Last Day

[Jay Murakoshi]

The group is out fishing on there last day of the trip. The past couple of days have been tough with some strong south winds blowing make the fly fishing tough. The south wind makes the trip to the buoys rough and roilly. Making it tough on the fly fishers. Yesterday the bite shut completely off. I noticed the water temperatures dropped at least 3 to 4 degrees from the previous weeks and the early part of this week. Not even the needle fish were around to pester us.
Usually after a couple good days of winds, the water starts to flatten out. Hope this is a true statement today.

Why am I writing this and not at the beach. Everyone seemed to be doing OK and I'm going to get a cortozone shot in the elbow. I have movement up but not down. Too many casting lesson from the boat. And I definitely needed a day off since I've been going almost at full throtle for 5 weeks. I found some time last night to finally sit down and work on the Bass Blast DVD. Went to bed at 3:30am and got up at 5am to see the group off. I got back on to the editing and now just got kicked out of my room by my maid. My last group is due in tomorrow afternoon. Can't wait for next Saturday- COME ON SATURDAY :D

I've signed contracts with the hotel for next year (2009) and already have 31 people who want to deposit for next year. I will be doing a different format for next year, not a big change but a change.
Just found out Alaska Air has solved there flight schedule situation. It wasn't meant to be announced as a cancellation of all flights - according to Alaska that was a computer bloop :( Yeah, right. Anyway, Alaska will still be flying to La Paz but will be flying a smaller plane (77 passenger) turbo prop job
starting in September. Seating will definitely be a premium and luggage could definitely be another factor.

I'll post the fishing results later this afternoon. Hopefully there will be something to talk about

Later

Jay

[Steve Potter]

Jay-
I'll be down there at the end of the month for a week. I have to score a Rooster this trip. Hope the wind is down. Are you still having good fishing with the bubble popper? What has been your favorite color? Next year
Iwant a spot!
Later, Steve Potter

[Jay Murakoshi]

Steve,

My favorite color bubble head has been the Silver/black and the Green/white. But most of the roosters that have been caught have been on the Sea Habit white knight. There have been other people who are fishing out the the hotel that have hooked into the roosters on Sea Habits.
The thing is too cast fast and move the fly fast.

Yesterday the fish came back after a day of no fish and there were a lot of 30lb roosters caught by both fly guys and bait slingers. Even the dorado came back to get into the act.

One more week and then in back to LMB and hopefully some shad and carp.

Jay

[Darian]

Well guys,.... Once again my partner and I had a great adventure and time.... Caught more than our share of fish (No large Roosters, tho....), enjoyed a few margaritas and ate some great food. Met some really interesting people, too. All in all it was a really good trip. :D :D :D

My partner caught the widest variety (species) of fish I've seen, myself. Ten in all with the smallest being a puffer fish. The largest a 25 pound (= or - 1) Jack. She cast to it in the surf line with a 9 weight rod hauled it in mercilessly. :D However, she also picked up a Skippie that the captain estimated at 16-18 pounds. It took her so long to bring that one in I hooked and landed two Dorado (10 and 15 pounds) while that was going on. :lol: We had shots at Marlin and Sails but couldn't hook up.

The hot flies for my partner and I were sea habits; Olive Sardina, Sardina and White Knight. We didn't fish poppers....

We had our share of disasters, too. An Airflo running line parted at the welded loop during a double haul cast and, as a result, my t-14, leader and fly landed on the beach at the town of La Ventana. My first Dorado, hooked up while my partner fought the Skippie, took off for parts unknown, rapped my knuckles pretty good and spun the spool so fast that it disengaged from the frame, bounced on the gunwale and overboard. Now, you might think that this event would result in a breakoff or a lost reel, not so. :smirk: I met the challenge by stripping the Dorado in like a Trout while our intrepid captain pulled the line from the spool into a bucket and, finally, got it close enough to the surface to net. Thereby saving the spool from the depths. =D> =D> The fish was landed without use of the reel. :unibrow: What a team.... BTW, the captains tip was a good one that day. \:D/ \:D/

A tip-top guide fell off a custom TFO rod made for my partner and somehow a snake guide was crushed on another TFO of mine. That didn't slow us down, tho. 8) 8)

There was at least one large seiner around each day and two at times. One day 3 were visible.... :puke: Can't help but wonder how long it'll be before the impact is permanent.... :tear: :tear:

Well I'm back and recovering from my first workout, today. No problem with the weights but a big problem with the extra 4 pounds I put on down there.... :roll: :roll: :roll: Sure wish I could work out a way to spend a summer down there.... [-o< [-o< :mrgreen:

[mems]

Congrats Darian, sounds like a fun and exciting trip. It is cool when the shirt hits the fan and you still get the fish in. I think all salt water guys should know how to hand line a fish in. I will be down with my son next week. He is very excited, it should be a great father's day trip. Post some pictures when you can. Thanks for the update, Don.

[Darian]

Just a bit more about he trip. 8) After thinking about it, I'm amazed at the variety of species caught by my partner and I. :shock: Between us, we caught 13 different species. To give you an idea:

Jack Crevalle,
Green Jack,
Roosterfish,
Black Skipjack,
Kawakawa (a white meat Skippie :?: The captain recognized it and kept it for dinner),
Puffer (not a Bullseye)
Porcupine fish,
Wrasse,
Needlefish,
Coronetfish,
Pompano,
Dorado,
Ladyfish.

My partner caught the larger variety and (think) I caught the most fish. Altho, she had a bunch on. 8) 8) Here's a couple of photo's:

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o31/jockscot/DSCN0001_17.jpg

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o31/jockscot/DSCN0001_12-1.jpg

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o31/jockscot/DSCN0002_3.jpg

I've noticed that my fishing partner has a lot more photo's with fish than I do. :-k :-k Actually, she's more photogenic than I and we had a bunch of double hookups and no photo's of the Dorado (as a result). :lol: :lol:

I recommend going fishing down there to anyone not familiar with the saltwater game and looking to learn.... Jay's a great host. :D :D :D

[Jay Murakoshi]

Hey, I got a great story from yesterday. Tom Ritchie who is from Vacaville had the experience of a life time. By the way, he turns 80 this week.
A day earlier, I was helping him with his casting and finally he could crank off a pretty decent cast. Well yesterday he put his backwards casting to good use. From what I understand, they were fishing around Taco Bell Beach and they had a school of roosters all around the boat. Most of them were on the back side so Tom decided to try making this backwards cast. After loading the rod, he flipped out a 25' cast and his fly landed in the right place at the right time. A rooster had his mouth opened and ready to eat something. Well this something was Tom's Sea Habit white knight. It must of landed right in the rooster's mouth, cause Tom said the next thing all his line was ripping through the guides. He said all he could remember was "my voice saying clear the line".
Now with the fish running towards Mexico City, all he could think about was "I got my rooster". But after 5 minutes, the knot FAILED. But that was all right with Tom. He had the experience of his life time. Although he would of loved to see the fish.
The captain told me that it was around 28 to 30 kilo's - around 60 lbs.
His back here next year to catch the same fish and get his fly back :D

I do a post on the whole trip when I get home.

Here's a photo of Taco Bell Beach

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/jaysflies/DSC_3905.jpg

Complete with a Mariachi Band (off to the right of the palapa)


Jay