Overall Catch Success Rate for All Species Combined 82%
BILLFISH: It was a bit of an up and down week this report; the fish had moved on, giving up residence of the 11.50 spot, the most popular location for marlin for over a month. It took skippers a couple of days to re-locate them, as they were following warmer water and had moved further up into the Sea of Cortez to Destiladeras. This pattern was reflected in our daily fish reports, with quite a lot of boats “skunked” at the beginning of this period, and then catches gradually increased as the week went on. “Tracy Ann” kept their name up there though, when they released three striped marlin at Punta Gorda on May 28th for George Vargas, Otto Tellez & Joshua Rendon; all on live jurel. Jon Svendson, from Scottsdale, Arizona, fishing alone aboard “Rebecca” had his hands full and his arms tired, as the expert crew guided him to release five striped marlin and a jack crevalle at Destiladeres on ballyhoo. Jacksonville, Florida anglers Bill, Mike & Will Burgsteiner, out on May 31st aboard “Tracy Ann” caught and released four striped marlin on a combination of caballito and ballyhoo, with their fish ranging in size from 120 to 150 lbs. We had plenty of other boats that had one and two marlin and “Valerie” closed out the week with a triple-header on striped marlin on a trip donated to our local marines for Marine Day which is June 1st. Fifty six percent of our anglers caught marlin this week giving us a total catch of 41fish; all but two released.
OTHER SPECIES: Pretty slim pickings on smaller game this week, as the Pacific continued to be foggy and windy, meaning the seas were no picnic. Nevertheless at the end of the week there were some good catches of roosterfish, with the panga “Gloria I” catching five up to 20 lbs plus a nice yellowtail. Offshore catches for larger small game, such as dorado and tuna were slow with just a couple of football size tuna and a couple of dorado up to 40 lbs. We also had a couple of small sharks at Gordo banks, one hammerhead and one mako, both under 50 lbs that were released. Several jack crevalle were also caught.
LOCATION: Marlin, Punta Gorda and Destiladeras. Smaller game inshore from Land’s End to the Old Lighthouse.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: We have two climates on the Baja, Pacific and Sea of Cortez and they are very different. Pacific this week was cold, windy and foggy, whilst on the Cortez side they had a bit of a heat wave and calm seas.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 72 to 78 F on Cortez, Pacific as low as 68 F
BEST BAIT OR LURE: caballito, ballyhoo & jurelito.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg