Rajeff Sports

I had previously brought down my ECHO 2 Saltwater 6wt with me to Loreto, Baja California but this trip I brought its big brothers, the 8, 10 and 12 wts.

The first day out I chose wisely and had the ECHO 2 10 weight in hand when we made our first stop to fish. It was a quiet spot I had fished before for roosterfish but I usually ended up with triggerfish, fun but not a roosterfish.  On about my third blind cast over some Sargasso covered rocks, my bullcandy fly was hammered and the fight was on. We at first thought it was a roosterfish because it did not run for the rocks to break me off like a pargo or cabrilla would do.  After 5 minutes of tugging the line went tight and it did not move so now we knew it was a pargo and a big one at that.  I gave it some slack and when I felt a head shake, I pulled hard and the fight was on again. Then it happened again but this time we moved the panga to where the line went straight down and we saw what was on the other end…a huge pargo.  But this pargo wasn’t in the rocks, rather it was tangled up in the Sargasso weeds that covered all of the bottom.  It freed itself and after some time, we netted the fish.  I have caught some big pargo in Baja but this one was HUGE….weighed in at 25 lbs later that day. This was the maiden voyage for the Cuervo Especial, the new super panga for Capt. Francisco Munoz of the Baja Big Fish Company.  He was so excited that the first fish to hand was such a big one that there were high fives all around.

The second day out we tangled with big jack crevalle right out of the harbor.  Within seconds of leaving the harbor, we spotted the jacks crashing bait and I made my first cast…and hook up.  Once again I was using the ECHO 2 10wt which proved the best choice for these jacks which are notorious fighters.  I landed the estimated 20lb fish but the school had moved some so we followed about 20 yards and I was hooked up again.  This fish was a tad bigger and just as aggressive as the first. From here we moved down the coast to look for roosterfish, found a few small ones and moved further south again.

We stopped to fish off the big rock in Nopolo where we saw some people hand lining from the rocks. We also found another school of jacks and I was once again connected to a “Toro”, the name they go by down this way.  This one was much bigger than the last and gave me the best and hardest fight of the day. Unfortunately the jack took the fly deep; he was bleeding badly so we gave him to the people fishing from the rocks. The three of them packed up and headed home with their dinner, they were very grateful.

The third day out had us heading north rather than south for some sightseeing with my wife on board and wouldn’t you know it, we run into a school of jacks again.  This was a large school of the biggest jacks we had seen yet and all I had taken out with me that morning was a ION 10 wt to play with. I waited to get in range, made a cast to the side, near the leader and watched him turn the group as one onto my fly.  After that it was pandemonium as we watched a huge jack inhale the fly, then tear about 200 yards of backing off my reel, this fight lasted a bit more than 30 minutes and wore me out.  I always have ‘heat’ on the fish but this guy would not break, heck he hardly even bent.  He was finally netted, bottomed out a 30lb Boga making him the biggest jack of the trip and released in better shape than I was in. It took about 15 minutes to even think about casting to another fish, no matter what the size.

One thing I took away from that last tussle was, I’m using the 12wt next time………………plus I finally landed a golden grouper of which I had been trying for 10 years.

I was always afraid to try a Spey rod because I thought it would muck up my casting stroke, what stroke there is anyway. Well, I received a 7wt ECHO Switch rod one fine day and I have had a hard time putting it down. The first day out on the beach I admit I used it 90% of the time in the one handed mode so I spent a day in the park trying to organize my thoughts and actions into a competent two handed cast.  The next time out on the wet sand I was doing the two-handed-cast-and-catch.

First fish on a two handed rod,

The next time out I used it only in the two handed mode and not only caught 42 surf perch, but I landed some nice big ones like this about to burst mama.

Then I got this big boy on the Switch and I have to admit that the extra almost  2 feet of stick hasn’t hurt the feel.  It’ll also handle the big boys as I snagged a 4 foot leopard shark  and the extra length help lead it on to the beach.

Now all I have to do is decide if it is going to Baja with me this year.

Of course we would like it to be 75 degrees everyday like it is in summer but it just doesn’t happen that way in winter.  The outside temperature goes down as the waters cool off dramatically so instead of wearing a swimsuit you need to break out the waders for those cold winter outings.  We also get our winter swell and truly miss those calm water days.

Winter:

Same beach in the Summer:

Summer:

Winter:

The one thing they both have in common is that I fish a 6wt, ECHO 2 Saltwater model and a Airflo Quickmax 225grn line.  Many prefer to exchange the 6wt for an 8wt and a 300grn line in winter while I’m stubborn and fish a 225grn line year round.  A lot depends on your skill level of surf fly fishing because in essence, you are standing in a washing machine in the winter.  Larger swells and swifter currents makes for a thigh burning workout when you’re holding your body in one spot.  While summer affords easy access and leisurely strolling of the wet sand for corbina.

You also don’t have the water-dogs surfing the waves to within a few feet of you. I literally had to stand between my clients and this seal who would surf a wave in and wait for applause.  He did this four times before giving up on his audience.

Summer is also when these beauties show up in the shallows for some fly rodding fun.

Leopard sharks are great fun on a fly rod but they go deep in winter.

Less species are around in winter but the barred surf perch are bigger then.  The females come in to spawn and it is not uncommon to find 12 to 14 inch fish and on a 6wt, that is fun.

One of my clients with a Mid January 12 inch surf perch. You can see the orange Quickmax 225 grn line on his reel.

Here I am all wadered up with a December perch.

So while the weather and surf may be cold and harsh on most days, winter can bring nice size perch to hand even on light rods and lines so don’t let the gray skies keep you at home.

