PISCES WEEKLY FISH REPORT JANUARY 20TH TO 26TH, 2006 BILLFISH: Striped marlin continue to dominate Sportfishing action here at Land’s End with eighty percent of charters hooking up to striped marlin. Despite these excellent numbers the fishing was not consistent every day. We had days when boats would get 3-6 marlin each, followed by a day or two when they would get “skunked”, overall though, the numbers were very good, as long as you weren’t in the eleven percent of boats that got “skunked”. The action remains good at the Golden Gate, with conditions changeable; one day smooth seas, the next bumpy. Live bait was the ticket for striped marlin, with most fish taking mackerel, still there were quite a few that hit on trolled lures. Most boats averaged one striped marlin though there were many exceptions: “Ni Modo” caught eight on January 20th, for Zuanda Collins from Greenville, S.C, fishing with Kerry Murphy & Abigail Lamb, way to go girls! “Blue Thunder” matched them the following day with eight striped marlin released for David, Doug and Dan Hardy from Chicago; during their two day trip they released a total of 12 fish, in what they described as “the most intense fishing experience” of their lives. “Rebecca” released six on the 23rd for Sid Gold, Jim Foy and John Kovalsky, from New Jersey, despite a late start to the day. This same day Warren Pescud and friends from Hong Kong were very pleased with five marlin released aboard “Tracy Ann”. “Yahoo” had five fish also on the 25th for a group from Noblesville, In. Our overall catch success rate this week was eighty nine percent for all species combined. Pisces anglers caught a total of 122 striped marlin of which 120 were released. OTHER SPECIES: Fishing was pretty slow for smaller game this past week with just eleven percent of boats finding dorado, usually no more than one fish between 15 and 25 lbs. “Valerie” did get four one day at Golden Gate…. The tuna bite was very slow with just three percent of charters finding fish, in the 10 to 15 lb range. We are now starting to see quite a lot of red snapper. Inshore lots of sierra, some skipjacks and amberjacks, very few roosters. LOCATION: Golden Gate WEATHER CONDITIONS: Fair, mix of sunny and cloudy days, seas moderate. AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 70 F BEST LURES: Live bait. BASED ON THE CATCHES OF PISCES BY TRACY EHRENBERG