Bahia Asuncion, Great Place, Great Food and New PB Twice

[rossman]

Early morning, the day after Christmas, Jeff and Bob and Swen and I met close the border and began our caravan to Bahia Asuncion. We lost Swen while traveling through Ensenada but he found us again at our last fuel stop of the day in Guerrero Negro.

We spent the night in Guerrero Negro and had a leisurely 3 hour drive the next morning to reach Bahia Asuncion. Our hostess was Shari who we rented a cabin from in the city of San Rogue which is about 8 miles north of BA. Shari and her husband Juan are the unofficial Chamber of Commerce for this area of Baja. They are regular contributors on some of the other fishing and Baja Forums. Juan, among other things is a guide, and spends a great bit of time in his panga during the day. Shari, a native Canadian, moved to BA and met and married Juan and runs their 7 or 8 room hotel and their campground on the other end of town.

Juan and Shari's home and hotel.




We went out to our cabin in San Rogue and set up camp.


I went on a bit of a recon trip and managed a couple calicos and a couple small halibut.

Juan indicated the the better YT fishing would be around the San Rogue island so decided to beeline out there early the next morning.



Turned out to be 2.45 miles from the launch to the closest point at the island. I was out there by around 6:15 and found Barries and Bonies stacked like cord wood and quality calicos pretty much everywhere, and a few yellows in the mix.

For the day, I ended up with 20+ calicos, 10+ sandies,7 sheepies, 7 bonies, 6 yellows.

Some assorted fish pictures:







One yellow was noteworthy as it was my Personal Best. Just over 37 lbs on a spring scale.


And so it went every day for the next 7 days. I spent most of my time fishing yellows but there was always bi-catch of calicos and barries and Bonies. The hot baits were the Megabaits and Scrambled egg irons.

On the last day of fishing, I managed to get the 2nd PB of the trip. 43.4 lbs on the digital.



I had an absolutely outstanding time. The company was great and the food.... You would not believe the meals that Jeff prepared for us using a 2 burner Coleman stove and some rudimentary utensils. When I travel down there alone, my evening meals consists of a Slim Jim and a Vitamin Water and maybe a fruit cup for desert. With Jeff around, it was like dining at a restaurant, or maybe like the food on a long range trip on the Excel. Nicely done Jeff.

That's it for right now. I'll probably add some more stories later on but I need to unpack and clean my truck.

[blitzburgh]

OUT-FREEKING-STANDING!

[GregAndrew]

Damn good Ross. Sounds like you all had a great trip.

[Bert Vega]

Nice job! Congratulation on breaking your PB.

[tattuna]

Looks like an awesome adventure. 43 lbs!! Congrats Ross!

[svendawg]

Originally Posted by rossman

Early morning, the day after Christmas, Jeff and Bob and Swen and I met close the border and began our caravan to Bahia Asuncion. We lost Swen while traveling through Ensenada but he found us again at our last fuel stop of the day in Guerrero Negro.

We spent the night in Guerrero Negro and had a leisurely 3 hour drive the next morning to reach Bahia Asuncion. Our hostess was Shari who we rented a cabin from in the city of San Rogue which is about 8 miles north of BA. Shari and her husband Juan are the unofficial Chamber of Commerce for this area of Baja. They are regular contributors on some of the other fishing and Baja Forums. Juan, among other things is a guide, and spends a great bit of time in his panga during the day. Shari, a native Canadian, moved to BA and met and married Juan and runs their 7 or 8 room hotel and their campground on the other end of town.

Juan and Shari's home and hotel.

Attachment 11191


We went out to our cabin in San Rogue and set up camp.

Attachment 11192
I went on a bit of a recon trip and managed a couple calicos and a couple small halibut.

Juan indicated the the better YT fishing would be around the San Rogue island so decided to beeline out there early the next morning.

Attachment 11193

Turned out to be 2.45 miles from the launch to the closest point at the island. I was out there by around 6:15 and found Barries and Bonies stacked like cord wood and quality calicos pretty much everywhere, and a few yellows in the mix.

