East Cape report
to view pictures of the trip go to the
www.backwaterhawgs.com website and click on saltwater link)
I think we fully realized that we were finally in Mexico after we passed through customs and entered and waited for 50min at the car rental station. 5 minutes, Senor, we are cleaning the car. A Mexican minute takes a long time. Another hours drive and we entered Los Barilles. The Los Barilles Hotel was very nice. Affordable clean rooms, close proximity to the beach, restaurants, and cock-fighting arenas etc… The Beach fishing turned out to be pretty good. No rooster’s or jacks like we had hoped. But my brother did see a pair of Roosterfish near the Lighthouse. It chased his fly twice, but no hookups. We got a pair of ATV from the Amigos rental service in Los Barilles for 400$ for 4 days. 50$ per day turned out to be a good deal. Some negotiation was required to get that deal. If you are going to Punta Colorada, rent the ATVs at Los Barilles; else it is 130 a day at Punta. Driving the ATV’s around is a blast. DDS caught a pair of exotic looking Cubera snappers very close to shore. The second one was caught early in the morning after seeing splashes. Your best bet is to find small jetty or rock pile in the water. Schools of large Ladyfish and Mexican Lookdowns patrol rocky beaches and in one evening we probably hooked 15 ladyfish. On out third day we made a trip over to Punta Colorado to catch some Roosterfish. In the Morning DDS and I got a Panga and headed out to Rancho Leonero. Our Captain put us on about 4 different Schools and we landed 5 or 6 Mahi-mahi ranging from 10-20 lbs. Seeing the Dorado light up and chasing live baitfish around the surface has become a reoccuring theme now when I am dreaming. Because the water was clear and calm some of the fish payed little attention to our flies. And we became frustrated trying watching a pair of 50+ Dorado turn away from near perfect presentations. We also had a few dozen Needlefish to avoid during our casts and a crazy Pelican with an appetite for epoxy flies. We did get into 2 schools of Dorado that were biting and managed to land 3 on flies and the rest on live sardines. DDS caught one on an 8 wt and I landed one on a 10 wt. I also hooked a large one probably weighing 25 lbs+ on my spey rod, but left it in the water to attract other Dorado; eventually it got loose. DDS reeled one in weighing 15 lbs or so on a 10 wt caught on trolling. Later DDS had one Dorado take his fly on trolling, but lost it.
Needlefish put up a good fight on fly tackle as well and some can reach over 3 feet in length. We quickly found out that these were the Trash fish of the East cape because you could not troll more then 5 minutes without getting a bite.
I think some higher power was testing my pain capactity that day because I felt every type of sickness I can imagine. In the Morning I had Montezumas revenge, then seasickness, then a heat stroke ( drink lots and lots of water) which manifest itself in a pounding headache and shivers like you think that you are getting the flu. When I though all was over I got a bad toothache. So we decided to skip the next day of panga fishing and try to catch some fish from shore. We had a slow day. I did get to see my brother hook up on a Dorado in his boat while I has fishing from Shore. They teased up several Roosterfish on live mullet and hooked 5 and lost all of them. Well, I guess we will have to return to get a Rooster. Ok here is the cost breakdown:
Airfare: Houston to San Jose: 431
Rental Car: 50$ per day
Hotel: Los Barilles 63 per night
www.losbarilleshotel.com
Hotel Punta Colorado: 55$ per person meals included
www.bajaresorts.com
Restaurants: Tio Pablos: in Los barilles the best nachos anyway.
Buena Vista also had a good buffet for 15$ per person
ATV: 90 $ day, 250$ for 4 days, and 400$ for 2 for 4 days.
Panga was 240 per day (up to 3 I think on one. 2 is better).
Rods: 8.10,12 wts.
Rods broken: 8 wt sp, 8 wt SPL, and another 8 or 10 wt sage.
Reels: Ross canyon, Lamson litespeed, Okuma Integrity, Tibor ( others were used and broke down)
Lines: Intermediate clear worked the best. Sinking tip and sink tip caught fish
Flies: anything flashy for the Beach. We ran out of clousers pretty quickly. We used big Mullet and Sardine patterns for Dorado.
Leaders: 4 feet of Flourocarbon worked for the Dorado. For the Beach we used 6 feet of Froghair Flourocarbon.
The East cape is a great Do it yourself Fly fishing destination. Go and catch fish!
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