Overall Catch Success Rate All Species 72%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 72%, Dorado 4%, Small Game 26%
BILLFISH: This week we saw quite a drop on billfish catches, but this was a case of them moving beyond the regular reach of day charter boats, rather than them not biting. When studying the sea surface temperatures it was pretty evident that that the fish had moved up to the East Cape beyond the range of charters leaving out of Cabo, nevertheless there were still some strays off of Punta Gorda and Destiladeras; in fact the week started out with steady catches of one and two marlin each, before turning into three days where even our top marlin boats got “skunked”. Thankfully as the week drew to a close we again started to see some fabulous catches as the fish moved back into the Los Cabos area resulting in an outstanding day for Pisces La Brisa, who released eight marlin for Rob Young & Amber Brabham, from Austin, Texas, fishing with Andrew Liu and Amy Sly from Seattle; Amber was also very fortunate to catch a 45 lb. A combination of live caballito and frozen ballyhoo did the trick for the marlin, whilst the wahoo took a green and yellow lure. This same day saw Pisces Rebecca release five striped marlin between 100 and 130 lbs. for Svendson and friends from Scottsdale, Arizona, off of Destiladeras. Not far behind, also on June 14th, was Pisces Tracy Ann with four marlin released for Amy & Jeremy Ross, from Lufkin, Texas. As we close this report some boats reported double digit marlin catches and one private boat reported released two sailfish as well as five marlin. The first boat to break back in the marlin after their three day absence though was Pisces Valerie, with four released on June 13th for Fritz & Clark Weiss, from Houston, Texas. Fifty three percent of Pisces boats caught marling this week, giving us a total of 86 marlin released, all but one released.
OTHER SPECIES: There was great action on inshore fish and thankfully they could be found at both ends of the spectrum of our fishing grounds, that is off of the Old Lighthouse on the Pacific and off of La Playita in San Jose. When the marlin fishing yielded a blank, there was often time, if the boats were not too far offshore, to try for jack crevalle, yellowtail and roosterfish. Pisces Adriana did very well on roosters, a prized catch for many anglers, for Daniel & Erin Pendarias from Dallas, Texas – releasing seven up to 40 lbs. inshore at Punta Gorda on live bait. This same day Pisces Ruthless released six roosters on live bait at La Playita for Craig Smitham fishing with the Frisby family also from Dallas. Mike Conger from Norcross, Georgia had plenty of fillets of good eating fish after catching twelve yellowtail up to 25 lbs. on the Pacific side aboard Pisces Cabolero. Catches inshore of jack crevalle were pretty good on fish up to 35 lbs.; a great fight on lighter tackle. Just a few dorado were caught this week; lone fish found when trolling for marlin – Pisces Great Escape Jr had a nice 50 lb. specimen for Tara & Andy Joslyn from Florida, who also released two marlin.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Cold and windy early mornings in Cabo with the fog bank extending down and close to shore from the Pacific, seas moderate to calm. A change was felt midweek when the evening air became warmer.
LOCATION: Marlin on the Cortez side 11.50 spot, Punta Gorda, Destiladeras, inshore La Playita, and Pacific off of Old Lighthouse and the desal plant.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 71-75 F
BEST LURES: Live caballito, jurelito, chankleta, frozen ballyhoo.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg