By Pete Gray
The first Let’s Talk Hookup/Cass Tours Loreto Rumble at the La Mision Hotel is in the books, and what a fabulous time. With 17 teams and 34 anglers, everyone enjoyed the hospitality, scenery, weather and fishing.
For those of you who have not visited Loreto lately, you are in for a treat. The people of this southern Baja town have made quite an effort to keep the old-world Baja feel, but still make it very comfortable and inviting to foreign visitors. Our host hotel- La Mision, is a first-class resort. The rooms are spacious and comfortable, the pool, palapa bar, restaurant and grounds are fantastic. The hotel is immaculate, and the staff is super friendly and ready to help. Our group enjoyed an upgrade to ocean front rooms with spectacular views of the sea and islands.
Richard “Cassman” Castaneda arranged our “panga” style boats and our first day everyone met at the marina, a 5-minute walk on the seaside Malecon from Hotel La Mision. We boarded our pangas and headed out of the small harbor in flat calm seas to catch mackerel for bait. Bait making was as easy as it gets- every drop was a full stringer of perfect size green back mackerel. We loaded our tanks and headed for the yellowtail fishing grounds about 30 minutes away. Yellowtail fishing was very slow by Loreto standards…of course, the day before it was great! My fishing partner Steve Pazol landed the first fish on our boat, a 22 pound fat yellowtail. We fished until 1pm and ended up with just two bites and two fish for our day. We headed for the scales maned by Cassman and Ken Ross. There were some good scores on yellowtail, up to 8 per boat, but most were 1 to 4 fish. The largest for the day was 27 pounds, and there were 2 within ½ pound of those.
Our second day was much the same as the first, we scored just two yellowtail. Weather was a bit choppy in the morning but laid
down as the day progressed. Other boats fared better than us, with the average for the day about 4 per boat. All these yellowtails were fat- 18 to 27 pound hard pulling beasts!
That evening the Hotel La Mision set our group up out by the palapa bar and pool area for our awards dinner. They put together an incredible feast of yellowtail made 5 ways. They even barbequed 2 whole yellowtail in foil which were fantastic. First place with a 27 pound yellowtail was Curt Mitchell. 2nd was Linda Ortega with a 26.8 pound yellowtail and 3rd was Dominick Carlos with a 26.7 pound fish. All won gift cards worth up to $500 to Fishermans Landing Tackle courtesy of Sportfishing Association of California, Daiwa rod, reel and lures courtesy of Cass Tours and a beautiful trophy.
Our group had the option to enjoy all Loreto has to offer by land or fish another day. Steve and I choose to go cabrilla and pargo fishing and we had a fabulous day. Plenty of fish and ac
tion on both live sardine and artificial lures. We both hooked monster cabrilla on Shimano Colt Sniper Jerk Baits that we could not stop before they broke us off in the rocks. We landed plenty including some up to 10 pounds. The seas were flat calm and we had a fun day.
Those that stayed on land toured the historic Loreto mission, visited the mountain mission of San Javier, and enjoyed the shopping and incredible dining experiences that the town of Loreto offers.
We will be back for our 2nd Annual Loreto Rumble May 3 to 7, 2020. It is a perfect moon phase for the area, and a great weather time of year for Loreto. It is limited to just 40 people and 20 teams and will fill fast! Cassman and I will be there to host. Call Cass Tours to secure your spot at 800-593-6510. Check www.letstalkhookup.com on our “trips” page for more details.
