Feb. 1-7, 2010

Weather: Thank goodness that the coldest we have seen here in the past week was 58 degrees! None of the snow storms and ice that has been plaguing the mid-west and the east coast. We did have some weather this week though. As my wife picked me up at the airport on Tuesday it started to rain, and it continued through the night until the early hours of Wednesday morning. Since then we have has only partly cloudy skies with cool evenings and early mornings and daytime highs that just reach 60 degrees. At least I am not out shoveling snow!

Water: The Pacific side of the Cape had some large swells this week along with occasional stiff breezes from the northwest that made it uncomfortable for some anglers and the water on that side has cooled off quite a bit as well and now is averaging just 70 degrees out to the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks. It drops a little more once you go west of there, sometimes down to 68 degrees. On the Cortez side of the Cape the water has been much calmer with small swells and only light chop in the mornings, picking up a bit later in the day. The water has been warmer there as well averaging 73 degrees five miles from the beach. Closer than that between Cabo and San Jose it has averaged 71 degrees.

Bait: The bait has been a mix of Caballito and Mackerel at the normal $3 per bait. I am not sure if there has been any Sardinas, but believe there have been some in San Jose based on what I have been told.

FISHING:

Marlin: These have not been the best choice to target as the success rate for those looking for a trophy fish have been low. There have been fish spotted but very few have been brought to the boat this week. The few that have been caught have been hooked on live bait, very few were caught on lures, and most of them were found on the Cortez side of the Cape. These are Striped Marlin I am talking about. I did not hear of any other species of Marlin being caught this week.

Yellowfin Tuna: Another scarce species this week, the Tuna that have been found were mostly football sized fish up to 20 pounds and it was a long run south, sometimes 40 miles, to get to the fish. There were plenty of schools of Porpoise to check out, but few of them had Tuna. A few boats were able to score fish closer to home, also to the south but we are talking about one or two fish per boat. At the end of the week I heard that there had been some fish show up in the area of the Gorda Banks.

Dorado: The cool water has really shut down the bite for Dorado, if you were able to find any. They were scarce, and the word I got from a few boats that got into schools on Thursday was that regardless of what the crew tried, the fish would not eat. No lures, no live bait, no fresh cut strips, nothing seemed to interest them. Hootchies and flies were ignored, rigged dead bait, it was as if the fish had their mouths sewn shut for the most part. During the week there were a few Dorado brought in, but the consensus was the season is over for Dorado unless we get a warm water eddy come through.

Wahoo: What Hoo?

Inshore: All right, finally some good news! The Sierra have shown up in good numbers with most anglers able to catch easy limits. While most of the fish are in the 5-6 pound class there have been a few good ones to 10 pounds. Don't turn away from these fish in disgust at their size, match your tackle to the fish and they are lots of fun and great smoked or for ceviche. Both side of the Cape have been producing well. Yellowtail are begining to show up as well, mostly firecrackers this early in the year but there have been some fish to 20 pounds. Fishing around the points and rock bottom areas using live bait or iron jigs produced the majority of the fish. The Pangas have also been getting into some Grouper and a scattering of smaller sized Roosterfish.

Notes: I just returned from seeing my family in Oklahoma. While it was nice seeing everyone again, and getting to see relatives I have not seen in 30 years, the cold really got to me, guess I have lived in the tropics too long. I really feel bad for all of you who have to put up with those conditions all winter long! Anyway, that was my way of letting you know why there was no fish report last week. I got my wife a new computer as well and forgot to have Office installed (sometimes I do stuff like that). In the next week or so that should be rectified and things will get back to normal. This weeks report was written to the music of Jack Johnson on his 2008 Universal Records release "Sleep Through The Static". Until next week, tight lines!