Baja mangrove fishing with a fly rod

[elmucho]

Baja mangrove fishing with a fly rod is crazy, crazy fun... been going down there to surf and fish since I was 10 (53 now) - it's probably my favorite place to fish. I could talk about it at length, I don't want to high jack this thread too much so I'll just post a couple photos of some of what we catch... and this is just in the mangroves... I also fish So. Baja islands for dorado, wahoo and roosters... and pargo, the pargo are brutal.

I'll start it off with the "Baja Steelhead" aka the corVina... There are tons of corVina- this is an average sized one, there are much larger corvina in there and they love to eat baitfish pattern flies... and poppers.

Lots of corBina... even better to eat than the corVina...

Juvenile broomtail grouper - I fish them right in the sticks with poppers and Murdich minnow fly patterns... they will break 20lb leaders.

We catch and release all juvenile groupers - the local fishing cooperativa asks us to do this so that they can grow into 200lb monsters just offshore.

Spotted bass by the hundreds - tough little fighters and fun all day long...

Lemme know if you want more info and pics of Baja inshore/mangrove fly fishing- but also let me know where I would create a thread for that. Baja is still an unbelievable place to go fishing.

 

[Snopro]

That was awesome!! Thanks for sharing. I seriously want to go there now. I've been down as far as San Carlos on the Pacific side, no mangroves there.

I'd like to see more.

 

[elmucho]

That was awesome!! Thanks for sharing. I seriously want to go there now. I've been down as far as San Carlos on the Pacific side, no mangroves there.

I'd like to see more.

San Carlos is a sweet spot...I'm predicting you're a windsurfer or kiter. Fun surf there too as long as the winds not cranking AND there's white sea bass and yellow tail in the kelp beds just offshore. The closest mangroves on the Pacific side would be at the esteros at Abreojos or La Bocana - you need some kind of kayak or skiff to fish them well but you can also walk across the sand flats at low tide and fish the deep channels. Here's a few more shots.

This is camping Baja... find a place and set up your camp! The estero is to the right of my truck, this is low tide so you'd be walking over the bottom of the estero to the deep channels. The open ocean is to the left of my truck, you can walk to the water there in a couple of minutes.

This is one of those deep channels at low tide - they look like rivers and you fish any deep holes or spots that you can cast into the mangroves. Here I've just caught what looks like a juvenile grouper.

Having a way to get around the estero is key - almost all of us use the old Hobie i11s (now called the iTrek) which comes with the super important 180 drive that allows you to go in reverse - this is key to holding against the swift tidal currents and is useful for pulling grouper out of the mangrove roots.

A small halibut. The estero is loaded with small to medium sized halibut and these guys will happily take a fly I've caught probably a hundred on a fly... pro tip: gold and silver kreelex.

It's a Huck Finn adventure down there. There is total quiet, and you probably not see a single other person the whole time you're there - you will see all kinds of National Geographic scenes like dolphins slapping halibut up into the air out of the water and coyotes cavorting with their pups in the surf on the beach... it's a crazy place. I love it down there.

This is a corBina which is an excellent game fish, in the winter in the mangroves you can sight cast to them - these guys will pull drag... oh and they're delicious to eat too.

I haven't even touched on the beaches near La Paz at the very bottom of the Baja peninsula. We catch roosterfish right in front of our campsites down there - for the bigger roosters we hire out pangas and head out to Isla Cerralvo where we catch roosters, dorado, pargo (snapper) and all kinds of crazy toothy fish. That fishing is a whole other story.