Baja: the good and the bad ...

[marktheshark]

Hullo everyone
Just got back from another amazing time in Baja California, which I'll write up if anyone's interested. Still marlin, still roosterfish, and all the tuna you'll ever want ... it was fish city. Shore was good too, with jacks, grouper, ladyfish and sierra.

But the main reason I'm writing is to warn anyone thinking of visiting Baja anytime soon via the US is this: LEAVE A MINIMUM OF TWO HOURS BETWEEN YOUR ARRIVAL IN THE STATES AND YOUR DEPARTURE. The border controls at Houston (we went via Continental) and LA (according to other visitors) are still a nightmare and the queues, even if you're in transit, are horrendous.
We spent the first night of our holiday in a Houston airport hotel because of the queues (and because the airline sent us to the wrong gate), and we weren't the only ones. That was with a 1hr 40min connection interval.
It was the same on the way back: no matter that you still had a valid tourist visa from the last time, no matter that you're in transit. No matter that they've got six officials standing around pointing you towards the five desks that are open. Everyone has to go through again, and like the worst bad jokes, it isn't funny at all.
God bless America: land of the free. As in, free-hour wait. You've been warned.

[Spitfire66]

Hullo everyone
Just got back from another amazing time in Baja California, which I'll write up if anyone's interested. Still marlin, still roosterfish, and all the tuna you'll ever want ... it was fish city. Shore was good too, with jacks, grouper, ladyfish and sierra.

But the main reason I'm writing is to warn anyone thinking of visiting Baja anytime soon via the US is this: LEAVE A MINIMUM OF TWO HOURS BETWEEN YOUR ARRIVAL IN THE STATES AND YOUR DEPARTURE. The border controls at Houston (we went via Continental) and LA (according to other visitors) are still a nightmare and the queues, even if you're in transit, are horrendous.
We spent the first night of our holiday in a Houston airport hotel because of the queues (and because the airline sent us to the wrong gate), and we weren't the only ones. That was with a 1hr 40min connection interval.
It was the same on the way back: no matter that you still had a valid tourist visa from the last time, no matter that you're in transit. No matter that they've got six officials standing around pointing you towards the five desks that are open. Everyone has to go through again, and like the worst bad jokes, it isn't funny at all.
God bless America: land of the free. As in, free-hour wait. You've been warned.

The bazooka lookalike rod tube, and the suicide bomber style fly fishing waistcoat you were wearing had nothing to do with it I suppse :g:

[Kingfish81]

Mark I'm interested! Get a trip report up! Also slightly concerned by your post about the airports. I'm going to the Baja next July followed immediately by Xmas Island. My flight from Mexico gets in to LA at 5pm and I have to be on a flight to Honolulu at 7:10pm on the same day. So only just over two hours to check out, check back in and get on the next flight... Reckon this will be cutting it a bit fine?

[marktheshark]

Hi Toby
I can't say .... you should be OK, but check and check again with your agent, and also see if there's a later flight option if you do get held up. Or if you can get on an earlier flight. As I said before, even though we were only in US to transit for 1hr 40min, we still had to go through immigration - and missed our flight. You should be fine ... fingers crossed, but make sure you have an option. Continental Airlines did pay for our night in a ratty airport hotel in Houston, but that was pretty poor when the alternative should have been sipping margaritas while watching the moon come up over the East Cape. Never again!
Catch report will follow soon ....

[PanamaJack]

Hi Mark/Toby
I similarly experienced the frustration at Houston in August when transiting down to Liberia in northern Costa Rica. The queues for non-US citizens stretched round and round and were extremely slow moving. In my case there was a 2 hour 20 minute window, but I just made it by the skin of my teeth.

And the chap I'd been speaking to on the 'plane failed miserably to pick up a 1hr 40 connection to LA. Mind you, in addition, he committed the 'cardinal sin' of NOTnoting down the address he was staying at in the 'States - his brother who he was meeting there had organised that. Any rate he got hauled off, presumably for interrogation, by Immigration officials.

I was also quite lucky. Having got through Customs I needed the gate details for my onward flight - they hadn't been noted on my e-ticket. So I went to a counter specifically identified as 'gate information' manned by an hispanic lady. Trouble was she wasn't exactly bi-lingual! She looked at the documentation and directed me to another, Continental queue. Fortunately I found a wandering Continental employee who went round 'the back' and got the information for me. I made it with 10 minutes to spare!

