WEATHER: We had very even weather this week with the morning lows at 65 degrees and the afternoon highs at 85 degrees with just a little wind in the afternoons. No clouds to speak of this week, really wonderful weather to spend the holidays enjoying, much better than all the snow I see in the news!

WATER: Surface conditions on both the Pacific and the Sea of Cortez have been great, some small swells set quite a distance apart and light winds in our area. Farther up the Sea of Cortez, around the East Cape the wind has been howling and there were whitecaps everywhere. On the sea surface temperature charts you can almost see where the wind stops, as that is where the water temperature changes. Just to the south of Los Frailles the water warms to 79 degrees from 76 degrees and the warm water wraps completely around the Baja all the way up to just past Todo Santos on the Pacific side and extends well past any fishing range offshore along the entire area.

BAIT: Caballito and Mackerel in a pretty even mix at the usual $3 per bait and I have been told that there are some Sardinas up toward San Jose at $25 a scoop, but only if you get there early.

FISHING

BILLFISH: With the water temperature staying fairly warm and the Dorado still around there was a bit of Blue Marlin action this past week. We had clients on two trips hook into Blues, one at the start of the week that was estimated at 225 pounds and was released and then at the end of the week another on estimated at 500 pounds that did not stay hooked for very long. If we had that kind of action then there were certainly others hooked as well. Also, there are still Sailfish to be had as twice this week anglers fishing with us released Pacific sails that averaged 100 pounds. The big news though is the Striped Marlin bite. It has started again and is happening close to home. Most of the action is taking place on the Pacific side off of the Lighthouse and up to the north to Los Arcos, close to the beach where the bait is stacked up, and there are reports of them showing up in small numbers at the Golden Gate Bank. Some of the better catches have been double digit numbers up to 19 a day (the best I heard of) but any boat that has gone out with the intention of Marlin fishing has been coming in with at least two flags flying. Hopefully this action will continue.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin have been scarce in our area. Boats traveling 20 or more miles to the west have found some fish, and there were some fish found to the northwest of the Golden Gate Bank, toward Finger Bank, but for the most part the Tuna have been a non-event for the boats. The fish that have been found in our area have all been football size, nothing large. I did talk with one angler that got off a long-range boat fishing well to the north of us who said that they had four fish over 300 pounds during their trip sop maybe we will see some of those fish later in the season.

DORADO: Dorado remained a staple for most of the boats, as they were fairly easy to find and close to home as well. The numbers have not bee great with most boats getting one or two fish, but a few boats that found schools of these great tasting fish were able to limit out at two fish per angler. They were scattered over the area with even numbers found on both the Pacific and the Cortez side of the Cape. All methods were working but the best results seemed to be had by boats that saw or hooked fish then slow trolled live bait in the same area.

WAHOO: I did not hear of any Wahoo caught this week but did see a couple of Wahoo flags flying. They may have been for Wahoo but it is more likely that they were being flown for Sierra.

INSHORE: Once again it was a decent bite for Sierra that were averaging 6 pounds with an occasional 8 or 10 pound fish, Roosterfish that averaged 5 pounds with an occasional fish to 30 pounds and some scattered bottom fish found as well. Most of the Pangas were going just offshore and getting into the Striped Marlin action so it was hard to get a really good idea of inshore catch ratios.

NOTES: This weeks report was written while listening to Christmas music on Sirus Radio. I had forgotten what a beautiful voice Jim Nabors had. We are still seeing whales, the weather is great and there is a good Marlin bite going on. Buy yourself your own Christmas present and get away from the snow and cold! Until next week, tight lines! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, whichever is your reason for the season!