Loreto, Mexico Fly Fishing

11/12: Left Portland, Oregon about 6:00am. Got into Loreto about 2:30pm and went through the new airport terminal, which is larger, cooler and more efficient than the old one. We were checked into La Mision Hotel by 3:30. Our room had an ocean view and is very nice. The ocean was perfectly flat.
11/13: Friday the 13th. We left the dock at low tide. For the first couple of hours the fishing was pretty slow. Then as the tide started to rise the bite picked up. We got into a school of juvenile yellowtails. These fish averaged about four pounds, but pulled with power far beyond their small size. We caught a fish on every cast for about a half an hour.  Then we spotted a dorado and Patty caught it. This was very surprising since we were only a few feet from the beach in water that was less than twenty feet deep. Shortly after that we came into a bay where a mixed school of roosterfish, yellowtail and green jacks were busting a school of Sardina fry. We caught all the species of sport fish, which averaged about ten to fifteen pounds. This day between Patty and I, we caught roosterfish, yellowtail, green jacks, skipjack tuna, cabrilla, ladyfish, and dorado. Heavy rains brought by tropical storms in October has turned the drab landscape of summer into bright green. Along the cliffs by the sea and around the hotel there are thousands of large dragonflies flitting about in the air. What insects they are feeding on is unknown.
11/14: Caught an eight pound yellowtail on my first cast. We were both hooked-up numerous times in the first hour. Then our success attracted the attention of other boats who came into our area and put the fish down. In the afternoon Patty hooked a fish that was large enough to break her shooting line. The whole sinking head was lost. It's a good thing we had spares. The day turned windy, starting from the northwest, then straight out of the north, and finally from the south. Water temperature along the shore was 79-degrees. My best fish of the day was a roosterfish that weighed about 16-pounds.
11/15: With predictions of strong afternoon winds out of the north, we cancelled today's fishing on advice from our guide.
11/16: The same strong winds kept us off the water today.
11/17: The wind let up and we fished from 10:00am-4:00pm. Went to Coronado Island and caught 8-pound Yellowtails until we were exhausted. On the way back to the hotel we stopped along the beach and caught two rooster fish. Mine weighed about 27-pounds and Patty's weighed about 16-pounds.
11/18: The Sea of Cortez was flat this morning. We worked along the beach looking for Roosterfish and found them in good numbers, but found no biters. Then we headed out to deeper water. After catching a half dozen yellowtail apiece, we got bored and decided to hunt for more roosterfish. By this time the tide hade changed. We found a huge school of very large roosterfish crashing bait. There were more than four dozen fish in the school. Patty had repeated grabs from a fish that appeared to be about sixty pounds, but the hook failed to stick each time. I hooked a rooster of 30-40 pounds and had it on for nearly half an hour before it chewed through the 35-pound bite tippet and was gone.

690-4 Xi3

Length: 9'    Line: 6     Pieces: 4 

This rod was designed for the angler who loves to pursue small bonefish, snappers, lady fish or sea run cutthroats in the salt. This is a great rod for humpy salmon and small stream steelhead fishing as well.

Rod weight: 3 5/8 Ounces

790-4 Xi3

Use this rod anywhere small to medium size bonefish are encountered, as well as many kinds of reef fish. Can be a great choice for schooly stripers.

Rod weight: 3 3/4 Ounces

We're talking about serious torque here, with the power to drive big flies and whip 50-pounders.
This rod mates up well with 400-grain sinking shooting heads and 425-grain Outbound Lines. We tested this rod extensively in the Sea of Cortez in November 2009. It feels light, but has amazing lifting power and is pleasant to cast at all ranges.

Rod weight: 4 3/8 Ounces

This is the new generation of "perfect-rods" for the Sea of Cortez, replacing the venerated twelve weights with a lighter weight easier-to-use weapon for dorado and roosterfish. You're going to love Sage's new longer handle design. This rod proved itself with Rio Leviathan 500-grain and both 465-grain and 525-grain OutBound Tropical Intermediate lines.

Rod weight: 5 3/16 Ounces

This rod has the conventional length handle for you macho brutes who believe that the leverage provided by longer handles is for cheaters.

