Fly-Fishing in Magdalena Bay Has Reel Appeal, but It Would Help if Game Fish Were a Bit More Game

The images are as clear today as they were two months ago during a four-day fishing trip beyond the shores of this bustling port city:

The giant marlin rising from the bluest of worlds, surfacing 50 feet from the stern and swatting the lures savagely with its bill. . . .

The four fishermen scrambling to their feet and fumbling to get their rods out of the holders, each hoping his would be the one that would dip to the sea when the marlin decided one of these lures was food. . . .

Trip leader Gary Graham scurrying down from the crow’s nest and barking orders like Capt. Bligh, not wanting anything to go wrong on this only legitimate chance of catching a marlin in three days of fishing. . . .

The marlin, after 30 seconds of inspecting every lure and even a live mackerel cast before its shiny black eyes, getting stuck briefly by one of the lures before sinking out of sight. . . .

The rods going back into their holders, the fishermen falling back in their seats in disbelief. . . .

Graham climbing back up to the crow’s nest. . . .

The boat plowing on across the desert ocean. . . .

Was the marlin merely a mirage?

THE MAGDALENA EXPERIMENT

The frustration showing on Graham’s weathered face increased a little each day, which was understandable.

A lifelong fisherman whose resume includes three big-game world records and numerous tournament victories and club awards, Graham, 57, had spent the last few years putting this plan together, and now that it was in motion, things weren’t working out as he had hoped.

Baja on the Fly, his fly-fishing business on the East Cape south of La Paz, is thriving. But he had always wanted to offer something different, and the Magdalena Bay adventure is definitely that.

For six weeks, from mid-November to mid-December, he takes customers overland from La Paz to San Carlos on the west coast of Baja, puts them on a luxury yacht and lets them spend four days fly-fishing for exotic species such as marlin, wahoo, tuna and dorado in the wonderfully rich waters outside “Mag Bay.”

They also can fish the vast and largely uninhabited and unexplored coastline within the sprawling bay, which is home to yellowtail, barracuda, sierra, snook, halibut and cabrilla.

The Mag Bay adventure, which will resume next fall, should eventually be a great gig for Graham and his clients.

The sprawling bay is remote and picturesque. And the fishing offshore is usually superb. During the time Graham schedules his trips there usually is no better place to catch striped marlin.

Stripers filter in from the west and congregate over the offshore banks by the hundreds, taking advantage of an abundance of baitfish before the water cools and the baitfish scatter, and the marlin make their way south toward Cabo San Lucas.

Fishermen have reported battling as many as 20 a day. Fishing is so good, at times, that they take the hooks out of their trolling lures and sit back and count the number of times their lures are attacked--and sometimes they lose count.

Graham said he once cruised through on his way to Cabo San Lucas with his wife, Yvonne, and a couple of other anglers in early January and was astonished by all the billfish he saw.

“At about 11 o’clock one of the rods went off and we stopped and we’re fighting this marlin,” he said. “And while we’re fighting this marlin, in every direction I looked I could see other marlin, either jumping, sleeping or feeding.

“There were so many fish that when we got a jig bite [while trolling] I would not stop the boat until all three rods were hooked up.

“And then I’d stop the boat and say, ‘Dead boat.’ You guys are on your own. Between 11 and 2 we had caught 16-some-odd marlin. I then resumed my [southerly] course and from 2 till sundown there was never a time when I could not see a marlin.”

He did a lot of looking on this trip, and even spotted a few sunning marlin, but they would have nothing to do with the 48-foot Garota.

Indeed, Graham’s timing couldn’t have been worse.

His first trip was basically a bust in terms of fish encountered, and the second--the one I was on--didn’t turn out much better, if it was any better at all. The third and fourth were much more productive, but certainly not outstanding.

The passengers on the second trip--four lawyers from San Francisco and yours truly--were told they would be sight-casting for marlin. With no marlin around, they were reduced to trolling their flies to cover more territory.

San Diego skippers, in the area on long-range vessels, complained of this being the worst start to the Mag Bay area season in 25 years.

El Nino a year earlier had thrown game fish migrations so out of whack, they reasoned, that the fish weren’t sure where they should be.

Not that there wasn’t some excitement aboard Garota.

On the day the rogue marlin reared its massive head and generated a brief period of pandemonium, a stray sparrow, desperate to find a place to rest its weary wings, flew into the galley and landed on the head of Antonio, the cook, as he flipped potatoes in his skillet.

MAGDALENA MEMORIES

You can get skunked even in southern Baja, but you’re still in Baja so you always take home a few memories. Some of those gleaned aboard Garota:

* Wahoo sashimi washed down with cold cerveza on the deck of the yacht while watching the setting sun turn the sky to fire. The razor-toothed torpedo was caught by Mike Stepanian, 59, on conventional gear. He was everyone’s hero for providing such delectable table fare.

* Baja-style lobster, the main course two of four nights, cooked to perfection by the always cheerful Antonio, who also serves killer wahoo burritos and a mean sparrow stew.

* The look on the faces of two young Mexicans who motored out in a panga from a nearby fish camp to trade lobsters for bottles of cheap tequila.

One was just a boy--and this was his Christmas. His eyes lit up when he saw the bottles change hands. They would be not be so bright the next morning.

* A wide-open barracuda bite under Garota’s floodlights while at anchor inside the mouth of the bay. (You rarely get totally skunked in Baja.)

* Hugh Levine, 52, casting his cares away in the predawn darkness. He must have had a lot of cares, because he was always casting and he was good at it. It was a pleasure to watch--until it became apparent that he was showing off.

You had to give this man credit, though. He caught a beautiful dorado, which he sacrificed for the sake of dinner. But while fishing from a skiff in the bay, he caught what would have been a world-record halibut--about a two-pounder on six-pound tippet (a vacant category)--which he didn’t have the heart to keep.

* Richard Carpeneti, 56, emerging from his stateroom in the middle of the day to get in on a wide-open skipjack tuna bite and finding the action--brief as it was--a temporary cure for seasickness.

* Andre “the Giant” La Borde, 59, reaching for a cold beer at 9 every morning. La Borde, who is 6 feet 7 and has size 15 feet, is the clown of the group. His friends said he inherited a ton of money and was semi-retired so he could drive race cars. He drank more than everyone else, smoked more than anyone else and never combed his long, curly hair because, as he said more than once, “I’m on vacation.”

* The snore wars. Carpeneti and La Borde shared the only stateroom and closed the door at night, but that didn’t stop the eerie noises from spreading throughout and probably way beyond the confines of Garota. No wonder there were few fish in the area.

* Rocking and rolling over the swells as the minutes turned to hours, watching frigates and gulls soaring overhead in search of baitfish being chased to the surface by game fish, and realizing how much you have in common with these birds.

* Graham saying, time and again, “There are two things I don’t have any control over--the weather and the fishing.” Nobody was complaining about the weather.

* The boat getting a little smaller and more crowded each day. Graham takes up to five customers, but they share the boat with Graham, a captain and at least two other crew members. Four customers would be much more comfortable.

* Disembarking on wobbly legs, feeling like kissing the ground and falling asleep during the four-hour drive to La Paz--and waking up to the most wonderful sight of all: fresh faces to look at.

Gary Graham can be reached at (800) 919-2252 or on the Internet at https://www.bajafly.com

SHORT CASTS

Salt Water Sportsman magazine’s National Seminar Series will be held Saturday at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center at Long Beach State. Seminars will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will feature leading authorities discussing a variety of topics on inshore and offshore fishing. Admission is $40 at the door. Details: (800) 448-7360.