Wanted: Blues!

Endless Season Update 07/31/2008
REPORT #1125 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

Bisbee's East Cape Offshore Tournament kicked off yesterday with 56 boats seeking the $310,000 prize. John Martin, fishing aboard the Wildcatte,r qualified with a 360.0 lb. blue marlin. Jeff Marek fishing aboard the New Venture, weighed in a 47.2 lb.dorado, the heaviest dorado so far.
This reflects the way the week has been; a few larger dorado and a few billfish…all relatively tight to the beach.
Football sized tuna can be found up north at Cerralvo or down south at Cabo Pulmo, but better quality tuna are being found farther offshore under the porpoise.
Roosterfish continue to provide the best action inshore with a few jack crevalle mixed in. Also a few pompano can be found at the lighthouse at the color line.
Beach action included smaller roosters with ladyfish and small schools of pompano seen swimming tight to the beach. If you are lucky enough to see the schools, break out the smallest beige, “Crazy Charlie” you have. Try to cast in front and beyond the school, let the fly sink before retrieving slowly.

Tip: When teasing roosters, use the smallest hook you can find to troll the live sardina. ‘Gamakatsu live bait light with ring #1’ works well to prevent hooking the rooster.

Water temperature 76-86
Air temperature 77-98
Humidity 81%
Wind: NNE 7 to 10 knots
Conditions: Mostly Sunny
Visibility 7 miles
Sunrise 6:48 a.m. MDT
Sunset 8:02 p.m. MDT

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Last week’s “Governors Tournament” was held in Puerto San Carlos and the winners were;
1st Robert Hoyt 30.2 lb Dorado

2nd Marcos Simental 28.2 lb. Dorado

3rd Jose Mendivil 27.8 lb. Dorado

4th Sergio Garcia 26.0 lb. Dorado

5th Ruben Ruiz Ortiz 25.8 lb. Yellowtail

Obviously the offshore action continued to be great with large dorado and at least one quality yellowtail. Also reports of marlin but only one caught along with a 40lb wahoo Inside the Esteros, action was a bit slower with only a few grouper, pargo and corvina being reported.

Water temperature 60 - 76
Air temperature 70 -95
Humidity 50 %
Wind: WNW 16 to 22 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 3 miles
Sunrise 6:54 a.m. MDT
Sunset 8:12 p.m. MDT

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The sailfish action has really been on the upswing. Talking to Martin on the Nautilus (Martin no longer owns the Isamar, and has bought a 35 foot twin diesel cruiser), he told me "mucho pesca"…which translates to "a lot of fish". I feel this is just a part of our annual July mini-migration, coming a couple of weeks later than usual.
The 82º blue water is a short boat ride to the 5 mile mark, with each boat raising between 7 to 12 sailfish a day, and catching between 3 and 4 fish a day (average).
On the down side, the 5 inches of rain we got in the last 24 hour period has blown out the inshore fishery for the roosters. The 24 hour period is also a bit misleading, because almost all of the rain came in three different 1 hour bursts. Intense rain like this really gets the rivers flowing, distributing discolored water all up and down the coast. Our monthly total now stands at 15.5 inches, so it has been tough finding decent rooster action all month.
Just before the rains hit, we were getting some action on small roosters in the Saladita area, and lots of large jack crevalle in the Troncones area.
Ed Kunze
Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 85-110
Humidity 85%
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 11 miles
Sunrise 7:25 a.m. CDT
Sunset 8:21 p.m. CDT

Cabo San Lucas

BILLFISH: Well, for those of you who are interested in Blue Marlin, the water has reached the perfect temperature and the girls have shown up to party! Almost every day one of the boats has gotten into some decent blues and the favorite area has been between 150 and 210 degrees off of the arch out along the 1,000-fathom line. The best results so far have been on darker colored larger lures, greens and blacks along with a lot of purple have been working well. Just think of Bonita and Skipjack, that gives you the idea! There have been a few large fish reported but most of the blues so far have been between 150 and 300 pounds, only a few fish over that mark have been reported so far.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were a few scattered schools found this past week, but they were the exception. Unfortunately there have been few tuna underneath the porpoise that have been through our area, and the porpoise that have been through here have been very boats shy. Hmm, wonder if that has anything to do with Purse Seiners? Seems to me that since the U.S. decided to eliminate the “Dolphin Safe” label and requirements the porpoise have been worked hard and all the fish have been scooped up. Sigh. Of course, there is probably no correlation between the two facts.
DORADO The Dorado I heard of and saw this week were not large ones, but there were more of them showing up than last week. Not to say that you can go out and fill a cooler with fillets, but at least you can take some out for dinner! Most of these fish have been hooked on smaller lures and a few have been fooled by dropped back baits. An average per boat this week was probably in the one fish per boat rate, a few boats caught more than one, but many of them caught none.
WAHOO: The full moon is past and the Wahoo count is down to where I can count the ones reported to me on one hand. Most of those fish were incidental fish caught while fishing for Blue Marlin and they hit large dork colored lures pulled close to the boat.
INSHORE: With the calm water this week most of the Pangas were working just off the beach for Sailfish and Striped Marlin as well as Dorado. Those boats working the beach did fair on Roosterfish on the Cortez side, the swells were still a bit large for close to the beach fishing on the Pacific past the lighthouse.
George & Mary Landrum

Water temperature 67 - 75
Air temperature 77 - 99
Humidity 83%
Wind: WNW at 8mph
Conditions: Mostly Clear
Visibility 7 miles
Sunrise 6:50 a.m. MST
Sunset 8:02 p.m. MST

That's a very nice Pompano!