WEATHER: We had an interesting week on the weather front as on Wednesday evening a few clouds started to roll in, this was the evening of the W.O.N. Tuna Tournament sign up. Prior to then we had sunny skies with themperatures in the high 80's during the day and the mid 70's at night. We woke Thursday morning to little spats of rain, not enough to get a run off going, but it did make the plants happy. Later in the day the rain picked up and it cleared off by late afternoon, though the clouds stuck around until early Friday morning. We had a bit of humidity then and it has lasted through the weekend, and our temperatures have remained in the mid to high 80′s during the day and the mid to high 70′s at night.

WATER: The water was great all week long except for the afternoon on Friday as the clouds over our area blew away, then there was a bit of a chop on the water, but not too bad. Surface conditions during the week were swells at 3-5 feet on the Pacific side and 1-3 feet on the Cortez side. Water temperatures averaged several degrees higher on the Corte side at 82 degrees while on the Pacific side withing the area from the San Jaime and Golden Gate Banks it was 80 degrees and farther out it dropped to 77 degrees. At the end of the week this cooler water had worked its way inside the Banks and we had the 77-78 degree water as close as three miles off the beach. At the end of the week the water on the Pacific side was clean and blue while the area around the Gorda Banks and off of Palmilla on the Corte side were a bit off-colored.

BAIT: No change from the last report, Caballito, and frozen Ballyhoo could be had for $3 each this week, and there were actually a few mackerel to be had as well. Sardines were just a bit easier to find, but still not readily available.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: For some reason the Striped Marlin fishing has been just outstanding this week, or perhaps it is because there was not as much pressure on them as two days of 135 boats looking for Tuna, Dorado and Wahoo gave them a break. There have been Striped Marlin seen in packs of six to eight by many boats, and many of them have been hungry. We had one Panga yesterday release four during a five hour trip, and they did not travel much farther than the lighthouse on the Pacific side. Live bait was the key, while they would come into the pattern while trolling lures, dropping back a rigged live bait sure did the trick on those fish. From just off the shore to three miles out on the Pacific side, just in the warmer water was the place to be. They were showing at the Golden Gate Banks as well, not in the big pods feeding on the bait balls we saw a few years back, but in decent numbers. Dropping a live bait down to 100 feet or more resulted in many hook-ups. If you use this method though, please make sure you are using circle hooks, as it is sometimes difficult to determing a strike at that depth, and often the Marlin get hooked deep and do not survive. With a circle hook they pretty much hook themselves in the corner of the jaw and can be released with little damage. Also, remember this, it is YOUR trip, YOU are paying for it, YOU decide if the fish is released or killed. We had one group who fished a boat earlier in the week and they were unhappy because the crew killed the first two Marlin they caught while the anglers wanted to release the fish. On the third Marlin, the crew was about to gaff the fish when the angler reached up and cut the leader first! Needless to say, they will never fish on that boat again, or book through that agency again. REMEMBER: YOUR BOAT= YOUR CHOICE, make sure the crew understand at the start!

YELLOWFIN TUNA: As I did with the Marlin on the last report, I will prevail on the results of two days fishing in the W.O.N. Tuna Tournament to give you an idea of the Yellowfin action this past week. Last year during this week there were over a dozen Tuna weighing over 200 pounds taken, and one over 300 pounds. This year there were no fish over 200 pounds, the closest one was just under that weight. Overall I believe there were three Tuna over 100 pounds taken the first day and 5 fish over 100 pounds taken the second day. There were a few fish in the 50-60 pound class but most of them were footballs. Once again the Gora Banks proved to be a popular spot to fish, at least on the first day, and there were quite a few large fish hooked up early in the day, but many of them were lost. During mid-day the current changed and the bite went dead, most boats left to look for fish in Porpoise. Boats fishing on the Pacific side were focused on the Porpoise as well, and the largest fish of the tournament was caught while flying a kite over a small pod of Porpoise while fishing just to the north of the Golden Gate Bank. The fish were spread out, from 30 miles to the south of Cabo to 40 miles to the north, with no really heavy concentration in any one place. Live bait dropped down in front of small pods of Porpoise resulted in a few big tuna as well.

DORADO: The action continued on Dorado this week, but it was a bit slower than last week, still good, but just a tad slower. That said, the action was still enough to give them "fish of the week" status. Most of the Dorado were found within three miles of the beach between SolMar and Todo Santos on the Pacific side, and it seemed that the farther north you went the better the action and size of the fish, to a point that is. Slow trolling live bait was very productive, as long as there were fish in the area, and there were a few Dorado caught by non-tournament boats that went over 30 pounds. During the tournament there were a lot of smaller Dorado in the 20+ range weighed, and most of them were caught in this same area. Leaving a hooked fish in the water while bumping in and out of gear, or trolling it at 2 to 3 knots brought more fish to the boat, and was a favorite method for most crews.

WAHOO: Wahoo were the suprise of the week for many of us as there were more of them brought to the scales during the tournament than were Dorado. The largest in those two days was just over 50 pounds, but there were many on the 20+ side of the scales! Some of the fish were open water fish, but the majority were caught along the 50 fathom line on both sides of the Cape.

INSHORE: There is little change in this weeks inshore report from last weeks with the exception of the Marlin action. When the fish get close like this everyone gets in on the game, and it was not unusual this week for the Pangas to release several Striped Marlin each trip. We are still seeing a few more Sierra and small Yellowtail every week. With the Dorado action being so good just off the beach, there has not been much in the way of effort next to the beach so it is hard to tell exactly what is there, but reports from a few of the Panga captains I know show that there are still small Roosterfish (less than 5 pounds) and a scattering of Amberjack and Snapper.

NOTES: My wife is from Seattle so I am a Seahawks fan by marriage, but right now that's not a bad thing! Go Hawks! Well, the fishing for Striped Marlin is red hot, the Dorado continue to show up, the Wahoo bite has been decent. All we need is for the bigger Tuna to show up and it would be perfect. We expect to start seeing more Sierra and Yellowtail being caught as the water cools down, so if you are intersted in these fish, keep checking back, I will let you know when it gets good. This weeks fish report was written the the unreleased single (album soon to be finished and released, I'll let you know when) by our friend, Brian Flynn.

Until next week,
Tight Lines!