It was a billfish bonanza from the Marina El Cid, in Mazatlan, this past week with reports reflecting some of the best marlin counts for the past few years of reporting. According to our local super reporter, Ms. Kitcia Ceja, the marlin bite was nothing less than exceptional for the anglers as the boats had a better than 2 fish per boat day average. The "Aries III" had a 6 striped marlin day, (5 released) and the "Aries IX" had a 5 striper day, (4 released) and the overall fish counts for a total of 12 days fished reflected 26 stripers, (16 releases) and 1 sailfish, (released). It was our first week in more than a year when no super panga fishing report was provided for a lack of charters. Overall though, it was one of those dynamite fishing weeks that allowed many anglers with marlin on their bucket list to fulfill their wishes and live their dreams.

Mazatlan Climate: Cool mornings and evenings and warm days with varied temps from 61 degrees to 90 daytime highs and an 82% humidity ratio. It has been a partly cloudy week with periods of intermittent sunshine.

Sea Conditions: Water temps fairly stable at 80 inshore to 82 offshore. Surface breezes flowing in from the westerly directions and ranging from light to about 16 mph. Good, fishable conditions all week.

Best Fishing Area: It seemed like the better fishing started at about 14 miles out to the southwest of the Marina El Cid and continued to develop throughout the entire offshore area.

Best Lure/Bait: Live bait, rigged bait and artificials were all working for the anglers and it was an action packed fishing week.

Bait Supply: Great supply for live bait at the $1.00 per bait rate and fresh baits for rigging, provided with the charter arrangement.