Strip Teaser Fun, Yankin' and Crankin' It

I arrived in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in the afternoon of November 1st. I’m fishing with a great old friend Sam Vigneri of Casper, Wyoming. Sammy coincidently started at the Jack Dennis Sports fly shop a day before me back in 1987. Back then we did a ton of fishing together, but we both got so busy over the years we hardly ever have time we fish together. So when Sam invited me to try to catch a striped marlin on fly rod with him and guide Grant Hartman of Baja Anglers, another old friend, I didn’t think twice!

We met Grant early this morning and he was quick to warn us that we could be wasting time hunting marlin. Apparently, Hurricane Rick from a couple weeks back moved the marlin out to sea and few have been seen lately. Grants advice was to target dorado (dolphin fish) and hope to see a marlin. We ran about 30 minutes from Cabo Harbor up the Pacific side of Baja. It was a gorgeous morning with little or no wind with gentle rolling seas. Already I was suspicious because despite incredible visibility there were no birds and no signs of fleeing bait.

We began trolling our hookless teasers about ½ mile from shore and headed in a southwesterly direction. It didn’t take long before a dorado crushed one of the teasers. Grant and his mate and I retrieved teasers and his captain tossed out a bridled green jack. Within seconds a tug a war was on between the captain and a nice dorado trying to swallow the hookless jack. Once teased in casting range Sammy launched a popper on my 12-weight Ross fly rod and the hot fish hammered his fly. Sammy was soon holding a fine dorado.

We had a few other dorado in our teasers today and I hooked two and landed one. But really, things shut down after we each got into a fish. I’m a little worried as we are dealing with a full moon.

Teasers are basically hookless lures with bait attached. A fish comes in and hits it, gets a taste and they try to eat it. You take it away from the fish usually by jerking it out of the water and into the boat. The fish keeps hunting expecting it to reappear and you replace it with your fly.

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