Historically, this week has been the best week of the best month of the year for sailfish action, with several boats flying double digit release flags on a daily basis.

I am not going to jump on the bandwagon and blame it on global warming, but we certainly have not had that kind of a week. This last two weeks have not been anything like what we expected.

At 80 ?, the water temperature is correct, but the blue water has been out there somewhere off the charts. However, even though the game rich deep blue water is a long ways off, the water is "clean" at about 6 miles, and we are catching a few sailfish.

It appears the fleet is averaging about 1 to 2 sailfish per boat per day.

For fly fishing, we have actually been having a bit better luck than the conventional gear fishermen. We have been averaging about 6 sailfish a day raised to the spread, 2 to 4 strikes a day, and 2 hooked fish.

Last Sunday, fly fisherman Gary Lien of Seattle fished with Arturo and me on the panga Janeth. He hooked two sails. But, the next day he fished with Margarito, and they never even had a shot at a fish.

Meanwhile, I went down to Puerto Vicente Guerrero with fly fisherman Gary Meger and his son James of Toronto Canada, and we had a very good day. First we fished the inshore to see if the roosters were still there. We raised 4 large ones, and Gary had a legitimate shot at a 40 pounder as he turned on the fly.

We then went out to the 9 mile mark and Gary hooked a sail, James tagged and released a sailfish, and Gary also hooked an estimated 140 pound blue marlin.

Unfortunately, a hooked fish does not always translate to a tagged and released fish. Gary's sailfish gave us one of the most photogenic leaps I have ever seen. And, I did not have my camera in hand, as I was getting the teaser rod out of the way. About 30 feet from the boat, the sailfish went vertical, with the early sun gleaning off its silver sides for the entire length of his body. The bright pink, red, and white fly was hanging from the corner of the mouth, and the cut leader about 5 feet behind.

The marlin, lit up with incredible hues of ultra violet, teased to the boat ? perfectly, and ate Gary's fly just like you read in the books. As he took line, we were all congratulating ourselves, and then the hook pulled. We still have no idea why.....Ed Kunze