Pisces Sportfishing 10th-16th March 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate 73%

BILLFISH: This week we had some really fantastic catches and then other days where many boat caught nothing. Top catch of the week was by Al Monte from Sutton, Massachusetts, for his 391 lb swordfish caught aboard “Tracy Ann”, whilst fishing with his two sons, they also released two striped marlin and boated six yellow fin tuna, just six miles off of the Old Lighthouse on the Pacific side. Full details were posted on our blog http://piscesfleet.blogspot.mx/2012/03/tracy-ann-does-it-againwow-what-day.html  this catch caused quite a stir. Fisherman can fish all their lives and never get a swordfish, so this one was much appreciated.  This was not Captain Julio’s only good day fishing; he was on a roll this week, with two striped marlin and a wahoo for Royce & Vaden Barrington from Fort Worth, Texas at Destiladeres and another two striped marlin on March 13^th for Mason and Danny Stewart from Houston, Texas. “Bill Collector” had a couple of really good days, starting out with four striped marlin released fifteen miles out from Cerro de Arena for Philip Kennedy & friends from Alpine, Texas.  They had three marlin and a dorado just two miles off of the Old Lighthouse for John Thompson, Dave Dazser & Barry Cercone from Seminola, Florida. “Yahoo” was not left out either, with their triple marlin day fishing in the opposite direction at Punta Gorda & Destiladeres for Robert & Grant Williamson fishing with Jacob Dillman from Houston, Texas. I guess you could say it was good week for Texans. Thirty five percent of charters caught marlin this week. It was feast or famine, some days you could get marlin the next hardly any where caught. A lot depended on the weather; we have had some very windy days, typical for March, with gusts up to thirty knots and whitecaps on the Pacific, which meant a lot of boats turned back with sea-sick anglers. The bait situation was not ideal, but it was interesting to see how the captains became more resourceful and managed to catch fish with jurelito (green-jacks) caballito and mackerel. Our anglers caught and released thirty striped marlin and one swordfish.

OTHER SPECIES: We saw a small increase on dorado catches this week with one boat, “El Gallo”, catching six for Kevin Brandes from Illinois, whilst others caught one or two, giving us a tally of seventeen fish, though none bigger than 20 lbs. Yellow fin tuna catches were of the football size and between three and six fish per boat when found, though less than ten percent of charters found them. Yellow tail catches continued but not as frequently as earlier in the month. We saw several kinds of shark caught, blue, hammerhead and mako with the majority juveniles not over 50 lbs.

LOCATION: Old Lighthouse,  Las Margaritas Migrino, Destiladeres, Punta Gorda.

WEATHER CONDTIONS: Super windy weather on the Pacific prevented boats from doing much on some days, which sent them the other direction, but fish were found on both sides. Partly cloudy skies.