i had planned a trip to BOLA in celebration of my buddy’s 50th BD, and then another buddy had a cancellation on his trip so i said my father and i could fill in. then i noticed the trips were separate by two days, so i just stayed in Bahia for a total of nine days, and got to fish eight of them, staying and fishing with Cangrejo's. here’s the report, trying to capture useful details but apologize for the length, i'll probably come through and edit, waiting for majority of pictures as i didn't take a single one!:
7/22/21 Th- drove down from santa barbara, leaving around 2am (not sure, i was sleeping in the back seat!). spotless, beautiful, no trouble drive all the way down via mexicali-EAST and HWY5. showed up around 2, unbelievably beautiful views under building thunder heads, finished moving into our room as the rain was falling over the hills, got to set up chairs for tequila and cigars on the beach as the rain and lightning moved through the bay and started to reach us. i know everyone wants to read about fishing but this part was RAD!
7/23 F- fished with Captain Victor and his nephew pinhead/deckhand Eddie (i’ve fished with them a few other times, and we always get along really well; can’t recommend them enough). bait was slow but doable in the bay, went south to the rocks off punta animas, limits by 10:30 on quality yellows in the deeper 250/300’ water at the end of the drifts. then started checking the sargasso paddies on the way home and saw a big bull under the third paddy, so my buddy ethan sight-casted a small bait for a quick ripper that started tail-walking immediately, pulling his line through patches of seaweed. kept his cool and landed the fish in about :10 (on 30# mono), his first dorado ever, unbelievable stoke on the panga for the next hour or two but the other paddies were all vacant so we got everything to the freezer by 3:30 and had plenty of time for tackle adjustments and dinner and early bed.
7/24 Sa- bait was even slower, so we decided to conserve. checked yesterday's spot few sardinera but pretty sleepy so we went a few spots further south, i don’t know the name. got into some really fun yo-yo action, landed a LOT of fish on the yo-yo (hot bite was sumo 105 in glo/wht but salas 6x was doing well in blu/wht, wht/ylw, and mint. then we did a few drifts for sardinera with live bait, then scouted a bunch for dorados but didn’t find them. another mellow afternoon, with a killer BBQ in front of the room.
7/25 Su- bait was luckily pretty easy to find (considering it’s summer and the water is 78+ in the bay!). weather looked right so we headed north. chapala had no wind (?!), and punta remedios was rumored to hold dorados so we trolled some feathers (mexican flag/dorado patterns), connected with med YT, big Bonita, and equally sized Barillete… but those were not the right kind and we had goals ahead so we decided to leave it for later and kept heading north. checked some rocks but discovered nuisance Cochitos so we went deeper and got into some EPIC fishing at Asamblea. hand over fist huachinango, sardinera, and some solid YT thrown in. i got rocked by a very large grouper, but got him out, pulled him nearly to color… when he made one last run for the rocks and broke off on the abraded section of leader from the rock fiasco (80# mono). man, that was a heartbreaker, i’d fought hard to keep him out of the rocks, then fought harder to get him out, then fought/lifted a loooong way up, only to lose him mid-line. little life-lesson, gotta keep the drag PINNED on the bite when big garropas are around! anyhow, still a few cochitos and bonitas to throw back, but really fun fishing for a couple hours, worked through the bait pretty fast. then we noticed some sargasso nearby. one was empty, the other had… some kinda big fish darting around, just far enough that we couldn’t ID them with certainty but i’d bet a hundred bucks they were dorado… and also some baby YT taking shade… so we used last few baits for nada. captain victor quietly drops a yoyo on an unexpected bottom mark and connects with a SOLID YT, barely boated it, fish of the day for sure. trolled again on the way home but nothing of value. another awesome night with the boys, gear shuffling, more BBQ, so many beers and tequilas!
7/26 M- my buddies packed up and left, (taking my share of the fish with them, smooth drive north, 45min border line, spotless all the way home), and i took a rest day to get out of the sun, do some sink-laundry, rearrange, and hydrate.
7/27 T- woke up for coffee and sunrise, realized my neighbors had slept through their alarm, so spent a lot of time chatting it up as they hurried to prepare for their (TWO!) pangas. at the last minute they invited me to join, on arturo’s boat, and they turned out to be the most awesome giant family i’ve met in a long time. dad and couple sons had fishing experience, but mom’s and daughter’s and other sons’ and daugher-in-law’s first time fishing, so we had a BLAST! bait was slow (we got like 25, other boat got 6!!), and then we headed south. dead water at animas and spots south… until we reached what i think was san rafael area. found a good rock and got the mom on her first YT (took a lot of help but she landed it, and was STOKED), then handed off a fish to the 8yr-old, who learned at that moment that she was destined to be a fish killer and LIT UP! i left the bait for the family and hooked up a LOT of solid YT on the yo-yo (mostly mixed 6x and CP105’s), mom finished the day with 5-6 fish, daughter with 7-8, and i got to boat a few too, while they were otherwise distracted (father and son also had a lot of fun back at the stern). it was such a joy to meet a cool family and help them get hooked. such a cool day. that afternoon my dad and other buddy showed up, so lots of logistics and errands and hustle bustle.
7/28 W- we got to fish with Don Pedro on the big boat (whaler 320 vantage), as he and my buddy go way back. Pedro is a great captain, Efrain is a highly regarded captain so you can imagine he makes an excellent deckhand, and the big boat is a BEAST, epic for bigger groups. bait was pretty easy, and my buddy really wanted to focus on big groupers. that kind of fishing takes a LOT of patience, so we loaded up and headed north. we fished a bunch of spots, mostly between remedios and asamblea, where we had some promising times but overall very few fish. we did get into a nice rock with medium huachinango and sardinera, and a few YT thrown in… but never the trophy my buddy dreamed of. my dad was pulling up a fish when it got taxed by a pretty big shark, hook stuck, and we hauled it all the way to the boat, but his drag was set super light and his 60# leader did not inspire confidence, so the last circles were really tense. somehow the angles shifted and the fish broke off right before the gaffs came out, but honestly i wasn’t looking forward to that endgame anyways… kinda heartbreaking for my dad though, he fought that fish HARD! we found out as we were leaving that victor’s boat, also in the area, had a gang of dorado circling his boat but his clients weren’t able to connect except for one short fight and spit hook.
7/29 Th- fished with Victor and eddie again, crappy slow bait, then killer fishing with a LOT of YT, almost all on jigs, at cardonosas and south of isla estanque. i don’t know how many fish, but i honestly lost count (and i’m not sure we were in compliance, even with my buddy’s daughter and the crew’s licenses included). had a big old hammerhead circling the boat for a few fish, apparently he was feasting on our “released” bonitas… got to swim with a juvenile whale shark before return to the ramp, which was a great treat for my dad and my friends daughter and especially for me (i lost track of time and swam with that thing for a LOOONG distance, when i finally looked up the tour boats had left and the light was changing and my boat was thoroughly bored). PS- there’s only 3-4 whale sharks in the bay right now, very low and concerning turnout, and the juvenile i got to swim with has a clearly visible prop injury on its back. i take my boat down there and i know how intoxicating it can be to fly on those glassy waters but i was reminded how important it is to watch your speed in the shallower areas.
7/30 F- Victor was previously attached to a registered party for the YT tournament, so we fished with arturo again (BTW, he’s a young local with a commercial background, great relaxed vibe and tons of local knowledge, highly recommend). keep in mind, this was the scouting day for saturday’s tournament, so there were a LOT of crowded boats out there, private and hired. bait was surprisingly good, but weather forecast was BAD. we left the bay in medium chop, tried some of the local rocks for mostly nuisance fish, and then headed south, straight into some 20ish kn S winds with some 3-5’@:05 waves… slow going. punta animas had some decent YT but it was fairly rough. Victor got a couple big WSB, we got a pretty packed cooler, tucked in to throw lures for nothing, and then scouted around for sargasso before throwing in the towel. the conditions had improved but we were out of bait and pretty tired; almost everyone else was already on the trailers, so i think we made the most of it, but it was a tough day...
8/1 Sa- launching was a NIGHTMARE. we knew it would be so we planned to beat the crowds, but my friend encountered thumb failure when setting his alarm and we got to join the tail of the line, as tournament checkin, license enforcement, and bracelet checks stretched a huge line into an endless quagmire. after excellent rapid-fire bait, we focused on my buddy’s grouper goals again, and tried to avoid the tournament chaos, but we managed a handful of solid YT, including my biggest of the trip. we missed some BIG bites at mancha amarilla, and on the drive out to los machos we saw a faint fin/tail combo, but nothing on the fly-lines; picked up a few really nice YT at los machos but a TON of nuisance orange spot bay bass to work those arms; and then, after checking the bajo de guadalupe, we encountered a big school of young marlin blowing up bait balls right in front of coronadito island. fly lines weren’t getting it, so we trolled big lures for a while… nada… and as we were calling it a day and driving past coronadito we saw two, slightly larger marlin, swimming perfectly in parallel trailing our boats. we dropped back our last baits, they clearly saw and followed, but after 15min of torturous tension they decided to blow off and we never saw them again. marlin fishing is 1% life-changing-amazing and 99% eff-this-ess-i-wanna-quit-fishing.
8/2 Su- pack up and go. another perfect drive north on HWY 5, 1:20 to cross, drop off dad in OC before getting home in time to plug the freezer and have dinner with the family. i used three tubes of sunblock and still got fried, sweat- and blood-stained an entire pile of fishing shirts and trunks, spent over $1000 and lost almost a dozen sinkers and hooks and a couple lures, but i managed to avoid major injury and bring almost two freezers full of food to share with many friends and family. one for the books
7/22/21 Th- drove down from santa barbara, leaving around 2am (not sure, i was sleeping in the back seat!). spotless, beautiful, no trouble drive all the way down via mexicali-EAST and HWY5. showed up around 2, unbelievably beautiful views under building thunder heads, finished moving into our room as the rain was falling over the hills, got to set up chairs for tequila and cigars on the beach as the rain and lightning moved through the bay and started to reach us. i know everyone wants to read about fishing but this part was RAD!
7/23 F- fished with Captain Victor and his nephew pinhead/deckhand Eddie (i’ve fished with them a few other times, and we always get along really well; can’t recommend them enough). bait was slow but doable in the bay, went south to the rocks off punta animas, limits by 10:30 on quality yellows in the deeper 250/300’ water at the end of the drifts. then started checking the sargasso paddies on the way home and saw a big bull under the third paddy, so my buddy ethan sight-casted a small bait for a quick ripper that started tail-walking immediately, pulling his line through patches of seaweed. kept his cool and landed the fish in about :10 (on 30# mono), his first dorado ever, unbelievable stoke on the panga for the next hour or two but the other paddies were all vacant so we got everything to the freezer by 3:30 and had plenty of time for tackle adjustments and dinner and early bed.
7/24 Sa- bait was even slower, so we decided to conserve. checked yesterday's spot few sardinera but pretty sleepy so we went a few spots further south, i don’t know the name. got into some really fun yo-yo action, landed a LOT of fish on the yo-yo (hot bite was sumo 105 in glo/wht but salas 6x was doing well in blu/wht, wht/ylw, and mint. then we did a few drifts for sardinera with live bait, then scouted a bunch for dorados but didn’t find them. another mellow afternoon, with a killer BBQ in front of the room.
7/25 Su- bait was luckily pretty easy to find (considering it’s summer and the water is 78+ in the bay!). weather looked right so we headed north. chapala had no wind (?!), and punta remedios was rumored to hold dorados so we trolled some feathers (mexican flag/dorado patterns), connected with med YT, big Bonita, and equally sized Barillete… but those were not the right kind and we had goals ahead so we decided to leave it for later and kept heading north. checked some rocks but discovered nuisance Cochitos so we went deeper and got into some EPIC fishing at Asamblea. hand over fist huachinango, sardinera, and some solid YT thrown in. i got rocked by a very large grouper, but got him out, pulled him nearly to color… when he made one last run for the rocks and broke off on the abraded section of leader from the rock fiasco (80# mono). man, that was a heartbreaker, i’d fought hard to keep him out of the rocks, then fought harder to get him out, then fought/lifted a loooong way up, only to lose him mid-line. little life-lesson, gotta keep the drag PINNED on the bite when big garropas are around! anyhow, still a few cochitos and bonitas to throw back, but really fun fishing for a couple hours, worked through the bait pretty fast. then we noticed some sargasso nearby. one was empty, the other had… some kinda big fish darting around, just far enough that we couldn’t ID them with certainty but i’d bet a hundred bucks they were dorado… and also some baby YT taking shade… so we used last few baits for nada. captain victor quietly drops a yoyo on an unexpected bottom mark and connects with a SOLID YT, barely boated it, fish of the day for sure. trolled again on the way home but nothing of value. another awesome night with the boys, gear shuffling, more BBQ, so many beers and tequilas!
7/26 M- my buddies packed up and left, (taking my share of the fish with them, smooth drive north, 45min border line, spotless all the way home), and i took a rest day to get out of the sun, do some sink-laundry, rearrange, and hydrate.
7/27 T- woke up for coffee and sunrise, realized my neighbors had slept through their alarm, so spent a lot of time chatting it up as they hurried to prepare for their (TWO!) pangas. at the last minute they invited me to join, on arturo’s boat, and they turned out to be the most awesome giant family i’ve met in a long time. dad and couple sons had fishing experience, but mom’s and daughter’s and other sons’ and daugher-in-law’s first time fishing, so we had a BLAST! bait was slow (we got like 25, other boat got 6!!), and then we headed south. dead water at animas and spots south… until we reached what i think was san rafael area. found a good rock and got the mom on her first YT (took a lot of help but she landed it, and was STOKED), then handed off a fish to the 8yr-old, who learned at that moment that she was destined to be a fish killer and LIT UP! i left the bait for the family and hooked up a LOT of solid YT on the yo-yo (mostly mixed 6x and CP105’s), mom finished the day with 5-6 fish, daughter with 7-8, and i got to boat a few too, while they were otherwise distracted (father and son also had a lot of fun back at the stern). it was such a joy to meet a cool family and help them get hooked. such a cool day. that afternoon my dad and other buddy showed up, so lots of logistics and errands and hustle bustle.
7/28 W- we got to fish with Don Pedro on the big boat (whaler 320 vantage), as he and my buddy go way back. Pedro is a great captain, Efrain is a highly regarded captain so you can imagine he makes an excellent deckhand, and the big boat is a BEAST, epic for bigger groups. bait was pretty easy, and my buddy really wanted to focus on big groupers. that kind of fishing takes a LOT of patience, so we loaded up and headed north. we fished a bunch of spots, mostly between remedios and asamblea, where we had some promising times but overall very few fish. we did get into a nice rock with medium huachinango and sardinera, and a few YT thrown in… but never the trophy my buddy dreamed of. my dad was pulling up a fish when it got taxed by a pretty big shark, hook stuck, and we hauled it all the way to the boat, but his drag was set super light and his 60# leader did not inspire confidence, so the last circles were really tense. somehow the angles shifted and the fish broke off right before the gaffs came out, but honestly i wasn’t looking forward to that endgame anyways… kinda heartbreaking for my dad though, he fought that fish HARD! we found out as we were leaving that victor’s boat, also in the area, had a gang of dorado circling his boat but his clients weren’t able to connect except for one short fight and spit hook.
7/29 Th- fished with Victor and eddie again, crappy slow bait, then killer fishing with a LOT of YT, almost all on jigs, at cardonosas and south of isla estanque. i don’t know how many fish, but i honestly lost count (and i’m not sure we were in compliance, even with my buddy’s daughter and the crew’s licenses included). had a big old hammerhead circling the boat for a few fish, apparently he was feasting on our “released” bonitas… got to swim with a juvenile whale shark before return to the ramp, which was a great treat for my dad and my friends daughter and especially for me (i lost track of time and swam with that thing for a LOOONG distance, when i finally looked up the tour boats had left and the light was changing and my boat was thoroughly bored). PS- there’s only 3-4 whale sharks in the bay right now, very low and concerning turnout, and the juvenile i got to swim with has a clearly visible prop injury on its back. i take my boat down there and i know how intoxicating it can be to fly on those glassy waters but i was reminded how important it is to watch your speed in the shallower areas.
7/30 F- Victor was previously attached to a registered party for the YT tournament, so we fished with arturo again (BTW, he’s a young local with a commercial background, great relaxed vibe and tons of local knowledge, highly recommend). keep in mind, this was the scouting day for saturday’s tournament, so there were a LOT of crowded boats out there, private and hired. bait was surprisingly good, but weather forecast was BAD. we left the bay in medium chop, tried some of the local rocks for mostly nuisance fish, and then headed south, straight into some 20ish kn S winds with some 3-5’@:05 waves… slow going. punta animas had some decent YT but it was fairly rough. Victor got a couple big WSB, we got a pretty packed cooler, tucked in to throw lures for nothing, and then scouted around for sargasso before throwing in the towel. the conditions had improved but we were out of bait and pretty tired; almost everyone else was already on the trailers, so i think we made the most of it, but it was a tough day...
8/1 Sa- launching was a NIGHTMARE. we knew it would be so we planned to beat the crowds, but my friend encountered thumb failure when setting his alarm and we got to join the tail of the line, as tournament checkin, license enforcement, and bracelet checks stretched a huge line into an endless quagmire. after excellent rapid-fire bait, we focused on my buddy’s grouper goals again, and tried to avoid the tournament chaos, but we managed a handful of solid YT, including my biggest of the trip. we missed some BIG bites at mancha amarilla, and on the drive out to los machos we saw a faint fin/tail combo, but nothing on the fly-lines; picked up a few really nice YT at los machos but a TON of nuisance orange spot bay bass to work those arms; and then, after checking the bajo de guadalupe, we encountered a big school of young marlin blowing up bait balls right in front of coronadito island. fly lines weren’t getting it, so we trolled big lures for a while… nada… and as we were calling it a day and driving past coronadito we saw two, slightly larger marlin, swimming perfectly in parallel trailing our boats. we dropped back our last baits, they clearly saw and followed, but after 15min of torturous tension they decided to blow off and we never saw them again. marlin fishing is 1% life-changing-amazing and 99% eff-this-ess-i-wanna-quit-fishing.
8/2 Su- pack up and go. another perfect drive north on HWY 5, 1:20 to cross, drop off dad in OC before getting home in time to plug the freezer and have dinner with the family. i used three tubes of sunblock and still got fried, sweat- and blood-stained an entire pile of fishing shirts and trunks, spent over $1000 and lost almost a dozen sinkers and hooks and a couple lures, but i managed to avoid major injury and bring almost two freezers full of food to share with many friends and family. one for the books
