Fishing News

April 6th to 12th, 2013
Overall Catch Success Rate 82%
Number at a glance: Billfish 50%, Dorado 46%, Tuna 3.5%, Small Game 21%
BILLFISH:  Striped marlin were the most likely catch for Pisces anglers this week, though it was rather up and down. Some days we had good catches when boats caught up to four in a day, followed by a drop down to one per day. As the week progressed, it was marlin catches one day, none the next, or half the boats caught and the others caught dorado or nothing. The water looks good, the temperature is a little lower than last week, but the fish on many days simply weren’t hungry. That said half of the boats we sent out did catch marlin. A contributing factor to the lower catch rate this week was the windy weather – our skittish new Port Captain, closed the port on two occasions; never heard of for this time of year. It was windy in Cabo, but up at San Jose where the boats were fishing, it was a different story. The beginning of this report is when we saw the better catches, such a Pisces Andrea with four striped marlin released for Dave Deeg & Randy Dodge from Alberta. Pisces Rebecca always seems to make the fish report and this week was no exception – they released four striped marlin and boated a dorado for the Roeder boys from Durham, New Hampshire on April 7th.  Shambala was another of our boats with a four marlin day, six miles out from San Jose for Phillipe Roux from New York. Alan Greg and Daniel Atlas from Los Angeles had a great day aboard Tracy Ann, releasing three marlin and boating two dorado up to 30 lbs. La Brisa and Yahoo also had a triple marlin day.  In the last few days captains report the fish as being “picky eaters and not hungry”, which means they are sighting them and throwing bait, but only hooked up half the time towards the end of this report.  Sounds like how March should have been. Ballyhoo and caballito were the bait of choice; mackerel would probably be even better. Pisces anglers caught a total of 51 striped marlin this week, all but one released.

The Roeder boys from New Hampshire, had one of the better days aboard Rebecca, releasing four marlin and boating a dorado.

 OTHER SPECIES: The second most likely catch after marlin this week was dorado, with forty six percent of charters landing between one and three.  The dorado were taken on lures whilst trolling and looking for marlin and weighed up to 35 lbs. Tuna catches were super slow though we did have five aboard Pisces Valerie for Greg Nichols, who also caught a dorado and released a striped marlin. Pretty small though at no more than 20 lbs. The boats really only caught skipjacks in shore, but where we saw some fantastic catches was from the shore, where our surf fishing expert Wesley got clients multiple hook ups on sierra as well as some nice jack crevalle and even a red snapper. Wesley’s best day produced 24 sierra and 5 jack crevalle, at his top secret spot – the majority of these fish were released.
LOCATION: Punta Gorda, Cerro Colorado, Chileno, 95 spot, Cabeza de Ballena.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Most days windy but boats managed to fish within the wind line on the Cortez; Pacific rough.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 69 F
BEST LURES: Live bait, ballyhoo.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Latest Fish Report

March 30th to April 5th, 2013
Overall Catch Success Rate 92%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 83% Dorado 39% Tuna 3% Small Game 16%

Hey, I would smile for the camera, but you've got my nose!

 

BILLFISH: We were shocked at how good the marlin fishing was at the start of the report, in fact we can’t remember a March when marlin fishing was so good. The catches on March 30th were quite astounding, starting with Pisces Shambala who had Antonio Buchanan from Napa aboard with friends. They fished off of Medano Blanco and released eight striped marlin and a sailfish, as well as catching a wahoo, two dorado and four jack crevalle. This same day Pisces Tracy Ann also released eight striped marlin between 100 and 140 lbs. for Mark Constancio from Neenah Wisconsin. Pisces Rebecca didn’t have as many marlin, with just six, but they did release a sailfish and then boated two wahoo. Other boats caught between five and marlin this day giving us some of the best results of the month.  Catches did not remain at this speed though; they slowed in the following day to one to four billfish per boat and then declined a little throughout the week when boats caught dorado and skipjacks, with some marlin in the mix. Marlin were caught every day, with one to three fish more the norm and of course there were a few boats that got “skunked”; eight percent to be precise. So very high catch rates anywhere in the world, just a downer if you were in the percentage that didn’t catch. To hook up boats used a combination of live bait, frozen ballyhoo and lures with all the catches taking place on the Cortez side. Marlin were the number one catch in Cabo this week with eighty three percent of our charters successful for this species. We caught a total of 93 striped marlin and 4 sailfish, all but one billfish released.

