Overall Catch Success Rate 71%
Numbers at a glance: Marlin 38%, Dorado 38%, Small Game 24%, Tuna 4%
BILLFISH: It was kind of feast or famine this week, with some days producing outstanding catches, only to be followed by a day or so with little to no catches. There is really no explanation just the time of year, as the season changes. Some scientists believe this to be a breeding time of year, whilst others claim that the fish are filling up on large squid and are less hungry. So if you were on a boat that found hungry fish the day you were out, it was fantastic, if you weren’t it was disappointing; but that’s fishing and a risk you have to take. One of the better dates turned out to be May 7th, when Pisces Valerie had a superb day for Gayle & William Schutze from Texas, who fished with friends Jean Maxwell, Dirk Richel, Maribel Cario & David Wenheimer – it was a good job they had so many friends aboard as they released eight striped marlin at the 180 spot on a combination of live caballito and frozen ballyhoo. Pisces C Rod was not too far behind the Valerie this day as they loaded up on six striped marlin plus two dorado, 32 miles out for Alfredo Cabrero from Mexico City. Robert Deal from Vienna, Virginia took his daughter Jessica and her friend Nicole out aboard Pisces Andrea, to celebrate the end of the school year and they had a blast releasing five striped marlin up to 150 lbs., 33 miles out. Pisces Tracy Ann had a brisk day for striped marlin but they had to go a long way, 36 miles in fact, so that Stephen Connolly, Catsun Richards, Thomas Rochow, Alyn Jones & Chad Olsen – all from Calgary, could release a marlin each, giving them a total of five fish for the day on May 6th. Listo and Valerie had quadruple marlin days later in the week. This week was more a question of going a long way and hoping you found hungry marlin when you got there. Nevertheless some superb catches were had as noted here, giving us a total of fifty striped marlin which were released.
OTHER SPECIES: Not fantastic for smaller game though we did see an increase on dorado with thirty seven percent of the boats catching an average of one or two fish up to 15 lbs. Butch Bustamente from Huntington Beach along with wife Kriste are long time Pisces clients and friends, who did better than average catching four dorado aboard Andrea 30 miles offshore. Our total dorado catch was ten fish. Tuna catches were slow though C Rod did find a small school and land five. Pisces Tracy Ann had our only wahoo of the week a nice 50 lb. specimen caught by Mike McGurk from Newbury Park, California. Seeing as the majority of boats headed offshore for big game not many stayed in shore, however those that did caught skipjacks and some roosterfish. Twenty four percent of our charters caught small game fish. Surfishing; Wesley had four days out this week resulting in catches of eleven red snapper and five jack crevalles.
LOCATION: Destiladeras, Herradura, 180 spot, 20 to 36 miles out. On the day the boats fished the Pacific they caught skipjack.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear skies, seas mostly calm.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 74F
BEST LURES: Live caballito, frozen ballyhoo, blue/white, green.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg