Posted in Baja Mexico fly fishing reports and updates

Baja Mexico fly fishing update and report for January 5th 2009

Written by - Jeff deBrown
Owner/Guide
The Reel Baja

Hello everyone,

Wow!!  This is all I can say about the last few weeks I have encountered.  I want to apologize to everyone for not getting a report up for quite some time but I have been very busy fishing.  Since my last post I finished my season in Magdalena bay returning home on the 22nd of December and then going right into Christmas.  On the 26th of December I headed over to Cabo to guide some guests.  I came home to Buena Vista on December 31st to be with my family to welcome in the new year and then it was right back over to Cabo on January 2nd and I  just returned.  I will be headed back over to Cabo in a couple of days to fish with some more of my clients.

Looking back on the 2008 fly fishing season here in Baja it was quite good.  We started the spring on a high note with the North winds ending quite early giving us some excellent fishing beginning in March.  In late March we started to see the bait along our shores and that continued throughout the spring and into the summer and we continued to see good populations of bait all the way until mid November.  This bait provided us with very good fishing in 2008 along our beaches for rooster fish, jack crevelle, lady fish, pompano, and many other species.  Along the beach and inshore fishing for rooster’s took center stage. This past year as we saw very good numbers of rooster fish all year.  Most of these fish were between five and fifteen pounds but do not get me wrong we saw plenty of bigger roosters between twenty and fifty pounds along the beach and inshore if you were willing to put in the time and be out looking for them.

2008 was also a good year for fly fishing offshore here in Baja.  Locally here in the East Cape we saw some good fly fishing for Yellow fin Tuna in late April and early May.  Later in May we started to see the stripe marlin move in and they continued to provide action into November.  I would have to say that 2008 provided us with some of the best fishing for sail fish that I have seen in the past couple of years.  We had heavy numbers of sail fish in the East Cape area beginning in June and some of the boats were still catching them in Mid November.  The Dorado fishing in2008 was over all pretty good.  We saw a good number of Dorado push through in the spring and the numbers during the summer months were average for us.  We did see another increase in Dorado late summer and early fall.

For me personally the highlight of 2008 was the time I spent in Magdalena Bay running my fly fishing in blue water seminars.  I have been fishing in Magdalena for the past few years running trips and each year they seem to get better and better.  I offer many different packages in Magdalena but my favorite is where we live aboard a boat for four to six days at a time chasing the marlin, tuna and Dorado along with a few Wahoo that are in the area.  The blue water fly fishing in “Mag” during the months of November and December is like no other.  Magdalena bay is one of the best places in the world to catch a stripe marlin on a fly.  We see very high numbers of marlin along with all the other blue water species mixed in.

This past year in Magdalena was quite special as we had great action for the minute we arrived on November 2nd until we departed on December 22nd.  We had plenty of marlin on each trip.  At times they were difficult to get the to look at the teasers because this year we had more bait in the water than in previous years.  Most of this bait was small in the two to six inch range and a lot of it.  Do not get me wrong we caught our share of marlin this year.  What was nice was if the marlin did not want to cooperate we had some of the best fishing for yellow fin tuna and Dorado  that I have ever seen.  On one trip we caught a dorado and as the school came to the boat we decided to turn off the motors on the boat.  We did not turn them back on for two full hours as we were free casting to Dorado the entire time that were swimming around the boat.  Most of the Dorado we encountered this year were between ten and twenty five pounds but we had plenty of Dorado that were in the thirty to forty pound class.  The tuna were all very nice quality fish between twenty and sixty pounds with some bigger ones mixed in that took a lot on some equipment and leaving us scratching our heads and saying I wonder how big that one was?

As I write this and reflect on the fly fishing in Baja during 2008 I can not help but get excited about what we will see in 2009.  I believe that we will see some great fishing along with a few laugh’s and the making of some great memories.   I want to wish all of you the same for 2009.  I hope to see many of you here in Baja during the 2009 season.  If you can not get here to Baja to fish just make sure you at least go fly fishing.  I wish you all a happy 2009.

Hit the Bill Williams arm of Lake Havasu searching for smallies.  Seems I was a bit early, which is usually the case, but I did find some stripers and largemouth bass.

