Fish Hard to Weigh, Estimated at 500 LBS

 

Julio Castro on the Tracy Ann is a strong proponent of catch & release and it is rare that you see a dead marlin on the back of his boat. This big blue however was hooked during the tuna tournament, got tail-wrapped and died, so was brought on board. Justin Long from Roseveille, Ca. was the angler. We had a hard time weighing it but calculated between 470 and 500 LBS

 

 

 

 

WEEKLY FISH REPORT

NOVEMBER 2ND TO 7TH 2013
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 97%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 74%, Dorado 58%, Tuna 18%

BILLFISH: We had some pretty spectacular billfish catches this week, as we finally felt the weather turn from summer to autumn/winter. After a couple of sweltering hot days,  rain fell on Cabo on November 3rd & the port was closed, but once it was reopened you could tell the weather had changed and the marlin bite was on.  Pisces Adriana had a spectacular day on November 7th, releasing SIX striped marlin & SEVEN sailfish, off the lighthouse on a combination of live and dead bait as well as green and yellow lures.  We also had many boats with fast & furious striped marlin action such as Pisces Rebecca with Joe Capizio & Sarah Mindick from San Diego aboard, on November 6th, who did very well to release five striped marlin off of Migrino & to boat two dorado. Valerie, was up there too with five marlin released, three tuna & a dorado for Jason Riha, Brandon Brooks & Rafael Guardardo. Bill Collector, Yahoo, C Rod & Fearless also had days this week when they released five marlin each plus a dorado or small yellow fin tuna, all this at a time when the tuna tournament was supposed to be the focus.  We had many great catches of one to three fish throughout the week and it was a struggle for boats in the tuna tournament to keep the billfish off of their lines, such as Pisces Andrea, who ended up taking second place in the tournament – they hooked a 400 LB blue marlin on a petrolero lure, which they released, before hooking their large tuna on the same rod & reel.  Seventy four percent of our boats caught billfish, consisting of 125 striped marlin, 2 blue marlin & 8 sailfish.

OTHER SPECIES: The main event this week was the WON Tuna Tournament, in which 135 boats participated. Tuna pickings were slim though and we did not see the slew of huge fish as we have in the past couple of years. Some days the schools were not too hard to find, but they were small fish in the 10 to 20 lb. class with only a handful of fish making the 100 LB plus mark this year.  Our anglers caught a total of 96 yellowfin tuna which means when they were found they could catch a number of them – up to a couple of dozen, but finding them was the hard part, or better said, getting them to bite. Eighteen percent of our charters hooked tuna. Dorado numbers have started to decline though are still here in good numbers, with fifty eight percent of our charters catching from one to ten fish. All were on the small side thought, a fact proven in the tuna tournament where not one dorado could make the minimum weight of 30 LBS. Our anglers caught a total of ninety nine dorado. Wahoo catches were not bad, but no big ones for us in the tournament, just in the days leading up to it when we had fish from 35 to 50 LBS. Pisces La Brisa released two sharks this week, one a 75 LB pilot shark & the other an 80 LB hammerhead.
LOCATION: Pacific, lighthouse to Golden Gate
WEATHER: Port closed one day, rain on Thursday, and seas on the rough side.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 81 F
BEST LURES: Live caballito, ballyhoo, green colors, petrolero.

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS OF TUNA TOURNAMENT & PRIZES

These are the unofficial results that will be given tonight - we don't think there will be any changes, so this will not be confirmed until tonight.

