Trip Report: Kayak Fishing La Bocana

First of all, thanks for all the great input and advice I received when I was planning out this trip. I got a ton of good tips both from postings and U2U messages. Sorry for the late report, but the first week of school was a bit overwhelming for this high school teacher…especially after a week in Baja. What a shock to the system!
We left Los Angeles at 4:30 AM and hit the border by 6:30 with only minor delays getting our tourist cards. Smooth cruising except for the roller coaster detour south of Ensenada. We only stopped to gas up and then some quick tacos at El Rosario, but that was it until El Guerrero. There was no gas at the El Guerrero Pemex by the highway so we went into town and decided to pick up some beer and supplies. In retrospect we probably should have hurried on our way and just gassed up at Vizcaino because we ran out of sunlight just as we ran out of blacktop on the road to Abrejos. Luckily we had good directions to the Hotel La Bocana from Les because it was pretty freaky driving those roads in the dark. There are several roads that parallel the lagoon on the way from Abrejos to La Bacona with the smoothest being close to the water. Having no idea where we were, we ended up on the highest, roughest road moving about 5 miles an hour in pitch black having no idea if we were lost or not. This is probably a 1 ½ day drive if you are a first timer or prefer not to drive at night. We were very relieved to have Blanca meet us at the door of the B&B and we were also pleased to find out she had made arrangements for us to get some dinner.

The accommodations were everything we could have asked for and after a good night sleep we woke up to a gorgeous view of the Pacific. After Les’s specialty breakfast filled us up we were off for some fishing in the lagoon. It was non-stop fishing action from then on out with spotted bay bass and occasional small grouper to 3-4 lbs., small halibut and even some tiny barracuda and triggers mixed in. We made camp at the lagoon and fished hard the following 2 days. Lots and lots of fish but nothing big for us, although I did get slammed hard a few times by some grouper near the rocks. There are many nice spots to camp all along the lagoon shore with the only drawback being lots of flies sharing your campsite.
We packed up camp with the intention of getting up to Asuncion by late afternoon but I bounced some firewood and gear off the truck on the way back to La Bocana and after a failed search we were losing sunlight again and so we made camp at the little point just north of town called La Bocanita. There is a nice sheltered launch here ideal for kayaks and so we set up our yaks that evening and launched and fished early the next day. We trolled around the bay for Bonito to 10 lbs.( which is a blast on the kayaks) and picked up some calico and small halibut as well. We were having too much fun to stop fishing and decided to save Asunción for next time. We fished hard all the next day and stayed at Les and Blanca’s place again so we could get a shower and an early start home. Their place is a great deal and Les has built some additional rooms with private bathrooms where we stayed our last night. This was a great trip! Between the sheltered launch at La Bocanita, and the lagoon I’d imagine there are very few mornings a kayaker couldn’t get out and catch some fish. This is an ideal destination if you kayak or fish from a kayak! The drive home was beautiful and uneventful except for the being waved into secondary inspection at the border. Oh, and we stopped in Tijuana for some great tacos al pastor carved off the spit at Tacos El Gordo.

HeyMister, Thanks for taking the time to share your adventure.