MAY 19TH TO 25TH, 2006 BILLFISH: We had a fabulous week for striped marlin with eighty six percent of our charters hooking up to between one and eight fish ranging in size from 110 to 160 lbs. Practically every boat caught marlin as our overall catch success rate for all species combined was eighty-eight percent. Our tally on marlin was one hundred and thirty three fish, all released. Bait became scarce during the week, with their favorite mackerel less readily available, which meant alternative types of bait were used, making the marlin a bit more fussy. However, there were some really outstanding catches: “Ni Modo” had eight stripers on May 24th for Russell Fitzpatrick, James O’Brien, Michelle White and Marty Walters. The day before this same boat was fortunate to release six for Joe Grimm, Bill and Tom Wislakowski from San Rafael, Ca. both days off of Chileno. “Tracy Ann” also did really well with six striped marlin released on May 20th for Rebecca, Grace and Marc Malkin from Irvine, Ca, they were fishing 13 miles off of San Jose. There were plenty of boats with quadruple marlin days just as “Adriana” with angler Gerry Richmond from Siden River, Ca. aboard. This same boat also had for Ben Aaron, Phil Stice, Sam Withfield and Omar Clapter from Athens, Georgia. Pretty much all the fishing was on the Cortez side, as the Pacific was rough all week. Those trying for something other than marlin, ventured into the Pacific but even there they had marlin strikes too. OTHER SPECIES: Quite slow on smaller game, though there was an increase on dorado up to twenty two percent of charters caught dorado, however the catch was usually just a single fish. There was an odd boat here and there that caught as many as four, but this was an exception. Tuna catches were very slow with just ten percent of boats finding a few fish – best catch was nine fish in the 15 to 25 lb range, five miles off of Santa Maria. Inshore just some sierra and skipjacks. LOCATION: Chileno to Punta Gorda. WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear, sunny skies, seas choppy in the afternoons. Very rough on the Pacific. AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 70 F BEST LURES: Live bait mackerel and caballito, dead bait, ballyhoo. Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg