The SpudNuts Baja Adventures

The Photo Album

2007-05-29T10:53:00.000-06:00

If you're just here for the pictures, here is a link to 450 of them. Knock yourself out.
http://fueltechpc.com/images/SpudNuts_Baja_2007/index.html

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).

Baja Beginnings

2007-05-28T13:17:00.000-06:00

More than 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.

After reading it through, and through again, I found myself daydreaming of long quiet days on the Sea of Cortez, catching more fish than I could count……but Shanna, my beautiful wife and wonderful cook, didn’t share the same enthusiasm (something about ‘stinky boys’), so I gave the book to Steve, an independent-always-available longtime adventure partner. By some amazing coincidence, fishing in the Sea of Cortez with a stinky boy was something he’d always wanted to do, so he didn’t even need to open the book before giving me the go-ahead. A month or two after the fire was kindled, we watched an incredible documentary called Dust To Glory about the historic Baja 1000 off-road race, and after seeing the beauty and simplicity of the country and its’ people, we knew it was time to make any wayward daydreams a reality.

What’s The Plan Stan?

2007-05-26T19:12:00.001-06:00

The basic plan ended up something like this:

1) Pick two or three spots to camp that most reliably produced our target species of Yellowtail, Dorado, Striped Marlin, Grouper and Rooster. The spots started out as Santa Rosalia, Magdalena Bay, and Los Barriles but we ended up dropping Mag Bay by the end of the trip because of security and poor fishing concerns from others that had been there. Here is a map of the final route, end to end (click to enlarge).

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.

Pack it up let's GO!

2007-05-25T17:27:00.000-06:00

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.

Driving Boise-LasVegas-SanDiego

2007-05-23T14:34:00.000-06:00

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.

Driving Tijuana-El Rosario-San Lucas Cove

2007-05-22T12:53:00.000-06:00

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.

Welcome to The Lounge

2007-05-21T18:14:00.000-06:00

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.

The Great Tackle Inspection

2007-05-20T22:19:00.000-06:00

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.

Going 5 for 5

2007-05-19T22:33:00.000-06:00

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).

Syd's Brother Bob

2007-05-18T10:03:00.000-06:00

After a little while camping at SLC we finally realized that Syd’s Brother, Peaches Uncle, and Bob Lindsay were all the same person. Took us at least 5 days because anyone called him anything, including when he introduced himself from day to day. Bob is a wonderfully gifted craftsman of all things fishing, from custom rod builder (Calstar) to tackle expert to spinning whirlygigs. Since many of the locals in SLC have had Bob build them rods, many a monster yellowtail has been boated with a Lindsay rod – and gaffed with a Lindsay gaff!! Having bent our Bass Pro Shops gaff on the first fish, Steve is now a proud owner of a new Lindsay gaff. And of course, this whirligig has a place in any Bronco yard (USC eating Oklahoma). 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.

The Mighty Frigg'It

2007-05-17T10:05:00.000-06:00

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 SLC Zoo

2007-05-16T10:05:00.000-06:00

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.

Driving San Lucas Cove-Los Barriles

2007-05-15T10:06:00.000-06:00

After 7 days in San Lucas Cove, it was time to head south and see what was going on down at the East Cape. The destination was Los Barriles, an area famous for its marlin fishing near the southernmost tip of Baja, about 60 miles away from a less famous place named Cabo San Lucas. Leaving at 8 or 9a, we sped past beautiful Concepcion Bay, Loreto, Ciudad Constitucion (not necessarily beautiful), past an alarming number of cows and goats (on the road) and into LaPaz.

We followed the signs to Cabo thru LaPaz, which left us in a momentarily misdirected state until we eventually popped out heading south on the right road. Another hour later and we came over the hill into a friendly looking Los Barriles and its bright blue Sea. We easily find Martin Verdugo’s RV park and wobble over to the office to pay for a tent site ($12) and talk about the fishing (slow). This would be our furthest point away from home, and it was kind of sad that there was no more new country from here on out, but it was also a relief to know that we no longer had to retrace our steps in the opposite direction. With 2091 total miles on the odometer, it wasn’t tough to convince my butt to get outta the truck.

The East Cape

2007-05-14T17:21:00.000-06:00

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).

