The last two weeks of January we continue to experience rather good fishing along our coast. Like previous years, the Blue Marlin bite has slowed down but this is normal for this time of the year. Some really big Black Marlin continue to stretch our lines and with the cooler incoming water from up north we are getting shots at a few trophy sized Striped Marlin. Striped Marlin are indeed a rare catch in these waters and many of our guests were absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to go after these acrobatic critters. We certainly hope they stick around for a while. There is still a good number of big Dorado offshore and there have also been sporadic schools of Yellowfin Tunas in the 40-100 lb range. The inshore bite is improving by the day and some decent Roosterfish and Cubera Snappers were caught and released by our guests.

Carlos Garcia and his buddies from Puerto Rico were here and Carlos released his first Black Marlin estimated at 500+ lbs. Gary McQuitty also had similar luck and caught his first big Black Marlin around 500 lbs. James Sparrer, Wendell Sparrer, Matthew Lisagor and James Bales all had a fantastic 6 day fishing trip to Piñas Bay. Fishing on the Miss South Africa, captained by our newest captain, Vicente, they released 2 Black Marlin, 1 Blue Marlin and 2 Striped Marlin in 6 days of fishing. James “Preston” released his first Black Marlin estimated at 400 lbs and Wendell “Bernie” also released his first Black Marlin around 300 lbs and Pacific Blue Marlin, 250 lbs. Jim released his first Pacific Blue Marlin, a MONSTER, estimated at over 500 lbs. Matt Lisagor finished up the week with his first Black Marlin that went 300 lbs and Striped Marlin, 200 lbs. Congratulations on your awesome week of fishing.

Other good catches were by Steve Ice who released his first Black Marlin estimated at 300 lbs and Striped Marlin that went 200 lbs. Brad Swingdorf released his first Black Marlin in the 200 lb range and  Huward Spencer also had some good luck and released his first Striped Marlin, 200 lbs and a nice pair of Sailfish. Steve Southerland released his first Striped Marlin around 250 lbs and both Stewart Wilson and Dick Zawacki released their first Striped Marlin around 200 lbs. Mitchell Firestein caught the biggest Yellowfin Tuna for the season; a brut that weighed in at an impressive 232 lbs.

Tight Lines!

Albert Battoo
Fishing Director