PISCES WEEKLY FISH REPORT JAN 2- 10TH 2002 PISCES WEEKLY FISH REPORT January 2ND TO 10TH 2002 BILLFISH: Well what a great way to start the year, with a ninety-nine percent catch success rate and with other eighty-four percent of boats catching marlin. The year did get off to a bit of a shaky start, with very few tourists around the first few days of January, in fact catch rates could have been much higher if more boats had gone out. Fishing has been almost perfect with anglers being able to dictate what they would like, almost as if ordering from a menu; at least it has been that way for us. Some wanted to go for marlin and captains obliged by heading up to the Golden Gate and those that were lucky, could release up to four or five in a day. “Valerie” with captain Benito Agundez was our top boat this week with an average of four marlin released for each trip they had. Golden Gate again was the best spot for marlin once again, with about eighty percent of the fish taken on with weighted bait, deep down and about twenty percent taking bait up on the surface – there has also been a slight increase on water temperature at 73-74 F. A father/sons (Jon Gunnarsson) group visited from far off Iceland and were thrilled not only with the weather, but also with their catch of two striped marlin and a sailfish aboard Rebecca. The Buchman party from Phoenix, fished aboard “Libre’ on January 9th and were lucky to encounter a black marlin, that was over 500 lbs, this group took turns cranking on the monster, for 4 ½ hours, including bringing it up to the leader seven times, before it made it’s escape, after breaking the line - this fish hit a green lure, before the crew dropped back a live caballito on 40 lb test, 6 miles off of the point of Cabo. Pisces anglers caught a total of 61 striped marlin this week, of which 58 were released. OTHER SPECIES: We were pleasantly surprised by the small game available this week. The anglers that didn’t want to stay at Golden Gate all day, started to troll in and were lucky to find a couple of spots with dorado and tuna. The yellowfin were up to 60 lbs and some boats got as many as 8 in a day. The dorado were picked up while trolling in ones and twos and others found floating objects were they could practically get as many as they wanted. Inshore there was plenty of action on roosters up to 35 lbs, as well as big sierra up to10-11 lbs. We also heard of a local panga that got seven wahoo in one day but don’t have all the details. LOCATION: Golden Gate, Faro Viejo, inshore, 95 spot. WEATHER CONDITIONS; Great most of the week, with flat seas and clear skies, bit of a ground swell, but well-spaced. AVERAGE WATE TEMP: 72 F BEST LURES: Live bait. BASED ON THE CATCHES OF PISCES FLEET BY TRACY EHRENBERG