Maximum Vehicular Utilization

2007-05-13T09:38:00.000-06:00

One thing that’s easy to notice when driving Mex 1 is that while Americans are famous for under-utilizing mass transportation, the Mexicans are at an all-time high. The variations of vehicular antics are unending. Check out this video from the Border Patrol to get an idea of how many people really CAN fit in a minivan.

If two of you are heading in the same direction (50% percent chance!) then just hook your cars together so you can chill with each other on the long drive.

When it comes to building roads, make sure that they are only as wide as they need to be - to save asphalt and the environment. Three extra inches for each lane should be plenty, because really, what are the chances that this truck will meet himself coming the other direction?

Speaking of semi trucks, I think the government offers a bonus to whomever gets there first. Anywhere first. This one passed us just in time to let the oncoming car have their lane back....and we were doing 100kph!

Why have a billboard on the back of a truck that only a few other cars will see, when you could put massive speakers on the roof and blast your chintzy message right into every home and business within a mobile 4 block radius???!!!

To make sure everyone stays awake and upright, put big old speedbumps right on the highway just before and after every small town, or wherever else makes sense.

And this dude in LaPaz that bought a new truck on the way to the Super Mercado (grocery store), only to find out that the piece of junk just doesn’t have near the payload he thought it would.

We can also take a good lesson from this fellow when trying to determine if just one more WILL fit after all.
Instead of having drive - thru restaurants, you can save time and gas by just setting up a mini convenience store in that little middle area between lanes. Then promptly hassle your wonderfully captive audience at the border as they wait and wait and wait....

When you’ve squeezed every last ounce of go-juice out of that old truck, set it afire on the side of the road and have one final weenie roast.

You honestly never know what's around the next bend, and that's part of the fun!

People

2007-05-12T23:12:00.000-06:00

The most pleasant surprise of the whole Baja experience was the people. This coming from an admittedly anti-social type. For months before the trip, I was genuinely concerned about the general security (or lack thereof) of camping out in the boonies, the soldiers and the legendary banditos, even to the point of almost canceling the trip because I didn’t want to do something irresponsible to my family. So what a relief it was to interact with both the local gringos and Mexicans and discover that, in general, there are a lot more happy people in Baja Mexico than anywhere I’ve ever been (including Idaho). It was so cool to pull into a new campground and literally within minutes be talking to some dudes about their catch of the day and the weather and the ramp and so on. I think having Steve’s boat along helped a lot, as it seemed to be the holy grail of many a do-it-yourselfer and sparked a lot of conversation.
I’m sure if a person tried a little, they could find themselves in a threatening situation, but by default the people you see at the grocery store, the gas station, even on the road are friendly and happy to help. A silent little game we’d play while driving the highway was to wave very flamboyantly to see how big of a wave we’d get back. It seems like that’s all most people were waiting for, because they’d smile and make a big old wave right back. That game ended pretty abruptly once we got crossed the border to San Diego….
Once we got down near Cabo, we noticed that it was the tourists that were not so friendly (and some of the staff that were undoubtedly sick of the tourists) and we grew to dislike the tourists more than the locals. I know what you’re thinking, and no, at that point we were not tourists.
Actually, the most annoying idiot in all of Baja happened to be sitting right behind me at Simons while we ate dinner. Some fly-fishing fluffy haired super sportfishing shirt wearing Jackson Hole elitist who, according to him, single handedly “discovered” the best eateries in the East Cape like some kind of modern day Ponce DeLewannabe. Never mind the fact the he’d only been to Baja for three years and was only fishing for one day on this trip because he was ‘looking for property’. Riiiiiiiight. I think he could only afford one guided day and was waiting for the wind to calm down so he could flip his fluffy little fly at some imaginary Roosterfish while undoubtedly babbling about some bigger fish he supposedly caught last year. Steve told me later that this flake reminded him of one of his favorite sayings: “The louder he spoke of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.” Ralph Waldo Emerson Good stuff. Anyway, I’ve gotten distracted here.
One last little item I will not forget; The little girls at the grocery store. We’re talking about children that are my daughters’ age (maybe 5 to 8yrs) working as baggers and general help. Very polite, never say a word, just a smile and bag the groceries for you, helping carry them out to the truck, load then in the back and then pausing just briefly to see if crazy gringo is going to tip……of course I’ll give ‘em whatever I’ve got because my heart is just, well, let’s not get too emotional here. Too many macho guys reading this blog. Let’s just say I never would have appreciated it without having kids myself. I accidentally gave a $10 peso coin (shoulda been $1) to the cutest little thing you’ve ever seen. She almost let out an audible squeal on the spot, then looked at me like “Mr., you’ve been in the sun to long”....but wasn’t about to give it back and I wasn’t about to try, so we both walked away happy.

