Just returned from a trip to Loreto, Baja. I was invited down by Tom Horvath and his buddy Skip Culbert to try some of the infamous summer dorado fishing Loreto has to offer. I contacted always willing George Stephan to help fill out my boat and off we went. I hadn’t been down in seven years so I was anxious to feel a dorado tug again. We used Baja Big Fish, owned by Pam Bolles, as our outfitter as she had always given me great service on previous trips and I knew she had quality flyfishing guides and always put you in quality lodging. She proved to be still on top of things. We stayed at the Desert Inn Hotel (the old La Pinta) on the beachfront and our guides picked us up early every morning with a panga loaded with baitfish.
Pam had explained to us that this was an unusual “La Nina” year and the fishing had been off. The dorado had not really appeared as normal and just the day before we arrived the sardina finally began showing up for us to use as bait for chumming. George and I struggled to find fish the first day, with George landing a couple small bonita on one of his hand tied pink squid “Tres Generations”.
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We were run off early by a monsoon that hit with all the force of one of our late summer storms. Our expectations were a little low at that point but we still had the “it was still nice to be out there” attitude going. Tom and Skip had found a few dorado and Skip lost a nice one after playing it for 15 minutes. They came in early also, getting in ahead of the stormfront. Next morning dawned nice and calm….maybe too calm in my mind. We headed out in a different direction and found fish at a buoy not too far out. This was the first day the dorado had come into that buoy all season, so maybe things were changing. We got into fish right away and landed several. The fish were smaller than any other previous trip I had been on but at least they were there and ready to play.
After a day of fishing we would head in around 2, cool off some, drink a few cool ones and lounge around the poolside overlooking the ocean.
We tried several of the local restaurants in town and all were good but the best meals we had the whole trip were when we had the hotel cook up some of our day’s catch and serve it will all the trimmings.
It’s tough to beat fresh dorado grilled with garlic and butter, served with rice and beans along with homemade tortillas……mmmmm……..I can still taste it. It was so good we did it two nights in a row.
Although we didn’t knock them dead as in previous years we all caught enough dorado and each of us lost enough nice fish that it makes you want to get back and give it another try. It’s not very often that fishing is off in Loreto, two years in a row. The last “La Nina” was 1998. So I guess we just know how to pick ’em.
More pic’s
“El Capitan” Jesus…..quality guide that spoke very good English and had great knowledge of the fish and the area.
Dorado Double
The “Mexican Air Force”
