No Stinkin’ Swine Flu Here

Endless Season Update 04/30/2009
REPORT #1164 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

Regarding the elephant on the beach, all of the talk about swine flu in Baja is just that…talk! As of today, there are nada, none, zip cases reported here in East Cape, as well as the rest of Baja Sur and West Coast of Mexico. The following link is a Google map with an up-to-date map of all reported cases. http://tiny.cc/V8Q8j

As promised, the Mexican Department de Pesca has begun inspecting to be sure that anglers are abiding by Mexican fishing regulations. Apparently a panga is being provided by alternating hotels each month.

Marlin action exploded early in the week but it has slowed somewhat as the baitballs have been broken up by schools of feeding skipjack.
Dorado action continued at a better than average rate for this time of the year with many larger fish being caught close in.

Beach action also has heated up early; larger roosters have begun to show in shallow water close to shore. There were reports of “Bubba” class roosters seen feeding on mullet. Lance Peterson sent us a photo of his first of the ’09 season caught earlier this week and photographed by his wife Colleen before it was released. He commented that he had lost even a larger one just minutes before hooking the one in the photo.

Water temperature 72-77
Air temperature 58-91
Humidity 42%
Wind: SE 4 to 6 knots
Conditions: Mostly Sunny
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:45 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:47 p.m. MST

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Angler count was even less than last week. Enrique Soto reported good action under the bird schools at the Entrada for a mixed bag of bonito, sierra and a few firecracker sized yellowtail. Dorado were still being reported by commercial fishermen 15 to 20 miles west of the entrada.

Lopez Mateos reported small tuna and yellows outside Bode Soledad, beginning at ten miles and improving out to twenty miles.

Estero action took a back seat as scallop season began capturing the attention of most of the locals this week.

Water temperature 69 - 77
Air temperature 59 -90
Humidity 50 %
Wind: NW 7 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 5 miles
Sunrise 7:03 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:50 p.m. MST

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The blue water fishing is improving, but not by a lot. A few sailfish are being reported, but the average is still only about 1 sailfish per day per boat. The clean water has come in to about the 18 mile mark, which is better than the 24 miles last week. The blue water is about 30 miles out.
With the very low fish counts this last couple of weeks, Jamie Morales, the owner of the Vamonos Fleet, was telling me this weekend's annual International Sailfish Tournament should be changed to jurel (jack crevalle), chulas, and barriletes (black skipjack tuna). This is because the action is still outstanding for these inshore fish.

However, a lot of other people must have thought the same thing, because the tournament has been delayed until the weekend of May 22nd. Of course, this was all done in solidarity for the other sporting events in Mexico, which are shut down due to the swine flu. There is no swine flu here in this state, but the federal mandated program is shutting down all sporting events in the republic.

Ed Kunze

Water temperature 78 - 83
Air temperature 72-90
Humidity 61%
Wind: WSW at 12kt
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 7:20 a.m. CDST
Sunset 8:036p.m. CDST

Cabo San Lucas

The warm spot of water between the 1150 and the Cabrilla Seamount was expected to give up a couple of blues or blacks but failed to produce much of anything at all other than a couple of dorado. There were a few tailing fish sighted on the Cortez side.

We had a couple of good days of fishing for football tuna in the 5 to 15 pound class in the middle of the week. The fish were with a large pod of dolphin on the Pacific side just to the south of the San Jaime Banks. When the wind picked up on Thursday the fish were more difficult to find.

Just like last week, once again it was a case of scattered fish. Almost every boat was able to get a dorado this week, and a few boats managed to get three or four.

Inshore, the bite is still on for sierra and yellowtail; it’s decent for amberjack and pargo and there are a few grouper to add to the mix. The yellowtail were up around Los Arcos on the Pacific side and the sierra were on the Cortez side of the Cape. When the winds blew hard in the middle of the week, the water really greened up on the Pacific coast and most of the action moved to the Cortez side.

George & Mary Landrum

Water temperature 75 – 78
Air temperature 61 – 95
Humidity 30%
Wind: SSE 7 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:47 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:46 p.m. MST

WHOA