Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report December 19 - 24, 2015

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 93%

Numbers at a glance: Billfish 51%, Dorado 53%, Other 16%

 

BILLFISH: This week saw steady catches of striped marlin for a little more than half of the boats, with a few sudden spikes of multiple catches per single boat.  Weather has been colder and windier, which meant boats couldn’t always fish the Pacific where more marlin were believed to be.  One of the top catches in a single day goes to Pisces Yahoo for six stripers up to 140 LBS at Pozo de Cota for the Hattners from Keller, Texas on December 20th; they also caught two dorado.  Tracy Ann had the only sailfish of the week, a big one, estimated at 110 LBS, plus two striped marlin released for Swedish anglers Ola Eklund, Peter Mucander and Johan Ingenmanusson; all three fish took live caballito at the Herradura.  Next day out it was Greg & Jack Sullivan who had the best day, this time aboard La Brisa as they released four striped marlin up to 120 LBS at Los Arcos.  They also managed to land two dorado for the dinner table.  It’s no wonder Tracy Ann won top marlin boat for Pisces this year; they seem to have a knack for it and proved it by releasing six marlin up to 100 LBS on December 21st for McCullough family from Fayetteville, Georgia – well done!  One of the most enviable days was aboard Flora T for a group from Dallas headed up by Darrell Overcash – they released three striped marlin and caught six dorado and two wahoo, fishing at Los Arcos. The marlin were spread out this week, with no one set location.  Boats started out fishing on the Cortez side then moved up the Pacific as far as Golden Gate.  Fifty one percent of our charters caught between one and six marlin giving us a total catch of 61 billfish.

 

 

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado catches were steady for most boats and could be caught over a wide area. When found, catches ranged from one to nine fish in the 15 to 25 LB class.  Pisces Valerie had an active day on dorado on the Pacific at Migrino where they caught nine dorado on a combination of ballyhoo and ballyhoo for Brad Lassila and family from Colorado.  Adriana, one of our 28 ft. boats, had some good dorado action too, with eight caught up to 25 LBS at Los Arcos and Margaritas for a group of anglers from Kansas.  Fifty three percent of our anglers caught dorado this week giving us a total catch of 129 fish.  Tuna catches were very slow this week with just a few boats even finding them.  The exception was Bill Collector who headed to Jaime Bank on the Pacific and managed to land fifteen up to 20 LBS for Ross Benson and Steve Buckley and friends from New Jersey and Massachusetts respectively.  Several boats caught wahoo this week but they are by no means plentiful and tended to be small at 15 to 20 LBS.  There was not much inshore action except for an odd triggerfish, rooster or sierra.

LOCATION: 95 spot on the Cortez side, then Los Arcos, Pedregal, Migrino, Margaritas and Golden Gate.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Windy and on the cold side, mostly overcast, seas moderate to choppy.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 77 F

BEST LURES: Live bait.

Based on the catches of Pisces Sportfishing by Tracy Ehrenberg.

Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report Feb 21 - 27, 2015

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 78%

Numbers at a glance: Billfish 20%, Dorado 60%, Tuna 4%, Other

BILLFISH:  We had an up and down week in Cabo, all the right elements are present, lots of bait, good color water, temperature a little high at 73 F, but the fish were hard to locate.  Added to this was the fact that there were fewer anglers in town this week, perhaps half of the previous week, so less boat out fishing means less fish being caught.  It was rare that anybody caught more than one marlin but 28 ft. Adriana managed to catch and release two up to 120 lbs. plus a tiny dorado for the Baker family from Coleville, Washington at Elias Calles on the Pacific side on February 21st.  One of their fish took a live caballito & the other a petrolero lure.  This ended up being the best day of the week for marlin with pretty much every boat catching a single marlin plus a few dorado.  On February 22nd, Adriana was one of the only boats to catch marlin, this time at Migrino for Mallorie Edenfeld who also caught a 20 lb. Dorado. Rebecca fished a little further up the coast this day, close to Golden Gate and also released a 130 lb. marlin and landed a 25 lb. dorado  for Rod Savage & friends from Michigan.  Many times the crews spotted marlin and threw bait to them, which they mouthed and then declined.  Twenty percent of our charters caught marlin this week giving us a total catch of 9 fish; all released.  Our overall catch rate however, did improve slightly.

