JAMUL TUNA CLUB MAKES A 28-MEMBER
FISHING TRIP TO BAHIA DE LOS ANGELES

June 19, 2005, Steve Stevens, Jamul Tuna Club, Bahia de los Angeles, Baja California, Mexico:

Our Jamul Tuna Club went to Bahia de los Angeles (L.A. Bay) for a few days of fishing, and Tim Hollis caught a 105 pound grouper, the biggest one in over 8 years they said, on 40 pound test with a small 3/0 reel. We had limits of Yellowtail everyday.

On Wednesday morning at 4 a.m., 28 club members met at the Greek Sombrero Restaurant in Jamul, which is where we have our club meeting the first Monday of every month. By 4:30 a.m., everyone was on the road headed toward Tijuana, and stopping in Ensenada for some fresh shrimp to take along for dinner. Ten hours later, we arrived at Bahia de los Angeles, looking for our hotel, Las Hamacas, which is a great place to stay! The owner "Jose" gave our club a great rate and made most of the panga reservations for us too.

On Thursday morning, we met our Bahia de los Angeles skippers at 5:30 a.m., loaded up, and within minutes started making bait for the day. On the first day, almost everyone had limits of yellowtail in the 15 to 30-pound class by 10 a.m., and was headed back for cold beer and warm showers. Scott Bentley won the first day’s jackpot of $230 with a 43-pound yellowtail; the fish was so long he named her "Megan" after an old girlfriend. That night Pete Saridakas, owner of the Greek Sombero, cooked us his famous asada, and Steve Stevens cooked his secret shrimps. After dinner several guys went out squid fishing and brought in well over 200 pounds in a few hours, while the rest of us stayed behind to play some poker and talk about the next day's plan of attack.

On Friday morning, everyone seemed more organized than the first day, and we headed out by 5:30 a.m., hung-over but ready to fish. As in the first day of fishing, most of the Bahia de los Angeles pangas headed north, but Igor Gavlan with his 26 foot super panga and four great fisherman aboard, headed south as they had the day before, with hopes of winning the final day's jackpot which included cash and a handheld GPS.

After catching limits of yellowtail again by 9:30 a.m., Igor said we should drift across this reef for maybe something bigger for the jackpot. Less than an hour later, Tim Hollis was hooked into what he thought was the seal that had been stealing our bait that day. It wasn’t. Forty-nine minutes later, he had a 52-kilo, or 106-pound grouper on the boat! That fish was so fat it took four of us to bring it over the rail. Tim was fishing with 40-pound test tied straight to a 2/0 circle hook and had a sardina for bait in 40 feet of water over a reef between two small islands.

When we arrived back at the Bahia de los Angeles launch ramp at Guillermo's place a lot of town's people were there to meet us (Igor called ahead) including a TV crew! It seems this was the biggest fish caught at Bahia de los Angeles in over 8 years and it made quite a splash.

Later that day, after the crowds left and it was time to pay our great skipper Igor, we handed him the GPS and all the jackpot money as a tip. Igor turned around and handed the GPS unit to his deckhand , Enrique, 22 years old, and said this was to help him get started with his own fishing boat someday. This was the fifth year that the Jamul Tuna Club had been organizing this Bahia de los Angeles fishing trip and every year it gets bigger and better.

The Jamul Tuna Club uses this Bahia de los Angeles fishing trip as a tune-up for the "Make a Wish Tuna Challenge" held this year on September 24-25 in San Diego. That tournament donates 100 percent of the proceeds to make wishes for cancer victims and is one of the largest tournaments on the West Coast. We dare any other club to try and out fish us in the Make A Wish! For information on the Make A Wish Tuna Challenge check www.tunachallenge.org, or just look in the Western Outdoor News (W.O.N.).