La Paz April 17-24

Love the variety of species there!  Thanks for the report and pictures Allen.

That's one trip I wish I could have made with you guys.  I know you guys had a great time.  Big fish is only icing on the cake.  Thanks for taking the heat off me for my worlds smallest YF tuna. 

Come on... PolePole... was that big YT caught on this La Paz trip???   Very nice!

another trip i wish i coulda been on...

Thanks Allen. Looking foreward to fishing the east cape in June. Scott

Before I tell any more stories, I'd like a moment of silence for Bob, the owner of the boat.  The day before we flew down, I got word that Bob fell while working on one of the boats, and unfortunately passed away.  I really enjoyed planning this trip with Bob and was so looking forward to meeting him and spending a couple days on the water with him.

-Allen

Before I tell any more stories, I'd like a moment of silence for Bob, the owner of the boat.  The day before we flew down, I got word that Bob fell while working on one of the boats, and unfortunately passed away.  I really enjoyed planning this trip with Bob and was so looking forward to meeting him and spending a couple days on the water with him.

-Allen

that is terrible.......my thoughts are with his family. 

wow, that is terrible... crazy how fast stuff can change..

Sorry to hear about Bob.  We will keep him and his family in our prayers.
 

That had to have put some real quiet time on the boat. Terrible tragedy. Thoughts out to his family from here.

Yellowtail.  That's what we spent most of our time targeting.  And it turned out to be our devil fish.  We only caught 6 the whole time we were there with 2 smaller ones (~8 pounds) coming on the last day and 3 bigger ones (~20-25 pounds each) coming the day before that.  Clearly it took us a few days to get our yellowtail groove on.

Yellowtail #1 came on the eve of the second day.  Always keep a line in the water.  That was the lesson of the trip and we did exactly that.  At some point during the day, our bait tank pump went on the fritz.  All the bait turned ... except one.  At the end of the day we went into a bay and got on anchor.  The first thing I did was pin that one sardinas on a line and put it out in the water.  The second thing I did was go make a fish taco for dinner.  I came back out on deck taco in hand when my clicker started going off.  It wasn't only going off, it was screaming with the line going up towards the bow.  Bushy looks at me and says "you got a fish on".  I look back and him and calmly say "I'm eating".  Bushy grabbed the rod and walked it to the bow with line screaming out the whole time.  I followed him while finishing off the rest of my taco.  When I got the bow Bushy hands my rod back to me and I look at the reel.  That fish just went on a 200 yard run ... straight out.  You see, we were on the hook in all of 14 feet of water and that fish had nowhere to go but out.  The whole time we're thinking a seal picked up the bait, but when the run stopped, it was clear that it was a fish.  Of course at this point we didn't know what kind of fish and were guessing at it.  I was just hoping it wasn't a jack crevalle and was secretly thinking it might be a big roosterfish.  Imagine my surprise when a 30# yellowtail popped up.

Pic #1 is that fish.

The second 2 yellowtail came on a double hookup.  This time I dropped down a caballito and walked to the other side of the boat to relieve myself.  "Allen, you got a fish on".  "Damn, hold on".  Meanwhile Boogie hooks up it's twin on an iron.   Pic #2 is of those 2 fish.

Danny got all excited about those 2 fish and got ready to splash a kayak.  Shortly after he hooked up another fish of the same grade.  Pic #3.

On the last day, I had called it a kayak fishing trip and packed it all up.  We still had an hour to go.  Always keep a line in the water.  I dropped a green/white iron and began to yoyo.  Had one on for a bit but the damn hook bent out.  Hooked another.  In the meantime Bushy hooks one on a kayak nearby.  These were a smaller grade fish, but a great way to end out the trop.  Pic #4.

-Allen

Dorado.  Always be ready for a dorado to show up, because inevitably they did.  It's early in the season for them and we encountered mostly small ones.  So what did we do?  We sized down for them, with many coming on small spinning rods.  A live sardinas was the ticket when one showed up, but we got a lot on the feathers on a troll as well as a few tossing smaller krocs.  Sight fishing these was a quick adrenaline rush that played itself out over and over again.

-Allen

Pargo and Cabrillo.  My first drop of the trip and I caught a Cabrillo.  These were ever present and prevented us from getting bored on the yoyo.  Bushy even got a rarer golden cabrillo.  To make matters interesting, we'd take breaks from the deep water and toss topwater or live bait up against the shore.  This made for some explosive cabrillo strikes with lots of fish getting off in the rocks.

-Allen

Sierra.  My first drop with a sardinas and not 10 seconds into it  my reel starts racing.   Swing and a miss.  Hook gone.  Repeat.  Same outcome.  It only took me 2 drops to learn.  Wire leader.  Drop again and we have ceviche for lunch.  The sierra were everywhere.  Live bait worked well.  Diving plugs worked well.  We'd get them on the yoyo.  And a cedar plug trolled behind the boat took its share.

-Allen

what a great looking trip, thanks for all the pics allen, making me miss baja so bad, cameron

Are these Sierra related to the Spanish Mackerels.  These guys have extremely sharp teeth!