Polls Lean Toward Fish

Endless Season Update 10/29/2008
REPORT #1138 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape
Just to set the record straight, daylight savings time officially ended in Baja last Sunday morning, one week earlier than in the United States.
Today is picture perfect in East Cape, exactly how you would expect it to be in late October.
In the billfish sector, the sailfish led the way this week, spiking the action up to a handful of shots a day with a few stripers and even a very occasional blue showing.
Dorado action went off five miles from the beach, while tuna rounded out this week’s catch. Some of the luckier boats in the right place at the right time caught as many as five tuna up to 100 pounds.
The continuing swells from the north winds dirtied the water along the beaches. Still, there was enough bait to attract small roosters and jacks to keep things interesting.

Water temperature 76-84
Air temperature 71-88
Humidity 87%
Wind: NNW 10 to 13 knots
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 6 miles
Sunrise 7:23 a.m. MST
Sunset 6:42 p.m. MST

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Jan Forszpaniak, Naples, Florida, displays one of his many dorado released while fishing at Magdalena Bay
The tuna bite was outrageous on the fly! Kurt Ransohoff of Santa Barbara and Tom Lorish from Portland, Oregon, ended their trip with limits of thirty pound fish, though at a price. Several of their flylines went south and at least one 12wt was a couple of feet shorter. After each of them caught their first marlin on the fly, they left planning Magdalena Bay planning their next trip.

Along with the marlin, the dorado did show on bait balls out towards the Thetis bank.
Shrimp season is in full swing in the Esteros. Several areas including Santo Domingo and Devil’s Curve began to produce several small snook and some leopard grouper up to ten pounds.

Bob Hoyt

Water temperature 78 - 85
Air temperature 71 -87
Humidity 87 %
Wind: NW 11 to 14 knots
Conditions: Mostly Clear
Visibility 7 miles
Sunrise 7:33 a.m. MST
Sunset 6:48 p.m. MST

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
The full moon, and last week's hard rain, slowed the fishing down this week. The blue water had moved out to the 20 mile mark, and the inshore water was discolored by the heavy runoff out of the rivers.
This next week looks very promising. The rain season is all but over, and we are getting out of the moon phase. There was not much action this week, with the boats averaging less than a sailfish a day each. A few dorado showed in the counts, and this could develop into a decent bite as the current lines become more defined.
A few small roosters were reported, but finding a decent stretch of clean water made for a lot of fishing, and very little catching.

Ed Kunze

Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 74-93
Humidity 84%
Wind: E 8 knots
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 5 miles
Sunrise 7:44 a.m. CST
Sunset 7:16 p.m. CST

Cabo San Lucas

BILLFISH: Striped marlin were in abundance if you were fishing either on the Golden Gate Bank or just to the inside of there. We had groups this week that were doing double-digit fish every day, between 12 and 15 striped marlin releases per day, and a few that were in the two or three per day range. If you were in the right place at the right time with the right equipment the fishing was outstanding. Live bait was the key for the large numbers, and finding the bait balls was the most important thing of all.

As far as the blue marlin and black marlin were concerned, the catch numbers from the Bisbee tournament speak for themselves. One hundred forty one (141) boats fishing three days makes for 423 fishing days; catching two fish over 300 pounds means one decent fish per 212 days’ of effort. Of course if you were the boat that was across the board in the jackpots and caught a 313 pound marlin on the last day, you were not complaining about taking home a check for over two million dollars. Sigh.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were more yellowfin caught for bait for the Bisbee tournament than between all the charter boats combined. Having 60 boats all tossing out cut sardinas and live chum in a very small area tended to concentrate the bait and the tuna. Yellowfin to 15 pounds were caught in decent numbers every morning right in the middle of the bait along the drop-off. Farther offshore there were fish showing amongst the Dolphin, and they were ranging in size from 20 to 120 pounds. Smaller lures than most of the boats were pulling, I mean lures from 6 to 10 inches in length and in darker colors resulted in decent numbers, but live bait dropped in front of the moving schools resulted in the larger fish.

DORADO: There were plenty of dorado out there this week and most of them were pretty close to home. The area between the Cape and Los Arcos on the Pacific side put out the largest numbers of fish, but the average size was down a bit from last week, with 10 pounds being the average size. There were still many fish in the 25-35 pound class, but there were very large numbers of smaller fish as well. That bodes well for the next month as these fish can gain as much as 5 pounds per month in weight.

INSHORE: There were some small Rrosterfish to 15 pounds with the average around 8 pounds caught this week. Live mackerel were the main bait used and most of the fish came from fairly close to home, between the Hacienda Hotel and the Chileno Bay. Most of the Pangas were concentrated on the dorado bite instead of the traditional inshore species.

George & Mary Landrum

Water temperature 73 - 85
Air temperature 73 - 93
Humidity 87%
Wind: NW 6 to 8 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 6 miles
Sunrise 7:23 a.m. MST
Sunset 6:44 p.m. MST

North Winds…Already

Endless Season Update 10/22/2008
REPORT #1137 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

Still unsettled, conditions have been frustrating. One day the dorado turn on, then the next day it’s the tuna. In both cases it is mostly small fish with an occasional larger one showing up, (dorado to 50 and rumors of tuna to 150). The most consistent bite has been the Humbolt squid.

Meanwhile the billfish action is scattered with some boats running as far as 40 miles to find them.

Along the shore, it’s jacks, roosterfish and some early sierra as the North winds begin to cool the water.

There was a report of a 650 pound black marlin caught 3 miles off the beach near Rancho Leonero.

Water temperature 76-82
Air temperature 74-92
Humidity 81%
Wind: NNW 8 to 11 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 9 miles
Sunrise 7:20 a.m. MDT
Sunset 6:46 p.m. MDT

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

The wahoo, dorado and tuna action was WFO! Quality sized fish and only a few miles above Cabo San Lazaro. But the marlin seemed to have been scattered by Norbert’s wind. Finally, a few were found late this week.
With light pressure, the Esteros produced a few mangrove snapper, grouper and cabrilla. There were also a few sierra on the surface along with a few smaller corvina.

Bob Hoyt

Water temperature 78 - 85
Air temperature 73 -94
Humidity 95 %
Wind: WNW 10 to 14 knots
Conditions: Mostly Clear
Visibility 3 miles
Sunrise 7:26 a.m. MDT
Sunset 6:59 p.m. MDT

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The full moon, and last week's hard rain, slowed the fishing down this week. The blue water had moved out to the 20 mile mark, and the inshore water was discolored by the heavy runoff out of the rivers.
This next week looks very promising. The rain season is all but over, and we are getting out of the moon phase. There was not much action this week, with the boats averaging less than a sailfish a day each. A few dorado showed in the counts, and this could develop into a decent bite as the current lines become more defined.
A few small roosters were reported, but finding a decent stretch of clean water made for a lot of fishing, and very little catching.

Ed Kunze
Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 77-87
Humidity 83%
Wind: SSW 5 knots
Conditions: Cloudy
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 7:40 a.m. CDT
Sunset 7:24 p.m. CDT


Cabo San Lucas

The Bisbee Black and Blue began Wednesday morning with 141 boats to compete for just under $3 million.

BILLFISH: There were still plenty of striped marlin at the Golden Gate Bank but as the days went along the bite dropped off. Early in the week boats were releasing five or six fish on a good day, but by the end of the week, a two fish day was a good one. The fish were still there; you could see them on the depth sounder and on the surface, but they were not biting as well. Farther to the north at the Finger Bank, the same situation was occurring, but there the difference was in the baits available. At the Finger Bank, the marlin were feeding on sardina, but because they were so focused on the small fish, they would often just ignore a mackerel or caballito.

