Two Finner Taunt

Endless Season Update March 28, 2011
REPORT #1250 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

As March fades to April the catch reports are beginning to drown out the usual winter wind chatter.. 

Mark Rayor excitedly IM's me that a couple of two-finners were spotted before the wind kicked up mid-week. Bet I know where he will be on the next calm day.

John Ireland, Rancho Leonero, was at Fred Hall Show all grins, describing the yellowtail bite not far from his hotel.  There was plenty of variety, especially inside, not only the yellowtail, but  also cabrilla, sierra, pompano, jacks and roosterfish attracted by large schools of sardina tight against most Southern beaches. One fly fisherman caught and released five different species late in the week. 

The warmer water farther offshore is attracting more stripers every day. However, the new arrivals haven't settled down yet and are tough to get to bite.

Felipe Valdez, Hotel Buena Vista Beach Resort, reported his boats had excellent catches of sierra before heading outside for a shot at the fickle marlin this weekend.

Up to the north the mossback-sized yellowtail dominated the action between the windy days near Las Arenas and the southern tip of Cerralvo island. A 20-pound class fish is small!  According to Jonathan Roldan, most of these fish have been easily 30 to 40 pound sluggers and they’re eating the yo-yo iron on the fast retrieve as well as live sardines with a little bit of weight to get them down.  Also, some of the guys have been slow trolling mackerel-patterned crank baits like Yo-Zuri Magnums, Rapalas and Bombers over the shallower areas and getting strikes although they’re losing a lot into the rocks, too! 

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Whale watching season, better than the past few years, is finally winding down. Little to report as local fishermen gear up for the upcoming spring season. 

There are still reports of quality catches of yellowtail and white sea bass outside the rocks below the lighthouse at Cabo San Lazaro, as well as some rumblings of smaller (firecracker) yellows under the bird schools at the Entrada mixed with some toothy sierra feeding on sardines.

Water temperatures seem to be inching up…a good sign for the upcoming spring season.

Estero action has been nonexistent recently, though not from a lack of fish; just no anglers to catch them.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The 80º surface water temperature has been returning, and with it has been a fairly noticeable increase of offshore game fish. Not wide open, but at least it has been a bit better than the last several weeks.

Mike Bulkley of the super panga Huntress, with his captain Francisco, emailed me this: "We have not been offshore this week.  On two inshore trips we have had good to excellent action on big jacks, small chula, sierra, and bonitos.  Today, we had three jacks about 25 pounds, seven sierra, two chulas, two cocineros (green jacks), two bonitos (black skipjack tuna) and we managed to hook a large pargo on a deep running Rapala.  All that and home at 11:30."

Offshore, fishing is picking up with sails and blue marlin being hooked from ten to thirteen miles out.  Two blues were hooked yesterday plus two sails by the Agua Azul and Ivan on the Queen Yervette hooked another blue today about 13 miles out.

The main action, at least for now, is still the inshore. Cheva, on the panga Dos Hermanos II, is one of the best here for the inshore fishing. He is getting about 30 fish a day, including large jack crevalle up to about 25 pounds, sierras, and chulas on live bait and a trolled Rapala.

Adolfo, on the panga Dos Hermanos, had a couple of excellent days inshore, and a very good day offshore. He found good clean water at 18 miles and hooked two blue marlin yesterday (Wednesday). He also found a school of yellowfin tuna, and got a few of the 15 to 25 pound fish.…Ed Kunze    

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

Cabo San Lucas

Early in the week there was a short-lived striped marlin bite on the Pacific side just to the east of the San Jaime Bank, but it was over almost before it started.  Boats that went to the area hoping to find the fish again the next day did not fare well.  If you were one of the lucky boats there the day the bite happened you might have gotten to release between three and four fish out of six bites!  On the bright side, the cool water did bring in more sightings of swordfish, and there were several nice ones caught early in the week.  I know of one that weighed almost 200 pounds and another that was just over 300 pounds.  More were seen but refused to eat.

Yellowfin were almost a bright spot for us this week, and they did end up being the pot of gold for a few boats as we had a couple of schools show up at the south end of the San Jaime Bank as well as right on top.  Most of the fish were footballs but we did have a few boats that got into fish averaging 30 pounds with an occasional one to 50 pounds.  Then there were the schools where you could see the fish breaking the surface all around but would not bite a thing.   

