Howdy Fellow Anglers,

It was a long and fitfully fishless six months in Amsterdam.

Snow on the ground, had to get away.

 

 

Sunse drive to mexico

 

Well, the weather in Baja was better than normal for the season

25 degrees by day clear and sunny and calm;

12 degrees at night for sleeping under fantastic shooting stars.

Wish you were ALL there.

 

Oke bay poachers

 

 

Fishing was fun, but catching NOT as good as it recently was.

The poachers are hammering the inshore waters at night with gill nets.

It is already a resurrected and protected Totuava fishery and netting is illegal,

but "this is Mexico". Bullshit!

The poachers are fierce and putting the multi-generational sport fishing camps

out of business.

The shrimp trawlers that scoured out the sea bed

and made it a sterile desert have resumed their destruction.

All very sad :(

 

 

Oke bay camp

 

Kayak steve with sand bass

 

We camped at deserted beaches and fished from kayaks

for smaller than usual Sand Bass and Triggerfish.

Woke in the morning to the poachers, which explained our small catch.

Moved south to Campo Papa Fernandez

where my college buddy Steve has fished since childhood.

We were the only ones at the off-season campground and had it all to ourselves.

Chayo whipped up perfect Chile Rellenos.

One day we hired a panga boat,

but only caught more bass and small Sierra and Bonito

and it was the ONLY windy day of the trip,

really choppy whitecaps. Damn! 

 

 

My

Leopard grouper or 'cabrilla sardinara' [sp] 2.8kg

 

 

best catch was at sunrise from shore casting over a boulder field

- a six pound Leopard Grouper on my fancy travel rod

and a huge 10 cm 130 gram Crocodile

- the only casting lure I had along.

Very, very delicious!

Caught a smaller Sand Bass the next morning.

Back to New Zealand's Far Out North in February.

Looking forward to that!

Soon ...

Rob