October 25-31, 2010
Weather: We have had the best weather for the past several weeks! Morning lows in the low 70's and mid-day highs in the mid to high 80's with a little dew on the plants in the mornings has made everything brighten up and look great.
Water: The water in most areas of the Sea of Cortez has been a steady 82-83 degrees but at the end of the week there was a hot spot of 87 degree water off of the Punta Gorda area. The warm water wrapped around the Cape, creeping up along the shoreline on the Pacific side as far north as the Golden Gate Bank with 80 degree water. More than 4 miles offshore on the Pacific side the water cools considerably to 74-77 degrees. Farther out than 50 miles to the southeast the water cools again to 77 degrees while the warm water from the Sea of Cortez continues to the south and southwest in a finger of warm water.
Bait: Caballito were available at $3 each as were mullet. There were small Sardinas as well at around $30 a scoop.
FISHING
Billfish: With the Bisbee's Black and Blue Marlin tournament over the focus has changed a bit with the boats going out re-focusing on the more common Striped Marlin instead of the larger Blue and Black Marlin. There are still nice Blues and Blacks being caught each day, but there has not been the pressure, the intensity of effort we saw the past week. The larger fish have still been coming from the warmer waters up around San Jose in the Punta Gorda and Vinorama area and along the line between the 95 spot and the 1150, while the Striped Marlin have been just off the warm water along the Pacific side, with more fish being found to the northern area than to the south end of the Cape.
Yellowfin Tuna: The Yellowfin Tuna this week were spread out all over the place, and there were some really nice ones caught. The largest I heard of came from the Gorda Banks, two days in a row there were fish over #300 caught, the largest at #350! There were football and slightly larger in the area as well and a few fish over 100 pounds. Boats working off of Palmilla and Cabo Del Sol with Sardinas were doing well on fish in the 15-25 pound class. Offshore in the Sea of Cortez passing pods of Porpoise signaled the presence of nice Yellowfin more often than not, but there were a few instances where the Tuna were not present. These fish ranged in size from 20 pounds to occasional groups of fish to 200 pounds seen breaking the surface, and a few being hooked up. On the Pacific side there were also passing pods of Porpoise off of the lighthouse, close to shore that were delivering Yellowfin that averaged 35 pounds with an occasional fish to 60 pounds, and boats working the San Jaime Banks area were pleasantly surprised to see fish in the #200 class breaking the water, but frustrated when they would not eat. Boats that were willing to go the extra yard by working kites with both live baits and artificials were able to hook the occasional fish to #180, but the larger ones were elusive. All this leads up to what looks like a really fantastic Tuna Tournament!
Dorado: If you were in the right place at the right time it was no problem to limit out on the Dorado this week, but many boats also had little luck. It seemed as if the fish on the Pacific side moved just a little farther to the north than they were last week, which seems counter intuitive as the cooler water is to the North. However, there were passing schools of fish found offshore at a distance of 10-15 miles on the Pacific side as well as very far to the south of us at a distance of 30+ miles, and some of the schools were of large fish, with an average of 30 pounds. That was not the norm however, as the fish closer to hove averaged 12 pounds yet once again, with only an occasional fish to 30 pounds. A few boats found small floating debris and were able to pull some decent fish from them using live bait, or were able to get good numbers by leaving the first fish hooked up in the water and waiting for the rest of the school to show up.
Wahoo: There seemed to be a few more Wahoo this week than last, but once again they were an incidental fish as few boats were targeting them. The boats that did get Wahoo seemed to find them while fishing for Tuna closer to shore, which makes sense as Wahoo are structured oriented fish.
Inshore: I heard that there were schools of Roosterfish averaging 4 pounds cruising the beach off of Playa Grande and the Solmar, small fish but at least they were Roosters, good for those that have a bucket list to work on. This morning I came across a couple of locals working the beach with spinning rods right in the arroyo between Club Cascades and Villa Del Palmar and they had a good number of small Jack Crevalle as well as one very nice Sierra! We had one fly fishing client out this week who caught one small Roosterfish, several Ladyfish and a few Sierra on the Pacific side close to the beach. I also had one Panga Captain tell me that he had caught a Yellowtail that weighed 22 pounds for a client on the Pacific side up around the the rocks at the lighthouse, but I never saw the fish.
Notes: If you are getting your own fishing licenses, you must have pesos!!! The people that sell the licenses around the marina can no longer take dollars from anyone. Get pesos the day before! No one has change for your US $100 at 6AM.
Once again I had a "ye-haw" western bent, music with a drawl as I continued to explore the CD's brought to me by my friends from Plano, Texas. A new favorite was Wade Bowen on his CD "If We Make It Home" Until next week, tight lines!
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