REPORT #1117 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
Nice dorado snaked out beneath the Sargasso
East Cape
The offshore action seemed to centered from Pescadero north to the 88 this past week. Plenty of marlin are around but bites are tough to come by. Oddly enough, there were many patches of sargasso with some holding some good sized dorado. The trick was to be at the right patch at the right time. Another bonus this week was that a few tuna from 10 to 40 pounds were scratched out from under the white belly porpoise before the Mexican seiners came steaming over the horizon.
Inshore the white bonito remained in front of El Cardonal until the wind blew out of the south Wednesday shutting off that bite.
Yesterday Jamie and Barbara Pierre, Seattle, WA, fished with Mark Rayor and encountered the winds mentioned before. They started at Las Arenas and hop-scotched south. Finally, in the afternoon, they found some schooling roosters in the 15 to 20 pound class at El Cardonal.. Barbara landed her first, second and third rooster ever, qualifying her as a veteran.
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The beach also got thrashed pretty good on Wednesday and it may take several days before the water clears up from the wind waves. Before the wind there were schools of roosters, mostly in the five pound class, pounding the bait schools along the beach from Rancho Leonero to Punta Colorada with some jacks and ladyfish mixed in.
Tip: It is important to remember to not use the rod tip when setting the hook, strip strike is the better method.Water temperature 70-82
Air temperature 69-99
Humidity 66%
Wind: ESE 5 to 7 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 11 miles
Sunrise 6:31 a.m. MDT
Sunset 8:003p.m. MDT
Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico
Bob Hoyt reported that the water temps were beginning to climb both in the Esteros as well as outside. Enrique Soto found good action for small yellows at the entrada along with some sierra feeding on the surface. Up the line toward the entrance to Santa Maria bay there were some larger yellow tail under the birds schools chasing the sardines driven to the surface.
Estero action was limited to corvina on the surface and a few grouper and pargo down deeper.
Water temperature 60 - 66
Air temperature 66 -93
Humidity 28 %
Wind: NW 13 to 17 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:36 a.m. MDT
Sunset 8:14 p.m. MDT
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
Over all the fishing has been fairly good this last week. The blue water is about 6 miles off the beach, and the fleet is averaging about 1 to 3 sailfish a day per boat. Due to a warmer water current moving in, the blue marlin and tuna action has slowed down a bit, but this is triggering the sailfish and dorado to become more active.
The roosterfish action down at Puerto Vicente Guerrero is outstanding. Jose Pino, on the panga Angelica, reported 15 roosters in one day. Up north, around the Saladita and Ranch areas, Adolfo on the panga Dos Hermanos is getting very good jack crevalle action.
Ed Kunze
Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 77-97
Humidity 71%
Wind: W at 9mph
Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 7:10 a.m. CDT
Sunset 8:19 p.m. CDT
Cabo San Lucas
WEATHER: Things have warmed back up and now we are feeling once again as if we have summer on the way. Our nighttime lows have been in the low 70’s and our daytime highs have been in the mid 90’s, once reaching 99 degrees here at my house. We had scattered clouds in the mornings most days, but things cleared up rapidly.
WATER: We experienced a rapid improvement in water conditions this week as a major push of warm water from the north took place. This warm water displaced much of the cold green water that we had wrapping around the Cape from the Pacific side last week, and has come on strong enough that the entire area to the south of the Cape is now around 76-78 degrees and blue. This warm water has traveled up the Pacific coast past Todo Santos and extends from the beach to about two miles offshore. Farther out it is 72 degrees and still green, in places like pea soup. On the Cortez side of the Cape things have definitely improved with water temperatures within our reach being as high as 84 degrees, and up in the East Cape reaching 86 degrees. This warm water is also clear water and brings with it fish of all kinds. Surface conditions on the Pacific consisted of swells to 6 feet with afternoon winds from the northwest to 14 knots. On the Cortez side the swells were in the 1-3 foot range with slight afternoon winds from the west causing occasional choppy conditions.
BAIT: Mackerel and a few Caballito were available at the new price of $3 per bait, and there were nice sized Sardinas at the Palmilla area at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin have shown back up and the fishing has improved for them as well. The only problem is that the fish are still a considerable distance from us on the Cortez side of the Cape, up around the Punta Gorda area and farther north, in the Vinorama area. This is an easy 30-mile trek, and takes time, but when the tide change happens things have been going off like gangbusters, especially the last half of this week. There is plenty of bait in the area and the preferred method has been to slow troll live mackerel at 2 ½ knots in the area of heaviest concentration. The fish have been feeding on the surface, but the action is so quick that running and throwing bait has not been effective. The slow troll seems to do better. Those boats that have been using just lures have been getting fish as well, but not as many. With the push of warm water into our area it should not be long before the big girls start to show up! I am really looking forward to some Blue and Black Marlin action this summer!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: We are still not seeing any numbers of Yellowfin Tuna, the actions of the Purse Seiners from several week ago seem to have had a very strong effect on this fish’s availability. We can only hope that a new batch of Yellowfin appear soon. Quite a few boats have been looking specifically for them, but the results have been very poor.
DORADO: There has been very good Dorado action in the same area as the Striped Marlin, but closer in toward the beach. Within the 300-foot depths around the Vinorama area the bite has been good on fish to 45 pounds, with most of the fish in the 20-25 pound class. Fast moving lures in bright colors have done well when fished back in the pattern, and as happens most of the time, a live bait dropped back once the lure-caught fish is close to the boat has often resulted in multiple fish hooked up.
WAHOO: Wahoo were the big surprise this week as they have followed the warm water and are now to be found off the Vinorama area, just like the Dorado and Striped Marlin. The best results have been had by the Pangas out of La Playita in San Jose as they have been leaving the marina early and have been catching Chilwilie at the inner Gorda Bank at first light, then running to the Iman Bank area and slow trolling these mackerel scad. Many of the Pangas were catching multiple fish in the 30-40 pound class every morning. For the boats coming into the area from Cabo Sa Lucas, the best results were to be had by trolling Magnum Rapallas and Marauders close to the boat at higher than normal trolling speeds, around 9-10 knots, and having a small, heavy lure off of the outriggers. The best catch I heard of by a cruiser from our area was 6 fish in the 30-50 pound class in one trip. I did see a larger fish come in, one that was reasonably in the 80-pound class.
INSHORE: The inshore action continued to be good on the Cortez side of the Cape for white Bonita and Roosterfish, with some boats doing well on some leftover Sierra as well. These are surprising, as the water has warmed up well past the normal temperature for them. Fishing bait off the bottom has had good results for anglers targeting Grouper and Amberjack, with many of the Grouper being in the 30-pound class. The best areas for the bottom fishing has been off the rock piles at the points, one of the most fished has been right off of Palmilla. Roosterfish action has been going off very well on the sandy beaches at La Playita and to the north of there in the La Laguna area. Best results for them has been by using live mullet slow trolled behind the boat, or some of the large Sardinas that can be bought up there.
NOTES: We are experiencing a definite improvement in our fishing, and things are looking good. No music for me this week as I am writing this very early in the morning prior to a fishing trip and my wife is still sleeping in the next room! Until next week, tight lines!
George & Mary Landrum
Water temperature 67 - 75
Air temperature 68 - 98
Humidity 67%
Wind: WNW 8 to 11 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:33 a.m. MST
Sunset 8:02 p.m. MST
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