Ladies on the Prowl!

Endless Season Update 12/27/2007
REPORT #1094 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

With the North winds howling, it’s time to look for an alternative. The gray-light action before the wind got “wound up” at Gray Beach provided sierra, jacks and ladyfish and was enough to satisfy the locals and the few guests in the hotels. To quote my good friend Martin James, from across the pond, it was enough to “bend your stick and pull your fluff”.

If you are willing to gamble with the ‘wind gods’, there are still a few small yellowfin and dorado offshore, as well as some marlin that have refused to leave and will probably remain until spring.

Ladyfish Tip: Often called ‘sabalo’ by the locals and “poor man’s tarpon” by some Baja visitors, this is a species usually found along almost any sandy beach in southern Baja. They can provide countless hours of entertainment for the saltwater flyrodder.

Begin with a small chartreuse Clouser and a 300-grain shooting head system. Work your way down the beach, looking for signs of surface feeding activity. A stripping basket is helpful to keep your line from becoming tangled as you walk along. Another method that works well if you don’t care for a stripping baskets is to walk just above the water line with your fly line dragging along the sand behind you. Let the shooting head portion extend outside the rod tip and drag along in the water. Then, when you see something that you want to cast to, you can “water load” and cast a good distance with one or two false casts.

After you have made your cast, keep the fly line tight and let the fly sink for a few seconds. Try a five count. If that doesn’t work, try a little longer. If you don’t get a take, make a few long strips and then let the Clouser sink again. If there are any’ ladies’ around, they can seldom resist this presentation.

The ladyfish is a fish that is usually airborne the instant it feels the hook, so be prepared. When you feel the take, strip strike, then let the line slip through your fingers and lower the rod toward the surface of the water and off to your side. The purpose of this is to have as much wetted surface on your line as possible so that when the lady goes ballistic, the friction of the water on the line will hold the fly firmly in the its mouth.

Water temperature 67-73
Air temperature 51-77
Humidity 81 %
Wind: NNW 15 to 20 knots
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 4 miles
Sunrise 6:59 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:40 p.m. MST

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Christmas and preparation for the impending arrival of the annual whale watching season took priority for the locals this week. Whales have already been reported, making their way down the West coast.
The Estero action remained consistent including corvina, grouper, small sierra and a few good sized pargo.

Offshore the seas were grumpy and most, if not all, of the yachts have returned to their home ports until next year.

Water temperature 66 - 73
Air temperature 50 -73
Humidity 82%
Wind: NNW 13 to 18 knots
Conditions: Cloudy
Visibility 8 miles
Sunrise 7:10 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:45 p.m. MST

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The full moon has hit us hard and really slowed down the great fishing we have had for the last three weeks. Once we are out of this moon phase, all conditions point to continuing to getting back to good fishing.
Ed Kunze
Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 68-96
Humidity 82%
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 4 miles
Sunrise 7:15 a.m. CST
Sunset 6:19 p.m. CST

Cabo San Lucas

We received an abbreviated report on one of our client’s trip this week. Jon Lay, from Washington, D.C., and his family had a great time. They didn't stay long at Finger Bank; it was very windy with 20 ft. seas. However they caught twenty marlin before heading back downhill. When the Captain asked if everyone had enough, one of the ladies, said, “NO, I want two more”. She caught three more!!!!!

Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 51-74
Humidity 76%
Wind: SW at 10mph
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 6 miles
Sunrise 6:59 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:42 p.m. MST

Bahia Asunción

Conditions have been excellent, calm wind and seas. Earlier this week, Juan Marron took a Canadian couple fishing. They got 3 medium sized yellowtail, plus calicos and bonito. Water temps are still up between 68-70.

Water temperature 62 - 70
Air temperature 45-65
Humidity 76%
Wind: NW 5 - 10mph
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 6 miles
Sunrise 7:27 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:49 p.m. MST

Blowing in the Wind!

Endless Season Update 12/19/2007
REPORT #1093 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
NOTE: Beginning this week, we will be sending out our reports each Wednesday instead of Saturday. In addition, we are adding two areas to our reports: George and Mary Landrum will be providing Baja on the Fly with Cabo San Lucas updates and Shari Bondy and Juan Marron will be providing updates from Bahia Asuncion. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR! ...GARY AND YVONNE GRAHAM.
East Cape
East Cape weather has definitely shifted to our typical winter pattern with many windy days. However, early in the morning and sometimes all the way to mid-morning, you may find good fishing. You can usually see the wind line coming and hightail it home before it reaches you.

There are still ‘schoolie’ sized yellowfin tuna offshore along with some dorado; along the shore the sierra are still around, dashing and slashing.