Matt going solo
The patient panguero
Rick and Wendy with a real nice fish....It's HER fish

Kevin loaning us poppers for the trip South.One of many a roadside taco stands
He took the wave bait
Steve and Rick, kickin' it

A whale of a good time

2007-05-11T20:42:00.000-06:00

Another thing I didn’t expect was the sheer quantity of non-game ocean life. Every day we’d see something new like pilot whales, dolphin, sea turtles, manta rays, seals and unique birds.
The first major sighting was a pod of probably 40 pilot whales that appeared over the horizon, just cruising along in the distance. We fired up the boat and drove so that we’d be in their direction of travel, and then stopped and waited. We were awestruck to hear and see them get closer and closer until about 20 off the bow, when the closest one slipped under the boat and popped up about 50 feet away on the other side while the others just glided around us. Wikipedia says they get to be 20 feet long and weigh 3 tons, and that is enough to make you kind of hunker down in the boat a little and hold on to something just in case…

On the last day, we were able to get pretty close to some huge finback whales, which was just awesome. We could see the spouting mist from a long ways away, and Rick thought that they might be finback’s. Sure enough, as we got closer, the water would start looking funny in a big 25’ patch and then this head and back would just kind of roll up and forward through the water. A big exhale and inhale right before the blowhole went underwater and then the back of the whale would just keep coming and coming. Finally a little shark looking fin and the top of the tail would slip under the water and they’d be gone for another minute or two. Wikipedia lists an average length of 65ft, and I believe it. Suddenly the boat feels really small.

We got some decent video of the pilot and finback whales, and I’ll post it here when I get a chance to shrink the file size. Here are some other random seaworthy items.

Driving LosBarriles-Loreto-SanLucasCove

2007-05-10T22:35:00.000-06:00

On 5/17, we got impatient and had Greg reverse the tractor process and pull the boat so we could move North. The plan was to go Loreto to see if the striped marlin were any closer up there, and if not, continue on to San Lucas Cove in time for the Yellowtail Shootout.

The drive to Loreto went by pretty quickly, and we stopped initially at Puerto Escondido which is a massive half-finished port project that appears to have lost all momentum and may never recover. A great ramp and facilities, but for $28US a day, we decided that we might at well go up the road to Loreto and launch at the city ramp for 0$US. This put us in the LaRivera RV park in the center of town ($10/night), where we got word from the locals that the marlin were here, but 35-40 miles offshore. Oooohh, that’s a little too far for our little boat…but we decided to give it a shot and keep an eye on the weather and the gas gauge.

Waking early early the next morning, we launched in the dark and headed out to the bait grounds as the sunrise painted a huge panorama of orange hues ahead of us. Amazingly made bait quickly (we’d heard it was tough) and pointed the bow due East to the northern tip of Isla Carmen (about 10 miles away).

As we came around the tip of the island, there was an odd looking boil about 60ft in diameter that was slowly moving around out in the open ocean. At first it looked like a tidal rip over a seamount or something like that, but as we got closer it started looking really fishy, so Steve chucked a Tady into the middle and wham-o goes the rod. After a really good fight, he finally pulls up our first tuna species, a little Skipjack football. I quickly referred to the Baja Catch to see if we should keep it to eat, but the profile contained phrases like ‘gruesome table fare’ and ‘grey meat’ so back she went into the drink.

After catching a few more, time was wasting so we continued due East in hopes that the water temp would rise. 10 more miles and the only thing that was changing was the gas gauge and the wind, so we decided that it just wasn’t going to be our day for big game. After more inshore fishing, we got back into town pretty early and decided to go ahead and pack right back up again and move to San Lucas Cove. Kind of hard to accept that there were no more unknown magical fishing spots left on the agenda, but it was comforting to know that we’d be finishing the last week of the trip at a great camp with great people, and those awesome yellowtail.

