Man Catches Fish With Bare Hands

You know people travel miles, spend lots of money and invest in fancy fishing equipment to catch the fish of their dreams, but in Cabo it’s not always necessary; you just have to have your wits about you and be in the right place at the right time as long time Cabo resident, John Parks an American in his early 50’s can attest to. He got a surprise whilst taking his nightly power walk along the beach near his home in the Cabo Real area. The waves were big and the surf crashed loudly on the beach between the Dreams Resort and Casa Del Mar, when he saw something thrown onto the beach by the powerful waves, he could see that it was a sizeable fish and thought it was a halibut, as it flapped and struggled trying to make it back into the sea. John knows a meal when he sees one though; he dropped his hat and sunglasses and sprinted towards the fish, before it was sucked back out to sea, passing three surprised local beach fishermen. He grabbed the fish which was pretty slippery and got his hands into the gills, cutting his fingers on the dorsal spines in the process and deftly snatched it away from the water; he threw it up onto the beach as it spewed sardines from its mouth.  As he hoisted the still struggling fish up, he realized that it was a snook, around 20 lbs and one of the best eating fish in these waters. He did think about throwing it back but then he thought “barbecue!” We can just imagine the looks on the faces of the three local fishermen and what went through their minds, “we’ve been fishing here for years, we’ve never caught a robalo (snook) and along comes this foreigner, who doesn’t even have a rod and snatches one up with his bare hands”. John trudged back along the beach with his prize, which wasn’t easy going in the sand, but he found a little piece of rope and tied it through the fish’s gills, to give his hands a respite. It took him fifteen minutes to get back home, where he excitedly called to his wife to “bring the camera”.  They snapped some photos then took it to the kitchen where the fish was still struggling to the horror of John’s wife, Adali, who was supposed to cook it.  Seeing as they didn’t have fishing equipment at home, John dispatched it with a wine bottle, before filleting it and cooking some on the barbecue and they still have enough for several meals. Snook are known to converge where fresh and saltwater merge; seeing as the exact spot where this one was found, is where an arroyo empties into the sea, it makes sense, though we’ve never heard of one caught by hand, but then as John said “this fish made a fatal mistake”.

Susan Hodnik From Juneau

Suzy Hodnik from Juneau Alaska is a confirmed fisherwoman taking every opportunity to escape to Cabo for a different kind of fishing than they do in Alaska. Her favorite boat is Tracy Ann and with good reason; on March 31st, Susan was able to release FOUR striped marlin on her own, at Punta Gorda on live caballito. Shown here with her crew from left to right, Captain Julio Castro, deckhand Fernando Noyola, Suzy in the chair and regular deckhand Martin Gonzalez. Reeling in four 100 to 150 lb fish would be hard for many guys, but Suzy has practice.

Al Monte's 391lbs Swordfish

We have shown you the pictures, here is the video of the monster being weighed.

Fish Report Roundup

MARCH 24^TH TO 30^TH, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate 92%

BILLFISH: It is finally a pleasure to write the fish report; we have fish! It’s funny how seasons change, normally if you would ask us when is a good time to fish for marlin, we would answer “not March, it’s windy and the fish aren’t hungry”. Looks like we may have to change our minds; instead of March doldrums we have had fantastic fishing this week at Punta Gorda (literally fat point) on the Cortez side and also at the 11.50 spot. A whopping eighty one percent of our boats caught striped marlin this week with catches ranging from one to seven fish in a day. Top boat was “Great Escape Jr”, skippered by Ricardo Agundez, a very savvy fisherman though understated in demeanor – they produced seven releases of marlin all on live bait for Robert Owen, Dan Line and Ben Canella from Zophyk Cove, Nevada on March 27^th. This same day “Rebecca” had four releases for fish in the 100 to 140 lb class, in the same area on live caballito for Rick & Brendan Boutillier from Lake Barrington, Illinois. Not wanting to be left out of the news “Tracy Ann” released four marlin also, same day, same place for Mark Farber from Coral Gables, Florida whom they had released three marlin for the previous day. March 28^th, saw “Adriana” release four marlin between 100 and 150 lbs for Mark Schreiber from Sandy, Oregon. Other anglers caught one to three fish with the odd boat here and there drawing a blank, seeing fish, but not getting the desired hook up. Pisces anglers caught a total of 66 striped marlin this week; all but one released.

