REPORT #1122 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape
Gary Gets One on the Beach
Boris, a tropical storm system, passed below us late in the week causing very unsettled conditions for several days. By the weekend its effects had diminished and action began to resume.
In the billfish department the big news was a definite up-turn in the blue bite, with a number of them spotted and landed. They ranged in weight from the mid 200’s to one in the high 800’s.
Football tuna seemed to be springing up everywhere from a few miles off the lighthouse and beyond. Several days there were as many as four schools showing at the same time.
While the dorado haven’t schooled up, those that are coming into the patterns are definitely ‘keepers’ with some exceeding fifty pounds.
The small roosters were still thick close to shore with just enough bigger ones to keep things interesting.
Along with the mostly small roosters, the beach action also included some ladyfish, pompano and and the occasional larger rooster or jack that turned a ‘good day’ into a ‘great day’.
Tip: When a fish comes charging your fly, instead of speeding up the retrieve, try changing the cadence of the retrieve. Many times when the fish is matching the speed of the fly slowing down the retrieve speed will cause the fish to run into the fly.
Water temperature 73-87
Air temperature 65-91
Humidity 66%
Wind: S 8 knots
Conditions: Partly Sunny
Visibility 13 miles
Sunrise 6:39 a.m. MDT
Sunset 8:09 p.m. MDT
Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico
Water temperatures jumped up this week offshore and inside the esteros. The estero action seemed to suffer from the sudden increase as well as the strong tides. Action was restricted to a few leopard grouper and even the spotted bay bass seemed to have lockjaw for John Hammargren and Peter Schabarum.
Their final day however they caught as many small yellows, sierra and bonito as they wanted before quitting time.
Offshore it was a different story! The Pacific erupted with small yellows, larger bonito, yellowfin tuna to twenty pounds and a good showing of dorado, all within a few miles of Cabo San Lazero. There were also some reports of wahoo and striped marlin out to the west of the Thetis Bank…just a bit too far for the local fleet to reach.
Mike Litalien, fishing on a panga, said that it was the best tuna and dorado action he had seen in some time with limits filled quickly and plenty to release.
Water temperature 60 - 76
Air temperature 69 -93
Humidity 78 %
Wind: N 3 knots
Conditions: Partly Sunny
Visibility 7 miles
Sunrise 6:44 a.m. MDT
Sunset 8:20 p.m. MDT
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
We were hit hard by a tropical storm on Sunday through Monday. I recorded 6.25 inches of rain at my house, and spread out over a 16 hour period.
Due to the large volume of dirty fresh water coming out of the rivers, this wiped out the inshore fishery. Today (Wed.), I went down to Puerto Vicente Guerrero to find clean water. We went south about 15 miles with fly fishing client, Jerry Chew of Portland, OR, and got zip.
In my Suburban, on the drive back to Zihuatanejo, we did find clean water about 12 miles north of the port, and we will be trying that on Thursday.
Sailfish are holding at 1 to 2 fish per day per boat average, and the dorado are still showing up occasionally in the count.
Ed Kunze
Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 73-90
Humidity 58%
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Thunderstorms
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 7:18 a.m. CDT
Sunset 8:25 p.m. CDT
Cabo San Lucas
BILLFISH: It was a spotty week for striped marlin; a few boats were able to get releases on one or two fish each, but many boats had trouble finding fish that were willing to eat. The best results were had along the color change to the south of us, and artificial lures seemed to do a bit better than the live caballito did. There were reports of a few blue marlin being seen in the patterns up toward the Punta Gorda area, but I did not hear of any being caught by our boats in Cabo.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were yellowfin found this week but I am not telling anyone where. A few fish were up to 150 pounds and most of them were in the 30-40 pound class and they were not too far away, but last time I wrote about where they were, we had a visit from tuna seiners. Maybe it’s just bad luck, but it is enough that there are some being caught again. Not all boats were able to get into the fish, but those that were in the right place at the right time did pretty well.
DORADO The warm water on the Cortez side and south of the San Jaime Banks has brought the Dorado bite back on. I think that the storms to the south of us may have pushed up some of these fish along with the warmer water. My fingers are crossed that these nice dorado continue our way, it is a nice change of pace!
WAHOO: There were a few Wahoo in the 40-50 pound class reported being caught, but I had no luck with them myself. The warm water offshore on the Cortez side of the Cape delivered a few scattered incidental fish for lucky anglers.
INSHORE: The sierra and yellowtail bite fell off the charts with the influx of warmer water, but there were still a few being found. The good news is that the grouper are starting to bite and decent fish in the 10-20 pound class are being found over rock piles in 200-250 feet of water. Cut bait and live caballito have been working well, and a few hardy souls willing to do the work of yo-yoing at that depth have done well also.
NOTES: Best fishing this week was from pangas for the grouper, but there were good tuna caught by those anglers lucky to be in the right place at the right time. I hope that this week sees a continuation of the good fishing inshore and an increase in the offshore dorado catch as well as the appearance of more blue marlin in our area.
George & Mary Landrum
Water temperature 67 - 75
Air temperature 64 - 90
Humidity 69%
Wind: NNW 10 knots
Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
Visibility 13 miles
Sunrise 6:41 a.m. MST
Sunset 8:09 p.m. MST
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