The main page is gonna take a while to load all the thumbnails (just watch the status in the bottom left corner of your browser to see how many are remaining).
two years ago, while on vacation in San Diego, I picked up a copy of The Baja Catch at a local tackle shop. Written by Gene Kira and Neil Kelly, The Baja Catch is a fantastic resource about all the great fishing areas found up and down the coastline of Baja California that are accessible with a small, cartopped boat. 
2) Pick a time of year for the target species in an area which, based on the fishing calendars in The Book, ended up being May/June or September/October. May 2007 was the soonest that worked, so it won. Now that I think about it, this September might not be a bad idea either…
3) Take as much time off work as possible without getting fired (I actually had a greater concern of leaving the family behind for so long, but don’t tell my boss). We decided that roughly 3 weeks plus a few days on either end would enable us to remain gainfully employed, happily married and still provide enough travel and fishing days to make the trip worthwhile.
Over the next 18 months, I digested volumes of guidebooks, maps, and of course spent so much time on the Internet that I was on the brink of not having a wife to return to. I am an admitted control freak, so a trip with hundreds of unknowns is difficult to stomach without having every little detail explored and written down; From campgrounds to tackle to the exact location of each gas stop (and which were trustworthy to boot), I converted stress into documentation until I had a sufficient library built up. During this time, the BajaNomads and Bloodydecks forums were invaluable in providing detail after detail of all things Baja and Big Game fishing. Simultaneously, Steve and my Dad rapidly built a collection of tackle that any fisherman would be proud of.
Finally the months, then weeks, then days drew near and we could start packing. I had edited The List so many times that I packed from memory (which is why I forgot a pillow) and didn’t even use it until later in the trip to help figure out where something was. When your packing list refers to a subsection within the same list, things are getting out of hand. The pile in the garage grew pretty large, so I took the back seat out of the Tacoma and added a roof rack, but the pile just kept growing to fit.
The teleconferences with Steve (who was working in Las Vegas at the time) grew longer and more frequent until FINALLY at 7:30a on 5/4/07, I reset the odometer to 0000 and left the family waving in the driveway.
The truck drives like a 30’ motorhome. Between the 20 gallons of fuel/water on the roof, and the 15 gal barrel of water in the bed, the truck won’t stay in overdrive already, and that’s without the boat…. I’m starting to wonder if I should have paid more attention to the total weight of the situation. In spite of a brief snowstorm in Ely, I got to Las Vegas by 5p.
Steve and David are midst a full boat trailer light/wiring replacement, with stuff laying all around the parking lot. I start unpacking to integrate Steve’s equipment and it looks like we’ll never get it all back together in one piece.
By noon on Saturday, we gas up and head over the hills to San Diego, arriving at Matt and Sally’s (my sister) house by 6p. She takes us on a frenetic grocery shopping trip to Trader Joes and Von’s to load up on bags of various food items that hopefully remain edible after weeks in the Baja sun.
By 8a Sunday morning we cross the border, fill out Tourist Cards, exchange for Pesos and head for El Rosario via Mex1.
Made it through Tijuana and Ensenada pretty quickly, and the hectic cities start to turn into smaller agricultural towns. Lots of vineyards, and farms that appeared to be growing a type of prickly pear cactus as well as acres and acres of greenhouses.
The highway narrows down to it’s legendary clearance-by-mere-inches status and we wind our way up and down a couple of steep and windy mountain passes. Notice the abundance of clearance on each side of the truck below. What happens if he meets himself coming the other way???
The poor Tacoma is just absolutely maxed out, and as we come down the last hill into El Rosario, Steve is pushing the brake pedal harder and harder and pumping and pushing some more…..and we just glide right on by the Pemex, swing semi-casually around the 90 degree corner in the center of town and roll to a stop after a couple of speed bumps slow us down. I get out to figure out what's going on and I can’t even touch the front wheels because they are so hot. Needless to say, we adopt a new downhill method that involves slowing at the top of the hill and using lower gears to keep an appropriate bailout speed on the way down! Less than a month ago, I had replaced the stock brakes with PowerSlot high performance rotors and ceramic pads – and that honestly may have saved us from a fiery death at that big turn in the center of town. Suddenly I don’t feel so bad for spending $250 on brakes…..
We arrive in El Rosario by 5:30p and stay overnight at The Baja Cactus, which came highly recommended by the BajaNomad Forum members – and I can see why! Antonio is in the middle of a remodel (aren’t all buildings in Baja…) and we stayed in one of the recently finished new rooms. Fantastic rock and tile work throughout; We’re talking posh for anywhere, not just Mexico, and all for $40.