Two of the larger dorados this week

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado catches edged up slightly this week to thirty nine percent, but the number of fish caught was not huge at one to four fish per boat, when found, with weights from 20 to 35 lbs. Our total dorado count this week was thirty nine fish. Yellow fin tuna catches really dwindled with just two boats catching school size fish, no more than eight fish landed when found. It was nice to see some wahoo, one of the top eating fish you can catch, however, they  were far from plentiful and sizes no more than 35 lbs. A few skipjacks were caught as well as yellowtail.  We had some jack crevalle from the beach and boats.  A solitary mako shark, around 40 lbs. was released aboard Cabolero by Leticia Echeverria from Tabasco, who also let a striped marlin go and boated a jack crevalle.
LOCATION: Cortez – Destiladeres, Punta Gorda, Medano Blanco, 11.50 spot, 95 spot.
WEATHER: Great – clear sunny skies, calm seas.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 69F-72F
BEST LURES: Ballyhoo, caballito, blue/white, red/black.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Fishing's Gone Crazy, Get on a Plane......Now!

This very cool photo was sent in by Roxanna Stein who fished La Brisa & Tracy Ann

You need to get here now, fishing has gone crazy! We really have no explanation, but our jaws dropped when we got the week end fish report - here is a taste, March 30th......Pisces Shambala 8 striped marlin, 1 sailfish, 1 wahoo, 2 dorado, 4 jack crevalle AND THAT'S ON ONE BOAT! Well done Antonio Buchanan & party from Napa, Ca.  BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE (we sound like a cheesey ad' but this is all true) Pisces Rebecca 6 striped marlin, 1 sailfish, 2 wahoo. Tracy Ann 8 striped marlin, La Brisa 5 striped marlin, Ruthless 4 striped marlin, Valerie 4 striped marlin, plus other catches - WOW , those are superb catch rates for fishing just one day.

You Have to Read This

From left to right: Captain of Rebecca J.R, Rebecca Jensen, Isabel Jensen, Gail Jensen, Deckhand Luis Cota
Center, Striped Marlin about to be released.

When we received the above photo, it really caught our attention, it’s as if the emotions were transmitted through the picture -even the marlin’s expression caught the eye. We studied it and could see there was a story here, more than just a striped marlin being released. So we tracked down Rebecca Jensen, the person who made the reservation and asked her the story behind this beautiful photo that expressed such joy. Rebecca told us that she had fished Cabo on several occasions and wanted to come back again and bring her dad, 83 year old Gail Jensen, a cattle rancher from Utah. Gail has worked hard all his life, being a cattle rancher is not easy, leaving little time for family reunions. Rebecca loves to fish and when she was a little girl it was her dad that taught her to fish and instilled in her a mutual love for the sport they shared. Gail has just retired and sold his ranch, so Rebecca thought it was time for dad to go for the ultimate sport fish and check off his bucket list by catching a marlin.
Gail Jensen is not much of a traveler, so when Rebecca called him and asked him what he was doing she was surprised when he answered “I’m at Walgreens getting my passport photo, shall I get the expedited service?”  Of course Rebecca encouraged him to do so and then went about getting the fishing trip set up in Mexico.  Scouring the internet, with her seven year old daughter, Isabel, they came across Pisces Sportfishing and saw the 31 ft. Bertram named “Rebecca”….. “That’s it mom, said Isabel, we have to fish on that boat. That’s your name.” Rebecca called Pisces and spoke to Ady Moya who soon had the Jensen’s set up for two days fishing.
Now the ball was rolling and the group began to grow, why not invite Gail’s 80 year old brother, Neil, also a farmer, living in Idaho and his 45 year old son, David, same profession and Rebecca’s cousin, born just one day after her and who she had not seen in twenty years.  Rounding out the group was Isabel, the third generation of the Jensen’s.