We’ve had some reports of a pargo snap in the rocks at Punta Perico.

Yellowfin Tuna Tip: Often as the fleet of boats grows, the fish will go deeper in the water column. Use a shooting head cast the fly out as far as possible and let the fly sink. Then try 3 or 4 hard pulls, shake the line out again letting the fly sink again. We’ve had great success with this method using this fly: http://www.bajafly.com/bajawasabi.htm

Water temperature 74-74
Air temperature 62-81
Humidity 73 %
Wind: NNW 13 to 18 knots
Conditions: Partly Sunny
Visibility 13 miles
Sunrise 6:56 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:36 p.m. MST


Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

It’s kind of like throwing a party and nobody showing up with no one fishing this week at Mag Bay.

The Finger Bank below Punta Tosca is going off again and the few boats taking advantage of the bite are coming up from Cabo. One boat out of Cabo boasted 30+ fish two days ago.

In the Esteros, the locals reported good action for grouper, snook and corvina.

Water temperature 67 - 70
Air temperature 61 -79
Humidity 73%
Wind: NW 14 to 19 knots
Conditions: Cloudy
Visibility 6 miles
Sunrise 7:01 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:41 p.m. MST
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The excellent sailfish and dorado action is still holding up this week, with the daily counts actually being higher than the last two week's averages. We are definitely going to have a great Christmas.

Cali and I fish with fly fishing client David McCarty of Philadelphia, PA down at Puerto Vicente Guerrero (about an hour and a half below Zihuatanejo). By noon, we had raised 12 sailfish, teased 8 to the boat, and hooked 4.

We also raised an estimated 16 dorado. We had 8 come to the boat, and hooked 4. The dorado were averaging about 15 pounds for the females, and between 25 and 45 pounds for the bulls.

Plus, something I had never seen before; the dorado were actually coming in on the same teasers as the sailfish, and beating the sails to the fly. Several times Cali had a dorado on one teaser, while I was bringing in a sail on the other. At one point David asked me if he should take the sailfish or the dorado. I had no more than yelled out "the one which gets there first", and a large bull sliced across the stern and slammed into the fly. The voracious hit, from only about 10 feet away, plus a hard left hand strip hook set, and the fly line parted. But, it sure was exciting!
Ed Kunze

Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 72-96
Humidity 61%
Wind: SW at 10mph
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 15 miles
Sunrise 7:11 a.m. CST
Sunset 6:15 p.m. CST


Cabo San Lucas

BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite has remained wide open on the Finger Bank on the Pacific side, but it is such a long run for the fleet boats that very few have been going. The average there has been in the double-digit area in numbers of releases. The bite that had been happening on the Golden Gate dropped off to practically a standstill as the bait moved off the bank and in toward shore. The fish moved with them and now the close to home bite is within three miles of the beach on the Pacific side and extending down to just outside the lighthouse. Slow trolled or drifted live baits have been the best producer but a lot of luck is being had by boats pulling lures as well, dropping back live bait to fish that appear in the spread. One of the problems we see occasionally is lots of fish on the surface that don’t want to eat, and one way to get them excited is to troll lures at a faster speed. A few boats had luck doing that during the middle of the week, finding that lures pulled at ten and eleven knots got those fish to bite.

YELLOWFIN TUNA A scattering of football fish showed up again just to the north of the Gorda Banks on the Cortez side of the cape but there were also scattered fish on the Pacific, just no big numbers or consistently large sizes yet. The football Yellowfin were 10-15 pounds with an occasional 20-pound fish and Sardinas were the way to go. Chumming heavily with both live and dead Sardinas would bring the fish up, then a live one pinned on a small #2 silver hook on 20-pound floura-carbon leader would get bit quickly, heavier leader did not produce as well.

DORADO: There were a few scattered fish, but the numbers were smaller than last week. As the water cools these will become an exception in the catch rather than a targeted fish. Most of the ones that were found were on the Sea of Cortez up around the Punta Gorda area, but a few fish shoed up in the warm water on the Pacific as well. The best lures were smaller ones in bright colors, bright feathers worked for many boats. Small Dorado were found mixed with the football Tuna as well and readily ate Sardinas presented for Tuna.

WAHOO: I saw no Wahoo flags this week that were for Wahoo, I did see quite a few that were flown for Sierra.

INSHORE: Sierra were the fish of the week for the inshore fishermen and they were consistently on the feed off of the Solmar-Finesterra beach early in the morning. They seemed to move up to the north later in the day. Yellowtail continued to produce scattered action off of the rocky points on the Cortez side with some decent fish being taken off of Gray Rock and the drop at Chileno.

