PISCES WEEKLY FISH REPORT MAY 18th to 24th, 2007-05-27 BILLFISH: A very exciting week in Cabo, culminating in the IGFA World Offshore Championship. This tournament is extremely fair in all senses of the word. Sixty two teams competed from all over the word including teams from Mexico, USA, Angola, Australia, Great Britain, France, Italy and Tonga, to name but a few. This tournament is strictly release with 300 points awarded for each fish caught and let go. Strict IGFA rules applied, which means that the angler has to hook their own fish and bring it to the boat unassisted using a maximum of 30 lb test line. The anglers do not get to choose their boats, this is done by a drawing and a different boat is given each day to the teams during the four day event. We were thrilled to be the top boat on day one, with “La Brisa” releasing 8 striped marlin for the team from our own State. However the trick in this tournament is to have really good anglers that can cast live bait in the manner that our teams do, this event is really up to the anglers. The captains need to find the fish and handle it in the correct way the rest is up the fishermen. This was a very close competition and the team standings ended up as follows: FIRST PLACE: Spain for the Marina Rubicon Marlin Cup 2006 with 4500 points. SECOND PLACE: Mexico, for the Copa Del Gobernador tournament with 4200 points. THIRD PLACE: Turks and Caicos, for the Caicos Classic Release tournament with 3600 points. In the individual angler standings there was a three way tie, so it was decided by whoever got to the winning score first, time wise: FIRST: Marcolind Mestre from Portugal with 2100 points. SECOND: Flavio Reis from Spain with 2100 points. THIRD: Jobe Villavicencio from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico with 2100 points. The captains/boat standings were as follows: First Bad Market, Second Picante, Third Pisces Valerie with our beloved Benito Agundez at the helm. A total of 363 striped marlin plus a few sailfish were released during the tournament. As usual it was a well run and fun event with new friendships made and a lot of vows to come back next year. In regular news this week, fishing was not that great with an overall catch success rate for all species combined of just fifty three percent, low by Cabo standards, however of these seventy five percent caught marlin. Our top boat was La Brisa, as mentioned above with 8 marlin in one day, followed by Rebecca with six the following day also in the IGFA tournament. Pisces anglers caught a total of 72 striped marlin this week, all released. OTHER SPEICES: Not a lot happening offshore for smaller game, in fact no more than five percent of boats found dorado or tuna. Inshore however there was plenty of action, with pangas catching up to 10 roosters in a morning, mixed in with some sierra and skipjack. Again, a few juvenile mako sharks were caught as well as some cabrilla and jack crevalle and the odd triggerfish. LOCATION: Cortez side from Chileno to Destiladeres. WEATHER CONDITIONS: Very windy and cool, despite clear skies. It was very cold in the mornings and this cooler weather was blamed for the decrease in catches. AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 68 to 72 F BEST LURES: Live bait. BASED ON THE CATCHES OF PISCES BY TRACY EHRENBERG