Loreto, Baja-July 23rd-July 30th
John Steele and I went with Fishabout and a group of about 35 other fly chuckers to Loreto on July 22 for 5 days of flyfishing for Dorado.
We arrived in Loreto to windy conditions. The group before us had a tough go of it being blown off the water several times during their 5-day stay. Water temps were too cold for the Dorado so there were few to be found. Those are the chances you take, but if you don't go you won't hit the good days either.
Fortunately there were a lot of other species to catch including the hard-hitting hard pulling skipjack, roosterfish, pargo and billfish, all in good enough numbers to keep everyone occupied and happy just as long as your expectations were not inflated.
Day one found us with good weather, an early morning school of Dorado that showed under a discarded tire and several billfish sightings with no opportunities to cast to them. John landed a magnificent jack cravalle in the 18 pound range and I managed 3 dorado all less than 6 pounds and we played with the skipjacks all we wanted.
Over the next 4 days of fishing the weather was mixed with fronts blowing through on two occasions accompanied by winds both those days that made fishing uncomfortable but doable if you adjusted your method and expectations. We started the days in skippyland and fished for pargo and cabrilla in 20 feet of water or less landing 5 fish under 4 pounds on Swisher Baja Specials fished behind leadcore and returned to look for the tire finding it at the end of day number two. It had drifted a little over one mile overnight and provided some action for those who found it early but not for us. We hooked a marlin trolling bait also day two that put on nice aerobics and it left John with one wrap of line on his spool then mercifully it bit through the leader.
The skipjack fell for EVERYTHING. They are the most agreeable fish in the sea of Cortez except maybe for needlefish. It's kind of like fishing at a trout farm. They take with explosive grabs and accounted for no less than 6 broken rods. How an 8-pound fish can pull so hard is beyond me. Bring your older less cherished roods when you fish for these guys.
Day three was a bust and day four saw five sailfish fighting among each other to see who would get the next sardina the guide Umberto was thoughtfully tossing to them one at a time. One of the sardinas they ate had a hook in it. John's.
John tells me it jumped numerous times none of which I remember since just after he hooked up so did I. My fish went straight for the back of the boat and on to never-neverland with me following, falling and following and by the time I had gained some sense of my surroundings, John had his fish to the boat. My fish made one leap 250 yards out and spit the hook, which allowed me to get some nice shots of John's fish and watch as he and Umberto landed it.
Day five was a trolling day to find fish and get them to the boat but they did not cooperate.
I went out for half a day on day six. The weather and water was perfect. We fished close, only 13 miles south of the hotel at Puerto Escondito. It was my first time there. It's a truly beautiful setting loaded with 7-pound roosterfish one of which I managed to hook on a crease fly. Then across to a small island whose name goes forgotten for some pargo and a slow ride back looking across the greasy water for signs of fish sighting two billfish that were so gorged with bait that I could hear them laugh when we threw the last of ours to them.
This is a natural wonderland. The colors of the mountainous desert landscape, the sky, clouds and the light all make for magnificent vistas from the water, avian and aquatic wildlife in so many forms. We saw turtles, frigate birds, whales, dolphin, gray boobies, white boobies, brown boobies, osprey, mantas leaping 4 feet into the air 3 at a time repeatedly. 5 foot long giant Humbolt squid to be caught if you didn't get enough and the people always provided us with their best efforts to make our stay a pleasurable one. See you next year, Loreto. - Harry Petrakis
Keswick Reservoir, Redding-August 10th
Tony Holdren and I engaged the guide services of Chip O'Brien and tried out the float tube ride across this stretch of water. It was a very hot day, with temperatures in the low 100's, so the fish were all deep. I caught one on my first cast, and Chip caught one in the morning, but due to the heat, there just wasn't much action mid-day. I caught a second fish just before we had decided to call it a day. It wasn't very productive fishing, but it was fun, and a great way to cope with the heat. - John Steele
Brian's 4 Bombs-Almanor-June 28th
The Kidd Lake encounter with John Eisenhower just days past, I headed up to the Mt. Lassen area with last year's Lake Almanor experience still fresh in my mind. I was able to convince our assistant casting master - Brian Bommarito to accompany me back there.
Harry Petrakis and I got into the hex hatch and big fish last year around the 16-18th of June. This year with Brian, we were a were about 10 days late as we arrived in Chester on the 28th of June. The big hex flies didn't emerge until dark this time possibly
due to our later arrival. On our first night of Tuesday, June 28th, we kicked off the west side launch ramp area and headed back up the north shoreline toward a cove where local guide Milt Jensen was fishing. Brian stopped midway up and said he was staying put while I continued kicking my way up to Milt's area. That night Brian landed a 24" brown using a hex dry that was to be the first of the 4 really big fish he was to land in a 3 day span.
We spent the night at the local campground and left early the next morning for the Burney/Cassel area. Brian took me to a small spring fed lake where we nymphed from the shallows until Brian hooked another giant fish. In the time that it took me to run back to the car and get Brian's camera he had successfully landed the 24" rainbow for Big Fish #2. I drove back to Chester that afternoon for another night on Almanor but agreed to meet up with Brian the next day at his lake but this time with my float tube. Thursday late morning I made it back to Brian's lake but was too tired to haul my float tube down to the water. I could see Brian out in the middle area and let him know that I had arrived.
Within 15 minutes of my arrival, Brian was onto another (Big Fish #3) toad. This time he was dragging a small streamer pattern using a 9', 4# rod with 5x leader and tippet attached. It took Brian a solid 1/2 hour to bag this bad boy. Using his rod as a measuring gauge we set the length of the rainbow at 29' and the weight we estimated at 10 lbs plus. This was the largest rainbow I had ever seen. We were both incredulous. That afternoon I drove back to Almanor for my 3rd night while Brian stayed in Burney. The next day Brian was again in his float tube on the same lake and managed to hook onto something that tore the butt section right off of the end of the fly line (Big Fish #4). Way to go Brian! You can ask Brian for the name of the lake and where it is but I have been sworn to secrecy. - Tim Loomis