Below the Border Fly Fishing Reports

2012-01-24T10:57:00.000-08:00

Now that's a keeper...

West Coast of Baja and Mexico still producing...

2012-01-18T10:03:00.000-08:00

Guatemala sail struts its stuff

Way down deep up to the surface Below the Border fishing remains noteworthy

2012-01-10T15:01:00.000-08:00

Huge rooster caught over holidays!

Stretching from San Quintin

all the way down to Panama the bite is on!

2012-01-04T14:29:00.000-08:00

Three hours solid billfish action equals five released/none lost over Christmas.

2012 a solid beginning to build on

Below the Border wraps up 2011

2011-12-28T08:10:00.000-08:00

Fly hooked sail..flies by

Baja Bytes Conditions Recap December 27, 2011

Snow in Baja

2011-12-23T08:29:00.000-08:00

White Christmas in Baja

2011-12-14T06:33:00.000-08:00

Gary's New expanded Baja Bytes Report

North Wind already blow out October?

2011-10-31T14:45:00.000-07:00

Endless Season Update Wednesday, October 31, 2011

REPORT #1265 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

After a month of hot water and by all accounts,slow fishing, the much awaited cooling of the sea temperatures has finallybegun. Remembering the old saying about being careful what you ask for, thecooler water that was hoped for, was brought about by or closely followed by,an early dose of north wind. While that may be good news for arriving kiteboarders, it's a bummer for fishing.

But not so fast! Thewind seems to be what the doctor ordered. While the tuna seem to have disappeared, the dorado are suddenly hangingout around the shark buoys…I think this is the first time this season I couldsay that with conviction. Plus…drum rollhere… the striped marlin and sailfish are back in the game. How long will itlast? I wouldn't dare guess, but it isfun-fun-fun fishing for the moment.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

We received two 'on the spot' reports:

"We fished the ridge lastSaturday, Sunday and Monday. It was very slow. We heard a fewreports of boats getting a wahoo or two, but we had no 'hoo hookups. Gotthree dorado, and a YT on the dropper, along with some small grouper. Hada marlin strike that missed. Saw about eight marlin and may have hadshots at them but we weren't really interested in that. We talked to manygroups of fishermen, and many locals. No one spoke of seeing tuna inquite a while, and the quantities mentioned did not gel with what I had beenhearing."

The second report was from George Landrum who helped bring a boatdown from Ensenada:

"Mid-morning we were at the mid-point on the Ridge north ofMag Bay and the wind finally died down, the water calmed and also started towarm up a bit. We had left Ensenada with green, 64 degree water and by the timewe reached the upper Thetis Bank it had turned much more blue and had warmed upto 72 degrees. With the water warm, clean and much calmer we proceeded to putfour lures out and made a pass on the Thetis. This resulted in catching theowner his largest wahoo to date, estimated at 65 pounds! Several more passesresulted in no more strikes so we continued on to the lower Thetis Bank. Thisarea had plenty of striped marlin and we had a fish in the pattern constantly.The owner was fighting one when another one swam right up to the transom andCarlos quickly dropped another lure in the water. With the swivel at the rodtip and 10 feet of leader, he swung the lure back and forth a few times and thesecond fish bit and hooked up! Thankfully it only stayed on a few minutes thenjumped off and we were able to leader and release the fish the owner had beenfighting.

Wanting to arrive in Magdalena Bay before dark we continued on andspotted some shark buoys. Making a few passes with the lures we wereable to bring several dorado on board to join the wahoo already in the freezer.We then powered up and ran into the bay, anchoring up for the night at the Manof War anchorage. With the underwater lights on we caught a few live mackerelfor bait the next day and caught some shut-eye.

Up again early, our plan was to head straight out to thedeep-water ledge and see if we could find some tuna for sashimi. As we wereexiting Mag Bay we spotted several areas where the mackerel were feeding andcaught another dozen to put in the live bait tank.

We spotted a frigate bird and caught a dorado about 20 minutesout, then under another frigate 45 minutes later we had a sailfish come in on alure and hook up. A short fight resulted in a release at the boat. The rest ofthe day was uneventful until we spotted more buoys on the way in and caughtthree more dorado, then had a wahoo strike just off the beach on the way intoanchor for the night."

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

See report on BajaBytes report

CurrentZihuatanejo Weather http://tiny.cc/zihuatanejo582

Cabo San Lucas

The billfish have picked up, more striped marlin are beingcaught, and the sailfish numbers are remaining up there also. They usually feedwith the dorado, but have heard reports of the sailfish being caught alongsidethe yellowfin. No reports of any large blue or black marlin, but there weresome in the 100 to 200 pound range.

Tuna! Tuna! Tuna! I want Sushi! Lots of tuna around which isa good thing with the Western Outdoor News Tuna Jackpot coming up this Thursdayand Friday. Most of the tuna I have seen coming in however have been in the 30to 40 pound range with a few in the 60 to 100 pound range. There are reports of 200+ pound fish jumping, butcouldn't get them to bite. Tossing ballyhoo, mackerel, cedar plugs, they justwouldn't bite. Whoever figures out what they want will make some money thisweek if they are in the tournament!

Lots, and lots of dorado again. If you are trolling inshore,they are hard to miss. A lot of small ones; I even saw someone with a 2 poundfish the other day. Normally, those are thrown back, but this one didn't makeit. Most of the fish are in the 8 to 15 pound range with some hitting the 30pound mark.

There have been a few wahoo flags recently…fish in the 30pound range. Not usually many this time of year.

The water temperatures are staying warm, so still some niceroosterfish around, snapper, groupers; almost November, but I haven't seen anysierra yet. The dorado fishing is also good close to shore…George and MaryLandrum

CurrentCabo Weather http://tiny.cc/cabo191

Fall stammers for some and roars for others

2011-10-24T03:28:00.000-07:00

Endless Season Update Wednesday, October 23, 2011

REPORT #1264 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

After a serious bout of hot water and high humidity,the season is beginning to change and our usual October fishing is finallybeginning to happen. Marlin went off in front of La Ribera and caught somenapping. Double-digit catches of stripes and sails kept lines tight and rodsbent.

Dorado haven’t been over the top this year, but manyare saying that this was the week that was. Nothing big but plenty so thereports go.

Inshore, in front of the new development at CaboRivera, small roosters were as thick as fleas on a Mexican mutt. Also, some schoolingjacks were around to bend the ol’ stick.

The only non-starter was tuna which seem to have taken up residence way furtherout forty miles or down off the Gordo banks.

Last, but not least, there were even a few wahoo at thecleaning tables this week.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

According to the fly guys from the East Coast, theplace to be for multiple shots at marlin is below Punta Tasco. Bob Hoyt reported the it was pretty much wideopen up at the other end, but yachts are reporting the fish are spread out froma few miles out from Lazaro all the way up to the double 23's on the ridge.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

See report on BajaBytes report

CurrentZihuatanejo Weather http://tiny.cc/zihuatanejo582

Cabo San Lucas

I have been here for the past 10 days and it isreally a tale of two fleets according to some. The tournament boats searchingfor BIG money-winning fish were really put to the test. Forty-two boats in thefirst event failed to bring any billfish to the scale over 300 pounds duringthe two-day event. On the other hand, 100 teams in the Black and Blue overthree days of fishing only came up with four qualifiers. In all fairness therewere lots of blues, stripes and sailfish released during boat events, howeveronly blacks and blue counted.

There was a good dorado bite on the Pacific side, afew yellowfin tuna and inshore the usual suspects which included some roosters,jacks and pargo.

Early November will bring the WON Tuna Jackpot andexpectations are high for some cow-sized tuna to find their way to the scalesin the two-day event.

CurrentCabo Weather http://tiny.cc/cabo191

Tuna Roll

2011-09-18T06:16:00.000-07:00

Endless Season Update Wednesday, September 17, 2011

REPORT #1263 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

Tuna, atún, tuńczyk. . .in any language these fish arepractically chewing the paint off the bottom of the boats. Every report fromEast Cape is filled with sweaty ,casually-clothed anglers wearing big smilescommensurate with the size of the tuna.

Traditionally, September is a slow month becauseof the propensity of Chubasos to show up unexpectedly. This year, throughout the summer every month has looked like September at all the hotels asfar as the number of guests and anglers is concerned.

Clearly the tuna are impervious to the bad economy andin terms of quantity and quality, tuna fishing is as good as it gets right now.Meanwhile dorado are showing up more in the catches each day with thelargest in the forty-pound class. And though not drawing as much attention, thebillfish action for blues, sails and stripers has been picking up as well.

Last but not least, theroosterfish bite has gone on almost all summer.

Regardless of your tackle choice, conventional,spinning or fly, there are enough challenges and personal bests to satisfy bothnewcomers and seasoned veterans.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Fishing continues to improve after a bit of unsettledconditions. Large dorado and the early appearance of marlin have the few anglers who are fishing excited. Fish are in85° water just a few miles outside Boca Soledad. My son released two and hadmore follows in the area.

Out at the Thetis, wahoo have been sporadically goodrecently. . .just not in the concentrations that were here last year. …Bob Hoyt

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

See report on BajaBytes report

CurrentZihuatanejo Weather http://tiny.cc/zihuatanejo582

Cabo San Lucas

There are plenty of striped marlin being seen butnot all of them are hungry. Just gettingone released has been a reason for celebration for most anglers. Some blacks are beginning to show up off theGordo Banks and the Punta Gordo area and there have been blue marlin attackinglures both south of Cabo and around the warm water plume on the Pacificside. Most of these larger fish havebeen in the 200- to 300-pound class. Lures have been best to use on the bluemarlin and the black marlin really like slow-trolled live skipjack.

Strangelyenough, yellowfin tuna have remained our top reported fish. I mean that because we have been seeing purseseiners setting on schools out here, and we are still catching nice tuna, inspite of them! There have been some very nice-sized fish reported from the areaof the Finger Banks, but that is a long haul for the fleet guys on a fingers-crossedtrip when there is good fishing closer to home. Boats fishing the Pacific side have been catching fish ranging from 10to 100 pounds with most of them in the 20- to 30-pound class while trollingcedar plugs and feathers around porpoise and dolphin. The larger fish have been hooked on slow-trolledlive bait dropped-back after hooking up to a trolled fish, but the very largestfish have been taken while fishing under a kite. We had clients this week who caught five yellowfinbetween 30 and 60 pounds and several smaller ones, the larger fish all comingfrom using the kite. Other boats workinga bit farther out to the south reported larger fish over 100 pounds coming fromunder a kite.

Plentyof dorado to be caught, you just had to be fishing the right areas to getthem. Almost all the big numbers werefound within two miles of the beach on the Pacific side up past the Arcosarea. Big numbers do not mean big fishthough as most of these fish were in the 10-pound class along with a few muchsmaller ones. The larger fish were foundscattered farther offshore. Boats that did well on the larger fish were lookingfor feeding frigate birds and running to them, tossing out live bait and slowtrolling the area. Also, almost anythingyou found floating this week was likely to have fish under it. A few boats were able to get into smallgroups averaging 25 pounds and catching three or four for the fish box.

Someroosterfish as well as a scattering of snapper and grouper have kept mostinshore anglers a little busy, but with the water conditions the way they aremost of the pangas are going offshore looking for the larger dorado and some ofthose great yellowfin tuna…George and Mary Landrum

CurrentCabo Weather http://tiny.cc/cabo191

Blame Game

2011-08-18T08:25:00.000-07:00

Endless Season Update August 18, 2011
REPORT #1262 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

Mid August and the fish seemed to have taken a powder. Still some fish around but they aren't exactly jumping in the boats. Three out of four reports this week drug the "full moon" explanation off the shelf to explain the poor fishing. The moon is like Baja if anything goes wrong it gets the blame. Have you ever read that fishing was wide open…must have been the full moon?

How slow was it, Mark Rayor of Jen Wren Sportfishing, spent more time reporting on birds than fish? There were a few highlight fo the lucky ones.

Buenavista Beach Resort boats Liliana and Dottie B11 managed to capture the top prizes in dorado and tuna categories. Last weekend in the La Ribera tournament that coincided the La Ribera Days festival that takes place every August.

John Ireland, Rancho Leonero reported the inshore produced more quality sized roosters again this week along with some large amberjack. Lots of pompano are still around. A couple of nice pargo in the 20 to 30 # range taken this week.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Warm water currents resulted in the best early showing of marlin in two years from Tasco to the upper end of the ridge. Most of the shark buoys holding dorado and there is a good showing of yellowfin tuna feeding on baitballs. Watch for the bird schools.

In the esteros there have been a smattering of nice sized corvina and grouper scattered above Lopez Mateos…Bob Hoyt

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

No report….Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

The marlin fishing was similar to fishing for every else this week, not a lot of fish but the ones that were caught were quality fish. With the warm water has come the blue marlin, and while not every boat managed to hook into one, there were a few boats that managed a release on two per day. Most of the fish were under 300 pounds. From just off the beach to beyond the 1,000 fathom line, they were scattered everywhere. We also saw quite a few sailfish this week, most of them over 100 pounds. Not appearing in large packs, still they were getting into the lure in small groups of two or three fish at a time and causing quite a commotion on the deck as the attacked everything in the water. The striped marlin bite has died off quite a bit. There are still a few fish caught every day, most of them from just off the beach to the north on the Pacific side.

Tuna slowed still more, the bite has fallen off quite a bit. Where we were getting at least a couple of fish every trip, now it is a fish or two every few trips. On a good note, these fish have been real nice ones! As I said earlier, quality fish, not quantity of fish. Finding porpoise was still the key, and being the first to them was something that you had to have happen. Second boat or later may as well have just not moved. With fish to #200, a few boats were lucky enough to be the first ones on the porpoise and sometimes ended up with multiple hook-ups, but were thankful to get one of them into the boat. Boats that were able to fly a kite increased their chances of hooking up by at least 50%, and if you did not have a kite, having flouro-carbon leader sure was better than normal mono-filament leader for these big tuna.

While there are still plenty of dorado out there, the number caught is down. Again, most of the fish were close to the beach and averaged just 8-10 pounds. A few larger fish were caught and again slow trolling live bait seemed to produce better quality fish than just trolling lures. Almost all the action occurred on the Pacific side of the Cape.

Once again there was a scattering of wahoo in the smaller size range caught this week, mostly by boats working off the beach for the small dorado. I did not hear of any large ones being caught and the smaller fish were in the 20-25 pound class. With the full moon just happening, the bite might turn on for a couple of days.

Inshore fishing was slow, as was everything else this week. We had a few clients on Pangas who did fair on the dorado, were able to catch plenty of skip-jack and bonito and had some action on hammerhead sharks as well. Roosterfish were not real active and while a few decent snapper and grouper were caught, they were not there in the numbers to make it worth targeting them..…George and Mary Landrum

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

Dora looms

2011-07-21T12:15:00.000-07:00

Endless Season Update July 21, 2011
REPORT #1261 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

While Dora pounds its way north, most locals are cautiously looking over their shoulders. Summer action continues, however, with billfish dominating the catches as more and more anglers attention turns to the upcoming East Cape Offshore that begins next week. Hopefully it will not be a repeat of last week's Dorado Shootout when the target fish became scarce. Speaking of scarce, the cow-sized tuna are scattered in Las Palmas Bay with little or no concentration. Mark Rayor did manage to corral a couple, but he was the exception to the rule. Most of the fleet had to be content with the smaller football variety.

Inshore, the roosters and jacks are in the house…smaller versions only; the larger versions are not.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Rumblings out of Magdalena indicate that there is a decent yellowtail bite on the ridge while locals are reporting dorado and striped marlin outside of Cabo Lazaro. This seems backwards to the way it should be in a normal year.

In the Esteros the action remains consistent for the usual suspects but since many locals are currently clamming, it is difficult to figure out how bad or how good it is.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

We are enjoying a great month! Francisco, on the super panga Huntress, fished three days in the nearby blue water and caught seven sailfish, dorado, lots of ocianicos (skipjack), and even yellowfin tuna. Plus, his clients from Denmark, Niels Theirs and his daughter, also fished the inshore for several days, catching numerous roosters and jack crevalle.

The roosterfish action is still blazing hot for us here in Ixtapa /Zihuatanejo. Early in the week, I had already been booked in advance by David Yoder of Seattle to fly fish for roosters when Henry Huskins of Houston, Texas called me the night before wanting to conventional gear fish for roosters. I called Adolfo and we put Henry with Cheva on the panga Dos Hermanos (Adolfo’s boat), and because Cheva’s boat, the Dos Hermanos II is more fly-fishing-friendly, David and I went with Adolfo on Cheva’s boat.

The action was incredible. We fished the clean water south of Valentin and on down past the antennas. With Adolfo, we brought at least 12 roosters to the boat, and David caught and released one along with a medium-sized jack crevalle. This was David’s first experience for roosters on the fly and he soon learned 12 roosters teased to the boat with a hookless teaser e 12 caught fish when you have hooks in the surface popper and a live bait to back it up. But that one fish on the fly is so much more rewarding when you do hook up, especially when using a fly you had tied yourself.

Meanwhile, Henry was with Cheva and had not handicapped himself with the fly rod. He released eight nice roosters.

Plus, when David went back with Adolfo the next day, with memories of those 50 pound and Fly Fishing World Record 70 pound class fish that had followed his fly, but did not eat it, he quickly got over his learning curve. On the first day the cast was sometimes a bit early, but usually a bit too late. By the second day he was able to get the timing down of having the fly hit the water just in front of the hookless surface teaser popper, and about 50 feet out. Did he do well? He got SIX roosters on the fly! I would say he is a veteran now….Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

Though there are still some to be found, the striped marlin bite has fallen off as we expect when the water gets over 80 degrees. I have not seen very many boats flying multiple flags, two at the most, and my guess is there is a success rate of about 35%. In addition, the fish have been scattered. Best results have been from the area of cool water on the Pacific side close to the beach. There have been more frequent attacks on lures from the larger marlin! Reports of blues up to 500 pounds taking yellowfin tuna as they are being reeled in gives you a reason to get out there, but they haven't arrived in any numbers…just an occasional fish or so. Smaller blue marlin and possibly a few black marlin have been reported attacking lures pulled around the tuna schools. Maybe it’s time to down-rig a few tuna on the banks?

A bright star this week was the yellowfin tuna action. As is normal with these fish, first boats to the action had the best luck, and finding the fish for the most part consisted of finding porpoise. The yellowfin averaged 15 pounds and once in a while jumped over the 40 pound mark. I did hear reports of a few larger fish coming from the area outside of Punta Gorda, fish that went over the 100 pound mark. Almost anyone that wanted tuna this week were able to get a few, with some anglers limiting out. On a worry note: the purse seiners nave started to show up, but that means that there are more fish on the way, just hope they don’t get them all before we have a chance at some!

Another bright spot this week was the number of dorado we have been seeing…an average of 12 pounds. There have been a few really small ones that bode well for the next few months as they get larger, and of course the 40 pound fish that get everyone all excited. The majority of the larger dorado are being found on the Cortez side in the warmer water and the smaller fish are being found close to the beach.

Inshore fishing was a repeat of last week with the inclusion of a few more dorado showing up… roosterfish to 60 pounds, amberjack, jack crevalle, bonito, grouper, snapper; all the inshore fish are showing in the reports this week. Slow trolling live bait is the key to getting most of the fish except the bottom species, and those were biting on butterfly jigs.…George and Mary Landrum

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

Baja sizzles while So. Cal. chills

2011-07-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

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

Sporadic to steady to sporadic

2011-06-22T08:08:00.000-07:00

Endless Season Update June 20, 2011
REPORT #1259 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

From sporadic to steady back to sporadic, a second hurricane has come and gone and has certainly messed with the fishing. For the moment, however, it seems to be in the steady mode. Too bad, there are not many folks except locals to enjoy it.

There are still some midday easterly winds, and an unusual current cooled sea temps down to as low as 70 degrees from the Light House south. However, just five miles offshore the water warms up to 84 degrees.

Most of the billfishing has been striped marlin with a few sails and even fewer blues released.

Last week's grande tuna action was basically driven down by boat traffic and now it is back to playing football with the small-grade tuna, the most common, down below Las Frailes. There is an occasional 100-plus caught but they mostly fall in the 'more lucky than good' category.

Most of the dorado are caught while trolling for marlin and while there are some quality bulls they are few and far between.

Inshore the cooler water messed up the fishing but seems to be warming back up. Small roosters and jacks are the norm from both boat and shore. Also there were some nice-sized pompano landed in front of a couple of the hotels. If you aren't fond of crowds…come on down.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Firecracker yellowtail mixed with sierra and bonito at the Entrada. Farther offshore, nearly twenty miles west, the shark buoys are beginning to show some promise with a some small dorado gathering beneath a few them

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The 85 degree water is still just a mile off the beach. The sailfish average per boat is only about one fish a day, but this is mostly because the boats are all chasing yellowfin tuna. The 20 to 40 pound tuna are being taken from four miles to 20 miles off the beach. This is happening all up and down the coast, including 40 miles south at Puerto Vicente Guerrero.

There are also a lot of large hard-fighting skipjack tuna, called oceanicos in Spanish. The few boats which are traveling a bit farther out, fishing the 20 to 30 mile areas, are also getting several 30 to 45 pound dorado.

And, the inshore action is still blazing hot for the roosterfish. Sitting at your desk, in your wildest day dreams, can you imagine seven roosters a day with fish averaging 30 pounds? That is what our averages are right now. It all depends on the stamina of the client. If they can pull on more fish, they will get at least 10, but most clients pull the plug after five or six. The fish are there, we just need the people to catch ‘em, and then release them again.

Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

Windy and cooler most days with whitecaps several days. Water temps as cold as the upper 60's close to Cabo and up to 81 degrees at the Cabrillo Sea Mount.

Marlin catches were surprisingly quite good this week even with a full moon and a drop in water temperature. After some heat last week, it’s like the season slipped backwards and those on the Pacific side are again sleeping under quilts. There were a few more anglers in town this week and catches were good to fair for marlin and a few sailfish.

Yellowfin tuna in the 15 to 35 pound class and dorado -- very seldom more than a single fish -- continued to be sporadic with about as many good days as slow. A few wahoo were also caught throughout the fleet.

Inshore there were a few roosterfish, amberjack, skipjack and even a few stray yellowtail.

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

Tuna show East Cape boats roar

2011-06-13T10:09:00.000-07:00

Endless Season Update June 13, 2011
REPORT #1258 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

photo by Mark Rayor

Ocho-Ocho for the uninitiated is East Cape's version of Jurassic Park where behemoth tuna lurk. Less than an hour and a half from shore, this area produces some huge tuna that tantalize anglers from around the world. The visuals are worth the ride...compact-car-sized tuna flying through the air in pursuit of fleeing flying fish is pretty exciting stuff!

One hundred, two hundred and some even claim three-hundred-plus pound tuna are lost in those fleeting moments when these huge fish appear. White water and black smoke ensues as yachts and pangas jockey for position.

As quickly as they appear they are gone, leaving a few boats and anglers pinned in one spot with rods bent double and clickers clacking as the huge tuna sound toward the 1,000' depths surrounding the pinnacle.

Epoch battles ensue; wimps wimp out but the strong survive. It's all about the right time, right place' and that time is now!

Meanwhile the billfish continue to arrive with stripers dominating along with a blue or two and a handful of sailfish attracted by the warming water. Dorado, although not a bonanza, seem larger than usual for this time of year.

Inshore action includes a few wahoo and amberjack plus a few football-sized tuna mixed with large skipjack.

Along the beach the roosters, though small, are plentiful attracted by the abundance of bait along the shore with an occasional bubba-class rooster for the patient along with some jacks.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

With less wind boat found grouper and yellowtail on the Thetis bank. Inside the bay the water temperature had begun to climb and the fishing is improving …Bob Hoyt

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

All up and down the coast, with the blue water just off the beach, the average surface temperature is over 86 degrees. The offshore fishing action is remaining steady, with a one or two sailfish per day average per boat, and an occasional strike from dorado, striped marlin and blue marlin.

Cali, on the cruiser Had Enuff , released one blue marlin and a sailfish on each of two days of fishing. The blues weighed about 225 pounds.

The incredible inshore action is still holding up for roosterfish and large jack crevalle. We are still getting a couple of days of high surf a week which prevents us from getting at the jacks and roosters along the beach on those days, but by moving about a half mile offshore, there is lots of light line or fly rod action on the small to mid-sized dorado, black skipjacks, sierras, and green jacks.

Keith Paul from Minnesota, a veteran of many an offshore trip with Luis on the panga Gringo Loco was down here again last week. Luis is no longer with us, so from a little prodding by me, he tried the inshore fishery for his first time.

He had an excellent day with Adolfo on the panga Dos Hermanos. Casting surface poppers or tossing a live goggle-eye if the fish missed the popper, in about four hours he released five nice roosters and a large jack crevalle before telling Adolfo to head the boat back to port. Six fish in four hours is almost non-stop fishing and will wipe anybody out. Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

The striped marlin are moving closer to the tip. When the move began, they weren't eating. Now they are on-the-chew between the 1150 and the 95. The boats having the best success are pulling (10 to 12 inch) lures at the right speed (8.5 knots). The color did not seem to matter, it was size and speed that got them going. Few fish were hooked on live bait. Good catches at the end of the week were four or five releases per boat, but the average was just two. There have also been more reports of blue marlin recently.

Yellowfin tuna are mostly found with porpoise. Well, not entirely; there are still a few unassociated fish out there, but not the numbers that were being seen. Hopefully the fish will move our way soon! Two purse-seiners were reported moving north on the Pacific side recently indicating the possibility of fish up to the north.

The warmer the water the better the dorado fishing gets! Almost every trip is producing a few with the larger ones offshore with fish to 40 pounds have been biting lures meant for striped marlin. There have been plenty of smaller fish close to the beach. Finding Frigate birds working has been the key to finding the school fish as they could be seen swooping down on the flying fish being chased.

The roosterfish have moved a tad farther out in 80 to 100 feet of water. Slow trolling live mullet was the key to getting bit on a regular basis, and for those with plenty of sardina, tossing out a live one after chumming around the rocks in the shallows, worked on the smaller fish. There were amberjack and some snapper before the swells picked up, as well as some grouper found by the fishermen working the bottom or around the rocks…George and Mary Landrum

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

Full Throttle

2011-05-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

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

East Cape late but great

2011-05-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

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

Advantage Flyfishers

2011-05-10T04:43:00.000-07:00

Endless Season Update May 9, 2011
REPORT #1255 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

Offshore action was not what the doctor ordered for the fly-fishing angler. Near perfect weather with little wind and calm seas provided almost perfect conditions but there were few fish to be found and the result was that dreaded trolling, trolling, trolling game so despised by most fly-fishers.

The clever ones remained inshore and had a steady pick of a variety of something's…bonita, skipjack, jack crevalle, cabrilla, pargo, and in addition to small roosters, a few teen’ers and one grande, which was taken from the shore by Lance Peterson.

The beaches are already as crowded as the trout opener in the Sierras, which has plenty of locals shaking their collective heads. One I bumped into on the beach under the blazing midday sun commented. “The beach fishing scene has been changing for years, but now it has really turned the corner, at least for me.” He continued, “It’s the classic ‘end of an era’. I talked with XXXX the other day and he was in total agreement. Way more people and far less mystery. The cat is way out of the bag on this fishery!”

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

More fish than anglers is the best description I can think of for Magdalena Bay. Offshore, there are rumors of tonnage of bait but with so much green water that it extends nearly twenty miles out. No one is sure of what is outside of the color line.

The esteros are producing the usual grouper, snapper and corvina but again with few, if any visiting anglers, it is tough to determine how good or bad it is.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The blue water is only four miles off the beach but offshore fishing has yet to recover from the three day, 179 boat, tournament this last weekend. Water temperatures have warmed up all up and down the coast, and it appears the roosters have made it back. Adolfo, on the panga Dos Hermanos fished with clients hooking 15 roosters from 15 to 25 kilos (33 to 55 pounds). He told me they missed a lot more. Most of the roosters were taken on surface poppers.…Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

photo Jen Wren Sportfishing http://bit.ly/kTed6H

In a repeat of last weeks report, the striped marlin have remained at the 1150, or in the general area all week long. If you have good live bait there is the possibility of action. The boats scoring best are using live bait as drop-backs on fish coming into the lures. A great catch this week was four releases but almost everyone had at least one. I pulled on a fish myself this week for an hour on stand-up 30 pound. It just would not give up; a nice fish of over 150 pounds, scoring a release with live bait. We also had one of about 130 pounds on a lure. Plenty of Jumpers and feeders most days; we had an active feeder right along the side of the boat while I was fighting my fish, but there was no more bait left.

What was interesting was the number of thresher sharks we saw early in the morning, we must have seen at least ten. We were seeing a lot more marlin this week as well, and some boats reported seeing over 100 fish during a day’s trip. If the warm water continues we might be seeing some blues and blacks soon. There were swordfish seen again this week in the area just to the north of the Gordo Banks and one boat caught one six miles off of Grey Rock as well.

I saw a couple of white flags that may have represented yellowfin this week, but they may have been for bonita as well since I heard of no yellowfin being caught over the radio, nor did anyone I talk to mention any tuna.

A few yellow flags once again indicated the catch of some dorado, but there was no hot and heavy bite, at least not yet. Warm water means they can’t be far behind though. We sure are looking forward to the first school of them coming through!

We are coming through the new moon phase so there were few wahoo reported, but there were a couple of decent fish caught. The ones I heard about were said to be in the 35-pound class and were caught by boats trolling lures for striped marlin.

On the Pacific side there has been a great bite on small roosterfish to 10 pounds with a few 20 pound fish in the mix and a decent bite on sierra. The key to action was to get sardina as chum and bait, otherwise things were a bit slow. Nice action was had on jack crevalle as well… man those fish can fight! The yellowtail seem to have moved north following the cooler water as the last report I had on any decent action was from the rock points up past Golden Gate Bank…George and Mary Landrum

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

Who Flipped the Switch?

2011-04-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

Endless Season Update APRIL 25, 2011
REPORT #1254 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

Change is in the air. Daytime temperatures are creeping over the 90 degree mark with sea temps following. So much to talk about, so little space. Enough swordfish to give those who care goose bumps. San Jose local, Daniel Fisher took his boat Fisherman out and caught two swordfish on back-to-back days and was back out trying to make it a hat trick.

Felipe Valdez, Buena Vista Beach Resort Hotel manager, could hardly contain himself. "Best week of 2011, so far! We caught everything: a wahoo (63 pounds which my dad Chuy landed), dorado (from 40 to 60 pounds) sailfish, striped marlin, red snapper, jack crevalle, sierra, amberjacks, and even a blue marlin…all caught in the area this week!

Our fly fishermen with Victor Sr. on the Victoria had ideal conditions which allowed them to begin catching fish a few hundred yards off our pier including snapper, ladyfish, jack crevalle and skip jack.

Mark Rayor on Jen Wren has been beating the bushes between clients for his own first swordie of the year. He reported that the "why the billfish won't bite" mystery was solved; seems most caught and released this week were plugged with squid and weren't hungry

The inshore and beach action is shaping up nicely according to Rancho Leonero owner John Ireland. Big roosters in the 50-pound class are beginning to arrive, joining the smaller schoolie-sized fish in the 5 to 20-pound range attracted by the large schools of sardina all along the south beaches.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Cool water and windy conditions continue to hamper fishing conditions in the area, which is frustrating for the locals as the both the white sea bass and yellowtail action has been good-to-great on the days that the wind subsides. While yo-yoing jigs have been the method of choice, live mackerel have been much more effective at both the Entrada and a few miles off of Magdalena Island.

Estero action is improving for the very few anglers fishing currently. There are halibut on most of the shallows off of sand beaches and the perennial spotted bay bass with a few grouper and an occasional mangrove snapper round out the catch list.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

Hoping something would break loose, and even delaying the report a day didn’t help. The full moon period is just beating us over the head, and we can’t change Mother Nature. The 80ş water is just six miles off the beach, with the deep blue 84ş water at 14 miles.

About the only decent report for the blue water this week was Adolfo on the panga Dos Hermanos. At 16 miles, he released two sailfish.

