WEATHER: It seems that every week this time of year offers something a little bit different.?? An example was that at the start of this week we were recovering from the anticipated effects of Hurricane (later Tropical Storm, and then Tropical Depression, Ivo) which ended up consisting of some good sized swells and cloud cover along with a light sprinkling of rain.?? The middle of the week was back to normal with sunshine and hot, high 90's daytime temps and mid 80's in the evenings.?? At the end of the week we were back to cloudy skies and sprinkling of rain, Sunday morning saw the rain starting at 2 am and there was a resulting drop in the temperature to a very comfortable mid 80 degrees.

WATER:???? The start of the week saw the remanents of Tropical Depression Ivo bring in the last of the large swells with 6 feet on the Pacific side and at all south-western exposures.?? The rest of the week had swells from the west and north-west at 3-5 feet with plenty of space between them.?? At the approach of the weekend the swells picked up once again as there was a area of convection move over us bring in the rain and a slight breeze, along with an increase in swells resulting from the formation of Tropical Storm Juliette well to the southwest of us.?? Water temperatures on the Sea of Cortez were 85-88 degrees and on the Pacific side of the Cape we had 81-85 degrees with no strong breaks.?? The water on the Pacific side, besides being just a little bit cooler, also had a slightly greener cast to them.

BAIT: ??This week we had plenty of Mackerel available as well as some Mullet at the normal $2 per bait and there were plenty of Sardinas available at the normal $20 per scoop.

FISHING:

BILLFISH:?? The Striped Marlin bite continued this week but moved a bit farther to the north on the Pacific side, up pas the Golden Gate and toward the Finger Bank.?? Boats focusing on them were able to release as many as 6 fish per boat but it was a bit farther to run than last week.?? There were still fish found clioser to home though, and every boat out there had a chance to catch one.?? There were still Sailfish to be found and the bite improved on Blue and Black Marlin as well.?? I had a four day trip early in the week and we released a Striper on the first day, went one for three on Blue Marlin the second day (releasing one of about #200), one for two on Sailfish on day three and on the fourth and final day, two for two on Black Marlin, releasing one of about #180 at Estilladera and then tail-wrapping one and having it die, then boating it, weighing out at?? #265, at the Outer Gorda Banks.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:?? Finally these fish are starting to show.?? There have been plenty of the football-sized fish out there and boats have had a lot of luck on the Pacific side around the San Jaime and inside the Golden Gate.?? These fish are associated with Porpoise, as is the norm.?? There have also been some nice school fish in the 40-100 pound range caught a little farther out in the same areas, but normally to the first few boat to get there.?? I also heard of some very nice fish in the #150-#200 class caught by Pangas working out of La Playita and fishing the Inman Banks area using live Skipjack as bait.?? Not red hot action, but consistent enough that there were boats fishing there every day, all day hoping to hook one of these nice fish up.

DORADO:?? Steady and consistent action was to be had on the Pacific side of the Cape this week on fish between 12 and 25 pounds with a few fish in the 50+ range.?? From just off the beach to out at the Banks and farther, the larger fish seemed to be a bit farther out, the smaller fish closer to shore.?? Finding debris in the water was a sure bet with the wash-out from the rain dropped by Ivo.?? If the debris was large enough you could be sure of at least a fish or two and a few boats were able to find small schools concentrated under the floatsam, boating limits of two Dorado per angler (of course no one exceeded the limit, sigh)

WAHOO:?? Just like last week, there were scattered Wahoo again this week and they were mostly caught by boats working close to shore for the Dorado.?? The largest fish I heard of was 40 pounds and most of them were half that.?? These speedsters were not common but a few boats were flying two flags at a time.?? I imagine that if you had targeted these fish this week there might have been some decent action.

INSHORE:?? A repeat of last week. Inshore fishing remained slow for the traditional species this week as the number of Roosterfish was down and the Pargo just were not on the bite.?? Most of the Pangas were focusing on Dorado and did have fine action with them.?? Bottom action was slow as well with mostly small snapper and an occasional Amberjack and Grouper in the mix.