BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite continued this week with most of the action taking place within 5 miles of the beach on the Pacific side between the lighthouse and the inside of the Golden Gate Bank. Live bait tossed at tailing fish worked on about 40% of the fish seen and a few others were caught on trolled lures. There were plenty of Sailfish to be found as well, we had one client who was covered up with all five lines going off at once on Tuesday, resulting in the release of three fish and the loss of two. The Sailfish were also just off the beach, there seemed to be a good concentration of bait in the area. There were reports of a few nice Blue Marlin this week but they were not biting hot and heavy. I heard of several fish in the 250 pound class being released from the area of the 95 Spot and the 1150 and I am sure there were a few from the Gorda Banks as well.

YELLOWFIN TUNA The Tuna stayed around after the passing of the storm and most boats were able to do well if they stayed on the fish. On a few days it was scratch as scratch can to get bites, but on Saturday when the rain came on hard the fish came to the surface and bit hard for two hours. Most of the fish were in the 25-40 pound class with a few fish reaching 60 pounds. Earlier in the week the bite occurred closer to shore among the porpoise and those fish were both smaller, with quite a few footballs, and larger, with a few fish in the 80-pound class. Lures, especially small feather in dark colors worked on the football fish, and live bait worked on the larger fish.

DORADO Last week I was hoping that the storm would was debris into the water and improve the Dorado catch, but the debris did not happen. The Dorado catch, howev3er, turned on by itself and this week Dorado were fish of the week. Almost any boat that wanted to was able to get limits for their clients (federal limit of two per angler per day) and most of the fish were in the 10-20 pound class. There were some nicer fish caught as well as we had client who caught several nice bull Dorado in the 50-pound class. As with the billfish, most of the Dorado action took place on the Pacific side within 5 miles of the beach, but there were several days during the week when the action was hot and heavy just off the beach on the Cortez side up around the Palmilla area and other rocky points.

INSHORE: The inshore fishing on the Cortez side was very poor this week due to the discolored water, but slowly improved toward the end of the week. On the Pacific side most of the Pangas were fishing for Dorado and Tuna since it was a fishery very close to shore.

George & Mary Landrum

Water temperature 67 - 75
Air temperature 77 - 93
Humidity 96%
Wind: W 11 to 15 knots
Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
Visibility 5 miles
Sunrise 7:03 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:35 p.m. MST