Golden Gate on the Pacific to Destiladeres on the Cortez, in other words practically the whole gamut of our usual fishing spots. Dorado and tuna were more numerous on the Pacific; billfish catches better on the Cortez, some in as close as four miles off of Santa Maria. 95 spot, 11.50 spot and Pozo de Cota were the more successful locations.

August 25th to 31st, 2006

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Partly cloudy, very hot, humid, seas calm

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 85F

BEST LURES: Live bait for stripers and sailfish, assorted lures for blues, dorado, tuna and wahoo

BILLFISH
A good week for fishing, despite there being fewer anglers in town. Hot August weather usually brings good fishing for a variety of species and we were not disappointed this period. Our overall catch success rate for all species combined was a very decent ninety three percent, with fifty nine percent of charters catching billfish. The catches of blue marlin, striped marlin and sailfish this week were pretty much evenly divided. “Ruthless” fished eleven miles off of San Jose on the 25th and did well to release both a blue and striped marlin as well as boat four yellowfin tuna. The blue took a lure and the striped a live bait. This same day “C Rod” had a triple-header on sailfish, managing to release all three fish at the 95 spot for Ryan Marion and Steven Van Dertoon from Zeeland, Michigan. Next day out “Ruthless” was again the hot boat with another blue released, estimated at 250 lbs, plus a 30 lb wahoo boated for Scott Fletcher from Resaca, Ca. On August 27th 28 ft “Adriana” headed to the hot area off of San Jose, twelve miles out and managed to release two blues, both on lures. To close out their successful week, “Ruthless” again did well with two sailfish and a striped marlin for Douglas Van Blarem and Todd Truesdale both from California.
Most billfish catches were on the Cortez side, but striped marlin were also found as far up the Pacific as Golden Gate were boats headed for tuna. Pisces anglers caught a total of 15 striped marlin, 11 blue marlin and 11 sailfish all but one 206 lb blue were released. As we close this report Hurricane John is expected to make landfall over southern Baja. The hurricane is wavering between a category two and three. To be honest this is the strangest hurricane we have ever seen. It is less than 100 Km away, yet we are not feeling any ill effects so far. Some intermittent heavy showers, no wind and no unusually big swells. However, Hurricane John is expected later today and we shall post an update as soon as possible. The storm is especially compact so hurricane winds don’t extend that far out. Most fleets including us have pulled boats out of the water as a precaution. Boats from pangas to 33 feet can be trailered; others have to sit it out in the marina with extra tie downs.

OTHER SPECIES:
A nice increase on dorado this week with forty five percent of boats catching between one and eight fish per day. The better numbers of dorado were found on the Pacific side between Pozo de Cota and Jaime Banks. “Valerie” had eight dorado between 20 and 25 lbs for Mike Thompson and friends. The dorado took a combination of lures and bait. Some larger dorado, were taken whilst trolling for marlin, usually single fish, on the Cortez side, such as a 50 lb specimen landed by Hiroshi Nakamura from Tokyo. Pisces anglers caught a total of 84 dorado this week. Yellowfin tuna catches were down this week, maybe due to the presence of commercial tuna boats in the area. Catches were from one to fourteen fish, giving us a catch success rate on this species of twenty percent. “Rebecca” did particularly well on the 29th at the Jaime banks with a fourteen fish total, in the 20 to 25 lb class. Some tuna were as large as 50 lbs, but these tended to be the exception rather than the rule. It was nice to see some wahoo this week. The largest for us was a 60 lb fish caught twelve miles straight out of Cabo aboard “Rebecca”. Percentage wise only seven percent of charters caught wahoo and weights were smallish at 30 to 60 lbs.