Baja Tips

12.01.06 

Sierra Tip: A sierra has a mouth full of teeth and will play havoc with your fluorocarbon leaders. Use flies tied on long-shanked hooks instead of wire. You may lose an occasional fly but you’ll have many more takes. Your choice in flies should “match the hatch.” Since we don’t have bugs in saltwater, the “hatch” is 2 ½ to 4 inch-long sardina. Olive, gray or beige-backed See Through Deceivers should do the trick, but bring a few Clousers in chartreuse or olive to round out your flybox.

12.10.06

Yellowfin Tuna Tip: Often as the fleet of boats grows, the fish will go deeper in the water column. Use a shooting head cast the fly out as far as possible and let the fly sink. Then try 3 or 4 hard pulls, shake the line out again letting the fly sink again. We’ve had great success with this method using this fly:   http://www.bajafly.com/bajawasabi.htm

12.29.07

Ladyfish Tip:  Often called ‘sabalo’ by the locals and “poor man’s tarpon” by some Baja visitors, this is a species usually found along almost any sandy beach in southern Baja.  They can provide countless hours of entertainment for the saltwater flyrodder.

Begin with a small chartreuse Clouser and a 300-grain shooting head system.  Work your way down the beach, looking for signs of surface feeding activity. A stripping basket is helpful to keep your line from becoming tangled as you walk along. Another method that works well if you don’t care for a stripping baskets is to walk just above the water line with your fly line dragging along the sand behind you. Let the shooting head portion extend outside the rod tip and drag along in the water. Then, when you see something that you want to cast to, you can “water load” and cast a good distance with one or two false casts.

After you have made your cast, keep the fly line tight and let the fly sink for a few seconds.  Try a five count. If that doesn’t work, try a little longer. If you don’t get a take, make a few long strips and then let the Clouser sink again.  If there are any’ ladies’ around, they can seldom resist this presentation.

The ladyfish is a fish that is usually airborne the instant it feels the hook, so be prepared. When you feel the take, strip strike, then let the line slip through your fingers and lower the rod toward the surface of the water and off to your side. The purpose of this is to have as much wetted surface on your line as possible so that when the lady goes ballistic, the friction of the water on the line will hold the fly firmly in the its mouth.

If you are planning a fly fishing trip be sure to pack a set of different colored sharpies and some flies tied in all white. Then when you stumble on the “perfect” colored fly you can color the white ones with your sharpie.

Benadryl in both gel and capsule form is a must for your tackle box! Handy in case of stings, bites of any kind of critter you might encounter, including jelly fish, scorpion or bees.

When fishing from the beach barefooted, be careful to watch where you step…better yet, wear beach shoes or sandals. Stepping on a half buried Puffy can ruin a good day.

When the fish are crashing bait on the surface and every cast is a refusal, try slowing down the retrieve to a crawl. A very slow moving fly will often trigger a strike when nothing else will.

It is a good idea to have everything rigged when you board the boat. Can’t tell you how many times I have watched the ‘cluster’ that goes on when you find fish five minutes from the shore. Trying to rig while you watch fish crashing all around you can be frustrating.

When you purchase your bait in the morning, ask where they are catching it. Then you have a good spot to start on the non-boat days if you fish the beach.

Don’t forget to check your line and backing for nicks or signs of deterioration. If it is over a year old…change it.

Don’t ignore your peripheral vision. Often that movement or commotion seen out of corner of your eye can be a piece of the puzzle in locating fish.

When you get that yellow or pargo bite, set the hook and reel those first few seconds. It is critical to keep the fish from darting back into the rocks.

When fishing in a fleet that is tossing out a lot of chum, try to get your fly as deep as possible by casting as far as you can and allowing the fly to sink for a 10 count before retrieving with long sweeping pulls.

When fishing the beach and the fish are crashing close to shore, cast diagonally to the shore - not straight out- keeping your fly in the shallow zone where the fish are the most active.  

Don’t forget the wire! There are still a good number of sierra close to shore.  

Change flies often until you find the right combination of color and size for the day.  

This time of year it is a good idea to pay attention to where you step in the water. Drag or shuffle your feet when you walk! The sting can be very painful! Soak the puncture in the hottest water you can tolerate for at least an hour and if you have a pain pill take one! Apply a topical antibiotic to reduce the chance of infection and seek medical attention as soon as possible.

When trolling teasers for billfish, the best way to control your line is by keeping it in a bucket or container of some kind so that it doesn’t get blown about the deck, being stepped on or tangled. When a fish comes up behind the teaser, immediately drop your fly into the water a short distance so that you can use the water to load the rod. As the person teasing calls for the cast and the boat comes out of gear, with a single false cast, cast your fly across the wake. Don't use the rod tip to set the hook. Instead, strip strike and let the fish run.

When fishing the beach, keep moving until you find the bait. When you are casting, “fan cast” left-center-right, and then move on if nothing happens. Don’t keep casting over the same water unless you see some kind of indicative signs that there are fish there.

At the end of your retrieve, sweep your rod to the right or left to accelerate the fly. If a fish is following the fly, the additional speed will often trigger a take or at the very least the fish will follow the fly to the surface alerting you to its presence.

It is important to keep your rod pointed at the line when stripping. If you don’t, the hook set will be cushioned by the rod tip preventing a solid hookup.

It is always a good idea to have at least one outfit rigged when you board the boat. It is not unusual to encounter some action close to the shore.

It is important to remember to not use the rod tip when setting the hook, strip strike is the better method.

Blind casting is not the most productive way to fish the beach. Try to find an area where you are seeing schools of mullet and then sit on the berm ready to cast when Bubba chases mullet to the shore.

When fishing the inshore watch for fish boiling on the surface and then cast. Usually that will be much more productive than just blind casting.

Slow trolling a hookless sardina is a productive way to attract roosterfish within casting range. When they appear, cast directly at them and begin to retrieve the fly the second it hits the water.

When a fish comes charging your fly, instead of speeding up the retrieve, try changing the cadence of the retrieve. Many times when the fish is matching the speed of the fly slowing down the retrieve speed will cause the fish to run into the fly.  

At the end of the retrieve, sweep your rod off to the side to accelerate the fly. If you have a follow, roll cast the fly right back into the water and strip abruptly.   

Always use fluorocarbon leader material (16 lb. test) for more takes, unless you are in large fish, then go to 20 lb. 

When teasing roosters, use the smallest hook you can find to troll the live sardina. ‘Gamakatsu live bait light with ring #1’ works well to prevent hooking the rooster.

When sight casting for roosters and a fish follows don’t accelerate the fly. Try to let the fish have look by maintaining or slightly slowing the retrieve.

When the dorado charge the boat, shorten your cast and aim directly at the feeding fish, strip a couple of times and if you don’t get a take, pick up the fly and recast back to the same area.    

Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish the difference between a school of baitfish and the pompano…the ones you are looking for, look like submerged dinner plates flashing in the sun.     

Following a storm is a good time to find the color breaks; cruise along the clean side and look for debris that may have washed out of the arroyos.  In the hot weather, the dorado like to gather underneath in the shade of the debris.

When the conditions include off-color water, try slowing down the retrieve speed.