WEATHER:
Here at the tip of the Cape the wind blew almost all week long, coming mostly from the northwest but sometimes shifting and coming from the southwest. Gusting to 30 knots at times, it was fairly steady during the middle of the week, only to die off on Sunday morning. As you traveled up the coast toward San Jose the effect was much less noticeable. We had mostly sunny skies this week with the nighttime lows ranging from 62 degrees to 74 degrees and the daytime highs averaged 82 degrees, just about perfect!

WATER:
There is not much to say about our water conditions that are good, at least for offshore fishing. The strong currents that came in from the Pacific side last week really have had a lasting effect. The water on the Pacific side from the coastline out to the Golden Gate Banks and the San Jaime Banks remains a cold 56 degrees and green. On the Banks and to the west it warms a bit to 62 degrees but becomes even more dirty green. Up toward San Jose on the Cortez side the water remains in the 62-64 degree range and green while along the beach up to San Jose the water became very green and dirty at the end of the week. Warm water finally appears as you reach Punta Gorda and from the beach out to about three miles it is 75 degrees, continuing on up the coast to Los Frailes. Due to the continuing wind the water on the Pacific side remained mostly unfishable unless you were in a Panga hanging close to the beach, and that was not much more than five miles up, after that it was nasty water with swells at 4-6 feet and the wind gusting to 30 knots. On the Cortez side the swells were much smaller at the start of the week and now at the end of the week we are seeing the effects of Hurricane Bud, now dissipated and very far south of us. The swells continue to build and will remain large for the next couple of days, but here on Sunday we are seeing 6-8 feet from the south. The surfers are happy!

BAIT:
Just about the only live bait this week was Caballito at the normal $3 per bait. The large swells at the end of the week almost shut off the Sardina netting and the water is too cold and dirty for the Mackerel, I am surprised to see there are still Caballito out there!

FISHING:

BILLFISH:
Well, as I reported last week at the end of the IGFA Offshore Championship, the cold water shocked the Striped Marlin and the bite pretty much shut down with 47 teams releasing only 8 Marlin on the last day. The situation has not changed much as the fish are still scarce in our area. Boats that are targetting Marlin have to run almost 50 miles to get into that warm water toward Los Frailes, and even when they get there, getting a fish to bite is a coin toss. A few fish have been found closer to home in the colder water but these fish have been very reluctant to bite. My guess is that only 20% of the boats are seeing Marlin and out of them, maybe 20% are getting bit. As a result I have been recommending to our anglers that they target something beside Marlin, like inshore fishing for Yellowtail.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:
The Tuna bite remained off this week with only a few football sized fish caught, and most of them were caught in the blind with no porpoise or birds to indicate their presence.

DORADO:
I saw no Dorado brought to the docks this week but heard of a few very small ones of about 8 pounds coming from the direction of San Jose. No details on location or bait, just that there were a few small ones.

WAHOO:
Dedicated anglers getting to the grounds early up in the Punta Gorda area reported having a few Wahoo bites, and I did have one Captain tell me he lost a lure to a wahoo offshore around the 1150, but I did not hear of any being brought in this week.

INSHORE:
There is no doubt in my mind that inshore fishing was the way to go this week as the bite for Yellowtail remained strong on the Cortez side of the Cape and there was still a decent bite on Sierra between the lighthouse and the arch on the Pacific side as well as off of the Cabo Del Sol area. Mix in some decent grouper to 25 pounds, a few nice Snapper and occasionally a school of Pompano moving through and there was pretty consistent action. The lack of Sardines at the end of the week hurt the inshore fishing just a little bit, but not a lot.

NOTES:
Beach time and I think it will be a problem to keep the puppy from getting into the surf, she loves to swim and the swells might be a bit much today. I wrote this report to the music of her snoring at my feet and the birds chirping outside as the sun comes up!

Until next week, tight lines!

Happy Memorial Day to All!