Endless Season Update 11/1/2009
REPORT #1187 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape
Then there was the Magdalena Island beach which produced a memorable day of mixed catches.
October is over and hopefully we have seen the last of the Chubascos for 2009. The seasonal north winds have begun and the trick now is to pick the right days to fish or take up wind surfing.
On the good days, billfish and tuna (both football and some verging on gorilla class) can be located under the porpoise. Though according to Mark Rayor the porpoise have been tough to find and usually only the first few boats that find them are successful.
Rick Maxa, “Let’s Talk Hookup” co-host, passed along a good tip: try the ranger lures that we sometimes use as hookless teasers for jacks and roosters. If you get in front of a school of porpoise and don’t get a bite, try one; it seems that tuna cannot resist the Roberts Rangers . This is the perfect solution for the fly guys when attempting to keep the tuna on the surface long enough to get the fly in front of them.
There are still some quality dorado for the taking…mostly schoolies with a few toads up to fifty pounds mixed in.
The persistent wind waves have chewed up the beaches and left dirty water. However, the water clears up quickly when the wind subsides. Gary Barnes Webb, manager at Rancho Leonero, caught some quality roosters recently along the beach on the non-windy days.
Current East Cape Weather
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Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico
While the marlin show began early this yea,r the September and October parade of storms seem to have pushed them out again. Consensus is the lack of bait is the reason; earlier there were baitballs everywhere, but unfortunately they have disappeared.
Boats traveling down the ridge reported excellent tuna and dorado fishing all the way down to the 23’s, then nothing on down to Santa Maria.
Some of the Loreto trailer boats are reporting fair to great wahoo action on the Thetis. Closer to shore, ten miles outside Boca Soledad, limits of tuna and dorado were a slam dunk.
Our recent Estero trip produced a steady bite of pargo, snapper, grouper, a few large snook lost and some “what the hell was that”?
Then there was the Magdalena Island beach which produced a memorable day of mixed catches.
Effective immediately Mexican fishing licenses may be purchased in Lopez Mateos without any hassle. They are available near the launch ramp from a Fonmar representative.
Current Magdalena Bay Weather
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Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
The clean water is only one or two miles off the beach, with the 84 degree deep blue water six to seven miles out. For the eight to ten boats fishing every day, it does not matter if they choose the blue water or inshore; they are experiencing some great fishing.
The boats are releasing between two and three sailfish a day each, and like last week, the counts would be higher if the dorado wouldn't beat the sails to the baits: Each boat is also getting four to five of the twenty pound class dorado a day.
Inshore is just as exciting, especially using light line or a fly rod, with a lot of sierra, roosters, and jack crevalle. Adolfo, on the panga, Dos Hermanos, said the boats are each getting between 12 to 15 of the smaller jacks (from two to five pounds),five to six large roosters each day (averaging about 35 to 40 pounds), and as many of the smaller sierra as they want for ceviche or evening dinner..…Ed Kunze
Current Zihuatanejo Weather
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Cabo San Lucas
The striped marlin bite, as well as blue and black marlin bite, slowed this week. It may have something to do with the full moon. As the water cooled, we expected the big girls to slow down but the striped marlin should be picking up. Maybe soon the big groups will start to show. The fish that were caught were found on the Pacific side fairly close to the beach by boats looking for dorado. A few boats did all right, releasing two or three fish per trip, but we have not yet seen the numbers of fish as we have over the past three years.
Yellowfin were scattered, some fish were found as close as two miles from the lighthouse and others were out 30+ miles to the west. Almost all the fish were found with porpoise; there were a few unassociated schools found but it was hard to keep on the fish without the mammals to show you where they were headed. Most of the fish caught were football to school size fish, from 8 to 40 pounds with an occasional 60 to 80 pound fish in the mix. The few boats that got to the schools first did all right with an occasional larger fish to 130 pounds. At the end of the week the bite slowed down and the fish were harder to find.
The dorado bite was wide open early on. Boats were catching all they could handle and were releasing anything under 10 pounds. Later in the week the water started to cool and the bite slowed down. With the moon getting larger the bite moved to the afternoon as well so it often seemed that there were no more dorado around. Even with the slow bite late in the week, most of the boats were able to catch near-limits of fish averaging 12 pounds.
The full moon brought the wahoo bite back and there were more fish found late in the week than earlier in the week. Most of the fish averaged 30 pounds and were found near the points by boats working for dorado.
With the great water conditions most of the pangas were trying their best to put clients on the dorado and tuna early in the week. At the end of the week the morning boats returned to the near shore ground and targeted roosterfish, sierra and snapper. Most of the roosterfish were on the small size with an average of 10 pounds but there were some 30 to 40 pound-class fish found in the Cabo bay near the RIU resort beach. The sierra were small at an average of four pounds and were found farther up the Cortez side of the Cape. The main species of snapper found this week were the smaller yellowtail snapper along with a few cubera and barred pargo…George and Mary Landrum
Current Cabo Weather
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