As predicted large crowds of anglers are now arriving in Los Cabos in anticipation of the upcoming million dollar Bisbee Black and Blue Marlin Tournament, excitement is in the air and this year's event is slated to have perhaps the largest cash payout in the history of sportfishing. All persons with interests in Southern Baja have been closely following the irregular development and path of Tropical Storm Kiko, at this time the storm is nearing category one hurricane strength and appears to be heading on a more northwesterly track that will keep the center of the storm over one hundred miles offshore of Cabo San Lucas before it weakens in the cooler waters of the Pacific. The exact storm track is still not certain and will need to be closely monitored for the next 24 hours, though ocean swells are already increasing significantly and will likely reach close to 8 to 10 feet by Monday and Tuesday. Remember that last year the Bisbee Tournament was shortened to two days instead of the normal three, due to another tropical storm, with luck this system will pass through the area by Tuesday and the field of tournament entries will be set to go as scheduled on Wednesday morning.

Last week the San Jose del Cabo fleet had reported slower action on what had been very consistent fishing for both yellowfin tuna and dorado, but once again this week started out with a flurry and fish counts were excellent throughout the week, before tapering off over the weekend. Fleets fished areas from Santa Maria, Red Hill, Gordo Banks and north to Iman Bank, with the action varying day to day as to where the best action was found, though overall Iman was probably the more consistent spot. Sardinas again proved to be the best bait, they were plentiful throughout the week, until the surf picked up on Sunday and made it difficult for the commercial pangueros to reach the schooling baitfish.

The average sized yellowfin tuna was in the 15 to 20 pound range, though several specimens topped the 50 pound mark, including one 96 pound tuna that was landed off of the Inner Gordo Bank while trolling a live bolito. Tuna outnumbered dorado at about a 5 to1 ratio, with small schools of dorado being found in similar areas where the yellowfin were schooling, the majority of the dorado were weighing in the 5 to 20 pound range. Live bait was the best producer, but quite a few tuna and dorado were also hooked into while trolling medium sized feathers, hoochies and rapalas.

Wahoo activity showed signs of improvement early in the week as anglers trolling with the standard arsenal of Yo-Zuri's, Marauders and skirted lead or jet heads reported numerous strikes by these speedsters on the fishing grounds of the 95 spot, San Luis Bank and north to Vinorama, the majority of the wahoo were smaller sized, 15 to 30 pounds, though some of the fish reported off of the 95 spot were much larger.

The Pacific continued to report the better billfish action, good numbers of striped marlin and some larger blues as well, with at least one fish over 500 pounds reported.

Other action reported was a mix of bottom species, various pargo, including some dog tooth snapper in the 30 to 50 pound class, cabrilla, rainbow runner, amberjack and triggerfish. A handful of early season sierra were also accounted for.

Surf anglers reported a few nice sized snook hook ups on both bait and artificials off of the San Jose Estuary area.

The status on the construction of the new Puerto Los Cabos Marina is that progress has slowed down to a crawl and not much work has been completed during the past month, a bit frustrating for residents of La Playita and panga fleet operators, after having reached the point where completion is so close. Patience is always necessary on vast projects such as this and we are optimistic that before the end of the year this new project will be in operation.

The combined fleet of panga from La Playita sent out approximately 142 charters for the week with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 6 sailfish,8 striped??marlin, 16 wahoo, 206 dorado, 748 yellowfin tuna, 12 rainbow runner, 26 cabrilla, 14 dogtooth snapper, 135??pargo, 110 triggerfish and 24 sierra.