Oh for the days (pre-9/11) when, in transit, you could stay airside. Long since gone unfortunately.

On a general point though Houston, in terms of slowness, does from my experience of the 'States come out on top of the pile. Why Continental, whose hub it is, aren't pressurising for a separate queue for transiting passengers I've no idea. It must be costing them a lot of extra money in 'stop over' costs and what it's doing for customer satisfaction doesn't bear thinking about.

I even tried asking those ladies in the beige suits whether there was anyway of getting to the front of the queue and got the usual bureaucratic response - 'nothing to do with us'.

Now Toby, I suppose about the only thing in your favour is that it's possibly not 'rush hour' in terms of European or commuter flights landing so the process might, just might, be quicker. In terms of preparation though I would suggest you really need to familarise yourself with where the departure terminal relative to the one at which you arrive. Also your departure gate and how you're going to get there. It's years since I've been through LA and then I can't recall there being any form of mass transit link between terminals. You had to leg it.

Then, as soon as you get to the Customs Hall make sure you know where the over-sized baggage (fishing rods) is likely to be left. Also keep your luggage tags to hand, sometimes they will want to check them against the luggage on your cart.

Then I guess, in terms of the disaster senario, make sure you find an airline supervisor quickly and, if there's no leeway to connect to that weekly flight down to Christmas, get re-routed. As well as Honululu international flights land at Kona (on the BIG Island) and then its a fairly regular 30 minute commute.
Dave

[Kingfish81]

Dave, invaluable advice. Thanks! There is a later flight, at 8pm, but it is US$800 rather than $450 for the 7:10pm flight.... However that 8pm flight is an Alaskan Airlines flight and they are the airline that I'm flying out of Mexico with. So if they make me late, I will hassle them to put me on that flight.

From my past two experiences of LA, it's not too bad. The one thing I am definitely doing is buying a bag to put all my gear (including rods - I'm only taking fly rods) in. That way I won't have to hang around and wait for the oversized luggage to arrive.

Mark, I'm looking forward to that trip report!

[PanamaJack]

There is a later flight, at 8pm, but it is US$800 rather than $450 for the 7:10pm flight.... However that 8pm flight is an Alaskan Airlines flight and they are the airline that I'm flying out of Mexico with. So if they make me late, I will hassle them to put me on that flight.


Hi Toby
If you made the bookings as part of the same electronic transaction then I'm sure there won't be any problem - down to them. Still, if in doubt, be forceful without shouting and screaming - that's plan B.

I've only once missed a restricted Apex flight. And that was down I'm afraid to us! One of the skippers I use in Panama had booked us into the Club lounge and there we were, six of us, having the odd tipple at 7am. Unfortunately in that Panama City lounge there were no details of the flight departures being displayed and we just assumed wrongly that one of the ground stewardesses would ultimately guide us to our flight. Um...she finally burst in screaming we must come NOW. And when we got airside, even though the aircraft was still on the stand, the flight was shown as closed. I spoke to the supervisor who confirmed that the captain had asked for our luggage to be removed.

That seemed fairly final! But he suggested we sat down and he'd sort it out. Which he did. In that we were going to miss our Miami connection back to the UK he re-routed us up from Miami to NY La Guaira and then via JFK home. And at no point did he ask for any extra money. We were incredibly fortunate! And to add to that he was going off shift and returning on the same plane as us to Miami.

We got right to JFK before the 'warning bells' started to ring with the check-in staff. They called a supervisor who said she need to talk to the one in Panama City about extra charges. Bingo! We got away with it!

After that tale of woe just let's hope you get the 7:10!
Dave
PS You're still on the 'top of the pile' for the Salwater Flyrodders Trophy with your Roosterfish. Won't have to share with Eric - he's in line for the Flats Trophy with that big Bonefish.

[Kingfish81]

Wow, that was lucky Dave! The problem I guess is that I fly from Mexico to LA with Alaskan and then from LA to Honolulu with American Airways (I think). However I'm hoping it will all be fine... Going to make sure I've got some very good travel insurance just in case... Good to hear about the Saltwater Flyrodders Trophy! It's going to be in an article in The Field some time next year. Apologies for the slight diversion off topic Mark!

