Sea of Cortez, 95 spot to Punta Gorda, San Jaime
March 3rd to March 16th, 2006

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Sunny skies, seas moderate on Cortez side, rough on Pacific where it has been very windy. The San Jose and Cabo areas seem to have two completely different climates right now

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 70 F.

BEST LURES: Live bait.

BILLFISH
We have an extended fish report this week, seeing as I was gone traveling the Baja last week. Fishing has been on the up and down, quite typical for March, however, overall better than normal for this time of year. Nevertheless there were a good chunk of boats that did not catch anything, close to on third. Anywhere else in the world that would be seen as a pretty good number but not in Cabo, which usually enjoys a high success rate. Of the boats that did catch, striped marlin was the most abundant sport fish being eighty five percent of the catch. All the fish were on the Sea of Cortez between Chileno to Punta Gorda, with some days better at the 95 or 11.50 spot. It was nice to see some size to these catches with some fish going over 200 lbs, whilst others were from 100 to 160 lbs. Live bait was definitely the ticket that produced a total of 118 striped marlin and one sailfish for Pisces anglers, of these 111 were released. Still it was tough, with great catches one day, followed by nothing the next. Despite the inconsistency, some boats did very well. On March 3rd, Ken Dellinger and Larry Bolling from Plano and McKinner, Texas, respectively released a total of four striped marling aboard “Rebecca” at Punta Gorda. Next day out it was Valerie’s turn with four again for Texans, Cameron Walker, Charles Hooper, Michael Frickestien and Tony Eschete. Next day out it was “Rebecca” with three and “Andréa” also with three this time 22 miles out of San Jose. At the close of this period it was C Rod that did best with four stripers and a dorado for Scott Rojo, Evan Benning, Paul and Luke Shafer all from California, who were fishing at the 11.50 spot.

OTHER SPECIES:
After marlin dorado was the most likely fish to be caught, but not in huge numbers. Twenty four percent, or close to a quarter of the boats caught fish in the 15 to 30 lb range, usually just one or two fish picked up whilst trolling. Tuna catches were much slower, but then again most people were targeting the surer marlin. Tuna were to be found on the Pacific far out beyond the Jaime Bank in pretty rough seas. C Rod had a couple of days when they had four or six fish, but size was average at 15 to 30 lbs. We released three small mako sharks and inshore pangas caught some sierra and jack crevalle.