Guatemala Sizzles, Others Struggle

East Cape
Yvonne and Gary will attend the International Sportsmen’s Expo in San Mateo, CA, February 3-6. If you are attending the show, don’t miss Gary’s presentations on –
Friday, 5:30 Baja on the Fly Techniques You Can Use
A few sierra inshore and from the beach can be found on the calm days, usually at gray light before the wind cranks up. Wind . . . rain . . . more wind seemed to be the name of that tune most of the week. Hopefully, this week will be better.
Water temperature
70-74
Air temperature
66-69
Humidity
43%
Wind:
NNW 17 mph
Conditions:
Scattered Clouds
Visibility
10 miles
Sunrise
7:00 a.m. MST
Sunset
6:03 p.m. MST


Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico
Squirrelly weather including some rain kept most of the fleet close to home. Only fair fishing reported at the entrada on the good days. A few small yellows and grouper were the best anyone could come up with. The esteros above Lopez Mateos produced fair action for small sierra and a few grouper. The locals continue preparations for the upcoming annual celebration of the whales, “Festival Ballena Gris,” Feb. 12.

Water temperature
69-75
Air temperature
64-71
Humidity
25%
Wind:
North 2 mph
Conditions:
Clear
Visibility
3 miles
Sunrise
7:10 a.m. MST
Sunset
6:08 p.m. MST
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
The blue water is just off the beach, but earlier in the week the full moon had put a bit of a brake on the good action we had been having. However, yesterday (Friday), the fishing picked up again with the boats averaging a couple of sailfish each per day, plus a very good showing of 20 to 35 pound dorado.

Frustrated by only raising 3 or 4 sailfish a day earlier in the week, client Rich Pietila of Odessa, Texas asked Martin on the panga Isamar to go 40 miles and see if they could get some action on the yellowfin tuna. They did not find any tuna, but on the way back they saw a lot of sailfish at the 30 mile mark. Using only hookless lures, as we do when fly fishing, they would tease the fish to the boat, but dropped back with a live bait on a 30 pound rig. They tagged and released 6 in a very short time. The next day they targeted this group of new fish, and what a day they had. With more than 30 fish raising to the spread, they tagged and released 12.

The roosterfish are still very slow and will probably not pick up again until July. Inshore, the small game fishing is decent and we are even getting quite a few chulas. A chula (kawa kawa) is a small tuna, with teeth.

Baja on the Fly report by Ed Kunze

Water temperature
80 - 84
Air temperature
75 - 86
Humidity
70%
Wind:
12 mph from the West
Conditions:
Scattered Clouds
Visibility
10 miles
Sunrise
7:18 a.m. CST
Sunset
6:39 p.m. CST
San Jose, Guatemala
The weather has again been excellent, the fishing has been in as close as 10 miles, and as far as 25 on some boats that ranged out a bit. I only received stats for one day this week, but in that one day, 8 boats were out using conventional gear, and had 197 hooked sailfish and managed to release 148 of those for an average of 19 releases per boat on conventional gear. Two of the 10 boats out were on the fly and got hooks in 22 sails and managed to release 14 of them at the boat. Marlin also made a strong showing with three blues released. It’s not a bad day when 37% of the fleet releases 300-450 pound-class marlin on 30-50 pound gear. Dorado were also around and being brought in with the largest going 40 pounds. Inshore, there continues to be consistent action on roosters when we have had our crews out practicing their teasing skills on roosters and jacks, their just have not been any clients taking advantage. Water clarity is great, and most of the action is taking place in the blue water.
San Jose, Guatemala report by Brian Barragy and Lissa McFarlin
Water temperature
72 - 82
Air temperature
78 - 80
Humidity
94%
Wind:
NE 8 mph
Conditions:
Clear
Visibility
6 miles
Sunrise
6:31 a.m. CST
Sunset
6:01 p.m. CST

For additional information: bajafly@bajafly.com
USA toll-free (800) 919-2252 or 760/746-7260; Mexico 011-52-624-14-10373