- Nov 2, 2009
- 360
- 229
- Name
- Rich Hollo
- Boat Name
- 27' Skagit Orca XLC - BIG BadDonkey
Been quite awhile since I posted but a few people have reached out asking for it so here we go:
Went to BOLA on May 5 with several 3 work friends and a brother with the Big BadDonkey in tow. We crossed at east Mexicali and pulled into the declaration lane; I've learned to do this anytime we are pulling the boat as it generally just goes a lot smoother. The last time we tried crossing at San Ysidro with the Donkey they had changed the lane configuration around and we wound up knocking one of their cameras off the mounts. We spend a couple of hours in secondary sweating what they were going to charge us but in the end they just made us go back to the US and come back through the declaration lane. Lesson learned.
Stay to the left lane entering Mexicali II and you can turn right into the bus/declaration line. A cute young agent came out talking into her cellphone and looked up at the Donkey. She asked for an escalera (ladder) to get up into the boat and I chuckled and showed her how to climb up onto the fender and side bunk and jump up into the boat. She rolled her eyes and said oh NO! and we walked to the back of the truck. She opened the cooler for about a second and whooshed us away with a pasale PASALE! We pulled up to the iron gate and another agent pulled the gate open and we were on our way to Bay of LA.
The drive down was uneventful but everything is much greener than I recall in the past due to all the rain this spring. We pulled into Villa Vitta Hotel at about 4:45 and got our rooms organized. The hotel has a large parking are which makes it easy to spin the boat around and park along the fenced wall overlooking the bay. I went to see Brisa at her vacuum packing shop and got coordinated for the next day. Brisa launches for us for $5 a day, helps us get our biosphere bracelets, and cleans fish for us at the end of the day; hat lady can hustle! They also have a roadside stand and her husband Marco can COOK. They are two of the nicest people I have ever met and Brisa is always smiling.
Wind for Saturday was showing flat all day so after making about 30 horse mackerel we headed north to look for seabass and snapper hoping Valle De Guadalupe would be gentle with us. She still had a 2 foot chop and stiff breeze for us but the crossing was relatively painless. We started dropping flutter jigs on the rocks and humps between 75 - 200 feet working our way north looking for the right stuff. The gold spotted sandbass were chewing but not what we were chasing; that being said, some of them were pushing 5 pounds and we kept a couple of the larger models so had something in the box. At @ 35 miles from the lighthouse just past La Gringa we found a hump holding some fish in 130' and dropped the jigs down on them. The boys wrangled up a 30 pound black seabass and a 25 pound snowy grouper in about 15 minutes and then the trigger fish moved in on us. After a 30 minute dry spell we decided to continue our trek northward in search of bigger and better. At about the 40 mile mark the water temp started to tick up and by the 50 mile mark we had gone from 62F to 64F with clean green water. As we passed over a rock formation in 80 feet of water the fish finder lit up with long, red marks stacked up from 40 to 60 feet and it was GAME ON. We rigged up with the mackerels and dropped them down and it didn't take long before one of the reels started hissing. The fish made a long run and then pulled a Crazy Ivan and I was pretty sure we had what we were looking for. After another short run the fish rolled up next to the boat and I stuck the gaff in our first white seabass for the day. From that point on it was steady action for the next two hours and just before the tide changed we had 3 fish hanging at once with 2 on the floor and 8 in the bag. EPIC fishing! At 2:30 we had to pull the plug to make the run back to the rampa and, fortunately, we had flat seas and a following tide and we made it back for our scheduled rendezvous with Brisa. What an amazing day!
Day 2 we decided to head south to look for Leopard Groupers, aka Sardinera. The further south we ran the colder the water became and the area we usually fish was only 58F. Suffice to say, it wasn't quite like the first day. We found a lot of small grouper hanging in 60 - 80 feet of water and we were catching a bunch of them but only 1 fish out of about 40 was worthy of the box. At least the stock is looking healthy! The day was salvaged by the occasional Sheepshead and we managed to get enough fish for dinner and a few for the freezer. Not a bad day of fishing at all but I was happy that we had scored the first day.
Day 3 we headed back north. We picked up 2 more white seabass in the same area that we had fished on the first day but then a horde of trigger fish moved in and we could not keep a mackerel down for more than a few minutes before it was mutilated. We put a couple of the Cochitos in the box for ceviche and decided to run across to La Guarda to try for some more Sardinera. We had a steady pick of small Sardinera, Vieja, and jawfish but only a couple vieja that were picture worthy.
I made arrangements to keep the boat at Brisa's for a few weeks and we headed for the border the next morning. Took us about 6 hours with rest stops and fuel to make it back to Mexicali II and it took us about an hour to get across: WAY better than crossing back at San Ysidro. On a side note, I brought down a 10 cubic foot chest freezer to put our fish in during the trip and it worked out GREAT. We kept it in one of the rooms during our stay and then loaded it into the back of the truck and hooked it up to a Honda generator for the trip home.;by the time we got home all of the fish from were frozen SOLID.
