MEXICO FLY FISHERS CAN'T GET PAST THE NEEDLEFISH THIS WEEK AT EAST CAPE

July 24, 2004, Gary Graham, Baja On The Fly, East Cape, Baja, Mexico Fly Fishing:

Inshore, the good news at East Cape was there were plenty of fish. Unfortunately, most of them were needlefish and, adding insult to injury, the East Cape pelicans wouldn’t leave Ken Cutroneo, of Medford, NY alone for most of the day.

By the late afternoon the count was something like 63 needlefish, too many pelicans, one dorado, a few ladyfish.

Tom Philley, El Paso Tex., hit the beach early on Sun. and wasn’t disappointed; fishing Rooster Alley he had steady action for the entire day using an olive Clouser. Small rooster, ladyfish, pargo, Cortez Grunt and a 20-pound jack convinced him that a Baja Beach was his newest favorite fishing hole.

Erik Schoen, Oakland Calif., also spent most of his day at Rooster Alley with similar results to Tom.

On my last day of East Cape fishing before returning to Escondido with Joe Koziol, West Linn, Ore., we had our hearts in our mouths for several hours as rooster after rooster came surfing in on the wind waves at the cut near the arroyo. They seemed to have lockjaw, but it was an exciting day for Joe.

Last but not least, my good friend Togo Hazard on his newest boat the “Dusty B III” fishing out of Buena Vista Beach Resort racked up his personal best -- a 561-pound blue marlin. It was the largest ever caught on his boat in his 39 year big game fishing career.

The weather got a tad squirrelly on Wed. as a local front came blowing through, but seems to be returning to normal now.

Water temperature 75-88.

Air temperature 80-88.

Humidity about 52%.