WEATHER: It feels as if we are getting into our winter season as the morning lows have been in the high 50's and the daytime highs in the high 70's. I don't think I saw the temperature raise to 80 degrees this week. This is great if you have been dealing with below freezing weather at home, but cold for us who live here. We did have some wind from the north again this week and it kept things cool, combine that with cloud cover for about half the week and it feels like the season has changed.

WATER: At the end of this week there was not much change from the end of last week as far as the surface temperatures went. The cold green water we had seen to east of a line across the Gordo Banks and the area south had moved to the east, allowing cleaner, slightly warmer water on the Gordo Bank and across the flats just to the east of Punta Gorda. To the west of that area the water inshore of the 1,000 fathom line remained in the 72 degree range, and south of the 1,000 fathom line it warmed to 75 degrees. On the Pacific and across the Cape region to the south the water averaged 74 degrees. Due to the northerly wind the water on the Pacific side and offshore on the Sea of Cortez side remained a bit choppy and had a lump of 2-5 foot swells, spaced far enough apart that it was not strongly felt. On the Cortez side the swells were smaller, as is usual, at 1-3 feet.

BAIT: Caballito, Mackerel and frozen Ballyhoo could be had for $3 each this week, and there were very few Sardinas available.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite slowed down just a bit this week, perhaps due to the new moon phase, there has to be some reason. Instead of almost every boat getting one or two, sometimes four releases, we were lucky to get that many hook-ups, and get a release for the day. The fish are still there, we are seeing them tailing on the surface, they just were showing little interest in bait or lures this week. This is sure to change as the moon phase changes, it always does. The good point is that the fish are still here! Most of the fish were found on the Pacific side from the Golden Gate to the San Jaime and inside that line, in the canyon. Not as many this week were found inside the two mile line, more were found just outside there. Not to say there were no fish caught, contrary, there were plenty of fish caught and released, and unfortunately quite a few brought in to the dock, just not as many as were caught last week. My guess is that approximately 60% of the boats caught a billfish this week.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: The tuna pen that came though our area last week is gone, but the word is that there are several more that will be approaching soon. Hopefully they will be holding as many fish as the one that just passed. Meanwhile, there have been Yellowfin found outside and to the south of the San Jaime Bank, it was just a bit of a bumpy trip to get to them. The porpoise were holding Tuna so the trick was to find the porpoise and hope you were there at the right time. The tuna were footballs for the most part, but one of the schools was of fish between 25 and 45 pounds, and I did hear of an 80 pound class fish caught as well. The larger fish were biting on live bait drifted way back behind the boat, and the usual dark colored lures and cedar plugs accounted for the rest.

DORADO: As the water continues to cool the bite continues to slow, but there are enough Dorado around to still be the offshore fish of the week. Not as many anglers limited out this week as did last week, but the fish were still in the same areas and feeding the same. The week before last the fish count on Dorado really spiked due to the tuna pen coming by, this past week we returned to more normal conditions. I know I heard a charter broker telling potential clients that the Dorado fishing was off-the-chart good several days after the tuna pen was gone, hope they were not too disappointed! Meanwhile, fishing within two miles of the beach on the Pacific side resulted in the majority of the Dorado found, and these cool water fish were a bit larger, and keep getting larger, every week. My guess is that the average this week was 15 pounds, and there were probably about a quarter of the boats getting limits and the rest about one fish per angler, that was for the boats that were targeting the Dorado. As normal, keeping the first fish in the water to attract more worked well, as did slow trolling a live bait under feeding Frigate birds.

WAHOO: New moon but cool water, what more need I say? Wahoo really prefer slightly warmer water than we are experiencing right now, but there were still a few caught this past week locally. Most of the fish were small, in the 10-15 pound range, and there were not many of them, but you still had a chance. This just might have been the last week to get one of these speedsters hooked up until the water warms back up. The fish that were caught were found inside the 300 foot depth contour, and were caught by boats that targeted them using Rapallas and Marauders on wire leader. There were more fish cut off on mono-filament leader used on lures run for Dorado than were caught.

INSHORE: As I said on my mid-week up-date, the Sierra bite went wide open during the middle of the week with boats getting into the fish from the lighthouse all the way up the Pacific coast to Migraino. Bright colored hootchies worked great, and I had a client who fly-fished for two days with a guide who got tired of catching them after a fish count that went over 50! They went through many flies during the two days, starting with fully dressed ones and finally putting on new ones when all that was left was just a bit of dressing on the hook. Tired arms, a fish on every cast and the fish ranged from 3 pounds to 8 pounds, it doesn't get any better than that! As well as the Sierra, there have been some Amberjack, Grouper and a few Snapper being found. As far as Yellowtail are concerned, the commercial panga anglers working at night are getting a few, but there have been no real numbers found during the daytime. We are still seeing a few scattered small Roosterfish as well.

NOTES: There are plenty of whales to be seen when the fishing slows down so even if you are not a hard-core angler you deserve to get out on the water for that show. And of course since there are fish biting, catch dinner as well! I thought I'd mention something about myself today. I am actually a Captain and don't just call myself a Captain, or Commander, or Admiral. I hold a 100 Ton U.S.C.G. License and am I.G.F.A. Certified, and am a Captain on a private boat. I have 10 ?? years in the U.S. Navy, 6 years experience commercial fishing in the tropics and extensive experience in wholesale/retail seafood. My Charter experience started after commercial fishing became hard on my body and I have been working charter and private boats for 18 years, and have been in Cabo, working on boats and chartering boats for 13 years. We have a business license, pay taxes and work out of the house since shop space is so expensive here. My reports have been going out every week (with a few weeks missed due to hurricanes) for 12 years, un-biased and honest, I don't try to lay it on thick in order to get you here, just try to give you information to help you make fishing decisions. I appreciate all the e-mails I get from you as readers and plan on continuing the reports as long as possible! This weeks report was written to the music of James Taylor and his "Best of" CD. Until next week, tight lines!