Cheva, on the panga Dos Hermanos II was with combination spin/fly fishing client Steve Turpin of Atlanta, Georgia and got several sierras, black skipjack tuna, but he missed a couple of roosterfish on the fly. The smallest we estimated at 25 pounds and the largest one may have gone 50 pounds…Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

Tracy Ehrenberg, Pisces reported striped marlin fishing was on the rise and that their boats are beginning to produce single, double and triple marlin days. Continuing that until now the slack had been taken up with great yellow-tail fishing. Along with good catches on sierra close to shore, plenty of skipjack, some pompano, triggerfish, amberjack and green jacks.

Captain George Landrum, Fly Hooker Charters added that there were finally a showing of yellowfin tuna with a smattering of fish up to forty pounds mixed in with the football sized fish.

Farther up in the Sea of Cortez near the Gordo Banks there were scattered schools as well, and some of them held fish to 100 pounds. A slightly different method was needed on the larger fish as just trolling lures or chumming with sardina did not work. Setting out a kite or using a helium balloon to get the bait well away from the boat brought some bites from these larger fish.

After a long absence, as the warm water moved in, a few dorado hit the docks this past week. While not there in great numbers as the water is still a bit cool, there were fish caught that weighed up to 20 pounds. Most of them were in the 10 to 12 pound class however, and were mixed in with both the yellowfin and the marlin.

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

On the Verge

2011-04-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

Endless Season Update APRIL 18, 2011
REPORT #1253 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

Could the early wahoo bite experienced during the past few weeks be the beginning of an unusual season? More striped marlin seem to be arriving every day, but they haven't settled down and the bite can only be described as sporadic. There has also been a scratch on nice-sized dorado, though they are few and far between.

The better quality pompano showed up at the Lighthouse this week. More were lost than caught but still they provided plenty of fun. There has also been a good show of roosters and jacks feeding on some the largest sardina I have ever seen.

Demonstrating the difference from the surface water temps to deeper water is that remarkably, the yellowtail are still around with some nice ones being caught in front of La Ribera.

Good going to Captain Steve Lassley aboard Bad Company! It was reported that Anthony Hsieh caught another SWORDFISH…this time a 240 pound in 13 minutes, plus five striped marlin, baiting maybe forty. He was casting lookdowns at 'em...which he commented was too funny, like casting a Frisbee.

All the early season signs point to a season that is ready to break wide open soon.

.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Little offshore action to reports as sea temps still remain unseasonably cool. In the Esteros the fishing for corvina, grouper, and small sierra has been good for the few anglers who have fished there recently.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

With the clean water at six miles and deep blue water at 30 miles, the Terrafin Satellite Surface Temperatures are showing an average of 83º water to way out past the 80 mile mark. I have never seen water this warm during April. There sure seems to have been some current changes this last couple of years.

Paige (age 8) and
Charlie Walters (age 12)
from Madison, N.J.

The offshore fishing is still on the slow side for billfish, however lots of yellowfin tuna are being found in the blue water. Mike Buckley of the super panga Huntress emailed me this: Paige (age 8) and Charlie Walters (age 12) from Madison, N.J. took advantage of the excellent yellowfin tuna fishing on a recent trip on the Huntress with Capt. Francisco, each landing three nice tuna and hooking and releasing three others. All the fish were caught right on the 1000 fathom line on the edge of the blue water. Numerous longlines on the 20 mile line may account for the lack of sails in the area.

Cheva, on the panga Dos Hermanos, had a couple of great days also. The first day they worked the area south and heading for the antennas, they caught 20 large jack crevalle and two large roosterfish. Today (Thursday), at 14 miles, they found the yellowfin tuna, and caught so many they ran out of live bait…Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

The striped marlin did move in much closer, but they were still hard to get to bite. Many of the pangas were trying for them as a change of pace from sierra and yellowtail, but after a day or so of frustration, they went back to fishing for the inshore fish. At a distance of only five miles off the arch, you were able to spend a lot of time working the fish, and if you had the right bait and the good luck, you were able to release a few fish each trip. For the most part, the fish were very closed-mouthed and would just roll, look at you, then swim away.

There were a few small yellowfin tuna found with an average weight of only 12 pounds. A few larger fish were caught, but not on a steady basis or in any numbers. Most of the larger fish were found around the Gorda Banks area while drifting live sardina after chumming heavily.

With the change in the weather and the sea conditions, there was a lot more pressure on the Pacific side. The yellowtail bite was good up around the Marguerite area with fish ranging in size from 12 to 20 pounds. Using iron was the way to go, and you got your arms very tired reeling these up as fast as you could! Sierra were still biting off the Solmar area and farther to the north, the bite on the Cortez side dropped off a bit. There were a few grouper and snapper caught as well, most of them on live sardina.

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

East Cape Flying High

2011-04-12T06:27:00.000-07:00

Endless Season Update APRIL 11, 2011
REPORT #1252 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

Pudge Kleinkauf owner of Women's Flyfishing® returned to Buena Vista Beach Resort for the fifteenth consecutive year. The group including first timers and seasoned veterans were greeted by signature East Cape warm springtime weather. To everyone's delight the fly fishing yielded a nice variety including, bonito, skipjack, sierra, jack cravelle roosterfish and cabrilla. According to guides Jeff De Brown and Lance Peterson the skipjack were thick and it wasn't unusual for all the ladies on the boats to be hooked up at the same time.

Hotel Rancho Buena Vista that closed suddenly several months ago reopened their bar this week. Tony Marron, a 36-year-employee of the Ranch and his son, Tomas greeted the crowd of locals that eagerly returned to the watering hole that has been a favorite dating back to the Ray Cannon era.

Offshore action took a back seat for most visitors this week. Most were content to bask in the warm sun and catch whatever wanted to bit close to shore including jacks, small roosters, skipjack and sierra.

Up to the north outside of Pescadero as well as south in front of La Ribera there were some deepwater (150 to 250 feet) yellows to be had with some weighing in at forty pounds.

The few hotel boats that ventured further offshore were rewarded with multiple striped marlin, a few dorado and some early season wahoo including one sixty pound toad. Also intriguing were the swordfish spotted by several offshore boats. However excitement soon turned to frustration as the clearly visible two finners ignored the baits presented to them. A couple did bite but either spit the hook or broke off before the battle barely had begun.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

With the exception of a few courageous pangueros willing to brave the elements there few going offshore now. There are the usual rumors of yellowtail at the Entrada as well as outside the rocks below the lighthouse at Lazaro.

The Esteros provided good catches of corvina according to Captain Roddy Garcia up above Lopez Mateos. He added that there were also a few grouper and pargo found in some of the deeper channels near the old Gypsum pier.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The warmer 82ş water is definitely moving back in earlier than expected, and the good fishing we usually get in May and June should soon follow.

Currently the clean water is just 4 miles off the beach with the boats averaging a sailfish or striped marlin a day each. However, the inshore action is still holding strong, with the roosterfish making an early appearance. Normally we start targeting roosters from about mid-May, but Adolfo, on the panga Dos Hermanos, went south to the antennas and releasing 5 from 35 to 45 pounds for his French clients. The fish were taken on slow trolled live bait and surface poppers.

Cheva, on the Dos Hermanos II fished inshore with Troy Sturm of Minnesota for one day. Troy and his wife caught about 20 fish, including lots of sierras, a few chulas, and a couple of other species…Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

Striped marlin did finally show up, but they are a long way offshore and they still are not very hungry. The question we have is how long they are going to stay in the area, and will they get hungry? A trip of 30+ miles has been needed to get to them, and that is a trip out to the Cabrillo Seamount area, making for a choppy ride home afterward, but boats that have been doing the trip have been seeing between 12 and 20 fish per trip and getting 5-6 bites, averaging 3 releases per trip.

There were scattered yellowfin tuna found, but still nothing in any size or numbers. It is quite possible that they are out there on the Pacific side but the water has been rough and few boats have been willing to go out there and get beat up on slim chance of finding fish. The area of the Gorda Banks has been producing an occasional Yellowfin Tuna, but better luck has been had for large Bonita, some of them going 12 pounds.

Inshore conditions really changed where most of the Pangas went. On the Pacific side you could hug the beach and get as far north as Punta San Cristobal for some sierra and a decent yellowtail bite. There were also a few snapper to be found in the rocks between there and the arch, but the swells kept many boats from getting close enough to fish for them. You had to be a hardy, determined soul to fish the Pacific side! On the Cortez side there were fish as well, but there seemed to be a few less sierra. Most of the boats were working hard to get a few fish and sardina were definitely the key to success…George and Mary Landrum

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

April Fool Tuna

2011-04-04T13:18:00.000-07:00

Endless Season Update APRIL 4, 2011
REPORT #1251 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

The most encouraging report came from Luis Ariza, long-time skipper at the now closed RBV, and his son Luis, Jr. Palmas de Cortez Captain. They were fishing off of Pescadero in a panga when they spotted some commotion on the water. Turned out to be a very small skipjack, maybe 5 or 6 inches. They hooked one on they caught and began slow trolling it behind the boat. All of a sudden the hapless bait disappeared with a loud whoosh and a swirl of white water. Both were sure they had hooked a huge blue marlin.

Even after a couple of hours of fighting the fish that never jumped, they weren't sure what they had hooked. More than four hours after they hooked the fish they finally managed to drag a monster yellowfin into their small panga that now seemed much smaller with the more than 200 pound tuna taking up most of the space headed back to shore

Catches are still somewhat sporadic from day to day. With spring-like weather the hotels are putting more boats into the water. Calm seas and little wind provided perfect conditions for spotting billfish on the outside. As it turns out, there were plenty striped marlin to look at plus an unusual early showing of sailfish. The marlin seemed to have lockjaw while the sailfish seemed much more aggressive. There were also a few swordfish spotted finning but no biters.

The yellowtail bite continues with boats targeting them boating two or three 30-pounders most days. Plenty of roosters mixed with jacks were seen tearing up the bait schools inside. Sardina seem to be scarce with some boats traveling all the way to Las Arenas to find some for their clients.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Most of the maintenance on the boats is completed and it is about time for the first of the season's clients to begin arriving.

As the water temps continue to slowly climb, the yellowtail reports sound good outside plus there are some rumored white sea bass outside the rocky beach on the weather side of Magdalena Island. Inside the Esteros have not been fished recently so it's hard to determine exactly what is happening. The best we have heard of is there are a few corvina and pargo up toward the north.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

I wish I could say the fishing is wide open, but that would be an April Fool’s joke which may not be appreciated by some. Especially if they drop everything, book a flight on short notice, spend a couple of thousand dollars, find out what the reality is, and then come looking for me to do me some bodily harm.

However, it does appear our historical “April current” of cold green water came about a month early, causing the poor fishing of these past few weeks. And, what is usually typical in late April and early May, the warmer 80º water is now moving back in, with clean water only 6 miles off the beach.

