The Feral Children of Playa EL Coyote

[Joel.B]

J- Maybe Dorado might be your favorite of all the fishes as they are mine?

In the Cook Islands they have one man harpoon boats with an single outboard, small open cockpit, but entire rest of boat is enclosed. With tremendous skill and seamanship they run the Mahi down and gag them on the briny surface of the South Pacific, made me very sad to spectate for some reason. Reminded me of the German man who wanted me to throw my Bull dorado back.

My favorite days were overcast sticky yucky and humid when the Sea of Cortez so calm it has that layer of oil over it. When the Dorado are resting I could see their big magnificent heads pushing the surface tension up from barely under the surface, like little mounds bobbing rippling under the darkness,  is all I would see, sometimes from maybe a hundred yards out. (My eyes still famously good at distance, need cheaters now to read and tie knots etc.) When they would sense your spread/fly/jig or whatever your offering - the water would shake and then bigger ripples  and then explode as Golden Gods come greyhounding across the surface sometimes by the dozens with violent hunger in their hearts! And then once hooked, and then once lunch. I like raw, sliced thin with  soy, lime, thin red onion, serranos... little bit black pepper...salditas ...Salsa Huichol



 

[steelfish]

A local panguero told me that sometimes tropical winter storms push warm waters into the Cortez and the Dorados will go up at odd times.

as you might know, up to the very top/north of Sea of Cortez (san felipe area) the fishing is not as good as 2hrs south (gonzaga bay) or even 6 hours more (Bay of Los Angeles) let alone 10-12hrs drive south to Baja Sur (loreto, mulege, areas, ) on which you can find vast and lots of bigger different fish.

here in San felipe forget about trying to catch Bull Dorados, marlin, sailfish even Yellowtail, the best chance to catch Yellowtail is in GOnzaga bay area wich is 2hrs drive south and thats all for big sporty fish, if you really want to fish for marlin, sailfish and Dodos you have to drive to Baja Sur (with lots of luck you can catch Dorados in BOLA but not every year, same apply to sailfish)

that said, from time to time here in San Felipe, we have stories of a Marlin or a Sailfish or a Dorado that was spotted swimming in san felipe waters and sadly many of those got trapped by accident on the commercial fishing nets.
old pangueros always said its not the 1st time and from time to time depending on the storms season warm water or cold water travel more north than normal and there are always a big fish or two who follows the warm current water. So, your story is very possible and not that unbelievable.

this a Sailfish that was caught on commercial fishing net by accident, that didnt stopped the pic to be shared with half of town because of the rarity of the fish

[Joel.B]

Alex- even as a kid in SF we caught mostly rays, ocassional corbina and maybe see a totuaba in a net sometimes. The price of shimp was nice. In my grandfathers time you could walk across the totuaba that were bigger than him. 

[steelfish]

The price of shimp was nice. 

the price of wild Blue Shrimp is still nice if you find a local panguero to buy them directly 
$400 pesos 1kg =  $22 dlls per two pounds ( $11 per pound)

sometimes I eat U12 shrimp as mini lobters, heck I prefer the taste of the blue shrimp over the Lobters but thats just me (and my wife)

[Joel.B]

Alex- I ate so many lobster one year while living in a lobster town that I got an allergy. I always preferred the shrimp over the spiny lobster, sometimes blue crab can be the best...when done right pulpo is so very good I think if I had a last meal it could be in there.

A real nice presentation and my Baja Thanksgiving feast was the big whole grilled fish on top of the mountain of rice and then all of the mariscos placed around it on the giant platter. Almejas, callo, pulpo, langosta, camarones!   Bowl of ceviche somewhere on the table, variety of sashimi,  platter of pulpo asada Japonesa. People would bring the free turkeys the cooperativa  gave them and they would get chunked up and fried in old used manteca in the disco. Best Turkey I ever had by far. Good Times.     

[steelfish]

Alex- I ate so many lobster one year while living in a lobster town that I got an allergy.

that unlocked a memory in my brain, when I was 13yo I spent one month with my uncle who was a commercial fisherman in Guerrero Negro, Baja Sur, for the people who dont know where Guerrero Negro is located, is the town you have to be in order to take the small plane to Cedros Island or you can take a boat from Guerrero Negro to Cedros too, most of the people take the plane, anyway, I remember that it was spiny lobster season so, my uncle everyday arrived home after work with some Lobsters that were not good for sell them (broken tail or body, half lobster, no legs, etc), so me and my family were eating lobster everyday in any kind of dish you can imagine, lobster meat cut in small pieces and mixed with eggs for breakfast, lobster ceviche, lobster on the grill, lobster with veggies and tomato sauce, I dont know, almost any kind of normal dish where you use chicken or meat we made it with lobster, almost the whole month.

that really made lost any kind of value for the poor lobster, currently when I see in a restaurant they offer lobster for mucho money I just laugh (no offense to who ever enjoy a lobster in a nice restaurant), my wife likes lobster so, from time to time we bought them by the kilo to a cooperativa from Ensenada, way cheaper than buy them from Costco or any other food store.

