WEATHER:???? Now I remember why we have all the tourists come and visit us this time of year, the weather is great!?? Our morning pre-sunrise temperature this morning was 70 degrees and at noon we had only 87 degrees, sunny skies and a very light wind here in town.?? It does not get much better than this.?? There was no rain this week but we did have the wind pick up a bit at the end of the week, mostly from the northwest.

WATER:?? The water remained in the 80-83 degree range for another week.?? The water on the Pacific side was in the 83-degree range across the San Jaime and Golden Gate band and up to the Finger Bank area.?? Inside close to shore it dropped a degree and farther out it dropped a degree.?? On the Cortez side the temperature was a pretty constant 82-83 degrees anywhere within range.?? Later in the week the surface conditions worsened on the Pacific side as the swells kicked up a bit and the wind started to blow, early in the week you could go anywhere at a good speed.

BAIT: ??Larger baits were a pretty even mix of Caballito and Mackerel at the normal $2 per bait and there were plenty of Sardinas available as well both in Cabo and up in San Jose at $20 a scoop.?? If you wanted to catch your own bait there were plenty of Mackerel to be found just in front of the lighthouse on the Pacific side in 100 feet of water.

FISHING:

BILLFISH:?? The good news on the Marlin front is that the fish have definitely moved onto the Golden Gate Bank.?? There are giant bait balls deep over the top of the bank and small broken balls of bait on the surface.?? Most boats have been having good results by either deep drifting a live Mackerel caught on the spot or running to fish feeding on the surface and tossing bait to them.?? I think the average per boat was about 5 fish for the day.?? Boats willing to go the extra distance were still having great fishing up at the Finger Bank, but unless all you wanted was Marlin, the Gate offered a better variety.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:?? There were still plenty of football Tuna just at the outer edge of San Lucas bay in water that was 200 feet in depth, just on the edge of the drop.?? These fish were biting well on Sardines early in the morning and averaged 12 pounds.?? Later in the day they seemed to stray a bit to the north and small feathers worked better.?? There were reports of slightly larger fish farther offshore, but the reports of cow Tuna were limited to private boats working the banks far to the north, well outside charter range.?? Hopefully these fish will come down to our area as the water temperature drops.

DORADO:?? The Dorado were scattered this week and the best bite remained on the Pacific side just off the beach 20 miles up.?? Boats that slow trolled live Mackerel did well, averaging 5 fish per boat with an occasional Striped Marlin in the mix.?? On the Cortez side there was no real concentration of fish except for the Inman Bank area, and even there, there were no large numbers.?? The fish averaged 12 pounds this week.

WAHOO: There were a few more Wahoo caught this week than last week and most of them were in the 30-pound class.?? The depths of 100-150 feet just off the beach around rocky points seemed to be holding the most fish, but it was a matter of being there at the right time, and that was unpredictable.

INSHORE:?? In a repeat of last week, the football size Yellowfin Tuna were the target of most of the Pangas this week, but there were still plenty of Roosterfish to be found on both sides of the Cape.?? At the end of the week most of the Pangas were fishing on the Cortez side due to the wind.

Notes:?? This was pretty much a repeat of the last weeks report and action.?? My only question is, why aren't you here yet??? Until next week, tight lines! (p.s. shot a 99 this morning!)