PISCES WEEKLY FISH REPORT AUGUST 7TH TO 12TH, 2004 BILLFISH: A pretty good week here in Cabo, with the weather warming up and blue marlin and sailfish catches on the rise. It still isn’t the baking hot weather we expect for this time of year, but fishing is pretty much as it should be. Biggest fish this week was caught by Stan Shuller from New Orleans, aboard “Catch n’ Carey”. This was Stan’s first blue water trip to Cabo and he was thrilled to hook a sizeable blue between the Donut and Punta Gorda, about eight miles offshore. The fish struck a popular “Petrolero” lure and ended up being hooked just above the eye, which is why it probably took three and a half hours to bring to the boat on 80 lb test. Fish was close to 470 lbs, (see photo below). Most of the blues were caught in the Sea of Cortez, but a catch was not guaranteed. For close to half of the week, many boats opted to fish the cooler Pacific, where they found good numbers of striped marlin, some wahoo as well as dorado and tuna. Floyd, Michael and Russell Sims, brothers from Virginia and Yarmouth, Mass. were very lucky to release a blue marlin each, on August 8th, aboard “Halcon” at Punta Gorda. This same day Patrick Ohm from Meza, Arizona, did well to release a striped marlin – he also fought a blue which came to the boat dead at 220 lbs, along with a 40 lb wahoo. Joan and Tim Gintz from Graham, WA are to be congratulated for a striped and blue marlin release aboard “Tracy Ann” on August 7th. Our overall catch success rate for all species combined was eighty-two percent, with forty-seven percent of charters hooking into billfish. So quite a few boats were “skunked”. Pisces anglers caught a total of seventeen striped marlin, all released, eight blue marlin, with six released and twelve sailfish, all released. OTHER SPECIES: Quite a lot going on with smaller game, with dorado, tuna and wahoo all present. The most widely caught fish was dorado, with fifty percent of charters boating fish in the 20 to 60 lb class. An average catch was one or two fish per boat, though occasionally we did see boats get five or six – usually vessels closer in, not those chasing billfish. Found over a widespread area, taking mostly lures and some bait. Yellowfin tuna catches were quite a bit slower with just twenty-seven percent of boats landing fish averaging 20 to 30 lbs. Some fish were as large as 70 lbs, but this was an exception, rather than the norm. More tuna were caught on the Pacific than anywhere else, with Golden Gate being the top spot. Cedar plugs, lures and bait all worked. Wahoo catches climbed somewhat this week, but sizes were on the small side at 38 to 50 lbs. Inshore it was skipjacks and small dorado for the pangas. WEATHER CONDITIONS: Skies party cloudy, hot, seas a deep blue and on the rough size towards the close of the week. AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 83 F BEST LURES: Petrolero, green/yellow, red/brown, live bait, cedar plugs, purple jet heads for wahoo. Based on the catches of Pisces Sportfishing by Tracy Ehrenberg