Baja Blue Water Report for Fall 2004

 

The fly fishers on this trip included locals Marshall Bisset,  Rich Hall, Bill Ulrich, and from Michigan Nola Krahe, and Prof. John Graham of Boulder, Colorado. We had terrific weather, with temperatures in the nineties and water temperature at 81F. This fall the boats were beached at Los Muertos, (recently renamed Bahia de Suenos) instead of the beach at on Punta Arena. This was because the prevailing winds were already starting to come from the Northwest, and Muertos offers more protection. And the bait was plentiful! In case you don't know it-fly fishers ironically require more bait than the conventional guys, especially when tuna are around. The first few days were spent catching small roosters and jacks in the areas where we were making bait and then heading out to look for dorado and tuna, mostly near the “Castle,” which is what the local captains call the lighthouse on Punta Arena. The dorado showed up as we were chumming for skip jacks and tuna. They would come in and charge around slashing at the live sardinas that the captains were tossing. Several Dorado were landed and the not very common Mexican Bonita showed up. They were not very big, but the were incredibly strong for there size. Capitan Efren is holding one in the picture at the bottom. And a few dorado were “farmed” I lost a nice one when I decided this time I would set the hook firmly. Unfortunately, the fly was taken at very close quarters and when I determinedly pulled straight towards me with my left hand, the 30 pound bull reacted in a millisecond-and I didn't let up on the line in time and he was gone, and so was my fly. Israel- my captain for the day, hissed “Ranchero!” But luckily, my fellow fishermen were more competent most of the time.   

 

      

 

We were really amazed at the size of the Black Skipjack we were landing. Some weighed in at 15 pounds and we knew we had a good shot at another world record. Joanne Priest had taken one in the women's category last year. But then we realized none of us had a certified scale, and anyway, we were somewhat apathetic at the prospect of slowing down the fun. Once in a while a 9 to 15 pound yellow fin tuna would slam a Tuna Tux or similar fly. This was a thrill-and besides, we needed some sashimi for dinner. But we couldn't help but noticed that the skippies had the most fight -- pound for pound. And then the classic fly rod fish, dorado, would show up in a  groups of two or four, sometimes with a big bull charging around at a distance. All in all it was a terrific week. Every trip is different, and on this one we never did our run to the north end of Cerralvo Island because the fish were mostly to the south. we spent one day running all the way south to Boca del Alamo and had a blast catching some nice Pacific crevalle jacks and small roosters, but found no dorado as we'd hoped.  Even the  winds cooperated by waiting until the afternoon to come on strong. Nola  got her first yellowfin on a ten weight and played the fish very well, without giving it a rest, even as I shouted instructions.

 

Marshall Bisset landed a bull dorado that spent more time in the air than in the water and Rich Hall shows off a beautiful yellow fin tuna he took with his new streamer that I thought would be a dorado fly because of it's flash. Obviously it was a fantastic trip. When I get one I'll put up a picture of Rich's sail fish too. As always, our cook at Baja Joe's kept us applauding the delicious food she prepared, and our host Baja Joe kept the Margaritas coming. This is living the flyfishers life at it's best!