DECEMBER 26th to 31st, 2008 Overall Catch Success Rate 97.4% BILLFISH: The marlin legend continues in Cabo with the outstanding catches the order of the day. Boats released anywhere from one to eighteen marlin in a day and the Golden Gate was a spectacle of nature, with whales, sea lions, birds and tons of fish. Boats congregated in a small area and had a hard time counting the number of marlin tails, there were so many. The catch success rate for striped marlin was a very decent eighty eight percent with those not catching, generally trying for something else. New Year's Eve was the best day of the week with boats having multiple hook-ups….. "Yahoo" caught 18 striped marlin for Randolph Hutton & Larry Williams from Atlanta, Georgia, fishing with Lee Thuston and John Petty from Alabama and Memphis respectively. This same day "Bottom Line" released 14 striped marlin as well as a dorado and mako shark for 2 anglers from London, England. We also heard of a monumental battle with a swordfish that lasted well into the hours of darkness, the hook-up occurred at noon on December 28th, just southwest of the Jaime Bank and lasted until 1.00 am on December 29th……a 13 hour fight, however, being out of cell phone range and angler Bennett Savey, knowing that he had worried family waiting on shore that had no idea what had happened to them, they decided to put on the pressure and ending up with the fish breaking off of their 60 lb spectra line. The estimated weight was 300 lbs. Pisces anglers caught a total of 301 striped marlin this week of which all but 9 were released. Those brought in ranged in size from 110 to 180 lbs. OTHER SPECIES: Marlin was by far the widely caught sportfish this week, but dorado wasn't bad either…..forty six percent of charters caught between one and six dorado in the 18 to 30 lb class, found en route to Golden Gate and on the outer edge of this location too, as well as closer to Cabo. It is nice to see a comeback on sharks this week we had three varieties, threshers, makos and a hammerhead. Most were released but a 170 lb thresher was brought aboard. This is a very large shark and we don't see them like this anymore, so better to release all sharks. Inshore boats caught roosterfish, sierra, ambjerjack, yellowtail and sierra. LOCATION: Golden Gate WEATHER CONDITIONS: Partly cloudy skies, seas mostly calm. AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 75 F BEST LURES: Live bait….. BASED ON THE CATCHES OF PISCES BY TRACY EHRENBERG {%image_id=7520%}