OTHER SPECIES:  Nearly all the boats concentrated on marlin this week, so not much smaller game was caught. Just a few dorado such as the three up to 30 lbs caught aboard “Ruthless” below Punta Gorda on black and red lures by John Steinert from Portland, Oregon and a few yellow fin tuna at Golden Gate aboard “Valerie” for Arturo Kassel from San Diego. Inshore just a few roosterfish, yellow tail and skipjacks from the pangas that we sent out.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: It warmed up a bit this week, though we continued to have windy weather on the Pacific and nights are still cool, Cortez side was much calmer.

LOCATION: Punta Gorda, 11.50.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: As low as 63 F on the Pacific and up to 72 F on the Cortez side.

BEST LURES: Live bait.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Adriana Top Boat Today

Mario, our dockmaster snapped this picture as Adriana was approaching the dock - flags flying and Pancho our local sea lion in tow. They had a fabulous day at Punta Gorda in near perfect weather conditions. Father and son Jeff and Jay Schreiber from Sandy, Oregon were aboard and manged to release four striped marlin. Two of the fish were caught on lures, one a guacamaya (this is a term for a parrot colored green, orange and yellow) and one on a light green lure. The other two fish were caught on live caballito, which explains why they have bait left over to feed to the lovable beggar Pancho, who offers a great photo opportunity.

Fishing Takes Off Finally!

Girl Power!  Shown here are Danielle, Allison & Kaitlin from Mound Minnesota with their parents pulling into the dock with lots of flags, announcing their catch aboard La Brisa

Yesterday we were thrilled to see boats come back with multiple flags flying, more than we have seen in awhile.  Top boat was Great Escape Jr, for seven marlin released at Punta Gorda on live bait for Robert Owen, Dan Line and Ben Canella from Zophyk Cove, Nevada. Tracy Ann was not left out, as they released four marlin in the same area for Mark Farber from Coral Gables, Florida. La Brisa followed up with three marlin and Andrea two released.

Fishing Update

MARCH 14^th to 23^rd, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate for All Species Combined 71%

E.J Widun from Tulsa, Ok released two striped marlin aboard Tracy Ann, shown here with Deckhand Martin Gonzalez -March 19th

Billfish: We are in March, traditionally a slow month for marlin, not necessarily because they are not here but getting them to bite is hard. Scientists think that this time of year may be when they are breeding and spawning and as such feeding is less important to them at this time. Added to this are the blustery winds on the Pacific making it hard for boats to fish and lower water temperatures all contributing factors to lower catch rates this week. On March 19^th “Tracy Ann” had a successful day at Destiladeres, releasing two striped marlin for E.J Widun from Tulsa, Oklahoma; both were caught on live jurelito. The only other boat two catch two marlin was “Valerie”, on March 20^th, also at Destiladeres for Carolina Fillion and Aldo Lapointe from Quebec, Canada.  Their fish took live caballito and were approximately 130 to 150 lbs. All of our marlin catches this week were on the Cortez side with the majority at Destiladeres on live bait. Fishing a little closer, at the Herradura, “Andrea” , released a striped marlin  on live mackerel and then went on to catch seven large squid, up to 25 lbs on Yoyos for Mark Couvillan from Stockton, California. Twenty seven percent of our boats caught striped marlin this week, giving us a total of eight billfish overall.

Two nice size yellowtail for this happy couple aboard Cabolero

OTHER SPECIES: Small game catches accounted for most of the fleet’s catch this week, with skipjacks, roosterfish, yellowtail, triggerfish and sierra taking up the billfish slack. Although not huge fish, they were a lot of fun, especially the larger yellowtail on light tackle, who prove to be strong on light tackle. One of the boats caught a small hammerhead shark and Les Wexelman from Montreal caught our only wahoo of the week, aboard “Tracy Ann” at Los Frailes – a long way from the Cabo marina.  Only a couple of dorado were caught and yellow fin tuna were on a par with the exception of “Valerie” who landed eleven up to 25 lbs for Paul Potemski from Medina, Ohio at the Golden Gate.

A total of six yellowtail made Cabolero the top boat for this species, which is great eating.

