Bahia Asuncion, Great Place, Great Food and New PB Twice
 

Early morning, the day after Christmas, Jeff and Bob and Swen and I met close the border and began our caravan to Bahia Asuncion. We lost Swen while traveling through Ensenada but he found us again at our last fuel stop of the day in Guerrero Negro.

We spent the night in Guerrero Negro and had a leisurely 3 hour drive the next morning to reach Bahia Asuncion. Our hostess was Shari who we rented a cabin from in the city of San Rogue which is about 8 miles north of BA. Shari and her husband Juan are the unofficial Chamber of Commerce for this area of Baja. They are regular contributors on some of the other fishing and Baja Forums. Juan, among other things is a guide, and spends a great bit of time in his panga during the day. Shari, a native Canadian, moved to BA and met and married Juan and runs their 7 or 8 room hotel and their campground on the other end of town.

Juan and Shari's home and hotel.

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We went out to our cabin in San Rogue and set up camp.

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I went on a bit of a recon trip and managed a couple calicos and a couple small halibut.

Juan indicated the the better YT fishing would be around the San Rogue island so decided to beeline out there early the next morning.

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Turned out to be 2.45 miles from the launch to the closest point at the island. I was out there by around 6:15 and found Barries and Bonies stacked like cord wood and quality calicos pretty much everywhere, and a few yellows in the mix.

For the day, I ended up with 20+ calicos, 10+ sandies,7 sheepies, 7 bonies, 6 yellows.

Some assorted fish pictures:

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One yellow was noteworthy as it was my Personal Best. Just over 37 lbs on a spring scale.
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And so it went every day for the next 7 days. I spent most of my time fishing yellows but there was always bi-catch of calicos and barries and Bonies. The hot baits were the Megabaits and Scrambled egg irons.

On the last day of fishing, I managed to get the 2nd PB of the trip. 43.4 lbs on the digital.

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I had an absolutely outstanding time. The company was great and the food.... You would not believe the meals that Jeff prepared for us using a 2 burner Coleman stove and some rudimentary utensils. When I travel down there alone, my evening meals consists of a Slim Jim and a Vitamin Water and maybe a fruit cup for desert. With Jeff around, it was like dining at a restaurant, or maybe like the food on a long range trip on the Excel. Nicely done Jeff.

That's it for right now. I'll probably add some more stories later on but I need to unpack and clean my truck.

OUT-FREEKING-STANDING! :luxhello: :luxhello: :luxhello: :luxhello:

Damn good Ross. Sounds like you all had a great trip.

Nice job! Congratulation on breaking your PB.

Looks like an awesome adventure. 43 lbs!! Congrats Ross!

Spoiled
 

Rossman pretty much summed up our trip. I had some of the best Calico fishing ever, a personal best of 19 1/2 calico and the average calico I caught were 16" to 17". I didn't manage to get a big Yellowtail like Rossamn but I got me share of Yellows but the big one eluded me. At times the barracuda were so thick that it was fish on every cast. I was dubbed the Slime King but the other guys because the barracuda seemed to follow me around. At times I had to move to another location just to get away from the slims so I could target Yellows.
Aside from the outstanding fishing the highlight of the trip was the meals prepared by Jeff (Buddha) They were simply outstanding. A special thanks to Rossman for sharing his fishing knowledge and assisting me. Also a big thanks to Mako Bob for putting this trip together. I look forward to the future Baja or Bust trips

Awesome guys!!! :luxhello:

Congrats on the PB! It's a monsta!!!

A PB of 19 1/2 calico - I'll forget about the other 19, but I want to hear the story on the 1/2 calico!

Sounds like an awesome trip!

Awesome trip report...very cool!!!:reel:
How did you package fish for the return trip and can you filet and bring back fish from multiple days?

WOW!

Can't beat back to back PB's

Paradise at Bahia Asuncion
 

Bahia Asuncion was on my wish list since back in 2009 at the San Diego Bay Anglers tournament I met Zach Thomas who wrote a book about trailering a boat in Baja. I asked him where was the best fishing for a kayak fisherman in Baja and he mentioned Bahia Asuncion.

Thanks to Makobob he made my wish come true and I organized the trip with him right after Christmas.

The drive down was great. It was varied with cactus, farm areas, desert, etc.

The roads were very good for the most part as there were only a few areas that had construction and you had to go on dirt road but not very far at all.

