Storm Moves On – Stuff Bites

REPORT #980. “Below the Border” Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape
After dumping a ton of rain on the mainland, the remnants of Tropical Storm Stan were hardly noticed as it went by here earlier in the week. In its wake came the first north wind of the season, causing the Sea of Cortez to get grumpy. However, the fish didn’t seem to care and there were plenty of tuna and billfish for the anglers who hung in there. Surprisingly, there were even a few dorado to be found. By yesterday (10/14), the wind had backed off some and the sea had started to settle down. The beach is still dirty from the wind waves and will need a few more days to clean up. There were several larger roosters released this week close to shore somewhere between La Ribera and the Lighthouse.
Our guide Lance Peterson reported: “The wind backed off considerably today (10/14). Just a breeze. Clear skies and warm. Fished inshore with the fly-guys from Cordonnier group. We quickly jigged up some Humboldt squid to use for chum. There were no sardina to be found anywhere, only mackerel. We trolled the ‘hoochie’ a little and a hooked a dorado. One of the guys hooked one of its followers. It was just a little guy, but cool. Then we headed over to Punta Colorado and cast over the rocks. Caught a lot of small roosters, under a pound. There were ten at least. Finished at Punta Arena where I teased up a bunch of hot ladyfish, needles, and more little roosters. Caught a few pompano, too. It was an eight species day.”

Baja on the Fly

Water temperature
80-84
Air temperature
78-93
Humidity
31%
Wind:
N 7 mph
Conditions:
Clear
Visibility
12 miles
Sunrise
7:15 a.m. MDT
Sunset
6:53 p.m. MDT
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
Water conditions are still recovering from when we were hit hard last week by remnants of Tropical Storm Stan. However, things are improving daily and should be back to normal by the end of next week. The blue water is still out a long ways, but coming back in to about 25 miles. From the Terrifin Satellite Surface Water Temperature, the 80º water is now at 10 miles, and the 84º water is about 32 miles.

The boats are averaging about one sailfish a day each. Dan Leo, fishing on his private boat Dancin, caught two very nice dorado yesterday. He had gone out with a new electric reel to try some very deep water meat fishing. When they spotted the dorado under some debris, that put an end to the deep water expedition.

Terry Carter, guiding in last week's Baja on the Fly roosterfish tournament, fished with Santiago on the panga Gitana for two days. He caught one sailfish on the fly each day boosting his lifetime total to 102 and one of them was on a 4-weight.

The inshore waters are clearing up fast, but they are not yet back to a normal 82º. They should be in great shape by next week.


Ed Kunze

Water temperature
80 - 84
Air temperature
78 - 86
Humidity
66%
Wind:
SE 9 mph
Conditions:
T-Storms
Visibility
10 miles
Sunrise
7:38 a.m. CDT
Sunset
7:24 p.m. CDT

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Clear skies and no wind. That’s something different! The past few weeks seem like a broken record of threatening weather. The few boats have been out this week found some warm water which was holding a few dorado and YFT. No one was really targeting the marlin or wahoo, but there were rumors of some of both being spotted at the lower end of the Thetis. Before the storms hit, several yachts found enough action to get their scores up in the double digits; hopefully those fish are still hanging out and can be located again. Back in the esteros, slim picking persisted with cabrilla, a few corvina and even fewer grouper. There was a flurry of action under the bridge at the entrance to San Carlos at gray light several days last week producing a pretty good corvina bite for about an hour each morning.

Water temperature
70-81
Air temperature
68-82
Humidity
80%
Wind:
NNW 13
Conditions:
Clear
Visibility
5 miles
Sunrise
7:24 a.m. MDT
Sunset
7:00 p.m. MDT
San Jose, Guatemala
Because of the large clean-up effort after Hurricane Stan, no boats that went out. Also, it will take another week or so for all of the river runoff to get back to their usual levels, thus bringing the blue water back normal distances.

Les Kagel

Water temperature
78 - 82
Air temperature
77- 88
Humidity
70%
Wind:
Calm
Conditions:
Clear
Visibility
6 miles
Sunrise
5:54 a.m. CST
Sunset
5:44 p.m. CST
For additional information: mailto:bajafly@bajafly.com
USA toll-free (800) 919-2252 or 760/746-7260;
Mexico 011-52-624-14-10373 or (760) 670 4916