PISCES FISH REPORT
April 6th to 12th, 2013
Overall Catch Success Rate 82%
Number at a glance: Billfish 50%, Dorado 46%, Tuna 3.5%, Small Game 21%
BILLFISH: Striped marlin were the most likely catch for Pisces anglers this week, though it was rather up and down. Some days we had good catches when boats caught up to four in a day, followed by a drop down to one per day. As the week progressed, it was marlin catches one day, none the next, or half the boats caught and the others caught dorado or nothing. The water looks good, the temperature is a little lower than last week, but the fish on many days simply weren’t hungry. That said half of the boats we sent out did catch marlin. A contributing factor to the lower catch rate this week was the windy weather – our skittish new Port Captain, closed the port on two occasions; never heard of for this time of year. It was windy in Cabo, but up at San Jose where the boats were fishing, it was a different story. The beginning of this report is when we saw the better catches, such a Pisces Andrea with four striped marlin released for Dave Deeg & Randy Dodge from Alberta. Pisces Rebecca always seems to make the fish report and this week was no exception – they released four striped marlin and boated a dorado for the Roeder boys from Durham, New Hampshire on April 7th. Shambala was another of our boats with a four marlin day, six miles out from San Jose for Phillipe Roux from New York. Alan Greg and Daniel Atlas from Los Angeles had a great day aboard Tracy Ann, releasing three marlin and boating two dorado up to 30 lbs. La Brisa and Yahoo also had a triple marlin day. In the last few days captains report the fish as being “picky eaters and not hungry”, which means they are sighting them and throwing bait, but only hooked up half the time towards the end of this report. Sounds like how March should have been. Ballyhoo and caballito were the bait of choice; mackerel would probably be even better. Pisces anglers caught a total of 51 striped marlin this week, all but one released.
OTHER SPECIES: The second most likely catch after marlin this week was dorado, with forty six percent of charters landing between one and three. The dorado were taken on lures whilst trolling and looking for marlin and weighed up to 35 lbs. Tuna catches were super slow though we did have five aboard Pisces Valerie for Greg Nichols, who also caught a dorado and released a striped marlin. Pretty small though at no more than 20 lbs. The boats really only caught skipjacks in shore, but where we saw some fantastic catches was from the shore, where our surf fishing expert Wesley got clients multiple hook ups on sierra as well as some nice jack crevalle and even a red snapper. Wesley’s best day produced 24 sierra and 5 jack crevalle, at his top secret spot – the majority of these fish were released.
LOCATION: Punta Gorda, Cerro Colorado, Chileno, 95 spot, Cabeza de Ballena.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Most days windy but boats managed to fish within the wind line on the Cortez; Pacific rough.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 69 F
BEST LURES: Live bait, ballyhoo.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg