San Quintin: Memorial Day weekend 2009
Had the distinct pleasure to fish San Quintin with Mr. "Paddy" and his buddy Timmmay! (George Clooney's brother).
Bailed out of San Diego friday morning and made good time to SQ. No problemas at San Ysidro, no "red light of death", so off we went. Light traffic all the way, and military checkpoint waved us gringos through. !!Pasale pasale guey!!
Checked in with Nancy at the Old Mill, had the complimentary beer, and rigged up our gear, and made a beeline to Jardines for friday afternoon cocktail hour with the rest of the local gringos that live down there. Drinks extended into dinner, and before we knew it we were making plans with Marita & Sharon and her friends to go do a little karaoke in town.
For those that don't know, the karaoke bar is pretty much the place to be in SQ. Problem is, they don't have a wide selection of english songs. Timmmmay decides he will break the ice there, and take one for the team. He picks "I will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor.It was a hit, and in fact, a certain Mexico Federale with certain, ummm, "propensities" fell in love with Timmmmay!
After a night of fiesta, and getting mad-dogged by mexican cowboy boyfriends, we got a couple hours sleep and got on the water.
Weather was overcast all day, not too cold, and 2-3ft with a little wind thrown in. Rocky ride but not horrible. After deliberation and chart consulting we told Pato (the guide) to take us to fill the coolers first, then we'll think about YT and stuff the next day. We shot out on the F/V Garron, made bait (which weirdly rolled on us quickly) and hit the famous "240" spot. We fished it for steady quality reds and occasional lings. There was a good current underneath, and wind up top, so it was a long day of repositioning. Pretty much 60 degree water clean water.
Saw something chasing horse macks (1-4lbers which we sabiki'd for cut bait), we quickly flung the jig a bit, but never could whatever was chasing them to commit.
Like I stated earlier, it was bumpy at times....
Highlight of the day, and jackpot winner, was Timmmay's monster lingasaurus. Check out the octopus this thing swallowed!!
San Quintin "dockyard" style...
Lather, rinse, repeat as far as nightlife festivities.
[This part is for the foodies] For dinner we brought some nice lingcod fillets to Jardines and had them all 3 styles (ajo, diablo, veracruz). Lunch on the water a nice Red Vermilion sashimi with ponzu & wasabe and Paddy's Grandma's wicked tuna salad spread, which we wrapped in toasted seaweed. Gourmet lunch as far as I'm concerned!
DAY 2
Morning came early, and off we went with a game plan to work our way north hitting the spots along the way until we hit the west side of Isla san Martin: the "15", the "6 1/2", then the facing west side, then the northwest lee side.
We switched up boats to a faster one as we needed to run-n-gun, plus we decided to forget going offshore for paddies, but rather spend the day "sportfishing" more than "meatfishing".
We had a real tough time making pieces of bait. Probably one of the rare times I've ever experienced that there. We tried and tried, and then figured we'd just go pure artificial if we had to.
Our boat the F/V Calamar (115 4 stroke Yamaha). Narrow and quick.
Our buddy boaters for the day (nice couple from Torrance) on the Coyote.
We made a beeline to the first spot and low and behold we were fishing right by the Pacific Voyager. I think they were bendo on a couple YT when we got there.
I fired off a old school blue and white Tady A2 (the ones you used to buy with a swivel on it) that got lucky as soon as we got there.
Got bit one more time for a few more headshakes, but it came unbuttoned. Pat and Timmmmay were working it too, but it seemd all we were getting after a while were lingcod when we let the jigs or big swimmies drop down too far (this spot is about 80 to 100 ft).
So we left the lings alone and I put the Whopper Stopper out with a XRap30 for a bonito or two for lunch as we head to the next spot....sorry no pics of the bonito (maybe 10lbers?) That Whopper Stopper is my favorite panga trolling rod now....love that thing!
Around the area Kelly (of K&N) was there too trolling and chatting with us via radio. He's a great guide if you want a premium setup to fish off of.
The next spot was only good for more bottom critters and no surface, so we cruised over close to the island and right up by the kelp. We saw some boiling going on, so we drift fished it.
This part for me was the highlight of the day and made all the trip worthwhile in of itself: WFO chunky Calicos on up top on the jig!!!
There were some incidental barracuda ticking us off, but for the most part, the calicos were good size and a blast to watch them blow up. We all had chasers too where they would follow their buddy up to the last minute before you reached to unhook them. Pat knocked out a really nice size one that we didn't get a picture of unfortunately. Jackpot as far as I'm concerned!
Props to my man "El Pato" for keeping us in the zone for as long as the bite lasted. Like all good things in life, it had to end. I would imagine if you flylined you'd keep them going for a few more, but how fun would that be?
We took off in search of maybe another kelp calico bite, and low and behold what do we see in the distance....
Hey Shogun, we need 4 cheeseburgers and put them on #57's tab! While your at it, hook us up with a 1/2 scoop of some nice sardines! LOL Thanks dudes!!
We returned to an area that happened to have a couple commercial friend's of the captain. They were taking a break diving and were working the halibut. We gave it a short shot for no love....it's boring fishing as far as I'm concerned & it takes too much time.
End of Part 1
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by cappo
