Baja trip 3rd annual part 1

[fishwhenican]

We left for Baja at 12:30 Friday afternoon, drove until 11:30 pm to exit 368 in Ca. on I-5, slept in the pickup with the seats tilted back. This is our third annual trip, my wife Vicki and I are being followed by Northriver1 (Bob), his wife Nancy and their son Jamie. Up the next morning at 4:30, on the road by 5:00 with fresh coffee in the thermos. We make the border and exchange some dollars for pesos at about 1:00pm. No problem crossing the border, but Bob gets cut off by traffic, and we wait for them to catch up at the forst toll booth. We were making good time and it looked like we would be in time for happy hour at Celito Lindo near the bay of San Quintin. Trailer tire blows out at Camalu`, we do a quick swap, but it is now 6:00 pm on a Saturday night. Where are we going to find a spare? The first tire shop is closed, the next one ( a shack by the road ) has the right size tire and the man’s son, who looked like he was 12, changed out the tire. Twenty dollars and we are back on the road, good looking spare for $20. Hit Celito Lindo about 7:00 pm, had dinner at the restaurant, took a cold shower ( only because there was no hot water ), set up the tent and crashed till 5:00. Bob and family decided to get one of the motel rooms, rather than unpack the back of their truck trying to find the tent.
We were on the road by 5:30, headed for San Lucas Cove, 15 kilometers south of Santa Rosalia. Fueled at El Rosario, then we stopped for lunch and some grocery shopping in Guerrero Negro after going through the border checkpoint into Baja California Sur. Topped off the fuel tanks in San Ignacio, then fueled up the boat and the extra fuel cans. The station in Santa Rosalia is notorius for ripping people off, Bob proved that was true a few days later when they shorted him his change ( by about 200 pesos ), so we wanted to avoid giving them any money if we could. Arrived at San Lucas Cove about 3:30, Comacho’s campground has really gone downhill, so we stayed next door at San Lucas cove RV. Meet up with a guy we had meet there two years ago. We got camp setup, the boat and gear ready, launched the boat and got it anchored before it got dark. Set up the chairs and watched the moon come up over the Sea of Cortez.
Camp... notice how far to the high tide line


Sunrise over the Sea of Cortez


Next morning we are up at 4:00 (we never did reset our watches to mountain time) and we find the boat stuck in the sand. Our neighbors boat ( 20’ Skipjack ) is also stuck, with 6 of us on each boat it doesn’t take long to get them into deep enough water to float. The women are finally up and we get the daily stuff loaded into the boat and procede slowly out of the cove with the kicker motor. Today is one of the biggest tides of the year and we almost get stuck again, been two years since we were here last and I took a wrong heading. Should have run it last night to get the GPS tracking, but it was high tide and I didn’t feel we would have any problems the next morning. Here we are in the middle of the Baja peninsula where you only have two tides a day… one high…one low.
Bait is hard to get this morning, scattered schools, we finally get what we think is enough. We head to the 110 spot off the north end of Isla San Marcos about 8 miles from camp. I think the yellowtail, when they are on the bottom are one of the hardest fighting fish pound for pound that there is. With the drag set for about 12 lbs (pick up a small anchor with your rod) a 20 lb fish still takes line. Jamie gets one on and gets rocked right away. I say “Tighten down the drag and get a belt on before you drop your bait in”, “when they hit you’ve got to reel them up off the bottom”. Nancy gets hit next, and it is all she can do to hold onto the rod, I jump to help her and put the reel into low and start cranking the handle, when the fish is off the bottom a little way I let her take over. Then Bob gets one on and gets it to the boat. After a few more drifts, with nothing but moray eels, I hook up a nice fish and get it to the boat, 18, 22 and 25 lbs. By then we are out of bait, our neighbors call us on the radio and tell us that they are going to chase some Dorado back inside where some sargassum weed was, and they caught fish there yesterday. We run back toward the Haystack in 90 feet of water and find some more mackerel right on the bottom. A short time later the other boat calls us over, they got one in the boat already.
Soon I hookup on a small Dorado on a slow trolled bait, I never dreamed we would be catching Dorado in 100 feet of water.









The next morning we head for Isla Tortuga with our neighbors being a buddy boat, it is about a 22 mile run, since it is blowing pretty good we can only do about 12 knots without killing our bait. One of the other guys had some numbers for some Sawtail Grouper, but they were a no show. I started looking in a little deeper water and started marking some fish, they turned out to be yellowtail in about 240 feet of water. We got some good hits but just couldn’t keep them buttoned until Jamie hooked one up and got it to the boat. The wind was pushing us hard so I was using the kicker to slow down the drift, then I looked at the bait and 3/4 of it was dead! We had good flow, but I figured that the intake to the bait pump was right next to the kicker, we had gassed’em good with the exhaust. We headed closer to shore then and tried some iron and slow trolled some rapalas around the island for a few cabrilla and some triggerfish. We decided to troll back toward Isla San Marcos since we had 80 degree water. After a couple of skipjack caught and released ( kicking ourselves later ) one of the reels clicker goes off for just a second then we see a bill waving in the air behind the lure as a marlin takes another whack at it. Sevenstrand petrola chugger, third time a marlin has whacked that lure and still no hookup! And no bait to toss to it! We end the day with a nice Dorado about halfway back to camp.

