Day 6, Dorado: Dialing In...

**JerryInLodi** · 06-21-2006, 02:19 PM

With little possibility of catching bait in the bay I didn't bother to go out early, instead leaving the harbor about 7:30. I was dissappointed to see the four purse seiners still in the bay, this time working the deeper sections.

With no bait to hold the fish to the boat I thought I'd do some scouting to see if I could find some patties out past the little islets of Santa Inez. As I motored past I saw two pangas with divers working on hookas. I have no clue what they were fishing for, lobster, octopus, scallops? As one diver went over the side I could see a large collection net in his hand but I didn't wait around until he came back up to see what he had collected.

I set a line on the GPS from my position at Santa Inez to the location where I had caught dorado earlier in the week. This line passed through some of the most productive water I had ever fished in the past.

Several miles out I dropped both hoochies and started trolling. I trolled for half an hour with no result so I pulled up, motored another five miles out and dropped the hoochies again. Almost instant hookup. A small female. I brought her close to the boat and hung her out and started casting my fly rod. Nothing. After ten minutes I brought her in. She had the hook in her gills. I wacked her over the head and filleted her on the spot and put the meat in plastic bags on ice.

I started up and not more than five minutes later another hook-up. I reeled the fish in and this time hung it out with a little more distance from the boat. I picked up my fly rod and did a circle of casts with no results. I cast what was supposed to be the last cast and when the fly touched the water, it exploded. A huge male, somewhere between thirty to fourty pounds grabbed the fly and did a 30 yard tail walk, all the time moving away from the boat. Then a series of porpoise jumps causing my fly line to shrink on the reel like a wool sweater in a hot air dryer!

After a postage stamp stop he was off again. I was trying to make up my mind if I should cut the female hung out the stern off and follow or just take my chances. The big bull made up my mind for me. It stopped. I put pressure on. I began gaining line. I reeled in all the backing and was starting on the 200 feet of amnesia when it made another run. This one was shorter. I again got back all the backing and was starting on the amnesia. I was almost to the shooting head when the line went slack. No real surge of pressure first, just a slack line.

I had been wondering how I was going to handle this monster at the boat and now I didn't have to worry. I reeled in and the line felt slightly light. I saw the end of the fly line but no fly. On examination I found about half my 15 pound test maxima with an almost knife cut type break but with a tiny curl. Wind knot! Damn. My fault!

I rigged a new leader and tied on a new fly. I figured the action at this spot was just about over and then caught the sight of three medium sized females on the port side of the boat. I screwed up the first cast in my nervousness and it fell short. A fish darted at it but dashed away at the last second. I made a second cast. A grab but no hookup. I finally got off a decent cast and instantly was hooked up with a six pound female.

The fight was short, fun and I released her in the water. I stripped off ninty feet of flyline into the boat and cast. Perfect. Bang, another ten pound female. A little stronger and she gave me a good fight before being released.

Strip off another ninty feet of line. Cast. Big swirl and a jumping fish. This little girl was probably not more than twelve pounds but she must have had PMS because she was GONE! The 200 feet of amnesia could be seen a hundred yards away. My backing was half gone. She stopped and I started reeling in. The process was slow. Usually dorado tire quickly. Not this little lady. She fought all the way to the boat. I felt bad in that I had to tire her out and hoped she'd live through the stress. She still had good color and was still lit up when I turned the hook out.

I could no longer see fish near the boat. I cast in the direction of my judas fish but nothing. I put the flyrod down and reeled in my accomplice and released her. My watch said a quarter to noon. I could begin the whole routine over again or I could head in.

It had been a perfect day. I figured I'd collected enough memories. I fired up the motor, set the revs at 3500 and pointed towards El Somberito and the harbor. Old skills were coming back.

One of the purse seiners

A dorado with PMS