Arriving at Bahia Asuncion we met Shari Bondy who owns a bed and breakfast right on the water at a rocky point with a billion dollar view if ever there was one. We looked into some of the rooms and they had amazing ocean views and the rooms were extremely beautiful, the pictures do not do it justice on the web site.

We got our keys for our rental house at San Roque a 15 minute drive from town on a dirt road but it was pretty smooth.

When we arrived at the house I could not believe the serene beauty of it all. The beach was one of the prettiest ever and it was all ours.

Other than the lobster fishermen that drove in the morning to set their traps and few other campers we had this place to ourselves.

The water clarity was like the caribbean with visibility up to 30-40 feet.

Just a gorgeous place to chill out and recharge your batteries which is really why I came. Fishing was secondary just to relax and regroup and get away before going back to the rat race. A perfect place for that.

I cooked all the meals for the guys and am happy that they appreciated my efforts.

Ross, Robert, and Sven are all good guys to fish with. Just passionate fishermen, easy going guys that anyone would enjoy fishing with. No drama at all.

I was just happy to be in this beautiful environment so I didn't fish that hard. I had a personal best of a 23 inch calico. Unfortunately my damn camera didn't work so I couldn't take any pictures but the other guys have some.

The baits that worked for me were a flat spoon similar to a megabait but wider and flatter. The Berkley Gulp saltwater grubs also worked well. The z man plastics and big hammers didn't have much love.

This place is just a lovely place even if you don't fish and just want to get away. The accommodations that Shari has are a bed and breakfast as well as a few rental homes and a camp/rv are with showers and wifi.

This place is paradise on the cheap.

It only cost each of us less than 200 dollars for 11 days to be in this amazing environment.

Add in gas and you have one of the best bargains ever.

Paradise does exist and it is in Bahia Asuncion.

Get down there before it changes as the newly paved road will be attracting a lot more people.

Right now it is perfect.

Take advantage of it.

A couple more pictures:

All of the fish we cleaned has their stomachs plugged with these guys:

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These red crabs seemed to be around almost all of the time. They would range from seeing a couple swimming around the kayak. to massive 5 acre floats. There was one morning when they were particularly thick and you could hear the calicos slurping them off the surface.

I was fishing with plastics one morning and hooked up with something big. I fought him for probably 10 minutes almost straight up and down. I figured it might be a grouper or black sea bass but when I got him to the surface it turned out to be a sea turtle about 3 1/2 ft diameter that I had snagged underneath his front leg. He would come up for one breath and then take off for the bottom again. He was simply unstoppable after a fresh breath. I wanted to get a picture but he would not cooperate so I cut him loose.

I took an hour to explore the island a bit. Looked like the surface of the moon.

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We had an osprey land on a pole behind our cabin with his evening meal. He was still there working on it the next morning.
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OK you Baja travelers. Anyone recognize this place?

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The water was gin clear and one could see an amazing amount of life down to 30 ft. The one cast that I caught the 43 pounder, it hit fairly close to the yak, and there was another yellow of equal size literally fighting for the privilege of attacking my megabait.

Me and my 37
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Adam and his 38
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Me and my 43
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Glad you guys had a good trip!

I'd love to get down there too someday...the time that it takes to pull off a trip like that is prohibitive, for me at least....

Cheers to the Chef! Where's all the food pics?! :cheers1:

Awesome post Ross, what a way to end this Baja or Bust trip. You guys were great to be around for this exploration. Tight lines and bloody gaffs!
BTW the truck repairs were EXPENSIVE, wiring harness and labor came to just under $3000. The fuze was melted solid and did not blow, guys do not use Harbor Freight fuzes.

Makobob

Oh no a short?! Whatta nightmare!

Tell us what happened bob!

Jeez Bob. That is expensive. Did you make it home without any more smoke?

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Trip back was uneventful, ran great all the way, BUT.....Harness on order, to arrive next Monday from Michigan. Melted old harness and some of the connectors, mechanic said should have never made it back. No smoke coming home. $1700 for harness, $950 for labor to pull dash and replace harness plus TAX.

We plugged in a compressor to air up my tires for the trip back, the ciggarette lighter shorted out to start the electrical fire. Harbor Freight fuze melted but did not break the circut. BUT it was totally worth it to enjoy Baja with Ross, Sven and Jeff!!!!!!

Makobob

Congrats on the PB's. A no brainer to put on the bucket list.

