Gordo Banks to Golden Gate
October 28th to November 1st, 2005

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear, sunny skies, weather warmer than normal for November, seas calm on the Cortez, whitecaps on the Pacific after mid-morning.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 80 F.

BEST LURES: Live bait, green/yellow lures, cedar plugs.

BILLFISH
A huge improvement on marlin catches this week, as striped marlin migrating from the north begin to reach our shores. We also had several late season blue marlin and a couple of sailfish. Most of the striped marlin catches were on the Pacific, with Golden Gate the most productive area. Our overall catch success rate was eighty-eight percent with sixty one percent of charters catching marlin. This means there was the odd unfortunate boat here and there that didn’t catch anything, but those not catching marlin usually got a token dorado or two. On October 28th, “Andrea” released four striped marlin and boated a dorado at Golden Gate for Thomas Blake and Kris Johnson,both from Minnesota. Two days later “Ruthless” had a quadruple marlin day, plus two grouper for Steve Wesley from Chicago fishing with Chad Kopp from New York, also at Golden Gate. Early in the week “Libre” did well to release two blue marlin –in the opposite direction at Punta Gorda. Kim Lehman fishing with John & Bill Strachan, all from British Columbia, were thrilled with their catch of three striped marlin and two dorado aboard “Tracy Ann”- their marlin took live bait, whilst the dorado hit on lures. Pisces anglers caught a total of 73 billfish, consisting of 65 striped marlin, 5 sailfish and 3 blue marlin ; all but two of the striped marlin were released.

OTHER SPECIES:
This week-end saw the 5th WON Tuna Tournament take place. The first day the largest fish of the event was caught a 199 lb yellowfin caught aboard “El Loco II”, however this vessel was not entered in the jackpots, so a fish weighing approximately a quarter of the size took the large cash prize on day one. Full details of the winners and prize monies will be posted today. The tournament experienced added drama when one of the teams, broke down at sea as dark fell, leaving them bobbing helpless, drifting with the current for 36 hours, when they were eventually spotted by a cruise ship, 140 miles south east of Cabo and rescued in time to make it back for the awards dinner. Tuna catches generally were only at fifteen percent this week, with most fish averaging 20 to 45 lbs found over a wide location. Dorado catches were good with forty-two percent of charters catching fish from 15 to 40 lbs, catches of two to six fish, with the majority caught on the Pacific. No wahoo for us this week, though there were several mako sharks, some groupers, skipjacks and roosterfish inshore.