Fishing Gonzaga Bay May 22-24

The ride down to Gonzaga Bay with our party of 3 boats and 6 people was uneventful. We traveled from San Diego via the 8 freeway until taking the 7 to Mexicali. No wait at the border at 8am with only a short wait to find someone to stamp our visas.

The ride from the border to GB was also smooth with a few pot holes before the new road started just south of Puertocitos. Arrived at Alfonsina's Hotel around 3pm. We were able to get 3 rooms adjacent to each other and away from the rest of the hotel, rooms 10, 11 and 12. The only problem was that their engine generator for the A/C units in the rooms was broken. This was a big problem for some of the old farts cuz of the impressive heat, plastic under sheet covers, brown pillow cases and flies (no screens). Extended sleep was nearly impossible.

Day 1: The next day we got a late start waiting for the tides to change so we could launch the boats in the back estuary. Finally around 1pm we are off to Punta Final to start our search for cabrilla. I was along for the ride with Bill on his boat. Bill is a mutual friend and my 1st time fishing with him. He is exclusively a master jig fisherman while I'm a bait fisherman. He finds an interesting sea mount with his FF inside the tip of PF. Bill manages to pull 2 cabrilla and the other guys a couple more between 6-10 pounds. I'm zero on bait there except triggerfish. Then we went out to the reef off PF where there were 5 commercial boats pulling in their drift nets. Out there I caught a red snapper and a couple of species of bass on squid. Bill does the same on Ed's jigs.

The boat owners decided to moor their boats in front of the hotel instead of pulling them out each night. There were other boats owned by locals that did the same. We anchored the boats (lashed together) so that in the morning we could just walk onto the boats at the expected low tide

Day 2: Got an early start and headed to Island San Luis north of the Bay. We trolled around the island for naught and joined the other two boats fishing on the north side of Luis. One guy already caught a 19 lb dog-toothed snapper and a cabrilla there. While working that reef area we finally found a bunch of yellowtail and many sierra. However, pesky sea lions took my one YT as well a few from Bill. Bill did manager to get in a huge sierra for the pic before releasing it. He also landed a cabrilla.


Bill's Sierra.

The afternoon fishing after a short break for lunch was back to PF to get away from the sea lions. There Bill catches more cabrilla and many sierra while I did mange to catch a few more bass and snapper on bait. All the cabrilla were in the 6-10 lb range.

Day 3: Turned out to be our last morning of fishing due to a westerly coming up in the early afternoon and continuing thoughout our last scheduled day of fishing. We again went to PF and fished the productive cabrilla area. We got the morning bite to about 9am with me finally catching my 1st cabrilla using one of Bills chrome-type jigs. I just got tired of watching Bill catching quality fish after fish while I catch bass, snapper, goatfish and a gazillion triggerfish to 5 lbs. We did eat the triggers one night prepared by the hotel's restaurant in a garlic and butter sauce. Bill also caught an 18 lb broom tailed grouper just missing the JP by a pound. All the big fish were weighted. The Big snapper won the bet.

Afternoon fishing was blown out due to the stated westerly winds.

Day 4: Winds continued in the morning so we packed it up and headed home at 1 pm. Getting back to SD around 10pm.


Picking Up Our Boats

30 Minutes later

The border wait would have been over an hour if they did not send us to another entrance for trailers, rvs and busses. The wait was only about 15 minutes for us. There are many more pics from the other guys that I'll add at a later date.

Observations:

Hotel:
Only one in town. If the a/c would have worked would have been nice but the food was excellent on the few available items on the menu. The best dinners were the triggerfish and the fried calamari (my bait) they prepared for us. Their fish and shrimp dishes were excellent. However, they need new bedding, fans, and screens on windows. Maid service was only weeping out sand from room. All-in-all sleeping was difficult. They are building a new wing 3-stories high. I'm sure it's for the expected increase in road traffic due to the new extension of the Hwy 5 to meet Hwy 1 later this year.

Restaurant View: Whale sharks fed inside buoy and the beach


Tide Drop: New construction on the left our 3 rooms on the right.

Boat Launching:
was easy once we figured out how to do it. Tide dependent.

