Gonzaga in November - part one

[walrus]

More than fishing – November 12 (day 1)


Baja or Bust trips are not just about fishing. Fishing is the catalyst that bines us for a week of camping, laughing, telling tales, and helping each other overcome hardship or problems encountered while there. It’s about nature’s beauty and her bad side, in a nutshell Baja or Bust is about having an adventure.


Here’s a little of the November adventure from my viewpoint, hopefully the others will chip in with theirs.


After unloading the trucks I hit the water to in an afternoon session before dark. About thirty minutes into the pedal with a couple of big spotties caught and released my mirage drive mast snapped off. I don’t have a PA so I was able to paddle back to camp without any more drama. I watched Tony’s video in April, so I came with an extra drive.



Pirates of the Cortez – November 13 (day 2)


It’s hard to believe that in this day with the technology we have at our fingertips pirates can so freely plunder our silver. Just off shore while minding our own business trying to catch a yellowtail or cabrilla the pirates would surround our kayaks, distract us by lunging, jumping, and beating the water into foamy chaos. As fast as they would appear they would vanish taking our silver krocadiles, megabaits, and rapalas leaving us holding a limp line.



I’m talking about the Sierra the most abundant fish during our time down there. If you failed to wire up your tackle, you could easily lose thirty jigs an hour. When you were wire up you still would lose a few pieces of silver per day when they would bite you off at the line to wire connection. Boiling Sierra were everywhere, in close to shore, mid water, deep water, in front of you, beside you, and behind you. Cast a jig near the boil and crank it in as fast as you can, then the fight is on!






Sven and I had paddled off the reef to a spot he had marked on a previous trip. As described before the Sierra was boiling everywhere around us and it was fast and fun, until the dogs showed up. The dogs would watch and wait until you hooked a fish, grab it by the tail, surface facing you and make a violent head shake to either throw out the lure or snap the line. It didn’t take long to discourage me from fishing there and I headed back toward shore with the dogs following about two thirds of the way before they gave up.


Rest of the day I fish the reefs near shore catching sculpin, bass, triggerfish, and corvina. What a great day to be on the water.


In camp it got better, Jim provided and prepared the ultimate camp dinner of steak and lobster. I understand the lobster came out of Team Sewer’s ice chest, sorry about that guys, but it tasted great!


Tip of the week:


Make your own lures to cut the cost of lost silver. The Pirates and other fish don’t know counterfeit from the real deal. The spotty picture shows a simple twister spoon made from metal strapping, aluminum tape, a small piece of prism tape, hook and split ring. Caught a lot of fish on these things.

Continued soon.
I’ll get some more written about the rest of the trip in the next few days “Voyage to the Enchanted Island” It can be done with some planning and energy.

[erinoo]

Nice report. Appears to be a good adventure thus far.

[Zed]

Is that a really big scorpion or is it just a closeup?

[walrus]

It was an average size, but I was holding it away from my body and a few inches closer on a gopro makes it look bigger.