WEATHER: This has been a great weather week, something we look forward to all year long. Every year, sometime in the middle of October the weather turns perfect with the highs in the mid 80′s, the lows in the mid 70′s and just light winds. It was this week this year and it was wonderful to sleep with the doors and windows open to the cool night air and not have the humming and noise of the air conditioner going on. We did see just a little rain at the beginning of the week, the tail end of last week brought rain into our area with the passing to the west of Tropical Storm Octave. It was occasionally heavy, but never lasted for very long, and went a long way toward keeping everything here green and dust free. As we currently look to the south we can see Hurricane Raymond off of Acapulco, but he should not be a threat to our area at all, as our high pressure and cool weather will keep him to the south.

WATER: I did not have any storm updates last week on Tropical Storm Octave since it never did become a threat to our area. What it did bring in was some rain, some lightning and thunder with dark clouds and some choppy water. The Port Captain was concerned over the safety of people on the water and closed the port to small vessel traffic Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so anglers who had scheduled a fishing trip on a Panga had no love for those days. The port was closed to all traffic on Saturday as a precaution, even though the water was fishable (although it would have been a rough trip). After to passing of the storm the port re-opened and the conditions were fine with swells from the southwest at 4-6 feet on Tuesday, dropping to 2-5 feet from the same direction the rest of the week. The winds were light so we did have great conditions for both the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament and the Los Cabos Offshore Tournament (also known as the "Little Bisbee"). Water temperatures on the Pacific side were in the 84-85 degree range with water to the sough and outside of the San Jaime Banks nice and Blue, water close to shore a bit off color and elsewhere showing a slight "glacial runoff" coloring, just a bit of a tinge to it. Directly to the south the water warmed to 86 degrees and was pretty clean. On the Cortez side of the Cape we had a cool water eddy during the middle of the week that had clean blue water, but was a bit cool at 83 degrees just past the Cabrillo Seamount. Up toward the Punta Gordo area the water was warm at 86 degrees and with a slight tinge, but it was flat and smooth.

BAIT: Caballito, and frozen Ballyhoo could be had for $3 each this week, and there were very few Sardinas available later in the week as the moon moved on to showing full. The Sardinas that could be found were $25 a scoop.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: I think one of the best ways to tell how the bill-fishing was this week is to describe the results of the two tournaments that were held over a total of 5 days, back to back from Wednesday through Sunday. The first was the Los Cabo Billfish Tournament, taking place over the first three days. The first day started with a bang as two qualifying (over 300 pounds) Blue Marlin were brought to the scales, one at 625 pounds and the other at 516 pounds. One was reported to have been caught on the Cortez side up past Punta Gordo and the other just outside Cabo at the 95 Spot. There were no other qualifying fish brought in for this tournament, even with 40 teams fishing for three days. There was an overall total of 44 Billfish caught with 12 Blue Marlin, 28 Striped Marlin and 4 Sailfish for an average of one billfish per team, or a success rate of 1/3 billfish per day of effort. The is not the ratio we are used to here, but perhaps blame falls on the full moon. During the Los Cabo Offshore Tournament there were a total of 90 teams fishing for two days and there were no qualifying (over 300 pounds) Marlin brought in, although there were a few stories of the big girls being hooked up. I fished with my team on both sides of the Cape, the Cortez on the first day and the Pacific on the second, and we did not have a Marlin bite either day. Overall results for this tournament were 24 Blue Marlin caught, one Black Marlin caught, 36 Striped Marlin and 4 Sailfish, for a total of 65 billfish over 140 days fishing effort (70 teams x two days), an average of .46 billfish per day of effort. This coming week should be interesting as the Bisbee Black and Blue runs from Wednesday through Friday, with many more teams entered, a lot more money on the line and some of the top teams in the world competing. The moon will be in its waning phase and that might make a difference!

YELLOWFIN TUNA: The Yellowfin still have not shown up in any large numbers, or in any great size yet, although a few boats have been able to fins pods of porpoise that have held some Tuna. The minimum qualifying weights for the Game fish category during the Los Cabos Offshore Tournament was 30 pounds, and the winning Tuna weighed 201 pounds, wort 64K in prize money. There were a few other tuna reported caught that would have qualified, but not nearly as large as this one. The cool eddy off of the Cabrillo Seamount and an area to the south and a bit westward of the San Jaime Banks were the offshore areas that held a few fish, a long way to go on a hope. There were a few small fish found in the Punta Gordo area.

DORADO: These game fighters remained the fish of the week as almost every charter that went out was able to get limits of two fish per angler. None of them were really large fish, as a matter of fact the largest one caught in the Los Cabos Offshore Tournament was 33 pounds, caught the first day. Nothing as large as 30 pounds happened to be caught by any of the 70 boats fishing so that fish ended up being worth 64K! Most of the charters continued to find great action along the Pacific coastline from ?? mile offshore to about three miles offshore. To get the best action possible the first fish was kept in the water while live bait, strip bait and chunks were dropped back to hook up any followers.

WAHOO: Once again the Wahoo bite remained decent with quite a few of the charters fishing for Dorado managed to hook some of these speedsters. These fish averaged 20 pounds but there was a report over the radio during the Offshore Tournament of a boat landing a fish of over 90 pounds. The Captain reporting the fish sounded disappointed since they first thought it was a Marlin, but how disappointed can you get over a wahoo that size?

INSHORE: Inshore fishing consisted of scattered small Roosterfish in the 5 pound class, some small Skipjack, a few Amberjack and a lot of Dorado. There have been almost no Sierra reported, nor Yellowtail, as the water has not yet cooled down enough for them. The Pangas have been working hard just offshore having great action on the Dorado as well as the occasional Striped Marlin.

FISH RECIPE: As you can tell, I love keeping a fish recipe simple. Last week I made the suggestion of grilling Dorado and using it instead of tuna fish in a sandwich. Don't forget that if the fillets are cut the right size you can use them instead of hamburger for an excellent fish sandwich! Flake the leftovers, mix with leftover cold rice and a bit of dill juice and mayo and lettuce for a great cold salad.

NOTES: The report for this week was a day late, and this coming week may be a day early. I am fishing the Bisbee Black and Blue with my friends on the team "Sporty Game", a 63′ Bertram (just in case you want to follow how we do on CatchStats.com) and after the last day of fishing on Friday I leave on Saturday to bring a boat down from Ensenada. I will try to post a report on Saturday morning! This weeks report was written to the sound of the washing machine banging along (our once a week city water started coming in so we have to take advantage of it while we can), as well as the music of the "Highway Troubadours" on a CD given to me by a friend.