we came, we saw, we amused the fish
IOW, here's a link to a few pix i was able to shoot in between ducking salvoes of gunfire....i hear the 'mada likes they pix:
http://s1221.photobucket.com/albums...0Nov%202011/?action=view¤t=P1010425.jpg
as you can see, San Carlos is not exactly most people's idea of Mexico. arrived Thanksgiving night after coming through a torrential rain that turned streets of Hermosillo into rivers. plunked my boat in at the marina "dinghy dock" for the staggering sum of 25 pesos/day and camped right near the marina. temps were in low 60s at night and highs of 78-83; water temp was 62-63.
fishing was a bit leaner than it has been many trips, but the fish i caught were mostly bigger, so i guess that's a good tradeoff. but there were times when i was even wishing for a barracuda after trolling fruitlessly for hours. biggest yellowtail went maybe 25 lbs and i got one other of maybe 15 and one of abt 12. all were caught trolling deep diver plugs; all i got on my deep jigging forays was a bunch of 'cudas.
the Starchief in pix belongs to some local guys from Guaymas and had an interesting homemade outboard bracket on what apparently used to be an I/O boat....close up, boat looked like most people's "before" pix but it got them out to sea and back, and they looked like they were staying pretty dry even on a choppy day with 15-20kt wind. i have more pics of this boat and closeups of the bracket if anyone wants to see em. i wanted to give the guy my Starmada hat but didn't know if Mike had any more. you'll note that although i was in the Portabote again this trip, the Starmada hat proudly shares the pic with the fish.
went out fishing with one friend in his 17' Whaler and another in his 23' Trophy (yes....glassers!) and was mightily inspired to get the Starcrafts happenin....a face full of 62 degree spray every 15 sec gets old after a few hours, and i have a sore shoulder and blisters on hand from tiller steering. i love my small boat, esp when it confuses the guys in the big cruisers and sometimes outcatches em, and i love the idea of >1 lb of fish brought in for every gallon of gas, but.....
so i get back from the near tropics to a cold front, with lows in the 13 degree range one night. glad i rinsed all my gear before the trip home!