AN EIGHT-DAY BAJA TRIP TO FISH POINTS AROUND
BAHIA DE LOS ANGELES OUT OF CAMP GECKO

Feb. 29-March 8, 2005, Jim Heath, Bahia de los Angeles, Baja fishing trip report, Mexico:

Day 1: Crossed TJ Sunday night about 11:00 p.m. The small Immigration office at secondary was closed but the main office right at the walk-in crossing was open. Drove into Ensenada and woke up the gate guard, dogs and counter attendant to check in at Hotel Parisio about 1:00 a.m. First time crossing late at night and it was very easy/uncrowded.

Day 2: Left Ensenada about 7:30 and got $1500 Pesos at a very stubborn bank ATM just south of town, next to a Pemex. We normally get $3000 but this ATM’s limit was only $1500 and it would only take my card once. No problem, we would stop at any one of three banks in San Quintin, right? Not. All ATMs at every bank in SQ were shut down. Oh Boy, a 10 day trip with $100 bills and only $1500 in Pesos. This was gonna be fun. Had a very good breakfast at the first restaurant on the northeast side of town, lots of semis out front and painted bright colors. Even has a parking lot for rigs with chalk lines! This would be a good spot to break in newbies as it has a very clean, bright feel. Gassed up at Antonios, filling the truck, boat and gas cans using dollars to conserve our precious pesos. Only vado with water was just north of Catavina. Stopped and wondered around at the top of the mountain in a massive field of flowers. We were dumbstruck at the display. A low humming noise that came from all around us was discovered to be a jillion bees a few inches above the ground.

Made Gecko at Bahia de los Angeles (L.A. Bay) by 2:00 surprising Doc as we were a day early. No problem as #1 was empty instead of #15 we had reserved. This was the maiden voyage of my new 18-foot Fishrite. Doc stuck his head over the gunnels and made the appropriate cooing noises. Made camp, dinner, rigged up (is there anything more fun than getting the rods and reels ready?) and wondered over to Beach Bob’s. Had our own little tequila tasting and hit the sack by 8:00 pm.

Day 3: Launched at Bahia de los Angeles at sunup after a visit from Doc and headed to Guadalupe Reef to join the flotilla of abut a dozen boats for a very calm morning but very little fish. Only saw 3 caught all morning and we were skunked. The bite, such as it was, stopped by 10:00 a.m., and the boats slowly dispersed to secondary holes. Was in by 2:00 and spent the afternoon in town, stopped by Lizzeth to check e-mail and eat tacos.

Day 4: Blown off the reef on arrival by a stiff west wind and headed south of Bahia de los Angeles to Don Juan. Worked our way south to Animas to check on Carlos but he was nowhere to be found. The fish camp was occupied and the bay is still being heavily gill netted. Sigh. On our way north we were stunned by a yellowtail boil in 45-feet of water on the first point south of the kayak camp--WTF??? We trolled and cast for 30 minutes but could not get bit. Hooked 2 very nice groupers trolling broken-backs at the north wall of Punta el Pescador and kept one for dinner. Added additional evidence to my theory that there are no fish at the south side of this point. Well, in season there are ‘cudas but they don’t count. Our reports of a yellowtail boil at Animas were met with looks of derision, snorts and general raised eyebrows to all we met. Sulked the rest of the day, polished off the remaining 500 ml of Hacienda and kept trying to convince ourselves we really did see boiling yellowtail on the shoreline 20 miles south of Guadalupe reef.

Day 5: Made Guadalupe by 7:00 a.m. (20.5 miles from Gecko at 39 m.p.h. -- pretty cool) to a stiff westerly but were determined to get yellowtail this day. Bahia de los Angeles fishing boats were already getting bit--cool. Andy was too quick with his first drop and wrapped about 100 feet of 40 pound mono around the prop on my 115 h.p. Merc. Good grief, now what? No way was I going to run that engine without first removing the prop to make sure no line was in the shaft. We drew straws to see who was going to have to put on the life jacket and jump in to remove the prop but then realized that in 2-foot chop we were sure to drop something. My 9.9 kicker will push the Fishrite at max hull speed before planning, about 6.5 mph, but into the westerly we could only make about 4.5 m.p.h. It took us 1 hour to make Isla Alcatraz, remove the line, prop and start back out to the reef. We made the reef by about 9:00 a.m. Only 2 pangas were left and the bite was way over--sombitch. Spent the rest of the morning taking out our frustrations on bass. Didn’t seem to help. Went to town for more tacos, e-mail and to stare at the yellowtail on ice at the market.

Day 6: Kept awake all night by a strong west wind and woke to rain clouds and wind. Bagged fishing at Bahia de los Angeles and tried to make a breakfast of scrambled eggs but all the eggs were frozen. Gecko, you gotta love it. Pulled out David K’s directions to El Desengano mine and Yubay, aired up in town and hit the road. Without a doubt this was the highlight of the trip. Imagine taking a 2 mile hike thru the desert in a mist with flowers and greenery everywhere. For those of you interested in the fauna-flora thing, do not miss this next 2 weeks. Already some plants are going to seed. I’ve got a stack of bird, fish, and reptile identifying guides, but the only thing we look at all trip was the plant guide. As a very amateur zoologist, I’ve always considered plants as something animals eat and sit on. No more. By-the-way: DK’s waypoints to the Yubay pools are smack-dab on. Note: believe it or not, you will need your waterproof hiking boots. Our boots and socks were soaked through within 15 minutes.

Day 7: This was yellowtail or hari-kari day. We were determined. Made Guadalupe by 6:45 and Andy immediately hooked up. It was pretty close to WFO on a surface bite for the next 2 hours. We caught 7 yellow tail, almost all by trolling around feeding birds and boils. Get this, we had both reels start screaming at the same time, grabbed the rods and I go slack in about 30 seconds and bring in empty line and no lure. Andy gets his fish to color and I gaff it on board. His fish has my lure in it and my line wrapped around his in a massive birds nest. We cut all lines and hand line his empty lure in. We spent the rest of the day arguing whose fish that was. Brought 4 fish back and gave 2 away at camp and were treated like heroes and fishing gods by the other campers. If the truth be told, one reason we stay at Gecko instead of, say, Daggett’s, is that we would be exposed as the rookies we are elsewhere.

Day 8: The trip back from Bahia de los Angeles is uneventful other than the grasses seemed even taller that going down. Hurry, hurry, hurry. This won’t last long. My photos do not even come close to the feeling you get by standing quietly next to a boogum with water dripping off it.

Doc has a photo of a 47 pound yellowtail taken at 7 mile reef 2 weeks ago.