cont...........
the next morning, Mark and I took off after breakfast to do some fishing while the wives partied around the pool.......................since he just wanted to troll, we didn't book with a fly specialist. I've learned to adapt to pretty much anything and most of the guides down there at least know enough to get out of the way when a flyline zips around. I've had a lot of fun doing this.

Mark is just learning to flyfish for trout so on this trip he opted to use the panga's chit gear. As usual, it didn't disappoint............corroded old rusty reels that look like they were used by Quint in "Jaws", slinky-esque 100 lb test mono that looked like it was spooled on in 1972 and rod guides that appear to have been used a couple decades on a truck winch. Perfect Mexican panga gear..........

I packed light this trip, just 9 and 12 wt sticks to keep things simple. Since you never know when you might run into a big bull dorado or cubera, I took the 12 out in the panga. we only went offshore about 2 miles and since they were trolling, I bucktailed a fly in the lure spread, joining Pedro's pool cue rods for two hours. We didn't catch jack sh!t, but I had some hits that kept chopping my gummies to bits..........I fed them three of these, I guess there were some sierra about. dammit, no wire bite leaders!



The girls chilled around the pool while we fished...........



We then busted over to Medano past hotel row to try a great spot in front of a rock formation where I've taken some nice jacks, roosters, hawkfish and a few pargo over the years. They hooked Mark up with 8" head-hooked live toro for bait. He caught one right off the bat about 10 pounds, so I figured out a fun way to capitalize on his baitfish.




The baitfish would be swimming around right under the surface about 40 feet behind the boat, and you could clearly see when the roosters would come up for a look. I had a shooting head on my stick so I'd toss the fly out there when a fish appeared and start jerking the rod tip in 2' sweeps to make the fly dart around near the fish. Damned if it didn't work................when one rooster was attacking the bait, another one rocketed out of nowhere and slammed my fly. The fight was on.......