REPORT #1111 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape
Glen Tremble, from San Diego, releases his first small jack on the fly.
Beach action near Bartle Beach was as good as it gets earlier in the week. I was scouting for a weekend trip, so I hit the beach at gray light. In the first hour I had four roosters and a pompano. Nothing large-but still a fun hour! The next hour the wind waves started up and the wind line from the north soon brought white caps with enough wind to convince me the day was done. Before it went to ‘hell in a hand basket’, Glen Tremble, from San Diego, landed his first small jack on the fly, as well as a small rooster. Obviously he is a quick study--- it takes some several trips before they connect.
It took until Sunday for the wind to subside and the water to clean up enough to be worthwhile Gaylord Kellogg and friends from Seattle, WA. There was a fair concentration of mullet and sardina, attracting both jacks and roosters…mostly smaller fish with an occasional ‘Bubba’ breezing by… but most of the larger ones were just out of casting range. The Seattle group only had a few shots, but it was enough for one member of the group to land a fifteen pound jack before they packed up and headed for the airport.
They had checked out the beach on Saturday on their own and had a painful encounter with a grumpy stingray!
Tip: This time of year it is a good idea to pay attention to where you step in the water. Drag or shuffle your feet when you walk! The sting can be very painful! Soak the puncture in the hottest water you can tolerate for at least an hour and if you have a pain pill take one! Apply a topical antibiotic to reduce the chance of infection and seek medical attention as soon as possible.
Water temperature 66-76
Air temperature 65-94
Humidity 93 %
Wind: NNW 6 to 7 knots
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 3 miles
Sunrise 6:50 a.m. MDT
Sunset 7:44 p.m. MDT
Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico
Enrique Soto, Puerto San Carlos, reported plenty of small yellowtail out at the Entrada. There were also a few grouper close to the rocky points. Punta Belcher is still holding plenty of small halibut as well, as is most shallow water near sandy beaches.
Under the Bridge at the entrance to Puerto San Carlos was pretty good for small corvina, bay bass and a few leopard grouper on an incoming tide.
Estero action failed to ring any bells this week. There were a few pompano, corvina and pargo at Devil’s Curve …hardly enough to merit the thirty minute ride to get there.
Water temperature 62 - 70
Air temperature 53 -91
Humidity 100%
Wind: WNW 17 to 22 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 3 miles
Sunrise 6:56 a.m. MDT
Sunset 7:53 p.m. MDT
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
The blue water is about 15 miles out, with most of the sailfish action between 18 and 22 miles.
Talking with Santiago on the panga, Gitana: He picked up 4 sailfish early in the week, and then 2 yesterday. He said the boats are averaging between 2 and 3 fish a day each.
The tuna are still beyond the 45 mile mark, and very few dorado have been showing in the counts.
Inshore action is excellent on large sierras (Spanish Mackerel). Any trolled feather or small Rapala style lure, with a wire leader, is providing a lot of good ceviche.
Ed Kunze
Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 75-101
Humidity 78%
Wind: NNW 3mph
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 8 miles
Sunrise 7:23 a.m. CDT
Sunset 8:05 p.m. CDT
Cabo San Lucas
WEATHER: Once again we have had a week of sun and fun here in Cabo. This time of year the spring break crowd is gone, the number of cruise ships calling at our port is down and the temperature has started to climb. Not too high, just into the low 90’s during the day and the low 70’s at night, but that’s just perfect for me! With this kind of weather a lot of our friends have returned from the cold north while many of the winter residents have gone home to prepare for spring back there. Just a very nice time of the year!
WATER: We have had light afternoon breezes for the first part of the week changing into light morning breezes later in the week, but nothing heavy enough to cause problems out on the water. A prevailing northwesterly direction has meant that the water on the Sea of Cortez has been very nice with only slight swells and wind chop while the Pacific side of the Cape has had slight swells and mostly slightly choppy conditions. Water temperature on the Pacific side has remained cooler than on the Cortez side with that wrap around the Cape from the east I mentioned last week still happening. Offshore on the Pacific side it has been 67-69 degrees while closer to the beach, say 4-5 miles off the beach and 10 miles to the north the warmer 74-degree water has prevailed. Of course the cooler water has meant green conditions and on the Golden Gate Bank reports were of very green conditions. On the Sea of Cortez we have had consistent 74-75 degree water across all the areas with just a slight tinge to it.
