WEATHER: Our cool winter days continue as the nighttime temps are down in the mid 50's. The good news is that the days have been warming up nicely and we are seeing 80+ degrees in the daytime. The winds have been moderate from the northwest and occasionally early in the morning a light breeze springs up from the northeast. We did experience a bit of cloud cover toward the end of the week and it appears as if the coming week may cool things down just a bit more.
WATER: Both sides of the Cape are seeing water between 69 and 70 degrees with the cooler water right in front of us. On the Pacific side the warmer water is on the San Jaime Bank and to the southwest of there, on the Cortez side it extends from Chileno Bay up to Los Frailles and out to the 1,000 fathom line. Surface conditions have been great on the Cortez side with small swells and smooth water. On the Pacific side the water has been a bit more rough with swells at 2-5 feet and a bit of wind chop starting mid-morning.
BAIT: No change from last week, small Caballito, some Mackerel and some junk baits were available at $3 each, frozen horse Ballyhoo could be had for between $3 and $4 each and there were some sardines to be found toward San Jose at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: We had one day this week where it looked as if things were really starting to take off, but the next day the bubble had already burst. Early in the week the Golden Gate Bank had bait all over the place and there were feeding Marlin, cruising Marlin and birds working the bait boils everywhere. Boats were getting multiple hook-ups and releasing between three and six fish in a trip. The next day almost 35 boats made the trip and there were about two or three fish caught. What a disappointment! There were occasional fish showing up to the south of the San Jaime Bank as well as near the shore on the Pacific side. I also heard reports that off of the San Jose Canyon there had been some fish showing up. All the week long, except for one day, it was a matter of putting in the time and keeping your fingers crossed.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: As the warm water on the Pacific side shifted back toward the southwest the fish moved as well. The cruiser were having to travel 35 to 40 miles to get into the fish, and even then there was no guarantee you could find them since many of the porpoise pods did not have fish on them. To go along with that, many of the fish were in the football class instead of schooling fish, 10-15 pounds instead of 15-30 pounds. That's a long run for a few small fish. I did hear that on Friday and Saturday, the end of our week, the action picked up at the Inman Bank up off Punta Gorda on the Cortez side. Boats drifting the Bank and chumming with Sardinas were getting into some decent Yellowfin Tuna, a few to 80 pounds, but you still had to week through the skip jack for them. A good morning would result in five or six decent fish.
DORADO: Very few are being caught and the majority of them are no larger than 10 pounds. Close to shore on the Pacific side and along the beach off of Palmilla have been where the majority of fish have been and the best results have been from drifting with live sardinas and chumming heavily.
WAHOO: Most of the red or orange flags we have seen have been for Sierra or Shark instead of for Wahoo. The water is just on the cool side of the Wahoo preference so there have been very few of them caught this week.
INSHORE: Go out and catch as many Sierra as you want, there does not seem to be a scarcity of them! Of course they are small, but great smoked or used for ceviche. Trolling small hootchies or rapallas right outside the surf break resulted in most of the fish, but live bait on wire leader also worked. There were some very nice Yellowtail caught as well, but almost everyone of them was caught on live bait dropped down to just off the bottom on the rock piles. Anglers were reporting that yo-yo'ing iron was not working at all. There were some small Roosterfish as well as some Pompano and skip jack inshore. Those that targeted bottom fish managed to find snapper to 20 pounds in the rock piles right on the beach and there were plenty of trigger fish in water between 60 and 120 feet deep as well as some grouper to 15 pounds.
FISH RECIPE: Mary's post this week was a Snapper recipe with poblano rice! That combination was fantastic and we will be doing that one again as soon as we get some more snapper!
NOTES: Superbowl today! I am just hoping for a good game and don't really care who wins. I take that back, I hope we win on one of the squares we bought at Tanga-Tanga! Leaving the house soon for the Sunday walk on the beach, then home for breakfast, some gardening and then down to watch the game. Music for the week was thanks to Mark Rau who loaned me the CD “Lower Case Letters” by guitarist Shawn Hopper, released by Favored Nations Records. Thanks Mark, great acoustic guitar!
Have a great week, catch lots of fish, and get those reservations for Cabo made!
Zihuatanejo - April 19th, 2009
supplied by: The Patient Angler RECORDED:84 °FISHING: Good
Just got back from a trip to sunny LaManzanilla Mexico, where the weather was great with daily temperatures in the eighties.
