January 21-31, 2010

OVERALL CATCH SUCCESS RATE 86%

BILLFISH: This week was on the slow side for marlin, with just twenty-eight percent of charters catching stripers from 110 to 150 lbs. Nevertheless, boats were able to pick up other species, resulting in an overall catch rate of eighty-six percent for all species combined. On January 27th, “Spartacus” did well, releasing two striped marlin 30 miles offshore towards San Jaime, as well as landing a dorado and tuna for Aaron Rasty and friends from Chicago. This was the only boat to catch more than one billfish. Other boats caught a single marlin in different locations such as near the Old Lighthouse, by Cerro Colorado and close to Santa Maria; some were really close to shore while others were thirty miles offshore, and all were on live bait. “Bandito” had a good day on January 24th for Jordan Hoover from Last Vegas and James McNally from Ontario, Canada – they released a striped marlin and caught a 60 lb hammerhead shark and a dorado. Stephen Pate from Houston, Texas had a good day on the “Tracy Ann,” releasing one striped marlin and catching ten tuna from 10 to 18 lbs just four miles from Moros Prietos. Towards the end of the week we saw an increase in mackerel, the preferred food for marlin, resulting in more consistent marlin catches. If they stay around, we can expect to see an increase fairly quickly on the billfish catches. Pisces anglers caught a total of 12 striped marlin; all were released.

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado were the number 1 sportfish again this week, with forty four percent of boats catching between one and six fish up to 25 lbs. They took an assortment of lures in diverse locations, giving us a total of 43 fish. Yellowfin tuna catches were at twenty one percent, with some boats landing up to ten, such as “Ruthless” on January 21st for David Martin and Walter Bend from Los Angeles, California. We did have several hammerhead sharks this week and “Andrea” actually had two that weighed approximately 40 and 60 lbs, caught three miles off of Cabo Real, caught by Robert Pope from Denver fishing with Tedd Budd from Chicago. A couple of wahoo were caught but were small at 18 and 20 lbs respectively. Inshore, sierra, yellowtail, skipjacks and roosterfish were caught.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear, sunny skies, calm seas.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 73 F

LOCATION: Pacific from Old Lighthouse to Golden Gate, two to thirty miles out and also on the Cortez one to three miles out from Santa Maria to Cerro Colorado.

BEST LURES: Live bait for marlin, green/yellow, red/black lures for dorado, cedar plugs for tuna.

Based on the catches of the Pisces Fleet