Bahia Asuncion

After a lousy couple weeks of nasty weather, (torrential downpours that washed out roads, gale force SE winds, enormous swells and cool cloudy days), FINALLY we got a nice sunny day.
It coincided with the big holiday, Dia de la Virgen de Guadalupe, which was a treat for the villagers as they paraded the Virgin about town and even for a spin in a panga.

Juan woke up and looked out our window and saw lots of indicator birds so he flew out to the panga and set off with his workmate to Pta.Loma, between Asuncion & San Roque. There were hundreds of dolphins feeding heavily on sardines and within an hour they had 3 nice big yellowtail and a bunch of bonito and they were home for breakfast soon after.

Nice to know the storm didn't chase the fish away! The water is still about 70 degrees and visibility is good. The yellows hit on Juan’s favorite lure...the 7" EXRAP, a white one with a red head and a plastic nose. The fish were down about 15-20'. Local fishermen report an abundance of yellowtail, bonito and lots of feed.

The folks of Bahia Asuncion wish you all a very Feliz Navidad!

Sierra Rule!

Endless Season Update 12/10/2007
REPORT #1092 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

East Cape weather turned cold this week effectively shutting down most of the action. For the hard core there still was a decent tuna bite in spite of the north winds which are a factor this time of year.

Inshore the sierra offered the best action with a few small jacks and roosters mixed in.

Sierra Tip #2: When the sierra are crashing bait on the surface, use a surface lure or popper (Rebel “Jumpin' minnow) with the hooks removed. Attach the lure with a light piece of 4lb. to 6lb. leader. Cast into the melee and when the fish strike the line, it will eventually break. Now you have a free floating teaser that will drive the Sierra crazy! Just cast your fly or lure in the proximity of the free floating lure and you should have no problem getting hooked up. When the bite is over, recover your floating teaser to use the next time.Tip Archives

Water temperature 74-74
Air temperature 60-69
Humidity 95 %
Wind: WNW 8 to 11 knots
Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
Visibility 3 miles
Sunrise 6:50 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:32 p.m. MST


Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Cold and windy! Even Baja had to contend with its own version of the Polar Express this week. Still a few fish traveling down the coast, but miserable conditions prevented all but the most dedicated from trying to find them.

Estero action remained hot regardless of the cool temperatures. Plenty of pargo, corvina and better than average snook snap this week.

The following reports demonstrate the importance of the old adage (“being in the right place at the right time”)

Rich Johnson on his “Marie B”: We left on November 15, fueled at Turtle, stopped at Santa Maria to make bait, and then went down to Tosca. From there we went to the Potato Bank, saw black porpoise but tuna were not at home. We then plowed our way back to Belcher’s and spent the night. So far only a few marlin and surprisingly few, if any, dorado. No other boats---so we thought we were a day late and dollar short. Heading out the Entrada, my grandson saw a ‘tailer’ about 3 miles outside. Then it was as many as we could catch, nonstop in the green colder water! We stayed until the day after Thanksgiving and then went to Cabo to drop off my son and grandson.

Maurice Smith came down to help Mark Henwood on the “Marie B” for the uphill return to San Diego. Made some bait and caught a few on the Golden Gate. Ran all night back in flat calm weather at sunrise the next morning. The water was grease, and the most lazy 'tailers’ we had ever seen--away from the birds and bait---were still in close in that cold, green water. It was a nonstop bite for 5 hours! We finally arrived in the San Diego early in the morning December 4 before the nasty weather came storming down the west coast.

Our Guide Lance Peterson headed up to Magdalena Bay in early December along with some friends for a “Busman’s Holiday”. He says: “Our 2007 Mag trip began with high hopes but we just never hit the mother lode. We logged over 600 hard miles in not so great conditions. I felt we were really fishing well but the mighty Pacific was a tough egg to crack. We were always a day late, a day early, or just not able to reach the action in a panga. We did catch a few marlin and had some cool fly shots. But damn...we really took our medicine this time! Such is life on a big ocean in a small boat.
On the way back to Lopez we found 70 degree water at the San Carlos Entrada. The sea was finally calm and the sun was out. We just knew it was going to go off out there...but our time had run out and we reluctantly headed back into the bay and up to Lopez. Of course...the marlin went nuts that day where we had fished hard for 9 days. We missed it!!! We did have a blast on the Magdalena Island although it was Alaska-like conditions. It rained buckets at times with strong wind and huge swell. I fished in full north west style rain gear.”

Water temperature 67 - 71
Air temperature 60 -67
Humidity 87%
Wind: W 13 to 17 knots
Conditions: Overcast
Visibility 4 miles
Sunrise 7:01 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:38 p.m. MST

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The blue water is fluctuating between 5 and 10 miles, but with the moon phase kicking into high gear, the fishing is improving daily.

