Inspired by the recent @clarkman and @PhilR recon to Baja California Sur Loreto area I promised them that I would follow up with an
after-action report. Some may remember an image of my Atlantic Salmon that was an avatar on the old site along with another that was the focus of the recent trip:
I’ve been fishing with Gary Bulla out of La Ventana, located south of La Paz, for over 20 years now and watched it improve year over year. The accommodations & food are excellent and the fishing is such that most days you can connect with a multitude of species using anything from a 7 wt for small feisty jacks to a 12 wt for Buffalo Roosters YF Tuna and an occasional Striped Marlin that pop up anywhere an acre of ballyhoo may be.
I laid out my gear, knowing I’d need half the clothing and a 1/3 more fish retrieval items. Correct on one wrong on the other.
Inventory:
Fit into this:
Weapons of choice were the following:
Thomas&Thomas Exocett 11 wt with a Charlton SS 1.2 and spare spool Floater and an AirFlo Sniper 40 S/T 7ips.
Thomas&Thomas Solar 10 wt with a Charlton SS .8 and spare spool w an AirFlo Sniper floater / Rio intermediate / Rio S/t
Sage Xi2 9 weight with a Shelton #5 w floater and a sink tip ….. floater was AirFlo 9 Ridge…s/t escapes me at the moment
50 meter spools of Yozuri fluoro in 60/50/40/30/20
The group consisted of 8 folks from California, centered around the SF area, 3 from Rhode Island that I’ve known for years from their multi trips to the Cape Lookout NC area for the fall Drum and False Albacore mayhem, and myself, born in the south, raised but not matured in New England and now living on the Crystal (?) Coast where you can obtain all the fresh seafood you need….as long as it’s deep fried….yuch! Over the years I’ve subbed Collards & Fatback and barbecue for the seafood except the smoked wahoo and YFT.
All told good group, although one may have spent some time on Neptune tho it was hard telling being unable to break through his atmosphere at times.
We fished out of 23’ pangas all of which basically had the same hull but the deck setups were all different. Variety being the spice of life we endured….tho being in my 75th year standing in the bow with an intermittent 2 ft chop gave me an ass whipping a couple days. We rotated when convenient so there were no emotional
issues.
A sad part of the trip was that the patriarch of the Lucero family who I have fished with on a rotating basis for over 20 years passed away in June so we had a quiet memorial service for him and retired his fishing hat which now hangs over the bar in remembrance. All of the captains are either Luceros or married into the family so that connection is always there.
The first night always consists of a meeting with Gary and a schedule is drawn up as to who will fish with who and with what captain. It’s adjustable, just like life, so after dinner in our dining area looking at this:
we make plans for the morning. The accommodations are all A/C with showers, etc, mine happened to be a 3’fer,
Watch the overhead fans!……I never have, but I do know people who have turned a 4 piece into a 5+ piece.
The first day is usually a search and find then going forward it’s a search and catch battle.
First day (insert sound of fart): La Ventana has always been known as one of the key locations for kite boarding and wind surfing.
Sunday it did not disappoint. A 1’ to 3’ intermittent chop caused the Baitmasters fits in the early morning so the Sardinas were in short supply so we ended up heading south down the coast and connecting with a few of these dinks
along with some dog snappers which looked to me like Cabrillas. Monday pretty much the same tho we did catch site of some small roosters, 10#-20# ers. Couple people caught some of these and checked their box along with some Dorado.
Tuesday/ Wednesday bait became more predictable which led to my Search (Rooster) & Destroy (Me) mission after just eating lunch while drifting in 90°+ heat. It seems Iike all I need to hook up with SENOR Rooster is to drop something in my stomach. Life is a trade off, right?
After feeding the lit up, fin skipping, rogue Polaris acre-worth of needlefish the Bullys showed up. If you haven’t fished for them or caught them, envision a VW dropping out of the sky and landing in the water 50 feet in front of you when they feed on top. Either coming out from under the boat or showing up unannounced it’s game on. Duck or cast? Never been GT fishing and probably never will but there’s a sense this could lead to physical injury if performed in an unsafe manner. Holding 60’ of fly line on the deck, wet, ……along with 30’ in the air…
Cast….nothing
Cast again….needlefish picks at fly…..go slack…zombie drops fly..pull it out of the zone on a back cast and
Cast again…….VW arrives……fly departs…quickly …. along with fly line…
I clear all line by holding out left hand 90 degrees and letting all line glide between thumb and forefinger. This keeps line from getting between your legs…Danger Danger Buckaroo…. And Do Not Grasp Line or Backing…rules #1&2 for keeping all your digits.
Like to touch on the Needlefish issue a bit. Some people like to castigate the snake like ocean going pinheads and blame all their bad karma for connecting with multi colored rockets instead of catching a Rooster. One key is they tend to grab a fly lightly….immediately go slack….let it sink and try to sneak it out of the zone. 80% success rate tho do check your leader. Usually the hookups are torpedo like foul hook situations so try to grin and bear it and think of it as a hydrodynamic foul hooked @clarkman muskie. At my age I cannot remember what the scientific term for this is but I believe the needlefish grabbing the bait/sardinas tossed by the captains eventually become a trigger mechanism for the Roosters. It seems as if the Roosters hanging out in deeper water feel, through their lat line what’s happening in shallow water, look at each other and go …..NIMBY…M’erfers….. then show who’s boss.
I’ll have to finish this up in the near future as another boat needs to be delivered to New England in the AM so the setup, tongue weight strap, cover, grease, check work etc, needs to be done for an overnight commercial tourist trip to the great population swamp up there.
