BajaNomad

88 Fathom Bank

MitchMan - 7-20-2011 at 11:21 AM

Does anybody know exactly where the 88-fathom bank off Cerralvo Island is? The only description I have found scouring the internet is that it is 12 miles east of Cerralvo Island. That certainly isn't good enough to actually locate the spot.

Latitude and longitude would be fantastic, or at least an adequate description so a guy could find it with his boat.

Thanks in advance.

bajajurel - 7-20-2011 at 11:28 AM

I always go out with a Panga and they never have a GPS so I have never been able to get coordinates. There are several Buoys on the way out and it's off the south end of the island headed east about 12 - 14 miles out. One way to find it is IFP - i follow panga:tumble:

Hopefully someone will have the coordinates as you see a lot of boats out of Muertos there.

I am headed back mid-Sept. to fish there once again. I have had a lot of hits there from good size Dodos to Tuna.

bill erhardt - 7-20-2011 at 12:52 PM

Mitch,

N 24 12.34'
W109 35.63'

N 24 13.33'
W109 35.89'

The 88 Spot is not so much a sea mount as a butte with a circumference of a mile or so where the sea floor comes up to around 500' and levels off.
Above are coordinates for the southern and northern extremes of the "spot".
Good luck. I've made a lot of dry runs out there, but when it's good it can be really good......

Osprey - 7-20-2011 at 12:59 PM

The local co op guys bait some of the buoys and just run out and back as a routine. That creates a lot of action all by itself so if you stay on the buoy line you can't go wrong -- at times the buoy line draws action from the butte and the sailfish actually "stack up" there at times. Got a triple last summer that we didn't expect and didn't know what to do with.

MitchMan - 7-20-2011 at 01:04 PM

Bill,
That's Golden! Thank you. Many thanks. I can't tell you how much time that I have spent on this, trying to get an exact location. Now I can plot exactly how far it is from Bahia de los Muertos or from Kurt n' Marina's place in La Ventana, or even from "El Faro" near Punto Pericu. Heck, I will know how much gas it will take, too.

Better get my GPS out and do a little ciphering. I owe you a Negra Modelo.

bajajurel - 7-20-2011 at 07:31 PM

Hey Bill,

I am headed back to La Ventana in Sept. and if there is any action out there we will go out. Question - if there is nothing on the surface biting have you ever dropped bait down with a large sinker or a down-rigger? If so, did you have any luck? How were you rigged?

Of course fishing from a Panga there is no fish-finder so it would be fishing blind.

Have you drug any more wahoo onto your boat?

Regards,
Jerry
Quote:
Originally posted by bill erhardt
Mitch,

N 24 12.34'
W109 35.63'

N 24 13.33'
W109 35.89'

The 88 Spot is not so much a sea mount as a butte with a circumference of a mile or so where the sea floor comes up to around 500' and levels off.
Above are coordinates for the southern and northern extremes of the "spot".
Good luck. I've made a lot of dry runs out there, but when it's good it can be really good......

bajajurel - 7-20-2011 at 07:33 PM

Hi Mitch,

Do you live in the area? Maybe I can buy you a cerveza if you are around El Sargento mid-Sept. and get your ideas on fishing spots.

Regards,
Jerry
Quote:
Originally posted by MitchMan
Does anybody know exactly where the 88-fathom bank off Cerralvo Island is? The only description I have found scouring the internet is that it is 12 miles east of Cerralvo Island. That certainly isn't good enough to actually locate the spot.

Latitude and longitude would be fantastic, or at least an adequate description so a guy could find it with his boat.

Thanks in advance.

bill erhardt - 7-21-2011 at 03:22 AM

Jerry.....I've chummed/baited with squid chunks and sardinas while fishing with pangueros on the East Cape, but on trips to the 88 spot have always been alone trolling feathers and cedar plugs under birds, porpoise and breaking fish, if I could find them.
Only the one wahoo so far this year out of Loreto. A friend was bit off north a few days ago, however, and I plan to be in the vicinity later this morning......

