PISCES FISH REPORT
March 30th to April 5th, 2013
Overall Catch Success Rate 92%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 83% Dorado 39% Tuna 3% Small Game 16%
BILLFISH: We were shocked at how good the marlin fishing was at the start of the report, in fact we can’t remember a March when marlin fishing was so good. The catches on March 30th were quite astounding, starting with Pisces Shambala who had Antonio Buchanan from Napa aboard with friends. They fished off of Medano Blanco and released eight striped marlin and a sailfish, as well as catching a wahoo, two dorado and four jack crevalle. This same day Pisces Tracy Ann also released eight striped marlin between 100 and 140 lbs. for Mark Constancio from Neenah Wisconsin. Pisces Rebecca didn’t have as many marlin, with just six, but they did release a sailfish and then boated two wahoo. Other boats caught between five and marlin this day giving us some of the best results of the month. Catches did not remain at this speed though; they slowed in the following day to one to four billfish per boat and then declined a little throughout the week when boats caught dorado and skipjacks, with some marlin in the mix. Marlin were caught every day, with one to three fish more the norm and of course there were a few boats that got “skunked”; eight percent to be precise. So very high catch rates anywhere in the world, just a downer if you were in the percentage that didn’t catch. To hook up boats used a combination of live bait, frozen ballyhoo and lures with all the catches taking place on the Cortez side. Marlin were the number one catch in Cabo this week with eighty three percent of our charters successful for this species. We caught a total of 93 striped marlin and 4 sailfish, all but one billfish released.
OTHER SPECIES: Dorado catches edged up slightly this week to thirty nine percent, but the number of fish caught was not huge at one to four fish per boat, when found, with weights from 20 to 35 lbs. Our total dorado count this week was thirty nine fish. Yellow fin tuna catches really dwindled with just two boats catching school size fish, no more than eight fish landed when found. It was nice to see some wahoo, one of the top eating fish you can catch, however, they were far from plentiful and sizes no more than 35 lbs. A few skipjacks were caught as well as yellowtail. We had some jack crevalle from the beach and boats. A solitary mako shark, around 40 lbs. was released aboard Cabolero by Leticia Echeverria from Tabasco, who also let a striped marlin go and boated a jack crevalle.
LOCATION: Cortez – Destiladeres, Punta Gorda, Medano Blanco, 11.50 spot, 95 spot.
WEATHER: Great – clear sunny skies, calm seas.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 69F-72F
BEST LURES: Ballyhoo, caballito, blue/white, red/black.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg