Shades of Blue
Billfish
have been the name of the game this week.
Boats targeting marlin have good action and averaging 2 to 3 fish a day. Most have been stripers but more blue marlin
are in the count everyday. Fishing
yellowfin tuna has been a tough proposition.
A few of the larger 100 to 200 models have been brought to the scale
which has gotten everyones attention but most of the anglers with tuna fever
are not having success. A few wahoo have
been picked off but the solid bite we enjoyed for the last 2 months has tapered
off.
The bite
down south dried up so there are not many footballs. Tuna are on porpoise schools 20 to 30 miles
off shore from north of Punta Pescadero spreading south to below Los
Frailes. It has not been hard to find
porpoise but only about one out of ten schools are holding tuna. Then when the right one is found the fish are
very spooky. Kite fishing has been
deadly when conditions are right but there has been little wind and the
porpoise changing direction and speed too much to make a good bait
presentation.
Marlin have
been scattered everywhere but the best bet has been about 15 off shore on a sea
temp break that has been there for a few weeks.
Today the Sea of Cortez was very grumpy with small craft advisories in
the afternoon and we still managed a blue marlin just 3 1/2 miles from our
mooring. Also a broadbill or two are
still being sighted everyday.
So, the
other day I was talking about how spectacular blue marlin are. An angler asked
how do you know when you have a blue on the line versus a striper or
sailfish? Here is a quick photo
illustration. Some of these photos are not my best work but they were all
captured this week.