Rod weight: 5 1/8 Ounces

This is the rod for Florida tarpon and for any saltwater fish that weigh over 50-pounds. You will enjoy the benefits of the new longer handle when it come to testing the will of heavier finny critters.

Rod weight: 5 3/8 Ounces

This rod is for the angler who wants a conventional handle on a 12-weight.

Rod weight: 5 5/16 Ounces

Possibly the perfect sailfish rod, or a rod for larger than average tarpon and big sharks.

Rod weight: 5 5/8 Ounces

This rod is built for the angler who wants to test him/her self against the largest fish that can be caught with a fly rod.

Rod weight: 6 5/8 Ounces

Some guys just buy flies and tie them on when a guide tells them to.  Others like myself tie many of their own flies and are always looking for something that will do a better job.  Some fish are very selective in what they eat.  They have discerning eyes and can detect the difference between the fake and the real thing.  Particular populations of spring creek trout are legendary for their selectivity on certain hatches.  Many species of saltwater fish are at least as capable at detecting phony prey.  In the Sea of Cortez and along the Mexican Pacific Coast there are a host of hard pulling fish that eat Sardinas.  Many of these fish are extremely selective as to the size, color and movements of Sardinas. In the beginning, we used several of the established sardine and herring fly patterns. Fish would often charge our fly from many feet away only to reject and turn away only a few inches from the fly. It became apparent that a better Sardina fly was needed.  The process listed here is an abbreviated version of a three-season experiment to evolve the perfect Sardina fly.

Sardina or Flatiron Herring, Harengula thrissina: The Sardina, or Flatiron Herring, has a moderately deep body, iridescent olive/brown back, golden yellow lateral stripe, silver sides, and a black spot just behind the top of the gill cover. The Sardina, cannot be easily confused with any other sardine or herring due to its wide body and lack of elongated dorsal fin rays. Average size is 5-inches.  It reaches a length of 7-inches and is virtually weightless. It is normally found in the first 30 feet of the water column in massive schools over sandy bottoms.  In Mexican waters, it is found along the Pacific side of the Baja California peninsula south of Guerrero Negro, throughout the Sea of Cortez, and along the coast of the mainland south to Guatemala; it does not appear to be present around the oceanic islands, however.  Although it is a herring, in Mexico, this species is almost universally called a “Sardina,” or “sardine,” by natives and tourists alike.  The reason that Sardina are so popular for chum, is that they are easy to obtain and survive for long periods in a live-well bait tank.

My first close encounter with sardinas was in a bait tank in a panga at East Cape in the Sea of Cortez..  Mexican guides harvest them for live bait and chum.  Sardinas are weak swimmers and are easily caught by hand in the tank.  Thus they are easily examined, both in and out of the water.  You would think that this is the perfect opportunity for a fly tier to copy the exact size and color of the organism.  In fact it proved to be the perfect deception.  Sardinas that are in the wild look quite different from the same fish

that have been netted and especially different from one who have spent several hours in a bait tank.  At left is a sardina that has spent most of the day in a bait tank.  Many of the scales are loosend from the body and many are missing all together.

At left is a Photo Shop rendering where I am attempting to turn the fish into a fly on paper.  In the beginning many of my flies contained a lot of silver flash in the sides.  This mimicked the loosened scales of the bait tank fish.  I tied many variations along the same theme.  The more silver

that was tied into the fly, the less strikes I got.  This is because the sides of fresh fish reflect as white instead of silver.  Sardinas have a prominent false eye spot on the each side that is nearly identical in size as their pupils.  What the exact purpose for this is not known, but tests using

flies with or without the spot weight heavily in favor of the spot.  This kind of research in fly tying ultimately gives the angler a few insights as to how well predator fish see their prey. Indications are that they see what they eat in great detail.  In Mexico sardinas are used extensively as chum to bring sport fish close to the boat where they can be fished with fly gear.  It appears that bait that is fresh with attract more fish than bait that has been getting beat up in the live well for several hours.  Indications are that Dorado, Rooster Fish and Jack Crevelle like there meat fresh and healthy.