BUMP
We made it down Friday night arriving about 7pm. Got gas in the boat and went and bought beer/ice and prepped for Saturday morning. Windfinder.com showed Saturday and Sunday being the best bet with Monday 30+. We stayed up a little late on the patio bullshitting and at midnight we were licking our chops because the wind had gone dead flat.
Saturday morning we woke up at 5am to 30+ wind and an angry sea. Decided to sleep in and see if the wind would pass. Saturday turned out to be a no go with wind out of the south at 20+. We ended up doing a beach/pool day instead. One of the nice things about staying at Bella Sirena vs air bnb in town. At least you still have something to do. Windfinder.com had another update for the 69th time. Saturday night it appeared that Sunday would be virtually good or at least doable all day. Maybe wind in the afternoon.
Sunday morning we got up at 5am with dead flat sea and no wind. It was definitely on! We got the boat ready and headed for Cholla Bay. Unfortunately Hippie couldn't or wouldn't launch us until 8am so that kind of sucked but all in all we launched the boat near 8am and were finally on the water for our first trip in our own boat. We stopped and made bait south of Cholla Bay about 1.5 miles on the 180° heading. We caught about 10 Bonefish, one +12'' Sierra a Rockbass and a couple of small Leatherback Jacks. All were caught on size 4 Sabiki rigs with 4oz weight. One of the only things that I haven't gotten around to on the boat is the bait tank. I've put 12v to the bait tank pump and it turns on so the pump is good but the copper from center console to pump is shot. It has an intermittent open in the circuit so I opted to wait until I can run new copper from center console to pump. With that being said, I tried the 5 gallon bucket method which I knew was futile but it was all we had. Unfortunately, the bait rolled before we could get to our spot.
I chose to take us south on the 180° heading because 8 miles or so out I had 3 marks in my phone on my Backcountry Navigator app. I believe I got this mark from the internet and possibly this site. When I first bought the jet ski I scoured the internet and found a number of marks from various sources including this site on Google. I swore I typed them all out in a word doc but now I can't find it. I still have about 10 marks that were saved in my Backcountry Nav app.
The mark: 31 13 13.5,-113 40 27.29
Can anyone confirm this mark? I will edit the post later and take the mark down if it can be confirmed legit.
We started out and for the first 4 or 5 miles it was pretty rough. I could only go about 18mph because the swell was spread out instead of being a tight chop. It didn't look bad at all but the 2 or 3 foot rollers were making the boat smack down the bow every other wave. About 4 or 5 miles out we saw 4 charter boats all in the same area so we slowed down and put out two Mackerel/Dodo rigs to surface troll. Mainly because we were over smacking the hell out of the boat and anything under 15-18mph the boat falls off plane. We trolled for a mile or two with no takers so we put the hammer down again and headed for the mark.
Got to the mark and I put down three rigs. One whole LIMP BONER on a Grouper rig. One cut bait Grouper rig and one double dropper loop rig with cut bait on both hooks with small scampie tails. I kept an eye on the sounder but I just really did not feel confident that I was either in the right spot or that this mark wasn't a spot at all. Fishing is all about confidence. I also just didn't feel like I was seeing enough life on the sounder for this to have been a structure spot. The drift was rather fast for a slack tide at .7mph so we made a number of drifts and repositions with no luck. We only had about 2 hours of bottom fishing before the wind started picking up. I think we would have been ok staying out but Hippie wanted us back around 1pm because the boat ramp in Cholla Bay gets filled up with cars and people who have no mutual respect for anyone.
On the way back in with the wind and waves at our back and the chop a lot tighter we were able to do about 25mph the whole way in to Cholla Bay. We definitely got a little wet on the way in but it was hot and we were having fun so it was all good! After we got back into the bay Claudia went and got the dog from the resort and we dropped anchor outside of JJ's and hung out for an hour or two before Hippie finally pulled us out onto the trailer and our first day on the Sea of Cortez came to an end.
All in all, the boat ran excellent and we learned a little bit more for our next trip. We just have to keep building on each experience and have fun while we're doing it. Hopefully we're catching quality Grouper sooner rather than later but I'm essentially self taught.
Take Away:
- Wire Bait Pump IMMEDIATELY. This absolutely has to be working for our next trip.
- Obtain confirmed MARKS. Beg, barrow, steal. I have some marks but lord knows where I found them and if they're even legit. I want to start hitting some marks that others have fished to increase my confidence in at least being in the correct location.
- Getting on the water at sunrise. This is imperative. We wasted too much time in the morning.
- Fixing (buying new) windshield for the center console. It's another one of the last things that I need to do that hasn't been addressed yet. This would have helped with the spray on the way in. 90% of the spray would have been blocked with the windscreen set up that we plan on running on the T-Top.
- VHF radio confirmed to work at least 8 or 9 miles out. I bought a 4ft antenna mounted at least 6ft high on top of the T-Top. That made us more comfortable as well.
- Need to look into drift sock.
Any and all HELP is appreciated!
CHOLLA BAY 4 LIFE
