2020 report from Carl Blackledge in Loreto, Baja, Mexico

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

"Greetings:
Ted and I arrived yesterday after a two-stage flight. We had to spend the night at the Los Angeles Hyatt and both flights went smoothly with planes that were a third full and everyone following safety protocols. Same with the hotel stay.

Today was the first day of fishing for the guides and I caught 3 Dorado right off the bat and soon after Ted nailed one. We saw one Sailfish jumping and there were only 3 pangas out all day and the sardines were easy to catch. Even though this was a slow start we're hoping we arrived at the beginning of the Dorado "season." The ones we caught today were about 15 pounds. Glad I came.
Carl Blackledge"

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

6/24/2020 report

"Greetings:
The ocean was flat on our first day but then it turned into a cement mixer the next couple of days after. We managed to find some Sargasso before we got chased off the water the second day and were hoping to find some Dorado today but didn't.
We did, however, find a killer Roosterfish hole, and had a blast pounding them with our 9-wt. rods using a small tan airhead fly. A few were close to 16 pounds. We're always on the hunt for Dorado but we'll keep ourselves busy with Roosters whenever we can until they show up.
Carl Blackledge"

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

6/26/2020 report

"Greetings:
Wind and rough waters kept us off the high seas today so we went back to the Rooster hole and it was pretty sparse but we did catch a few. We searched out another hole and found lots of bigger Roosters up to about 25 pounds and had a blast with them - love that pull on the 9-wt. High winds are predicted for the next couple of days but when things calm down we'll go hunt for Dorado again. We don't have any competition from any other boats. There are only about three other boats fishing. If anybody's wondering we have not had any virus scares and everyone seems to be doing very well with the safety protocols.
Carl Blackledge"

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

6/30/2020 report

Greetings: This morning we woke up to dark skies and light rain so we decided to head quite a ways south to a place we fished several years ago. We found a great spot with tons of hungry Roosters and landed 65 from 3 to 20 pounds on cast flies (tan and olive airheads). I know we had at least 150 bites, and also got 3 jack crevalle and 2 pargos. We didn't eat lunch, stop for water or even realize it was raining until we were on our way back. Tomorrow we're going to hunt for Dorado again and give this spot a rest for a few days, but I won't forget this day ever!
Carl Blackledge

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

7/2/2020 report

Greetings:
Today we went back to the Rooster honey hole we found the other day and had more action in numbers than we did the other day when we scored 65. We landed 98 in total plus a few rock fish and pargo, but we didn't get anything of decent size. Most averaged in the 6-10 pound range, with an occasional one of perhaps 12 pounds. Definitely a quantity over quality situation, but still a heck of a lot of fun. We did see a few larger fish but no luck with hook-ups. We still haven't seen any Dorado or billfish to speak of, and I think we're going to have to wait for warmer weather and water temps. for them to make an appearance.
Carl Blackledge

15842

[Jay Murakoshi]

All the dorado are down in the Las Arenas area along with the big roosters. Just heard that a few wahoo have been taken. I'm sure the yellow fin aren't far behind.
Damn, what a year to miss Baja. Oh well there's always October, hopefully they'll have a big yellow fin bite going on. I got the 10 and 12 wt ready.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

7/7/2020 report

Greetings:
It seems like the Dorado finally turned the corner. We caught half a dozen today, and one was in the low 20-pound range. The wind is slowing down, the weather is getting hotter and the moon is fading away, all good circumstances for hopefully ushering in big numbers of Dorado. But we have had a ball with the Roosters, and learned a lot about catching them!
Carl Blackledge

[mems]

Cool Carl is learning how to two hand strip for roosters. Now he needs to leave the nursery and go get a Grande Pez Galo.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

7/10/2020 report

Greetings:
Today we woke up to little rain and waited for about an hour and then headed out. Our patience "netted" us seven Dorado up to about 15 pounds, and we saw one billfish today. We're hoping for a better day tomorrow because of predicted hotter weather and calmer seas.
Carl Blackledge

[Jay Murakoshi]

Hey Bill, I just posted some photo's of big roosters on my FB page showing what they are catching right now in the Las Arenas area. This looks to be better than the 2-13 season when we had all those big roosters. Some which were 80lbs. A lot of my clients who cancelled are now having seconds thoughts, but you still have to remember the Pandemic is still happening. I'll peobably be heading down there in October for a week hopefully chasing a few yellow fin and dorado.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

7/15/2020 report

Greetings:
Today was the tale of two species. My boat went out after Roosters which surely missed us after having been away a few days, and today they were more friendly than they had ever been. We had the best time of the whole trip catching a bunch of medium-sized Roosters and double hook-ups were the order of the day. And the other boat in our small group went in a different direction way out to sea looking for Dorado and managed to catch 16 plus one Marlin, and almost all of them were caught casting flies. Tomorrow we head home and I've already made plans to return next year. Rough seas and colder than usual weather notwithstanding, I'm glad I was able to make the trip - it was well worth it!
Carl Blackledge