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