Back in the winter, a friend asked if I wanted to go on a couple of fishing trips in Mexico this year - grande roosters in June and Mag Bay in Nov. He's an obsessive fisherman, with a lot of time spent down in Mexico. The only salt fishing I'd done is a couple of tuna trips out of Westport. But we've fished together a lot over the PNW for trout, fun trips and we usual do ok. And winter gets me stir crazy. And maybe I had had a couple of drinks that night. And it sounded fun as hell. Think my wife had had a few drinks that night as well, as she said go for it!
Fast forward to the start of May, and it seemed like a good idea to actually get ready. I figured I'd have a pretty steep learning curve, and wanted to prepare as much as I could. We would have 4 guided days and a couple of days to try fishing on our own. I had a 12 wt setup for tuna, but in watching YT and reading about rooster fishing on the East Cape, it sounded like a 10wt was the way to go, with the 12wt as a backup. Picked up a 10wt from forum member, bought an Echo Bravo 10wt reel, SA Sonar Titan sink tips in 10 and 12, and asked Red's for a selection of 12 flies for Roosters in the East Cape (that's my first lesson, I should have spent some time figuring out the specific flies and bought way more...). Practiced casting the 10wt a little bit (lesson 2 - you can't practice to much....). Heard it was long days baking in the hot sun. Tried to practice that also.
On May 30, flew down to Cabo. My friend has left a couple weeks earlier and slow driven down. He picked me up at the airport, and we headed a couple hours north to the East Cape, with the van showing an outside temp 0f 105 - this is going to be a hot one. Got into town, hit the Oxxo for some supplies, then stopped by our guide's house to go over the plan for fishing tomorrow and have him look through the flies to suggest want to start with, then checked into the VRBO and got our gear ready for fishing in the morning!
Day 1 started a little slow. There was some sort of miscommunication with the bait guys, so we had to catch our own bait. That took about an hour, and then we headed out to fish. We arrived at the spot and the guide started tossing the bait, and almost immediately a boil started. I'd never seen this before, and it was a little crazy. All the sudden, roosters slashing in from three directions. It was hard not to just watch the combs bust through the water. First cast, nothing. Second cast, nothing. Third cast, fish on! And it's a dorado? Whatever, it's taking line and jumping, hell yeah.
Back to fishing. Quickly learned about needlefish. On the third or fourth needlefish, somehow lost my fly. No problem, I had two of those flies, grabbed the other and tied it on.
Lots of follows, some grabs but we weren't get the rooster fish to commit. But it was so cool casting to the slashing fish, and just watching the aquarium that was in front of us. After a little while, some barracuda joined the group. Our guide said that was super uncommon, but lately they had been around. Then my friend hooked a rooster, and we were in the game. I reeled in to let him fight the fish (a first day lesson, by day 2 I knew better). Ended up being a pretty sweet rooster - I'd guess a little over 20lbs (all the weights in this report are guess work with our guide's input, but who really knows?). Back to fishing. Hooked a barracuda - ut-oh - that lasted about 3 seconds and there goes my second fly. That's all I had of those flies, and my friend only had two also. Tied on the most similar fly I had. My friend hooks a barracuda, and he actually gets it right at the edge of the mouth. Nice 4ft plus barracuda landed! And now we are out of bait. Head out to go catch more bait, which took a bit over an hour. Tried another spot, my friend hooked a rooster and it immediately turned and snapped him off. That was the end of the action for the day. Got back about 2, and hit the pool to try to bring the body temperature down. Went by the guide's house, picked up the dorado and barracuda fillets. Went to a restuarant and had them make some of the barracuda into ceviche. Pretty damn good day 1.
Day 2. That night, my tummy started, ummm, not feeling so great. As we were dragging ourselves up to go fishing, figured I'd better take an immodium if I was going to spend the day on a panga. As we drove down to the launch, it starting seeming like maybe two immodium would have been a better idea. Arrived at the launch and tummy was definitely no bueno. Took the emergency bucket and did bad things to it. Ok, sorry about slowing everyone down, all better now (fingers crossed), let's go! This time the bait guys were there, we got our bait and headed out fishing. Got to the same spot we'd started at yesterday, guide started throwing, and the water starts boiling again. This time it's really going. But we aren't hooking up... Guide is saying cast further past the boils, strip through. Getting looks and follows, still not hooking up. Guide - you need to strip faster. Ok, will do. There we go, hooked up! And my fish is off on a blazing, long run. While my fish is running, the guide is making it rain bait. A few minutes later, my friend hooks up. Fish on both rods, we start chasing them down. We probably spend the next 45 minutes to an hour fighting those fish. My friend was throwing a 12 wt, and he gets his fish in first. It's a damn big big rooster - a grande grande. I'm using a 10 wt, and putting the wood to the fish. But it's a see saw thing, I get some line in, and it takes some line out. I'm thinking that this must be a hell of a big rooster as I finally make progress, when the guide goes "It's a toro." Apparently, that's a jack crevalle, and they are nicknamed the bull for some reason. Not a rooster, but pretty damn cool anyways.
Let's do that again - but I'm switching to a 12 wt after the experience with the toro. We go back to where we were fishing, guide starts throwing bait, and boom, I hook up again. This time I saw the rooster turn and hit my fly. Guide makes it rain, trying to get my friend hooked up to. No dice, and it's time to start following my fish. After about 10 minutes or so, I see two dorado swimming by the boat. "Dorado, dorado!". Guide throws bait, and after a few casts my friend hooks up with a dorado - we've got another double going! We'd figured out that since it took so long to fight these fish, the guide was trying to get us doubled up, otherwise one person lost a lot of fishing time. 45 or so minutes later....