MitchMan - 7-21-2011 at 09:37 AM

Bajajurel,
I hale from La Paz but do most all of my fishing from Los Muertos to El Sargento.

Just had a harrowing experience 3 weeks ago in La Ventana. I beach launched my boat (first time ever to do a beach launch) by myself from Kurt and Marina's place in La Ventana. Long story short, almost killed myself, managed to hook my finger on a Rapala lure (barb went all the way thru the finger and it took 4 really hard yanks to pull the hook out backwards - funny thing was, I fealt absolutely no pain at all - weird!), but I was able to retrieve my boat and get it onto to the boat trailer. First time I ever used my 4x4 on soft sand too. It was a big day for me, but very harrowing. When I got home, my boat was so bloody that it looked like I murdered somebody on board.

I will take you up on the cervesa. Next time I am going to be in your neck of the woods, I will u2u you and maybe we can hook up if the timing works out. That should be around the first week of this August.

I am arranging a Nomad meet n' greet in the first or second week of this August in La Paz. I will u2u you when the exact date and time and venue is settled. That settling should be within a week or so, hope you can make it, there will be other Nomads there.

I am paying for everyone's first cervesa.

bajajurel - 7-21-2011 at 10:54 AM

Mitch,

That's quite a tale. Hope your finger heals OK - OUCH!!!

I live in San Diego so I won't be at your meet-up but I will be in El Sargento fishing Sept. 17 - 20. So if you are over that way at that time I'll buy you a beer.

I looked at the beach launch next to Las Palmas restaurant in El Sargento and it looked pretty firm to me. I was scouting it out as next year I am thinking of pulling my boat down and renting a place for a month.

Regards,
Jerry
Quote:
Originally posted by MitchMan
Bajajurel,
I hale from La Paz but do most all of my fishing from Los Muertos to El Sargento.

Just had a harrowing experience 3 weeks ago in La Ventana. I beach launched my boat (first time ever to do a beach launch) by myself from Kurt and Marina's place in La Ventana. Long story short, almost killed myself, managed to hook my finger on a Rapala lure (barb went all the way thru the finger and it took 4 really hard yanks to pull the hook out backwards - funny thing was, I fealt absolutely no pain at all - weird!), but I was able to retrieve my boat and get it onto to the boat trailer. First time I ever used my 4x4 on soft sand too. It was a big day for me, but very harrowing. When I got home, my boat was so bloody that it looked like I murdered somebody on board.

I will take you up on the cervesa. Next time I am going to be in your neck of the woods, I will u2u you and maybe we can hook up if the timing works out. That should be around the first week of this August.

I am arranging a Nomad meet n' greet in the first or second week of this August in La Paz. I will u2u you when the exact date and time and venue is settled. That settling should be within a week or so, hope you can make it, there will be other Nomads there.

I am paying for everyone's first cervesa.

RnR - 7-21-2011 at 11:45 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by bajajurel
Mitch,

That's quite a tale. Hope your finger heals OK - OUCH!!!

I live in San Diego so I won't be at your meet-up but I will be in El Sargento fishing Sept. 17 - 20. So if you are over that way at that time I'll buy you a beer.

I looked at the beach launch next to Las Palmas restaurant in El Sargento and it looked pretty firm to me. I was scouting it out as next year I am thinking of pulling my boat down and renting a place for a month.

Regards,
Jerry

Quote:
Originally posted by MitchMan
Bajajurel,
I hale from La Paz but do most all of my fishing from Los Muertos to El Sargento.

Just had a harrowing experience 3 weeks ago in La Ventana. I beach launched my boat (first time ever to do a beach launch) by myself from Kurt and Marina's place in La Ventana. Long story short, almost killed myself, managed to hook my finger on a Rapala lure (barb went all the way thru the finger and it took 4 really hard yanks to pull the hook out backwards - funny thing was, I fealt absolutely no pain at all - weird!), but I was able to retrieve my boat and get it onto to the boat trailer. First time I ever used my 4x4 on soft sand too. It was a big day for me, but very harrowing. When I got home, my boat was so bloody that it looked like I murdered somebody on board.

