bajafly

Endless Season Update 02/13/2008
REPORT #1101 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape

Sierra, ladyfish and small roosters still continue to lurk along the beaches providing some killer action in the early morning and extending on until the winds pick up. The tin boat fleet is enjoying a good sierra winter as they troll tight to the beach. A bit further out the bonito can be found feeding bait near the surface.
Up to the north just outside the mooring balls at Muertos Bay, a few moss back yellows have been tearing up tackle quicker than you can say “fish on”.
Tip: When the fish are crashing bait on the surface and every cast is a refusal, try slowing down the retrieve to a crawl. A very slow moving fly will often trigger a strike when nothing else will.
Water temperature 62-68
Air temperature 45-82
Humidity 75 %
Wind: NNW 7 to 10 knots
Conditions: Partly Sunny
Visibility 5 miles
Sunrise 6:53 a.m. MST
Sunset 6:13 p.m. MST
Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico
Whale Ho! Plenty of whales are now inside the bay frolicking in front of the pier.
Up in the Esteros the mixed-bag action, snook, corvina and some fat pargo, kept everyone smiling this week.
Water temperature 66 - 73
Air temperature 45 -83
Humidity 75%
Wind: WSW 7 to 9 knots
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 4 miles
Sunrise 7:03 a.m. MST
Sunset 6:19 p.m. MST
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
The fishing is continuing last week's trend. It has been slow. The fleet is only averaging 1 or 2 sailfish a day per boat. A few dorado are still being taken, but only about 1 for every 4 boats.

The blue water is still at 18 miles. Reports are the tuna are out beyond the 25 mile mark, and in decent numbers. We are waiting to see if anything will develop with them.

Cory Cole fished with Marcos on the panga, Oceana, and had a typical two days of fishing. They got 1 dorado the first day, and two sailfish the second day.

Inshore, there are reports of the jack crevalle action heating up, with a few sierras being taken also.
Ed Kunze
Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 75-97
Humidity 77%
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 8 miles
Sunrise 7:14 a.m. CST
Sunset 6:43 p.m. CST
Cabo San Lucas
WEATHER: It felt like winter this week even though it never got below 56 degrees. Maybe it’s just that I am used to the warm weather now. Our lows, alt least the lowest I saw, was 58 degrees, but with a bit of wind on it, it felt colder. Our daytime highs were in the high 70’s and most of the week we had partly cloudy skies most of the week. On the 9th the skies actually cleared enough for the sea-surface temp charts to come through on the Terrafin web site.
WATER: I did not see anything warmer than 70 degrees this week, and most of that was a plume coming up from the south and running from 20 miles due south to the southern end of the San Jaime Bank. Inside that band it dropped to 67 and 67 degrees. On the Cortez side of the Cape it was a consistent 68 degrees until you got past the Punta Gorda area, and then it dropped to a very cool 63 and 64 degrees. The surface conditions were great with small swells from the Northwest on the Pacific side and almost pool-table smoothness on the Cortez at the end of the week.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price. There were Sardinas up around Chileno Bay at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:

BILLFISH: Boats looking for Marlin were really having to scratch for them this week, and I mean that they were difficult to get to bite, not that they were hard to find. Some boats working deep bait on the Golden Gate Bank had luck, but it was not steady by any means. There were also some hungry fish found close to shore, within two miles, along the points on the Pacific side. Boats venturing farther offshore were seeing quite a few fish in small groups of two or three at a time, but they had lockjaw and most refused to bite. As an example, a large private yacht that has placed in quite a few tournaments spent 12 hours late in the week fishing for marlin, from 6 am until 6 pm and were only able to find two hungry fish, and that was a double hook-up.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The porpoise are starting to show up in fair numbers but not all the pods have Yellowfin with them. Fishing south of the San Jaime and west of there boats are finding pods of between 20 and several thousand porpoise. There have been Tuna of between 15 and 30 pounds caught among the mammals, but I did not hear of any large ones yet, and a good day so far has been getting eight or ten of these fish to bite. Most boats are having a hard time getting hooked up to them though as they have been feeding fairly heavily on red crab, according to the guys who have opened up the ones they catch. As a result, the small hootchies in red colors have worked best on these smaller Tuna.
DORADO: A few fish now and then, no steady action but the fish that have been taken have been from the warmer water areas.
WAHOO: I didn’t hear of any Wahoo this week. The flags you see flying are for “Mexican wahoo”, or better known as sierra.
INSHORE: Mexican Wahoo, also known as Sierra, have been the mainstay of the Panga fleet this week with most boats able to get at least a half-dozen or more. Yellowtail action is picking up once again with several fish to 40 pounds being boats as well as a few nice grouper to 50 pounds. The usual smaller Roosterfish to 5 pounds, some small barracuda and Bonita have rounded out the catches inshore.
NOTES: Whales, whales, whales and porpoise, there have been plenty of these out there for anglers that get bored of not catching fish this week. Well, for some of them at least! I am taking off for L.A. to re-new my Captains License and will be coming back in the middle of the week, maybe fishing will have gotten better by then! Until next week, tight lines!
AS OF JAN 23RD, 2007 EVERYONE MUST HAVE A PASSPORT TO TRAVEL TO AND FROM MEXICO!!!!!

George & Mary Landrum
Water temperature 65 - 74
Air temperature 45-78
Humidity 75%
Wind: SW 6 to 8 knots
Conditions: Partly Sunny
Visibility 5 miles
Sunrise 6:53 a.m. MST
Sunset 6:14 p.m. MST