WEATHER:
What great weather! Our nighttime lows have been in the low 70's while the daytime highs have pushed the mid 90's on a few days but have been in the low 90's most of the time. No rain, a few clouds and not a lot of wind, just a light breeze. I really don't think it gets any better than that!

WATER:
Surface conditions have been great this week with normal swells from the west at 2-4 feet and a light breeze in the afternoon from the northwest at 10 knots. Water on the Pacific side of the Cape has averaged 8 degrees from three miles off the beach and out, in close it has been 82 degrees. On the Sea of Cortez things have averaged just a bit higher with the warm water at 85 degrees from the shore to the 1,000 fathom line, from the 95 spot and to the north. Outside of there it has been 83 degrees.

BAIT:
Just like last week, bait, at least good live bait was hard to come by. The tournaments we have just had really stressed the ability of the bait boats, or perhaps they just got a bit lazy the past few weeks, after all, they have to be making a lot of money at the price they charge. There were a few live baits of the larger size, but not much in the way of quality baits. Toward San Jose you could get decent Sardinas at a better price, there was a high demand here because of the tuna tournament and the price was high.

FISHING:

BILLFISH:
Some decent size fish were caught during the Western Outdoor News Tuna Tournament by boats looking for big Tuna. I heard of one fight with a Blue Marlin estimated at 450 pounds and another with a Black Marlin estimated at right around 500 pounds. There were smaller fish caught as well with a number of Blues in the 150-250 pound class. Not as many Striped Marlin were caught as were seen, they tended to ignore the lures and go for live bait instead, unlike the Sailfish who would jump on anything that came their way. I don't mean it to sound as if there were billfish everywhere, there weren't, but there were enough of them out there that every anglers stood a decent chance of catching one. Most of the fish were found on the Pacific side, but the Black Marlin were all reported from the area around Punta Gorda.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:
Big fish and plenty of them were the words of the week as we had two days of full on tournament Tuna fishing. Results posted by the Western Outdoor News Tuna Tournament only showed the larger fish, but there were PLENTY of ones in the fish boxes that never reached the scales. With a minimum qualifying weight of 30 pounds 108 boats fishing two days managed to weigh three Tuna over 200 pounds, all caught on the second day. The largest at 213 pounds took home 36K, second place overall took home 158K for their 206 pound cow and third place overall had a fish that weighed 205 pounds and was worth 21K. The second place fish was brought in just minutes before the scale closed and since they were across the board in all the jackpots they took all the money for the second day. There were plenty of fish caught that were over 100 pounds and uncounted numbers in the 40-80 pound class. A 48 pound fish took home 36K since it was the only qualifying fish caught by a boat entered in the 10K jackpot on the first day. Almost all the action happened on the Pacific side this week but there were fish caught at the Gorda Banks and due south of us, but the majority were to the west.

DORADO:
Once again it was almost impossible to avoid catching a Dorado, but it appeared difficult for any of the 108 boats in the tournament to get one over 30 pounds since none that size were weighed in. With no really large fish reported there was no shortage of smaller fish out there, most of them in the 10-18 pound class. An average trip resulted in several of these per person, most anglers catching their limit, or at least as many as they wanted. Once again most of the action happened on the Pacific side. Great results were had by pulling lures up the coast until getting a bite, then drifting or slow trolling the area with live bait.

WAHOO:
I was truly surprised that the largest Wahoo weighed during the tournament was only 55.5 pounds the first day and under 40 pounds the second day, but they still managed to make 26K for each of their teams. There were many other Wahoo caught by boats entered in the tournament, as well as by daily charter boats, but none that were very big. On average the Wahoo brought in were in the 20-25 pound class. Not every boat caught one, but there were enough out there that you stood a good chance.

INSHORE:
Just like last week. The water temperatures are staying warm, so still some nice Roosterfish around, snapper, groupers, almost November, but I haven't seen any sierra yet. The Dorado fishing is also good close to shore.

NOTES:
Most of the focus this week was on Tuna, and for good reason. The water is perfect and the fish are here! Toss in the numbers of Dorado and the Wahoo that are being caught and it is hard to pick a better time to get on down here with an empty cooler to fill with fish. We have seen a few Humpback Whales this week so those giants should start putting on a decent side show soon. If the weather and fishing gets any better I will think I dies and went to heaven! Many thanks from me to Mark Bailey for the re-supply of CD's! This week's report was written to the music of the Rodeo Clown Dropouts, strange but true.