A few sailfish, blue marlin, and striped marlin are being caught, but the main target has been a lot of 12 to 25 pound yellowfin tuna being taken on anything from trolled sailfish baits, cedar plugs, or live bait. There are a lot of tuna out there, but if they are in fairly close, there is a good chance you can over run them. They seem to be getting active in the mid to late morning hours. For instance Adolfo on the panga Dos Hermanos got 13 tuna at the 18 mile mark for his French clients. But Santiago, on the super panga Gitana, went 33 miles before local icon Ernesto from Troncones and a couple of his friends got 18 of them for a lot of good dinners and appetizers.

The great jack crevalle action is still holding up for fish to 25 pounds on the inshore. Adolfo got 20 for the same French clients out in front of the White Rocks.

Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

There was a brief showing of marlin in the Los Frailes area, a 50-mile trip out of Cabo. Boats were seeing plenty of fish but they were not hungry. A good trip to the area for those few days might have resulted in a couple of hook-ups and a release. Still later you could travel 70 miles in one direction and end the day with only one marlin…if you were lucky.

If you were in the right place at the right time you could catch yellowfin tuna; the problem was that there was no way to predict that time or place! Once in a while one of the boats would get into a school of fish and limit out on yellowfin ranging in size from 8 to 25 pounds. Other times you could go all day without getting a bite.

Inshore fishing continues to be the best bet. At least there are fish there to be caught!

The sierra bite was good on the Cortez side if you chummed heavily with sardina then free-lined a live one behind the boat with a light wire leader to protect it from getting cut-off. Limits were easy to get on fish ranging in size from three to six pounds. The little firecrackers yellowtail (four to eight pounds) were also everywhere, almost every rock-pile held them, and in the slightly deeper water you could fish some that went to 30 pounds.

Inshore was once again the way to go, but sometime soon the offshore should start to happen! There are still plenty of whales to be seen. I watched a mother Humpback and her calf yesterday as they breached, tail-lobbed and had a great time off of Cabo Real.…George and Mary Landrum

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

Two Finner Taunt

2011-03-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

Endless Season Update March 28, 2011
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!

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

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.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The 80º 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

Skipjack charge beach

2011-03-21T06:01:00.000-07:00

Endless Season Update March 20, 2011
REPORT #1249 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

Lance Peterson found some black skipjack along the beaches within casting range of his flyrod allowing him to catch a few. He even sent photos to prove it!

A recent report that the gillnetters are back and raping the East Cape beaches again with their deadly net fences. Along with a promise of photos to follow is disappointing. No promises, but if you see them in your front yard send your photos. (Be sure to make sure any numbers on the panga are visible)

Several of the hotels are reporting that the striped marlin are moving up from the south, while anglers are spotting lots of tailers from Las Arenas south, but so far, these stripers have been picky biters.

Yellowtail from 20 to 50 pounds remain the most consistent bite, from in front of the hotels south to Las Arenas in around 200 feet of water. Averaging two or three per boat per day, with some boats taking as many as ten, better than half the fish are taken on jigged iron, the rest on big live sardina.

The larger variety of dorado, to 40 pounds, are being found in warmer water, ten to twenty miles outside, due east. Unusually warm water around 78 degrees is holding some nice fish.

Inshore has been producing big pompano to ten pounds and good sized pargo have been taking live sardina at Punta Arena. The roosterfish are around in good numbers and already being seen feeding on the schools of sardina.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

As whale watching season winds down attention returns fishing both in the Esteros and outside the bay. Water temps remain lower than usual. However there are some nice sized yellows and white seabass to be found weather permitting.
Still little to report inside the bay with few, if any fishing recently.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The blue water is still way out beyond the 50 mile mark, but at least clean water has moved into about the 18 mile areas. Offshore fishing still remains slow, and will probably stay this way for a few more weeks. The boats are averaging less than a sailfish or striped marlin a day each.

Mike Bulkley, with Captain Francisco of the super panga Huntress, had this to say when they fished on Tuesday: We ran one trip offshore and managed to get 4 Dorado under a floating weed pile. No other strikes. We came back inshore and caught Bonita about a mile off the beach. The blue water is about 18-20 miles out and not really blue, more clean than green. Saw one sail free jumping on the 12 mile line in green water. The next day Francisco went back to the same spot at 22 miles and a 240º heading and released 3 sailfish.

Again, about the only high note has been the inshore action. It has been excellent for sierras, jack crevalle, and even quite a few pompano…Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

The only area with any consistent marlin action was outside the 1150 to the Seamount and along the 1,000 fathom curve, where most boats found a few fish. The best catch reported was four releases for five baited fish. A few boats were able to find a marlin closer inshore just off the beach on the Cortez side. There hasn't been much bait around except for squid offshore, which may be what caused the slow fishing.

Some porpoise pods were found traveling with small yellowfin tuna… the best concentration just to the south of the San Jaime and 30 miles to the south of the Cape. The first boats on the scene did well and limits were possible in the right school. Even boats not lucky enough to be the first one there were still able to scratch out enough fish to keep the anglers happy.

There were a few dorado caught by boats headed offshore for striped marlin in the warmer water, a couple weighed at least 30 pounds, but most were in the 15-pound class.

Inshore is producing the best catches. Sierra from four to seven pounds is biting well with sardina being the key to good results. Most of the action is occurring on the Cortez side of the Cape up around the Cabo Real beach. On the Pacific side past the lighthouse there's been some nice yellowtail to 35 pounds, but you have to work to find the fish as they were following the small bait balls in 150 to 200 feet of water. A good trip results in five or so of these tough fighters. There were also snapper and grouper to liven things up…George and Mary Landrum

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

Grins to Grimaces

2011-03-07T05:16:00.000-08:00

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

What is "weather sucks" in Spanish?

2011-03-02T04:01:00.000-08:00

Endless Season Update March 1, 2011
REPORT #1247 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

I can't believe how grumpy everyone gets when the weather drops below 60 degrees. How many ways can a person say suck? Seems to be a contest these days.

The few reports I did get after the disgusted weather comments indicated that yellowtail did bite and while marlin moved in, they offered more refusals than a midnight '10' at a Cabo bar! A spicy rumor was a few tuna were caught up at the north end of Cerralvo, but you know it’s a stretch when I have to go that far to find something to write about.

Weather has me a little grumpy as well. Snow closed the grapevine as we were headed home from the Fly Fishing Show in Pleasanton, and Yvonne and I, along with Suerte and Maggie, ended up in a Motel 6 in Bakersfield. I think there may be a song title in there somewhere, though none of us were singing one that night.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

The best reports are coming from the fish camp guys out on Magdalena island. Lots of yellowtail to twenty pounds (may be slightly less than that), grouper to fifty and even a few white seabass below the lighthouse.

Whales should begin to thin out soon and maybe we will begin to receive more informative reports.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

While on the municipal pier this morning, talking to the captains for more information for this report, I spent some time with Santiago, the owner of the super panga Gitana, and his client Len Grupp of Minnesota. Their experiences reflected the overall scenario for the fishing this last couple of weeks. They had been getting one or two sailfish and maybe a striped marlin a day. Most boats are averaging about one billfish a day, with the striped marlin being caught about equally with the sailfish.

What really got my attention though, Len is staying out at Barra Potosi and was telling me of the huge numbers of sardines in the surf there. This is an annual thing, and when the sardines come in like that, the jack crevalle follow. And the jacks are big enough that the Mexican hand line fishermen are having a tough time carrying their four or five fish back home.

The reason I was really interested in the Barra is because this is an excellent way to spend a day, and one of the few areas on this coast where the surf is not too high for a spin or fly rod fisherman for shore fishing. You can kick back under the palapa of one of the restaurants there, have a cold one, a few traditional Mexican appetizers, and wait for the jacks to breeze in again. When the jacks start crashing the bait, you go out and catch a couple of the hard fighting fish, and then back to the cold one. Any fly in a three or four inch sardine pattern will work, and the spin fishermen are having better luck with shiny one to two-ounce spoons and Mega Bait jigs of the same length as the flies.

Otherwise, Santiago told me he made a long run down south to La Barrita and only got a few jacks and a couple of small roosters. Other inshore fishermen are picking up a lot of very nice sized sierras.

With the cold current pushing down from the north, the clean water is about six miles off the beach, but the good blue water is way out at the 50-mile mark. Some of the boats are getting into the 10 to 15 pound yellowfin tuna between 16 and 20 miles on a 240º heading, but Ruben Lara found the bigger tuna on the same heading, at 54 miles, and has been hitting them every day. Ruben used to be the captain of the Vamonos III and is now a commercial fisherman. After a long hard day, he has been getting back to port averaging about 700 pounds of 40 to 80 pound tuna a day. Not bad for a single guy hand lining on an open panga. He told me there are schools out there with some really big tuna. But, he would rather catch 15 tuna at 40 pounds in the same time it would take him to get one 200 pound tuna to the boat.

For an idea how a few of the other captains are doing for a single day of offshore fishing: Mecate, on the cruiser Agua Azul, got two sails and one nice dorado. Martin, on the Gaviota, got three sailfish, and Cheva, on the panga Dos Hermanos II, got three striped marlin and one sailfish.

Leonardo, on the panga Fish On, fishing with Don Granges of Texas, had a large black marlin on for a while before it got off. Twenty minutes later they hooked a huge bull dorado over five feet long and approaching 60 pounds. It stuck. It will be dinner for several nights to come. Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

The 1150 was the place to be for striped marlin this week as a concentration was found in the area. Boats were able to throw bait on six to eight fish per trip and some of them were hungry. A good day was two releases but most boats were able to get at least one if they stayed and worked the area. The bite was associated with the tide as most of the action was occurring in the afternoon along with the high tide. The bite was later every day. There were also fish found in the Vinorama area past Punta Gorda and around the Gorda Banks.

Right place at the right time was once again the word of the week for yellowfin. Fish were found outside the 1,000 fathom line to the southeast and east as well as on the Gorda Banks and the Inman Banks. Those outside were associated with porpoise and if you found the right school, and were one of the first three or so boats there, you had no problem getting limits of five fish per person. If you were one of the late boats you scratched a bit, but were still able to get fish in the box. Most of these fish were in the 10 to 18 pound class. Closer to home at the Gorda Banks, sardina were the key to getting bit. Using a kite and flying a sardine at least 75 yards away from the boat resulted in quite a few fish to 70 pounds.

There were a few dorado caught this week and I saw one boat that was flying two flags, but for the most part these were small fish found close to shore by boats fishing for sierra. There was one nice fish I saw that might have pushed 50 pounds, and it was caught in the warm water on top of the Gorda Banks.

One fish I saw myself went 90 pounds; sure would have liked to have had a chunk of that meat! Once again caught in the warm water at the Gorda Banks, there were reports of some boats getting as many as four wahoo in a trip this week. But you had to be early for the numbers, getting there before the rest of the boats. Fish were also found around Punta Gorda and the Inman Banks.

