This week I had the great opportunity to spend the week in Cabo with my good friend and his family to celebrate his old age. We stayed at a snazzy resort that was on the beach in Cabo San Jose. I had two days of fishing on the books with Baja Anglers, one day surf fishing for roosters and one day on the boat fishing for roosters and others.
This picture above is a picture of my guide with a great rooster. He caught this fish showing me what not to do? Sucks, because if I would have casted and doing the "wrong" thing I would have caught this guy.
It was very different from any type of fishing I have ever done. Your cast needs to be fluid and powerful. I had too much of what the guide called a trout "flicker." There are two methods that we tried; stalking and teasing. Stalking roosters is just what it sounds like, stalking. It is sight fishing, but nothing like trout sight fishing you have about 2 seconds to act and your cast better be perfect, because you only get one chance. I tried this for a bit in the morning, but there wasn't much action up in the shallows. Teasing is what we concentrated on. Grant the guide throws some pop gear out with spin gear and the roosters go into a frenzy and chase these "teasers," when rooster is close enough you cast as far and as close as you can to the teaser. This was very tough with 40mph wind into my cast, but kinda got the hang of it by the end of the day.
We fished hard all day and I was beat up by the end of the day. I had 3 roosters on, and landed one. I should have realistically had about 15-20 on. By the time I finally got the hang of the casting into wind and working with the teasers the day was over. The fight of the fish I caught was awesome. They made the 10 weight rod and the Abel reel feel like my 3 weight. I couldn't believe the fight on these guys. They are amazing fish and I can't wait to get back. I definitely caught a fever in Mexico, a fever for Roosterfish.
The boat fishing portion of this trip was a real let down. I planned the surf fishing so we could have a little more difficult day and I could get the rooster on the fly from the surf, and the boat fishing I thought would be the day to get our numbers up.
We started the day off getting picked up in the marina in San Jose. Our guide was Alex and his helper. Brian and Steve started off trolling with live bait, while I was working with the fly rod casting at teasers. I started feeling sick about 5 minutes into casting. 'The sea was angry that day my friends, like an old man trying to return soup at a deli!"(Costanza)
We trolled around for awhile why I sat in the back trying to sleep of the sickness. The helper finally hooked into a Jack and gave the rod to Brian to reel in. He ended up losing it, and so did I. I can handle trolling around in the ocean, but when the boat stops I can't take it long. I yacked in the Sea of Cortez.
We fished for a while longer before we finally said lets end it early. The fish were not biting and our guides didn't seem to know what was going on. To be fair they usually fish the pacific and in trying to save us a drive we fished the SOC. It was still a good trip, and now I know what not to do in Cabo. I wish we would have planned two days of surf fishing. Oh well. Next time...
