Destiladeres to Golden Gate, with better catches at Pozo de Cota, Migrino, Los Arcos, straight out from Land’s End, off of San Jose, 95 spot. Blue marlin were caught both on the Cortez and Pacific side

September 22nd to 28th, 2006

WEATHER CONDITIONS: After a respite last week from blazing summer, it returned again with a vengeance, with high temperatures and humidity: just what the fish love. Skies partly cloudy. Seas calm

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 86F

BEST LURES: Live bait for sailfish and striped marlin, assorted lures for blue marlin and dorado

BILLFISH
This past weekend, we saw the second event of a state sponsored fishing tournament circuit, known as the Governor’s Cup, which was a huge success. The idea behind this series of events is to change the mindset of the local population to sportfishing rather than commercial fishing. The series of tournaments takes place all over the state, including places not normally noted for sportfishing, such as Punta Abreojos, where the first event took place. Local species are fished for such as amberjack, yellowtail, needlefish and there are two categories shore fishing and panga fishing. The objective is to get local people involved, especially children and to make the tournaments a family event. Cash prizes are awarded and entry is free. The prizes given are generated by taxes paid from big tournaments such as Bisbees, as well as sponsorship. The second event on the circuit took place at La Playita in San Jose where 706 anglers participated. The minimum weight on billfish of 300 lbs was not met. First place due to the lack of qualifying billifish, went to Gilberto Rentaria with a 59 lb tuna. Wahoo and dorado had different categories and the shore division went to Jesus Cota for a 20 lb snook. In regular news this week was not what I would call outstanding for billfish, but overall it is spot on for this time of year, in other words, a mixture of striped marlin, blue marlin and sailfish, along with excellent amounts of smaller game. As always, regular fishing boats not in the tournament did quite well with a few fish over the 400 lb mark. “Tracy Ann” caught a 450 lb blue for Andy Peterson from Ferndale, Mi at the 95 spot on September 24th. A couple of days before “C Rod” had a bonanza of one sailfish, one striped marlin, nine dorados and four yellowfin tuna. Another notable catch was aboard “Rebecca” for Danny Williams from Mississippi, with a blue marlin released, three dorado and a wahoo. This same boat had another outstanding day on the 26th for John Phillips and Colin McRay from Houston, with a blue marlin released, striped marlin released and two tuna. “Yahoo” had a similar day on the 27th, with both a blue and striped released as well as a couple of dorado. We would be remiss not to mention “Ruthless” who at the close of the week released a striped marlin and then went on to catch a wahoo and twelve dorado for Scott Pell from Dickinson, Texas. Thirty nine percent of charters caught billfish this week consisting of 19 striped marlin from 120 to 200 lbs, all but one were released, ten sailfish, all released and nine blue marlin from 200 to 450 lbs, with six released.

OTHER SPECIES:
After slim pickings on the dorado in the last couple of years, we were thrilled to see eighty six percent of boats catch this species this week. Weights were from 18 to 45 lbs and charters caught from one to twelve with the average around four fish per boat. The majority of dorado took lures with the big catches on the Pacific from Land’s End to Golden Gate. Tuna catches declined again this week with just fourteen percent catching fish in the 20 to 40 lb class. Wahoo catches were on the slow side, but still we ended up with a half dozen in the 25 to 50 lb class.