Baja trip report - Gonzaga Bay 4/13-4/16 (Fixed Pictures)

[Chizuck]

After all the great advice garnered from many of the people on this site, Mark and I decided to treat our ladies to a guided fishing trip to Gonzaga this past weekend and the condensed version is...it rocks.

Getting there was half the adventure - we left Solana Beach at 6:30 pm and after two short return loops to get forgotten items (passports and tackle boxes) we made haste to El Centro and then across the border into Mexicali. The border crossing and subsequent drive to San Felipe went smoothly and we continued south from San Felipe until the wee hours and then pulled off the side of the road to get a couple hours of sleep, cowboy style.



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We awoke to a gorgeous sunrise but some stiff winds that would continue the rest of the day. Fifteen miles later we were in Puertocito and Mark's RAV4 was rolling on a flat tire caused by a cactus spine. The puncture was in the sidewall, so we didn't have much confidence in the plugging option and we weren't too keen to drive the 50 rough miles to Gonzaga without another spare, so things looked pretty grim for a while. But luck was on our side and we managed to find a man named Lucio in town who happened to have a spare tire the right size that he sold us and installed on our rim for 200 pesos (about 18 dollars) and we were on our way.

The road to Gonzaga was definitely passable in a 2WD, but very slow going because of all the washboard and rough rocks.


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We got to Papa Fernandez's place around 1:30, set up camp, and then did some surf fishing with no luck.


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The wind was blowing hard enough to make standing on the beach painful with the flying sand, and launching a kayak was not really an option, so we basically just did some scouting around and then went to sleep right at sunset.

The next morning dawned calm and sunny so we launched early and spent the entire morning paddling around the big island that shelters the bay. This is Mark demonstrating the primary reason to take your woman fishing - they can paddle while you fish:


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We did a lot of trolling and stopped to fish several places. After losing a few lures to toothy fish and rocks we decided to put wire leaders on everything we cast. I wouldn't say it was it was fish-every-cast good, but we caught fish with enough frequency to keep it exciting, and the variety was spectacular. Fish caught included:

Sierra

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Leather Jack

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Cabrilla

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Red Snapper

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Triggerfish

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We also caught several Spotted Bay Bass and some small rockfish-looking fish. The snapper and a triggerfish were lunch, and when we found out how tasty the trigger was we decided to target them in the afternoon. We cut some strips from the carcasses and put them on treble hooks and fished one of the rocky areas we found that morning and quickly caught enough triggers for dinner and tons of spotted bay bass. That night was spent eating fish tacos and marshmallows around a fire on the beach until late.

The next morning Mark and I got up early and took one of the kayaks out for one last session. We covered a lot of the rocky ground near the seaward side of the island for one big leopard grouper


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and then started chasing bird piles offshore until we got into some schools of bait. It turned out to be the kind of white-hot bite we came to Baja hoping to find. We spent a couple hours trolling through schools of bait until the sierra chasing them would hammer our Crocodiles and then start casting to them. There were multiple double hookups with the fish trying to do laps around each other while Mark and I were juggling rods to keep things straight. Sierras are a blast to catch - aggressive on the strike and fierce fighters. Mark also caught one needlefish:


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We had to leave the fish behind and paddle back by 11:00 though to get everything packed up and head towards home. We decided to drive south from Gonzaga and return on Mex 1 via Ensenada and Tijuana. It is a little longer (403 miles vs. 379) but the fact that you spend 30 miles on kind of rough road instead of 60 miles on really rough road meant that it was actually an hour less travel time. The drive home turned out to be uneventful except that the border crossing at Tijuana was mayhem. We got there at 12:30 and there were not too many cars, but only 3 lanes open. There was some serious jockeying going on and we saw a couple fender benders. In the end we didn't get through until 4:00, which made for a long day of work on Monday.

In summary I wish we had two more days to stay and fish, but it was still a worthwhile trip. Quite the haul to get there, but what a gorgeous spot once you do. This is a picture Jen took from atop the hill overlooking the bay. We camped on the sand on the left side of the little peninsula - if you look closely in the lower left you can see the black speck that is my truck.


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Thanks again to all the people that offered advice on this trip. It's always good to hear from people with first-hand knowledge.

-Chuck