[Joel.B]

Exact same experience Alex, free lobster, all the dishes, all the time, ruined it.

I prefer it raw in small chunks with lime and soy until it barely cooks a little, red onion, serrano on salditas

or in ceviche or coctel

Guerrero Negro was great times. Sledding the dunes on cardboard a daily thing. I guess the whales were pretty cool too

[rcmsangab]

Joel,
Wow, your amazing stories and writing are bringing back great childhood memories of my own. My grandfather loved Baja and even had a beaten up old trailer and outboard boat down at Papa Fernandez's camp. How he got that trailer down there in the late 50's/ early 60's on that "road" below Puertocitos must have been an epic adventure in itself! My mother had some of his sense of adventure and took us kids down to meet grandad there in our old 1968 Chrysler station wagon one summer. All the dust-caked off-roading motorcyclists and dune buggy drivers we encountered told us it was insane to try and get that vehicle down there. That old Chrysler made it there and back to So Cal suburbs but it was purging sand and dirt for the rest of its shortened life.

This was in the mid 1970's and my Grandfather and his friends were already talking about how the fishing had been better back in the 1950's when they started going down there and how Totuava (I think that is what species is in pic below) were scarce now. Anyway, I remember beautiful skies, a whale shark swimming right next to the boat, my mom and aunt making spaghetti with seawater because getting fresh water was such an ordeal (not a good idea by the way), letting off loads legal fireworks while the older guys worked on getting the boat semi-running, and many other fond memories. Thanks so much for sharing your stories and helping me remember mine!

Russ

[steelfish]

Joel,
My grandfather loved Baja and even had a beaten up old trailer and outboard boat down at Papa Fernandez's camp. How he got that trailer down there in the late 50's/ early 60's on that "road" below Puertocitos must have been an epic adventure in itself! My mother had some of his sense of adventure and took us kids down to meet grandad there in our old 1968 Chrysler station wagon one summer. All the dust-caked off-roading motorcyclists and dune buggy drivers we encountered told us it was insane to try and get that vehicle down there. That old Chrysler made it there and back to So Cal suburbs but it was purging sand and dirt for the rest of its shortened life.

Russ

Russ, so, you know the old rocky sandy bumpy rods to get the Papa fernandez camp? cool !!
wow, just running on those roads was an epic adventure isnt it?  no wonder why you said about how your grandfather got that trailer up to the camp.

now the road From San felipe to Papa Fernandez become part of the MEX5 highway and its all pavemented till reach the highway MEX2 in the pacific side of Baja, but that part of the highway was built in two phases, first San felipe to Papa Fernandez in 2012 and then Papa Fernandez to MEX2 in 2018.

Papa Fernandez is my regular landing port so, I know that place since 2005 that was when I moved to San Felipe and started to know the surrounding areas, the road to Papa Fernandez was still a dirt rod at that time, more rocks than dirt if you let me say it, the parts of the road where there were no much rocks it was a bumpy jumpy sandy road, so you have to drive pretty slow, I mean slow and avoid/dodge the rock tips all over the road, to put it more clear, in 2008 in order to fish in saturday, we have to start driving on friday by 1pm because it took us 6hr or more to get to Papa Fernandez or Punt Bufeo (if you want to keep your car in one piece), so, we normally arrived by 7pm or 8pm just to enough to put a tent and get some sleep and be up my 4am next day and set the gear for a fishing day, currently it takes only 90 minutes to get to Papa Fernandez from San felipe.

I searched but didnt find a clear picture of those days of my 1st fishing trips to Gonzaga bay area (punta bufeo camp, papa Fernadez camp and Alfonsinas camp), I found two pictures from my fishing trip in 2007 on which you can see part of the road on the lower corner of the pic those were on flat roads the good parts LOL, I found some pictures on FB (attached with the credit of the OG owner) from 1966 the same roads San felipe-huerfanito (the beginning of gonzaga bay) on the hardest parts which are the mountain roads.

BTW yes, those are Totoaba fish the GOAT of the Curvinas family and a lot bigger than WSB, since many years ago is a endangered specie and you can get a really big ticket or jail if you catch one and take it home.

[Joel.B]

Russ your grandfather was one of the OG Baja warriors. To have seen it through his eyes. I bet he had some stories. 

