East Cape Adventure

This trip began as an all girls fishing team to fish the first ever Senoritas (all women's) fishing tournament out of the East Cape.  Unfortunately, the tournament was cancelled due to an insufficient number of teams.  Linda said we were still going to go and fish East Cape! 

I met up with Linda and Wendy at the airport Tuesday for our flight to San Jose Del Cabo.  I was surprised that Wendy's husband, Craig, Linda's husband, John, and their good friend, Bob were going too.  The men decided it was a good opportunity for them to try some new golf courses around Cabo while the girls were out fishing.

Linda's Captain, Cubby, picked us up at the airport and we dropped our bags at Linda and John's house then headed to Costco and Walmart to load up on groceries and snacks for our adventure.  A nice dinner at Solomon's then to bed. 

Linda's Home

Center House - Linda's House

We boarded II Success around 8 am and loaded our gear, bags and food.  We fueled up then departed the harbor making a left turn away from the Pacific side.  Cubby had Antonio put out the trolling jigs and we were fishing.  It was quite hot and humid.  A tropical depression on the mainland was responsible. 

Linda

Wendy

About an hour out of the harbor we had our first strike.  Linda told me to take the first  fish.  Hey, it was a dorado and we were thrilled we had just caught our dinner.  Wendy was up next.  She brought in our first 20 pound yellowfin tuna.  The next strike was another yellowfin and it was Linda's turn.  The next two strikes didn't get a good hook set and it came unbuttoned as soon as I started cranking the handle.  We think both were wahoo.  Wendy brought in another yellowfin then Linda caught a nice 40 pound wahoo. 

We had fished all the way up to Los Frailes before anchoring for the night.  I sautéed up some dorado and tossed a salad for our dinner.   Linda and I took first watch and let the others sleep.  We sat up top until midnight then woke Tony for his watch.

Los Frailes Anchorage

I was up around 5 the next morning.  I put on the coffee and set up the electric skillet outside to cook the bacon so the smoke alarm wouldn't go off.  It was a beautiful day and the sun was just coming up.  I put the bacon on bread, added a fried egg, and cheese for a breakfast sandwich for Cubby, Tony and Wendy.  Linda wasn't feeling well.  I was happy to do the cooking especially in calm seas.

We headed off shore and north hoping to troll up some tuna, dorado, marlin or wahoo.  As the day wore on, the heat and humidity cranked up higher the further in the gulf we went.  We would alternate sitting outside and returning to the salon to cool off.  I went through at least 6 bottles of water with the heat. Lunch rolled around without a strike.  I whipped up some tuna sandwiches for lunch using my home canned tuna.

By late afternoon, we had had 5 strikes but none stuck.  We were still looking for our first fish and we were tired and hot.  Cubby suggested we head to a new Marina at Palmilla for the night so we all could get a good nights' sleep.  Great idea!  We had BBQ'd hamburgers for dinner which some turned into chili cheese burgers then we crashed for the night.

Same breakfast routine Friday morning then Linda and Cubby's friend picked us up to give us a little tour.  He showed us his Mango/Avocado ranch and some of the East Cape resorts like Rancho Leonera.  We traveled along the original Highway 1 which is a dirt road barely wide enough for two cars to pass.  Along the way we encountered cows, horses and our guide's dog, shadow.  Shadow hitched a ride with us.

Rancho Leonero

Shadow Hitching a Ride

Mango Ranch

Mango Tree

Highway 1

We were back on the boat by 9 a.m. and off to troll around the area we worked Thursday to see if there was something we missed the day before.  We hadn't so Cubby put us on a course back towards San Jose Del Cabo.  We were all resting in the salon playing games when the center jig went off.  I was up so I raced out and Tony handed me the rod.  I was on a marlin and it was still peeling off line.  He took most the line before I could get a wind on him.  Cubby was great at communicating with me and backing down the boat at the right pace for me to keep a tight line and still get a wind on the reel. 

Linda asked if I wanted the kidney harness.  Of course!  Unfortunately it rode up and actually put extreme pressure on my kidneys instead of riding lower so I could use my legs to pull on the fish.  At any rate, I got the fish to the boat in under 30 minutes.  Cubby says the fish looked to be about 180 pounds - a nice blue marlin, my first blue.  I've caught stripers and black marlin but this was my first blue marlin. Unfortunately this fish died.  It won't be wasted though as Cubby will smoke some and the rest will become for Tony's family.

We decided to spend the night at San Jose Del Cabo Marina so we would be in position to fish the Gordo Bank for rock fish in the morning.  Linda talked to John and the guys offered to drive up and take us to dinner.  Linda told him we only had fishing clothes along but thanks for the offer.

Cubby BBQ'd marinated pork and made some poke.  I made some tuna sashimi, heated tortillas and beans for dinner.  After dinner, Linda, Wendy and I went for a walk around the marina and over to the dolphin ponds.  We hit the bunks by 9 p.m.

Saturday morning we were out of bacon so I made fried ham, egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast.  Cubby had Tony set out the jigs and we trolled all the way to the Gordo.  When we got there, Tony had all our rods baited up with squid.  The fish were biting.  I had a difficult stomach so I waited an hour or so before I started fishing.  

While we were bottom fishing, Tony put out a bait and put it in the rod holder.  When the reel started screaming, Linda grabbed the rod - she was up.  She pulled hard on the fish and quickly got it to the boat.  Unfortunately, it was a big brown shark.  Linda also caught an octopus.

We quickly reached our limits of whitefish and filled the rest the ice chests with red snappers.  Tony put away the bottom fishing rods and we were back trolling.

Gordo Bank

We trolled all the way back to Cabo.  The weather was coming up and the seas getting rougher the closer we got to Cabo.  Late afternoon, we raised one big marlin estimated to be over 500 pounds but he wouldn't bite a jig.  Nice show though.

We pulled into Cabo and processed the fish.  John and Craig came to pick us up.  We returned to the house, showered, put on clean clothes then went to the dining room.  The guys had made us a filet mignon dinner complete with a crab, avocado and roasted corn salad, corn on the cob and wine.  What a special treat.

Sunday we packed up and headed home. It was such a mellow group and loads of fun.  Wendy always surprised me with her dry humor.  Love fishing with these gals.  I can't thank Linda and John enough for their generosity.  What a wonderful East Cape Adventure.