Overall Catch Success Rate 88%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 67%, Dorado 36%, Small Game 28%
BILLFISH: The striped marlin bit is still not full throttle but we were really happy that they moved in closer to Cabo so that anglers don’t have to run thirty plus miles. Catches were excellent for some boats, with one of the top performers this week being Pisces Listo; they released three fish up to 150 lbs. 14 miles off of Palmilla on May 11th for Mark & Jim Fairchild from Houston, followed by four marlin on May 13th, this time at the 11.50 spot for Nathan Miller, Chase Anderson & Jordan Siu from British Columbia. Ernesto Rivera from San Diego completed this boats catching streak, with four marlin released on ballyhoo also at the 11.50 spot. Pisces Valerie had the highest one day marlin count with five stripers to the boat for Joby & Jose Yoby from Los Angeles, California. They used a combination of live caballito & frozen ballyhoo for bait. Davis Heeter from Las Vegas got lucky with three marlin aboard Pisces Tracy Ann , with Melissa Anderson along to help reel them in. Many of the marlin continue to gorge on the large squid in the area and we had several fish making it very clear where the expression “stuffed to the gills” came from. These fish took the bait offered them and when brought to the boat to be released, we could clearly see big squid poking out of their mouths. Sixty seven percent of our boats caught marlin this week, which is a decent figure. As mentioned above the good thing is that they have moved closer and although there were some days with picky eaters, or boats that drew a blank we ended up catching 73 marlin this week.
OTHER SPECIES: After marlin the next likeliest catch was dorado with thirty six percent of vessels landing between one and three fish when they found them. So average catches for this species. One of the better catches was for Craig Willett from Fallbrook, CA who fished with Gayle Willett from Bend, Oregon – they had a fantastic day aboard Pisces 28 ft. Adriana releasing two marlin and boating three dorado up to 18 lbs. A handful of mako sharks up to 50 lbs., were released – not that they were being intentionally fished for – in fact a ban on all sharks goes into effect this month; we will follow up with the details of the dates later. We had some nice spring time catches, such as those caught by Pisces Ruthless for Greg Weisz and friends from Wyoming. They caught eight roosterfish up to 25 lbs., five sierra up to 8 lbs. and four jack crevalle up to 20 lbs., all but a couple of fish were thrown back – what a nice day of inshore fishing!
SURF FISHING: Michael McCourt fished a couple of days with Wesley and caught a jack crevalle as well as a 25 lbs. yellowtail which he kept – now that must have been fun on spinning tackle from the beach.
LOCATION: It’s pretty clear from the sea surface temperature charts why the fishing has moved closer as the temperature break can be seen clearly, which is why the 11.50 spot was one of the most popular along with cabeza de ballena, the 95 and Palmilla
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Nice, clear skies, warming up considerably, seas choppy on some days.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: We have 71 F water close to Cabo sitting next to 74 F; from the latest charts looks like fishing may move offshore again.
BEST LURES/BAIT: Live caballito, frozen ballyhoo, green colores.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg