WEATHER: We had interesting weather this past week as clouds moved in on Tuesday evening and brought with them a spit of rain, just enough to spot the windows. We thought that was all that was going to happen but on Saturday another cloud mass moved in. The thunder and lightning had my dog and the cats scared, but my wife got a decent photo of lightning striking the mountain nearby. It rained for an hour or so, knocking off all the dust and brightening everything up bit. This past week was still a bit warm at an average of 98 degrees during the day and 85 degrees in the coolest part of the night. Check the notes below; it looks like we may get some more rain this coming week!

WATER: It was 85-86 degrees everywhere you went this week with no temperature breaks. The water was blue and with the winds mostly coming from the southeast to east, the Pacific side was calm most of the time with the Cape stopping the wind. The Cortez side had a little chop on it at times.

BAIT: Almost all the larger baits this week were Caballito and mullet at the normal $3 per bait. Large swells this week kept the bait guys from getting any Sardinas this week.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: There were still Striped Marlin being caught out there, and mostly in the same area as last week, up the coast toward the Golden Gate Bank on the Pacific side. There were also still quite a few Sailfish being caught, some of them small and some large, and normally there were at least two in the pattern when they showed up. With the full moon coming on the bite picked up just a bit on the Blue and Black Marlin. These fish were found between the 95 spot and the south end of the San Jaime Bank with the areas around the porpoise seeming to offer a few more chances at one as they seemed to be in there feeding on the small tuna.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were not a lot of Tuna caught this week, a few pods of porpoise held football size fish but they were not very willing to bite. Every day at least one boat, sometimes more, got into a fish of over 100 pounds with a few over 200 pounds being caught. The locations varied from 30 miles to the south to 3 miles off the lighthouse and up the Cortez side toward the Inman bank area. There seemed to be several schools out there moving around a lot. Of course there were also those times when you could see the fish but not get them to bite.

DORADO: Once again the fish of the week, Dorado continued to please anglers who went looking for them. Even if your target was something different it seemed you could get at least one Dorado hooked up. Some of the boats that really concentrated on these fish were limiting out early and then going out to try for a big Blue Marlin. The majority of the fish were found close to the beach on the Pacific side from the arch and northward.

WAHOO: I heard of a few Wahoo this week from the Punta Gorda area as well as a couple from close to the beach on the Pacific side up in the Los Arcos area. The fish reported to me averaged 30 pounds and were caught while fishing for Dorado.

INSHORE: Just like last week, Panga fishermen were getting a little bit of everything this week, ranging from Roosterfish to Jacks to Snapper to Grouper to Dorado to Sailfish, etc. Pretty much anything you wanted to fish for could be found from a Panga this past week..

NOTES: Hurricane Jimena looks like she is going to come in and give us a close-up look early this week. Perhaps a category 4 Hurricane when she come in on her closest approach (presently forecast for late Tuesday, subject to change at any moment) she will bring some much needed rain to our area, we just hope it is not so much that it ruins all the street construction taking place downtown (that was supposed to be completed at the beginning of August). Check in next week and I'll let you know how things turned out. Meanwhile later today I am putting the hardtop back on the jeep and filling my gas cans, putting the yard in order and getting ready for a hurricane party. If you want to follow the storm check out one of my favorite weather sites, www.hurricanezone.com. This weeks report was written to the music of Jethro Tull on the 1993 Chrysalis release "The Best Of Jethro Tull, The Anniversary Collection". Until next week, tight lines!