Some Hot…Some Not
Capt. Gary Graham
November 30, 2008
Baja Sur - Saltwater Fishing Report
Endless Season Update 11/25/2008
REPORT #1142 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape
With the north winds blowing on some days and lack of clients on others, fewer and fewer boats are getting out these days.
Still there are some dorado to be had along with a few tuna. Billfish has been action spotty throughout Las Palmas bay.
Inshore a few sierra are beginning to show, and there are still some small roosters and jacks feeding on sardina along the beach.
Water temperature 76-80
Air temperature 65-78
Humidity 71%
Wind: WNW 6 to 8 knots
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 12 miles
Sunrise 6:42 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:31 p.m. MST
Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico
Unusual shirtsleeve November weather greeted Jamie Pierre, from Seattle, who fished offshore with his friends and family. Limits of dorado along with good grades of yellowfin tuna kept their rods bent the three days they fished. A few marlin were seen but the herds seem to be down south of Punta Tosca.
Bob Hoyt
Water temperature 78 - 78
Air temperature 55 -78
Humidity 88 %
Wind: NW 9 to 12 knots
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 8 miles
Sunrise 6:52 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:36 p.m. MST
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
The 80º blue water is just off the beach, but the fishing has been very poor this last week. One explanation is that a 60 boat/4 day tournament is flaying the water fairly hard. Yesterday, Wednesday, the second day of the tournament, saw only ten sailfish one blue marlin, and no dorado caught. On Monday, Captain Margarito worked hard and never got a fish with his client Chris Varando.
Martin, on the Nautilus, also struck out this last couple of days. Santiago, on the Gitana, did get a couple of sailfish, with the high boat in the fleet this week being Adan on the Gitana II, and released four sails on each of two days.
The Huntress, with Captain Francisco, and the Gitana with Santiago both fished the inshore a couple of days, but only recorded a couple of roosters, a few jack crevalle, and lots of needlefish and black skipjacks.
The new moon is today, Thursday, and as we go into the dark of the moon period, I really expect things to improve.
Ed Kunze
Water temperature 78 - 80
Air temperature 72-87
Humidity 80%
Wind: SW at 12
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:59 a.m. CST
Sunset 6:09 p.m. CST
Cabo San Lucas
BILLFISH: Striped marlin remain the fish of the week with most boats getting at least four of five fish per trip. Boats that really worked it hard and concentrated on them were getting into the double digits again. Most of the fish were still at the Golden Gate Bank, but there was a decent showing at the lighthouse on the Pacific side as well. The bait keeps moving and the fish follow them so as the currents changed, the striped marlin appeared in different areas, following the bait. Live bait was the key to a decent catch, and using circle hooks with flouro-carbon leaders really made a difference!
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Close to our area there were scattered schools of football to school sized tuna found among the porpoise. From outside the 95 spot along the 1,000-fathom curve to 8 miles to the west of the Golden Gate Bank, there were scattered pods of porpoise, and about half of them held fish. Occasionally a pod would come through closer to shore and the first couple of boats would do well, but the later boats just got to see the mammals playing. There were confirmed reports of larger yellowfin to 150 pounds north of the Golden Gate Bank, but that was too far for most of the fleet boats to go; the reports were from private yachts.
DORADO: The dorado bite picked up just a bit this week with most of the action shifting to 2-3 miles off of the beach on the Pacific side between the lighthouse and the El Arco area. Live bait and bright colored lures in smaller sizes worked very well. Many boats slow trolling live bait caught a decent mix of both striped marlin and dorado.
WAHOO: I saw a few fish this week in the 50 pound class but there were not a lot of wahoo flags flying from the boats at the end of the day. Boats that had gone out looking for tuna caught the wahoo that I saw.
INSHORE: There were a few more nice roosterfish caught on the Pacific side of the Cape along the beach between the arch and the lighthouse, just like last week. There has been a showing of sierra and a few yellowtails as well as the roosterfish in that same location. A few Pangas reported big grouper were biting on the rock piles if you fished big live bait, but most of the fish were rocking the anglers and breaking off.
George & Mary Landrum
Water temperature 73 - 85
Air temperature 66 - 79
Humidity 70%
Wind: NNE 7 knots
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:42 a.m. MST
Sunset 5:33 p.m. MST
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