February 4th to 10th, 2012
Overall Catch Success Rate 83.33%
BILLFISH: Marlin was on the slow side this week as the water temperature dropped down to less than ideal for billfish. The full moon worked against us too, with hungry fish feasting at night then not being as hungry during daylight hours. The moon reached its zenith and is now waning, which means the fish should be getting hungry again. Just four striped marlin were caught this week, with "Bill Collector" releasing one on February 4th for John Mixon from Walton Beach, FL. On the February 6th, "Great Escape Jr" released one for Mark Corrigan from Boston, MA. The last two were released by Karl Pool, Ryan Hohimer & Curtis King from Kenewick, WA aboard the "Tracy Ann" who also landed a very nice 30 lb wahoo. A total of 4 billfish were caught this week, all released. Billfish success rate 16.66%
OTHER SPECIES: After a great week for tuna, they decided to go even further, last catches being at 40 to 50 miles out. Only the "Bill Collector" found 3 yellowfin tunas by the end of the week at San Jaime banks on the Pacific side and they were about 10 lbs each. The rest of the fleet did really good on small game, plenty of sierras or Spanish Mackerel, skipjack and yummy yellowtail are around for you to catch and cook.
LOCATION: Old lighthouse, Los Arcos, San Jaime, Balmaceda, ½ mile from Solmar Beach.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: 72 - 82F, Sunny days all week except in the early hours of Wednesday morning when we experienced cold weather and very unusual thunder and lightning, followed by light rain. The lowest temperature recorded was 55F on Sunday.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 68 - 72F
BEST LURES: Live bait, caballito, mackerel, huchis. Lures: Petrolero.
Based on the catches of Pisces by Jorge Narro & Tracy Ehrenberg
