Thursday, March 19, 2009

Nicer Weather…Better Bite

Endless Season Update 03/19/2009
REPORT #1158 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape
















The recent nice weather was favorable for fishing from the beach photo Mark Rayor
Inshore action dominated this week. Sierra and a few good quality yellowtail were found from Cardonal to Punta Arena, with the largest concentration of sierra from Punta Pescadero to El Cardonal. Warmer water produced a few jacks and small roosters as well.

Rumors of offshore dorado some distance from the beach failed to entice anyone out there. There didn’t seem to be much concentration, so it made for a long boat ride.
The recent nice weather was favorable for fishing from the beach and the few that tried it reported good signs of bait, particularly from La Ribera to Punta Pescadero.

Water temperature 67-73
Air temperature 58-83
Humidity 48%
Wind: SSE 5 to 7 knots
Conditions: Mostly Clear
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 7:24 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:30 p.m. MST

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Whale watching has begun to wind down and rough conditions outside kept the few anglers inside. There were small bait schools on the surface at the Entrada. With birds diving from above and sierra and small yellows chasing the bait from below, it created quite a commotion, making it easy to see from a long way off.

Punta Belcher even produced a few halibut in the shallows!

Up in the Esteros, it was mostly bay bass with an occasional grouper or snapper. There were a few corvina to be had at high slack under the bridge at the entrance to Puerto San Carlos.

Water temperature 67 - 73
Air temperature 57 -82
Humidity 93 %
Wind: W 10 to 13 knots
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 3 miles
Sunrise 7:32 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:37 p.m. MST

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

Considering we are in a full moon period, with the 80 degree blue water between 8 and 10 miles off the beach, the sailfish action is holding up as well as could be hoped for. Dorado are sparse, but the cooler water pushing down from the North is still bringing blue marlin into the area.

Plus, because of a strong pelagic crab migration moving through the area, the game fish are not eating off color trolled baits aggressively. If you are trolling bait, it better have a lot of red to match the color of the crab.
Each boat in the fleet is raising 3 to 4 sailfish a day and catching 1 or 2. The blue marlin are still holding with about 30 percent of the fleet getting strikes.
Martin, on the cruiser, Nautilus, hooked two blue marlin in one day, and was only able to leader the smallest. It was estimated to be about 180 pounds. On the second day he fished, they released 3 sailfish.
Margarito, on the cruiser, Gaby, reported averaging 1 or 2 sailfish a day in the blue water. He then went inshore one day and they got into a lot of large jack crevalle near the rock pinnacles in front of Ixtapa.

Mike Buckley and Capt. Francisco on the panga, Huntress, are still holding up to have the best weekly catches of the fleet. Mike reported this: "Capt. Francisco had a good week releasing 9 sailfish and 2 striped marlin on three trips. The fish have moved out past the 16 mile line with most of the action between the 20 and 25 mile lines. Lots of clean blue water all over and multiple strikes are common. Several blue marlin have been landed this week."

Ed Kunze

Water temperature 78 - 83
Air temperature 70488
Humidity 70%
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 7:51 a.m. CST
Sunset 7:57 p.m. CST

Cabo San Lucas

The striped marlin bite tapered off a bit this week as we saw the full moon make its appearance. With the fish feeding all night long, the fish that were caught were biting in the late afternoon. For this reason most of the charter fleet boats were not flying many marlin flags on their return. The few private boats that braved the weather out there and stayed until 5 or 6 PM returned flying outriggers full of blue flags. With less competition in the afternoon and the fish starting to feed, they were able to do quite well.

Once again there were not very many fish caught this week. The few fish that were caught this week were from either very fast moving small groups of dolphin or as a result of heavy chumming with sardinas up around Punta Gorda.

There were scattered dorado caught among the feeders at the Golden Gate Bank as well as some fish scattered up around the Punta Gorda area early in the week. Without any floating debris to hold them we have just not seen very many this week.

Sierra were the fish of the week inshore, with the appearance of some decent yellowtail adding to the excitement for those fishing close to the beach. Add in the occasional jack crevalle, pargo and amberjack, and factor in the conditions offshore, I think that the pangas were the way to go this past week!

George & Mary Landrum

Water temperature 75 – 78
Air temperature 57 – 86
Humidity 50%
Wind: WNW 8 to 10 knots
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 7:25 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:30 p.m. MST

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