Wednesday, I was inclined to work, but Cathy wanted to go out fishing. Pandro and Tracy went tire hunting, so It went out again too. We headed back to the spot where the Yellows were Tuesday. They were spread out over about a square mile of territory. Surface action abounded. Getting them to bite was easier said than done. The fish were literally stuffed with pinhead anchovies and not particularly hungry. They would bite though, mostly while trolling. Sometimes they'd puke out 'chovies when you'd get them close. Here's a nice one It got.
Here, he's fighting another nice one.
One troll took us close to the island (San Luis) and over many of the reefs and seamounts in this area. the nameless one caught 3 fish that I originally thought were different color variations of Leopard Grouper. The first one he caught actually was a Leopard Grouper.
The last one fought like a Yellowtail and was darn nice sized. I later determined that it was a Flag Cabrilla.
Give him a little smooch:
When we got back to shore, we laid all three side-by-side.
Clearly, they weren't all Leopard Groupers. Specifically, two of them had rounded tails, the hallmark of Cabrilla. It turned out that the nameless one had caught a Spotted Cabrilla (middle), a Leopard Grouper (bottom) and a Flag Cabrilla. The Flag Cabrilla was our Baja first. True to the prophecy in the Bible (Neil Kelly's "Baja Catch"), the Flag Cabrilla fights hard and is unsurpassed as table fare. The latter I can attest to...it's among the best fish I've ever eaten. Reminds me of Monkfish. One of them jumped and surprised Tracy.
I hacked 'em up
& we ate them that night. Here's the aftermath of din-din.
After dinner, we all posed for a toast to New Year's Eve Eve.
New Year's Eve, my family left. Eddie, Donna and I headed out to this year's Yellowtail sweet spot. We trolled and cast lures. All together, I'd say we caught 10 to 12. We tried trolling up along the west side of Isla San Luis, hoping to pick-up some more Cabrilla. Eddie hooked-up a drag-pulling fish that fought just like the Flag Cabrilla that the nameless one had caught the day before. It fought so good, in fact, that it dragged him over a submerged reef and broke him off. Eddie's line was frayed 10 feet up from the break. Too bad. My mouth was already watering. Eddie's was burning. That night, we remembered why we love it so much down here.
We saw the New Year into Chicago.
Next day, the wind came up and the sea blew out about 2 hours before I could shuttle my boat over to the landing spot. We humped the motor, then used Bruce's wheels to haul the boat over manually. I finished roofing the veranda, managing not to get blown off the roof.
I used my inverter to buzz off the edges. It worked well. The birds used the updraft blowing up the cliff edge to soar effortlessly. This first-year Magnificent Frigatebird was no exception.
Ed & I went down to Punta Bufeo village to see Luis. Luis said that he'd meet us in Mexicali to try to interest the State Judicial Police to roust the scum. I've heard that story before. It remains to be seen whether he'll do it. The moon that night was full.
We headed back on Saturday. Bruce bagged Packy the night before. If the ladrones don't steal his house, at least Packy won't eat it first. We stopped at Tony's to get fish tacos. They were the worst fish tacos I've ever eaten. Eddie and I thought they were Triggerfish. Lots of people like Triggers, but I ain't one of them. Fortunately, I only had 2. The carne asada and shrimp tacos were good.
High res images ©1999 Bruce J. Mrosko, all rights reserved. Other images are ©1999, Dean R. Charles and are the exclusive property of the photographer. Limited license is granted to download these images for personal use, or to use these images on a non-commercial basis. Any other use is expressly prohibited without written permission of the owner. Violators will be shot.