At 9PM MDT the National Hurricane Center issued the following release:

...OTIS SLOWS AND STRENGTHENS...NEW WARNINGS AND WATCHES FOR BAJA CALIFORNIA..

AT 8 PM PDT...0300Z...THE GOVERNMENT OF MEXICO HAS EXTENDED THE TROPICAL STORM WARNING AND HURRICANE WATCH ALONG THE PACIFIC COAST OF BAJA CALIFORNIA NORTHWARD TO PUNTA ABREOJOS. A TROPICAL STORM WARNING AND A HURRICANE WATCH ARE NOW IN EFFECT FOR THE PACIFIC COAST OF THE BAJA CALIFORNIA PENINSULA FROM PUNTA ABREOJOS
SOUTHWARD TO CABO SAN LUCAS. HURRICANE WARNINGS WILL LIKELY BE REQUIRED FOR
PORTIONS OF THIS AREA ON THE NEXT ADVISORY

AT 8 PM PDT...THE TROPICAL STORM WARNING ON THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA COAST OF BAJA CALIFORNIA
IS EXTENDED NORTHWARD TO SAN EVARISTO. A TROPICAL STORM WARNING IS IN EFFECT
FOR THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA COAST OF THE BAJA PENINSULA FROM SAN EVARISTO
SOUTHWARD TO EAST OF CABO SAN LUCAS

AT 8 PM PDT...A TROPICAL STORM WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA
COAST OF BAJA CALIFORNIA FROM NORTH OF SAN EVARISTO NORTHWARD TO LORETO

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED
WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. A HURRICANE WATCH MEANS THAT
HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA... GENERALLY WITHIN 36
HOURS. A TROPICAL STORM WATCH MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE
POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA... GENERALLY WITHIN 36 HOURS

INTERESTS ELSEWHERE NEAR BOTH COASTS OF THE CENTRAL AND NORTHERN BAJA CALIFORNIA PENINSULA
SHOULD CLOSELY MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF OTIS

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...INCLUDING POSSIBLE INLAND
WATCHES AND WARNINGS...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER
OFFICE

AT 8 PM PDT...0300Z...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE OTIS WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 21.7 NORTH...LONGITUDE 111.4 WEST OR ABOUT 125 MILES... 205 KM...SOUTHWEST OF THE SOUTHERN TIP OF BAJA CALIFORNIA AND ABOUT 220 MILES... 355 KM...SOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF CABO SAN LAZARO MEXICO.

OTIS IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTHWEST NEAR 5 MPH. A GRADUAL TURN TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHWEST AND SOME INCREASE IN FORWARD SPEED ARE EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS. THE CENTER OF OTIS IS CURRENTLY FORECAST TO REMAIN WEST OF SOUTHERN BAJA CALIFORNIA. HOWEVER... ANY MOTION TO THE RIGHT OF THE FORECAST TRACK COULD BRING THE CENTER NEAR SOUTHERN BAJA CALIFORNIA ON SATURDAY.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS HAVE INCREASED TO NEAR 90 MPH...150 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. OTIS IS A CATEGORY ONE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE. SOME STRENGTHENING IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS...AND OTIS COULD BECOME A CATEGORY TWO HURRICANE ON SATURDAY.

HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 15 MILES... 30 KM... FROM THE CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 80 MILES...130 KM. HOWEVER... WINDS WILL BE STRONGER AT HIGHER ELEVATIONS. DURING THE PAST FEW HOURS...A 10-MINUTE AVERAGE WIND SPEED OF 43 MPH...69 KM/HR... AND A GUST TO 50 MPH...81 KM/HR WERE REPORTED AT CABO SAN LUCAS AT A HEIGHT OF 735 FT...224 METERS ABOVE SEA LEVEL.

ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 977 MB...28.85 INCHES.

RAINFALL TOTALS OF 3 TO 5 INCHES WILL BE POSSIBLE OVER PORTIONS OF SOUTHERN BAJA CALIFORNIA TONIGHT AND SATURDAY... AND SPREADING NORTHWARD INTO CENTRAL BAJA CALIFORNIA ON SATURDAY.

REPEATING THE 8 PM PDT POSITION...21.7 N...111.4 W. MOVEMENT TOWARD...NORTHWEST NEAR 5 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS... 90 MPH. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE... 977 MB.

AN INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER AT 11 PM PDT FOLLOWED BY THE NEXT COMPLETE ADVISORY AT 2 AM PDT.

The fourth annual monitoring meeting of the Grupo Tortuguero, held August 12-13 in Lopez Mateos, was a huge success with over 50 participants representing 13 communities throughout the peninsula and mainland Mexico. This meeting is a chance for members of the network to come together and celebrate the work they are doing to preserve the world’s sea turtles, as well as to share data, experiences and lessons learned while working throughout Baja California and the Sea of Cortez.

At this meeting we had the opportunity to welcome the new members of the Grupo Tortuguero monitoring network - Agua Verde, El Pardito and the municipality of Guasave, Sinaloa. Each of these sites is a sea turtle hotspot, and we are lucky to have them join our team. Additionally, the new Comite Coordinador (coordinating committee) of the Grupo Tortuguero was formed, with 5 individuals, representing each municipality within the network, elected to the committee. This committee will guide decision-making and ensure that all communities within the network are equally represented.

 We would like to thank the ProCaguama team and the pueblo of Lopez Mateos for hosting this year’s meeting; National Marine Fisheries Service for their sponsorship of the meeting; and Rachel Tuck for her time and energy volunteering at the meeting and the sea turtle festival!

