REPORT #1051 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
Endless Season Update 02/25/07

East Cape

One thing for sure, Baja winter action will require some wire bite tippet as John Hilsinger, Anchorage AK learned recently.
A little nice weather and suddenly there are more flags flying from the riggers. The gold ones account for the sprinkling of dorado found scattered around Las Palmas Bay. And then there's the blue and white marlin flags also beginning to fly: Good billfish action was 15 -18 miles to the north with a report of one boat hooking seven marlin earlier in the week. This combination has the locals predicting an action-packed April for billfish as they begin to spawn.
Inshore, grande class jack Crevalle put on a show out in front of Punta Colorada, driving the sardina bait balls all the way up onto the sand. It seemed to be "love in the air" as they went into their milling\mating mode, but they ignored all offerings made by frustrated anglers taking advantage of the mild winds flinging this and that at them.

Water temperature 65-72
Air temperature 55-80
Humidity 86%
Wind: NNW 17 to 24 knots
Conditions: Clear
Visibility 8 miles
Sunrise 6:45 a.m. MST
Sunset 6:19 p.m. MST
Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

The word must have gotten out about the excellent whale watching this year! Every hotel in Magdalena Bay is sporting a "No Vacancy" sign.

Offshore there are still reports of marlin being spotted but few boats are available to take advantage of the late/early show (take your pick). Most of the dorado have disappeared as the water temps continue to cool down.

The only action of any significance in the Esteros this week seemed to be a decent corvina bite with a few larger ones in the ten pound class.


Water temperature 65 - 72
Air temperature 50 -80
Humidity 78%
Wind: NE 8 to 11 knots
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Visibility 5 miles
Sunrise 6:54 a.m. MST
Sunset 6:26 p.m. MST

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
This has been a very mixed week. Our bread and butter fish, the sailfish, has been fairly slow. We are only averaging one or two fish per day per boat, with many boats not seeing a thing. But, the blue marlin action has been incredible.

The Fight The Catch
Date............2/20/07
Captain ......Jose Pino
Location......Puerto Vicente Gro., about 35 miles South of Zihuatanejo
Angler.........John Walter, Anchorage, Alaska
Guide and photo......Ed Kunze
On one day this week, we reported 14 large blue marlin with the tourist sport fishing fleet out of the municipal pier in Zihuatanejo, plus another 6 from the private boats in Marina Ixtapa. And, this does not count the other 10 blue marlin caught by the commercial pangeros. For the entire fleet, including the commercial pangeros, we put about 40 boats on the water and caught 30 blue marlin in one day!

The other days in this week have not been quite so plentiful, but we are still seeing a minimum of 10 blue marlin a day being hooked and landed.

One notable catch was made by Bill Hermann from Washington, while fishing on the Gaby with Captain Margarito. Margarito called me on my cell phone at 9:00 and they were almost back to the pier already. His clients had enough excitement for the day. The 426 pound blue marlin had wiped them out.

Another notable catch was made by Onno Van Veen of Holland. He fished 6 days with Santiago on the panga Gitana, releasing 2 sailfish, 1 striped marlin, and a blue marlin of about 100 pounds. All fish were taken on the fly.

The party of four in the Bob Stevens group out of Seattle, WA, fished on two pangas at Vicente Gro. for one day. I was on one panga, with Cali on the other. Between us, we tagged and released 3 sailfish for the 4 fly fishermen. Of course, the guy paying the tab, Bob Stevens, never even had a shot.
There has been very little action inshore.

Ed Kunze
Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 76-88
Humidity 82%
Wind: SE 15 mph
Conditions: Mostly Sunny
Visibility 6 miles
Sunrise 7:08 a.m. CST
Sunset 6:51 p.m. CST