Fishing on the East Cape of Baja
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We arrived at the San Jose del Cabo airport for a ten-day trip of fishing and golfing. (You would think Mexico is an economical vacation spot but it turned out to be double our Alaska trip and a few grand more than Canada.)

We picked up a rental car after taking a shuttle from the airport about 10 minutes away. It was then an hour and a half drive to Hotel Punta Colorada on the East Cape. If you were going to the East Cape just to fish, you would want to skip the rental car and have the hotel pick you up from the airport. The hotel taxi is a great service and we were the only guests who had a car while we were there. Driving in this area of Mexico is not all that different than driving rural roads in remote areas of the US. Cows, donkeys, horses and people cross the road without warning. Due to a hurricane a couple of months before, some of the roads were washed out in a few places due to recent hurricanes. They are all two-lane highways with opposing traffic. It is difficult to pass slow vehicles because the area is hilly and the highway curvy.

During the drive we enjoyed the beautiful desertscape. Tall desert plants were dense everywhere. Countless varieties of cactus housing interesting and beautiful birds were interspersed with trees and shrubs, many in bloom. Colored earth and rock formations added more interest to the view. Watch--in the shade of the large trees are the goats, donkeys, horses and cattle.


The Hotel is at the end of well groomed dirt road on the Sea of Cortez. It appears to be in a constant state of improvement with local workers manually setting stone and tile each day. It is only partially paved in front of the Hotel with lovely red brick. River rock creates arches, retaining walls, dividers and flowerbeds filled with desert plants and palms. The buildings range from 40 years old to very new. All are in good repair.

Arriving in the afternoon you are greeted by guests swapping fish stories. The office assigns you your room and Jose walks you to it. You ask for the key and he explains that there are no room keys. They are not necessary. And, he is right.


Each room looks out to the Sea. Each accommodates up to 4 people. They have three beds in each (one double and two twins) but move in and out a bed to accommodate more. Forget asking for a queen or king size bed. Each room is very clean and kept so through out the stay. Linens are very fresh and crisp. We were in the newest building and the room had nice tile floors, modern bathroom with a very large stall shower. Each room has a small refrigerator. Very comfortable rooms, but not elegant.


Though we chose to buy bottled water, the water is good to drink at the Hotel. We didn't hesitate to use the ice in our drinks. We had none of the "Montezuma's Revenge" problems you sometimes hear about.
The meals are served buffet style and you dine family style. All meals are included in the price. Breakfast is served from 6 am to 9 am but everyone eats at 6. Each breakfast consists of scrambled eggs (different highlights each morning), some sort of potato dish, refried beans, pancakes, French toast, bacon, ham, sweet-rolls, fruit and juice. If you come later, the kitchen will cook up a breakfast for you. They make a great omelet. Lunch is served mid day but we were never there to try it. Everyone that is going fishing orders a sack lunch. Your choices are "American", "pollo" or "Mexican". I think the American includes a ham sandwich but I don't know anyone who ordered that. We enjoyed both the Mexican (5 tortillas with machaca, chicken or beans rolled in, a hard boiled egg, fruit and cookies) and the pollo (large fried chicken breast, egg, fruit and cookies). The Mexican was too large for one person and we shared with the crew on the boats.

Dinner is different every night. The Mexican meals were exceptional. All the meals were huge. Each included at least two entrees, bread or tortillas, vegetables, at least two salads and dessert. In addition, the kitchen would cook up any fish you caught during the day. Just drop it off at the kitchen or if the fish is still whole, tell the hosts on the beach when you come in that you want it cooked, give your room number and it will be ready when you go through the buffet line. Each plate of your fish served more than 10 people so after you have eaten your fill, it is fun to pass the plate around to share with everyone else. Dinner was a great time to swap stories of the day with all of the other fisherman.
The is fantastic bird life everywhere. Flying over the water are osprey, magnificent frigatebirds, pelicans, terns, and other ocean birds. Over the dessert are turkey vultures, eagles, spectacular cardinals and oriels, and roadrunners everywhere.
The beaches are clean and have an abundance of seashells and driftwood. It is really a scavenger's paradise for that sort of thing.
The water is wonderfully clear and we saw many scuba divers and people snorkeling out in the water. We could see roosterfish, trigger fish and angel fish down in the water from the boat as we fished along the shore.
A full bar is available and the prices are less than in the states. The TV has satellite feed (DirectTV) and they pick up any of the sports you would care to watch. The NBA finals were on while we were there as well as the Lewis vs. Tyson fight. Many people congregate around this area in the evenings and afternoons. There really is no difference between the bar and dining area. Plenty of room both inside and out. Inside has a community lodge full with mounted trophies everywhere, mostly fish. Outside is tropical cabana' and perfect for the weather there most of the year.


