WEATHER: We are back to summertime weather with our daytime highs in the mid to high 90's.?? There was a report of low 100's just to the north of us toward San Jose on Friday.?? Nights have been a bit cooler with the lows in the low 80's, but with little wind toward the end of the week it seemed a lot warmer than that.?? We have had partially cloudy skies with no rain.?? Forecasts for the next week are a repeat of the same.

WATER:???? Surface conditions have been great, especially toward the end of the week with the winds light and variable.?? Swells have been from the west-southwest at 2-4 feet and the water has been a bit warmer than last week.?? We did have a plume of warm water run across the 95 spot at the end of the week with the temperature there at 85-86 degrees.?? On the Pacific side up past the Golden Gate Bank there was a defined temperature and color break.?? At 5 miles north of the bank the water became a deep blue and changed from 78 degrees to 82 degrees in the middle of the week.?? There was a lot of debris from the hurricane in the well-defined current line, but it was too new to hold and bait or fish.?? At the same time the water at the San Jaime Banks and toward the Cape was an off-color green but even at 76 degrees was holding fish on the contour lines.?? On the Cortez side of the Cape we had a warm, blue water plume that ran from the Cabrillo Seamount across the 1150 and onto the 95 spot.?? At the end of the week things had changed quite a bit and the warm water was closer to home with 83-84 degree water across all the banks both on the Pacific side and the Cortez side of the Cape.?? The water just off the arch to five miles to the east and 10 miles to the west was cooler at 80 degrees.

BAIT: ??Prevailing bait this week was Caballito at $2 per bait, Mullet at $2 per bait and Sardinas at $25 per scoop.???? A few boats were able to make their own Mackerel during their fishing trips and these seemed to be the bait preferred by the fish.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: The week began with good fishing for Striped Marlin on the inside of the Golden Gate bank and then the bite slowly shifted to the south.?? At the end of the week there were still a few Stripers being found at the Gate but there were more fish to the south and east of the Cape, even though the water was more off-colored.???? A few boats released as many as 8 fish per trip working the area between the Cape and the 95 spot and there were scattered fish on the surface on the Pacific side around the Gate and within 4 miles of the beach.?? There were reports of some decent Blue Marlin being found as well.?? I heard a story of one Panga working off of the 95 spot that released two blues, one estimated at #250 and the other at #450 early in the week.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Football fish were still the order of the day for most of the boats, but finding them on a regular basis was a problem.?? To the north on the Cortez side of the Cape around the Punta Gorda area there were fish scattered around.?? Not associated with porpoise, they were found by trolling in the blind.?? Once one was hooked up the crew threw out live Sardinas to try and chum up the fish.?? The largest of these were reported at around 30 pounds.?? The good news is that on Friday there were some decent fish found on the west side of the San Jaime Banks at a distance of 30 miles from Cabo.?? The first boat to these fish caught 5 Yellowfin estimated between 45 and 60 pounds.?? Hopefully this is a sign of things to come!

DORADO:?? The Dorado bite was scattered again but the best results were had by boats working close to the beach on the Pacific side of the Cape.?? Most of the fish were in the 12-20 pound class with occasional fish to 40 pounds being reported.?? Hooking a fish on a trolled lure then drifting back live bait while keeping the hooked fish close to the boat resulted in some of the better catches.?? A good day this week was three or four Dorado while a great day was 6 fish.?? Most of the boats were happy to get two Dorado in the box.?? Things might improve over time as the debris to the north of the Golden Gate Ban works its way south.

WAHOO:?? I saw a few Wahoo in the 20-25 pound class come in this week and the new moon may have had a great deal to do with it.?? I also hear radio reports of larger fish being hooked up but biting through the mono leader being run on the Marlin lures.?? These Wahoo were reported from the various Banks, in the warm water areas.

INSHORE:?? The bite was still off after the dirty water from the hurricane.?? I was hoping that the Rooster fishing would pick back up but it remained slow this week.?? Most of the Pangas resorted to focusing on Dorado and Striped Marlin within 5 miles of shore.