Numbers at a glance: Billfish 56%, Tuna 30%, Dorado 17%, Other 16%
BILLFISH: This week we saw excellent fishing resulting in ninety five percent of our charters catching fish – the first couple of days of the week though, we saw several boats “skunked” as the fish moved around and would not settle on one location. The hot weather brought blue marlin, with the largest being a 380 lb’er caught by Australian angler Angelo Abela aboard Attitude Adjustment (that’s a lot of “A’s”). The fish took a live caballito and was safely released at the 11.50 spot. Pisces C Rod did very well to release three blue marlin on three consecutive days, July 6th, 7th & 8th; all were close to 200 lbs. and were caught at the 11.50 spot – they also released a couple of striped marlin on these same dates. Michael & Alex Jennings from Orange County, California had a fabulous day aboard Pisces Speedwell fishing at the 95 spot they released a 300 lb. blue marlin, a sailfish and landed a yellowfin tuna and skipjack. Mexican anglers Jaime & Diego Williams were pleased with their billfish catch of an almost 200 lb. blue marlin and a sailfish aboard Valerie on July 6th. The Andrea had a 200 lb. plus blue marlin that they caught on a Chiwillie lure in front of San Pedrito for Yance Warbel from Colorado, who also boated a tuna. The Widner family from Austin, Texas, fished aboard Ruthless and did well to release on of the biggest striped marlin we’ve seen in a while at 200 lbs. (estimated). Tracy Ann made the fish report this week for three striped marlin released for the Vanderburg family from Texas – their fish took live caballito and were caught on the Pacific side between Elias Calles and Golden Gate. A nice mixed bag day was had by Andrea on July 7th with a striped marlin, pilot shark & twenty two tuna. There could have been more billfish catches but many anglers decided to try for tuna. Our anglers caught a total of 65 billfish this week, consisting of 46 striped marlin, 8 blue marlin & 11 sailfish.
OTHER SPECIES: The tuna schools move around a lot and this week the catches were better on the Pacific and in fact the largest of the week was caught near Golden Gate aboard Valerie - the 190 lb. fish was caught by Zachary & Leigh Veal and was taken on a yellow & black lure. A group from Texas, headed up by Brad Spalding did very well to catch seventeen yellowfin tuna thirty miles out from Lands’ End aboard Tracy Ann. The fish ranged in size from 20 to 130 lbs. The Valerie had one of the best tuna days, catching thirty football size tuna plus five skipjacks at the Golden Gate for Kevin & Cameron Calogne from Houston, Texas. Other tuna catches were of one to sixteen fish, with thirty percent of our boats catching this species. Our total tuna count was 298 fish. Dorado catches were a lot slower with just 18 caught this week, usually just a lone fish and more occasionally two – there was one exceptionally large dorado but that warrants a separate story – check back tomorrow for that one. We had several wahoo in the 30 lb class. The largest wahoo this week was caught by Matt Dutile from Astoria New York aboard Rebecca and was 40 lbs. class as well as a few roosterfish. Two pilot, one mako and one hammerhead shark were all released. The only other catches for us this report were skipjacks found inshore. Pangas had slim pickings inshore this past week with catches being skipjacks and the odd marlin.
LOCATION: Both Cortez and Pacific – tuna more on the Pacific along with striped marlin, blue marlin & sailfish on the Cortez side. Dorado spread out.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Hot, mostly clear skies, still a nice breeze on the Pacific.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 85 F
BEST LURES: Green/black, yellow/black, live bait, cedar plugs.
Based on the catches of Pisces Sportfishing by Tracy Ehrenberg.
