And Along Came John!

REPORT #1026 “Below the Border” Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
Endless Season Update 09/02/06
East Cape
While everyone was preparing for a big Labor Day weekend, along came Hurricane John. This is the first time that I can remember the same storm hitting three of our locations in one week. If you haven’t heard about “John” you must be watching too much football. All the networks covered this one extensively. To Tel Mex’s credit, they managed to keep DSL up throughout the storm. The IM’s (instant messages) yesterday reflected the sender’s experience with Baja storms. Messages ranged from “ho hum” to “oh shit!”

Here’s a typical message from early evening and this morning:

PP: (3:10:37 pm): Right now it's coming down in sheets and winds are about 60 MPH, but we should get the 110 MPH in couple of hours. Our windows are boarded up so we can't see, but the last time I ventured outside the waves were about 4 feet and the tide was high, but not much more than a normal high tide. Power is going in and out so we will probably lose that soon.
MR: (4:37:58 pm): We may have had wind to 25, just 2 inches of rain; we had more rain two weeks ago.
MR: (5:55:39 pm): Man did we take a hit. Ripped doors out by the jams. Filled the house with water and tossed things around pretty good. The eye came over us about 10pm last night. I can't get out the front or back door because of all the downed trees. Well, at least I still have a front door (minus the stained glass) The front door at guest house is laying out in the driveway.
MR: (7:14:37 am): A 28’ Californian parked on a trailer behind Vista Del Mar. The wind blew it off the trailer and it rolled 360 degrees. Landed on its bottom after taking out the Bimini, rails and more. The 100 pound battery is lying in the dirt next to it. The trailer is bent like a pretzel.

As the reports continue to filter in, it sounds like plenty of property damage, but fortunately few injuries.

On a lighter note, congratulations to Brett Phillips who received notification this week from IGFA that his “Gaff Sail Pompano” caught on a trip with Baja on the Fly in May set a new all tackle record.



Water temperature 74-89
Air temperature 80-91
Humidity 83%
Wind: S 15mph
Conditions: T-Storms
Visibility 15 miles
Sunrise 7:01 a.m. MDT
Sunset 7:35 p.m. MDT

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico


As the Southern tip of Baja begins to dig out this morning, all of Magdalena Bay is hunkering down for their turn with “Hurricane John”. Predictions are for more rain and less wind as the storm moves into that area.

Water temperature 64 - 78
Air temperature 76-86
Humidity 97%
Wind: WNW 15 mph
Conditions: Rain
Visibility 3 miles
Sunrise 7:07 a.m. MDT
Sunset 7:44 p.m. MDT


Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
The big story this week was not about fishing, but rather staying off the water. Hurricane John, even though we got no damage at all, passed only 60 miles out in front of Ixtapa / Zihuatanejo. Over a period of several hours, we did get 5 inches of rain, but no wind. However, you would not have wanted to be on the water, because it was a completely different story only a couple of miles off the beach.

It is going to take a few more days before the barometer stabilizes and things settle down.

Ed Kunze

Water temperature 78 - 87
Air temperature 75 - 84
Humidity 89%
Wind Calm
Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
Visibility 7 miles
Sunrise 7:31 a.m. CDT
Sunset 7:58 p.m. CDT