WEATHER: Summer time is back with temperatures in the mid to high 90's most of the week. On Wednesday it was reported by a friend that at his house in town his weather machines reported 100 degrees and 100% humidity! Thank goodness that most of the week has been cooler than that! In the evenings it has cooled off to the mid 80's with a slight breeze. On Thursday we had a band of clouds move through the area and they brought some rain with them, accompanied by lightning and thunder early in the day. The rain was not heavy, here at my house it was enough to spot the car windows, but out to the north it rained pretty well, there were reports of an inch in Todo Santos and La Paz.

WATER: Most of the week the water on both sides of the Cape was beautiful, blue and almost glassy. At the start of the week the swells on the Pacific side were in the 3-5 foot range and on the Cortez side they were about the same. At the end of the week the government had issued a surf warning for the Cabo area due to the large swells kicked up by Hurricane Fausto to the south. The only day of bad surface conditions was Thursday when the storms blew through, that really brought the chop up and a few people returned early or cancelled their trips entirely. On the Pacific side of the Cape the water has been 80-82 degrees and just a bit green, on the Cortez side of the Cape it has been several degrees warmer at 82-84 degrees and very clear. The area immediately south of the Cape has been a little cooler at 76-80 degrees and with a green tinge to it. It is only a 30-minute or less run to the blue, warm water.

BAIT: Caballito were the bait of the week with a few Mullet in the mix. The price on these larger baits was $3 per bait. For inshore fishing Sardinas were available at $25 a scoop from the bait boats around the Palmilla area.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: The water warms up and the big girls start to show up! There were lots of reports of Blue Marlin showing up in the lure patterns this week and a few nice ones were caught and released. Unfortunately a few were brought in as well, mostly by the smaller boats whose crews wanted the fish. The largest Blue I heard of here in Cabo this week was a fish of approximately #400, released after a 90-minute fight. This fish was caught outside of the Gorda Banks early in the week. Most of the fish were in the #150-#200 range and the catch was scattered, mostly off on the 1,000 fathom curve, but a few were caught inside. I did not hear of any Black Marlin yet, but I am sure that with the water as it is, there must have been at least a few. The Striped Marlin bite is still fairly steady with about 50% of the boats getting bit by the little guys, and a few of them are catching two or more per day. Most of the action on these fish has been in front of the Cape in the cooler water.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were days when the fish bit and days they could not be found this week. When they were found most of them were footballs in the 10-20 pound class and the bite was good. If you were in the fish you were getting 12-20 fish per trip. Keeping the suspense up were fish occasionally reaching #50 in the same schools. The larger fish were caught on live bait dropped down in front of the moving schools with the boat pulling away at least 100 feet from where the bait was dropped. Just sitting there after dropping the bait did not work; you had to pull away. The fish were scattered across our area with some schools on the Pacific side and some on the Cortez side, but almost all of them were between 12 and 26 miles out.

DORADO If there was any floating debris found this week the boat that was on the find first did well on Dorado to #30. There were only two instances of this that I heard of, but both times the first boat limited out. Later boats were able to pick up a fish or two, but most of the Dorado found were scattered fish. With the warmer water on the Cortez side of the Cape that is where the majority of the Dorado were found as well.

WAHOO: There were some decent Wahoo caught this week up off of Punta Gorda as well as offshore in the current lines. The full moon we had mid-week seems to have gotten them hungry! Dark colored lures run close to the transom did well as did rigged dead bait run as far as 300 feet behind the boat. Naturally, if you were targeting these fish you had a small wire bite leader in front of the bait or lure, but most of these fish were caught as incidental fish, there fore many more were lost than ended up in fish boxes.

INSHORE: Roosterfish, Amberjack, the occasional pile of Grouper as well as some very nice Pargo made up the majority of the inshore catch this week. With the water being as nice as it was, many of the Pangas were fishing offshore, looking for Tuna, Dorado and Marlin. Quite a few of them got into these fish as well. Having the water like it was made for a decent mix of fish for the Pangas, and these fishermen were probably the most successful this week.

NOTES: Things are looking up with the arrival of the warm water and the bigger fish. We have our fingers crossed that the storms stay to the south and just bring us some clouds and a bit of rain. This weeks report was written to the music of carpenters finishing up my kitchen!