East Cape Transition Time

REPORT #1033 “Below the Border” Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
Endless Season Update 10/21/06

East Cape
Adopt a Billfish
After a long, hot summer, East Cape has begun to cool down. Strong north winds for the past several days chewed up the beach this week, slowing the action down. Inshore, the action continued for pompano, jack crevalle, ladyfish, roosters and sierra that can be found from Buena Vista all the way down to the Lighthouse. While there is some off color water, it has not shut off the bite.

Most of the billfish action was soaking baits down deep which is not good for the fly guys. I understand there are plenty of YFTs down below Los Frailes, all the way to Gordo Bank, almost long-range trip in the opinion of most. Rounding out the week were a few dorado spread throughout Palmas Bay.


Water temperature 74-85
Air temperature 69-90
Humidity 74%
Wind: NNW at 9 kph
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 3 miles
Sunrise 7:19 a.m. MDT
Sunset 6:48 p.m. MDT

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico


While offshore was definitely on the upswing this week as the seas began to finally settle down, it was not up to the usual Mag Bay standards. The Riviera Sportfishers Yachts held their 10th Annual Rendezvous, finding most of the action closer to the entrada than the Thetis Bank as the cooler water pushed down from the northwest. Plenty of dorado for everyone and most boats averaging 3-4 marlin per day. Closer to shore at Lopez, the yellowfin and skipjack tuna action remained consistent. In the esteros, the grouper action along with some nice-sized pargo kept the rods bent.

Chugey Sepulveda from the Pflueger Institute just returned from the ridge where they tagged 20 wahoo with archival tags. He wrote, “The tags are externally visible and worth $500 for their return. All of the fish were tagged near the 13.” He reported that there was a consistent morning and late evening bite for the wahoo with Marauders being the most consistent lure “On our last day of fishing, (10/16) we re-captured one of our tags, so we are hopeful some of the boats down that way might get a tag or two.”

Chugey Sepulveda, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist
Pfleger Institute of Environmental Research
901-B Pier View Way
Oceanside, CA 92054
(760) 721-1404

Water temperature 74 - 84
Air temperature 74-86
Humidity 75%
Wind: N 15 kph
Conditions: Scattered Clouds
Visibility 2 miles
Sunrise 7:27 a.m. MDT
Sunset 6:54 p.m. MDT





Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
The sailfish have been steady at an average of about two to a boat per day. Going into the new moon phase, this average should pick up a bit.

A nice bonus is the dorado have finally started to show, with some of the boats getting a couple of the nice 25 pound fish. One commercial pangero, working a floating tree limb, managed to get 10. This same pangero also told me the yellowfin tuna are now showing at the 25 mile mark.

The rains this last week had some dirty water flows out of the rivers, creating a turbid inshore situation. This did hurt the rooster fishing this last week. But, talking to Adopho on the panga Dos Hermanos, he feels in three days we are back into the great action.

Cali and I, driving along the dirt road at Playa Blanca today, spotted some birds and lots of small jack crevalle crashing the backside of the surf line. The water was a bit green, but the bait and the fish are definitely here.

Ed Kunze
Water temperature 78 - 87
Air temperature 77 - 84
Humidity 100%
Wind SE 6 kph
Conditions: Cloudy\rain
Visibility 7 miles
Sunrise 7:40 a.m. CDT
Sunset 7:18 p.m. CDT