Magdalena Bay Wahoo Wake Up

Endless Season Update October 03, 2010
REPORT #1232 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape

Greg Gordon, Baltazar Sequires and Gerardo Ferrand sent this report The best fishing trip of our lives.

There was a little stutter in the action and then after a tropical storm breezed over the top of East Cape. Then as October arrive the fishing roared right back to life. Football sized tuna to eighty pounders with some much larger being lost after long tedious battles that were won by the fish.

Meanwhile the nice sized dorado good sized up to twenty.
Inside of ten mile the sailfish and stripers were biting and there were enough blue surprise bites make it tough to decide which tackle to use.

Inshore action remained good for a variety of species including roosters, small jacks, lady fish and pompano though there were more school sized fish and less Bubba class.

There were a few larger fish seen from the beach but they were tough to get to.

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

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Greg Gordon, Baltazar Sequires and Gerardo Ferrand sent this report The best fishing trip of our lives. I have lived full time in Loreto and spend a lot of time fishing here and have always done very good.....But nothing like this!! 2 days catch includes: 12 - Wahoo - 50 to 86 LBS, 14 - Dorado - 15 to 40 LBS, 25 - Yellowfin Tuna - 15 to 35 LBS, 9 - Yellowtail - 20 to 35 LBS and 3 - Whale Shark Rides at break time! Your experienced crew, accommodations and service is unmatched anywhere in Baja! Thanks again and we will see you soon! Greg Gordon....…Bob Hoyt

Just like that the wahoo kick off the season on the Thetis and those in the know are there in a heartbeat. Lance Peterson raced up from East Cape and filled the cooler in one day ith 6 nice sized wahoo. I swung by the following day and he passed off a fillet.

He also added that he was bit within a minute of dropping the Marauder in the wake. Later that night I delivered it to Jill and Jonathan at their terrific Tailhunter restaurant http://tailhunter-international.com/tailhunter-bar-and-fubar... in La Paz. In no time it was back at my table prepared two different ways. According to the few boats fishing the bank there were stripeys in zone as well.

Inshore? I forgot to ask

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

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

There is not much to say about this week for the fishing. The 83° blue water is still out at the 1,000 fathom curve (30 miles), but there is clean water within 6 miles of the beach.

There are very few people fishing and tourism is slow. Most of the captains are taking this time for the opportunity for their annual maintenance of the boats. They are pulling them out of the water for new paint, bottom paint, repairing last year’s dings in the fiber glass, etc.


The one bright note is the heavy rains we experienced this year have let up and the rain season is just about over. This will bring the blue water back close to the beach, and most of all, clear up the inshore waters for our anticipated excellent action for roosters.... …Ed Kunze

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

Cabo San Lucas
The water warmed right back up and with it came the big marlin. Last Sunday a blue marlin was weighed in at #780, and just yesterday (Saturday) there was a reported #1,200 brought in, also a blue marlin. That last fish has not been confirmed by me as I just heard about it yesterday in the evening. There have been plenty of nice fish in the 200-300 pound class caught as well, and there have been striped marlin found on the Pacific side in the slightly cooler water.

There has been little change in the yellowfin tuna action. The fish have been found in all the usual places, the Outer Gordo Bank, the Inman Bank, the 1,000 fathom line on the Cortez side, 40 miles to the south, south of the San Jaime Bank, and just the other day we had a brief showing of decent fish just five miles off of the lighthouse on the Pacific side. Most of the fish had been football-sized, but those off of the lighthouse had fish to 120 pounds, and those off of the banks have been producing occasional fish that were that size and even larger. Almost all of the larger fish on the banks have been caught on live bait, while around half the fish found offshore in the porpoise have been lure-caught fish.

Good sized dorado remained decent with an average weight of around 18 pounds with lots of fish in the 30 to 35 pound class. We had one angler land a bull dorado that weighed over 50 pounds, possibly as large as 60 pounds, along with several others in the 30 pound class, and they released plenty more. Most boats were able to get limits of these fish without trying hard.

A few wahoo were caught, but the bite has remained sporadic. They were caught either on the high spots or found offshore while looking for tuna.

The pangas were fishing near-shore from 100 feet deep to around five miles from the beach due to flat water conditions and the numbers of dorado to be found so most of the inshore action consisted of dorado, roosterfish and jack crevalle, with an occasional snapper or grouper. Almost every boat there was able to limit out if they wanted. George and Mary Landrum

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

80#'s is apretty big "football".

Scott.....I do launch in Lopez Mateos. It's about 9 statute miles from the ramp in Lopez out through Boca de Soledad, and then 36 miles to Thetis Bank. You easily have the range with a 21' Triumph/150 Yamaha. I have friends in Lopez who routinely fish Thetis with that combo.
This photo is from last year about this time, but you get the idea.....

[Edited on 10-6-2010 by bill erhardt]