Some Large Tuna Remain

After several years of waiting for the opportunity, I finally hooked a dorado on the fly from shore. It wasn't a big fish. But I'll take it. I saw it chasing bait. At first I thought it was a roosterfish. But as soon as it ate the fly I could see it was all lit up in classic dorado fashion! Unfortunately, Colleen wasn't with me and I didn't have a camera. So I had to race down the beach some distance to get a photo. Hence, the dull colors on the fish. This one will be dinner tonight. Courtesy of the ‘mono lisa’ fly on 20lb. fluorocarbon…Lance Peterson.

Endless Season Update 11/08/2009REPORT #1188 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

The yellowfin, dorado and sailfish are all very close to shore. Lots of sailfish spread from the north to the south within three miles of the beach. Larger tuna to 100 pounds outside under the porpoise, but most anglers are opting for the smaller fish closer to shore, from the light house south. Fifteen to thirty five pound yellowfin are all within one mile of the beach. Dorado from five to twenty five pounds are mixed in with the yellowfin. Inshore fishing is very good, with very light fishing pressure. Big roosters, pompano, sierra (early), pargo and huge schools of jack crevalle are all biting aggressively.

Current East Cape Weather http://tiny.cc/EastCapeWeather303

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Strong winds plagued offshore this week and continue to produce rough seas. The dorado, tuna and wahoo catches have been decent, with our clients, Jeff Dean and friends, catching limits of wahoo, tuna and dorado. In the bay, they limited out every day on pargo, grouper and corvina.

So far, the billfish action has been sparse with only an occasional blind strike. There’s still very little bait around.

The Success, on a multi-day trip, had sixty wahoo and limits of tuna and dorado for eight anglers…Bob Hoyt.

Current Magdalena Bay Weather http://tiny.cc/MagBayWeather150

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The clean water is only one or two miles off the beach, with the 84 degree deep blue water six to seven miles out. For the eight to ten boats fishing every day, it does not matter if they choose the blue water or inshore, they are experiencing some great fishing!

The boats are releasing between two and three sailfish a day each, and like last week, the counts would be higher if the dorado wouldn't beat the sails to the baits: Each boat is also getting four to five of the twenty pound class dorado a day.

Inshore is just as exciting, especially using light line or a fly rod, with a lot of sierra, roosters, and jack crevalle. Adolfo, on the panga, Dos Hermanos, said each day the boats are each getting between 12 to 15 of the smaller jacks (from two to five pounds), five to six large roosters (averaging about 35 to 40 pounds), and as many of the smaller sierra as they want for ceviche or evening dinner

The following is a quote sent to me on Wednesday by John Carroll of New York. He and his wife,

Erika, fished with Luis Maciel on the Gringo Loco.
“We had two great days---Monday and Tuesday. Monday we went out for billfish and caught four sails and two dorado. Two sails were 90 to 100 pounds and two were juvenile. The dorado were small in the 10 to 15 pound range.

Because of the very calm weather, Luis suggested we go rooster fishing yesterday. Ran a good ways south, 30 miles by my ‘guesstimate’, but the roosters were not there. Had one runoff on a live bait but lost it. Picked up one dorado at the mouth of the bay on the way out and caught another five or six on the way back; same size fish with one larger one in the 25 pound class. Going offshore again tomorrow for billfish…will let you know that report before we leave on Monday.

Thanks again for hooking me up with Luis and Jorge. We're having a blast with them.”
Clients fishing with Mike Buckley and Francisco on the Huntress had a great day on Wednesday. They got fifteen yellowfin tuna and two sailfish and they were back at the dock by noon.
Jose Pino, down at Puerto Vicente Guerrero, told me there are a lot of roosters on the beaches down there, and a lot of dorado just a couple of hundred yards off the beach. We will be going for them tomorrow with the fly rods…Ed Kunze

Current Zihuatanejo Weather http://tiny.cc/zihuatanejo582


Cabo San Lucas

A black marlin was reported to have been caught on the Gordo Bank during the Western Outdoor News Tuna Tournament that ended up weighing over 650 pounds. That was the only large billfish this week. Most of the action was on striped marlin and a few sailfish. There were fish found scattered about all along the Pacific side with no strong concentrations anywhere.
The big news on the tuna front was the capture of a yellowfin during the first day of the W.O.N. Tournament that weighed 383 pounds! That fish was a real toad and was reported to have been caught while fishing with a live bollito on the surface at the Gordo Banks.

Dorado have slowed down a little overall, but a few boats are continuing to do extremely well when finding debris on the surface. One boat found a dead turtle and loaded up on decent size dorado averaging 20 pounds. For the most part the numbers are down - a good trip is five to ten fish and the average size is now down to 10 pounds. During the Tuna Tournament there were only two dorado weighed in over 30 pounds.

The wahoo bite was good for the boats that targeted them and for everyone else it was an incidental catch. I have one friend that managed to get 15 wahoo in three days, losing a lot more than that, with the largest one being 85 pounds. During the Tuna Tournament the largest to come to the scales was 61 pounds.

It appears that the size of the roosterfish shrinks week by week. The week before last they were averaging 5 to 10 pounds and this past week anglers were lucky to get one that weighed 5 pounds. Other inshore fish have yet to really arrive. There are a few sierras being caught and an occasional small yellowtail, but neither in any numbers. …George and Mary Landrum

Current Cabo Weather http://tiny.cc/cabo191