Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 92%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 92%, Dorado 88%, Tuna 14%
BILLFISH: Cabo seems to have been a target for tropical weather over the past couple of weeks with visits from tropical storms Ivo, Juliette, Kiko & Lorena which left a lot of rain, but not much damage. The fish don’t seem to mind though; neither do the anglers, who despite some bumpy seas and several port closures stuck it out and did really well. The fabulous fishing we have been enjoying all year continues and though billfish catches slowed a little after the rains, they were still the number one catch in Cabo with mostly striped marlin being hooked, as well as a good number of sailfish and the occasional blue marlin. The only blue marlin of this past week for us was caught by Mike Vise from Sacramento, California on September 2nd, aboard Pisces Ruthless. The fish was not large at just under 200 lbs. and was caught on the Pacific at Golden Gate. The fish took a live caballito and four dorado were also boated. On September 5th Pisces Rebecca had an outstanding day with two striped marlin and two sailfish released at San Jaime for Art Heavener, longtime Pisces angler from Houston; he also got six dorados to the boat Ruthless had a notable catch this day too for some other Houston anglers, Todd McIntosh & Jeff Dewease, who were kept busy with a sailfish, striped marlin, wahoo and thirteen dorado. Pisces Tracy Ann & Rebecca both had triple marlin days, plus dorado again for Texas anglers. Eighty eight percent of our boats caught billfish this week giving us a total of 46 striped marlin, 18 sailfish & 1 blue marlin. If the port had been open more the figures could have been at least double this.
OTHER SPECIES: Dorado could not be beat this week for sheer numbers, even though you were more likely to encounter billfish, if you found dorado the amount you could catch was generally higher. It is well known that storms help boost the dorado catches, as after the rains a lot of debris washes down into the sea and dorado love to hang out under floating objects, making them much easier to find. Catches of fish in the 15 to 40 lb. class, ranged from one to sixteen fish per boat giving us a total catch of 192 fish – many were released. Dorado are taking just about anything; live bait, lures, and feathers – found mostly on the Pacific. Yellow fin tuna were few and far between with just fourteen percent of boats finding a few schools size fish here and there. We had a couple of wahoo up to 45 lbs. and a few skipjacks. Surf fishing produced jack crevalle.
WEATHER: Seas up and down, rainy and stormy several days.
LOCATION: Pacific – Los Arcos to Golden Gate – two to twenty miles offshore.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 85 F
BEST LURES: Live bait, ballyhoo, feathers, green/yellow color lures.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg