Fish Report

February 16th to 22nd, 2012
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 89%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 20%, Tuna 23%, Dorado 16%, Small Game 66%

This is a Clown Hawkfish, or Mero Chino Caught this week at Migrino from the beach with guide Wesley

BILLFISH: This week we saw a definite slow down on marlin catches, as the season begins to change bringing colder water and some windy days. Some days it was too rough to make it up to Golden Gate were captains suspected marlin could be found but the bumpy ride was just not worth it to some anglers who preferred to stick closer to port and fish for smaller game. Even some of our top producers drew a blank this week and ended up whale watching, despite trying. However, as always we had some great catches; early in the week, on February 19th, Ben & Pamela Simmons from Fairfield, North Carolina had an outstanding day aboard Pisces Bill Collector, releasing five striped marlin on live mackerel at the Golden Gate. This same day Kris Couilliard from Belchertown, Massachusetts, was in the same area aboard Shambala and with friends was able to release four striped marlin in the 120 to 160 lb category. Pisces Rebecca always seems to be consistent and proved it by releasing four marlin for Randy & Don Brockman, from Lake View, California as well as hooking them up to thirteen yellow fin tuna and a skipjack on February 17th. Pisces Fearless also deserves a mention for releasing three striped marlin, also at the Golden Gate for a group from Florida. Pisces Andrea, a 28 ft. boat had an interesting day for Jenna & Jamie from Toronto, Canada, releasing two striped marlin and a hammerhead shark.  Other marlin catches were of a single striped marlin giving us a total count of 27 fish this week- all released.

The humble sierra is actually a lot of fun on light tackle and great to eat - the most common catch this week.

OTHER SPECIES: Tuna catches were slightly better than those of marlin and dorado with twenty three percent of charters catching between one and twenty yellow fin in the 20 to 30 lb class. William Black from Scotland, had a superb day with Captain J.R aboard Pisces Rebecca, but had to go a long way for it.  They caught and released a striped marlin, and hooked seventeen tuna and a dorado 28 to 34 miles offshore using live bait for the marlin and a combination of cedar plugs and feathers for the tuna and dorado. Bill Collector had twenty tuna twenty miles out from the Lighthouse for Benjamin Troy from San Jose, California. Our total tuna catch this week was of 182 fish. Dorado catches are winding down with boats seldom catching more than a single fish, though Pisces Valerie was the exception with six up to twenty pounds. Outstanding catch of the week probably goes to Pisces Cabolero on February 22nd for anglers Charles Gallagher & Chris Gallardo from Crete, Illinois and Scott Erickson from Oreno, Minnesota, who caught a 200 lb mako shark; this group also released a striped marlin and caught two yellow fin tuna and ten sierra. There were quite a few sharks this week; we had a couple of makos, a hammerhead and a sardine shark, the juveniles were released and the one taken on Cabolero was the biggest we have seen in a long time. Inshore fishing was where we saw our most prolific catches this week with lots of sierra – in fact we totaled 228 of them. Boats fished inshore for these and had a lot of fun on light tackle, managing to hook up to 35 in a day (many released). We also had grouper, cabrilla, roosterfish, lots of skipjack and jack crevalle. Our inshore guide Wesley had great catches all week, the most outstanding being that of three hawk fish as well as some good size, sierra and jack crevalle. This new service is proving to be extremely popular so pre-booking is a must so as not to be disappointed.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Partly cloudy, seas moderate to rough.
LOCATION: Golden Gate, San Jaime, Old Lighthouse 20 miles out, shoreline from Lighthouse to Migrino.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP; 70-73 F
BEST LURES: live bait, cedar plugs, guacamayo, white & blue, feathers, green.