PISCES FISH REPORT
January 7th to 14th, 2010
Overall Catch Success Rate 99%
BILLFISH: The billfish catches to start of the year have not been as good as we would desire, but again, we have not really started our winter weather, with it still being warmer than normal. Boats have reported good numbers of striped marlin but they are reluctant to eat. Nevertheless our overall catch success rate was almost perfect with dorado catches dominating throughout this period. We were very pleased though, to see Benny Gunnarsson & Parl Johan Sandberg who had traveled all the way from Sweden, catch and release three striped marlin and four dorado aboard "Rebecca" on January 14th at Las Margaritas –making the Swedes our anglers of the week. This same day though, "Tracy Ann" also released three striped marlin just four miles from Los Arcos by Ron Lucia, William West & Robert Harrah, all from Southern California. When marlin were caught this week, it was most likely to be a single fish plus a few dorado if they did well. There were a few exceptions with double marlin days, such as two aboard "La Brisa" for Barbara & David Fiocca from Ardmore, Pennsylvania, two aboard "Cabolero", plus eight dorado for Joel & Beverly Carter & Jason & Lauren Friedlander from Starfordville, New York. The only other double fish day was aboard "Bill Collector" at the outer Golden Gate from Kevin McCluskey from Palm Beach, Florida. Just thirty one percent of boats caught striped marlin this week giving us a total of 21 striped marlin released. All of the striped marlin were caught on the Pacific between the Old Lighthouse and Golden Gate.
OTHER SPECIES: Dorado saved the day this period when it was hard to get a hook up on marlin. Eighty four percent of boats caught between one and nineteen fish in the 15 to 25 lb class. Again, the dorado were caught on the Pacific with the top boat "Rebecca" with Lisa Jenika, Andy White, Craig & Jake Michelson aboard, all from Great Falls, Montana….they were fortunate to catch 19 dorado up to 30 lbs, with 17 released. The dorado are taking lures, with many color combinations working. Our anglers caught a total of 213 dorado this report. Yellow fin tuna catches were fair with thirty one percent of boats landing between two and twelve fish in the 12 to 25 lb class. Top tuna boat was "Tracy Ann" with a dozen fish out of Golden Gate for Frederick Moller from Sweden. Our total tuna count was ninety four fish. We had quite a lot of wahoo this week but the catches were of a single fish and generally small at around 25 lbs; the largest caught this week was a 40 lb'er. A couple of mako sharks were released as well as one reported as a "sardine" shark. Sierra started to show up as well as a few skipjacks and bonitas.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Picture perfect with the exception of a couple of windy days towards the end of this report. Blue skies and seas; calm until the wind picked up.
LOCATION: Old Lighthouse to Golden Gate, some days boats didn't find marlin, but pangas inshore picked up the odd one here and there.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 73 F
BEST LURES: Live bait for marlin, green/yellow, red/black, petroleros for dorado, cedar plugs and assorted lures and feathers for tuna.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg
