Hamachi Girl: BoLA June 26th-30th

[Hamachi Girl]

Buddy (Jerry) met me at the house at 4:30 and had Hamachi Girl hooked up to the truck and rolling by 4:45. Picked up my other two buddies (Gabriel and George) on the Mercy Road offramp at 5:15. Crossed the border at 6:00 on schedule. My buddy Curtis (and neighbor Chris) follows a few minutes later with his 23 Striper in tow. After a brief paperwork check, money exchange, and FMMs we hit the road for expecting to have lunch in San Quintin for seafood cocktails.

Hit SQ on schedule after a fuel stop in Vincente and made to stop for lunch. Gabriel orders the last order of smoked clams at the roadside stand so the rest of us have to make due with Shrimp/Octopus/Clam cocktails. No possible way to describe how good these were so I'm not even going to try.

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Make our last fuel stop in El Rosario. I top off the truck and fill the three fuel jugs with Pemex's finest diesel. On the road again for under a mile till Curtis declares he need some Carne Asada tacos before the long haul.

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Back on the road again. I guess the guys that laid the asphalt must have put the measuring tape in the wash and shrunk it. I could swear the trailer tire is touching the yellow middle line and the white "shoulder". The Mexican truck drivers are pros and give us as much room as possible. We continue to thread the needle making a couple of stops to get the blood in the butt flowing again. The Bimini on the boat is completely shredded now from the wind... this is why you bring duct tape I guess.

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We finally make the turn down to BoLA and begin the final stretch. Road is a lot wider and I'm no longer dodging pot holes.

As we make out way closer to our destination the spirits reach a high point as BoLA is in fuel view in front of us. Well... everybody else gets to look but I have to get my eyes on the road. We hit town and roll into the Pemex to top off as a couple of weeks before they ran out of Diesel. They have it so we grab it while we can to make it back to El Rosario no problem. We make our way to Guillermo's and while Gabe checks us in I crack open the coldest, tastiest Tecate ever. Victory is ours! Home to BoLA in 12hrs with plenty of time to watch the sunset.

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[DOGHOUSE26]

Awesome Report Allan Keep Them Coming! More Pics More Pics!

[NoSlack]

The drive down and back was always the worst part. It's good to hear that went as planned. Now for the good stuff, did you catch anything besides a buzz?

Mike

[Hamachi Girl]

Yeah to say the drive was a little stressful would be an understatement, but I tend to be the safe cautious type. I clenched my butt cheeks so many times I was expecting to poop out the Hope Diamond when we finally reached the hotel.

So at 3am we're all awake because our neighbors dogs are barking. Apparently separation anxiety when they go to work at the hotel each morning. We try to get a few more winks but you know how it is when fishing is on the agenda. By 430 we'd had our coffee and got the boat loaded with the gear.

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Curtis is dragging little behind which is why I call his boat Island Time. I watch a few guys launch their boat on the ramp to see how the locals do it and stick Hamachi Girl in the water at 5am. We join the rest of the fleet making bait right next to the ramp. This is where I begin my Hate/Hate relationship with Sabiki rigs... I'd rather pet a cactus.

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Anyways we start making bait and it takes awhile to fill the bait tank full of macs and sardines. The plan is to follow the locals out and butt-sniff them like were back in San Diego with the sporties. Well... Island Time is still making bait when the last panga bugs out.

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We're left on our own to figure it out. We make the short run to the southeast side of Horsehead and start jigging a blue/white Salas 6X along with some big Crocodiles near the bottom. Instant action, but it's spotted grouper, whit I think are the biggest spotted bay bass ever, and a Sculpin about the size of a football. As fun as it was to mess with these fish I didn't drag my boat down here to catch bottom fish.

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I decide to make the move up to the South end of Smith Island, Curtis will break South and report back. As we make out way up to Smith we see some heavy bird action going on and decide to check it out. A lot of bait is getting driven up to the surface. We fish the bottom with jigs and surface but it's just barracuda. We Sabiki up some nice sardines to add to the tank and I tell Gabe to pin a fresh one on a dropper and send it to the bottom. Bingo! He's on. It's a small yellow 6-8lb but it's the right kind. Gabe pins another fresh sardine on at makes it a repeat a few minutes later. Typical beginner's luck. It's 11am by now and everything takes a siesta. No fish no birds... nada. I say we put a few Rapalas in the water and troll the east side of Smith. Jigs are in the water maybe 5-8 min before the first hookup. Another small yellow. Jigs in the water again and another hook up. We continue to troll North with nothing happening till we reach a little cove on Smith. It look like a nice place to take a dip so we slowly motor into the little cove and anchor up. Had a nice swim for a bit, a little lunch, and a few cold Tecates. Rapalas are in the water again and we troll around the little island SE of Smith with nothing happening. We try working any signs of life we can find but nothing. We end up on the South end of Smith and begin jigging on the bottom. These big spotted bay bass won't leave me alone (yes... I realize my mistake later). It's about 3pm now and Curtis troll by us and gets a hookup. Same small grade of yellow. Apparently he was on a hot bite of Bonito on the North part of Smith earlier. Curtis continues to troll up and down the east side of Smith and we decide to head home. We clear the deck and start our short cruise home.

