September 11, 2022 

Hurricane Kay has passed, overall we feel very fortunate that this storm stayed far enough offshore to the west that we did not receive major damage, plenty of rainfall was recorded,four to eight inches, depending on location, some wind gusts to over 30 mph, storm swells to 20 feet and local Port closures for four and a half days. Desert landscape is now in full bloom, tropical green mountains, once dry arroyos are now flowing rivers. Now we are following what will be TS Lester, forecast to possibly pass close by next weekend. 

Due to weather conditions there were only a couple of days boats were able to get out this past week. Anglers dealt with limited bait options, mainly mullet and ballyhoo were offered. As high swells scattered the bait fish which had been schooling along the shore line. Most charters were fishing areas from the Gordo Banks, north to Iman Bank and areas in between.

Dorado were the most common catch, though most of these fish were smaller in size, under 10 lb., only a few exceptions of bulls to over 20 lb. Trolling ballyhoo was most successful. A few wahoo strikes were reported,we expect to see more wahoo activity when water temperature drops back down near 80 degrees, presently it is averaging about 84 degrees. Ocean is greenish closer to shore, stirred up from all of the water and debris run off, now out to 5 or 10 miles, will continue to clean back up, as long as another storm does not set things back again.

We saw a variety of billfish, it is the time of year when there are striped, blue & black marlin, as well as sailfish all on local grounds. Most numerous were the striped marlin over on the Pacific Banks. A few blacks lurking around the high spots, including the Gordo Banks, best bet is to troll a large bait, such as a live skipjack and be prepared to put in some time, lots of patience is needed for this type of fishing, but rewards can be great, smallest black marlin we see start at about 200 lb and can weigh up to 1000 lb.
Hopefully next week we will have more to report, should start to see some of the larger yellowfin tuna on high spots as well.

Good Fishing, Eric