Rare Footage of Live Louvar

This video, shows rare footage of the 300 lb louvar found off of Cabo San Lucas, last Thursday. Credit for this film goes to Joe Estrada of San Antonio, Texas. 
 
Read the full story here http://piscesfleet.blogspot.mx/2012/11/update-on-louvar-story.html

Update on the Louvar Story

This morning we had a lenghty converation with Joe Estrada the 45 year old owner of an auto glass replacment business in San Antonio, Texas who claims that the 300 lb louvar, caught in Cabo on Thursday and circulated on the internet actually pertains to him and his two friends, Wayne Tauer who runs a boat repair shop and Greg Graham, a parole officer. Joe told me that they had already fished a couple of days with Dr. Pescado II and had a good time with the crew, they were out again on Thursday when the captain, Oscar, spotted the large orange shape just off of Land's End. Joe told me that they were amazed and had no idea what the fish was, though the captain knew it was good eating. "The fish was up on the surface and swimming in circles, it was missing a part of it's tail and there was obvioulsy something wrong with it", stated Joe.  They pullled up close to the fish and gaffed it and soon had it tied to the swimstep. 

"We wanted to head back with the fish" Joe said, "we knew it was an unusual catch". But the captain said "the dorado bite is good, let's stay and fish and I will find somebody to take it back". The captain got on the radio and the phone and made contact with the Marina II, who came and met up with them. They briefly tied the fish to the buoy to make the transfer from boat to boat so that they could float it and avoid the risk of losing the heavy fish.
They continued fishing and caught a dozen doardo, before heading back. As soon as they tied up to the dock, some guys approached and showed them a picture of their fish and when they asked where it was, they were told that it had been filleted and distributed to local people around the marina. We asked Joe what his captain's reaction had been and he said "he felt betrayed".
The video clearly shows that the fish was still quite lively and when asked about this Joe said "I don't know if I would have done the same thing (kill the fish) but that fish was not going to survive with half a tail". What disappointed Joe though was the way things were handled and the fact that he did not get to try a single bite of what is know to be a delicious species.

Joe did add "I like the fact that everbody was fed, I hate to see fish go to waste and I am glad that so many families got fed" when asked what it took away from this incident he said "Trust your instinct. I knew we should have headed back straight away with that fish and insistited upon it. All these guys work hard for a living and you can't put eveybody in same category, just because of one bad apple", he stated, referring to the captain of Marina II.

The Louvar Was Stolen!

After we posted the Louvar story a few days ago, our reservations office got a call from Joe Estrada, a fisherman who with friends, claims to be the real owner of the 300 lb louvar that was brought back to the dock last Friday. Apparently he and friends, all die-hard fisherman, had rented a boat called Dr. Pescado and they were the ones who spotted the large fish, just off of the arch, not four miles out from the Lighthouse, they had tied it off to a buoy and were planning on picking it up later, but their captain called somebody else, the Captain of Marina II and asked him to take the fish back to port and get it on ice, so it would not be ruined by the sun. Joe continued fishing and they caught some dordo, but the group was excited to head back to port to check out their strange catch. However, when they got back, there was no fish and they were told it had already been filleted & photos taken with the captain who was supposed to be doing them a favor - Joe told me that he "didn't get a single fillet" and as you can image was pretty upset. He told me "I have great photos, of the fish still alive in the water". We have a call scheduled with him this morning to get the rest of the details as his phone was low on battery when we spoke yesterday.

Pisces Weekly Fish Report - Oct27th to Nov30th

Overall Catch Success Rate for All Species 100%

BILLFISH: For Cabo standards billfish catches were on the low side this week with just sixteen percent of charters hooking up to marlin and sailfish. It appears that the mass migration that we usually see between November and December has not started yet; when striped marlin get spotted at Mag Bay by boats on their way back to Cabo from California, we know they are headed this way soon.  A lot of the bigger boats head north in summer to comply with insurance requirements hat want them out of the hurricane zone.  With the dorado catches so outstanding a lot of anglers are content to have plenty of action on a sure thing, rather than search for a billfish location. Top billfish boat for us this week was Pisces 28 ft Uniflite “Adriana” who managed to release two blue marlin, when others were having a hard time even locating a striper. On October 30^th, John Meyne, from Las Vegas was aboard when Adriana hooked a 250 lb blue marlin, just one mile off of Santa Maria, on a blue and white lure. The fish was released and they want on to boat two dorado and a skipjack. The second blue marlin for this vessel was caught by British angler Michael Taylor, from Bracknell, Berkshire in the same area, this time on a green lure and estimated at 270 lbs.  The only boat to have a double marlin day was Pisces “Valerie” on November 1^st when they released two striped marlin between 100 & 120 lbs and caught a small wahoo and eight dorado for Tim McNeil and Karl Reid from Whitecourt, Canada.  This boat was one of the only ones to release a sailfish, during the week also. It seems that the billfish catches were closer to shore this week, seldom more than four miles out. Pisces anglers caught a total of 11 billfish this week consisting of 7 striped marlin, 2 sailfish and 2 blue marlin – all released.

