WEATHER: With the early morning lows in the high 70′s and daytime highs reaching the high 90's it's plain that our fall weather has arrived. Soon we should be seeing the highs drop to the low 90's and then we will be in paradise! At this time of the year we still have a slight chance of a bit more bad weather, but our fingers are crossed that Tropical Storm Paul, 665 miles to the south of us continues going to the west and leaves us alone. We had no rain this week in Cabo but there were some scattered showers up in the mountains. With mostly sunny skies we enjoyed the light winds and smooth water.

WATER: Both sides of the Cape had great conditions this week with a bit more of a breeze on the Pacific side, just enough for the most part to keep anglers comfortable and put a light chop on the water in the afternoons. The swells on the Pacific were small at 2-6 feet and spaced well apart. The water was clean and blue compared to the Cortez side of the Cape and the water temperatures averaged a degree cooler at 84-86 degrees with the warmer water laying along the shoreline. On the Cortez side the water was 85-87 degrees with the cooler water toward Cabo San Lucas, and while not as clean as that on the Pacific side, appeared blue. The swells on the Cortez side were small at 2-4 feet. The swells may pick up just a bit later in the week as Tropical Storm Paul may have an effect on their size, but being storm swells they will be spaced well apart.

BAIT: Finally there were some Sardinas available this week since the swell went down, but you had to travel toward San Jose to get them. A scoop would set you back between 25-30 U.S. But they sure came in handy depending on what you were fishing for. Here at home the usual Caballito and Mullet could be had for $3 each, and there were some very large horse bally-hoo at $3 each as well.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: Now for the good stuff as far as tournament anglers are concerned. Sorry guys, good news and bad news for you. First the bad news, there have been no large Blue or Black Marlin brought in this week that I have heard of. Maybe that's good news though, it means that they are still out there! The good news is that there have been plenty of small Blue Marlin caught, and most of them have been released. For anglers that are entering the release categories in the tournaments this is very good news, and for everyone else it is good news as well. In my experience, when you find packs of these small male Blue Marlin there is a big female somewhere in the area. Almost without exception Blue marlin over 300 pounds are female and 100% of the Blue Marlin over 400 pounds are female. The males are like dog heat packs and somewhere in the area there is a big female. I did hear of a big Black Marlin being lost on the Gorda Banks, so there are sure to be plenty of boats working both the inner and outer banks during the tournaments.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: The only large Yellowfin Tuna I have heard of in the past week came from the Gorda Banks area from boats fishing with live baits and chunk baits. There were fish caught every day but there was no real set time for the bite to happen. Many boats spent all morning fishing the area only to leave at 1pm to get home at 3pm and find that the bite started at 2pm. Hey, it's fishing, that happens often! Many boats went offshore as far as 40 miles looking for schools and they occasionally found one, but the fish were just average size, 10 to 35 pounds, and many pods of porpoise had to be found before finding one that held fish. Unless you were lucky, of course. Closer to home it was nice to find the small football Yellowfin and Bonita showing up on the usual inshore grounds between San Jose and Grey Rock. These Yellowfin were between 10 and 20 pounds and almost the only way to get them to bite was by using Sardinas. The bite was neither steady nor consistent, but many of the boats managed to get four or five Yellowfin in the box for clients. This is great news for the tournament teams as we have had a dearth of these fish in our area, and they are a favorite of teams looking to slow troll on the banks and drop-offs.

DORADO: I have changed the status of the Dorado from fish of the week to fish of the month! While not every boat this week limited out, there were many more that did than did not. Most of our anglers this week had limits of Dorado between 10 and 20 pounds in the boat by 9:30 in the morning, then went out looking for Sailfish, Striped Marlin and Tuna. Most of the Dorado fishing occurred on the Pacific side close to the shore, between the lighthouse and inside the Golden Gate Bank, working outside of that area produced fewer fish, but on the average they were larger, some going as high as 50 pounds. Rigged bally-hoo were the best bait overall, and bright lures trolled at fairly high speeds of 9-10 knots did the trick as well.

WAHOO: Wahoo continued to show up in the catch of many of the boats this week, but on average they were not large fish like we see in the spring. In fact, there were quite a few of what I call Wee-Hoo, fish in the 3-5 pound class caught. Almost all the fish were found close to the beach by boats working for Dorado, at least those that were found on the Pacific side. On the Cortez side quite a few were hooked by boats drifting bait or chunks for Yellowfin Tuna on the Gorda Banks or the mounts farther to the north.

INSHORE: In a repeat of last week, there were scattered Roosterfish in the areas beaches, both on the Pacific side and the Sea of Cortez, but most of the pangas were working just off the beach on the Pacific side for Dorado first, then checking in the surf zone for Snapper and Roosterfish. If anglers wanted Yellowfin a choice had to be made between the Pacific and the Cortez side, as all the Yellowfin were on the Cortex side. Boats that did focus on the inshore fish reported few bottom fish to be found.

NOTES: My music choice for this week was a girl my wife heard sing jazz at a firefighters fundraiser. She was so impressed she bought me the CD, and I like it so much I am sharing it with you. Her name is Divier Guive, the CD is self titled and produced here in Cabo at "Home Studio". If you want a chance to check her out, go to www.reverbnation/divierguive and click on the song Humo azul. By the way, Brian Flynn is here for just a few weeks more before he goes on hid European tour, so if you are here and want to hear him and Mauricio play, get in while the getting is good. Check him out at his site www.brianflynnband. Tournament season is here and coming up in the next several weeks are the Los Cabo Offshore Tournament and the Bisbee Black and Blue Tournament. I will be fishing both so please, keep you fingers crossed for my team, "Sporty Game"!

Until next week, tight lines!