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