PISCES FISH REPORT
October 8th to 14th, 2010 (plus tournament results)
Overall Catch Success Rate 94%
BILLFISH: Well the first week of tournament season is over and boats did very well overall, but first let's talk about regular fishing. Most boats caught fish; in fact very few drew a blank this week. Our billfish catch rate was sixty-one percent with a lot of boats catching smaller game (which dominated) this week. To start out the week we had great fishing for "Adriana" on the 8th with a sailfish, striped marlin, dorado and 80 lb tuna for a group from Kirkland, Wa. This same day "Andrea" released a blue marlin at the 95 spot for Cenk & Chris Durukal, from Vienna, Austria. Zach & Betty Baldwin from Palisade, Colorado were kept busy on October 10th, aboard "Rebecca" catching & releasing four striped marlin and boating three dorado, just five miles off of Gaspareño. This same day, "Valerie" went a bit further up the coast to Golden Gate and had a great day, catching two striped marlin, six dorado and a wahoo…..my kind of day, for Terry & Greg Schmaedeke & friends from Duluth, Mn. Taking a lead from this fishing, "Shambala" headed four miles off of Gaspareño on October 11th & kept anglers Todd & Diane Sanger, Scott & Judi Rund, from Oklahoma City, really busy catching and releasing a blue marlin, two striped marlin, eight dorado and three wahoo….now that's an enviable catch. Next day out 28 ft "No Big Deal" showed Oscar Estrada & Matt Kalans, from Ewing, New Jersey, what it's all about…..releasing five striped marlin and boated four dorado up by Todos Santos. "Andrea" fished a little bit closer at Pescadero and released three striped marlin and boated a 55 lb wahoo and three dorado for Sean Murray & Tomi Segric from the Bronx, N.Y. October 13th, was not unlucky for a Canadian group fishing "Rebecca"…they ended up with a large blue marlin released, close to 400 lbs plus a sailfish and 1 dorado, next to Todos Santos. "Ruthless" did very well at the close of the week for Dan Smith, Jim, Cody & Eddie Anzaline from New York; they released both a striped marlin & a sailfish & boated two wahoo and four dorado, on the Pacific. Pisces anglers caught a total of 63 billfish this week, consisting of 51 striped marlin, 9 sailfish & 3 blue marlin..All but four fish were released.
Well we told you that there were BIG fish here in Cabo and in the weeks leading up to tournament season we have reported large fish, such as the 780 lb'er caught aboard "Shambala" a few weeks ago....so we are into our first major marlin tournament of the season and the proof is in the pudding so to speak. Yesterday, Wednesday dawned with perfect big marlin weather....seas a deep blue mostly calm and a light chill in the early morning. Thirty seven boats lined up off of the arch to await the shotgun start of the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament, now in its twelfth year. The night before at the anglers meeting I had bumped into the guys from "Fisherman" the hot boat and team of the moment, a group of local guys from San Jose del Cabo and told tournament director Dan Jacbos, "these are the guys to watch; they are serious" and guess who pulled in with the biggest fish of the day....well yes, hate to say I was right, but it was team "Fisherman" with an incredible 713 lb black marlin for angler Daniel Fisher-Guerreo, which took him, believe it or not, just 32 minutes to boat. It was crazy, but "Sneak Attack" had also hooked a very large blue about 15 minutes after "Fisherman" had theirs on board and at this stage nobody knew the weight...so the "Sneak Attack" guys were probably thinking they had it made....it was a really big fish, the kind that wins tournaments...it took angler Shawn Gutterson and team 77 minutes to subdue the fish and get it into the boat. They took off for the scale was the fish registered 629 lbs; they also released a striped marlin. I do not remember two such large fish coming in on the same day in a tournament.
OTHER SPECIES: Dorado was again the number one catch in Cabo with seventy three percent of boats catching between one and twelve fish, weight at 15 to 25 lbs. Total dorado count for Pisces was 232. Tuna catches were at sixteen percent but we did see some very big fish, like a 260 lb'er for Ken Eberle and 200 lb fish aboard "Falcon" for Bryan Peterson from Huntington Beach, Ca. Wahoo catches were good with nineteen percent of boats catching one to three wahoo, weight around 30 to 40 lbs and occasionally up to 50 lbs.
TOURNAMENT RESULTS:
LOS CABOS BILLFISH TOURNAMENT:
1st Place "Fisherman": not only for their first day 713 lb black marlin but another 466 lb black marlin on day three -making their status as leaders undeniable and creating a new tournament record for most points earned.
Total winnings $204,764.00
2nd Place "Sneak Attack" for the largest blue marlin at 629 lbs on day one.
Total winnings $101,025.00
3rd Place went to "Rum Running" for first time marlin angler Jason Prudent for a 465 lb blue marlin.
Total winnings $18,500.00
Release Division ended up as follows:
1st Place "Game On" earning them $9250.00
2nd Place "Hang Em High" giving them $5550.00
3rd Place "Alure" who because of the different jackpots in , for releasing two blue marlin and a stripe ended up with $8897.00
In the smaller game divisions there was quite a bit of action:
1st day tuna prize went to "Retriever" for a 123 lb fish earning them $4247.00
2nd day tuna prize went to "Santi" the smallest boat in the tournament (22 ft panga) for a 209 lb fish giving them $4347.00
3rd day tuna went to "Blue Marlin" for a 125 lb fish, plus day 1 release jackpot giving them $9545.00
Wahoo Division:
1st & 3rd went to "High Risk" for a 52.1 & 41 lb fish respectively, giving them $8695.00
2nd went to "Chupacabra" for a 50.90 fish earning them $4247.00
Dorado Division:
Only one qualifying dorado was weighing in at 41.7 lbs for "Bullrider" giving them $13,043.00 (all three days).
BISBEE OFFSHORE
Top Marlin
Incognito— Barnes Cooper— 540 lb. blue marlin ($19,328.40)
Bad Company— Anthony Hsieh— 490 lb. black marlin ($6,690.60)
Bandit— Rich Hamilton— 470 lb. black marlin ($3,717.00)
Top Dorado
No Qualifying Dorado were Weighed
Top Yellowfin Tuna
Missing Lenk— Aaron Riggins— 161.8 lbs. ($19,824.00)
Top Release Teams
Tenacious— 700 points/2 blue marlin, 1 striped marlin (on time)
Ez-Duz-It— 700 points/2 blue marlin, 1 striped marlin (on time)
Bull Rider— 700 points/2 blue marlin, 1 sailfish
Day 1 Jackpot Winners
Marlin: Bad Company— $76,330.00 (490.0 lbs. / Anthony Hsieh)
Tuna: Muchacho Alegre— $22,950.00 (155.0 lbs. / Jesus Franco)
Day 2 Jackpot Winners
Marlin: Bandit— $76,330.00 (470.0 lbs. / Rich Hamilton)
Tuna: Missing Lenk— $22,950.00 (161.8 lbs. / Aaron Riggins)
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear, sunny skies, seas mostly calm, with whitecaps on the Pacific last couple of days, when the wind picked up.
LOCATION: Most charters are fishing the Pacific from the Old Lighthouse to Golden Gate, 95 spot, Punta Gorda.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 85 F
BEST LURES: Live bait, blue/white, red/black, orange, purple, petrolero plus others.
Based on the catches of Pisces By Tracy Ehrenberg
