The summer is meant for fishing....

[sansou]

[I apologize in advance if my report lacks some coherence, as I am myself trying to figure out in what order I took my pictures (about 950+), and besides, Photobucket always seems to jumble them when I upload them! In addition, I lost about 3 days worth of pics when my camera (Canon Elph 790IS...RIP) fried due to high humidity (July is rainy season where I went)...it also managed to corrupt files on the card b/c when I got home, the card couldn't be read. With the help of a computer nerd, err, good friend, I got a bunch, but I lost some really cool fish pics (sailfish and tunas). ]




What can I say, the wife was neck deep in a big project, work was slow, the kid was sent up to Colorado for a month to summer with my parents....so I took the crazy offer to help out a friend (who speaks zero spanish) who needed some help trailering a brand new boat from Phoenix AZ to Puerto Vallarta. In return, he would give me free lodging and 8 days of fishing on the boat. My buddy picked up his boat and new truck on the east coast (he had it shipped from his old home in the Bahamas, and drove it across country to meet me in Phoenix.)


THE DRIVE

We left tail end of June 28th, and 1200 miles later we got in to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle (20 minutes north of PV where he owns his condo). Originally, the plan was to spend 3 days driving down, with stops planned in Hermosillo, Los Mochis, and then Tepic...culminating with a early morning 3.5 hour drive in to La Cruz. The reason for the last stop in Tepic (ancient city on top of a mountain, definately not trailer friendly) is due to the fact that the nice highway the Mexis built does not go in to PV....you gotta take a regional twisty, treacherous and narrow road in to PV. Crazy huh? We figured it would be safest early morning considering the relatively wide beam of the boat (26ft CC, 8.5 ft) was pushing the limits of the road. A road with zero shoulders by the way. To make a long story short, even in spite of the few problems we had, this was the worst part of the trip.

We left my house in AZ early in the morning, made great time crossing Nogales, had few problems with the Visa/Importation paperwork at the mandatory stoppping place outside Nogales, and even had time to check out the forest of Pipe Organ cacti. Made it to Hermosillo early afternoon, at which time we decided why not push it and make it to our "planned" second stop? (Los Mochis). Problem was, we dilly dallied a bit once we hit the coast cause we were checking out every little cool fishing town. After a grueling drive (600 miles), we got in to Los Mochis and stayed at a Best Western in town (really nice place btw.)

Caught about 4 hours of sleep, in which we both took turns going down stairs to the parking lot to make sure the boat and truck were still around, we decided to get a early start (4:30 a.m.?). Sure enough, a transito cop pulls us over for some BS. Mordida paid, we hit the road looking for breakfast on the go, and mutual reassurances that there would be zero stopping / sightseeing around the Culiacan area (bad place to be these days, IMO). Problem was, we failed take in to account that we hadn't gassed up in a while that morning....sure enough, we were running on fumes by the time we realize we goofed, but we do notice a Pemex on the OTHER side of the highway.

Here's the rub: There's a ditch separating us and the northbound highway where the Pemex is at. No semblance of any roads around, and the computer was telling us 5 or 6 miles left of gas.

Well, we pull over as far as we can, I put down the trailer wheel, disconnect the trailer and stand away from traffic. My buddy sets the truck computer for 4X4 mode, and goes mudding across this wide ditch toward the Pemex. He gets across after and starts filling up, when, of course, a nice black Dodge Charger pulls up....Federales! Aye cabron!

Sure enough, there were plenty of questions, and before I know it, one of them is getting in the boat looking at the cargo hold. The cargo hold literally had tens of thousands of dollars worth of fishing gear (see Tackle Ho pics below). Seems as though there might be a bit of drug trafficking in the area (really, in the Culiacan area?? LOL), as I get hints from the one cop about what I might be transporting. The last thing I wanted was to have to unload all this expensive stuff and have the cops get ideas...

While I'm going back and forth with the cops, neither the cops or I notice that my buddy has proceeded to cross the ditch...it startled all of us, and put the cops on guard. Words were exchanged, and I'm pleading for the cop to not call anyone else on the radio (he was starting to call his boss). I produce a cargo manifest (importation document), and after his boss shows up and checks stuff out, we ended up giving the cops some sodas....and never did I ever hint (FYI: if you have to pay off a Federale, you better bring the really big dollar bills) I was willing to break out my wallet to "smooth things out". Gotta love it. In retrospect, even in America we should have gotten a ticket for our maneuver. LOL!

Back on the road, shaken up but high fiving, we make it eventually in to Tepic around late afternoon.