This is not the best time of year for fishing the inshore waters because of the cooler ocean temperature, but every day we still gave it the old college try. We fished the inshore waters from the beach and boats, but with limited success. The fishing from the beach was as predicted, pretty slow with occasional action from small Jacks and a few Sierra. One day from the boat we covered miles of coastline trying to tease up some fish, and the only beach we found fish on was the beach in front of Boca De Iguanas where we were staying. We did have some exciting action on some small Jacks, landing a half dozen of them before we had to call it a day and head back to the marina. I was glad to finally get into some fish because our captain, who understood our concept of baiting fish in with a hookless lure and switching them on to a fly, was not convinced that the bait & switch technique would work. But after the third or fourth fish we teased in, hooked and landed on a fly, our captain shook his head with a smile and said “ It Works”.
The fishing highlight of our trip was the exploration of a large mangrove lagoon that a local told us about. He told us about how he would go into the mangroves at night with a headlamp on and spear big Snook and Pargo while they were sleeping. The next day we had our local friend meet us at the lagoon to show us where to go and rent us his little boat to get around the lagoon and fish from. He was really happy when we gave him 200 pesos (about $16.00 US) for his efforts and the use of his boat. This of course happened before we actually saw the boat. The boat was about ten feet long and looked like a wide canoe that was cut in half. The oars for the boat looked like 2 X 6’s with the sides cut out to make them look like paddles. The important thing is that the boat floated and I was glad I had brought along a couple kayak paddles to use. We made our way out into the lagoon and started working the mangrove edges, coves and open water to see what we could catch. We worked top water baits with spinning rods, deceivers and clousers on sink-tip lines and poppers with floating lines, but no takers to anything we had to offer. As soon as the sun got low in the sky and shadows started to fall across the water, things started to pick up. Pargo and all snapper species prefer to feed in low light conditions, so we concentrated on fishing shaded water. I got my first explosive take on a top water bait and landed a nice Pargo. I quickly switched to my fly rod and a popper and started working the edges of the mangroves. It was like someone flipped a switch once the sun was off the water and every couple of casts a fish or school of fish would attack my popper. The fish that I caught were between one and four pounds, but where you find little fish, you usually will find big fish. Every once in a while you would hear a big splashy explosion from a bigger fish somewhere in the lagoon.
The unfortunate part is that we found this lagoon on our last day. So I’ll have to wait until the next trip to check it out again. I wish I had checked it out earlier; I would have been out there every night!
East Cape - November 3rd, 2007
supplied by: Baja on the Fly RECORDED:85 °FISHING: Greatmaps
Thanks to all of you who emailed me last week to remind me that the time changes this week in the U.S. However, this is a “Below the Border” report and the time changed in Baja last Sunday morning. Sam and Janet Farish, Atlanta, GA, enjoyed a week of great weather and fishing this week with double-digit roosters, sierra and ladyfish inshore. Offshore it was dorado and yellowfin tuna rounding off a great week of East Cape fishing. Then they headed up to Lopez Mateos in Magdalena Bay to sample the even hotter offshore action. Water temperature
Magdalena Bay - November 3rd, 2007
supplied by: Baja on the Fly RECORDED:88 °FISHING: Excellent Early November and the fishing is easy…offshore. Sam and Janet Farish on their first day headed out on the “Mar Gato” with Captain Sergio and our guide Lance Peterson.