Whales:
We saw many whale sharks. A couple of juveniles were feeding daily just off the beach in front of the hotel. Perhaps 10-15 ' each. I took a pic of a 30 plus footer further out while we were returning one afternoon. It looked like submarine while it made a 90- degree turn and swam under our boat. It's mouth was over 6 feet wide. Also ran across a pod of backfin black whales out by San Luis (in background).

Giant Whale Shark


[Edited on 6-12-2017 by Lobsterman]

sounds like a fun productive trip!

so are you gents so stoked on Gbay that you're ready to buy????(its on sale)

Great trip report! My turn is in October

Quote: Originally posted by Lobsterman

Arrived at Alfonsina's Hotel around 3pm. We were able to get 3 rooms adjacent to each other and away from the rest of the hotel, rooms 10, 11 and 12. The only problem was that their engine generator for the A/C units in the rooms was broken. This was a big problem for some of the old farts cuz of the impressive heat, plastic under sheet covers, brown pillow cases and flies (no screens). Maid service was only weeping out sand from room. All-in-all sleeping was difficult. They are building a new wing 3-stories high.

Quote: Originally posted by woody with a view

what dates were you there?

Quote: Originally posted by Hook

Good numbers of 6-10 lb cabrilla is good fishing, in my book! Got any pics of the cabrilla? Not for size justification. It's just that so many fish are called "cabrilla" in Mexico; I was wonder which fish you were catching. At various times, spotted sand bass, leopard grouper, barred sand bass, flag cabrilla, goldspotted bass, various other small groupers and the spotted cabrilla (often called TRUE cabrilla, though who can say what is TRUE) are all called cabrilla.

Here's the only pic we had of the cabrilla. According to bill the one on the left is a cabrilla and the one on the right is an 18 lb broomtail grouper. All caught on chrome-type jigs retrieved at warp speed. Bill has very fast and consistent hands allowing the jigs to track in a bullet straight-line. I was never able to master his technique but I was finally able to catch a smaller cabrilla than the pic using one of his jigs.

We left them biting after finally figuring out where they were hanging due to westerly winds shutting down our trip. I can just imagine turning right at Punta Final and fishing south along the coastline towards La Guardia. Maybe next time in my boat.

Our 3 rooms are in the background. Alfonsina's is just a perfect place for a fishing adventure, i.e. great food, great fishing, spectacular wildlife, clean waters, and so so sleeping quarters but with a gorgeous view of the bay.


From the Room


Final Night Appetizer from the Restaurant (my squid bait).


Getting Started in the Morning.

[Edited on 6-11-2017 by Lobsterman]

Quote: Originally posted by Hook

Good numbers of 6-10 lb cabrilla is good fishing, in my book! Got any pics of the cabrilla? Not for size justification. It's just that so many fish are called "cabrilla" in Mexico; I was wonder which fish you were catching. At various times, spotted sand bass, leopard grouper, barred sand bass, flag cabrilla, goldspotted bass, various other small groupers and the spotted cabrilla (often called TRUE cabrilla, though who can say what is TRUE) are all called cabrilla.

[Edited on 6-17-2017 by Lobsterman]

New upgrades at Rancho Grande

Quote: Originally posted by dizzyspots

Rumor has it: old restaurant has been converted to apts....diesel generator for power...beginning to add 8x20 mini condos with kitchen/bedroom and large palapa...1st one is in , just south of the old restaurant...more to come south at the daily rental palapas....hmmm???

Quote: Originally posted by dizzyspots

Rumor has it: old restaurant has been converted to apts....diesel generator for power...beginning to add 8x20 mini condos with kitchen/bedroom and large palapa...1st one is in , just south of the old restaurant...more to come south at the daily rental palapas....hmmm???

Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666

Quote: Originally posted by dizzyspots   Rumor has it: old restaurant has been converted to apts....diesel generator for power...beginning to add 8x20 mini condos with kitchen/bedroom and large palapa...1st one is in , just south of the old restaurant...more to come south at the daily rental palapas....hmmm??? That land is a sand spit. It will be flooded some day, by some storm. Not a matter of "if," but "when." Places like that could be so beautiful if he development were confined to somewhere a bit inland, and the sand spit were left to be natural. As it stands, it's a hodge-podge of junky shacks.

you do realize we are talking about rancho grande here?

and...."hodge-podge of junky shacks"? are you high on drugs?

[Edited on 6-19-2017 by willardguy]

wish I could afford one of those "hodge-podge junky shacks"!