MARCH 11th to 23rd, 2010
OVERALL CATCH SUCCESS RATE 91%
BILLFISH: Well there has been plenty of activity fishing wise, just not for the big game that Cabo is famous for. Marlin were again few and far between as we go through the March “doldrums”. Even when spotted it was frustrating for anglers as at times they could see marlin within six feet of the boat and would cast bait over and over again, dead, live, whatever they could, but still the marlin would just look and swim off. Nevertheless we did have a couple of boats that did very well managing to find fish that were actually hungry. On March 17th “Bill Collector” headed up to Punta Gorda with Mark Chiavetta on board from San Jose, California, where he was fortunate to release three striped marlin on live caballito (not marlin’s favorite bait); they also got four skipjacks. Next up were Josef & Rachel Poncik from Richmond, Texas, who were here on their honeymoon. They went out on “Tracy Ann” and ended up 30 miles out from Cerro Blanco, where they managed to release two striped marlin, the first for each one of them, also with live caballito. On March 20th, “Andrea” released three marlin just five miles off of Cerro Colorado for James Collazo from Queen Creek, Arizona, sharing the boat with Tifanie Tuchshere & Melissa Hernandez from McMinnville, Oregon. This was one of those times when things worked out perfectly where we were able to pair people up via our boat share program and each person got a fish. As seen from the catches mentioned above, fish were not in one location but in diverse areas. Just eighteen percent of charters caught marlin this week, giving us a total of 18 caught, with all but one 110 lb fish released.
OTHER SPECIES: The best big game catch this week was yellowfin tuna. Thirty percent of boats caught between one and eighteen fish in the 15 to 25 lb class. Top tuna boat was “Valerie” for 18 and 1 dorado at the 95 spot for Scott Zivic and David Pathworth from Iowa City. “Tracy Ann” came second with 17 for Judy Davis and friends from Victoria, Canada, thirty miles out from Land’s End. Total tuna count was 106 fish. Dorado catches were on the slow side with just five caught, all random catches whilst trolling for marlin or tuna. As expected in March, the inshore fishing can be very good and boats loaded up on sierra, taken on lighter tackle, thirty five percent of charters caught sierra up to 12 lbs with catches ranging from a solitary fish to a whopping fifty-six aboard “Andrea”….of course the majority were released –final count was 322 sierra. Catches on large squid were also high and on a couple of days you didn´t even have to board a boat, you could just drag them out of the surf on the main beach. For some strange reason, the annual squid run brought them the closest to shore that we have seen in decades resulting in them washing up on the Medano Beach. Those fishing aboard boats had fun pulling in these hefty and strong fighters, with catches of up to twenty in a day up to 40 lbs. We know of one angler and crewman who were unceremoniously squirted with squid ink, the crewman taking a direct hit in his open mouth, whilst getting ready to release one of these creatures. Other small game catches were pargo, cabrilla, triggerfish, skipjack, jack crevalle, roosterfish and yellowtail.
LOCATION: Diverse, Gordo Banks, Chileno, Cerro Blanco, 95 Spot, Morros Prietos, 11.50 spot, Palmilla, Las Margaritas, slightly more activity on the Cortez side this period.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Pretty nice, some beautiful days but with marked differences in weather, one day windy on the Pacific smooth on the Cortez and vice versa.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 69 F
BEST LURES: Live bait for marlin, cedar plugs and petrolero lures for tuna, hoochis and rapalas for squid and sierra.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg
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