The Volaris Experiment

Here is the situation - I found myself on a work trip to San Diego in mid-July and really wanted to make a quick trip down to Loreto for a couple of days after I was finished with my San Diego meeting.

I previously reported on the fishing from this trip and want to continue with the story of my experiment taking the Volaris Tijuana to La Paz service.

The question before me was what was the best way to get from San Diego to Loreto and back with a minimum of hassle and expense and no car.

Horizon Air (Alaska Airlines regional partner) flies from LAX to Loreto 4 days per week but LAX is a long way from San Diego and the flights were expensive.

The bus from Tijuana to Loreto is about 18 hours and $80 US.

I went with Volaris Tijuana to La Paz and then bus to Loreto.

The next few posts will document my trip and provide an answer to the questions:

Is it worth all the trouble?

Did it save any money?

Do you need to speak Spanish?

Would I do it again?

Stay tuned for more!

Abreojos and La Bocana

I wanted to post a couple of random links on the greater Abreojos and La Bocana region.

View Larger Map

La Bocana is a long skinny bay with Punta Abreojos to the Southeast and the town of La Bocana to the Northwest. There is little information on the area on the web but here's a couple interesting links.

I haven't been to this place and their webpages are a little sketchy but the price and location are right:
La Bocana Bed and Breakfast

These guys are gear anglers but their report gives an indication of some of the action that is available.
La Bocana Fishing Report from 2005

Here's a good run down on fishing in Estero Coyote at Campo Rene (east of Abreojos) by Doug Pierson who I met at Campo Rene where he generously showed me the basics of fishing this bay.

Doug's Estero Coyote Advice

And if you are interested in what all thise birds are here's a place to start:

Bird paper on Estero Coyote and Bocana

Mangroves and Bahia Magdelena Conservation

Here is a link to an article that provides a good summary of the scientific paper that I linked to in my July 22 post about Mangroves.

Making that Deep Sea Connection to Mangroves

The article provides a good link to a story about the Magdalena Baykeeper group.

Magdalena Bay stretches for roughly 130 miles along the Pacific Coast between Loreto and La Paz and its mangrove lined channels are the biggest fish nursery on the Pacific Coast. This area is critically important for many species of sport fish, sea turtles, and is one of the three main gray whale calving lagoons.

Loreto Article

Here's a link to a Loreto article that I wrote for Flyfisherman Magazine a couple of years ago.

Loreto's Other Season

Panama Graysby

I didn't know what this fish was when I caught it. The photos here fail to fully show the orange and turquoise colors on the head. This is truly a spectacular fish.


The Panama Graysby is a feisty little reef dweller that doesn't get much bigger than this foot long individual. They range from the Sea of Cortez to Ecuador. This individual took a clouser minnow in brown/yellow/white with gold flash in my favorite 1/0 size. I've mentioned clousers so many times that I've included a picture of one with this post. Note that I no longer bother painting the eyes. I always have a few of these in this pattern plus brown/white, chartreuse/white, gray/white, and all white in my box when I head south. They are easy to tie which is good because I tend to loose a lot of them fishing around rocks.

I caught this fish near Loreto in January.

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