The water had chopped up by now, so I got soaked again on the way back from waves breaking over the bow. But we did spot one sail as we were coming in, so maybe the last day?
Part 6b So the next morning we headed for Coronado again to look for roosters and that sailfish. But no roosters again, and no Mr. Sailfish. Actually, he had moved south an was spotted and raised by our trip leaded's boat. But no take. We trolled coastline again, trying to raise roosters and taking in the sights- reef fishes, sea turtles, rays and sealions. After a couple of hours, we decided to go out and finish the trip on dorado. After a few miles, we caught up with the other pangas, and they were on fish, and now so were we. Jim cast-caught a couple while I was experimenting with new flies and not having much success. And then the feed was off- first no takers, then no fish- like someone blew the halftime whistle. So now it's trolling time again. Jim trolled the green machine and I tried different stuff. Jim has another hook-up! Rats! I'm getting trounced here. OK. Try for an amigo. Humpf! No amigos. Jim lands the fish and we start trolling again. Instant replay. Jim is now up 6 to zip. I'm looking bad here. And he's using my fly design to beat me. Some face-saving, I guess. One small, but liveable, drawback of these giant flies is that they have to be maintained. That means combing them out after each caught fish or good hit, as they can get tangled up and foul on the trailer. Small price to pay so far. But by now I'm not loaning Jim my comb anymore, as he doesn't have one. "Hah! This will stop you!" I thought. So Jim finger-combs the fly, and still very messy, puts it out again and catches another fish!!! Grrrrr! So I finally put out my 14wt because it has a green machine marlin fly on it, and it IS the hot fly today. We're out there together now, and Jim gets a hard bump- but no hook-up. Bump again. OH, no! Is it going to be 7 to 0? But they go away. Ok, I have a chance. Then Chencho calls out "Grande!", and points back to the left. Sure enough, snaking across the water 50 yards away was the unmistakable dorsal fin of a bull dorado, and a huge one at that. But he was headed right for Jim, who was on the left. OH, NO! Jim gets a hard bump, but nothing there. I breathe, and hold on. He does spot mine, and heads for it. A solid, smashing take and a jumping, reel singing run on the surface that, like I said, would have done any sailfish of marlin proud. Cartwheels, backflips, gainers, twists- were all in his trick-bag. But none worked for him. I had initially regretted using the 14wt, as it hauled in that 51 pound dorado last year in Buena Vista in less than 20 minutes, so I fugured to haul this 40 pounder in pretty fast. Not to be. This guy gave me a tougher battle than the 51 pounder, with a lot more stamina, taking an hour to land. And ol' Don was workin' hard too in the noonday Baja sun, but ain't it great!!! So my one fish for the day proved to be the bruiser of the trip, as big as any caught. And what a beauty! A typical brightly lit up bull with flourscent blue dots all over him, including his huge fin. We saluted him, took a photo, and then let him slip back into the blue deep. A warrior gets to fight another day. (Jim did catch some bruisers on this trip on other days, and we'll have to check out the photos.) After that, Jim caught one more in the 30 lb class, and we called it a trip and headed back for lunch and Frozen Margaretas. And that, as they say, is the rest of the story. Hope ya'll enjoyed. DonO