Sierra were once again for pangas fishing out of Cabo, while the boats out of San Jose were doing better on the football yellowfin. Sierra are schooling fish so if you started out with nice size fish you stuck with the school. If all you were getting were peanuts, you moved and looked for the larger ones. It was not a problem for most of the boats to get as many sierra as they wanted. But getting the larger fish took some work. There were also roosterfish to 15 pounds as well as some decent snapper to 25 pounds. Sardina were the key to the larger sierra and using the large ones as well as caballito made for good catches. The smaller sierra were no problem to catch on swimming plugs and hootchies…George and Mary Landrum

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

Warm and Yellow

2011-02-21T17:16:00.000-08:00

Endless Season Update February 20, 2011
REPORT #1246 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:

If you are in the neighborhood drop by and see me. I will be conducting a Baja seminar at the Fly Fishing Show in Pleasanton on February 25th @ 12:00 and 2:45 pm and 26th @ 3:30 pm. http://www.flyfishingshow.com/Programs___Seminars__Ple.html

East Cape

Color this report warm and yellow! First the wind quit for a few days and simultaneously daytime temperatures shot up. Those encouraging events were enough to convince a few locals and visitors alike to go fishing. But the huge surprise was that the mossback yellowtail were found. Fortunately they were spread out along the shore from Bahia los Sueños to Punta Arena preventing the local illegal netters to locate them and wipe them out..not a wide open bite but several fish over forty pounds were reported.

In addition to the yellows, pargo and sierra were added to the mix. Seems like the biggest problem was locating a bait fisherman willing to spend the entire night catching enough to satisfy the fleets' need for larger bait.

The fate of how long the improved conditions will continue is in the hands of the north wind gods; they will still call the shots for a couple of months more.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Puerto San Carlos and Lopez Mateos are reporting good numbers of whales with more arriving every day. Meanwhile weather has improved but the pesky wind returned causing some bumpy afternoon rides for the whale lookers.

On the fishing front few anglers…make that none that we heard about bothered to compete with the whale watching or endure the windswept bay.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

For this week the clean water starts about 6 miles off the beach, on out to about the 1,000 fathom curve, and then here is a large band of greenish water. This band of cooler water is pushing down from the north.

And, as I predicted last week, the tuna and marlin are coming with the cooler water. With most of the fishing taking place between the 16 to 22 mile marks, the yellowfin tuna and striped marlin are showing up in decent numbers this week, but not many sailfish are being caught. The tuna are on the small side, from 12 to 15 pounds, but they are in large numbers. And, they are hungry, which can present a bit of problem like one small cruiser encountered: Including the captain and deckhand, with two clients, there were 4 people on board when all 5 rods went down. It was a bit interesting for a while on that boat.

Most captains are reporting a couple of strikes by sailfish, but they are not very aggressive and are averaging only 1 hooked sail a day. The striped marlin, liking the cooler water more, are more certain for the hookup.

Long time visitor to Zihuatanejo, John Torres fished a few days with Adan on the panga Gitana II. On conventional gear they took tuna one day, 2 sailfish and a striped marlin the next, and yesterday (Wed.) John got a very nice dorado on the fly rod, and missed a sailfish.

Adolfo, on the panga Dos Hermanos II, told me this morning on the pier there are lots of sierra and medium sized jack crevalle inshore, and got into some large jacks near the White Rocks yesterday.

Fly fishing client Roy O'Shaughnessy, of Vancouver, B.C. went down to Puerto Vicente Guerrero with me and Adolfo’s son as my deck hand, and we actually teased three nice roosters to the boat, but failed to get a hookup. We also raised a lot of medium sized jacks… Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

Well, I don't know if it's because of the full moon, but there seems to be a few more marlin biting. We had clients that were seeing fish every day, and hooking up, but only about half of those were making it to the boat for a release. Our best day for marlin recently was two fish released for two hooked up. One was a very decent estimated 160-pound striped marlin, the other the usual 110-pound. Both fish were caught on slow trolled dead bait, and both were within 10 miles of the lighthouse on the Pacific side. This area seems to have had the majority of fish spotted, but they are still not very hungry. A few swordfish were seen on the surface as well, but boats trying to drop bait down for them were having an issue with strong sub-surface currents and could not get the baits deep enough; they found some thresher sharks instead. There were a large number of juvenile mako sharks out there jumping and flipping out of the water…most in the 15 to 40 pound class.

If you were in the right place at the right time, yellowfin tuna fishing has been decent. The problem was being in the right place at the right time. A lot of boats were able to find porpoise that were holding great meter marks of tuna, but they were not able to get a bite to save their lives. Some of these pods of fish were within a few miles of the beach, while others were over 30+ miles offshore. There seemed to be a decent bite to the north…off of San Jose on the Sea of Cortez, and some were a decent 30 pounds, but for the most part the fish were footballs of 10 to 18 pounds, and a decent catch was a few fish per boat.

There were a few more dorado flags, but almost all very small fish…less than six pounds. They were caught by boats working inshore for sierra. We saw a large number of these small fish leave the docks in bags being carried by the crews.

It seems as if the sierra have moved up the Pacific coast a bit. The same situation occurred for the yellowtail as the bite dropped off as they moved around. Right place, right time and fish that averaged from 15 pounds to 30 pounds; if you were not lucky then your wrists and arms hurt from yo-yo'ing for hours on small spots of fish. A few nice pargo and other snapper were caught in the rocks along with a scattering of other species such as needlefish, bonito and grouper. The best live baits were sardina for the sierra, rigged on a very light bite wire, and caballito for the pargo and grouper..…George and Mary Landrum

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

Baja Hot Shot

2011-02-17T04:25:00.000-08:00

Endless Season Update February 13, 2011
REPORT #1245 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:

If you are in the neighborhood drop by and see me. I will be conducting a Baja seminar at the Fly Fishing Show in Pasadena on February 19th @ 4:00 pm and 20th @10:30 am. http://www.flyfishingshow.com/Programs___Seminars__Pas.html

Dennis Braid's Monsterfish Show featuring Magdalena Snook will air on the Outdoor Channel Friday night, February 19th @ 7:30 pm, Saturday February 20th @ 9:30 am and Sunday February 21st @7:00 am. http://www.outdoorchannel.com/Shows/MonsterFish.aspx

East Cape

After enduring what many locals claimed was the coldest winter week they had ever experienced there was an abrupt change. . .really more like a hot shot as daytime temperatures soared back up to the mid-eighties.

Is the sudden change signs of an early spring? Everyone I spoke with expressed optimism. Maybe with the change the sierra, yellowtail and maybe a bonito or even a dorado will shed their winter doldrums and begin to bite…

Any way you cut it, lots of eager locals are shedding their winter coats, suiting up in shorts and actually considering getting back out on the water…stay tuned.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

According to Lance Peterson, the corvina action was as good as it gets in the esteros, in spite of the really cold (60°) water in the bay. Lance and his friend Brad Ellis had hoped for the snook show similar to last February. However the cool water temps seemed to send the snook packing seeking warmer water.

It didn't seem to hamper the whale watching. Locals are reporting there are considerably more of the giants and their offspring cavorting in the bay in front of both Puerto San Carlos and Lopez Mateos.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The Terrafin satellite photos show exactly why the fishing has been on the slow side for sailfish and dorado. Cooler water is pushing down from the north, and the fish have gone south.

Several conventional gear fishermen are still scratching out a fish or two per day per boat, but a few boats are also getting blanked. The dorado are also scarce, with most of the dorado coming from 30 miles or more out. A few blue marlin are being caught, as well as a couple of striped marlin.

Blue water fly fishing with Drew Chicone of Florida, we spent a couple of tough days on the water with Leonardo on the Fish On and Cheva on the Dos Hermanos II. We did get strikes, but the fish were not aggressive and would not tease to the boat.

We also saw at least a thousand porpoise pushing up bait, and thousands of birds. So the bait is here…just very inactive sailfish. We even saw a blue marlin surfing the swells. All that was sticking up was the top ½ of her tail, but it was over three feet tall. That is a huge marlin. I estimated it to be about 700 to 800 pounds.

Early in the week Mike Bulkley and Francisco took clients out after tuna on the super panga Huntress, and did well. When traveling long distances, the security of the twin 80hp motors on a larger super panga certainly makes it nice. This is what Mike emailed me: "Went last Sunday and found the yellowfin tuna at 55 miles. Caught 28 school tuna and broke off two large ones. Didn't get back until 8:30 pm."

Plus, Adolfo on the panga Dos Hermanos, looking for some blue water action for his clients a couple of days ago, found the yellowfin at 15 miles off the beach down in the Papanoa region. Adolpho also told me he is doing well on a few small roosters, lots of jack crevalle and sierras inshore. Keep in mind, Adolfo is fishing every day of the week and is always scouting for new locations, so he will do well for a few days, and then not so well. Most normal panga charters do not range far and wide like he does, so their production is fairly limited. .....Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

This past week showed that we can be a little optimistic about upcoming weeks. While still not wide open by any means, there are more and more marlin showing up every day. Many more are being seen that are being hooked up, and most boats are getting a shot at a few every day. That is a big change from what we were seeing just a few weeks ago! If we ever get schools of mackerel to show up we should see a very significant increase in the number of striped marlin associated with them. As it is now, approximately 30 percent of the boats are getting hooked up, and about half of them are getting the fish to the boat.

Well, the water calmed down, but unlike my prediction last report the fishing for yellowfin did not improve, or at least hasn't improved yet. There are still scattered schools of fish to be found along the temperature break running below the San Jaime and west of the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks, and some of them are decent fish, up to 80 pounds this week. Unfortunately they are really a hit or miss proposition as they will be in one spot one day and gone again the next. While there have been fish to 80 pounds, most of them have been footballs in the 10 to 12 pound range. A good catch this week would have been 6 to 8 fish with a few boats , mainly the first ones on the school, getting limits of five per angler.

Just coming up on the full moon and guess what? Yep, we had a client on Friday land a 70-pound wahoo while fishing for marlin!

Inshore the swells settled down and the pangas were once again able to get up the Pacific coast. The cool water made the inshore fishing better for both Sierra and Yellowtail. We had anglers and friends who did well fly fishing for sierra using sardina as chum, limiting out on fish averaging 4 pounds. Others did well in the slightly deeper water yo-yo'ing for yellowtail that averaged 14 pounds with a few fish going as large as 30 pounds. Of course it was a matter of the right place at the right time as they could move as far as ½ mile up or down the coast overnight. You had to work for them!

There were also a few roosterfish to be found (surprisingly as they normally do not like water this cold). They were not extremely aggressive but we did have one angler who was bit three times on the fly, but they were short strikes and he could not get a solid hook-up. Other fish that were caught were some grouper in smaller sizes and a few very nice pargo to 25 pounds.…George and Mary Landrum

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

Whale Invasion

2011-02-07T05:30:00.000-08:00

Endless Season Update February 06, 2011
REPORT #1244 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

The predominate north winds normally associated with Sea of Cortez this time of year continued to blow. Resulting in cooler water temperatures as well as jacket-inducing temps below 50 degrees several mornings.

