We headed out with my friend Gary Boyer this morning here in Baja. Gary is a fellow Idahoan that I met down here two years ago. Gary leaves Idaho in February and camps all winter here in Los Barriles. He drives down with his boat and his dog and he’s all set.
Gary is a species fly fisherman like myself. He’s caught more than 50 different fish types down here in Baja but there’s one he hasn’t caught, that’s the milkfish. I haven’t caught one either and Gary has been seeing schools of milkies this winter but had no success. We spent the first two hours of our morning chasing schools but all we got was one little needlefish on an algae fly.
The wind kicks up after 11 AM here at Los Barriles so a typical day for Gary is out in the boat from 7 till noon then hit the beaches all afternoon. As we came in for the morning we ran into a school of feeding ladyfish. Granny chucked my 7-weight Winston with a crab fly right into the school and let it sink. She had one on before you could count to three!
The ladyfish are fun fish that will put a bend in a fly rod. They jump numerous times when hooked and have the power to steal line fast. Granny hoisted in a few before we called it a morning.
In the afternoon we walked right out from camp down the public beach looking for roosterfish. They’re around despite swimmers and boats in the water all the time. There’re also a few other anglers both fly and spin almost always. The good news however is there is plenty of bait balls moving up and down the beach – something I haven’t found enough of this trip to attract the roosterfish.
These bait balls had the occasional roosterfish feeding off them, and some big ones too. They were a long cast from the beach but perfect for Granny to try for and get some practice managing her line in the surf. While in most beach fly fishing situations I use a stripping basket, for roosterfish I don’t because there’s too much running involved.
I’m happy to say Granny did well lengthening her casting distance today and improved managing her line in the waves. She was so good at that she had three roosters chase her fly. A medium sized fish that came right to the beach hot to trot. Unfortunately she stopped her fly and the rooster lost interest. Never stop your fly. There was a beast of well over 20lbs that followed but didn’t eat. That was a thrill! And she hooked and lost a tiny roosterfish – dang!
While Granny couldn’t put a roosterfish on the beach she managed to beat up on more ladyfish. Some fly fishers don’t bother with the ladyfish. I can’t emphasize enough how fun these fish are on a 7-weight.
Its pretty cozy and relaxing here in Los Barriles after almost two weeks hiking more remote parts of Baja. We packed in the fishing day around 5 PM and are now enjoying ice cold Pacifico’s with Gary. Our next move will be to walk down to Smokey’s restaurant for supper. Back in the boat first thing in the morning.
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