December 26-31, 2008
OVERALL CATCH SUCCESS RATE 97.4%
BILLFISH:The marlin legend continues in Cabo with the outstanding catches the order of the day. Boats released anywhere from one to eighteen marlin in a day and the Golden Gate was a spectacle of nature, with whales, sea lions, birds and tons of fish. Boats congregated in a small area and had a hard time counting the number of marlin tails, there were so many. The catch success rate for striped marlin was a very decent 88% with those not catching marlin generally trying for something else.
New Year’s Eve was the best day of the week with boats having multiple hook-ups. “Yahoo” caught 18 striped marlin for Randolph Hutton & Larry Williams from Atlanta, Georgia, fishing with Lee Thuston and John Petty from Alabama and Memphis respectively. This same day “Bottom Line” released 14 striped marlin as well as a dorado and mako shark for Roger and Taylor Strype from London, England. We also heard of a monumental battle with a swordfish that lasted well into the hours of darkness, the hook-up occurred at noon on December 28th just southwest of the Jaime Bank and lasted until 1:00 am on December 29th—a 13 hour fight! However, being out of cell phone range and with worried family waiting on shore, angler Bennett Savey decided to put on the pressure and ended up with the fish breaking off their 60 lb spectra line. The estimated weight was 300 lbs. Pisces anglers caught a total of 30 striped marlin this week of which all but 9 were released. Those brought in ranged in size from 110 to 180 lbs.
OTHER SPECIES: Marlin was by far the widely caught sportfish this week, but dorado catches weren’t bad either. Forty-six percent of charters caught between one and six dorado in the 18-30 lb class, found en route to Golden Gate and on the outer edge of this location too, as well as closer to Cabo. It is nice to see a comeback on sharks this week we had three varieties, threshers, makos and a hammerhead. Most were released but a 170 lb thresher was brought aboard. Inshore boats caught roosterfish, sierra, ambjerjack, yellowtail and sierra.
LOCATION: Golden Gate.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Partly cloudy skies, seas mostly calm.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 75 F.
BEST LURES: Live bait.
Based on the catches of the Pisces Fleet