LOCATION: Destiladeres, Los Frailes, Punta Gorda, La Playita – a few boats San Jaime and Golden Gate.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Windy, seas rough on Pacific.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 69-71 F

BEST LURES: Live bait, cedar plugs, green, petrolero.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Fish Report Update

March 10^th to 16^th 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate 73%

BILLFISH: This week we had some really fantastic catches and then other days where many boat caught nothing. Top catch of the week was by Al Monte from Sutton, Massachusetts, for his 391 lb swordfish caught aboard “Tracy Ann”, whilst fishing with his two sons, they also released two striped marlin and boated six yellow fin tuna, just six miles off of the Old Lighthouse on the Pacific side. Full details were posted on our blog http://piscesfleet.blogspot.mx/2012/03/tracy-ann-does-it-againwow-what-day.html  this catch caused quite a stir. Fisherman can fish all their lives and never get a swordfish, so this one was much appreciated.  This was not Captain Julio’s only good day fishing; he was on a roll this week, with two striped marlin and a wahoo for Royce & Vaden Barrington from Fort Worth, Texas at Destiladeres and another two striped marlin on March 13^th for Mason and Danny Stewart from Houston, Texas. “Bill Collector” had a couple of really good days, starting out with four striped marlin released fifteen miles out from Cerro de Arena for Philip Kennedy & friends from Alpine, Texas.  They had three marlin and a dorado just two miles off of the Old Lighthouse for John Thompson, Dave Dazser & Barry Cercone from Seminola, Florida. “Yahoo” was not left out either, with their triple marlin day fishing in the opposite direction at Punta Gorda & Destiladeres for Robert & Grant Williamson fishing with Jacob Dillman from Houston, Texas. I guess you could say it was good week for Texans. Thirty five percent of charters caught marlin this week. It was feast or famine, some days you could get marlin the next hardly any where caught. A lot depended on the weather; we have had some very windy days, typical for March, with gusts up to thirty knots and whitecaps on the Pacific, which meant a lot of boats turned back with sea-sick anglers. The bait situation was not ideal, but it was interesting to see how the captains became more resourceful and managed to catch fish with jurelito (green-jacks) caballito and mackerel. Our anglers caught and released thirty striped marlin and one swordfish.

OTHER SPECIES: We saw a small increase on dorado catches this week with one boat, “El Gallo”, catching six for Kevin Brandes from Illinois, whilst others caught one or two, giving us a tally of seventeen fish, though none bigger than 20 lbs. Yellow fin tuna catches were of the football size and between three and six fish per boat when found, though less than ten percent of charters found them. Yellow tail catches continued but not as frequently as earlier in the month. We saw several kinds of shark caught, blue, hammerhead and mako with the majority juveniles not over 50 lbs.

LOCATION: Old Lighthouse,  Las Margaritas Migrino, Destiladeres, Punta Gorda.

WEATHER CONDTIONS: Super windy weather on the Pacific prevented boats from doing much on some days, which sent them the other direction, but fish were found on both sides. Partly cloudy skies.

BEST LURES: Live bait, jurelito, caballito, mackerel, ballyhoo.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 69 F

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Tracy Ann Does it Again....Wow What a Day -Swordfish, Marlin, Tuna

Tracy Ann backs in with her fat swordfish from left to right: David, Andrew & Al Monte, Martin Gonzalez, Julio Castro

All we can say is WOW, what a day the Tracy Ann had yesterday. We got a call from captain Julio Castro around 1.00 pm on Thursday to say that he had hooked up a swordfish.  Weird, because just that morning, I had commented to a deckhand about the water being a bit green on the Pacific and that there were "perfect conditions for swordfish" and lo and behold the call comes in to say they have one on. Everybody was really excited, first swordfish of the season, not many caught in a year here, maybe in a good year perhaps ten for the whole Cabo fleet. Unlike other destinations we do not fish for swordfish at night, but find them up on the surface during the day. Hate to say it, but we are spoiled, "Why go out at night when fishing is so good during the day?" Honestly, I thought the fish would be one of those smaller start of the season fish, in fact it is rare that swordfish go over 200 lbs here, but as the afternoon wore on and the boat still wasn't back, I began to wonder...."probably a first time angler, struggling to reel it in...or maybe it's bigger than we think". I finally got the call from the dock that they had it on board around 4.00 pm and that they would be back in thirty minutes as they were close by.  We asked the captain over the phone, "How big?" and were delighted when he said 300-400 lbs. Everybody in the fleet got excited and rushed off to the dock to meet the boat, including our other captains who had already gone home for the day.

Al usually flyfishes for striped bass but caught a sailfish once in Guatemala.

