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woody with a view
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notice the water conditions? that is rough! anything more and the people didn't come back!
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Russ
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Fair weather fishing is the rule. As per RnR's post above the earlier you get out the more time you'll have fishing in good conditions. With boats 14'
and under there is seldom shade so take a big hat, sun screen and cold drinks.
Bahia Concepcion where life starts...given a chance!
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Cliffy
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Used to use a 15' Westcoaster (clipper bow) with a 20 hp Johnson (too much motor for the boat). Did a great job. Got caught (put myself in harms way)
by being 15 miles to sea north of Smith Island in BOLA when the wind came up. 8' cresting swells for miles until I got on the lee side of the island.
Scared the beejesus out of me. Never did that again you can bet on it.
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woody with a view
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I bet!
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Barry A.
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For 30 years + (1975 to 2007), me and a small group of friends & relatives, mostly each with our own 'tin-boats' or Avon/Zodiac inflatables,
beach-camped and fished out of BOLA, Gonzaga, Animas bays, and Punta Chivato in all kinds of weather and never had any serious problems other than
getting REALLY wet sometimes and having great rough-water adventures. The first 10 years I used a 12' FURY with a 10 hp Johnson and extra high
gunnels until I finally broke it's back hitting a huge wave north of Smith Island going too fast, and then graduated to a 14' Gregor with a 15 hp
Johnson. By keeping the boat lightly loaded, and with never more than 2 of us per boat, we covered a lot of coastal waters, both north and south of
those 3 bays and Chivato, and fought a lot of rough seas. All of us carried our boats on top of or inside our rigs after learning that boat-trailers
just fell apart in Baja, so we could really handle some bad roads with no damage to the boats. Using the THE BAJA CATCH book as our 'bible', we sure
had a lot of great fishing and fun-times!!!! I have always sworn by 'tin-boats' as the best and most hassle-free way to fish coastal Baja, at least
on the SOC side. 12 gallons of fuel with a 15hp motor enables you to cover a lot of territory each day.
Barry
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Tioloco
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Barry,
If you were to go get one now (boat) what size and motor would you go for? 15-16' too big for car topper?
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Barry A.
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Quote: Originally posted by Tioloco  | Barry,
If you were to go get one now (boat) what size and motor would you go for? 15-16' too big for car topper? |
I found that the 14' Gregor/Valco, (etc) was about the maximum I wanted to man-handle by myself, and also about max. for my boat-rack on my CALLEN
steel camper. My son and I still each own our Gregor 14's, but don't go to Baja anymore for a variety of reasons, mostly me being "old". I actually
could load and unload the 14 by myself, but it was a struggle that I did not want to do often. The 15 hp 2-stroke Johnson was adequate, and pretty
light to hand-carry over the beach, so I would stick with that motor, also. Most of the time I was alone in my boat, with other fisherfolks alone in
their boats with me----------we sometimes had 3 or 5 boats teamed up tearing all over the SOC together chasing fish, and just exploring islands and
the coast.
I drooled over the Gregor "Baja/Alaska special" which is about 15 feet long, I think, but decided it was just too big & heavy for me to handle in
the over-the-beach launches & retrievables we did. It IS a beautiful boat, however. I also own a Boston Whaler, but never took it to Baja for
obvious reasons-----way too big and heavy. As Gene Kira said in his "THE BAJA CATCH" you have to think-small when beach-camping along the SOC for the
most fun. I think he is right.
Barry
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rts551
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Barry, My baja Special/35hp johnson side console is easy on the gulf or estero for one person.. Launching into the pacific is a two person job
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Skipjack Joe
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A 14' Gregor these days weighs over 200 lbs. That's very difficult for a single person to launch. You would have to remove everything from the boat
and drag it backwards to near the water and load boat back up. Same thing coming out. This is not something you want to do every day.
Your choices are:
1. Launch in a very protected area (San Lucas Cove), leave it in water for the entire trip, and time your fishing with the tides
2. Have additional people to help you launch.
3. Have support wheels or other aids to roll boat to water's edge.
Cartopping a 15' boat? No way.
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Barry A.
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Igor--------
I do have the "training wheels" on my boat, made by EIDE------I forgot to mention that. They do really help.
