Endless Season Update January 2, 2011
REPORT #1239 "Below the
Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape
After a week of great weather, with clear days and low-80's
midday, the north wind fired back up on New Year's morning.
Pressure was light all week with just a handful of
boats getting out each day. Those that did make it out were rewarded with some
nice-sized dorado outside of Punta Pescadero, a few very respectable
thirty-pounders included. There are still a few billfish but the water temps
continue to plunge.
Inshore, remarkably there are still some leftover
roosters from one of the most productive rooster seasons ever recorded. Slowly,
however, they are being replaced with sierra and jacks, as well as good sized
pargo and grouper.
Current East Cape Weather http://tiny.cc/EastCapeWeather303
New Year's brought cooler weather
and water temps to the entire area. Partying seemed to be more important to
most with few interested in braving the cold to go out into the Pacific to find
the white sea bass or grouper.
Same thing inside the bay; the
transition for most locals now is to focus on whale watching to satisfy the
impending horde of tourists seeking their own close encounter with one……Bob Hoyt
Current Magdalena Bay Weather http://tiny.cc/MagBayWeather150
The terafin.com satellite
photos show the blue water moving out and away from Zihuatanejo Bay to the
north to about the 15 mile mark. But, on a 200º to 180º heading to the south,
it is still within six miles from the lighthouse.
And, the fishing has been
excellent. We are coming out of the full moon period, and going into our most
productive blue water time of the year for sailfish…January.
Each boat is averaging
about three sailfish a day released in the blue water. High boat in the fleet
this week was Martin on the cruiser Gaviota with nine sailfish releases.
But, the biggest surprise
is that the roosterfish have come back. Actually, I don’t think they came back,
as our local fish headed south for warmer water in early November, but we are
getting a great showing of a southerly migration from parts unknown to the
north of us.
Adolfo, on the panga Dos
Hermanos went 1½ hours north on Tuesday and raised 28 roosters, hooking and
releasing 10. He was using surface poppers and slow-trolled live bait. Per
Adolfo, they varied from “fairly small to medium to large”. Cheva, on the panga
Dos Hermanos II, worked the areas to the south to the antennas and
below, doing well on three roosters and lots of large jack crevalle.
Jose Pino, in Puerto
Vicente Guerrero, where I am going tomorrow, told me there are lots of roosters
and jacks. Hopefully, we will get into some of the action.
Ed Kunze …Ed Kunze
Current
Zihuatanejo Weather http://tiny.cc/zihuatanejo582
Cabo
San Lucas
This past week was probably the slowest for striped
marlin that I have seen in some time.
There were fish out there, but for some reason, perhaps the cold water,
they did not want to bite. A few boats
were able to get a released fish or two, but they were few and far
between. For the most part, seeing the
fish was the best anglers were able to do.
Most of the fish were seen in the cold water on the Pacific side, or
just along the temperature break on the east side of the cold water plume.
Yellowfin tuna fishing continues to be a hit-or-miss
proposition as the fish moved a lot. The
most consistent action was close to shore between the Palmilla resort and the
Inman Bank for boats that slow-trolled live bait or chummed with sardina. Catching two or three fish to 35 pounds was
not unheard of but most of the fish were slightly smaller. Offshore, finding the white-bellied porpoise
was key, as there were very few fish found that were not associated with
them. If you were one of the first boats
to the porpoise you had a decent chance of getting bit on fish to 70 pounds
(most of them much smaller), if the porpoise held fish, and many did not. One of the largest groups of porpoise we have
seen in a very long time showed up mid-week 30 miles to the south. There were porpoise to the horizon, and a mix
of yellowfin with them, bigger fish in one spot, smaller fish in another
We are almost ready to hang it up as far as trying to
target dorado this new year. There are
still fish out there as many boats have shown this week, but there are no
consistent concentrations to be found. A
few boats came in with great catches this week, some with four of five fish to
30 pounds, some with just a couple, but most of the boats did not get any at
all.
Sierra were found by pangas working the beach on the
Pacific side up around Migraino. These
fish were not large but they were there in large numbers. Many shore fishermen
got into these fish as well! In other
areas a few amberjack as well as a few yellowtail provided action, and just off
the beach some very nice-sized jack crevalle (to 35 pounds) and bonito provided
excitement. .…George and Mary Landrum
Current
Cabo Weather http://tiny.cc/cabo191
