WEATHER:
This was a very strange, yet very great week for weather in Cabo as we received our first rain in almost a year! It was sunny and warm all week with the temperatures at 6 AM in the mid 70's while in the evenings it stayed warm, at 9 PM on Saturday it was still 85 degrees. Our first rain in almost a year arrived unexpectedly on Friday, which for some reason was also the best sea surface temperature shots of the week, amazing with the cloud cover we had. The front moved in from the southwest with heavy cloud combined with plenty of lightning and thunder. The animals were hiding under the bed with all the booms and rolling vibrations! The rain was not a large amount, just enough to get the cars good and dirty with runnels of water coursing down the dust, but it did manage to give the trees and plants a mush needed cleaning, and knocked the dust down for a while. The early part of the week saw mostly cloudy skies and after Friday the skies cleared up and we had sun and fun!

WATER:
The water has started to change on us with warm water moving in from the east. Off of the Gorda Banks area we are seeing blue water at 78 degrees, changing to 74 degrees between San Jose and Cabo while in front of Cabo it is 72 degrees. On the Pacific side of the Cape we have 70 degrees below the San Jaime Banks and 67 degrees above it. That colder water above the San Jaime is green and just off the beach inside the Golden Gate Bank not only is it cold,but it is a very dirty red/green color. On the surface the Pacific side has had some swells to 8 feet with most of them averaging 4-6 feet. On the Cortez side of the Cape it has been smaller at 3-5 feet and spaced fairly far apart. The only real bad day on the water this week was on Friday when the front moved through, I would not have wanted to be out there after 1 PM!

BAIT:
The usual Caballito and Mackerel with a few Mullet at the normal $3 per bait along with a few Sardines, but they are becoming more and more scarce recently. A few of the bait boats have been carrying frozen Ballyhoo, but you have to be careful as some of them have been frozen, thawed and re-frozen when they don't sell the first day. That kind of bait falls apart very quickly.

FISHING:

BILLFISH:
Fishing for Striped Marlin was mostly concentrated in the area between the 1150 and the Gorda Banks as that is where the bait was. It was common early in the week to see dozens of fish either sleeping or tailing on the surface and you could actually find a few that were hungry. A good trip early in the week resulted in 4 to 6 releases while an average trip might have one or two. As the week went on and the moon became larger the bite dropped off as did the number of fish seen. I went on Wednesday and we saw 13 fish, resulting in 8 strikes with four of these released. I heard of a Blue Marlin being caught early in the week but do not know the size or where it was supposed to have been caught.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:
It is a waiting game for the Yellowfin still, and while there are a few small fish being caught there are no numbers. The only fish I heard of this week were caught 7 miles to the southwest of the arch in the blind, striking on cedar plugs. One boat brought in tree out of five fish and another boated one out of three strikes. The fish were footballs of about 8-10 pounds. I did not hear of any other Yellowfin caught within our normal operating range. By the way, the boat that caught the three Yellowfin also caught and released a Marlin on that cedar plug!

DORADO: Once again there were a few Dorado caught in the warm water in the Sea of Cortez. Small fish were found close to the beach while there were a few larger nice sized fish found offshore by boats fishing for Marlin. No real numbers were reported by any of the boats, but it seems to be a sign of good things to come!

WAHOO:
The full moon resulted in a few Wahoo but no large numbers. There were more strikes resulting in cut off lures and baits than there were fish caught! Maybe 15% of the boats had a Wahoo strike and half of those managed to get one to the boat. Average size on the speedsters was 25 pounds.

INSHORE:
The Yellowtail bite has dropped off and the Sierra have taken over the position of the fish of the week for the anglers fishing inshore. Not that the Yellowtail aren't out there, it's just that the numbers have dropped off. Toss in an occasional Amberjack, Grouper and a few Snapper and fishing the beach has been the best way to insure having something to eat for dinner! The best areas have been from the lighthouse on the Pacific side to the arch, and on the Sea of Cortes from Chileano Bay to Palmilla Point.

NOTES:
This weeks report was written to the music of Jack Johnson on the CD "On and On", still one of my favorites from him. We hope you have a great week and check us out next week for an updated fishing report from Cabo San Lucas.

Until then, tight lines!