So Many Lures, So Little Time - Trip 1

So Many Lures, So Little Time – Trip 1

Feb 8, 2011
Well, conditions and reports are not the best, but nevertheless this will the first day of testing new lures, techniques, etc. Like the postman's mantra..."Neither rain, nor wind, nor rabid Dobermans..etc, etc..shall keep me from my appointed rounds."

My fishing partner today was Les, a great neighbor in Coyote Bay, whose wife, Patsi, makes terrific sandwiches. We headed out around 6 a.m. and planned to be at the Pemex station by 6:30 to top off the boat fuel tanks.

The station had been out of gas yesterday, but the attendants assured me gas was on it’s way..and they would be open by 6:30 the next morning. Of course I knew they would not be… Because they never…ever…give you correct information. It’s written into the Baja bylaws somewhere, I’m sure .

But, one has to act like what they tell you might actually happen, so we were there by 6:30..JUST IN CASE. Yeah, yeah…I know..dumb & dumber. Yup..they finally showed up around 7:15 and we topped off the tank. The boat has a good fuel capacity, and gives me a nice range...about 200 miles mas o menos...depending on the rpms.


We drove over to the Mulege River ramp by the Serinadad and found it almost deserted. One other boat came to launch when we were there. Just one. Methinks the forecast of 12-16mph winds by noon were keeping a lot of fishermen ashore today?

Wind makes whitecaps around 12mph..and nobody likes to fight waves and/or get sprayed during Baja’s cold February.


We eased the Yarcraft off it’s trailer and tied up to the floating dock, and helped the other boat launch.



We motored out of the estuary together. That’s a nice solid Parker CC…bulletproof.

I noticed an old amigo, Ramon, was guiding on the boat..we had greeted each other earlier. He offered to sell me some shrimp, but I am shrimped-out for a while…so, "No Sale, my friend...and keep your eyes on the water."

Note: The river channel from the ramp to open sea has a few new humps and channels since the last hurricane. New mudbanks to watch out for…you don’t want to run up on one…keep your buddy watching over the bow...and the skipper monitoring the depthfinder.


Don’t break Lindsay’s Law: “If your depth exceeds your draft, you are most assuredly aground.”



We run out of the estuary to meet a buddy, Macy, whose boat, Poco Mas, was in front of the lighthouse….where he was making some baits. (The old baithole..Punta Prieta just down the shore… is not doing so well lately, with scant few baits being made there. We can blame it all on the recent sardine trawlers…carumba! )






But in this baithole, we did okay with our Zibiki rigs…putting about a dozen nice bigeyes and one green mack into the livewell in short order.


These bigeyes were smaller than I usually get, but should be just fine for those yellows, cabrilla, and pintos we were after today.

We ran on out to Wilbur’s Hole..about 6-7 miles due east of the river mouth. This is a flat plain area that has a good hump of rocks coming up to about 220 feet around a 250 foot bottom. A nice rockpile to attract our quarry. We rigged up our live-baits like this: 50 and 60 lb test line …passed through an 8oz egg sliding sinker..and the tag end tied to a 6ft-80lb snell w/circle hook.




I like to hook my live baits through the nose and let them free swim about 15 feet off the bottom. The reel’s clicker tells me when a fish has grabbed the bait. I use just enough drag to keep the free-swimming bait from engaging the clicker itself. Every bait is a wee bit different, so you readjust the clicker with each new bait. Bigeyes are kinda weaklings, but these green macks are tough little swimmers and pull hard against the drag.



So now we drop our baits down...and drift....and wait…and drift. Only two other boats fishing Wilbur’s this morning, so we have plenty of space around us to fish without danger of entangling lines during our drift.

Well, this morning was not that productive. In fact, we did not even get one pickup from a jurel, let alone a FISH ON! Les did manage to swim his bait into the mouth of a nice Pinto...a small consolation prize as it turned out. Pintos are high on my list of table fish.



We gave Wilbur’s our best shot, but that lonely Pinto was our only fish in 3 hours…..well, some days are like that. We were fishing….just not catching.


By noon, the predicted winds had arrived and it was soon whitecapping a little bit....with small 1-2 footers rolling in from the north.

It would change fast soon, though. I looked at that direction and realized it would be picking up and then hit us sideways on the trip back to Mulege.

A good time to test the boat’s flare….and it’s ability to throw off the cold spray far enough to keep it from hitting the tillerman…ME!

Dang, since I got out of the hospital with about half my blood supply, I get cold quick these days, so I was awfully glad when the Yarcraft’s hull design lived up to it’s name..The Dry One.

Hitting the whitecaps on a tangent at about 30mph I never took a drop from those sidewinds all the way back to Mulege…hazzah!





We came into the rio right behind this returning panga...whom we hoped had better luck than us.


That’s the end of this successful fishing day….WHY SUCCESSFUL?.... well, we only have one fish to fillet!

Tomorrow’s another day…and I am always optimistic about fishing! Manana I try out some deep jigging for grouper, cabrilla, and ?


"Glad you could come along…see ya on the water."

Pompano, Thanks for the fishing report. Looking forward to trip #2.

Gulp ~ definitely a trigger fish magnet

I find that adding a flasher to the gulp works great