Two New Links

I added two new links to my list today.

One is ASUPMATOMA - a great organization protecting nesting sea turtles on the beaches north of Cabo San Lucas. In the summer of 2002 I worked as a volunteer for this group and found some GIGANTIC roosterfish on a hidden beach. I got lots of follows but no bites in the pounding Pacific Surf. I think it would have been impossible to land them with a fly rod in the big beach break but I really wanted to try.

The other link is to Baja Trekker - a great source of information on the ecology and conservation of Baja California's natural resources.

August Dorado

Loreto is having a fantastic dorado season. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to make it down this summer. This picture is from an August evening trip a few years ago at the Bajo las Boyas northeast of town.

My good friend Francisco "Cuervo" Muñoz is helping me untangle a good sized bull dorado. I hooked the fish with a simple fly of blue/white synthetic hair and stick on Mylar eyes tied in a "spread fly" style with a little epoxy around the head to give it the tall thin profile of a bait fish. The fly was unweighted and tied on a 2/0 hook.

If you can I recommend getting down sometime in the next month. I like August better than June and July because there tend to be fewer people around. Its also hotter and there is a greater risk of tropical storms and hurricanes but its all part of the fun!

Baja Lunch

In Abreojos it can get windy. I like to fish the morning from the beach and then return to camp for lunch and a nap when the wind kicks up. This photo is a classic Baja Lunch prepared and eaten in one of the cabins at Campo Rene. Fideo soup from the dried package, quesedillas with ranch cheese and really good salsa, and an ice cold Modelo.

As you can see, The Baja Catch - one of the best Baja fishing books out there, serves many purposes around camp. Besides providing a wealth of fishing information including many remote spots, it also serves as a hot plate. If you are new to Baja fishing, especially beach and inshore fishing get this book.

Mangroves

Mangroves provide an important habitat for fish especially species like snapper, mullet, and snook.

Mexican Resorts Destroying Mangroves, Dooming Fisheries

This news report summarizes an article published this week by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego and documents the importance and value of these important habitats.

Here's a link to the research article:

Mangroves in the Gulf of California increase fishery yields

Pez Gallo

OK, I know that's not a fly rod in my hand but that is the biggest rooster fish I ever caught. If it doesn't look big to you note that I weighed about 270 pounds when this picture was taken.

New Loreto Bay Park Director?

Yesterday's El Sudcaliforniano (the newspaper from La Paz) reported that Everardo Marino Meléndez will be named as the new director of Loreto Bay National Marine Park. According to the article Señor Marino, who has worked in the area in the past, is familar with problems in the park and will bring new strategies to solving problems in the region.

I searched on his name and found a 2005 document that briefly discusses issues and development in the park but nothing else. I look forward to discussing flyfishing and its potential for the area as well as those pesky illegal gillnets set in the park with Señor Marino sometime soon.

En breve nombrarán al director del Parque Marino Nacional

El Sudcaliforniano
17 de julio de 2008
Raúl Villalobos Davis

Loreto, Baja California Sur.- De acuerdo con información recabada por este reportero, será la próxima semana cuando se nombre al nuevo encargado de la Dirección del Parque Marino Nacional Bahía de Loreto, la cual se encuentra en estos momentos sin titular. Todo parece indicar que será Everardo Marino Meléndez, quien se estará haciendo cargo de la dirección del PMNBL, a partir de la próxima semana.

Lo anterior sale a colación de la visita llevada a cabo a este municipio por parte del coordinador de Áreas Naturales Protegidas en Baja California Sur, Benito Bermúdez Almada, quien acompañado de Everardo Mariano estuvieron en las instalaciones de la dirección del parque.

Cabe destacar que para Everardo Mariano la problemática de esta zona no es desconocida, ya que anteriormente estuvo laborando en esta área natural protegida y conoce sobre la misma. Lo cual al darse su nombramiento como encargado de la dirección del Parque Marino Nacional Bahía de Loreto, podrá iniciar una labor de seguimiento a los programas que se llevan a cabo de manera rápida, y al mismo tiempo se le facilitará más la aplicación de nuevas estrategias en busca de la solución a los problemas que se tienen en la región.

El conocer sobre las condiciones y formas de trabajo en este lugar le dará mayores ventajas a esta persona al ser nombrado como nuevo encargado de la dirección del parque.

