East Cape Sardina and All That Follows

REPORT #1006. “Below the Border” Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
Endless Season Update 04/15/06
East Cape
Welcome to Baja, one of our guides failed to make muster this morning, so I had to go fishing and let the report slide.

Nice weather most of the week and some sardina for chum should make anyone smile. Pudge Kleinkauf blew into town this week with a dozen close friends for a five day stint of serious fly-fishing. Pudge, Sandie Arnold, Cindy Esquivel all from Anchorage along with Alison Osinski, San Diego, took advantage of an early arrival and had pre-fish day yesterday. They weren’t disappointed. Tuna, skipjack, pargo, pompano and even a small roosterfish provided a nice first day species list. The tuna are inside of 30 miles along with a few marlin closer to shore. Not much on the dorado front. Inshore, the catch was a mixed a mixed bag including sierra, pargo, jacks, skipjack all within a half mile of the shore. The beach on the other hand has not kicked in just yet.

The trick with the tuna is the first to find them . . . FISH, get there late and you WISH.

Baja on the Fly

Water temperature 62-70
Air temperature 62-89
Humidity 66%
Wind: S 8 mph
Conditions: Scattered Clouds
Visibility 8 miles
Sunrise 6:58 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:39 p.m. MST




Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Scallop season and windy conditions slowed the fishing interest down this week. Still some corvina at the bridge and pier at San Carlos. Out at the entrada, a few yellows and skipjack could be found under the bird schools. Up at Lopez, the grouper continued to put on a show in a few of the locals secret hot spots. Plenty of spotted bay bass including a few fatties. Still a decent halibut bite on most of the sandy beaches. Hearing rumors of tuna but can’t tie down the location other than offshore.

Water temperature 60 - 66
Air temperature 64-82
Humidity 99%
Wind: NNW 17 mph
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 5 miles
Sunrise 7:04 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:49 p.m. MST
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
The Terrafin satellite surface temperature charts show 78° water out six miles to the 100 fathom line, and 82° water beyond that. This combination has been great for jack crevalle inshore, and sailfish offshore.

Few people are fishing the inshore, but when they do, they are catching 12 to 15 of the 14- to 20-pound jacks a day. Most of the fish are taken on slowed trolled live bait, but the fly fishers are also getting several.

Two to three sailfish a day is the average per boat. Scott Anderson from Minn. caught four sailfish while fishing with Ruben on the “Vamonos III.”

The conditions are almost perfect and we are expecting the big yellowfin tuna and marlin almost any day now.

Ed Kunze, Zihuatanejo

Water temperature 78 - 84
Air temperature 77 - 87
Humidity 83%
Wind NW 4 mph
Conditions: Scattered Clouds
Visibility 8 miles
Sunrise 7:29 a.m. CST
Sunset 8:02 p.m. CST


San Jose, Guatemala
No Report Received This Week. Here’s a repeat of last week’s:
The record-breaking catches seen during March madness in Guatemala are over with new records set. There are enough stories to dominate Happy Hours wherever fishermen gather for sometime. April began with the fish being less concentrated as they spread out looking for bait. There was consistent action beginning at 20 miles for both sails and an occasional marlin in calm seas.

Water temperature 78 - 82
Air temperature 70- 84
Humidity 94%
Wind: NW 11 mph
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 6 miles
Sunrise 5:50 a.m. CST
Sunset 6:16 p.m. CST