Let me state that if you ever trailer a boat in to PV, do yourself a favor and do not count on staying in Tepic. It is an ancient city, and I believe the town in Indian translates to "not boat trailer friendly". Our supposed hotel was in the center of town, which meant we had to go through some really narrow streets that had telephone / electric lines going from rooftop to rooftop. Basically, I was in the boat standing on the pilot seat, with a wrapped towel around a gaff (gaff grip was rubberized thank God) trying to push telephone/electric lines (or whatever the hell it was) up and around the radar of our boat. Keep in mind, this was during rush hour, at maybe a couple miles per hour, cars honking like crazy, and a gang of kids cheering me on. We got to the hotel (recommended by someone who supposedly has done this trip before w/boat), to find out it was street parking. No bueno.

Freaked out, tired, and wondering when the transito cops would make their ugly appearance, we make a command decision to just "go for it" and do the crap road drive in to La Cruz cause we have no viable lodging. We work our way out of town (at one point going the wrong way down a one way street) and follow the sparce signs to HWY 200 (La Cruz). As we make out turn, we both notice that maybe 100 yards is also another turn off with the same sign....huh? We are committed, so we proceed, and find out a 1/8 mile ahead that the road is under contruction, and literally is mud and exposed sewage pipes with absolutely no way to cross it. Where in the heck are there any warning signs? No "desviacion" signs nowhere! Frustrated, we step out of the vehicle and notice other cars are suckered in to this turnoff as well.

On queue, transito shows up. Comical, but for the fact my buddy and I are at wits end, and are realizing the street is too narrow to pull a U-turn (and the shoulders/sidewalk is recently dug up earth - too soft). In addition, I got a ticked off cab driver behind me (honking cussing), and couple cars behind him! Eventually the transito cop gets the gist of the problem, as he has other cops get the cars to pull u-turns and merge back on the highway. Our problem was not so simple. We can't pull a tight u-turn for a couple of reasons. The range of articulation on a Range Rover receiver is limited. In addition, the shoulders/sidewalk was basically loose dirt/mud. In summary, I repeatedly explain the cop is going to have to stop highway traffic once we back up so we have enough room to get back on the highway. The cop, on the other hand, is trying to hint to me he's the "boss", and that he wants to write me a ticket for causing this scene, and has tons of questions about what & who we are. Classic.

Eventually, we had to grease the wheels ($$) and got them to stop highway traffic just enough for us to back down and straighten out.
After a crazy drive down the mountain toward Punta Mita, and then in to La Cruz, we get in late at night. 2 long days, 1,200 miles in mainland Mexico.

About 9 days later I flew out of PV back to Phoenix.

FISHING

The fishing was crazy good, and in fact kinda makes you jaded in some twisted ways. No one is even excited when you talk about 60lb tuna, or about the 20 amberjack you had fun C&Ring all day, or even about a few nice pargo you caught. What seems to get these guys excited is anyhting marlin/sail related, or tuna over 100. Crazy!

I missed both of my goals, which were to get a roosterfish (2 confirmed hookups and 2 break offs), and no love on the 100lb+ YFT. We got on some 60s, and let a few incidental 40s go that were crazy enough to strike big old marlin lures. We got swirled on by a huge black marlin that both my buddy and a local outfitter guesstimated at over 500lbs...it swirled twice after we were stalking it basking shallow (off Punta Mita area) in the sun.

Learned a lot about new fishing techniques, specifically when it comes to big game. Personally, I've never rigged 5lb bonito for bait, nor have I ever bothered learning how to properly bridle caballito, much less had the opportunity to learn how to put on "proper" marlin/sail trolling spread.

I plan on going back, and with some luck, maybe I'll accomplish a rooster and a tuna over 100!

If anyone ever is thinking about making the drive down or fishing down there, feel free to PM me.

Pics, pics, pics....

Just outside of Nogales, and throughout Mexico, you see really cool mountain paintings like these. Usually they are of La Virgen Guadalupe. Good stuff.



This is what the highway is like in the Sonoran desert...not bad.




Bypassing pics of Hermosillo (cause I never shot any going thru the city cause I was busy navigating...), this is the seaside town of Guaymas. Really pretty place. Definately want to go back here. We stopped for tacos and a brew and caught some of the local sights.





I thought this island next to the town was really unique. We actually saw boiling in the water right by it!!



lunch!

Back on the road, going away from the coast...

One of the many towns...this may be day 2 after a stopover in Los Mochis.



You know you're getting far south when all along the side of the road there are mango groves, and the local birds are looking more and more exotic.










