Sand, Crabs and Cool Surf Fish

November 5, 2009

Sam Vigneri and I are still in Baja. Our attempt to catch a marlin ended yesterday and today we rested up by sleeping in until about 7am. Once awake, we headed to Todos Santos to have breakfast with Grant Hartman and his wife Giselle. After the superb Mexican meal, they spent the day relaxing while Sammy and I opted to chuck flies in the Pacific surf.

Grant gave us excellent instructions as to where we may find a few fish. At our first stop we wandered out on to the beach and sized up the fishing challenges. It was simple, the breaking surf was huge and the tide was just beginning to drop. Fly fishing the surf is one of the most difficult forms of fly fishing there is. You almost always have a strong wind blowing directly in your face making it difficult to cast. Crashing waves make it even more difficult by not only taxing your ability to physically stand without being swept out to sea, but also play havoc with your fly line. It’s simple, as you strip line down on the beach while retrieving your fly; waves roll up the beach and wash the line away. As you go to make the next cast, it’s hard to shoot the line because it is getting sucked out to sea by waves. Toss in the fact that your line is gritted up with sand and you can hardly get the fly out there!

A couple tricks that work for me are first off, use a stripping basket. Stripping baskets strap around your waist and rather than stripping line on to the beach, you strip it into the basket. By doing so you don’t have to fight the waves when you go to shoot a cast and you will get a lot less sand on the fly line allowing it to slide through the guides much easier. In addition to the basket, I like to use a 9½ foot long rod. The extra 6-inches helps elevate my backcast over the top of a steep beach. Most of the beaches along the Pacific Ocean are steep and today was no exception.

Four hours into our fishing we were absolutely getting our butts kicked. Neither of us had a strike. We where exhausted, soaking wet and had plenty of sand in our hair and everywhere else you can think of. Worst of all, we completely lost our confidence. Sometimes the surf appears so inhospitable that you just can’t imagine fish live in it!

We kicked back and had some fun catching a few crabs. While doing so I noticed some rocks becoming exposed from the dropping tide. Sam and I both agreed the rocks looked worthy of a few casts so we put on the old Clouser Minnows and placed some casts around the rocks. I picked up a croaker on my first cast then next cast another. I think they were yellowfin croakers, but any verification would be appreciated. I called Sammy over and as I took pics of my second croaker he hooked into something different. It actually put up a heck of a fight. I think it’s some sort of surf perch. I plan to research it this week but if you know please tell me.

Sammy and I had a great week despite challenging fishing. It’s always good to spend time with old friends and that we did. Sammy and I fished until sunset and tomorrow he will head back to Wyoming. I have one last day and will solo the beaches of the East Cape.

Global Fly Fishing Web Site

No Naps, There's a Marlin Out Here

November 4, 2009

Today was Sammy’s and my last attempt at a marlin on the fly with Grant Hartman. As planned we left Cabo Harbor early and traveled up the Pacific side of Baja for over an hour. Then we pointed our bow out to sea and started dragging our hookless teasers. We expected a weather change of wind and clouds today, but instead it was exactly like the previous two days, calm rolling seas with hardly a cloud in sight. Figuring a change in weather was needed to get the marlin feeding meant to me that we would not find our prize.

Unfortunately I was correct and in fact, even the dorado didn’t show up. It was simply a brutal day and at 3pm the hum of the motors and lack of action had us all borderline insane. What such a day does to me is make me eat excessively and take numerous naps. Thank God we didn’t have a case of beer or I’d of probably drank it all!

In order not to go crazy Grant, Sammy and I were swapping stories. I was well into my “tiger story” when while gazing out to sea over Grants shoulder I saw just the tip of a marlin tail 50ft away. As I jumped up to confirm my sighting a wave rolled just right that I could see the whole magnificent fish beneath the surface, it was indeed a marlin. It took the boys a few more waves to get the view I had, but when everyone confirmed we had a marlin in range they jumped into action. Let me make this clear, this was not an active marlin in our teasers, but rather a sleeping marlin on the surface. While Grant began to circle the great fish with the boat hoping he would charge a teaser, our mate Arturo launched a live bridled hookless skipjack the marlins direction attached to a large spin rod. He let it sink, but the marlin ignored the treat. After several attempts the marlin sank from sight. Sure enough within seconds a tug of war was on as the marlin tried to take the live skipjack from Arturo.

This marlin was by no means the aggressive one we needed. Arturo easily pulled the skipjack away several times before at last he was behind the boat. I was fully ready and launched the 8” tandom-hooked 6/0 popper at the marlin. By now he was fully identified as a striped marlin of about 130 pounds, a perfect candidate to test my new Ross Momentum LT #8 reel. By now Arturo had yanked the skipjack out of the water and we hoped the marlin would think my fly was it. Unfortunately, this billfish was smart and expressed little interest. He false charged my fly twice before disappearing to the deep.

My heart was pounding as Arturo tossed the skipjack back out several times with no response. Then suddenly the marlin appeared on the surface again. We motored his direction and Arturo cast the skipjack right at him. The problem was it was over the marlin and the line crossed his back. This evidently scared the living crap out of that marlin and he took off gray-hounding as if he was hooked. That was it. That big boy was a mile deep after that. We dragged the teasers through the area for two more hours but nothing. No marlin this trip.

Global Fly Fishing Web Site

Strip Teaser Fun, Yankin' and Crankin' It

I arrived in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in the afternoon of November 1st. I’m fishing with a great old friend Sam Vigneri of Casper, Wyoming. Sammy coincidently started at the Jack Dennis Sports fly shop a day before me back in 1987. Back then we did a ton of fishing together, but we both got so busy over the years we hardly ever have time we fish together. So when Sam invited me to try to catch a striped marlin on fly rod with him and guide Grant Hartman of Baja Anglers, another old friend, I didn’t think twice!

We met Grant early this morning and he was quick to warn us that we could be wasting time hunting marlin. Apparently, Hurricane Rick from a couple weeks back moved the marlin out to sea and few have been seen lately. Grants advice was to target dorado (dolphin fish) and hope to see a marlin. We ran about 30 minutes from Cabo Harbor up the Pacific side of Baja. It was a gorgeous morning with little or no wind with gentle rolling seas. Already I was suspicious because despite incredible visibility there were no birds and no signs of fleeing bait.

We began trolling our hookless teasers about ½ mile from shore and headed in a southwesterly direction. It didn’t take long before a dorado crushed one of the teasers. Grant and his mate and I retrieved teasers and his captain tossed out a bridled green jack. Within seconds a tug a war was on between the captain and a nice dorado trying to swallow the hookless jack. Once teased in casting range Sammy launched a popper on my 12-weight Ross fly rod and the hot fish hammered his fly. Sammy was soon holding a fine dorado.

We had a few other dorado in our teasers today and I hooked two and landed one. But really, things shut down after we each got into a fish. I’m a little worried as we are dealing with a full moon.

Teasers are basically hookless lures with bait attached. A fish comes in and hits it, gets a taste and they try to eat it. You take it away from the fish usually by jerking it out of the water and into the boat. The fish keeps hunting expecting it to reappear and you replace it with your fly.

Global Fly Fishing Web Site