The Jensen's At the Airport, the day of the trip to Mexico has finally arrived.

Now it has to be understood that the two brothers in their 80’s had never worn a t-shirt in their lives, let alone travel to an exotic place like Mexico. But Rebecca, a regular Cabo visitor soon had them feeling more comfortable and they came by the Pisces store to pick up their lucky Pisces fishing shirts – there was no way they were losing the jeans though.

First T-shirts evey worn by the Jensen brothers.

Next day they were up early and out on the Rebecca, within one hour of leaving port, they had a hook up on a striped marlin and Rebecca’s emotions could not be expressed as she encouraged her dad to reel, as he fought the biggest fish of his life – not to last though, as the fish managed to get off. No problem though they had it close to the boat and Gail had fought it for over 20 minutes; which we classify as a “Mexican” release.

A delighted Rebecca Jensen poses with her dad, Gail, as he reels his marlin in.

Lines were put back out and before long another hook up was registered this time for 80 year old Neil, who successfully released a striped marlin estimated at 140 lbs.

The Jensen team, David, Rebecca, Gail, Isabel and Neil

 It was late in the day and the crew of J.R and Luis, said it was time to head back towards Cabo. Two marlin for the two seniors was not to be sniffed at and the group felt good with the day’s activity, but it was not over yet. They were clipping along with lines out at a good speed, when the captain suddenly slowed the boat, yelled to the deckhand and they abruptly did an about turn – he had spotted a marlin jumping. Luis quickly cast a live bait and hooked up again. This time the fish was for cousin David, who could hardly believe the strength and beauty of the fish on the end of his line (his mother was to call Rebecca later that evening, after she received the photos, in tears and said she had not seen her son smile like that since he was a little boy).

David Jensen poses with his marlin, before letting it go.

David’s fish was successfully released and the boat pulled up lines, picked up speed and headed for the marina. They had not gone far, when the crew again saw a marlin jumping and did a replay of the previous fish, slowing down, casting a bait and getting a hook up, this time for seven year old Isabel, who with a lot of encouragement and coaching by the skilled crew managed to release the fish shown in the photo that had caught our attention.

Seven year old Isabel's marlin put on a magnificent show and they snapped this perfect photo, which looks like a painting

Rebecca, was positively glowing as they returned to port, all of her loved ones had caught a marlin in what was supposed to be a slower time of year.

The following morning they set off again, with lower expectations; a dorado or tuna for the table would suit them just fine, that was not to be however, within an hour the dedicated crew of the Rebecca had their namesake, Rebecca Jensen, hooked up to a marlin, which would turn out to be the only one caught that day.
The Jensen family caused quite a stir back at the hotel, the staff was intrigued by the two old, but strong men, brothers, wearing their Wrangler jeans on the beach, as they sipped a drink and reminisced about old times - it was like they were little boys again.

The Jensen brothers, cattle ranchers in their 80's on the beach - like little boys again.

By the end of the stay, some of the waiters were affectionately calling Gail, “Papa”.   Rebecca was approached by many people and they nicknamed her “marlin lady”, as the story had spread around the pool about how many marlin this family had released and how she had arranged everything.

