Trout to Rooster Fish – lessons 1-5
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| The gorgeous launch site |
For most of us readers on Jamie’s Journal we are trout focused with dreams of huge fish on a fly rod. Saltwater fly-fishing offers just that. Here is my story of my attempt at big Rooster Fish in the Sea of Cortez, La Pax Mexico
It all started a couple years ago at the Denver ISE (International Sportsman Expo) when Jamie and I were working with Richard Johnson’s Rainbow Mountain Trout booth. I noticed Tailhunter International’s set up (http://tailhunter-international.com ) located right behind ours, so I stopped by and chatted with Jonathan and Jill, a very nice couple indeed. In 2015’s ISE I let them know I may be headed down and after things fell into place I booked a trip. Since it was my anniversary/vacation I only went out for 1 day, verse the suggested 3 days Jonathan and Jill recommended. My wife is very cool with my fishing addiction, but I am also smart and didn’t push it to 3 days. We were spending our vacation about 70 miles from La Paz. This was a “test trip” for Jamie and the rest of the group.
We arrived into La Paz on Thursday April 15h – had a GREAT meal at Jonathan’s establishment call the Tailhunter Restaurant (http://tailhunter.mx ). Yes he is a busy dude with the Paga fleet and restaurant to manage. This doesn’t slow him down a bit, he treated everyone with warmth and kindness rarely found these days. If in La Paz, it is a must stop.
On to the fishing.
Tailhunter International runs a big fleet of 30 or so Paga’s, and will tailor to your wants, fly or traditional, Tuna & Dorado or Rooster and Jacks and Bonitas, guess which I chose? I was a little early in the fly season, but OF COURSE I had to temp the fly gods and go after Roosters. We left at 5:45 AM for about an hour drive and hit the water about 7-7:15 or so.
At this point all I could do was smile, sit back and enjoy the sites and expectations of the day ahead. I
noticed a few of the guys wearing the sea sick patch, all I had was Dramamine, so I figured one tablet should be enough to off set any issues. After picking up bait off we went. First stop was a chance at Jacks and Bontias. Moncho (my awesome guide) stopped by what looked like every other place on the open water and started to chum the water with live sardines, really no other way to get fish near the boat. He has been guiding for 20 years, no need for GPS with these guys. I chose a blue and while 0/2 Clouser and started chucking my freshly spun up 10 wt…and the lessons started.
The water is clear blue, and these are fast, really fast swimmers, so once the sardines hit the water the game fish (who knows which before you hook them) start to boil the surface. Blind cast into the mess and start stripping. First lesson, double hauling is your friend, and though I can double haul, slinging a 10wt is a totally different chore than a 5 wt. I did “practice” a bit before I headed down to Mexico, but there is never enough practice before hand.
It took less than 5 min for my first ferocious take. It shocked me and I did not get a hook set. OK, game on…..the next take, I stuck it.. The first fish of the day @ 6-7 min or so, “this is going to be rad!” he took about a 3 second run and I was in my backing. I fought it for 5-6 min and landed a small Bonita. WTF, that fight could not have been over a small 5-7 lbs fish, it then stuck me, oh crap what happens if. . . .
Then things went south. On the next Bonita, he ran just like the last one but when the fly line to backing knot was ripping through the
eyelets I felt a pop and POOF everything was gone. What in the hell happened. I look at my reel (Lamson Guru 4.0 – more than enough for these fish) and the pig tailed spiraled backing told me that it pulled the knot. Say goodbye to a $80 fly line, so if you catch a Bonita with a light blue RIO line, that would be mine. All I could do was laugh. I did bring an 8wt a “back up” rig, so I strung that up and went back at it. Lesson 2 – keep your drag loose, I had the 10 wt set up with a tighter drag and could have been the cause of the breakage. I was running 14lb fluorocarbon on this rig vs 18lb on the 10wt.