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Something sounds different in the exhaust note to me so I have Jerry take the wheel and I go back to have a look. While I poking my head around Jerry say's, "hey man she's getting hot". Sure enough the temp is 200 and climbing. I pull back to 5knots and the temp goes back to 160 (where the thermostat closes), climbs to 180 (where it opens) and then settles at 170. Okay... that weird. We continue back to town and I increase throttle up to about 10 knots where she starts to get warm again. So it's looks like we're heading back at 9knots now. I'm thinking maybe we sucked up something when we floated through the Sargasso. There is a different note to the exhaust though. We make it back to Guillermo's ramp and stick her on the trailer. A little stressed out but we're home safe. I was pretty sure Boats US ain't gonna tow my ass down there. We pull the gear off the boat and stash it in the room then begin to self medicate and come up with a troubleshooting game plan. By then Curtis, Chris, and George are back. I borrow the hose to flush the engine and again she starts getting hot. We're all beat and decide to leave it till the morning as there is only so much you can fix down there. We clean the day's catch and fire up the BBQ.

The dogs wake us up again at 3am, but we manage to catch a few winks till we get a late start at 5am. Gabe make us some coffee and I start with taking the cover off the raw water pump. Well bad news is the impeller looks perfect. I was hoping it was just some crap jammed in there but everything looks clean. I reassemble the pump and we decide out next plan of action over breakfast and more coffee.

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After a slow breakfast that was beyond excellent, we attack what we think is a simple task, flipping the hitch over on the truck. With the new tires I put on I've lost and inch and with the new hardware on the trailer I've gained an inch. It's riding nose down and getting close to scrapping on the high part of the ramp. So simple enough right? Well that's when the trailer jack decides to shit the bed. Seriously, the thing is a year old. We pop the lid and the pin that keep the gear turning is missing. Good thing I brought the 20 ton bottle jack along. So with a borrowed roofing nail we get it back in action and the hitch flipped over.

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No onto our next culprit, Senor Thermostat. Jerry had just purchased a beautiful Davis Cortez 22 the week before and it's got a Volvo 5.7 GXI in it. He want's to learn about it so I supervise and he turns the wrenches.

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So now that the thermostat housing is off we inspect the t-stat and it's looking okay like I expected. We leave it out to see if it helps any. Surface Water temp is 84 degrees. One thing I did not bring with me was any gasket material. So in the spirit of Baja Engineering I show Jerry how to make one out of cardboard using a ballpeen hammer.

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We grease up both sides and stick Hamachi Girl in the water for the smoke test. I have Jerry dunk me in the water at the ramp. Everything seems to be okay. The temp gauge goes up to 140 and stays there even at 3000rpms. We park it in front of the hotel room to load the gear. Half way through loading Curtis call me on the VHF. His boat won't start. We tell Curtis we're coming and that we think the boat is fixed. By the time we get her in the water Curtis call and informs us that he's up and running again. Water in the fuel. He had come down with a 1/2 tank in the boat and filled up in El Rosario. So it look like our luck has turned around... not so fast. As soon as I put the boat up on plane the temp begins to climb again. We're done for the day. We put the boat on the trailer and ask around for a local mechanic. Local intelligence say's there is a dude by the Pemex station who is a boat mechanic. Just look for all the boats in the yard. We check it out and he's not home but we leave a message to meet us at the hotel. We have another fantastic lunch of shrimp cocktails and cold beer.

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We needed a day to relax anyways. We gat back to the hotel and Gabe secures us a Panga for the next day. By this time Curtis and crew are back and by the smiles on there face they did okay. The made the run to the south end of Angel and got into some yellows. Smaller stuff but Chris got a solid 25#

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I pull off my hoses from the outdrive to the pump and backflush everything. I'm getting plenty of flow so I don't think that's it. We do one more test run to see it that helped but no dice.

More grilled fish for dinner, beer, and maybe a *little* tequila. Just as we're going to hit the rack a hot wind starts blowing out of the North. Crap... please tell me we aren't going to get blow off of the water tomorrow. Then on the way to bed I get into a fight with one of the locals. He loses but not before he gets a jab in.

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What an end to a perfect day right? It hurts but ice makes it feel better. Too bad we're out of tequila now. I'm expecting my foot to be the size of a softball in the morning.

[Al Gagnon]

Did you find out why the engine was overheating. If you had a laser temp gun, maybe could of identified where you had a over temp problem. Oh well, your still smiling , right?

[Hamachi Girl]

Alfred, nothing I could fix there. If it was the main waterpump (not likely) I would have had to scour the town for one. It's most likely a blown headgasket from the combustion chamber to the coolant passage. That would explain the weird exhaust note and why it would overheat during load. I borrowed a compression gauge so I'll check that this weekend. Still smiling for sure. The fillets aren't even frozen through yet and already we're talking about our next BoLA trip. Maybe we can get some BOCA guys to tag along this time.