On the big fish front, there were quite a few medium-sized blue and black marlin released, with the majority of them being blue marlin in the 200-250 pound class. The Los Cabos Billfish Tournament, held over three days, had only one qualifying marlin caught, a 415pound black that ended up taking all the jackpots for the three days as well as the big fish prize, a nice total of over $500,000 U.S. Saturday was the first day of the two-day little Bisbee tournament, with only 20 something boats entered. With the 415 pound black being caught on the Outer Gorda Bank on live bait, every boat in this tournament was there fishing the same way. There were two fish weighed in on Saturday, the largest was a 385 pound Black. The other fish did not quite make the grade, weighing in at a short 295 pounds, five pounds shy. The winning fish on Sunday was a 514 pound black…same area, same method.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: This was almost a repeat of last week’s results with most of the fish caught being found to the south of the San Jaime Banks among porpoise pods. The first boats on the fish did well with catches ranging from 6 to 10 fish with an average weight of 20 pounds, the larger fish going 30 pounds. If you were the third or fourth boat on the scene you might get one or two fish; if you were later than that you were out of luck. There was one very nice fish caught this week during the Los Cabos Tournament, a yellowfin weighing in at 181 pounds, but I could not get the information on where or how it was caught.

DORADO: The number of dorado being caught this week fluctuated day to day, but overall the numbers are down a little bit unless you went far up the Pacific side. The passing of Hurricane Norbert left quite a bit of debris in the water, but the inshore current changed and at a movement of 2 knots, pushed the debris to the north and out to the west. Locally the best bite has been on the Pacific side from 2 to 4 miles off the beach. Finding feeding frigate birds in that area was a sure indicator of dorado and slow trolling live baits under the birds, or pulling lures in the area usually resulted in hooking up, with the fish averaging 12 pounds. I did hookup one nice dorado this week, in the 50-pound class, but it got away after charging the boat like a marlin. The largest dorado caught during the Los Cabos Tournament was 57 pounds.

WAHOO: I heard good things this week about wahoo up around the Punta Gorda and Inman Banks, with quite a few of the local Pangas getting one or two fish in the 40 pound class each day. They were getting good results on swimming plugs like Rapallas and Marauders, and there were a few large fish hooked up as well. The largest wahoo brought in during the Los Cabos Tournament weighed in at 44 pounds.

INSHORE: Almost every Panga captain I talked to this week was working off the beach for dorado and striped marlin. Only one fished the beach and he told me that the roosterfish bite was off, releasing only three small fish outside of the Westin Hotel on the Cortez side.

George & Mary Landrum

Water temperature 73 - 91
Air temperature 73 - 95
Humidity 98%
Wind: NW 4 to 6 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 1 miles
Sunrise 7:30 a.m. MST
Sunset 6:53 p.m. MST

The Curse of the Camera

Endless Season Update 10/15/2008REPORT #1136 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

Whew….according to this morning’s weather the coast is clear for the first time in several months.

Several folks arriving in the past few days provided the following road report:
“The road just north of Loreto is fine. There were crews cleaning much of the mud that was on the road. We left Loreto at 5:40AM Tuesday and made it to Los Barriles around 11:30AM. The road was passable all the way down. There was some water on the roadway in a couple of spots but no problems. According to the government the road from La Paz to Ciudad Constitución has 11 damaged areas, from Ciudad Insurgentes to Loreto.”

Before Norbert, Jim Sammons owner of La Jolla Kayaks, arrived with his kayak armada and a camera crew to record their exploits on the kayaks. Jim, reported Jeff Schweitzer hooked an estimated 250lb. blue marlin and fought it for over five hours before he released it.
And then the wind blew keeping them off the water for four days. They finally did get back out and managed to score with a few nice catches including a dog toothed snapper, amberjack and a 25+lb. roosterfish.
Hmmm…maybe anothercase of “The Curse of the Camera!”

