WEATHER:
We started the week with a cloud deck and a little bit of rain here on the ocean. With thunder and lightning in the mountains we kept expecting more, but it was a change of pace anyway. About the middle of the week things started to clear up and we became mostly sunny the rest of the week. Our daytime highs were in the high 90's to right at 100 degrees a few days and our nighttime lows never seemed to drop under 83 degrees.

WATER:
Everything out on the ocean remained the same this week, no change at all from what we had last week. Still warm, almost everywhere you wanted to go on the Cortez side of the Cape it was 88 degrees with small swells. On the Pacific side there was a slow change in the water temps as you went offshore but no sharp breaks. Out at the San Jaime the warm water continued at 86-87 degrees, for another 6 miles to the west it dropped to 84 degrees and then down to 80 degrees, a slow and gradual change. On the Pacific side the swells were slightly larger at 3-6 feet and we did have a couple of days late in the week when the breeze picked up around noon and got things a bit choppy.

BAIT:
Caballito and Mullet were the baits of the week with no Mackerel being found due to the warm waters. Everything was the normal $3 per bait. There were also some small Sardinas to the north around Palmilla at $25 a scoop.

FISHING:

BILLFISH:
The Marlin fishing was similar to fishing for every else this week, not a lot of fish but the ones that were caught were quality fish. With the warm water has come the Blue Marlin, and while not every boat managed to hook into one, there were a few boats that managed a release on two per day. Most of the fish were under 300 pounds, hard fighters! From just off the beach to out past the 1,000 fathom line, they were scattered everywhere. One of the favorite areas for finding them was the ridge between the San Jaime Bank and the Golden Gate Bank and the area around the lighthouse ledge. We also saw quite a few Sailfish this week, most of them over 100 pounds. Not appearing in large packs, still they were getting into the lure in small groups of two or three fish at a time and causing quite a commotion on the deck as the attacked everything in the water. The bite for Striped Marlin has died off quite a bit. There are still a few fish caught every day, most of them from just off the beach to the north on the Pacific side.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:
Slowing still more, the bite has fallen off quite a bit. Where last week we were getting at least a couple of fish every trip, now it is a fish or two every few trips. On a good note, these fish have been real nice ones! As I said earlier, quality fish, not quantity of fish. Finding porpoise was still the key, and being the first to them was something that you had to have happen. Second boat or later may as well have just not moved. With fish to #200, a few boats were lucky enough to be the first ones on the porpoise and sometimes ended up with multiple hook-ups, but were thankful to get one of them into the boat. Boats that were able to fly a kite increased their chances of hooking up by at least 50%, and if you did not have a kite, having flouro-carbon leader sure was better than normal mono-filament leader for these big tuna.

DORADO:
While there are still plenty of Dorado out there, the number caught is down from lats weeks reports. Again, most of the fish were close to the beach and averaged just 8-10 pounds. A few larger fish were caught and again slow trolling live bait seemed to produce better quality fish than just trolling lures. Almost all the action occurred on the Pacific side of the Cape.

WAHOO:
Once again there was a scattering of Wahoo in the smaller size range caught this week, mostly by boats working off the beach for the small Dorado. I did not hear of any large Wahoo being caught and the smaller fish were in the 20-25 pound class. With the full moon just happening, the bite might turn on for a couple of days. If the indicators from the other fisheries follow for these fish, we just might see a few Wahoo over 100 pounds caught in the next few days.

INSHORE:
Inshore fishing was slow, as was everything else this week. We had a few clients on Pangas who did fair on the Dorado, were able to catch plenty of Skip-jack and Bonito and had some action on Hammerhead Sharks as well. Roosterfish were not real active and while a few decent Snapper and Grouper were caught, they were not there in the numbers to make it worth targeting them.

NOTES:
Back to Jack Johnson this week for my tunes, nice and mellow. Yesterday morning the moon was setting and was gigantic and very, very orange. I tried to take a picture with my phone, and of course you can't even tell. Sort of like trying to tie your shoes while wearing a catchers mitt, you can do it, but it isn't pretty! Pre-season football is interesting, the PGA Championship is weird, Little League World Series is on and I am sweating as I am typing this at 7 AM.

Until next week, tight lines!