Some Hot…Some Not

Endless Season Update 11/25/2008
REPORT #1142 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

With the north winds blowing on some days and lack of clients on others, fewer and fewer boats are getting out these days.
Still there are some dorado to be had along with a few tuna. Billfish has been action spotty throughout Las Palmas bay.
Inshore a few sierra are beginning to show, and there are still some small roosters and jacks feeding on sardina along the beach.
Water temperature 76-80
Air temperature 65-78
Humidity 71%
Wind: WNW 6 to 8 knots
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 12 miles
Sunrise 6:42 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:31 p.m. MST

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Janet Farish subdues her largest striped marlin ever on the fly
Unusual shirtsleeve November weather greeted Jamie Pierre, from Seattle, who fished offshore with his friends and family. Limits of dorado along with good grades of yellowfin tuna kept their rods bent the three days they fished. A few marlin were seen but the herds seem to be down south of Punta Tosca.

Bob Hoyt

Water temperature 78 - 78
Air temperature 55 -78
Humidity 88 %
Wind: NW 9 to 12 knots
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 8 miles
Sunrise 6:52 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:36 p.m. MST

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The 80º blue water is just off the beach, but the fishing has been very poor this last week. One explanation is that a 60 boat/4 day tournament is flaying the water fairly hard. Yesterday, Wednesday, the second day of the tournament, saw only ten sailfish one blue marlin, and no dorado caught. On Monday, Captain Margarito worked hard and never got a fish with his client Chris Varando.
Martin, on the Nautilus, also struck out this last couple of days. Santiago, on the Gitana, did get a couple of sailfish, with the high boat in the fleet this week being Adan on the Gitana II, and released four sails on each of two days.
The Huntress, with Captain Francisco, and the Gitana with Santiago both fished the inshore a couple of days, but only recorded a couple of roosters, a few jack crevalle, and lots of needlefish and black skipjacks.
The new moon is today, Thursday, and as we go into the dark of the moon period, I really expect things to improve.

Ed Kunze

Water temperature 78 - 80
Air temperature 72-87
Humidity 80%
Wind: SW at 12
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:59 a.m. CST
Sunset 6:09 p.m. CST

Cabo San Lucas

BILLFISH: Striped marlin remain the fish of the week with most boats getting at least four of five fish per trip. Boats that really worked it hard and concentrated on them were getting into the double digits again. Most of the fish were still at the Golden Gate Bank, but there was a decent showing at the lighthouse on the Pacific side as well. The bait keeps moving and the fish follow them so as the currents changed, the striped marlin appeared in different areas, following the bait. Live bait was the key to a decent catch, and using circle hooks with flouro-carbon leaders really made a difference!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Close to our area there were scattered schools of football to school sized tuna found among the porpoise. From outside the 95 spot along the 1,000-fathom curve to 8 miles to the west of the Golden Gate Bank, there were scattered pods of porpoise, and about half of them held fish. Occasionally a pod would come through closer to shore and the first couple of boats would do well, but the later boats just got to see the mammals playing. There were confirmed reports of larger yellowfin to 150 pounds north of the Golden Gate Bank, but that was too far for most of the fleet boats to go; the reports were from private yachts.
DORADO: The dorado bite picked up just a bit this week with most of the action shifting to 2-3 miles off of the beach on the Pacific side between the lighthouse and the El Arco area. Live bait and bright colored lures in smaller sizes worked very well. Many boats slow trolling live bait caught a decent mix of both striped marlin and dorado.
WAHOO: I saw a few fish this week in the 50 pound class but there were not a lot of wahoo flags flying from the boats at the end of the day. Boats that had gone out looking for tuna caught the wahoo that I saw.
INSHORE: There were a few more nice roosterfish caught on the Pacific side of the Cape along the beach between the arch and the lighthouse, just like last week. There has been a showing of sierra and a few yellowtails as well as the roosterfish in that same location. A few Pangas reported big grouper were biting on the rock piles if you fished big live bait, but most of the fish were rocking the anglers and breaking off.
George & Mary Landrum

Water temperature 73 - 85
Air temperature 66 - 79
Humidity 70%
Wind: NNE 7 knots
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:42 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:33 p.m. MST

Magdalena Slows a Tad

Endless Season Update 11/18/2008
REPORT #1141 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape
Consistent northerly winds equaled slower fishing this week. Some of the boats have relocated to San Jose or Cabo to escape these winds. Those that remain are finding tuna beneath the porpoise on the good days. Some of the reported fish seen are fifty pounds and over.
The billfish, including sailfish, seem to still be around but they are spread throughout Las Palmas Bay. With few boats and light pressure, finding them can be difficult. Dorado action is spotty; if you find floating debris, there are usually a few fish under it. Last week a floating dead whale produced a serious bite until it disappeared…either drifting over the horizon or sinking out of sight.
Wind waves and beach fishing was not a good combination this week. If you were on the beach early (gray light) you could expect to find a few small roosters, jacks and perhaps a sierra or two.
Water temperature 76-80
Air temperature 66-87
Humidity 60%
Wind: NNW 9 to 12 knots
Conditions: Partly Sunny
Visibility 11 miles
Sunrise 6:37 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:32 p.m. MST

