Only 18 Species…

Two of David Lee's best catches, what a difference a day makes look at the surf
Endless Season Update 12/17/2008
REPORT #1145 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

Water temperatures still in the high 70’s continue to produce a few stripers and dorado for the few boats heading out. All the hotels opened have few visitors. The action seemed to be split about fifty- fifty between off of Punta Pescadero and La Ribera. Probably depends on the wind, when the Captains think the north wind will blow they tend to point the boat up toward Punta Pescadero so the ride downhill back to the hotel when the wind kicks up.

The other benefit of the warm water is the sardina are still abundant along the beaches from Rancho Buena Vista to Punta Colrada according to our friend David Lee. He and Candida experienced slow to good fishing for almost two weeks. Fishing from the beach from Lighthouse Estates to Punta Colorada.

They landed 18 different species; roosterfish, sierra, toro , ladyfish , leopard Grouper , flag cabrilla , barred pargo , yellow snapper , yellowfin croaker , halibut , pacific porgy , lookdown , needlefish , cornet fish , bullseye puffer , and three miscellaneous. . One of th3 sierra weighed in at fourteen pounds a possible new IGFA record and also a fifteen pound rooster both on the fly.
During their trip they were blown out for 3 days and had some wind in the afternoon on the other days.

Speaking of sierra the Tin boat fleet is catching them early morning tight to the beach. If they would stay in an area where they get bit instead of straight lining up and down the beach they could really whack them.

Lance also sent in the following update: I've been hitting the beach early the last few days and finding some good action on a mixed bag of small roosterfish, jack crevalle, green jacks, ladyfish, pompano and a few sierra. Most of the roosters are small but there are a few bigger fish here and there.

I landed one of about 8 lb's yesterday. Schools of milling jack crevalle are making an appearance near the beach with most of them being about 10lb's. Yesterday there were what appeared to be skipjacks feeding and leaping just offshore. Every now and then they would crash the beach but it was a super quick bust and very tough to get a fly on them. All in all, there's some fun morning fishing when the wind is down.
Seeing whales frequently now.

The last 2 days there were a number of them spouting and breaching off shore.

Water temperature 76-80
Air temperature 61-78
Humidity 80%
Wind: N 10 to 13 knots
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:55 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:36 p.m. MST

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Windy conditions and big swells made it impossible to go out through Boca de Soledad. Which was frustrating because the dorado and tuna were inside of ten miles off the beach.

Of course, the estero action was not affected by all that nonsense. The leopard groupers have been going off for several weeks must be all the shrimp in the bay right now. Throw in a few snook weighing in and who cares if they can’t get outside in the open water.

Bob Hoyt

Water temperature 72 - 76
Air temperature 56 -72
Humidity 85 %
Wind: NNW 11 to 14 knots
Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
Visibility 3 miles
Sunrise 7:06 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:41 p.m. MST

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

Fishing did pick up this week, and we anticipate it to get better each day as we get out of the full moon phase. By this time next week, we should be back into some very good action.
Early in the week, Santiago on the panga Gitana, fished with Harry Schuler of Los Angeles and released 3 sailfish. They also picked up a nice 20 pound dorado.
Terry Carter from Iowa fly fished two days with Adan on the panga Gitana II. On the first day they got a very nice 40 pound dorado, and then on the second day released two sailfish.
Joe Carroll of Atlanta caught two sailfish with Captain Mecate on the Aqua Azul.
Bob Beck of British Columbia is here trying to get his first blue marlin on the fly. He is fishing with guide Paul Phillips on the panga Huntress. In three days of fishing, they have raised 3 blue marlin and a few sailfish. Two of the marlin did not want the fly and the third inhaled it. But, a poor hook set sent him off to parts unknown. He still has a couple of days left, and will probably get it done.
Inshore is not seeing much action. Adolfo, on the panga Dos Hermanos, reports lots of sierra, but not much else.

Ed Kunze

Water temperature 78 - 80
Air temperature 72-87
Humidity 61%
Wind: NE at 3
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 9 miles
Sunrise 7:11 a.m. CST
Sunset 6:15 p.m. CST

Cabo San Lucas

BILLFISH: The fantastic Striped Marlin bite at the Golden Gate Bank continued for another week, but at the end of the week the bite had turned into an afternoon experience as we worked our way through a full moon phase and the fish fed all night. It was common for boats to return after having released half-dozen Stripers and a few boats did double-digit numbers. Along with the Striped Marlin were hordes of seals and sea lions; it was often very difficult to keep your bait away from them as they followed the pods of Marlin around waiting for the bait to be chased up. I overheard a few boats up at the Finger Banks and the activity there pretty much mirrored that at Golden Gate, but there were fewer boats to compete against and there was also the chance of hooking up a big Yellowfin.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: I know of one boat that did well on Yellowfin this week outside the San Jaime Bank. They got into a pod of Porpoise and were the only boat there, landing 30 Yellowfin to 80 pounds and keeping seven of them. They also said they lost one fish around 180 pounds just before being able to grab the leader. Other than that, there were only occasional fish caught, but there were big fish seen. Early in the morning at the Golden Gate boats were seeing large Tuna estimated at #200+ clearing the water, but that activity was short lived, as soon as several boats had shown up the fish went down.

DORADO: The only place that I heard of having a decent Dorado bite was just off the beach between the lighthouse on the Pacific side and the beach to the inside of the Golden Gate Bank. Within a mile of the shore boats were picking up between one and five Dorado, some of them very nice fish around 25 pounds, but most of them around 15 pounds.

WAHOO: This week was a repeat of last week on the Wahoo. There were a few nice Wahoo taken this week ranging in size from 20 to 40 pounds. Most of the action was around the rocky points on the Pacific side or up around Punta Gorda on the Cortez side of the Cape. A few boats working the Finger Bank reported multiple strikes as well while trolling lures. A few fish were reported caught while blind trolling offshore.

INSHORE: A repeat of last week, I saw a few Pangas coming in with nice Sierra to 9 pounds, a few with a lot more fish but smaller in size, a few decent Yellowtail to 25 pounds, a few nice Grouper to 20 pounds. There were quite a few Dorado caught just off the beach as well.

George & Mary Landrum

Water temperature 73 - 82
Air temperature 63 - 83
Humidity 83%
Wind: WNW 6 to 8 knots
Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:55 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:38 p.m. MST