WEATHER:
This was a strange week as one day the wind was howling and the next it was calm. I was fishing with friends on a Panga Thursday, nice when we left the marina and by 9am there were whitecaps everywhere. It seemed that the winds did not really start blowing hard until about 10am, and sometimes the switched direction 180 degrees. There was no way to forecast this and every trip was a crap-shoot as to how the water was going to be. We did have sunny skies all week with just a bit of cloud cover on Tuesday and Saturday. Highs were in the mid 80's and lows were in the low 60's.

WATER:
As of the end of the week that large area of warm water which had been approaching from the east had entered and begun to affect our area. Starting about Tuesday the water from the Gorda Point area in a line to the southwest had 74 degree water on the east side and 66 degree water on the west side. At the end of the week this warm water had pushed it's way along the Cortez side until we had 70 degree water inside of the 1,000 fathom line and 74 degree water outside the line with a still existing plume of the warm water running from Punta Gorda through the 1150 and southward. On the Pacific side the 69 degree water expanded to the north and west as well, with water inside of boundaries set by Todo Santos, the Golden Gate Bank and the San Jaime Bank and to the south being a steady 69 degrees. Outside of these areas the water dropped several degrees to 67. Surface conditions varied widely due to the inconsistent winds, rough as a cob on the Pacific side one day, smooth there and rough on the Cortez side the next.

BAIT:
Mackerel and Caballito were the baits available at the normal $3 each and there were actually some decent numbers of Sardines to be found at the normal $25 a scoop.

FISHING:

BILLFISH:
Most of the boats had a great deal of difficulty finding Marlin this past week, my guess is that perhaps only 10-15% of them managed to get a Striped Marlin to eat. There were, however, a few magicians out there. T.J. Managed to be consistent in getting four to six fish per trip and a few other boats (not many) managed to hook up every trip. For the most part though, the fleet boats were not very successful close to home and the fish were scarce. The best areas appeared to be off the San Jose Canyon early in the week, as well as outside the 95 and 1150 area, and it is possible that the better catches were had up in the Vinorama area, a long way from home for us.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:
Except for two days, the Tuna were absent in any numbers in our area. The exception was Thursday and Friday when several pods of Porpoise 6 miles out from the arch managed to produce a few fish in the 15-25 pound class. Not great numbers, with the better boats only getting three or four fish, but better than we have seen in several weeks. I heard that the bite that had been happening up on the Inman Bank for Yellowfin had dropped off quite a bit as well, and combined with the wind boats fishing there were lucky to get one fish to the boat while using live Sardines and chunk baits.

DORADO:
The warm water that moved in brought some Dorado with it as evidenced by quite a few fish caught out by the 95 and 1150 that weighed 25-30 pounds. There were still a few small fish found close to shore in the San Jose area but other than that, almost nothing was happening with the Dorado. The ones caught offshore were hooked by boats fishing for Striped Marlin.

WAHOO:
I did hear of four nice Wahoo caught this week, all in the 60 pound range. All of them were caught just outside the 1150 and 95 spot in the warmer water when it first moved into our area at the beginning of the week.

INSHORE:
Yellowtail lost the title of fish of the week as the bite dropped off considerably. Most of the schooling fish had been coming from just off the arch, and that is supposed to be a no-fishing zone. I guess after seeing 35-40 boats fishing out there for four days in a row, the marines decided to do something about it and started chasing the boats away. Just as well it appears, because the fish had either been caught out or had moved on to a different area. Boats that extended their search range found more fish up around the Los Arcos and Margarita area. Larger fish to 35 pounds were caught while trolling large-lipped plugs under diving pelicans and frigates while smaller fish were caught while drifting live mackerel and Caballito. We managed to get one Yellowtail that weighed 23 pounds during our windy Thursday trip, as well a one Amberjack and several more good bites. Sierra are still available and one of the favorite area depending on the wind conditions has been just outside of the Chileno Beach area. There were some decent grouper caught this week by the inshore fishermen as well, one of them almost 150 pounds!

NOTES:
Great temperatures, if just the wind would settle down! Inshore fishing has been fine while offshore has been sketchy, but there are some nice fish to be caught. Lets see what this area of warm water brings us in the next week!

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