This one cracks me up...







Stuck in Tepic...



Downtown Tepic...

On the Death Highway from Tepic to La Cruz


Oh yeah, we also got some fog and rain on the Death Highway...


Pulled over to check the trailer and do the tourist thing while on the Death Highway



I swear that our right trailer wheels (like this semi's) were inches away from going off the road most of the time....






The next morning, I awake, stoked I am not street pizza on a Mexi highway. I get up, and take in the sights from my buddy's place.

[sansou]

I must have smoked a carton of smokes and had a case a beer just watching the bay and the whales, mantas and dolphins.



We get down to the new marina they have and launch, and are asked if we want to take a $50 flight around the bay in this contraption:




Made a quick trip to a really cool fishing/marine store called Zaragosas (downtown PV). The store was like BassPro but all saltwater. Not cheap, but definately had some cool stuff I had never seen before.




Got back, put the fuel filters in, gassed up and did a quick shakedown right outside our marina, where we met this guy who was having a bad day.




Tackle hoe porn... By the time we unloaded all the fishing gear from the boat and truck, I felt kinda silly having brought my little Avets. I didn't bring any sticks, so I had to make do with all of my buddy's east coast style sticks (that parabolic stuff takes some getting used to). Lot of crimping, sleeving and serving going on...to do it properly is definately a skill that takes time to learn.




This was about 1/2 of the big game stuff (Tiagras 30, 30w, 50, 50w and unlimiteds)...someone loves shizmano a lot.





Most of the mornings looked like this...too bad that it soon becomes ridiculous hot and muggy, with the mandatory afternoon shower. July is the rainy season, and is actually the slow tourist season. As far as fishing is concerned, it is the beginning of the big game (tunas and marlin), which I think culminates around november/december for your best shot at a fat tuna (300lbs+).





Our typical morning consisted of getting some bait (pilchards and goggle eyes) around the Punta Mita area, or if we were lucky, we would come up on a pangadero and buy it from them if they were selling. Around this area the Mexicans refer to pilchards as sardinas, and goggle eyes as caballitos.





Great marks off and around the Punta Mita area. Too bad neither of us had a clue what the heck it could be. My buddy is a lifelong east coaster fishermen who has caught really big tuna and GWs off Long Island (up to 900lb+ bluefin), and his share of marlin and stuff in the bahamas, however, not having his boat in PV until now, he had yet to fish PV. So, we did as all good fishermen do, which is to apply the fundamentals of fishing. Likewise, we found it really tough to get good charts for PV, and the Platinum NAV chip doesn't work out there. So our first few days were all about asking, finding and marking reference points and hazards. The chip we had didn't even have a super high point (exposed reef at low tide) marked! We nearly ran that sucker over!




We did a lot of trolling for big game. I think we put out 12 or 13 lines most days, with 3 stacked on each outrigger.

I wish they made this in lefty...truly the "Ferrari" of big game reels: Alutecnos.



Wait, what is that? A turtle? 2 turtles? What are they doing to each other???? Best leave them alone...




Famous Punta Mita marker. No one bothered to tell us that just behind it about 75 yards away is a reef that sits maybe a few feet under water. LOL !


I think the first day we got skunked on any significant, and cut the day short to completely fill the tanks with gas. I flylined some live bait (caballitos) but kept getting short bit/raked. turns out it was small dorado. We did hook a couple small guys (at best 5 lbs?) which we C&R'd real quick (using the pilchards which are smaller). Toward the end we raced back and fished outside the marina a bit and caught strange fish. In fact, inside the marina it seemed like it was an aquarium...lots of colorful and strange fish.




Caballito/goggle eye. Joe giving me the quick 101 on how to bridle.







On a few of our days we would motor out to Isla Corbetena. From our marina in La Cruz, with flat water, throttling to 40kts+ it would take us 45 minutes or so. This little island is my favorite. Lots and lots of undergound structure around it, and we saw lots of weird marks, and caught some weird fish. One afternoon after fruitless trolling, we marked a little undergound structure about 250ft deep with big fish marks. My buddy dropper looped a caballito on a 8/0 with a 1lb weight, on 100lb test (Tiagra 50). The next thing is he spent 30 minutes trying to raise a big bottomfish out of a hole while I kept the boat vertical on position. The line eventually came up chopped clean at the dropper loop!





Never knew triggers actually (1) school and (2) feed very near the surface sometimes. From what we can tell, they seemed to be eating packs of floating jellyfish. At first, we saw near surface marks so we got excited, but we soon found out it was stinkin' triggers, and lots and lots of them!



