WEATHER:
Our cool winter days continue as the nighttime temps are down in the mid 50's. The good news is that the days have been warming up nicely and we are seeing 80+ degrees in the daytime. The winds have been moderate from the northwest and occasionally early in the morning a light breeze springs up from the northeast. We did experience a bit of cloud cover toward the end of the week and it appears as if the coming week may cool things down just a bit more.

WATER:
Both sides of the Cape are seeing water between 69 and 70 degrees with the cooler water right in front of us. On the Pacific side the warmer water is on the San Jaime Bank and to the southwest of there, on the Cortez side it extends from Chileno Bay up to Los Frailles and out to the 1,000 fathom line. Surface conditions have been great on the Cortez side with small swells and smooth water. On the Pacific side the water has been a bit more rough with swells at 2-5 feet and a bit of wind chop starting mid-morning.

BAIT:
No change from last week, 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 some sardines to be found toward San Jose at $25 a scoop.

FISHING:

BILLFISH:
We had one day this week where it looked as if things were really starting to take off, but the next day the bubble had already burst. Early in the week the Golden Gate Bank had bait all over the place and there were feeding Marlin, cruising Marlin and birds working the bait boils everywhere. Boats were getting multiple hook-ups and releasing between three and six fish in a trip. The next day almost 35 boats made the trip and there were about two or three fish caught. What a disappointment! There were occasional fish showing up to the south of the San Jaime Bank as well as near the shore on the Pacific side. I also heard reports that off of the San Jose Canyon there had been some fish showing up. All the week long, except for one day, it was a matter of putting in the time and keeping your fingers crossed.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:
As the warm water on the Pacific side shifted back toward the southwest the fish moved as well. The cruiser were having to travel 35 to 40 miles to get into the fish, and even then there was no guarantee you could find them since many of the porpoise pods did not have fish on them. To go along with that, many of the fish were in the football class instead of schooling fish, 10-15 pounds instead of 15-30 pounds. That's a long run for a few small fish. I did hear that on Friday and Saturday, the end of our week, the action picked up at the Inman Bank up off Punta Gorda on the Cortez side. Boats drifting the Bank and chumming with Sardinas were getting into some decent Yellowfin Tuna, a few to 80 pounds, but you still had to week through the skip jack for them. A good morning would result in five or six decent fish.

DORADO:
Very few are being caught and the majority of them are no larger than 10 pounds. Close to shore on the Pacific side and along the beach off of Palmilla have been where the majority of fish have been and the best results have been from drifting with live sardinas and chumming heavily.

WAHOO:
Most of the red or orange flags we have seen have been for Sierra or Shark instead of for Wahoo. The water is just on the cool side of the Wahoo preference so there have been very few of them caught this week.

INSHORE:
Go out and catch as many Sierra as you want, there does not seem to be a scarcity of them! Of course they are small, but great smoked or used for ceviche. Trolling small hootchies or rapallas right outside the surf break resulted in most of the fish, but live bait on wire leader also worked. There were some very nice Yellowtail caught as well, but almost everyone of them was caught on live bait dropped down to just off the bottom on the rock piles. Anglers were reporting that yo-yo'ing iron was not working at all. There were some small Roosterfish as well as some Pompano and skip jack inshore. Those that targeted bottom fish managed to find snapper to 20 pounds in the rock piles right on the beach and there were plenty of trigger fish in water between 60 and 120 feet deep as well as some grouper to 15 pounds.

NOTES:
Superbowl today! I am just hoping for a good game and don't really care who wins. I take that back, I hope we win on one of the squares we bought at Tanga-Tanga! Leaving the house soon for the Sunday walk on the beach, then home for breakfast, some gardening and then down to watch the game. Music for the week was thanks to Mark Rau who loaned me the CD "Lower Case Letters" by guitarist Shawn Hopper, released by Favored Nations Records. Thanks Mark, great acoustic guitar!

Have a great week, catch lots of fish, and get those reservations for Cabo made!