Still the way to go this past week for most anglers…for guaranteed action…was to  fish along the beach with the catch ranging from sierra, yellowtail,  snappers, grouper and trigger fish. The fishing was good enough that sierra and yellowtail were being caught from the beach on the Pacific side!  Most of the sierra were between three and six pounds and while there were not many larger than that, there were plenty of them to be caught.  Both the Cortez side and the Pacific side of the Cape had good results for these toothy little guys, and sardina were the best bet for getting bit, but hootchies in green or yellow worked as well.  For the snapper, throwing a live bait in among the rocks worked, but sometimes all you could do was keep your fingers crossed and hoped they would bite, as sometimes they were really picky.  The yellowtail ranged in size from firecracker five pound fish to very nice 30 to 35 pound rod-benders.  Live bait and iron slabs or butterfly jigs were all working well.

Swordfish are the ultimate billfish, and are not common anywhere for sport fishermen, so having them show up here is a bit special.  There is always a chance that you will be the lucky angler next time out…George and Mary Landrum

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

Skipjack charge beach

Endless Season Update March 20, 2011
REPORT #1249 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

Lance Peterson found some black skipjack along the beaches within casting range of his flyrod allowing him to catch a few. He even sent photos to prove it!

A recent report that the gillnetters are back and raping the East Cape beaches again with their deadly net fences. Along with a promise of photos to follow is disappointing. No promises, but if you see them in your front yard send your photos. (Be sure to make sure any numbers on the panga are visible)

Several of the hotels are reporting that the striped marlin are moving up from the south, while anglers are spotting lots of tailers from Las Arenas south, but so far,  these stripers have been  picky biters. 

Yellowtail from 20 to 50 pounds remain the most consistent bite, from in front of the hotels south to Las Arenas in around 200 feet of water.    Averaging two or three per boat per day,  with some boats taking as many as ten, better than half the fish are taken on jigged iron, the rest on big live sardina.  

The larger variety of dorado, to 40 pounds, are being found in warmer water, ten to twenty miles outside, due east.  Unusually warm water around 78 degrees is holding some nice fish.  

Inshore has been producing big pompano to ten pounds and good sized pargo have been taking live sardina at Punta Arena. The roosterfish are around in good numbers and already being seen feeding on the schools of sardina.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

As whale watching season winds down attention returns fishing both in the Esteros and outside the bay. Water temps remain lower than usual. However there are some nice sized yellows and white seabass to be found weather permitting.
Still little to report inside the bay with few, if any fishing recently.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The blue water is still way out beyond the 50 mile mark, but at least clean water has moved into about the 18 mile areas. Offshore fishing still remains slow, and will probably stay this way for a few more weeks. The boats are averaging less than a sailfish or striped marlin a day each.

Mike Bulkley, with Captain Francisco of the super panga Huntress, had this to say when they fished on Tuesday: We ran one trip offshore and managed to get 4 Dorado under a floating weed pile.  No other strikes.  We came back inshore and caught Bonita about a mile off the beach.  The blue water is about 18-20 miles out and not really blue, more clean than green.  Saw one sail free jumping on the 12 mile line in green water. The next day Francisco went back to the same spot at 22 miles and a 240º heading and released 3 sailfish.

Again, about the only high note has been the inshore action. It has been excellent for sierras, jack crevalle, and even quite a few pompano…Ed Kunze    

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

Cabo San Lucas

The only area with any consistent marlin action was outside the 1150 to the Seamount and along the 1,000 fathom curve, where most boats found a few fish. The best catch reported was four releases for five baited fish.  A few boats were able to find a marlin closer inshore just off the beach on the Cortez side.  There hasn't been much bait around except for squid offshore, which may be what caused the slow fishing.

Some porpoise pods were found traveling with small yellowfin tuna… the best concentration just to the south of the San Jaime and 30 miles to the south of the Cape.  The first boats on the scene did well and limits were possible in the right school.  Even boats not lucky enough to be the first one there were still able to scratch out enough fish to keep the anglers happy. 

There were a few dorado caught by boats headed offshore for striped marlin in the warmer water, a couple weighed at least 30 pounds, but most were in the 15-pound class. 

Inshore is producing the best catches.  Sierra from four to seven pounds is biting well with sardina being the key to good results.   Most of the action is occurring on the Cortez side of the Cape up around the Cabo Real beach.  On the Pacific side past the lighthouse there's  been some nice yellowtail to 35 pounds, but you have to work to find the fish as they were following the small bait balls in 150 to 200 feet of water.  A good trip results in five or so of these tough fighters.  There were also snapper and grouper to liven things up…George and Mary Landrum

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

Grins to Grimaces

Endless Season Update March 7, 2011
REPORT #1248 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

Spring is emerging slowly as air temperatures creep up and windy days are equal in  number. Mark Rayor, Vista Sea Sport reports, "on a good note I had to kick the covers off last night and open the door because the weather has become noticeably warmer."

There has been a decent up and down show of quality yellowtail for the few boats heading out. The even fewer boats fishing farther offshore are seeing a remarkable number of striped marlin. The bad news is they don't seem to be very hungry yet.

