MEXICAN PANGUEROS CATCH BIG DOG SNAPPER AT PUNTA PESCADERO

Dec. 3, 2005, Torrance Eddy, Buena Vista, East Cape Fishing, Mexico:

I stopped by to visit my panguero friends yesterday and they had a 35-40 pound dog snapper, a real beast caught at Punta Pescadero. It must have been four feet long. It was so big that it wouldn´t fit into an igloo 128 quart cooler.

Winds in the Sea of Cortez can be dangerous. My boat is very small. So, safety is a highest priority for me. November is windy in the afternoons. At this time of year it's a bit perilous for me to navigate much distance south in case the north wind suddenly appears.

From the 60 foot elevation of my house, I see it coming at least an hour in advance of its arrival. At water level, it's not so easy. The best way is to see boats at anchor. We have 20 to 50 around here at East Cape. A boat at anchor will always point into the wind provided some poor, self-destructive fool doesn't attach his anchor rope to the stern.

I can see boats miles away and see the direction they are pointed. If I see them pointed north, it's time to head for the barn. There are also signs to watch and give at least some head start on when a strong desert wind is starting to roll down from the mountains.

It's December and I have to admit it feels like it. Highs and lows are more than ten degrees lower now. In addition, we have lots of wind and at midday rough water with whitecaps and winds sometime gusting to 50 miles per hour. The strong North winds have blown more days than not. This has kept me off the water most of the time.

There were many small Dorado being caught by Leonero last week. They're really small. Sierra are around somewhere, perhaps La Ribera. I fished on Thursday for a couple of hours catching copious puffers, some quite large, a two-pound Porgy, and a four-pound Trigger. These were all on cut giant squid tentacle pieces frozen a month ago and thawed for this purpose. This is really good bait. I have four giant squid heads in my freezer.

I also had a fish on the line for ten minutes. The line broke because in this instance I was not using a wire leader and horsed it a little too much in an effort to get it in before the leader was cut. Alas, the main 20-pound line broke. Another problem I had was my using a light action 20 pound rod. It just lacked the muscle to keep the fish pointed my way.

The name of my boat is "Rod´s Boat" named after the friend of mine who died suddenly and left it to me in his will. I'm thinking of renaming it Cochita. It is a Catalina Wherry. A wherry is a very seaworth and old design for fishing row boats. I wished I still had a good back so I could row it. It´s nice with the little 2 h.p. honda and surprisingly fast. It cruises at about 7 m.p.h.