Our first day was free and we used it to get our bearings. As it turned out, I would recommend making this day useful. We drove from Punta Colorada to San Jose del Cabo to check our timing to the golf course as we had two 8 am starts. But we really had time to golf or fish that day and I would recommend booking one or the other. We did hit a bucket of balls at Palmilla to get a feel for the area.


Sunday we had booked a panga for fishing. At 6:30 pm the evening before you are scheduled to fish you go to Alajandro's office and confirm your reservation, order lunch and drinks (you will be billed ofr the drinks) request a particular captain or boat if you like. In the morning your lunch with your room number is sitting on an ice chest on the beach waiting for you to be loaded onto the assigned boat when Alajandro calls your room number.


On our first morning of fishing we had Hugo on the panga "Mini Hooker" and off we went. The pongas vary in size and are suitable for the captain and two guests. Any more people and you are in each other's way. We took off in windy choppy seas that day as an early hurricane had passed just south a few days before. It might have been a better day for a cruiser but you don't know these things in advance. Even with the chop and splash getting us wet, the weather was beautifully warm and we were never cold.


Now our first mistake was when Hugo asked us what we wanted to catch. We said "fish". To the captains, this means Marlin. So he set out the marlin rigs and we went trolling in the chop. No one caught marlin that day. But there was a dead whale floating about 15 miles off shore and we headed for that. The dorado were using it and we hooked up with them at once.


Unfortunately we also lost most of what we hooked up on due to our ignorance of the reels. We were use to spinning reels and catching small trout. We could manage fly rods and reels but the reels used for salt water fish were completely foreign to us. Also, we didn't know when to set the hook, when to lock the reel and when to reel in. It was completely different than trout. Actually it wasn't. But we were getting confusing Spanish instructions and we panicked. Once we just went with our instructs we caught a few very nice size dorado. They are most spectacular fish. Their fight is suitable but the most fun is when they surface and skim across the water in the air. We gave the fish we caught to the captain to take home as we had agreed that we were not going to take any fish home.


It was a very wet bouncy ride back in. All the boats are to be in by 3 pm. Alajandro and Jose are on the beach checking everyone back in and making sure all the fish are taken care of.


There is now plenty of time to shower, grab a beer and taste some of the hotel's special civeché. The fishermen sit out on the patio sharing various stories fishing or otherwise--a wonderful time of day.
Monday morning was an eight a.m. golf day so we were up breakfasting with those fishing and were on the road before they finished.


We arrived at Palmilla at exactly 8 .am. They were not worried about us starting on time and allowed us to hit some warm up balls at the range before we started our round.
The Palmilla course is a beautiful Jack Nicklaus course surrounded by natural desert. Even the area surrounding the tee boxes and between holes is left natural.


The bird life on Palmilla is incredible. Oriels, cardinals, woodpeckers in the cactus, roadrunners and finches with bright red chests were everywhere. Lizards and desert iguanas sunned themselves on rocks and were not shy. The course is immaculately groomed with tee boxes at 5 settings from black to red. You can pick your level of play by choosing the appropriate tee setting. I play the reds (ladies tee). We enjoyed this course immensely. We arrived by the hotel at about the same time as the other guests that were returning from fishing.


Tuesday was fishing in a cruiser called Vodka. The captain was Chico and the Eduardo was the crew. We made the same mistake again telling them we wanted to catch "fish" and we trolled in circles all day in choppy seas and didn't catch a thing-skunked! We weren't happy. But the fishing began to pick up and others were catching fish.


Wednesday was back to Palmilla at 8 a.m. for golf. We made sure we got off a little earlier and made more time to hit practice balls. Where on Monday we played "Arroyo" and "Mountain", two of the three "nines" (Palmilla is a 27 hole course). Today we played "Arroyo" and "Ocean". Ocean contains some of the "signature" holes that the course is known for. All the nines are beautiful with Arroyo being the easiest of them. Don't hit your balls not the sad! It pays to keep it in the fairway. On Mountain if you didn't keep it in the fairway the ball would be lost.


Thursday we fished on the Valerio, a cruiser again. All we caught was a very large dorado. But the captain and deck hand worked hard to try to find fish. It just wasn't our lucky day. On our way back in one of the belts in the engine compartment broke about a mile from shore. The captain knew just what to do and as he made the repair I dropped a line over the side, I could see fish in the water. I immediately began to get strikes but the captain was too fast. He was finished and I had to bring in my line. We were late already. Boy those little strikes were fun. This night we kept our dorado and had the hotel cooks serve it with dinner. There was far more than we could enjoy alone so after we had our fill we passed the platter around for others to enjoy. This is a great way to meet others also enjoying the resort.