[marktheshark]

Right, here we go. Spent two weeks in Baja, the first on the East Cape, the second in the Cabo San Lucas-San Jose Corridor at the Sheraton. It's seven years since my last visit and a lot has changed, especially in Cabo San Lucas, but it's still, in my opinion, the best place in the world for all-round fishing: offshore, inshore, shore, whether with bait, lures or fly. It's got the lot. I took my usual eight rods: 50lb, 30lb, 20lb and an ABU Conolon travel 12-20lb 4-piece; Greys Missionary spin, a heavy catfish/uptide, and fly rods in 8 and 12wt.

At Rancho Leonero, chartered three boat trips: first was spent chasing a huge shoal of yellowfin tuna up the coast. We had a dozen fish, largest 20lb, average about 8lb, all absolute nutters. I held a few of the smaller ones on the ABU but needed the 20lb to control the bigger ones. We used live sardines and I learned another painful lesson: the fish shied away from normal line, preferring fluorocarbon; and you need to take great care with your knots with fluorocarbon or you'll get busted off at the first lunge. As I did, several times.
On the second boat trip we went a long way south after wahoo; none, but we picked up a dorado, then went through another vast shoal of tuna, which announced itself by hitting all five of our lures at the same time first up. These were bigger fish, the largest 35lb, and we picked up another dozen or so before the shoal scattered.
On our return learnt another painful lesson from one of the American couples there, who fished regularly and knew the water: they'd told their skipper to head offshore after marlin. Skipper's response was same as mine: not many marlin around now, senor. They persisted and caught two and a sailfish, raised seven billfish in all, had a ball.
Trip three, I asked the skipper to go offshore. Same response: not many marlin around now senor. So I stamped my feet and sure enough, we headed offshore, and five miles out, guess what we saw: a shoal of boats around a shoal of baitfish and several of them playing marlin. We raised four, hooked two, lost both of them. Then the bite died and we moved back inshore and spent the last hour catching roosterfish in less than 10ft of water. Took maybe six of these wonderful fighters, all on the light rod, none bigger than 10lb and every one a joy. We'd managed to hijack a local skipper and buy some live mullet, just as the marlin bite died, so we put one out on a teaser and when the roosterfish started hitting the mullet, dropped back a sardine, which they took. The mullet were too big for them to eat, but they were beating them up nonetheless, playing with their food. If I'd have brought my fly-rod, that would have been fun ...
The last boat trip was from Cabo San Lucas in week two. I used Cabo Magic, and although it cost an arm and half a leg (the dollar's weakness made it a bit more bearable) it was worth it, especially after listening to anglers later who'd gone cheap and caught nowt that day. The Cabo fleet has grown hugely and more than 100 boats left harbour than morning, most of them turning north for the Golden Gate Bank. When we got there, an hour and a half and one dorado later, we could see why: the sea was boiling with baitfish, birds, porpoises, sea lions ... and marlin. We could see the fish surfacing and jumping to chase the shoals. Stripers, 100-150lb, nothing spectacular (!!!) but lots of them. We got one on straight away on livebait that jumped all over the place, tiring itself out quickly; then we missed a few hits. The marlin only wanted mackerel, which we feathered up on the same lures we use of Chesil. They didn't touch the plastics.
We lost a shark too, which bit the bait off just behind the hook, then had a monster run which was another marlin. Just as well it took one of the 50lb wide outfits: the fish was 300 yards away before the skipper could turn the boat, then when it when it was in sight, it set off again, this time taking 400 yards; I could see the bloody thing jumping miles away. On my 30lb gear, I'd have been spooled. There was nothing I could do to stop the fish, we just had to hang on and chase. That was a bigger one, about 150lb. Both fish were released. The crew used circle hooks, and it takes a lot of discipline to just tighten the drag instead of count to seven and then hit, hit, hit the fish in a strike.
Anyway, that was the boat run. We lost another striper and a wahoo on the way back, but it was a good day for me, an average day for the boat, judging by the catch reports. Most of the boats we passed on the way back were flying red catch-and-release marlin tags too, so amazingly, the fishery is still good in spite of the number of fishermen.


Is that the time? I'll do the shore report later

[skippy]

have u got any pics cracking report mate:bounce::bounce:

[PanamaJack]

Well done Mark, sounds as if you had a great trip!

What's recently though amazed me even more about Cabo was a report, earlier in the month, of a boat releasing 179 Striped Marlin and a solitary Sailfish in one day. OK, they were after a record with 14 rods rigged and leaders being chopped, but it's an unreal number. I gather the catches came from the Finger Bank, 55 miles off Cabo. There's a report and images on this thread - http://www.sportfishermen.com/board/f9/179-marlin-1-sailfish-released-one-day-cabo-san-lucas-mexico-world-record-27512.html. (Some of the images, those hosted on the photobucket server you can view, for the others you need first to register for their forum.)
Dave

[Kingfish81]

Excellent stuff Mark! Glad you had a good trip and sounds like you caught some quality fish. It remains to be seen how the fishery fares down there with the new commercial legislation that has been passed...

