Overall Catch Success Rate 93%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 77%, Tuna 47%, Dorado 26%
BILLFISH: We again experienced superb catches in Los Cabos this week, despite the port being closed one day due to an approaching storm, which turned out to be nothing more than a day of rain and choppy seas. At this time of year, practically every week there will be some kind of tropical weather off of Mexico, the thing is not to be daunted but to go ahead with fishing plans. Thankfully most of the storms skirt us and this time of year is actually produces some of the best catches. This time our cooler water and air temperatures took the wind right out of the sails of Hurricane Erick and it was downgraded to a tropical storm. One of the nicest catches this week was a 172 lb. swordfish; hard to say which is a more elusive catch, the swordfish or spearfish. Anyhow this swordfish was captured aboard Pisces Rebecca by Eddie Penn from Houston, Texas after it took the second live caballito cast to it whilst on the surface 20 miles outside the 120 spot. This was not the only fish caught on this boat, for Eddie Penn who along with Ashley Corrales, released a striped marlin and caught seven tuna. Other notable catches were had mostly before the port was closed on Monday such as seven striped marlin and a dorado aboard Pisces Rebecca on July 7th for Robert Plugis and friends from Sewell, New Jersey. This same day Gerald, Matthew & Ronald Levy, from Winter Park, West Palm Beach & Jupiter, Florida, respectively had a fabulous day aboard Pisces Great Escape Jr. with eight striped marlin and a sailfish released outside the 11.50 spot; all fish were caught with live caballito. Pisces C Rod a 38 ft. Blackfin had a fabulous day for Dusty & Bailee Hammock from Birmingham, Alabama who, along with friends, released five striped marlin and boated a nice wahoo. These mentioned were the most outstanding catches, though most boats caught one to three marlin as the norm. Catches were not as prolific as last week, perhaps due to the rain and small storm which mixed things up, meaning fish could not be found in one set location as in previous days, we also felt a distinct cooling on the Pacific; nevertheless seventy seven percent of Pisces charters caught billfish, breaking down to 44 striped marlin, 3 sailfish and 1 swordfish.
OTHER SPECIES: For sheer numbers nothing could beat the yellow fin tuna this period; our boats hauled in or released a total of 409 with double digit catches common. The weights on the tuna were smallish at 15 to 20 lbs., though we did hear of some 150 lb’ers taken. Pisces Andrea had a total of 32 tuna outside the Herradura, plus a dorado for Yusuro Asaba & Yukihko Ozawa from Kamakura, Japan and Tracy Ann totaled 31 tuna between the Herradura and 95 spot for Doug, Ben & Josh Russel from Las Vegas. Most days the tuna were 25 to 30 miles offshore and took cedar plugs. Although the total count was high for this species, you were more likely to hook up to a marlin; for tuna your odds of catching were forty seven percent. Dorado catches were similar to last week with twenty six percent of our boats catching one or two fish and occasionally up to four with sizes from 15 to 40 lbs. John and Luke Minter from Austin, Texas caught three lovely black sea bass that weighed from 25 to 40 lbs. aboard the panga Gloria, whilst other pangas caught the odd large rooster fish, needlefish and a few snapper.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Port closed July 8th, due to rain and choppy seas, skies then cleared but we had seas on the choppy side most of the week.
LOCATION: Herradura, 95 spot, 11.50 spot, 120 spot, 180, 18 miles from Lands End.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 78-80 F
BEST LURES: Live bait, cedar plugs, green/yellow.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg