WEATHER:???? This morning when I got up to go to the golf course it was 72 degrees here at the house and 69 degrees at the course.?? When I got in the truck to leave the course at 11 am it was 98 degrees.?? I guess that can give you an idea of the weather this week, huh??? No rain, clear skies and at the end of the week there was almost no wind.

WATER:?? The Sea of Cortez was showing a pretty even 85 degrees anywhere within range of a day trip and the surface conditions were excellent at the end of the week.?? At the beginning of the week the wind was from the north and it was pretty choppy on the outside.?? The wind and a 2-knot current brought green water to the inside through the middle of the week, conditions improved at the end of the week.?? On the Pacific side the warm water had pushed well past the San Jaime Bank and across the Golden Gate bank.?? From the inside of the Golden Gate and up the coast out a distance of about three miles the water remained in the 84-degree range.?? The only true bleu water I saw this week was outside the 1150 on the Cortez side, elsewhere it was a slightly off color blue.

BAIT: ??You could get Caballito this week for $2 per bait but by far the quickest selling bait was Sardinas.?? They were bringing a premium price as all the boats wanted several scoops to use for catching tuna, in turn using the tuna as bait for Marlin during the Bisbee Black and Blue tournament.?? Because of this, locally the Sardinas were going for about the equivalent of $50 per big scoop, compared to $25 per decent scoop.?? Boats willing to make the 30-minute run toward San Jose got a better price and better-conditioned bait, a good scoop for $25.

FISHING:

BILLFISH:?? Results form the Bisbee Black and Blue tournament told the true tale this week.?? With 167 boats fishing for three days there were 6 fish over #300 weighed, the largest of them was #620 and was reported to have been caught out toward the Cabrillo Seamount on the Cortez side of the Cape.?? Most of the reports called in over the radio were of fish caught either in front of the Cape or over on the Pacific side.?? I believe that the green colored water close to shore on the Cortez side had a lot of boats fishing the Pacific instead.?? On the first day all the qualifying fish were reported to have been caught on the Pacific side close to shore.?? There were plenty of Striped Marlin on the Golden Gate bank for the first two days of the tournament and then the fish closed their mouths and moved on.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:?? With most of the boats this week focusing on Marlin there were only a few looking for Yellowfin Tuna offshore.?? There were plenty of small fish, football size caught by boats making bait up on the Pacific side close to shore inside the Golden Gate Bank.?? The last day of the tournament had a couple of boats reporting hook-up on unidentified fish that ended up being large Yellowfin.?? These fish were either blind strikes or found with a few black porpoise and were found around the 95 spot, just 8 miles from Cabo.

DORADO:?? Once again almost all the Dorado action was found on the Pacific side, and the farther north you went the better the bite was.?? Charters working the inside were getting four to 14 fish per trip and the size averaged 15 pounds with a few fish in the 40+ range being caught as well.?? Boats working live bait deep found a few nice fish as well on the Cortez side up around the Punta Gorda area, but it was very scattered and there was no consistency to the catch in that area.

WAHOO:?? I was surprised that there was not more Wahoo reported this week as we just went through the full moon phase, but I only heard a few calls on the radio.?? With so many boats working close to shore on the Pacific side it just goes to show that there were not that many of these tasty fish around.

INSHORE:?? A repeat of last week. 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:?? The tournaments are over for the month and there is only one more to go.?? The Tuan tournament is the most fun of the bunch and is in November so we get a short rest.?? With a couple of weeks with no practice my golf game is really bad.?? My wife won a free ride at the "Baja Wide Open" and gave them to my buddy and I.?? This is an off-road course where you drive a "Baja Buggy", doing jumps and taking some great s-turns and hairpin turns on a sand track, over hills and down arroyos.?? It was such a blast!?? But no my back hurts a bit and that is my excuse for the bad golf game today!?? If you are interested in the results of the Bisbee Black and Blue tournament go to www.bisbees.com.?? Until next week, tight lines!