REPORT #1095 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape
Your best option this week was early morning beach fishing unless you were willing to gamble on the North wind. Sierra continued to put on a good show along East Cape beaches; mixed in with the sierra were a few jacks and, yes, even a small rooster or two.
Offshore action was tough to gauge this week. Between the wind, few guests and way too many New Years parties, there were few boats venturing out…which reminds me: HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Another Sierra Tip: Pacific Sierra mackerel (scomberomorus sierra), while considered a winter and spring fish, are a great diversion before the wind begins to rip. Known for their savage strikes and lightening fast runs, this is the perfect fish to allow you to join in the ongoing debate as to which fish fights the hardest – fresh or saltwater. That 8-weight rod you purchased for a steelhead trip will fill the bill for a rod. Match that with a good quality saltwater reel equipped with a large drag and capable of holding a minimum of 200 yards of 20-pound test Dacron backing and you are almost ready. Use either an intermediate or seamless shooting head system line, and attach a 6-foot, 16-pound fluorocarbon leader with a 12-inch wire bite tippet.
Now is an excellent time to go looking for the feisty sierra. Look for the local baitfish, sardina, schooling along the shore; the sierra can often be found chasing the sardina, close enough for you to take advantage of the opportunity and get shots at them while you’re walking along the beach. Remember: no waders needed here.
Your choice in flies should “match the hatch.” Since we don’t have bugs, the
“hatch” is 2 ½ to 4 inch-long sardina. Olive, gray or blue-backed See-Through Deceivers or Sea Habits should do the trick, but bring a few Clousers in chartreuse or olive to round out your flybox.
Take one of the boats from the hotel and look for the sierra to be crashing wildly
into the schools of sardina. Cast the fly or surface lure into the fray. Fast, two hand retrieves are the hot ticket for the fly, and reel as fast as you can with conventional tackle. Don’t worry about feeling the nibble. If you’re not paying attention, these critters will rip the flyline – and maybe the rod and reel – right out of your hands. More Tips
Water temperature 67-73
Air temperature 59-80
Humidity 82 %
Wind: NNW 9 to 12 knots
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 6 miles
Sunrise 7:01 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:43 p.m. MST
Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico
OK, the weather did lay down. Now if we could convince someone to venture out, we might have something to talk about. Billfish action continues from the Finger Bank below Punta Tosca all the Cabo (See Cabo Report below).
In the Esteros the corvina, grouper and cabrilla were biting enough to keep things interesting.
Water temperature 66 - 73
Air temperature 59 -83
Humidity 82%
Wind: WNW 3 to 4 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 6 miles
Sunrise 7:12 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:48 p.m. MST
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
The blue water is staying close, and the boats are having to travel only 5 to 8 miles to get into the action. Most boats are averaging about 2 to 3 sailfish a day, and a few dorado are also showing up.
As we go into the favorable moon phase, I am looking for the fishing to really turn on.
The small cruiser Gaby, with Captain Margarito, Cali on the panga, Tarpon, and Martin on the panga, Isamar all reported good numbers of fished raised and the fishing is getting better on a daily basis.
Ed Kunze
Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 71-95
Humidity 82%
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Partly Sunny
Visibility 3 miles
Sunrise 7:17 a.m. CST
Sunset 6:22 p.m. CST
Cabo San Lucas
WEATHER: Wintertime in Los Cabos still beats wintertime anywhere to the north of us! Sorry about the one-week no-report zone, I have only missed three reports in 6 years but I am in a transition time, job hunting, Christmas, mom visiting and football play-offs, just too much going on for the last couple of weeks. Anyway, no snow for us in Cabo, things did remain cool however and I felt like it was going to snow on a few mornings when the lows hit the mid 50’s. At least we warmed up to the high 70’s on those days. We did get a bit of cloud cover just at the beginning of this report but now at the end of the year the skies are clear and there is nothing appearing on the horizon.