OTHER SPECIES:  Dorado catches provided the bulk of what was landed this week, even though their numbers declined a little.  Catches ranged from one to five fish in the 5 to 30 lb. range.  Dorado were spread out along the Pacific coast from the Old Lighthouse to Golden Gate and took both live bait and different lure colors.  Tuna catches were slow with just a couple of boats finding them.  Tracy Ann travelled 48 miles to find them and even then only got five football size for Derrick & Marilyn from Red Deer, Canada.  Greg Cox was the only angler to catch a shark, a small mako that was released aboard Yahoo.  A small wahoo was caught aboard Andrea as well as a dorado on February 23rd.  Valerie had a good day on small game with eight sierra and three grouper off of Margaritas for George Harrison from Pennsylvania.  Inshore there were a few skipjacks, the odd yellowtail and grouper.

WEATHER: Mostly clear skies with some wind on the Pacific, seas mostly calm.

LOCATION: Pacific from Old Lighthouse to Golden Gate, one day at Cabeza de Ballena on Cortez side.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP:  73 F

BEST LURES: Live caballito, green, red & black, petrolero.

Based on the catches of Pisces Sportfishing by Tracy Ehrenberg

  

Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report Jan 17-23, 2015

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined: 96.6%

Numbers at a glance: Billfish 13%, Dorado 85%, Tuna 8%, Other 35%

BILLFISH:  The billfish have been relatively slow for this time of the year.  We’ve been scratching our heads a little bit about this, so we took a look back to compare to the last few years fishing through this season.  We’ve found some interesting factors that may be affecting our marlin catches.  These are of course, that the water is still pretty warm for this time of year, reaching temperatures as high as 78 F in some areas.  It also seems that there is not as much mackerel and ballyhoo in our waters as other years, and we’ve found this to be the bait of choice throughout this season for marlin.  There are big schools of bait that we’ve come across and have seen marlin, but many times they are just not hungry enough.  But, how about those two BIG blues caught just a week ago weighing around 700 lbs each?  We must say, the marlin have a mind of their own, and are obviously around just a little bit harder to find, for now.  Instances like these really show how little we know about the species and why research and conservation are increasingly important. 

With all that said, we did manage to catch a few striped marlin this week.  Twenty-five foot panga Diablo Loco showed us that size doesn’t necessarily matter when it comes to fishing.  David and Pamela from Colorado had a spectacular day, catching one striped marlin, two dorados, one redsnapper, one grouper and one bonita all on caballito bait between Solmar and Pedregal.

Bill Collector had an even more spectacular day, if that’s possible, with anglers Kelly and Jeff from Minnesota catching and releasing one decently sized 180 lb. striped marlin on live caballito out of Las Margaritas.  They also caught six dorados, ten sierras and one wahoo on green and blue/white lures.

OTHER SPECIES:  What haven’t been hard to find this week have been dorado.  In comparison with the last three years, we’ve seen an increase of up to 45% in catches for dorado during this same season.  On the other hand, as with the marlin, the tuna catches have been lower, where in 2014 we had a 40% catch success rate for this same week in January, and a 79% catch success rate in 2013, this week we only saw 8% of boats catch tuna.  The lower tuna catches may also be due to the fact that there is so much dorado and wahoo that anglers are going out looking for them, since they are relatively close to shore, where as the tuna are usually found far out.  Unless of course you get lucky and find a pod of dolphins hanging out with them, as was the case for the thirty-five foot Valerie and anglers from Florida, who caught ten yellowfin tuna ranging from 10-20 lbs out of the Pozo Cota. They also caught one dorado around 10 lbs in the same area. 

Anglers Harrel Hooker, Jeffrey, Neal & Robert Cranek, with their tuna catch aboard the Valerie. 

In the case of the Andrea, they went out looking for tuna and found it 13 miles out of Gaspareno, catching twelve total on hoochis. They also caught six dorados on caballito bait. 

The Tracy Ann had a dorado-filled day on Friday, catching 25 dorados between 15 and 25 lbs on both bait and lures (blue/white and black/red) out of Cerritos.  Catch limits were respected with ten successfully released.   

The Rebecca also landed quite a few dorados, twenty total, on caballito bait and blue/white and green lures out of Golden Gate. They also caught a nice wahoo, weighing 22 lbs.

Dorados galore!

Anglers Bob Stanley, Ronnie Heller, Caylee Heller and Kelly Massey from California, showing off their dorado catch on the Rebecca.

Anglers Michael and David Lorick from South Carolina and Steve Hansel from  New Jersey with their  catch of the day on the Tiburon.

The pangas proved themselves once again in catching the smaller game fish, with twenty-two foot panga Gloria catching fifteen sierras, one redsnapper, one pompano, and one mojarra. 

LOCATION: Golden Gate, Cerritos, Gaspareño, Migrino 

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Mostly clear, with a few cloudy days with moderate seas

WATER TEMP: 74-78 F

BEST LURES: Caballito, red/black, blue/white, green

Based on the catches of Pisces Sportfishing by Rebecca Ehrenberg.