Days 35, 36, 37, 38: Triple play at Estero Coyote, home now!
When I last posted I was in Mulege and planning to leave to fish Estero Coyote on the Pacific Side. Day 34 was a travel day. We covered about 150 miles, 130 of it on blacktop and the last 20 on a very rough detour where a new black top road is being constructed to Punta Abrejos.
Our destination was Campo Rene, a fishing and recreation camp on Estero Coyote. We arrived in mid afternoon and had to wait on the tide to launch the boat. We couldn't launch until almost eight at night so there was no chance to fish that day.
Day 36 - We hired William, a 17 year old who, while not a fishing guide, knew the water and especially the channels. Estero Coyote is a maze of sand flats and channels edged with mangroves. The water has visibility levels of only two to three feet and my boat draws three feet with the motor full down. William's fee wasn't much, $20 for a half day so it wasn't going to break us to have him aboard.
William spoke some English so we could communicate fairly well. We left the Campo at about 9am, as soon as the boat was floating off the sand. William asked us what kind of fish we wanted to catch and suggested we start with spotted bass. That was fine with me.
He pointed as I steered the boat and we meandered past the mouth of the Estero into the southern half of the maze. He took us to a floating platform that was the base for an oyster farm and said that the bass usually hung out here, looking for a free meal. Having no clue what to use as a fly, I selected a chartreuse and white clouser tied on a 1/0 hook and cast. I set my wife up with the same.
We were in 20 feet of water and I tried different counts, fishing the water column all the way down to the bottom. Finally, with a 25 count, I started hooking small bay bass and then a decent three pounder. It seemed the slower I retrieved, the more success I was having. Jeanette tired of fishing after a few fish and got out a book to read. I continued and finally hooked into something decent. After a short fight on the nine weight I pulled up a 22 inch halibut. Another cast and another slowwwww retrieve and I stuck another. A third cast and a third fish. This was getting to really be fun. Jeanette got interested again and started fishing but by this time the tide had changed and was going out again. The bite stopped. It was lunchtime. We motored back and tied the boat up, went to the on site restaurant and had some delicious fish tacos.
The boat was high and dry when we finished lunch and we waited until about four before being able to fish again. William couldn't go with us because he had some chores at the campo. We followed the track on the GPS and fished just inside the mouth where William had pointed out another good location for halibut. I stuck two more halibut, this time on a white fly since William suggested that white was the color for halibut when they fished plastics. The fish were small, in fact the biggest fish of the day was the 22 incher that I had caught that morning.
I would have liked to go exploring but there was just enough wind and tidal current that if I was to go aground, it would have been a bear to get off. Too big a boat, too small a puddle! Actually, with local knowledge I would have been fine but I just didn't have the time to put in to learn the estuary.
It was still a good day. I had caught two of the three species that were the staple of the Estero. The only thing left was a grouper.
Day 37 - William had more chores in the morning so we went out by ourselves. The area of the float where we had fished at day one seemed dead so we went back to the mouth where I caught another two halibut and Jeanette caught one. We were going to fish for grouper in the afternoon but the wind came up and blew so hard that it would have been risky to be out in the shallows and almost impossible to cast. We sat on the restaurant patio and watched the day go by.
Day 38 - William was ready to go in the morning. He showed us the channel to the mangroves where the giant grouper fed. I motored down to the end and dropped the trolling motor and headed back up into wind and current, staying about 25 feet off the bushes. William cast a scampi and after about ten minutes of casting, caught a spotted bay bass. On one of his next casts, the scampi just hit the water and was smashed by a grouper. He dragged it out of the mangroves. It was a nice fish of about four pounds and impressive in the fight it put up.
In the meantime I had been casting a chartreuse and white clouser but had no takes in two passes of the run. Since William had hooked his fish almost as soon as his scampi hit the water, I decided to try a popper. The next and last pass of the morning brought nothing.
We went in for lunch and I thought about the morning. I was doing something wrong. I decided that I needed something that would sink much faster, like a weighted scampi. I looked through my fly box and found some striper flies with really big lead eyes. Perfect. I tied a blue and green one to the 40 pound bite leader, followed by the 30 pound leader tied to the LC 13.
We headed back out after lunch. William had to stay and do chores so it was just Jeanette and I. I followed the trail I had marked on the GPS and was soon back at the mangroves. The tide was coming in again so I motored to the far end and pointed the boat into the current and wind and dropped the trolling motor for the first pass.
I started casting and soon found just how far I had to cast ahead to be directly over the fly when the current carried it to me. The big heavy fly sank rapidly and was soon straight down under me in about ten feet of water, ticking the bottom, sometimes sliding along mangrove shoots.
I cast and mended and stripped just keeping the fly at the bottom until passing over it and then started a retrieve. On about the tenth cast I hooked into a solid fish. It immediately headed for the mangroves. I grabbed the fly line and held on, pulling as hard as I could. It was a matter of breaking the fish off or allowing it to enter the mangroves in which case the battle would be over in the fish's favor.
I was able to stop it and brought it to the surface where my wife netted it. A nice 5 to 6 pound grouper. I was pumped. My wife decided it was time to fish. I handed her my rod, my favorite striper nine weight (and her favorite rod too) and got out my light ten weight and rigged it with the same set up for myself.
By this time we were at the end of the run so I motored back to begin the whole run over again. I stuck two more fish, landed the first, a four pounder, and lost the second to the mangroves since I couldn't stop it. I started up again and cast, this time over casting and snagging in the mangroves.
I worked the controls on the trolling motor to take me over to the hung up fly. Jeanette said, "Oh shoot, I'm snagged too." Then she cried, "NO, IT'S A FISH!" Luckily I had just cleared my fly. Her rod was pulled down to the gunwale of the boat and try as she might, she couldn't lift it. She was hanging onto the flyline for dear life since I told her, on no account allow the fish to run.
I worked the controls on the trolling motor to take us away from the bushes. Jeanette tried to lift the rod and every time she did, the fish slammed it back down on the gunwale. I went over and helped her strip line in. I pulled the line from the last eye to her hand and she grabbed it as I reached forward for another two feet. She finally was able to lift the rod as the fish came to the surface. It was huge!
I grabbed the net and in an instant the fish was in the boat. Jeanette was hopping around screaming, "Oh my God. I caught a fish. Look at it! It's huge. It's beautiful!"
We took the fly out and Jeanette held it for pictures. Luckily the boat has a huge live well with a large hatch. We stuck the fish in the live well so we could take it back and show everyone at camp. We made a few more attempts to fish but Jeanette was so excited that we gave up for the day and headed in.
When we reached the camp everyone came to see if we had caught anything and I held up the giant grouper. Everyone cheered, especially when they found out that Jeanette had caught the fish.
This was our last day of fishing. I had accomplished everything I wanted. I had caught spotted bay bass, halibut and grouper all on a fly and had the method well in hand for the last two fish, the spotted bay bass being the mystery fish where I still needed to find the key. I knew when I returned I would be successful right from the start.
Jeanette was almost beside herself. Although she's caught Dorado and sailfish I think this was her proudest catch.
I'm going back next year. I'll probably spend a little less time fishing for Dorado, probably just eight days and then dedicate at least two days to Estero de Coyote and another two days to a second location where the halibut are supposed to reach 30 pounds, the grouper 30 pounds and giant bass up to 50, La Bocana.
Jeanette wants everyone to see her grouper.
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