Cabo in February!

An opportunity to join the girls for 3 days of fishing with Linda on her Hatteras was accepted in a heartbeat. I met up with Linda and Terry at the airport for the flight to Cabo. Susan was waiting for us (from an earlier flight) when we landed. Capt. Cubby's enthusiastic personality heightened our excitement as he chauffeured us to II Success residing on K-Dock.

Dinner at Solomon's (always a taste treat) was a celebration of things to come.

A big, bright sun rose over the eastern side of the harbor Saturday morning promising a beautiful day on the water. Cubby and Antonio arrived at 7 a.m. and got the boat ready to fish. We left dock around 8 a.m. checking in with the Harbor Master on the way out. Cubby set the boat on a course for Jaime Bank on the Pacific side.

Working with a couple other boats, Cubby located an area of common dolphins holding small yellowfin tuna. Unfortunately, these tuna were not in the mood to chew. Gradually the wind came up making it difficult to locate bird or tuna schools. After working the area for a couple hours, Cubby made the call to fish the beach. This was the perfect call - calmer waters and fish. We caught a few junk fish (skipjack, green jacks, trigger fish) and a couple makos - small but delicious.

Enforcement of Mexican fishing regulations changed a couple months ago so that the "no filleting fish at sea" requirement was being strictly enforced. If you are caught with filleted fish on board, the penalty is confiscation of any or all fishing rods, reels, or tackle on board! Needless to say, our fish was filleted when we returned to dock. Cubby and Antonio cleaned the boat while we enjoyed hot showers.

If you've never eaten at Los Golondrinos you don't know what you are missing. This famous Cabo restaurant has its' menu on a large chalk board.

We ordered the Surf & Turf for two which was large enough to feed all four of us. The platter included two whole lobsters, grilled mahi, two small racks of BBQ ribs, carne asada and came with soup and salad for all. We walked back to the boat and settled in for a chick flick -“Love Happens.”

We headed out Sunday morning at 8 a.m. again. The wind was still howling so Capt. Cubby headed inside the gulf along the coast towards San Jose Del Cabo and Los Frailles. Water temperature was 72º with light wind chop. We trolled all morning for nothing. As we got within sight of Los Frailes we angled starboard towards the inner Gordo Bank. As far as the eye could see, humpback whales were breaching - hundreds of humpbacks. What a beautiful sight! It was as if we had wandered into the training grounds for humpback whale breaching.

We fished the inner edge of the Gordo until late in the day. We baited one striped marlin until it sunk out. We trolled, jigged, and fished live bait resulting in one red bottom fish, 1 skipjack, 2 whitefish, 1 nice amberjack (snagged on a jig) and 1 small pargo. I can only claim the troll caught skippy.

  

There were porpoise jumping, frigates flying, and whales breaching all day to entertain us. It was a fun day on the water plus we added a few good eating fish to the trip's catch. Antonio is a great deckhand and between him and Cubby, the rods were always ready and baited up with beautiful cabbies.

Terry was new to fishing really only having fished once before with Linda and Cubby a couple years ago for calicos at San Clemente Island. I enjoyed seeing the excitement on her face when she landed fish. Susan slept all the first day and most the second day due to the rough weather and sleep inducing sea sick meds. I gave her some Scopace pills to try instead which got her out on deck fishing. We got back to dock at 6:30 p.m. and had a late dinner at Mi Casa - authentic Mexican food. The Carnitas were delicious.

We fished the outer Gordo Bank our last day. The wind backed off, the seas smoothed out and the clouds disappeared as did most but not all of the humpbacks. We spotted a jumper (striped marlin) skipping across the horizon and a manta ray leaped across the surface close to the boat. After working the surface area a while, we set up to drift for bottom fish. Susan started the day with a nice grouper. Shortly after Linda caught one as well. Late in the day I caught a nice Pargo - my first. We fished dropper loops with strips of squid in 150 feet of water. We ended the day with limits of whitefish, various red rockfish, two groupers and one pargo. A good way to end the trip.

Cubby and Antonio cleaned and processed the catch then we packed up some fillets to take to Panchos for our dinner. We had breaded grouper and pargo fingers, grilled or blackened mako and amberjack. It was all fabulous! It was great with the various sauces it was served with or just plain. We headed back to the boat for a nightcap and another chick flick and plans to sleep in. We were taking the late flight home the next day. We hated to see the trip end but we headed home with some great photos and delicious fish to help us remember the good times.

Humboldts!

A delightful call from Tim Boyer jolted me out of my winter doldrums. "Want to go squid fishing tonight?" "Why not?" The Dana Point Sportboats each had been catching 300 to 500 Humboldt squid a night for nearly a week now.

I quickly gathered up some squid jigs, threw together a couple rods and reels, and packed up my Grundens (foul weather gear). My fifteen minute drive to the Harbor was interrupted by a stop at Trader Joe's for sandwiches and snacks for the evening plus a quick stop at Hogan's Bait & Tackle to get my 2010 Fishing License.

When Tim closed the shop (Dana Point Jet Ski & Kayak Center) at 5:00 pm, Maurice had joined us and Tim’s Striper was loaded and ready to launch. A momentary glitch in lowering the outdrive threatened to cancel our trip but a quick diagnosis and reconnecting a loose wire had us back in the water and on our way.

In the length of time it took me to put on my Grundens, we were on the squid grounds. Tim shut down the engine at 5:30 pm with Catalina Island still silhouetted on the horizon by the remnants of the day’s setting sun. We were in about 300 feet of 60 degree water on flat calm seas about a mile outside of Dana Point Harbor.

  

We dropped our squid jigs (size large) down a couple hundred feet and Tim connected first - and this was his first Humboldt squid ever!

Tim’s first Humboldt!

   

Maurice was next and this was his first Humboldt as well. How exciting is this? I love seeing the thrill of first timers. Then they each got their first blast from a squid with ink - all part of the fun. By 6:30 pm we had filled a huge garbage can with 20 to 30 lb. squid and decided we had enough.

  

We sat down for a glass of wine to celebrate and listened to the passengers on the Dana Pride still hooting and hollering as they connected with squid. Shortly after that we heard the Captain say "We've got over 500 on board so we're done." We decided to clean the squid before going back in. It took us an hour to clean them all and wash down the boat.

 

The weather was so great that Tim suggested we have dinner out here under the stars and sliver of a moon before heading in. It was a great decision as was his suggestion to go squidding in the first place.

We passed the Dana Pride on our way into the harbor. They were anchored outside the harbor in shallow enough water to escape the voracious squid while cleaning their passengers catch. With 500 squid, they had a long evening ahead of them. After cleaning up the boat and gear, we split up the catch and were on our way home by 9:00 pm.