Day 15, Fishing can be a social affair!
Making bait can be fun and so Jeanette and I were up at five so we could be outside the harbor at first light at six to “make bait.” We saw a panga already working the water and motored close before killing our engine. My wife recognized the panga skipper and called out, “Hey Mateo!” He had not seen our new boat but as soon as he heard Jeanette he called out a big hello to both of us. We chatted a little bit and praised the good fishing but he decried the fact that there were no clients. We told him we hoped that would change in the coming weeks and then started jigging the bottom with Sabiki rigs looking for mackerel and big eye. Forty-five minutes of jigging produced only a dozen baits and half of these were bottom fish. The results of the purse seiners were still with us.
Having a good target from yesterdays fishing on the GPS made our starting location easy. The 45-minute run cooled us down in what looked like it was going to be a hot day. Jeanette buttered herself with sun tan lotion and insisted I rub some of the gooey concoction all over myself as well.
The calm flat water with a star shaped pattern of weed paddies looked totally different than yesterday with the only remaining occupant being one seal that stuck its head up as we slowed to 1800 rpm and put out the hoochies. After three days of trying hookless hoochies I had tied the 5/0 hooks back onto their skirted attractors. I’d save my experiment with sailfish tactics for another time. We picked a heading of due east and settled in, waiting for the first strike.
The “Captain Ron” three miles further out called to “True Blue” on the radio and reported that he had just found fish and had a double hook up. No sooner had he spoken than our starboard hoochie was struck by a Dorado who was off and running. Jeanette grabbed the conventional rod and I shut down the motor and reeled in the hoochie on the other side before grabbing my fly rod.
Dorado by the dozens were coming to the boat. I cast and stripped but was ignored until I fired a ninety footer well away from the boat. A nine-pound female grabbed the fly and began her acrobatics. Jeanette brought the little eleven-pound bull to the boat and I netted it and put it on the deck for dinner while still holding my fish. Jeanette picked up her rod and after a couple of false grabs was stuck fast to a fish. We stayed doubled up for two more fish before the Dorado lost interest.
I started to regret all the tanning lotion I had obediently rubbed all over my face and arms. I was pouring sweat and it was being carried into my eyes, which were burning fiercely. I toweled off but it provided little relief.
In the mean time we had called, “Solo Angel” over telling him that we had fish all around us. He was eight miles away when we called but had covered the distance by the time we had boated our last fish. Dustin of “Solo Angel” was soon hooked up and called us over saying that his boat was surrounded by hundreds of fish. Another boat, “River Rat” was close by and said that no, there were thousands. Dustin asked whether it was hundreds or thousands and I answered back, “Hundreds of thousands.”
We had dropped the hoochies again on the way to “Solo Angel” but hadn’t moved more than two hundred yards when we were struck again. I offered Jeanette first cast and would have reeled the fish in on the hoochie but she said she was tired. I looked at my fly before casting. It looked like it needed a good shampoo and especially some conditioner. It was a tangled mess. I shrugged and cast far from the stern of the boat and was hooked up immediately. Another 10 pound female.
The fish that was hooked on the hoochie was hooked so deeply that it was definitely a keeper and Jeanette left it on the deck once boated. She picked up her flyrod, cast and LDR’s several fish after getting some decent runs from them. I brought my fish to boat, half blinded by the lotion, and Jeanette expertly netted it.
I filleted the fish on the deck, all the time swearing about not being able to see and then toweled off again before picking up the flyrod for a few more casts. No fish were in sight so I started tossing out the baits we had in the live well. We were instantly surrounded by marauding Dorado. I cast and was grabbed five or six times but missed the hookups.
We were out of live bait, we both were tired, my eyes were burning. We could have started up the boat and dropped the hoochies and started the routine all over again but decided we’d had enough. We had the fillets of two fish on ice in the cooler and had brought another five or six or seven to the boat on la mosca. We headed in.
Jeanette's first of the season's Dorado on a fly.
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