Here's another fish that kinda frustrated us. We would mark great looking biomass maybe 100 feet down, only to find out it was these amberjacks. At first its fun, but after easily a dozen or more of them (too easy to catch), you WILL be ticked off. They loved the west coast jigs I brought. We C&R'd those guys as neither of us ever heard of them being any good to eat....great fighters though, just like yellowtail !


Yeah, on this one I'm fishing the right handed Shizmano and not my lefty Avets....gimme a break, I'm on vacation!


We both spotted something large boiling up top right by the rocks....While my buddy got the boat close, I grabbed a pre-rigged bridled caballito, tied it on my main line, pitched it out....and all I got back was this mess. I have no clue what it was or could been...but it had some razor sharp teeth. Rough neighborhood. This same day a bit earlier we were trolling and my buddy farmed a small marlin. Within seconds of realizing it was hooked, sucker jumped a couple times and managed to free itself....bummer cause I wanted pics of it.

[sansou]

Don't let anyone ever tell you that you can't apply some West Coast technique anywhere you go to fish. I call this my "Iron Pargo". We kept this sucker for the restaurant. Holy cow I never knew pargo tasted this good! We caught a handful more throughout the trip (bait) when we would get bored trolling for pelagics/bills. I really don't think it's too difficult to catch them if you manage to pull them quickly (and with thick line cause of the teeth) out of the rocks. I would like to target them one more time just to get a bigger model....I hear they can get ginormous.




Here's the lefty Avets at work!



I know some of you guys love the food porn pics...don't deny it....Ricky-ray, Osiito...Sansou. LOL



Saw a good amount of these critters, just roaming around freely....freaked me out a little.



This sucker was crossing the road on vacay at the Gran Mayan resort...


Downtown PV...random pics





Sea buzzard sunning himself on the tip of some weird statue that was situated along the boardwalk...





Cool cuban bar...good drinks and even better smokes!







Back at the marina...working on the boat





Spent the better part of one day boiler rock fishing at the Marrietas Islands (maybe 20 minutes away) trying to put a rooster on the scorecard. I went 0 for 2. Those damn things are super quick to run you into rocks, and I think my little Avet SX isn't the right reel for them (for casting hardbaits in the boilers where they like it). In any event, I was stoked that I tied in to 2 as we both saw their big dorsal fins and confirmed it. Definately one of the best parts of the trip for me was getting to fish light line up against the rocks and catch weird critters. After asking around, I find out many fish roosters with w/30lb minimum, and used different artificials or flyline pilchards.

Really common fish we caught at the Marriettas. Caught these agressive fish over and over right up against the walls...













Caught a lot of these black and blue little rockfish that loved the lucky craft.

[Troutman65]

Wow what a read. I was glued to my chair reading this. Thinking any min. you and your buddy would be loccked up by the Fed's or local police. Thank for sharing. Looking forward to the pics.

[calico killer kevin]

Dude I definitely wanna do this in a few years. Can you say EPIC....

[sansou]

I don't go nowhere without my rusty Krocs. Check out this trigger with a yellow belly.








We managed a few of these barred pargo (huachinango)...excellent table fare.


One of the days while prepping/cleaning the boat at the slip, I noticed a big fish chewing on something right next to the boat. I could literally hear it grind its teeth on the barnacles. Like a dunce, I grabbed the bait net, and scooped it. Here's the results...






Random food porn.


The BEST beer money can buy in Mexico...



Back at the casa. I loved this view. Felt like I was swimming the bay when I was in there.





The day I left, I spent some time in PV at the big marina. Lots of "famous" marlin boats there. Notice their water is murky. It's due to the proximity of a river near by, which also dumps some pretty scary wildlife in to the marina...










Was a good trip overall. Learned a lot and fished a lot. Was a little peeved at my camera frying on some of our best days fishing offshore....but I guess it works out cause I'm using that as my best argument to my wife that I must go back. LOL.

P.S. Came home to SD eventually and found out the local longfin were going gangbusters. Had to do a quickie overnighter on the Condor. My wife thinks I am mentally ill.

[sansou]

Sometime around the third week of July, my wife and I decided to do the long drive out to Colorado (Pagosa Springs...about 60 miles east of Durango) to go pick up the midget (Maddie) who had been summering with my parents. We took the 4 corners route and went thru the indian reservations. I highly recommend the trip to anyone who has never been. It's kind of a forgotten part of America.

tourist crap my wife insisted we do. The 4 corners monument....what a rip.





