bajafly - 5-23-2009 at 10:04 AM
Endless Season Update 05/21/2009
REPORT #1167 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape
With 77 degree calm seas, offshore action has begun to comeback from the slowdown caused by excessive bait and cooler waters. Lots of jumping marlin
and ample bait have equaled enough action for some boats to rack up decent multiple scores.
Dorado action has continued to produce limits around anything floating. Plenty of ‘schoolie-sized’ fish with some larger fish mixed in.
Sunny skies and little wind have allowed the rooster action to pick back up. They are mixed with large schools of good sized jacks. Boats fishing at
the lighthouse found some pompano along with a few pargo very close to shore.
The new fishing inspectors implemented earlier this season are being criticized by both the locals and the hotels for devoting all of their time to
policing the sportfishing fleet while the inshore gillnetters continue to illegally set their nets along the shore.
Be sure to check out our newest audio project, Gary Graham’s Baja Backroom. Unabridged taped interviews of individuals featured in Gary’s columns and
articles are now available online either on iTunes or http://www.bajabackroom.com/
The first is with Captain Peter “Pete” Groesbeck, with his background of over 30 years of successful tournament fishing, discussing and comparing
Southern California and Baja billfishing.
Water temperature 72-78
Air temperature 61-91
Humidity 53%
Wind: SSE 6 to 9 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:34 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:56 p.m. MST
Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico
Plenty of smaller yellows were found under the bird schools at the Entrada according to Enrique Soto, Puerto San Carlos. While there are few boats
fishing offshore, reports of dorado being spotted by local shark fishermen sound tempting.
Punta Belcher is producing good catches of small halibut in the shallows twenty yards off the beach.
Also a few grouper and corvine are being caught from shore under the bridge entering Puerto San Carlos.
Lopez Mateos has been eerily quiet. Maybe the grouper bite reported last week broke wide open and they are trying to keep it to themselves?
Water temperature 69 - 77
Air temperature 64 -93
Humidity 36 %
Wind: WNW 13 to 17 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:39 a.m. MST
Sunset 8:07 p.m. MST
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
The sailfish action has died off a bit, with less than one fish per boat per day. But, this may be because most of the captains are concentrating on
the yellowfin tuna, which have shown up in excellent numbers. Even though the blue water is still about 25 miles out, we have clean water at 16 miles.
Most of the fish are being taken between the 16 and 20 mile mark.
A few blue marlin are being taken in the same area as the tuna, and small dorado are in the weed lines close to shore.
I fly fished with Greg Eynon of Vail, CO, up above Troncones and Saladita with Captain Ramon. Greg took several green jacks, a very nice sierra, and
several black skipjack tuna. The schools of jack crevalle we were after were moving too fast and not slowing down enough to get a fly to them. We did
not see any roosters.
Ed Kunze
Water temperature 78 - 83
Air temperature 78-91
Humidity 69%
Wind: WSW 8 knots
Conditions: Partly Sunny
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 7:14 a.m. DST
Sunset 8:11 p.m. DST
Cabo San Lucas
The striped marlin have shown up again in fair numbers from the 1150 to the Cabrillo Seamount. They have not shown much interest in live bait…they
just play with them and turn their bills away from the bait that was dropped back into the pattern. However, most of the fish came in pretty
aggressively to the lures. The boats where the mates and Captains worked the lures, teasing the fish into eating what they were already focused on,
had best results. Boats targeting striped marlin averaged two fish per boat with some getting as many as four releases per trip.
A few scattered dorado have been caught by boats working the beach on the Cortez side, but with the water warming up there may be a better bite on its
way.
Fishing from a panga has been the way to go and the cold water on the Pacific side did not deter the fish from biting. Action just to the north of
the lighthouse yielded 16 firecracker yellowtail and another one lost that felt much larger. Pargo are beginning to show up as well and the catch is
becoming a mixed bag. On the Cortez side there were scattered sierra between Cabo and San Jose and past San Jose they were getting into some decent
bonito.
George & Mary Landrum
Water temperature 75 – 78
Air temperature 61 – 97
Humidity 45%
Wind: WNW 8 to 11 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:36 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:56 p.m. MST