PISCES WEEKLY FISH REPORT MARCH 11TH TO 17TH, 2005 BILLFISH: This week was slow for marlin, with just a little over six percent catching stripers in the 120 to 160 lb class. In fact we had just six fish caught, with top honors going to “Blue Thunder” for catching and releasing two fish on March 13th – the only boat to do so this week. Most boats decided to head up the coast for the more sure catch of yellow fin tuna. However as the week drew to a close, the word went out that marlin had been found straight out from Land’s End, about 30 miles offshore. Quite a few boats headed out that way, but just a few were fortunate to hook up, such as “Karina” and “Andrea” – all marlin took live bait. Very few were sighted and those that were found were not too hungry. Again, this is just what we expect in March, in fact usually at this time of year boats head way up the coast towards the East Cape, so we were quite surprised to find marlin so close to Cabo. Looking back to last year we see that we had a spell of warm weather where the water temperature reached 72 F that gave us better catches than this year. Our overall catch success rate for all species combined was a high ninety-seven percent, so though not many boats caught billfish, nearly everybody caught something. OTHER SPECIES: Yellowfin tuna was king of the sportfish this week. Our anglers caught a whopping five hundred and thirty nine fish, ranging from 15 to 35 lbs, with the odd fish going 80 – 100 lbs. The biggest concentration of yellowfin was at Jaime Bank and also just before Golden Gate. Boats caught from four to over twenty fish each, with many of the smaller fish released. Eighty-four percent of charters hooked into tuna, which was a relief as the marlin catches were so slow. The tuna took marlin lures as well as cedar plus. Quite often whilst dragging lures, anglers hooked up with huge squid in the 30 to 40 lb class. Dorado catches were on the slow side with just fifteen percent of boats landing fish in the 15 to 20 lb class. They were found over a widespread area and were picked up while trolling for marlin. Inshore boats had a mixed bag of sea bass, red snapper, yellowtail, sierra and skipjacks. WEATHER CONDITIONS: A couple of very windy days, but otherwise beautiful, clear sunny skies, seas were rough on the breezier days but now dead calm. LOCATION: Starting off at Chileno and San Jose, then switched to the Pacific from the Old Lighthouse to Golden Gate. AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 68 F BEST LURES: Live bait, green/yellow, blue/white, cedar plugs. BASED ON THE CATCHES OF PISCES BY TRACY EHRENBERG