10th Annual Dorado Tournament - 2005

As we made our way to Mulege, Kathy and I were pointing out the varieties of cactus and points of interest when Norm asked, “Hey Al, How’s the fishing”.  I began by explaining that the dorado fishing was very slow but I had a spot where I knew we could catch fish.  Norm quickly responded, “That’s the last thing I told my wife when I left, I hope we don’t drive back to the same place as last year”.    Unfortunately for Norm, this was going to be the case, I explained that we could take a boat ride out of Mulege with the chance of catching NO fish or travel to another location where there were dorado.  Without hesitation, they responded, “Let’s go to where the dorado are”. 

Several hours later we arrived at the beautiful town of Mulege.  We gave everyone a chance to cool off in their rooms, unpack and prepare for our pre-trip meeting.  There were lots of questions and plenty of gear to get ready.  We finally had dinner and got to bed around mid-night.  It’s going to be a short night.

Monday, 4:00 am, everyone was a little slow and could have used more sleep but the captains and I had decided that we needed to get on the water by 5:30 am.  Salvador, one of our drivers, loaded gear in his car and I loaded all of the rods in my truck.  By 5:00 am we were off.  The captains were waiting for us when we arrived, so we quickly loaded up our gear and we were on our way.   Last week there was plenty of mackerel just out side of the break water but today they seemed to have disappeared.  We only managed to catch a few mackerel per boat, so we headed out to find some skipjack and bonito.  All of the pangas picked up a few and were even surprised to find a dorado or two along the way.  I fished with Joe and Blake, a father and son team, we managed to land 7 dorado plus spotted several large marlin.  Joe made some excellent casts at a huge dorado, but he couldn’t get him excited enough to take the fly,  later that morning again a big dorado was around the boat (maybe the same fish) and this time to Joe’s surprise it swirled at the fly but he did not connect.  The team of Norm and Dennis ended up with 8 dorado and George and Gary managed to land 2 with many lost opportunities.  It was back to Mulege and a few tacos at Taqueria Danny, followed by a long deserved nap.

Tuesday 4:00 am, everyone was moving a little quicker after a good nights rest.  When we arrived at the launch the captains informed me that the tide was too low to launch the boats.  This gave us the opportunity to clean some of the rocks from the channel.  Victor, one of my captains, in the mean time walked out on the dry flat looking for firm ground where he could launch his panga.  He came back a short time later and borrowed my shovel and off he went with his panga and another captain.  We could see him from the launch backing his truck into the water, stopping short of filling his truck with water he got out and started digging a hole behind his trailer tires; this would allow the trailer to drop in the hole and he could launch the boat.  It was a success.  He quickly came back to have the other captains do the same.  This was a big problem solved; we can always launch no matter how low the tide.  Since we started late today we decided to fish until 2:30 pm.  It was a great day on the water; we were all having fun catching skipjack and an occasional dorado.  I had the pleasure of being on the boat with George Patterson and Gary Fisher today; these are two of the most positive individuals that I have ever met.  George has had lots of fly fishing experience while Gary is new to saltwater fishing.  Today we spotted four (4) illegal long liners in the area where we were fishing.  The captains were very upset and one of them cut the long line in about 20 places.  These long lines were about 5 miles long with a baited hook every 20 feet or so.  They could devastate the dorado population in no time if allowed to continue.  It was definitely the topic of conversation when we all got back to the launch.  The captains were furious and were going to call PESCA when they returned to town.  The highlight of the day was Joe’s 25 lb. calamari on a fly. 

Wednesday 4:00 am, the topic of conversation this morning was who was going to catch the first dorado according to tournament rules.  Every day we had come close but to date no recorded fish.  The mackerel were doing a good job of hiding from us so we decided to just go out and catch some skipjack.  I know from past experience that this was going to be one of those days when I could use some mackerel to tease the dorado.  Sure enough, we got into a small school of hungry dorado and Dennis was the first one to hook up.  Norm was using a small popper which the dorado were not even interested in; he quickly switched to a larger one.  Dennis was having a great time fighting the dorado and was being very cautious not to make a mistake.  Dennis was ready to bring him to the boat when the hook came flying out.  He was shocked and asked “What did I do wrong”.  I replied, “You didn’t do anything wrong, you are only kidding yourself if you think that you are going to land everything that you catch, now let’s look for another”.  No sooner than I finished that statement we had more dorado around the boat.  Norm with his popper and Dennis with his mackerel streamer.  Dennis was the hood up once again.  This time he landed the fish and we had something to record.  Meanwhile Joe and Blake got into a school of skipjack and caught skipjack for about an hour and a half until they finally surrendered and told the captain to move.  It’s surprising how hard this 6 to 10 lb fish can be to land.

Thursday 4:00 am, who was going to beat Dennis?  Norm felt very confident since he had his favorite captain on the final day of the tournament.  Again we headed out without mackerel, but we quickly picked up a few skipjack for chum.  Joe was trolling his fly behind the boat when we spotted a small marlin, about 40 to 60 lbs, Joe asked, “How am I going to land this fish with my 8 wt. rod”.  I told him he first had to hook the fish then we would worry about landing him.  We watched in awe when the marlin took his fly, Joe felt the grab but he did not connect.  It was an exciting few seconds.  We came across several other marlin but none were interested in our flies.  George and Gary had some stories about the big fish that got away and Dennis bettered his big fish by 2 inches while his boat partner Norm got his wish and got a legal dorado putting him in second place.   

The dinner that night was Javier’s best ever!! Besides salad, beans and rice we had dorado cooked 5 different ways.  It was a feast to behold.  I think Gary filled his plate 4 times, but who is counting.  Dennis caught the winning fish with his captain Victor and Norm came in second.  

Friday, one more shot at dorado.  We had talked about fishing out of Mulege and going after some inshore species including roosterfish but we changed plans and decided to go north again for one more shot at dorado.  George Patterson really wanted a dorado and I was hoping we could find him one.  We made our way out into open water, picking up a skipjack along the way.  George hooked up a small dorado trolling so we immediately started looking for his buddies.  At first I thought they were small yellow fin darting around the boat when I finally realized that they were small dorado.  Both George and Gary were blind casting hoping to intercept the dorado when they came back to the boat.  George was getting grabs but could a solid take.  But Gary did, his excitement and inexperience came to light.  When he let go of the fly line so he could reel up the extra line, needless to say; he lost the fish.  The dorado were still around the boat so George and Gary continued to cast and sure enough, lightning struck again, Gary hooked up.  One thing I can say about Gary he is a quick learner and doesn’t make the same mistake twice.  This time he landed his first dorado.  George was now determined to catch a dorado.  We searched and searched and found a good line of sargosso and some dorado.  The problem was they were more interested in chasing flying fish.  We intercepted the school of fish many times but just couldn’t get them to stay around the boat.  Finally, George got a hook-up but it was short lived.  We fished late to give George the longest possible chance but it was just not to be.  I guess that is why we call it fishing, not catching!

It was a pleasure having all of you along this year, Kathy and I want to thank each and every one of you.  Now you all know why we make Mulege our annual destination!