Few anglers even ventured out of the few hotels that remained open. Kite boarders dominated the inshore water along the beach as the wind came whistling down the gulf.

Buenavista Beach and Resort Hotel reported more Yoga students than anglers. Seems as though Michelle Anderson, Victoria B.C., took advantage of the slow winter season to offer Yoga Instructor Classes. However there were a few anglers who ventured out and cashed in on the short-lived pargo and yellowtail snap that took place on a few of the reefs close to shore.

Even the locals who usually fish regardless of the wind were sitting on the beach cursing the relentless wind, and discussing among themselves when they might get back on the water.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

The whales being seen off the Southern California Coast recently have now begun to arrive in mass. Appears that all that was needed was the XVIII International Festival of the Gray Whale held in Puerto Adolfo Lopez Mateos held last weekend it the town.

Good thing too, Very few fishermen visited during January and with the current cooler weather it may be awhile before the trickle of fishing activity becomes a torrent.

Lance Peterson and his buddy Brad are planning a trip this upcoming week to sample the fishing both inside in the Esteros and offshore. I am sure Lance is hoping for a repeat of last year when he managed to add a grouper record to his growing list of records.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The blue water current, for the predominately 80º water, is shifting so rapidly it is incredible. Yesterday (Wed.), fly fishing with John and Mary Hechk of Bozeman, Montana down at Puerto Vicente Guerrero, we found the clean water at 7.5 miles and exactly where the Terrafin Satellite photos said it would be. We got 4 strikes on sailfish between the 8.5 and 12.5 miles marks, and hooked two sailfish on the fly.

Today I went back with Gary Meger of Toronto, Canada and we went directly to the same areas as the previous day. The water was a warm 80º, but a dingy brown. It was not until the 20 mile mark we found the clean water. We only raised 2 sailfish all day, and nothing else. One followed the teaser to the boat, but had no interest in Gary’s fly. Heading back to port, and in a matter of just a few hours, we had clean water almost to the beach…incredible.

Unfortunately, coming back a bit, and at the 15 mile mark, we came across a long line run out of a panga. The panga was from Zihuatanejo, with no name, but had a large dorado chasing bait painted on each side of the bow. I always use Jose Pino when fishing out of Puerto Vicente Guerrero, and when he saw the simbra (long line) and the panga, he was livid. We sat there for about 5 minutes talking to the illegal fishermen; and it wasn’t for just pleasantries. Jose told them he has clients with him and can’t do anything right now, but if they come back into his territory, he will have “other” people with him and will not be restricted.

This is what needs to be done in Mexico! Jose was not limited as the Zihuatanejo captains are; where the illegal fishermen are a cousin or a brother-in-law. He did not know them, but knew they were illegally killing sailfish, and his future. They got the message.

An interesting note is when we were only about ½ a mile off the point, we spotted two humpback whales. We shut the engine down and got the cameras ready. Just as the cameras were coming out of the bags, one of them went completely air-born about 150 feet away from the panga. It was truly awesome. While waiting for another, the second one breached further away and where we weren’t looking. I got off a snap shot…but it is blurred.....Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

We still have whales out there folks, as I stood on the first tee at Cabo Real yesterday I saw one just off the beach in full breach mode, she must have jumped and cleared the water at least 5 times, really awesome to watch.

Fishing is improving, however not up to the normal numbers we had become used too. A few boats have been getting bit by striped marlin this week, and some of them were able to release two a day, but most had a hard time finding any marlin at all, and if they did something would go wrong…a reel would freeze up, a line would break or the hook would get thrown. The best action was on live bait and the best area was the warm spots off of the lighthouse and on the 1150. Some fish were being seen elsewhere, but not in any numbers; the listed places supplied the best chance of getting hooked up.

Yellowfin tuna action continues to be a long run for most boats to get to the fish, with the best chances 30 miles or more to the southwest. Most of the fish there were in the 15 to 25 pound class but a few were over 100 pounds. The problem has been the water conditions. Getting that far out wasn't a problem, but coming home was a really rough ride, and the water conditions made it tough to find the porpoise that the tuna were associated with. There were small scattered schools elsewhere, mostly football sized fish, but still nothing consistent. As the water calms down, the fishing for yellowfin should improve.

I would pretty much give up on dorado for the next few months. If any are caught they will be stray fish, the water is just too darn cold to hold them!

Inshore the large swells made for uncomfortable inshore fishing, but at least there was some action taking place. While not there in great numbers, it was not uncommon for a boat to get a dozen or more sierra ranging from three to six pounds. Toss in an occasional yellowtail, a few bonito and once in a while an amberjack and the action was steady. The best action seemed to be on live sardina, and if you did not have any, the action became spotty. The large swells kept most of the boats from going any farther up the Pacific coast...…George and Mary Landrum

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

Way Cool

2011-01-31T16:23:00.000-08:00

Endless Season Update January 30, 2011
REPORT #1243 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

2011 Winter week 4; Wind remains the theme again this week that coupled with very few visitors wanting to fish. There were a few boats out on Sunday so we delayed the report until after they returned. Their outriggers were bare when they returned. Also heard from a couple of locals that in desperation had run all the way to Bahia de Sueño (Muertos) for zip…zilch…nada.

On top of that there was cloud cover plus cooler sea temps seemed to be exclamation point on the idea of fishing an hour or two from the beach and spending the rest of the morning catching up on chores.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Yellowtail continue to be there for the taking if anyone cared. Whales, whales and more whales that seems to be what is getting the most attention. So far it hasn't sounded like a banner year. Judging from the So. Cal reports of a good number being spotted heading south whale watching season should begin to spike soon.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The 80º water is getting kind of confusing as to where to find the fish. If you find the concentrations, you do excellent. If you don’t find the fish in the pockets of clean water, you get skunked. The Terrafin Satellite chlorophyll charts make this very clear. The chart shows clean water at the 100 fathom line and about 6 miles out. This holds true to the south, with clean water going for miles. But, straight out in front of Ixtapa, the water turns off colored again at about 16 miles. Plus, a large area of green water seems to be pushing down from the north.

And all this holds up with what we are experiencing this week. Adolfo, on the panga Dos Hermanos, found a concentration of sailfish releasing 6 one day, and then going back and releasing another 6 for his clients. But, Martin, on the Gaviota, released 6 one day, went back two days later and got Zip. It just seems to be feast or famine.

Santiago on the super panga Gitana made a long run for tuna. He found them too; but at 59 miles and darn close to where the ocean drops off the earth. They got a dozen yellowfin tuna between 20 and 40 pounds. He told me this morning at the pier they actually ended up at 72 miles when they were done.

But, again, going back to the Terrafin Photo, the 60 mile mark is just at the back edge of the off colored water. The tuna were in the clean water.

There were not many reports on the inshore this week, but Adolfo did tell me he was going north today because there were a lot of sierras up there, small to medium sized jack crevalle (4-10 pounds) and a few small roosters (6-12 pounds). These all translate to a lot of fun with light tackle or a fly rod....Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

Striped marlin season, which we have been hoping would improve, is beginning to look like a bust. Normally by this time of year the bait has reached at least the Finger Banks, a good 50 miles to the north, and we would be seeing action on the Golden Gate Bank, but so far there has been nothing there. It looks as if the past four years were an anomaly and are not going to repeat soon. Instead of almost being able to guarantee a fish during a trip, the hook-up ratio has begun to be around 10%. There was a report of a local fleet boat hooking up to a small Blue Marlin this week, and also reports of several Swordfish being caught.

Long runs for a small chance at medium sized yellowfin were reported by captains that tried for them this week. A few of the private boats reported runs as far as 70+ miles out. Going that far out occasionally resulted in fish to 50 pounds, but it was not a sure thing, and that sure is a long way to go on a guess, or a wing and a prayer as it may be. There were scattered pods of Dolphin found between 5 and 18 miles out on both the southern and southwestern directions, but not all of them held fish, and sometimes when they did the fish just would not bite.

Dorado continue to be scarce with cooling water. There are still a few being caught, not no numbers of them. A great catch this past week would have been two fish, most boats were lucky if they got one. Most of the ones that were found were found either very close to the beach on the Cortez side or 30+ miles to the south.

For some reason even the inshore bite was off this week, and boats that had been doing well on the “go-to” Sierra were having a difficult time getting more than a dozen fish in the boat. The key to getting even that many was reported to be live sardina. A few of the Pangas tried way up the beach on the Pacific side and reported the algae bloom had brushed the shore line 20+ miles in that direction as well. For the boats staying closer to home, an occasional yellowtail, and lots of small bonito provided the bulk of the action, roosterfish were noticeably absent close to home, but there were reports of a few decent sized fish showing up in the surf around Palmilla Point..…George and Mary Landrum

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

Winter Species Dominate

2011-01-24T06:08:00.000-08:00

Endless Season Update January 23, 2011
REPORT #1242 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

There were mostly windy days at East Cape with a few less windy day interspersed in between. The inshore winter mainstay, the sierra action, has even slowed way down as the water temperatures continue to fall. There was a good pargo snap in front of Rancho Leonero for a day or two and then it disappeared.

There have been some sketchy reports of a few dorado outside of Punta Pescadero. Beyond that there is not much to talk about offshore mainly because there are few visiting fishermen interested in taking a boat ride offshore.

You know its winter when the most successful event held inshore is something called Lord of the Wind. I don't think that you will find many anglers who are inclined to put their fishing rods away and take up kite boarding.

However, when the wind ceases the fishing will come back to the forefront until the next blow…it goes with the territory at East Cape this time of year.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Continuing with the winter theme again this week. Yellowtail action is off the charts at all the local banks and the Entrada. With the local pangueros focusing primarily on whale watching there is not much information about current fishing conditions indside the bay.

A group locals from East Cape including Mark and Jennifer Rayor found cool but nice weather on their annual break at Cancun down at the southern end of the bay.

According to Mark the area is growing quickly. He also reported the last few miles a road into the fish camp situated bay side was in poor shape with lots of soft sand.

Fishing was good for the usual list of bay bass, grouper and even some small flat rascals (halibut) for the grill.

Lastly Success and Vagabond, two San Diego boats that based out of Lopez Mateos for the past several months headed home after a productive season.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

With this full moon phase, the fishing has kind of put on the brakes. The 80ｺ clean water is still holding at about 6 miles, but the fleet is averaging only 1 to 2 sailfish a day, per boat. There are still a few dorado out there, and a few blue marlin are being raised.

The fish are here, but just off their feed for the majority of the boats. A couple of the good captains are finding the active fish however, with Santiago on the super panga Gitana releasing 7 for two days of fishing for his clients. And, just a couple of days before that, Adolfo on the panga Dos Hermanos, released 11 in two days.

