Weather: We are starting off the year with another cold snap. Started to get warm again for few days with the weather patterns coming up from the south and bringing in the warmer weather. Afternoon temperatures in the hi 80's. Very cloudy for a few days, thought it was going to rain, but this is the desert, it went around us as usual. The cloud cover kept us warm. Yesterday the wind started blowing all day long and beat the heck out of my tomato plants. Personally I didn't notice much after 2:30. Was kind of busy with the biggest upset in the NFL. promise not to make this a Seahawk brag report. This morning, all is calm, and cold. Back to 57 degrees at 6am on the dock. The satellite shots show clear cool skies for the rest of the week.

Water: Pretty much 70 degree water all around us, with the cooler 65 water up towards Finger Banks. The warmer weather patterns that came up from the south pushed the cooler waters north. The guys were reporting blue water, but you had to go out 35 - 40 miles to find or stay close to home.

Bait: Mackerel, Caballito and assorted and sundry other larger baits were the normal $3 per bait. There were some Sardinas at the usual $25 per scoop.

FISHING

Billfish: Same as last week. Although I did hear of a few small blue marlin released this past week. In the 150 to 200 lb range. This past week was probably the slowest for Striped Marlin that I have seen in some time. There were fish out there, but for some reason, perhaps the cold water, they did not want to bite. A few boats were able to get a released fish or two, but they were few and far between. For the most part, seeing the fish was the best anglers were able to do.

Yellowfin Tuna: Tuna fishing did not change in the past week, it was still a hit-or-miss proposition as the fish moved a lot. But the ones they did find were on the Pacific side. If you did make the 35-40 mile run to find the blue water, then you had to find them, they were footballs and mixed with bonita. The blue waters closer to shore held bigger 20-30 lb yellowfin, but you had to fight with lots more boats to get any. First boat on the school got lots, as more boats showed up, they only got a few .Then there is always the guy that has to run through the middle of the school to get one fish and break up the bite for everyone.

Dorado: We are almost ready to hang it up as far as trying to target Dorado this new year. There are still fish out there as many boats have shown this week, but there are no consistent concentrations to be found. That is not to say there are none out there, a few boats came in with great catches this week, some with four of five fish to 30 pounds, some with just a couple, but most of the boats did not get any at all. Near the beach on the Cortez side, or out with the porpoise were both areas that had some Dorado, and one boat found a floating log at the 1,000 fathom line outside the 1150 area that held a nice concentration of fish, but it was gone the next day.

Wahoo: As usual this time of year, lots of Wahoo flags flying everywhere and people get excited. Then they are educated about "Mexican Wahoo" Lots of sierra, but nothing really big, mostly 2-5 lbs.

Inshore: Lots of sierra biting inshore and always the go to if the yellowtail and amberjack aren't biting. Even some of the cruisers are stopping for sierra, just to make sure their clients catch something. I asked about what's biting up around Gordo Banks and I was told Sierra, sierra, sierra. The San Jose boats are all coming down here for the better bite in the Pacific. Saturday, Jan 15th at 3:30PM, there will be a memorial Service for long time Cabo resident and fish chick "Little" Carol Chriss who left us this past Christmas. The boat Winner 7 will be taking her son out to spread ashes. Mike is planning on have his Catamaran over there also for everyone who wants to join in. Celebration of Life at Baja Cantina afterwards. 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. Get pesos the day before. No one has change for your US $100 at 6am. 140 pesos per person per day, 290 pesos for weekly and 540 pesos for a yearly. Unless of course you buy them on Friday, that guy doesn't add a surcharge.