October 2nd to October 8th, 2017
Overall catch success rate, all species combined: 84%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 37%, Tuna 12%, Dorado 59%, other 18%.
What a fantastic week of fishing! We saw many varied species catches per boat, similar to last week, with dorado numbers per boat remaining high. There was a vast array of billfish this week as well, with sailfish, stripers, blues and even one black marlin caught. Other species caught were again, mainly wahoo and some tuna, with a few sharks showing up, as well as one spearfish.
October 2nd, was a great day for our 28 ft Andrea and anglers Glenn and Susan Daehenke from New Jersey, who are long time clients, fishing with Pisces since 2007. Even with fishing for so long with us, this day was one of “many firsts” for the couple, as Glenn explains here,
“This trip on Andrea with Capt. Orlando and Mate Silvestre was one of firsts, because after landing a dorado, I landed and released my first ever sailfish. A little later my wife landed a wahoo - another first. As we neared the end of the day a blue marlin hammered a fresh lure just put on by Silvestre. My first blue marlin! After an exhausting fight he was landed and unfortunately died. Estimated at 280 lbs. at the dock.”
The dorado caught by the Daehenke’s was landed on ballyhoo bait and weighed about 18 lbs. The sailfish was also lured on a ballyhoo bait and released, weighing about 80 lbs. The wahoo weighed about 40 lbs and hit on a “clown” lure, with the 180 lbs blue marlin hitting a brown lure, with all fish caught out at San Cristobal.
This same day, 32 ft Billcollector caught and released one striped marlin of approx. 180 lbs on caballito bait, about 15 miles out from the 180 spot. Anglers Brandon, Jerry and Scott from Texas, also caught themselves a 15 - 20 lbs dorado each on lures, and managed to land a nice 200 lbs blue marlin as well. The blue was released and also caught at the 180 spot on caballito bait.
The next day, to continue in this great streak of varied species caught per boat, the La Brisa and anglers Earl (Chief) Smith II, Matt Henderstrom and Stephen Vost, from Texas, caught one dorado of about 15 lbs on a blue/green lure as well as one yellowfin tuna on cedar plug lure, one sailfish, approx. 100 lbs (released) and one silky shark, on caballito bait, also about 100 lbs, released. All fish were caught at Los Arcos.
The 38 ft C Rod, captained by Abel Ramirez had another great day with anglers catching two dorado weighing 10 and 20 lbs. on ballyhoo bait and feather lure, as well as a wahoo on black/red lure which weighed approx. 30 lbs. Lastly, they landed a nice blue marlin of about 160 lbs on a petrolero lure which they released. All fish were caught at Los Arcos.
And what an amazing day for billfish aboard the 60 ft Shambala, captained by Benito Agundez! 5 marlin caught in total, two of which were stripers weighing about 60 - 70 lbs and the other three were blues, which weighed abut 180 lbs, 200 lbs and 250 lbs. All marlin were caught by anglers from TX on ballyhoo bait out at La Herradura.
Another billfish filled day for 31 ft Tiburon as well, which landed 3 striped marlin (all released) around 100 - 130 lbs. on ballyhoo bait out at Golden Gate. Ruthless, our 31 ft Bertram captained by Beto Lira, did well to catch and release one striped marlin of about 100 lbs which anglers Rob Bell and Tom Turley caught on a blue/white lure. They also landed one dorado of about 20 lbs on mackerel bait and one wahoo of about 45 lbs. on a red/black lure. All fish were caught out at the 11:50 Spot.
Angler Andrew Matveev had a busy day as he was the sole angler aboard the 31ft Tracy Ann as he landed two striped marlin and 16 dorado! The striped marlin hit on caballito bait out at Golden Gate and were released. The dorado were all caught on lures: green and feathers mostly. More than half the dorado were released, keeping the larger ones which weighed about 15 to 20 lbs, the dorado were also caught out at Golden Gate.
Now for the only black marlin of the week, this was caught aboard the 38ft C Rod, and weighed approximately 300 lbs. Strangely, this fish was caught very close to shore, only about 2 miles out from the Old Lighthouse, and struck on caballito bait. Anglers Monte and Rhonda Eagleton from CA released the fish.
LOCATION: Golden Gate, Los Arcos, 11:50 spot, La Herradura, 180 Spot.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Mostly calm seas, with sparce days of 2 - 5 ft waves, wind picking up on some days.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 82 - 87 F
BEST LURES: Caballito and ballyhoo bait, blue/green lures, blue/white lures as well as black/red lures, feathers and cedar plugs.
Based on the catches of Pisces Sportfishing Fleet by Rebecca Ehrenberg