Baja 2002 Recap

You never know what is going to happen when you travel to a foreign destination.  This year was no exception, amidst all of the rough seas there sure was some good dorado fishing. 

Kathy and I met our first group at the airport in Loreto.  After they collected all of their gear and cleared customs, we loaded up and headed to Mulege.  Traveling down the highway was a good introduction to Baja.  We have seen the “Green Angles’ drive down the highway many times but have never used their services until this year.  Our van had developed some transmission problems, forcing our driver to pull off the highway to check it.   Sure enough we were out of tranny fluid!   Not good news, since we were out in the middle of nowhere!  We hadn’t stopped more than 5 minutes when the “Green Angles” pulled over to lend a hand.   Even though he didn’t have the fluid, he stayed with us until we were able to get what we needed a few miles down the highway.   I want to thank the group; especially Bob and Perry for keeping a cool head about the situation and chalking the event as a new experience.  At dinner the first evening, I went over the week’s itinerary.  The next day it was off to enjoy the “Bahia de Conception”, for our annual kayaking and snorkeling adventure.  Roy our host had not been feeling good lately and was unable to join us on the water.  So I had the honor of leading the group.  We spent about 5 hours on the water and returned with some hefty bags of clams.  The lunch was superb; steamed clams, pasta with clam sauce and boleo bread.  Roy talked about the history of Baja and handed out their certificates signifying them as honorary “Vagabundoes”.

 Gear check meeting 6:00 p.m.  This was the opportunity to make sure you are ready for the next five days of dorado fishing.  We had a good discussion about rigging, fly selection and delivery of the fly.  I handed out all of the parts to make hoochie rigs and began giving instruction on how to assemble them.   It was really embarrassing when “I” forgot how to snell a hook.  I even practiced that knot before we came down; guess that's why I was never much of a bait fisherman.

 4:45 am the next morning, I could hear the coffee pot start up and knew it was time to get up.  Kathy and I started knocking on doors at 5:00 am.  They had 45 minutes to eat breakfast and make lunches before our cabs would be here to pick us up for the ride to the dock.  Breakfast each morning consisted of fruit, cereal, juice, coffee or tea.  Lunch fix-ins were bologna, ham, cheese, peanut butter and jelly, along with cookies, fruit and candy.  It’s really important that you take something to eat with you along with fruit and plenty of water.

 I fished with Perry and his 14 year old son Paul.  I couldn’t believe how much he had grown since the last time I saw him.  I swear it was a foot and a half.  After catching some mackerel.  We were off in search of skipjack.  No problem!  Picked up three or four and it was off to search for dorado.  The sea was rough that morning, but Perry and Paul were well-seasoned saltwater fishermen from Southern California.  Paul had the first hook-up which broke off.  It didn’t take long before he had another hook-up.  Paul got the honors of bringing the first fish in on conventional tackle.  I kept a close eye out for his buddies.  When they showed up I would take charge of the conventional rod until we had a hook up on the fly rod.  Paul lost his first three fish before he finally landed one.  His first dorado on a fly.  From that point on, there was no stopping him! 

 When we arrived back at the dock, Nacho informed me that some of the anglers had come in early.  Sea Sick!  How many, I asked.  He said two boats.  At the hotel, I checked to see how everyone was doing.  They said that it was a little rough for them and they decided to come in early and play it safe.
The next day the sea was in better shape but still one boat came back early.  For those who braved the seas, caught dorado.  The third day was perfect.  Flat water all day!  It wasn’t long before we had a hook-up on the hoochie I was keeping the fish close to the boat, when I looked down and saw a big fish.  I told Bob to get his fly in the water.  This was the wining fish.  After a few casts, Hook-up, I yelled at Bob, that’s the winner.  Bob was taking his time, he did want to make any mistakes knowing that this was a big fish.   After a long battle, Bob landed the big dorado.  It turned out to be the winning fish for the week.

A strange event happened the last day of the tournament.  We had stopped to watch Jim battle a big dorado, maybe even the winner, when a shark attacked and bit off half of the fish.  It was something that I have never seen before.

Our adventurous anglers wanted to learn more about the history of Baja, so one late afternoon we arranged a desert and cave painting tour with Salvador.  After driving many bumpy miles out into the desert we parked and hiked the remaining way up the canyon to the cave paintings.  Salvador explained the history behind these early settlers.  Some distance away was another interesting historical site, a whole mountain covered with petroglyphs.   It was amazing looking at the hundreds of carvings that donned the mountain.  We all left wondering, how many years did this take?

The week wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the metropolitan town of Santa Rosilia.   The rich copper deposits influenced the French to mine this area.  The town is built with wood construction, which is unique to Baja.  And no trip would be complete without a hot dog from the famous hot dog stand in front of the church that Eiffel built.

The second group enjoyed better weather, calmer seas and great dorado fishing.  The itinerary was the same as the week before, kayaking and fishing.  Larry was back to repeat as tournament winner.  First it was Mike, then Larry, and Willie, each day there was a new top angler and captain, which made it quite interesting.  The final day of the tournament all of the captains were working hard to get the anglers into plenty of fish.  I was with Willie and George, veteran Baja anglers, they had enjoyed a great day landing over 10 dorado a piece.  Up to that point, we thought that Willie had the winner, only to find out back at the dock that he had be edged out.  The winning fish was caught by Greg as Larry was fighting what he thought was the winner.

 The days that we couldn’t get out into the big water were spent in the protected bay.   The rocky shoreline is a haven for many different species of fish.

The captains would wind drift the lighthouse point where they would catch ladyfish among others.  Farther into the bay they found a good school of roosterfish to 8 lbs,


Many thanks to all of the anglers that joined us this year.