WEATHER:
The closer we get to Christmas the cooler we seem to get. Our low for the week was 61 degrees in the early morning, enough to make us wear light jackets to the Marina in the morning! I know, I know, but when you have lived in the warm stuff as long as we have you get acclimated and when it drops into the low 60's it's COLD! Later in the week clouds moved in and it warmed up 10 degrees as the heat was trapped. Our daytime highs have been in the mid 80's, just about perfect as far as I am concerned. Early in the week we had mostly sunny skies. Early Saturday morning it was cloudy, a solid layer over us so we missed the lunar eclipse.

WATER:
Surface conditions this week on both sides of the Cape were very good with only slight swells on the Cortez side and swells at 3-5 feet on the Pacific side. The Pacific side did experience a bit of chop in the afternoons as the wind seemed to start picking up around 10AM. Just as our air temperatures seem to drop as we get toward Christmas, so do the water temperatures. The water just off the tip of the Cape seems to be 77-78 degrees and extend all across our fishing area from Los Frailles up to Todo Santos out a distance of 20 miles. Outside of that area it drops a bit to about 75 degrees. That is the way it was at the end of the week at least. We started the week with a band of cooler water (75 degrees) running along the beach on the Pacific side, it extended out about 2 miles. This cool water had disappeared by the end of the week.

BAIT:
It was a hit or miss approach this week when it came to getting bait. There were not many days when you could get a good quality live bait, there was a lot of junk showing up from the bait boats. If you were early, lucky and had a captain and deckhand with good eyes it was possible to get some decent Caballito at the usual $3 per bait. There were some mullet and a few, very few, Mackerel available, also at $3 per bait. Sardinas were also there at $25-$30 a scoop depending on the supplier. A few of the bait boats had thawed horse Ballyhoo at $3-$4 per bait as well.

FISHING:

BILLFISH:
We keep waiting for the hoards of Striped Marlin to come down to us but there has not been a strong showing in our area as of this date. A few boats that have gone a bit farther up the line have encountered decent concentrations and have done well, but the distances involved right now put these fish out of reach of the daily charter trips. Hopefully as the water continues to cool the fish will come our way. For the moment we have to be content with an average of one to two Striped Marlin per trip for the boats that concentrate on them. The best results this week have come on trolled Ballyhoo and good live bait tossed in front of tailing fish. Almost all the action has happened on the Pacific side, but it has been a bit spread out. A few boats on half day trips have been lucky and found fish just off the lighthouse, but others have blanked in the same area. Some boats have found three or four fish to release up to the north past the Golden Gate Banks and others in the same area have nor seen a fish, so you can see that there is a lot of luck involved right now. We hope the concentrations arrive soon, it sure would be nice to be seeing double digit releases every day!

YELLOWFIN TUNA:
There are still large fish out there as several boats have proven this week, it's just that you have to find which tree they are hiding behind. Get it? There is not any kind of pattern to these larger Yellowfin with the exception of the Gorda Banks, and there it has been a matter of putting in the time with the right bait and terminal gear. Offshore it has been a matter of finding the right pod of porpoise to work. There are plenty of pods out there but not all of them hold Tuna, and not all of those have large fish, and those that do have large fish often have fish that will just wave their fins at you and smirk. You like being frustrated? Try fishing just for large Tuna and you will be happy. There have been plenty of the small variety out thee but once again it has been a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Some boats are coming in with one or two footballs, others with five or six and once in a while a boat will have several larger #30-#40 fish aboard. The large fish, those over #100 pounds, have been there as well, but as I said they have been spread out. These larger fish have been coming in from boats using kites for the most part,but a few of them have been caught on trolled lures.

DORADO:
Still the mainstay of the fleet boats, they are beginning to make themselves a bit more scarce. While several weeks ago it was common to come in with a near-limit load of fish, this week most of the boats have been lucky to get two or three fish and some have actually caught none at all. I think it is a matter of the water cooling off, but then I have to blame it on something! The boats that have done the best have been leaving the first fish hooked up in the water and dropped bait behind the boat, using the first fish as a teaser to bring in more Dorado. This method has worked well, but you always run the risk of loosing that first fish as a few anglers have found out! The best fishing for Dorado has still been on the Pacific side close to the beach.

WAHOO:
There was actually a pretty decent Wahoo bite this week as we had the full moon at the end of the week. A lot of these were very small fish, I saw one come off a boat that I first mistook for a Sierra, was it not for the strong bars on the side I would have not known it was a Wahoo, perhaps it would have pushed the scale to 4 pounds, Sad, but there you go. Most of the fish that were caught were larger than that, averaging 25 pounds but even though there were more this week, they still were not common. The best areas were on top of the Gorda Banks and along the rocky points on the Pacific coast. A fair number were found offshore under the shark floats.

INSHORE:
Inshore fishing at the beginning of the week was pretty good with a great showing of Sierra up off the beach at Migrineo, some good Snapper fishing among the rocks on the Pacific side as well as a few scattered small Roosterfish and a lot of Pompano. This was when we had that band of cool water running along the beach on the Pacific side. Mid-week things turned around for several days as the water switched, warmed a bit and became gin-clear along the shoreline and very few fish were caught. At the end of the week it has settled down again and while there were still no Sierra, the Snapper and Pompano had begin to bite again. The largest number of fish caught though seemed to be the Mexican Marlin (also know as needle-fish).

NOTES:
Once again we experienced near perfect weather and very good fishing. The whales have started to put on the shows we love and the water has been in great shape. Christmas is coming up and maybe if you have been god this year, Santa will give you a trip to Cabo for a present! This weeks report was written to a mix of Texas rock-a-billy music, courtesy of my friend Mark Bailey. Oh, that's right, delivered to me by Mark and recorded by his son Alan! Thanks guys!

Until next week, tight lines!