Full Throttle

Endless Season Update May 30, 2011
REPORT #1257 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

Memorial day and the week preceding it delivered the kind of fishing that locals have been hoping for since April Fool's day. The conditions right now are a fisherman's dream.  It is also a skipper's dream. And the fly fishing is excellent as well. 

Chris "Smokedoggydogg" Moyers of Reel Scoop wrote, "This week was all about quality over quantity amigos!"  Mark Rayor, Jen Wren Sportfishing, "The Sea of Cortez has just erupted and anglers are finding they have their hands full."  John Ireland, Rancho Leonero Hotel, "These are the kind of weekly reports I enjoy writing!" and Jeff De Brown, Reel Baja, "It’s On!!"

So what's up? Offshore: Yellowfin tuna…big and plenty. Dorado and sargasso seaweed are the winning recipe for the best dorado bite of the year, or maybe the past three. All the billfish seen this last month have finally decided to bite.

Inshore:  Roosterfish, jacks, pompano, ladyfish and sierra have been on the rampage.

The past few days no matter where you wanted to fish, whether it be the beach, inshore or offshore, your odds of catching fish has been remarkably good.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Large swells kept the surfers happy but prevented many fishermen from going outside. Inside the Esteros was the standard fare of grouper, mangrove snapper with a few corvina and pompano biting on the surface…Bob Hoyt

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The water is a lot warmer this year than in the past. We are having 82 degree surface temperatures inshore and 86 degrees offshore. This is great for the rooster action, but May has traditionally been our best month for big tuna and blue marlin. They prefer 78 to 80 degree water. However, since sailfish like the warm water, it may be a tradeoff.

The rooster and jack crevalle action is still holding up well. Joe Pombrio of Seattle fly fished a day with Cheva and me on the panga Dos Hermanos. We had bad luck from the beginning. Going north, up to the Saladita and Ranch areas, the surf was so high we watched the long boarders get some great rides on the 12'+ waves. It was really unsafe a couple of times for us, and we couldn’t get in close to the beach to where the roosters were. 

As the swells died down we worked our way back to Buena Vista with high hopes for this excellent rooster spot. We were no more than getting set up when a pod of false killer whales came up the coastline on the backside of the waves. They were there for the roosters and jacks too, but they don’t release their catch!

Joe Pombrio's goggle eye scad crease fly

Joe fished two more days, one with Cheva and one with Adolfo. He ended up hooking one rooster and breaking it off, but getting lots of nice jack crevalle..…Ed Kunze  

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

Cabo San Lucas

Although the striped marlin dominated the billfish scene, there were just enough smaller blue marlin in the 200 to 250 pound range and an occasional swordfish found finning on the surface, to bait. Generally, only one solid hookup but it was worth casting a bait to. 

Most of the action was on and around the 1150 or the San Jose Canyon. A little farther up in the Sea of Cortez in the area off of Punta Gordo where the water temperature had climbed a degree or so, a few sailfish were also caught. In the 'careful what you wish for  department' there have been a few nice-sized yellowfin tuna up to 60 pounds under the black porpoise, with a few larger fish as well, almost all biting on lures pulled for marlin. 

Closer to shore along the Cortez shoreline, football-sized yellowfin action  has been consistent about two to five miles from the beach, mostly blind strikes, but when found the schools remain around the boat as long as the chummed sardina holds out.

Dorado action also has been on the Cortez side of the Cape in the warmer water. Areas close to the beach produced smaller fish to 12 pounds while the larger fish to 30 pounds have been found farther offshore.  Not to say you can't get nice ones inshore; there have been some decent catches made by the boats fishing with sardina for tuna.

Other inshore action included some yellowtail on the Pacific side that hardly seemed worth it on most days because of the wind. Up into the other direction there are still a few sierra and some smaller variety roosterfish to catch..…George and Mary Landrum

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