Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Capt. Tracy Ehrenberg
October 25, 2006
Cabo San Lucas - Saltwater Fishing Report

PISCES WEEKLY FISH REPORT OCTOBER 13TH TO 21st, 2006

BILLFISH: The most exciting thing to happen this week was the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament, which took place over three days with 73 boats participating. Teams came from across the U.S.A, Mexico, Canada, Bermuda, New Zealand and even Finland, to compete. This was a particularly good tournament for us as Pisces boats took first and second place. The first place team fished aboard “Tracy Ann” and consisted of team captain Timo Helle, hero angler Jukka Hassel, Martin Kockritz and Makku Ahomaa, as you can probably guess by the names these guys are not local. In fact they hail from Finland, just about as north as you can get. We met these guys at the Rolex/IGFA tournament in 2005, where they expressed an interest to come back and fish a fall tournament. They passed a winter where temperatures got to 40 below C and the thought of a tournament in Mexico seemed even more attractive. These guys fish nearly every weekend for salmon and sea trout and actually won a tournament in Mauritius two years ago, where, as in this tournament, they were rank outsiders. Nevertheless they are good anglers. First day out they found a floating log and quickly boated four dorado. Jukka spotted what he thought was a dolphin behind the boat, but the deckhand quickly realized that it was a feeding blue marlin, alerting the captain. They immediately rigged the smallest dorado, which was still alive and dropped it back to the marlin, which in less than a minute gobbled it up. Jukka was patient giving it eight seconds to swallow the bait, before setting the hook. Forty-five minutes later they had the fish on board and headed back to the scales, where they were thrilled to see the scale hit 438 lbs. This fish was to hold throughout the tournament and ending up giving the team a total of $451,350.00 dollars. They generously gave captain Ricardo Agundez, who stood in for an ill Julio Castro, ten percent of their winnings and he also received a beautiful Joseph Henry watch. Team member Martin Kockritz, swears their good luck was due to a tip given by his 10 year old son, “put salt and pepper in the water”….they failed to do this on their practice day, fumbling five strikes, but hit the big one, the first day out…maybe he’s got something. Second place went to “Sundancer” captained by Martin “Kiwi” Hutt for a 344 lb blue marlin caught early the first day for Jimmy Carter from Oklahoma, total winnings were $194,250.00. Third place fish was a 333 lb blue, aboard “Crusader” which earned them a little over $24,000.00 as they only entered the tournament category and not the jackpot divisions. After the first day no qualifying fish over 300 lbs came to the scale and organizers were thrilled to report that not one underweight fish was brought in, recognizing anglers and crews for their conscientious judgment. Following this tournament the very next day the Bisbee Alumni took place; this is a pre-fish smaller version of the Bisbee Black and Blue taking place over two days. Sixty-two boats signed up for what turned out to be quite an unproductive event; in fact no qualifying fish were brought to the scale. Our very own “Ni Modo” however did mange to find marlin though not huge ones, they released two blues and boated a 44.8 lb tuna, which gave angler John Mead from Indiana $52,150.00 – the rest of the participants had their entry fees returned. Next tournament up is Bisbee set to start this upcoming Wednesday the 25th, however Tropical Storm Paul, which is forecast to become a hurricane by Tuesday, is currently threatening our coasts, due to pass within 50 miles of the tip of Baja, which has everybody very jittery, not so much because of the danger, but because it looks like the port may be closed. Then again, we’ve been in this situation several times in the past couple of months and it could miss us completely. In regular fishing news billfish catches were a bit on the slow side with just twenty four percent of boats finding mostly striped marlin and sailfish. One very notable catch was a very nice 350 lb black marlin, released by 10-year-old Thomas Matthew Hard from Centerville, Maryland, aboard “Tracy Ann” at the Golden Gate. This youngster really knows what he is doing, last year he released a total of 24 striped marlin during four days, about this same boat. Pisces anglers caught at total of 42 billfish, consisting of 26 striped marlin, 2 blue marlin, 1 black marlin and 13 sailfish, all but three fish were released. Our overall catch success rate was eighty four percent for all species combined.

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado were the most abundant species in Cabo this week with sixty nine percent of charters catching fish in the 15 to 40 lb class. They were found over a widespread area and were caught on both lures and bait. Catches ranged from one to twelve fish per boat. Tuna catches were slower with just twenty percent of charters finding mostly football size fish. The one exception was a massive 310 lb tuna, caught the first day of the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament by John Bullo, aboard “Go Deep” giving them $12, 250.00 in prize money. Only a few wahoo were brought in, with the largest 78 lbs during the tournament. Inshore there were just a few skipjacks and tiny pargo.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear sunny skies, calm seas.

LOCATION: Golden Gate, Pozo Cota, Palmilla, Cerro Colorado, Old Lighthouse, Chileno.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 86 F

BEST LURES: Live bait, skipjack, small yellowfin, small dorado, assorted lures.

BASED ON THE CATCHES OF PISCES BY TRACY EHRENBERG

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