Fishing Licenses

From the BajaBigFish.com webpage:

If you will find yourself fishing off the coast of BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR in the near future, consider yourself lucky because only in this state do we have the option to purchase our Mexican sportfishing licenses at the State Finance Office and not directly via the federal government's fund (CONAPESCA). What's great about this is that the funds from these licenses bought in the state STAY in the state. Right now the monies are going toward a fund called FONMAR which is usually used for marine conservation and education but now it is being used to legally overturn NOM 029, the Shark Norma. So as much as I love those travel clubs like Vagabundos del Mar and Discover Baja, and as much as it may be more convenient to purchase your license through these services, the fact is that the money for licenses paid this way stays with the feds who invent seriously stupid laws like NOM 029. Buy your fishing license though your local outfitter in BCS and your money will go towards preserving the Sea of Cortez fishery for the future. I see my Loreto-born children catching nice fish almost every day off our shores and I want their children to have the same chance so, BUY YOUR FISHING LICENSE DIRECTLY THROUGH YOUR BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR FISHING OUTFITTER. Do NOT buy it stateside because that money you work so hard for will go right to the feds who are in the back pocket of the commercial fishing industry.

Unlike the US where the fees for your hunting and fishing licenses are used to fund state fish and game agencies in the state they are sold in, funds from fishing license sales in Mexico historically have disappeared off to Mexico City never to be seen again. However with the creation of FONMAR, Baja California Sur is in a unique position to reinvest license fees in protection of the resource.

Rose Snapper

Its a little hard to see in this photo but the rose snapper is distinguished by a dark patch below it's dorsal fin, above the leading edge of its pelvic fins.

I caught a bunch of these tasty snappers on flies off the point at San Bruno, north of Loreto. They all took a gray/white clouser minnow in my standard 1/0 size.

It was fairly windy day. To fish the reef, we would motor upwind and wind drift past the point fishing along the way. I used a high stick technique similar to fishing nymphs in a river except the boat was moving rather than the water. By casting down wind of the boat I was able to sink my fly deeply and maintain contact with my fly as we drifted over the reef. Under this type of fishing situation, casting into the wind results in a shallow presentation as the fly gets pulled along by the fast drifting boat.

Resisting Gill Netters on the East Cape

While I thought things were getting a little better on the East Cape, apparently the inshore gill netting continues.

Gill Net Controversy Erupts

Loreto Books

Anyone interested in the Loreto area should read two books:

Loreto: Future of the First Capital of the Californias Edited by Paul Ganster, Oscar Arizpe, and Antonina Ivanova

Loreto, Baja California's First Mission and Capital of Spanish California by Ann and Don O'Neil - available from Baja Books and Maps

As their name suggests Baja Books and Maps carries a wide variety of Baja related books and maps and is a great source of information.

Baja Conservation Links

There are a lot of people doing great things in Baja California. A couple of groups that could use your support are:

Eco Alianza de Loreto is a recently formed group that I look forward to working with in the future.

Propeninsula is a conservation leader in the region especially with the protection of sea turtles and is a member of the Grupo Tortuguero. Propeninsula hosts the annual sea turtle conference in Loreto. Generally in the last weekend in January, the meeting is always a good time.

Iemanya Oceanica works to protect sharks and rays in the Sea of Cortez. These species are critically important to the ecological health of the sea. Several Sea of Cortez guides who specialize in fly fishing are former commercial shark fishers and the one's that I have spoken with prefer the life of a sport fishing captain to the difficult life of commercial shark fishing. The long lines and gill nets used by shark fishers indiscriminately kill many sport fish and damage the ecosystem than sport fish depend on. Hopefully, low impact fly fishing can provide livelihoods for more of these hard working and knowledgeable tiburoneros. I urge everyone to release sharks and until populations of these long-lived and slow growing species can recover, avoid targeting them at all.

The American Fisheries Society has a Mexican Chapter. I plan on contacting them soon and seeing what I can learn about scientific research on fish populations in the Sea of Cortez.

Under Gunned

When fishing for dorado don't mess around - bring a big rod. In this photo I'm well into a long fight with a medium sized dorado that I hooked on my 10-weight. Notice the sweat. The first 20 minutes were fun, the next hour was not. During dorado season in Loreto, espcially in August when the big bulls show up, bring a 12-weight, fight fish fast, and release them in good condition.

Roncador

Here's a decent sized yellow-finned croaker from the surf at San Cristobal between Cabo San Lucas and Todos Santos. I have caught croaker on the Pacific side from this area north to Abreojos. Known as Roncador in Spanish, they take smaller shrimp imitations off the bottom. There was a deep spot in the sand, you can see it directly behind me in the photo, that produced many fish over several weeks but unfortunately it filled in and I had to find another spot to fish. Fortunately, the search for a new spot led to finding the rocks where the giant roosterfish hung out.