Water temperature
76-87
Air temperature
72-91
Humidity
93%
Wind:
NNW 11 to 15 knots
Conditions:
Sunny
Visibility
9 miles
Sunrise
7:17 a.m. MDT
Sunset
6:52 p.m. MDT

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

We had some roof damage on the cabins at Whales Tale that have already been repaired and we are good to go.
Offshore fishing has picked up where it left off with wahoo pouncing of the jigs up above Cabo Lazzaro toward the Thetis Bank. The commercial shark fishermen are reporting plenty of marlin sightings in the same area. Tuna in the thirty-five pound class are being found under numerous bird schools.

Our anglers ignored the Esteros this week opting to take advantage of the offshore action.

Be sure to read Pat McDonell's Blog on his recent trip to Magdalena Bay

Bob Hoyt

Water temperature
78 - 84
Air temperature
73 -94
Humidity
95 %
Wind:
WNW 11 to 15 knots
Conditions:
Mostly Clear
Visibility
3 miles
Sunrise
7:26 a.m. MDT
Sunset
6:59 p.m. MDT

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

On Saturday of this last week we had 6 inches of rain in a 24 hour period. The wake of a storm generally helps the blue water fishing, but we are also up against a full moon this week. This last couple of weeks had been very good in the blue water.
Today's results were a bit of a mixed bag. Some boats got fish, and others did not. The pattern seems to be those boats that went looking for the blue water found game fish, and those boats that stayed with last week's pattern did not. The storm, and the huge influx of fresh water coming out of the rivers, pushed the blue water out to the 24 mile mark.
And there is a definite line of demarcation between the clear water and the deep cobalt blue water. Mike Buckley on the panga, Huntress ,was telling me today they got 3 sails and a nice 20 pound dorado. Their sails came at 17, 20 and 22 miles. The dorado hit right after they crossed into the blue water.
The inshore is now starting to clear up again, but I expect it to be another few days before the roosters turn on.

Ed Kunze

Water temperature
80 - 84
Air temperature
77-87
Humidity
83%
Wind:
SSW 5 knots
Conditions:
Cloudy
Visibility
10 miles
Sunrise
7:40 a.m. CDT
Sunset
7:24 p.m. CDT

Cabo San Lucas

BILLFISH: The beginning of the week saw a continuation of the hot Striped Marlin bite we had been having at the Golden Gate and the Finger Banks. As I write this we are waiting to see if the storm conditions caused the fish to move off as we have several boats out fishing today. Our fingers are crossed that with the port being closed for several days, and the lack of rain in our immediate area, we will have given the fish a break and they will be ready to eat when our clients get to the grounds. There were a few more Blue Marlin caught early in the week before the weather moved in, but none of them were large according to what I heard; most of them were in the 200-250lb. class. Almost all the action on billfish this week occurred on the Pacific side with the exception of a few Blue Marlin up around the Punta Gorda area.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Early in the week reports were coming in about a few nice schools of Yellowfin Tuna to 50 pounds outside of the San Jaime Banks, and to the south of the Banks. There were a few fish caught by the first boats on the scene at the Golden Gate Bank as well.

DORADO: Once again there were still some decent Dorado to be found with the average size a bit smaller than expected at 12 pounds, but the number of fish was down as well. Most boats were happy to get three to five fish per trip; the exceptional catch may have been 10 fish if the anglers were lucky enough to get into a school of fish. There is a decent chance that the rains from Hurricane Norbert, as it passed across land to the north, may have washed out a lot of debris from the arroyos and we may have some decent concentrations of Dorado under this floating debris in the coming week. The California current should bring this debris into our area in three or four days.

INSHORE: Early in the week the inshore action was decent with small Roosterfish to 15lbs. and an occasional 40-50lb. fish being caught on the Cortez side of the Cape. Bottom fishing was poor so most of the Pangas were working several miles off of the beach for Dorado and Marlin.

