March Blast…

Endless Season Update March 7, 2010
REPORT #1205 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996

East Cape

This is what an angler with a March rooster looks like…it's not often you see a guy in a fleece vest with a roosterfish! photo Colleen Hubbard.

Further signs of spring will happen next Sunday when Baja switches to daylight savings time.

Meanwhile, most of the action remains close to shore or from the beach. Lance Peterson submitted this week's photo confirming both the presence of some nice size roosters along the beach and that it is chilly enough for a fleece vest. Along with the roosters there are schools of sierra chasing sardina close to shore.

Even with the spotty weather, a bit of rain and the ever present wind, either way fishing can still be a blast!

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Another quiet week with few anglers even in the neighborhood this week. The entrada produced some nice sized sierra along with a few small yellows and the sandy beaches at Belchers were holding some of the smaller variety of halibut in very shallow water.

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

The blue water fishing has been slow this week, with the inshore action being the best bet. The full moon caused the normal slow down in the blue water, but with the earthquake down in Chile, it really shut down. It was way too far for us to feel the quake here, but the small tsunami which came through acted like several major shock waves to the sailfish.

The recorded tsunami was only about three feet high, and did not go much higher than our normal high tide line. When it came through, I was guiding with Cheva on the panga, Dos Hermanos II, and fly fisherman Steve Mara of Seattle. We were in touch with the Port Captain's office, which was in touch with the entire coast of Mexico. We didn't feel or see a thing, but we didn't get any fish either.

The sensitive lateral lines on a sailfish can pick up a school of bait fish a half-mile away. The tsunami comes in with a series of shock waves, and it must really put a scare into the fish!

A couple of days after the quake, Adolfo, on the panga Dos Hermanos, called me on his cell phone. He was into a very large school of jack crevalle, and they were huge! He was down at the Valentine river mouth, with the hard fighting jacks being an astonishing 25 to 30 pound average.

Yesterday (Wed.), Ken Unger of Calgary, Canada, fished with Santiago on the panga, Gitana. They didn't get a strike on a sailfish, but found a floating grass patch and managed to pull a couple of smaller dorado and one nice dorado of about 30 pounds off it. Ken's 13 year old daughter, Shelby, had the honors of bringing in the dinner. They had it cooked up at Lety's Restaurant, which is probably the best seafood restaurant here, and very economical.

Today, Ken and Shelby fished with Cheva and meI on the panga, Dos Hermanos II, up on the Buena Vista Beach area. Ken was fly fishing, and Cheva was throwing a surface popper or lure out 75 to 100 yards, and then handing off the caught fish to Ken's daughter, Shelby. She darned near got worn out. We did manage to raise a few roosters, and caught a jack crevalle. Plus, we found our own dorado hotel in the form of a huge patch of floating grass. We pulled eight dorado off it. Nothing was big, but it was a fun…and, I got to take dorado home tonight for my wife Rebecca to cook up. …Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

Marlin fishing has remained slow, though quite a few more boats were able to find the fish and they were biting a bit better…still it was nothing to write home about. The fish seemed to be concentrated closer to shore than normal, with most of the fish being found within three miles of the beach, and on both sides of the Cape.

Just like last week, most of the tuna were found quite a long way from home, necessitating a two hour or more cruise to get to where you might find some. There are always exceptions; recently there was a pod of dolphin found three miles off of Chileno Beach that had loads of football tuna, 5- to 20-pound fish, and the first dozen boats to get there had a blast. There were a few other clos- in fish found this week as well but for the most part, tuna were a long run from home with your fingers crossed!

Just a few yellow flags were flying recently; most of the boats did not have any luck with dorado and those that did only caught one or two at the most. The fish were found offshore on the Cortez side by boats searching for tuna and there were a few very small ones in close to the beach, also on the Cortez side of the Cape.

The sierra bite busted wide open on the Pacific side and it was disappointing to see so many of these so called “conservationist” captains load up with two, three or more times their limits. Come on guys! You have two clients on the panga, come in with 40+ sierra and then complain the next day that the fish have disappeared? Get a clue, please. Anyway, the bite was good and there were a few decent yellowtail caught as well as a few grouper and snapper. The surprise for many was the marlin that were found so close to the beach. While dropping bait to the bottom for grouper and snapper, many boats keep a live bait half-way down for amberjack, but there were quite a few marlin caught doing that.

The whales are beginning to thin out. There were still plenty of Humboldt squid out there if things seem really slow fishing...George and Mary Landrum

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