Sea of Cortez Pacific Ocean

WEATHER: We had a hot week here in Cabo as our daytime highs were in the mid to high 90's and the nighttime lows only got down to 85 degrees. Our cloud cover varied as weather from the mainland appeared intermittently, ever few days a new cloud deck comes over and we get a bit muggy for a day. No rain here in town this week, but I bet there was some up in the mountains!

WATER: After a strange change in the water temperatures last week, we are back to about what we expect for this time of year. On the Sea of Cortez the water is a very consistent 88 degrees while the Pacific side as a band of cold water along the beach that reads as 83 degrees. The warm 88 degree water from the Cortez side has a finger running up the Pacific side across the San Jaime Bank and up to the western edge of the Golden Gate Bank. This finer of warm water extends out to almost the 1,000 fathom line, then the temperature drops to 83 degrees again. This week the swells have been small and the winds light so the fishing conditions have been fantastic!

BAIT: Caballito, Mullet and Sardines were the live bait available with the bigger baits at the usual $3 each and the Sardinas at $25 a scoop up in the Palmilla area.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: There are plenty of Striped Marlin being seen but not all of them have been hungry. A few boats have tossed baits to as many as 8 fish per trip and have been lucky to get three hooked up and released, for most boats just getting one released has been a reason for celebration. As far as the larger Marlin go, some Blacks are beginning to show up off the Gorda Banks and the Punta Gorda area and there have been Blue Marlin attacking lures both to the south of Cabo and around the warm water plume on the Pacific side. Most of these larger fish a=have been in the 200-300 pound class, but there have been reports of some in the magic 300+ category as well. Lures have been the best stuff to use on the Blue Marlin and the Black Marlin really like slow trolled live Skipjack.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Strangely enough, Yellowfin Tuna have remained our fish of the week. I mean that because we have been seeing Purse Seiners setting on schools out here, and we are still catching some nice Tuna, in spite of them. There have been some very nice fish reported from the area of the Finger Banks, but that is a long haul for the fleet guys on a fingers crossed trip when there is good fishing closer to home. Boats fishing the Pacific side have been catching fish ranging from 10 to 100 pounds with most of them in the 20-30 pound class while trolling cedar plugs and feathers around porpoise and dolphin. The larger fish have been hooked on slow trolled live bait and live bait dropped back after hooking up to a trolled fish, but the very largest fish have been taken while fishing under a kite. We had clients this week who caught 5 Yellowfin between 30 and 60 pounds and several small one, the larger fish all coming from using the kite. Other boats working a bit farther out to the south reported larger fish over 100 pounds coming from under a kite.

DORADO: The Dorado bite did not change this week as there were still plenty of fish to be caught, you just had to be fishing the right areas get them. Almost all the big numbers were found within 2 miles of the beach on the Pacific side up past the Arcos area. Big numbers do not mean big fish though as most of these Dorado were in the 10 pound class with a few much smaller as well. The larger fish were found farther offshore, but were scattered, no concentrated, Boats that did well on the larger fish were looking for feeding frigate birds and running to them, tossing out live bait and slow trolling the area. Also, almost anything you found floating this week was likely to have fish under it. A few boats were able to get into small groups of Dorado averaging 25 pounds and catching 3 or 4 for the fish box.
WAHOO: Once again I did not hear of any Wahoo, but we are approaching the full moon and it is the right time of year, so I expect that to change this week.

INSHORE: Some Roosterfish as well as a scattering of Snapper and Grouper have kept most inshore anglers a little busy, but with the water conditions the way they are most of the Pangas are going offshore looking for the larger Dorado and some of those great Yellowfin Tuna.

FISH RECIPE: My recipe has been taking too much space so if you want to see it, check out my wordpress blog a little later in the week, or subscribe to the blog and you will receive an email as soon as I post it. This week I actually will be posting one since we finally got some Tuna to take home, a very nice piece from the 169 pound fish!

NOTES: I love having fresh Tuna to eat, yesterday I fixed some sushi and we pigged out, even the dog had some! Hopefully having the Tuna here is a situation that will stay the same for the next few months, it sure would be nice if they stayed in our area for the Tuna Tournament in November! This weeks report was written to the sound of techno-dancer music blasting from a neighbors outdoor speakers a block away, some kind of rave going on for the last two days. Noise pollution when it is that loud in a residential area! Oh well, it's off to the beach with the wife and puppy, home for a good breakfast and then a good sit down for a Sunday of football!! Don't forget all the victims of the terrorist act of 9/11 in your prayers today.

Until next week, tight lines!

Brule River Fly Fishing guides in Northern Wisconsin

Fly fishing the Brule River State Forest located in Northern Wisconsin contains all 44 miles of the world famous fly fishing river....Bois Brule River, one of the best known fly fishing rivers east of the Mississippi. For over one hundred years, the Bois Brule River has been known as an exceptional fly fishing trout stream. The Bois Brule River contains resident brook trout, brown trout and rainbow trout. Lake run brown trout and rainbow (steelhead) trout along with Coho and Chinook salmon migrate up the Bois Brule River annually from Lake Superior for fly fishing anglers to pursue.

The Bois Brule River itself has two distinct personalities. The upper river (the southern portion) flows through miles of coniferous bog and is fed by numerous springs. When the river crosses the Copper Range, it begins a fall of 328 feet in the eighteen miles to Lake Superior. Here, flashing cascades tumble over rocks and ledges and between steep river bluffs forested with aspen and balsam fir.

Fly Fishing the St. Louis River Minnesota

Enjoy a scenic fly fishing drift boat trip down the St. Louis River catching smallies on one of the top smallmouth bass waters in the Midwest.  We offer guided fly fishing float trips down the Upper St. Louis River in 2 or 3 person pontoon drift boats and a powered boat for the Lower St. Louis River and the Duluth Superior Harbor. The Upper St. Louis River is mostly carry down access, so the fishing is light compared to other high profile smallmouth bass rivers, but has an excellent smallmouth bass population for fly fishing.  The Lower St. Louis River also contains good populations of Muskellunge and Northern Pike as well as large smallmouth bass. The St. Louis River watershed is large, covering 3,650 square miles. Because the river has minimal shallow rapids that there is nearly always enough water for canoeing and other boating. The rapids in the upper part of the river are Class I or less. In the lower part of the river, from the Floodwood to Cloquet, rapids are Class I-III.

St. Louis River Water characteristics - Stream flow usually peaks in late April and falls throughout the summer. The river's flow is affected by the regulation of reservoirs on tributaries, particularly the Whiteface and Cloquet rivers. From U.S. Highway 53 to Cloquet the river falls 136 feet, an average of 1.5 feet per mile. The river varies in width from 75 to 600 feet.

St. Louis River Landscape - Parts of the St. Louis are wild; other are dotted with farms, homes or small towns. Cloquet is the most developed area. Though bluffs and wooded hills are common in the upper reaches, the middle section of river is flanked by low-lying woods and bogs. The watershed is bordered to the north by middle Precambrian ores of the Mesabi Iron Range. Underlying the St. Louis itself are mid-Precambrian argillite and graywacke. In its middle reaches the St. Louis flows across silts and clays that once formed the nearly level bed of glacial Lake Upham.

St. Louis Fish and wildlife - Walleye and northern pike are the principle game fish, though smallmouth bass are common from the mouth of the Whiteface River to Cloquet, and channel catfish from Floodwood to Brookston. Timber wolves, bobcats, lynx, beavers, otters, bald eagles and osprey are occasionally sighted. Big game includes moose, black bears and white-tailed deer.