Better Together

Good Morning Baja

After landing the Dorado on fly, we had achieved one of the two things we wanted to do on our guided trip with Baja Anglers. The other awaited us farther up the Sea of Cortez and is one of the sexiest fish alive. 

Exiting the Marina

The Sun is Rising

Ocean Spray

A Common Site In Front of Our Hotel Every Morning

Our guide pulled up on a string of beaches about half an hour away from Land's End. From there, we slowly motored our way up the coast coaxing roosters to the boat using the "bait and switch" method.

Matt and I wanted our father to catch some fish and we let him go first. Armed with a spinning rod, a circle hook, and a live mullet, it didn't take long for my Dad to get into the first fish. For some reason, fishing is hilarious whenever it involves our Dad. It could be the Big Poppa Pump moniker or maybe it is just funny to watch my Dad be out of his element with a rod in hand. I think combining his clumsiness, old age, lack of skill, and then throwing him on a rocking boat did my brother and I in. But, it was funny. Really funny. After that, it was all fly fishing.

My brother was up next, the first to try on a fly. This was also the trial and error period where presentation, stripping mechanics, and all the kinks in the communication between guide and angler were worked out. After missing a few hook sets and popping a fish off after a good struggle, Matt tied into a decent fish. Surprising to all of us, is how hard rooster's fight. Even the small ones could bend the 10 wt. in half, and tear drag off the spin and fly reels.

I bought an Allen Alpha II 9/10 as a backup and it has performed well for me this summer catching tarpon, cuda, roosters, and the dorado. Retail: $140. 

The coast is littered with high end hotels and mansions.
Some of which, are hard to fathom. 

Balancing Act in Blue...

Always Looking for an Easy Meal

After Matt hooked up and released the first Rooster on fly, it was my turn at the back of the boat. Two small roosters whipped back and forth with their combs flaming behind the mullet. The guide lured them back to the boat and I was able to time everything well enough to catch one on my first cast. It was probably the smallest rooster caught, but it was mine. All mine.

Other parts of the coast have your typical Baja desert feel
 with towering peaks reaching to the clouds.

After my fish was gone, Big Poppa Pump caught his, forcing our guide to proclaim him, the luckiest man alive. My brother and I just looked at each other and shook our heads laughing. We couldn't believe it happened.

Matt made the cast of the outing for his next fish. Only 30-40 feet, but on a rocking boat. It landed on a dinner plate in front of a charging rooster the exact second our guide pulled the mullet out of the water. The fly might as well have landed in the fish's mouth as it attempted to swallow the bait. He hooked up instantaneously.

The next two hours produced little action as the seas picked up. In the last hour, Matt and I put down the fly rods for the first time, grabbed two spinning rods with fresh mullet and had them behind the boat. The mullet swam side to side a foot below the water. Suddenly, a large comb broke the surface as a rooster slashed at my bait before inhaling my brothers. He waited 5-10 seconds before setting the circle hook in the corner of the fish's mouth. He was in for a fight having hooked the largest and sexiest fish of our trip.

I know we cheated on this trip. Roosters from a boat aren't exactly as difficult as catching them from the beach, where anglers can go days without a chance. However, roosterfish aren't dumb. They are intelligent and the memories of them tracking our flies, swerving side to side, and inspecting it from all angles will be seared into my memory. Beyond these images, the stories and experiences with my brother and father will be told for years to come. It always seems to be better when we are together laughing and sharing the moment.

We will go back to Baja sometime in the future. I feel like I have unfinished business with the challenge of one on foot, DIY style. I have visions of a tent, an atv, and maybe a rented house. Hopefully, the trip involves friends, family, and a whole lot of good fishing.

Roosters

Maybe, just maybe, the prettiest fish in the sea.

Supper

Morning on the very tip of the Baja Peninsula, otherwise known as Cabo San Lucas, and we are taking a taxi to the marina for our second ever guided trip. I have been itching the entire time to go fishing and this was going to be my one shot. My family convinced me to put down the rod and they also squashed any notion of mine of traveling to go fishing. Where did I want to go? Four hours north is the East Cape, the roosterfish capital of the world and the one of the only places you can get them with a fly rod from the beach. After seeing the surf on the coast of the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific, it made a lot of sense. The water drops to depths of ten or more feet right off the beach, producing massive waves that literally crush people. I quickly realized that even if I wanted to go fishing by myself, it would be pretty difficult with the waves. The guided trip and a boat was the only way to go.

We booked a trip with Baja Anglers, run by Grant and Gisel Hartman and everything went smoothly. We left the marina around 6:45, bought our bait from local fishermen, and were booking it up into the Sea of Cortez to fish off the beaches (not the East Cape).

It is pretty awesome to be motoring across the ocean as the sun is rising on the horizon. The sea is as calm as it will be all day and there is nothing but anticipation in the air. I had a few loose ends to tie up, mainly taking a coastal express sinking fly line off my reel and putting on an intermediate line.

The first mate went to work attaching our bait to spin rods to lure predators from the depths and tease them close enough to the boat for a fly rod.

We didn't really know what to expect with the trip, so when the Captain suddenly stopped the boat along a rock face and they tossed some bait in the water, all three of us kind of just sat around and watched. In a matter of ten seconds a Dorado slashed across the surface after the bait. The guide yelled, "fly rod, fly rod, fly rod," while Matt and I just looked at eachother. I took the initiative, grabbed the rod, made a twenty foot cast and missed a slashing Dorado. I re-casted and set the hook on my first inshore fish.

Out of all the fish I have caught on fly, Dorado jump the most. They aren't as ferocious as tarpon but they are probably more acrobatic. This guy (average for here) jumped over six times.

It being a family vacation and all, I promised everyone back at the hotel that I would bring home a mahi mahi, if I caught one. The last time I killed a fish, I was ten years old fishing with a spinning rod on opening day of trout season. I only caught one fish all day and I made my dad keep it. We didn't have a stringer, so the trout went into a plastic bag where it slowly suffocated to death. It writhing and flopping around didn't sit well with me so I tried to put it back in the water. Unknowledgeable at the time, I thought I was letting it go to live on. That was the last time I ever kept a fish.

So we kept the Mahi Mahi and into the cooler it went. Strangely, I didn't feel too guilty about it. We had it cleaned and my sister cooked it later that night. The fish fed my entire one side of the family, all 17 of us and it was delicious. 

They Called It: Scooby Doo Rock

I Will Name Thee: Sorting Hat Rock

The Window to the Pacific

The Arch

Land's End, Last Rock on the Baja Peninsula

The Pacific Ocean, Not Very Peaceful

Goodnight Mexico