BAJA YELLOWTAIL FISHING TRIP TO PUNTA SAN FRANCISQUITO

Dec. 27, 2007, Art Whitting, San Francisquito, Baja California, Mexico:

Thanks for the information on San Francisquito in The Baja Catch. Without it, I would have never attempted to go there.

I made my first Baja run to San Francisquito south of Bahia de los Angeles from December 19th to December 22nd. I went through El Arco because I was coming from Abreojos on the Baja Pacific coast.

Abreojos' fishing is okay. I caught small yellowtail off the point from the kayak. The water is warm and clear, but the wind was building as I left. There are good catches out of La Bocana. The road from Mex 1 to Abreojos is great. Chelo's Hotel is the best place to stay there.

The El Arco road from Mex 1 has many washouts. All were passable, but driving in the dark is a bad idea. The Cuesta de la Ley was no problem for my F150 with big tires.

The rest of the road out of El Arco is great.

At the San Francisquito caleta I stayed at Beto Lucero's. I beached camped for $15 a night. This includes access to hot shower and toilet. He's also adding new bathrooms and showers for more campsites. The current cabana is very nice at $60 per night.

I fished on Ernie's panga and the kayak for yellowtail and grouper. The yellowtail were to 30 pounds.

While fishing with Ernie, I caught 6 yellowtail, 4 about 30 pounds and 2 about 15 pounds. He was willing to stay out longer, but I was happy with the quality of the fish. We only fished for 2.5 hours, trolling Rapalas, throwing the iron, and cranking iron off the bottom. The wind kept us chasing fish inside the bay. There were lots of birds, boils and fast moving yellowtail.

While I was packing to leave in the morning, the wind died down real nice and the yellowtail put on a show in the Cala. Too bad I was unable to make a cast on them.

The Baja road north to Bahia de los Angeles was really rocky. I got out without a flat and was able to pick up a stranded motorist between Bahia de las Animas and Bahia de los Angeles. I gave him a ride to Bahia de los Angeles.

I think the road through El Arco is the better road. All the turns are chewed up by the off road racing. My next purchase for Baja is an air compressor.