I hooked another Bonita and fought it for about 20 min, the rod was pretty maxed out, with the butt section horizontal and the tip was in the water for most of the fight. I was very concerned on breaking the rod. My decision was to make a bastard set up, 8 wt line on my 10wt rod, at least I would have a stronger rod for fighting. Lesson 3, this really doesn’t work too well, you can go up and down one wt but two wts is really hard. Think of casting a thread using a broomstick, yeah you get it. At this point I was feeling a little sick, although the water was fairly calm, my stomach was not happy, so I popped one more Dramamine that seemed to do the trick.
Moncho said “Rooster time” it was 9:30 or so, and off we went. Picked up more sardines, and moved close to the shore for the prize fish. Moncho started chumming and WHOA, those are crazy aggressive fish. They EXPLODE on the top water. So I started to cast my ass off, the lack of a decent double haul impaired my accuracy and the “9wt” rod matrix did not help the situation. Lesson 4, stripping has a new definition folks, you literally can not strip fast enough. Make sure you are comfortable tucking the rod under the arm and two hand stripping, which I am not. I had about 6-8 super fast takes but just could not strip set for my life. All the takes were on white and blue Clousers, and a white Closuers. These guys are rockets in the water, you can see their dorsal fins and about half of their back out of the water when they are feeding. The sea birds dive almost on top of them because they force the sardines to jump out of the water.
About 2 hours and hundreds of ugly casts, Moncho simply says “troll?”. Although I was determined to land a big rooster on a fly I gave in and took a break and we trolled. My arm was dying and I wanted to at least hook one of these beautiful fish. It took about 10 min of trolling and I hooked my fist of four 25+lbs or so Roosters. The first thing that hit me it would be a handful to land one on the bastard rod. No chance on the 8wt it would have been destroyed, the 10wt correctly configured would have been a blast, but a 11 or
12 is not overkill!
By this time it was about 2PM, and the Dramamine was really kicking in. Lesson 5, DON’T take Dramamine, it made me into the walking-dead-fisherman. I was fighting to stay awake on this AWESOME day. Moncho and I went between attempting with the bastard rod and trolling. Of course trolling was the most affective, I landed four nice Rooster. He said these were decent but they get 3X
this size.
On the way back in, Moncho said, you want a baby Rooster, of course I did, I HAD to land one on a fly rod. After about 3 min, this cute little guy took my fly like he was a bad ass, 100% site fishing, you see them and cast. Really fun, think of 16” trout on crack!
We were on the water for 7-8 hours, but it felt like 2. When I was back on shore I was in la-la-land due to the Dramamine. We landed the Paga’s loaded up and headed back to La Paz. What a great day, even with my struggles.
I slept for the entire ride back to La Paz and looked drunk when Jonathan asked how we did. He was concerned I did not have a good day, always focused on his clients. We headed to hotel and did a quick change and headed off to Todos Santos, the other side of the peninsula – about an hour drive. What I did not notice was that left my fly rods in the hotel bathroom. It was the next day before I even noticed, and the term “once in Mexico always in Mexico” came to mind. I called Jonathan, no luck no one turned them in. What a bonehead move, how could I have done THAT, the Dramamine was flowing pretty well I guess.
Jonathan was so concerned that he offered a $50 reward to the hotel staff (1/2 weeks pay for them) and guess what, they were turned in to the desk a couple days later. He did NOT have to do that, but has earned a life long customer for that simple action.
To summarize my lessons.
1) KNOW how to double haul, practice practice practice
2) Keep your drag looser than you want.
3) Make sure your back up rigs are up to the task
4) Stripping, you can’t strip fast enough
5) Dramamine = zombie fishing adventures
I WILL be back down, and will land a nice Rooster on fly. This was still a GREAT day and would not change a thing, learning lessons the hard way is sometimes the best!
Who is in?????
Ben
Decided to go find some hatching caddis on the Ark this weekend. I've been hearing a lot about how good the fishing has been so I decided to go check it out for myself.