Their day started quick! In the first ten minutes they were both tight to fifty pound wahoo. Today they headed out for hopefully more of the same action on the Thetis before sliding down to the anchorage at Santa Maria Bay to spend the night. Billfish action from the Entrada to below Pta. Tosca could only be classified as “wide-open”. Bird school after bird school in every direction you looked but even as you slid on the spot you could never be sure what might be there. Marlin, tuna, dorado or wahoo? As one angler put it, “They were biting everything; probably would have bitten an old tennis shoe!” If you are heading this way, bring plenty of tackle. Double digit fishing goes through the tackle fast!!! Water temperature72 - 82Air temperature 67 -88Humidity 76% Wind:W 8 to 11 knotsConditions:SunnyVisibility7 milesSunrise7:36 a.m. MSTSunset6:45 p.m. MST
Banderas Bay - March 22nd, 2007
supplied by: Fish in PV Sportfishing RECORDED:85 °FISHING: Excellent
Puerto Vallarta fishing report, well its the season for mah mahi , roosterfish, sailfish, and small tuna, and we have been catching one or the other everyday. Puerto vallarta is mostly known for its huge game fish 300 lb yellow fin tuna and the 1000 lb marlin. but you can also catch small game fish as well and that is the season we are in riht now. the mahi mahi and the dorado have been running between corbetena and the point off of punta de mita. Sailfish is a great bill fish but mahi mahi and Wahoo are some of the best tasting fish out there!! The mahi mahi have been ranging from 15-60 lbs and have been feeding where the mercy water hits the deeper ocean water. and have been biting everything we through at them. Sailfish have been traveling in schools of 3 all week we have been spotting them and casting 2-3 lines of live bait and catching and releasing like crazy!! We caught 5 last Tuesday on a 6hr trip I mean they were literally jumping in the boat. The Wahoo have been a little trickier to catch now when your fishing for wahoo you have to troll at a faster speed then when your targeting billfish, wahoo is one of the fastest fish out there and has razor sharp teeth so if you not trolling at a fast enough speed say good buy to your $100 lure corbetena was the hot spot for wahoo last week ranging from 25-55 lbs we have not seen anything bigger than that so far this month.
Mazatlan - September 8th, 2006
supplied by: ifishmexico.com RECORDED:89 °FISHING: Good
Aug. 15 - 31, 2006.
Mazatlan Inshore & Offshore Fishing Report.
Hurricane "John" brought heavy rain, wind and rough seas during the last days of the month, fortunately "john" is gone now and we are back on fishing.
Before "John" these were the numbers:
Offshore: Dorado (Mahi-Mahi) remain plentiful and the Mazatlan fishing boats are averaging 15 dorado per boat day fished mostly from the buoys with 6-15 lb. ranges. The ifish! fleet reported for 13 fishing days that reflected 17 sailfish, (8 released) and 97 dorado for the period. Ifish! super pangas also have been continuously action on dorado for several weeks now.
Inshore: The super pangas reported 14 roosterfish, 90 red snapper & 140 cochis for a genuine inshore fishing action.
Mazatlan Climate: Ranged from 80 at night to daytime high's of 89, cloudy and rainy ... due to hurricane "John"...
Sea Conditions: calm most of the month, until the last few days of the period when we had hurricane "John" nearby.
<>Best Mazatlan Fishing Area: 12-35 miles to the southwest of the Marina Mazatlan for the unlimited quantities of 6-15 lb. dorado.
Best Lure/Bait: Rigged baits (mullet and ballyhoo), also the lures known as "petrolero" & "guacamaya" best for the sailfish.
Dorado pretty eager on ballyhoo, live bait, squid & shrimp.
Mazatlan fishing reports by Job Othoniel / http://www.ifishmexico.com
Lake El Salto - September 8th, 2006
supplied by: ifishmexico.com RECORDED:94 °FISHING: Good
Lake El Salto Bass Fishing Report
For August 15st – 31st , 2006 Air Temp: 83°-94°F (Early Morning and late evenings) 93°-99°F (Siesta time) Water Temp: 79°-83°F Average number of bass per boat per day: 60-90 Largest bass caught: 11.2 pounds
Popular lures used this week: 1. Storm WildEye 4” Swim Shads in mullet, golden mullet, white & white with chartreuse back. 2. Yamamoto Senkos, Yum Dingers or Bass Pro Shops 5, 6 & 7-inch Stinkos in watermelon, watermelon red flake, black with blue flake, red shad and white & chartreuse. 3. Rat-L-Traps in ½ & ¾-ounce in silver with blue back and silver with black back. 4. Eight inch Zoom or Yum Lizards and 10-inch Berkley Powerworms in black with blue tail, watermelon, watermelon red flake and junebug. 5. Buzzbaits in ½ & 5/8-ounce in black, black with blue and white. 6. Bomber Fat Free Shad & Rapala DT10, DT14 &DT16 Crankbaits in citrus shad, fire tiger, white. (Important key is an orange belly) 7. Spinnerbaits in ½ to 1-ounce in white, white & chartreuse, chartreuse and shad. Both silver and gold willow blades have been successful. 8. Zara Spook in chrome with black top.
http://www.ifishmexico.com
Ascension Bay - November 23rd, 2005
supplied by: Pesca Maya RECORDED:0 °FISHING: Excellent
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