We kept out boats in the water, with sorta complicated long nylon lines & pulleys and anchors that held it off shore, even in chabascos. Since we
normally were camped out in the same place for a week at a time, this worked for us.
Barry
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Santiago
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| Quote: Originally posted by Barry A. |
We kept out boats in the water, with sorta complicated long nylon lines & pulleys and anchors that held it off shore, even in chabascos.
Barry |
Barry: If you can remember (not all that easy anymore, is it? ), please describe
or diagram how this works.
Thanks
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Skipjack Joe
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I would be interested as well Barry. A diagram would be really helpful. I didn't understand your last descrption.
Take a picture with iPhone saving as under 250mb and then post it.
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Bob53
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I have seen this done by local fishermen years ago but for the life of me I can't remember how it was rigged.
The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.
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Santiago
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[img] [/img]
About 10 years ago we did this on a full moon night at Cala San Fancisquito; we were told the tide would go way, way out. We ran rope #1 thru a buoy
that would be in water at low tide and tied to the bow. Then we went to shore and tied #2 to the bow. you pull the end of #1 and it will pull the
boat toward the buoy, making sure you have the end of #2 on shore. When the boat is where you want it, tie #1 to a shore anchor as well as #2,
leaving plenty of slack in #2 so the boat can swing. In the morning, untie #1 and pull the boat in with #2.
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Russ
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This is how mine kinda looked.
The hassle was seaweed, wrapped line and a pain for the beach walkers. If you need the rope I have a large container of it in good shape. Can't
remember how long but at least 200ft of 1/2"
Bahia Concepcion where life starts...given a chance!
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Barry A.
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| Quote: Originally posted by Santiago | | Quote: Originally posted by Barry A. |
We kept our boats in the water, with sorta complicated long white soft-nylon lines & pulleys and anchors that held it off shore, even in
chabascos.
Barry |
Barry: If you can remember (not all that easy anymore, is it?), please describe
or diagram how this works.
Thanks |
Well, I "remember" it clearly (I am a wanna-be engineer, you know) and it is really simple, but may be hard to describe.
Remember that we are going to be camped on the beach for at least a week.
Main supplies are about 300 to 500 + feet of 3/8 or 1/2 inch white soft-nylon rope. (I got my 3/8" soft-nylon line at a garage-sale on a 1000 foot
spool)-------1 pretty hefty galvanized steel pulley-----------1 small buoy-------a 6' x 6' really heavy duty nylon or polypropylene piece of netting
or webbing------ some stainless steel "quick connects"---------and a 3' steel post.
Preferably at low tide, or using the boats if not, we hauled out to sea some pretty heavy rocks about 200 feet out from the high tide line on shore
and put them in the 6' X 6' nylon netting, tying off the netting around the just-procured rocks with nylon rope, thus making a secure heavy semi-perm
anchor (if we could not find one already out there). We also securely tied off the pulley to the heavy nylon netting-anchor that was around the
loose rocks. We also attached one end of a 25' section of light line to the netting, and the other end to the small buoy. We then ran a long section
of nylon rope equal to a little more than twice the distance from and makeshift-anchor that we just built to the high-tide mark on shore, and pounded
in our secure steel stake into the sand on shore (or between the shore rocks) and attached one end of the long 400' + nylon rope line to the stake.
We ran the other end of the long-line thru the pulley at the makeshift anchor and then to the buoy, attaching it to the buoy with a quick-disconnect,
and reeled in the extra line to a pile on shore. That part of the project was then done, and we did this for each boat, keeping the boats at least
50' to 100' apart when tied into each of the makeshift anchor systems.
When we came back from fishing, we approached the buoy and picked up the end of the long-line that was quick-connected to the buoy and attached that
line to our bow-ring with the quick-connect and motored backwards almost into shore taking care not to foul the long line with our prop. (the small
line between the buoy and the anchor-net held the buoy from floating away). As we backed into shore, the long line fed thru the pulley on the
anchor-net permanent anchor. Snubbing off the slack in the long-line when we were close to shore kept us from pounding into the shore backwards from
any waves. We then stepped out of the boat with the boat's anchor in hand, and we carried that boat-anchor up on the shore and dug it into the sand.
