Punta Abreojos and Campo Rene

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The region west of Laguna San Ignacio has been one of my favorite parts of Baja for some time now. A lot of our travels have been in my non-air conditioned truck. The cool breezes of the Pacific Coast have provided relief from the heat and humidity of the Sea of Cortez on many trips.

The small community of Abreojos provides basic supplies. The town is prosperous due to its careful management of its Lobster and Abalone fisheries. Its not easy to get here - you can drive in but there is no bus service. Private planes can land at the airstrip next to the town (watch out for baseball games) or at Campo Rene. If you are adventurous you could take the bus to San Igancio and ask around for a ride.

The best fishing is in the late summer or early fall. The fly angler must be self sufficient. As far as I know I may be the only person to fly fish here. I would love to hear from anyone else who has tried.

Campo Rene located a few miles from town at the mouth of the mangrove-lined Estero Coyote has basic rooms and slightly salty somewhat hot showers for about $15 US/night. They also have a restaurant and bar, kayaks, peddle boats, and a boat ramp.

The mangrove-lined estero is loaded with fish but the fishing may be impacted by gill netting in the spring. Birds, clams, and sea turtles are abundant in the area and there are plenty of coyotes around as the bay's name suggests. The bay holds sand bass, snook, and sometimes halibut. At the entrance of the bay I've caught roncador (yellow finned croaker), corvina, surf perch, and plenty of highly toxic bullseye puffer fish. Pangas are inexpensive and target yellow tail, yellowfin tuna, dorado, and giant black bass that range up to 300+ pounds. Larger halibut can be found beyond the break at the main surfing point.

The mangrove channels of Estero Coyote and Estero La Bocana are great areas for kayak fishing.

Lobster, abalone, and oysters are available but be careful the cooperativa that manages these fisheries fiercely protects them from poachers. They can be purchased in season from the cooperative in Abreojos.

It can be windy and cool here so come prepared. If the Pacific fog rolls in things can be damp in the mornings.

I wrote about Campo Rene a little in my earlier post:

Baja Lunch

Yellow Fin Croaker

A recent scientific paper provides and interesting review of the Roncador (Yellowfin Croaker in English).

Demographic Parameters of Yellowfin Croaker, Umbrina Roncador (Perciformes: Sciaenidae), From the Southern California Bight

Check out my post from last July for a picture of a good sized Roncador

For those of you who are not into reading the whole article the sections most relevant to the fly angler include:

"A recent assessment of fishes just beyond the surf zone (5-14 m deep) found that yellowfin croaker was the most abundant species on the southern California mainland and third most abundant at Santa Catalina Island (Pondella and Allen 2000). Yellowfin croakers have a chin barbel and an inferior jaw typical of soft benthos foragers. Thus, it is not unexpected that previous investigators described this species as preferring shallow sandy substrates, embayments (Skogsberg 1939, Horn and Allen 1985), and especially the surf zone, and it has also been noted around rocks (Feder et al. 1974). Despite its relatively high density, widespread presence in the easily accessible nearshore environment, and importance in recreational fisheries, there is a paucity of life history information about this species."

"On average, yellowfin croaker were 101 mm SL during their first year and 170 mm SL during their second year. Growth began to slow in their third year (mean = 188 mm SL) as they became reproductive."

"The oldest specimens were two 15-yr-old males caught at Santa Barbara Island (13 June 2006; 395 mm SL) and Belmont Shores (28 February 1995; 313 mm SL). The largest yellowfin croaker (420 mm SL) was caught at Palos Verdes on 3 June 2003. This fish was 7 yr old. The tail had been eaten, and we estimate that the TL would have been 510 mm based on conversion equations in Table 1."

"Recruitment was not clearly correlated with SST (r = 0:535, P = :060) and has significantly declined since 1993 (r = 0:832, m = -412:8 +- 86:9, P = :0008)."

"Given that yellowfin croakers have a relatively high annual mortality rate (A = 0:45), individuals older than 15 yr are likely to be extremely rare; we found only five individuals older than 11 yr among the 1,209 fish in the study. As an evolutionary strategy, it appeared that rapid growth and early maturity were necessary to offset this relatively high mortality of both males and females."

"They occur in all nearshore subtidal habitats and are generally wary of scuba divers. Single yellowfin croaker can be observed regularly on cobble and soft-bottom areas near reefs during the night at Santa Catalina Island. They appear to be nocturnal foragers (Hobson et al. 1981), and anecdotal observations indicate that they may make forays into reef habitats."

"In warmer years and seasons, catch was greater near the surf zone, but during colder years the number of entrapped fish increased offshore, indicating that temperature may be one cue yellowfin croaker use for onshore/ offshore movement."

"With such dramatic variations in indicators of adult stock, juvenile recruitment, spatial distribution, and a reproductive strategy that may employ group spawning, we recommend a cautious management approach for this fishery species."

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.