A couple weeks ago when the billfish counts fell off, I said that I thought the bonanza was over and from there, the bite came back with a vengeance. However, we are now back to a week that the fishing became truly difficult and got more difficult as the week went on. Again, it appears that the striper bite has come to a near shut-down at the Golden Gate and given it's mid-March, I'm not at all surprised. It has been a wild ride for the season of billfish and likely to be one of the best ever recorded, especially due to the longevity of the season that started back in early November. The water temps have changed and as they approached the 70 degree mark this week, the fish seem to have disappeared from the "Bank". Overall counts for a combined total of 40 days reflected 35 stripers, (26 releases) 39 dorado, 11 yellowfin tuna and 46 sierra. The "Gaviota VIII", skippered by Captain Juan Dominguez, was again high boat for the week with 7 stripers for two fishing days. However, both days were early in the week and as the week progressed, so did the catching.

Cabo Climate: Mostly sunny with some scattered clouds floating by, temps from 62 nights to 87 daytime highs.

Sea Conditions: Cooling water trends on the Pacific side that dropped the Golden Gate down to 70 degrees. There was a slow rise to 72 degrees coming around the end of the peninsula to the Gorda Banks area. Southerly from Cabo, starting at about 15 miles or so, the water temps came up to 75 degrees, but still, the fish hadn't set up home in those waters, yet.

Best Fishing Area: Early week was the Golden Gate Bank and later, it was scattered throughout the area with no concentration.

Best Lure/Bait: A few billfish were taken on mackerel colored sevenstrand klones, probably as the boats were trolling from area to area and got lucky with a blind jig strike or two. Live bait was still the best.

Live Bait Supply: Still good with a mix of caballitos and mackerel at $3.00 per bait.