PISCES WEEKLY FISH REPORT APRIL 26TH OT MAY 2ND 2002 PISCES WEEKLY FISH REPORT APRIL 26TH TO MAY 2ND, 2002 BILLFISH: Fishing was excellent this week, with an overall catch success rate of ninety-three percent on our charters, for all species combined and close to seventy-five percent of boats getting marlin. We again saw some days, were anglers caught up to four stripers the same day. Steve Hautala from Fort Bragg, Ca, fishing with Grant Tinsley, aboard “Andrea” were thrilled with their quadruple day aboard “Andrea”, a couple of days before this, it was Gary Fechner and Darrell Miller, from Commerce City, Co aboard “Adriana”. We had many boats with three marlin days to say nothing of the wahoo and dorado catches. Most boats though, averaged one to two marlin plus a table fish. Fishing was pretty much all on the Cortez side ranging from Land’s End up to Red Hill with the area around the 95 spot being the most productive. Fish took lures and bait, equally, fish spotted up on the surface favored lures. The captains report a lot of squid in the water, making it a little difficult to find hungry fish, however the numbers tell the story, this week we had a total of sixty striped marlin of which fifty six were released. Weights ranged from 110 to over 200 lbs. OTHER SPECIES: Wow, what a wahoo week…….it has been at least a decade since we have seen wahoo catches like we are experiencing now. Boats are reporting quadruple wahoo strikes, meaning we are losing a lot of lures! Some boats managed to actually catch up to three in a day and the sizes are good, ranging from 40 to 90 lbs. Brian from Pazzos here in Cabo was one of the lucky anglers to get three in a day, but almost lost his biggest to a four foot mako shark (see photo). Wahoo came in on a daily basis this period, which has lead some people to ask, if the closing of the islands to long range boats, possibly have anything to do with this, but then again we have warm water currents in the area which is another factor. Mako and blue sharks were caught this week and more than once tried stealing wahoo and dorado from fishermen. Dorado catches are on the increase, with boats getting up to four in the 20 to 30 lb class. Inshore small dorado, some wahoo, red snapper, jack crevalle, roosters up to 30 lbs and sierra. LOCATION: Cerro Blanco, 95 spot, Moros Prietos, Chileno. WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear skies, sunny, seas mostly good. AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 72-74 F BEST LURES: Green/yellow, red/brown, assorted, some bait (scarce this week). BASED ON THE CATCHES OF PISCES FLEET BY TRACY EHRENBERG