The Latest News

MAY 19^th to 25^th, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate for All Species Combined 73%

THIS BEAUTIFUL STRIPED MARLIN, WAS RELEASED BY ONE OF OUR DUTCH ANGLERS DURING THE EUROPEAN SEA ANGLERS DUTCH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

BILLFISH: As noted in last week’s fish report, fishing dropped off abruptly on the last day of the IGFA World Offshore Championship, when only eight marlin were caught and that vein continued for several days as we were blasted by blustery winds and fog on the Pacific as well as whitecaps on the Cortez side for several days. Nevertheless fifty percent of anglers did catch marlin this week with the catches generally one or two fish per boat; the only exception was “La Brisa” on May 22^nd for Jaap Hoorenman & Bernard Kortman from Holland who were here participating in the European Federation of Sea Anglers, Dutch National Championship – Jaap, in his eighties, ended up taking first place amongst a field of very skilled and experienced anglers. Fishing for this group ended up being very good; we were honored to have them fish with Pisces for this prestigious event which combined five days of panga fishing inshore, followed by three days of cruisers offshore. The final tally for the Dutchmen was 75 roosterfish, 16 chopos, 14 sierras, 10 jack crevalles, 6 skipjacks, 1 sea bass, 3 bonitas, 13 pompano, 11 striped marlin, 2 dorado and 1 yellowfin tuna – not bad for eleven guys fishing 12 lb test on the pangas and 30 lb test on the cruisers, quite an achievement in fact. Overall a little under half of the boats caught striped marlin between the 11.50 spot and Punta Gorda. Pisces anglers caught and released 34 striped marlin this week. Weights on the striped marlin ranged from 90 to 110 lbs.

ONE OF 75 ROOSTERFISH RELEASED BY OUR DUTCH ANGLERS

OTHER SPECIES:  The section above gives you an idea of how the inshore fishing was, but we did have a little bit of action offshore too. For the first time in months we caught some yellowfin tuna; several boats had one and two fish but they were small at 10 to 20 lbs.  Some dorado were also caught but again not very large at up to 22 lbs.

A HUGE YELLOWTAIL FOR ANOTHER DUTCH ANGLER

LOCATION: 11.50 spot, 95 spot, Punta Gorda, Land’s End to Old Lighthouse

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear sunny skies, windy, cold and foggy on the Pacific, Cortez whitecaps on three consecutive days.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 67 to 69 F, which explains the slowdown on fishing.

BEST LURES: caballito, ballyhoo, jurelito, cedar plugs, guacayamos.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Latest Fishing Update & Tournament News

May 12^th to 18^th, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate 80%

This Local Team From Cabo, Released 37 Marlin to Clinch their Fourth Consecutive World Title

BILLFISH: This week was an exciting and active week in Cabo, with lots of international visitors in town. Before the week for the IGFA World Offshore Championship kicked off, we began hosting a group from Holland who decided to have fun competing against each other aboard pangas and now this week they will go on to use 31ft Bertrams in their informal event. The IGFA tournament kicked off on Monday with 48 teams signed up from all over the world. First day saw fast and furious action with hook ups reported before 8.00 am and Pisces “Valerie” taking the top spot for releasing eleven striped marlin for the Cabo team, seeking their fourth consecutive title as world champions. On the first day of the event 139 striped marlin were released; an impressive number. Day two was even better with 152 striped marlin released. Day three saw the Cabo team on the Pisces 42 ft Bertam “Yahoo” managing to release fifteen marlin, other outstanding boats for us in the first few days were “Great Escape Jr.” releasing twelve marlin in one day and “Rebecca” for releasing nine. The fourth day of the tournament saw the fishing shut down as a cold wind blew from the Pacific, which was blanketed in fog, as water temperatures dropped.  From a third day catch of 102 marlin it dropped to just 8 on the final day. The winners were for the fourth time, the Cabo team with a whopping 7400 points for catching  37 marlin, with the second place team from Spain totaling 19 marlin and 3800 points and third place with 3600 points going to Portuguese team for 18 marlin. In our regular Pisces news our anglers caught a total of 151 striped marlin this week, all released as well as one sailfish with the last two days slowing down considerably due to the colder weather.

Michael Carreno from Danville , Ca. Released his first marlin aboard Valerie, May 20th. Approx 150 lbs, this healthy fish was successfully released.

OTHER SPECIES:  Not much by way of dorado or tuna this week, with just three dorado and one small tuna but inshore the pangas we sent out did very well at the start of the week, until the cold weather hit.  We had a roosterfish bonanza this week totaling 85 caught and released, with Salsa being the top producer; eleven in one day for Jaap Hoorenman and Bernand Kortmann from Holland. The weights on the roosters are 10 to 25 lbs. Also plenty of activity on skipjacks, jack crevalle, fair amounts of yellowtail, sierra and one boat had thirteen pompano released in on day.  A 200 lb mako shark was released aboard Petrolero.