[j0hnb0y]

nice report dude, i especially look forward to hearing the shore report as this is what i shall mostly be doing in Baja next year. Mexican road trip in a cheap, beaten-up old pickup :)

how much were the boat charters? i'm not gonna have much money but hope to be able to get on the sea to catch some tuna on light gear.

thanks for sharing

[Kingfish81]

Hi Johnboy. Boat charter down in the Baja is really pretty cheap. A panga (the style of boat used down there - essentially an open boat about 22-24ft long with an outboard on the back) with skipper will cost you in the region of US$180-250 for a day (around 7-8 hours on the water).

Even though they're pretty basic, you'll still be able to go a long way offshore and will give you plenty of chances for both inshore and offshore fishing. They're the perfect platform from which to fish using light gear!

[j0hnb0y]

thanks for the reply Kingfish. alas this will stille be out of my budget! chartered a boat in Colombia for £15 for 4 hours in Colombia. Simple wooden dingy with outboard...good fun. chartering boats is really very expensive !

think buying a boat will be the way to go!

[Kingfish81]

Wow! 15 quid for four hours!!! Even though the charter prices sound quite a bit still, once you take into account the amount of fuel they'll use, the overheads of running a boat (including paying for it to start with) etc, it's really pretty good value.

Buying a boat could be great though! I have wondered about it as a trip for the future. Just make sure you've got a radio!! Would be pretty easy to find the good spots as well - just follow the other pangas! :fishing:

[j0hnb0y]

http://hal.chem.uwm.edu/sailclub/photos/2004/landing_the_dingy.jpg

the boat in Colombia was more like this!

[marktheshark]

Hullo all, part II ... the shore report

First up, I didn't spend as much time shore fishing as usual as I was knackered from all the boat charters. In the past I've hooked (and lost) some awesome fish, mostly in the Corridor region, but this time I seemed to end up with a pleasing variety of smaller stuff.

In East Cape, Rancho Leonero sits in front of a rock reef that provides cover and structure for thousands of baitfish such as grunts, sardines and goatfish. To snorkel around the rocks is to see pretty much all the species of sportfish you'd like to catch, including roosters, sierra mackerel, ladyfish, needlefish, jacks, snappers, groupers, bonito, flounder ... it's pretty much an aquarium.

I did a lot of fly fishing, although conditions weren't optimum: onshore breeze and a heavy swell made casting difficult and you had to time your steps into the surf. Nonetheless I could see shoals of small sardines concentrated in the gutter less that 10 yards out, so distance not important. First evening, on a Donegalfly soft grey/white sandeel imitation, a beautiful ladyfish of 3.5lb that went berserk and repeatedly stripped the fly line well into the backing. They jump like tarpon, and it was a thrilling fight on an 8wt.
The fish was scale-perfect when it came out, and tinted a buttery yellow and olive around the head and shoulders - if anyone knows why I'd be interested. It was so pronounced I thought I'd hooked a small dorado at first. It was the first of five I caught, plus a 1lb spotted cabrilla (grouper) and several needlefish while I worked my way through wrecking or losing all my fry imitations.
Spinning produced varied results. I took a 2.5lb cabrilla on a big Bass Bullet, also several ladyfish on a sardine Storm Shad; about 50 bites on the shad, but only a handful of fish hooked up on the back-mounted single hook. Also chatted to some locals fishing for snapper using dead sardines on 2-hook English beach-style paternoster rigs ... they were catching 2-5lb fish at dusk when I left.

On the Corridor, things were slightly more frustrating. There were shoals of some kind of predator running inshore and killing baitfish on the surface but whatever it was wouldn't take any lures I offered. Poppers, big silver Krocodiles, Xraps, Raiders ... only take I had left a deep gouge on the tail of a Krocodile. I did try casting my only set of goldhead feathers to the edge of a disturbance and hooked a full house of some kind of scad, only to lose them, one by one (and the flies; and the lead) to whatever was beating them up. A boat dropped into the bay and took a big sierra on livebait, which explained a lot. An American on the beach hooked something on a Krocodile too and medium spinning rod ... it spooled him. Maybe a big jack or rooster. All I got was needlefish, the biggest 4.5ft long. Nasty creatures.
There were loads of fish around. There were big waves rolling in (making fly-fishing almost impossible ... I was swept off my feet several times. A stripping basket is essential) and when the waves curled you could see the shadows of big fish silhouetted. There were eagle rays passing, and out in the bay, there were mantas jumping, tuna shoaling, marlin and dorado jumping, pods of porpoise and whale passing by. It really is one of the most amazing seas around and I'm afraid it's rather diminished Cuba for me ....
The last day was the most frustrating ... and rewarding. I tried everything. I had several sierra bites on plastic Storm Shads, 4 and 5in in green/natural and grey/natural, but none hooked up for long and the shads ended up ripped to bits. I tried superglueing them back together but they never ran as true after that and I didn't get a bite. Also, the fish wouldn't touch anything on a wire trace except for needlefish.
I flogged the beach till dusk and was just packing in when a huge bait blitz came in. I cast into the churned water, small silver and green Toby spoon, bang, 5lb jack. I went quiet but the blitz had forced several sardines onto the beach and I set up a deadbait rig in the rocks, hoping for a cabrilla. When the next blitz came it was the most amazing thing: an area of sea the size of a football pitch churned completely white by feeding fish. On the beach, hundreds of sardines flopping and dying. I only had the fly rod set up, made a complete bollix of the cast, but it made no difference; something took the fly less that 10ft out and ran and ran and ran. After a long and tense fight (it kept trying to run into rocks and I had to wade into the surf) I finally managed to pull a 6.5lb jack onto the beach.
Then it was time to go home ...
All the fish caught apart from the larger cabrilla were released.

[Billy Boy]

Wow Mark

What a superb set of reports - you should consider writing a book of memoirs one day when you're old & passed it (ala Hemingway)- hopefully not for many years from now! Heh Heh.

Have been tres depressed now winter here but you have inspired me for my jaunts to Cuba (Guillermo) and Belize next Spring. Bring it on!

Keep up the good work matey!

Where are you off to next?

Will H

Manchester UK

[PanamaJack]

Carry on like this Mark and you'll convinced me there's more to shore fishing then targeting Bonefish. Seriously, superb report and excellent fishing. Well done!

Presumably you're using an intermediate or sinking tropical line for the fly fishing. Which make? And how about the stripping basket? I tend to use a rigid Orvis one for Bass in this country, but they do easily fill up with water in biggish swells.

[marktheshark]

Hullo all
The book is three-quarters written .... hopefully a trip to Seychelles next spring will be last chapter (so thanks for the endorsement!).
Dave, I bought a fine-mesh net stripping-basket, Airflo I think, that Velcros around your waist, and regrettably left it at home. It would have been very useful. I'd beware of using a basin-type as I was knocked over by waves several times, not by the breakers but the undertow as the wave retreated, and a basin could have helped drag me out and away.
Boat hire: as a guide, an East Cape panga costs about US$200 per day (6.30am-2.30pm); a super panga (bigger, some have a toilet) $250; and cruisers from $350. These costs are broadly the same in San Jose and La Paz but higher in Cabo; a well-recommended cruiser there will cost at least $500, and often a lot more. I used Cabomagic on repeated recommendations from TripAdvisor, but Red Rum, Pisces and Solmar boats also get regular endorsement from Cabo regulars. Cabomagic use paypal for a deposit and insist on the balance being paid in US$ cash before your charter.
In addition to this you pay for livebait ($20 of sardines is plenty; live mackerel and caballitos, for marlin and dorado, are $2 apiece); rod licences are sometimes included, so check - and the port authorities check them in Cabo San Lucas harbour, if nowhere else; and last but not least, the skipper's tip, about 15 per cent.
Hope that covers any loose ends. Thanks for all your kind words, and let me know if you need anything more specific. It's worth remembering that Thomson are starting direct flights fortnightly from London and Manchester this summer, which will save a lot of grief. The Riu hotels they use are huge (900-plus rooms, I think) and have had varying feedback on Tripadvisor, but I'll do everything I can to get back there some time next summer.
Fish are waiting ... bag 'em up!

[j0hnb0y]

what an excellent report, thanks a lot for sharing. the most encouraging news for me (aside from the excellent sport you had ;) ) was that i am not going to starve :fishing:

so looking forward to getting htere enxt year and writing similarly entertaining and informative reports

adios