Fish Report

Joes & Patricia Limoges from Lakeville, Minnesota
17 Tuna at the Jaime Bank all on cedar plugs  - back center, Captain Enrique "Kikon", foreground mate Fernando Noyola.

February 23rd to March 1st, 2013

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 92%
Numbers at a glance: Billfish 6%, Tuna 49%, Dorado 34%, Small Game 47%

BILLFISH: This week was very slow for billfish, though this is not to say they are not in the area rather that they are spread out and are not hungry. For instance one boat reported spotting marlin very close to shore, then five miles off the lighthouse, then 35 miles offshore, then two more jumping when they were on their way back in, all this in the same day, but despite throwing bait to a couple of them, there were no takers. They doubled back for the two jumpers but these marlin had sunk out of sight.  We also had a big moon this week so fish were feeding at night. Added to this we had some very bumpy seas, meaning most anglers did not even want to get out there and struggle to find marlin with such low odds. Sometimes boats would get lucky and actually get hooked up, but these were few and far between this week. Pisces Bill Collector had an outstanding day on February 24th for Mike Thomas and friends from Texas who was one of the fortunate anglers not only to release a striped marlin but also to catch four tuna, five skipjacks and a dorado. Pisces Great Escape Jr and La Brisa, were the only two other boats to have marlin, both on March 1st  - Great Escape’s marlin was for Kevin Follanbee from Fresno, Ca. 25 miles out from Land’s End; he also got fifteen tuna and two dorado. La Brisa went to a completely different area, just below San Jaime with William Steimel from Wentzville, Missouri on board, who with friends, also caught sixteen tuna. Just six percent of our charters caught marlin this week - just three marlin caught and released.

OTHER SPECIES: Despite marlin catches being slow that was not the case for other species where we had plenty of activity.  Largest fish of the week was 100 lb. handsome blue shark, caught & released aboard Pisces “Bill Collector” for Nathan Adams from Denver, Colorado who also caught six tuna & a dorado. The shark took a blue & white lure at San Jaime. We had a bunch of tuna most of the week, except when seas were too rough to make it out to where they were. Pisces Tracy Ann was the yellow fin tuna queen this week, with forty tuna in one day for Michael Kammer from Berlin, New Jersey, followed by thirty five for Jordan Rice and party from Alberta, Canada – don’t think they were all killed; many were released. Neither were they in the same spot, they moved around a lot. Tracy Ann fished 38 miles out from the 150 spot, to load up one day then San Jaime for the second high tuna day. Cedar plugs were the way to go. Other boats did very well too, with catches of up to seventeen fish ranging from 15 to 30 lbs. Tuna was the most widely caught species this week resulting in a catch rate of forty nine percent for charters and giving us a total of 318 yellow fins.  Dorado catches remain surprisingly good with thirty four percent of anglers finding some good numbers, not just the odd fish here and there that we would expect, in fact some boats, such as Pisces La Brisa caught a total of twenty three for Robert Mabry, from South Whitley, Indiana at Gaspareno. They took a combination of green, orange, black, red lures and live bait. Our total dorado count was 155 fish, with many released.  The dorado are close to shore, in fact our surf fishing guide, Wesley, was hooking as many as four in a morning from the beach, unfortunately not able to land them, but compensating with lots of sierra, some good size jack crevalle and the odd roosterfish which are now being spotted up to 35 lbs.  The only wahoo of the week was aboard Pisces Valerie, a nice 40 lb’er for Tim Baker from Texas, who also caught a couple of tuna and skipjacks. Sierra were plentiful and up to 12 lbs., but boats opted for the tuna most days. We had both black and white skipjacks in good numbers, which often saved the day when nothing else was caught.

WEATHER: We had lots of sun but also lots of wind giving us some very bumpy seas, causing several parties to get sea-sick. Air temps are warming up with some days in the 80’s.
LOCATION: Pacific – San Jaime, Gaspareno, Margaritas, 25 to 38 miles straight out, Elias Calles, Los Arcos, off of the Old Lighthouse.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 71 F
BEST LURES: Cedar plugs, live bait, green, black, red.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg