Part 3
For day three of fishing, we again headed out about 7am. There was fog in the bay, but not to bad. On the way out, the guide was saying that he'd never had a day like yesterday here. If today was the same, the next day we'd go 30 miles south to the Impossible Banks. The Impossible Banks had similar bait balls and there should be dorado and wahoo on them. But he didn't think you could land a decent size wahoo on a fly rod. Using steel leader you could hook them, but he thought the run would be to much. Guess that is a challenge for someone out there!
We got out, and quickly found birds working while we were still in the green water. Jim took the front of the boat, I took the back. It would be very similar to the first day, small schools of bait moving fast, going down, coming back up a hundred yards away. We'd chase, get in position, and the bait would go down. Very few good shoots. The boat captain also had the habit of approaching from the starboard side of the boat, making the front person have to cast over the middle of the boat. Finally, after a couple of hours, we got on a ball that wasn't moving super fast, and got several good casts right on the edges of the bait. But our bright flies didn't get looks. The guide had Jim switch to a Pacific Sardina pattern to match the bait. We got back on the bait ball, and one or two casts and Jim had a fish on.
Jim got the fish in, a quick picture was taken, and off it swam (we only did this on the first fish each, I was concerned about it, but they seemed to revive ok).
We got back on the hunt. I was in front now. We chased small schools of bait all over the green water, but never got a really good shot again. Lots of casting with little realistic chance of hooking up. Day 3 ended with me still sitting on a skunking and starting to get a little worn down. We'd caught two fish total, and had another 4 or so on, in three days.
On the way in, we were waved down by two boats sitting in the water. They were local fishermen, and one of the boats had broken down, so the other boat had started towing it in, then broken down also. We tied them up to our boat and started in. It felt good to be able to help out, and hey, if we earned a little karma in return, that wouldn't hurt either
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Day 4
I'd gone to bed early the night before and had several dreams about hooking a marlin only to have the knot connecting the backing to the fly line break. As I was getting ready for the day, I thought about pulling my line out and triple checking the bimini knot making the loop at the end of my backing, but decided they were just dreams and the knot was fine.
There was thick fog in the bay and we were blind for about 15 minutes, but broke out of it at the bar. The Pacific was clear, except for a fog bank to the far northwest (we noted this was different, there hadn't been any fog on the ocean up to this point). We again quickly found working birds in the green water, I went back up in the front of the boat and it was a repeat of the day before - small schools, that went down as soon as we got close. It was a frustrating chase, just waiting to get that one shot that connected. Then we got a call on the radio that there was tons of bird activity to the northwest. We ran out a long ways, almost to the edge of the fog bank. We were now in the blue water. And there were multiple big groups of birds working. We ran to one, slid in, and finally saw what this area is known for. A big, big stationary ball of bait with probably 20 marlin and a big sea lion crashing into it. Watching a marlin suddenly slash through the ball, spraying bait was really cool. Other marlin waited on the edges for any injured fish. Got a good cast off, beyond the bait ball and a couple feet to the side. Ripped the fly back and saw a marlin beeline towards the fly from about 10 feet away. When I see a marlin coming from in, I seem to go into trout mode and try to set right when the fish takes the fly. This time I managed to wait until I had a good strong pull from the fish then set, set again, and then set hard with the rod. Fish on! The marlin ran, did some tail walking, ran some more. I was shouting "Hell yeah", it was so cool. I was well into my backing. Hmmm, wonder if dreams really can be a warning? But the backing knot held. About the same time, my friend casting from the back hooked up - we had a double going! He made his way to the front and we fought our fish. Marlin are really cool. Multiple tail walks and runs. We did the typical -you go high, I'll slide under, etc swapping of spots as the fish switched sides of the boat. Got the fish in, and the skunk was off!
And the bait ball was still there! Had hardly moved. We headed back, now with Jim in front and me in back. It was the same deal - if you got a good cast that went beyond the bait ball and a few feet to the side, your fly was probably going to get hit. I quickly hooked up and stayed in back to see if Jim could get a double going. He hooked up a few casts later. I made my way to the front, and we started the fight and dance again. Pretty surprised I never fell in shifting from one side to the other. Our third person had several shots at a triple, but never got the hook set.
