Turtle Releases and Marlin Refusals

REPORT #1024 “Below the Border” Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
Endless Season Update 08/19/06
East Cape
Cooler than July, August at East Cape has produced great striper fishing this week with multiple shots for those willing to put in the time to tease them close enough. The billfish teasers are also attracting a few larger dorado in the pattern.

Plenty of football sized tuna if you are willing to make the run down below Las Frailes. The better quality fish are a bit deeper below the smaller fish boiling on the sardina on the surface. A Baja Wasabi on an Eagle Claw 413 hook allowed to flutter down a bit deeper will draw a take that can rip the flyline out of your hand if you aren’t paying attention. There are also some better sized fish in front of La Ribera down deep, too deep to get to with a fly. If you get lucky, however, you may occasionally get a shot at them feeding on the surface.

Close to the beach, either from a panga or hoofing it, you can expect to get some shots at both jacks and roosters, a few of which are in the Bubba class. The best action will be where the sardina are being pushed in close to the shore by feeding fish. Watch for the diving pelicans. In the afternoon when the boats are unloading at the hotel and dumping their leftover bait, the action can be good as well.


Water temperature 74-89
Air temperature 78-93
Humidity 49%
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 15 miles
Sunrise 6:56 a.m. MDT
Sunset 7:57 p.m. MDT

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico


On Saturday, August 12th, Lopez Mateos held its 4th Annual Turtle Festival in Lopez Mateos, with a crowd estimated to be at least 1,500 people. The Governor of Baja Sur, el Gobernador Narciso Agúndez, along with other government dignitaries and staff were in attendance as the townspeople celebrated their successes and considered the challenges for the upcoming year. The festivities included crowning a new queen for the Turtle Festival, along with food, music and speeches.

Sunday, El Gobernador Narciso Agúndez and his staff traveled out eight mile into the Pacific to assist graduate student, Hoyt Peckham, and his team in releasing a large turtle with an electronic tracking tag on its back into the wild.

By chance, later in the morning one of the local fisherman delivered a turtle that had been tangled in the net to the Proytecto Caguama, led by graduate student Hoyt Peckham. The Governor had the opportunity to assist the team in cleaning, measuring and tagging the animal. It was then placed in a pen to allow it to recuperate from its ordeal before being released back into the ocean.

As I promised last week, here is a photo of a nice sized rooster caught in the surf near Boca de Soledad. As you can see by its size, there are some nice ones just waiting for the right angler.

Offshore, with our client, Richard Negley Gill from San Antonio, TX, we checked out the Thetis early in the week where we found offcolor water and only raised one billfish. The highlight of the week was on Tuesday, when we worked south of the bank, we found classic Mag Bay conditions with diving frigates, marlin feeders, tuna and porpoise everywhere. While there was plenty to look at, nothing wanted to bite. For the remainder of the week we found marlin every day, but unfortunately, they seemed to have lockjaw and would barely come into the pattern, let alone get close enough for Richard to present the fly.

On our last day (Saturday) we opted to fish the esteros and had excellent action for leopard grouper and spotted bay bass. Chartreuse Baja Deepdiver was definitely the hot fly for the morning.

We were back in by 11:00 a.m. loaded up the van and headed back for the border which accounts for my report being a day late.

Water temperature 64 - 78
Air temperature 72-84
Humidity 62%
Wind: WNW 15 mph
Conditions: Scattered Clouds
Visibility 15 miles
Sunrise 7:02 a.m. MDT
Sunset 7:56 p.m. MDT


Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
There has not been much change in the fishing this week. The blue water is just a very short ride of two miles off the beach, and the fleet is only averaging a sailfish or two a day, per boat.

There has been a change in the water temperatures, however. According to the Terrafin Satellite Surface Temperatures, the "cooler" 81º water is about 60 miles out, with the inshore waters as warm as 87º.

The jack crevalle and roosterfish action is continuing on its good pace, with about 4 roosters and 6 of the jacks per day.

Ed Kunze

Water temperature 78 - 87
Air temperature 77 - 91
Humidity 63%
Wind WSW 12 mph
Conditions: Thunderstorms
Visibility 15 miles
Sunrise 7:29 a.m. CDT
Sunset 8:08 p.m. CDT