A day on the Salina in Ensinada.

[Ron Jones]

Wanted to drop a quick report, will do more with pictures and everything when I get home.
Went out on the Salina from Ensenada sport fishing to Todos Santos yesterday. The yellowtail were small but WIDE OPEN! We put several 15-20 pound fish in the boat on mackerel at a slow pace and then went on the troll, Mexican Flag turned out to be the color the fish wanted and once we got that sorted out it was not uncommon for 3 or 4 rods to be hooked up at once with 12-15 pound fish. Of the 4 anglers, I was the only one who had ever caught yellowtail and so it was a treat for everyone. Total of 52 tails and a half dozen bonito over about 6 hours of fishing.

The biggest thing about gear is the reel I was using. It was my Albacore Special with Alans 5:1 gears, double dog bridge, yoke, etc; Bryans 5 stack, AT original style SS gear sleeve, crank and Kolekar grip. Worked unbelievably well. Super smooth and the drag was just barely started with the size fish we were catching. Thanks to all.

Like I said, pics and more to come, but a great day on the water for sure.
Ron

[Bill B]

Baited breath brother......need pictures  ....Bill

[Ron Jones]

So. it has been over a month, but I'm going to try to put some of this together. First time, so bear with me.

The Marina

The gate to the Pier

The Boat, for some reason, I can't find a photo of her.

The boats gear. We used there trolling gear, mostly 114Hs, one with an old style Tib narrow kit that was really cool; and our own bait gear. Mostly Penn 99s, 320GTis and such.

The Gang. Jeremiah, Jennifer, Yours truly and the most wonderful thing God ever saw fit to grace this planet with (you can call her Alison.) The Navy would kill me if they saw all the hair on my face.

Who could forget John. Jeramiah's crazy kid.

The bait was REALLY big maks. Like, big enough that I wanted to take them home and smoke them.

Because of that, we spent the first hour or so making bate with sabikis. That was the kind maks! All the 8-10 inch bait a guy could want. For those of you who went on the SOA trip with me a couple years ago, you'll know this didn't bother me... I have been called the Master Baiter!

The bite was slow on bait, but better fish. Alison was the first to hook up with a bonito on the boats gear

Then Jeremiah hooked into the first YT

This he farmed at the boat. I guess there is a technique to gaffing fish. It was definately not the deckhands doing, Jose was great the whole day. I don't know what made me laugh more, Jeremiah trying to act like it was no big deal or Jose trying to explain what he needed to do next time in "enthusiastic" Spanish. It turned out this would have been the jackpot.

Alison, with her first YT


And here is the fish


Like I said, bait was slow and so we switched to feathers. Mexican flag seemed to be the choice of the day. The fish were small but the back of that boat was wild with fish. We sometimes had 4 rods hooked up at once. Jeremiah had the hot stick. I landed the fewest fish BUT I was the only one who had ever done this and so I sorta assumed the role of tutor/deck hand. Including teaching John how to gaff.


At the end of the day we ended up with a lot of this


That is about half of the catch that still needed to be processed at the dock, Jose started filleting long before we tied up.


A gratuitous fish shot for there web site. As the skipper, Reginald said "it was a good day!"


So, we ended up with 52 YTs and 10 bonito. We tipped the boat of course, but the gift of the bonito I think made a bigger impression. Reginald asked if we wanted them and I asked him if he wanted to make ceviche. His answer..."YES!!" Will always regret I couldn't hang around long enough to get some, I sure it would be fantastic.

Reginald on the left, Jose on the right. You can guess who the fat idiot is in the middle.


So,
We will be back. The boat rides really nice. The owner provides 100 pounds of ice, a case of beer and a case of water in the price. The boat is an 8 pack that costs the same as the rest of the fleet's 6 packs and is very comfortable. When I go back, I will bring all my own gear. Everything they had was adequate and worked fine with the exception of on 114H that locked up, but I have matched sets for trolling on this size boat and the owner is fine with you bringing what you want.

A link to the web page:
http://www.ensenada-sportfishing.com/

Hope you enjoyed the story
Ron

[David Hall]

Great day, great write up.  More please.

[Alto Mare]

Very nice report Chief, love to see the old Penn gear get it done. Thanks for sharing!

[Ron Jones]

So here is another one of Jeremiah hooked up.

If you look behind him there is a rod in the Port rod holder with a Jigmaster. That rod and reel is truly more special than the sum of its parts.
The reel is a Newelled 99 width Jigmaster that has Black Pearls full 5:1 kit in it and Brian's 5 stack and the original mid size Kolekar handle. The rod is an Okuma Avenger. Yes, the ones you buy at Walmart. Walmart used to put them in the racks with the reels attached and some of the reels "walked away." I got two of the rods for $20.00 each. One has a 320GTi on it and the other one you see in the picture. This rod impresses me to no end. I've used it on everything from the SOA to jetty fishing. We even trolled it on this trip and it did just fine. The tip is to soft for trolling but it caught fish, it even doesn't have silly glass inserts in the eyes to break out. Best 20.00 bucks ever spent. With this rig I can cast a 3oz sinker or a 6 oz live bait a measured 80+ yards all day. Sure, I have rigs that can do better than that, but not for the money and none that work so well as a system.

Ron

[Bill B]

Thanks for the report....any trouble crossing the border?  Bill

[Dominick]

Great report and great fishing.  Thanks for posting that.  How is the leave looking?  Dominick

[Ron Jones]

You know the government, the only thing that happens fast is them yelling at you!
I'll push it through tomorrow and we'll buy the tickets in a day or so.
Can't wait!
Ron