WATER: On the Pacific side the water has been much warmer with 71-74 degree and fairly blue water. The warmer water at the end of this reporting time was closer to shore and between the San Jaime Bank and us and in a long plume running directly south of the bank. On the Cortez side the water was warm as far as east to the 1150 spot, but became much cooler, down to 67 degrees at the Cabrillo Seamount, cooler and much greener, almost a pea-soup green in places just to the east of the 1150 and along that small temperature break.
BAIT: Bait was mostly Mackerel these past couple of weeks but there were a few Caballito in the mix. These larger baits were the normal $2 per bait. Up in San Jose there were Sardina available at $25 a scoop, but they were tiny ones with the biggest only 2 inches, better for chum that as bait.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: As we expected to happen, the Striped Marlin have started to move our way. The bait moved south and the Marlin followed. The bite is still very good at the Finger Bank but there was no need to go that far. At the end of this reporting period there was an excellent bite going on at the San Jaime Bank on fish in the 100-120 pound class with a lot of boats releasing up to 20 Marlin a day. There was great activity on the Golden Gate as well, but there were a few days right around Christmas when the fish moved off of the Bank and the boats really had to search hard to find them. As well as the Golden and the Jaime Banks, there are good concentrations of Striped Marlin appearing off of the points and ledges just off of the beach. With just a hint of wind there are good numbers of tailing fish to be found close to shore in the afternoon. Almost all these fish are feeding on small Mackerel and slow trolling or drifting with these live baits has resulted in the best catches. It is more exciting to run in to bait balls popping up to the surface, but it was not needed in order to catch fish. A few boats were not able or not interested in catching Marlin however and directed their attentions elsewhere, and reported a distinct lack of Marlin anywhere else. Boats going up toward the Vinorama and Punta Gorda area on the Cortez side reported very green water and only a couple of Marlin sighted.
YELLOWFIN TUNA Once again at the end of this reporting period the football size Yellowfin were reported appearing up outside of San Jose, but the bite was sporadic, the size of available Sardines apparently had a strong effect on the bite. There were fish in the 15-20 pound class reported from the south side of the San Jaime Banks mixed in with pods of Porpoise but the moved around fast. A few boats going north on the Pacific side toward the Finger Bank reported fish in the 80 pound class but they were scattered out and the boats had a difficult time getting bit on these fish.
DORADO: Once again there were a few Dorado found but for the most part these were small fish, less than 15 pounds. A few boats caught one or two fish, most boats had none. The fish that were caught were found in the warmer water on the Pacific side and were caught on live Mackerel with a couple coming on bright colored lures.
WAHOO: I saw no Wahoo flags this week that were for Wahoo, I did see quite a few that were flown for Sierra.
INSHORE: There was no change in the inshore report for this report period. Sierra were the fish of the week for the inshore fishermen and they were consistently on the feed off of the Solmar-Finesterra beach early in the morning. They seemed to move up to the north later in the day. Yellowtail continued to produce scattered action off of the rocky points on the Cortez side with some decent fish being taken off of Gray Rock and the drop at Chileno.
NOTES: There are whales out there so be careful early in the mornings. Quite a few Makos (small ones) have been seen and caught at the Golden Gate Bank, averaging 30 pounds. Santa was nice to me this year; I must have been a good boy. No complaints but I am looking for a new boat to captain.
Captain George Landrum
Cabo Fish Report
Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 57-77
Humidity 82%
Wind: NE 9 to 13 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 7 miles
Sunrise 7:01 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:46 p.m. MST
Bahia Asunción
Our client from Saskatchewan, Todd Burke, speared a 22 pound halibut at San Roque the day before yesterday. He says the bottom is covered with them...excellent visibility, and today they are diving with the sea lions at Asuncion Island.
Yesterday another client caught a medium yellowtail in San Pablo and they also caught lots of white fish, calico, bonito and a sheepshead. Excellent calm weather...lovely temps around 75-80 in the day with water temp around 68.
Shari Bondi
Water temperature 62 - 70
Air temperature 57-79
Humidity 76%
Wind: 11 mph NW
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 6 miles
Sunrise 7:28 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:53 p.m. MST
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