Jim Chandler with a 6-pound yellowfin corvina he got on a Diamond Jig with a squid trailer

Scott Hargrove from San Diego. He got his fish on the new holographic Fish Trap things with the holographic sides and eyes.

Jim Becker from Alpine.

TRIP TO FISH OUT OF PLAYA ESCONDIDA NEAR PUERTECITOS

May 23, 2004, Dale Pearson, of Gone to Baja, Campo Playa Escondida, 1 kilometer north of Puertecitos, Baja California, Mexico:

We had a wild time this weekend at the islands. We had too much weight in the boat and hit a 30 m.p.h. headwind on the way out to the island and overheated the boat. After calling for the backup boat and getting in the coves at the islands we still managed to nail some nice fish.

The customers for this trip were John Chandler and his wife Judy, from San Diego, Jim Becker from Alpine, and Scott Hargrove from San Diego.

The fish they caught out there were the first grouper and yellowfin corvina that they have ever gotten, as well as first triggerfish and bonefish for John Chandler.

John Chandler got a nice corvina on a Diamond Jig and plastics were working well for grouper. The triggerfish up to 6 pounds were hitting everything in the water and made getting to the bottom for the good fish difficult. Some grouper were caught on jointed Rebel crankbaits. We also were drifting squid and sardines.

We caught all of the fish in the pictures in the cove at El Muerto. It is located on the northeast side of the island. We fished the big island of Salvatierra on the north side by the seamount as well as El Pomo island which is located east of the big island (it looks like a big rock). We fished the south and north side.

We got a mixed bag of fish corvina, triggers, grouper, bonefish, grunts, cabrilla, hogfish, and one nurse shark.

We were fishing out of my 22-foot Monterey with a 5.7 V8 I/O with a duo-prop. The boat has an enclosed cabin in the front and not an open bow.

The water is getting pretty warm in the 80s, and there is a small bloom of baby jellyfish that I noticed in the water in the southern islands in the chain.

We saw the conservation people from Ensenada on the big island. They were taking pelican blood for tests on the West Nile Virus. I thought it was strange for the government of Mexico to send people all the way out to these islands to check pelicans when there is no running water for the people on the shore. The wind was pretty bad and the tides were pretty extreme.

But we got soaked and windblown this trip.

Warning for people going to the islands: There are a lot of undersea mounts that expose themselves at low tide, and hide at high tide, for sure a deadly trap for the nonexperienced boater in the area.

My helper used to be the cop in Puertecitos. He told me of three people who tried to make it to shore after being caught in a windstorm by the big island (Salvatierra). Their 12-foot aluminum was swamped. People don’t realize that once the wind kicks up, it’s too late.

My friend had to go on body search and found the guy’s wife in the cove just to the north of where we camp.

The tides were pretty bad this time. I looked south to Gonzaga and I could see the shallow area by Gonzaga had major tide flowing south over it, and it was hitting the sea to the south. When the water from the ocean and the outgoing tide would meet, it would throw up a wave that I could see from 5 miles away!! Very scary. It looked like a big whip wave about 200 yards long and 10+ feet in the air. It would whip down the length of the reef edge and explode into the air!! I think it was a combo of the big tides going south and the big wind going north.

It’s trips like this that make me thank God I have several friends in the area that monitor me on radio when I go the islands. My friends down here will come out into the sea in wind and at night to help me, and I would do the same for them.

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from San Felipe and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for San Felipe may be found at Mexfish.com's main San Felipe page.