Baja Report-long

[rsimpson]

Just returned from a week in southern Baja with my wife. We were celebrating our 15th anniversary and our original plan was to fly to Cabo and rent a jeep and drive back to SD but we changed plans as the taxes on a rental car from the tip of Baja up north were $700-800.

Arrived at Rancho Leonaro on our 2nd night. Talked to a handful of fisherman and it had been pretty slow offshore for a few days with a lot of guys getting skunked. Fished with Spike in the morning real close to shore. It was my wife (1st time yak fishing) and I and a family of 4 from Texas. Landed 1/2 dozen large triggers, 1 pompano, and a variety of random other small fish (puffers, etc). Fished squid strips and live sardinas. No one in our group caught anything to write home about and I think I landed the only Pompano. Rancho is a beautiful place and it would have been nice to spend a few more days there. Saw a few fish crashing in the surf during dinner but their were no takers dispite a lot of people trying.

Headed from their up to La Paz and proceeded to get sick and spend the the next day and a half in the hotel room, bummer! We had planned to camp on Isla Espiritu Santo and fish out there but it wasn't meant to be.

Day 4 we drove back down to the East Cape and headed to Bahia De Los Suenos (called Bahia De Los Muertos in Baja Catch-I guess they decided Bay of Dreams sounds more appealling than Bay of the Dead). Had lunch at the Giggling Marlin (what a wierd deal to find a restaraunt at this beach with no one around and no other signs of civilization). The fishing and snorkeling around the corner (north) from here was pretty good and we landed some needlefish and various other reef fish in short order. What a spectular place in the middle of nowhere. We camped out near the lighthouse that night and there were lots of pangueros launching just up the beach. This is one of the most amazing places that I have ever camped, miles of white sand beaches with no one in sight and beautiful shells everywhere. Fished the surf this night for nada. This place would have been a goldmine with a kayak and some live bait as we watched the pangas landing a lot of roosters & jacks just 50 yds off the beach but for us no takers on artificials.
Climbed out of the tent in the morning and caught a small rooster on my 2nd cast and then caught several good size Jacks before we had to leave. I would really like to have spent more time here.

From here we drove down to Cabo Pulmo which was totally blown out and the snorkeling was a total bust. Decided to drive the dirt road back to Cabo San Lucas hoping for a good place to camp and some good surf fishing. Found another beautiful spot about 10 miles south of Los Frailles with no one in sight and great spot for the tent. This was when the fishing finally got good. I went on a guided surf trip a few years ago with Stephen Jansen (www.jansenlures.com) from Cabo and learned a lot in a few hours with him. Landed several nice fish this evening including a large Jack (15 lbs), small halibut, and 2 other smaller jacks. Rolled out of the tent in the morning and landed 2 more jacks, 2 small roosters and 2 nice sierra in about an hour and a half. Those sierra can pull like none other. I came pretty close to gettting spooled with both fish. Wish we could have spent a few nights in this spot as this was the best fishing we found on our trip. Catching big fish in the surf if pretty spectacular. Everything was caught on a big (3 oz.) crome croc on a really fast retrieve.

Rolled into Cabo for our last night and got good reports of Jacks, Sierra and the occasional Roosters being landed in the surf on the pacific side. Went out to find a spot for the next morning and ran into a lot of surf fisherman that were doing good with lots of sierra being landed. Got up the last morning and joined about 30 guys on the beach on the pacific side near Lands End and no one caught anything in the 2 hours I was there. Someone must have flipped the magic switch off that night. The word on the good surf fishing has definetely gotten out in this area. Several years ago you might have only seen a few people on the beach fishing. It's not a surprise that poeple would choose this over spending a few hundred bucks to troll around for the day hoping for a marlin or dorado.

Overall it was a fantastic week. We learned a lot of good things that will be beneficial when we do this trip next time. I've got a great wife hopefully she'll keep me around for another 15 years!!!

I'll try to figure out how to post pics tomorrow.