WEATHER: Our coldest night this week was last night as the reading on the meter showed 65 degrees. All the other days it has been in the high 60's. Our daytime highs have been in the high 70's to low 80's and we had a clear Christmas day, but clouds have moved into the area since then.

WATER: The water on the Pacific side has been in the low 70's almost all week and there were a few days at the end of the week where it got a little choppy as the clouds moved in, but it was not bad. On the Cortez side the water has remained in the high 70's and the swells have been small and there has been no wind chop.

BAIT: Caballito were available at the normal $3 per bait, most of them were small ones, Mackerel were"catch your own at Golden Gate Bank" bait and Sardinas were available up at San Jose for around $25 a bucket.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: The Marlin bite remained the same but the fish have moved off the Golden Gate Bank a bit. There are still plenty of fish there, but with the number of boats working the area causing traffic problems at times, some of the guys have been working to the south toward the San Jaime Bank and have been finding the Striped Marlin there as well. Not the same numbers as at the Golden Gate, but the pressure is less. The same methods have been working, drifting with live bait set deep, slow trolling live bait on the surface and casting bait at fish seen in bait balls. This week the plastics have been working fairly well also with the best colors being the Petrelero.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Tuna were scarce once again, but a few fish were showing up mixed in with the porpoise around the San Jaime Bank. These fish ranged in size from 10 to 40 pounds with an occasional larger fish to 80 pounds hooked up. The larger fish were caught on live bait sunk to 50 feet in front of the moving pods of porpoise.

DORADO: The Dorado bite was decent this week with fish coming from close to the beach on the Pacific side, most of them within a mile or so, but a few were in the deeper water as well. The warmer water on the Cortez side of the Cape started to produce as we expected and there were good catches of fish to 35 pounds around the Red Hill area and off of Grey Rock. Slow trolled live bait worked well once you found the area where the fish were concentrated. Average catch on Dorado for boats focusing on them was about 6 fish per boat.

WAHOO: Once again I didn't hear of any Wahoo being caught this week.

INSHORE: Panga fishing this week has produced good numbers of small Roosterfish, some nice Sierra and Yellowtail along with a few good-sized Pargo.. Fly fishermen have been having a blast with the occasional Dorado and good numbers of Bonita, chumming them up with live Sardinas.

NOTES: This has been a very interesting and productive year for us, the fish have been biting well and while the economy has had an effect on bookings the fish don't seem to care! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that you celebrate the New Year in style! Until next week, tight lines!