Rancho Leonero Report 6/13 to 6/23

Friday afternoon, 6/13 --- The road trip crew (Sean, Jelly, Justin, Terry, Dan, and Zilla) arrive safely at Rancho Leonero.  Zilla drives down further to Los Barriles to stay at his buddy's vacation home.  The rest of us (BobN, Sean's wife and daugthers, and I) arrive at the Los Cabos airport and share a 60 minute taxi van ride to the Ranch.  Justin's spero buddy Greg also arrives from the airport.

Saturday, 6/14 --- We all get up early, walk down to the beach with our gear, setup our kayaks, and meet for breakfast around 6AM.  On the patio overlooking the beach, we enjoy the sunrise and wait for the bait panga to arrive.  This is the same basic routine every morning.  The bait panga usually arrives a little after 6:30 and that's when we hustle down to get our live sardinas.

Terry had the hot stick on the first day.  He scored a nice little dorado right in front of the ranch.  We paddled down a little further and Terry hooks into something that starts towing him around.  We took turns hanging with Terry with our cameras ready.  In the middle of the battle, speros Justin and Greg met up with us and jumped in the water with cameras to see and take pics of what was on the end of Terry's line.  It turns out to be nice jack crevalle, also known as a "toro" around Baja.  That fish kicked Terry's butt for an unbelievable 2-1/2 hours!



Sunday, 6/15 --- On the 2nd day of fishing, I hooked into a nice barred pargo (nice pics on Sean's camera) that Justin used for a gyotaku fish print.  I also caught a small amber jack.  Bob caught a few trigger fish and puffer fish.













Monday, 6/16 --- Sean was En Fuego!  He caught this big amber jack and nice toro jigging with a his favorite blue and with Salas 6X Jr.  Sean said his goal for the trip was land a big amber and collect kayak fish porn.  Congrats brother Sean..... Mission Accomplished!!!





Other notable fish caught on Monday:  I caught this decent dorado. Needlefish and hammerhead sharks pesterered us all day.  Bob caught a small bonito which got munched by a 5' hammerhead shark while it was on the stringer.




Tuesday, 6/17 --- The wind was up in the morning and got worse as we were eating breakfast, so we bailed and went decide to rent quad runners.  Dan, Terry, Bob, and I had a blast on the endless quad trail along the beach.  We rode north to the nearest town of Los Barriles for lunch and all the way south towards the lighthouse.  We must have rode nearly twenty miles exploring the shoreline.

Wednesday, 6/18 ---  It was Sean's birthday and he continued his hot streak with an awesome rooster fish also caught on the blue/white Salas.  Shortly after, Dan followed up with a similar fish.



Other notable catches:  Bob hooked into his first dorado and lost it.  Soon after, he hooked two others and landed them.  One of them gave him a great airshow that almost took off Dan's hat on a leap.



Thursday, 6/19 ---  Bob catches his 3rd dorado (pics on Sean's camera).  I caught a tiny-tiny tuna and Dan scores a  nice pargo.  That night before dinner, I made a combo plate of tuna and pargo sashimi and a couple tasty plates of Hawaiian poke.





Justin and Greg arrive around dinner from their epic 3 day spero adventure at Isla Cerralvo near La Paz with awesome pics and video.

Friday, 6/20 --- Dan, Bob, and I head out for deep waters straight out from the resort.  Dan hooks into and loses several dorado.  I land one male peanut dodo and Bob lands a peanut hen.  We throw them into Bob's  chilled fish bag and later Justin does some awesome first time prints of dorado.



Other notable catches:  Bob caught a hammerhead and ray.  Again we were tormented by bait stealing and rig wrecking sharks and needles.  Terry stayed close to shore and caught a variety of fish.

Sean continues his hot streak and lands another nice toro with Justin capturing video of the whole catch and release.  It's one of the coolest kayak fishing footage I've ever seen.

Saturday, 6/21 --- Bob catches another dorado, and collectively, we decide he needs to change his screen name from "BobN" to "Dorado Bob".

Sean takes Paige out for a father/daughter day on the water.  On the way back, she trolls and lands this beautiful barred pargo.



Other notable catches:  Jelly joins his little buddy Joey (and dad, Rick) for panga trip that yielded 7 yellowfin tuna to 40 lbs.  I caught a cool looking trumpet and trigger fish on the kayak drift back to the ranch.







Saturday night, the guys go into town for the cockfights!  I'll let the guys tell you about the cultural spectacle.

Sunday, 6/22 --- It's the last day of fishing and the bait panga doesn't show up.  It turns out that the bait guys had trouble making bait, perhaps due to cooling water temps.  I make a bee-line for the south and find the bait guys trying to make bait on the beach.  The only bait they had were big mullet, so I buy a few to share with Bob and we drift the beach for roosters.  Bob hooks an loses two, so we switch to bigger hooks and that worked for me.  I caught this small rooster which turned out to be the last fish caught on this most memorable trip.

Killing me!!!!


15 days and I'll be at Punta Colorada....and i'm dying

Sure looks like some nice fishies.  That little yellowfin is amazing. 

Everyone's smiling = Good Times.   

Beautifull !!

  ......,AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!

Great pics!!!!  Sounds like another fantastic trip.  Can't wait to see the rest of the pics/stories when the others return.

BTW, that's a really cute looking mackerel 

Stuart

Great pics!!!!  Sounds like another fantastic trip.  Can't wait to see the rest of the pics/stories when the others return.

BTW, that's a really cute looking mackerel 

Stuart

There are some fish... even a fishsniffer pose won't help.   

Sorry Chuck, couldn't resist.




Looks like a ton of fun and lots of action!   

BTW, that's a really cute looking mackerel 

Yup....it was a little embarrassing.  That's gotta be the smallest yellow fin tuna I've ever seen.  It was probably no more than 2 lbs, but it was still tasty as sashimi.

I AM SO JEALOUS!!!!!!

What a fabulous spot and what a great crew!!!

Allen

BTW, that's a really cute looking mackerel 

Yup....it was a little embarrassing.  That's gotta be the smallest yellow fin tuna I've ever seen.  It was probably no more than 2 lbs, but it was still tasty as sashimi.

Little tuna... better than no tuna... 

Nice colors on it - did you get any close up pics?

This pic says it all...  SLAYING!!! Wish I coulda made it.....

OK!....who's in on the next one? and WHO/WHERE do I send my $,$$$ to?

AMAZING!!!  a 2.5hr fight?   I would have had to take the next day off after that!...NOT!

what a trip&tease!  ....on stand by for the rest of report&pics

BTW, that's a really cute looking mackerel 

Don't let these guys harass you Chuck.  You forgot to tell them you were making bait.

I just noticed the pics. of Justin making prints. Did he shoot any nice fish?

ChuckE,

Shashimi for "one!" Cute little bugger.