WEATHER:
As summer slowly winds down we are seeing a slight lowering of our temperatures as well, not a lot, but a little bit. Instead of seeing 86 degrees in the early morning we are now seeing it around 81-82 degrees and the daytime highs are a bit lower as well. Not that it feels all that low since the humidity is still a bit high, but we can tell the difference. We had a bit of cloud cover this past week but no rain and the winds were light for the most part.

WATER:
It appears that there is not a lot of change from the last report with the exception of the last two days. Prior to Friday we still had that cool water along the shore on the Pacific side with a warm band across the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks with the water dropping several degrees once you went to the west a bit farther. The Sea of Cortez remained a very steady 87 degrees almost everywhere. The change we experienced, while small, has affected the fishing a little bit. The water to our immediate south and to the east has dropped to between 80 and 84 degrees. It's hard to tell with any certainty, mainly because of the cloud cover and not a lot of boats going there, if there is a strong break somewhere. The effect it has had on the fishing is to spread out the areas where we have been finding Striped Marlin and Yellowfin. Now instead of just on the Pacific side there is more area to cover.

BAIT:
Caballito, Mullet and Sardines were the live bait available with the bigger baits at the usual $3 each and the Sardinas at $25 a scoop up in the Palmilla area.

FISHING:

BILLFISH:
The Striped Marlin have been finicky feeders this week with about one in four boats getting shots, and about half of them hooking up long enough to get a release. As in most fishing it was a matter of being in the right place at the right time with the right stuff. Sound familiar? This week the right place expanded as the water to the south and east cooled off a bit. While it had an effect on the Striped Marlin it did not change the Blue and Black Marlin bite at all, they still enjoy water that temperature. There were about half the number of Blue Marlin caught as there were Striped Marlin but they were larger in size with an average of just around 230 pounds. There were a few that were estimated at over 300 pounds but I don't know if there were any of the larger ones landed. Black Marlin are still showing up in the usual areas such as the Gorda Banks and Punta Gorda and they have been averaging 250 pounds, mostly caught on live bait.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:
This was an off week for most of the anglers looking for Yellowfin Tuna, but there were a few boats that managed to find the right porpoise schools and get into the fish. I did not hear of any reel big ones, but there were nice fish to 120 pounds caught. Of course most of them were smaller and an average of 5 or 6 fish of 30 pounds were caught by boats that got into the fish. Toss in a couple of 40-60 pound class fish and the fishing suddenly became OK, if you were in them! Directly to the south at 28 miles, just to the inside and the outside of the San Jaime Bank and just to the north of the Golden Gate Bank were areas where the most consistent action took place. Once again the boats that used kites to fly baits had better success on the larger fish.

DORADO:
The Dorado were a bit shy this week as well but I am not sure of the reason. Where we had been seeing plenty of Dorado caught inshore on the Pacific side, they suddenly quit biting, perhaps they moved farther offshore or up to the north. Whatever the reason, most boats working that area were able to catch a few in the 12-18 pound class, and there were a few larger ones caught farther offshore. There were very few reported from the Cortez side of the Cape in our area.

WAHOO:
The full moon did the job and there were Wahoo reported this week! One of our clients caught on that was 56 inches long, as well as a very nice Dorado, and were happy to take home some of those wonderful fillets! There were others caught as well, and in the standard areas you find Wahoo, on the high spots and along the drop-offs.

INSHORE:
There was some decent Roosterfish action this week on fish averaging 20 pounds and a few larger fish to 50 pounds. I had one angler report to me that he hooked a "Bubba" that he thought would have been over 80 pounds but lost the fish after 15 minutes. Snapper and grouper have been active as well with some decent grouper hitting the decks and a scattering of dog-tooth snapper joining them. Toss in some Dorado and Bonito and the action for anglers working inshore was steady, if not wide open.

NOTES:
This report is done early so we can get in our Sunday morning beach trip with the dog, get home for breakfast and then downtown to watch the early game. Go Seahawks (hope our new quarterback does better this week or he has to go). This weeks report was written to the music of Darius Rucker on a compilation disc given to me by a client. Thanks Steve!

Until next week, tight lines!