I will take you up on the cervesa. Next time I am going to be in your neck of the woods, I will u2u you and maybe we can hook up if the timing works out. That should be around the first week of this August.

I am arranging a Nomad meet n' greet in the first or second week of this August in La Paz. I will u2u you when the exact date and time and venue is settled. That settling should be within a week or so, hope you can make it, there will be other Nomads there.

I am paying for everyone's first cervesa.


Las Palmas launch, Kurt n Marina's launch, and the campground launch are the most popular. There are at least four more other launches used by local pangueros scattered between La Ventana and El Sargento.

Las Palmas is VERY shallow at low tide with a flat bottom. Less than knee deep meaning you back your entire rig into the water for up to 50 feet before the bottom starts down again. Best to time your launches and retreivals around mid tide or above.

Kurt's and the campground are steeper and deeper but the beach sand is softer. May need to "air down".

It really helps to air down the trailer tires to remove the drag of the trailer from the tow vehicle.

I put ATV tires at 5 psi on my trailer with a small boat. That was the MAGIC solution!

Mitch Man: Let's do another meet and greet over the winter season. Say, December -March ?? Sorry about the finger.

[Edited on 7-22-2011 by RnR]

MitchMan - 7-21-2011 at 02:21 PM

Beach Launching:

I aired down my truck tires and my boat trailer tires to 17 psi and that seemed to do the trick on the soft sand at Kurt n Marina's. The problem was the 8 - 10 mph wind, the wind current and the 1 -1.5 ft waves all coming at the shore at about a 45 -60 degree angle that was the problem with boat launching and especially retrieval.

It's deceiving to see the gentle 8 - 10 mph wind, the gentle 1 - 1.5 ft waves and the hardly noticeable (visually, that is) wind current and make the novice's error to think that a beach launch and retrieval would be a cinch. On the launching part of the experience, after getting boat on the water and off the trailer, I gently beached the boat and manually pulled it onto the wet sand a bit, as far as I could myself. I then put a metal stake in the beach sand about 25 ft away from the boat and tied a rope to it to hold the boat in place. The boat was pushed sideways by the wind, current, and waves and looked like it was going to capsize a couple of times while I was frantically moving my truck and trailer out of the water and to an appropriate parking location near by.

When I got back to the semi-beached boat, it was a physical struggle to push the boat out onto the water, start the motor, get on my way, but I managed. Then retrieving and putting the boat back onto the trailer was everything in reverse with slightly worse wind, current and wave action. My life flashed in front of my eyes a couple of times, then I got my finger stuck on the rapala lure right in the middle of trying to steer the boat onto the trailer as the darn boat was being pushed sideways off the trailer before I could get the cinch line hooked onto the front of the boat.

Man, when I got my finger hooked by the lure, I had no choice but yank that hook out backwards against the barb as fast as I could, which I did after four progressively harder yanks. I still am amazed at the fact that I felt no pain at all at any time during the yanking and ripping.

Live and learn.

[Edited on 7-21-2011 by MitchMan]

bajajurel - 7-21-2011 at 08:56 PM

So in that situation I guess it would be better to anchor out a little ways and get wet? This is a good topic for discussion - beach launching solo. I've always fished with a buddy and never launched / recovered by myself unless at a ramp.

MitchMan - 7-22-2011 at 06:30 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by bajajurel
I've always fished with a buddy and never launched / recovered by myself unless at a ramp.


That's the real lesson I learned (the hard way).

[Edited on 7-22-2011 by MitchMan]

HOOK !!!!!!!!!!

Norm - 7-23-2011 at 07:32 AM

BEEN THERE DONE THAT !!!