Tight lines ‘til then. Remember it’s all about the
after-action report. Some may remember an image of my Atlantic Salmon that was an avatar on the old site along with another that was the focus of the recent trip:
I’ve been fishing with Gary Bulla out of La Ventana, located south of La Paz, for over 20 years now and watched it improve year over year. The accommodations & food are excellent and the fishing is such that most days you can connect with a multitude of species using anything from a 7 wt for small feisty jacks to a 12 wt for Buffalo Roosters YF Tuna and an occasional Striped Marlin that pop up anywhere an acre of ballyhoo may be.
I laid out my gear, knowing I’d need half the clothing and a 1/3 more fish retrieval items. Correct on one wrong on the other.
Inventory:
Fit into this:Weapons of choice were the following:
Thomas&Thomas Exocett 11 wt with a Charlton SS 1.2 and spare spool Floater and an AirFlo Sniper 40 S/T 7ips.
Thomas&Thomas Solar 10 wt with a Charlton SS .8 and spare spool w an AirFlo Sniper floater / Rio intermediate / Rio S/t
Sage Xi2 9 weight with a Shelton #5 w floater and a sink tip ….. floater was AirFlo 9 Ridge…s/t escapes me at the moment
50 meter spools of Yozuri fluoro in 60/50/40/30/20
The group consisted of 8 folks from California, centered around the SF area, 3 from Rhode Island that I’ve known for years from their multi trips to the Cape Lookout NC area for the fall Drum and False Albacore mayhem, and myself, born in the south, raised but not matured in New England and now living on the Crystal (?) Coast where you can obtain all the fresh seafood you need….as long as it’s deep fried….yuch! Over the years I’ve subbed Collards & Fatback and barbecue for the seafood except the smoked wahoo and YFT.
All told good group, although one may have spent some time on Neptune tho it was hard telling being unable to break through his atmosphere at times.
We fished out of 23’ pangas all of which basically had the same hull but the deck setups were all different. Variety being the spice of life we endured….tho being in my 75th year standing in the bow with an intermittent 2 ft chop gave me an ass whipping a couple days. We rotated when convenient so there were no emotional
issues.A sad part of the trip was that the patriarch of the Lucero family who I have fished with on a rotating basis for over 20 years passed away in June so we had a quiet memorial service for him and retired his fishing hat which now hangs over the bar in remembrance. All of the captains are either Luceros or married into the family so that connection is always there.
The first night always consists of a meeting with Gary and a schedule is drawn up as to who will fish with who and with what captain. It’s adjustable, just like life, so after dinner in our dining area looking at this:
we make plans for the morning. The accommodations are all A/C with showers, etc, mine happened to be a 3’fer,Watch the overhead fans!……I never have, but I do know people who have turned a 4 piece into a 5+ piece.
The first day is usually a search and find then going forward it’s a search and catch battle.
First day (insert sound of fart): La Ventana has always been known as one of the key locations for kite boarding and wind surfing.
Sunday it did not disappoint. A 1’ to 3’ intermittent chop caused the Baitmasters fits in the early morning so the Sardinas were in short supply so we ended up heading south down the coast and connecting with a few of these dinks
along with some dog snappers which looked to me like Cabrillas. Monday pretty much the same tho we did catch site of some small roosters, 10#-20# ers. Couple people caught some of these and checked their box along with some Dorado.
Tuesday/ Wednesday bait became more predictable which led to my Search (Rooster) & Destroy (Me) mission after just eating lunch while drifting in 90°+ heat. It seems Iike all I need to hook up with SENOR Rooster is to drop something in my stomach. Life is a trade off, right?
After feeding the lit up, fin skipping, rogue Polaris acre-worth of needlefish the Bullys showed up. If you haven’t fished for them or caught them, envision a VW dropping out of the sky and landing in the water 50 feet in front of you when they feed on top. Either coming out from under the boat or showing up unannounced it’s game on. Duck or cast? Never been GT fishing and probably never will but there’s a sense this could lead to physical injury if performed in an unsafe manner. Holding 60’ of fly line on the deck, wet, ……along with 30’ in the air…
Cast….nothing
Cast again….needlefish picks at fly…..go slack…zombie drops fly..pull it out of the zone on a back cast and
Cast again…….VW arrives……fly departs…quickly …. along with fly line…
I clear all line by holding out left hand 90 degrees and letting all line glide between thumb and forefinger. This keeps line from getting between your legs…Danger Danger Buckaroo…. And Do Not Grasp Line or Backing…rules #1&2 for keeping all your digits.
Like to touch on the Needlefish issue a bit. Some people like to castigate the snake like ocean going pinheads and blame all their bad karma for connecting with multi colored rockets instead of catching a Rooster. One key is they tend to grab a fly lightly….immediately go slack….let it sink and try to sneak it out of the zone. 80% success rate tho do check your leader. Usually the hookups are torpedo like foul hook situations so try to grin and bear it and think of it as a hydrodynamic foul hooked @clarkman muskie. At my age I cannot remember what the scientific term for this is but I believe the needlefish grabbing the bait/sardinas tossed by the captains eventually become a trigger mechanism for the Roosters. It seems as if the Roosters hanging out in deeper water feel, through their lat line what’s happening in shallow water, look at each other and go …..NIMBY…M’erfers….. then show who’s boss.
I’ll have to finish this up in the near future as another boat needs to be delivered to New England in the AM so the setup, tongue weight strap, cover, grease, check work etc, needs to be done for an overnight commercial tourist trip to the great population swamp up there.
Tight lines ‘til then. Remember it’s all about the