One of the days at home we loaded up one of the trucks and did a little canoe trip to a cool local lake calleed "Alberta". Alberta is a repository for the rare Rio Grande Cuththroat. We tried and tried, but no cutties this time. I am guessing the summer algae bloom at the lake is to blame, along with my rustying (too much saltwater fishing) trout skills...










lots of trapped fished at the outflow...



the fly bubble produces for the midget. The brookies were biting non stop, the cuthroat: none!











On another day, my dad and I trailered the boat to Navajo Reservoir. It's a really long reservoir that straddles New Mexico and Colorado. The idea was to fish pike at a certain spot, but after a few hours of only producing one measly pike that shook off at the boat anyway, we decided we would give the smallmouth a shot since they seemed to be more active. We knocked out quite a few SMB (nothing terribly big), got tired of the novelty of bassfishing, and decided we would make the long run (20 miles) to the far end and troll for kokanee. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the end, a storm was brewing AND our motor was giving us fits (forgot to do a quick re-tune to accomodate for lower elevation).















Did some quick fishing by the lake at the house. Knocked out the usual suspects.



The old man and I fit in a little session of our favorite: stream fishing! Unfortunately no long rod this time...

[sansou]

Ended up driving the wifey and kid to Albaquerque as they had a flight to Michigan. I drove back to SD, but made a stop in Phoenix to visit a friend and fish Bartlett Dam one day (bass and cats...nothing exceptional in size).

Of course....while the wife and kid gone, I felt so lonely, I had to go to San Quintin, Baja Mexico, with some buddies to shake off that terrible feeling of loneliness.

Which leads me to my last report....

[sansou]

KOREANS INVADE SAN QUINTIN !!!


Was a little bummed a few of you FNNers bailed out of this trip (Dean, Onyx, Ricky-Ray) as I had a good feeling that the fishing would be solid. Ended up being myself and 3 korean buddies, of which only one is a fisherman. As usual with SQ, no problemas during the ride up and down, no one caught the Mexican Flu, much less became someone's drug cartel slave.... Muchos pescados, food and laughs.

You guys have seen a bunch of SQ reports from me before, so here's a mish mash of pics and anecdotes to accompany them:


Check out these geoducks someone brought us for dinner...


Here's Capt. Oscar filleting up 23 YT... (not ours)



Serious business at Los Jardines




No self respecting Korean travels without a rice cooker in the hotel room.....sheesh!


Fishing lessons to a newbie to the sport... (thanks again Eddie "Bigreeler" for selling me the cool Allstar rod)


First yellow ever for him! Yeah!


This is what happened when I got lazy YT fishing and let my jig drop to the bottom too long...






Here's something extra special. This is a RARE catch in SQ. None of the locals even knew what this was when we showed them (Sierra). My buddy was messing around with a Kroc by the launch ramp while we were getting ready to put the boat on the trailer. He caught 2 of these. They tasted great when we ate them sashimi style and hour later... LOL



Ya gotta eat the heart if its your first YT...



We fixed some appetizers in the room before dinner. YT and Sierra sashimi, and all the usual korean trimmings.










The guys wanted to taste what they're like...so we kept one.








Technicals, for you technically minded: First day we went south toward Socorro (looking for WSB...fleet skunked) then flared out west 10 miles to paddy fish YT. The tuna at this time were about 28 miles in the good water, so we opted to skip YFT fishing. We caught a wide assortment of fish, and ended with 17 or so YT, ranging in size from firecracker to a few pushing 20lbs. Hot ticket lure that day was the next to largest (but not 7oz) Krocodile. The krocs outfished traditional jigs by far. We did mostly jig fishing cause most of our bait was waaay to big to flyline. Water was cold at 63 at 10 miles out.

Day 2, made great bait, then opted to go even further south past Campita to the cliffs that meet the kelp forest. Saw great marks and bird activity, but ended up only catching tons and tons of incidental junkfish (turds, checkers,barries,bonito etc...). Fished alongside K&N and saw them goof a WSB, but that was all anyone caught for WSB that day. We moved away from the giant squid (starting pulling those guys up after a while) and found a nice spot that produced 5 or 6 decent YT. Trolled 5 lines on the way back north off Pabellon looking for the WSB using the heavy kroc w/mack, Manns divers and lip hooked live macks....one good strike and quick run but it was shortly farmed.

As for the nightlife....well, you'll have to ask me in person. What happens at El Alteno stays at El Alteno! LOL

[deanhall32]

Wow!! That must have taken quite some time to download all those pics and write that report! Very nicely done Rich!! I nominate this for report of the year......