After ending my retirement in early May, I was lucky to get down to Baja this Memorial Day, even if I could only do it for 5 days. I needed to set up the place for the summer, among other things. Mike was up for going down and so was Cathy, so the three of us rode in his truck. Nothing to write home and tell mom about on the way down. No news is good news, when you're going down to the campo.
The Puertecitos road gets worse every time we drive it. I do hope it gets fixed up one of these days. The Gonzaga road is still pretty good. We'll have to see this fall how the summer storm season goes. We made it down there in a little less than 8 hours.
Once we settled in, life was good. The winds had subsided and were relatively calm when we sat down for the evening. We got the boat ready and launched her that evening when the tide was up. The night was nice and cool. We had fish tacos that night, from bass that Ed, Scott and Ingrid had caught the day before. Mike made some casts from shore.
The next morning, a calm breeze threw a very light chop on on the water. We headed up to our Cabrilla and Grouper spot. We didn't catch any Cabrilla or Grouper, but the bass up there were outstanding. I caught one spottie that was as big as any I've ever seen. Ed and Scott had started fishing at daybreak and headed home early. At around noon, Mike and I got a call from Cathy informing us that an offshore had started to blow vigorously. Mike and I headed back, even though the winds up there were still onshore. As we rounded the point by Los Delfines, the off shore hit us. The temperature went up about 15°. We landed and went up to camp. The temperature was a nice steady 98°. We barbecued that night. When the sun went down, so did the temperature. The wind blew pretty hard all night.
On Saturday morning, the wind continued. We hung around and took it easy. At about noon, the wind started to settle down. Mike and I went out to harass the bass. Scott and Ed went too. When the bass were sufficiently harassed, we landed before the tide went down and commenced hanging around on shore again. Ahhhh, life in Baja's rough. I snapped this nice picture of a Zebra-tailed Lizard showing off. I've never seen the color in them like this.
By evening, the front that caused the winds blew through and it started to get nice and calm. Sunday morning, the sea was flat and glassy. We headed out to the islands. Scott and Ed were already out at our spot, sort of. When Mike and I pulled up, I spotted a mess of fish....#4 big fish, on the sonar. I put on a Diamond jig and dropped down. Before I even hit bottom, I was hooked-up, and hooked-up good. I knew it was no guppy. After a hard fight for about 10 - 15 minutes, I saw color and recognized it as a White Seabass. Or so I thought. I gaffed it through the lip and held it up for the camera.
When I examined the fish closer, I noticed that the ridge on the bottom was missing. Then, I looked closely at the bottom jaw and noticed the pair of three pores beneath the lower lip. The fish was a Totoaba, an endangered species on the CITES list. I got it to revive and let it go back to the watery depths. Mike and I then dropped our jigs back down. Before you could say, "double hook-up," we were both hooked up to a couple large fish. We figured they were more Totoaba, and they were. We left them in the water and took their picture. We unhooked them, revived them, and got them to go back down, not an easy task for one of them.
At that point, the sonar was filled, top to bottom, with #4 fish. We were afraid of catching more and hurting them, so we moved off the school and found another nearby rockpile. The truth of the matter is, on a windless day like this one, I was plumb tuckered too! We never saw the pack again. Our experience correlates with other stories I have heard about Totoaba. They roam in packs, hit anything, and are plentiful, when they're plentiful. Mike held his fish up for a photo-op, before letting it go.
"Experts" purport that Totoaba are endangered because of overfishing. Funny that the fishing hasn't recovered since 1975, when commercial fishing was banned. Recent research from analyzing isotopic oxygen in otoliths (earstones), of all things, has shown that these fish, which can grow to 6' long and weigh over 200 pounds, historically spent the first "several" years of their lives in brackish water. Well, the water at the mouth of the Colorado River isn't very brackish these days, except when the Colorado floods and water is released from Glen Canyon and Hoover dams in such quantities that the downstream farmers and water purveyors can't suck it dry like usual. The end result is Totoaba don't have a very happy life in the ephemeral brackish water. They seem to be hanging in there, but that's about it. Seeing the number of them that we did was quite a thrill though. Ya know, I'll betcha, I'll just betcha, that we won't be releasing more water from the Colorado watershed any time soon to help save the fish. If we did, people in Las Vegas, San Diego, LA, and Phoenix might have to conserve and pretend they live in the desert. Blaming the decline on overfishing is WAY easier, and a lot more politically expeditious.
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