Baja sizzles while So. Cal. chills

Endless Season Update July 4, 2011
REPORT #1260 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

While the hotel owners worried about the lack of guests and more importantly, the lack of anglers to cash in on the action, tuna ate and ate on the 88 again this week! and the size was anywhere from  'teeners'  to  'cows' exceeding 200 pounds.

Not every boat and not every angler,  but enough that cocktail hour was dominated with fish stories and sashimi.

Shark buoys strung out across the Sea held bait beneath them that attracted dorado, tuna and billfish, from blue to sail variety.

While back inshore the roosters are on the prowl with enough jacks to entertain both conventional and fly anglers from boat and beach.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Slow…slow…slow offshore and inshore according to locals and Lance Peterson who recently returned from a scouting trip to the area.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The 84° blue water is still holding close to the beach, but this may change as the rains are still coming. It started this morning (Friday) about 2:30 and did not let up until about noon. We expect more tonight.

The fishing has been excellent. The average per boat sailfish action is two to three fish per day. Martin, on the cruiser Gaviota, released six earlier in the week. It should also be noted Martin was the No. 1 Tag and Release Captain for the entire West Coast of Mexico for last year’s NOAA tags. No results are available yet for the Billfish Foundation tags.

Offshore also has skipjack tuna, yellowfin tuna, and a few blue marlin. Here is a report emailed to me by Kevin Seelick: On Sun 6/26, I called Adolfo Sr. and he was booked for the week. "Give me 5 minutos, I'll find you a captain." He put me on an offshore boat with captain Martin (Chico on the panga Llamarda is the owner) and deckhand Tyson aka "Mike Tyson", on the Rosa Nautica.  My daughter and I caught 37 oceanicos (skipjack tuna) and one good size yellowfin tuna. I was the lucky one with catching a highly acrobatic fighting sailfish.

Day 2: Adolfo Sr. put me onto Cheva's boat "Dos Hermanos II" with Adolfo Jr.  Trolling live bait and casting 3.oz blue/white Roberts Lure's top water poppers.  We hooked 14 smaller roosters and numerous jacks and one awesome roosterfish. We named him "Sancho" and released him to be caught another day.

Muchos Gracias to Adolfo Sr, Jr., Cheva, Martin, and Chico aka "Mike Tyson"…Ed Kunze  

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

Cabo San Lucas

The marlin were found right outside the bay, most of them between ½ and 5 miles out, and they were hungry! Not a wide open bite by any stretch, but much better than we had seen earlier in the week.  

We had two boats out Sunday, and both came back with between 13 and 15 yellowfin each, ranging between 12 and 40 pounds. We were not the only ones; almost all the fleet that went the correct direction got into fish. The correct direction appeared to be between 150 and 200 degrees, and the distance to travel between 3 and 20 miles. That area between shore and the 1,000 fathom line had fish both associated and non-associated with porpoise.

As the water warmed up so did the dorado bite. Not really a hot bite right now, there were boats coming in with between one and three dorado between 15 and 25 pounds each.  

Most of the inshore fishing this week was done on the Cortez side early in the week and a little was done close to the beach as far up the Pacific side and Los Arcos. At the end of the week the water had calmed down on the Pacific side and boats were able to venture farther north. Inshore action consisted of sierra, yellowtail, amberjack, roosterfish, bonito, lady-fish and needle-fish. There were some decent snapper and grouper caught off the bottom as well…George and Mary Landrum

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