Historically a ‘rendezvous’ was an annual gathering, attended by fur traders, mountain men, Indians, spouses, soldiers, and others who wanted to join the lively, joyous, good times that were celebrated at this event. Rendezvous featured singing, dancing, running, jumping, strong drink, sumptuous food, and the telling of tall tales. I think Puerto Peñasco would have been an excellent place to host a rendezvous. We have good food, great weather, people from all over that want to visit and experience the Sea of Cortez. November is a really good time to visit Puerto Peñasco with your fly rod.

The Desert Fly Casters fly club from Chandler, Arizona will be hosting their 52nd Annual Pescador Extravanganza in Rocky Point October 29 through November 7. This is a fly fishing event where some education, socializing, eating, drinking, telling fish stories and generally having fun is the sole purpose of the event. Many of the social and educational events will take place at the Playa de Oro RV Park. We plan to fish the Second Estuary, and Mirador Beach weather permitting. Gary Bedsworth our resident chef will again be preparing a Dutch Oven meal for our Friday evening social, and this is rendezvous worthy.

It would be easy to imagine the many pleasure seeking folks who descend on Puerto Peñasco as rendezvous attendees. The attraction for the fly club would be good fishing, good weather, good camaraderie, and trading ideas on how to effectively fish the Sea of Cortez. Some of the folks are modern day mountain men spending as much of the summer as possible in the White Mountains, then returning to the valley in the fall. Then onto Puerto Peñasco for a fly fishing trip or two.

On a recent Rocky Point scouting trip in October I fished the Second Estuary, the First Estuary, and the Mirador Beach from the Playa de Oro RV Park to the Vina Del Mar Hotel. The variety of fish that I caught was spectacular. Cabrilla, Grouper, Bone Fish, Pompano, Orange Mouth Corvina, Parrot Fish, Red Snapper, Mexican Barracuda, Grunt, Lady Fish, and Trigger all were fooled by my Clouser presentation. That is part of the attraction, with fishing the Sea of Cortez, you really don’t know what you are going to catch next. Many of those fish are good eating, and some of them ended up in my smoker.

If you are interested in learning how to fly fish, or are looking for a fly fishing buddy Desert Fly Casters meet at the Chandler Elk’s Club on the second Wednesday of the month. Vince Deadmond “The Fly Fishing Hardware Guy” can be reached at Best Hardware 237 N Apache Trail Apache Junction, AZ vince@ajbest.com and at (480) 982 7461.