Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Capt. Tracy Ehrenberg
October 27, 2003
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report

PISCES WEEKY FISH REPORT

October 18th to 24th 2003



BILLFISH: Well the question on everybody’s lips this week, is “Who won the Bisbee”, so with out much ado we’ll jump right into it. First of all there were 163 teams entered, with participants from such places as Canada, Italy, Japan, England and Tahiti, with the majority of entries from the United States and Mexico. As usual it was quite a sight to see the boats lined up for the 8.00 am shotgun start; as is the norm, many boats had headed out in the pre-dawn hours to search for skipjack, or small yellowfin to use as bait and then had to rush back to get behind the line to avoid being disqualified. The first day of the competition fishing was slow, not just for those in the contest but for all the charter fleet, but by 2.00 p.m “Gato Negro” a 39 ft Hatteras backed up to the dock, with what would be the first qualifier of the tournament, a 342 lb blue marlin (minimum weight was set at 300 lbs – anybody boating and weighing a fish of a lesser weight would be penalized with negative points. Points could also be attained by releasing smaller blues and blacks as well as striped marlin and sailfish). There were a smattering of other fish reported as being released but the only other fish weighed in was at 4.00 pm by “Sr Moment” a 50 ft Viking, who’s fish weighed 412 lbs, for angler Steve Esrick from Aspen, Colorado – this was Steve’s first try at this event and he was pleased as the day’s earnings for this fish were $431,000.00 as they were in all the jackpot categories. Next day out boats were off eagerly, if there were two fish over 300 lbs, then there had to be more. This day boats headed mostly to the Pacific were the Sr. Moment’s fish had been caught the previous day. Despite effort put forth, not one fish was weighed in on day two that could surpass the 300 lb mark. This boosted hopes for team Sr. Moment seeing as they had the biggest fish of the tournament so far and if no other qualifying fish were weighed on the third and final day, they would have a clean sweep of all of the jackpot money. This was not to be though, the organizer breathed a sigh of relief as hook-ups on blue marlin started to come over the radio. “After Midnight” reported having a fish on board, but said they preferred to stay out to try their luck at something larger, which kept everybody wondering all day as to what their strategy was. Around 4.00 pm the 60 foot Ocean “Que Sera” backed into the weigh station. Now, the locals, knew this had to be a good fish, as captain Nayo Winkler is a well-liked native of this area and known to be a superb fisherman – the crowd gasped when the fish was brought out into view, it was big, After hoisting it up there was a moment of silence and anticipation as the numbers rang out over the crowd, “Five hundred and sixty-five” – followed by cheers and whooping, especially by the team members. Now it was a waiting game, to see who else would bring a fish to the scale. Next to the weigh-in was a local 31 ft Bertram “Mucho Loco”, their fish didn’t look as big, but it turned out to be a respectable 371 lbs, which looked good for a place in the money. Next came “After Midnight”, amongst muttering, this was the boat that had been awarded first place in 2000 after the controversial disqualification of hometown favorite “Minerva”, however their fish was a qualifier at 444 lbs. Team “Que Sera” were in a celebrating mood that is until they realized there was still a boat hooked up, to what was supposed to be a huge marlin; in fact they had been on the fish for over four hours. Tension mounted as teams hung around for the last fish to come in, the sun set and still everybody waited. Eventually the silhouette of the 42 ft Uniflite, “Jackpot” was seen backing up to the scale with a nice fish on the swim step, everybody held their breath as it was hoisted up and again silence as the numbers began to be called out “Four hundred and eighty four”, before the crowd erupted into cheering. The winning fish was taken on the Pacific side off of the Candelaria Canyon; it hit the lure being trolled three times, before taking a firm hold. The lure was a blue and pink Marlin Magic lure called Henry and the fight lasted just forty-five minutes, for angler Brady Bunte from Carlsbad, CA.

MONIES WERE DISTRIBUTED AS FOLLOWS:

Winnings consist of a tournament place award plus the jackpots they were entered in.

1st Place: Que Sera 565 lb blue marlin for angler Brady Bunte, Carlsbad, Ca.

Winnings: $1,165,000.00 plus a new Porsche Carrera – the biggest payout in the tournaments history.

2nd Place:Jackpot 484 lb blue marlin for angler Leonardo Felix Ruiz, Cabo.

Winnings: $108,945.00 they were not entered in all jackpot divisions.

3rd Place: After Midnight 444 lb blue for Mike Cromer, Ohai Ca.

Winnings: $66,825.00 they were not entered in all jackpot divisions.

4th Place: Senor Moment 412 lb blue marlin for Steve Esrick, Aspen, Co.

Winnings: $446,130.00 they were in all the jackpots.

5th Place: Mucho Loco 371 lb blue marlin for Bill Williams, Manchester, Ct.

Winnings: $9720.00 they were not in all the jackpots.

RELEASE DIVISION:

1st: El Vato – three blue marlin $64,643.00

2nd: Molly Rose – three blue marlin $22,376.00

3rd: Predator – two blue marlin $12,431.00

Overall a total of 43 billfish were released during the three day event, which is considered very slow for this area.



In other fishing news we saw an overall catch success rate for all species combined of sixty-five percent, with just thirty percent of boats hooking up to billfish. This is quite unusual for this time of year, as we expect a higher ratio of billfish, especially striped marlin; however throughout most of the week bait was scarce which could be a contributing factor. A couple of notable catches were four sailfish released for Christian and Wendell Stoddard from Indian Harbor Beach, Fl, aboard “Valerie” on October 19th – this same boat had both a blue and a stripe release for Art Aquqviva from Toms River NJ, the following day.

Pisces anglers caught a total of ten striped marlin all released, eleven sailfish, all released and five blue marlin, all but one 250 lb’er released.



Smaller game wasn’t a whole lot better with jus the odd dorado here and there in the 20 to 45 lb class, with boats picking up one or two whilst trolling. When yellowfin were found the catches were better, with some boats landing up to eleven, in the 20 to 50 lb class. One exception was David Williams from Florida who landed a nice 238 lb yellowfin, they gave him such a tough fight, and he had to cancel his fishing for the following day. Some wahoo in the 40 to 60 lb class, some thresher and mako sharks also.



WEATHER CONDITIONS: Seas fair, skies blue, turning cloudy towards the close of the week.

LOCATION: Desitladeres, Lighthouse, Los Arcos, San Jaime, Molino.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP : 85 F

BEST LURES: Green/pink, green/orange, live bait.

BASED ON THE CATCHES OF PISCES FLEET BY TRACY EHRENBERG

Tracy Ehrenberg http://www.piscessportfishing.com Tel. 011 52 624 143 1288

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