Pez Gallo

I know the pictures are terrible but I couldn't resist posting them. While taken with a disposable film camera they are special to me. I had caught Paz Gallo before, including some large ones, but always with conventional gear. This guy was my first on a fly. He took a 1/0 brown and yellow clouser minnow over the reef just north of Loreto between Coronado Island and the mainland. Large schools of rooster fish used to patrol this area but gill netting has really hammered them. You can still find them in the area but its hit or miss.

In January 2006, I arrived days after a commercial panga had wrapped a school of about 100 good sized rooster fish at this spot. Ongoing netting in the Loreto Bay National Park (including this area) continues to impact the fishery. Inshore fish species like the rooster fish are particularly vulnerable. Don't get me wrong there's still a lot of great fishing here but as we have seen at Puerto Escondido just a few seasons without nets can really make a big difference.