OTHER SPECIES: We might as well call this the dorado report, seeing as ninety percent of our boats caught an average of ten dorado per trip. The majority are being caught on the Pacific between the Old Lighthouse and Golden Gate and average 20 to 25 lbs. Our total dorado count this week was a whopping 557 fish, many released – a testament to the fact that Dorado is a species reserved for sportfishing and is not legally allowed as a commercial catch. This fish is a lot of fun to catch and is tasty to eat, but there is a huge push by the commercial fleet to get it removed from the list of species reserved for sportfishing. If that were to happen then we would have commercial boats, with their destructive fishing practices, right on our doorstep and the non-selective techniques that they use would decimate billfish populations as well as kill countless turtles. So please be aware of this and do not order dorado at any restaurant in Cabo – it cannot be sold commercially, so if it’s on the menu it’s illegal. We know it’s good to eat, but if there is a commercial demand, people will continue to sell it illegally and give strength to the commercial fisheries argument. You can catch your own dorado and take it to get cooked at a restaurant, but it cannot be sold. Conservation has to start with you…one person makes a difference. Besides the dorado, we had a few wahoo with Pisces “Tracy Ann” getting two in one day plus seven dorado for Mike McGuirk, from Newbury Park, Ca at La Ballena on October 30^th. Tuna catches were on the slow side, though we had some pangas that found them mixed with skipjacks close to Santa Maria, where they caught up to five football size, plus up to seven skipjacks in a day. The W.O.N tuna tournament is coming up with fishing next Thursday and Friday; we know the big tuna are there and we are keeping a close eye on “Wild Hooker” a boat that has been doing particularly well on this species and we expect to see in the prize money.

Craig Lebry from San Diego, Ca, Pamela Sheveland, Sonia Huggins and Gary Sheveland, from Cabo San Lucas, caught 8 Dorados, aboard Adriana Capt. Enrique "Kikon" Martinez.

 

LOCATION:  Santa Maria 1 to 3 miles, Pacific up to four miles out, Old Lighthouse to Golden Gate.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Perfect! It is November; best weather of the year, clear, sunny skies, calm seas.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP:  81 F

BEST LURES: Green combos, tigrillo, white/blue, petrolero, live bait.

Based on the Catches of Pisces By Tracy Ehrenberg

Rare Fish Surfaces in Cabo



 

 

We have not seen one of these strange fish in twenty two years and back in those days we were baffled having no idea what it was, but described it as "having a dorado shape head, tuna type body, wahoo tail and snapper color". Now we know that this fish is a louvar or Luvaras Imperialis. Not much is known about this elusive fish and it is rarely seen by humans and it is extremely rare to see a live specimen, as this one was.  Captain Josue Moreno, a twenty year old native of Cabo San Lucas and captain of the 28 ft cruiser Marina, left the dock this morning with some tourists he had signed up for a half day of fishing. They headed out to the Pacific in hopes of catching some dorado and were six miles off of the Old Lighthouse, when they spotted something big on the surface of the water "I thought it was a red snapper or a tuna" he told us, "so we went over to investigate and saw this really weird fish, like something we had never seen before. It was still alive, but almost dead, struggling to breathe. So we gaffed it and had a really hard time getting it on to the swimstep. The tourists on board were amazed and kept asking us what it was, but we had no idea".  Once secured on the back of the boat, they carried on fishing and picked up a few doardo before heading back to the marina at 11.30. The fillet guys knew what it was; they remembered the one from years ago and wrote up the photo board with the correct name for the captain to get his picture. After doing a bit of reseach we see that his 300 lb specimen is about as big as they get and learned that the flesh is delicious being compared to halibut and even swordfish. This species spends its entire life in the open ocean with jellyfish being its main diet.

 





 



Weird Color of Winning Boat

Does this boat stand out like a sore thumb? You bet it does, but the smirks stopped when Frantic Pace, shown below swept the scoreboard and pocketed $2,396,800.00 dollars in the Bisbee Black and Blue. Exactly a week ago these guys were ecstatic, weighing in the only qualifier. Now that color, was it a factor in the catch? Seems to me, the boat could have appeared as one giant lure to the fish.