This boat anchor line had about 100 feet of line attached, and was tied off to the stern ring on the boat with a quick-connect. While loading and
unloading the boat, we kept both the stern line and the bow long-line thru the pulley snugged off to the steel stake, thus holding the boat in place
so it could be accessed by wading and also keeping the bow headed into any waves and prevented the boat from bashing into the close-shore bottom.
When we were ready to put the boats to bed, we untied the snubbed stern line from the steel stake, but left the boat-anchor buried in the shore sand
or rocks. We then hauled on the long-line (attached to the bow and thru the pulley) which pulled the boat bow-first out thru the waves, to just
beyond the waves and snugged the long-line to the steel stake when the stern line became taut. (the 100' stern line was still attached to the
boat-anchor buried in sand at the high tide mark). This was accomplished by pulling the boat about 100 feet off shore, which left about 100 feet + of
long-line between the boat bow and the permanent anchor. This provided a "reach" between the perm. anchor and the boat which provided for, or
allowed, the boat to mount the incoming waves without stressing the anchor, or having waves break into the boat------using nylon rope provided for a
lot of stretch in the long-lines (like a rubber band), which served as a good shock-absorber in high winds and big waves. In over 30 years we never
had one of these "systems" fail, even in the extremely high winds that often come up, and never had a boat come loose as they were tied off fore and
aft, just in case.
Some of the guys with inflatables thought this "system" all too iffy, (or did not have the supplies to accomplish it) so would load and unload their
boats twice daily, and man-handle their boats up on the beach above high-tide lines at night, but I thought this was a real hassle and not much fun,
and sand sometimes blew into them overnite, so I liked my "system" better, as did my son, and several others. Besides, it was really neat to see our
boats "out there" beyond the shore waves bobbing up and down with fish poles sticking up in their pole-holders, etc-----part of the ambiance of the
whole Baja experience while sitting around the campfire sipping cool beverages and chomping on fresh-fish!!! Life is good!!! (-:
In the morning we would reverse our system and gain access to the boats without having to swim out to them. When it was just my son along with me, it
definitely was the better system as man-handling a loaded Gregor over the beach was out of the question for us---and too much hassle to load and
unload them every day.
Hope this makes sense. It was fun re-thinking the experience of how we tied off our mighty boats---for over 30 years.
Thanks, Sancho, for the opportunity to try and help.
Barry
[Edited on 12-14-2014 by Barry A.]
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Barry A.
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I say, "yes", you "really need them to float". That period between when the boat is barely floating, and being grounded, can do a LOT of damage to
the bottom of your boat, even with small alum. boats if there is ANY chop, or waves.
Barry
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Russ
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Anyone remember those that used a couple of bags with volley balls? They were quite popular so I guess they worked to some extent.
Bahia Concepcion where life starts...given a chance!
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Barry A.
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| Quote: Originally posted by Skipjack Joe | I would be interested as well Barry. A diagram would be really helpful. I didn't understand your last descrption.
Take a picture with iPhone saving as under 250mb and then post it. |
Wow, great diagrams by other's------wish I could make those diagrams. They sure looked like they would work, as did our system.
I only had EIDE removable "wheels" on the back of my Gregor in the last 10 years, or so, and they certainly came in handy. Prior we had to drag them
over the beach, which can only be done when empty for the reasons Igor states.
My Custom designed Callen camper "shell" is 43 inches tall and extends over the cab 4 feet, and is 12 feet long, and has a custom-designed permanent
steel 12' long boat rack on top, and could have accommodated a Gregor 15' Baja Special, but Igor is right that it would be very hard to load up there.
I did have an EDIE custom automatic boat loader on top for the last 10 years, or so, which did make things even easier, but if you had several guys
you could load and unload a 15 fairly easy-----even two guys could do it, but not one, I don't think. I would hesitate to have even a 14 foot 200 lb
boat up there if it was not a steel-framed camper shell-------the Baja roads would just tear most campers apart with that much weight on top, I think.
Barry
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monoloco
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| Quote: Originally posted by Russ | | Anyone remember those that used a couple of bags with volley balls? They were quite popular so I guess they worked to some extent.
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That's what I have always used on rocky beaches. They work really well. I just buy some cheap kid's balls
and have the tapicero sew up some bags to fit them.
"The future ain't what it used to be"
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