WEATHER: We started the week with rain, and a good rain at that! For the past few years we seem to have had just a bit of rain once a week for the first 6 weeks of the year, but this Monday we had at least 2 inches, more rain than we received during several close hurricane passes late in the year. No really hard rain, just a steady, hard drizzle and occasional dump. Almost all of it soaked into the ground, but it did put a bit of a damper on the fishing for both Monday and Tuesday. The rest of the week provided us with partly cloudy skies, high temperatures in the mid 80's and low temperatures in the low 60's.

WATER: Surface conditions on both sides of the Cape were great this week and in an unusual change, we had swells from the east early in the week! They were not large and had little effect on the fishing, but it was a bit disconcerting in the morning. Water temperatures were a bit warmer on the Pacific side most of the week with the water up to Todo Santos averaging 78 degrees except for the 2 miles closest to the beach where it was about a degree cooler. On the Cortez side it was an average of 77 degrees anywhere to the north of an east-west line across the 95 spot.

BAIT: Almost all the bait this week was Caballito, which was a bit of a change as normally being close to the full moon causes a drop in the numbers of these baitfish being caught. There were a few Mackerel being caught as well, but most boats were better off trying to catch their own at the lighthouse. Prices remained at $3 per bait and there were reports of some decent sized Sardinas being available up in San Jose.

FISHING

BILLFISH: Once again there were a few decent Blue Marlin and Black Marlin reported this week, but nothing as large as the #88 that was caught last week. The fi8sh I saw and heard of were in the #400 class and were found on the Pacific side close to the beach, feeding on Dorado in the case of the Blue Marlin, or on the Outer Gorda Bank feeding on Bollito in the case of the Black Marlin. A few decent sized Sailfish were found as well, and the Striped Marlin bite just shut off. A few Stripers were caught every day, and the best results I saw were three fish in one day, but at least they were close to home, almost on our doorstep. The action was between the lighthouse and the Solmar Hotel and deep drifting with live bait or slow trolling them on top produced the best results. Most boats were getting shut out on the Striped Marlin this week.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Football fish were the fish most often caught but there were a few boats that got into fish in the 30-40 pound range. All Yellowfin were few and far between this week but the Pacific side between the Golden Gate and the San Jaime Bank seemed to produce more than other areas, at least areas that were reachable by the day charters. The Gorda Banks were reported to continue to produce an occasional larger fish, up to 100 pounds, but it was a scratch fishery, nothing steady.

DORADO: What happened to the Dorado? One week it was great and then all of a sudden they seemed to disappear! We fished the coastline to Todo Santos on Saturday for one Striped Marlin and one Dorado; earlier in the week it was no problem getting limits on Dorado in that area. There were a few boats that came in with multiple flags flying, but they were not the norm.

WAHOO: Our trip Saturday was focused on Wahoo as we trolled the drops along the Pacific side at 9 knots with Marauders and Rapallas but did not receive even one Wahoo strike. We released a Striped Marlin on a Rapalla but did not hear of anyone getting a Wahoo that day.

INSHORE: The Sierra action was really good early in the week but by the weekend the bite had really dropped off, most boats were happy to get a few in the box. Small Roosterfish and a few bottom fish rounded out the inshore action for us this week.

NOTES: Happy New Year everyone! As you can tell from the report, the fish decided they needed a holiday as well and did not show up for the New Year party in Cabo. Hopefully they show up again soon as we have a lot of people looking forward to bending a rod in the next month! Until next week, tight lines!