BAIT: There were many more Caballito available this past week than there were Mackerel, and they were both the normal $2 per bait. I did not hear anything about Sardinas.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: You didn’t have to go far this week to find Striped Marlin, but you had to have the right bait and a good amount of luck to catch one! Early in the week the bite was good up at the Punta Gorda area later in the afternoon and there were not many fish in our area, but on Wednesday the suddenly showed up in large numbers. It was not uncommon to spot pods of three to fifteen fish less than four miles form the arch, and often within a mile or less. The problem was that the fish were not very interested in Caballito, and that was the bait most common from the bait boats. Mackerel was preferred by the Marlin that were hungry. Being off the feed was probably due to them feeding all night during the full moon phase (tonight is the full moon). What they have been feeding on also had an effect! There were balls of 12-inch squid everywhere, and almost every species of fish caught this week was stuffed with them. Captains and anglers who were on top of their game and lucky enough to get a fish to the boat were ready with a bait net to catch any fresh squid spilled from the Marlins mouth, and some of them were lucky enough to be on top of one of the squid balls when the marlin forced them to the surface, managing to net a few live ones to toss out. Guaranteed catch if that happened! But, alas, for the most part boats were lucky to catch one marlin after throwing bait to dozens of lazing fish.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The tuna bite in our area dropped off again although a few boats were able to get into small pods of porpoise that were holding then. The tuna that were caught were not large ones; most of them were in the 10-15 pound range. A good catch this past week would have been four or five tuna. Most of them were found to the south at a distance of 10 miles and more, a few more were found around the 1150 area. Red and orange colored lures in the smaller sizes sort of imitated the squid they were feeding on.
DORADO: Once again the numbers of Dorado slowly increased over the numbers caught last week. It seemed that about 20% of the boats were flying a yellow flag or two when they returned this week. Most of the fish were found in the same areas as the Striped Marlin and they were also stuffed on squid. One nice thing is that the average size has been fair, not a lot of the little slipper size (5-8 pounds) were caught, most of the fish were around 12-15 pounds.
WAHOO: What Hoo once again, and I was surprised since we are in a full moon phase. Maybe the water just has to warm up a bit more?
INSHORE: There were reports from the anglers and Captains of large numbers of small Roosterfish once again just off the beach on the Pacific side between the arch and the lighthouse. These fish have been pounding small Cabillitos and the boats often had to return for more bait. The size was small with an average of 5 pounds, but a few larger ones, to about 15 pounds, were caught in the same area every day. I had an angler tie into a very large Sierra on Tuesday in this area. He fought the fish on line around 15 pounds in strength and said the Sierra would have weighed about 20 pounds (this is an experienced angler and Captain saying this). Of course when I told them that it might have been a possible line class world record they were mad they had filleted the fish! There have been some nice Pargo in the 20-30 pound class start to show off of the rocky points and live bait slow trolled deep has been the key for the larger ones. Adding to the excitement of fishing this way is the possibility of hooking up to some of the 30-40 pound Yellowtail that are still around. There are still many of the smaller ones, but as I said last week, not in the numbers we had been seeing. Even with the inshore action being good, many of the Pangas are targeting Marlin since they are so close right now.
NOTES: My golf game continues to improve; I am now consistently breaking 100. Don’t laugh, that is quite an improvement for me! I am looking forward to fishing this coming week; I just hope things keep popping out there! This weeks report was written to the sound of my dog snoring in the background, she had a hard day at the beach this morning!
Until next week, tight lines!
George & Mary Landrum
Water temperature 67 - 75
Air temperature 62 - 90
Humidity 82%
Wind: WNW 9 to 13 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 3 miles
Sunrise 6:51 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:44 p.m. MST
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