LOCATION: 11.50 and Punta Gorda for marlin, small game from Land’s End to the Old Lighthouse.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Nice on Cortez until Friday, Pacific whitecaps and fog, now calmer.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 67-73 F

BEST LURES: ballyhoo, caballito, and hoochis.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Great Start To IGFA World Offshore Championship; we are in the lead!

Yesterday was the start of the four day IGFA, World Offshore Championship.
Forty seven teams from all over the world signed up for some world class fishing. Valerie did fantastic releasing eleven striped which put Roberto Sandez at the top of the Captains leader board.

Weekly fish report May 5th to 11th. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 87%

BILLFISH: This week’s report could be called the marlin report, because by far and away they were the number one catch in Cabo, with the 11.50 spot the hottest spot in the area. This is good news as on Monday the 14^th the World Offshore Championship Tournament, is taking place organized by the maximum authority in the sport fishing world IGFA (International Game Fish Association). This week we saw plenty of wise international teams, get into town early to practice with local crews and techniques ahead of the main event, which is spread over four days of fishing. The anglers fish on a different boat every day, randomly selected by a draw at check in and can only use 30 lb line and catch fish unassisted. Seventy four percent of our boat caught between one and five marlin per day with the odd boat here and there “skunked”. A group from Los Angeles, consisting of Bob Alvarado, Mark Taylor, Rick Pires and Greg Keir, were our top boat for releasing five striped marlin aboard “Fearless” on May 10^th on ballyhoos.  Gary and Sue Hall long time clients and friends from Snomohosh, WA released four marlin up to 150 lbs on May 9^th aboard “Tracy Ann”. Matt Rainwater from Fort Worth, Texas, loves to fish on “Bill Collector” with Julio and no wonder, on his several trips this week he caught and released sixteen marlin, caught a dorado, went inshore one day for small game and even got skunked one day, but no complaining from him. “Valerie” had a quadruple marlin day on the 5^th for Murray Brummer and friends from Colorado, fishing at; you guessed it the 11.50 with a combination of live caballito and dead ballyhoo. Pisces anglers caught a total of 65 striped marlin this week, with all but one released.

Picture here by Mario Bañaga, he went out on Tracy Ann to get some pictures, they spotted this marlin off of Cabo Bello. Nice to see the circle hook in action doing exactly what its supposed to do, hook the fish where is not going to do any damage.

OTHER SPECIES: With everybody hot and heavy after the marlin, not many people tried for other species, though we did have a few dorado picked up on lures and bait in the same area. Nicest dorado was caught by Australian, Ross Martin, which weighed 40 lbs and took a ballyhoo. Inshore boats caught some rooster fish up to 20 lbs, a few yellowtail up to 20 lbs and cabrillas up to 25 lbs.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Sunny and warm on Cortez, still cool on Pacific, seas calm.

LOCATION: 11.50 spot. Inshore, Lands End to Old Lighthouse.

WATER TEMP: 68- 72 F

BEST LURE/BAIT: Caballito & ballyhoo

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Nice Weather & Catches Today

It was cold on the Pacific today but not on the Cortez side, as shown here at the 11.50 spot where La Brisa released this 145 lb striped marlin for Larry Haight from Moor Park Ca, mate Salvador is also in the photo. Fish took Larry 30 minutes to get to the boat after it took a ballyhoo.

Australia Gets Meal Aboard Rebecca

Australian angler gets a great meal aboard the Rebecca, with J.R Alucano. Meet Ross Martin from Australia; he caught the biggest dorado we have seen in awhile today, this male (recognized by the square head) was caught on a ballyhoo at the 11.50 spot. Now which one do you think is Jose Ramon and which one is the Australian?

PISCES FISH REPORT April 28th to May 4th, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate 100%

BILLFISH: What a great week for fishing, beautiful weather, clear sunny sky and tons of striped marlin. Multiple catches on most boats, there were actually quite few the ones who caught only one fish, most of them were between 3 and 4 striped marlin. Our 42 ft “Yahoo” and the 32ft “Bill Collector” were the only two boats to reach 5 marlin released in one day, Yahoo with Captain Ricardo Escamilla released all 5 of them for the Kenedy party from Englewood CO on April 29^th, and Captain Julio Gonzales aboard the Bill Collector for Mattew Rainwater and Sean O’neil from Texas on May 3^rd. “Andrea” released 4 striped marlin for Joseph Eskew from Lewsville TX on April 30^th, and another 4 for Danny Dale King’s party from Syracuse, UT on May 2^nd, same day “Adriana “ also released 4 stripeys for Brad Child and Zack McGahey from San Mateo, CA, and the “Yahoo” released also 4 striped marlin for Mark Chiavetta and Captain Julio Gonzales from the Bill Collector, weird isn’t it? 85% of the boats caught marlin, a total of 67 striped marlin were caught, all of them were successfully released :D

OTHER SPECIES: Very few boats went out looking for small game this week, however, the ones who did, came back with roosterfish, yellowtail and Spanish mackerel (sierrita). Still very slow for Dorado, only 4 were caught in the whole week, tuna season is closing in, remember last May we caught 157 tunas and it jumped to 800 in June.

