WEATHER:???? Wintertime in Los Cabos still beats wintertime anywhere to the north of us!?? Sorry about the one-week no-report zone, I have only missed three reports in 6 years but I am in a transition time, job hunting, Christmas, mom visiting and football play-offs, just too much going on for the last couple of weeks.?? Anyway, no snow for us in Cabo, things did remain cool however and I felt like it was going to snow on a few mornings when the lows hit the mid 50's.?? At least we warmed up to the high 70's on those days.?? We did get a bit of cloud cover just at the beginning of this report but now at the end of the year the skies are clear and there is nothing appearing on the horizon.

WATER:?? On the Pacific side the water has been much warmer with 71-74 degree and fairly blue water.?? The warmer water at the end of this reporting time was closer to shore and between the San Jaime Bank and us and in a long plume running directly south of the bank.?? On the Cortez side the water was warm as far as east to the 1150 spot, but became much cooler, down to 67 degrees at the Cabrillo Seamount, cooler and much more green, almost a pea-soup green in places just to the east of the 1150 and along that small temperature break.

BAIT: ??Bait was mostly Mackerel these past couple of weeks but there were a few Caballito in the mix.?? These larger baits were the normal $2 per bait.?? Up in San Jose there were Sardinas available at $25 a scoop, but they were tiny ones with the biggest only 2 inches, better for chum that as bait.

BILLFISH:?? As we expected to happen, the Striped Marlin have started to move our way.?? The bait moved south and the Marlin followed.?? The bite is still very good at the Finger Bank but there was no need to go that far.?? At the end of this reporting period there was an excellent bite going on at the San Jaime Bank on fish in the 100-120 pound class with a lot of boats releasing up to 20 Marlin a day.?? There was great activity on the Golden Gate as well, but there were a few days right around Christmas when the fish moved off of the Bank and the boats really had to search hard to find them.?? As well as the Golden and the Jaime Banks, there are good concentrations of Striped Marlin appearing off of the points and ledges just off of the beach.?? With just a hint of wind there are good numbers of tailing fish to be found close to shore in the afternoon.?? Almost all these fish are feeding on small Mackerel and slow trolling or drifting with these live baits has resulted in the best catches.?? It is more exciting to run in to bait balls popping up to the surface, but it was not needed in order to catch fish.?? A few boats were not able or not interested in catching Marlin however and directed their attentions elsewhere, and reported a distinct lack of Marlin anywhere else.?? Boats going up toward the Vinorama and Punta Gorda area on the Cortez side reported very green water and only a couple of Marlin sighted.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:???? Once again at the end of this reporting period the football size Yellowfin were reported appearing up outside of San Jose, but the bite was sporadic, the size of available Sardines apparently had a strong effect on the bite.?? There were fish in the 15-20 pound class reported from the south side of the San Jaime Banks mixed in with pods of Porpoise but the moved around fast.?? A few boats going north on the Pacific side toward the Finger Bank reported fish in the 80 pound class but they were scattered out and the boats had a difficult time getting bit on these fish.

DORADO:???? Once again there were a few Dorado found but for the most part these were small fish, less than 15 pounds.?? A few boats caught one or two fish, most boats had none.?? The fish that were caught were found in the warmer water on the Pacific side and were caught on live Mackerel with a couple coming on bright colored lures.

WAHOO:?? I saw no Wahoo flags this week that were for Wahoo, I did see quite a few that were flown for Sierra.

INSHORE:?? There was no change in the inshore report for this report period.?? Sierra were the fish of the week for the inshore fishermen and they were consistently on the feed off of the Solmar-Finesterra beach early in the morning.?? They seemed to move up to the north later in the day.?? Yellowtail continued to produce scattered action off of the rocky points on the Cortez side with some decent fish being taken off of Gray Rock and the drop at Chileno.

NOTES:???? There are whales out there so be careful early in the mornings.?? Quite a few Makos (small ones) have been seen and caught at the Golden Gate Bank, averaging 30 pounds. ??Santa was nice to me this year; I must have been a good boy.?? No complaints but I am looking for a new boat to captain.?? This report was written to a variety of music from my collection so I don't get into a rut!?? Until next week, tight lines!