Baja Hot Shot

Endless Season Update February 13, 2011
REPORT #1245 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:  

If you are in the neighborhood drop by and see me. I will be conducting a Baja seminar at the Fly Fishing Show in Pasadena on February 19th @ 4:00 pm and 20th @10:30 am. http://www.flyfishingshow.com/Programs___Seminars__Pas.html

Dennis Braid's Monsterfish Show featuring Magdalena Snook will air on the Outdoor Channel Friday night, February 19th @ 7:30 pm, Saturday February 20th @ 9:30 am and Sunday February 21st @7:00 am. http://www.outdoorchannel.com/Shows/MonsterFish.aspx

East Cape

After enduring what many locals claimed was the coldest winter week they had ever experienced there was an abrupt change. . .really more like a hot shot as daytime temperatures soared back up to the mid-eighties.

Is the sudden change signs of an early spring? Everyone I spoke with expressed optimism. Maybe with the change the sierra, yellowtail and maybe a bonito or even a dorado will shed their winter doldrums and begin to bite…

Any way you cut it, lots of eager locals are shedding their winter coats, suiting up in shorts and actually considering getting back out on the water…stay tuned.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

According to Lance Peterson, the corvina action was as good as it gets in the esteros, in spite of the really cold (60°) water in the bay. Lance and his friend Brad Ellis had hoped for the snook show similar to last February. However the cool water temps seemed to send the snook packing seeking warmer water.

It didn't seem to hamper the whale watching. Locals are reporting there are considerably more of the giants and their offspring cavorting in the bay in front of both Puerto San Carlos and Lopez Mateos.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The Terrafin satellite photos show exactly why the fishing has been on the slow side for sailfish and dorado. Cooler water is pushing down from the north, and the fish have gone south.

Several conventional gear fishermen are still scratching out a fish or two per day per boat, but a few boats are also getting blanked. The dorado are also scarce, with most of the dorado coming from 30 miles or more out. A few blue marlin are being caught, as well as a couple of striped marlin. 

Blue water fly fishing with Drew Chicone of Florida, we spent a couple of tough days on the water with Leonardo on the Fish On and Cheva on the Dos Hermanos II. We did get strikes, but the fish were not aggressive and would not tease to the boat.

We also saw at least a thousand porpoise pushing up bait, and thousands of birds. So the bait is here…just very inactive sailfish. We even saw a blue marlin surfing the swells. All that was sticking up was the top ½ of her tail, but it was over three feet tall. That is a huge marlin. I estimated it to be about 700 to 800 pounds.

Early in the week Mike Bulkley and Francisco took clients out after tuna on the super panga Huntress, and did well. When traveling long distances, the security of the twin 80hp motors on a larger super panga certainly makes it nice. This is what Mike emailed me:  "Went last Sunday and found the yellowfin tuna at 55 miles.  Caught 28 school tuna and broke off two large ones. Didn't get back until 8:30 pm."

Plus, Adolfo on the panga Dos Hermanos, looking for some blue water action for his clients a couple of days ago, found the yellowfin at 15 miles off the beach down in the Papanoa region. Adolpho also told me he is doing well on a few small roosters, lots of jack crevalle and sierras inshore. Keep in mind, Adolfo is fishing every day of the week and is always scouting for new locations, so he will do well for a few days, and then not so well. Most normal panga charters do not range far and wide like he does, so their production is fairly limited.  .....Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

This past week showed that we can be a little optimistic about upcoming weeks.  While still not wide open by any means, there are more and more marlin showing up every day.  Many more are being seen that are being hooked up, and most boats are getting a shot at a few every day.  That is a big change from what we were seeing just a few weeks ago!  If we ever get schools of mackerel to show up we should see a very significant increase in the number of striped marlin associated with them.  As it is now, approximately 30 percent of the boats are getting hooked up, and about half of them are getting the fish to the boat.   

Well, the water calmed down, but unlike my prediction last report the fishing for yellowfin did not improve, or at least hasn't improved yet.  There are still scattered schools of fish to be found along the temperature break running below the San Jaime and west of the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks, and some of them are decent fish, up to 80 pounds this week.  Unfortunately they are really a hit or miss proposition as they will be in one spot one day and gone again the next.  While there have been fish to 80 pounds, most of them have been footballs in the 10 to 12 pound range.  A good catch this week would have been 6 to 8 fish with a few boats , mainly the first ones on the school, getting limits of five per angler.

Just coming up on the full moon and guess what?  Yep, we had a client on Friday land a 70-pound wahoo while fishing for marlin!

Inshore the swells settled down and the pangas were once again able to get up the Pacific coast.  The cool water made the inshore fishing better for both Sierra and Yellowtail.  We had anglers and friends who did well fly fishing for sierra using sardina as chum, limiting out on fish averaging 4 pounds.  Others did well in the slightly deeper water yo-yo'ing for yellowtail that averaged 14 pounds with a few fish going as large as 30 pounds.  Of course it was a matter of the right place at the right time as they could move as far as ½ mile up or down the coast overnight.  You had to work for them!  

There were also a few roosterfish to be found (surprisingly as they normally do not like water this cold).  They were not extremely aggressive but we did have one angler who was bit three times on the fly, but they were short strikes and he could not get a solid hook-up.  Other fish that were caught were some grouper in smaller sizes and a few very nice pargo to 25 pounds.…George and Mary Landrum

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