Tough Week – Few But Fat Dorado; Bonanza Day, FINALLY!

REPORT #965. "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape
It is July and it is hot! No, not the fishing – the weather. By anyone’s standards it was a tough one with little action to be found. For four days Dale Gross, Anchorage, and his buddy Rick Hall, from Hanford, Calif., scoured East Cape waters is search of action. The result was a few white bonito, skipjack, one tuna, dorado and more wind and rough seas than they wanted. Then came yesterday (7/1) and they finally got it right. There were flat seas, tuna boiling behind the boat, dorado and marlin chasing the teasers. When the scales had settled, they had eight yellowfin tuna, a handful of white bonito, a marlin, three dorado, two topping the 50-pound mark. High fives and cervezas were the order of the day on the two hour ride home. Was it what they had hoped for? Nope! Will they be back next year? I wouldn’t be surprised. Beach action slowed down dramatically, our guide; Josh Dickinson spent his last few days before heading home, trying to add another Bubba notch to his belt, but it wasn’t to be. He will be back in Oct. to resume the quest.


Baja on the Fly
Water temperature 70-82
Air temperature 77-95
Humidity 61%
Wind: South 11 mph
Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:37 a.m. MDT
Sunset 8:08 p.m. MDT
Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico
The wind quit and it warmed up considerably. The few reports from the esteros indicated slow fishing with corvina and cabrilla being the bulk of the catches this week. Out at the entrada there are still plenty of barracuda, a few yellows to 10 pounds and down a bit deeper you may get lucky and get grabbed by a grouper. Offshore is just beginning to turn around with a few tuna and some dorado under the shark buoy off of Punta Tosca. Sounds like the esteros up at Lopez Mateos are producing better action with a few grouper and several smaller snook being taken across from Boca Santo Domingo tight to the mangroves on an incoming tide.


Water temperature 62-71
Air temperature 75-85
Humidity 70%
Wind: SSW 11 mph
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 3 miles
Sunrise 6:40 a.m. MDT
Sunset 8:20 p.m. MDT
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
The ride to the 80° blue water is short six miles off the beach. We have been getting most of our action on sailfish between nine and 11 miles, averaging two to three sailfish a day per boat. All in all, the prospects for decent fishing are really picking up, because this last week was impacted by a waning full moon. This next week should show some decent counts.

A few boats are still picking a blue marlin or two, which is kind of unusual this late in the year. Our best action on marlin is from the 1st week of May and on through to the middle of June.

Several tuna schools popping up at 16 miles and then disappearing, a few boats are getting one or two before they go down again, but the action could not be considered red hot for the tuna yet.

Adolpho, skipper of the panga Dos Hermanos, reported he is really encountering a tremendous amount of roosterfish down near Puerto Vicente Gro. a 35 mile run that is really paying off for him.

Baja on the Fly report by Ed Kunze

Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 80 - 86
Humidity 79%
Wind: West 8 mph
Conditions: Thunderstorms
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 7:15 a.m. CDT
Sunset 8:24 p.m. CDT
San Jose, Guatemala
Less than perfect weather made the 18-23 mile run to the hot spot a bumpy ride. The few that took the challenge were rewarded with fair to good fishing by most standards but poor for Guatemala.

Water temperature 78 - 82
Air temperature 80- 84
Humidity 94%
Wind: WSW 8 mph
Conditions: Thunder Storms
Visibility 7 miles
Sunrise 5:39 a.m. CST
Sunset 6:35 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