Snook Report

[Jay Murakoshi]

Well, let's start off by saying - it was dead a$$ calm all day yesterday. And when I woke up this morning at 4:15am for my exploratory snook adventure the south wind was howling and I mean HOWLING !
We launched out of the Cortez Club and headed north to Espirito Santos Island for the bait.
A 1 hour bumpy, rock and roll'n, wild ride. This was my very first trip to the island.
We arrived at the same time the bait guys did and had to wait about 45 minutes to get bait.
But hey, I was in no hurry. I sat there trying to readjust my spine and figure out where we were going to fish. Talking to the captain he said there were some mangrove areas in some of the coves that we could check and most likely get out of the wind.
Got the bait and the exploratory trip was on. We found a few mangroves, but there was a problem. Most of them were out of water - a minus tide. So instead of waiting, we went looking for some pargo. That didn't take long. First cast and FISH ON !!!!! and into the rocks. Fly lost. Tied on another one and WHAM, this time I thought I had him, WRONG..
So the captain finally persuaded me to go over to the "darkside". I was hesitant but finally gave in. He put a live sardina on and no sooner as it went out of site this little 5' boat rod bent all the way to the end. GRANDE PARGO was all I heard, then I smelt some burning skin. That was my thumb that was on fire, well not quite. It was sorta like palming the reel except you're using your thumb to keep from getting back lash before you lock the spool. Long story short, he was in the rocks and didn't want to come out and play.
In my opinion, I can get a lot better leverage with a fly rod. Trying to crank this 5' broom stick and long handle reel, you can't get syncronized.

We proceed to catch a lot of pargo and a bunch of yellow tail snappers, some up to 5lbs. I would of loved to see that on my dinner plate tonight, but gave them all to the captain.
I'll wait until next week at Bismarck Cito.

Now for the snook adventures.. You guys remember those beautiful looking coves with all the mangroves along the road to Pichilingue, well we couldn't get within 200 yards of them. Way too shallow, I think even at a high tide and we were in the middle of an incoming tide. We stopped at a few more places but nothing. Then we headed towards a Pemex barge. The captain said that he will usually find a couple lingering under the barge, nothing. So we headed across La Paz bay to the area of Pariso del Sol, the new condo's. Here we found a deep cut channel and started throwing out a few baits. I used my TFO 9' 9 wt and LC 13 to get deep. This is suppose to be the hot spot at the end of Oct and into Nov. It's like the saying "ya should of been here November".
Anyway the winds have died down and he asked me if I wanted to go look for dorado. Sure, anything- heck even a pelican will do. We started heading back out to the open water. He was trolling a couple sardinas to try and bring up the dorado.. We talked for a long time and after a while, I said let's go home.

Now I see why as you pass the guys who are trolling, sitting there looking bored and drinking beer why I love fly fishing.

Remember, it's called fishing and not catching... I really enjoyed the day venturing to new waters and seeing what the other side of the hill looks like

Jay


PS.... I might post some video of my on "the dark side" It won't be pretty

I'll see the new group in 2 days

[FISHEYE]

Jay, I was expecting a big snook in the story somewhere. I bet the snook are in those mangroves. They looked great. As far as trolling, last year I bought a beautiful new gorgeous shiny 20 foot alumaweld and and put downriggers on it so I could troll for king salmon. I did it one time and lasted 45 minutes. I HATE trolling. I'll probbly do it this weekend since the rivers are blown out from snowmelt. I am shooting for a new record- 1 hour.

[Bob Laskodi]

Phil you've got it all wrong!!!! Trolling is just an excuse to drink beer, it's really not for fishing!!! ;<}