WEATHER:
Well, I'm back from my delivery to Oxnard (great trip Carl!) and while it was hot up there, around 100 degrees, I came home to just as hot or a bit more at 103 degrees and a lot more humidity, 80% yesterday! Mary tells me it has been this way all week long, and yesterday we had some cloud cover move in. It's 7 AM now and the reading on the back porch is 83 degrees and 85% humidity! The lows have been in the mid 80's, warm enough that we have had the A/C unit on at night in order to sleep. It appears that the week was mostly sunny and warm, but we might be getting some more cloud cover a bit later in the week along with a bit of wind and larger swells. This will be due to tropical storm Hector passing to the southwest of us. As of today Hector is 480 kilometers to the south with winds extending out 240 kilometers and moving to the WNW with high expectations of moving more to the west shortly. This means that we will not be getting high winds, but probably some decent swells with a few gusts.

WATER:
On the Cortez side of the Cape the water has been much warmer at 87-89 degrees, if you go up to the East Cape area it warms to 89-90 degrees. On the Pacific side it is a bit cooler at 81-83 degrees with the cooler water on the inside of the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks. This cooler water is a bit off-color, but not enough to really mess with the fishing. Checking the charts I can see 85 degree water out to the southwest that appears to be almost purple, it is so clear. The swells have been small for most of the week, but right at the beginning there were some giant ones coming in where they were actually coming into the beach-side bars and restaraunts. There were quite a few folks on the plane down who were coming in the expectation that Hector was going to deliver those same type of swells so they could catch some big surf.

BAIT:
Caballito and Mullet were available at the normal $3 per bait and you could get them if you were out early, many boats were unable to get bait and had to settle for frozen horse ballyhoo at $3 each.

FISHING:

BILLFISH:
The Striped Marlin are still out there and there appears to be more Sailfish than we normally have, both of these have been the mainstay of the billfishing this past week. The majority of the Striped Marlin have been found from due south of the Cape to the Pacific side inside the banks, in the slightly cooler water. Most of the Sailfish have been found due south and to the east in the Sea of Cortez in the slightly warmer water, but of course there have been both species found in both areas, it's just that the chances to get any particular species improves a bit in certain area. As far as the larger Billfish go, there have been a few Blue Marlin caught and many more lost this week, some of the fish that have been reported as lost were also reported as being well over 300 pounds (imagine that, huh?) but a few of the reports were made by skipper I have a lot of faith in. I did not hear anyone talk about getting any Black Marlin this week, so while there may have been a few, they were not large. Live bait was the most common method of getting the Striped Marlin and Sailfish, with the bait being thrown in front of sleeping fish or dropped back to fish appearing in the lure pattern. The Blues were all reported as being lure fish.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:
Not much to say here, there are still a few around but it appears that the purse seiners got most of the schools that were packed up around the Golden Gate Bank. On my delivery north we arrived at the Golden gate well past the charter boats leaving the area and we spotted two seiners pursing their nets about 6 miles to the northwest of the bank. Arriving in the area we spotted not birds or Dolphin but boxed the area for a while. Eventually we spotted tuns breaking the surface while chasing small baits and ended up limiting out on fish from 10 to 20 pounds. After about 90 minutes and the onset of dark we spotted two more seiners arriving from the north, and on radar spotted one more much farther to the north heading down. There went the tuna, sigh. Hopefully it won't be long before more show up. On the Cortez side there have been some tuna of about the same size found on the northern banks past Punta Gorda but it has been reported as an early bite because unless you get Sardinas (only a limited number available early) it is just an exercise in frustration.

DORADO:
Definitely the fish of the week, Dorado have been keeping anglers happy with good numbers of fish from 8 to 15 pounds as well as enough larger fish to 30 pounds to test their skill. A few fish to 50 pounds have been reported as well. Most of the smaller fish have been taken close to shore while the larger ones have been a bit farther offshore. As usual, working the Frigate birds, if you can find the swooping down, has offered the best opportunity for good catches, but trolling brightly colored lures and keeping the first fish hooked up in the water has also worked well for multiple hook-ups. The Pacific side of the Cape appears to be producing more fish that the Cortez side, but that can change at any time.

INSHORE:
The numbers of Roosterfish being found has dropped off a bit this week, perhaps due to the large swells at the beginning of the week. There is still a decent bite for Amberjack and a few Grouper. If you leave early there is also the possibility of getting a few red snapper. Most of the Pangas have been working off the beach fishing for Dorado as they have been very consistent.

NOTES:
Off to the beach once again, and glad to go. I need to get into the water! My music for the week was once again Adele off of the 21 album.

Until next week, tight lines!