No Limit to Limits

No Limit to Limits
Endless Season Update September 19, 2010
REPORT #1231 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape


Late summer yellowfin tuna meet their match with Cassandra one of RBV's tenacious lady anglers.

September continues to promise limits for many anglers looking for a late summer yellowfin tuna fix. Often the first tuna will be a short distance from your hotel. Admittedly they are small but a good warm up for the bruisers lurking under the porpoise schools farther offshore. Hook the right…wrong one??? And you will find yourself laying in a Jacuzzi nursing a margarita with barely enough energy left to lick the salt off the glass.

You might find the plentiful dorado more to your liking as they put on a show leaping about.

Once you have limited out there is always the billfish option which currently offers , stripers, sailfish or an occasional blue or black.

Inshore the roosterfish action remains some of the best recorded in years and the pompano or pargo are waiting to rock your world.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Like most of Baja Sur there are very few anglers in the house. Offshore a steady parade of boats fleeing the slow
California season are traveling down the coast. Local info about the many marlin and tuna twenty or so miles above San Lazaro have Captains working out their timing so they can arrive in the area at gray light.

Meanwhile, closer to shore, small yellowfin tuna and firecracker yellowtail are thick ten miles outside the Boca.

Esteros are expected to improve over the next few weeks as shrimp season goes into full swing. With few anglers it's hard to gauge how good the fishing is right now. There are reports of decent sized groupers, pargo and even a few snook..…Bob Hoyt

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

Due to the heavy rainfall we normally experience in September, the 82° to 84° blue water has been pushed out past the 1,000 fathom line and at about the 32 mile mark.

No doubt the fishing was slow this week with few boats going out due to the lack of tourists. On a trip to the Centro Mercado today (Friday), I checked out the local catches by the commercial pangueros. There were a few yellowfin tuna, dorado, and striped marlin fillets, and not much else.

When I pulled up the Terrafin Satellite photos for the blue water (chlorophyll), it was incredible how much brown stuff
was coming out of the Rio Balsas about 45 miles to the North of us, and brown water is worse than green. It is actually reaching areas we fish for sailfish and tuna from Zihuatanejo... …Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas

Most boats releasing one billfish per day, others more. Most of the fish have been Striped Marlin, but there have been a lot of small Blue Marlin caught as well, fish between 180 to 280 pounds, and a few larger fish to 500 pounds. Many of the fish have been found on the Pacific side of the Cape with the effort being most intense for the Blue Marlin between 10 miles off the lighthouse to the ridge between the San Jaime and the Golden Gate Banks. The Golden Gate and the area off of Los Arcos have been producing most of the Striped Marlin, with more seen than caught!

Tuna action continues inconsistent, one day there are plenty, the next they are gone. Of course, if you are the one in the right place at the right time it seems there is no end to them. The problem of course, is finding them in the first place.

Most of the local banks produced some with an occasional toad of over 200 pounds. They have been the exception however, most of the fish found have been between football size to school fish, between 8 and 20 pounds for the most part.

There are plenty of dorado, averaging size 10 pounds with a few in the #30 class, but they are easily found. Fly rod action on these guys was great it was catch and release until your arms dropped off, and the excitement of having one of the big ones show up in the chum line made for some great action.

Wahoo went on the bite this past week. We had one group who hooked multiple fish each day three days in a row, landing at least one a day. The largest was right around 60 pounds and they lost a larger one that day as well, the others were around 35 pounds.

Inshore action roosterfish were the exotic, plus some decent snapper, lots of small skip-jack and baby yellowfin as well as
loads of small dorado that supplied most of the action for the Pangas this past week. As well as the usual inshore fish, there were a few nice black marlin hooked by Pangas fishing for larger dorado, so there was always the chance of being surprised!...…George and Mary Landrum

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

Thanks