In shore fishing from a panga is not fishing from a beach. I really enjoy doing it and I'm always in sight of the beach and shore, so I'll focus all my panga fishing here at this one spot. I've hired panga and the captain from the fleets in Puerto Penasco and Bahia de Kino. I don't do commercial fishing operations; I look for an individual that is very fishy and will allow me to fish the way I want. I've worked with captains to develop fly fishing and that lean bar you see there was made from my request. It is important to be able to communicate as wind is always a part of the game. Bad positioning is horrible, if the captain does not understand the dynamics of the back cast, someone is going to get hit by a sharp hook and the fisher will be fouled. Keeping the wind in the correct quarter is super important.
One thing I have learned in the wind, if it's hot and you want to go for a swim, don't. I told my captain once that I was going to take a swim. He looked at me like I was crazy. I'm a surfer and am not a stranger to swimming in the sea yet I do not like it when the panga is drifting away from me. I'm in the water NOT being blown by the wind. On the occasion I'm referencing, the captain could not get the panga engine started, and my swimming could barely keep up with the drift. I swam for a few minutes drifting about twenty yards apart. We wre less than a mile offshore and a few miles away from my truck. I would not have died but I really would have been tired and pissed off if the motor would not have gotten started. This occurred before cell phone coverage was widespread and I did not have my 2m radio with me besides, ham radio operators and the Mexican coast guard was not something I would want to depend on for an initial rescue. It's always self-rescue in Mexico.
