Baja Mexico fly fishing update and report for January 28th 2009

Written by – Jeff deBrown
Owner/Guide
The Reel Baja
www.thereelbaja.com
1-888-287-4076

The above photo’s are of Tom Greene (top) and Jim Baker form Dayton Ohio showing off just a couple of the fish they caught with me in Cabo San Lucas this past week.  Tom is proudly displaying a nice fly caught rooster fish and Jim is holding one of the many sierra that they hooked into.  As you can see don’t forget the wire when fishing for sierra.

Weather – This past week here on the East cape we saw some very nice and windless days.  We had two days of flat calm seas and then a blow for a day and then we were back to flat seas but the last couple of days the wind is once again blowing from the North.  Our temperatures have been very nice with our day time high’s in the mid to upper seventies and our over night low’s in the low to mid sixties.  This past week we had mostly sunny skies with just one over cast day.

Beach – Fishing from the beach this past week was very productive on the mornings that were calm.  We have very high numbers of sierra along most of the beaches from Punta Arena to Cardonal.  The best bite has been very early in the morning and just at sunset but the bite can be steady throughout the day if the winds allow you to stay on the water.  Flies with a lot of flash seem to work best.  Remember that sierra will hit a fly on the fall so if you are not getting bites on your retrieve try a retrieve of a few fast strips and then stopping the fly and letting it fall for a count of three and then start your strips again repeating the process all the way to shore.  Don’t be surprised if you get most of your strikes as the fly is falling.

Inshore - If you can get in a boat and fish close to the shore the sierra are very accessible.  The tin boat fleet was out early in the mornings on the calm days we had this past week and they did very well.  Most of them are fishing with missiles or gotchas.  These lures are a small lure filled with led and have an angled head so they have great motion under water when retrieved.  These lures are also very shiny and really attract the sierra.  We also have some small rooster fish and jacks in the area as well.

Offshore - The offshore fishing this past week was very good for it being late January.  On the clam days the boats that went out did well catching a good number of dorado and a few marlin.  Most of the dorado were found fairly close to shore with the marlin a little further out.  I know of one boat yesterday fishing out of hotel Palmas de Cortez that had three anglers aboard and returned with a limit of dorado.

Cabo - As I said in my last report I was going back over to Cabo San Lucas to fish with Jim and Tom for a couple of days this past week and I would let everyone know how we did.  Well we did great. We found all the big sierra you could ask for.  We also caught quite a few very nice rooster fish.  We did not catch any pargo this time but we did catch a few nice jack crevelle.  I will once again be spending a good part of this week over in Cabo guiding other guests.  I will once again let everyone know how we do.  Until next week I hope you all have good fishing wherever you may be.

Baja Mexico fly fishing update and report for January 21st 2009

Written by – Jeff deBrown
Owner/Guide
The Reel Baja
www.thereelbaja.com
1-888-287-4076

Weather – The weather this past week was very nice except for the wind.  For most of the week it was windy although we did see a couple of days that were pretty flat due to the wind not blowing.  We had clear skies and lot’s of sunshine most of the week but last Friday and Saturday we saw some overcast skies that kept the temperatures in the mid sixties for most of the weekend.

Beach – With the wind blowing for most of the week and not many people in the hotels the beach is pretty quiet.  I do know that the sierra bite continued as my next door neighbor got out early one morning right here in front of the house and caught a few nice sierra from the beach before the wind drove him back home.  This afternoon I grabbed my fly rod and took a nice walk on the beach as we had a sunny windless day and if you did not get out side you would have been missing a great day in Baja.  As I strolled along the beach I made a few casts.  I spent about an hour on the beach and I was able to land one small rooster fish and one small jack.  I also was bitten off by a half dozen sierra because I for got the wire back at the house.  Over all if the wind allows you to get out and make some casts we still have enough fish in the area to keep things interesting.

Inshore -The inshore is still providing some very good fishing for sierra.  We still have the occasional rooster and jack mixed in as well.  The bait boats have been fishing in front of Rancho Leonero early in the morning for Mackerel that they are then taking and catching a few very nice pargo off of La Ribera.

Offshore – With the winds and the lack of guests in the hotels not many boats went offshore this past week.  I did hear a report of some dorado being caught close to shore from Palmas de Cortez to the slides.

Cabo – Once again this week I spent most of my time over in Cabo San Lucas guiding clients.  I spent a great day yesterday with tom Greene and Jim Baker as we fished the waters off Cabo.  We started out by heading North on the Sea of Cortez side to pick up some sardina for chum that have been located off of hotel Palmilla.  We got some very nice big sardina that I knew would be perfect for what was going on inshore on the Pacific side.  we spent a few minutes in front of Palmilla checking to see if we could find some fish but it was apparent after a few minutes we needed to pick up and run to the pacific side.  When we arrived on the pacific side the seas were not quite as calm as on the other side but it was pretty flat by Pacific ocean standards.  I started by throwing the teaser and tom and Jim started to make some blind casts.  It was not long before I raised a few rooster fish on the teaser.  With Tom being left handed and Jim being a right handed caster I brought both of them to the back of the boat and started to throw some chum.  In just a few casts Jim had a strike but the fish broke off.  Not long after that Tom had a strike and he to broke off.  I noticed these fish were not rooster fish so I put on some wire thinking they were sierra.  We continued to fish and all of the sudden Tom got a hard grab on the fly.  After a very nice fight Tom landed a very nice pargo.  Next it was Jim’s turn and it was a very nice jack crevelle.  By the end of the day both tom and Jim had plenty of strikes and plenty of fish in the boat that included rooster fish,  pargo, sierra, jack crevelle, with multiples of each.  It was good enough that they asked me if we can do it again on Friday.  I will be going back over to Fish with Tom and Jim on Friday and I will let you all know how it goes.         

