The 3a.m. alarm came way too early and the drive to the shop
to meet with the other anglers in the group was made in a caffeine fueled
haze. The guys were already there
eagerly awaiting the shuttle bus with their gear piled on the sidewalk in front
of the shop. This trip to Cedros
Island with Cedros Outdoor Adventures had been eagerly awaited by the whole
crew and we were finally going to get a chance to tangle with Yellowtail on the fly rod. Cedros is justly famous amongst
conventional anglers for it’s superb Yellowtail and Calico Bass fishing but up
until now has not been a popular fly rodding destination. We hoped to change that.
The shuttle was late but, since there was no traffic on the
405, the trip to San Ysidro was a breeze and we met our second shuttle and
transferred the gear to continue the trip through the border to Ensenada where
we would board a charter flight to the island.
Our first indication that all was not as hoped on the
weather front was at the airport in Ensenada when we ran into a group on their
way back who told us that it had been windy with dirty water and Yellowtail
feeding very deep and not breezing on the surface. Not what we wanted to hear.
Jose Angel, our host, informed us on arrival that the
Yellowtail were not on the surface, as was usual at this point in the season,
but were being found around 100’-200’ deep. Trying to get a fly down 100’ is no easy task but some of us
were prepared with plan B, conventional rods and 6oz jigs to get down to where
the fish were feeding. The first two days were tough fly rodding for the
Yellows as they were still feeding 100+ feet down and with heavy current going
West and the wind blowing from the East we found it impossible to get a fly in
front of them. I did hook one in
about twenty feet of water on a 12wt but it charged into the kelp and wrapped
me and came off.
We moved to
another area and switched to targeting Calico Bass and had a blast hooking and
releasing fish in the 3-8lb class.
On the second day most of the group switched to conventional rigs to
fish the Yellows and spent mid morning to late in the afternoon pulling on
Calicos with the fly rods.
Day 3 began with a similar scenario but, the pangeros
received a call on the marine radio from some commercial abalone divers that there
were Yellows near the surface in another location close by. We ran over there and soon found some
smaller 8-12 lb yellows breezing around. Game on!
Soon, all of our pangas had anglers fighting fish on the fly. Although most of these were smaller
firecracker yellows there were much bigger fish mixed in. 12 wts were the order of the day and
anyone fishing a 10 wt risked losing a big fish to the structure.
Fish to 25 lbs were landed and many
bigger fish lost to the kelp. One
of our guys, who is an experienced saltwater angler, was on a huge Yellow for
1.5 hours on a 10 wt only to have the fly line break and lose it. Mixed in with the yellows where
Calicos, big Barracuda, Pacific Whitefish and, believe it or not, a Sunfish. Anyone ever hear of one of these being
caught on a fly?
All in all we hooked 8 species of fish and learned a great
deal about this awesome fishery that will help out future groups of fly rodders
targeting these tough gamefish.
Using flies that mimicked anchovies, sardines and squid was the most
productive but mackerel and lizard fish imitations also worked from time to
time.
Anyway, great trip, great folks and great fishing. Going back next year for sure. BTW we have a couple of openings for
our October trip left. Email me if you have questions. Ken@fishermensspot.com