When we got our fish in, we were completely in the fog bank. We slowly moved out, and the bait ball was still there! However, my fly was in tatters. We were in pretty good spirits, and Martine said I should try his fly. Back we went, and first cast a marlin came from about 20 feet away to smash that fly. Another 30-40 minute fight with plenty of tail walking, another marlin landed!
The bait ball didn't move the rest of the day. We didn't get another double, but we all got another fish. After landing 3 marlin, I was ready to call it a day. Tired and my arms were sore. But it'd been an epic day, one of the coolest days fishing I'd ever had. Big marlin, probably around 100 to 120 pounds, all day long.
When we got in, Jim had to head back to Loreto so he could get to work on Monday. But my friend and I had one more day to fish.
Day 5
Really thick fog this morning. We waited about 1 1/2 hours before the captain felt like it was close enough to the fog lifting to head out. Again we quickly find birds close in the green water. And again, the bait is moving fast, hard to get a good shot. Today I'm in back, using the fly I'd tied up a couple of days ago. I get a cast off, see a marlin coming from about 10 feet away, and pull the fly out, setting before he got a good grip on the fly. Damn. Eventually my friend hooks up, and lands his fish. We chase the bait for awhile longer, but I'm getting frustrated - so hard to get a good shot. I ask if we can go try the blue water again, see if we can't find bait that isn't moving so fast.
We head out, and quickly find a bait ball. Not as big as yesterday, and moving, but not as fast as the bait in closer. My friend hooks up again and I head to the back to try to get the double. But I was to excited, and didn't bring my line all the way in. It goes into the prop and gets all tangled up. The captain spends about 5 minutes getting it out, but the fly hook has been straightened out and the leader is mangled (we were using straight 80# flouro for leaders, about 7 ft long - you had to cut off the front few inches after every fish, the bills really wear on the line). The fly line is a little worse for wear, but doesn't seem to badly damaged. Friend lands his fish, and we head back to the bait ball.
Get back on the bait ball, I cast, get a grab and do the best strip set of my life. Hard and solid. Pop! Line busted. My fly line broke off at the start of the shooting head. Arrgghhh! But I have a back up reel in my bag. While I am getting that on, my friend is trying to NOT hook a marlin to let me get a fish. He's having a great time pulling his fly away from charging marlin. I get my back up reel on (Rio Bravo and the 11 wt intermediate line I'd gotten free). Martine asks me if I want to use his fly again. Over the next couple of hours I'd land two more marlin. Martine's fly got the name the Marlin Magnet (it would lose its eyes after catching 3 marlin and have to be retired). The bait ball has gone away, and we find one more bait ball, but this one is moving at medium speed. After about 30 minutes of casting, my friend hooks a marlin and lands it. Now it's time to go in. We have some miles to cover before dark, and our guide wants to get back to his family.
I ended up landing 5 marlin. Our group landed over 20, and had as many on briefly. We learned a ton about this fishery. And realized our guide is still learning the fishery also. He knows his home water really really well, but the Pacific side is different. But it was an amazing 5 days of fishing with a guide that is fun to fish with. If he wasn't doing these trips, we would not have gotten to try this fishery.
We spend the next few days driving back. The landscape of Baja is beautiful. It's like a national park with amazing cactus forests and mountains (when we stopped to take some photos of the cactus, my friend took a moment to explain why you shouldn't touch chollo and demostrated by kicking one with his sandal - great demostration, as we had to use fishing pliers to get the needles out of his foot and sandal...). We stopped at some hot springs and generally had a good time.
Wednesday morning he dropped me off at the Phoenix airport. While eating lunch before getting on my flight, I reminsced about the trip. And most amazingly, I hadn't had a single stomache issue after 9 days in Mexico. I took another bite of my airport burrito, feeling good and excited to get home to my family for the Thanksgiving holiday! The end.
. Spend an extra couple days hanging out down south then come out fishing!
