WEATHER:
The week started out great with clear skies, light winds and the perfect temperatures with the nighttime lows in the low 60's and the daytime highs in the low 80's. As the week progressed we had cloud cover move in, the breeze from the northwest pick up a bit and the temperatures raise a few degrees, along with the humidity moving up a few points. At the end of the week we were beginning to feel the approaching low pressure system as the winds started to blow on Saturday. Hopefully this will pass in a day or two, but it would be nice if there was a bit of rain in it for us!

WATER:
As the clouds moved in the last clear water temp shot we received was on Wednesday and it showed 70-71 degrees across our local Sea of Cortez area with a spot of 68 degree water from the beach to 5 miles offshore between Cabo and San Jose. This water was also a bit green. On the Pacific side of the Cape the 71 degree water extended from the beach out to the San Jaime Banks and up to the Golden Gate Banks. From there out to a distance of 45 miles it dropped a bit to 87 degrees and outside of the 45 mile area it dropped again to 65 degrees but became blue again. Surface conditions on the Sea of Cortez were almost glassy most of the week with very little wind and small swells. On the Pacific side the swells were a bit larger at 3-5 feet and some light winds early in the week, growing to strong breezes at the end of the week with significant white caps.

BAIT:
Caballito and Mackerel as well as a few Mullet could be had for $3 per bait. A few of the bait boats had "frozen" ballyhoo for between $3-4, each, but you never know how many times they had been "frozen".

FISHING:

BILLFISH:
Well, it's still not great but it is getting better as more boats are coming in with Marlin flags flying. A few are reporting getting shots at up to six fish a day and releasing one to three, and a few boats going farther offshore are reporting finding fairly large schools of Striped Marlin but they are not biting well yet. The better area seemed to be off the Vinorama area up the Sea of Cortez, around the 1150 area and 30+ miles to the west on the Pacific side. On a really positive note, there were at least two Swordfish taken this week, with several others seen. One of the Swordfish was in the mid #200 range and the other was reported to be at least twice as large.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:
Tuna fishing was still slow for most of the boats early in the week with the fleet boats finding football fish in the normal areas such as south of the San Jaime and out past the 1,000 fathom line due south. Later in the week the reports became better with larger fish caught due west at the temperature change and due south at 40 miles. Several fish were caught that went over 100 pounds and there were decent fish to 60 pounds as well. Daisy chains and spreader bars brought good bites as did deep trolled plugs.

DORADO:
For a couple of days at least Dorado were kings as a dead whale was found and the massive numbers of small Dorado provided fast action on the acrobats. Most of these small fish were released but there were a few boats that could not control themselves and kept everything they hooked, sigh. Elsewhere there were few Dorado to be found this week, but that may change if the water continues to warm up.

WAHOO:
? There may have been a few caught this week but I did not hear of them.

INSHORE:
This week was pretty much a repeat of last weeks inshore action as there was a decent, but not hot bite on Yellowtail. The Sierra action was good on larger fish to 8 pounds, found on both sides of the Cape, and there were a few nice Snapper and Grouper caught as well. Most of the action was on the Pacific side from the lighthouse up to Migraino.

NOTES:
Good weather except for the end of the week combined with better fishing than we have seen in a few weeks made a lot of anglers happy. The beach is crowded as are the bars and nightspots in town as we experience Spring Break once again. This weeks report was written to the music of Craig Chaquiso on his 2000 release "Panorama", basicaly a "best of" album of his music up to that time.

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