The East Cape

A little warmer weather greeted us for our first day of fishing off Punta Pescadero. But let’s back up a little – we had to get the boat in the water first (there is no launch ramp) - so Greg The Main Man at Martins explained that he could hook up their huge tractor to the boat trailer and launch it over the soft sand into the ocean, but it would be $25 and another $25 to get it back…..yeeouch! He also explained that we were free to launch ourselves on the beach with our own truck, and then when we got stuck he’d charge $25 to pull us out. We chose option 1 because at least we’d end up with the boat IN the water. I was still a little skeptical until I drove down onto the beach to drop off the boat and promptly sunk it to the springs. Luckily, unhitching the trailer allowed me to drive away in 4WD, and I had no further doubts that the tractor was the only way to roll.

For the next two days we trolled and we trolled and we trolled, well, you get the point. Set the throttle at 6-9 knots and start driving around from 2 miles offshore to as far as you can get (about 13 miles for us), put the surface chugger squids and feathers out on the face of the third wake, and keep an eye out for anything that might indicate fish (birds, dolphin, a tidal rip line, floating trash, gut feel, a pair of dice whatever).
Finally, out of the absolute blue (Steve was fully asleep in the bow) my Torium blew up with a big BUzzZZzzzzZZZZzzZZ and we had our first Dorado ever. Stunning fish. The colors of green and blue are unbelievably deep and vibrant and, as with everything tropical, looking twice as cool in person than in the photos. We were elated – all the planning and web surfing and tackle and money and work on the boat and driving and talking and worrying just evaporated into thin air and suddenly WE HAD DONE IT. We had driven the right truck to the right spot, launched the right boat into the right bay, trolled the right speed in the right area with the right lure attached to the right line on the right reel mounted on the right rod, and brought the fish right into the boat. That’s a lot of stuff to get right, and if it wasn’t for Mr. Dorado flopping around wildy in the bottom of the boat, I probably would have cried on the spot.



The action in the area was a little slow (ended up with only two and a quarter more Dorado), but each day was fill with new things to see and do and eat. It was the first time I had ever seen flying fish, and we were both amazed at how far they actually fly through the air. We also got up close and personal with dolphin, bat rays, sea turtles and mantas. At around 10 miles offshore we began to see leaping marlin off in the distance every now and then – whoo boy that’ll get your heart racing. Big big fish gracefully arcing up and over about 6 feet of air. We tried and tried but just couldn’t get their attention. Steve does, however, get the attention of a man o war jellyfish on the swim back from mooring…I offered distant sympathies, but there was no doubt that he was a hurtin’ unit. As prescribed, a Benadryl (one of those cool new tongue strips) and some vinegar on a washrag had him back in action shortly.

Another thing we discovered is that all that trolling uses up boat gas pretty quick. A LOT of gas. Even though we put in 5 gallons before setting out on the 2nd morning, we had to come back early because the old gas gauge wasn’t bouncing off empty very often. Later, when we filled the boat tank with gas, I noticed that 78 liters somehow fit into a 20 gallon tank…..either we were plumb out or the station was tweaking the meter, or most Mexico likely - both. The local food was good because you could pick an Americanized café (burgers at Buzzards and Starbucks at Roadrunner) or the good stuff at a local place like Simon’s. Awesome big burritos at the end of a dirt road next to the car mechanic shop, it doesn’t get much more Baja than that. The camping overall at Martin’s was great, with clean showers and bathrooms just for the tenters. Also nearby was a coin-op laundry machine, so a couple of loads provided each other with some much needed aromatic relief. Turns out that a person really only needs to do one load per 23 days, which is a lot less than I would have guessed. Somehow Shanna’s ‘stinky boys’ comment comes to mind.


Our East Cape experience ended too soon, with wind and water temps pushing us back north to Loreto in hopes of tracking down a striped marlin, but it was well worth the drive. You'll have to ask Steve if it was worth the pain (I think he'll say yep).