After a semi-restful night due to some unplanned Spanish osmosis from the room next door, we leave for Santa Rosalia bright and early. The desert cacti of Catavina are really cool and for the first time it feels like we’re in the ‘real Baja’.
Crossed the BCS border in Guerrero Negro (fyi, it takes exactly 15.99 gallons of gas from El Rosario in a fully loaded Tacoma) at 11:45a and got checked for the tourist cards by Immigration.
Got through the other military checkpoints quickly (they were only checking Northbound traffic) and with 1585 miles on the odometer, rolled into San Lucas Cove at 2:45p.
We make our way down the sandy washboard road and take a slow roll through the campground to figure out the basic layout. Honestly, it was kind of intimidating because I could see that there was an organized fishing community on one end, a lot of open RV spaces on the other end, and not much room for newbies in between. Luckily, a few weeks before the trip, I have been in contact with San Marcos Mike about the tackle, camping, etc and when it came to details he just said simply - find Alan "Voodoo Lounge" Lewis when you first get there and he'll take care of you. So that's what we did, and boy did it pay off. Initially, he looked at us with the skepticism of a tax audit, but he quickly warmed up when I mentioned Mike told us he’d know where to camp, launch AND catch fish. We must have looked like some helpless pale faced newbies, because for some reason which remains a mystery even today, Alan took us under his wing and took charge. Before we know it, he magically ‘un-reserves’ a waterfront campsite, volunteers the neighbors shade, gets the boat launched because the tide is right, draws a map of the cove and it’s zigzag exit route, tells us where to get bait, where to find the yellowtail and invites us over for dinner the next evening, all in the span of about 15 minutes.
From left to right: Alan, Kevin, Sam and Steve, Dirk, and Rick and Wendy.
24 hours later we’re sitting in the Voodoo Lounge, eating 'the real ceasar' salad , having already finished an appetizer of sashimi with wasabi and soy and looking forward to a dinner of grilled bacon-wrapped yellowtail medallions in a lemon dill caper sauce, fried rice, steamed carrots, garlic bread and a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck......and it’s the yellowtail that we caught that day. Pure bliss, elation, spacey fuzzy feelings, whatever you want to call it – never in my wildest dreams did I picture a day in Baja like that!
We couldn't (and still can't) thank Alan enough for his hospitality, good food and hilarious conversation.
Shortly after we had settled on a campsite, it was time to prep the boat for launch – most notably pull out all of our shiny new tackle. The locals descend on us like vultures at the cleaning table. Everyone talking at once, asking questions, making comments, quizzing about tackle. So we pull out our heaviest gear (better to appear oversized than under I say) and..…..nods of approval.
Alan points to Steve’s brand new TLD30A 2-speed and asked what pound test line is on it. 60lb. “Yeah, use that.” I’ve got a Torium with 40lb and Steve a Penn Baja Special with 40lb, and they say it’ll work, but you might want to swap the line out to 50 or 60 tomorrow. This is oversized tackle for a 15-30lb fish…how can this be? Things are looking up!! You got good hooks? Yep. 4oz lead eggs? BlueChrome Jigs? Sabiki rigs? Yep yep yep. Rick asks about an anchor, so when Steve pulls out the world famous 30lb JB-welded Navy special, he bellows “You guys aren’t from Idaho with an anchor like that” and promptly turns and walks away, disgusted at his own covetousness of such a desirable hunk of iron. And that was the beginning of acceptance into this tight local group – doing the research, buying the right gear, and an unflappable sense of humor.
Simply put, Yellowtail are amazing fish. Even the hard-core fishermen from Southern California (and we all know that they think SD is the center of the world) are quick to admit that these particular fish, here at San Marcos island in the Sea of Cortez, are fighters like none other. Without hesitation, Kevin Ward (see bio below)stresses that these fish are the toughest Yellowtail in the world. After Alan set up our drags (pulling so hard he cut his hand in the process) Steve was amazed to discover on his first fish that he had to tighten it twice more to keep it from powering into the rocks (followed by snapping line). He was even more amazed when he boated the fish and it was a mere 15lbs!!! The fish only got bigger from there….what an unforgettable experience, the first time the Jurel flexes its muscle and puts your rod on the rail and the butt performs an appendectomy in your gut. On my first fish, a good 23 pounder, all I can remember is thinking over and over ‘just don’t fall overboard, just don’t fall overboard’. What a great problem to have!
On that first day, thanks to the detailed techniques provided by Alan and Rick, we somehow managed to hook five Yellowtail AND get all five into the boat. There was a good dose of close calls, frayed line, rats nests and double gaffs - but by 11a, we had boated five fish from 15 to 23lbs without losing a single one. With aching arms and bruised stomachs we returned to camp to celebrate an unbelievably successful first day of fishing. For the remainder of our time in the cove, when meeting someone new, we would hear ‘I’ve heard about you - you’re the guys from Idaho that went 5 for 5 on your first day!’ Turns out that this would be the best day of fishing on the entire trip (and quite possibly, our entire life).