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Sam and Janet Farish, from Atlanta, GA, fly fishing with Baja on the Fly Guide Lance Peterson on Mag Bay Outfitters’ boat, Mar Gato, with Captain Sergio Garcia, completed five days of fishing from the casitas in Santa Maria this week. Final count: marlin 11, wahoo 2 (lost 9 to sea lions), dorado 32, and yellowfin 26. We still have open dates for fly fishing for November and December.

Bob Hoyt

Water temperature 78 - 79
Air temperature 67 -85
Humidity 73 %
Wind: NW 13 to 17 knots
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 4 miles
Sunrise 6:47 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:38 p.m. MST

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
We had a group of clients from England this week, led by Alan Bird. Many people in the U.S. do not have much contact with our European fishermen brethren, and do not understand they are excellent fishermen and sportsmen. They show up with gear that makes any professional fisherman's mouth water. And, they know how to use it!
When I met with them at the hotel, they were asking me about fishing for roosters and jack crevalle on conventional gear. I told them the best method is using a surface popper, but you need to you cast it a long ways.
"What is a long ways,” they asked.
My answer, "At least 50 yards" brought a round of laughs.
As it turns out, a couple of them cast for distance in competition. They are hitting 250 yards with 12 pound gear! It is a science to them.
But a pendulum swing, in a rocking panga, cannot happen. However, there was no doubt in my mind they would hit a 100 yard cast with no problem....incredible.
Using light tackle, they fished the blue water offshore on Monday, releasing 6 sailfish, 4 nice dorado, a couple of very large jack crevalle, and a small (115 pound) blue marlin.
On Tuesday, they fished the inshore on pangas, with really light gear, down to 12 pound test. Six roosters were leadered, and an estimated 60 pound rooster came unbuttoned right at the boat, just before the leader was touched. I will call it a release anyway. They also took several jack crevalle in the 15 to 20 pound range, along with several black skip jack tuna.
Ed Kunze
Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 71-88
Humidity 65%
Wind: SW at 12
Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
Visibility 12 miles
Sunrise 6:59 a.m. CST
Sunset 6:04 p.m. CST

Cabo San Lucas
BILLFISH: Golden Gate Bank was the site of multiple striped marlin releases for every boat that fished there. A bad day was a release of only five fish, and most boats were doing double-digit numbers. We had clients who are charter boat owner/captains themselves on the east coast who released 10 fish on Saturday and they said all of the fish were nice sized with the smallest at around 150-pounds…most of them were in the 180-pound class. The bait was balled up all across the area, and while most of the boats stayed on the high spot, some of the more successful ones looked for balls of bait away from the crowds.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There was scattered yellowfin action this week, but I did not hear of any big fish caught. Most of the fish I heard about and I saw were in the 30 to 40 pound class and the schools were reported from all over the area, no concentration in any one spot. In addition, the schools were moving fairly rapidly, there one day and gone the next. In the cooler water 20 to 30 miles to the south and outside the San Jaime and Golden Gate were reported to be good areas this week, and a few boats reported fast moving schools just five miles out during the middle of the week. Lures were the way to go on all these fish since they were moving along at a fairly rapid rate, and spreader bars, cedar plugs and daisy chains got the action going.
DORADO: The bite remained light again, but there were still plenty of fish out there if you were in the right area. The San Jaime Bank and just to the south of it delivered up to nine fish in a day for clients of ours who were looking for tuna, and other boats were finding four or five fish per trip as well.
INSHORE: I saw a very nice 30 pound rooster caught and released by a boat fishing just off the beach in front of the Pedregal on Friday, and a few of the Panga Captains I talked to said that the action in that area had been pretty consistent on fish averaging 15 pounds. With our calm waters, many of the Pangas were venturing off shore after dorado and marlin.

George & Mary Landrum

Water temperature 73 - 85
Air temperature 68 - 90
Humidity 30%
Wind: NW 7 to 9 knots
Conditions: Partly Sunny
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:36 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:34 p.m. MST

Magdalena Rocks

Endless Season Update 11/12/2008
REPORT #1140 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Grumpy seas prevented most boats from getting outside earlier in the week. When the seas subsided on Tuesday, the marlin party cranked right back up. Outside the Entrada ten miles the bird schools appeared on the horizon and the wake was soon alive with marlin slicing and dicing at the hookless teasers. Though the billfish usually won the race to the teasers, once in awhile the dorado were winners. There were times when a @#$%%^ wahoo would snatch one of the teasers and wouldn't you know it, they would take off with one our favorites!