Heading back down for our annual Memorial day trip at the end of the month. The leopard grouper should be on like a chicken bone!
Went to BOLA on May 5 with several 3 work friends and a brother with the Big BadDonkey in tow. We crossed at east Mexicali and pulled into the declaration lane; I've learned to do this anytime we are pulling the boat as it generally just goes a lot smoother. The last time we tried crossing at San Ysidro with the Donkey they had changed the lane configuration around and we wound up knocking one of their cameras off the mounts. We spend a couple of hours in secondary sweating what they were going to charge us but in the end they just made us go back to the US and come back through the declaration lane. Lesson learned.
Stay to the left lane entering Mexicali II and you can turn right into the bus/declaration line. A cute young agent came out talking into her cellphone and looked up at the Donkey. She asked for an escalera (ladder) to get up into the boat and I chuckled and showed her how to climb up onto the fender and side bunk and jump up into the boat. She rolled her eyes and said oh NO! and we walked to the back of the truck. She opened the cooler for about a second and whooshed us away with a pasale PASALE! We pulled up to the iron gate and another agent pulled the gate open and we were on our way to Bay of LA.
The drive down was uneventful but everything is much greener than I recall in the past due to all the rain this spring. We pulled into Villa Vitta Hotel at about 4:45 and got our rooms organized. The hotel has a large parking are which makes it easy to spin the boat around and park along the fenced wall overlooking the bay. I went to see Brisa at her vacuum packing shop and got coordinated for the next day. Brisa launches for us for $5 a day, helps us get our biosphere bracelets, and cleans fish for us at the end of the day; hat lady can hustle! They also have a roadside stand and her husband Marco can COOK. They are two of the nicest people I have ever met and Brisa is always smiling.
Wind for Saturday was showing flat all day so after making about 30 horse mackerel we headed north to look for seabass and snapper hoping Valle De Guadalupe would be gentle with us. She still had a 2 foot chop and stiff breeze for us but the crossing was relatively painless. We started dropping flutter jigs on the rocks and humps between 75 - 200 feet working our way north looking for the right stuff. The gold spotted sandbass were chewing but not what we were chasing; that being said, some of them were pushing 5 pounds and we kept a couple of the larger models so had something in the box. At @ 35 miles from the lighthouse just past La Gringa we found a hump holding some fish in 130' and dropped the jigs down on them. The boys wrangled up a 30 pound black seabass and a 25 pound snowy grouper in about 15 minutes and then the trigger fish moved in on us. After a 30 minute dry spell we decided to continue our trek northward in search of bigger and better. At about the 40 mile mark the water temp started to tick up and by the 50 mile mark we had gone from 62F to 64F with clean green water. As we passed over a rock formation in 80 feet of water the fish finder lit up with long, red marks stacked up from 40 to 60 feet and it was GAME ON. We rigged up with the mackerels and dropped them down and it didn't take long before one of the reels started hissing. The fish made a long run and then pulled a Crazy Ivan and I was pretty sure we had what we were looking for. After another short run the fish rolled up next to the boat and I stuck the gaff in our first white seabass for the day. From that point on it was steady action for the next two hours and just before the tide changed we had 3 fish hanging at once with 2 on the floor and 8 in the bag. EPIC fishing! At 2:30 we had to pull the plug to make the run back to the rampa and, fortunately, we had flat seas and a following tide and we made it back for our scheduled rendezvous with Brisa. What an amazing day!
Day 2 we decided to head south to look for Leopard Groupers, aka Sardinera. The further south we ran the colder the water became and the area we usually fish was only 58F. Suffice to say, it wasn't quite like the first day. We found a lot of small grouper hanging in 60 - 80 feet of water and we were catching a bunch of them but only 1 fish out of about 40 was worthy of the box. At least the stock is looking healthy! The day was salvaged by the occasional Sheepshead and we managed to get enough fish for dinner and a few for the freezer. Not a bad day of fishing at all but I was happy that we had scored the first day.
Day 3 we headed back north. We picked up 2 more white seabass in the same area that we had fished on the first day but then a horde of trigger fish moved in and we could not keep a mackerel down for more than a few minutes before it was mutilated. We put a couple of the Cochitos in the box for ceviche and decided to run across to La Guarda to try for some more Sardinera. We had a steady pick of small Sardinera, Vieja, and jawfish but only a couple vieja that were picture worthy.
I made arrangements to keep the boat at Brisa's for a few weeks and we headed for the border the next morning. Took us about 6 hours with rest stops and fuel to make it back to Mexicali II and it took us about an hour to get across: WAY better than crossing back at San Ysidro. On a side note, I brought down a 10 cubic foot chest freezer to put our fish in during the trip and it worked out GREAT. We kept it in one of the rooms during our stay and then loaded it into the back of the truck and hooked it up to a Honda generator for the trip home.;by the time we got home all of the fish from were frozen SOLID.
Heading back down for our annual Memorial day trip at the end of the month. The leopard grouper should be on like a chicken bone!
