Julio Tip-Toes By

Endless Season Update 08/27/2008
REPORT #1129 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape
Tropical depression Julio tip-toed by bringing with it a little wind and leaving 3 inches of rain, with even more wind coming from the collective sighs of relief from the locals than the storm.
In the wake of Julio’s departure, we’ve had storybook weather with water temps hitting the high eighties, but the fishing has been described as ‘double tough.’ Offshore it has been a scratch bite for sails and blues, though there were a few small tuna in front of La Ribera on the high spot.
Inshore the water was off color and there was a bit of leftover swell that has kept it stirred up. You had to earn the few small roosters and jacks that were still to be had.
I suspect that part of the problem was the fewer number of boats that went out this week; many cancelled their trip at the last minute because of Julio.
Tip: Following a storm is a good time to find the color breaks; cruise along the clean side and look for debris that may have washed out of the arroyos. In the hot weather, the dorado like to gather underneath in the shade of the debris.

Water temperature 76-87
Air temperature 77-100
Humidity 62%
Wind: WSW 5 to 7 knots
Conditions: Partly Sunny
Visibility 11 miles
Sunrise 6:59 a.m. MDT
Sunset 7:41 p.m. MDT

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Farther up the peninsula, Julio dumped enough rain to flooding parts of Ciudad Insurgentes and parts of Constitución.

According to local newspapers, Julio caused heavy rains in the mountainous area of Comondú, bringing severe floods of water into several towns. The inhabitants of Ciudad Insurgentes found it necessary to place sand bags at some building entrances, several families still suffered heavy material losses.

According to information provided by the commanders of the delegations of Puerto Adolfo López Mateos and San Juanico, access to both communities is impossible by road becasuse of damage from Julio. While there has been flood damage no casualties or injuries have been reported....El Sudcaliforniano August 28th

The day of Julio local boater Bill Earhart caught 2 wahoo in 84 degree water in front
of Punta San Lazaro. Grouper fishing remained excellent up until the day of the storm.
Capt Sergio has been averaging 4 grouper per day in the 50 lb range. Because of the storm damage cleanup fishing was put on the back burner.

Bob Hoyt

Water temperature 60 - 76
Air temperature 74 -96
Humidity 77 %
Wind: WNW 8 to 10 knots
Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
Visibility 6 miles
Sunrise 7:06 a.m. MDT
Sunset 7:50 p.m. MDT

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The fishing has been a bit slow this week. With the blue water only 6 miles off the beach, the conditions would seem to be very good, but we have had wind at least 4 days so far this week. The wind has kept the sailfish average down to only about 1 or 2 fish per day per boat, and nobody has been going out farther than about 15 miles to look for tuna.
There are a few dorado showing in the counts, but it is only about 1 boat out of 3 scoring on the 20 pound plus fish.
Santiago, on the panga Gitana, fished inshore one day and had an unusual catch of triple tails. They scored on an even dozen of the 6 to 8 pound tasty fish. He found them off the outlets of the river mouths and hiding under the debris that had washed out from the river.
Roosterfish and jack crevalle action is still holding up with very good action.
Ed Kunze
Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 74-92
Humidity 73%
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Cloudy
Visibility 11 miles
Sunrise 7:31 a.m. CDT
Sunset 8:03 p.m. CDT

Cabo San Lucas

BILLFISH: There were some Blue Marlin caught this week but the surprise of the week was the number of Striped Marlin that ended up biting. The warm water conditions normally keep the Stripers off their feed, but we had several charters that ended up releasing three or four Striped Marlin per trip. These fish were found in the same areas all the other species this week, a band of water no farther out than 30 miles and concentrated on the banks and points. Live bait worked very well this week for the Striped Marlin while almost all the Blue Marlin bites were on lures.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Well, last week I reported on the area where the Yellowfin were being found and they were still there through the first of the week and anglers were doing well on fish to 150 pounds, with quite a few nice ones in the 80 pound class. Nothing lasts forever and on Thursday a Purse Seiner showed up early in the morning and just like that the fish were gone. Fortunately there were other fish scattered around, and a few schools were actually closer to the Cape. Let’s just hope they are still around after the storm passes through and no more seiners move in on us.
DORADO: The Dorado catches remained slow at an average of two fish per boat, and the size ranged from 10 to 20 pounds. Hopefully the debris from the storm will help concentrate the fish and things will improve this coming week or two.
WAHOO: There were a few offshore fish early in the week but no concentrations of Wahoo. I did hear of several of these speedsters that went close to 70 pounds, and they struck on lures intended for Blue Marlin.
INSHORE: Inshore fishing was decent for small Roosterfish and Jacks to 10 pounds, otherwise it was a scratch-fest, most Pangas went further offshore for Tuna and Dorado rather than work the strong inshore current while bottom fishing.

George & Mary Landrum

Water temperature 67 - 75
Air temperature 75 - 93
Humidity 68%
Wind: N 7 to 9 knots
Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
Visibility 11 miles
Sunrise 7:01 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:41 p.m. MST