Baja Mexico fly fishing update and report for January 15th 2009

Written by – Jeff deBrown
Owner/Guide
The Reel Baja
www.thereelbaja.com
1-888-287-4076

Weather -  This past week we have seen some nice temperatures with high’s in the high 70′s and even into the low 80′s with over night low’s in the mid 50′s creeping into the low 60′s.  We also saw very strong winds from the North the entire week making fishing very difficult.  We did see a couple of days this past week that if you were up and out early you had a chance to make a few casts before the winds really started to howl.

Beach – The beach has been very difficult unless you got up very early and took advantage of the lull in the wind on a couple of mornings.  By mid morning the winds were back.  If fishing from the beach we have some small rooster fish in the 1-2 pound class  as well as a few jack crevelle with some of them being bigger up to ten pounds.  The real catch off the beach is the sierra.  We have seen very good sierra fishing from the beach to our North and to our South.  To the North the area of Punta Pescadero has been very good for sierra.  To the South the area around the lighthouse has been very good as well.

Inshore - Once again this week the tin boat fleet concentrated on the many sierras in the area.  Most of the boat are starting at dawn if the winds allow them to launch and most are back in by about ten in the morning.

Offshore – We did not have many anglers of off shore this past week due to the wind.  Those that did found the odd dorado and the occasional marlin.

Cabo san Lucas - I have spent quite a few days over the past couple of week fishing out of Cabo with my guests due to the winds here on the East cape and the fishing out of Cabo has been pretty good.  Their are lot’s of marlin and dorado as well as some very nice sierra and pargo along with some good rooster fish close to shore.  I will be going back over to Cabo on Friday to fish with some more guests and I will be sure to let everyone know how we did.  Below is the latest report from a very good friend of mine in Cabo Captain George Landrum.  I hope you enjoy.

WEATHER:  This week saw partly to mostly cloudy skies in the Cape areas.  Daytime temperatures were in the high 70’s to low 80’s and the nighttime lows were as low as 58 degrees early in the week, raising to the low 60’s near the end of the week.  Winds were light for the most part with a slight kick up in speed later in the afternoons.

WATER:  Water conditions remained much the same as last week with only a degree drop across the area.  This means that on the Pacific side of the Cape most of the water was around 72-73 degrees with a few spots of 70 degree water, while on the Cortez side the water was 73-75 degrees up to Punta Gorda, and later in the week it dropped to 70 degrees past there..

BAIT:  A repeat of last week, Caballito and Mackerel were available at the normal $3 per bait, most of the Caballito were small ones, the mackerel were larger.  You could still catch plenty of Mackerel at the Golden Gate Bank if you ran out.  Sardinas were available at Palmilla for an average of $25 a bucket.

FISHING:

BILLFISH:  There was no change from last weeks situation for the Striped marlin, still the fish of the week, they continued to bite at the Golden Gate Bank.  Catch rates varied from between 10 fish to two fish per day, depending on the length of time spent there and the experience of the anglers.  Running to the diving Pelicans and Frigates and throwing a couple of live baits in among the feeding seals and Marlin resulted in many hook-ups, both on Marlin and on Pelicans.  We had clients on Saturday release 6 nice fish.  Slow trolling live bait also worked very well.  Drifting with live bait set deep did not seem to do as well at the Gate this week.  Another area where the Striped Marlin began to show was just off of the lighthouse on the Pacific side.  Along the flats at the point the bait has begun to stack up and many boats have been saving time by fishing there instead of making the run to the Golden Gate Bank.  The fishing has not been quite as good, but that should change soon.  Elsewhere, there have been a few fish caught on the Cortez side of the Cape, but most of the fish seen in that area have been sleepers.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:  Yellowfin remained scarce this past week.  A few football-sized fish are beginning to show up off of the Westin area on the Cortez side of the Cape, the same area where we had such a good time catching them on light tackle last year, just a few miles off shore.  Using live Sardinas as chum and bait resulted in catches of up to 6 fish per boat.  There were also a few fish 15-20 pounds found among Porpoise off of Gray Rock late in the week, and the same type of action was occasionally found 8-10 miles off the beach on the way to the San Jaime Bank on the Pacific side.

DORADO:  There were decent catches of Dorado this week from the Pacific side of the Cape just a few miles off the beach.  For some reason these seemed to be fish that averaged 12 pounds.  Farther off shore at 10 or more miles the fish seemed to be bigger, one boat came in with three Dorado, all of them over 35 pounds.  Slow trolling live bait seemed to work best on the Pacific side.  On the Cortez side there was fair action up around Punta Gorda about two miles off the beach.  Again, slow trolling live bait worked best, but pulling lures at 8 knots or more also resulted in fish being brought in.

