WEATHER: It was just nine in the morning and the temperature was 90 degrees, by the time we got back home from the beach at noon it was 98 degrees.. No clouds to be seen and just a light wind from the southwest. Guess that gives you an idea of the weather at the end of the week, huh? Well, the rest of the week was just about the same except, for an occasional three or four hours of wind from the northwest in the afternoons. Daytime highs averaged 98 degrees and the evening lows were in the high 80's.

WATER: From the Pacific side of the Cape around the Golden Gate Banks where it was 81 degrees around to the Punta Gorda on the Cortez side where it was 87 degrees the water was almost calm all week long. On the Pacific side there were a few days in the middle of the week where the water kicked up for an afternoon or two, the water was a bit more green in color than the Cortez side and there were larger swells on the Pacific side. On the Cortez side the water was almost like a lake for most of the week and the water was nice and blue once you got outside the beach a couple of miles. There was no real temperature break or color break anywhere around.

BAIT: Almost all the larger baits this week were Caballito and mullet at the normal $3 per bait. There were Sardinas available up in San Jose at the usual $25 per scoop.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: As the water warms up to the mid to high 80's the Blue and Black Marlin have started to show up as well as a few Sailfish. The Sailfish have been found closer to the beach, most of them within a couple of miles on the Cortez side of the Cape. Traveling in small packs, it was not uncommon to have three or four of the lures attacked at the same time. The Blue Marlin seemed to be concentrated between the 95 spot and the 1150, most of them were attacking larger lures trolled at slightly higher than normal trolling speed, around 9-10 knots, and the fish averaged 200 pounds with a few reported to be in the 400-500 pound class. There were Black Marlin found at the outer Gorda Banks as well as off of Punta Gorda, and the boats that did get hooked up on these fish were drifting or slow trolling live Bollito for big Yellowfin Tuna when they got bit. I saw one angler on a Panga fight a 400-pound Black for four hours standing up with no fighting belt and using a single speed Penn senator reel, wow, talk about old school! There were still scattered Striped Marlin around but not in large numbers and the sizes seemed a bit smaller than usual.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Things have been slowly improving for Yellowfin Tuna as schools of football size fish continue to work their way toward us. As well as the footballs, there have been fish between 35 and 80 pounds being found occasionally around the 1,000-fathom line on the Cortez side. All of the fish have been found associated with either the spotted dolphin or the white-bellied dolphin. Several fish assumed to be even larger have been hooked up, some of them resulting in fights lasting several hours before either pulling the hooks or breaking the line. The largest fish I saw brought in this week was around 120 pounds.

DORADO: The number of Dorado caught this week remained low once again, for no reason that I can see. Most boats were lucky to get one, let alone hook up with one. A few boats returned with two or three yellow flags flying, but they were in the very small minority.

WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo this week but with the full moon coming up soon that should change soon..

INSHORE: It was still a steady pick on Roosterfish this week, but at least there were some decent fish out there. I saw a phone picture of one Roosterfish on Thursday (sent to my wife's phone) that was at least 90 pounds, caught on live mullet, and the angler released one other at about 50 pounds. Most of the Roosterfish were a bit smaller than those two though, averaging about 15-20 pounds. The Pangas were also finding some grouper and Pargo close to the beach. Going just a few miles off the beach they were getting into some Sailfish and Striped Marlin as well.

NOTES: The big fish are showing up and the water continues to be nice for us. As long as it does not get too warm we should be fine. The East Cape Bisbee Tournament is this coming week and I have friends fishing it, good luck "Sporty Game"! This weeks report was written while listening to the Sirus-XM Margarita channel. Until next week, tight lines!