For the day, I ended up with 20+ calicos, 10+ sandies,7 sheepies, 7 bonies, 6 yellows.

Some assorted fish pictures:

Attachment 11194
Attachment 11195
Attachment 11196
Attachment 11197
Attachment 11198

One yellow was noteworthy as it was my Personal Best. Just over 37 lbs on a spring scale.
Attachment 11199

And so it went every day for the next 7 days. I spent most of my time fishing yellows but there was always bi-catch of calicos and barries and Bonies. The hot baits were the Megabaits and Scrambled egg irons.

On the last day of fishing, I managed to get the 2nd PB of the trip. 43.4 lbs on the digital.

Attachment 11200

I had an absolutely outstanding time. The company was great and the food.... You would not believe the meals that Jeff prepared for us using a 2 burner Coleman stove and some rudimentary utensils. When I travel down there alone, my evening meals consists of a Slim Jim and a Vitamin Water and maybe a fruit cup for desert. With Jeff around, it was like dining at a restaurant, or maybe like the food on a long range trip on the Excel. Nicely done Jeff.

That's it for right now. I'll probably add some more stories later on but I need to unpack and clean my truck.

Rossman pretty much summed up our trip. I had some of the best Calico fishing ever, a personal best of 19 1/2 calico and the average calico I caught were 16" to 17". I didn't manage to get a big Yellowtail like Rossamn but I got me share of Yellows but the big one eluded me. At times the barracuda were so thick that it was fish on every cast. I was dubbed the Slime King but the other guys because the barracuda seemed to follow me around. At times I had to move to another location just to get away from the slims so I could target Yellows.
Aside from the outstanding fishing the highlight of the trip was the meals prepared by Jeff (Buddha) They were simply outstanding. A special thanks to Rossman for sharing his fishing knowledge and assisting me. Also a big thanks to Mako Bob for putting this trip together. I look forward to the future Baja or Bust trips

[ful-rac]

Awesome guys!!!

Congrats on the PB! It's a monsta!!!

[Baja_Traveler]

A PB of 19 1/2 calico - I'll forget about the other 19, but I want to hear the story on the 1/2 calico!

Sounds like an awesome trip!

[Old Man in the Sea]

Awesome trip report...very cool!!!
How did you package fish for the return trip and can you filet and bring back fish from multiple days?

[jorluivil]

WOW!

Can't beat back to back PB's

[buddha]

Bahia Asuncion was on my wish list since back in 2009 at the San Diego Bay Anglers tournament I met Zach Thomas who wrote a book about trailering a boat in Baja. I asked him where was the best fishing for a kayak fisherman in Baja and he mentioned Bahia Asuncion.

Thanks to Makobob he made my wish come true and I organized the trip with him right after Christmas.

The drive down was great. It was varied with cactus, farm areas, desert, etc.

The roads were very good for the most part as there were only a few areas that had construction and you had to go on dirt road but not very far at all.

Arriving at Bahia Asuncion we met Shari Bondy who owns a bed and breakfast right on the water at a rocky point with a billion dollar view if ever there was one. We looked into some of the rooms and they had amazing ocean views and the rooms were extremely beautiful, the pictures do not do it justice on the web site.

We got our keys for our rental house at San Roque a 15 minute drive from town on a dirt road but it was pretty smooth.

When we arrived at the house I could not believe the serene beauty of it all. The beach was one of the prettiest ever and it was all ours.

Other than the lobster fishermen that drove in the morning to set their traps and few other campers we had this place to ourselves.

The water clarity was like the caribbean with visibility up to 30-40 feet.

Just a gorgeous place to chill out and recharge your batteries which is really why I came. Fishing was secondary just to relax and regroup and get away before going back to the rat race. A perfect place for that.

I cooked all the meals for the guys and am happy that they appreciated my efforts.