Asked how she felt Rebecca replied “This trip changed my life, I cannot put into words how special it was”.
It seems that the effort of putting a trip together paid off for Rebecca, giving her and her family wonderful memories that none of them will ever forget. Who knows maybe you’ll even see a couple of old cattle ranchers wearing Pisces shirts around Utah and Idaho.
By Tracy Ehrenberg

Fish Report

MARCH 23RD TO 29TH, 2013
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 95%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 58%, Tuna 9%, Dorado 27%, Small Game 35%

BILLFISH: Boy were we surprised this week, first it’s March – read generally slow for marlin, second we have a full moon – read the fish are eating at night and shouldn’t not be hungry during the day, which is why we were shocked when later in the week, the boats came back to port with outriggers proudly displaying an array of blue flags. In fact striped marlin was our number one catch this week. Boats headed up past San Jose to Destiladeres on the Cortez side and no wonder as there was a pocket of warm water, with temperatures around 73 F. The week started off on the slow side with sierra and skipjacks more the order of the day but by Monday we saw Pisces Adriana having released three stripers for Steve Schornack & friends – not only did they release the marlin they boated seven tuna; what a great day. Next day out all but one of the boats we sent got between one and three marlin at the 11.50 spot. March 29th saw the marlin bite getting even better, when Pisces Rebecca released five stripers for Mark Van Norman, Sr and Jr from Darnestown, Maryland. Not to be left out Pisces Tracy Ann had four this same day for Roxanne & Ragner Stein from Florida, as well as a dorado. Pisces Ruthless equaled the catch of Tracy Ann with four marlin released, along with three skipjacks caught for Aaron McKean from California, followed by Great Escape Jr. also with four this same day. March 28th saw Pisces Rebecca on a roll this time releasing six marlin up to 160 lbs. for Larry Knutson from Canada, who also landed two dorado with his group.  Other boats caught two to three marlin each plus some dorado. Fifty eight percent of our charters caught marlin this week resulting in a total of 72 fish released; a huge improvement over last week when just 16 were caught. So what were the factors leading to this? We think no wind and calm seas a couple of days; when the weather was good, so was the fishing, plus the availability of good live bait, such as mackerel and live ballyhoo.

OTHER SPECIES; Guess you can’t have everything so with the marlin fishing so good this week, the tuna catches took a nose dive. Not to say they are not here, but the boys discovered the marlin and went after them. Top catch for tuna was aboard Pisces Bill Collector with twelve in a day outside the 11.50 spot. Other catches were between one and seven fish maximum with weights no more than 22 lbs. Just nine percent of the boats found tuna and our total fish count was 45 caught down considerably from over 500 last week. Dorado catches edged up slightly with thirty seven percent of boats catching between one and six. Pisces Valerie did well on dorado catching six ranging from 20 to 40 lbs for Stephanie Quinn from Boise, Idaho.  Our total dorado count was 46 fish overall. “C Rod” had a great day for John Carey III and Miles Sanders from St. Louis, Missouri, they got a beautiful 60 lb. wahoo & three dorados as well as releasing two striped marlin. Inshore boats caught quite a few skipjacks and bonitas, as well as up to ten sierra in a morning, plus an odd sea bass. Strangest catch of the week was the louvar picked up by Tracy Ann and featured on our blog and facebook.
SURF FISHING: Not many beach trips this week but they were successful – we send Debbie Sandifer out with Wesley and she was thrilled to catch four jack crevalle up to 20 lbs., 6 sierras and a 40 lb. yellow tail now that’s what we call a busy morning.

Expert Guide Wesley Shows Off a Beautiful Yellow Tail Caught on a trip with a client

WEATHER: Mostly sunny skies, seas mostly calm, hot, windy a couple of days.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 69 – 74 F, colder water at Cabo, warmer off of San Jose.
BEST LURES: Live mackerel, live ballyhoo, red/black lures, cedar plugs.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

We Had a Great Time!

We had a great time! Luv the crew and Tracy Ann.