 

 

Winning fish is pictured here with team Reel Quest, who weighed in this beauty 15 mins before the event was over. Congratulations this team are finally first place after participating every year.
1ST PLACE REEL QUEST 192.4 LBS WINNINGS $242,960.00
2ND PLACE PISCES ANDREA 172.6 LBS WINNINGS $5,360.00
3RD PLACE REINA DE WAHOO 170 LBS WINNINGS $2,680.00
DAY ONE JACKPOT $500, 1K, 2K EL DIABLO 131.9 LBS, $83,400
DAY ONE JACKPOT 3K, 5K, 10K BOB MARLIN 85.7 LBS $114,000.00
DAY ONE WAHOO KOI SUSHI 52.6 LBS $46,800.00
DAY TWO WAHOO CHEERS 1 39.6 LBS $46,800.00

 

DAY TWO ACTION IN THE TUNA TOURNAMENT

Pisces Andrea in lead at 15th annual Tuna Tournament....with a 172.6 LB tuna caught by Keith Gelfand from Richmond, Texas. First time in the tournament - their fish was caught outside San Jaime on a petrolero lure. They also released a 400 LB blue marlin on the same rod, reel & lure shortly before they hooked the tuna.

DAY ONE RESULTS OF THE TUNA TOURNAMENT

BIGGEST FISH OF THE DAY, THOUGH NOT THE BIGGEST MONEY WINNER FOR DAY ONE.

Leader in Day One Tuna Jackpot is a 147.8 LBS tuna caught by the Reel Medicine, this fish however, is not entered in the jackpots only the straight tournament entry. El Diablo, weighed in a 131.9 LBS tuna which makes them the winner in the ...5K, 1K & 2K daily jackpots, however team Fat Farmers will take more money for their 85.7 LB tuna as they had the biggest fish in the 3K, 5K & 10K pots. Irish Goodbye had been in the lead with their 123.10 LB fish the first 100 LB plus fish to the scale today, but they were displaced by the Diablo fish. Largest wahoo today was 52.6 LBS aboard Koi Sushi which should earn them around $47,000. Biggest fish of the day is pictured here. Today there were five qualifying tuna and two qualifying wahoo.

TUNA TOURNAMENT GETS UNDERWAY

W.O.N Tuna Jackpot Tuna Tournament kicked off today with 135 boats participating -as always the tournament is already fun. For the first time in the tournament's history boats took off under cloudy and slightly rainy skies. One boat came in around 10.30 am, as they didn't read the rules about the scale not opening until 2.00 pm. We went ahead and weighed it for them on our Pisces scale and it came up slightly short at 25 LBS, if it had gone over 30 LBS, it could have potentially been worth $46,000.00 - but let's wait and see what comes in later today.

WEEKLY FISH REPORT

OCTOBER 26TH TO NOVEMBER 1ST, 2013
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 96%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 68%, Tuna 34%, Dorado 70%

BILLFISH: Weather remains warm in Cabo which accounts for blue marlin catches that continued throughout this past week, whilst at the same time we saw an increase on striped marlin caches, with a few sailfish thrown into the mix.  Pisces Cabolero, a 31 ft. Cabo, had a an outstanding da for David Wisniewski & Ken Neighring  from Place Pella,  Iowa on October 28th, when they were fishing  twenty two miles from the Old Lighthouse – they released two blue marlin estimated at 300 and 260 LBS respectively; both took lures.  Paul Linden out on Pisces Attitude Adjustment released a blue marlin in the same area, also on a lure.  The last day of October Pisces Rebecca had a fantastic day with a blue & striped marlin released a 40 LB wahoo and a dorado for John & Rich Dibenadeto & Howard King from Maine. October 31st was one of the best days this report;  La Brisa released three striped marlin and caught four dorado and two skipjacks for Doug Rubino from Houston, Texas.  Valerie this day and anglers from South Africa who did will to have a striped marlin triple header.  Tracy Ann & Bill Collector also had triple striped marlin days with some dorado and tuna the same day.  Average catches on striped marlin was one or two fish and occasionally up to three; these numbers should start to climb as we transition towards winter.   The majority of the catches were on the Pacific side, the stripers & sailfish preferred bait, whereas all the blue marlin were caught on lures. Sixty eight percent of our boats caught billfish, giving us a total catch of 73: Striped marlin 67, blue marlin 4, and sailfish 2.

