WEATHER:
We knew the heat was coming, but just like when it leaves mid-October in an overnight transition, it seemed to have arrived on Saturday! I don't know if this is just a shot time visit, a reminder of what is to come or if it is here full time, but it sure became warm. On Friday morning as we left the house for the marina it was a comfortable 67 degrees, warming to 88 in the afternoon. The weather had been like this all week with just a bit of wind here in town, a bit more out on the Pacific side. Saturday morning there were enough clouds on the horizon that the skies looked a little purple, and the thermometer showed 79 degrees! In the afternoon before getting the car out of the driveway we saw 99 degrees. Hmm, had the floor fan on last night along with the ceiling fan.

WATER:
The warming trend has continued as the water on the Sea of Cortez is now averaging 75 degrees. That is good news, and it is also fairly calm on that side as well. On the Pacific side we have 63 degree water near shore to the north of the lighthouse, warming to 65 degrees on top of the San Jaime and Golden Gate banks. Outside of the San Jaime about 10 miles there was a warm water eddy, a spin off from the water on the Cortez side that appeared in the last couple of day, but will probably disappear soon. We had winds from the northwest, our normal wind direction and that made the areas near Cabo on the Pacific side a bit rough for many boats. This was a local effect however as boats that continued on the the north reported flat water, but green, once past the Los Arcos area.

BAIT:
On the difficulty of getting bait that we have been having. One of my buddies who runs a charter and gets bait from just one supplier said he has been calling his guy at 5 am to check on what he has, and the guy says he is just getting out to catch bait. Come on man! No wonder the bait is poor! These guys know that the boats need bait, and as long as we are willing to pay $3 each for anything, why should they work hard to get the good stuff. My buddy has gotten to the point of taking a bucket of bait and putting it in the bait tank, then scooping out all the crap bait and handing it back, only paying for the good stuff. Right on! That said, there is some Mackerel if you are verrrrry lucky, some small Caballito and a lot of junk like look-downs and grunts and small jacks. Sardinas are still available for $25 a scoop up toward San Jose for the boats willing to go get them.

FISHING:

BILLFISH:
The Striped Marlin are still out there, just moving around a lot. One day right on top of the 1150, the next 5 miles to the southeast, next day on the 95 then back to the 1150 but a little north. They can be found and if you are one of the lucky boats they can be caught as well. We are not seeing quite the numbers we had last week, no pods of 20 fish, but they are running in small groups of up to 8 or 9 fish, lots of double and triple tailing groups. With large numbers of squid still in the area (check out the depth finders!) it has been difficult to get them to eat, but it can be done if worked at. A few fish have been eating plastic, but most of the ones being caught are being caught on bait, either live or rigged dead bait. A great catch this week would have been four fish, average was one or two. There was a drop in the number of Swordfish sighted on the surface this week, but there were a few caught up off of the Vinorama area. If the warm water trend continues we may start to see some Blue and Black Marlin showing up soon, but don't lay plans to travel here just yet if they are your target.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:
There were mixed results for boats looking for Yellowfin this week. With the large numbers of Marlin in fairly close and the great inshore bite we have been having, very few boats traveled far to search for the Porpoise pods. The Pacific side had mostly green water and slightly rough seas as well so few boats tried to find the fish in that direction. The boats that searched went to the south and the east to fins small pods that only occasionally held fish. The ones they found that held fish produced small Yellowfin to 20 pounds, there were few larger fish reported in the Porpoise. Not to say there were not some large fish caught, just not in any numbers. One boat was reported to have had a double blind strike on top of the 95 spot and ended up with one Yellowfin over 100 pounds and another rover 50 pounds, so they are out there.

DORADO:
There continued to be Dorado caught as evidenced by the yellow flags flying off the outriggers of returning boats this week. The most I saw on any one boat, and the best results I could find were three fish a trip. We had one client this week who caught a Dorado of about 25 pounds but saw no others. Most of the fish were caught on the Cortez side in the warmer water and struck on rigged dead bait pulled for Striped Marlin. While the fishing is improving for Dorado they are still not here in numbers, so don't bring a cooler with you expecting to go home with it loaded with 40 pounds of Dorado fillets!

WAHOO:
New moon phase has limited the numbers of Wahoo we have been seeing on the dock, but there have been a few incidental fish to 30 pounds. Sure wish I had a nice fillet of Wahoo now!

INSHORE:
Inshore fishing continued to provide the most angling action on average this week as the Sierra and Yellowtail both bit well. Most of the action for both species took place on the Pacific side of the Cape. Using Sardinas for chum and bait the Sierra action was fast and furious at time on fish that averaged 5 pounds. A few schools of larger fish to 8 or 9 pounds were in there as well. Chumming and then drifting either a live or dead sardine resulted in steady hook-up, while trolling hootchies or small swimming plugs was quite a bit slower. When chumming with the 'dines there were quite a number of small Roosterfish showing up as well, most of them less than 5 pounds, but putting up a good fight. The Rocky points, or underwater rock piles were the places to try for Yellowtail. Yo-yo'ing in 180 to 200 feet of water produced fish to 35 pounds this week. We had several Panga charters that came in early as the anglers got tired or cranking on these hard fighting fish. We also had one client who got lucky and got into some great quality Pargo action right in the rocks. Requiring extremely accurate casting, he managed to bring out 5 Pargo that averaged 15 pounds each, with one of them about 25 pounds. Way to go Isaac!

FISH RECIPE:
Still in the Keep it simple mode, this is one of the most basic fish recipe's you will ever find, and it produces great results. Visitors who don't have a lot to cook with can do this one. Go out and buy a jar of Italian Salad dressing, not the creamy one if you are trying to lose weight, but that works as well. Put your fish fillet in a zip-lock bag with a large dose of the salad dressing, shake it around and let it marinate in the cooler or fridge for a few hours. Put it on a plate, pop it in the microwave and serve with a small green salad using the rest of the dressing! Too easy? Add more stuff!

NOTES:
I look forward to continued improvement in the fishing and catching. My fingers are crossed that the Marlin start to bite and more Dorado start to show. Hopefully the Tuna will come in closer and then things will be just peachy! Meanwhile I will continue to enjoy the hot and heavy inshore action we have been getting. This weeks report was written to the music of Captain Sam Crutchfield. An old favorite of mine, and one that gets me in the mood to fish, it was published by Sea Notes Inc at Jonbur Publishing and is titled "Hooked On Fishing".

Until next week, Tight lines.