Dorado Time In Cabo

Dorado catches are oustanding in Cabo right now, with close to ninety percent of our boats catching between four an fifteen fish each, with weights ranging from 15 to 30 lbs.  This group looks really happy and why not? They are in Cabo, the weather is great and they have plenty of fillets to take home after fishing aboard Pisces 28 ft Adriana. Shown here are Cragi Lebry from San Diego, Pam & Gary Sheveland & Sonia Huggins from Cabo San Lucas.

Pisces Weekly Fish Report

PISCES FISH REPORT

OCTOBER 20^TH TO 26^TH, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate 89%

BILLFISH: What a week! One of the most important tournaments worldwide and the richest one just took place in Cabo, the Bisbee’s Black & Blue 2012, with 107 teams and over 700 anglers. Unfortunately there were not many fish worth taking back to the weight station, with a minimum 300lbs weight limit, anything smaller would have been disqualified and the team penalized. With a total of 67 billfish caught, 64 of them were released, 3 were brought to the weight station, unfortunately, 2 of them were below the limit and the fish was disqualified. As on day one there were no qualifying fish brought to scale, the $711,000 jackpot was rolled over to the second day, adding up to a $1.4 million dollar price to whoever brought in the biggest catch, lucky team Frantic Pace (fishing the tournament for the very first time) brought in their blue marlin to be weighed and scored 465lbs, with no other fish caught that day, they took home the jackpot. At the end of the 3^rd day, there was no other qualifying fish brought to the station, and Team Frantic Pace being the only team presenting a qualified catch, they earned the full jackpot, $2.4 million dollars for this first timers, I think we will be seeing them a lot around here from now on.

On our regular report, not too much action on billfish, “Tracy Ann” released 2 striped marlin and landed 4 dorado for Clint Lord from Phoenix AZ on the 23^rd and then another 2 stripeys for Christopher Klekar from Halletsville TX and also 13 dorados. “Bill Collector” caught a 270 lbs Black Marlin for Matthew Rainwater from Forth Worth TX. 31% of the boats caught billfish this week, a total of 18 striped marlin were caught, 17 were released, 3 pacific sailfish, all released, 4 blue marlin, 3 of them released, and a 270 lbs black marlin.

OTHER CATCHES: It’s all about the Dorado, hundreds of them! Seems like we will be having mahi-mahi for a while. 89% of the boats caught at least one of this guys. Most of the catches were between 3 and 7 fish, but there were some really nice ones, starting with Bill Collector, with 15 dorados between 20 – 25lbs caught at Pozo Cota for Eric Katajamaki from BC Canada, La Brisa with 13 for Brian O’neil from Berlin NJ, Rebecca & Tracy Ann are tied with 12 dorados for Sean Patterson from Little Elm TX (Rebecca) and Jim Jandrain from Austin TX. The catch of the week however goes to “Ruthless” with Captain Leon Camacho, with 20 dorados caught at Migriño for Dennis Wyssbrod’s party from Florida. We are still waiting on the yellow fin tunas to arrive, we have the Los Cabos Tuna Jackpot closing in and only 4 boats of our fleet caught tuna.

LOCATION: Migriño, Los Arcos, Pozo Cota, Margaritas.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear sunny sky.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 86 F

BEST LURES: Caballito, assorted lures.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Jorge Narro

1.4 million dollar marlin caught 2nd day of the Bisbee's Black & Blue

After a 79 minutes fight, angler Dave Sanchez from Team Frantic Pace landed the first blue marlin qualified to bring back to the scale to be weighed.

Back at the docks, the fish was brought to the scale and it weighed a total of 465 lbs. As the first day of the tournament there were no winners, the $700K jackpot was rolled over to the second day, earning Dave and the Frantic Pace Team a net $1.4 million dollar jackpot.

$1.4 million dollar winners. Team Frantic Pace, 1st time ever participating in the tournament.

BISBEE'S BLACK & BLUE TOURNAMENT UPDATE THE FIRST DAY OF THE BLACK AND BLUE GOT OFF TO A SLOW START FOR THE 706 ANGLERS DIVIDED IN 106 TEAMS.

At the end of the day, yesterday only one boat brought a fish to be weighed, which cost him several points as it turned to be smaller than the specified weight. The day ended with a tie between 4 boats, all with 300 points, Teams Sea Angel, Sneak Attack and Chupacabra by releasing a blue marlin each, and Team Hammertime by releasing the first black marlin of the tournament.
As the first day did not bring any qualified winners, the daily jackpot rolls over to 1.4 Million for the 2nd day.