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