Winds generated from Hurricane Alex that hit the Eastern coast of Mexico were produced over the Sea of Cortez as that storm dissapated and moved Westward. As a result we had three windy days off Loreto on July 2,3, and 4 but today (Jul 5) it is flat calm again. That wind did a couple of things besides blow us off the water for a couple of days; first it reduced the inshore water temperatures very nicely so this will bring back the bite off our Southern shorelines like Punta Baja, Danzante, Punta Perico, and the coastline from town to past Puerto Escondido; and secondly t has likely detached some of the sargasso growing on the rocks along the shorelines.

With the lack of sardinas available since the beginning of June we are falling on techniques that are new to us in Loreto. One method to get the attention of the Roosterfish is to troll live bait until you can tease up a Roosterfish. The Roosterfish comes in from the back or the side and its dorsal fin is very visible. The fly fishermen have to really work as a team as one trolls the teaser rod and the other is ready to cast. This will take some practice. Remember the captain has to drive the boat so its up to the fly fishermen to act as a team and prepare for this kind of fishing if you'll be coming down this month.

June 26, 2010: A nice 30 pound class Roosterfish caught on the fly while using the teasing method to bring the fish to within casting range.
Photo courtesy of The Fly fishing Shop, Welches, OR. See their newsletter with their Loreto week (June 25-30) reported.

Sierra Mackerel

We're not catching sierra Mackerel anymore but we'll be seeing them again in late October to early November and through the winter.

Other Inshore Species

Skipjack and Bonita have been caught off San Bruno and these fish are weighing from 5 to over 20 pounds. They are feeding at the surface and are an excellent on the fly fish species. Best advice is to float and be ready to cast and let the fast swimming schools come to you. If you chase them you will rarely win they are super fast. Cast long and then strip a two handed retrieve. This is the only species in our area that requires a fast strip other than Yellowfin tuna but we rarely see those.

The malecon and shorelines in front of town have been loaded with nice big Jack Crevalle. The Jack Crevalle are called "Toro" here (bulls) and they are biting along the malecon and breakwaters about an hour after low tide when the tide starts to come in. They are ranging from 10 to over 30 pounds and are being found all along the coastline from el Baja to South of Nopolo.

June 27, 2010: A nice big Jack Crevalle (known as Toro here) caught in front of the Malecon.
Photo courtesy of The Fly fishing Shop, Welches, OR. See their newsletter with their Loreto week (June 25-30) reported.

Fly fishermen are finding the occasional school of Dorado under sargasso paddies or other floating objects. We've had a dead whale, a dead dolphin and a 55 gallon drum all holding schools of Dorado under them. Without the sardinas you must drift to the floatsam and cast your flies in order to bring fish up out from underneath the structure. It will take more casts but if Dorado are underneath the flies will get their attention. Of course without the sardinas it will be hard to keep them entertained so be ready to catch a few fish then move on to look for more, that's the way it is this season.

June 28, 2010: A nice Dorado for a well-deserved, persistent and patient fly angler.
Photo courtesy of The Fly fishing Shop, Welches, OR. See their newsletter with their Loreto week (June 25-30) reported.

We are hoping to set out buoys. Each buoy takes time and money to make as we need to weight it down with metal and cement, use swivels, incorporate many meters of rope and also put together construction foam to float the buoy. If any local ex-pat fishermen would like to contribute to our effort please call me at 135-1603. Each buoy costs about $200 USD to make and set out and if we set out four our chances of getting Dorado around them and making our fishing season more fun will increase significantly this year.

Sailfish have been more numerous than Marlin and they are being found in the warm clear blue water offshore. We haven't had fly anglers that have been targeting them as nobody we have wants to troll but now that the winds have calmed down we will have some trips out to scout for them later this week. The billfish will require the teasing method to be caught on the fly. Much like the method I described for the Roosterfish this works very well for billfish. The bill on the billfish is easy to spot along with its large tail so that when a fish gets hot behind a teaser the person on the teaser rod can reel it in to within casting distance of the fly angler. Because pangas are so much lighter than larger cruisers for which this method was designed, when the panga is put into neutral it will feel like it hit a wall as it will not drift like a cruiser will. Therefore this IGFA approved method is much more difficult to do with pangas than for cruisers. Since the records for Sailfish and Marlin species are pretty much sewn up anyway don't concern yourself over the IGFA details so much.

On tuesday June 22, 2010 Lee Baermann and I coordinated a workshop for some of or captains. Although we have been working a lot that week we were waiting for a couple of groups of fly fishermen to arrive the following thursday so we took advantage of Lee being here to study up and prepare. As part of the Pescadores Vigilantes program with Eco Alianza de Loreto, we are starting to offer classes to better the service skills of our local captains so that we can attract more fly and light tackle anglers to fish Loreto.

This has been a very technical year so far so this was an excellent opportunity to discuss new techniques that we are now using this season that we have never used before. The workshop was taught by Lee Bearmann inventor of the Bullcandy fly and a fly fishing guide himself. He was able to relate the kind of anxiety that the captains may have toward their clients. Lee identified a few key points that make for a challenging guided trip from the point of view of the guide: number one being that the client cannot cast properly; number two is that the client is too caught up in the technicalities of fly fishing and they can't see the forest through the trees and relax and fish; and number three is that the communication of expectations vs. reality of the fishery. It was nice to know that our captains are not the only ones faced with these kinds of challenges.

Tuesday June 22, 2010: "Giving better service to fly fishermen" workshop participants (left to right): Victor Manuel Vallalejo Higuera, Pamela Pelger Bolles, Francisco Muñoz Tenorio, Nacho Quintero Rodriguez, Jesus Alberto Macia Davis, Bernabe Davis Davis, Eulogio Davis Sanchez, in front: Juvencio Alcaide Garcia, instructor Lee Baermann.

Written by Lee Baermann:
Finding a boat captain who knows how to find fish is one thing but to find one who knows where the fish are and how to deal with a fly fisherman is another. That is why I started the ground work a year ago to work with some of Loreto, Baja California's panga captains. It all began with a conversation with Pam Bolles, owner of the Baja Big Fish Company in Loreto last year. She agreed that it would indeed be beneficial to talk to the captains and see what they needed to know as well as to what they wanted to know.

The meeting took place Tuesday, June 22 at the Loreto Eco Alliance, known in Loreto as "Eco Alianza Loreto, A.C. They supplied us with an air conditioned meeting room decorated with pictures of great action shots of flying dorado and some gorgeous scenery pictures.

We started out talking about boat positioning, using the angles and how to deal with two fly fishermen fishing in the boat at one time. This segued to the ability of the fly fisherman to cast adequately enough to catch fish. While we all agreed that if you have a wide open dorado bite going almost no casting ability is need but if you want to sight cast to a single fish, knowledge of fly casting is desperately needed. It was here that I offered to come back in two weeks to give fly casting lessons to whichever captain wanted to give a go.

It was a well spent two hours in which the captains asked excellent questions that well only make them better while also accepting some suggestions that can only make their next outing with a fly fisherman a good one for both captain and client.