Deja Vu Fishing

Circumstances don't permit me to go fishing in Baja today, so I'll settle for an old memory...Today is March 23rd. Something fishy happened on this date, I'm sure of it!

"You are traveling in another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind.A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop, the Twilight Zone with a slight detour into the shadowy place called ..Deja Vu!"

Aha...Now I remember!


March 23rd.... This happened 5 years ago today.


That day.....

Today was a day to just 'get out on the water' again.

We've had way too many windy days. It's been weird for wind this year. That many consecutive days of wind usually happens in this stretch of the SOC in February, (the Loco Month).. not March.

There's gotta be a good reason for this, so I'm blaming it on the Swedes gorging on frijoles.
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However, today is different and a very nice day to go fishing...small winds, far less bumpy water, so let's go for it!

One thing I'm doing different today.



I'm up early, but not in such a hurry to get on the water. The early bird reasoning (for me anyway)... was making bait. The common belief is that bait is only available in the wee hours before...yawn... dawn. Well, I knew better years ago, but lately I have somehow fallen into the habit of making pre-dawn bait...seriously cutting into my snoring time.

Sure, there are countless other reasons to get on the water in pitch blackness...but making bait ain't one of them!
Of course, it could be that I am getting lazy.

Okay, okay..enough excuses...so I finally make it to the baithole off Party Beach at Punta Prieta, Mulege. Well, even as late as I am, the place is still busy with baitmakers.


I see my usual spot for bigeyes is pretty crowded up ahead there.. so I stop where I am, turn on the baitfinder and..Presto!..there they are right below me. I drop my 2 Sabiki rigs down to the bottom, crank up about 2 feet..and rat-tat-tat-tat...get 4 mackerel on each one on the first drop. Got to be some kind of personal record there. Quickly shedding the baits into the livewell and setting a 3-minute timer on the aereator, I drop the sabikis down again. This time I get a couple bigeyes, a smallish mack that I liked, and some weird UFO (unidentified finny object).



Well, I had enough baits and I had only been at the baithole for 10 minutes...now what? The wind had come up NNE at 9-12 knots and it looked to be damn bumpy for the long trip north to San Marcos. I stared at the dark blue water forming on the horizon and my back started aching. Well, shoot.. Goldang Swede Syndrome again?...for sure I can't go that way. It's a 17 mile run to Seal Rock and Jorge's Reef.






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Then I look east and south...and receive an omen from Neptune. A shaft of bright sunlight beckons me to Wilbur's Hole and beyond. Great..Wilbur's is only about 6 1/2 miles away on a tangent to the wind...I'll start there. I'm a great believer in following omens.

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Underway, I come upon our first ocean sighting of the day. Shrimpers are always worth a photo or three.

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I arrive at Wilbur's Hole after a short run and drop a green mack bait down to about 220 ft over the rock piles below at 238ft. Raised the bait on a sliding egg sinker snell about 6 feet off the bottom.



I had barely set the clicker and poured myself a cup of coffee when I heard the first zzzzzz of the day...



...and brought to the box this nice yellowtail. I managed to keep him out of the rocks. A nice fight and I almost lost him on a final thrust under the stern. I put that size-12 watershoe in there for a judging gauge. It's an average sized jurel for these parts. Time to bleed and put him on the chopped ice.

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Afterwards, I set aside my rod and just sat there, drifting and daydreaming...not doing a damn thing...just being lazy...and more than a little sleepy...almost dreaming.

I was very near asleep when I heard something..and looked up.

I saw a small pod of porpoise swimming around the boat. They said, "Hey!..Got some time?... follow us!"




Well, talking porpoise? was clearly another omen with an odd feeling of Deja Vu, so naturally I had to go with them...

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They took me to the old mine at Point Conception. I had not been so close to this place in ...oh, 20-30 years or so I suppose. Wow, good to see it again..and the place has not changed much. Now how the heck did those porpoise know I'd like seeing this familar old site again?




What's left of the ore-ship loading pier. Flashback memories...I used to cast from that shore long ago. Many nice cabrilla for our camp and other fillets went back to the casa. Like old times, for sure.

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Some pelicans fly by and this sound trickles down, "Hola, Pompano...remember Osprey Rock?"

..sigh..I sure do, guys. I camped/fished/snorkled by that rock many times...and watched many fledglings learn to fly and then fish. Nice to see it up close again.
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I follow the porpoise south as the pelicans join their buddies for a bull-session on the rocks.


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Now the porpoise ask me if I have any bait left?...and if so, how about tossing them one or two by way of gratitude?

Sure thing I said...how's this one look?!


"Looks delicious to us, amigo..toss it here...just try to keep it away from those pesky gulls."

No problemo, guys...Here, Catch!

..Opps..gee, those gulls are FAST.


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The porpoise are gone..disappeared into the waves. "Hey, sorry about that, guys...I tried, really I did. Guys?...yoo-hoo... guys?....sigh.."

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In the distance I see Mulege is burning, so I head back to town quickly to investigate. We've had SO many fires...


False alarm, it's just Tim firing up his pipe at El Patron's.

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Heading for the floating dock on the Rio Mulege.

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The late afternoon sun catches the white of the lighthouse and harbor captain's office. A familiar sight to a fisherman at the end of his day.
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I trailer the boat, and head for the highway Pemex to fill the pickup with diesel and top off the boat's gas tank. Took a few pesos. Hey, 1820 more into Mulege's economy...
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I head for home, but first stop at Ana's Santispac to drop off a promised yellowtail to Guadalupe and Russ, and save myself from dying of thirst...as usual.



Gracias, Russ and Lupe. Now home to clean up the boat and gear.
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Always nice highway view overlooking Posado anchorage on the way home to Coyote.



Nice to be back home after a long day on the water. Looks like a good time to take a swim.




And then I can regale my attentive audience with the exciting events of my fishing day. Truly a sport, Co-pilot believed almost everything I told her...and the Maltese Bros were especially excited about meeting up with those porpoise.


See you on the ocean next time..saludos.


...The End of another fishing day.....(via some Deja Vu from 5 years ago).