Weather: Still hot, even though it is cooler on the gauge as the lack of wind and the high humidity makes it seem so much warmer. Our nighttime lows have been in the low 80's while the daytime highs have reached as high as 103 degrees. No rain, and little cloud cover, slight breezes, and high humidity.

Water: Still no Tropical Storms in our area, but we have had some slightly larger than normal swells this week. Nothing too big, but they have tossed up some surf on the south facing beaches. Water temperatures on the Cortez side of the Cape have been pretty steady at 86-87 degrees inside the 1,000 fathom line, and at the end of the week we could see the approach of a spot of very warm 90 degree water coming over the Cabrillo Seamount. On the Pacific side the warm water at 86 degrees wrapped around the Cape and came up to the outside (west) of the San Jaime Bank. Inside that area on the Pacific the water was a bit cooler at 82-83 degrees. A bit of breeze in the mornings early in the week had a small amount of chop on the water, and later in the week the winds died and the water was almost glassy all day.

Bait: Caballito and Mullet were readily available at the normal $3 per bait, and I heard that there were some Sardinas as well in San Jose.

FISHING

Billfish: Marlin seem to have made almost everyone happy this week. Almost every boat has been releasing one fish per day, some more than that. Most of the fish have been Striped Marlin, but there have been a lot of small Blue Marlin caught as well, fish between 180 to 280 pounds, and a few larger fish to 500 pounds. Many of the fish have been found on the Pacific side of the Cape with the effort being most intense for the Blue Marlin between 10 miles off the lighthouse to the ridge between the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks. The Golden Gate and the area off of Los Arcos have been producing most of the Striped Marlin, but many more have been sighted and had bait tossed at them than have been hooked up.

Yellowfin Tuna: Still nothing consistent on the Tuna, one day there are plenty, the next they are gone. Of course, if you are the one in the right place at the right time it seems there are no end to them. The problem of course, is finding them in the first place. South of the San Jaime Ban, just to the west of the Golden Gate, 40 miles to the south of the Cape, out at the Cabrillo Seamount, the Gorda Banks and the Inman Banks have all produced fish this week, and there has been an occasional toad of over 200 pounds. They have been the exception however, most of the fish found have been between football size to school fish, between 8 and 20 pounds for the most part.

Dorado: Once again we had a good Dorado bite this week. There were plenty of fish, but they were not large ones, yet. Average size was 10 pounds with a few in the #30 class, but they were readily available. Fly rod action on these guys was great, catch and release until your arms dropped off, and the excitement of having one of the big ones show up in the chum line made for some great action. The key was bait, lots of it if using sardinas. You could catch a Dorado, keep it in the water and have the school follow for a long time. Toss in a few sardinas from time to time, or some small chunks of Bonita or skip jack and go to town. Most of the action was once again on the Pacific side within 5 miles of the beach. There were scattered larger fish offshore.

Wahoo: I don't know what happened, maybe the moon beginning to go full, but the Wahoo went on the bite this past week. We had one group who hooked multiple fish each day three days in a row, landing at least one a day. The largest was right around 60 pounds and they lost a larger one that day as well, the others were around 35 pounds.. Other boats reported getting bit as well, but the main concentration seemed to be on the Pacific side about 8 miles south of the lighthouse. There were reports from the normal areas as well, the banks and along the rocky points, but the action did not seem to be as hot and heavy.

Inshore: Inshore fishing was a repeat of last weeks as there were Roosterfish, some decent Snapper, lots of small Skip-jack tuna and baby Yellowfin Tuna as well as loads of small Dorado that supplied most of the action for the Pangas this past week. As well as the usual inshore fish, there were a few nice Black Marlin hooked by Pangas slow trolling live bait for bigger Dorado, so there was always the chance of being surprised.

Notes: Recently the Mexican government placed restrictions on the amount of U.S. Dollars individuals and businesses may deposit in a bank account. Due to this restriction, many stores, such as Cost-Co, will no longer accept more than $100 U.S., and you must spend at least 80% in the store. No more going in and buying a case of beer with a big bill and getting a good exchange rate. Now you really need to pay attention about the fishing licenses. Due to Mexican government restrictions the license guys will no longer accept U.S. Dollars, you must pay in pesos at the dock, and no, they do not usually have small change! The cost for a daily license is $140 pesos, a weekly is $290 pesos. If you book an all-inclusive charter, like us, your licenses waiting for you at the dock, they do the work, you just have to supply the names for the licenses in advance.

Just recently it came to our attention you can now buy fishing licenses online. Some Spanish required...won't let me buy quantities, as it looks like you can only buy one at a time. I only played on the website for a few minutes this morning, look great for those yearly licenses!!! https://www2.ebajacalifornia.gob.mx/Pesca My great thanks to the guys from Jersey and Virginia, Ed, Gene, Herman and Kent for the new music! They were nice enough to bring me a nice assortment of new CD's. Today's report was written to the music off of the CD "Vintage Bluegrass Essentials", a 2009 Rural Rhythm Records release.