PISCES FISHING REPORT
Sept 15th to 21st, 2012
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 94%
BILLFISH: The big story in Cabo this week was not for marlin, but for yellow fin tuna, with the possible new all tackle world record being caught as per our mid-week report, however, we did see an increase on billfish catches with a few more marlin appearing, whereas in previous weeks sailfish have dominated. We even caught a couple of blue marlin, smallish in size, but at least it’s a good sign that more are on the way albeit late. The blue marlin were caught aboard “Tracy Ann” and “Rebecca”. Wayne Francis from Kansas got the first of the week aboard Rebecca on a lemon green lure, fishing off of Punta Ballena and boated a dorado too. The second one was slightly larger aboard “Tracy Ann”, estimated at 200 lbs, released outside of San Jaime, by Jeff Sweeney from Winter Park, Florida after it took a live caballito. These same two boats had some of the best catches of the week; “Tracy Ann” had Brian Holland, Steve Carlson & Steve Kinderman from Florida aboard on September 17th when they released two striped marlin and a sailfish, before boating a dorado at Pozo de Cota. “Rebecca” had back to back double marlin days on the 16th and 17th; first day for Amy & Chris Renegar from Belton, Texas and the second day for Sarah Crowe & Kala Buser from Perth, Australia. Amy & Chris also did exceptionally well on “La Brisa” off of Elias Calles catching and releasing a striped marlin & a sailfish and caught a wahoo and six dorado also. September 21st, saw “Great Escape Jr.” on a roll as they caught and released two striped marlin and reeled in fourteen dorado for Kelly Johns and party from Rockwall, Texas. Overall fifty four percent of Pisces boats caught billfish consisting of 17 striped marlin, 9 sailfish & 2 blue marlin, all but one fish released.
OTHER SPECIES: The big story was the huge yellow fin tuna caught; weight has now been officially confirmed at 427 lbs on a certified scale. The giant fish was caught by Guy Yocom from Dana Point, Ca, aboard his 61 ft Viking, “El Suertudo”, which just happens to mean “the lucky one”, 180 miles off of Cabo on a chunk bait and took just fifty five minutes to tame and have in the boat, perhaps due to the fish being tail wrapped. If the lengthy approval process goes smoothly and we shouldn’t see why it should not, this will the largest ever yellow fin tuna caught on rod and reel. Other tuna catches closer to home dropped substantially this week with just seventeen percent of boats catching from one two nineteen fish – our highest count, by Art Hevener from, Pennsylavania- with weights from 15 to 30 lbs. Our total tuna count this week 34 fish. Dorado catches jumped to an eighty percent catch rate this week, giving us a total fish count for this species of 145 fish. Pozo Cota and Gaspareno proved to be the most productive area for dorado with bait and green colored lures working well. We had a few wahoo this week but none more than 40 lbs, nevertheless a nice catch as one of the best eating fish. Andrea released a 40 lb hammerheard shark. We had one angler that missed out on one of his scheduled trips due to the port being closed, so he only got one day out aboard “Tracy Ann”, he was unable to get a billfish, though did manage a dorado, nevertheless, Captain Julio, always wanting to give good service, hooked him up with a beautiful 40 lb roosterfish right from the dock, when they arrived after fishing.
LOCATION: Pozo Cota to Golden Gate on Pacific, some boats went to the Cortez off of Punta Ballena and Cerro Colorado.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Hot and sunny, seas mostly calm, one day with whitecaps on the Pacific.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 85-88 F
BEST LURES: Ballyhoo, Caballito, green colors, flying fish, orange.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg