That's My Story

PARGO SHELL GAME – published April 2006 – Western Outdoor News

I guess I’m feeling a bit cocky right now. Have you ever played or seen that shell game where the guy hides the ball under three shells or cups and goes whoop-whoop-whoop and switches them all around? Then, you have to pick the one hiding the ball? And sure enough, you’re always wrong!

That’s how I used to feel about pargo fishing. I use the term loosely because it applies to several different species of snapper-type fish that inhabit the rocks and reefs of Baja. Mostly they are red-copper-orange in color. They have big heads; big teeth; and well…they can get big! It’s not unusual to find fish from 5 pounders to fish over 100 pounds. You probably know them by any number of names: dog tooth snapper, cubera snapper, pargo lisa, barred pargo, pargo rojo, mullet snapper, red snapper, etc.

This time of year, they come up into the shallow areas inshore and when they’re running inside, they can look like moving carpets of red as they maraud through the bait schools. This makes them doubly hard to catch since all of these areas are honeycombed with rocks and caves. I tell folks it looks like Japanese koi on steroids, except pargo can be downright vicious.

The shell game begins because pargo will tease you. They’ll swim by en masse right by your boat. They’ll blow up on your baits. They’ll bust you off in the rocks or cut your line with their teeth or gillplates or they’ll refuse to bite completely. A fish to make a grown man cry. I’ve seen pros start to cuss and on two occasions seen guys snap rods like a guy bashes his golf club against a tree. At the old Hotel Las Arenas, I used to teach the pargo fishing schools there and would tell my students, “If you get one fish to the boat for every 10 you hook, you’re doing pretty good!”

Truth be told…even the teacher fibbed! In ten years of living and working in Baja, my own ratio was more like 20 or 30: 1. The “shell game” always took my money!

Well, I think I’m finally onto something. The last half-dozen times I’ve gone for pargo, a few changes in technique have increased my hookup-to-catch ratio to about 5:1 and huzzah…two trips ago I went 9 for 10!

First thing, green line. Seems to hook up better inshore than other colors. People will argue this, but I’m only telling you my own experiences. Secondly, I’m using a fluorocarbon leader. Now, I’m not a fluro-freak. I believe there’s a time and place for everything and this is one time the fluro seems to be making a difference.

I recently passed out leader-length strands of fluro to several clients in pangas and their hook-up ratio was magnified at least double. That day, I only had 50 pound fluro which I thought would be too stiff and make for a bad bait presentation, but I was amazed. The fish still hit the baits way better than straight mono. The thing with pargo is that using lighter line means better bait presentation and more hits. The backside is that the lighter the line the more breakoffs you’ll get. With heavier line, you won’t get as many hits because the bait doesn’t swim as freely. It’s a juggling act. However, I found the heavier fluro worked just fine.

Lastly, when I found out I was getting short bit a lot (they’d nail the tail of the bait and miss the hook), I tied on a short trap hook set up. You halibut anglers know what I’m talking about. We use a lot of sardines where I’m at so the front hook goes cross-wise through the nose of the bait. I leave the other dangling or just barely in it’s anal opening. No more short bites!

The technique was actually shown to me by an amigo, Al Schneider, of Orange Co. CA who wins a bunch of halibut tournaments in S. Cal. I’ve shown it to a number of our Mexican skippers who are at first skeptical, but are now converts.

Whoop-whoop-whoop…the pargo is under THAT one! Gotcha!

That’s my story. If you ever want to reach me, my e-mail is riplipboy@aol.com

Jonathan