Endless Season Update March 28, 2011
REPORT #1250 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
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!
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.
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
The 80ยบ 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
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