 

Todd R., Chicago IL

Another Rare Louvar Found off of Cabo San Lucas

Here are some photos of the louvar taken by the Tracy Ann on Monday, different angle.  Robert Lee from Plano, Texas was on board as Julio and Martin headed out in search of marlin, they had studied the Terrafin water temperatures and decided that 35 miles out would be a good spot. When they got out to their chosen fishing spot, it was super calm, the water almost looked oily, which is why they were able to spot something shimmering about half a mile away. At first they thougth it was turtle and started heading towards it. As they drew closer they saw a striped marlin that was circling the shimmering creature, it would circle and then close in. Knowing a good opportunity they cast a live bait to the marlin and registered a solid hook up, it took about 25 minutes to release the striper. Julio commented "the marlin are very strong right now, they are eating big, big squid, that hardly fits in their throat". Once the marlin was safely released, they turned their attention to the odd creature which was alive but fading fast. They brought it on board knowing that it was not going to survive. They had never seen anything like it, "it looked like a little alien" Julio said. He thinks a blue marlin may have attacked it and that the striped marlin might have tried to eat it too, but it was way too large for a striper to swallow. Nevertheless, the skin stripped away could definitely have been done with a marlin bill. They brought it back to port where it is stashed in our freezer awaiting the arrival of scientists from our state capital of La Paz, who would like to have some tissue samples. This is only the third louvar we have seen in 30 years.

Fishing Roundup

March 16 to 22nd, 2013

Overall Catch Success Rate 90%
 Numbers at a glance: Billfish 13%, Tuna 54%, Dorado 29%, Small Game 19%

Twist and Shout! Beautiful Striped Marlin hooked aboard Valerie

 

BILLFISH: March is notoriously slow for marlin, but we have had some obliging fish that have stuck around, resulting in some nice catches. All the marlin catches were in the calmer seas of the Cortez with Punta Gorda proving to be one of the best areas. March 20th was surprisingly good for some boats, when Pisces Bill Collector had five striped marlin and boated a dorado for John Davies and Brian Rodgers from Minnesota. This same day Tracy Ann released three stripers for long time Pisces client Steve Roorda from Minneapolis – the fish were from 120 to 140 lbs. and took live mackerel.  Next day out Pisces Adriana had two marlin and a dorado, also at Punta Gorda for Tammie Rydberg & Shelly Anderson from Minnesota – go girls! Bill Collector didn’t miss a beat and went on to release three striped marlin this day for Robert Thurgood from Dallas, who fished with Chris Vansumeron from Bay City, Michigan. The big billfish story this week though was the one that got away (isn’t always). Shawn Promer, Scott Murphy & Paul Bloch are from the colder climes of Wisconsin and headed to Cabo where they booked Pisces 31 ft. Bertram La Brisa. They had heard that the tuna bite was good and headed out offshore, twenty nine miles in fact, to a place known as the 240 spot. They soon loaded up with twenty tunas in the 10 to 20 lb. class and also managed to hook and boat a 20 lb. dorado, when deckhand Salvador spotted a swordfish on the surface, quickly put a live mackerel on his bait rod and cast it expertly to the slow moving fish. Within seconds he had a hook up and the battle began……it lasted five hours, until the approximate 350 lb. fish was lost and swam down to deeper water. Frustrating, but a great adventure giving these guys a story to tell back on land, plus they had the consolation of the fish boated earlier in the day; perhaps not quite as tasty as the swordfish, but nevertheless plenty of fillets to take home. The marlin bite was not consistent and again this week, many boats preferred to try for tuna, which had better odds. With the moon getting bigger every night and the wind picking up, we may be in for a few tough days, but then again this is Cabo – anything can happen. Thirteen percent of our boats caught striped marlin between 100 and 150 lbs. resulting in a total of sixteen marlin released.

Tuna were the number one catch again, this week we totaled 531.

OTHER SPECIES: Yellow fin tuna catches retained the top spot again this week in Cabo, with our total fish count not as high at last week but nevertheless pretty good with 531 fish caught. The sizes on the tuna are still of school size at 10 to 25 lbs. with cedar plugs proving to be unbeatable in getting them to bite. They were found in various places such as San Jaime and off of the Old Lighthouse & even 40 miles off of Lands End. Top tuna boat this week was Rebecca, with 35 fish caught, some released on March 22nd at San Jaime for Kevin Powers and friends from Klamath Falls, Oregon.  Dorado catches were had by twenty nine percent of the boats, but when found they were seldom more than one or two fish, picked up trolling. Pisces Andrea had four up to 20 lbs., plus a striped marlin released for Javier Caldera from Irving, Texas. Inshore not much was happening for the boats, with just a few skipjacks.

