THE GAVIOTA SPORTFISHING FLEET AND FISH CABO FLEET

Cabo remains unseasonably slow on charters as the billfish bite continues to be way off mark for this time of year. The current thought is the season is delayed due to the pending "El Nino" probabilities and should that prove true, then we should begin to see a better billfish bite that goes through the March-April time frame. We'll see how that rationale develops very soon. This past week was way off the mark for charters and by the end of the reporting period we reflected a very sporadic 18 combined charter fishing days for both fleets. The fish counts reflected 4 stripers released, 30 dorado, 29 yellowffin tuna 30 sierra and 5 wahoo.

Cabo Climate: Partly cloudy days that included a good mix of sunshine and temps that ranged from 56 nights to 79 daytime highs.

Sea Conditions: Temps from the Golden Gate Bank down to Cabo San Lucas and around the corner and up to the Gorda Banks remained at 73-74.5 with the warmer water mostly on the Gorda Banks side of the peninsula. Out to the southeast of Cabo, starting at about 15 miles, the temps were in the 76 degree range. Water clarity has been very good in all of the areas.

Best Fishing Area: The 4 billfish were taken 50-50 on both sides with two near the Cristobal drop-off and two at Santa Maria Bay to Chileno. Dorado were starting to thin out and were scattered. Wahoo came along the 20-30 fathom curve from Gray Rock to Palmilla and the yellowfin came mostly from the Jaime Bank area.

Best Lure/Bait: Live bait is almost always best for the billfish and even the dorado and that continued this week. Wahoo taken on Marauders and black/purple artificials and the tuna on feathers and cedar plugs.

Live Bait Supply: Good mix of mackerel and caballitos.