Water temps ranged from 49-54 degrees, the water was clear and up higher than I have seen there before.  I saw one other fisherman in the area, so it was a great way to end ‘08 and bring in ‘09.  The smallies must still be out but catching nice stripers and lmb was allright by me.

This area is a huge no wake zone called the Bill Williams Wildlife Refuge.  It even has a ramp especially designated for no motorized watercraft.  It is a kickboaters paradise so big it would take a week to fish it all.  The smallies will eventually come in and I’ll be there waiting.

Kevin, Brandon, Daryl and I decided to try and see what’s going on at Apache Lake.  Hadn’t heard any reports and we were curious as to how the smallies were doing and the trout that were planted last season due to the low water conditions at Canyon.  No big bass around to chow on them so we decided to see how big they had gotten.  After a few hours of bouncing around in the wind and no takes at all we bailed.  I think I see now why I am not hearing any reports on Apache.  Don’t know where Kevin and Brandon ended up but Daryl and I hit Boulder Cove on our way past Canyon Lake.  Nobody but us on the water and the weather calmed down to boot.  We found lots of stocker rainbows back up the end of the cove where LeBarge Creek dumps in.  When the lake was down they must have done some dredging because the upper cove is much more open and deeper than I have ever seen it. 

We even caught a few on top water that were coming up eating midges at the very upper end of the cove.  They wised up pretty quick and we ended up going back to simis, getting hits on pretty much every cast. 

The fish weren’t big, mostly 9″-10″s but if you got one that had a real tail it almost went 12…a real monsta.  All in all a nice afternoon.  If you want to just go get a tug, it’s pretty convenient and I don’t think they’re going anywhere….unless there are still some big bass in there.  They were the perfect size for them.  Let’s hope.

Well my options are now down to 3 places to fish, Becker, Show Low, and then last is Silver Creek. Soon Becker and Show Low will be out of the picture.

I will focus on Silver Creek as this water has some unique issues. This spring feed creek (ditch to others) is at times very difficult to fish if you like to fish the tight areas at the lower end. The upper end anyone can cast in open spaces, so this is why I like the lower section better.

The lower section has bends, straight aways, cut banks,  and banks with reeds which love to steal flies. I have fished this place since it was developed into a winter hot spot and with the incentive fish that they stock now and then make it a good hold over for winter. I will only go there after all the lake have frozen over.

Virgil and I had a chance to fish Silver Creek on Friday 12/12 and it was private water day as no one was there except for the last hour of the day. Virgil wanted to fish the top and off we went for the 20 minutes walk, for anyone who hasn’t been there. We both started the day with drifting midges and pt’s. They have stocked some nice trout in that holding pond (bath tub). By the days end Virgil landed over 10 and I was about 7-8 because I will using very small stuff 22-24’s just to see what type of action I will get.  I will do better next time because I will use the standard ties for numbers.

12/13 We went to Becker and what a wind storm with the lake having white caps from shoreline to shoreline. The ducks on the lake you could see them and then you don’t. The dip between the top of waves was at least 3 feet.  We decided to leave for safety reasons.  You could stand on shoreline and lean into the wind and not fall over.  I dropped Virgil and went home but after 10 minutes I had to get out of the house, who the hell wants to watch TV or do honey-dos……I left in the 50mph winds to Silver Creek.

I get there and everything is blowing sideways. I dress for wind and cold and then rig up (rod is already set up). I use a 7 foot Orvis Small Stream rod with 3 feet of leader, 2 feet of 2X and then 1 foot of 4x for fly. I find this set up to be best for bottom area. I start fishing in the wind and what a day I land 9 fish in the whipping wind and change fly about 3 times. It will take me up to a hour to fish 150 yards and then I will come back to same old spot and then change fly and off to fish same line again, this will happen 3X’s in the day.

I love fish the tightest areas and make that cast to the sweetest spots, you know cutbanks where you know theres  a fish there or 2 and at times 3 or 4, but don’t keep fishing the hot spot move on if you catch 3 in one areas, you will be back with another fly. There are some nice size fish at lower end but they love to hold where you will lose your fly let alone you rig. But for those who can cast and keep your rig and fly you will be deeply rewarded. So come up to Silver Creek and lose those flies and become that better caster you looking to be, remember anyone can fish the upper areas but when it come time to fish big rivers and the one big fish is feeding in that tight spot and you have only one cast, you will catch him because you have mastered fishing the tight spots of Silver Creek.