On the grumpy days, the only fishing going on was in the Esteros, but the action was only fair. There were several roosterfish reportedly caught on the fly at Boca Santo Domingo.
Bob Hoyt

Water temperature 78 - 79
Air temperature 60 -86
Humidity 100 %
Wind: Winds: W 7 to 9 knots
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 3 miles
Sunrise 6:43 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:40 p.m. MST

East Cape

Consistent northerly winds equaled slower fishing this week. Some of the boats have relocated to San Jose or Cabo to escape the winds. Those that remain, are finding tuna beneath the porpoise on the good days. Some of the reported fish seen are fifty pounds and up.

The billfish, including sailfish, seem to still be around but they are spread throughout Las Palmas Bay. With few boats and light pressure, finding them can be difficult. Dorado action is spotty; if you find floating debris there are usually a few fish under it. Last week a floating dead whale produced a serious bite until it disappeared…either drifting over the horizon or sinking out of sight.
Wind waves and beach fishing was not a good combination this week. If you were on the beach early (gray light) you could expect to find a few small roosters, jacks and perhaps a sierra or two.

Water temperature 76-80
Air temperature 61-85
Humidity 73%
Wind: N 8 to 11 knots
Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
Visibility 7 miles
Sunrise 33:28 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:34 p.m. MST

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The blue water is about 8 miles out, and the fishing hit an abrupt slow down with the bright clear moon yesterday. Previously this week, all boats were averaging about two sailfish each, with an occasional dorado. Yesterday (Wednesday), ten boats fished the blue water and only caught two sailfish.
The rainy season is definitely over. When looking at the Weather Channel satellite photos, there is hardly a cloud in the sky over the entire Republic of Mexico. This will help the inshore fishery as the water clears up from the rivers dumping their silt laden outflow into the ocean, but it also makes the affects of the clear full moon more pronounced.
Santiago, on the panga Gitana, told me he had fished inshore all week, getting a lot of medium sized jack crevalle (averaging between 4 and 10 pounds), black skipjack tuna, and an occasional rooster.
Ed Kunze

Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 70-88
Humidity 81%
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 9 miles
Sunrise 6:51 a.m. CST
Sunset 6:10 p.m. CST

Cabo San Lucas

BILLFISH: Striped marlin remained the fish of the week and they were stacked up like cordwood on the Golden Gate Bank. Many boats that worked hard for them were releasing 15-25 fish before noon, stopping only because the anglers were worn out! These were the top boats, but the average boats were still managing to release double-digit numbers of fish. Dropping live mackerel down to just above the bait balls, mostly at 180 feet, and waiting for the strike caught most of the fish. The better boats used circle hooks as the hook-up ratios were better and the fish were not getting hooked in the gut. There were also many sailfish caught, something of a surprise for me. A few decent-sized blue marlin were reported but nothing that would have won the Bisbee Black and Blue.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Yellowfin were the big attraction in Cabo this week as Thursday and Friday were the fishing days for the Western Outdoors Tuna Tournament. There were 98 teams entered this year, and while there were not as many 40-pound and larger fish caught this year, the second largest fish recorded in this tournament was weighed in at a whopping 244 pounds by the crew on the Reel Rum.

The boat “Bottom Line” caught a yellowfin that weighed 143.4 pounds the first day and one of 101.6 pounds on the second day to take a record $272,540. Not to be outdone, the team on the panga, Dr. Pescado, ended the tournament a winner with their 145.4 pound tuna.

Most of the fishing took place on the Pacific side of the Cape, and most of the fish were caught under porpoise. Of course with this number of boats fishing, it became crowded very quickly once porpoise were found. A few boats came screaming into the pods that others were already carefully working the edges of, and this activity put the fish down for everyone, sigh. All in all, the yellowfin bite was decent and the bigger fish were reportedly all caught on live bait.

DORADO: The dorado bite remained light this week, but if you wanted one you could get it. Between one and three fish per day were the average and the fish were around 12-15 pounds in weight. Small lures and slow trolled live bait close to shore, within two or three miles on the Pacific side produced the best results.

INSHORE: The small roosterfish were still around on the Cortez side up around San Jose, but there were no large numbers. Most of the inshore fishing was just offshore a bit with the pangas concentrating on dorado and small yellowfin tuna.
George & Mary Landrum

Water temperature 73 - 85
Air temperature 62 - 88
Humidity 69%
Wind: WNW 8 to 11 knots
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 7 miles
Sunrise 6:32 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:36 p.m. MST