George & Mary Landrum

Water temperature
73 - 91
Air temperature
73 - 93
Humidity
82%
Wind:
ESE 9 to 12 knots
Conditions:
Sunny
Visibility
11 miles
Sunrise
7:17 a.m. MST
Sunset
6:54 p.m. MST

Here Comes Norbert

Endless Season Update 10/08/2008

REPORT #1135 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996



East Cape
The 14th storm of the season, Norbert, is weakening a little but is still considered a major hurricane. It is predicted to make landfall somewhere in the vicinity of Magdalena Bay midday on Saturday. The storm is expected to pass by out to the west of East Cape, but most of the boats at the hotels have been pulled. Apparently, Odile, another tropical storm is making its way up the Mexican coast as well.

Billfishing was an “iffy” proposition again this week with only a few sails and even fewer stripers. There were a couple of blues reported. Last weekend’s La Paz Gold Cup attracted 71 boats for the two day event with only two fish being caught; only one fish qualified at 214 pounds winning all the marbles.

The dorado and tuna action from the preceding week evaporated this week. A few lucky anglers landed a few here and there.

The best action for the week was inshore from La Ribera to Punta Colorada for rooster fish, pompano, bonito and lady fish.

The roosters were still small, but ladyfish and a few small jacks could also be found with the sardina and mullet. We found our best action near the rocks on both sides of Punta Colorada Hotel.

Water temperature 76-87
Air temperature 75-91
Humidity 73%
Wind: S 7 to 9 knots
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 15 miles
Sunrise 7:14 a.m. MDT
Sunset 6:59 p.m. MDT

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Everyone is preparing for the storm, Norbert, which is expected to come ashore somewhere near here. Offshore fishing remained good preceding the storm with wahoo, yellowfin tuna and still a few small yellowtail. More yachts are arriving each day and they reported marlin from the ridge on down to the Entrada.

With little pressure on the Estero action, the catch has included corvine and small sierra in the open water. Near the mangroves there were leopard grouper and a few small snook along with some mangrove snapper.

Bob Hoyt

Water temperature 78 - 84
Air temperature 75 -95
Humidity 73 %
Wind: WNW 6 to 8 knots
Conditions: Mostly Clear
Visibility 14 miles
Sunrise 7:23 a.m. MDT
Sunset 7:06 p.m. MDT

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

With the blue water only 8 miles off the beach, the fishing is continuing its trend from last week, and actually improving on it. Martin on the Nautilus told me "mucha pesca" Which translates to good fishing.

The yellowfin tuna are still too far out for the sport fishing fleet, but the commercial pangeros are getting them around the 45 mile mark. Plus, a few blue marlin are showing again in the counts this week. Dorado are being taken, but not as many as we thought would develop after the rains from a couple of weeks ago.

Yesterday (Wednesday) Jason Baig, of Wichita KS, fished with Captain Margarito on the Gaby. They were back at the dock by noon with 8 sailfish raised and 4 released. Margarito fished the area between 10 to 12 miles out.

There is also excellent action on the roosterfish all up and down the coast

Ed Kunze
Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 74-90
Humidity 93%
Wind: SSW 5 knots
Conditions: Cloudy
Visibility 9 miles
Sunrise 7:36 a.m. CDT
Sunset 7:29 p.m. CDT


