| I just got back from a quick trip to the East Cape of Baja
for a little surf and fish, thought it would warrant a report. I was taking
my girlfriend on a trip for her birthday, but it just happened to coincide
with the prime Stripe Marlin season, what a coincidence.... We headed down
early Thursday morning. Upon arriving in Cabo we noticed that all of my rods
did not happen to make it. So, after dealing with airport staff for a couple
of hours, we hit the road and head north up the coast of the Sea of Cortez,
just hoping that my rods will make it in time.
We arrived at our hotel for the week and get unpacked and check
out the beach, looks great so far.
I had intended on fishing the beach for Roosters and Sharks,
but found it a little difficult considering my rods were in Arizona. So,
we took it easy the first day. I had checked the buoy readings before we
left and knew that there was a decent 6' swell on the south tip of baja,
so we loaded up the car and headed south. We first checked out "The Rock"
and "Zippers". Both looked good, but opted to hit up the famous break Zippers.
"The Rock" inset and Zippers in the background
Glassy rights
After surfing relatively uncrowded firing 6' Zippers, we headed
back up north to see if my rods had made it....get back....No rods.
Luckily around 9:00 that night, the front desk called and informed
me that my tackle had arrived. The next morning we hit the beach to see what
was lurking offshore. There were tons of bait working, so I started throwing
plugs and spoons. Immediately we started hooking into grander skipjack and
Toros(horse eye jacks). I wanted to run them out as shark baits, but with
the occassional boat traffic I decided against it. Sarah got tired of sitting
on the beach watching a local kid and I getting in on the light tackle action.
She demanded that she was up next. Sarah hooked into her second fish ever,
a nice skipjack.
Sarah and little local kid(fishing fanatic)
She eventually got tired of releasing all of our shark bait,
and I got the rod back to try for some Roosters. The biggest problem with
trying for Roosters was the overwhelming presence of Puffer fish. There were
every sub-species you could imagine, and they took every opportunity to eat
whether it were bait or lure. There was a large bait ball further offshore
so I put the dive gear on and went to investigate. It turned out to be a
large population of snapper and what I thought were Palometto Pompano. I
changed tactics and landed this really unique Pomp.
Gafftop Pompano
I had one Rooster blow up but missed it, we ended up calling it a day and
gearing up for Marlin.
The next morning we headed out at 6:00 to make the run for Stripes.
After an hour or so of running we found what were were looking
for, a huge school of Sardinias. Immediately we spotted a Stripe on the surface
feeding, I rigged up a live bait on my Avet and pitched it. The Stripe quickly
turned and began tracking the livey. A couple of moments later and she took
the bait, I freespooled her for a few moments but she ended up dropping it.
Oh well, there were marlin free jumping everywhere so we decided to move
on. Not 2 minutes later and the captain spots another Stripe on the surface,
we pull up and I pitch another livey. This time she nails it and "Fish On".
She immediately began the best air show that I have ever witnessed from a
billfish, including Sails, Blue and White Marlin and Spearfish. She would
dive, then after retrieving some line, come launching out of the water. Sarah
was able to snap a couple of good photos.
Hooked Up
After an aerobatic 25 minute fight we are able to bring her
to leader. She is hooked very well under the bill, so we had to carefully
bring her in the boat to retrieve the hook, snap a couple of quick pictures,
and off she goes.
We decide to head back towards shore to try and hook Sarah up
with a Rooster. Unfortunately we did not find any Roosters, so we called
it a day and headed back to camp. It was a great trip, beautiful weather,
and ended with a great Stripe Marlin to check off the list. Unfortunately
there are still signs of old Mexico very prevelant in terms of Conservation.
On a daily basis we would see Stripe Marlin brought to the docks, albeit
probably 70% were released, but there were still a significant number killed.
I would have thought that by now, Mexico would have gotten the big picture
in terms of sustainable resources, but there are a lot of tourists that come
down and are not very knowledgeable and want to keep their fish.
Another interesting aspect of the trip were the live bait boats.
The pangas would pull up to your boat as you were leaving the dock, they
had the boat filled with water, each section having different baits for sale.
I quickly noticed that many of their live baits, including 2 of ours, were
Bonefish. I couldn't believe it. We ended up using the Sabiki while we were
out and secure ourselves some additional Sardines, so I was able to sneak
our two Bones out of the livewell and back into the water. The weather should
be calming and the fishing should be turning on down here so on. Till next
time-
Till next time-
Gabe
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