The big news for the Aries Fleet was the landing of a 240 lb. swordifsh by angler Mark McIntoch, a Mazatlan resident, fishing aboard the 28' Bertram sportfisher, "ARIES III", skippered by Captain Martin Raygoza. The fish required 35 minutes to land and was taken on a fresh rigged barrilete, (skipjack) at about 18-20 miles offshore. In conjunction with the trophy swordfish, the angler also had a quality sized dorado that was estimated at 30 lbs. The overall fish counts for 11 offshore fishing days reflected 1 swordfish, 4 stripers, 7 sailfish, (4 released) and a single quality sized dorado. The inshore super pangas reporting in for 6 days fished reflected 18 corvina, 95 rock perch, 12 triggerfish and 5 red snapper. All in all, the fishing seems to getting better & better with each passing day and it won't be very long until the big schools of dorado start to mass under the buoys, allowing for the family fun fishing days and easy limit fishing for dorado.

Mazatlan Climate: Partly cloudy but warm days and pleasant nights with temps from 62 nights to 91 daytime highs.

Sea Conditions: Water temps increasing. Out to the west of the Marina El Cid is holding at 79-80 degrees and just 10 miles south of the Marina El Cid the temps increase to 81-82 degrees. Surface breezes steady at 10-20 mph from the wsw.

Best Fishing Area: More and more billfish starting to show up near the warmer waters out to the south of the Marina El Cid at about 15 miles or so and outbound from there.

Best Lure/Bait: The freshly rigged baits doing very well for the sailfish and stripers and the swordfish was taken on a rigged skipjack.

Bait Supply: Excellent for both, fresh rigging baits and live bait. Live bait still at $1.00 per bait.