The Isla San Marcos Yellowtail Tournament

2007-05-09T23:39:00.000-06:00

Over the weekend of 5/19, we participated in the Isla San Marcos Yellowtail Tournament. San Marcos is a mining community of 700 people about 6 miles off the mainland. The tournament is organized each year by Mike to raise money for the Youth Athletics Club on the island. It's quite a popular event for the locals, who enjoy fresh yellowtail fish tacos (wood fired fryer!) at the end of day.

(this first pic is from Mike's website)

The overall cooling trend continued and the tourney was slow with 40 contestants and only about 30 fish - we were part of the donaters with no fish and only one seagull. We thought for sure we’d pull off a miracle in the last hour with big fish busting bait all around us (they really do look like little submarines shooting around just barely breaking the surface) but Steve managed only the bird. The birds are so thick trying to get at the bait that I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often. Luckily it was a small gull and it let me pull the hook from its foot without even a flap. Regardless, it was cool to see the island, the people, and the church. As part of our entry fee we each received a meal ticket, and those fish tacos are twice as good as they look!

It's A Good (Camp) Life

2007-05-08T20:04:00.000-06:00

Here are a couple of observations from living out of a tent for 3 weeks.

-Shade, of course, is a major deal. We lucked out because of the each of our tent sites had partial shade available nearby, but a shade structure like a tarp or palapa is a necessity for even a short trip in sunny country.

-The tent you see in the pictures is an REI Hobitat 4. It has a lot of ceiling mesh, which helped us stay cool at night. Its just big enough to fit a Cabelas’ cot, and I slept better on the cot plus a Thermarest pad than I do in my own bed. The absence of a couple of squirmy little people may have been a factor in this as well.

-We used a Weber Q grill for the some of the fish fillets with great results. The grill cooks more like a full size grill than any portable I’ve seen due to it's heavy cast iron grill plates. It’s a little clunky to drag around but the ease of use and flavor is well worth it. And the little flip-out shelves and pushbutton ignition are just cool.

-Ice. We didn’t consider it a must-have item in the planning stages (unsure of availability), but as the trip went on we discovered how easy it was to find and how nice it was to have a bottle of cold pop at the end of the day. We went through roughly 1 bag of crushed ice a day, so going to town every couple of days just for ice is kind of annoying. If I did it again, I would bring an additional cooler just for ice block, and only open it once per day to refill the food cooler, etc. This would extend the resupply frequency to match that of gas, food, etc.

-Coffee was produced each morning in a GSI Lexan Java Press, and it was good stuff. For those not familiar with a press, you basically put coarse grounds in the bottom, pour in boiling water, let it steep for 10 minutes, then push a plunger down to filter all the grounds into the base of the unit. Out comes strong, slightly muddy coffee. Luckily, I convinced Steve that it was a very complicated process, so our morning routine consisted of me boiling water while Steve waded or swam (often in the dark) out to retrieve the boat. I know I got the better end of that deal!!

The Inshore Fishes

2007-05-07T23:09:00.000-06:00

You just never know what's on the end of the line, and every day we’d catch a different species. What an amazing diversity to be found in the Sea of Cortez! Without further ado, here are some of the various inshore/bottomfish/otherwise fishes of the trip.

Creole.

I forgot....spotted bay bass?

Spotted Grunt

Bait! (mackerel)

Bigmouth B@stard

Triggerfish

Pacific Yellowtail Snapper

Ladyfish

Mexican Hogfish

Cabrilla

Squid

Sculpin / Scorpionfish
Whitefish?

When the yellowtail bite dropped off for the day, you could always count on moving shallower and picking up a few random fish by trolling or casting into the rocks. We usually didn't keep it if it was a new species, but then we'd get back to camp and show somebody a picture and they'd say (more often than not) that it was good eating and we should have kept it. So the next time around the fishy was not so lucky..... Grilled Chinese Five Spice Cabrilla, Grilled Ginger Mango Chutney Snapper, Fried Rice with Shitake Mushrooms and Sweet Bread.

Rebar Here, Rebar There, Rebar Everywhere

2007-05-06T21:28:00.000-06:00

Starting immediately past the border and continuing on throughout the entire peninsula, there are an unusual number of partially finished buildings with rebar sticking out the roof. It’s as if the Lord returned and took only masons. Grand entrances, major foundations and walls, and then whamo, rebar shooting off in various directions and all progress seems to have stopped overnight. Alan’s theory (and I’ve got none better) is that the Mexicans do not have to pay property taxes while the building is ‘under construction’, so they leave everything half done. Whatever the reason, I don’t even know why I mention it other than it’s different than what we’re used to.

