WEATHER: With partly cloudy skies this week you would think that the temperature would have dropped a little bit, but unless you were on the Pacific side of the Cape during the middle of the week while we had a decent wind blowing you were sweating most of the time. Our daytime average was 98 degrees and the nights were averaging 82 degrees. The clouds we had were blown our way from the mainland as a few storms passed us, dropping some much needed rain up in the mountains, but not on us.

WATER: The swells on the Pacific side were pretty large during the middle of the week but got smaller later on. The mid-week wind from the southeast caused the Port Captain to close the port to small vessels in the afternoon on Thursday, the water was pretty choppy that day with many charter boats coming back early. Water temperature on the Cortez side of the Cape was pretty much averaging 88 degrees with a few areas well offshore that read up to 90, way to hot for fishing. On the Pacific side the water was a much more mellow average of 83 degrees with the San Jaime Banks at 82 degrees and the Golden Gate Bank at 84 degrees.

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: Black and Blue Marlin along with a fair showing of Striped Marlin and the occasional pack of Sailfish continued to bite this week. I know of one Captain who caught a small 5 pound Dorado, rigged it as a live bait off the outrigger and hooked up to a 600+ Black Marlin less than 10 minutes later. After 2 hours of fighting the fish, with lots of video, it was released at the boat. Another boat, one of the big fleet boats, brought in a 400-pound Black to be weighed. There were quite a few more caught and released that were smaller. The Blue Marlin showed up as well with fish that occasionally topped the 400-pound class being released by private boats and a few in that size being caught by fleet boats. The fish were close enough in that a few were caught by Pangas as well. The Blacks were close to shore with the two large fish I just mentioned being caught in less than 300 feet of water. The Blue Marlin were caught farther out with most of the action occurring south of the Cape at a distance of about 12 miles. Sailfish were showing again this week with the concentration (or at least what we get as a concentration) occurring within 5 miles of the beach on the Cortez side. The Striped Marlin were found about the same distance off the beach up on the inside of the Golden Gate Bank.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: It is nice to see the Tuna continue to show up, and occasionally a large one hits the deck. Up at the East Cape Bisbee Tournament the top fish was right at 150 pounds and we had fish here that would have matched that. Of course most of the fish were smaller! We had one client who did well with one Yellowfin at #60, three at #35 and one football and he was back by 11:30 with more than enough fish, having reached his limit on Yellowfin anyway. The fish have been showing up all over the place, but always associated with the spotted Dolphin (the larger fish) and the white-bellied dolphin, everywhere from the Gorda Banks to the Golden Gate, and up to 50 miles offshore..

DORADO: The Dorado numbers were still down this week, a few boats were getting a few fish but most of them were happy to come across one and get it to the boat.

WAHOO: There were a couple of fish reported to me this week from the area off the beach around Los Arcos, caught by boats looking for Striped Marlin, but the fish were not large ones, averaging only 25 pounds.

INSHORE: Small Dorado, an occasional large Roosterfish and plenty of small grouper and snapper had the anglers fishing off of Pangas happy this week. With the rough water mid-week the later part of the week saw most of the boats working the water around 200 to 300 feet deep, staying away from the churned up beachside.

NOTES: I shot my best golf game yesterday with a score of 93, I should have broke 90 but had a couple of train-wreck holes. I also lost about 3 pounds while doing it; even with drinking five bottles of water during the three hours it took to play. Downtown Cabo is a nightmare to get around in if you are walking and if you are trying to drive it is worse. The streets are still being worked on, it was supposed to be finished by yesterday but still looks like another month to me! The fishing is good, the weather warm and the beers are cold so if you are considering coming down, now is the time to look for some decent airfares! Until next week, tight lines!