Marlin Catches at 73%

JULY 30^th to AUGUST 3^rd

Overall Catch Success Rate 99%

BILLFISH: Fishing was remarkably good this week, seeing as we had a big moon all week and quite rough seas on the Pacific. At the end of the week we saw huge waves hitting the shore, mostly on the Sea of Cortez; they were so large that they left the steps of some of the resorts, buried in sand and made swimming un safe – this is very unusual as we don’t see this unless there is a hurricane around, which there isn’t. Anyway, the people fishing were not worrying about the beaches but were concentrating on catching fish. The best catches were at the start of this period, when we saw “Adriana” release five striped marlin and a sailfish at Gaspareno for the Porter family from Poway, Georgia.  This same day “Andrea” released four marlin as did “Ruthless”, whilst other boats averaged one to three. For variety, “Tracy Ann” had one of the best day on August 1^st with two striped marlin and a sailfish released, nine tuna and two dorado. As the week progressed and the moon reached its zenith, marlin catches slowed a little but tuna took up the slack, however, the most likely catch this week was still billfish. Seventy three percent of boats caught marlin and sailfish, giving us a total of 38 marlin and four sailfish.

OTHER CATCHES: We had some decent catches this week that is until the tuna seiners moved in and started wrapping the schools in their nets. Unfortunately, tuna is categorized as a commercial fish, not a species reserved for sportfishing, which is a shame, because commercial fishing techniques take a lot of non-targeted species, including, billfish, dorado and turtles as by catch. “Tracy Ann” had the busiest tuna day on July 31^st with 43 (many released) for Larry & Kellie Hemingway from Kingwood, Texas, if this wasn’t enough they also released a striped marlin and caught a dorado. Catches of twelve to twenty fish were not unusual in the size range of 12 to 25 lbs. Our total tuna count was 224 fish. Fifty four percent of boats caught tuna, whilst dorado catches were just a shade higher, that is there were found slightly more frequently but catches were usually of one or two fish only. Andrew Holmes from La Canada, California, did the best on dorado catching twelve as well as twelve tuna aboard “Valerie”. The dorado preferred the mackerel, while the tuna stuck to their favorite cedar plugs.  Only other species we caught was skipjack this week.

LOCATION: Pacific, Migrino, Gaspareno, Margaritas, Golden Gate, a couple of days on the Cortez at the 95 and 11.50 spots.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Partly cloudy, hot, humid, some perfect weather days and some rough days with whitecaps on the Pacific as well as big waves towards the end of the report.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 80-83 F

BEST LURES: live bait was not always available so ballyhoo was used and bait when found was jurelito and caballito. Lures, green combos and cedar plugs.