| January 2003 Fishing Report |
Ed Kunze
From reviewing my last 5 years of logs, and talking to a lot of captains, I have been putting together some rather interesting data. February has always been the traditional month for the fleet’s bread and butter sailfish, but the growing trend is leaning towards January. For some reason, it appears the water currents have been slowly changing and the annual influx of game fish have been getting here earlier this last 5 years.
No matter what month we fish however, the fish are more active and catchable when we are not in the full moon period. This leads me into the discussion of this month’s 1st International Deep Sea Tournament for Sailfish, Marlin and Dorado. The dates are January 24, 25, and 26, and correspond to the last quarter of the moon. In other words, the 140 to 160 boats are going to experience some fantastic fishing.
Founded by Sr. Crescencio Cortes San Miguel, President; Sr. Luis Maciel Castro, Secretary; and Sr. Jose Barrientos Flores, Promotion and Advertising. These men know the future of sportfishing in Mexico must ultimately lean towards conservation and the preservation of the billfish species. They have adopted the concessions all fish under 30 kilos must be tagged and released, and next year there will be an actual tag and release division.
This is the first time for Mexico, where a tournament originating and run by Mexican Nationals, is acknowledging the need for conservation. It is also the first tournament in Mexico, established by Mexican Nationals, to be recognized by the Rolex/IGFA Tournament Series and to become one of the 88 teams, worldwide, invited to participate. Only the 1st place winners of these worldwide tournaments are invited to attend this event. Should the tournament have gone on without the tag and release concessions, the IGFA invitation would not have been received and over 800 sailfish would have been killed during the upcoming three day competition.
David Holts, Fisheries Biologist of the NOAA Pelagic Fisheries Division in La Jolla, gave me 150 tagging dart tips when I was in California this last September. He is also supplying a large quantity of NOAA tags to be used in the Jan. tournament, as is Kay Davy of The Billfish Foundation. Paul Phillips, founder of the Fintastic Tag and release tournament, and I will be distributing tags and tag sticks to all boats at the captain’s meeting.
Like the shift of the currents, change comes slow to Mexico, but this precedent setting tournament should be a giant step forward.
January 2003
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