OTHER SPECIES:  Dorado remained the top catch, though the sheer numbers have dropped to catches mostly in single digits.  In previous weeks it had been common to see catches of twenty plus fish, but this week the most anybody caught was twelve. Sizes were on the small side at 12 to 25 LBS with catches on the Pacific.   Seventy percent of our charters caught dorado giving us a total of 233 fish. Yellow fin tuna catches picked up with lots of school size fish, though none of the bigger ones were caught; hopefully they are keeping a low profile until the tournament next week.  Top boat was Andrea with twenty seven in a day 25 miles out for John Hopkins from San Antonio. Catches ranged from one to twenty plus fish, with the faithful cedar plug the most effective way of catching fish in the 15 to 25 lb. class.  Thirty four percent of boats caught tuna, giving us a total count of 236 fish. The only other catches were a few 30-40 lb. wahoo and the odd skipjack.
LOCATION: Pacific, Lighthouse, Gaspareno San Cristobal up as far to Golden Gate – Cortez, Cabeza de Ballena.
WEATHER CONDTIONS: Sunny and hot, seas calm with some chop in the afternoons.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 82 F
BEST LURES: live caballito, cedar plugs, petrolero, red/black, green

Countdown Begins for Tuna Tournament

 

 

Hoping for lots of these next week, for the WON Jackpot Tuna Tournament to be held Thursday & Friday - this one was caught aboard Pisces Speedwell by John Whittle from Houston and weighed 148 LBS, he would be smiling even more if it was a week later.

PLEASE NOTE, YOU NEED TO SIGN UN IN THE U.S FOR THE TOURNAMENT , www.loscabostunajackpot.com



October 19th to 25th, 2013
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 51%, Dorado 74%, Tuna 30%, Wahoo 10%
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 94%

BILLFISH: Wow, what a week! As most of you know Bisbee took place this past week and we have written a lot about it already, but not everybody enters the big bucks competition, so how did our regular clients do? In one word, fabulous. We had some of the best catches of the year, starting with Pisces Rebecca with a 566 LB blue marlin the day before the Bisbee Tournament, for angler George Hansen from Idaho Falls. Captain Jose Ramon saw the fish jump a mile away and thought it was a manta ray, as they got closer he realized it was a blue marlin that was feeding and quickly dropped back a tuna they had boated earlier in the day.  George went to work and after about an hour, the crew realized there was something wrong; the fish had died. They pulled in the line by hand to find that the leader had wrapped around the tail, meaning the fish had been pulled backwards and drowned. Next day Giles Patterson from Cincinnati was fishing aboard Pisces La Brisa and was having fun with his group setting out cedar plugs and pulling in school size tuna. As he was reeling in a 15 lb. tuna, a huge marlin emerged from the depths and swallowed his tuna, cedar plug and all. Giles puffed away for over four hours until the fish could not be seen and was not reacting; the marlin had expired and again they guys had to hand line it up. To their surprise it was much bigger than they thought tipping the scales at 591 LBS. Next day out, it was another 31 ft. Bertram this time Pisces Tracy Ann, that had a blue marlin, but they were successful in releasing the approximately 360 LB fish. Attitude Adjustment & La Brisa went on to release blue marlin around the 300 LB mark later in the week and Shambala had three blues a little under 300 LBS which they released. It was nice to see a return of the striped marlin this past week too, the catches being usually a single fish plus numbers of dorado or tuna; some boats had two fish and only Yahoo managed to release three in one day. Our total billfish catch was of 65 fish, consisting of 51 striped marlin, 11 blue marlin & 4 sailfish.