So we're awake again with the dogs barking. Just manage to catch a few more Zzzzzzz before the alarm goes off. We start to fill the Panga with our gear and wait for the guy to show up. Alberto is there at 4:30 like he said and he look over the gear. I tell Gabe to ask him in Spanish if we need the heavy trolling rods. "Si...si." So I grab them. Now the night before Gabe was complaining that the Avet EX30Ws I had were too big and they didn't let him get enough action. We tried our best to explain that you don't get to pick what fish is going to bite your line when trolling. On and on this guy is complaining (this is after he caught his first yellowtail the day before). So hey man, if you want to fish 20# gear you're welcome to it, but you're gonna get busted off. Ya ya ya ya... anyways the big stick are in the Panga. In the water at 5am with Guillermo dunking us in the water. Off to make bait.

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We make our 50 pieces of bait after a few stops and we're headed off to the first stop. While making bait Alberto has cut the Rapalas off my trollers and tied on a #16 torpedo and made a 2ft long dropper loop 6ft up from the bottom in the 80# mono. He rigs a 6/0 hook... I'm thinking holy hell what are we fishing for. Lotta Pangas drifting around close but it's not like San Diego where everybody is having a heart condition about it. First one on of course is Gabe the pinche rookie. Nice grade fish of 25# easy. After Gabe gets his ass kicked a little bit on my Avet LX on a Calstar 665 we start asking him if he would like some lighter gear and if he had enough action.

So things die off and Alberto makes a move SE just a little NW of Don Juan to a 157ft high spot. We put the dropper loop macks on the bottom and real up a few cranks to keep it out of the rocks. Gabe get on again that puto... beginners luck again. This one has some huevos to it and it's a solid 30# when it hits the deck. As Alberto is trying to put it in the cooler the big yellow protests and I watch Alberto hold the yellow by the gills and beat it to death with his other hand. This guy doesn't mess around.

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As we finish the drift and hit 200ft we're off the spot and Ablerto says to wind 'em up. BOOM I get hit and it's ripping drag on that damn EX30. Alberto says pin the drag and grind or it's gonna get busted off in the rocks. So that's what I do and I'm trying to keep the rod the rail. I work it up to color with low gear and Alberto sinks the gaff.

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Yellow is a good 20#+ and it was mean as hell.

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Again Alberto make a move and sets us up on the spot. Gabe get stuck in the rocks with one of my EX30s. 80# mono and 150# braid you're pretty much anchored to the bottom. He starts crying that his vagina hurts or something so I grab it to break to loose. I yank it really hard then slack the line and I get it free. As I'm winding it up I get nailed by a bigger model. Full drag trying to keep this guy out of the rocks and it's still taking line. I tire the yellow out before I crap my pants from pulling so hard. Nice 30#s of pissed off BoLA yellowtail. After that we didn't catch one under 28#s... all slugs and all angry. Gabe is on again and he's really getting the crap kicked out of him. The rod tip is going up and down and he's not in the rocks... he's just not wanting to come up. After 20 minutes and every cussword in the English and Spanish dictionary we see color. It's a 30#+ and it's hooked in the side. Alberto gaffs it and gets it in the boat where the hook falls out. Jerry finally hooks up and get a nice one. Alberto is the king of the Spanish trash talk with the other Pangas. Another pass on the high spot and I'm hooked up again with what would be the last yellow of the day. Another beefy one is in the box. One last drift and Jerry and I are getting hammered but nothing is sticking. We use up our last greenie and head to Don Juan Cove to clean fish and get some clams.

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We go searching for clams while Alberto cleans the fish. Oh yeah... the cove is infested with Stingrays. No guts no glory.

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Alberto is finished up and we fill of half of a 5 gallon Home Depot bucket with clams. I have a feeling dinner is going to be awesome.

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Oh yeah... so the deal with the beard was if I caught a yellowtail over 20#s I'd shave it off.

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Preparing dinner that night.

Gabe chops up some ceviche.

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... and the clams are ready.

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Everybody is fat and happy.

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Then there was tequila and some stories of the day.

[DOGHOUSE26]

Awesome report and trip, Thanks!

[Al Gagnon]

Great story of fishing memories. Well worth the trip. You had some minor problems but made a good trip in the end. I hope no major engine problems. I thought that you just had the head off recently? Oh well, , there is always need for work on a boat. :}

[Royal Hook]

Hey Allan thanks for the stories.
Sounds like the perfect BOLA trip and the kitchen sink.
Looks like you guys were fishing the so. end of La Guardia. That place is yourassic Park.
I'll follow you guys down next year if you do it again.
Always lookin for Baja travelers.
Viva BOLA.

[Hamachi Girl]

Well... now that you mention it. Jerry wants to take his Cortez 22 down there soon, maybe 1st week of September. August is gonna be hotter than hell so maybe it will have cooled down to June temps by then.

Next year it's on! Pencil in the 3rd week of June of 2014. Maybe if we get enough takers we can have a BOCA BoLA Tournament.

[Libre]

EPIC!!!

[Knot Now]

EPIC for sure........Know what you mean about about how strong the yellows are down south.........Got my personal best on an 8 day to Alijos Rocks, first on June.....48 lbs........Had my HX a full drag and had a hell of a time turning him......Hooked several that I could not turn.....

I am not sure about taking my boat at this time, but would love to tag-along........