Baja Billfish Bonanza!

Part I 0f II

October 17, 2006
By Richard & Deborah Alves

More Articles By Richard Alves a.k.a. steelhead

On Friday, September 1, 2006, Hurricane John smashed into Baja’s East Cape with 110 mile an hour winds. The eye made landfall between Las Barriles and La Ribera before working its way north to La Paz. In addition to widespread structural damage, roads were washed out, the electric grid and phone lines were devastated and even the international airport at San Jose Del Cabo some sixty miles away was knocked out of commission.

We were scheduled to fish at Hotel Punta Colorada with Cabo Fishing Tours October 1-5. Monday I emailed Cabo Fishing Tours owner Jim Roberts to see if our tour had become a casualty of the storm. “I just don’t know. Until the phone lines are working we just won’t know how bad the damage is,” he responded.

A week later we were informed that although the nearby village of La Ribera suffered extensive damage, Hotel Punta Colorada had survived with only minor damage. The Trip was on!

By Wednesday, September 13, we were again monitoring the Weather Channel as tropical storm Lane barreled up the Mexican coast off Acapulco, turned into a hurricane and took dead aim at the southern tip of Baja. Fortunately the storm veered to the east and made landfall north of Mazatlan on the 16th.

That week Jim contacted all thirty-eight of us on the tour asking us to fill our ice chests for the trip to Punta Colorada with any type of donations to give to the village of La Ribera.

Getting There

Packing was a snap thanks to the list of “what to bring” in the Cabo Tours information package. The package also contained a brochure from the hotel, an itinerary, information on vacation insurance, instructions on safe, easy and inexpensive airport parking, and a passenger documentation form so all the necessary information for plane tickets and fishing licenses was correct. Click here for Mexican Sportfishing Regulations.

When we walked through the door of the International Terminal at the San Francisco Airport, we were almost immediately greeted by Jim, his wife Claudine and their business partner Jim Gates all wearing Cabo Fishing Tours t-shirts. We were given our plane tickets and directed to the Alaskan Airlines check-in counter.

After everyone on the tour had checked in, Jim told the group what to expect going through Mexican Immigration and Customs at the San Jose Del Cabo airport. With nearly an hour and a half before boarding, there was plenty of time to grab a snack and a cup of coffee. “You never know what TSA is going to be doing from one day to the next so I like to make sure we have plenty of time,” Jim told us. The flight was uneventful with nothing to see except clouds until we were on final approach to the San Jose airport over Bahia de La Paz.

Hot humid afternoon air so thick you could cut it with a knife greeted us as we exited the plane, bringing with it excitement from the realization we were in Baja. After the long stroll to the terminal, getting through immigration was a snap. Our tourist visas were quickly stamped and we proceeded on to customs.

Customs has a red light/green light system. You push this big button and if the green light goes on you just walk right through. If the red light goes on, your luggage gets searched. We both got the green light but had not moved two steps when a non-uniformed gentleman demanded to see inside our cooler. I looked at a uniformed customs agent standing a few feet away and he nodded affirmatively, so we placed the cooler on a table. “What’s all this?” he asked while ruffling through the densely packed clothing. "Clothing for La Ribera," we replied. It was over faster than you could read this sentence and he motioned us on our way.

We ran the gauntlet of coyotes, time-share salesmen, taxi agents and who knows what else, chanting our Jim-inspired mantra “We have a ride waiting for us... We have a ride waiting for us... We have a ride waiting for us.” Upon exiting the terminal we found four vans waiting to take us to Punta Colorada. The ride was spectacular! Thunderclouds provided a backdrop for Sierra De La Laguna Mountains. The recent storms had turned the desert into a lush green tropical forest where everything was in full bloom.

Welcome To Mexico

We arrived at the hotel to find the storm had removed most of the fronds from the palm trees, the hotel dock was a twisted mass of steel and timber sitting about seventy-five yards from the water and a three room building was being rebuilt because the roof had been torn off.

The hotel had not got the word to Cabo Tours that some of the rooms booked were not yet available because of storm damage. After some wheeling, dealing and reshuffling, Jim deftly got it sorted out and started handing out room assignments, boat assignments and fishing licenses. “The vans showed up, we all have rooms and they tell me we have boats,” Jim told us. Adding, “This is Mexico. All things considered, we’re doing pretty good.”

After getting settled in there was a short orientation meeting at the sea wall. The dinner bell rang and we were ushered to an extensive buffet of fresh Mexican seafood and side dishes. Tired from the day’s travel, Punta Colorada’s first guests since the hurricane headed for their rooms early.

Fishing…Day 1

Hotel Punta Colorada caters specifically to anglers, so the schedule revolves around fishing. They start serving an American style breakfast buffet (except for the ever-present refried beans) over an hour before you have to walk down or catch the van to the beach to meet your boat.

