Eastcape trip report

[Tim Harris]

I got back yesterday from a 5-day trip to Rancho Leonero in the Eastcape area of Baja. �This was a family trip with my wife, stepson, sister-in-law, and brother-in-law but I still found time to get some fishing in. �It was also the windy off-season in Baja where windsurfers outnumber flyfishers so I my expectations were not too high. ���We hit the first and only snafu of the trip the first meal after arriving, I don’t eat meat or chicken (no como carne o pollo) and had told them this but they had no clue and no fish since the winds had been bad and they hadn’t had boats out. �In light of this, the first morning I went in search of some snapper or pargo off the reef-remnants around the lodge, it became more a matter of survival than fishing for fun. �After an hour and loosing a half-dozen flies and catching only two slightly bigger than hand-sized pargo I hit the beach area and figured I’d just go for more fun fish and starve. �I managed a ladyfish and a trumpet fish pretty quickly then had to stop and go have breakfast. �After breakfast I went back down with my sister-in-law who was spin fishing and managed to catch another trumpet, a needle fish, and then by sheer dumb luck, my first rooster fish. �It was un ni�o pez gallo but still put a good bend in the 9-weight and was a beautiful fish.� I figured I was content for the rest of the trip since a rooster was one of my goals for the trip. �I spent the rest of the day snorkeling and hanging out.� The wind was dying out a bit so we decided to book pangas for the next day so we could at least get some real dinner food.   The panga day was pretty successful.� Conditions weren’t great but weren’t too bad either.� While the wind was blowing and the ride was bumpy I could still get up and cast and only about fell over 2-3x the whole day out.� We headed north to fish around the bouys off Punta Pescadero �which was about a 20-mile run from the lodge. �Once there we would stop at a bouy and I’d cast a bunch then we’d troll to the next bouy. �The gear boat managed to catch the first dorado.� Marshall, my step-son, got to bring in the first one and it was a 30 lbs fish which was by far the biggest thing he’d ever caught and we got up by them just as he was finishing the battle.� They managed three on gear before I’d even seen a fish come near my fly but finally my luck started to change. �I ended up hooking up three dorado on a #2/0 Sar-Mul-Mac and landed two of them, both about 10 lbs fish. �The one that I lost was a bigger fish that came unglued on the second good jump. �I also had a marlin hone in on my fly and whack at it but I didn’t have a good chance of hookup with that small a hook though it was pretty exciting. �All in all we came in with seven dorado for the day and enough food for the rest of the week for our group – from here on out it would be fish tacos every night. ��We had spotted several marlin and a group of porpoises out there which made for some nice sights. �My wife who doesn’t fish had fun just going along for the ride and seeing everything out in the Sea of Cortez and watching our jumping dorado. ��   The next morning was absolute perfection – no wind, low tide, and I had learned my lesson and got up before dawn to start walking down to the beach. �At around 6:15 a.m. I was greeted with a beautiful sunrise and fish feeding heavily on the beach. �I spent the next 1 � hours targeting individual fish with a �#1 Chartreuse Clousers and it paid off. �I landed five rooster fish that morning and lost another three. �I also got more trumpet fish that morning.� I was pretty pleased, getting to sight fish for roosters all morning seemed pretty hard to beat. �None were big but I got one that went 3-4 lbs. probably and most were just 1-2 lbs or so fish but very fun to stalk and catch. ��We spent much of the day snorkeling since conditions were so perfect out there and the reef there holds literally thousands of fish – pompano, jacks, snappers, pargo, triggers, needles and trumpets, �puffers, and more aquarium type fish than I could count. �I think I was in the water for 3 hours, going out everytime anyone wanted to snorkel. ��That evening as we sat by the pool waiting for dinner we watched a grey whale breaching offshore for over 30 minutes until it got too dark to see him any longer, that was a pretty amazing sight and my first grey whale sighting. �   On our last full day my sister-in-law and husband went out in the panga again and I choose to stay and fish the beach in the morning. �My wife and Marshall were going to walk down to meet me near Punta Soledad and we’d walk back together. �The wind was up a bit in the morning but the rooster bite was still on. �If I found a small school of sardines along the beach I’d find fish, either roosters or sierras, tearing into them. �I landed a very nice jack of some type which I thought was a pompano until I got it right on the beach and found it too silver and too funny a head, I’m trying to find it on the internet. �I had four roosters to the beach by the time my wife and Marshall showed up so we started heading back for breakfast.� On the way back I cast to three feeding fish and when I had a hookup I let Marshall play the fish in. �He ended up landing two of the roosters that had been hooked. ��After breakfast I went out armed with some Merkins to try for the snapper I’d seen grabbing crabs on the reef and failed miserably. �After an hour and loosing about three good permit flies I gave up in defeat. �The wind had gotten ugly by then too and just kept building so we were a bit worried about the gang out in the boat. �They finally returned at 2:00 happy as clams and only a little green around the gills, they had boated a 100 lbs.stripped marlin along with a couple of nice dorado out there, enough to fill their coolers and supply half the staff with fish for dinner. ��Even on heavy gear the marlin took about 30 minutes to boat, I can imagine what one would be like on my 12-weight. ��We dined on marlin that evening and it was some of the best fish I’d eaten.�   All in all a pretty good trip and everyone had fun.� Even fishing only 1 � hours a morning was pretty satisfying for me, especially since it was the type of fishing I like the most which is targeting individual fish. �If I did it again in the winter I’d be sure to bring some big flies for the marlin because we saw quite a few of them out there just 3-5 miles offshore at Punta Pescadero.� I’d also make sure that the pangeros who know fly fishing are going to be available, I thought I had that all set up but when I got there found that the one that was actually there in December had a broken down boat so I had to do some explaining to the pangero I had gotten instead, luckily my Spanish has gotten to the point where I could get my point across to him since he knew basically no English.� Oh well, it is Mexico.� We managed to get to Los Barriles one day for lunch at Tio Pablos which was great. �We also looked at some land and housing down there still dreaming of the summers in Seattle and the winters somewhere else strategy to life. �My wife, being a Californian, fell in love with it since it is California without the all the people so I know we’ll be back.� Landing at SeaTac yesterday to 36 degrees and fog was a bit of a shock to my system and last night I dreamt of white sand beaches and marlin coming at my fly.     Tim     