Dear Santa, I want a biggest Ice cooler for Xmas

[steelfish]

Lately its been lots of windy days from the north, I was at home working on reels on a boring windy Sunday when I got a call from a friend from Gonzaga Bay, the YT started to show up on Gonzaba Bay area and he had no clients to take fishing the next day and next day was a hollyday here in Mexico, so that means no work on Monday, So, I checked windy.com and surprisely there was no wind for the next day, next I called few guys to make a fishing team and prepared everything to go fishing next day, reels and rods can wait another day, specially if their are not mine  .

it as an open bite of sierras and YT schoolies, so, no much time for pictures on the boat.

I had oportunity to use for the 1st time the Penn international 16s recently serviced paired with a super seeker 6640XH, beatiful combo but it ended up been way overkill for fishing 10# sierras and 15# YT, reel its too heavy and somekind of clumpsy and cumbersome for this kind of fishing, it must be perfect for a rail rod and boat rod holders, harnes, etc, glad I didnt ordered the Mak16 for everyday use, but I must say that the low speed on the penn16s is a bliss, its a true winch reel on low gear with 12" per turn, danm, you dont even feel the fish LOL.

I put that combo on a rod holder and switched to my old trusty combo, a phenix HAX820H and my Baja Special (with Cortez upgrade), not the perfect rod for light trolling but I didnt wanted to lost time changing rods and reels on the boat, so I just put a Xrap30 on the line and started trolling, they were Swwwweeeet !!! now thats a combo thats is light enough to use it all day on your hands and since the rod is composite it had a nice bend while trolling, the best part is that once you have a fish on it you can fight it pretty good, its light, strong and with tons of backbone (this is normally my bait and casting setup).

most of the fish (sierras, groupers, bonitas and YT) where on the 10# to 15# mark but there were a couple of 20# YT that gave me a nice workout, I was using straing 100# JB hollow on the reel with 20# drag and still the fish made the reel scream beautifully.

this was a fast non planned trip, it started at 9:30am and finished at 2:30pm, because my friends needed to take the road to their place that it was 4hrs drive north, clean the fish and work next day, even in that short time we managed to catch some YT, sierras, couple of Groupers and bonitas

now couple of pictures

waiting for the tide to be high enough to the launch the panga on the beach.



the captain preparing the panga with the arsenal aready on their place





Sierras (spanish macks) started to appear early



then Yellows started to show up.







then, we called it a day, we didnt reached our fish limits but had enough fun already and fish to eat healthy for a couple of days.



We launched the panga on a true Baja Style  (no ramp required)



and yep, as tittle says, I will ask Santa Claus a bigger Ice chest for my fish, YT are bigger than my confidence on fishing when I bought it 8 years ago, when I was just fishing for triggers, curvinas, and ocassional grouper.



everybody gets happy when daddy came home with fish, specially the little one


and when I say everybody, I mean everybody


well, as I always said, some trips ended up better when they are not planned than the ones you plan with several weeks in advance.

[alantani]

way too much fun!!!!!!

[Hardy Boy]

Steelfish: What a great day on the water !! Needing a bigger cooler is always a good problem to have, that's for sure. looks like great fishing. I've only fished as far North as Loreto on the Baja in Dec and we had the wind but managed a few YT and I was impressed. Hope to drive down from Canada one of these years and spend more than a couple of weeks in Mexico .................. see you for a cerveza!

[Crow]

Looks like a great time  !

[Dominick]

Great fun Alex.  I must make a trip to your part of Baja one of these days.  Dominick

[Alto Mare]

Very nice trip compadre, thanks for sharing.👍

[Bryan Young]

Wow!  My arms are feeling sore looking at all those fish caught. So much fun.

[handi2]

Lots of fun right there Alex   

[steelfish]

way too much fun!!!!!!

yep, the adrenaline is still high

.... see you for a cerveza!

fo'sure amigo, a cold tecate beer

Great fun Alex.  I must make a trip to your part of Baja one of these days.  Dominick

it would be a pleasure to have you here Dom, a lot different than fishing cabos and East cape, fishing here is more for the fun than for the fish or trophies.

Very nice trip compadre, thanks for sharing.👍

more than welcome Compadre Chava (thats a short for Salvador in Mexico)

Wow!  My arms are feeling sore looking at all those fish caught. So much fun.

the big one the ice cooler really put my left arm to the test I had it sore for 3 days, fishing 20# drag its not fun LOL, thats why I always wonder why some guys want small fish with 40# drag, the fish will sent me to the water with 40# drag.

Lots of fun right there Alex   

yep, my fun reel for sierras is a calcutta 400TE, but I only use it on local waters, I never take it to Gonzaga bay because you never know what fish can bite your lure down there, my smaller reel there is a trini16 gold tricked out, saving already for a Komodo 463P to make it my light gear.

[MarkT]

You definitely need a larger cooler! I have a couple of 100qt coolers that I use to bring fish home in.

[Shark Hunter]

Thanks for taking us along Compadre Alex!
When I started getting Shark Bait, I bought the biggest Cooler I could find.
It is reasonably priced and keeps stuff frozen as well as any higher priced competitor.
However, it is so large, I have to leave it in the truck.
Not because I can't carry it, but the handles will break from the weight.
It is a Coleman Extreme 120 Quart.
You can buy it at Walmart for about $70 Bucks.
It keeps fish iced up just as well as a Yeti or any of the other higher priced brands.
I'm sure one a little smaller could be handled without breakage.
Thanks for the pictures!

[Tightlines667]

Looks like a great trip.  Nice that you got to try your 16s out.  Thanks for taking us along.

John

[MarkT]

You need solid handles and wheels at one end make it easier to move too.

[steelfish]

@ MarkT, 100qt cooler looks like a nice size, thanks

@ Daron, 120qt coleman cooler for $70, nice .. will look for a 100qt or 80qt

@ John, the Penn 16s is an awesome reel but way overkill for YT, sierras and trash fish, high speed gear worked better on 18# drag on strike compared to the 22# I started the day, but the low gear is just awesome,  its just too big and heavy for the local fisheries, it takes all the fun out, pretty sure it should be good for Shark fishing or go for big groupers that or sell it, but I might regret it later.

[conchydong]

Nice day of fishing. Instead of a bigger cooler you may want to consider an insulated fish bag. They take up less room on a small boat and work pretty good for the longer fish. They fold up and can be stored out of the way.