Farther up north on the non-windy days there is a serious pargo and yellowtail bite. The trick is to keep them out of the rocks or grins turn to grimaces quickly.

On the beach front there have been some large fish boiling on the sardina schools in front of the hotels, luring a few guests away from the bar long enough to fling flies or small spoons at the boils. So far the effort has yielded a lower bar bill along with a few sierra and even fewer yellowtail.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Little to report again this week as locals continue to focus on their current cash cow "whale watching".  Which I suppose is a good thing since when that ends. Attention will return to fishing commercially for anything that moves.

Meanwhile reading between the lines of the sketchy reports consisting of a few terse sentences.  Issued by local operators seem to be little more than a rehash of yesterdays news or fantasies of tomorrows.

Which is understandable since most are back in the U. S. because of a lack of clients.

There is little to report as winter continues its grip of Baja.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

With the blue water out past the 50 mile mark, offshore fishing is tough at best. We are catching about an equal amount of striped marlin and sailfish, but we are only averaging about 1 fish per boat per day, with a few boats getting nada. The yellowfin tuna are here, but out in the blue water, as well as the majority of the game fish.

About the only bright spot is the abundance of jack crevalle, black skipjack tuna, and sierras inshore. A lot of the captains are talking about huge jacks averaging 20 to 25 pounds near the White Rocks. On light gear or a fly rod, that is a guaranteed 45 minute fight. Most of the fish are being taken on a slow trolled live bait or Rapala.

Adolfo, on the panga Dos Hermanos told me the jacks are all up and down the coast, and his clients, throwing a surface popper are getting 20 to 30 fish a day..  Ed Kunze    

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

Cabo San Lucas

Fishing was decent for striped marlin, but it dropped as the fish moved farther offshore following that 72 degree water.  Some fish were found at a distance of 35 miles to the east; a lucky boat might have had two hook-ups out of four or five fish seen, most boats were happy to have seen a couple of marlin to throw bait to. A couple of marlin were caught on the Pacific side.  A swordfish in the range of 300-400 pounds was caught not far out from the lighthouse…a very nice, rare fish for our area.

Yellowfin tuna were found in the Gorda Banks, Inman Banks, Punta Gorda area…still small fish at 10 to 20 pounds but there were several fish to 50 pounds caught.  Kite fishing worked on the larger fish and a few boats also caught some of the nice ones using down-riggers with large sardina. Surface drifting fly-lined sardina was the best method for catching football-sized fish.  Farther offshore there were scattered school, but you had to be the first or second boat, either that or stay until everyone else had given up! With the water moving the fish, schools were found scattered along the temperature break at the 1,000 fathom line on both sides of the Cape, outside the 1150 and south of the San Jaime.

Few flags were flying for smaller fish caught by boats fishing right along the beach for sierra. 

Things were good with plenty of sierra and good numbers of yellowtail showing up in the fish boxes. Then, it started to shut down.   Recently, we had clients who were lucky to come back with trigger fish and a few sierra.  It may be that  the change in water temperature, while not large, was too abrupt and they moved overnight.  Whatever, the inshore bite really dropped off.  There were a few roosterfish still biting, a few of them were nice fish to 25 pounds, but  most were in the 10 to 12-pound class, and there were bonito as well.  Many of the pangas ran all the way to San Jose for the yellowfin action, but it was a long run up and back for a few fish.  Hopefully the water will settle down and the bite will come back on!

There are still plenty of whales to be seen, but not for long so if you want to smell one up close and personal, get out there now!…George and Mary Landrum

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

What is "weather sucks" in Spanish?

Endless Season Update March 1, 2011
REPORT #1247 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

I can't believe how grumpy everyone gets when the weather drops below 60 degrees. How many ways can a person say suck? Seems to be a contest these days.

The few reports I did get after the disgusted weather comments indicated that yellowtail did bite and while marlin moved in, they offered more refusals than a midnight '10' at a Cabo bar! A spicy rumor was a few tuna were caught up at the north end of Cerralvo, but you know it’s a stretch when I have to go that far to find something to write about.

Weather has me a little grumpy as well. Snow closed the grapevine as we were headed home from the Fly Fishing Show in Pleasanton, and Yvonne and I, along with Suerte and Maggie, ended up in a Motel 6 in Bakersfield. I think there may be a song title in there somewhere, though none of us were singing one that night.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

The best reports are coming from the fish camp guys out on Magdalena island. Lots of yellowtail to twenty pounds (may be slightly less than that), grouper to fifty and even a few white seabass below the lighthouse.

Whales should begin to thin out soon and maybe we will begin to receive more informative reports. 

