BILLFISH: Billfish catches remain steady and look to improve if the weather can ever make up its mind. Right now areas such as La Paz are baking hot, whilst the Pacific is still enjoying cool breezes. There has also been a red tide in Cabo, which despite horror stories you usually hear, has not affected offshore fishing. We have seen a lot of smaller fish wash up on the beach but no big game fish. Catches were steady to good on billfish and excellent on yellowfin tuna. Fifty nine percent of our anglers this week managed to catch between one and six marlin in a day. Top boat was “Shambala” the 60 ft Hatteras, who during the first day of the Stars and Stripes event managed to release six striped marlin and boat four tuna for John Modejeski from El Cajon, California fishing with friends, just above the 95 spot, with live mackerel the ticket for the marlin whereas the tuna took cedar plugs. Earlier in the week “Shambala” also released four marlin and Galapagos for another group this time at the 11.50 spot. As if to prove that size doesn’t really matter, when it comes to boats, “Adriana”, 28 ft Uniflite also released four striped marlin this same day plus three tuna fro Linda & Hal McIver from Jackson, Tn. fishing with Leo Martinez from Escondido, Ca; also at the 11.50 spot. Gerald Richmond from Islamorada, Florida, always seems to make it into our fish report every time he is in town; this week it is for three striped marlin released aboard “Rebecca” at the Herradura on the 23rd of June. Catches this week on the marlin moved a little, with some at the 11.50, others at the Herradura and still others off of Land’s End, the common denominator was live bait. Pisces anglers caught a total of 59 striped marlin this week, all released.
OTHER SPECIES: Yellowfin tuna was definitely the most popular catch this week with seventy seven percent of our boats catching from one to twenty two fish, all pretty much in the 15 to 40 lb class, although there was one an exception, a 220 lb’ caught 25 miles off of the Old Lighthouse on the Pacific by a group consisting of Nick Totten & Stephen Adams from McKinney, Texas fishing with Mike Parsons form Bluffton, South Carolina – they caught a total of five tuna all on lures, ranging from cedar plugs, to petroleros and green type lures aboard “La Brisa”. Total count on tuna was 187 fish with the best catches between Land’s End and the Old Lighthouse 20 to 25 miles out. Dorado catches were slower this week with just seventeen percent of boats catching one or two fish in the 20 to 30 lb class with blue and green lures working well for this species. We had a solitary wahoo this week, weighing in at 36 lbs for Kevin Otten from Albuquerque, New Mexico; he also released a striped marlin and boated one tuna close to the 11.50 spot, also aboard “La Brisa”. The only other fish we caught were sharks mostly Galapagos type with some as large as 130 lbs. They are taking a lot of our lures and trying to steal angler’s catches, in fact we had a repeat of our tuna/shark story from a few weeks ago…but this time on a smaller scale. Peter Hughes & David Daniel from London, England were out on La Brisa and caught almost six tuna. The last one was being reeled in when it was attacked by a shark. The quick thinking deckhand hauled what was left of the tuna aboard and swiftly dropped back bait, which the shark took. The angler then had a great time reeling the 140 lb predator to the boat before releasing it.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Some quite rough seas on windy days and calmer on less windy days, skies are blue and weather nice, not super hot yet.
LOCATION: 11.50 spot, Herradura, Cerro Blanco (Land’s End) to Old Lighthouse.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 71-74 F
BEST LURES: Live bait for marlin, cedar plugs for tuna, blue and green lures for dorado, sharks live bait.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg
