Weather: What a beautiful week we had! As is usual for this month of the year, the weather changed for us and the temperature dropped what felt was five degrees. With no storms on the horizon and just a light breeze we had great weather. Our daytime highs were in the high 80's to low 90's and our nighttime lows were in the mid 70's.

Water: On the Sea of Cortez side we had 86 degree water all along the coast out to a distance of about 5 miles, then it dropped a degree to 85 degrees. On the Pacific side it was mostly 82 degrees between the Jaime Bank, the Golden Gate Bank and the shore. Outside the banks the water dropped to 78 degrees. There was a bump, a bit of a swell, on the Pacific side while the Cortez side had almost pool table flat water with maybe 1-2 feet of swell, spaced far apart.

Bait: Caballito were the most common baits to be had from the boats this week and were the usual $3 each. The bait barge had some as well as some Sardinas. With the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament just happening and the little and big Bisbee tournaments the Sardinas have been the bait of choice in order to catch the smaller Tuna for bait.

FISHING

Billfish: The first day of the Los Cabos Tournament was Wednesday and two big fish were brought to the weigh station. The largest was a Black Marlin that was reported to have been caught in the vicinity of the Gorda Banks and weighed in at 713 pounds. The second was a Blue Marlin that weighed in around 650 pounds. The last day of the tournament had three marlin over 400 pounds brought to the weigh station. The first day of the little Bisbee tournament was Saturday and a several nice fish were brought in as well. Next week I should have an update on the big Bisbee tournament as I will be captaining a boat for that one and will have the radio on full time. There were still plenty of Striped Marlin being found out there with most of the action happening on the Pacific side up around the Golden Gate. While the action is nor red hot, there has been a fairly steady bite on fish with most boats getting a shot or two a day, and a few getting multiple releases.

Yellowfin Tuna: Yellowfin Tuna action remained steady for boats fishing for the football fish up to 20 pounds in size, particularly around the Gray Rock area and the Santa Maria area during the tournament days. With that many boats chumming with Sardinas the fish are attracted to the area. There were a lot of Bonita and Skipjack as well. The area off of Palmilla has been producing some decent fish to 30 pounds for boats using Sardinas as bait. The largest Tuna of the Los Cabos tournament was 209 pounds and was caught by a friend of ours, who will not give any details about where or how, except to say the fight took two hours, and by the way, was caught on a Panga.

Dorado: The charter fleet did very well on Dorado this week but I was surprised that the largest Dorado caught during the Los Cabos Tournament by a tournament boat was only 31 pounds. I saw much larger fish being brought in by the charter fleet, some of the fish must have been at least 50 pounds. Perhaps it is the areas that were being fished because most of the big Dorado, and the large numbers came from the near-shore area on the Pacific side.

Wahoo: There were plenty of Wahoo reported this week and some boats were able to get multiple fish in the box, but you had to leave early for the first bite. Working the bottom contour around the 300 foot line with lures on wire leaders or rigged ballyhoo at first light seemed to work well for several boats that concentrated on these fish this week. The fish ranged between 30 and 50 pounds. In the offshore areas the fish seemed to average a bit larger but there was no concentrations to be found, the fish were sporadic.

Inshore: This week was a repeat of the last week for the inshore fishing. Roosterfish to 40 pounds, some nice sized Sierra and a scattering of Snapper were reported from the Pacific shoreline this week. The Roosterfish were caught on live bait and the schools have been fairly large. The Snapper have been tight into the rocks, but our small swells have made it easier than normal to get in there and toss a live bait. Most of the Pangas have been focusing slightly offshore fishing for the Dorado.

Notes: If you are getting your own fishing licenses, you must have pesos. The people that sell the licenses around the marina can no longer take dollars from anyone.

My music choice for this week was a new favorite of mine, Jack Johnson, and his CD "On and On" has been playing and re-playing in my truck and at home. It is a 2003 Universal records release. Until next week, tight lines. http://captgeo.wordpress.com