East Cape late but great

Endless Season Update May 16, 2011
REPORT #1256 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

'Late but great' is all that can be said about the fishing here. There have been a few promising days interspersed with some that can only be defined as false starts, but the promise of better times coming seems to have been fulfilled.

Recently the striped marlin have been easy to find but getting them to bite has been another story.  They finally lit up and began to bite, and multiple blue flags flapping from the riggers are the norm. Even better the fish are being found as close as three miles from the anchorage. 


As if that is not enough, the yellowfin tuna seem to have arrived in numbers throughout Palmas Bay. Some fish to 50 pounds reported traveling with the porpoise while south at San Luis,  tuna were found feeding on the surface. An occasional wahoo is being taken in the same area as the tuna, plus some schools of dorado are finally being seen with quality fish to 30 pounds around the shark buoys.


Inshore the action was only limited by the amount of  bait that was purchased as the pargo, roosterfish, yellowtail, sierra, cabrilla and large jacks were biting anything put in front of them.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Yellowtail fishing remains strong with fish being caught at the Entrada to San Carlos and at the point in San Lazaro. There are a few white seabass and grouper mixed in.

Lots of bait along the coast along with the sierra and bonito. The bay is good for halibut and corvina and a few grouper. We are expecting a large swell this week so it will be hard to get out of the Entrada but good for surfers…Bob Hoyt

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

We have all been waiting for the “typical” May pattern to show up, and it finally has. With the blue water only four miles off the beach and the SST surface temperatures showing 82º inshore and 86º offshore, the fishing has been improving. In the blue water we are getting a few yellowfin tuna, blue marlin, sailfish and dorado. Though not a lot, and it still depends a bit on luck, but they are being caught.

It is the inshore for roosterfish that has many of us excited. The fishing has been incredible. Last week Adolfo had a fantastic day on roosters by catching 15 and losing several others. But, he told me he has been out three days this week and matched those numbers every day. He said he is taking roosters from 35 to 70 pounds.

Other captain friends on the pier have been telling me they have not fished at all this week. There simply just aren’t very many people here to go after them.…Ed Kunze  

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

Cabo San Lucas

While not great, the striped marlin fishing has been good, but as in all fishing, being in the right place at the right time has a lot to do with the success rate.  Using the right stuff also helps.  This week Cabo hosted the IGFA Offshore Championship once again and there were 59 teams from around the world competing for four days, using 30 pound test line.  There were 292 billfish caught, including two swordfish, two blue marlin and six sailfish. The top areas early in the week were between the 95 spot and the 1150, and as the week wore on the fish moved to the warm water in front of San Jose, along the edge of the San Jose Canyon.  There were other swordfish caught besides the two in the tournament, and the 1150 area plus outside the outer Gorda Banks were holding a few.

At the end of the week there was some action on yellowfin tuna in front of Grey Rock, small fish averaging 8 to 10 pounds and you had to chum them up with sardina.  There were a few larger fish in there as well, but not many.  Porpoise were found offshore outside of the 1150 as well as Punta Gorda, and some of them were holding tuna to 100 pounds. Hopefully this action will move closer our way soon.

There were a few dorado caught this week, almost all of them on the Cortez side of the cape.  Small ones were found close to the beach, little guys of around 8 pounds.  Offshore a bit farther, were larger fish averaging 15 pounds. 

Full moon is on the 17^th so the wahoo bite was slowly improving.  Most of the hook-ups were lost due to the use of monofilament leader instead of wire, but enough of the wahoo bit just right and a few were landed.  Once again the warmer water in the Sea of Cortez was where they were found.

That roosterfish bite just around the corner in front of the Sol-mar continued for the first two days of the week then they went away.  Those fish were small at 5 pounds on the average but provided lots of action when sardina was used as bait.  The sierra action has slowed down a bit and the yellowtail   seemed to have moved north up the coast on the Pacific side.  Instead, we are getting action from the jack crevalle, not good eating but a heck of a fighter!  As the middle of the week approached, the football yellowfin showed up in front of Grey Rock and most of the Pangas were running up the coast to Palmilla for sardina then running back to chum and drift live bait.…George and Mary Landrum

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