Yakin Isla San Marcos

[aguachico]

Brad(madscientist) and I packed up and hit the road on 3/16. Our plan was to go to San Lucas Cove to fish the yakas off a panga.



The problem was the iritis I'm suffering in my left eye, but a needle in the eye ball and an okey dokey from the doc had us heading south. We left that evening to go to El Rosario, then the next morning into SLC. The highlight of the trip south is always tacos at El Recreo in Maneadero.

I had originally talking Mike Kanzler to haul the yaks out, but it became obvious the a whaler is too small for us.

I then contacted Jim Anderson and he hooked me up with Francisco Meza. Francisco has a whaler for charter, but he also has a large panga for our two yaks. Jim and Francisco were great in staying connected with me on the wind and fish condiditons at SLC. Even better is Francisco's english which makes a world of difference.

Francisco's information is francisco_meza_c@hotmail.com, You can PM me for more information. I don't get permission to release his phone # publically

Anyway; Brad and I arrived in SLC Sunday afternoon. The wind reports were bad for Monday, great for Tuesday and Wednesday. We unloaded the yaks dirctly onto the panga in Francisco's secure, locked gated yard. He has a beautiful home as well as wife and kids.

Here's Francisco and I at the ramp

Francisco The MAN:


2/18;
We were the first to launch and we started motoring out of the lagoon. Francisco says; "Hear that" there was a roar in the distance,
he says "waves". My heart starts pumping because I start thinking san Quintin. It wasn't too bad, the swell was 2-3 at 6 seconds, there was no wind. The plan was to find bait and wait for the sun to come up and see if the wind comes or not. Well we found bait and the wind allowed us to fish. We motored off to SAn Marcos Island.




We launched the yaks, filled the bait tanks and off. It didn't take long and I was on. Good YT at 180 feet. Mac near the bottom.
26#

There was a group of boats- names witheld to protect their privacy - working the channel a little west of us.

They were hammering the YT. I thought about getting in their drift, but gave then their spot and space. They ended up with limits for the day.
I then got my next YT 24#

Francisco got two YT from the panga:
Notice Cisco's spiral wrapped rod. It's a pretty cool gift from a friend.

So we totalled 4 yt 22-26#'s. The wind kicked up and we bailed early. We knew the fishing was better for other boats, but we still had more than some that had none - bait was the key. Brad was in a funk and was skunked - but that wouldn't laast long.

2/19
My eye was getting worse. The sun, heat and inability to put the meds in had made me alomost blind in the one eye. The sun made it tooo bright for me and the eye patch sucked.

"That's a lot of rods" Some local yocal looks at our panga while we were making bait. I guess he didn't notice the yaks they were sticking out of. He says"that's a lot of rods on that boat" like it's too many for or something. Hell we left the 20# and 603 outifts in the hotel!


We had trouble making bait, for 3 hours we made 12 pieces. We finally got to the spot and the bite was ending as the commercial guys were pulling in fish on the jigs. We launched the yaks and I buried my eye from the sun. Brad proceeded to put on a show in the middle of the boats. His yells of "fish on" didn't help situation as he proceeded to boat 3YT from 22-25#'s in one hour.


I was glad that Brad kicked our ass that morning, because I knew we had to leave a day early. I needed to see the doc for another needle and get out of the Baja sun. We packed up and Cecilia, Francisco's wife, made us pizza. We ate and left. For the first time in my short Baja career, I didn't drive my truck at all on the way back. We stopped at GN for the night and hit the Border in the afternoon. Both Brad and I have Sentri Passes so the was 5 minutes.

Eating tips
Tacos - El Recreo Maneadero. West side middle of town south of the Red Pollo sign.
Breakfast - Baja's Best El Rosario. Ed the owner is an old stick boat captian from Long beach.
Tortas. - Jesus Maria Pemex. Torta Especial.

We found one taco place in the boat of Santa Rosalia that was good, but my eye was too messed up to remember chit.

There large YT to be found at this spot. Summer dod and Marlin are available. Yaking from land to the island is not adviseable. Probably 5 miles at it's shortest point.

