Overall
Catch Success Rate 99%
BILLFISH:
Fishing
was remarkably good this week, seeing as we had a big moon all week and quite
rough seas on the Pacific. At the end of the week we saw huge waves hitting the
shore, mostly on the Sea of Cortez; they were so large that they left the steps
of some of the resorts, buried in sand and made swimming un safe – this is very
unusual as we don’t see this unless there is a hurricane around, which there
isn’t. Anyway, the people fishing were not worrying about the beaches but were
concentrating on catching fish. The best catches were at the start of this
period, when we saw “Adriana” release five striped marlin and a sailfish at
Gaspareno for the Porter family from Poway, Georgia. This same day “Andrea” released four marlin
as did “Ruthless”, whilst other boats averaged one to three. For variety, “Tracy
Ann” had one of the best day on August 1st with two striped marlin
and a sailfish released, nine tuna and two dorado. As the week progressed and
the moon reached its zenith, marlin catches slowed a little but tuna took up the
slack, however, the most likely catch this week was still billfish. Seventy
three percent of boats caught marlin and sailfish, giving us a total of 38
marlin and four sailfish.
OTHER
CATCHES: We had some decent catches this week that is until the
tuna seiners moved in and started wrapping the schools in their nets. Unfortunately,
tuna is categorized as a commercial fish, not a species reserved for
sportfishing, which is a shame, because commercial fishing techniques take a
lot of non-targeted species, including, billfish, dorado and turtles as by
catch. “Tracy Ann” had the busiest tuna day on July 31st with 43
(many released) for Larry & Kellie Hemingway from Kingwood, Texas, if this
wasn’t enough they also released a striped marlin and caught a dorado. Catches
of twelve to twenty fish were not unusual in the size range of 12 to 25 lbs.
Our total tuna count was 224 fish. Fifty four percent of boats caught tuna,
whilst dorado catches were just a shade higher, that is there were found slightly
more frequently but catches were usually of one or two fish only. Andrew Holmes
from La Canada, California, did the best on dorado catching twelve as well as
twelve tuna aboard “Valerie”. The dorado preferred the mackerel, while the tuna
stuck to their favorite cedar plugs. Only other species we caught was skipjack this
week.
LOCATION:
Pacific,
Migrino, Gaspareno, Margaritas, Golden Gate, a couple of days on the Cortez at
the 95 and 11.50 spots.
WEATHER
CONDITIONS: Partly cloudy, hot, humid, some perfect
weather days and some rough days with whitecaps on the Pacific as well as big
waves towards the end of the report.
AVERAGE
WATER TEMP: 80-83 F
BEST LURES: live bait was not always available so ballyhoo was
used and bait when found was jurelito and caballito. Lures, green combos and
cedar plugs.