When I asked Adolfo about the inshore action, his reply was very slow. ...Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

Striped marlin action has still been extremely slow. On the positive side, there are a few fish out there, and at least some of them are willing to bite if you get a bait in front of them. The fish that have been seen have been scattered around, from the inshore water on the Pacific side to the offshore water on the Cortez, and everywhere between, indicating that the bait has been scattered as well. Normally we find concentrations of marlin where there is bait. No such luck on either count for us the past couple of months though, except for a few scattered days. On another positive note, there was a small blue marlin reported, one that was estimated to be 180 pounds.

The yellowfin tuna bite has been off again and on again, one day here, the next day there, and occasionally nowhere! Recently there were fish found at approximately 15 miles to the southwest, outside the 1,000 fathom curve below the San Jaime Bank. Not a lot of fish, but at least the boats that found them early got into some decent action. The fish have not been large, mostly footballs, but some in the 30 pound class have been mixed in there as well.

With the cool water, the dorado have packed their bags and moved south. A few of them could not find their luggage and got hungry, so we have been seeing a couple of flags here and there.

Most of the wahoo got free tickets to travel to warmer climes, getting discounts on seats by buying in bulk. That's my story and I am sticking to it. Only three of these speedsters were caught that I heard of, and all of them were when the full moon was up. All the other “wahoo” flags I saw were for sierra.

There have been roosterfish close to the beach on the Pacific side past the lighthouse early, as well as off the beach on the north side of Chileno on the Cortez side providing action. Also there has been a good amberjack bite off of almost all the points. The most common inshore catch has been sierra, and the bite was good on them for the boats that targeted these fish. A scattering of yellowtail to ten pounds rounded up the inshore action..…George and Mary Landrum

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

Wind is King

2011-01-17T04:54:00.000-08:00

Endless Season Update January 16, 2011

REPORT #1241 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

East Cape

Obviously the organizers of the this week's "Lord of the Wind" event held at East Cape have some pretty good weather intel. It has been basically blowing most of the week which took care of any fishing. However, when it ceases the fishing will come back to the forefront until the next blow…it goes with the territory at East Cape this time of year. Want to know more about the event? Here is a link. http://www.lordofthewindbaja.com/

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Baja's brand of winter is currently in full force at Magdalena Bay. Water temps are in the mid to low sixties, so forget about exotics unless yellowtail and grouper qualify as exotics on your list. Good fishing for them on most of the banks beginning a few miles outside of the bocas'.

Inside the corvina are the leaders of the pack, eating practically anything put in front of them…also grouper, pargo and of course more than enough bay bass.

Even the whales are not arriving in the numbers that are hoped for by the locals.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The fishing for sailfish can only be described as being way down when compared to other years in the past. This is supposed to be our best couple of weeks of the year, but with two to three sailfish per boat per day, the numbers of fish just aren’t here. Is it that the illegal long lines are finally taking their toll in Mexico? Or, as most captains are saying, is it due to a cold current coming in way early this year? I am thinking the lack of conservation is taking its toll, with the captains closing their eyes, crossing their fingers, and “hoping” it's the current. There has just been too steady of a decline since I moved here 14 years ago, and the captains have seen it, too.

Along the lines of conservation, I got an interesting email from Roger Reese. His observation on future conservation in the U.S. does have some merit. “In the U.S. conservation is being taken care of by the lack of participation. With the event of the hi-tech X-Boxes, i-Pods , 3g, 4g, cell texting, (and the list doesn't stop there), the next generation has very little interest in the outdoors or nature. Fishing and hunting is down by 5 to 7% annually.”… Roger Reese.

But, lack of participation also means lack of income for fishing and hunting, and it is always the sportsman’s dollars that lead the way for future conservation.

While on the Municipal Pier this morning (Thursday) at 5:30, I was talking to the captains to get a feel for this fish report. They were trying to “promote” me by saying five and six sailfish a day by, etc. But further questioning, and also by spending the day on the water with fly fishing client Brent Schwarz of Lake Geneva, WI, I came to realize it is a whole different story. More realistic it is two sailfish a day, with most of the fish caught two to four miles offshore, and using conventional gear. It is darn tough with the fly rod right now.

For sure a couple of boats posted fou and five fish days this week, but historically we should have a few boats posting double digit days, with the rest averaging four to five releases.

Also this morning, Adolfo and Cheva on the Dos Hermanos boats told me they have been fishing the inshore all week. They both told me there are lots of sierras and green jacks, but the jack crevalle and roosters are scarce...Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

Let's see, a private ten-boat tournament for striped marlin and on the first day only one was caught. And that one was caught close to home. Tell's the story of our marlin bite for the week. There are a few being seen but not many of them will bite. This has to be the slowest marlin action I have seen in years.

There were scattered YFT's. Sometimes we could find them out past the 1,000 fathom line to the south, other times just four miles off of the lighthouse on the Pacific side. The key was to be the first boat to find the fish, then you had a chance. If you were not the first boat then your chances were really lowered. None of the fish this week were large fish, the biggest I heard of was 35 pounds. Most of them were in the 12 to 20 pound class with an occasional school found that averaged 20 pounds. Many of the boats were flying tuna flags for bonito. There were plenty of them around due to the cooler water. Average size for them was 4 to 5 pounds with an occasional school of 15 to 20 pound fish.

Once in a while a dorado in the 10 to 12 pound class was caught, but these appeared to be stray fish, and were found close to the beach. There were no concentrations found this week, not even under floating debris. Cold water normally equals slow dorado fishing and that is what we are seeing now.

Just like last week, as usual this time of year, lots of wahoo flags are flying everywhere and people are getting excited. Then they are educated about “Mexican Wahoo.” Lots of sierra, but nothing really big, mostly 2 to 5 lbs.

On one day, off the next, or maybe it was just a matter of the right place at the right time, but the sierra bite was either wide open or non-existent. Personally, I think the schools were moving around really fast and if you could not find them in one spot, you had to cruise the beach fast in order to find out where they were. Once you got into them, limits were easy to get, but the fish were small at 2 to 5 pounds. The yellowtail bite was fair, with fish that are small by northern standards but decent by ours at an average of 12 pounds. A few grouper and amberjack rounded up the inshore catch reports except for an abundance of bonito.…George and Mary Landrum

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

Whale of a Week

2011-01-10T05:43:00.000-08:00

Endless Season Update January 10, 2011
REPORT #1240 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

No surprises here at East Cape! You can expect some sun, some wind and most importantly, enough fish to keep things exciting.

As long as the sardina remains along the shore the jacks, sierra and even roosterfish can be in your catch of the day and you don't even have to set foot on a boat. However if you do and find one of the few pangueros selling bait, ask them where they are catching it. That is the best way to figure out where to fish on the windy days.

The skipjack/bonito bite continues to offer some non-stop action throughout Palmas Bay… just watch for fish feeding on the surface and even better yet, frigates swooping down on it from high in the sky.

Head up to the north, which I might add is a good direction to head. Then when the north wind blasts in mid morning your ride back to the hotel is much more user-friendly.

Outside of Punta Pescadero there is enough dorado action to satisfy most. Nothing huge but plenty of tugs from these much sought after gamefish.

Farther offshore when the wind remains reasonable there are a few confused billfish still lurking about. Nothing to write home about but you can't catch-em if you aren't among-em.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Seasonal whale watching is dominating the on the water activity throughout Magdalena Bay.

January through March, hundreds of gray whales mate and bear their young in these protected waters after traveling over 5000 miles from the Bering Strait.

The bay sheltered from the Pacific Ocean by a barrier of desert islands offers the ideal conditions observe the gray whales and their newly born calves up close from the safety of motorized skiffs in the deeper parts of the bay, where friendly whales swim up to the skiffs for a head rub! Breaching, spy-hopping and fluking, the whales will captivating with their behavior.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

With cooler 77º water pushing down from the north, the fishing is remaining steady in the clean water, with most of the action taking place only a mile off the beach. The boats heading out to the 6-12 mile areas are running past the actively feeding fish, and averaging only 1 or 2 sailfish a day. Boats working the inshore areas are getting between 3 to even, as the El Renee did, up to six sailfish a day.

The reason for the near shore action is the water is a couple of degrees warmer than further out. The captains are all saying there are lots of sailfish out there, but they are lethargic and not willing to bite. The close in water is also producing a few dorado. They are only averaging about 12 to 15 pounds, but there are enough of them to help keep things exciting.

Plus, for a regular visitor here at this time of the year, which is the peak of the sailfish season, would find it incredible there are so few boats going out. We would normally have about 15 to 18 cruisers and about 25 to 30 pangas fishing every day. The pangas would be stacked up side to side 6 deep waiting to pick up their clients. Yesterday, only about 10 pangas and 8 cruisers had clients. The only “stacking” that occurred was when Cheva called out and asked me to get him a cup of coffee. Francisco, on the super panga Huntress, was at the pickup point getting a block of ice and loading the rods and gear. Cheva then brought the Dos Hermanos II over alongside and Francisco passed the coffee off to him.

Gary Meger of Toronto is here for his annual 6 week vacation to escape the harsh winters of Canada, and will be fly fishing several times during this period. Yesterday, fishing with Cheva, they only had one sailfish come to the boat, but got a hook set. Gary fought the fish for about 15 minutes, and the hooks pulled. We’ll call it a long release.

Adolfo on the panga Dos Hermanos, is continually proving me wrong about the roosterfish action here this last month. Fishing his 19th day straight, of a total of 25 days, with his French man and wife team they really found the roosters up north again.

Using spin rods with surface poppers and live bait, they came back to port with 10 roosterfish flags flying.

Inshore action has been very good for light line conventional gear fishermen, with a variety of sierras, black skipjack, and medium sized jack crevalle..Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

So far the January billfish bonanza that has occurred for the past several years has not materialized. Hopefully, the show is just late getting started, but as each day passes hope is replaced with disappointment.

There are fish out there, but they don't want to bite. A few boats released fish or two, but they were few and far between. For the most part, seeing the fish was the best anglers could do. Most of the fish were in the cold water on the Pacific side, or just along the temperature break on the east side of the cold water plume.

Yellowfin tuna fishing continues to be a hit-or-miss proposition. The most consistent action was close to shore between the Palmilla resort and the Inman Bank for boats that slow-trolled live bait or chummed with sardina. Most of the fish were small but there were two or three fish to 35 pounds. Offshore, the white-bellied porpoise was key…there were very few fish found that were not associated with them. One of the largest groups of porpoise seen in a very long time showed up 30 miles to the south. There were porpoise to the horizon as well, and a mix of yellowfin with them, bigger fish in one spot, smaller fish in another.

Dorado are also among the missing forcing many boats to find other alternatives. There are still fish out there as many boats have shown this week, but there are no consistent concentrations. A few boats came in with catches, some with four of five fish to 30 pounds, some with just a couple, but most of the boats did not get any at all.

Lots of sierra biting inshore and always the 'go to' if the yellowtail and amberjack aren't biting. Even some of the cruisers are stopping for sierra, just to make sure their clients catch something!.…George and Mary Landrum

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