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

While on the municipal pier this morning, talking to the captains for more information for this report, I spent some time with Santiago, the owner of the super panga Gitana, and his client Len Grupp of Minnesota. Their experiences reflected the overall scenario for the fishing this last couple of weeks. They had been getting one or two sailfish and maybe a striped marlin a day. Most boats are averaging about one billfish a day, with the striped marlin being caught about equally with the sailfish.

What really got my attention though, Len is staying out at Barra Potosi and was telling me of the huge numbers of sardines in the surf there. This is an annual thing, and when the sardines come in like that, the jack crevalle follow. And the jacks are big enough that the Mexican hand line fishermen are having a tough time carrying their four or five fish back home.

The reason I was really interested in the Barra is because this is an excellent way to spend a day, and one of the few areas on this coast where the surf is not too high for a spin or fly rod fisherman for shore fishing. You can kick back under the palapa of one of the restaurants there, have a cold one, a few traditional Mexican appetizers, and wait for the jacks to breeze in again. When the jacks start crashing the bait, you go out and catch a couple of the hard fighting fish, and then back to the cold one. Any fly in a three or four inch sardine pattern will work, and the spin fishermen are having better luck with shiny one to two-ounce spoons and Mega Bait jigs of the same length as the flies.

Otherwise, Santiago told me he made a long run down south to La Barrita and only got a few jacks and a couple of small roosters. Other inshore fishermen are picking up a lot of very nice sized sierras.

With the cold current pushing down from the north, the clean water is about six miles off the beach, but the good blue water is way out at the 50-mile mark. Some of the boats are getting into the 10 to 15 pound yellowfin tuna between 16 and 20 miles on a 240º heading, but Ruben Lara found the bigger tuna on the same heading, at 54 miles, and has been hitting them every day. Ruben used to be the captain of the Vamonos III and is now a commercial fisherman. After a long hard day, he has been getting back to port averaging about 700 pounds of 40 to 80 pound tuna a day. Not bad for a single guy hand lining on an open panga. He told me there are schools out there with some really big tuna. But, he would rather catch 15 tuna at 40 pounds in the same time it would take him to get one 200 pound tuna to the boat.

For an idea how a few of the other captains are doing for a single day of offshore fishing: Mecate, on the cruiser Agua Azul, got two sails and one nice dorado. Martin, on the Gaviota, got three sailfish, and Cheva, on the panga Dos Hermanos II, got three striped marlin and one sailfish.

Leonardo, on the panga Fish On, fishing with Don Granges of Texas, had a large black marlin on for a while before it got off. Twenty minutes later they hooked a huge bull dorado over five feet long and approaching 60 pounds. It stuck. It will be dinner for several nights to come.  Ed Kunze    

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

Cabo San Lucas

The 1150 was the place to be for striped marlin this week as a concentration was found in the area. Boats were able to throw bait on six to eight fish per trip and some of them were hungry. A good day was two releases but most boats were able to get at least one if they stayed and worked the area. The bite was associated with the tide as most of the action was occurring in the afternoon along with the high tide. The bite was later every day. There were also fish found in the Vinorama area past Punta Gorda and around the Gorda Banks. 

Right place at the right time was once again the word of the week for yellowfin. Fish were found outside the 1,000 fathom line to the southeast and east as well as on the Gorda Banks and the Inman Banks. Those outside were associated with porpoise and if you found the right school, and were one of the first three or so boats there, you had no problem getting limits of five fish per person. If you were one of the late boats you scratched a bit, but were still able to get fish in the box. Most of these fish were in the 10 to 18 pound class. Closer to home at the Gorda Banks, sardina were the key to getting bit. Using a kite and flying a sardine at least 75 yards away from the boat resulted in quite a few fish to 70 pounds.

There were a few dorado caught this week and I saw one boat that was flying two flags, but for the most part these were small fish found close to shore by boats fishing for sierra. There was one nice fish I saw that might have pushed 50 pounds, and it was caught in the warm water on top of the Gorda Banks.

One fish I saw myself went 90 pounds; sure would have liked to have had a chunk of that meat! Once again caught in the warm water at the Gorda Banks, there were reports of some boats getting as many as four wahoo in a trip this week. But you had to be early for the numbers, getting there before the rest of the boats. Fish were also found around Punta Gorda and the Inman Banks.

Sierra were once again for pangas fishing out of Cabo, while the boats out of San Jose were doing better on the football yellowfin. Sierra are schooling fish so if you started out with nice size fish you stuck with the school. If all you were getting were peanuts, you moved and looked for the larger ones. It was not a problem for most of the boats to get as many sierra as they wanted. But getting the larger fish took some work. There were also roosterfish to 15 pounds as well as some decent snapper to 25 pounds. Sardina were the key to the larger sierra and using the large ones as well as caballito made for good catches. The smaller sierra were no problem to catch on swimming plugs and hootchies…George and Mary Landrum

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