BAJA HUNTING AND FISHING WITH BASEBALL HALL OF FAMER WADE BOGGS

Jan. 18, 2007, Rod Albright, Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

On a recent Mexican hunting and fishing trip to the Los Cabos area of Baja California, Baseball Hall of Famer Wade Boggs hit the "Baja Grand Slam," that is, he caught his first striped marlin, at about 125 pounds, and also boated yellowfin tuna and dorado over 40 pounds, and for the topper he killed his first Desert Bighorn Sheep! Yes we do have sheep in Baja Sur.

It all started on Jan. 2, 2007 when Wade landed at the Los Cabos airport in San Jose del Cabo.

After meeting up with our friends Don Giottonini and his guide Javier Cota they cleared his gun through customs and were off to the mountains. The first 5 days were filled with high winds, cold temperatures, little food and water, and no sheep.

They decided to take a break and came off the mountain to regroup. They would try hunting another area north of La Paz, Baja California Sur. So they sent the trackers up to try and locate the sheep and decided to go fishing in the meantime.

Don Giottonini keeps his 34-foot Blackwatch fishing boat in the Cabo San Lucas Marina so off they go. After catching his first striped marlin, Wade caught his second one. Don also managed to land a striper that day too. There were plenty of marlin at the Golden Gate Bank, located on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas. All the marlin were caught while drifting live bait.

My wife Barb, and I joined them later that day at the dock where we heard the story of the catch. Later that evening over a nice dinner we swapped stories. Wade was very excited about his catch but his goal was still a Bighorn Sheep.

We joined the guys for the second day of fishing, which took us outside about 30 miles off the Mexican coast where we came upon a school of hungry tuna. We were the only boat there and the fish bit good. We had doubles and triples going with most of the fish running 25 to 30 pounds. We did land a couple over 40 pounds and we released a few footballs as we had plenty of fresh tuna for the table. The larger ones took live bait and the small ones liked the cedar plugs.

Then finally we got "the call" for the Bighorn Sheep. The trackers had located them. Wade lit up like a Christmas tree.

We made the decision to head back to port so they could get up the mountain. But as luck would have it, on our way back, we came upon a old floating log that was loaded with dorado. We still had some nice mackerel left so we had to stop. The bite was wide open; every bait was a fish. We even pulled the bait away from the small ones so we could catch the bigger fish. We all caught dorado, sometimes we had 4 on at a time.

Wade was smiling, but deep down he wanted that sheep! Back at the dock the guys made their plan to leave for La Paz that evening and attack the mountain the early the next morning.

Three days later, at our home in Buena Vista, in Baja Sur's East Cape area, we got the call that Wade had killed his sheep, a nice one too with a score of about 155 points on the Boone and Crockett scale. A real trophy.

This time Wade wasn't just smiling, he was "flying high." To celebrate Wade's "Baja Grand Slam" we had a big party at Donny's house here in Buena Vista, where we served fresh tuna, Mexican food, and we even enjoyed some of the back-strap from the sheep. It was delicious! I don't know if anybody has ever hit this kind of "Baja Grand Slam" before but I can surely attest to this one. I have a feeling that this won't be the last time we see Wade Boggs here in Baja Sur.