East Cape Inshore Heats Up

REPORT #1008. “Below the Border” Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
Endless Season Update 04/29/06
East Cape
Late April on the East Cape saw continuing improvement for inshore fishermen. Brett Phillips of Oregon in particular saw the Sea of Cortez at its finest. Brett fished from a panga, never getting more than a few hundred yards from shore and for two days hooked good numbers of fish, including pargo, grouper, jack crevalle, needlefish, black skipjack, roosterfish, and the largest gaff topsail pompano any of us has ever seen. He is submitting it to IGFA for a possible new All-Tackle World Record. Decent amounts of bait including mullet and sardina are beginning to show, making for some exciting inshore days.
The bait seems somewhat condensed in the Punta Pescadero and Punta Colorada areas however, keeping many of the predatory schools condensed as well. These concentrations are making locating roosters and jacks from the beach a little more difficult. Hopefully, in the coming days these fish will disperse and beach sightings of big roosters will improve.
Offshore action remains good for striped marlin, but they're feeding aggressively on small squid and not coming into the lures very often, despite being present in great numbers. Ray Rickard of Grand Junction, Colo. recently enjoyed a classic mixed bag of East Cape fishing, hitting the inshore for good snapper and grouper action with small chartreuse Clousers. Then, in the p.m., we headed out about 2 miles where we found a good school of bait, and Ray battled a nice 180-pound striper. As reported, the stripers haven't been suckers for the tease, so we caught some “liveys” with a Lucky Joe and pitched to a feeder. It's that time of year again here on the Cape. The inshore and offshore bite can be only a few minutes boat ride apart.
Tim Harris, Redmond, Wash. followed up a slow offshore day on Monday with a good inshore trip on Wednesday with an action packed day catching sierra and black skipjack near Punta Arena.
Baja on the Fly

Water temperature 68-77
Air temperature 62-91
Humidity 58%
Wind: WNW 15 mph
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 8 miles
Sunrise 6:46 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:45 p.m. MST




Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

It was another week of windy cold conditions with the sun finally making an appearance today. Seem to be plenty of fish at the entrada, but they are plugged with langoustes (red crab) and have a serious case of lockjaw. Up in the mangroves, there were a few snook caught at Los Barrilles and I understand it is wall-to-wall nets up at Devil’s Curve again! Up at Lopez Mateos, the grouper and corvina provide the best action for the few who cared this week. Offshore, it continued to grumpy and kept most of the panga fishermen close to the beach.

Water temperature 60 - 66
Air temperature 66-78
Humidity 59%
Wind: NNW 11 mph
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 5 miles
Sunrise 6:52 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:55 p.m. MST
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
The 82° clean water is out about eight to nine miles, with the deep blue water at 20 miles. Most of the boats working the 18 to 20 mile mark are getting one or two sailfish a day.

Santiago, on the panga “Gitana,” along with his brother Adan on the “Gitana II,” are working the 25 mile area and averaging three sailfish a day on conventional gear. Plus, Santiago told me the schools of yellowfin tuna are out around the 1,000 fathom curve (30 miles), and are about ready to move in closer for our annual May run.

Santiago fished with clients Chris and Tom Topher of California, releasing three sails and took two smaller tuna of about 20 pounds. Yesterday (Friday) he fished with Dwight Holly of Seattle, releasing three sails. Adan also got a small 150 pound blue marlin fishing with Danny Burns of Oregon.

Martin, on the panga “Isamar,” sampled the inshore fly-fishing and his client had some fantastic action on fish perfect for the 7- to 9-weight rods. Yesterday they got approximately 30 green jacks, about 15 jack crevalle, and 20 black skipjack tuna on a very small white fly. All the fish were in the 2- to 5-pound class.
Ed Kunze

Water temperature 78 - 84
Air temperature 80 - 86
Humidity 83%
Wind NW 6 mph
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 8 miles
Sunrise 7:20 a.m. CST
Sunset 8:05 p.m. CST


San Jose, Guatemala
As the season winds down, the few boats going out are still finding decent action. Everyone one agrees that 2006 will go down in history as an extraordinary season even by Guatemala standards.


Water temperature 78 - 82
Air temperature 79- 84
Humidity 94%
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Thunderstorms
Visibility 6 miles
Sunrise 5:42 a.m. CST
Sunset 6:19 p.m. CST