Striped marlin season, which we have been hoping would improve, is beginning to look like a bust. Normally by this time of year the bait has reached at least the Finger Banks, a good 50 miles to the north, and we would be seeing action on the Golden Gate Bank, but so far there has been nothing there. It looks as if the past four years were an anomaly and are not going to repeat soon. Instead of almost being able to guarantee a fish during a trip, the hook-up ratio has begun to be around 10%. There was a report of a local fleet boat hooking up to a small Blue Marlin this week, and also reports of several Swordfish being caught. Long runs for a small chance at medium sized yellowfin were reported by captains that tried for them this week. A few of the private boats reported runs as far as 70+ miles out. Going that far out occasionally resulted in fish to 50 pounds, but it was not a sure thing, and that sure is a long way to go on a guess, or a wing and a prayer as it may be. There were scattered pods of Dolphin found between 5 and 18 miles out on both the southern and southwestern directions, but not all of them held fish, and sometimes when they did the fish just would not bite.

Dorado continue to be scarce with cooling water. There are still a few being caught, not no numbers of them. A great catch this past week would have been two fish, most boats were lucky if they got one. Most of the ones that were found were found either very close to the beach on the Cortez side or 30+ miles to the south. For some reason even the inshore bite was off this week, and boats that had been doing well on the "go-to" Sierra were having a difficult time getting more than a dozen fish in the boat. The key to getting even that many was reported to be live sardina. A few of the Pangas tried way up the beach on the Pacific side and reported the algae bloom had brushed the shore line 20+ miles in that direction as well. For the boats staying closer to home, an occasional yellowtail, and lots of small bonito provided the bulk of the action, roosterfish were noticeably absent close to home, but there were reports of a few decent sized fish showing up in the surf around Palmilla Point.