The Tuna Weigh in was a Zoo

This is an arial shot of the weigh in which we thought was pretty cool.

Beautiful Cabo Sun ...or was it Moon Rise?

It's a beautiful morning here in Cabo, autumn is finally here and it was  a bit cooler this morning. The moon was coming up at the same time as the sun and we were moved to snap a couple of pictures.

Louvar, Rare Fish - We Answer Back

Just checking the comments left for us in regard to this story, some were pretty nasty - so please take time to read the stories properly.
1. Pisces did not catch this fish - neither of the boats associated with this story belong to us.
2. We did not steal anybody's fish.
3. We are just reporting the news....don't shoot the messenger!

Los Cabos Tuna Jackpot 2012 Results

W.O.N JACKPOT TUNA TOURNAMENT

Winning team gets their check

This year’s tuna tournament was without a doubt the best ever, everything about it, the organization, the people, the parties, the fishing were fantastic. There is a real sense of community around this event. People came from as far afield as Alaska and Wyoming to take part in this tournament which due to the low entry fee is accessible to anybody – you don’t have to be a millionaire to take part, you have jackpot options if you really want to try and win some big money and the amount of door prizes and raffles, means most people do not go home empty handed – including a local children’s home which benefited from the generosity of the anglers.

One hundred and twenty one teams signed up, making this the largest tournament held in Cabo in 2012. A field of mostly local charter boats, though a fair share or larger, private sportfishers also participated in the two days of fishing on Thursday and Friday.  For sheer numbers of big fish, there has never been a better year.

Shotgun start.

Day one saw twelve fish over 100 lbs come to the scale and five over 200 lbs – in previous years a 200 lbs fish was good enough to put you in the money, but this year it was no guarantee. Team Renegade Mike stole the show when they weighed in a 266 lbs fish, caught aboard a 31 ft Bertram – a very nice fish and the thinking was that this was quite possibly the tournament winner. Team “Santana” had  a couple of the guys on board from the team that had landed a 383 lb - the current tournament record – so this really got our attention as we made our way down to the boat as it backed in. The fish looked good, longer than Team Renegade’s, but was it fatter? The answer was soon provided as the weighmaster called out “224 lbs”.  Team Santana trailed away disappointed, not realizing that they were in the money, to the tune of $92,000.00 due to the jackpots they had entered. This day not a dorado or wahoo was weighed in over the 30 lb minimum

Team Renegade Mike with their 266 lb tuna

Day two, started out fabulous, with over 100 people on the committee boat, organized as a charity event with sponsors and guests on board, enjoying mimosas, breakfast burritos and getting in on the excitement of 121 boats jostling for position, contained in a small area behind the start boat.  Fishing this day was even better with thirteen fish over 100 lbs, five fish over 200 lbs and what ended up being the overall winner a 372 lb tuna,  for team North Star a striking wooden boat,  cold molded with a fiberglass liner, Carolina style of just 30 feet. It looks more like an Italian speed boat than a fishing boat, but who cares, they know how to catch fish.

Winning fish was fat at 372 lbs

Tournament Results:

1^st North Star  372 lb tuna  total winnings $223,540.00

2^nd Renegade Mike 266 lb tuna $95,240.00

3^rd Dona Meche 262 lb tuna $2,420.00

Day 1 optionals Santana 224 lb tuna $92,000.00

Optional $10,000 pot two days, went to Maybe Manana who did not need a big fish, in fact theirs was just 97.7 lbs to win them $72,000.00.

Nice pay off for a 30.5 lb wahoo for team Baja Bait, who took the rollover to the second day and took home  $79,200.

Hard luck story was for team Missing Lenk; they were entered in the $10,000 jackpot and had a nice fish, but broke down – team Maybe Manana went by with their fish on board, which they knew was smaller, the twist is that the captain of Mabye Manana and Missing Lenk are brothers, plus the father of both captains was also aboard the distressed vessel. Team Maybe Manana were in a dilemma as to what to do, should they stay and help or go in and weight their fish. There was a 6.00 pm deadline to be back at the marina or the fish could not be weighed. They turned back to Maybe Manana, made sure they were O.K then headed in to weigh their 97 lb fish, but looked pretty glum. They then headed out to assist Missing Lenk who coming in on one engine did not make it back in time but who would have taken the $10,000 optionals with their 217 lb fish.

Team Maybe Manana had to leave family behind to get his payday

Pisces Weekly Fish Report Nov 3rd to 9th

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 96.4%

BILLFISH: An extremely busy week in Cabo with the W.O.N Jackpot Tuna Tournament going on, which we shall write a separate report on. It was really nice to see people & sponsors new to the area that raved about the Cabo fisher and told us they travel all over the world and that there is nothing like Cabo, so let’s all keep up the good work and keep protecting our sportfish. The marlin are starting to show up, despite reports that they are not at Mag Bay, we saw our catch rate start to edge up slightly, with twenty four percent of boats catching striped marlin or sailfish, but then again the water temperature is still warm as is the weather overall – striped marlin tend to favor water around 70 F. Top boat this week without a doubt was Pisces “Bill Collector” on November 4^th, when they caught and released three striped marlin and a sailfish, plus six dorado for Rob & Ryan Thomson from New Mexico at Cabeza de Ballena – all the billfish took live bait and the dorado green colored lures. Another boat that did well was Pisces  “C Rod”, a 38 ft Blackfin with two striped marlin released plus ten dorado, fishing at Golden Gate on the Pacific and Elias Calles for Jim Schraith from the aptly named Dorado Hills, Ca and David Cremin from Los Angeles. There were other boats that did well with a single marlin plus dorado – like Pisces “Tracy Ann” on November 9^th with a striper, sixteen dorado and a 27 lb wahoo that missed out on winning $79,000 in the Tuna Tournament by three and a half pounds. Pisces anglers caught twenty three billfish this week consisting of 18 striped marlin and 5 sailfish, all released.

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado catches are nothing short of amazing right now, with eighty seven percent of boats hooking up to fish in the 15 to 25 lb category…rarely  are they larger than that right now, but the sheer numbers made up for this giving anglers catches of one to twenty two fish in a  day. It is nice to see people being responsible by releasing smaller fish as well as those above the quotas. It was not unusual to see a boat report, twenty fish caught and ten released – this sets a great example and shows that people are thinking. Our total dorado catch this week was 668 fish, both caught and released.  Tuna catches for the regular charter boats were on the slow side at just fourteen percent. Those in the tournament concentrating only on this species actually did well at Punta Gorda and straight out from Cabo. Our largest was aboard Pisces “Great Escape Jr” with Zev Hendeles and family from New York with a beautiful 144 lb’er caught out from San Jaime – they kindly donated the fillets to local children’s home. Wahoo catches improved slightly but they were all small fish, nothing larger than 30 lbs. “Bill Collector” released a small hammerhead shark that was around 40 lbs. The only other catch was skipjack tuna closer in to shore.

Deckhand Salvador Flores from "La Brisa" with a very nice Dorado.

LOCATION:  Pacific, Land’s End to Golden Gate, Cabeza de Ballena and Punta Gorda.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Perfect; clear sunny skies, calm seas.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP:  81 F

BEST LURES: Live bait for billfish, green colored lures, cedar plugs.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

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.