Baja Report

Here is a report from an epic trip I took to Baja a few months ago. Definitely one of the best trips of my life. My friend recently moved down there and started up a spear fishing guide service called “Indigo Adventures” so I knew I was in good hands. Colin Sulton and his girlfriend Morgan run it down there and are set up with the ultimate Baja Vehicle: A Ford f350 4x4 with a Shell and racks! Indigo Adventures = “Independent Go Anywhere” was definitely apparent when they picked me up at the airport and the real adventure started. I arrived later in the day so we headed off for dinner and a hotel and planned the attack for the next day and some blue water diving was the plan! We hired a panga and headed out to an “un-disclosed reef” about 5 miles out. With rumors of huge yellow fin tuna and wahoo being landed I was very excited. This was my first time doing blue water diving. Everything from the panga ride out in the warm blue Baja environment to gearing up on the boat was getting me pumped! After going way out in very deep water I hoped off the side and began diving as deep as I could, dropping flashers and hunting for big tuna, Wahoo's and other giant pelagic fish that might swim by. On my second drop I spotted a huge 12 ft hammer head. I didn't end up seeing or landing any pelagics that day but it was a good warm up and really cool seeing a big shark! Colin ended up shooting a giant tuna which pulled three floats about 30 ft under water but the fish tore off after about five minutes.

The next day we headed off down some dusty baja dirt roads searching for a “special” reef that was supposedly loaded with fish. We searched for this reef using a variety of charts, maps and gps points. During the search, every distant point in the coastline we drove around proposed superb diving potential. After an hour or two, we found the launching location and took sup's out with our dive gear, searching for this magic reef. We ended up finding only sand! The reef had been completely covered with sand. So we called it and headed a short distance down the road to our next destination and decided to set up camp. I decided not to dive again and save energy for the next day. We drank a couple of coronas and pacificos and called it a day.

I woke up early the next morning at dawn. Colin, Brent and myself hoped in right in front of our campsite. It was sand that met a reef in about 30 fow and the reef  dropped off to about 100ft. Perfect structure and I was having a blast. I shot my first fish of the trip, a huge parrot fish that weighed roughly about 10-15 lbs. I put it on my stringer and kept diving. I was pushing myself and trying to dive as deep as I could. A few dives later I dove down to 60 ft and hit a sand patch, not reef. Since I didn't want to waste the dive I practiced my stealth underwater and slowly turned a 180 degrees underwater. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge amberjack swimming in my direction. As it got closer, I looked away, not to spook it and be as stealth as I could. I looked back to where the fish should be and I had a perfect shot. The fish was about 8-10ft away and broadside. I knew if I blew this shot I probably wouldn't get another opportunity at a fish like this. I lined the gun up and pulled the trigger. Everything was in slow motion. I watched the shaft penetrate through the fish and the fish didn't do anything for a spit second. It seemed as if time had slowed and at 60 feet of water everything stopped as I watched the fish waiting for some kind of reaction. Then the fish literally took off like a torpedo! I was very happy that I hit the fish and the shaft penetrated I forgot I was 60 feet down! I started swimming up to the surface holding onto the float line and keeping pressure on the fish. When I got to the surface I only had about five feet of line left on my 90 foot float line! Colin came over and helped me secure the fish. By fare the biggest fish of my life.

I won't go into too much detail about the remainder of the trip, but we dove each day and got a ton of fish. We were in southern half of baja and we dove the cortez and pacific sides. We roamed around the whole time and camped on the beach and stayed in hotels while diving different spots and looking for big pelagics such as tuna, wahoo, amberjack and yellow tail and reef fish such as pargo, groupers and parrot fish. The last day of the trip a group of us headed out and did a shore dive on the pacific side. We all shot big stringers of sierra. Sierra is a fish that makes really good sashimi/sushi. We filleted the fish on the beach and Morgan made sushi. A big thanks to Colin and Morgan from Indigo Adventures for providing me with a memorable trip of a lifetime. If you are interested in going to Baja I would highly recommend booking a trip with them. Here is a link to their website: http://www.indigoadventures.net/ and their facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IndiGoAdventures

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wow, looks like an awesome time. thanks for the killer report and pics.

Wow, Thanks for the report and pics.  Certainly a trip to remember.

wow, looks like an awesome time. thanks for the killer report and pics.

I LOVE BAJA!!!!!!! Thanks for the report and pics, Cameron

 

Pure awesomeness!

Congrats and thanks for sharing!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Woah! Nice dude! One day....One day....

Wow...thanks for sharing the trip with us Norcalslayer.

Great report and pictures.   Thanks for the details too.  Good blow by blow account.   Love it!


Eric Morgan
Trident Ultra 4.7
Not the guy selling the Outback
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Congrats on the PB Amberjack!!!
Awesome report I called Morgan and got some detailed information.
They dive areas that I'm familiar with in Baja. I maybe hooking up with them sometime soon.
Thanks for the contact info.
Antonio

 WTG on PB Amberjack!  Thanks for sharing your Epic Adventure.     Someday.......

Nice report NCS!
I've had some fun times there in the past.
Def. a lot of good fishing to be had.
I stil long for the days of 25 cent tacos and 25cent coronas!

Outstanding report and success! Congrats Garrett
Mike