and making the pelicans float by in reverse. Nobody here had ever seen anything like it. We saw the sand in some places of the marina. The water got so low in the area where our boats leave from that you could walk from the seawall across the sand to our floating dock, which was no longer floating…then the tide would come back in. There was no damage at all, but it was an eerie experience.

LOCATION: No one set area, though smaller game was better on the Pacific.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 74 F; higher than it should be for this time of year.

BEST LURES: Live bait for marlin, assorted green colored lures for dorado, cedar plugs and marlin lures for tuna, hoochis and rapalas inshore.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

LASTEST FISHING NEWS

FEBRUARY 9th to 17^th, 2010

Overall Catch Success Rate 84%

BILLFISH: The season is ahead of itself now, with March type fishing already here, all we need are for the red snapper to start biting and it will really be like March. In the meantime billfish catches have been on the slow side with just twenty percent of boats finding and hooking up to them. Our boats caught a total of thirteen striped marlin this week, not that great, unless you were the lucky angler that got to pull one in. "Tracy Ann" was our best marlin boat, releasing two on February 9^th plus three dorado for Marrott & Collin Gardner from Alamosa,. They fished quite a way up the Sea of Cortez at Destiladeras, which is a good run and not something you can do on a half day. Both marlin took live mackerel as did the dorado a little before they reached the marlin location. A few day later, "Tracy Ann" scored again with two marlin on February 13th for Brian Dunn from Palm Beach, Florida and Billy Mayne from Milton, Florida, they also got a dorado; both marlin took live bait at the same location mentioned and the dorado took a petrolero lure. Although Tracy Ann did well at this location other marlin catches were in different locations, such as the 11.50 spot and, 30 miles south of Cabo and 15 miles out from Todos Santos and five miles out from Cabo Bello. "C-Rod" got our only sailfish of the week, also at Destiladeras were they managed to boat a dorado and six skipjacks also for Tim Maciejak from New Albany, Indiana. All billfish were released this week.

OTHER SPECIES: The number one catch in Cabo this week was sierra, with our boats loading up on a total of 300 fish up to 12 lbs. When the marlin fishing could not be guaranteed, many anglers opted for fun and a more sure catch with this Spanish mackerel like fish. On light tackle they are a good fight and are absolutely delicious to eat. Many were thrown back as some catches were ridiculous like 45 aboard "Tracy Ann", for the Hillberg's and Knights from Puyallup, Washington; they also caught eight roosterfish and two dorado at the outer part of Golden Gate on the Pacific. "Rebecca" had 35 sierras at the same spot for David Pedrsen from Palmdale, California. "Bandito" caught a fair size mako shark that was estimated at 80 lbs on February 12^th close to Golden Gate for Josh Stokley from Birmingham, Alabama. We had a couple of other mako's released, but this was the largest. Two wahoo were caught, both on the small side at 19 and 22 lbs respectively. Roosterfish catches were the best we have seen in a long time with catches of up to eight fish in the 10 to 30 lb class. The odd cabrilla, yellowtail and fair catches of skipjack were also had. The yellow fin tuna have moved on and we had just one this week.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Skies party cloudy, no clear, rain one day, seas calm.

LOCATION: No one set place, Sea of Cortez, Pacific, Destiladeras, Golden Gate, Elias Calles, from Cabeza de Ballena to the Old Lighthouse three to four miles out.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 74 F (this is higher than normal for this time of year, it should be 70 F)

BEST LURES: Live bait, petrolero, trigrillo.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

 

 

Fish Report

FEBRUARY 1st to 8th, 2010

Overall Catch Success Rate 93%

BILLFISH: The billfish catches are still not what we would like them to be and we attribute this to warmer than normal weather for this time of year and the lack of a consistent bait supply. Added to this is the fact that the marlin are spread out, meaning there is no one location that is consistently producing them, giving us a feeling more like March type fishing. Towards the close of this report marlin were found very close, two to three miles off of Santa Maria on a couple of days. On February 2^nd, "Tracy Ann" fishing twelve miles from San Jose released a striped marlin and got a 50 lb mako shark for Denny Vopat and Frank Polina from Reno, Nevada. Our only boat to get more than one marlin was "Rebecca" on February 8^th, three miles before the 95 spot with live bait, for Ralph Kratz and Doc Kammerzell from Washington, State. "Rebecca" also got a marlin and two yellowfin tuna on February 6^th on the outside of the 95 spot; the marlin on a live mackerel and the tuna on cedar plugs, for Javier Garcia and Luis Trevino from Monterey, Mexico. "Andale" released a marlin just two miles from the popular snorkeling beach of Santa Maria for Jack Sugameli from Lake Wyle S.C on February 8^th, estimated at 130 lbs. Just twenty percent of our boats caught marlin this week, even though the slack was filled with smaller game, so most came back with something. Pisces anglers released a total of six striped marlin this week.

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado was the most likely catch this week with forty three percent of charters catching one or two in diverse locations on both bait and lures with weights between 15 and 30 lbs. Twenty six percent of boats caught yellow fin tuna, but when found the catches were better than those of dorado, with catches of between two and twenty five fish up to 25 lbs. Top tuna boat was "C Rod" who had the twenty five mentioned for James Elton, Brad Griffith, Nick and Brian Etto; the fish took cedar plugs, feather and small lures 30 miles from the 180 spot. "Andrea" did well to catch seventeen at the Jaime Bank for Ken Kendrick and friends from Colorado and Oklahoma. When fishing was slow boats headed in shore and had fun with light tackle catching sierra (Spanish mackerel) when in the right spot, boats were hooking up to 30 in a few hours, with many released….this toothy inshore fish, makes for excellent eating. Boats also caught some skipjacks and jack crevalle as well as a couple of mako sharks.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: We had one unusual day of unexpected quite intense rain, otherwise seas were calm to moderate and skies mostly sunny.

LOCATION: Take your pick…..Santa Maria, Palmilla, Los Arcos, San Jaime, Desteiladera, 45 miles from Lighthouse (looking for tuna), Ellias Calles.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 71 F

BEST LURES: Live mackerel, cedar plus, guacamayos, red/orange, green/yellow.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Smart’s Have Great Trip

Tracy and Company, as usual our annual fishing trip with ya'll was a tremendous success. On 11-8-09 aboard the Ruthless with Captain Leon and Beto we caught 8 Dorados, 1 Striped Marlin (caught by my brother-in-law Pat Collins his first Marlin about 180 lbs.)and a 50lb Wahoo (my personal best) on 11-10-09 aboard the Adrianna with Captain Enrique and Fernando we asked for a shot at some Rooster fish after 30 minutes that request was satisfied and we went on to catch many Dorados and my 9th Striped Marlin on your fleet. Once again thank the Captains and crews for a great time and we will be back next year.

Ron and Mary Helen Smart

The Road Works are Finally Finished

Great news after more than a year the roadworks of towndown Cabo are finally finished and it was worth the wait. Streets have been widened and traffic flows more freely. To be honest it was really tough whilst they were doing this work, taking at times up to 25 minutes to get from the Pisces office on the marina to the highway.....but take a look at the result, Boulevard Marina is shown in the photo.