Cabo San Lucas

BILLFISH: One of our clients this week ended up fighting a Blue Marlin for 4 ½ hours before getting the tail-wrapped fish to the boat. It came in on a short rigger lure and the guys dropped a live bait back to it, thinking it was a Striped Marlin. The battle took place on a fairly light bait rod and since the fish died, they took it to the weigh station. It was a nice Blue of 376 pounds! There were a few others caught this week as well, but the big noise around the docks has been the influx of Striped Marlin. Last week it was looking real good but you had to go 50 miles for double digits, this week the Golden Gate Bank started to turn on and the run was much shorter. Boats working the Pacific side between the lighthouse and the inside of the Golden Gate were hooking two or three fish per trip while trolling and casting to tailing fish or fish raised on the lures. Boats working the Golden Gate were dropping bait deep and drifting across the high spot or running to birds dropping down on fish. The problem with running to the birds was the large numbers of whales and dolphin. The Gate was producing double digit catches with one boat getting a three-day total of 33 Striped Marlin as well as several sailfish. The Finger Bank really started popping this week as well, but the fish were not right at the finger, instead the concentration seemed to be five or six miles to the north, just around the flats at the wrist. Talk about double digit fishing, one of the fleet boats reported releasing 45 Striped Marlin in one day! I hope it keeps up for a while.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were some Tuna out there but they were scattered. Most of the action on larger fish switched directions with the area around the Cabrillo Seamount on the Cortez side producing fish in the 50-60 pound class for a few boats that checked the area out. The Pacific side outside of the San Jaime Bank still produced fish in the 15-40 pound class under pods of dolphin. In both areas live bait produced the larger fish with small dark colored lures working on the smaller fish. When the fish became shy and the bite slowed, switching out to small pink hootchies tied directly to the line, let out 150-200 feet and jigged with sharp pulses while slow trolling worked.

DORADO: There are still decent numbers of Dorado out there but it was not the fish of the week this week, instead the title went to Striped Marlin. The bite slowed on Dorado and the size seems to have dropped a bit as well with the average fish coming in at 12 pounds. There are still fish of 30 and 40 pounds being caught, but not in the numbers of the last few weeks. Another possible reason for the lower catches might be the Marlin action, with most boats concentrating on these fish. There was decent action on the Cortez side for Dorado as well with good reports coming from boats working the Punta Gorda area, fish averaging 15 pounds with four or five fish per trip.

INSHORE: Roosterfish action was still to be had if you were in the right place, at the right time, with the right bait; this week that meant the beach off of La Laguna on the Cortez side, right at the start of the drop off of high tide, and using live mullet. A few boats reported fish to 60 pounds with a lot of medium 20-35 pound fish as well. The best report I heard from one boat was 11 releases in a trip. Other inshore action was sparse as most of the Pangas worked off the beach for Dorado and Striped Marlin.

George & Mary Landrum

Water temperature 73 - 91
Air temperature 75 - 97
Humidity 77%
Wind: ESE 9 to 12 knots
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 8 miles
Sunrise 7:14 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:00 p.m. MST

Tuna and Hot, Hot, Hot Weather!

Endless Season Update 10/02/2008
REPORT #1134 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape
A few quality tuna to sixty pounds were down Las Frailes way and chunks of squid once again did the trick. Not wide open, but enough to provide sashimi for everyone. School was in session beneath all the debris for the small dorado. Billfish action has slowed with only a few bites here and there. There are still a few blue bites to be found for the dedicated angler but there is a lot of boat riding in between.
Inshore action seems to be spread all along the coast. Roosters, jacks and ladyfish are providing the best action, Find the bait and it’s great; miss it and you will have to wait. Look for the sardina or mullet schools.
Beach action included small roosters and an occasional shot at a ‘bubba’ class fish. Take heed! It has been one hot mother on the beach, which means you need to drink lots of liquids and use plenty of sun protection.
Tropical storm “Marie” seems to be tiptoeing out to the west.

Water temperature 76-87
Air temperature 73-94
Humidity 92%
Wind: WSW 3 to 5 knots
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 7 miles
Sunrise 7:11 a.m. MDT
Sunset 7:05 p.m. MDT

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Billfish action seems to be spread all the way from Thetis to the Finger bank below Punta Tosca. (see Cabo report). Wide open wahoo action can still be found from the Thetis and back toward the flats of Cabo Lazzaro. Still plenty of small yellows, football sized tuna and skipjack from eight miles outside of Boca de Soledad.

In the Esteros the grouper, mangrove snapper were the best bet with an occasional corvina on the surface.

