Rancho Leonero/East Cape report and photos 7/2/06

Well guys... I just got late back from Baja with my wife, Freddie, and his girlfriend Melissa.  Sean and his family still have a few days to go.

It was an epic kayak fishing trip and vacation.  Fishing for a week in warm flat ocean waters in board shorts and battling fish that fought harder than anything I've hooked before has practically ruined me for fishing back home.

Here are just a few of the crazy things I saw this past week....

- Huge schools of manta rays, trigger fish, big toro, and dorado swimming just below my yak
- Huge bait boils that lasted forever
- Roosterfish chasing and busting bait all over the place
- Sailfish jumping no more than 50 yards away
- Schools of manta rays becoming airborne and belly flopping in unison
- Flyingfish buzzing just above the surface like humming birds

It sure would have been nice to have a yak or helmet cam to capture it all.

Here are a few photos from my camera....

My yellowfin tuna just under 20 lbs.  It turned into some fantastic sashimi and poki.

A nice little pargo that I caught and was fried for our lunch. Que deliciouso!

A small toro caught and released.

One of the many very cute little puffer fish I jigged up and released. 

A nice dorado that got away.  At least I got proof. 

My wife Mercy outfishing me with a small dorado on her first time out kayak fishing.

Sean releasing his huge roosterfish.

wow, that looks awesome, both the catches and the meals!

Hey Chuck,

Thanks for a great time.  I cant wait to show off that video from Cabo Wabo of you and Freddie celebrating and your "hip" dance moves.  Here are a couple of pictures of your tuna.  No need to thank me  . I have a few pictures of Freddie and his fish but I'll wait for him to post it. Anyways, I hope you had a great birthday and an awesome vacation.


P.S. If the pictures didn't show up its probably because I dont know how to do it.

You could host a clip of his "moves" at photobucket to share with the world....

 

Looks like a vacation that I will have to take at some point.

MolBasser

Thanks for the inspiration guys!  Looks like a blast!

now you just have 1999 more miles of baja coastline to try!

ChuckE, get hold of 'the baja catch' by gene kirra and neil kelly and plan your next trip!

Also, the picture of your wife with the dorado is a classic! congrats to her

J

Well guys-

Back to reality... and that pretty much sucks. What can I say... Thanks to Chuck and Merc for everything. Also, big thanks to Sean for sharing the honey hole with us. It was a great week down on the ranch. I caught some fish, did a lot of relaxing and had a great time with some great people. I can't wait for the next trip down. Now that I know what to expect down there... I'll be totally ready to catch more fish. Hmmm... let's see... from what I can remember, here's how the trip went. Arrived at the ranch... fished from shore... caught a bunch of triggers. Settled in and prepared for the next day. Day 2... went out the the honey hole... caught a bunch of needles and some blow fish... hooked up with a dodo to cap the morning off. Day 3... went out to the north canyon... paddled my ass off... nada. Paddled my way to the honey hole to find that Sean's buddy Dave hooked up on a nice rooster. The honey hole was the spot to be that day. Oh well... wind kicked up and we headed in for lunch. Day 4... fished the honey hole again... I think this was the most productive day for me anyways. I was hooking up on the dodos. I lost 1 real nice one at the boat. Lost another but ended up with 2. Hooked into some toro that was fun as well. And of course... needles. Big fish of the day went to Sean's epic rooster battle. That fish was ginormus. In my opinion, that's a once in a lifetime type of a fish. And I thought the rooster caught by Dave was big. Day 5... fished the honey hole again... put another dodo in the freezer. The whole week long, Chuck was hooking up and losing fish like crazy. He was also getting known as the tailor of the ranch. But he saved the best for last... as usual. Day 6... not a lot of time to fish... Chuck boats a nice tuna. I pull up some toro and some pompano and an ahu. Not bad but not that glamorus either. But, I can't complain. It was still a great week of fishing. Then, it was off to Cabo for a couple of days of doing the tourista thing. I'm sure I left out a bunch of details... like how sucky it was to wait for the bait boys. How the triggers tore up my leaders. I must have retied at least 6 times a day. And I'm not talking huge days here. Typically, the day starts off at 6:15am. Gear up and pull the yaks up to the surf. Eat some breakfast and head on out at about 730ish. Sometimes the bait guys would be there, sometimes they wouldn't... sometimes they'd run out of bait. If you are luck enough to get bait on the first go, you start to paddle out around 8:15 or 8:30... Start fishing and that's that until the wind kicks you off the water at about 12:00ish. Not a lot of fishing time... at least if you are fishing off of a yak. But, it was fun while it lasted. There was always something interesting going on. That's life on the East Cape.

Freddie

now you just have 1999 more miles of baja coastline to try!

ChuckE, get hold of 'the baja catch' by gene kirra and neil kelly and plan your next trip!

Also, the picture of your wife with the dorado is a classic! congrats to her

J

Thanks J.  I'm buy that book as soon as I can.  BSteves also recommend it too.  It would have come in handy in identifying all of the different fish we saw while fishing and snorkeling.