 Now who say’s this ditch has no purpose, I for one love to fish the tightest areas and not lose those flies.  

CHIEF

 UPDATE: ADOT WILL CLOSE HAWLEY LAKE ROAD (473) ON 12/10/2008 5AM.

Well another weekend and  thought I had some time to really fish for 3 full days of hunting for trout. Well those 3 days just flew by and got my butt kicked 1 day. I don’t expect to catch lots of fish when I go out, I just plan to fish a curtain way, place and time. The benefits come from just good planning.

On Friday 12/5, Virgil and I planned to fish Pacheta but after hearing reports of the lake being frozen we decided to hit Hawley lake hard. Virgil was pumped to catch some browns and hopefully land some nice ones. We drive up with light snow pack on the upper elevations, so be careful and now you have to remember this is the first time we traveled together in one truck. It was good to have someone to speak with, being a lone fisherman a majority of the time.

We get there and start to pack out pontoon and hit the marina but after many cast those browns are not there but did see some nice swirls  and a nice head rise it was a brown.  I decide to hits some old spot and was fishing a DHM with floating line. The rocking bank I was fishing give not hits and then on to the next spot. Tied into a nice size fish but after a head shake or two the hook releases. Dam, I say after many cast and hit 2 spots, nothing. I then head to the main rock point, nothing. I oar to the island and then after who knows how many cast, nothing. What I’m I doing wrong, I know I forgot my luck vest, got to blame it on someting. Have you ever fish and forget something small but it a big issue to you. Well this that kind of day, like fishing without your regular fishing hat it just doesn’t do the trick. I have been 15 miles away from home, and then notice I forgot my hat and I will turn around just to have that hat.  Well anyway get back to Virgil after fishing the island and he says he landed 4-5 fish but small ones. We decidet to leave to Earl Park.

Earl Park kicks my butt after fishing all day and not one fish except for a foul hook-up small to boot. I say to myself I never should have bought that sinking line, don’t even know how to fish it, 45-50 foot cast, great line, sinks well, good brand but just don’t fish sinking line and can’t get into it. I speak to Virgil at the end of day and he landed a nice 22 inch brown which he took a picture of. Well at least Virgil had a good day. I will be back. We decide to head to Becker for the 2nd day.

12/6  We get a head start on Becker, had breakfast locally at Springerville Safire for the Hevuos Rancherous (good stuff best on the mountain). Becker is open and then get on lake for the indicator bite. Long story short, 7-8 fish with the biggest being 19 inches long and Virgil landed over 12 fish. Did get to fish with Mikey and he almost got skunked but at the end of day he lands 3 fish with 2 being over 20+ inches. Dam, wanted him to get skunked just to give him a hard time.

12/7 Back to get my revenge at Earl Park, water temp 38 degrees. Put that sinking line away, now to fish with floating line with weighted flies and just judge depth of fly. What a great day with over cast  and nice morning, some ice forming  soon to be ice.

I head to my favorite spot and then hook up 3 (17, 21, maybe 19) right off the bat and then move into another position just down some and get another angle and then 2 more (17’s).  I was fishing a floating line with some weighted flies that will fish in the 4-6 foot range with a 18 foot leader/tippet depending on how fast you strip, the long leader set is to fish deeper if you want. I decide to move more toward dam and land 2 more (18’s) in corner.

I move to the other side of lake but just to check formation of submerged log on a new depth finder I was given as a gift but NEVER used it, what a get tool for really seeing whats on the bottom.  I head to my first spot and land 4 more in the same range as above but at the days end I can say “I’m glad to have the ability to fish for trout, to live in the mountains, to know the people  I know (new and old), to have my family so close to my heart, and most of all the water which surrounds me every weekend. Heaven better have lakes/rivers, mountains, and most of all “TROUT”, this fish keeps me in tune with all around me and if I’m happy that all that really counts just like family.

