The billfish bite moved up a few notches this past week from Mazatlan and even produced the year's first swordfish, taken aboard the "Aries IV" by angler Randall Sanders, along with a Pacific striped marlin and a few yellowfin tuna to round-out the catch. Very few anglers ever have an opportunity to land a swordfish and every one landed is considered a mountable trophy. 70% of the boats landed billfish this past week, which is a terrific catch ratio for billfish during the month of March. Overall ofshore catches for 10 combined fishing days reflected 1 swordfish, 5 stripers, 1 sailfish and 5 yellowfin tuna. The inshore fishing was nothing short of exceptional and produced the best counts of corvina we have ever reported, with almost every fish in the 30-plus pound range. The overall counts for the inshore super pangas, reporting for 12 days fished, reflected 51 corvina, 4 baquetas, 15 snapper, 4 pargo, 16 mojarres, 5 loras, 2 conejos and limits of roncachos.

Mazatlan Climate:
Beautiful, sunny and warm days and cool nights, with temps from 49 nights to 83 daytime highs.

Sea Conditions:
Inshore temps at 68-70 degrees and rising to 71 degrees at 12-14 miles offshore. Green water to 12-15 miles then clean and green tinted beyond.

Best Fishing Area:
18-25 miles southwest of the Marina El Cid.

Best Bait/Lure:
Rigged mullet baits were best for all of the billfish and feathers for the yellowfin tuna.

Bait Supply:
Remains excellent with plenty of mullet and live bait available.