WEATHER: We continued with the cool, overcast conditions for most of last week. We did see a couple of days with plenty of sun, but for the most part it was partly to mostly cloudy. Our daytime highs were in the mid 80's and our nighttime lows remained in the mid to high 60's.

WATER: With light winds most of the week the only rough times at sea were early in the morning between the lighthouse and the Arch, past there things calmed down, the swells were at 3-6 feet but there was plenty of space between them and not too much wind. On the Cortez side of the cape things were much smoother with swells at 1-3 feet between Cabo and Punta Gorda, and almost glass-like conditions. Water temperatures remained in the mid to high 70's throughout the area except for early in the week when 80 degree water showed on the San Jaime Bank and right next to shore past the arch we had 74 degree water. At the end of the week there was a pretty strong demarcation at the 1,000-fathom line directly south of the Cape where 80-degree water on the outside met 78-degree water on the inside.

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 conditions and water temperatures have not been good for Sardinas.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite dropped off just a bit at the Golden Gate Bank but boats were still piling up the numbers with several methods. Drifting with live Mackerel both on the surface and dropped down to 100 feet or so worked well, as did slow trolling live Mackerel through the area. Probably the most exciting and frustrating method was to wait until the fish could be seen feeding on the surface, indicated by birds diving, running to the fish and then throwing live bait into the area. Combat fishing at it's finest; many fish were cut off by other boats trying to do the same thing. Elsewhere there were a few Striped Marlin caught along the beach on the Pacific side and up around the San Jose area.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: An occasional school showed up around the San Jaime Bank this week and fish to 60-80 pounds were caught, but they did not stay in the area for long. Boats fishing live bait deep for Marlin at the Golden Gate Bank also caught a few nice fish to 150 pounds. I heard reports that boats fishing from the Puerto Los Cabos Marinas in San Jose were getting fish to 80 pounds on a fairly regular basis but have no other information on that.

DORADO: The Dorado bite was a repeat of last weeks and I don't know if it will last much longer as the water continues to cool down. The only place that I heard of having a decent Dorado bite was just off the beach between the lighthouse on the Pacific side and the beach to the inside of the Golden Gate Bank. Within a mile of the shore boats were picking up between one and five Dorado, some of them very nice fish around 25 pounds, but most of them around 15 pounds. There were some fish up around the Punta Gorda area from what I overheard, but I could not get any information on numbers or sizes.

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

INSHORE: The cooler water has brought the beginning of the Yellowtail and Sierra fishing with it. Pangas working off of the rocky points on both the Pacific and the Cortez side were able to get into some decent fishing for both these species as well as some nice Pargo right in amongst the rocks.

NOTES: Just a reminder of how important communication is. I had a client this week that I thought had told me that he and his buddy wanted "lots of action, plenty of fish, and a Marlin would be ok". This is what I told the captain so they went looking for Dorado and Tuna. I received a note from him later that after having caught only two Dorado on the boat we had booked for them, they had booked another boat and that based on the results and what they had observed, our crew had "not really been trying for Marlin, which is what we had wanted to target". Please be sure you clarify things with the captain when you get on the boat. Have a Very Merry Christmas! Or Happy Hanukah Until next week, tight lines.