Looks like the ice will be catching up with us and now roads are being closed. I will be headed to the San Juan River most this year then ever with the gas prices being low, the weather will be good this year on the Juan for winter fishing. It will be the BEST year ever for those who go, make sure you know the water is the best bet and if you don’t just give me a call for location(s) and patterns.

CHIEF

Headed up to the Whites Saturday afternoon to fish a couple days with Mike F. and Mike M.  I hit Horseshoe-Cienega lake for an hour on Saturday evening and managed a few stocked rainbows in the 10-12″ range.

 The next morning we headed out to Reservation to try and find some Browns cruising shorelines.  The wind was howling and when we arrived it looked like this…

Not excactly the optimum conditions for spotting fish.  We headed to a back cove where the wind was not so bad and we managed to catch some stockers, but did not see the big browns.  Mike M. did manage to catch a nice rainbow and broke off a big fish on 3X.

We hit Crescent on the way out and it was just a ton o fun.  Mike M. had the hot hand and landed about a dozen brookies in an hour.  Mike F. and I managed 5-6 fish each, a great way to end the first day.  Most of the brook trout were in the 10-13″, a couple that were a little bigger, but all were little fatties that were extremely aggressive.

Monday we headed over to Hon-Dah to secure dates for some outings in 2009 and then over to Hawley.  I got nailed a couple times on my first few casts and Mike F. saw some big fish cruising.  From there it turned into stocker city for me, it seemed like I was getting hits on every cast for a while, just not the kind I was looking for.  Mike F. landed a brown pretty early on.  I ended up rolling over to Earl Park at about 11 and saw some big fish cruising at the dam, just could not get a shot at them.  Rolled back over to Hawley to check on the Mikes and they reported a bunch of stockers caught.  Then of course when I left to go check on the Earl Park fish again, Mike M landed a couple nice browns.  We did not get the monster fish we were looking for, but a great couple days in the mountains…

Steve is an Arizona native and has been working part time at Arizona Flyfishing for over 5 years.  For a guy with full and part-time jobs, it is hard to figure out how he fishes so much!  He is an avid angler and there are not many weeks that go by where he does not sneak away somewhere to go fishing.

Growing up in Phoenix, Steve spent many days fishing with his family.  However, it wasn’t till he moved back to the valley from Flagstaff when a friend introduced him to fly fishing.  Little did he know how deeply he would become involved in the industry nor the places flyfishing would take him.

Besides spending lots of time fishing and camping in the high country of Arizona, Steve has fished in Colorado, New Mexico and Montana just to name a few of his favorite western states.  A few years ago, he had his first chance at saltwater fly fishing in Belize.  He has been back every year since and left more than one sore lip on a fish.

For the shop, Steve often hosts trips and when in town can be found teaching classes, giving casting instruction or just talking about the great fishing around the state.  He is always happy to give out the latest info, so stop in a say hello.

Made it back up to the Whites for turkey day again this year.  Daryl and I hit Reservation Lake on Tuesday in great anticipation of big browns.  Needless to say they didn’t disappoint us.  We saw a brown that was bigger than the 10 lb’r Daryl landed last year.  It looked like a shark.  There were at least 9 other big browns of 5 lbs or bigger along with her.  Hammer, rock, scissors gave me the first shot so I tied on a egg sucking simi and went to work on her.  The hard part of the situation was not buggering all the others around her with a cast and not let one of the smaller guys get to it first.  I had about 6 shots at her and finally a fish of 6-8 lbs ate the fly.  Unfortunately she was coming right at me and opened her big white mouth and the fly popped off.  That was the end of that.  They all vanished not to be seen agian in 5 days.  We managed to pick one up around five pounds on an egg pattern, nice fish but not what we came up for.

We went back again the next day and never saw the big fish all day.  Caught lots of rainbows but no big browns.  Hit Hawley on Thanksgiving and lasted until about 1 pm. The big browns were in there again but didn’t seem to be in the thick of the spawn as much as last year.  They didn’t hang around very long.   The snow and wind got pretty brutal that day so we headed in early and met up with Bobby Domings.  Bobby was nice enough to let us stay with him and whipped up a great turkey dinner to boot.

