Who Flipped the Switch?
Capt. Gary Graham
April 25, 2011
Baja Sur - Saltwater Fishing Report
Endless Season Update APRIL 25, 2011
REPORT #1254 "Below the Border"
Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape
Change is in the air. Daytime temperatures are creeping over the 90 degree mark with sea temps following. So much to talk about, so little space. Enough swordfish to give those who care goose bumps. San Jose local, Daniel Fisher took his boat Fisherman out and caught two swordfish on back-to-back days and was back out trying to make it a hat trick.
Felipe Valdez, Buena Vista Beach Resort Hotel manager, could hardly contain himself. "Best week of 2011, so far! We caught everything: a wahoo (63 pounds which my dad Chuy landed), dorado (from 40 to 60 pounds) sailfish, striped marlin, red snapper, jack crevalle, sierra, amberjacks, and even a blue marlin…all caught in the area this week!
Our fly fishermen with Victor Sr. on the Victoria had ideal conditions which allowed them to begin catching fish a few hundred yards off our pier including snapper, ladyfish, jack crevalle and skip jack.
Mark Rayor on Jen Wren has been beating the bushes between clients for his own first swordie of the year. He reported that the "why the billfish won't bite" mystery was solved; seems most caught and released this week were plugged with squid and weren't hungry
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The inshore and beach action is shaping up nicely according to Rancho Leonero owner John Ireland. Big roosters in the 50-pound class are beginning to arrive, joining the smaller schoolie-sized fish in the 5 to 20-pound range attracted by the large schools of sardina all along the south beaches.
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Current East Cape Weather http://tiny.cc/EastCapeWeather303
Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico
Cool water and windy conditions continue to hamper fishing conditions in the area, which is frustrating for the locals as the both the white sea bass and yellowtail action has been good-to-great on the days that the wind subsides. While yo-yoing jigs have been the method of choice, live mackerel have been much more effective at both the Entrada and a few miles off of Magdalena Island.
Estero action is improving for the very few anglers fishing currently. There are halibut on most of the shallows off of sand beaches and the perennial spotted bay bass with a few grouper and an occasional mangrove snapper round out the catch list.
Current Magdalena Bay Weather http://tiny.cc/MagBayWeather150
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
Hoping something would break loose, and even delaying the report a day didn't help. The full moon period is just beating us over the head, and we can't change Mother Nature. The 80ş water is just six miles off the beach, with the deep blue 84ş water at 14 miles.
About the only decent report for the blue water this week was Adolfo on the panga Dos Hermanos. At 16 miles, he released two sailfish.
Cheva, on the panga Dos Hermanos II was with combination spin/fly fishing client Steve Turpin of Atlanta, Georgia and got several sierras, black skipjack tuna, but he missed a couple of roosterfish on the fly. The smallest we estimated at 25 pounds and the largest one may have gone 50 pounds…Ed Kunze
Current Zihuatanejo Weather http://tiny.cc/zihuatanejo582
Cabo San Lucas
Tracy Ehrenberg, Pisces reported striped marlin fishing was on the rise and that their boats are beginning to produce single, double and triple marlin days. Continuing that until now the slack had been taken up with great yellow-tail fishing. Along with good catches on sierra close to shore, plenty of skipjack, some pompano, triggerfish, amberjack and green jacks.
Captain George Landrum, Fly Hooker Charters added that there were finally a showing of yellowfin tuna with a smattering of fish up to forty pounds mixed in with the football sized fish.
Farther up in the Sea of Cortez near the Gordo Banks there were scattered schools as well, and some of them held fish to 100 pounds. A slightly different method was needed on the larger fish as just trolling lures or chumming with sardina did not work. Setting out a kite or using a helium balloon to get the bait well away from the boat brought some bites from these larger fish.
After a long absence, as the warm water moved in, a few dorado hit the docks this past week. While not there in great numbers as the water is still a bit cool, there were fish caught that weighed up to 20 pounds. Most of them were in the 10 to 12 pound class however, and were mixed in with both the yellowfin and the marlin.
Current Cabo Weather http://tiny.cc/cabo191
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