WEATHER:   The weather continues to slowly warm up as our nighttime lows have been in the high 60’s and our daytime highs have been in the high 80’s.  There have been very few clouds in the skies this past week, just scattered around here and there for the most part.  No rain has been seen to fall anywhere near us.  Sun block of at least SPF-35 has been a necessity.

WATER:  It appears that the California current has become weaker as the warm water on the Cortez side of the Cape has started to come across into the Pacific side over the week.  The cooler water in the current has been forced offshore, outside the San Jaime Bank it is a cool 68-69 degrees while on the bank and up to the shoreline it is a warmer 73-74 degrees.  On the Cortez side of the Cape we have mostly warm water in the 74-75 degree range.  Surface conditions have been great this past week with small swells and very little wind.

BAIT:  Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price. 

FISHING:

BILLFISH:  The Striped Marlin are re-appearing in large numbers now as the water has warmed up to their preferred 74 degree range, but they are not biting all that well.  That is not to say there are no fish being caught; it just means that as far as the percentage of fish caught to fish seen, well, that is a low number.  The positive side of this is that there are large numbers of fish being seen on the surface, small groups of three or four and larger groups that number up to fifteen fish.  Most boats have been releasing two or three Marlin per trip, but throwing bait to forty or so fish in order to get those numbers.  The area around the 95 spot has been holding large numbers of Striped Marlin, as has the area around the 1150.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:  We had a wide-open bite on the football size fish this week as a large school moved to within 4 miles of the bay early in the week.  Boats were getting 20-30 fish each before tiring and going on to fish for Marlin.  These fish were averaging 8-10 pounds each with a few in the 20-pound class.  They were biting anything you put in the water, but the larger fish were eating live bait dropped in front of the moving schools.  Any boats that went out at 150 degrees ran into these fish on Monday and Tuesday, as the week went on the fish moved to the west.  There were other scattered schools found, but with the bite so good close to home not many boats went much farther to look for larger ones.

DORADO:   There continued to be a few fish caught this week and as the water warms up more we should expect to be seeing more Dorado.  I had a report of a boat up at Los Barillas catching 27 Dorado after finding a dead seal and that is the type of thing that may begin to happen here.  Not that we kill seals, but this time of year we begin to find kelp fronds and trash in the water that hold large numbers of Dorado.

WAHOO:  What Hoo once again.

INSHORE: The numbers of small Yellowtail being caught has lowered this week, weather because they have moved on to water more in keeping with their preferred temperature or because they became fished out, I don’t know.  But instead of filling coolers with these small 5-8 pound fish, boats are getting just three or four per trip.  What has a lot of anglers excited is the number of Roosterfish that have been showing up just outside of the arch.  There have been mornings when 20 fish have been caught and released by one boat, but the fish have been small with an average size of 5 pounds.  Little guys, but when you use light tackle they are a blast to catch!  The Sierra bite has fallen off a bit as well and with the smooth water conditions and the Yellowfin Tuna being close, a lot of the Panga fishermen have been going out for the Tuna.

NOTES:  Maybe I’ll try this thing I’ve been trying to get to use next year, it does not look like I will get to use this technique anytime soon, sigh.  Anyway, we had great fishing this week and I hope it continues, with the numbers of Striped Marlin we are seeing if they start biting it will be awesome.  This weeks report was written to the music of John Lee Hooker on the 2006 Virgin Records release “Best Of Friends”.  Until next week, tight lines!

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