PISCES WEEKLY FISH REPORT FEBRUARY 6TH TO 12TH, 2004 BILLFISH: Although the number of fish caught may seem discouraging, fishing is actually turning around in a nice way. The last day of this report, we saw warmer water, more bait in the area and over half the boats catching striped marlin, which bodes well. The week started off with gloomy overcast weather and catch rates that were on the poor side; this persisted for a few days and a lot of boats decided that they would stick inshore for smaller game which was almost guaranteed, rather than risk a 30 or 40 mile run, to catch perhaps, just a single dorado. Boats did rough it out in windy weather, up past Punta Gorda on February 7th and several boats sighted marlin, but it was hard to get hook-ups. One exception was “Valerie” with Steve & Anna Whalen from Burnsville, MN, who were fortunate to release two striped marlin on live bait. An unusual catch was a sailfish – the clients Steve & Debbie Albritton, from Sugarland, Texas had asked in the morning, before boarding “Tracy Ann” if they would be able to catch a sailfish; not having seen any in a couple of months, they were told not likely and lo and behold they managed to hook an approx, 90 lb sailfish 17 miles off of Punta Gorda. As the week progressed we started to see more marlin and all action began to concentrate on the Pacific between the Old Lighthouse and San Jaime. “Karina” had an enviable day on the 12th, releasing two striped marlin and boating four dorado and a tuna too. Pisces anglers had a total of nine striped marlin this week, all but one released and the sailfish mentioned above, also released. Our overall catch success rate was pretty high at eighty-one percent, the billfish catch success rate was a lowly 20%, but next week, I am sure we shall have much higher numbers. OTHER SPECIES: Not surprisingly the inshore action on sierra (Spanish mackerel) was outstanding this week; in fact this is the kind of fishing we do a lot in March. Boats had a ball on lighter tackle, being able to hook up to 27 in the 5 to 12 lb class; total on sierra was 134 for us. Lots of snapper too, with some as large as 30 lbs and boats catching as many as 7 in a morning, with a few skipjacks and amberjacks thrown in too. On the more desirable bigger fish, Bad Company found a dead whale off of Punta Gorda and loaded up on dorado that were congregating underneath it. By the following day the whale had drifted to about four miles off of Palmilla, affording several boats plenty of activity on fish up to 25 lbs, with many smaller ones released. In fact we had a lot of dorado this week, 91 in total for the fleet, with some as large as 45 lbs. Yellowfin tuna catches were on the slow side, with just a few football size fish for us, though there was an odd one here and there that was over 30 lbs. We were delighted to find wahoo in the San Jaime area. Bad Company had two on February 12th, for Steve Gonsalves and party, one around 30 lbs the other 70 lbs, one took a silver and white jet head (flying fish colors) the other a Marauder, they also released a striped marlin. LOCATION: Punta Gorda on the Cortez to San Jaime on the Pacific. WEATHER CONDITIONS: Cloudy most of the week, windy in the afternoons, seas calm. AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 72F BEST LURES: Live bait, blue/white, green/yellow. Based on the catches of Pisces Fleet by Tracy Ehrenberg