WEATHER:
Our lows this week were in the mid 60's and the highs in the mid 80's, just about perfect once again! If you want to get away from that cold white stuff come on down! We had partly cloudy skies mid-week but the week started and ended with plenty of sun. It was a bit strange though in the fact that for the past several years we have had at least one day of at least sprinkles in each of the first four weeks of the year, now we have broken that pattern.

WATER:
The swells stayed small all around the cape, in fact they were so small on the Sea of Cortez side between San Jose and San Lucas that it almost seemed we were on a lake. On Saturday the water on that side looked like a mirror as well with almost no wind ripples. On the Pacific side the swells were 2-4 feet and again with almost no wind for most of the week. The breeze did kick up just a little bit on Sunday morning but it only put a small chop on the almost flat water for a short time. At the end of the week water temperatures almost across the entire fishing area were 71 degrees with the exception of cooler, greener water of 70 degrees in the area of the Golden Gate Banks, a small intrusion of 73-74 degree water on the 95 spot and south of there. To get to any consistent 74-76 degree water you had to go 50 miles to the southwest.

BAIT:
Small Caballito, some Mackerel and some junk baits were available at $3 each, frozen horse Ballyhoo could be had for between $3 and $4 each and there were a few sardines to be found toward San Jose at $25 a scoop.

FISHING:

BILLFISH:
The Striped Marlin bite is still down from what we were seeing at the beginning of the week before when some boats were getting double digit numbers just to the inside of the Golden Gate and slightly north along the beach, but the fish seemed to have started biting again as this week toward the end of the week a few boats fishing the same area were getting between two and five releases per day. Of course there were a few scattered fish elsewhere, but this seemed to be the best place to go for a good shot. There was a problem however. You HAD to have the right bait to get them, they were not biting on lures or on junk baits or on Caballito, they were focused on Mackerel. If you were not at the bait boats early, or could not find and mackerel in the area to catch on your own, you may as well give it up, the fish were that picky. But....if you had the right stuff and were there early you stood a decent chance of getting bit. Naturally our fingers are crossed that more Mackerel maker it into our area and the fish follow them. On another good note, we had a Panga fishing on the 3rd that spotted and tried to bait what is the first Swordfish I have heard of this year. The Captain and experienced angler both estimated the fish at between 400 and 500 pounds and found him on the Pacific side just off the lighthouse. They baited the fish only to have it sink out after several attempts to get it to eat both dead and live bait. A sign of things to come?

YELLOWFIN TUNA:
The great bite we had last week continued into the beginning of this week as boats were able to get on decent quality fish of between 25-35 pounds only 18 to 25 miles offshore on the Pacific side. How quickly things can change! Almost the next day the currents changed and the larger fish were gone, only to be found in the warmer 74 degree water 40+ miles to the southwest. Closer to home there were still Yellowfin to be caught but they were smaller fish in the 8-15 pound class, and even they were being a bit picky. I did not hear of any reports of Yellowfin coming from the Sea of Cortez side of the Cape, even the Gorda Banks did not seem to have any of the home guard fish on it. If you did get into the smaller Yellowfin the best lure was small hootchies in darker colors, small red being one of the favorites.

DORADO:
The Dorado bite continues to wind down as the water cools. And the fish are getting smaller. On the Cortez side the fish were found between Red Hill (the Westin Resort) and the Gorda Banks. These were small fish, a 10 pound fish was cause for celebration and they were not easy to come by. The best bait was sardines. Chumming heavily and fly-lining them on light flouro-carbon leader resulted in limits of these smaller fish. On the Pacific side the fish were slightly larger, but not much, and there were fewer of them. Slow trolling live bait just off the beach in 200 feet of water resulted in most of the better catches, and a large fish this week would have been 15 pounds with most of them barely reaching 10 pounds in size.

WAHOO:
I saw a couple of Wahoo flags flying this week but there is a distinct possibility they were for Sierra as I did not hear of any Wahoo caught.

INSHORE:
The good news is that there are some decent Yellowtail out there, just not a lot of them yet. One boat trolling lures just off the beach landed a fish of about 30 pounds during the middle of the week and several Pangas reported fish to 20 pounds, but not in any numbers. A few larger Roosterfish to 30 pounds were caught while drifting live bait along the beach searching for Yellowtail and Dorado and there were fair numbers of smaller fish right on the beach. Sierra have started to make a showing along the sandy stretches of the beach as well but the sizes have been small, so far only one school of large fish has been reported. Most of the ones I have heard of have been in the 3-4 pound class.

NOTES:
This has been a good week for fishing, not great, but pretty good. Mostly a matter of the right place at the right time, as it most often is. With great weather, good fishing, whales to watch and the holiday crowds gone it is pretty darn nice! Time to take the pup to the beach for the Sunday walk, home for a good breakfast and a Bloody Mary then down to town for some football! This weeks report was written to the sounds of and the feel of my pup panting and nosing me to "get done now dad, it's time for the beach!".

Until next week, tight lines!