Endless Season Update 12/2t/2008 REPORT #1146 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996 East Cape You gotta' love Christmas in Baja…perfect weather with the sierra snapping at anything thrown at them. Then just a few miles farther offshore, the dorado are still mingling about. Offshore who knows? Everyone was scurrying about doing last minute Christmas shopping or toasting the holidays with a margarita or two. Which reminds us, MERRY CHRISTMAS and we hope to see you here in Baja in 2009! Water temperature 76-80 Air temperature 61-80 Humidity 77% Wind: NNE 5 to 6 knots Conditions: Clear Visibility 10 miles Sunrise 6:58 a.m. MST Sunset 5:38 p.m. MST Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico There are still some dorado and tuna about ten miles out but there are few takers on the angling side. There are only a few visitors and even less who are interested in going offshore. Even the inshore took a back seat to the Christmas festivities. Bob Hoyt Water temperature 72 - 76 Air temperature 58 -77 Humidity 88 % Wind: E 14 to 19 knots Conditions: Clear Visibility 10 miles Sunrise 7:09 a.m. MST Sunset 5:43 p.m. MST Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico Fishing certainly has picked up. The blue water is close, and the boats are getting most of their fish around the 11 mile mark. Each boat in the fleet is getting an average of three to four sailfish a day. three days, with each successive day getting better and better. They totaled 18 sailfish released and they also took three nice dorado. They started on Saturday, with yesterday (Tuesday) being their best day, with 9 sailfish and 1 dorado. Inshore, there have been a lot of jack crevalle and sierra around, giving the light line angler a great day on the water. Ed Kunze Water temperature 78 - 80 Air temperature 68-86 Humidity 72% Wind: NE at 3 Conditions: Sunny Visibility 7 miles Sunrise 7:14 a.m. CST Sunset 6:18 p.m. CST Cabo San Lucas BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite dropped off just a bit at the Golden Gate Bank but boats were still piling up the numbers with several methods. Drifting with live Mackerel both on the surface and dropped down to 100 feet or so worked well, as did slow trolling live Mackerel through the area. Probably the most exciting and frustrating method was to wait until the fish could be seen feeding on the surface, indicated by birds diving, running to the fish and then throwing live bait into the area. Combat fishing at it's finest; many fish were cut off by other boats trying to do the same thing. Elsewhere there were a few Striped Marlin caught along the beach on the Pacific side and up around the San Jose area. YELLOWFIN TUNA: An occasional school showed up around the San Jaime Bank this week and fish to 60-80 pounds were caught, but they did not stay in the area for long. Boats fishing live bait deep for Marlin at the Golden Gate Bank also caught a few nice fish to 150 pounds. I heard reports that boats fishing from the Puerto Los Cabos Marinas in San Jose were getting fish to 80 pounds on a fairly regular basis but have no other information on that. DORADO: The dorado bite was a repeat of last weeks and I don't know if it will last much longer as the water continues to cool down. The only place that I heard of having a decent dorado bite was just off the beach between the lighthouse on the Pacific side and the beach to the inside of the Golden Gate Bank. Within a mile of the shore boats were picking up between one and five dorado, some of them very nice fish around 25 pounds, but most of them around 15 pounds. There were some fish up around the Punta Gorda area from what I overheard, but I could not get any information on numbers or sizes. INSHORE: The cooler water has brought the beginning of the yellowtail and sierra fishing with it. Pangas working off of the rocky points on both the Pacific and the Cortez side were able to get into some decent fishing for both these species as well as some nice pargo right in amongst the rocks. George & Mary Landrum Water temperature 73 - 82 Air temperature 59 - 84 Humidity 76% Wind: NW 2 to 2 knots Conditions: Sunny Visibility 4 miles Sunrise 6:58 a.m. MST Sunset 5:41 p.m. MST