Monday, November 30, 2009

Mag Bay Marlin Stirring

Endless Season Update 11/29/2009
REPORT
#1191 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
Russ Weaver, Corvallis, OR displays one of many roosters being caught along the beach near Zihuatanejo.

East Cape

Russ Weaver, Corvallis, OR displays one of many roosters being caught along the beach near Zihuatanejo.

Cooler weather and a tad more wind as November comes to a close. Looks like a shower or two may greet December according to the weather predications.

Very few boats are heading out but when they do, fishing remains wide open. Yellowfin tuna refuse to quit...still nothing huge but enough for sashimi to go with leftover turkey. Dorado are still hanging around out in front of La RIbera .

Farther offshore the billfish haven't left the building. Not much concentration, just one here and there.

Inshore the sierra are the primary target for the tin boat fleet and the beach walkers are finding a mixed bag on the good days.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Offshore action remains a 'wahoo kind of deal'. Taylor Spurgen, San Diego, heard the reports and jumped on a plane, determined to catch his first wahoo. He must be an over achiever...he ended up with six wahoo up to fifty-five pounds, and then released another. This is the best wahoo year I can remember.

There have been encouraging reports of huge schools of marlin heading down the coast. Several boats stumbled onto the fish and racked up double-digit scores for a day's fishing. According to the reports the fish are traveling 5 to 10 miles a day. December could produce the WFO marlin action we normally get in November...HO HO HO!

Small tuna and dorado are still less than ten miles outside the Boca. A few anglers are fishing the tide in the esteros in the morning and then they are running out for a T & D afternoon.

Meanwhile back in the esteros, the action has not slowed. Live shrimp are producing the best action for everything from snook to corvina and everything in between.....Bob Hoyt

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The 85° blue water still remains on the beach and the excellent fishing has not let up.

Offshore, the fleet is averaging two to three sailfish a day each, plus a nice dorado or two.

And, even with the hot water, an unusual run of cooler water loving small striped marlin moved into the area and are adding up in the daily totals. I guess they are either lost, or they do not realize they are late for their annual run up at Los Cabos.

Eric and Ellis Skidmore, of Bend, Oregon, fished two days with Captain Martin on the Gaviota (formally the Nautilus) releasing six sails, a striped marlin, and keeping two dorado.

From San Diego, the Lee Fleming family also fished a day with Martin on the Gaviota. They got four sailfish; one for each member of the family.

Bob Barker, from British Columbia, wrapped up his stay of fly fishing several days with Adan on the Gitana II, by getting two sailfish and a striped marlin on the fly rod, getting back to the dock just a couple of hours before his flight.

The inshore fishing remains fantastic. There is tonnage of sierras, which provided a special treat for Troy Evan's 8 year old son while fishing with Cheva on the Dos Hermanos. Plus, Troy also got plenty of action with a couple of 40+ pound roosterfish and several jack crevalle.

Commodore Ellis Skidmore (USN - retired), only 89 years young, also enjoyed the sierras by taking full Mexican limits for the entire crew, while fishing with Adolfo, Jesus, and me on the panga, Dos Hermanos II. We all ate sierra that night.

John Thodos of Illinois released three roosters and several jack crevalle while fishing two days with Adolfo and me on the panga, Dos Hermanos II. The largest rooster, also taken on the fly, weighed 42 pounds. We were fishing the area near the river bar at La Union and the Ranch, about 30 miles north of Zihuatanejo. We were consistently raising 20 roosters a day to the hookless popper, and another 30 to 40 jack crevalle. We have worked the area for four days straight now..…Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

Scattered striped marlin are showing on both sides of the Cape, mostly small ones and by small I mean less than 50 pounds in weight! There were groups of stripers on the surface in numbers as high as 25 fish per group, but they were not very hungry. A few boats were able to release two fish per trip, but they were the exception, not the norm. There was also a flurry of action on blue and black marlin to 400 pounds close to shore on the Pacific side in a warm water band. Feeding on small dorado and skipjack, they surprised and tormented a lot of the anglers who had changed over to smaller tackle for the dorado and striped marlin.

Tuna were at the Gordo Banks. Using sardina as bait and light flouro-carbon leader, many of the boats were able to get two or three fish to 100 pounds by drifting over the high spots on both the inner and outer banks. At the end of the week, school sized fish averaging 25 pounds were found off of Palmilla Point.

The water has cooled a bit and the numbers of dorado have dropped off. Most of the boats are averaging 4 to 10 fish with a lot of small ones in the catch. A few of the boats have lucked out and found dorado under floating debris. Those few have recorded great catches of fish averaging 25 pounds, but these were few and far between.

This has been the best wahoo season in years; boats are still getting multiple fish each day if they focus their efforts on these speedy, razor toothed fish. They are mostly smaller than average with the majority of them ranging in size from 6 to 20 pounds.

A few of the pangas found large sierra and a few large roosterfish on the Pacific side. Most of the inshore action has been with snapper and small roosters as well as dorado.…George and Mary Landrum

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

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