REPORT #1110 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape
Allison connects with Skipjack...Sandy lands another Dorado
The week began with 12” squid floating about eighteen miles offshore. That was enough to get some fatty skipjack all worked up. There were multiple spots making it tough to choose which one to run for. Pick the right one and some ‘sluggo’ dorado were the prize. Another one might be mixed dorado and toad skipjack and farther outside, there were a few marlin to spice things up.
Meanwhile back at the beach: The small roosters and jacks put on a show snapping at “this and that” fly.
Just when we thought we were on a roll, a humbling bout of north wind rolled everything over- slowing the action down to a much slower pace.
Monday, eighty-six year old R.E. (Togo) Hazard, well known San Diego businessman, hopped on Dottie B with some friends from La Jolla to give them a lesson in marlin fishing. When the bell rang, Lamar Major, Kevin Kelly, Don McReynolds and Togo had racked up the highest single day’s count in this early season. ..an impressive eleven fish!
In the meantime part of the fleet found some tuna schools up toward Cerralvo that has yielded good catches for the past two days.
Warmer weather, hotter bite! Maybe spring is coming early.
Tip: Change flies often until you find the right combination of color and size for the day. Water temperature 66-73
Air temperature 66-93
Humidity 45 %
Wind: ENE 5 knts
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 14 miles
Sunrise 7:12 a.m. MST
Sunset 8:02 p.m. MST
Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico
With a break from the wind, the yellowtail action for small to medium fish returned both at the Entrada and a few miles above Cabo San Lazzero.
In the Esteros, sierra and corvina provided the best surface action and down deeper there were a few grouper (to ten pounds) with an occasional snapper.
Along the sandy beaches the small halibut snapped up any chartreuse Clouser that came near them.
Water temperature 62 - 70
Air temperature 63 -93
Humidity 37%
Wind: NNW 17 to 23 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 4 miles
Sunrise 7:03 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:50 p.m. MST
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
4/12/08, Fly angler.....Maureen Bates, Toronto Canada, Calvario Beach, Puerto Vicente Guerrero. Panga...........Angela with Captain Julio, Guide and photo....Ed Kunze
The action has been holding at about 1 or 2 sailfish per boat per day average, however there are lots of fish seen every day. They just do not seem to be hungry. The tuna are still off the charts and out of range. A few blue marlin are also still showing up in the weekly counts.
This last Sunday, while talking with Captain Mecate of the cruiser Aqua Azul, we felt the slow fishing must be attributed to squid having moved in. The game fish are gorging on them down deep, which will definitely hurt the surface action.
The very next day I fished down at Puerto Vicente Guerrero with fly fishing clients Warren and Maureen Bates of Toronto Canada, and confirmed it. Warren caught a black skipjack tuna, which disgorged squid when I held the fish to remove the fly. What was incredible is the fish was caught only a couple of hundred yards off the beach and in water less than 200 feet deep. There must be tonnage of squid out there if they are that close to the beach.
Warren and Maureen had a great day on the water. They got a total of 6 species, and hooked three roosters. The roosters sure were a pleasant surprise. They must be making their annual migration back, and the fishing will only improve in the following weeks.
Maureen's rooster would have been the women's world record for the line class (16 pound) for a fly caught rooster, but the engine was in gear and the rooster hit before the cast was made. This is essentially trolling, so we just took photos and made the release.
Ed Kunze
Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 69-101
Humidity 79%
Wind: NNE 3mph
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 8 miles
Sunrise 7:39 a.m. CST
Sunset 8:00 p.m. CST
Cabo San Lucas
WEATHER: The weather continues to slowly warm up as our nighttime lows have been in the high 60’s and our daytime highs have been in the high 80’s. There have been very few clouds in the skies this past week, just scattered around here and there for the most part. No rain has been seen to fall anywhere near us. Sun block of at least SPF-35 has been a necessity.
WATER: It appears that the California current has become weaker as the warm water on the Cortez side of the Cape has started to come across into the Pacific side over the week. The cooler water in the current has been forced offshore, outside the San Jaime Bank it is a cool 68-69 degrees while on the bank and up to the shoreline it is a warmer 73-74 degrees. On the Cortez side of the Cape we have mostly warm water in the 74-75 degree range. Surface conditions have been great this past week with small swells and very little wind.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin are re-appearing in large numbers now as the water has warmed up to their preferred 74 degree range, but they are not biting all that well. That is not to say there are no fish being caught; it just means that as far as the percentage of fish caught to fish seen, well, that is a low number. The positive side of this is that there are large numbers of fish being seen on the surface, small groups of three or four and larger groups that number up to fifteen fish. Most boats have been releasing two or three Marlin per trip, but throwing bait to forty or so fish in order to get those numbers. The area around the 95 spot has been holding large numbers of Striped Marlin, as has the area around the 1150.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We had a wide-open bite on the football size fish this week as a large school moved to within 4 miles of the bay early in the week. Boats were getting 20-30 fish each before tiring and going on to fish for Marlin. These fish were averaging 8-10 pounds each with a few in the 20-pound class. They were biting anything you put in the water, but the larger fish were eating live bait dropped in front of the moving schools. Any boats that went out at 150 degrees ran into these fish on Monday and Tuesday, as the week went on the fish moved to the west. There were other scattered schools found, but with the bite so good close to home not many boats went much farther to look for larger ones.
DORADO: There continued to be a few fish caught this week and as the water warms up more we should expect to be seeing more Dorado. I had a report of a boat up at Los Barillas catching 27 Dorado after finding a dead seal and that is the type of thing that may begin to happen here. Not that we kill seals, but this time of year we begin to find kelp fronds and trash in the water that hold large numbers of Dorado.
WAHOO: What Hoo once again.
INSHORE: The numbers of small Yellowtail being caught has lowered this week, weather because they have moved on to water more in keeping with their preferred temperature or because they became fished out, I don’t know. But instead of filling coolers with these small 5-8 pound fish, boats are getting just three or four per trip. What has a lot of anglers excited is the number of Roosterfish that have been showing up just outside of the arch. There have been mornings when 20 fish have been caught and released by one boat, but the fish have been small with an average size of 5 pounds. Little guys, but when you use light tackle they are a blast to catch! The Sierra bite has fallen off a bit as well and with the smooth water conditions and the Yellowfin Tuna being close, a lot of the Panga fishermen have been going out for the Tuna.
NOTES: Maybe I’ll try this thing I’ve been trying to get to use next year, it does not look like I will get to use this technique anytime soon, sigh. Anyway, we had great fishing this week and I hope it continues, with the numbers of Striped Marlin we are seeing if they start biting it will be awesome. This weeks report was written to the music of John Lee Hooker on the 2006 Virgin Records release “Best Of Friends”. Until next week, tight lines!
George & Mary Landrum
Water temperature 64 - 71
Air temperature 61-88
Humidity 13%
Wind: S at 2mph
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 14 miles
Sunrise 6:58 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:41 p.m. MST
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