Gary's Awesome Yellowtail

Mike and Gary came back from the Wilbur's Hole area today with two huge yellowtail, both caught by pal Gary. One was 46 pounds, the other around 25. Wow!

Dinner at Pancho Villa's and Denny's Rooster

We took Nancy and Denny across the river to Pancho Villa's for dinner. Mexican time is very relaxed as we know, but it took two and a half hours for dinner. We spent the time yucking it up, and warming ourselves at their firepit.

The next day Denny hooked a 25 pound roosterfish in 17 feet of water. The were jumping all around us, amazingly close to the shoreline, chasing huge schools of small bait fish. The water was completely flat, the sky was clear, we were warm and happy. Another day on the water.

Denny and Nancy

Our pals Dennis and Nancy Watson joined us for a week. We had lots of fun heading out to the dunes, and our hideaway beach. Nancy was cautious on the ATV (her first time), just as I had been in the beginning. Mike and Denny tried a little shore fishing off the rocks, but didn't get anything that day. We walked the shore picking up some nice shells for our yard, and generally had a nice relaxing day. The next day Denny caught a nice cabrilla for dinner.

Rooster Day

Mike and I went out in Mateo's boat. Mateo is our local professional fishing guide, and it was nice to go on his boat to free us of having to take care of anything at all, but just fish. I caught an enormous roosterfish, down here called a pez gallo. It was so big that I couldn't even lift it, so the best shot of MY fish is with Mike holding it. We wanted to send it back to the water, but wanted these photos. Poor Mateo got part of the hook is his hand trying to pull it into the boat for the photo op. Normally he would have gaffed a fish of this size, but as I said, we didn't want to kill it. It was pretty terrible with Mateo hooked badly, and the rest of the hook in a flopping 45+ pound fish. He asked Mike to rip it out, and we all shuddered at the sight. Then we captured a couple of photos, and released this beautiful fish back into the sea. Mateo then said, "Get your gear back out", even though we knew he was in a lot of pain. This was a trophy sized monster, my first rooster.

Then we came across a huge school of cabrilla. We brought two fat ones home for dinner. Quite a day on the water indeed.

Zoey Oriole Cactus Decor and Gary

Gary and Tracy donated their dog Cassie's bed to Zoey. Poor Cassie had gone to doggie heaven, and they felt the bed would be useful to Zoey. She didn't quite get it at first, but now sits on her bed when chewing on whatever treasures she finds around the yard, and spends her nights sleeping on this great bed. Thanks Gary and Tracy! Orioles frequent the hummingbird feeders. They are such beautiful colorful birds, and they make quite a racket, too. While driving around we saw this cactus decorated with two old tires. This is actually not an uncommon sight. Guess the locals think this is a fun thing to do. Riding back home again I took this photo of Gary's head. The next day he got a haircut!

Governor's Tournament

The Governor's Tournament was all planned, but no dock and the river road was unpassable after Jimena. We waited for the road to be cleared, but nothing was done. Finally we hired a crew from Santa Rosalia, and paid them to clear the road from our house all the way to the launch area. It took only one day with heavy equipment. What a feeling that was. To be able to drive the road again. We had felt so trapped, and so did everyone else. We had mountains of rocks, then gravel dumped at the launch area, as there was a huge drop and holes left from the storm. After all of that we elected not to participate in the tourney, but went down anyway to take photos. Here is a photo of Bart (owner of Jungle Jim's) with a big yellowtail. The Mexican women were down there all day preparing for the post tourney feast, shown here making salsa. There were several categories of winners based on age groups, and weight of the fish. Here is a photo of all the winners lined up at the end of the evening.