Baja fly fishing report for the week of February 1st – 8th 2008
Written by – Jeff deBrown
Owner/Guide
The Reel Baja
The above photo is of Rick Behrens from Lake Stevens Washington. Rick is holding one of many nice Sierra we caught while I guided him out of Cabo San Lucas. Rick is pictured here with captain Victor.
East Cape
The North winds have given us just about everything this past week. The first part of the week started out with the winds blowing as usual this time of year but then they backed off and gave us a couple of very flat and calm days. By the end of the week they were back and are forecast to continue throughout the weekend. This past week we saw a couple of blue bird days with plenty of sunshine but we have had scattered clouds in the area for most of the week. The temperatures this past week have been normal for this time of year with the over night lows in the mid 40’s and our day time highs in the high 60’s to low 70’s.
Beach /Inshore
The fishing from the beach this past week was very difficult unless you took advantage of the windless day’s we had on Monday and Tuesday. We still have plenty of Sierra and Jack Crevelle as well as some Lady fish in the area to make things interesting. We also have a few Rooster fish around. one of my neighbors was out on Monday and said he caught his first rooster of the year and saw a few others. For the most part you still need to get out early and fishing before the winds show up. If you do you will have a good chance of something pulling on the end of the line.
Off shore
Off shore this past week was once again not fished much by the boats that went out. I did hear of some decent Yellow fin Tuna action that happened to our North on Monday with the fish being found with a school of Porpoise. I also know of a marlin that was caught and released off of Punta Pescadero. Other than that it was pretty slow.
Cabo San Lucas
Here is a report I have from my good friend George Landrum who is a captain in Cabo.
WEATHER: We finally had a couple of days where the sun actually shined all day long. The middle of the week was special, no clouds and it warmed up a bit. Our morning lows have been around the low 60’s to high 50’s, colder when there were no clouds. The highs for the days have been between the low and high 70’s with one day where it reached 82 degrees here at the house. Cloudy early in the week and at the end of the week.
WATER: Surface conditions on both sides of the Cape were good this week with slight swells and only light winds. On the Pacific side the water temperatures were in the 70-71 degree range with a light tinge of green to them while on the Cortez side the water was about a degree or two warmer and clearer. Due south at a distance of 20 miles the water warmed up to 74 degrees and became blue.
BAIT: Mackerel was easily available at the usual $2 per bait and there were also Caballito at the same price. There were Sardinas up around Chileno Bay at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite remained slow, the concentrations of fish have moved and no one has been able to find them yet. Well, except for one day early in the week when only 10 boats were at the Golden Gate Bank and the Marlin re-appeared for the day. The action was pretty good on Monday and the top boats released double-digit numbers. That shut right back down though, as on Tuesday almost 40 boats worked the bank and there were only about ten fish released. Most boats have been happy to release one or two Marlin per trip and a few lucky (or good) ones have been in the 3 or 4 release range. The bite has been on a mix of live bait and lures with many of the live bait fish coming on deep dropped baits or slow trolled live baits on the Golden Gate Bank.
YELLOWFIN TUNA Well, for most of the boats out there a few football Tuna are all that they have been able to get onto, but every once in a while a larger fish in the 30 –pound range is hooked up. These fish are almost all with Porpoise and there are not many of them found right now. I sure hope things change soon as Tuna are one of our staples this time of year. The area due south to 35 miles has been the best producing, but the action has started to swing into the Sea of Cortez direction, perhaps following the warmer water movement.
DORADO: A few fish now and then, no steady action but the fish that have been taken have been from the warmer water areas.
WAHOO: I have heard of a few boats getting Wahoo in the warm water to the south, but there has been no numbers, just a fish now and then in the 40-pound class.
INSHORE: Sierra, small Roosterfish, Ladyfish, Snapper and some Bonita have been the inshore production this week. The Sierra bite has been on and off on the Pacific side but the best results have been while using Sardinas as bait. Snapper are being found in the rocks, I mean right up in there, and a lot of them are being lost due to that fact.
NOTES: There are more whales showing up, I had a good time watching them while sitting in the Cost-Co parking lot waiting for my wife yesterday! The Humboldt Squid are still around feeding on the red crabs and Swordfish are still being sighted, but I didn’t hear of anyone catching on this week. Until next week, Tight Lines!
