Prospects Brighten

Billfish Cowboys of Santa Rosa, CA landed limits of YFT on the Jen Wren this week
Endless Season Update June 13, 2010
REPORT #1218 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

With the official beginning of summer just a few day away it feels like our fishing is finally heating up. The big news is that the tuna have finally arrived. They are traveling with porpoise schools from north of Punta Pescadero to south of Las Frailes. A good grade of fish, they range from football size all the way up to gorilla class reaching 100 pounds.

For the billfish set it looks like a few blues along with stripers and sails are finally ready to get in the game. All of this is after a frustratingly slow beginning to the season. Note to the dorado: you are welcome to the party anytime…come back, we miss you!
Meanwhile, one of the brighter bites all spring was the fantastic wahoo bite and it still continues.
Speaking of bright bites, the ROOSTERFISH bite is insane! More grandes. The bubba-class roosters are chewing like there is no tomorrow.

Still missing are the sardine; they seem to be taking the summer off.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Big white seabass and bigger yellowtail have been the week’s crowd-pleasers. Well, forget the crowd part, there are only a few anglers to take advantage of what many of the locals are calling the best bite in recent memory. Tee good news, the bite is tight to the rocks just below the lighthouse at Cabo Lazaro.
Farther offshore the local pangueros checking their shark buoys are reporting seeing striped marlin, swordfish and yellowfin tuna. This would seem to indicate an interesting summer is about to begin… Bob Hoyt

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

With the blue water holding just off the beach, the 80° surface temps are ranging from the beach to at least 60 miles out. And, the fishing is good. What is not so good is there are very few people here to enjoy it. We are only putting 5 to 10 boats on the water a day. That is the whole fleet, and with about half the boats fishing inshore, it is hard to find the concentrations of fish in the blue water.

We are getting blue marlin, a few striped marlin, lots of yellowfin tuna and sailfish. The marlin and tuna are being taken between the 18 and 25 mile marks, with the sailfish being mostly found in decent quantities between the 6 to10 mile areas.
Adan, on the panga Gitana II had a couple of back-to-back bad luck days; however there were some very exciting moments. His client, Walter Glenn of Las Vegas was casting at yellowfin tuna with the 12wt fly rod, and had been very successful for several fish. But, he made one cast too many, as a 300+ pound blue marlin ate the fly. Walter ended up with a broken rod, a lost fly, and a lost fly line.

The following day, Walter borrowed my fly reel (while I replaced the fly line on the other), and armed with one of Rebeca’s special billfish flies, Adan teased in another huge blue. At least Walter was using the 14wt this time. The fish took off for about 10 minutes, and did not jump until a long ways out from the boat. Then it put on a display, and unfortunately cut the 40 pound butt section with its beak.

At least the next day he got more yellowfin tuna (to 30 pounds), raised three sailfish, and released an estimated 200 pound blue marlin on conventional gear.
Jeff and Louise Stackhouse of South Carolina fished with Santiago on the super panga Gitana. Fishing with conventional gear, they had an outstanding day, releasing an estimated 300 pound blue marlin, a sailfish, and getting four football-size yellowfin tuna.
Adolfo, on the panga Dos Hermanos fished the blue water only one day, releasing five sailfish for his client.

Inshore, Adolfo reported there are jack crevalle on the beaches in tonnage quantities. And, the fish are big, ranging from 18 to 25 pounds. He also took three roosters between 18 and 25 pounds, with the main concentrations of bigger fish not yet here...…Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

Billfish action still looks a lot like that of Apri;l there were striped marlin to be found on the Pacific side close to the beach. As a matter of fact, one was hooked on iron while jigging for amberjack right off the arch. Most boats were getting shots at three or four fish per trip with one or two releases per trip. I did not hear of any blues or blacks showing up in the patterns this week.

A decent pick on yellowfin tuna to 25 pounds close to home with the fish being just two to three miles off the beach between the Gray Rock and the Red Hill areas. There were some porpoise with them. Working the area steadily resulted in catches of between two and ten fish per boat. Being there early was a definite help.

There were a few dorado this week but with the change in temperature they went on vacation.
Roosterfish were found close to the beach on the Pacific side past the lighthouse, as well as off the beach on the north side of Chileno on the Cortez side provided action, and when the water turned over the sierra started to show again. Quite a few of the pangas went for the yellowfin tuna on the Cortez side and did well.

With the water turning over the fishing offshore dropped off, but it should switch around any day now, just as fast as it went. As of now, the wind is gone and while there are still swells, they are spaced far apart. I feel there will be a decent bite on tuna soon. Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for a turn in water temps and until next week, tight lines…George and Mary Landrum

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