David Lee
12-16-2011, 10:25 AM
FISHING !!
(yet another disclaimer .... I fished less on this trip than any other . I made at least 1 sesson every day for perhaps 11 or 12 days , sometimes 2 sessons a day . I felt no burning need to do all day trips since my torn tendon issue in my casting arm is still in recovery .)
Like the rest of the trip .... fishing was a little strange . Some species that are normal there were scarce (Lookdowns , Pargo , etc.) , other species were there in hordes (Roosterfish , Green Jacks ...) . The amount of small (under 13 inches) Roosterfish was incredible ! When I started fishing on day 2 , the whole Camp Reef area in front of the hotel was BOILING w/ tiny Roos' !! There must have been thousands there .... same story w/ Green Jacks at Punta Arena - just everywhere on some days . Great sport on a 6 wt. ...
We saw a few large Roos' (up to perhaps 25 Lbs.) , not many chances to sight-fish them . I had one over 10 Lbs. crash into my leg one afternoon while it was chasing bait (I managed to NOT crap myself ....) . I landed a beauty blind casting , and got a great photo ...
Ladyfish were around Camp for the first few days , in mostly normal sizes - they vanished with the start of the wind .... I found a few pods of BIG ones @ Punta Arena a few times in late evening , these seemed to start at 3 1/2 Lbs , and ran to unlandable sizes . I hooked a monster at dusk to the left of the lighthouse one trip .... after it handed me my ass , I actually sat down shaking and tried to sort out what just happened .... and wound-up blowing-off the last 15 minuted of fishable light . That should tell you something about the power and speed of the big ones...
There were Jack Crevelle around everywhere , smallest we landed was 3+ lbs. , biggest was over 10 ? Several big schools of them running a few hundred yards of beach to the right of the lighthouse . We chased them for several hours one afternoon and I learned to NOT run after them .... just pick a spot and wait for them to circle back . It was harder than it sounds ...
The Bonito/Skipjack blew through for a couple of days at Punta Arena , Candida landed two of them . Pretty wild having a shot at Pelagics off the sand . If Pelagics are what you want , Punta Arena is THE place - Dorado were landed on fly a few weeks before I got there , and I spoke to the local Mexican handline legend and was told he had taken a Sailfish off the beach some time back . I believe him ...
Sierra were around the whole trip , most days well out of casting range . We did take a fair amount at Punta Arena , and my last morning in camp had them in thick just 15 feet from where I was standing . They were all under 3 lbs. , and were absolute horrors on a 6 wt. - burning , screaming runs faster than one could react to , and plenty of bite-offs .
Fishing to the North of the hotel was a bit slower - there were large Jacks mixed w/ a few big Roos' killing pods of bait off the point on the rough days . Candida lost several big fish there , I couldn't reach them in the heavy surf/nasty wind .
According to our day log .... we landed 213 fish . Our counts are VERY conservative (after a heavy sesson at Punta Arena , Candida asked me what my count was .... I said 5 or 6 , she told me she watched me release 14 GJ's . Hard to remember the last number when you're covered in blood/scales/trying to get that fish back in and hook another ...) . We do not count hookups , only fish on dry land . I dropped or farmed at least 7 or 8 as many as I landed , you get the picture .
One huge issue to the shore fishing is overharvest . Gillnets were around everyday . And , with the economy in the crapper .... the beach is the local's grocery store . Tourist anglers take limits (and OVER-limits) nearly every day down there .... and almost no one releases Sierra (we toss the smaller ones back) . A great day for us is 30+ fish landed - if the gillnetting ended , 100+ fish days would be a real possibility . Now - think about the cost of your last Montana trip , or how many Steelhead you landed last year ..... what COULD be is almost too much to ponder .
On to photos and fish-stories ....
(yet another disclaimer .... I fished less on this trip than any other . I made at least 1 sesson every day for perhaps 11 or 12 days , sometimes 2 sessons a day . I felt no burning need to do all day trips since my torn tendon issue in my casting arm is still in recovery .)
Like the rest of the trip .... fishing was a little strange . Some species that are normal there were scarce (Lookdowns , Pargo , etc.) , other species were there in hordes (Roosterfish , Green Jacks ...) . The amount of small (under 13 inches) Roosterfish was incredible ! When I started fishing on day 2 , the whole Camp Reef area in front of the hotel was BOILING w/ tiny Roos' !! There must have been thousands there .... same story w/ Green Jacks at Punta Arena - just everywhere on some days . Great sport on a 6 wt. ...
We saw a few large Roos' (up to perhaps 25 Lbs.) , not many chances to sight-fish them . I had one over 10 Lbs. crash into my leg one afternoon while it was chasing bait (I managed to NOT crap myself ....) . I landed a beauty blind casting , and got a great photo ...
Ladyfish were around Camp for the first few days , in mostly normal sizes - they vanished with the start of the wind .... I found a few pods of BIG ones @ Punta Arena a few times in late evening , these seemed to start at 3 1/2 Lbs , and ran to unlandable sizes . I hooked a monster at dusk to the left of the lighthouse one trip .... after it handed me my ass , I actually sat down shaking and tried to sort out what just happened .... and wound-up blowing-off the last 15 minuted of fishable light . That should tell you something about the power and speed of the big ones...
There were Jack Crevelle around everywhere , smallest we landed was 3+ lbs. , biggest was over 10 ? Several big schools of them running a few hundred yards of beach to the right of the lighthouse . We chased them for several hours one afternoon and I learned to NOT run after them .... just pick a spot and wait for them to circle back . It was harder than it sounds ...
The Bonito/Skipjack blew through for a couple of days at Punta Arena , Candida landed two of them . Pretty wild having a shot at Pelagics off the sand . If Pelagics are what you want , Punta Arena is THE place - Dorado were landed on fly a few weeks before I got there , and I spoke to the local Mexican handline legend and was told he had taken a Sailfish off the beach some time back . I believe him ...
Sierra were around the whole trip , most days well out of casting range . We did take a fair amount at Punta Arena , and my last morning in camp had them in thick just 15 feet from where I was standing . They were all under 3 lbs. , and were absolute horrors on a 6 wt. - burning , screaming runs faster than one could react to , and plenty of bite-offs .
Fishing to the North of the hotel was a bit slower - there were large Jacks mixed w/ a few big Roos' killing pods of bait off the point on the rough days . Candida lost several big fish there , I couldn't reach them in the heavy surf/nasty wind .
According to our day log .... we landed 213 fish . Our counts are VERY conservative (after a heavy sesson at Punta Arena , Candida asked me what my count was .... I said 5 or 6 , she told me she watched me release 14 GJ's . Hard to remember the last number when you're covered in blood/scales/trying to get that fish back in and hook another ...) . We do not count hookups , only fish on dry land . I dropped or farmed at least 7 or 8 as many as I landed , you get the picture .
One huge issue to the shore fishing is overharvest . Gillnets were around everyday . And , with the economy in the crapper .... the beach is the local's grocery store . Tourist anglers take limits (and OVER-limits) nearly every day down there .... and almost no one releases Sierra (we toss the smaller ones back) . A great day for us is 30+ fish landed - if the gillnetting ended , 100+ fish days would be a real possibility . Now - think about the cost of your last Montana trip , or how many Steelhead you landed last year ..... what COULD be is almost too much to ponder .
On to photos and fish-stories ....