Bob Hoyt

Water temperature 78 - 84
Air temperature 76 -97
Humidity 98 %
Wind: WNW 10 to 14 knots
Conditions: Mostly Clear
Visibility 3 miles
Sunrise 7:20 a.m. MDT
Sunset 7:13 p.m. MDT

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

Things have turned around a bit this week. There are still very few people fishing, with only about six boats a day making up the total fleet, but all the boats are scoring on fish.
Talking to Adolfo on the panga Dos Hermanos, with the inshore waters clearing up, he is back to doing well on the roosters again.
Martin, on the cruiser Nautilus, said every boat fishing the blue water is getting between 2 to 3 sailfish a day average, with two blue marlin also being taken today (Wednesday). At a bit less than 200 pounds, the blues were on the small side, but marlin are not a normal catch for this time of the year.
Plus, there are more dorado showing up, and we hope to get more action from them in the upcoming weeks. The majority of the dorado are only about 12 to 13 pound school sized fish, but they can be a lot of fun on the fly rod or light line.

Ed Kunze

Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 74-90
Humidity 85%
Wind: SSW 5 knots
Conditions: Cloudy
Visibility 9 miles
Sunrise 7:37 a.m. CDT
Sunset 7:34 p.m. CDT

Cabo San Lucas

BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite has turned on, at least if you are willing to travel 50 miles to get to the fish. Realize that if you do this, the boat will likely charge a fuel premium for the trip. The Finger Bank turned on this weekend with several boats reporting multiple numbers of fish there. Captain Tony Nungary on “Tony’s Machine” had 17 releases in 2 hours while fishing a private tournament and Captain Jay Bush reported 22 releases but spending a bit more time in the area. Reportedly the fish were not feeding on bait balls but were being hooked on trolled lures and on dropped back baits. If this action continues we may have a repeat of the awesome action of last year. The Golden Gate Bank also had good action on Striped Marlin, but not quite the numbers of the Finger Bank as most boats working the southern edge were getting bit on deep dropped live baits, not covering much of the water but working around the deep bait balls, dropping, drifting across for 15 minutes then pulling the baits up, running back up-current and dropping again.
YELLOWFIN TUNA The Tuna action this week was considerably slower than last week. According to Mike Tumbrillo, the owner of the 31’ Bertram “Renegade Mike”, his crew searched several days but were not able to find the big fish that had made an appearance last week. There were schools of fish in the 30-40 pound class to the west of the San Jaime Bank as well as 30 miles to the southwest, but the big boys were absent. Boats willing to go the distance did fairly well, averaging 2 to 10 fish per trip. Cedar plugs and green or dark colored lures run close to the boat worked well, with a few of the larger fish biting on live bait dropped back after a trolled lure hook-up.
DORADO Once again, just like last week, Dorado was the fish of the week. While not everyone caught their limit this week and there were a couple of slow days, the numbers were still good and the average size of the fish was decent. Most of the fish were found on the Pacific side of the cape but the reason was most of the boats headed that way looking for Tuna and Marlin, the Dorado were not the target for most of the boats this week. Reports from the few boats that went north on the Sea of Cortez were that the Dorado were there as well but you had to find the concentrations. A few boats did this by fast trolling lures until getting a strike, then chumming in the school with chopped up skipjack.
INSHORE: Captain Victor on the Panga “Santi” reported that there were still Roosterfish to be found on the stretch of beach between the arch and the Pedregal. His clients released two fish of about 25-pounds each along with several smaller one during the middle of the week. Most of the Pangas were fishing just off the beach for some of the large numbers of Dorado, and they were doing very well. Bottom fishing was reported as being a bit off with the majority of fish caught being triggerfish

George & Mary Landrum

Water temperature 73 - 88
Air temperature 75 - 97
Humidity 96%
Wind: WNW 5 to 6 knots
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 8 miles
Sunrise 7:12 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:07 p.m. MST