Early Billfish Pop

Endless Season Update 04/02/2009
REPORT #1160 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape
Every day can be different this time of the year. The last few days have been terrific!

Mark Rayor, Vista Sea Sport, reported, “Yesterday, we fished straight east about 15 miles. There was a wide open dorado bite to the north of us. Although we saw jumpers all over, the marlin didn’t bite until the afternoon and we ended up with two. Our second one was only 4.5 miles from the house.”
Beach action was best from La Ribera to the lighthouse with numerous small schools of sardina attracting roosters, jacks and ladyfish right up to the shore line.

Cerralvo Island fishing report:

“Outside the warm water bulge continues to produce dorado on the buoys, while yellowtail action is slightly slower but still good. Sierra, cabrilla and pargo are abundant inshore and the winds are calming more and more.” Tim Hatler
Water temperature 67-73
Air temperature 58-84
Humidity 75%
Wind: SE 4 to 5 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 7:11 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:46 p.m. MST

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Regardless of the cool water, the dorado remain just a few miles offshore. There are also some football-sized tuna with skipjack mixed in.

The esteros were lightly fished again this week but they did yield a few grouper, spotted bay bass and on the surface, some small sierra and corvina.

Water temperature 67 - 73
Air temperature 52 -82
Humidity 80 %
Wind: W 9 to 13 knots
Conditions: Partly Sunny
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 7:17 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:43 p.m. MST

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

With almost the cruelty of a bad April Fools joke, you can be fishing in beautiful blue water, and not see a sign of life. Then you check the water temperature. The 77º reading makes it obvious if you want to catch a sailfish, instead of trolling lures, you would be better off trolling a jacket.

There is a strong cold current pushing the blue water, and it is meandering. It can be at 4 miles in the morning, and then 10 miles in the afternoon. The boats are only averaging one sailfish a day per boat.

There are no tuna or dorado showing, and even the blue marlin bite has died off. Historically, this is very typical for April. In a couple of weeks, the private yachts will start arriving and will be fishing out at the 45 to 50 mile mark. They will do well on blue marlin and large yellowfin tuna. It is all a prelude for the good things which start happening in May.

The best action on the coast is the large jack crevalle. Earlier in the week, Gordon Krantz of Texas fished with Cheva on the Dos Hermanos II. This is what he had to say: "We caught yellowtail jacks till my poor old arms couldn't take it anymore. The most fun, however, was catching them on top of the water...Poppers." The hard fighting jacks were averaging between 18 and 25 pounds.

Ed Kunze

Water temperature 78 - 83
Air temperature 68-86
Humidity 72%
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 7:40 a.m. CST
Sunset 8:00 p.m. CST

Cabo San Lucas

There have been just a few striped marlin caught this week. Most of these fish were found on the Pacific side inside the San Jaime Bank area. These fish have been tailing down-sea and when you found a hungry one, you had a chance at a hook-up. The problem was, not many of the fish were hungry! Maybe a quarter of the boats fishing this week returned with a Marlin flag, quite a difference from last month.

There were plenty of bonito to be hooked up, and in those schools yellowfin were reported as well, but they just would not bite.

There were some dorado to be found in the warmer waters on the Cortez side of the Cape this past week. The waters just offshore of the Westin and at the Inman Bank held fish that were not large, but there were some decent numbers averaging 12 pounds. Offshore just a few miles there were larger fish to 40 pounds…few and far between.

Inshore was definitely the way to go this week if you wanted action. Sierra and yellowtail continued to dominate the inshore action this week. While not large, the sierra was in great numbers once the schools were found. There was great action just outside the beach on the Pacific side at Pueblo Bonita Sunset Resort and on the Cortez side outside the Cabo Del Sol Golf Course. There were not great numbers of yellowtail found this week, but they were showing up in the fish boxes of the pangas. Most of them were firecracker fish in the 8 to 10 pound class, but there were a few nice fish to 25 pounds and an occasional fish that could not be stopped. Added to the mix of fish caught were the occasional pargo and amberjack as well as some small roosterfish.

George & Mary Landrum

Water temperature 75 – 78
Air temperature 58 – 84
Humidity 75%
Wind: WNW 11 to 15 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 7:11 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:36 p.m. MST