Overall Catch Success Rate 96%
Numbers at a glance: Marlin 78%, Tuna 17%, Dorado 24%
BILLFISH: We had a spectacular week for marlin, with some superb catches at Golden Gate. Pisces “Fearless” had reels screaming as they released marlin after marlin for Mike Decardenas & Tom Scott, from Miami & Dallas, respectively, until the exhausted anglers had totaled sixteen fish between 110 and 150 lbs during their day charter on February 3rd. This same day we saw other boats have excellent catches too, such as Pisces Adriana who released seven marlin for Jason & Kim Gumm, Brian & Duane Ford, from Kentucky. Another Texas angler, Gary Anderson, also from Dallas, managed to release six stripers aboard Pisces Shambala. Good weather and a good supply of live mackerel as bait, seemed to contribute to the boats excellent success. The following day, February 4th, saw catches to continue in the same vein, again for Pisces Shambala with another six marlin. Pisces Rebecca, a 31 ft Bertram released seven, making her top boat of the day for a group from Champaign, Illinois consisting of Dana, Scott, Kevin and Bill. Second highest catch of the week went to Pisces Tracy Ann, with eleven striped marlin released and a dorado boated on February 5th for the McNeil’s & Anderson’s from Gilbert, Mn. Seventy eight percent of the boats got marlin with catches ranging from one to sixteen, as mentioned above, with the average being two to four per boat per day. Towards the end of the week the weather cooled and the wind picked up on the Pacific, forcing boats to seek alternative fishing grounds, though some, such as Rebecca, battled up the coast and managed to catch seven marlin for the second time this week; this time for George Fussell from Florida. Due to the less than perfect conditions, some anglers preferred smoother water, or decided to go for smaller game closer to Cabo. Pisces anglers caught a total of 140 striped marlin this week – all were released.
OTHER SPECIES: After marlin, the next most likely species that anglers encountered was dorado, but not in sheer numbers like the marlin or even tuna. Catches were usually just one or two fish up to 30 lbs and occasionally three – twenty four percent of charter boats caught dorado. They were found trolling over a wide area, tending to be free swimming rather than in schools. Tuna catches were regular with seventeen percent of boats finding schools of varying size leading to some great catches. Pisces Yahoo, did the best on this species catching thirty five up to 20 lbs at San Jaime, as well as releasing a marlin for John Vipiana & friends from San Rafael, Ca. Another boat that did really well was Pisces Bill Collector with thirty caught and fifteen released for Michael Williams from Australia. We had just one small wahoo & some skipjacks, plus two nice grouper aboard Cabolero. Surf fishing on the other hand was very good for guide Wesley, who on the last day of this report caught and released fourteen sierra, two jack crevalle and one rooster fish for a lone fisherman – we are now accepting bookings for surf fishing, contact us for details.
LOCATION: Golden Gate, San Jaime, Migrino, Los Arcos,30 miles from Lighthouse.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Skies mostly clear & sunny, seas calm, whitecaps at the end of the week on the Pacific.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 72 F
BEST LURES: Live mackerel, green & blue lures, cedar plugs.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg
