REPORT #1176 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape
The first of the week began with great weather and enough blue marlin biting to raise the expectations for the East Cape Bisbee tournament. However, by mid-week, snotty seas whipped up by an unseasonal south wind that also cooled the water surface temperature three to five degrees.
Fifty-four boats lined up for the shotgun start the first day. During the three day event Tournament control was kept busy fielding a steady stream of radio reports of hookups and releases of both blue and striped marlin, along with a few reports of quality sized dorado. Lacking was the number of blues that would exceed the qualifying 300 pound minimum. By the end of the third day, only two qualifying blues were brought to the scales at Hotel Buenavista Beach Resort. The largest, weighing 341 pounds, was caught by Kent Andersson on the Cap'n Jake and the other 310 pounder was caught by Keith Jones fishing on the Mi Corazon. In the dorado category, the winning fish was a respectable 57.2 pounds caught by Alfredo Lucero on Sails Call. There was also a yellowfin tuna class and Daniel Fisher on the Fisherman delivered a 174.4 pound tuna to the scale.
Meanwhile, for the non tournament anglers, the inshore and the beach remained the best bet. Deeper in the water column there were amberjack and pargo. Along the beaches was a mixed bag of small roosters, green jacks, pompano and Mexican lookdowns.
Current East Cape Weather http://tiny.cc/EastCapeWeather303
Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico
First timers Charlie Delorme and his family discovered how hard yellowfin tuna pulled and were exhausted by the time they limited out. The fish were close enough, inside of ten miles, so the trip was more huff and puff than boat riding. There were also some just under a 100 pound grouper hanging on the rock reefs a few miles outside the Boca much to the delight of John Yancy and friends.
After their success they decided to chase a rumor that the commercial pangas had found a wad of wahoo farther offshore. They had a nice ride on the early morning calm seas but never did find the wahoo. With the afternoon wind at their back, it was a quick ride back.
Boats fishing outside of Cabo San Lazaro are reporting some chunky white sea bass up to 50 pounds along with some 20 pound yellows. Farther offshore up toward Thetis the shark buoys are loaded with both dorado and YFT’s.
Inside the bay, sierra have exploded with a few fatties to 8 pounds in the mix. Kayaker Ricky Garcia reported limiting out each of the four days he fished. His catch included sierra, corvina, grouper and bay bass.
Bob Hoyt
Current Magdalena Bay Weather http://tiny.cc/MagBayWeather150
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
No Report Computer Crashed!
Ed Kunze
Current Zihuatanejo Weather http://tiny.cc/zihuatanejo582
Cabo San Lucas
Blue and black marlin are showing up along with a few sailfish as the water warms up to the mid to high 80’s. Sailfish are close to the beach, usually within a few miles of the Cortez side of the Cape. Traveling in small packs, it is not uncommon to have three or four of the lures attacked at the same time. The blue marlin seem to be concentrated between the 95 spot and the 1150, with most of them attacking larger lures trolled at slightly higher than normal trolling speed.
The fish have been averaging 200 pounds with a few reported to be in the 400 to 500 pound class. The outer Gordo Bank as well as the area off of Punta Gorda produced a few fish for the boats drifting or slow-trolling for large yellowfin tuna. One angler was seen battling a 400 pound black marlin for four hours, standing up on a panga with no fighting belt and using a single speed Penn Senator reel…wow, talk about old school! There are still a few scattered striped marlin around but not in large numbers and the sizes are a bit smaller than usual.
Things have been slowly improving for yellowfin tuna as schools of football sized fish continue to work their way toward us. Along with the footballs, there have been fish between 35 and 80 pounds occasionally found around the 1,000-fathom line on the Cortez side. All of the fish that have been found are associated with either the spotted dolphin or the white-bellied dolphin. The largest confirmed yellowfin was around 120 pounds. Dorado action continues to be slow with only a few being caught each day.
The inshore is producing mostly smaller roosterfish averaging about 15 to 20 pounds with a few larger ones being caught occasionally. One that was at least 90 pounds was caught on live mullet, and the angler released one other at about 50 pounds.
George & Mary Landrum
Current Cabo Weather http://tiny.cc/cabo191
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