OTHER SPECIES: Great numbers again this week on dorado, making it our number one catch with seventy four percent of boats catching between one and twenty five fish between 15 and 35 LBS; our total dorado catch was 535 fish. Pacific side was were the dorado were concentrated with bait & green colored lures working well. Yellow fin tuna catches took a step up this week, which is great news for the upcoming tuna tournament.   Thirty percent of boats found school size fish and had fun catching up to thirty five in a day. Some fish were large, such as a 125 lb’er caught aboard Pisces Ruthless by Richard Hartley from South Africa – our total tuna count was 298.  Wahoo catches complimented the rest of the catches with ten percent of our boats catching fish up to 40 lbs.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear skies, seas mostly calm, with some chop in the afternoons.
LOCATION: Pacific, lighthouse to San Jaime.
BEST LURES: Petrolero, green, live bait, cedar plugs.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 83 F

The Story Behind the 774 LB Winning Fish

Captain Kevin "Cubby" Pahl on right, First Lady Angler to win Bisbee Linda Williams & John Williams right, proud of his wife  - he almost had a
"heart attack" when he heard they had won.

Joy was evident in the voice of Captain Kevin “Cubby” Pahl captain of the 60 ft. Hatteras II Success, when we reached him by phone the day after his team had landed the winning 774 LB fish, in the Bisbee Black & Blue Tournament – the second largest qualifier in the competition’s 33 year history.

As tends to happen in the world’s richest billfish tournament, everybody was kept guessing right up until the end, especially as Martha McNab, a well know local woman angler looked set to be a shoo in to be the first ever female to win the Super Bowl of fishing, with her 525 LB blue marlin caught on day two of the three day event. That milestone was to be reached, but surprisingly not by Martha, but by Linda Williams from Rancho Cucamonga, California.

Captain Cubby told us that he had fished the Pacific the two previous days as everybody knew that several big blues from the charter fleet had  been caught there as well as the fish landed by Martha aboard Retriever; he fished all the well- known spots and came up blank. On the last day of the tournament he thought “the clock is ticking and at least a hundred boats are turning right to the Pacific, I am going to go the other way, up to Destiladeras, the water looks good and there is no traffic”. Team Success worked the area trolling their lures without action so Cubby systematically worked his way to the outer Gordo as the clock ticked on and with only thirty five minutes left to go in the tournament, the water behind the boat exploded as a massive marlin charged the Petrolero lure with its mouth wide open. “Everybody saw it bite” said Cubby, “my team were all in their positions and we were all watching the lures; I drive the boat standing backwards so I can see them. We could see that the fish was over 500 lbs. and it jumped at least six times, which is a lot for a fish of that size. We had the fish to the wire in an hour, but it was still strong and headed away from us, so we decided to let it go more time. After about another hour we had it in the corner and threw all the metal (gaffs) we had into it; we didn’t want to take any chances. The team did their job perfectly and the hardest thing was getting it into the boat, no easy feat with an almost 800 LB fish”.

 

Cubby praised his crew consisting of his Mexican deckhand Antonio “Pelon” Zuniga, his brother Craig Pahl who was aboard as an angler along with Dave Reid, who is a captain on another boat,  Jan Howard and of course owner of II Success, Linda Williams. Cubby stated “Linda loves to fish and this could not have happened to a nicer or more generous person. The guys on the dock respect Linda for her fishing skills. This is a dream come true for her, she was thrilled just to participate, definitely something on her bucket list.” Linda’s husband John, who owns a house framing company, had urged her to fly down to fish the tournament, which she did bringing along friend Jan Howard. He was totally shocked to get a phone call to say they had won and flew into Cabo Saturday to be present for the awards ceremony.

 

Captain Kevin “Cubby” Pahl is well known and liked around Cabo; the 51 year old is originally from Carlsbad, California and grew up fishing out of Oceanside. He has been a professional skipper in Cabo for the past 29 years and this win is the highlight of his fishing career and his largest fish to date. This day almost didn’t happen though, as last year he underwent his second hip replacement surgery, during which he contracted a severe infection, followed by an adverse reaction to the drugs given him, which put him in the critical care unit for six days. There was a moment when he thought it was a possibility that he would never fish again, making this victory even sweeter.