[rcmsangab]

Joel,
My grandfather loved Baja and even had a beaten up old trailer and outboard boat down at Papa Fernandez's camp. How he got that trailer down there in the late 50's/ early 60's on that "road" below Puertocitos must have been an epic adventure in itself! My mother had some of his sense of adventure and took us kids down to meet grandad there in our old 1968 Chrysler station wagon one summer. All the dust-caked off-roading motorcyclists and dune buggy drivers we encountered told us it was insane to try and get that vehicle down there. That old Chrysler made it there and back to So Cal suburbs but it was purging sand and dirt for the rest of its shortened life.

Russ

Russ, so, you know the old rocky sandy bumpy rods to get the Papa fernandez camp? cool !!
wow, just running on those roads was an epic adventure isnt it?  no wonder why you said about how your grandfather got that trailer up to the camp.

now the road From San felipe to Papa Fernandez become part of the MEX5 highway and its all pavemented till reach the highway MEX2 in the pacific side of Baja, but that part of the highway was built in two phases, first San felipe to Papa Fernandez in 2012 and then Papa Fernandez to MEX2 in 2018.

Papa Fernandez is my regular landing port so, I know that place since 2005 that was when I moved to San Felipe and started to know the surrounding areas, the road to Papa Fernandez was still a dirt rod at that time, more rocks than dirt if you let me say it, the parts of the road where there were no much rocks it was a bumpy jumpy sandy road, so you have to drive pretty slow, I mean slow and avoid/dodge the rock tips all over the road, to put it more clear, in 2008 in order to fish in saturday, we have to start driving on friday by 1pm because it took us 6hr or more to get to Papa Fernandez or Punt Bufeo (if you want to keep your car in one piece), so, we normally arrived by 7pm or 8pm just to enough to put a tent and get some sleep and be up my 4am next day and set the gear for a fishing day, currently it takes only 90 minutes to get to Papa Fernandez from San felipe.

I searched but didnt find a clear picture of those days of my 1st fishing trips to Gonzaga bay area (punta bufeo camp, papa Fernadez camp and Alfonsinas camp), I found two pictures from my fishing trip in 2007 on which you can see part of the road on the lower corner of the pic those were on flat roads the good parts LOL, I found some pictures on FB (attached with the credit of the OG owner) from 1966 the same roads San felipe-huerfanito (the beginning of gonzaga bay) on the hardest parts which are the mountain roads.

BTW yes, those are Totoaba fish the GOAT of the Curvinas family and a lot bigger than WSB, since many years ago is a endangered specie and you can get a really big ticket or jail if you catch one and take it home.

Steelfish,

Ha ha, yep those look like roads I  remember. I think the highway on the Pacific side was completed by the end of Grandads Baja trips--I remember cutting across to the paved road and it being so quick and "easy" compared to the trek down from San Felipe. Could that have been in the 80's? Thanks for sharing your pics and your knowledge. Do you still have to drive miles to get water? I remember trying to keep heavy barrels filled with the precious stuff from bouncing out of the bed of Grandads old Ford and Harvester pickups!

Russ

[rcmsangab]

Russ your grandfather was one of the OG Baja warriors. To have seen it through his eyes. I bet he had some stories. 

Joel,
He was kind of a larger than life character (the white haired guy in the pic without a hat) he made everything an adventure and had tons of stories -how exactly true all of them were I won't vouch for, lol. Thanks for helping me remember him during the holiday season.

Russ

[steelfish]

Steelfish,

Ha ha, yep those look like roads I  remember. I think the highway on the Pacific side was completed by the end of Grandads Baja trips--I remember cutting across to the paved road and it being so quick and "easy" compared to the trek down from San Felipe. Could that have been in the 80's? Thanks for sharing your pics and your knowledge. Do you still have to drive miles to get water? I remember trying to keep heavy barrels filled with the precious stuff from bouncing out of the bed of Grandads old Ford and Harvester pickups!

Russ

as far as I know, some land owners on all that zone have a Well to get their own water, but normally you have to drive a little bit because the wells have to be the far they can from the beach in order to dont collect saltwater, others they buy water from the water-truck, water is still a precious stuff down there.
back in the days we used to call gonzaga bay the "lost paradise" because not many people can get there, fishing was good and spend the day there was pretty calm, nowadays with the highway anybody can get there, thats a good thing for the camp owners but fishing is not as good as it used to be and not as calm and relaxed as before but still a good place to spend the weekend.

[Joel.B]

Some of the very best moments of my life were invested around a Baja fire-pit (dug deep so the poor scorpions cant climb out) listening to larger than life legends like your grandfather tell the most amazing tales of old  Baja and Beyond.

[rcmsangab]

Some of the very best moments of my life were invested around a Baja fire-pit (dug deep so the poor scorpions cant climb out) listening to larger than life legends like your grandfather tell the most amazing tales of old  Baja and Beyond.

Now you've reminded me of the ritual of checking our shoes for scorpions before we put them back on!