EPIC trip:luxhello: Congrats on the PBs.
Never been down there before. Can you find diesel fuel as easily as reg. gas?

Absolutely no problem with diesel gas. It is at every Pemex station.

Great trip! Great report! Envy!!!!!!

Super cool! I would love to get down there.

Looks like heaven down there. I've always heard the Baja YT fight like ours do, but on steroids. I could only imagine what a Baja 40 lber must have fought like.

Glad you guys had a great trip, and congrats on the PB. Thanks for the report!

Awesome report, gotta love Baja. The calico's sound like they're monsters. How long was the drive down there?

The drive was about 12-13 hours. We did it in two days. The first stop was Guerrero Negro which was about 10 hrs.

Really a nice drive down there roads were nicely paved pretty ride.

Calicos were big I had my personal best caught a 23 incher.

I like the post, it tells a lot of what the trip was like. Very impressive fish you got there, congrats.

Looks like a 14 hour drive into Mexico!
 

I want everyone to have fun fishing but be forewarned a trip like this takes planning and has risks.
You need a passport, a VISA, mexican insurance, and plenty of time to travel in daylight hours ONLY. Do not drive at night.

Make sure you realize how lucky you are going there problem free. Others, including me have no been so lucky.

No corrupt police looking for $$?
No cows on the road?
No dangerous truck drivers?

Sounds like a blast to me.

It was a blast, trip was planed to drive, convoy during the day, 10 hours the first day and 3 hours the second. We did see a few cows, and the usual trucks, but we were careful, and not really in a hurry. We were all over 40 and there to fish. We bought 2 cases of beer and were respectful of the locals, we even had the military pay us a short visit one evening, maybe 15 minutes, they asked a few questions, looked around and left. Just 10 days in paradise. Might do the same trip for Thanksgiving this year, ANY takers?

How did you guys handle the fish on the way back?? Did you bring most of the good fish back or mostly it was catch and release??
That Tuna would be great fresh cut with some soy sauce and wasabi.

We ate a good bit of it while we were there but it was mostly catch and release. It was my plan to head over to gonzaga bay after I left Bahia Asunción and stop at Coco's Corner and give Coco some fresh fish.. So the day before we left I planned to catch and keep a yellow for Coco. Well I caught one I think my first cast. About a 25 pounder so I stowed him in my rod pod. An hour or so later I caught a slug which I knew was my personal best so I had to keep him so I could weigh him. This 44 pounder was taken home by Jeff Sven and Bob in zip locks on ice.

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Cocos corner.

Poor guy he has been thru hell with his diabetes. Saw him on the way down
to BOLA last July, still getting around on his amputated legs (knees).

Coco is still a legend. There is not a spot in Baja that he cannot tell you a story about. I mentioned that I was coming from Bahia Asuncion and he told me a series of stories about when he spent 2years there free diving for abalone in the 60s. Quite a character.

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Asuncion WAS awesome, with two days driving each way it needs to be a 10-12 day trip. Anyone interested in doing this trip in 2014, around Thanksgiving please let me know, as this is their busiest time of the year, and we would need to book the San Roque house soon. The last two years the weather has been fantastic the first part of January but that is not the norm. October, November are almost always great weather AND fishing. Yes it is a two 1/2 mile paddle to the island, but if you want a shorter paddle you can launch in Asuncion and only have a 1 mile paddle to a different island that is full of calicos. Seems to be more and bigger YT at San Roque island and it is more remote so fewer people and less fishing pressure. Anyone interested in doing this trip, please contact me by PM or Post. Thank you.

I may be interested if Rossman, Zed, Sven and Makobob make up the group.

December during Christmas would be better for me but I could probably do a 10-11 day trip during November.

That's a healthy looking yellow, congrats!

If its done over X-mas New years I would love to try and join you folks. Promise to bring bring a wok and cook some of the fresh catch of the day..

Jeff what happens if Ross, Zed, or Sven can't come? That mean you can't go?
Sasha, 10 days should be a minimum 12 is better. We could set up a trip for just after Christmas, but remember it could get windy, the weather was good then the last two years BUT normally it is windy after November, so like last year it would be a gamble. There would be a paid in full needed to secure the San Roque House. Anyone suggesting dates to go? I need to be back for a meeting on the 10th of Jan. If we went in November EARLIEST I could leave would be the 26th, prior trip returning on the 20th of November. So get me your dates soonest.

Over thanksgiving gets my vote

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