Z Fish Report (11/27/16)

Cheva, on the panga Dos Hermanos II with a nice dorado for his French client

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: 82°

Inshore (average) surface temperature. From the beach to about 5 miles: 82°

Blue water: Basically the same as last week with the inshore a bit discolored, with some cleaner areas. Then from the 100 fathom line, and out to 14 miles, the water is clean, with a bit of discoloration. The blue water is out 15 miles and beyond.  (Chlorophyll amounts and surface temps from Terrafin SST)

Sailfish on the panga Dos Hermanos iI with Cheva

Offshore- As we got out of the full moon period, the sailfish action picked up a bit, but the dorado really came onto the scene, with several 30 to 45 pound calls fishing taken.

Talking to a friend, Ruben Lara, who is a commercial panga fisherman, told me he is very disappointed in the fishing right now. He said the fish are coming down from Manzanillo, but the lone line pangas are shortstopping them before reaching Zihuatanejo. He told me he caught two 45 pound class dorado, and couldn’t get enough money to even pay for fuel. The price has been driven down so bad by the long liners shipping their fish to all local markets, even the commercial fishermen are having a tough time.

Dean Ferrel with a jack (above) and sierra (below) taken with Mark Denison at
Ruerto Vicente Guerrero

Inshore: As the previous weeks, the roosterfish and jack crevalle are still providing the best action. Sierras are showing now in decent numbers, and even several dorado have been taken just a 100 yards or so off the surf line.

Gord Roberts with one of many jacks

Gord Roberts of Canada continued great fishing with Noe on the Porpy. Noe has a lot of knowledge and tools in his arsenal to find fish. After catching many black skipjack and jack crevalle, they took the girls to the beach at Barra Potosi. Noe spotted a ball of anchovetas and netted them with his cast net he keeps on the boat. Anchovetas are much preferred over the small sardines, which the fish are gorging on all up and down the coast right now. And make for excellent hook bait. Gord and Noe then made the short run back to the White Rocks, and got humbled. The fish gods reminded them of who is really in charge when they lost a very large dorado while jumping, the 1^st wahoo by a broken hook, the 2^nd wahoo by a cut leader, and even the 3^rd wahoo when the main line was sawed off on a rock.

Mark Denison fished Puerto Vicente Guerrero with fly fisherman Dean Ferrel of Seattle, getting sierra and several mid-sized jack crevalle on the spin rods. Mark told me the sardines were balled up in several locations, and had game fish bust on every one of them. The fish were ignoring the fly, so it was surface poppers on spin rods which did the trick.They did see a large school of roosters, which popped up and then went right back down and under the boat. They were just too full to be interested in the fly or the surface poppers.

Ed Kunze                                                                         

 (Director of the Roosterfish Foundation, IGFA Representative)