Z Fish Report (2/10/11)

The Terrafin satellite photos show exactly why the fishing has been on the slow side for sailfish and dorado this week. Cooler water is pushing down from the north, and the fish have gone south.

Here come the yellowfin tuna, and the reason the sails and dorodo are leaving. The marlin and tuna like the 78º water to the north, with the sails prefering the 84º to the south. The two black dots are Zihuatanejo to the north and Acapulco to the south.

Gary Nix, fishing with Wilson hall, with his first ever sailfish Cheva is on the right and getting ready for the release.

Several conventional gear fishermen are still scratching out a fish or two per day per boat, but a few boats are also getting blanked. The dorado are also scarce, with most of the dorado coming from 30 miles out or more. A few blue marlin are being caught, as well a couple of striped marlin.

Wilson Hall of Cannon Falls, MN on the

Dos Hermanos II with a very small sailfish

Blue water fly fishing with Drew Chicone of Florida, we spent a couple of tough days on the water with Leonardo on the Fish On and Cheva on the Dos Hermanos II. We did get strikes, but the fish were not aggressive and would not tease to the boat. We also saw at least a thousand porpoise pushing up bait, and thousands of birds. So the bait is here…just very inactive sailfish. We even saw a blue marlin surfing the swells. All that was sticking up was the top ½ of her tail, but it was over three feet tall. That is a huge marlin. I estimated it to be about 800 pounds.

Early in the week Mike Bulkley and Francisco took clients out after tuna on the super panga Huntress, and did well. When traveling long distances, the security of the twin 80 hp motors on a larger super panga certainly makes it nice. This is what Mike emailed me: Went last Sunday and found the yellowfin tuna at 55 miles. Caught 28 school tuna and broke off two large ones. Didn't get back until 8:30 PM.

Drew Chicone with a hard fighting barrilette on his 9wt 

Lots of birds and lots of bait, just not many fish

Plus, Adolfo on the panga Dos Hermanos, looking for some blue water action for his clients a couple of days ago found the yellowfin at 15 miles off the beach down in the Papanoa region. Adolpho also told me he is doing well on a few small roosters, lots of jack crevalle and sierras inshore. Keep in mind, Adolfo is fishing every day of the week and is always scouting for new locations, so he will do well for a few days, and then not so well. Most normal panga charters do not range far and wide like he does, so their production is fairly limited.
Ed Kunze