Kayaking Fly-fishing
Report Fall 2002
The trips this fall were tons of fun. Most of all, of course the groups of
people were just a laugh a minute. The first day out a nice dorado was
landed and our buddies Endo (from Shimano Magazine) and Fuji (Patagonia
Rep for Japan) prepared the sashimi fantastico. Being fly fishers, we
release most of the fish we catch, but since we are "stranded" on a desert
island we enjoy some of the fruits of the sea, especially shrimp, squid,
crab and a few of the fish we catch. In fact, that happened every night
with fly caught yellowtail, bonita and what turned out to be the ultimate
sashimi-sierra. Fuji claims needle fish is also excellent but, gringos
that we are, we just couldn't step up to it, the flesh having a blue-green
color. Alvaro, my cook, learned how to prepare sushi properly and became a
real fan of the delicacy.
Fuji cuts up!
We had a great time catching yellowtail off Ensenada Grande, by the second
week we discovered the school was hanging out well inside our bay. By the
last day Rich Hall was landing three or four in a session. It is rare to
hook into these guys on a fly, much less in shallow water where you aren't
going to be broken off in the rocks. What a blast! As usual, we caught
about fifteen species of fish.
Rich bags yet another nice yellowtail very close to camp!
The black skipjack were numerous, and most of the ones we caught were very
large and very capable of the Baja sleigh ride. What incredible power
these tuna have! We found sierra every evening mixed in with the skip jack
and sacrificed a few flies to their sharp teeth. Speaking of big fish,
Endo got hooked up to an 18 pound barred pargo that he battled long enough
to end up about a half mile from where he started. Incredible on light
tackle. And lots of big smiles from Endo.
On the Two Island Trip we spend the first half of the week at San San Jose
Island. The big lagoon (a mile long on San Jose) had some twelve pound
rooster fish outside the mouth of the lagoon. Inside, along the
mangroves, Bill Ulrich scored a small rooster. Others got pampano, pargo,
jack crevalle and lady fish.
A hard fighting barred pargo from the mangroves at San Jose Island.
Steve Fechner and company, including "good Chuck" and "bad Chuck" took a
great hike to see the amazing vistas and also spotted for few of us that
were casting at roosters down on our beach camp. When they returned to the
beach we had a great game of frizbee golf. We also had casting clinics,
leader building sessions and fly tying breaks between fishing. One
afternoon we learned how to spot well disguised chocolate clams while
snorkeling.
Bad Chuck with a nice yellowtail. He is not really that bad.
Sitting here at the computer during a March miracle rain in southern
California starts my mind wondering what we will find on this spring's
trip. Who knows? I have clients who have returned for ten trips because
every trip is a new adventure.
Will you join us? Several of the spots are pre-reserved every season for
returnees, and at this point there are only a couple of spaces left on the
Two Island Trip on October 16-23,2004. You could join up on this one or contact
me about putting together your group of friends with your preferred dates.
Good Chuck shares a beautiful view from above camp.
Good news! Together with the Mexican government, the Nature
Conservancy has purchased Isla Espiritu Santo to prevent it from being
developed forever. They recognized this archipelago of islands, it's
unique species of animals, and it's astounding beauty needed to be
preserved as the jewel of the Cortez. Good work!
