Full Throttle

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

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

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!”

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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