Ross, Robert, and Sven are all good guys to fish with. Just passionate fishermen, easy going guys that anyone would enjoy fishing with. No drama at all.

I was just happy to be in this beautiful environment so I didn't fish that hard. I had a personal best of a 23 inch calico. Unfortunately my damn camera didn't work so I couldn't take any pictures but the other guys have some.

The baits that worked for me were a flat spoon similar to a megabait but wider and flatter. The Berkley Gulp saltwater grubs also worked well. The z man plastics and big hammers didn't have much love.

This place is just a lovely place even if you don't fish and just want to get away. The accommodations that Shari has are a bed and breakfast as well as a few rental homes and a camp/rv are with showers and wifi.

This place is paradise on the cheap.

It only cost each of us less than 200 dollars for 11 days to be in this amazing environment.

Add in gas and you have one of the best bargains ever.

Paradise does exist and it is in Bahia Asuncion.

Get down there before it changes as the newly paved road will be attracting a lot more people.

Right now it is perfect.

Take advantage of it.

[rossman]

A couple more pictures:

All of the fish we cleaned has their stomachs plugged with these guys:



These red crabs seemed to be around almost all of the time. They would range from seeing a couple swimming around the kayak. to massive 5 acre floats. There was one morning when they were particularly thick and you could hear the calicos slurping them off the surface.

I was fishing with plastics one morning and hooked up with something big. I fought him for probably 10 minutes almost straight up and down. I figured it might be a grouper or black sea bass but when I got him to the surface it turned out to be a sea turtle about 3 1/2 ft diameter that I had snagged underneath his front leg. He would come up for one breath and then take off for the bottom again. He was simply unstoppable after a fresh breath. I wanted to get a picture but he would not cooperate so I cut him loose.

I took an hour to explore the island a bit. Looked like the surface of the moon.





We had an osprey land on a pole behind our cabin with his evening meal. He was still there working on it the next morning.


OK you Baja travelers. Anyone recognize this place?




The water was gin clear and one could see an amazing amount of life down to 30 ft. The one cast that I caught the 43 pounder, it hit fairly close to the yak, and there was another yellow of equal size literally fighting for the privilege of attacking my megabait.

Me and my 37

Adam and his 38

Me and my 43

[ful-rac]

Glad you guys had a good trip!

I'd love to get down there too someday...the time that it takes to pull off a trip like that is prohibitive, for me at least....

Cheers to the Chef! Where's all the food pics?!

[makobob]

Awesome post Ross, what a way to end this Baja or Bust trip. You guys were great to be around for this exploration. Tight lines and bloody gaffs!
BTW the truck repairs were EXPENSIVE, wiring harness and labor came to just under $3000. The fuze was melted solid and did not blow, guys do not use Harbor Freight fuzes.

Makobob

[ful-rac]

Oh no a short?! Whatta nightmare!

Tell us what happened bob!

[rossman]

Jeez Bob. That is expensive. Did you make it home without any more smoke?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[makobob]

Trip back was uneventful, ran great all the way, BUT.....Harness on order, to arrive next Monday from Michigan. Melted old harness and some of the connectors, mechanic said should have never made it back. No smoke coming home. $1700 for harness, $950 for labor to pull dash and replace harness plus TAX.

We plugged in a compressor to air up my tires for the trip back, the ciggarette lighter shorted out to start the electrical fire. Harbor Freight fuze melted but did not break the circut. BUT it was totally worth it to enjoy Baja with Ross, Sven and Jeff!!!!!!

Makobob

[skrilla]

Congrats on the PB's. A no brainer to put on the bucket list.

[Hunter (The 80's Man)]

EPIC trip Congrats on the PBs.
Never been down there before. Can you find diesel fuel as easily as reg. gas?

[buddha]

Originally Posted by Hunter (The 80's Man)

EPIC trip Congrats on the PBs.
Never been down there before. Can you find diesel fuel as easily as reg. gas?

Absolutely no problem with diesel gas. It is at every Pemex station.