|
My friend Brian Stone and I have both been to
Cabo, but unfortunately never at the same time, so obviously have not fished
together down there. We have both had so-so to outstanding fishing, with
Brian last year having a hour and a half episode of "a fish per cast" on small
jacks.
Brian and his wife planned to visit Cabo San Lucas
from 10/10 to 10/16. My wife granted me a kitchen pass to be in Cabo
during that same period, so Brian and I scheduled to fish together four
days.
We both typically fish inshore from pangas, a boat
commonly used by Mexicans. At $180 per day (a day is typically 6 or 7
hours), split between two guys, it's an incredible fishing
bargain.
Back to fishing. In a nutshell, for the first
days we had to work pretty darn hard to catch the fish we did. Last year
when Brian knocked 'em silly, the sardines were everywhere, and of course so
were the predator fish. This year the sardines were just starting to show
down in the Cabo area.
The first 2 days we fished along the Pacific
side. We caught skipjack (tuna family), bonito (also mini-tunas),
needlefish, two different species of jacks, and a dorado of about 8-10 pounds
thought Brian's white Popovic's Jiggy looked appetizing. That fish went
home to the boat captain's refrigerator.
The third day we headed up the shore line
towards San Jose Del Cabo. We spanked a few jacks and a ladyfish on
poppers, including a jack caught on a modified Leland's Beach Popper (modified
to use wire instead of mono to hold the trailing hook). The ladyfish,
sometimes called the "poor man's tarpon", gave a admirable account of
itself, sharing a few great jumps with us. Bob's Bangers (poppers)
worked for me pretty well for me, but I had my best luck with a white
slider. The surface bite went off, and off we headed to the open
water.
We found a local guy that had sardines (live
ones) to sell. We bought some sardines for chum, which worked like a charm
in attracting the predator fish. It's amazing how open ocean, that on the
surface at first seems almost devoid of fish life, comes "alive" within minutes
after a few sardines are tossed in to the water. Even using the
chum, we had to work pretty hard for the fish we did catch. We caught a
couple of small skipjack, some decent sized needlefish, and a few green
jacks. I used a silver Bob's Banger for a while and had several
grabs. However, a white Jiggy or #4 white/white clouser seemed to be more
consistent.
Our fourth day was a virtual repeat of the third
day. A few fish on topwater earlier in the day along shore, chum with
sardines, catch a few jacks and needlefish. However, on the return back to
Cabo, we encountered a small, ferocious frenzy of yellowfin tuna crashing bait
on the surface. It didn't take long before a tuna thought Brian's white
Jiggy looked appetizing. Unfortunately, the tuna and Brian combined to
snap the 20# Maxima on the hookset. As fast as the bite started, it
stopped.
My plane left at 6 pm the next day, so I had
another day of fishing. However, I was getting a little low on dinero, and
could only spend $100 for fishing, which Ramon (our boat captain) said could buy
me 4 hours of fishing. Dutiful husband that Brian is, he opted out to fish
that 5 th day.
Finally, finally, on that 5th day, of course when
Brian was NOT there, I happened in to one of those frenzied "a fish per cast"
surface bites. Two other boats and ours had some skipjack and jacks
working the surface, and for just a little over an hour it was crazy. I
literally would make maybe 3 or 4 casts before getting a fish on; at one point I
caught 3 fish on 3 successive casts. For my first 2 fish I fought them
using the reel. However, after I realized that after landing a fish I lost
time stripping line back out to cast, I just manually hand-lined the fish.
I was using beefy leader and tippets, and I would just manhandle 'em in.
We got in to some decent skippies, Ramon estimating them at 5 to 6 kills (10 to
12 pounds), and some plump jacks. The bite abruptly stopped. In just
a little over an hour I brought to the boat (that doesn't count lost or missed
fish) 5 skipjack and 5 jacks. During the course of the day I caught a
couple more skippies and jacks and one needlefish.
Concluding my last and successful day by returning
to the dock by noon, my shoulder and forearm were sore from fighting those tough
saltwater fish. Though not big, these fish were super tough, and
it takes tough gear to get them in.
For this fishing, I would recommend nothing smaller
than a stout 9 weight. In fact Baja Anglers, a shop down there, suggests
using a 12 weight for all of the saltwater fishing down there, because "you
never know what you might hook in to". Brian brought a Powell
AXS 10 weight and a Loomis IMX 12 weight. I took along my
Sage RPLXi 10 weight, my new Temple Fork Outfitters ("TFO") 4 piece 10
weight, and my Powell AXS 12 weight. I used my Sage rod with the
floating line and poppers, and my TFO with the shooting head/running line
system for subsurface fishing. I fished the shooting heads probably
95% of the time, so it meant the TFO got a serious workout. I
love my Sage rod, but that TFO is a serious fish fighting machine, and I
daresay a better fish fighting rod than my Sage RPLXi. It's called a
10 weight, but it would easily be called an 11 weight if it were in other rod
manufacturer lines. At $250, for a 4 piece rod, it's a deal. This is
the Lefty Kreh Signature model (the one Lefty designed).
Our reels were Ross, Abel, and Fenwick. No problems
with any of them. The lines we used most of the time were shooting heads,
the heads constructed out of fast sinking (10 inches per second) Rio T-14 or
Cortland LC-13, and the running lines intermediate sink. I built my own
tip system, similar to a Rio Leviathan system, using a cut up Fenwick 10
weight saltwater intermediate line. It worked super well. We did
have other line setups, including intermediate and floating lines (the latter
for poppers - and yes, Leland, Brian caught a jack on a Mexico-ized Beach
Popper). Because the critters down there are so tough, we generally
constructed leaders out of stiff Mason, with Maxima 20# tippets.
Sharp hooks are a must. I brought a gazillion
flies, and ended up using just a few certain patterns the bulk of the
time. Brian did a lot of success with his white Jiggy; I had good success
with white/white, gray/white, and olive/white clousers, about a #2 clouser, and
a #2 white/white deceiver. On my last day when I had the most success, I
used the same olive/white clouser all day. As noted above, on surface
bites Brian caught a jack on a Beach Popper, and I caught 'em on a 1/0 silver
Bob's Banger, but had my best luck with a 2/0 white slider.
That's it. Thanks for being patient and
wading through the report!
|
