Hey Mulege!!

[jbird]

Wheres are boys down south? I'm jones'n for a report!

Everyone allright?

Jay

[JerryInLodi]

Jay, remember that adage, if you can't say anything good, don't say anything at all? First let's talk about the wind. It has been windy here up until yesterday. That doesn't mean that we couldn't fish, we just couldn't go anywhere fast. The fish at Mulege are 25 miles out and directly to windward. That means that we have to plow through 3-5 foot swell with an occasional series of 6 footers thrown in.

If and when we get there we can find only single dorado. Never two fish at the same location, meaning that we catch one on the conventional gear and then have nothing to cast to with the fly rods. About a third of the days we decided it just wasn't worth it for the two hour ride out and the hour and a half ride in. On those days we went clamming, fished rockfish or chased roosters.

The roosters are VERY particular. We have had them bump the fly but only occasionally. We have found huge schools of them, sometimes 30 in a school, most from 8-15 pounds. We have tried every fly trick we know, casting, casting and sweeping the fly, trolling poppers, fast trolling a fly with the boat, all to no avail. The only way we could catch them is on live bait. In that case it would be suicide for the fish and we really didn't feel like it.

We towed the boat up to San Bruno and fished the squid grounds at Santa Rosalia and outside San Marcos several times and are going again today. We found the same conditions as Mulege. Single dorado and a few marlin and sails out deep. That is very unusual for Santa Rosalia since the dorado are usually packed there, eating the offal from squid nightly as the squid fishermen clean them in their pangas. The squid fishermen report that there are practically no dorado coming to the boats at night. In normal years there would be thousands.

I have never seen Baja like this. In addition, bait fish are hard to come by. Sometimes we leave to the blue water with as few as four baits in the tank. Of course, we haven't had much use for them.

I'll post one more time when I get home about the overall trip but right now, as you can see, I'm concerned about the Sea of Cortez, both from our results and from what I've read from other posts.

[jbird]

Jerry...and company

The weather up this way has been a little unstable pretty much the whole time you guys have been there. I have noticed over the years that the weather up here effects the wind direction and ferocity down there. My point is that its supposed to be 100 for the next few days here. Maybe that will bode in your favor and those darn seas will lay down for ya.

Thats just crazy tho! The only thing worse would be if Mexico was all out of beer :D Good luck guys!

JAy

[JerryInLodi]

We took the boat up to Santa Rosalia again today, looking for fish. The water was an unbelievable 73 degees! Cold enough for trout fishing! We found paddies everywhere, even some very large ones, with absolutely nothing underneath.

It's not that fishing is bad, we could catch all the skipjack, rockfish, trigger fish and ladyfish we want on the fly rods. In addition, if we wanted, we could catch 15 roosters a day each on bait as well as hook up to one to three marlin or sailfish each day, again, on bait.

The problem is there are just no dorado around and that's what we are here for. We'll go out again tomorrow for the last time, this time at Mulege. Perhaps the fish gods will have mercy on us on our last day. Who knows.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Over the past 20 years of taking groups to the tropics for inshore, offshore and flats fishing I have noticed that the winds can averagely be lower in July/August but still nor guarantees.

The hurricane season in the south is June through November but that is like 'Russian Roulette'.

Wind is a big problem though with all open salt water fly fishing.

Besides the weather, you have the cycles of the fisheries so all fly fishing travel is a gamble.

You have to enjoy more than just the 'catching' to really be a happy fly fishing traveler.

[JerryInLodi]

Bill, having fun in Mulege is not a problem. You almost have to try to avoid it. We'll be attending our fifth block party tonight in less than two weeks. On the menu tonight is dorado, clam chowder (the left overs from our clams and the Tuesday night block party). Tomorrow night we're going out to dinner at Equipalias, a very fine restaurant and then we'll be on the road home.

It is disappointing though to come to Mexico and for the first time in 14 years, and not catch a dorado on the fly! Not to mention that I usually catch more than a hundred on the fly on each trip!

On on the block party thing, I forgot to mention the margaritas. Attitude adjustment medicine for a lack of dorado.