Rene Perez from Tijuana did extremely well to catch this 18 lb dorado from the beach.

SURF FISHING: We had four surf fishing trips this week with Wesley that produced 12 jack crevalle, 12 sierra and 1 dorado. The jack crevalle were up to 20 lbs. The dorado was caught by Rene Perez from Tijuana, a significant catch from the beach.  The fish weighed approximately 18 lbs. and took a Shimano Orca lure. The dorado was chasing ballyhoo and probably didn’t even know it was hooked as Rene had it up on the beach so fast. Guide Wesley told us that he had “only once caught a dorado from the beach” himself and was pretty amazed at Rene’s catch.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear sunny skies, windy most days, seas on the Pacific choppy.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 66-67 F
BEST LURES: Live mackerel, cedar plugs, and feathers.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Fish Report

Overall Catch Success Rate 91%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 16%, Tuna 66%, Dorado 20%, Small Game 20%

BILLFISH: Not the greatest time for marlin this week, so those who did get one were very fortunate; but again, this is March and what we expect, besides with the tuna fishing so good, many captains forwent the marlin for the somewhat more assured catch of yellow fin.  The only good day for marlin was on the first day of this report, when every boat we sent, except Tracy Ann, who’s anglers got sea-sick, caught at least one marlin. On this day Pisces Bill Collector released two stripers and caught a tuna and a 35 lb wahoo for Ron Brochu and friends from Castro Valley, California. Eric Temple from Scottsdale, Arizona also released two marlin at Punta Gorda on live mackerel aboard Pisces Andrea.  March 11th, saw Pisces C Rod do better than most boats, at the 11.50 spot, releasing three marlin and catching two dorado and two skipjack for Collin, Kyle and Steve Burdick from Los Angeles.  Tipped off by C Rod, Captain Julio from Bill Collector headed to this same spot a few days later and managed to release four marlin, making this our top boat of the week for billfish, for Mike Warson and party from Mill Valley, California who also caught five skipjacks.  Other boats did catch a single marlin – all were caught on the calmer Cortez side, giving us a total of 17 marlin released. 

OTHER SPECIES: Yellow fin tuna catches were amazing this week in fact our most productive day was March 13th, obviously not unlucky, when we caught 301. Seas were rough on the Pacific for several days, but getting out beyond the wind line they were smoother and anglers loaded up on tuna in the 15 to 30 lb. class, not huge, but fun on light tackle and good to eat. Top tuna boats were Pisces Rebecca and Tracy Ann, for 42 and 44 fish in a single day respectively, 20 miles out from the Old Lighthouse, with many released. Cedar plugs were the most effective for getting hooked up with double digit catches pretty common. Tuna were the most abundant catch this week with sixty six percent of charters finding them and giving us a final count of 802 over seven days. Dorado catches were O.K this week with twenty five percent of boats hooking one or two between 10 and 20 lbs., when trolling for marlin – total catch was 27 fish. Twenty percent of boats caught other fish such as skipjacks, yellow tail, jack crevalle and roosterfish. Surf fishing was a bit slower this week, probably due to it being so windy on the Pacific beaches, nevertheless, Wesley the guide did well on some days with the better days producing four jack crevalle and a rooster at Los Arcos and  a jack crevalle, pompano and hawk fish at the same location.
WEATHER: Port was closed due to the wind, midday on March 9th, to boats under 30 feet, the following day fishing was super slow but began to improve as the wind dropped. Sunny skies, seas up and down, generally rough on the Pacific, calmer on the Cortez.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 68 F
BEST LURES: Live bait for marlin, cedar plugs for tuna, green or blue lures for dorado.

Wish you were here?

Bet you wish you were doing this and just look at the weather....blue skies and sea. This snapped a couple of days ago by Mario. These clients had fun loading up on small tuna.