SpudNuts is Approved

2007-05-05T23:17:00.000-06:00

First, a little background information; When we arrived at San Lucas Cove, everyone we’d meet was quite taken by the fact that we were from Idaho. I guess there aren’t many other Idahoans excited about towing a boat 4000 miles to go camp in the dirt and fish all day. Anyway, lots of comments about potatoes, trout tackle, Boise State Football, and more potatoes. So of course, Rick and Alan set to work on a nickname that somehow involved the Idaho tie-in. These nicknames are used primarily on the radio over the course of the fishing day to call back and forth between boats and camp to see what’s going on where, and you immediately become known by your nickname because many of the boats haven’t or never will even meet you in person. Initially they’d call us Idaho, then over the next few days migrated to Spudmobile, but no individual nicknames were coming clear….until the battery incident –
One afternoon, while out fishing, we had trouble with a dead battery. We thought at first that it was simply drained from running the aerator pump, so Steve pull-started the Johnson and we headed back to camp to swap it out. Rick volunteered to charge it for us while we were out the next day. Upon return to camp however, he greeted us with that ‘you Idaho Idiots are in trouble again’ head shake and proceeded to tell us about nearly blowing up his new generator on our shorted-out-nine-year-old battery. Syd and Syd’s Brother just sat there muttering in bewilderment about ‘planning for two and a half years but you don’t buy a new battery???’ Hey, at least I brought a spare. So Tator9 (Steve) and TatorTot (Sam) was borne on the spot.
After the long drive to the East Cape and back, Steve and I agreed that Spudmobile just wasn’t working for us, as we much preferred the SpudNuts that was mentioned by someone at some point (neither can remember when). But we knew that Alan had already deemed Spudmobile “DONE, IT’S DONE I SAY” and it was going to be very difficult to change his mind. So Steve drafted a petition that included lots of legalese and hithertos, describing in great detail the many reasons why SpudNuts should be our legally adopted boat name. Primarily the manliness inferred therein. We gave Alan the petition late that night, and after growling over it for a few minutes, all he said was “After the council has met, you’ll know if it’s approved by what we call you on the radio in the morning.” Turns out that Alan was banging on Rick’s door at 5a the next morning, talking a mile a minute about those crazy Idaho boys while Rick was just trying to get his wits about him. Sure enough, our efforts don’t go unheeded and “SpudNuts, what the heck are you guys doing over there??” crackles over the radio the next morning.

The answer of course is 'trying to squirt Steve with a squid'.

Mex 1 Camouflage

2007-05-04T17:18:00.000-06:00

As you can see from the pictures on this blog, I hadn’t washed the truck for the last two months so it would get nice and dirty - in hopes of being somewhat camouflaged while driving in Mexico. You know, let’s not stick out like a sore thumb…..but after a few days driving on Mex 1, I discovered that any camouflage attempts had been completely insufficient. So here is the revised method that I’ll need to perform next time.

First, replace that fancy roof rack with an old mattress, pile everything on top (and I mean everything…the stuff in the cab, the bed and even the boat if it will fit), add a tarp and finish with a single piece of rope tied to each bumper.
Next, jump on front bumper until it is sufficiently hanging ajar or completely fallen off, whichever comes first.
Finally, get a bat and hit a home run with the driver’s side mirror because it’s going to happen eventually anyway.

By the end of the trip, the little Taco had gotten pretty dirty, but it's got a lot of miles and a lot of years before it will truly qualify as Baja-Ready!

