PISCES FISH REPORT
APRIL 20th to 27th, 2012
Overall Catch Success Rate for all Species Combined 90%
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 26th 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.
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 booked. We had a thresher shark, the largest we have seen in a while aboard “La Brisa” on April 27th. 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.
Based on the Catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg