Weather: For the majority of the week we had daytime highs in the mid to high 90's while the nighttime lows were in the mid 80's. Our change in the weather came at the end of the week when we had a lot of cloud cover move in and this morning (Sunday) our temperature gauge showed 77 degrees, 10 degrees cooler than the same time yesterday. Not only was it cooler, but when I stepped outside I thought we had a water pipe break on the roof. After a bit more checking it appeared that the clouds dropped some rain on us, about  ? inch, and the plants loved it.

Water: Surface conditions on the Pacific side were a little rougher at the end of the week than during the beginning as the clouds were preceded by wind, quite a few people thought the Pacific was an E-ticket ride on Friday. It was better on the Cortez side of the Cape as far as the surface conditions went, and the water averaged several degrees warmer as well with most of the area showing 82 degrees, plus or minus a degrees or two. I was fishing on Thursday and the warmest I saw was 84.4 degrees. On the Pacific the water close to the beach was cooler at 73-75 degrees, but the farther offshore your went the warmer it became, up to 80 degrees in a few areas.

Bait: Caballito and Mullet were available at $3 per bait.

FISHING

Billfish: I was amazed upon returning from our 10 day vacation to hear about the numbers of Blue and Black Marlin that were being caught. There were still Striped Marlin around, but as normal with these warmer waters, they were not present in large numbers. Certain areas, such as the 1150 and the Gorda Banks, were producing multiple bites for every boat every day on Blues and Blacks that seemed to average 200 pounds, but the larger ones were in the 400-500 pound class. Lures were working great, and dropping back live bait produced quite a few fish as well, but unless the boat was prepared for the larger Marlin with 80 to 100 pound class drop-backs, the fight was bound to last a long time. These Blues and Blacks fight a lot harder than Striped Marlin, and the #30 class drop-back gear used for them made getting a Blue or Black to the boat problematic for most visiting anglers. These fish were actually being found just about everywhere, they were close to the beach as well as at the high spots.

Yellowfin Tuna: We had clients out this week who boated on Yellowfin Tuna at #147 that was caught on a lure, the same boat caught one two days before on a kite bait that weighed #180, and our friend Mike landed on the same size. While these were nice fish, they were not averaged size. Most of the Yellowfin that were caught were in the 12-20 pound class. All the fish, at least the larger ones, were found with Porpoise on the Cortez side from the Cabrillo Seamount and to the southwest of there along the 1,000 fathom line. There was a decent concentration of the smaller Yellowfin at the Lighthouse on the Pacific side for several days early in the week that were not associated with Porpoise and the Pangas really hit them hard, averaging 8-10 fish per boat.

Dorado: For some reason the number of Dorado dropped off a bit this week. The best catch by our clients this week on Dorado was 8 fish, with only one of them over 20 pounds. Most of the smaller fish were close to home, just outside the bay. The larger fish were scattered, but a few boats were able to get two or three over 20 pounds each trip.

Wahoo: I did not hear of a lot of Wahoo caught this week, but I know there were some because I saw one that probably weighed about 45 pounds being brought in to the weigh station. There were scattered bites offshore when boats were fishing for Marlin and Tuna, I don't know if there were any concentrations of fish inshore.

Inshore: Roosterfish action along the beach was good this week with the average size 20 pounds. Quite a bit of difference from the 3 pound average we have in the cooler waters! A few real "Bubbas", fish over 60 pounds, were caught as well with the largest I heard of just over 80 pounds. Working the beach areas in 80-100 feet of water while slow trolling live Mullet was the best method this week for the larger fish. Some Snapper were caught in the rock piles and quite a few of the Pangas were going for the football Yellowfin at the lighthouse while they were there.

Notes: Having been gone for 10 days it only took a couple of days to get back into the swing of things. Hopefully the fishing continues to improve (although I don't know how it can get much better, maybe if the Dorado really take off!) and the storms stay away. I don't mind the bits of rain, but keep the wind away. Until next week, tight lines.