Hurricane Paul Assaults Baja Coast

All the charts show Hurricane Paul missing Los Cabos, with it not even being included in the cone, but right now we are in the midst of a tropical storm, which are the outer bands of this hurricane, a catergory two, predicted to make landfall later today further up the Baja. It was around 4.30 am this morning when strong winds began to batter the coast as the storm moved parallel to Cabo. We are experiencing intermittent rain, which is heavy at times. The port and schools are closed today. Right now we are beginning to see some clear patches of sky. The good thing is the storm is moving fast so should be past us soon. Shown are a couple of pics taken at 8.00 am on the Pacific side close to Cabo Falso, better known as the Old Lighthouse. More updates as the day progresses.

Rain Has Stopped & It's Looking Clear Over the Mountains

A Couple of Rain Pics

We have heard from Robin on the East Cape and she has power and internet back which is great. The rain continues, though it is not super hard, but is persistant.  Photo 1 shows, downtown Cabo the boat launch ramp.
Photo 2 is just outside town; you can barely see the Pacific, everything just looks grey. Pretty cool how the raindrops were caught in mid flight. Looks like this might last a day or two but fishing should be really good afterwards and even during. Fish don't mind the rain, it's people that do.

Its Raining in Cabo

It's raining in Cabo and has been for the last twelve hours. What started out as light rain has now turned into a steady drenching rain. The port is open this morning, but the Port Captain has already said he will proably close it this afternoon. Hurricane Paul is located a litte over 500 miles to the south east of us, but is not predicted to come this way but rather make landfall further up the Baja, nevertheless, it looks like we are in for a lot of rain. Friends have reported by cell phone that they are without power and internet on the East Cape. This is the weather page we use, as it has a lot of information. Scroll down to see all the different formats of report and keep checking along with us http://eebmike.com/

Weekly Fish Report

October 6^th to 12^th, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 95%

This week at a glance:

Billfish 55%

Dorado 92%

Tuna 5%

Dorado was the name of the game, shown here the Iverson Family from Folson, Ca.

BILLFISH: This week we saw plenty of activity in Cabo, with lots of anglers taking advantage of the outstanding fishing we are currently experiencing.  Billfish rates climbed slightly to fifty five percent, with striped marlin the most frequently caught, followed by sailfish and then blue marlin. We had a handful of blue marlin, all were between 200 and 300 lbs – minimum weight for the upcoming tournaments is 300 lbs. Pisces “Valerie” did well to release two blues this week – on October 9^th and 12^th, for the same angler, Brian Barnsley from Walden, Colorado. Both of Brian’s fish were caught on a blue and pink lure, on the Cortez side at Cabeza de Ballena and Palmilla. Pisces “Fearless” a 50 ft Viking released a blue marlin on the Pacific side at San Cristobal, also on a pink lure, for Tommy Bowden from Gulf Shores, Alabama. Another boat that did well this week was Pisces 31 ft Cabo, “Cabolero” with two sailfish and six dorado in front of Pedregal, then a blue marlin, caught on live bait at Los Arcos the following day. Top striped marlin boat, was Pisces 28 ft Uniflite “Adriana” with three released  plus six dorado for Michael Flora from Dinuba, California; they fished on the Pacific near Migrino, with live caballito doing the trick on the billfish. “Tracy Ann”, Pisces 31 ft Bertram had a great day with Patrick Neville & family from Bradenton, Florida on October 9^th. They fished their way up the Pacific from San Cristobal to Golden Gate and picked up two sailfish, one striped marlin and fifteen dorado…not too shabby. There were so many other great catches, too many to mention but Pisces anglers caught 59 billfish this week, consisting of 32 striped marlin, 22 sailfish and 5 blue marlin.

OTHER SPECIES:  Practically every boat out this week caught dorado and a lot of it. Catches ranged from one to a maximum of thirty caught aboard “Rebecca” – of course a lot were released but our final tally was an impressive 607 fish, either caught or released. The dorado are hungry so are taking pretty much anything, though green colored lures seemed to be the most productive, as well as red and black lures, caballito and ballyhoo. Best place to find dorado was all the way up the Pacific coast as far as Golden Gate. Tuna catches were on the slow side, but that does not mean they are not there. With the excellent dorado and billfish catches, anglers tended to concentrate on these rather than go offshore in search of big tuna; nevertheless some boats did find them, such as Pisces “Great Escape Jr” who headed 22 miles out from Land’s End to catch a total of fifteen, up to twenty pounds plus a sailfish. We caught just one small wahoo this week and a few skipjack.

