WEATHER:???? Nights have been a very comfortable mid 70's for most of the week with a few evenings seeing a drop of a few degrees more. Our daytime highs have been in the mid to high 80's.?? Winds have been out of the northwest for most of the week with a one day shift on Saturday when the came from the east.?? Wind speeds have been in the 10-knot range in the mid afternoon.?? No rain for the week, and if things hold as true as some folks say, tomorrow we should see the annual October 15 temperature drop.?? Long time residents say that every October 15 the average daytime temperature drops 5 degrees, almost like clockwork.?? Hmm?Ķ

WATER:???? Surface conditions on the Pacific side of the Cape were choppy early in the week and later on they quieted down a bit.?? Early in the mornings the water was rough up to the Cristobal area and then it smoothed out, later in the day the winds picked up a bit and it became choppy all the way up the line.?? As the week drew to a close things smoothed out and while there were still whitecaps, they were farther apart and pretty much confined to the current lines.?? Speaking of current lines, we had a fairly well defined break this week, all week long.?? It ran on both side of the Cape from five miles offshore from San Jose to Cabo on the Cortez side of the Cape and from just to the north of the Golden Gate to Cabo on the Pacific side.?? Inside the five-mile area and extending in a swath 10 miles wide from the tip of the Cape to at least 60 miles to the southwest the water was a very even 85 degrees.?? Outside this swath on the Pacific side the temperature dropped to 81-82 degrees and was quite a bit bluer and on the Cortez side it dropped to 83 degrees with about the same clarity.

BAIT: ??There was some Mackerel available this week but they were not lasting long in the bait tanks.?? Most of the boats were getting Caballito and both baits were the normal $2 per bait.?? There were Sardinas available as well at the normal $20 per scoop.

FISHING:

BILLFISH:?? This week was a total repeat of last weeks report; things did not change at all on the billfish front.?? Late in the week there was a good bite on Blue and Striped Marlin at the Gorda Banks, there were tailing Stripers to be found on the 95 Spot and there were Sailfish 6 miles off of the Arch.?? Billfish were scattered all over the place but the bottom structure seemed to be the place to find them this week.?? While I did not go there myself, I heard reports of a very good Striped Marlin bite up at the Finger Bank early in the week with many boats getting double digit numbers of fish released.?? Our best lure color this week was Bleeding Mackerel for the Sailfish and Striped Marlin and Purple-Blue-Silver for the Blue and Black Marlin.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:?? There were no large Tuna reported this week but there were schools of footballs scattered from the Cabrilla Seamount on the Cortez side to the area just to the north of the Golden Gate Bank on the Pacific side.?? All these fish were associated with porpoise and were averaging 15 pounds.?? A few larger fish in the 50-pound class were caught but there were not many of them.

DORADO:?? Once again there were Dorado scattered just about everywhere but the best concentrations were on the Pacific side 3 miles off the beach inside the Golden Gate Bank and north of there.?? In the middle of the week there was a log and an uprooted tree found to the inside of the Bank, and they were about five miles from each other, right on the current-color-temp break.?? It was a bonanza on Dorado for the first few boats there every day and even with 15 boats working the debris fish were caught by everyone.?? Not until the area became a parking lot with over 30 boats in a half-mile area did the bite drop off, but it renewed every day.?? The fish ran in size from small 5 pounders (please let the babies go!) to nice fish in the 15-18 pound class.?? Almost everyone was able to get a few fish in the box but a few greedy boats reported keeping 30-40 fish each.?? With only four anglers on the boat and two crew, these guys were killing 5-6 times the legal limit. Live bait was the key to getting these fish to bite early ion the day and later on live bait fished off of downriggers or dropped on 6 ounces of lead hooked anglers up to the by then hook-shy fish.

WAHOO:?? We did not have a full moon this week so the bite on Wahoo was a bit off compared to what it had been, but still, boats that worked the 100 fathom and shallower areas just off the beach on the Pacific side, and the Gorda Banks area on the Cortez side were able to report some action on these speedsters.?? The best lures were swimming plugs such as Marauders and big Rapalla countdowns run close to the boat, mostly within the first three wakes.?? A few boats reported two fish out of three or four strikes and the fish averaged 25 pounds.

INSHORE:?? The inshore Roosterfish bite started up again with most of the fish in the small range at 5-10 pounds but almost everyone that targeted the Roosters were able to release at least one or two in the 30 pound class.?? Dorado were plentiful just a bit farther off the beach and an average catch consisted of four or five per Panga.?? Plenty of Bonita and Skipjack with a few football Yellowfin rounded out the inshore fishery.

Notes:?? I am getting older and the last few days have taken their toll on me.?? With tournament time coming up it's not going to get any better.?? I have been watching the baseball playoffs every night and staying up until midnight really hurts, and I get up before 5 am every morning.?? Sigh, to be young again!?? For those who have not done so yet, please check out the web site linked below, it is for a good cause, our continued ability to call ourselves the "Marlin Capitol of the World".