Taco de Baja
Super Nomad
Posts: 1913
Registered: 4-14-2004
Location: Behind the Orange Curtain, CA
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Mood: Dreamin' of Baja
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Back from the beach
Had a really great trip on my annual trip to the Pacific coast south of El Rosario. I was there from the 19th to the 28th. Went with my sister (You'll
remember her from last year and the 3 flat tires on the way out in her Armada with street tires) and 4 year old neice. She is becoming a good Baja
camper and had a lot of fun playing in the water and looking for shells and bones.
Water was 58-60 degrees the first couple of days?.but warmed up to 70+ by the end of the trip. Visibility in the water was at least 30 feet, great
skin diving.
There were no waves to speak of where we camped; 2 foot max but I go more for the fishing than the surfing. However, they were perfect for a kayak at
low tide when they picked up some height.
Fishing was awesome. Caught white sea bass, yellowfin croaker, corbina, sand bass, and halibut. One day I even caught a bunch of 6 pound bonito, the
next day a single yellowtail tuna from the beach in 2 feet of water! We had to let the yellowtail go as I caught it on the morning we were packing up
to leave, and we were down to our last cube of ice  . We bought/traded some
lobster from the fishermen too so there was no lack of excellent eats.
Weather was very nice, some fog in the mornings, 75-85 during the day. Brilliant clear skies at night with lots of stars and no moon. Saw what I
think was a huge meteor on either the 19th or 20th (they all run together) Bright white with a green tail and almost as big in diameter as a full
moon. It was in the southern sky at around 8:30PM. Could have been a flare from a boat?.but at the coast is fairly uninhabited, I may have been the
only one to see it?.. Or maybe it was some little green men from Mars 
Got one flat on the way out, bummer as it was 110 degrees, and the hole was too big to patch with a plug.
We saw no other gringos along the coast just the Mexican clamers and lobstermen.
The border SUCKED. The police kept shutting down all the access roads to the border just as we got to the access areas, we looped around numerous
times. We finally said to heck with it and crossed over some downed CAUTION tape. It then took another 2 hours to get up to the gate. I was briefly
sent to Secondary for 10 minutes. Little did I know what was ahead of me though.....
Got back to my sister's in PB by 4:00, ordered a pizza, unloaded her stuff, waited until 8:00 for the traffic to die down and headed north to Laguna
Hills. 20 miles and minutes later traffic on the 5 STOPPED. Turned on the radio and heard a drugged up trucker hauling furniture had crashed and his
truck on the 5 in just north of Harbor Drive in Camp Pendleton and ALL traffic was being routed through Camp Pendleton (The crash happened at 3:00 PM
and the fire department could not put the fire out, it kept reigniting). I debated if I should turn around and sleep at my sister's or not, but
decided to stick it out....BIG mistake. It took me over 4 hours to get up to Harbor Drive in Pendleton (5 miles) and just before I was to be routed
through Pendleton the CHP opened up the freeway again. I finally got home at 1:00AM, jumped in the shower (my wife was none too pleased to be awakened
at a little after 1:00) and had my head on the pillow by 1:30...
I'll post some pictures, by the weekend
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Mexitron
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3397
Registered: 9-21-2003
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
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Mood: Happy!
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Taco--glad you're back safely and had a great time fishing. Missed it this year...hopefully next. Looking like my Baja trip this year will be in
Padre National Seashore...better chance of surf there, especially if we drive the 60 miles along the beach to the end of the park.
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bajablue
Nomad
Posts: 145
Registered: 2-28-2005
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Taco, how far and where south of El Rosario? it sounds like a cool place...
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Tomas Tierra
Super Nomad
Posts: 1281
Registered: 3-23-2005
Location: oxnard, ca
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Mood: Tengo Flojera
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Taco,
You mentioned " mexican clammers".. What variety of clams were they harvesting??
Sounds like cool fishing! were you on a Kayak or off the beach??' What a great variety of fish, yummy..any size or quantity to the sea bass??
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Taco de Baja
Super Nomad
Posts: 1913
Registered: 4-14-2004
Location: Behind the Orange Curtain, CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: Dreamin' of Baja
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Tomas Tierra
Taco,
You mentioned " mexican clammers".. What variety of clams were they harvesting??
Sounds like cool fishing! were you on a Kayak or off the beach??' What a great variety of fish, yummy..any size or quantity to the sea bass??
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I believe the clammers were going after the Pismos (Tivela stultorum). The day they showed up the water was still in the 60 degree range, so
they had to suit up in wetsuits. And they were in the water for hours. Spent part of the night on the beach, and headed out very in the early
morning 1-2AM
All fishing was done from the beach/rocky points. I have an 11 foot pole so I can cast a good distance out, but the Halibut sometimes would hit in
the shallow water 20 feet out from where I was casting.
Only caught one WSB this trip, he was approximately 25-26 inches (no tape measure), so just under the legal size for CA. I have caught them up to 40
inches at this same point back in the early 1980's. At that time I let all but a little 28 incher go as there was no way 3 people could eat that much
fish.
The 3 "large" halibut we caught were all in the 22-24 inch range; two of them got off just as they got to our feet and flipped back out to live
another year. We also caught (and released) a ton of babies that were 6-10 inches...not much bigger than the lures. Nothing really between the 12-22
inch range though.
My sister also snagged a couple of eagle rays, one with a 2+ foot wing span.
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shari
Select Nomad
Posts: 13033
Registered: 3-10-2006
Location: bahia asuncion, baja sur
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Mood: there is no reality except the one contained within us "Herman Hesse"
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Hola Taco, glad you had a good trip....is lobster season open up there already??
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Cypress
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7641
Registered: 3-12-2006
Location: on the bayou
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Mood: undecided
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Good story! Sorry about he road hassles. Have about thawed-out some imported fish. Hiko? First time to try it. Would rather have fresh-caught most
anything. Gonna get down that way as soon as possible.
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