FEBRUARY 19th to 25th, 2009
Overall Catch Success Rate 99%
BILLFISH: After a bit of a drop off on marlin last week we saw it bounce back this week, with great numbers again, though not as high as they were back in November. Our top angler this week was Matt Rainwater from Fort Worth, Texas who fished two days on "Bill Collector" with eleven marlin, two tuna and two mako sharks released on February 23rd, twenty marlin released on February 24th and twelve more on the 25th, for a total of forty three marlin all at the Golden Gate, not bad for one guy fishing alone. Other notable catches were eleven marlin aboard "Falcon" by Mike Connolly and ten marlin and sixteen dorado aboard "Andale" by John Reinhardt and friends from St Louis, Missouri. Other boats got between one and six marlin each as well as some dorado and sharks. The weather has got warm again which seems to be a factor in the better catches, along with a dark moon. However, catches were not always easy, we had competition from pelicans and squid; on some days bait was cast but snatched by pelicans before the marlin could get to it….one angler had a triple header on pelicans. Some anglers chose to weight there bait and fish them below the surface only to be frustrated by large squid thrilled with a free meal. Pisces anglers caught a total of two hundred and four striped marlin this week of which all but two were released. Those brought in were 130 and 150 lbs respectively.
OTHER SPECIES: Dorado catches were good this week with forty four percent of boats catching between one and sixteen, with weights from 15 to 40 lbs. Tuna catches were on the slow side for us with just a few fish to 45 lbs, though we did hear of a couple of boats that did pretty well on tuna up to 150 lbs. Good numbers again on small makos, plus one hammerhead shark was released. Some roosters, sierra, skipjacks and yellowtail inshore.
LOCATION: Boats have tended to move back to the Pacific side again and concentrated almost exclusively at Golden Gate. A few went to Iman at San Jose, but it has slowed a bit there and others fished Cabeza Ballena and Elias Calles.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Perfect, you probably wish you lived here. Clear, sunny skies, calm seas. Foggy one day up past Elias Calles.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 73 F
BEST LURES: Live bait.
BASED ON THE CATCHES OF PISCES, by Tracy Ehrenberg