The cooler 78 to 80 degree water is still here, but the sailfish have been getting more active. Since Wednesday the count is averaging about three sailfish per boat per day. Plus the large dorado are showing again.

Santiago, on the panga, Gitana, had a 4 sailfish released day, and then a day with one sail and three nice dorado. He told me the dorado are averaging between 20 and 40 pounds.

Chuck Stratton fished two days with Cheva on the panga, Dos Hermanos II. Chuck had tried to get his dad C.D. to come down and experience the good fishing here, but it did not happen. On the first day Chuck fished inshore, taking numerous black skipjack tuna to an incredible 15 pounds. These hard fighting fish normally average about 3 to 4 pounds here, and really gave him a work out. Plus, they got 4 very large sierra, up to 10 pounds, for ceviche and dinner fillets.

Fishing offshore on the second day, Thursday, they hooked 7 sailfish and kept 2 large dorado between 30 and 40 pounds. More ceviche and dinner fillets. And dorado is one of the best tasting fish in the ocean. Too bad C.D., you missed out on a lot of good action, the experience of fishing with a world class captain....and some great fresh fish dinners.

Ed Kunze
Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 74-95
Humidity 91%
Wind: S at 2mph
Conditions: Partly Sunny
Visibility 6 miles
Sunrise 7:01 a.m. CST
Sunset 6:10 p.m. CST

Mag Bay Rekindles…

Endless Season Update 12/01/2007
REPORT #1091 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

Beach action for small jacks and roosters, mixed in with schools of sierra feeding on small sardina, was found in shallow water from Rancho Leonero to La Ribera.

Sierra Tip: A sierra has a mouth full of teeth and will play havoc with your fluorocarbon leaders. Use flies tied on long-shanked hooks instead of wire. You may lose an occasional fly but you’ll have many more takes. Your choice in flies should “match the hatch.” Since we don’t have bugs in saltwater, the “hatch” is 2 ½ to 4 inch-long sardina. Olive, gray or beige-backed See Through Deceivers should do the trick, but bring a few Clousers in chartreuse or olive to round out your flybox.

In spite of a couple of days of rain, the tuna and dorado bite was outrageous this week. Even better news was that it was close. Saturday morning, Mark Rayor, Vista Sea Sports, reported “seeing porpoise feeding and birds diving, clearly visible from his front porch”. Of course all the action essentially goes unnoticed with few guests at the hotels to take advantage of the near shore fishing. Reports indicate the offshore billfish action finally choked.


Water temperature 75-80
Air temperature 60-77
Humidity 92 %
Wind: NNE 9 to 12 knots
Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:44 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:31 p.m. MST

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Pete Wishney, Foxy Lady, reported extraordinary action inside the Esteros for a mixed bag of critters including snook, corvina, snapper, halibut, pargo, pompano, and grouper. This mix was caught on fly and live shrimp purchased from the pangeros who used nets to catch shrimp commercially inside the bay.

Outside the Entrada, there have been billfish found all the way to the pinnacles outside Punta Tosca. However the best action reported was below Punta Tosca on the flats above the Finger Bank where wide open action with the billfish feeding on the surface was found. There are few yachts --- just local pangas reportedly fishing it.

Water temperature 67 - 75
Air temperature 60 -76
Humidity 99%
Wind: NNW 5 to 6 knots
Conditions: Fog/sunny later
Visibility 0 miles
Sunrise 6:55 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:36 p.m. MST

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

With the water in a cooling trend, the blue water is averaging about 12 to 15 miles from Zihuatanejo Bay. However, the currents have been changing daily, and going back to the same place you caught fish the day before has not been productive. We are having to locate the fish on a daily basis.

The fleet is averaging about two sailfish a day, per boat. But, because of the cooler water, the blue marlin are showing up again, and in decent numbers. We are averaging about 4 blues a day for the 20 boat fleet.

Adan on the panga Gitana II got a nice blue for his client Mark from San Francisco, and Santiago released another for Glenn Wittur of Kalona, British Columbia. Even though Glenn is an experienced fresh water fisherman, this was his first day ever on the blue water. Within the first two hours, Santiago had tagged and released a sailfish and the blue. I sure hopes he does not think every day is like that.

Adolpho reports the roosters are still up North, and yesterday (Friday) he took 4 for his French client. He also told me the dorado are hitting very well to the South, and in close to the beach.

Ed Kunze
Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 74-95
Humidity 91%
Wind: S at 2mph
Conditions: Partly Sunny
Visibility 6 miles
Sunrise 7:01 a.m. CST
Sunset 6:10 p.m. CST