WEATHER We started this week with hot and humid conditions and just a little bit of a sprinkle of rain on Tuesday. Every day since then we have gotten just a bit more rain until Saturday night when Tropical Storm Julio's feeder bands moved into our area. It really started to rain then! We received about three inches then for a total over the week of around 5 inches of rain. Forecasts call for more rain through Sunday and into Monday morning, for a total of up to six inches this weekend. This has cooled things off just a bit, but has really messed up the streets. Our daytime highs have been the low 80's and the nighttime lows in the mid 70's. Today, Sunday, we are expecting winds to 35 miles per hour with gusts to 50 miles per hour, the Port Captain shut down the Marina for the day,

WATER: We had great conditions on both sides of the Cape early in the week with smooth water, almost glass-like smoothness. Water temperatures were up a bit, and that may be one of the reasons that Tropical Storm Julio kept coming toward us, our water just offshore ranged from 85 to 89 degrees with a few areas off 30+ miles showing 90 degrees. The water was blue everywhere you went early in the week and through the weekend, but I am telling you now that the near-shore waters on both sides of the Cape are going to be discolored next week, there is enough rain that the runoff is going to extend quite a way offshore, just how far remains to be seen. On a positive note, it usually means that wood and debris gets washed down the arroyos as well, and that will give Dorado some items to focus on and congregate under

BAIT: Bait this week was Caballito with a few Mullet for those that wanted them. The big bait price was $3 per bait. Some Sardinas were available up toward San Jose early in the week; I doubt there will be any around this coming week with the dirty water inshore.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: There were some Blue Marlin caught this week but the surprise of the week was the number of Striped Marlin that ended up biting. The warm water conditions normally keep the Stripers off their feed, but we had several charters that ended up releasing three or four Striped Marlin per trip. These fish were found in the same areas all the other species this week, a band of water no farther out than 30 miles and concentrated on the banks and points. Live bait worked very well this week for the Striped Marlin while almost all the Blue Marlin bites were on lures.

YELLOWFIN TUNA Well, last week I reported on the area where the Yellowfin were being found and they were still there through the first of the week and anglers were doing well on fish to 150 pounds, with quite a few nice ones in the 80 pound class. Nothing lasts forever and on Thursday a Purse Seiner showed up early in the morning and just like that the fish were gone. Fortunately there were other fish scattered around, and a few schools were actually closer to the Cape. Lets just hope they are still around after the storm passes through and no more seiners move in on us.

DORADO The Dorado catches remained slow at an average of two fish per boat, and the size ranged from 10 to 20 pounds. Hopefully the debris from the storm will help concentrate the fish and things will improve this coming week or two.

WAHOO: There were a few offshore fish early in the week but no concentrations of Wahoo. I did hear of several of these speedsters that went close to 70 pounds, and they struck on lures intended for Blue Marlin.

INSHORE: Inshore fishing was decent for small Roosterfish and Jacks to 10 pounds, otherwise it was a scratch-fest, most Pangas went further offshore for Tuna and Dorado rather than work the strong inshore current while bottom fishing.

NOTES: Next weekend I am heading for the hills, this rain should really green things up and I want to see if the downpour has revealed any interesting fossils, plus the Jeep needs a day out! Hopefully the fishing will remain good this week, we will know how it is by Tuesday. Until next week, have a great time and try to get some fishing in!