Sea of Cortez…“Road Kill”

[bajafly]

Endless Season Update 04/30/2008
REPORT #1112 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape

As in Cabo, the tuna seiners seem to have scooped up the current crop of football sized tuna leaving only a few scales here and there!
Billfish took center stage this week with the best April showing of sailfish in recent memory! While it wasn’t WFO as far as bites, there were enough shots to cause some to complain about a malady…something akin to tennis elbow.
Dorado action seems to have slowed with mostly singles showing up in the teasers and then disappearing quickly.
Inshore and beach action consisted of more jacks than roosters though there were a few small roosters to ten pounds caught on rooster alley and between La Ribera and the lighthouse.
The following falls into the “I don’t make this stuff up” department:
“Highlight of my beach fishing this week was finding a freshly beached amberjack of about 10lb's. Must have beached itself chasing bait. We took him home and filleted him--still twitching as I cut it. Very tasty stuff!”
Tip: When trolling teasers for billfish, the best way to control your line is by keeping it in a bucket or container of some kind so that it doesn’t get blown about the deck, being stepped on or tangled. When a fish comes up behind the teaser, immediately drop your fly into the water a short distance so that you can use the water to load the rod. As the person teasing calls for the cast and the boat comes out of gear, with a single false cast, cast your fly across the wake. Don't use the rod tip to set the hook. Instead, strip strike and let the fish run. Water temperature 66-78
Air temperature 65-95
Humidity 29 %
Wind: SSE 7 to 9 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 11 miles
Sunrise 6:45 a.m. MDT
Sunset 7:47 p.m. MDT
Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico
Still the small yellowtail action at the Entrada along with a few sierra on the surface. Still a pretty good lump outside, preventing much fishing activity for the local fleet.
Water temps in the esteros remain low and there was little activity this week. Halibut in the shallows off of the sand beaches continued to bite pretty well. A few grouper and pargo up above Lopez Mateos on an incoming tide and some corvina feeding on the surface near Boca Santo Domingo.
Water temperature 62 - 70
Air temperature 62 -91
Humidity 35 %
Wind: WNW 12 to 16 knots
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 5 miles
Sunrise 6:51 a.m. MDT
Sunset 7:56 p.m. MDT
Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico
There has been little change this week, with basically the same results of last week. The boats are averaging 1 to 2 sailfish a day each, the tuna are still too far out, and out of reach, and few dorado are showing in the counts.
This weekend starts our annual three-day sailfish tournament, with an expected 140 boats pounding the water from Friday until Sunday.
With the new moon on Monday, and after a few days to let the water calm down from the tournament, I really expect the fishing to take off. It is now May, and May is one of our best months of the year for the large tuna and blue marlin.
Ed Kunze
Water temperature 80 - 84
Air temperature 71-99
Humidity 65%
Wind: W 21mph
Conditions: Sunny
Visibility 9 miles
Sunrise 7:19 a.m. CDT
Sunset 8:07 p.m. CDT
[signature]