WEATHER: Two close calls in two weeks means we got really lucky when it came to weather this week. As Monday opened we awoke to the sounds of heavy thunder and lightning flashes with heavy rain as the first band of Hurricane Rick came over us. For the next two days we watched as Rick finally lost energy and started moving off to the south of us. We received lots of gentle rain and then the skies cleared. On Wednesday afternoon the last feeder band went over the top of us and once again we received several hours of heavy rain. The remainder of the week was sunny and we had nighttime temperatures in the mid 70's and daytime highs in the high 80's with light winds.

WATER: We had rough water at the start of the week as Hurricane Rick approached. The swells built up and the Port closed through noon Wednesday due to the high winds and sloppy sea conditions. On Thursday the swells were back to normal size and the skies were clear. At the end of the week the water was in great shape with small swells and no wind chop. Water temperatures on the Cortez side of the Cape averaged 85 degrees to 25 miles south of land then dropped to 83 degrees.. The warmer water wrapped around the Cape on the Pacific side and we had continued temperatures of 85 degrees 10 to 15 miles off the beach there. Once past the San Jaime and the Golden Gate banks to the west the temperature dropped to 81 degrees.

BAIT: Caballito and Mullet were the usual $3 per bait and there were some Sardinas available up in San Jose at $25 a bucket, or here in Cabo at $30 a half bucket. Prices seem to go up in tournament time for Sardinas, as they are needed to catch the small tunas used for baiting the big Marlin.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: This week was the Bisbee Black and Blue Marlin tournament. We were postponed a day due to Hurricane Rick but this tournament really shows the state of billfish in our area as they are the only fish that count, and you have some of the best fishermen and fishing teams in the world competing, at least for the big marlin. I guess it's possible that Hurricane Rick caused things to change because while the week before there were plenty of Black Marlin caught on the Gorda Banks, the boats that fished there this week got goose eggs for their efforts. With 89 teams competing for three days there were only two fish brought in that weighed over the 300-pound minimum, one on the first day at #375 and one on the third day at #305. It's pretty sad that 267 fishing days had those results. There were smaller fish caught, we released a Striped Marlin on the first day and a small Blue Marlin on the third day and there were plenty of hook-ups reported, but no big fish. Most of the action seemed to have shifted to the Pacific side this week as the current pushed the warm water up the coast.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again the number of Tuna was down from last week but when you could find them they bit pretty well. We had one couple who got into the fish on Thursday about 20 miles to the southwest and they were able to come in with one fish of 100 pounds, one of 80 pounds and plenty of smaller fish. On their second day they had all smaller fish. Another group we had out got into the fish but were unable to get a bite all day long, ending up with a goose egg for the day. Most of the fish were found on the Pacific side within 25 miles of the shore, but there was a nice school reported out at the temperature break to the west of the San Jaime Bank. Another big fish was caught by one of the boats in the Bisbee tournament. They boated the large Yellowfin after 1- ? hours of fighting on #130 line so it had to be a beast but I never heard the weight.

DORADO: The Dorado bite dropped off a lot this week, the storm seemed to have scattered them. Perhaps this coming week will allow them to school up again and the action will improve. A few boats were still able to show well on these fish with limits of two per angler, but they were not the norm for the week. The action that occurred was on the Pacific side of the Cape fairly close to shore in the warm water.

WAHOO: I only heard of a couple of Wahoo being caught this week, and those were found in the open water by boats looking for Blue Marlin.

INSHORE: Dorado continued to be the main focus of Pangas this week as they were still present in fair numbers, though small in size, close to the beach. A few of the Pangas ventured offshore on the Pacific side looking for Yellowfin and did well. Action inshore did not pick up until the very end of the week due to churned up conditions, but there was a bite for small Sierra up toward San Jose and there was some decent grouper fishing along the Cortez coast.

NOTES: Our prayers were answered as Hurricane Rick downgraded from a category five to a category one and passed well to the south of us. The rain it brought was a blessing; gentle enough to soak into the ground without causing bad run-off. The Bisbee tournament was a bust with low numbers of boats and even lower numbers of fish. The next tournament coming up is the Tuna Tournament the first week of November so everyone is now gearing up for that! My thanks to Mark Bailey for bringing me some new CD's to listen to. This weeks report was written to the great country music of Danny Balis on his 2009 self released album "Too Much Living". Great stuff! Until next week, tight lines!