More Fish than Visitors
Capt. Gary Graham
September 6, 2008
Baja Sur - Saltwater Fishing Report
Endless Season Update 09/03/2008
REPORT #1130 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape
You don't have to go far to find the small tuna…just a few miles off of La Ribera. There have also been some larger ones found deeper in the water column and ‘schoolie' dorado are scattered all the way from there to the lighthouse.
Farther out off of Punta Pescadero there have been some schools of larger tuna under the porpoise schools.
Billfish action has been limited to a few blues and stripers, but with plenty of sailfish throughout Palmas Bay. Don't be surprised if a bull dorado to show up in the teasers.
There are schools of sardina on many of the beaches attracting small jacks and roosters along with the pesky needles.
Beach action was hampered by hordes of needlefish along with off-color water caused by leftover swells from Tropical Storm, Karina.
Tip: When the conditions include off-color water, try slowing down the retrieve speed.
Water temperature 76-87
Air temperature 74-94
Humidity 87%
Wind: NE 5 to 7 knots
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 7 miles
Sunrise 7:02 a.m. MDT
Sunset 7:34 p.m. MDT
Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico
More fish than visitors this week. Outside the dorado, small YFT and wahoo were there for the taking according to the few locals who ventured out. The sprinkling of billfish continues to increase week by week as the season begins to build. Still a good grouper bite, but unfortunately most that are caught go in the back of the fish truck.
Estero action was pretty much the same story…good fishing for corvina, grouper and a few snapper with little or no pressure.
Bob Hoyt
Water temperature 60 - 76
Air temperature 79 -98
Humidity 87 %
Wind: WNW 13 to 17 knots
Conditions: Mostly Clear
Visibility 7 miles
Sunrise 7:09 a.m. MDT
Sunset 7:43 p.m. MDT
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
After a very below normal rainfall for August, we had a bit of rain this last week, which caused a lot of debris to come out of the rivers. Late Monday night we got a huge thunderstorm with 2 1/4" of rain in one hour.
This wiped out the inshore waters with stained water.
However, the blue water was only moved out to the 10 mile mark. The sailfish action is decent. Martin on the Nautilus had days of 2, 4, 1, and 3 sailfish starting on Sunday. He also reported lots of black skipjack tuna just off the dirty inshore water.
No dorado or tuna have been reported, but with the debris in the water, the dorado cannot be too far behind.
Ed Kunze
Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 77-93
Humidity 88%
Wind: E @9 knots
Conditions: Cloudy Rain
Visibility 6 miles
Sunrise 7:32 a.m. CDT
Sunset 7:58 p.m. CDT
Cabo San Lucas
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite continued this week with most of the action taking place within 5 miles of the beach on the Pacific side between the lighthouse and the inside of the Golden Gate Bank. Live bait tossed at tailing fish worked on about 40% of the fish seen and a few others were caught on trolled lures. There were plenty of Sailfish to be found as well, we had one client who was covered up with all five lines going off at once on Tuesday, resulting in the release of three fish and the loss of two. The Sailfish were also just off the beach, there seemed to be a good concentration of bait in the area. There were reports of a few nice Blue Marlin this week but they were not biting hot and heavy. I heard of several fish in the 250 pound class being released from the area of the 95 Spot and the 1150 and I am sure there were a few from the Gorda Banks as well.
YELLOWFIN TUNA The Tuna stayed around after the passing of the storm and most boats were able to do well if they stayed on the fish. On a few days it was scratch as scratch can to get bites, but on Saturday when the rain came on hard the fish came to the surface and bit hard for two hours. Most of the fish were in the 25-40 pound class with a few fish reaching 60 pounds. Earlier in the week the bite occurred closer to shore among the porpoise and those fish were both smaller, with quite a few footballs, and larger, with a few fish in the 80-pound class. Lures, especially small feather in dark colors worked on the football fish, and live bait worked on the larger fish.
DORADO Last week I was hoping that the storm would was debris into the water and improve the Dorado catch, but the debris did not happen. The Dorado catch, howev3er, turned on by itself and this week Dorado were fish of the week. Almost any boat that wanted to was able to get limits for their clients (federal limit of two per angler per day) and most of the fish were in the 10-20 pound class. There were some nicer fish caught as well as we had client who caught several nice bull Dorado in the 50-pound class. As with the billfish, most of the Dorado action took place on the Pacific side within 5 miles of the beach, but there were several days during the week when the action was hot and heavy just off the beach on the Cortez side up around the Palmilla area and other rocky points.
INSHORE: The inshore fishing on the Cortez side was very poor this week due to the discolored water, but slowly improved toward the end of the week. On the Pacific side most of the Pangas were fishing for Dorado and Tuna since it was a fishery very close to shore.
George & Mary Landrum
Water temperature 67 - 75
Air temperature 77 - 93
Humidity 96%
Wind: W 11 to 15 knots
Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
Visibility 5 miles
Sunrise 7:03 a.m. MST
Sunset 7:35 p.m. MST
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