[Mister G.]

Oh Man! What good memories this brings back. I did this trip about 8 years running back in the mid-80s/early 90s in the summertime when the weather is hot and the Dorado are wild. Then couldn't get back until March of last year. But, ya know? nothing much had seemed to change. The Margaritas at Cielito Lindo were still the best I'd ever had, the Santa Rosalia Pemex was still ripping people off (but you gotta go to the bakery downtown (El Boleo) and get those little french bread loaves they call "boleos" Camacho's fish camp at San Lucas Cove was as shabby as ever. The new place next door -RV park- looked good, and if I ever get the chance to go back I'm pretty sure that would be my destination. Can't wait to get the next report.

Go gettem, fishwhenican!! Drummerboy envies you Big Time.

[retaliate]

Nice! , it's been a long time since I fished down in Baja.

[HiouchiMike]

Wow thanks for sharing another HaHa Baja adventure.Maybe five years ago I got call from friend, Greg Noll, who lives nearby in Hiouchi.A legend in himself with big wave surfing and now worldwide surf shows and recent movie Riding Giants Greg had 2 40lb yellowtail on and was fishing by himself in same area of island and needed help landing these bruisers.I had just returned from 6 days on beach by Villa Jesus Maria junction Hwy 1 about 60 miles north Guerro Negro.A place we call Variety for 14 different species we have taken from beach.White Sea Bass,calico bass,sandbass,sargo,porgies,kelp bass,spotfin croaker,yellowfin crokers etc.Located 60 miles north of Guerro Negro on Pacific Side fishing whites sea bass from beach.Gruelling 12 hr.drive from friend home by LAX after flying from Crescent City to leave.

Exhausted and beat, my understanding wife and job agreeing go.I flew to Loreto and took taxi south to talapia{sic}hatched roof and trailer set up in park next to resort.I was told by Greg has since burned down.I agree their is no harder pulling fish, under 10
0lbs, that swims in ocean than yellowtail by kelp or rocks.Hammered down drags on 60mono and 2 fish later hoping you don't get another bite just yet.I fished one day when Greg busy with friends in Grady White and ran to I think same island for broomtail groupers also.They had cevichi from prior days catch.Yum yum I can still taste by memory.Similiar to fresh Bluefin I just had for dinner.Wife had marinated with online Bluefin recipe and was swordfish quality to me.First bite and you know you are going to love it.My memory isn't that great but sure sounds same place different time.Greg caught a 50plus pound dorado week after I left.We tried, and caught a few,the day offshore in Grady.Again great pictures and thanks for sharing adventure.

TIGHT LINES BENT RODS

[Hanapa'a Time]

Mark,

Sounds like a great trip, thanks for the sharing the story, pictures and smoked fish(yellowtail and dorado)

Now you got me itching to head south of the border

Kurt

[Reef Diver]

Wow! Sounds like you had wayyyy tooo much fun!
Why did I let the wife talk me into buying a new house when I could have been fishing with you guys?

Good story ....can't to hear part 2.
Thanks
RD

[northriver1]

Reef Diver - Because she wears the pants in your family. It was a great trip and one that needs to be repeated in 2006. To bad you have fences to build and lawns and landscaping to install.

[SeaJayOR]

Mark,
Thanks for the wishin I was fishin details! :grin:
Enjoy.
CJ

[South Paw]

Nice! Keep sending the pics.

[Hanapa'a Time]

To bad you have fences to build and lawns and landscaping to install.

No fishin' for Ron for a while :grin:

[Reef Diver]

Thanks Kurt...you know if you guys came over and gave me a hand I could go play too!?!?!

I wonder how much trouble I'll be in if I sneak off and went fishing?

You guy's are killing me!

[FrogPond]

Awesome...just like all good stories...this one will get better before we get to the end!

congrats guys (& gals!)!

Oh, yeah...thanks for the feeesshh

[fishwhenican]

Which hand do you want? how can I hold the rod and reel at the same time if I gave you a hand? Been there done that, as long as I can keep talking the wife out of it, I won't be doing that stuff for a long while.

[WaterSkeeter]

Sounds like an awesome trip, can't wait to see some pics and some stories in person.

WS

[Sea Lilly]

Great detail in your report...........Thanks

[corrirod]

WHERE's THE MOD's????

These posts are the most inflamatory posts I've ever seen! In my opinion they should be deleted and banned!

These types of posts create high blood pressure and possible seizures in folks that are stuck at work!

O.k., o.k., I got that out of my system now................ TELL ME MORE, PLEASE TELL ME MORE!!!

:grin: :grin:

[8knots]

HiouchiMike...friends with one of surfing's legends..Da Bull. You must have chased some big waves yourself. He cracked me up in Riding Giants.

[bobber_boy]