LOCATION: Pacific side was the most productive for all species.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Calm seas, except one day with whitecaps, clear skies.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 84 F

BEST LURES: green, pink, red, caballito, ballyhoo.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Amazing -Nothing to do with Fish, but we Loved this New Watersport

With a name like Zapata Racing, you think Mexico, or California, but actually this takes place in France of all places. Thanks Gary, for sending us this amazing video, that left us with our mouths open, kind of futuristic, definitely stunning.
Watch here:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/Cd6C1vIyQ3w

 

Fisherman Stabbed by Marlin - Fish Fights Back and Wins

Salvador Benitez has been a mate aboard the 31 ft Bertram "Blue Marlin" for five years. The twenty-four year old, is orginally from Ixtapa, mainland Mexico, but moved here to take advantage of the better job offers of the Cabo sportfishing industry. Last Wednesday was a day like any other, he left the dock along with Captain Luis Olascuaga and six anglers from Texas  and they headed out to the Pacific where they started fishing dorado, four miles offshore in front of Pedregal.They did well and in no time they had five dorado in the boat. They spotted a marlin tail on the surface and Salvador quickly cast a live "caballito" or green jack to the approximately 120 lb striper, hooking it up on the first cast. The rod was passed to one of the anglers and the fish dutifully headed towards the boat. It did not jump, it did not put up much of a fight and after ten minutes they had it to the leader. It was at this time, that the fish felt it was in danger; it sensed the nearby boat, looked up and saw the deckhand, who had the leader in his hand and launched itself skyward in a fury. Salvador reactly quickly and dodged the bill of the fish, at the same time thinking "it will land in the water and try to swim away" WRONG....the fish rebounded, as if it were on a pogo stick and hit him squarely in the side, about five inches below the armpit, with the bill piercing his flesh, before it dropped back into the water and released itself.  Salvador felt a sharp pain and saw a little blood, but being the young macho fisherman that he is, told the captain that he was fine and to keep on fishing. He put the lines out again, but after about ten minutes he was seeing black, felt weak and shook from the tremendous pain he told us he thought "I'm screwed" (pardon the French, just reporting it as we were told). They decided to head back and with a painkiller offered by the tourists aboard, Salvador was able to walk off the boat, where transportation was waiting to take him to the hospital. At the hospital doctors discovered that the marlin bill had entered between two ribs and pierced the pleura, a membrane covering the ribs, which is highly sensitive and appeaerd to have also made a small puncture in the lung, but as the incident took place so quickly, the lung had closed back over itself. They kept him in for observation to make sure the lung would not collapse, cleaned the wound and put in a few stitches before sending him home. We asked him what he had learned from this, to which he replied "never grab an angry marlin".

Salvador Benitez Shown Standing at Rear of Boat, Back to Work Yesterday, After His Battle with a 120 lb Striped Marlin

Update on Oarfish

Medano beach and the surrounding area is a Protected Natural Area, they have park wardens patrolling the area and these are the guys that took the oarfish away. Being a bit over-zealous, they zipped to the beach in panga, unceremoniously loaded the fish on board, took it out two miles and dumped it in the sea! So the scientisits will not be getting the tissue samples they requested. They did mention to us that they had seen another oar fish in the area of the Hotel Hacienda, so maybe we will see another one wash up  in the next few hours. Now that would be something, two in the same day!

Sea Monster Washes Up On Main Beach - Actually it is an Oarfish

Onlookers were stunned by this strange fish.

 

Around 10.15 this morning, Roberto Gonzalez a realtor from Pisces Real Estate, was working very hard, sitting under an umbrella on the main beach of Cabo -El Medano at an open house we are hosting today at Hacienda. He was right in front of Villa 2 when he saw a commotion on the beach and a small crowd gathered at the water's edge. His first thought was, "there's been an accident" then he saw three locals supporting what appeared to him as a monster from the deep. He ran down to get a closer look and saw them  assisting the strange creature, which appeard to be in distress as it struggled for air. The local beach guys, were helping the fish to float, but it continued to drift towards the beach. It really was a sight, being about twenty feet long, silver colored with spots and a bright orange dorsal fin.
Once ashore, it was put back in the water, but Roberto could tell it was not going to last long. A panga from the Protected Areas department came and took it away. We have contacted scientists in La Paz to advise them and they will come and pick it up for studies to be made. These are deep water fish, rarely seen, unless they are dying. This is the first we have heard of to ever wash up on the main beach of Cabo though.

This is what it looked like in the water

This close up shows what appears to be its air bladder in its mouth.
 

New Radio Show is Good News for Baja

Phil Friedman of 976-Tuna is a Baja aficionado and is producing a great new weekly radio show about Baja, what is going on and fishing. We were delighted to be invited to particpate on a weekly basis. This is a refreshing change from all the negative media coverage and shows what a safe and wonderful place our state is. Listen now to the first show (Pisces report is around minute 50) http://www.blogtalkradio.com/philipfriedmanoutdoors/2012/10/05/baja-now-with-phil-friedman