We fished for the next few days at Hawley, Reservation, Crescent and Tunnel and caught fish everywhere but the big browns eluded us this trip.  Crescent was the highlight with the spawning brookies and fat chunky rainbows up to 18″s on simis off the dam.

The water temp’s weren’t that bad so I think it will be awhile before the lakes freeze up especially if the winds continue.  Should be enough time left for one more pass at the big boys.  I’d love to see that shark again.

As you may know the season is upon us to try to land some of the biggest fish of the season. The beginning of winter is a special time as we confront many issues when we go fishing, the species of trout I’m keying on (BROWN TROUT ONLY), pattern(s), type of line, size of rod, and most important is the lake. Other consideraton is weather, as this plays a important part of spending a full day on the lake.

I find that big DHM’s are my key pattern and back up are buggers, leeches, etc. I like the DHM’s tie up about 3 inches long and up to 5-6 inches. I will look for gray backs or olive back on these patterns as I find them to work best for me in the White Mountain lakes such as Pacheta, Reservation, Horseshoe, Earl Park, and the most popular is Hawley Lake.

The DHM’s ride upright and have this magical appearance of grace in waters. They just look cool and you can clearly see the potential of this deadly fly. They are truly a big fish getter. I have had many experiences of being on water and casting this fly to spots I hold dearly to me on my adventures up here.

I once was on the water at Horseshoe and casting to some submerge rocks and keeping fly in the top 2 foot of surface in this shallow area. There was a boat beside me about 25-30 feet away and while I was working this area and doing this stripe/jerk method (injured minnow) and then one of the biggest hits occured then after about a 14-16 minute struggle I land this brown that was about 12+ lbs. I get a hold of this brown and the boat comes over to take a closer look and asked are you going to have it mounted to remember it and I said “better” I’m going to let it go and just feel good about the moment.

The one thing I see is that when winter time comes most people are still trolling those DHM’s and this does work but wouldn’t you like to have caught this fish casting to their holding area. I find that over time I know where to go to find the best structure on each adn every lake I personally fish. And just like a bad habit those big browns always come back each and every year.

Those points, coves, shallow areas with rocks, weeds, willows, or drop off in what I look for. I most likely will use a floating line with leader about 12 feet long and always use fluorocarbon tippet at 3X and with a BB shot above the fly. The type of set up will enable you to fish it like a jig at times and everyone who fly fishes a lot knows jigs are killer. I love to set up to bring the fly around rocks, boulders, weeds and have fly come around fast and just come to stop and then couple of small jerks to show its injured. At times a barracuda strip is what works and this is just tucking the handle of the rod under your armpit and strip 2 foot of fly line and make sure when you suspect a spot will give you a fish be careful that the hit will have a recoil  as the fihs is one and then slack and then the run. I recommend if you fish deeper go to 2X fluorocarbon.

The rod of choice is 5-7 weight but 5 works for me using DHM’s. A fast action rod is needed for my style of picking line when I want at anytime. The 5wt is perfect for those long cast in wind and if your fly has weight to it.

If you do get a chance go hunting for big browns just look me up and I will show you some nice spots and as the weather gets colder the better the chance of landing that brown of a life-time.

One last thing someone e-mailed me saying I was stating or giving a wrong fishing report. I want to mak it perfectly clear “I said the fishing is good if you willing to fish hard all day and I NEVER said it was easy fishing”. I find when its tuff fishing I’m landing around 10-12 fish and this is working all spots and changing patterns quite a bit, but at times you will have one day with catch ratio is down and then the next day was one of your best days. Just plan on focusing on why you’re here and that’s just be one with yourself, nobody will cast for you and there are bad days on water but I don’t have many of those. And ever I do I look forward to the next day I will be back (tomorrow).

CHIEF

Got away with Brian for a day and a half in the White’s.  Hit Hawley first looking for the big boys we found last year.  They were there but didn’t hang around for long.  We managed to pick up a 4 lb’r before they vanished.  Hit EP for awhile and picked up an 18″ brown but the lake was pretty crowded so we headed back to Hawley for the rest of the evening.  The big boys never returned and weren’t in again this am.  Brian picked up a 3 lb’r but the big boys eluded us this trip.