PISCES WEEKLY FISH REPORT September 19th to 25th, 2003 BILLFISH: As most of you know we had a major hurricane here in Cabo this past week, which we were unprepared for. Up until 8 hours before the storm hit, it was a tropical storm, before converting to Hurricane Marty, that brought lots of rain and winds 100 mph plus. Thankfully Cabo suffered only minor damage, though a few areas are still without electricity, La Paz however, was hit hard with around 30 boats sinking. As a follow up to last week’s shark story, we can now confirm that it is true, though the weight cannot be verified, here is the report we received from Don Ballantine, who took the photo (see below) “This was a 1,600 lb Tiger. The Shark fishermen come in here at our place, that is their business. They could only estimate the weight, as they had to gut it to be able to get it into their panga. It had two sea turtles and a goat inside. They figure that the goat got washed out to sea at the last hurricane (Ignacio). It took six of us to get it out of the Panga. Had to tip it up on its side so it would not break the side of the boat. They are very good at estimating, because they butcher and sell the meat, fins, and mandibles.” Due to the storm the port was closed on the 21st and 22nd of September, causing a backlog of people wanting to get out on the water, so on the 23rd, pretty much everything in town was booked and we were pleasantly surprised at how good the fishing was. Usually the first couple of days after a storm are for exploring and checking conditions; but things were right on track, with “Ruthless” releasing two sailfish for Scott Nicely from Needville Tx,. Not every boat caught fish this day but all reported seeing fish and throwing bait at them. Just before the storm we had some great fishing, like a sailfish, a blue marlin and twelve tunas for Drew Edwards from Green River, Wy, aboard “Tracy Ann”. This same day Les Warren, from Phoenix Az, was fortunate to release a striper and then boat six tunas and a dorado. The overall catch success rate this week was quite high at eighty-seven percent for all species combined. The billfish catch success rate was higher than small game a forty-six percent. Basically we are seeing a nice mix of sailfish, striped marlin and some blue marlin. Pisces anglers caught a total of eighteen striped marlin, eight sailfish and three blues, with all but one fish released. OTHER SPECIES: Philip Raymond from Los Angeles, Ca. was given a surprise fishing trip by his wife Susan, aboard “Libre”, it turned out to be a lucky day for him with a 230 lb yellowfin tuna, that took him four hours to land on 50 lb test, after it took a lure. Tuna catches were on a par with dorado this week, with thirty-eight percent of charters getting one or both of these species. The amount of tuna caught was higher from one to eleven per boat and weights were good at 30 to 70 lbs. Cedar plugs worked particularly well on these. Dorado catches were usually one or two per boat, but size was good, an average of 15 to 30 lbs and some really big ones, such as a 59 lb bull, taken by Richard Guerra from Austin, Texas aboard “Rebecca”. We had a few wahoo this week, not huge amounts, average in size at 40 to 50 lbs. Inshore not much action aside from skipjacks and the odd dorado here and there. LOCATION: 10 to 25 miles off of the arch and in front of the Old Lighthouse, 10 miles off of Chileno, 19 miles off of Cabezea de Ballena, 95 spot. WEATHER CONDITIONS: Super hot before the storm, now cooling off considerably, with clear sunny skies and moderate seas. AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 85 F BEST LURES: A bit of a bait shortage, though it has been available every day, green/yellows, red/black. Based on the catches of Pisces Fleet by Tracy Ehrenberg