Hi everybody! I’m officially back from engineering working in Iraq. My tour from 7 May 08 to 18 Sep 09 covered 502 days. Longer than I had planned, but due to the troubled economy back home, I did my best to extend as long as possible. On my first weekend back in town it was a quarter moon and the forecast was for flat seas, so we packed up the girls (dogs) and headed down to Rocky Point.
At 8 am on Saturday morning we headed out with Art Pina and Sandy Webb on his 24’ Grady White “Big Daddy”. We decided to go directly to the deep water reefs without even trying to catch bait. About 20 miles from shore we started to see fish on the surface, which were probably small skipjacks, but we didn’t stop to try catching them. At about 40 miles out we came up on six finback whales working the surface. They were very close to the boat when we passed by. We were somewhat surprised to already see the whales in September. We arrived at our mark at 9:30 am. The seas were very good and there was just enough of a northeast wind to keep us cool. We started drifting southwesterly along the edge of the rocks, and within a minute Art had the first fish on his 14 ounce Shimano jig. Before he could get it halfway to the boat, I had one on too and by the way it was stripping line, we all guessed it had to be a yellowtail. We were right. It was a real nice fish and gave me a heck of a battle. I was looking forward to preparing the fillets for fresh sushi back home and anxious to give it a try.
Art’s fish turned out to be a California Halibut, which some call flounder or ‘buts. To me, halibut look like dinosaurs. They have big mouths rimmed with big needle sharp teeth. They are pure white on one side and mottled brown with both eyes on the other side. They are voracious predators and will eat almost anything, but aren’t very strong fighters. We usually catch halibut from November through January, but seldom more than two per trip. On Thanksgiving 2005, I took my uncle out and caught six, but that was the most ever for me. We started the second drift and soon were both hooked up again. Two more halibut for the fish box. It continued like that for 3 hours with double hookups on each and every drift. The action was red hot on both Shimano and 16 ounce chrome diamond jigs. Tina and Sandy took turns catching 2 or 3 halibut each. In addition to the yellow tail and 14 halibut to 25 pounds, we also caught two nice leopard grouper and one big red snapper.
The whole time that we were out there, we saw big schools of peanut dorado swimming by the boat. The water was clear and the sun was bright, so it was like watching an aquarium full of colorful neon yellow, green and blue fish. We also saw a large manta ray swim by at the back of the boat. The manta was grey and white with about a 5-foot wingspan. The bottom fishing was so hot that we didn’t take the time to try catching any dorado, however one of them bit my jig on the drop and ended up in the fish box. By 12:30 pm, Art’s large fish box was stuffed completely full. Every time we would gaff a big halibut and drop him into the fish box, he would spring up 3 feet in the air, flopping everywhere. Since we couldn’t fit one more fish in the box, we decided to head back early. We didn’t catch a single goldspotted bass, which was surprising, but we figured the hungry halibut had most likely pushed them all off the reef.
On the ride back in we saw more whales, dolphins, and some flying fish alongside the boat. Back at the marina, the El Gato came in from fishing out west towards the sand dunes. He had a big cooler full of about 50 nice sierras, triggerfish, rose snapper and sand bass. He said they caught the sierra trolling spoons. Later that night, after vacuum sealing our fish for the freezer, we went to the Lighthouse for dinner and had another exceptional meal. On Sunday morning it was very humid, foggy and extra hot, so I wasn’t too upset that we had to go home. There was a slight breeze, but probably still pretty good seas.
It was another fantastic weekend in Rocky Point fishing the amazing Sea of Cortez. I sure am glad to be back home again!
Best Regards,
~Shawno
At 8 am on Saturday morning we headed out with Art Pina and Sandy Webb on his 24’ Grady White “Big Daddy”. We decided to go directly to the deep water reefs without even trying to catch bait. About 20 miles from shore we started to see fish on the surface, which were probably small skipjacks, but we didn’t stop to try catching them. At about 40 miles out we came up on six finback whales working the surface. They were very close to the boat when we passed by. We were somewhat surprised to already see the whales in September. We arrived at our mark at 9:30 am. The seas were very good and there was just enough of a northeast wind to keep us cool. We started drifting southwesterly along the edge of the rocks, and within a minute Art had the first fish on his 14 ounce Shimano jig. Before he could get it halfway to the boat, I had one on too and by the way it was stripping line, we all guessed it had to be a yellowtail. We were right. It was a real nice fish and gave me a heck of a battle. I was looking forward to preparing the fillets for fresh sushi back home and anxious to give it a try.
Art’s fish turned out to be a California Halibut, which some call flounder or ‘buts. To me, halibut look like dinosaurs. They have big mouths rimmed with big needle sharp teeth. They are pure white on one side and mottled brown with both eyes on the other side. They are voracious predators and will eat almost anything, but aren’t very strong fighters. We usually catch halibut from November through January, but seldom more than two per trip. On Thanksgiving 2005, I took my uncle out and caught six, but that was the most ever for me. We started the second drift and soon were both hooked up again. Two more halibut for the fish box. It continued like that for 3 hours with double hookups on each and every drift. The action was red hot on both Shimano and 16 ounce chrome diamond jigs. Tina and Sandy took turns catching 2 or 3 halibut each. In addition to the yellow tail and 14 halibut to 25 pounds, we also caught two nice leopard grouper and one big red snapper.
The whole time that we were out there, we saw big schools of peanut dorado swimming by the boat. The water was clear and the sun was bright, so it was like watching an aquarium full of colorful neon yellow, green and blue fish. We also saw a large manta ray swim by at the back of the boat. The manta was grey and white with about a 5-foot wingspan. The bottom fishing was so hot that we didn’t take the time to try catching any dorado, however one of them bit my jig on the drop and ended up in the fish box. By 12:30 pm, Art’s large fish box was stuffed completely full. Every time we would gaff a big halibut and drop him into the fish box, he would spring up 3 feet in the air, flopping everywhere. Since we couldn’t fit one more fish in the box, we decided to head back early. We didn’t catch a single goldspotted bass, which was surprising, but we figured the hungry halibut had most likely pushed them all off the reef.
On the ride back in we saw more whales, dolphins, and some flying fish alongside the boat. Back at the marina, the El Gato came in from fishing out west towards the sand dunes. He had a big cooler full of about 50 nice sierras, triggerfish, rose snapper and sand bass. He said they caught the sierra trolling spoons. Later that night, after vacuum sealing our fish for the freezer, we went to the Lighthouse for dinner and had another exceptional meal. On Sunday morning it was very humid, foggy and extra hot, so I wasn’t too upset that we had to go home. There was a slight breeze, but probably still pretty good seas.
It was another fantastic weekend in Rocky Point fishing the amazing Sea of Cortez. I sure am glad to be back home again!
Best Regards,
~Shawno
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