No Gloom this June

REPORT #1013. “Below the Border” Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
Endless Season Update 06/03/06
East Cape
Large schools of small roosters have been everywhere, attracted by bait schools that are hanging just outside of casting range from the beach. Using hookless teasers, our guide Josh Dickinson convinced Mark Saba, from Maryland, how effective the technique can be. Josh consistently enticed fish from a couple hundred feet away close enough for Mark to get plenty of shots; and by the end of the day he landed three and hooked a few more.

Fishing from a panga, most of the fish are being taken from a drifting boat as the roosters follow the chum into casting range. Wed. (5/31), Matt Weaver, Bozeman, Mont., had a mixed school of sierra and roosters long enough to land seven roosters on a small sardina patterns and 20+ sierra, up to eight pounds. Josh and Matt will be talking about that day for some time to come.

Yesterday, Lance Peterson and Don Murnane, visiting from Chatham, NJ, also had a good beach day. He spent most of the day running up and down the sand casting to some grande pez gallo, with plenty of lookers but no takers until late in the day when the schoolies came after the teaser in packs. The day’s action also included jack crevalle, ladyfish, and look down.

Offshore, tuna, dorado and marlin are all on the chew if you are willing to take the boat ride. Most of the dorado and tuna are in the "reasonable" size category for the average fly angler – from the single digit to 20 or more pounds. Josh, using sardina for chum, kept the dorado and tuna around the boat so Homer Tollenaere and his wife, from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, could cast small sardina patterns with great success. With all the bait and large schools of fish we are seeing, June 2006 should be a great one.


Water temperature 74-83
Air temperature 73-96
Humidity 78%
Wind: W 2 mph
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:02 a.m. MDT
Sunset 8:01 p.m. MDT

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Water temperatures continue to creep up slowly on the outside. Windy conditions continued to hamper the boats from doing much exploring offshore. Inside the esteros, corvina, leopard grouper, a few small snook and enough mystery bites to keep things interesting. Down at Devil’s Curve, tight to the west side of the channel there were a few palometa to be found.

In San Carlos, several angers reported fair fishing near the bridge at the entrance to town. Catches included small grouper, spotted bay bass and a few smaller corvina at slack tide.
Enrique Soto reported a few yellows out at the entrada first thing in the morning and as the day wore on some corvina and bonito under the bird schools. The shallows off the sandy beaches at Belchers produced plenty of the smaller variety halibut.



Water temperature 61 - 66
Air temperature 65-77
Humidity 86%
Wind: WNW 17 mph
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 5 miles
Sunrise 6:36 a.m. MDT
Sunset 8:13 p.m. MDT


Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
The 80º blue water is only two miles off the beach. Fishing has been good. Sailfish are being taken at a rate of about two or three fish a day per boat. A few smaller 20 pound class yellowfin tuna are showing up, enough to keep things from getting boring.

Plus, the blue marlin are still coming to baits, on an average of one boat out of three.

The only drawback is we just got our first rains of the year this week, and even though 95% of our rain is always at night, the wind has made for two or three uncomfortable days on the water.

Adolpho, on the panga “Dos Hermanos,” told me he had a great week inshore on roosters and jack crevalle. Most of his fish were taken near the close-by White Rocks, or just a couple of miles below.

Ed Kunze

Water temperature 78 - 84
Air temperature 78 - 80
Humidity 83%
Wind ESE 15 mph
Conditions: Thunderstorms
Visibility 8 miles
Sunrise 7:10 a.m. CDT
Sunset 8:17 p.m. CDT