The panga cost is $150. Francisco will bring bait poles with sabiki's.

AC

[Holy Mackerel]

Great report, and pics, hope to get down there with you guys soon!

chris

[rastrev]

Great report and pics Art! Got me jonesing for a Baja trip!

[tylerdurden]

Nice trip guys . Looks like fun. Glad the weather was better than the last trip to that area.

[Dan]

great report Art. the weather looks perf.

[fishdude]

Nice report, sounds like a great time. Looking forward to a Baja trip myself, hopefully sooner than later.
I take it you guys did not have problems with any villianess characters.
Congrats again on the nice fish.

Hope your eye gets better.

[kurt]

Sorry to hear your eye limited you, but sounds like a great trip other than that. Thanks for the post.

[Handymansd]

Great report Art! Thanks!

[Matt]

Nice job and report fellas!

[steveooo]

Dang, that looks like a fun trip, and the weather looks a little more agreeable tan it has been here lately. Thanks 4 the report

[jscott]

Nice job! Sounds like a blast.

[esdees]

So that's where you went. Thanks for sharing, I've got to do a trip like that sometime.

[wavster]

Originally Posted by steveooo

Dang, that looks like a fun trip, and the weather looks a little more agreeable tan it has been here lately. Thanks 4 the report

I'll take this weather once a month for the fishing we've had here
the past couple of weeks.

Great report Art. Bummer about your eye. I saw you out at LJ
right after you got back and you didn't miss a beat.

[dgax65]

Cool report. I hope the eye gets better soon.

[aguachico]

Originally Posted by wavster

I'll take this weather once a month for the fishing we've had here
the past couple of weeks.

Great report Art. Bummer about your eye. I saw you out at LJ
right after you got back and you didn't miss a beat.

The shock on our faces when the discovery that LJ had went off was priceless. Trying to second guess mother nature is a bad idea.

Brad's commitment to fishing is shown by the wed/thur schedule. Drove all the way from Guerrero Negro, unloaded stuff from my truck called and waited for wife. Wife shows and packs the truck. Home to unload and repack for LJ and he was OTW the next morning at 0400. Crazy.

I was fortunate to score a nice YT on Thursday.

[DESTROYER]

Nice Report Art! WTG on the YT guys! Thanks for sharing!

Moyer

[lamb]

KILLER REPORT

...from a Baja Nomad himself.

You sure got it dialed.

It sounds like hitting San Marcos from Baja side is a much better idea than getting there across the Cortez in concrete boat.

Hope your eye gets well soon.

[madscientist]

We could see Tortuga in the distance, and for some reason I kept checking to see how much beer I had brought.

[dorado50]

Nice report, very cool on the yellows. Man that drive is something else! Don't you think baja yellows pull harder than So. Cal yellows? I too was in Baja,on the pacific side, during the LJ uprising so I missed the whole week of it! Oh well, I at least got some wide open yellows off the Thetis bank using irons. The first day I got rocked by the bigger ones,however the boat did pull in a couple of forty lbers. The second day they were'nt as big. I'm going to the Sea of Cortes in a couple of weeks to fish the yellows off Loreto and points further north, when I do be sure to fish LJ cause I'm sure it will be going off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[aguachico]

Originally Posted by dorado50

Nice report, very cool on the yellows. Man that drive is something else! Don't you think baja yellows pull harder than So. Cal yellows? I too was in Baja,on the pacific side, during the LJ uprising so I missed the whole week of it! Oh well, I at least got some wide open yellows off the Thetis bank using irons. The first day I got rocked by the bigger ones,however the boat did pull in a couple of forty lbers. The second day they were'nt as big. I'm going to the Sea of Cortes in a couple of weeks to fish the yellows off Loreto and points further north, when I do be sure to fish LJ cause I'm sure it will be going off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As for Cortez Yt pulling harder. I'd have to agree. My theory is that they have to swim harder currents. Their shoulders are a bit wider - sort of like the YT at the Farnsworth bank.

Good luck on the trip. I know people that fish the Thetis out of La Bocana. Crazy in a skiff.

I believe your timing for large YT in Loreto could not be better. LJ will be here when you get back