Z Fish Report (9/8/16)

Offshore (average) surface water temperature - Includes from the 5-6 mile mark at the 100 fathom line, on out to about 50 miles with the 1,000 fathom line being at 32 miles: 90°

Inshore (average) surface temperature. From the beach to about 5 miles: 89°

Blue water: Is about 6-7 miles off the beach and just beyond the 100 fathom curve. (Chlorophyll amounts and surface temps from Terrafin SST)

The big news this last week was the heavy rains we got this last Sunday. A weather cell moved over us and, at a bit over an inch an hour, it started raining at 5:30 in the morning. It never let up until 2:00 in the afternoon, and even then continued to drizzle for a few more hours. We got over 10 inches. Plus, we had some wind, with gusts to 30 mph.

The weather cell moved a bit north of us, started getting some circulation, and soon became category I Hurricane Newton, which hit the southern tip of Baja, moved across the peninsula, and on up into Sinaloa.

Offshore- With the heavy rains discharging a lot of vegetation out of the rivers, it is an almost impossible situation to troll baits or lures.. It is a deckhand’s nightmare. Instead of a sailfish causing the outrigger release to pop out, it was in fact just a foot long grass clump. The bait/lure has to be brought in, cleaned, and set out again, just to do it all over on one of the other lines. The weed line, as of today, was from the beach to 19 miles. The only sailfish Mitch Baker of Houston caught was at the 25 mile mark while fishing with Jamie on the 38 foot Orion.

We are averaging 1 sailfish raised to the boat and less than 1 hooked per boat per day.

There are still very few dorado, but with all the debris in the water, we are anticipating them here in another week or two.

The yellowfin tuna are nowhere to be seen.

Inshore: Again (from last week), very few clients and very warm water. With the inshore water now showing a little off-color, the jack crevalle and roosterfish bite has pick up significantly, but there are no clients to take advantage of it.

The heavy rain on Sunday did discolor the inshore water, making it brown and heavily laden with fresh water, but it is dissipating quickly because of the strong blue water current. We should be back to normal in a few days. But, this is September, and the heaviest rainfall month of the year. We can only wait and see what happens.

Ed Kunze                                                                         

 (Director of the Roosterfish Foundation, IGFA Representative)