This monitoring meeting, held each fall, is a precursor to the Annual Meeting of the Grupo Tortuguero. The 8th Annual Meeting will be held in Loreto, BCS, January 27-29, 2006. This meeting is open to the public and we hope to see you there! For more information about the Grupo Tortuguero visit www.grupotortuguero.org

WEATHER: Our day time highs have been in the high 90’s this week, and according to the weather guys, with the humidity we have it has felt like 110. Our nighttime lows have been in the low 80’s and you can hear the air conditioners everywhere at night. There was no rain this week although we did have a couple of cloudy days in the middle of the week and with the winds light from the west things stayed fairly still most of the time.
WATER: There were a few cool spots on the Sea of Cortez where the water was only 84 degrees but for the most part water temperatures were between 85 and 88 degrees. Maybe the gauge on the “Senor Moment” is off a bit, but I did read a few spots where we got over 90 degrees surface temperature up around Punta Gorda. On the Pacific side we had the water temperature vary a bit more with cold water at 82 degrees and warm water at 88 degrees. We have had a pretty strong current push water from the Sea of Cortez up the Pacific side and the current break that had been running north-south across the 95 spot has spread out a bit and moved farther to the west. The break is still there but it is not as defined, now being between Cabo and the Jaime Bank area. Farther up the Pacific coast, just off the beach inside the Golden Gate Bank is where you will find the 82-degree water.
BAIT: We had a pretty good mix of Caballito and Mackerel available this week at the normal $2 per bait. There were also Sardinas available from bait boats up around the Palmilla area at $20 a big scoop.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: I love this time of the year with the variety of Billfish available! Once again every species we have available except for Swordfish and Spearfish were caught this week. There were plenty of Sailfish striking jigs on the Cortez side, but most of them were just strikes since the lures were a bit large for them! Dropping back a strip bait or small live bait resulted in quite a few fish being hooked up, as did drifting with live bait along the 100 fathom edge around the Punta Gorda area or the Gorda Banks. The Sailfish were averaging 80 pounds and some boats were getting three of four a day. Now that is not a lot if you are used to fishing Costa Rica, but for Cabo that is quite good! The reason not so many were hooked on lures was because most of the boats were pulling lures sized for the larger billfish such as Blue Marlin. Why? Well, they are here, that’s why! There have been a lot of them caught and released this week, and unfortunately a few killed as well. The action has been scattered but there were fish found at all the usual spots, the 95, the 1150, outside the Gorda, south of the Jaime, off of Punta Cristobal, almost anyplace where the currents and structure go together. The average size seemed to be around 250-300 pounds (as reported by excited anglers and Captains, it may have been less in actuality!) and almost all the action was on trolled lures. Keeping the speed up a bit, around 9 knots, brought aggressive strikes on lures in either blue-silver-yellow (Dorado colors) or black-green-silver (Skipjack colors). Some big Black Marlin were hooked as well, not as many of them as the Blue Marlin, but they were there. Action on the Blacks was mostly confined to just off of the various points and almost all of it took place in water between 300 and 900 feet in depth. Striped Marlin are still around and there was a good bite for Wednesday and Thursday 4-5 miles to the east of the 95 spot. Dropping back a live bait to fish coming into the lure spread resulted in most of the hook-ups and some boats were able to release four or five fish a day.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Once again there were school and football fish available up around the Punta Gorda area this week. It was a long run and you had to stop at the Palmilla area for Sardinas for bait, but there was decent action once you got there. Most of the Yellowfin action was early in the week, alter on the 15 pound Skipjack and Bonito moved in and while there were still a few Yellowfin to 30 pounds caught, the majority of fish were released as not being the “right” kind. For bigger Tuna you needed to find the porpoise, and at the end of the week it started to get good. Not much fish was found on the surface though; most of them were marked on depth sounder under Porpoise. Getting ahead of the group and dropping live bait on them resulted in fish ranging from #250 to #60 being fought and landed. Of course not everyone was able to get them to bite, a bit of luck was needed as well. Oh, and it also helped if you were using floura-carbon leader in #50, or tied you hook directly to 50 or 80 test line. Of course if you tied directly you needed to use a circle hook. Even then you sometimes lost a fish. One of my friends fought a Tuna estimated by him at #300-320 for three hours before loosing it right below the boat. He hooked it on #50 direct. He also caught one the next day he estimated at #150 but later turned out to be #223, so the one he lost may have been larger! Anyway, there are fish out there, you just have to find them, be ready and be lucky!
DORADO: This week was a repeat of last week’s action on Dorado. I saw a lot of Dorado flags this week and while there were a few nice fish to 50 pounds caught, most of the fish seemed to be in the 15-20 pound class. Close to shore, mostly within 2 miles was where most of the action took place with the exception of several boats that were able to find a piece of floating wood that held a decent school.

WAHOO: I didn’t hear of any Wahoo action this week.
INSHORE: With the great water conditions most of the Panga fleet this week was working offshore for Dorado and Marlin. Those that did work inshore reported fair to good action on Roosterfish, Skipjack, Jack Crevalle and Needlefish. Small hootchies and Sardinas were the lures and bait of choice inshore.
NOTES: Our computer is back! I was out four days this week so got to see quite a bit of action myself, and heard a lot on the radio so you have a pretty comprehensive report this week. My trips are slow for the nest two week so I will be writing a few articles and working on boats, envying the guys going out for Marlin and Tuna as I sit at home or on the docks! My best fishing music this week (almost every time I put these CD’s on we got bit) was Boz Scaggs and Ottmar Liebert, a little mellow but the fish liked them! Until next week, tight lines!