PISCES WEEKLY FISH REPORT DEC.27TH, TO JAN 2ND, 2003/4 BILLFISH: As we hoped last week, the striped marlin have at last started to show up in good numbers and in fact we had plenty of feeding frenzies this past week at the Golden Gate. Boats starting spotting more and more stripers and by New Year’s Eve, we finally starting seeing the results that we are used to for this time of year. “Valerie” was our top boat this day releasing a total of six striped marlin for Thomas and Tommy Devlin, this same boat followed up the next day, for my family with five marlin releases and a dorado for the table. Other boats such as “Ruthless” had four releases for Kirk Myerson from California, as did Karina for the Mikel family from Illinois – “Salsa” rounded out the quadruple figures for Jim Peterson from Geneva, Switzerland all on December 31st . Our overall catch success rate for billfish was sixty-seven percent, as the first few days of this period were slower, even now, marlin catches could not be guaranteed, however most boats averaged two per outing. All of the action is on the Pacific side between Los Arcos and Golden Gate. Bait is being cast to fish on the surface and many are being caught with live bait attached to sinkers at more profound depths. Pisces anglers caught a total of sixty eight striped marlin of which sixty-six were released. Our overall catch success rate for all species combined was ninety-two percent. OTHER SPECIES: We had a couple of very nice tuna this week, caught by anglers soaking bait for striped marlin, they nevertheless got bitten by tuna, at the Golden Gate; first up was for Alexci Menge, an impressive 210 lb fish caught aboard “Adriana” on December 28th. Next up angler Noriyaki Sato from Seattle, took three hours to land his 260 lb tuna on 60 lb test after it took a live bait aboard “La Brisa” at the Golden Gate (see photos). These were the only tuna for us this week, I guess if you’re going to get one, it better be one that counts! Dorado were caught by every third boat or so this week, mostly in one’s and two’s, so however, were lucky to get as many as seven. Weights are average at 20 to 30 lbs. Just one 44 lb wahoo for us this week. We are pleased to see a few sharks making a comeback, we had two makos and one blue shark released this week. WEATHER CONDITIONS: Incredible (sorry if you live in the snow) – clear sunny skies, seas are calm and nights are fresh. AVERAGE WATER TEMP:73 F BEST LURES: Live bait. Based on the catches of Pisces Fleet by Tracy Ehrenberg