Species Galore and Marlin Grabs

REPORT #964. "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape
Summer has definitely arrived with temperatures climbing above the 90˚ mark. Best yet is more marlin this week to keep the clients happy. Dick Haas, manager of Adventure Outfitters, Louisville, fished the entire week. The day he arrived he announced that his goal was to break the century mark on his all-time species list. He was at 95 and looking for five more. He wasn't disappointed and by the week’s end he had added nine more to his list including two marlin. Can't get much better; the first marlin he had ever cast a fly to gobbled it up like a kid eating cotton candy at a County Fair. Don't get me wrong, he did have a couple of tough days chasing Bubba on the beach. Enough shots at Bubba and jacks to leave him shaking his head in dismay. Sooo . . . clever marketers that we are, we held back two more species to assure he comes back next year in search of Bubba and Charley (as in tuna.) Was it a good week? Not bad considering the sardina is still among the missing. It was way ahead of going to the office.

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Baja on the Fly
Water temperature 70-82
Air temperature 75-91
Humidity 70%
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:34 a.m. MDT
Sunset 8:08 p.m. MDT
Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico
Fishing at the entrada produced fair fishing including a few grouper, yellowtail and lots of barracuda. The shark buoys out to the west are producing a few dorado to 15 pounds. With seven commercial net boats fishing for the sardines in the bay, the bait resource is quickly disappearing and the poor fishing being reported is the result this continuing assault on the resource. Two boats fishing Thurs. (6/23) could only come up with a few corvina, cabrilla and grouper. Makes one wonder when the Mexican government will wake up and smell the coffee and stop the carnage.


Water temperature 62-71
Air temperature 70-77
Humidity 90%
Wind: West 15 mph
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 5 miles
Sunrise 6:38 a.m. MDT
Sunset 8:20 p.m. MDT
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
The temperature break was at six miles Thurs., but the blue water was out at the 14 mile mark yesterday (6/24) with most of the action out a few miles further. The results are the same however, with an average of 2 to 3 sailfish per boat a day being taken. However, I believe this is a very short term situation for the blue water, because there has been some fairly severe weather out a couple of hundred miles affecting the currents here.

Yesterday afternoon, Captain Jaime of the Vamonos fleet was telling me he released two sails, but also caught several school-sized tuna in the same 16 mile area, and straight out of Zihuatanejo Bay.

The roosterfish have been tough to get all week, because these same offshore storms have really been kicking up some high surf.

Baja on the Fly report by Ed Kunze

Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 80 - 86
Humidity 94%
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Thunderstorms
Visibility 8 miles
Sunrise 7:13 a.m. CDT
Sunset 8:24 p.m. CDT


San Jose, Guatemala
Sporadic rain showers persisted most of the week keeping most of the boats at the dock. The few that ventured out found fair to good action for sailfish out 25 miles and beyond. There were a few blue marlin reported along with plenty of dorado and tuna.

Water temperature 78 - 82
Air temperature 82- 84
Humidity 94%
Wind: SE 6 mph
Conditions: Thunder Storms
Visibility 7 miles
Sunrise 5:37 a.m. CST
Sunset 6:34 p.m. CST