Four anglers were assigned to each thirty-foot cruiser. There were coolers with the lunch and beverage orders sitting on the beach for each boat. Passengers, their gear and lunch were panga-ed out to the cruisers (remember the brand new dock was now up on the beach!). Alejandro would check his Sears catalog-sized logbook, match it to the numbered cooler and lunch, call out the boat name, then check it off in the book. It took about an hour to get all the cruisers loaded and on their way. Things moved right along but nobody was in a hurry. “Reminds me of the days before the dock,” Jim chuckled. "This is how they used to do it. It’s lots of fun in three foot surf,” he said.

We were paired up with Jim Roberts and Jim Gates for the three days of fishing. As we climbed aboard the El Dorado, skipper Roule asked, “What do you want to fish for?” A short conversation revealed there had been so little fishing going on since the hurricane that nobody had any idea where the fish were. The skippers were counting on being notified by radio if anyone located a sizable school of yellowfin or dorado.

The general consensus was we just wanted to catch fish - it didn’t really matter what kind. Passengers and crew decided to just get on the troll and see what we could find. Sardinas were purchased and loaded from the bait panga and we were on our way. “We have a boat; we have bait; we have lunch. Life is good!” Gates said.

Roule took us due east at full throttle on the flat calm Sea of Cortez. Jim & Jim explained to us how the Mexican captains find fish. They don’t use GPS, sonar or any other modern conveyance. They rely on experience that has been handed down generation to generation for hundreds of years. Today Roule was looking for a certain color of water, which just happens to coincide with water temperature. That is where we would find fish. These bands of perfect water move with the currents. One day you might find it ten miles offshore, the next day 30 miles. An hour later Roule found the water he was looking for. Roberts pulled out his portable GPS which placed us about 35 miles out!

Jose, the deckhand, had been setting up rods and gear for most of the ride out and quickly had the five-rod trolling array in the water. We relaxed and scanned the ocean for signs of fish. The radio remained ominously silent.

We spotted a school of tuna about a mile away. Jose brought in the trolling gear. Roule wound up the diesel and set course to intercept. As we got closer we could see the jumpers were skipjack. We got into the school and there were fish jumping everywhere. Looking into the water you could see hundreds of fish swimming around the boat. Jose tossed a scoop of sardinas off the stern and it set off a feeding frenzy!

Hoping to hook up a yellowfin that might be following the skippies, we dropped our lines in the water. We fished the stop for about fifteen minutes and moved on. The largest fish we hooked might have gone ten pounds.

It wasn’t long before we spotted another school. More little skippies and the stop played out just like the first. When we spotted a third school, Roberts looked at Roule and exclaimed. “If you don’t see yellowfin jumping just keep trolling!”

The ocean was as beautiful that morning as any I’ve ever seen, a deep iridescent ultramarine blue. Small flying fish, about the size of grasshoppers, would come out of the water escaping the hull of the El Dorado. There were numerous assorted types of butterflies. It was a surreal scene which forced me to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

“Sail! Sail! Sail!” Roule shouted from the flying bridge. In the distance off the port bow we could see the fish basking on the surface with its dark blue and turquoise “sail” fully extended. Jose put a caballito, a large baitfish, on the bait line. We passed within twenty feet of the fish. As the trolling array neared the sail, Jose skillfully cast out the caballito which landed a few feet in front of the fish.

The sailfish violently attacked the bait. The fish took off and Jose set the hook. The reel was screaming as Jose handed me the rod and pointed at the fighting chair. The fish leaped out of the water and kept right on running. With more than a few hundred yards of line out, the fish turned out of the El Dorado’s wake, broke the surface, then decided to take a rest.

I still wasn’t gaining until Roule started backing the El Dorado down on the fish. That worked until the sailfish decided he had rested enough and went on a multiple jump tail-dancing run. Eventually we wore down the magnificent fish.

As we had planned to release the fish, preparations were made for taking a photo on the transom and getting it back in the water. This usually takes about fifteen seconds. With the fish next to the boat, Jose reached over the side to grab the bill and remove the hook. The sailfish viciously shook its head. Jose had to let go of the bill and as he did the hook fell out and the fish swam away.

We continued on the troll occasionally working floating pieces of driftwood with sadinas hoping to coax a dorado out of the shade the wood provided. We weren’t successful. We also found a couple more sailfish but neither was interested in our offerings.

After nearly eight hours on the water it was time to head back to Punta Colorada. We found a tired group of sun-baked anglers relaxing at the hotel patio exchanging stories about the day’s fishing. The scores had been modest but all the boats had found fish. Late in the day one of them had come across a school of yellowfin. Hopes were high for tomorrow’s fishing prospects.

Baja Billfish Bonanza Part II

Join us for Cabofest '07...at the nearby Hotel Playa Del Sol, June 2-6, 2007

More Articles By Richard Alves a.k.a. steelhead -->