I made my second trip down to Loreto in July with the intention of fishing the ION 10wt more.  It was matched with a Airflo Quickmax 350 sinking line and handled nicely. From day one we found dorado but never hooked any of the bigger bulls although I managed a few in 30+ pound range. Unfortunately Those went with out pictures for some reason. Next year’s mantra will be “take more pictures”. The average size we tangled with is shown in the picture below.

Along with this shy dorado who did not want to lay still as it tried to get back into the water.

Dorado lit-up coming to hand.

One day we came upon a huge flotilla of dead sardines rumored to have been dumped by a commercial boat from the Pacific side of Baja. The dorado used them for cover and never fed on them while green jacks and black skipjacks hung out well below them but would shoot skyward to take flies.

You can see the dead sardines in the background and the feisty skipjack at hand.

I took some time out from chasing dorado and skipjack to fish inshore for cabriall and pargo. Here’s a nice snapper on the ION 8wt, felt the need to toss a lighter rod every now and again.

Just so you don’t think I leave the ‘little rods” home, here’s a nice little cabrilla taken on an ECHO 2 6wt,

It was very hot down this this July and you can tell by how “damp” I look. The Buff is an absolute necessity to keep from frying your face and neck. It also helps to soak it in the ice chest every now and then to keep you extra cool.

I took these IONs down to Baja to give them a saltwater beating and they held up nicely to what ever I gave them………..I’m already planning next year.

I just got back from my first of two annual excursions down to Loreto, Baja Sur and boy, what a time.  The weather was twice in a transitional stage due to one storm off of Mexico and a tropical storm off the Pacific coast of Baja. Each of these storms caused the dorado action to fall as it has been documented that they well go off their feed with these changes. That was the bad news, the good news was that the area was full of sailfish that were readily taken on a fly as well as the usual inshore fare of pargo, cabrilla, roosterfish and the other normal reef and rocky point dwellers.

The first 4 days were spent chasing sailfish and dorado while the 5th and final day of fishing was spent doing what I really like to do and that is chasing fish around the rocks and reefs. It was here that I got a chance to really work out the ECHO ION 8wt. I paired it with a Airflo 300 grn Depthfinder, one of my Bullcandy clousers and it loaded and cast like a dream.

One of the hardest fighting fish you can hook in Baja is a triggerfish. They’ll turn sideways during the fight and pull like a tractor extricating a stump from a farmers field. That and they make excellent ceviche so if you ever get the chance, don’t discount them as a formidable opponent.

Next up was one of the more exotic looking fish, a Hogfish. This is the male of the species as the female has a yellow and black striped body and the scales almost look reptilian along the lines of a Gila monster.

One spot I like to fish always holds plenty of cabrilla and on this trip it was no different. I landed fish after fish, once going 5 fish on  5 casts and then I stopped counting at 6 for 7 but I continued to catch them at a break neck pace.

The wind came up early as a new weather front was coming in so we left the shore line of Isla Carmen for a secluded cove. I had caught roosterfish here before but not in the past few years but it was the only spot that had castable water. We found a huge ball of bait fish, sardinas, being held captive by 50 to 60 small roosterfish and ladyfish. If one would cast to the edges of the bait ball, you could hook up every time and I did. The only down side to this was that the roosterfish were in the three to maybe eight pound range and I would have preferred to have cast a 6wt but I did not bring it out that day. So no pictures of the many roosterfish landed that day. The wind did eventually find us, sending us back to the harbor early.

Even with the fishing that great, the highlight was having a hitchhiker on the panga that morning. A pelican of advanced years hopped on board as we netted bait and stayed with us as we left the harbor. Motoring out under reduced speeds, he slowly inched his way up from the back of the panga, to near the bait tank. By this time we were up to full throttle but this veteran of Loreto was looking for an easy meal. He finally made it to within range and got three sardinas on his best shot. We chased him off at this point because bait is $15.00 and I wasn’t sharing that much with him and I don’t think he had pockets to hold money to pay me for his meal.

I really liked the way the ION 8wt preformed and look forward to getting back down to Loreto in three weeks to work out some heavier ECHO rods on the dorado and sailfish.

One of the hardest things to do is get trout fly fisherman to fish the beach but getting them to fly fish for carp is even more of a task. The conversations go like this,

Me “You need to get out and try carp on the fly.”

Them “Why?”

Me “Because when’s the last time you had a double digit fresh water fish on the end of your leader?”

Them “Why would I want to catch on of those stinky nasty fish?”

Me……..I repeat my previous statement.

Carp fly fishing is looking like the new thing to do however and I’m trying to convert the masses daily. Most of the waters that trout habitat in hold carp and these carp will take the same flies that the trout are munching on. I get the majority of my carp on a clouser swimming nymph along with a bead head prince nymph. I do however have some that I tied up that work the areas I fish. The waters in my area that hold carp are very muddy so I use what I call, murky mudders. They are a take-off of a surf pattern I use but in brown and green.

Here’s the link to my carp flies.

http://www.flyfishthesurf.com/photo_album2.html

Here’s a shot of a nice carp taken from one of the local muddy canals.

I’m not wearing camo to hide from the carp but rather these pants make crawling down the bank easier and less likely to tear my pants up. But it does help to not wear too brightly colored clothes as the carp can see you better and will spook earlier. Yeah, I got to get a tan hat!

Here’s a lazy man’s way of fighting a fish. Nice bendo in the ECHO 2 6WT.

Not all of the carp are monsters but where the bigger ones pull like a tug boat, the smaller fish will make quicker runs and have much more stamina.

So if you get the chance, get out and go a carp’n.