That was pretty much it for the day. Time to go soak in the pool and bring the body temp down. I was absolutely drenched in sweat after the two fish.
Will post part 2 tomorrow.
Fast forward to the start of May, and it seemed like a good idea to actually get ready. I figured I'd have a pretty steep learning curve, and wanted to prepare as much as I could. We would have 4 guided days and a couple of days to try fishing on our own. I had a 12 wt setup for tuna, but in watching YT and reading about rooster fishing on the East Cape, it sounded like a 10wt was the way to go, with the 12wt as a backup. Picked up a 10wt from forum member, bought an Echo Bravo 10wt reel, SA Sonar Titan sink tips in 10 and 12, and asked Red's for a selection of 12 flies for Roosters in the East Cape (that's my first lesson, I should have spent some time figuring out the specific flies and bought way more...). Practiced casting the 10wt a little bit (lesson 2 - you can't practice to much....). Heard it was long days baking in the hot sun. Tried to practice that also.
On May 30, flew down to Cabo. My friend has left a couple weeks earlier and slow driven down. He picked me up at the airport, and we headed a couple hours north to the East Cape, with the van showing an outside temp 0f 105 - this is going to be a hot one. Got into town, hit the Oxxo for some supplies, then stopped by our guide's house to go over the plan for fishing tomorrow and have him look through the flies to suggest want to start with, then checked into the VRBO and got our gear ready for fishing in the morning!
Day 1 started a little slow. There was some sort of miscommunication with the bait guys, so we had to catch our own bait. That took about an hour, and then we headed out to fish. We arrived at the spot and the guide started tossing the bait, and almost immediately a boil started. I'd never seen this before, and it was a little crazy. All the sudden, roosters slashing in from three directions. It was hard not to just watch the combs bust through the water. First cast, nothing. Second cast, nothing. Third cast, fish on! And it's a dorado? Whatever, it's taking line and jumping, hell yeah.
Back to fishing. Quickly learned about needlefish. On the third or fourth needlefish, somehow lost my fly. No problem, I had two of those flies, grabbed the other and tied it on.
Lots of follows, some grabs but we weren't get the rooster fish to commit. But it was so cool casting to the slashing fish, and just watching the aquarium that was in front of us. After a little while, some barracuda joined the group. Our guide said that was super uncommon, but lately they had been around. Then my friend hooked a rooster, and we were in the game. I reeled in to let him fight the fish (a first day lesson, by day 2 I knew better). Ended up being a pretty sweet rooster - I'd guess a little over 20lbs (all the weights in this report are guess work with our guide's input, but who really knows?). Back to fishing. Hooked a barracuda - ut-oh - that lasted about 3 seconds and there goes my second fly. That's all I had of those flies, and my friend only had two also. Tied on the most similar fly I had. My friend hooks a barracuda, and he actually gets it right at the edge of the mouth. Nice 4ft plus barracuda landed! And now we are out of bait. Head out to go catch more bait, which took a bit over an hour. Tried another spot, my friend hooked a rooster and it immediately turned and snapped him off. That was the end of the action for the day. Got back about 2, and hit the pool to try to bring the body temperature down. Went by the guide's house, picked up the dorado and barracuda fillets. Went to a restuarant and had them make some of the barracuda into ceviche. Pretty damn good day 1.
Day 2. That night, my tummy started, ummm, not feeling so great. As we were dragging ourselves up to go fishing, figured I'd better take an immodium if I was going to spend the day on a panga. As we drove down to the launch, it starting seeming like maybe two immodium would have been a better idea. Arrived at the launch and tummy was definitely no bueno. Took the emergency bucket and did bad things to it. Ok, sorry about slowing everyone down, all better now (fingers crossed), let's go! This time the bait guys were there, we got our bait and headed out fishing. Got to the same spot we'd started at yesterday, guide started throwing, and the water starts boiling again. This time it's really going. But we aren't hooking up... Guide is saying cast further past the boils, strip through. Getting looks and follows, still not hooking up. Guide - you need to strip faster. Ok, will do. There we go, hooked up! And my fish is off on a blazing, long run. While my fish is running, the guide is making it rain bait. A few minutes later, my friend hooks up. Fish on both rods, we start chasing them down. We probably spend the next 45 minutes to an hour fighting those fish. My friend was throwing a 12 wt, and he gets his fish in first. It's a damn big big rooster - a grande grande. I'm using a 10 wt, and putting the wood to the fish. But it's a see saw thing, I get some line in, and it takes some line out. I'm thinking that this must be a hell of a big rooster as I finally make progress, when the guide goes "It's a toro." Apparently, that's a jack crevalle, and they are nicknamed the bull for some reason. Not a rooster, but pretty damn cool anyways.
Let's do that again - but I'm switching to a 12 wt after the experience with the toro. We go back to where we were fishing, guide starts throwing bait, and boom, I hook up again. This time I saw the rooster turn and hit my fly. Guide makes it rain, trying to get my friend hooked up to. No dice, and it's time to start following my fish. After about 10 minutes or so, I see two dorado swimming by the boat. "Dorado, dorado!". Guide throws bait, and after a few casts my friend hooks up with a dorado - we've got another double going! We'd figured out that since it took so long to fight these fish, the guide was trying to get us doubled up, otherwise one person lost a lot of fishing time. 45 or so minutes later....
That was pretty much it for the day. Time to go soak in the pool and bring the body temp down. I was absolutely drenched in sweat after the two fish.
Will post part 2 tomorrow.
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