Bahia Gonzaga

[rossman]

Bahia Gonzaga

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After visiting Bahia Gonzaga last May, I decided I wanted to do another trip down there in the fall, so early morning on the 15th I headed back down there. Crossed the border at Mexicali at about 5:00 am and arrived it Campo Beluga at about 9:30 am. Set up camp and fished the evening session.
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My meal companion.
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I did not have any specific timetable and told friends and family that I would return when I ran out of food or money. What really made my decision on when to return was that by Sunday the 20th, my hands were like hamburger from catching and releasing so many fish, that it just not comfortable fishing any more.
The weather was perfect for the entire time. I never saw a cloud the entire time down there. Day time temps were in the mid to high 80s and nighttime temps were in the mid to high 60s. The wind was much more predictable than last May. Early morning light offshore breeze changing to flat calm by 8:00 am or maybe a gentle onshore, < 5 mph.
I had planned to explore a couple different locations on this trip including Willard Bay, El Faro lighthouse area and Punta Bufeo but as it turns out it was just so comfortable in the bay itself that I couldn't get inspired to explore other areas. I did fish one afternoon session in Willard bay trying to find some of the resident halibut but found nothing but the ubiquitous spotties and trigger fish and cabria.
The bay itself was plugged with tiny bait. Acres of stuff so thick that my sonar would not read past 2 feet for a half hour at a time. This bait brought in acres of foaming bonita. You could park on one of these bait balls and within a few minutes you would be in the middle of a foamer so thick that there was a low buzzing sound from the hundreds of tails slapping the water and bonita would actually bump into the kayak. Crazy scene. You could obviously catch as many as you wanted but after the first couple days I found myself trying to avoid them as much as I could. I did find that around the outside of the foamers there were some Sierra Mackerel hanging out. They are a lot of fun and fight like mini wahoos.

The most memorable part of the trip was my 4 or 5 encounters with whale sharks. These massive docile, slow moving fish were also attracted to the bait situation. My first encounter was when I was reeling in megabait and an 18 foot whale shark swam under my line and I snagged him just behind the gill plate. He just hung around my yak while I tried unsuccessfully to unhook him. I ended up cutting the line as close as I could to the jig. Well the next morning I was in the same area and suddenly there is a thud and the aft of my yak gets lifted out of the water and I just about tip over. Sure enough it was my 18 foot friend complete with megabait. I guess saying thank you for the body piercing and the bling. It looked like he was going to make another run at me so I vacated the area.
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A couple nights later I saw one swimming just off my camp site so I jumped in my yak and paddled out there and jumped in the water with him. He was a different one and a little smaller. More like a 15 footer. There skin is rougher than the coarsest emery cloth or sandpaper you could find and attempting to hitch a ride in any way other than hanging on to it's tail results in marine road rash. After I grabbed his tail he made a few lazy circle around my yak and when I finally dropped off he just slowly swam away. It was strange that I felt more uncomfortable out there after he swam away than when he was there.

The fishing for the week was outstanding in terms of quantity but the quality was not as good last May. I got some Cabria and leopard groupers in the 10 to 12 lb range but none of the jumbos that we got in May. Totoaba were everywhere but nothing over the 18 lb range. Lots of corvina of different varieties. I did not get or see any yellowtail however, the guy that runs the camp had a gill net about 30 feet long that he placed in front of the camp, which was out of the water at low tide and in 8 to 10 feet of water at high tide and one morning there was three YTs in the net. All about 2 feet long.

I left on Monday morning and spent the night in San Felipe. A shower and a proper bed felt great. Left early on Tuesday and was back home in Mission Viejo by 10:30.