Grande corvina in the south kelp

[tylerdurden]

I got nominated to do the report honors from this trip :roll: , so here goes...

Brad and Adi left early Friday the 17th of November for points south of the border. Me and Patrick were to meet up with them on Saturday morning. We left Saturday early and got to the spot at 7am. Brad and Adi were just about to launch when we arrived. When we got there the reports were looking good. There was little swell, compared to what the place can put out. Sounds like it is game on. We quickly get our stuff together and join team lamb on the water. We fished from 8 am until sunset straight through for lots of incidentals and no love from the right kind.







After landing Patrick and I set up camp. We put the tent up and threw the sleeping bags inside, then sat around with team lamb and did the usual bsing by the fire. Patrick goes into the tent to set up his stuff, then asks for a flashlight. A second later he yells "There's a dog in the tent." wtf? We all start laughing and look. Sure enough the baja demon somehow slipped unnoticed into the tent. The whole time from putting the tent up to this we were no more than 10 yards from the tent.



The dog was blind and a little off. We couldn't push it out of the tent with a gaff, blunt end, or entice it out with food. Finally we pushed it out using a paddle. A few minutes later it immediately runs back into camp and right back into the tent. This time we had to unstake the tent and lift the bottom up and kind of roll the dog out the door. Thankfully this was the only baja demon for the trip, other than some foggy conditions on the road.

We awoke the next morning to freezing weather and sunshine. I got soaked on the way out but at least put my jacket on over my waders. Ask Brad about that one :lol: .

We set out fishing and trying anything we could to scare up a bite. Sometime in the morning I was drifting over some of the isolated stringers on the edge of the kelp. I drifted over one and my reel with a fly lined greenie chirped. I thought I snagged the stringer and was in no hurry to get it undone. I finished with my knot work on my other setup and then got to the reel. I put it in gear and swung hard to rip the hook out of the kelp, but it tugged back :shock: . Then as I gain line way too fast it starts to do the calico bass jerk and pull. At some point it realizes I just put a 4/0 gorilla hook through its lip and starts pulling lots of drag. Now I know it's an actual fish so I call out hookup. The fish would anchor up on the bottom, then move once I got vertical on it. After a good long fight and nice sleigh ride I started gaining line quickly. At color I knew it was a wsb, but it looked about 30# to me. I stuck it first try with the gaff and pulled it on board. I love the feeling of the gaff as it thumps home. Thats when I realized how big it was. I thought I might have gaffed a bsb by accident.




tomcod and wsb. 2 croakers:


Adi gets the awesome otw shot:


I fish for a while longer but eventually paddle in to weigh, measure and carve up the beast.

A Mother of all lamb inspired shot:


56.6# and about 56" long.


The locals come by to check out the grande corvina. The one guy gets on his cell phone and calls all his friends and kids to come check it out. In broken spanish from me, and broken english from them we talk about fishing while I hack up the fish. They ask if they can have the head and body. I say sure, but they don't want even a piece of filet for some reason.

I then paddled back out looking for number 2. It was not to be. We ended up getting into a wide open sand bass bite . We give a few sore lips and move on.



We all paddle in at sunset again.





All in all nowhere near the trip we were hoping for. I however am stoked at getting my best fish yet from the kayak. We all packed up and drove home Sunday night in the fog. Thanks to Adi, Brad, and Patrick. It was a great trip. The weather was epic and the people don't get any better. If only the fishing would have cooperated.