Many a fly fisherman dream of being able to go out on a panga in Baja Mexico and chase one of the Americas greatest game fish. Beautiful blue water, sun shine and calm seas. Well calm seas to a point once you have a Roosterfish chasing your fly, you see the distinct dorsal fin cutting though the water and the explosion they make when they strike and turn. Calm is definatly not the term youll be using. We were lucky enough to save up enough money to be able to chase them for a second year in a row. The first time we came away with just a baby Roosterfish (which was still more than lots of people have caught). This time we werent coming home without a big boy.
We flew into Cabo San Lucas and chose for the week we were there to be able to fish for 3 days. The first day of fishing we went out of the marina in Cabo and went with Baja Anglers in the hope of chasing Striped Marlin on the fly. We went into deep water first thing in the morniong looking for Marlin. Since this is not a fish I have ever targeted, I had no idea what we were looking for or how we would fish for them. Well soon after getting out deep we coudl see the tail fin sticking up and the fish riding the waves like it was surfign on them. So the way we would get them to come in was trying to bait them in with a real fish and then rip the bait out of the water as they got closer and cast our fly out and hope they see it. Well, this didnt work because out of the 5 fish we saw none of them seemed hungry and wanted to investigate our teaser. So we decided to go where there was an underwater canyon and see if we could tease anything off the bottom. This time it worked….. a 5 foot hammerhead shark came out of the deep to investigate and we ended up teasing him in and hooking up. He almost got away after the slack line went ripping out and the fly line got wrapped around one of the cleats on the side of the boat. Luck was on our side and we got him in and got our pictures and sent him back to hunt another day
After the release of the shark we went on the Pacific side of the Cabo penisula and tried to tease up some Pesca de Gallo (Roosterfish). Our guide had a top water popper that he would cast out and reel in quick to see if we had anything chasing it. As soon as we saw exploding dorsal fins on top we knew it was go time. We would get our fly ready and cast at the fish coming in and strip, strip, BOOM!!! Fish on…… (special thanks to John Haddock for the flies). What a fantastic feeling it was having the tension on the line and the drag running. Good sized fish to the boat and boy were we happy. Fish after fish hooked up, little did we know about the size of fish to come the next two days.
After we got back to the dock we picked up our rental car and hit the road for a two hour drive north out of Cabo. We followed the Pacific Coast until we had to cut inland and head down two lane roads through one horse towns . We had set up our guiding for the next day with Juan Lucero Fly Fishing and Juan had set us up with a small ocean front hotel in the town of La Ventana. We checked in, ate some dinner and got up the next day at 6:00am for a 30 mintute drive east to a cove name Bajia de los Muertos ( Bay of the Dead). We met up with our guide for day 1 named David. Last time we went fishing with them we went north toward an island. This year we went south and got our bait and then cruised to where we wanted to fish. David threw out some bait and with in minutes Katie was hooked up and caught a massive rooster. Within 30 minutes of cathcing the first fish we were doubled up. Througout the morning we had constant tried at darting roosters and ended up loosing 2 and landing 3. We went back to the bar in the bay aroudn 12:30 after trying to catch snapper and other toothy critters to have a couple beers and some food
After an exciting day one we jumped out a bed made the 30 minute drive to the water and greated Jose our guide for day 2. We went south agian getting bait and watching big dorsal fins tear through the water. Katie caught her biggest roooster to date and caught sevearl other species, especially the needle fish, which will not only ruin your excitement when you think youve hooked a rooster but the teeth will tear up your line and youll break off when a Jack Crevelle slams your fly right after you get the needle fish off. We ended the day in what we call the nursery so we could get some cool drone footage.
Needless to say we have become addicted to the exciting saltwater giant that is a Roosterfish. The amazing look of the fish matches the way it fights and watching the top water explosions are second to none. If you ever have a chance to go to Baja Mexico and chase big Rooster conect with Juan Lucero Fly Fishing and you wont be disappointed.
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