Military Checkpoints

2007-05-03T17:30:00.000-06:00

Military checkpoints are in place every couple of hundred miles along the highway. The idea, I believe, is that a physical check of every vehicle using the only paved North-South road will lend itself to less distribution of drugs and guns, both of which are illegal. The reality may differ somewhat, but you gotta hand it to the military for at least trying.
The whole checkpoint process, which we found to be quite humorous, goes something like this:
Coming over a hill out in the middle of nowhere, you notice a plywood cutout of a soldier (usually leaning at some obtuse angle) holding a flag indicating to slow down for the upcoming checkpoint. A few more leaning visages later is a speedbump or two, constructed of heavy rope or an old tire that’s been cut and unrolled. Right about there is also a sandbag bunker with a soldier and his gun peeking over the top. At some point in their training, the section on proper firearm handling must have conflicted with siesta time, so as a result you’re looking right down the barrel as you drive by.
If you are heading South, you get to just drive up to the Alto sign, wait for the wave and then continue on your merry way. I guess they figure you’ll be back eventually anyway. When heading North, after a few minutes (or more depending on how many locals are in front of you) of waiting in line you are approached by a trim young man that asks the standard questions….”Usted habla espanol?”…shake your head and act dumb…”No espanol”…switching to English now…”Ok, where are you coming?”…”Where you going?”….”For sport feeshing?”…Yes Sir….”No druugas, no guns?”…ohhhh, No Sir!!. “Can I search?”…..of course amigo!!...and his buddies move in.
So you get out and try to keep a close eye on the proceedings while avoiding direct linear alignment with the barrel of any errant automatic weapons. We would usually split up and one would watch the truck search and one would watch the boat search. The search process seems to vary wildly from a simple poking around to full-on tap tapping around floorboards for false compartments and disassembling something silly like a flashlight and inspecting every little spring and battery. Inevitably they lose interest before getting to the really good stuff buried deep in the front center of the bed (we had bins that never got inspected, even at the US Border) because that would just be way too much work for a couple of sport feeshermen from Idaho.
Eventually we get the go-ahead and roll out of the inspection area with boat in tow and over a few more makeshift speed bumps. The last item is a little rope across the road that, when examined carefully, you notice one end is draped over the sandbags of the Welcome Bunker for the oncoming traffic on the left and the other end is connected to a collapsible spike strip in a box on the right. An interesting little touch that leaves you wondering if they really do get some action every now and then.

Baja Dogs

2007-05-02T18:25:00.000-06:00

No cats. Dogs all over the place. Not regular dogs, but really mixed up looking dogs. Short ones that should be tall and spotted ones that should be spot-free. It’s such an interesting study that someone even created a web site just for these puppies. And did I mention no cats? Weird.

This one in El Rosario had somehow managed to get a jug stuck on its head.....or it was put there for some unknown purpose by it's owner, we never could decide which.

At the Pemex in Guerrero Negro
On Isla San Marcos....probably not a real big gene pool there.....
But our faith in dog-kind was restored when we met Molly, Rick and Wendy's sweet little lab and exceptional boat mate.

Driving SanLucas Cove-SanQuintin-LasVegas-Boise

2007-05-01T18:25:00.000-06:00

Even though the yellowtail bite started picking up slightly in the last two days with an 0-3 performance on snapped 60lb to wrap up the trip as a great success, we knew sooner or later that we'd better set the course due North and get back to reality..

On 5/24 we left San Lucas Cove and drove to San Quintin for the night. Rick and Wendy had tipped us on staying at Don Posada’s in San Quintin instead of stopping at El Rosario, and the extra hour closer to the border made a big difference the next day.

We woke up at 6a on Friday morning and ended up making the long haul from San Quintin all the way to Las Vegas. It seemed like most of our travel time was spent waiting in line at the border (done by 1:00p) , but then we waited even longer in SoCal traffic until finally getting to Vegas at 7p. Traffic or not, it's over 500 miles either way you cut it.

With Shanna occupied on the Oregon Coast with relatives, I stayed in Las Vegas and took a day to ‘unwind’ in the carpeted comfort of Steve apartment. Hard to explain how good carpet feels on the dogs after nothing but sandy flip flops for a month.

On Sunday I drove the remaining 10 hours to arrive home by 7p, just 30min before Shanna and the kids returned from the coast. There certainly wasn't any snow this time, and on the way through Twin Falls I made sure to take a picture of the potato fields of Idaho for the SLC gang (Snake River in the background).

The odometer reads 4103 miles and my butt believes every one of them. But by now I think you can guess that, family and work obligations aside, I would have gone inside for a drink of water and a change of underwear and then got right back in the truck and did it all over again. The trip really was that good, better than I ever imagined......

Conclusion

2007-05-01T17:28:00.000-06:00

It goes without saying that Steve and I enjoyed this trip immensely. The desert was beautiful, the Sea even better, the fishing fantastic, and the People of Baja are second to none.

May the Rubber Tree always stand, the Frigg’It always float, and San Lucas Cove forever remain the same.