WAHOO: What Hoo?

INSHORE:  The Sierra bite is picking up and the fish are very nice size, between 8 and 10 pounds when you find the right areas.  There are a few nice Yellowtail starting to pop up occasionally off of the Rocky points as well as some Pargo to 25 pounds right in the rocks.  Many of the Pangas have been working just offshore for Dorado and Striped marlin and doing fairly well.

NOTES:   As you can see from the report, there was very little change this week from last week as far as the fishing went.  One change that happened was the rise in price of fishing licenses.  A daily license now costs 140 pesos, a rise of 10 pesos, a weekly is now 290 pesos compared to 260 pesos and a yearly costs 540 pesos as opposed to 500 pesos.  The whales are still out there and are a lot of fun to watch.  I spent a total of 5 days visiting family this week, vacationing in sub-freezing conditions, now I know why I have spent the past 23 years in the tropics!  Have fun everyone, and tight lines until next week!

Baja Mexico fly fishing update and report for January 5th 2009

Written by – Jeff deBrown
Owner/Guide
The Reel Baja

Hello everyone,

Wow!!  This is all I can say about the last few weeks I have encountered.  I want to apologize to everyone for not getting a report up for quite some time but I have been very busy fishing.  Since my last post I finished my season in Magdalena bay returning home on the 22nd of December and then going right into Christmas.  On the 26th of December I headed over to Cabo to guide some guests.  I came home to Buena Vista on December 31st to be with my family to welcome in the new year and then it was right back over to Cabo on January 2nd and I  just returned.  I will be headed back over to Cabo in a couple of days to fish with some more of my clients.

Looking back on the 2008 fly fishing season here in Baja it was quite good.  We started the spring on a high note with the North winds ending quite early giving us some excellent fishing beginning in March.  In late March we started to see the bait along our shores and that continued throughout the spring and into the summer and we continued to see good populations of bait all the way until mid November.  This bait provided us with very good fishing in 2008 along our beaches for rooster fish, jack crevelle, lady fish, pompano, and many other species.  Along the beach and inshore fishing for rooster’s took center stage. This past year as we saw very good numbers of rooster fish all year.  Most of these fish were between five and fifteen pounds but do not get me wrong we saw plenty of bigger roosters between twenty and fifty pounds along the beach and inshore if you were willing to put in the time and be out looking for them.

2008 was also a good year for fly fishing offshore here in Baja.  Locally here in the East Cape we saw some good fly fishing for Yellow fin Tuna in late April and early May.  Later in May we started to see the stripe marlin move in and they continued to provide action into November.  I would have to say that 2008 provided us with some of the best fishing for sail fish that I have seen in the past couple of years.  We had heavy numbers of sail fish in the East Cape area beginning in June and some of the boats were still catching them in Mid November.  The Dorado fishing in2008 was over all pretty good.  We saw a good number of Dorado push through in the spring and the numbers during the summer months were average for us.  We did see another increase in Dorado late summer and early fall.

For me personally the highlight of 2008 was the time I spent in Magdalena Bay running my fly fishing in blue water seminars.  I have been fishing in Magdalena for the past few years running trips and each year they seem to get better and better.  I offer many different packages in Magdalena but my favorite is where we live aboard a boat for four to six days at a time chasing the marlin, tuna and Dorado along with a few Wahoo that are in the area.  The blue water fly fishing in “Mag” during the months of November and December is like no other.  Magdalena bay is one of the best places in the world to catch a stripe marlin on a fly.  We see very high numbers of marlin along with all the other blue water species mixed in.

This past year in Magdalena was quite special as we had great action for the minute we arrived on November 2nd until we departed on December 22nd.  We had plenty of marlin on each trip.  At times they were difficult to get the to look at the teasers because this year we had more bait in the water than in previous years.  Most of this bait was small in the two to six inch range and a lot of it.  Do not get me wrong we caught our share of marlin this year.  What was nice was if the marlin did not want to cooperate we had some of the best fishing for yellow fin tuna and Dorado  that I have ever seen.  On one trip we caught a Dorado and as the school came to the boat we decided to turn off the motors on the boat.  We did not turn them back on for two full hours as we were free casting to Dorado the entire time that were swimming around the boat.  Most of the Dorado we encountered this year were between ten and twenty five pounds but we had plenty of dorado that were in the thirty to forty pound class.  The tuna were all very nice quality fish between twenty and sixty pounds with some bigger ones mixed in that took a lot on some equipment and leaving us scratching our heads and saying I wonder how big that one was?

As I write this and reflect on the fly fishing in Baja during 2008 I can not help but get excited about what we will see in 2009.  I believe that we will see some great fishing along with a few laugh’s and the making of some great memories.   I want to wish all of you the same for 2009.  I hope to see many of you here in Baja during the 2009 season.  If you can not get here to Baja to fish just make sure you at least go fly fishing.  I wish you all a happy 2009.     Continue reading →