Friday we played Cabo Real, a Robert Trent Jones course. We had a twilight tee time but it was still very much in the heat of the day;. Again like Pamilla, the course was in immaculate condition. But it was a very difficult course fare above our level of skill. The greens were so fast we were demoralized. Guess we will work on our game some more before we return.


Because we had Sunday morning free we checked out the municiple course to see if we could get a tee time for Sunday morning. It was a 9 how that you have to play twice to get in your 18. Still, it was very expensive and we decided to pass and try fishing instead.


Saturday was another day on a payga. This captain, Rigoberto told us he owned the boat himself. He saved money for three years working as a deck hand for one of the hotel boats. Now he was sending his oldest son to University in La Paz on Monday. Rigoberto started us out south of Cabo Puma as we trolled we could see Angel fish and Trigger fish in the water. Trolling slowly in shallow water with a anchovy, I hooked something with a nice fight. I pulled in a 15 pound silvery flat-ish looking fish that turned out to be an African Pompono. Rigoberto said it is a delicious fish. He filleted it at once and said we must take it to the hotel cooks and have it for dinner.


While still in the same bay, Rigoberto had us bait up with the large bait fish (mackerel I think) and heavy weights on the line. We set the lines in about 50 feet of water. Don got a big strike and his pole bent in half. The fish took the line down to the bottom and wedged itself into the rocks. The sharp rock cut the line. The big one that go away.


Another strike on another line and Rigoberto set the hook and handed me the pole after reeling in enough to know I could not loose it in the rocks. Ohhhh what a fight this fish had. ! 5 pound Amberjack that is a small brassy colored tuna (Sushi anyone?). A nice picture and a dime size blister on my hand, what a rush. Don hooked up and caught another Amberjack a few minutes later. This was fun fishing!


Rigoberto like all the other captains still want to catch marlin. So, he set out the marlin lures and we went trolling. Not too far out of the bay, something hit one of the lines hard and the line goes spinning out. Rigoberto tried to hand Don the pole but he waves it off pointing to me. So I get to reel in the fish. This fish tugged a lot harder than the dorado. But, it never surfaced during the fight. We didn't know what it was until we brought it along side the boat. Rigoberto gaffed it and pulled it into the boat. The fish was a 70 pound wahoo about 5 ½ feet long. It was caught on 40 pound test with a nylon leader and a marlin lure. Rigoberto had to cut it up just to fit it into the large ice chests. He cut off a filet for us to have cooked up for dinner. Now we had pompono and wahoo for dinner.


We trolled a while longer and as we headed in for the day, Rigoberto had us switch to live small bait. Close to shore we hooked up small Rosterfish. These are just pure fun. Lots of fight for a little fish and really fun to fight. We of course tossed them back as they are not an eating fish. We had such fun with Rigoberto that we asked Alajandro if we could get him again for Sunday morning even if we needed to return early to cleanup and drive into Cabo to catch our plan.


We enjoyed ceviché and been that afternnona nd talked of our great day fishing. Everyone had a great day and amny marlin were caught and released. We envied those who caught marlin and they envied up our trophy size wahoo. They couldn't believe we gave all the meat to the captain. Later I found Jose serving wahoo (my wahoo) to everyone before dinner. That night everyone really had a feast. The pompano was the bet tasting fish I have ever had. The wahoo was also excellent and as I shared these, others were sharing sushi amberjack, dorado, giant sea bass, grouper and marlin.


Our last day starting with another spectacular sunrise. Every morning had been a spectacular sunrise. Rigoberto did his best to recreate the day before but the fish were not as cooporative. Don caught a huge amberjack but mostly triggerfish chewed up our bait. If we were fishing for triggerfish, we would have done really well that morning. Rigoberto really wanted a marlin to take to La Paz the next day so we humored him and went trolling for marlin. He spotted a very large pod of dolphin and decided to see if they were feeding on tuna. As it turned out they weren't but he slowed the boat down and moved through the pod giving us an incredible experience close up with the dolphin. The water was so clear and glassy, you could see a hundred feet down. The dolphin would appear out of the depths and rise to the surface at the bow of this small boat. He had me get up on the bow for the best view. I could have reached down and touched them as ten at a time they would dance on either side of the boat. Big ones, baby ones, families were emerge for a while and then fade away again. We were in the midst of a thousand of the magnificent creatures. Some would jump so high in the air, straight up that you could see sky twice their length beneath them. What an experience. It was another incredible day.