LOCATION: 11:50 spot for the marlin, Old Lighthouse and Pedregalito for small game.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: 91 – 94 F, beautiful week, although on Friday there was an electric storm and huge black clouds, however, only 20 seconds of rain, that was our London weather of the year.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 68 - 72F

BEST LURES: Live bait, small yellowtail, dead ballyhoo. Green lures.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Jorge Narro.

Todays Roundup by Popular Request

It has been brought to our attention that some of you just want the quick facts and not a whole story, so here goes.

April 30th: La Brisa 3 striped marlin, Andrea 3 striped marlin.
April 29th: Valerie 2 striped marlin, Yahoo 5 striped marlin, 1 dorado.
April 28th: Rebecca 2 striped marlin 1 dorado, Ruthless 4 yellowtail 2 sierra,  Andrea 1 striped marlin.

Latest Fish Report

April 20th to 27th, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate for all Species Combined 90%

Ruthless April 27th, this angler was overjoyed to meet his marlin up close and personal before letting him go.

BILLFISH: This week we had very good marlin catches, making it the number one fish in Cabo. Close to seventy percent of our charters caught striped marlin between 120 and 180 lbs with catches ranging from one to six fish per boat per day. This is quite surprising as the weather has been rather windy and very breezy on the Pacific; however the catches have all be on the Cortez side with the 11.50 spot still the best place for a marlin encounter. Our top boat this week was 31 ft Bertram “La Brisa”; they had a total of eighteen marlin over five trips. Best day for this boat was April 26^th when they had Randy & Steve Mazzuca aboard from Walnut Creek, Ca along with Jamie Jose from Graham, Wa.  All of their fish were caught on live bait, with the largest being 140 lbs. This same day “Ruthless” had four at the same location, the 11.50 for the Rowe’s from Stewart, British Columbia. One other boat with a quadruple marlin day on this same date was “Yahoo” for group from Cambridge Mass, headed up by Robert Walsh.   A few days before this it was the “Rebecca” that came back with most flags, for releasing four marlin on ballyhoo for Pam & Jeff Redmond, Barry & Connie Gosselin from Canada. Anglers had a lot of fun and it was exciting to have so much action, even though there was an odd boat here and there, doing everything right, being in the right place at the right time, with the right bait, that failed to get a hook up”; but that’s fishing. Pisces anglers had a total of seventy two striped marlin this week, with seventy released.

More marlin aboard Ruthless April 27th, great day, just look at the colors.

OTHER SPECIES: It was a bonanza inshore this week. We had a group that fished several pangas from Pedregal up to El Molino on the Pacific, which was cold and windy, but who cares when you are catching fish. The water on the Pacific was considerably colder 67 to 70 degrees, but the fish liked it, affording opportunities for yellowtail, roosterfish, sierra, skipjack and some nice cabrillas caught aboard the panga “Salsa”. The group we had from Colorado had a fabulous time having a friendly competition, followed by an informal awards dinner at Captain Tony’s where they brought their catch to be cooked. We had a thresher

Thresher shark 110 lbs aboard La Brisa, they also released three marlin

 shark, the largest we have seen in a while aboard “La Brisa” on April 27^th. Captain Rey had anglers Greg Nelson, Teymur Englesby & Harley Mayers from Vancouver aboard at the 11.50 spot. They had already released three striped marlin when the crew spotted the shark jumping amongst the marlin. They had ballyhoo ready to go and pitched it to the shark which took it immediately. The anglers decided to keep, what turned out to be a 110 lb specimen.

LOCATION: For marlin the 11.50 spot and just beyond it was the ticket. This is on the Cortez side about 27 miles from Cabo and around 20 miles offshore. For smaller game it was Pacific from Land’s End to the desal plant.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: We use Terrafin to check sea surface temperatures and what to look for is the temperature break, in other words, where two different temperatures appear side by side, this causes an upwelling of nutrients and usually spells fish in the area. This week we could see 67 F next to 72 F water, exactly at the 11.50 spot, which is probably why the catches were so good there for marlin.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Some partly cloudy days especially towards the close of the week, rough on the Pacific, calm to moderate seas on the Cortez side.

BEST LURES: Live bait or ballyhoo

Based on the Catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Inshore Catches Were Great Today!

The guys in the photo above are Phil Owens & Chris Frey from Denver, Colorado. They had a great time on Ginny, sierra, rooster and yellow tail.

Shown on the left is style icon captain Francisco of the panga Salsa. A catch not often seen was three cabrillas (sea bass) as well as a yellowtail for Rob Tichy, Steve Pohl, Kelly Wood from Colorado.

 In this panga, Santi, they also had some nice yellowtail  for Mike Lisisko, Mike Ortega, Pete Holt, also from Colorado.

Happy anglers from the Panga Gloria, they have enough fish here to feed several people. 

Hey, this guy doesn't care that he only caught a sierra he was still thrilled.