Week Ending July 20, 2014

Water - 85 degrees inside, 86 to 88 degrees outside. Clean, clear water. Air -Days have been hot.

The Environment: Bait availability has been excellent with all boats getting good caballito and ballyhoo. We have come to the end of a week of excellent fishing conditions. No more rain nor is it overcast. The fishing itself started picking up nicely at the beginning of the week.

The Bottom Line: Call it an 8.5 on the Rancho Leonero 1 to 10

Billfish – The blue marlin returned this week with fish being caught every day close off Buena Vista to the Light House from 3 to 10 miles out. Striped marlin action slowed a bit. (Earlier in the year we got to expect multiple fish on every boat.) At the moment one can expect one fish per boat. Also sailfish are biting in the same numbers.

Yellowfin Tuna– – Most of the action is south. There are still fish inshore near Vinorama, south of Frailes. Quite a mixture of sizes. Some boats worked that bite and then ventured out from there and found porpoise. Good fish, with 88 pounds being the biggest ... most of them were in the 40-pound range. Rapalas worked well. Hootchies trolled close worked well also and of course a few were taken with kites. Dorado - Well, as usual we caught some good-sized fish before the tournament but not so many in the tournament!!! Just to say the word 'Tournament" to stop a good bite!!! I am not sure of the tournament stats yet but I am sure they will tell the story and should go out today on the media. One of our pangas boated a 48-pounder the day before the tournament.

Roosterfish- Fish continue to be of good size. The beach was a little tougher this week but the pangas continued to get fish over 50 pounds all week.

Meanhwhile, Back at the Ranch... The weekend brought the 'Dorado Shootout" which essentially pushed 140 boats after dorado only, thereby skewing the stats a little. However, our boats which were not in the tournament did get some good tuna! Those that worked the bottom did well with barred pargo and amberjacks. Jigging Butterfly Jigs off the bottom produced the best results.