Weather
All right, finally a week with no rain but I think I like it better when we get one day, at least! We had mostly sunny skies (even though I did not see much of them) with our daytime highs in the high 70's, occasionally touching the low 80's and our nighttime lows were in the high 50's.

Water
We had interesting things happening with our water temperatures this past week. Contrary to our normal pattern this time of year, the water on the Sea of Cortez was, on average, cooler than that of the Pacific side, at least within 30 miles of shore. On the Pacific side we were seeing an average of 74-76 degrees and on the Cortez side it was averaging 72 degrees. There were a couple of anomalies however as at the end of the week there appeared to be an intrusion of very warm (for this time of year) 78-80 degree water at the end of the week from the east. This warm water appeared 15 miles off of Punta Gorda as well as across the Cabrillo Seamount and up to the 1150 spot.

Bait
Caballito were the bait of the week at the usual $3 each and there were some Sardinas available in the San Jose area at the normal $25 per scoop. There were few if any Mackerel to be found this week.

FISHING
Billfish
Marlin and Sailfish continued to be scarce this week and while a few were spotted as well as caught, there were no large numbers of them anywhere. It appears that we are not going to see a repeat of the fantastic Striped Marlin fishery we have been this time of the year for the past three years, or if we do it means that everything else is going to be all contrary for the rest of the year as well. The few fish that were caught this week were found up in the Punta Gorda and Gorda Banks area as well as very close to the beach on the Pacific side up around the Golden Gate Bank.

Yellowfin Tuna
News for the Yellowfin Tuna fishermen is still bad as this week was a repeat of the last week. The catch on Tuna is still spotty, a few fish found here and a few found there, mostly it seems to be a matter of luck by boats that are actually in the historically producing areas such as west of the San Jaime, due south 40 miles and outside the 1,000 fathom line anywhere on the Cortez side. The fish that were found were smaller school fish to 35 pounds, but most of them were footballs at 5-15 pounds. All the fish found were associated with porpoise.

Dorado
The good news for the week was the reappearance of the warm water and a few more Dorado showing up, and most of them were actually worth catching. If you remember, last week there was a large school of very small fish at Gray Rock, well, those fish were either all caught or got smart and moved on. This warm water brought in some larger fish, and while the numbers have not been high, the fish have been quality fish in the 25-40 pound class. A few of these fish were found on the Pacific side around the sea mounts in the warm water, but the better ones came in on the warm water flow from the east, and at the end of the week the area around the 1150, Cabrillo Seamount and outside Punta Gorda were the places to be. Most of the fish were hooked on lures being trolled for Striped Marlin, but there were some hooked up on live bait as they followed a lure-caught fish in.

Wahoo
Surprisingly there were still Wahoo to be caught out there. Most of those I heard of were incidental catches, but at least they were there. The fish were not large, averaging just under 25 pounds, but there were a few larger ones reported in the warm water offshore. As incidental catches, most of them were caught on lures pulled for Tuna or Striped Marlin, resulting in the majority of hook-ups being lost due to sliced leaders.

Inshore
Overall the inshore fishery was the way to go this week if you wanted action, but that didn't work for everyone. Unlike the last several weeks where the fish would concentrate in one area for several days, this past week the fish seemed to be constantly on the move. The Sierra, Yellowtail and Amberjack would be in one place in the morning and 2 miles away in the afternoon. This may be due to the changing water temperature moving the bait around, but for whatever reason one day could be red-hot and the next ice-cold.

Notes
The whales are still providing thrills and if you were fishing offshore that was a good thing as sometimes that was the only action you might see. There were whales inshore as well so combine the inshore action with the whale action and this week inshore was the place to be. Things might change this coming week with the warm water moving in, we will just have to wait and see how long that lasts. I didn't get out much myself this week as I was down for 5 days with a nasty cold. I am feeling better now and listening to Jack Johnson on his 2000 Everloving Records release "Brushfire Fairytales" helped me feel better! Until next week, tight lines!