East Cape
Taking the lead from the odd weather in the U.S., the East Cape area had south winds this past week strong enough to force many boats back in early, making it tough to fish. However, if you are coming this week, the fact that it quit blowing this morning should be encouraging.
Before the wind cranked up, the offshore had plenty of billfish (including several blues) but it was still tough to get a bite. There were a few dorado to be found under some Sargasso or shark buoys if you were one of the lucky ones.
The buzz this morning was some rumored tuna farther offshore.
Inshore action consisted of a few skipjack, roosterfish, pargo , pompano, cabrilla and even some larger sierra close to shore early morning before the wind began blowing.
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Beach action was limited but there were a few quality roosters spotted and at least one in the 40+ range caught.
Tip: Blind casting is not the most productive way to fish the beach. Try to find an area where you are seeing schools of mullet and then sit on the berm ready to cast when Bubba chases mullet to the shore.
Water temperature 73-87
Air temperature 61-90
Humidity 81%
Wind: SSE 7 to 9 knots
Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:31 a.m. MDT
Sunset 8:06 p.m. MDT
Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico
Diana Hoyt reports calm seas offshore, but still cold sea temperatures. Cold water notwithstanding, there are some quality yellows around the shark buoys.
In the Esteros most of the action revolved around leopard grouper, cabrilla and some nice-sized corvina.
The government has temporally banned all nets in the bay as part of an ongoing experiment!
I'm not sure what that means so I will be going to Magdalena early next month to sort it out.
Water temperature 60 - 66
Air temperature 60 -88
Humidity 70 %
Wind: WNW 7 to 10 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 5 miles
Sunrise 6:36 a.m. MDT
Sunset 8:16 p.m. MDT
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
There has not been much change in the fishing patterns since last week. The blue water is still about 6 miles off the beach, and the fleet is averaging 1 to 3 sailfish a day/per boat. A few blue marlin are still around, as proven by Cindy Belmonte of Simi Valley, with her 300 pound blue. She was fishing with Captain Margarito on the Gaby.
A few large dorado are still being taken on a daily basis, with the yellowfin tuna mostly playing hide and seek.
On Monday, we had a drizzle of rain all day long, with hard rains and wind late Monday night. This was enough for the Port Captain to close the port for Tuesday, but by 10:00 AM we once again had clear skies and calm seas. However, we did record 4 inches of rain during the 30 hour period of inclement weather.
The roosterfish are definitely making a better showing up North in the Pantla and Saladita regions, and still holding strong down South at the antennas and Puerto Vicente Guerrero.
Ed Kunze
Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 76-97
Humidity 69%
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
Visibility 9 miles
Sunrise 7:11 a.m. CDT
Sunset 8:21 p.m. CDT
Cabo San Lucas
BILLFISH: Very little changed this week on the marlin front with most of the fish being found along the shore off of Palmilla and San Jose. They had moved toward us early in the week but the influx of cooler water from the Pacific side pushed them back toward the north. They are still not biting very well and it seems lures are working better than live bait for the most part. Pulling lures at slightly higher than normal speeds seems to get the fish active, though they may be striking out of aggression rather than hunger as the moon gets larger. A decent trip is one or two releases per boat, a good trip this week would have been three or more releases, but we saw very few boats with more than three.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: I sure saw a lot of tuna flags on some of the boats, but upon checking with the anglers found that the flags were being flown for bonita that averaged 12 pounds in size, with a few reaching 18 pounds…a decent fight to be sure, but not yellowfin by any stretch of the imagination.
DORADO: The dorado bite dropped off as the cool water moved back in, but there were reports heard of some kelp patties being found offshore up in the East Cape area that were holding dorado. In our area there were about 10 % of the boats coming in with dorado flags at the end of the week, and they were found along with the Striped Marlin.
INSHORE: Action inshore consisted of small roosterfish to 10 pounds with an occasional fish to 30 pounds, a few holdover sierra to 8 pounds, a decent spot of grouper and snapper averaging 8 pounds along the rocky points and those nice 12-18 pound Bonita just a few miles off the beach. All the action took place on the Cortez side of the Cape.
George & Mary Landrum
Water temperature 67 - 75
Air temperature 59 - 90
Humidity 82%
Wind: WSW 9 to 12 knots
Conditions: Mostly Sunny
Visibility 10 miles
Sunrise 6:34 a.m. MST
Sunset 8:05 p.m. MST