Peaches, on the other hand, was a sweet little baja dog that put up with Syd for many years. He loved the dog so much that many things around camp have her name on them, and he even wrote a book that describes the history of the Baja Peninsula through her eyes. The book at Amazon.com
Here is the "Peaches SLC Express" being put to good use.
Kevin Ward’s job is Captain of The Searcher, a 90’ long range boat out of San Diego. He spends his free time jigging for yellowtail at SLC (that should tell you something about how good the fishing is there). His mere presence on a boat lends legitimacy and confidence to any fishing trip. You already know Alan. Well, luck would have it that we were honored to receive a personal invitation – an invitation to be deckhands on the mighty Frigg’It for a day. Of course, we jumped at the chance of a sure-fire circus in the making. 
The Frigg’It is a little 17’ SeaWay commercial boat originally purchased brand new by Syd’s brother Bob. Supposedly one of the only SeaWay’s ever built for an outboard motor. He used it for years to commercial Sculpin fish out of, then it sat around in disrepair until Kevin bought it from him. It’s still in disrepair, but he loves her just the same… 
We had a ton of fun fishing, laughing, telling stories and even caught a couple of fish. In fact, it was on this day that I caught my personal best for the trip – a 31 pounder. Totally whupped me. I was breathing harder than any recent gym workout, and I finally had to put the rod on the rail, shift into low gear and just focus on cranking. Steve describes the view from behind as something akin to (mom, close your eyes) a baby giraffe humping a volleyball…. There's a reason Kevin is holding it up for me!
The monkeys run the zoo and Alan is the Chief Chimp. For some reason, we found almost everything in Baja to be humorous. The roads, the construction, the grocery store, the government, the vehicles, etc. But the king of them all was Rick and Alan’s constant use of nicknames that kept us laughing and totally confused the entire time. They had a name for everything. Sometimes the origin of the name was immediately apparent (Red Larry has red hair), but sometimes it required a lengthy background story that proved to be just as humorous, like our very own Tater9, which will be explained in a later post. The names aren't just for people, but things and events too, like the barrage of Mexican squid fisherman heading out of the cove at dark (Pangamonium). Here's a pic before all the action starts (which seems to be a pretty typical Baja theme). The flag in the background is a military camp.
It’s even possible to have multiple names assigned to one person, so on the LAST day we finally figured out the difference between Red Larry, Larry’s Toy, Scary Larry, and Ratchetjaw. Hint: there are only two Larry’s.
The names just kept coming, so I’d write a few new ones down each day; Two Bait Brian, SkipTown, Meter Maid Dave, Syd’s Nephew, The Codfather, The Sherpas, Fast Eddy, Jimmy NoEggs....I'm sure I got only half.
All namecalling aside, the dozen or so permanent residents that make up San Lucas Cove are a neat bunch. By permanent, I mean people who park an RV there year-round. Most of them just come for a few months of the year, but their RV has been there for years. Some get to looking pretty permanent with landscaping and everything.
We’d see people eating together in the evening, fishing out of each others’ boats from day to day. Most have marine radios installed in their campers too, so they can check on the fishing throughout the day. One day we were out fishing, and over the radio somebody asks if anyone wants to buy shrimp outta some Mexican's trunk. We called in an order for The Spudmobile and picked them up later that evening, meeting Red Larry for the first time. Excellent fat shrimp, and a nice guy too.
Another morning we had trouble with the tilt lever on the outboard, and before we even had a chance to get the tools out, Syd is on the radio talking to local outboard mechanic. On the last evening we were there, Wendy put together a little birthday party for Spencer, who is the grandfather of Yellowtail fishing in the area, teaching even San Marcos Mike how to fish - who later went on to become one of the top YT guides in the entire Cortez.
From left to right is Steve, Alan, Sam, Rick, Spencer and Spencer's brother Rod.
These are just small examples of the day to day generosity and camaraderie found among most campers in the cove.
There are no water or power hookups in the RV spots, so anybody that has stayed here more than one night has chosen to do so almost exclusively because of the small boat fishing, and I think that’s what makes the community so much fun.
Oh, and returning to the zoo theme. The RV Park is run by a group of Mexicans who appear to be quite content having their little camp of gringos move in semi-permanently. Their approach is so hands-off that we ended up paying Alan for our first week's rent and he gave us a receipt out of his own book - hence the monkeys running the zoo.
