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Beach Fishing the Baja

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 For the past number of years I've dreamed of beach fishing the Mexican Baja Peninsula. Here on BC's west coast, beach fishing generally involves waders and sturdy footwear but the idea of fishing in shorts and barefeet for blitzing roosterfish on the Baja has captured my imagination for some time. Last week my wife and I visited Cabo San Lucas, our first trip to the Baja, and I booked two days of guided surf fishing with Wesley Brough, aka cabosurfcaster on social media. Normally I don't book guided trips but two days of guided fishing would give me a good introduction to the gear, tactics and locations that I could then apply on my own future trips. Wes is a native of Cabo and knows these waters. He's been guiding for 20 yrs and his social media and website are bursting with big fish. In fact, he holds the all tackle world record for pacific white snook.  I was thrilled to spend two days with him but less thrilled at the hours he keeps. Wes likes the early morning bit
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A flathead goes to the Flathead, September 2023

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 In September, 2022, I had the privilege to join the hunting party of my son and his two buddies and fish the upper Elk River for a week while they tried to fill their tags in the the surrounding mountains. This year the Mount Bingay wildfire in the Elk Valley prompted a change of plans. The boys switched their hunting trip to the Flathead River valley and I was invited to join them again. Maybe it was my pleasant disposition or conversation skills that earned the invite, but I suspect it was that I washed dishes, cooked many of the meals, and my wife sent along a bag of chocolate chip cookies! The Flathead River has a unique place among BC rivers. With the headwaters in the mountains below Sparwood, the North Fork of the Flathead flows south, roughly paralleling, and just a few miles west of, the Alberta border before entering Montana. The BC Flathead watershed has no permanent human settlement and supports an incredible abundance and diversity of wildlife.  In the USA, the Flathead i
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An(other) East Kootenay stream, September 2022

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 In early August, my son mentioned that he and two buddies were returning to the Elk River valley for their annual elk hunt. I threw out a "Hey, can I tag along and fish while you guys hunt?", half expecting that three mid to late twenties young men would not want a dumb old dad in the tent with them for a week. Turns out I was wrong! After we set up the wall tent and stove, felled a dead tree and chopped enough firewood for the week, I joined the hunters for a evening scouting trip as we glassed the slopes for game. What we saw amazed me. In the span of an hour, after glassing both sides of the valley, we saw a band of mountain goat, several deer and elk, a sow grizzly and two cubs, a solitary boar grizzly , and a black bear. I've never seen a grizzly in the wild (never mind four) nor have I seen a mountain goat (never mind a band). It was like I was watching a Nat Geo special and I was stunned at the vast diversity of wildlife in just the couple of slopes that we glasse
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