More Reasons to Fish Baja EAST CAPE, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO Wed., June 13, 2001 TEMPERATURES: High of 88 with a low of 71 and clouds in the morning. STRIPED MARLIN - Fair catches. YELLOWFIN TUNA - Good catches in front of La Ribera. DORADO - A few large ones here and there throughout Las Palmas bay. ROOSTERFISH - They are back in front of the hotels and in front of La Ribera. JACK CREVALLE - Near the lighthouse producing excellent catches of quality fish. BARRILLETE OR MEXICAN SKIPJACK - Plenty in front of La Ribera. PARGO AND CABRILLA - A few fish at Punta Colorada. .. OFFSHORE: Marlin continue to be spotty, while most of the dorado are of the larger variety found in open water; there’s a good tuna bite off of La Ribera. .. INSHORE: Still the better bet with roosterfish, jacks, sierra, pompano and a few pargo to boot. .. BEACH: This is has been the year for the larger jacks as well as a few quality roosters. .. QUICK COMMENT - Russ Pittis, Anacortes, Wash., fishing with our guide Chris Sorenson on the pontoon boat, has had a great week achieving his ambition to catch a rooster on the fly as well as quality sierra and a good-sized jack. And they all were on the flies he personally tied for the trip. Green/Chartreuse/White deceivers did the trick. Not to be outdone, fishing tackle manufacturers’ representative and award-winning photographer Brian O'Keefe, from Gates, Ore., fishing from the beach at Punta Arena on Sat. night before leaving with us Sun. morning to go to Magdalena Bay, caught a 20+ jack from the beach. It took him 45 minutes to land the brute on an 8-weight rod. See our new feature Catch of the Week http://www.bajafly.com/weeklycatch.htm MAGDALENA BAY, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO Wed., June 13, 2001 Temperatures: 75-degree high; low in the mid 60's. Fair skies with strong wind in the afternoon. TUNA - No catches reported. YELLOWTAIL - Pretty slow CORVINA - Fair catches throughout the bay. SNOOK - Good catches at Mario's spot as well as several deep holes below Devil’s Curve. HALIBUT - Fair catches at the bocas. .. QUICK COMMENT - Brian O'Keefe and Judith Leach, from Gates, Ore.; Don Sloan, Borrego, Calif., and I left the East Cape at “zero dark hundred” on Sun. (6/10) morning so that we could fish the afternoon in the esteros. We arrived at 11 a.m. and we were at our first estero by 11:30. Brian took one warm-up cast and then got down to business and caught the first snook of the day on a small chartreuse and white Clouser. We only fished until 4 in the afternoon, but still managed to land three snook, pompano, spotted bay bass and pargo. The following morning (6/11), we left at gray light for a long ride to Alemejas Bay to check out a few esteros that Western Outdoor News columnist Fred Hoctor told me about. After trying to get into our primary goal, but failing because the tide was too low, we moved down to the last boca in the bay where there had been rumors of very large snook. While we did catch some halibut at the entrance, the water was off color and the wind was howling. Now that the tide was a little higher, we went back to the first estero and we were barely able to get in. As we pulled over the sandbar and into deeper water, we could see broomtail grouper, pargo and snook laying up under the mangrove roots. We quickly anchored the boat and two of us cast from the beach and two from the boat. We got ripped and even with lots of broken tackle we still all caught the largest grouper and pargo of our fly-fishing careers. Add a few more snook, and we had a great trip.