The boat was only six miles off of the Old Lighthouse when they hooked the fish, so were back quickly and backed into the dock proudly with their fish and anglers.  As you can see from  the photos, it was a fat fish. I jumped aboard to talk to the angler, Al Monte from Sutton, Massachusetts who was rather dazed after fighting the fish alone for four hours straight.  This was Al's first trip to Cabo and he was celebrating his 60th birthday by going fishing with his two sons David 32 and Andrew 34. I was really blown away to learn this was not their only catch; they had released two striped marlin earlier in the day estimated at 140 and 160 lbs and then went on to catch six football-sized tuna too. It was later in the day when Captain Julio had spotted what he thought was another marlin on the surface. He saw its fin but then it raised his head and he knew it was a broadbill. Deckhand Martin quickly put a live green jack on the end of his line (80 lb test with 200 lb flurocarbon) and cast it confidently, accurately and strongly to the fish, landing about five feet from its bill. With no hesitation it snatched the bait and he hooked it, passing the rod to Al. The boys told me, "We finished the beer really quickly once we hooked that fish," but Al, a project manager for an electrical contracting company soldiered on. I asked him, "Did you ever feel like giving up or handing it off?" to which he replied "nope!" His sons added, "That fish was stubborn, but not as stubborn as our dad." which paid off as he was able to get the fish to the boat. When they gaffed it in the chest, the fish went nuts, almost taking the deckhand out and straightening the gaff in the process but they were able to get another on in it and quickly subdued the prize catch. Back at the dock it took some muscle to get it up on the scale where it registered 391 lbs, so we figure add another 10% for loss of body fluids, which puts it over 400 lbs.
Congratulations to the Monte boys and of course to our captain Julio Castro and his deckhand Martin Gonzalez....they make a great team! If you recall, they are the ones who had a 749 lb blue marlin one day before the Bisbee last year and were also the top release boat worldwide for striped marlin in 2011, according to the Billfish Foundation.
Posted by Tracy Ehrenberg

Proud anglers and crew at the weigh station

Fishing Update

March 3^rd to 9^th, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate 70%

Another Large Striper for the Rebecca

BILLFISH: This period we had a big moon all week, causing a bit of a downturn on marlin catches, nevertheless there were days when they were found close in to shore, at times less than a mile offshore near the old lighthouse. Thirty seven percent of boats managed to catch and release between one and three marlin in the 130 to 160 lb class. The big moon meant the fish had more hours to feed and not be as hungry during daylight hours and bait was not their absolute favorite with the majority being caballito rather than mackerel. “Rebecca” was the hot boat, releasing three stripers on March 7^th for Robert Ellis from Boston, Mass. Incredibly they caught all of their fish just one mile from shore on Jurelito, an even less favorable bait. This same day “Tracy Ann” released two in the same area for from Peter Hooshmand Australia, fishing with Sherminen Oftadeh from Vancouver, in the 140 to 150 lb class. “La Brisa” also had two marlin this day caught with mackerel in the same area for Alex Danis & Robert Tellier from Prevost, Canada. We had lots of other boats with a single marlin giving us a total of count of twenty two fish, all released. With the moon now waning we should see an increase on catches

OTHER SPECIES: We got really excited about a hot tuna bite, but it didn’t last.  We found them between 13 and 22 miles off of the Old Lighthouse, but they only stuck around for a couple of days.  “Tracy Ann” caught fifteen on feathers and cedar plugs for the Moors and Elerts from Frederic, WI in the 10 to 20 lb category, which kept them busy and gave them something to take home. “Adriana” had a perfect day on March 5^th with a striped marlin released, one 20 lb dorado and six tunas caught by Larry and Karen Fuller from Vashou, Washington. This same day “C Rod” had an interesting day for Ray & David Watts from Birmingham, Alabama, when they were fishing ten miles out from the Lighthouse, catching eight yellow fin tuna and three mako sharks up to 40 lbs that took live bait. Thirty five percent of boats caught tuna with catches ranging from one to fifteen fish per trip. Dorado catches were very slow with just four caught for our fleet. The yellowtail fishing was still happening but nowhere near as good as last month. The only other catches were of skipjacks the odd sierra and triggerfish.

LOCATION: Old Lighthouse, one to eighteen miles, Los Arcos, San Jaime.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear, sunny, flat seas, beautiful

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 69-72

BEST LURES: Live bait, cedar plugs, and feather.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg