Big Roosterfish-Sea of Cortez w/lots o' pics
I took a week long fishing trip down to Puerto Penasco in the northern Sea of Cortez, with Jason “jscrib” and Mike “BajaMike”. I towed my 15ft aluminum boat with Jason from Los Angeles and Mike drove his motorcycle from San Diego. We met up at J.J.’s Cantina and had Via show us were David’s “BajaConcept” house was located. David and his partners were so very generous and gracious to let us use there house at Choya Bay, as base camp. Thank you guys so much for letting us stay at your cool pad…it was so much more convenient than staying at a hotel in town. Plus, sitting on the balcony watching the sunset over the Sea of Cortez was spectacular!
On Sunday 9/25, which was our first full day, we fished Choya Bay for a bunch of Spotted Bay Bass, Triggerfish and Corvina.
Here I am with one of the many Triggerfish I caught, those Triggerfish are all over the place down there.
Mike with a Corvina,
Jason with a Corvina.
On Monday 9/26, the plan was to drive about 125 miles further south to Puerto Lobos and try and catch some different species and some larger fish that liver closer to shore. Mike and I made the drive down to Lobos in about 6 hours, because we took an unexpected and unanticipated long route to PL, which I will never take again…you definitely live and learn.
We spent over 4 hours driving down the “Dirt Road of Insanity”.
Once we got to Lobos, we launched on the south side of the point and then fished up near the lighthouse and some spots further north for a bunch of Spotted Bay Bass and Triggerfish, and this little guy…not sure what species this is, but it’s probably a baby Snapper of some sort. 
When we came back in, Mike suggested that we hire a local guide to take us fishing the next day, since we had never fished this area before. Fortunately, we found a really cool guide named Chuey to take us out on Tuesday 9/27.
Chuey’s boat was high and dry in the early morning thanks to a big minus low tide…this area actually has 16-18 foot tide swings.
I ended up using my vehicle to pull Chuey’s boat to the waters edge.
We fished a bunch of Chuey’s big Grouper spots, but all we caught were Spotted Bay Bass, Triggers and Grunts. Fortunately Chuey said he’d take us out for an afternoon/evening trip for just the price for the fuel.
When we got back from our morning run with Chuey, we went back to our tent and made some lunch and went swimming in the 88 degree water…Nice!
Here is a picture taking while swimming of our camp.
Picture of the lagoon on the other side of our camp.
In the afternoon, we trolled along the Lobos cliffs to the south and finally caught a small Gulf Grouper on the troll.
And we caught a bunch of the tasty and pretty looking Sierra’s.
Cliffs of Lobos.
When we got back on shore Tuesday evening, we brought a pound of freshly caught Scallops and had Chuey’s nice wife Conception make some friggin’ awesome and out of this world Scallop Ceviche. I also caught a nice size Blue Crab and boiled him up and the crab was amazingly sweet tasting.
Here are a some pictures of where we tent camped next to Chuey’s place.
Lighthouse in the background.
On Wednesday morning 9/28, we launched the “Red Drum”. Here is a picture of the major minus tide in the morning.
We fished about 4.5 miles out west in 180-200 feet of water for not a bite and then we trolled for about 4 miles to the north and then back to the Lighthouse for nothing. We tried jigging at a couple hard bottom spot but we only caught the smaller Bass and Triggers.
When we got closer to South Point, we started trolling Krocodiles and caught a bunch more Sierra, which was fun to finally pull on something that took a little drag on our 20lb set-ups.
After catching Sierra’s for about an hour, I noticed a big flock of birds diving in the water about a mile and a half from the point. As we got closer we noticed that there were some big fish pushing a lot of water under the diving Pelicans and Seagulls.
The big fish happen to be 25-50lb Roosterfish…Yippee!!
Mike got one big Rooster on a Rapala CD-18, and another big Rooster on a 2 ounce Krocodile with a barbless hook and 20lb test line!! Mike was very lucky to get his second fish to the boat with that barbless hook…WTG Mike!!
My first hook-up came unbuttoned and my second hook-up broke the swivel on my steel leader, but the third hook-up was the charm.
Here I am fishing my third hook-up…this fish was pulling so hard that I thought I had foul hooked him. 
After about a 25 minute battle, I finally got that hard pulling Roosterfish to the surface on 25lb test line.
Here I am with my first Roosterfish…yeah Buddy!!
After pulling on these big fish, which were also new species for both Mike and I, we decided to call it a day and head back to shore and load the boat on the trailer.
Saying goodbye to the Lobos turnoff as we headed back to Rocky Point.
And good riddance to the “Dirt Road of Insanity”…I said lot of prayers on that dirt road, and they paid off, thank God!
Heading back to Penasco on the beautiful new road with Los Tanques lagoon and the Sea of Cortez in the distance.
Made it back to David’s house in Choya Bay in 2 hours…sweeeet!!
Mike and I fished Choya Bay on Thursday 9/29 for WFO Bass, Triggers and Corvina, and headed back to the States on Friday morning, just in time for Lobster season.
We had a blast and we can’t wait to do it again…HOOK-UP!!
Till next tide,
