Sea of Cortez, Santa Maria to Destiladeres, ending up at the 95 and 11.50 spots

May 26th to June 1st, 2006

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear, sunny skies, hot, seas mostly calm, Pacific windy, rough, fog, nobody is fishing there

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 74 F.

BEST LURES: Live bait for marlin, purple/black for wahoo, dorado assorted lures, tuna; cedar plugs, assorted lures

BILLFISH
What can I say except fishing was really good this week, not just for marlin, as we had a nice mix of game fish towards the end of the week. Our billfish catch success rate was a very respectable eighty-two percent, with sailfish, blue marlin and black marlin now being seen, apart from the dominant striped marlin. “Sundancer” reported the release of an approximate 340 lb black marlin on June 1st and “Anzuelo” released a smallish two hundred pound blue for Travis Hossfield from Denver, as well as twelve dorado and a solitary yellowfin tuna. Catch of the week has to go to Ralph Stading and friends on May 31st, aboard “Ni Modo” for catching five striped marlin, nine dorado, one small tuna and a 35 lb wahoo off of the 11.50 spot. This same day “Andrea” released four stripers for P.C Redman from Winchester, England. The day before “Ni Modo” again had an excellent day this time for Brian Merse, John Mc Graw and John Tonti, releasing five striped marlin, further away at Destiladeres. Earlier in the week “Tracy Ann” caught one of the biggest sailfish we’ve seen in quite a while for the Zwoyer family from Phoenix, Az, the fish was a large 150 lbs, they also went on to release a striped marlin at Punta Gorda. Charter boats averaged one or two striped marlin and occasionally three or more; later in the week smaller game were an added bonus. Pisces anglers caught a total of one hundred and one billfish this week, consisting of 98 striped marlin 2 sailfish and 1 blue; all but four fish were released.

OTHER SPECIES:
Smaller game is starting to move into gear as the weather warms up, hard to believe as it is still so cold on the Pacific (yesterday air temp was 99 F in San Jose at 6.00pm and 81 F on the Pacific). Tuna catches were at nineteen percent this week with catches intermittent during this period, usually one to three fish in the 18 to 25 lb category. Dorado catches peaked at the end of the week with some boats catching between six and twelve fish in the 15 to 40 lb class. Wahoo, also at the end of the week made an appearance. “ La Brisa” landed a nice 70 lb wahoo, taken on a lure off of Chileno on June 1st. This same day “C Rod” caught one 40 lb wahoo, four dorado between 20 and 40 lbs and eight tuna from 20 to 30 lbs. “Valerie” had seven dorado and a striped marlin at the Cabrillo Sea Mount for brothers Phil and Ted Widlanski on May 30th.