The BEST fishing day ever!

Yesterday we went fishing with neighbors Don and Joyce  on their 23 foot Seaswirl Striper boat. I never in my dreams thought I'd experience the sort of services and luxuries that come with THIS sort of boat-ownership. The boat storage place in Kino is called Finisterra ("land's end"). It's a walled, locked compound with chain link "cells" for the boats. You drive in and park the truck. You carry your stuff over to your cell, and load it. Requires a ladder to board! You call Rafael on the radio when you're ready, and he comes over on his tractor and hooks you up. He tows you to the ramp and backs you in. You call Rescue One on the radio and announce you're going out, how many on board, and when you expect to be back. Then you go.

I have a non-sea stomach, and used to use Scopolamine patches, but they took them off the market. Any up/down motion will do it. Yesterday was chosen (by me) because the Buoyweather website said ZERO wind, an extreme rarity here. And the sea was like glass, with air temp around 65 when we left, up to mid 70s late by noon. Perfect.

We went toward the southern tip of Tiburon island but had to stop a couple of times to troll big jigs through "bait balls" (anchovy-type schools of fish, frenzied from some predator in their vicinity). Didn't catch any predators, though, which they wanted to cut up for bait. (I have most of a giant squid taking up 1/2 my freezer JUST for that purpose, but we forgot to bring it...) So we turned south on the far side of Turner island and trolled up and down the west side of that a few times. No strikes. Same thing on the south side of Turner, although we saw seals fishing, and some birds diving, but nada for us. So Don and Ron decided to jig for bottom fish. They started at Dead Man's Rock and drifted west, from 80 to 150 feet depths. The first drift they caught the most, one right after another, mostly reef bass (good eatin') . Some of the odder-looking fish were released, either had poisonous spines or too bony. When the strikes stopped, Don would drive back and start over, maybe 8 passes. Never did need bait.

So now it's 12:45 and we're hungry, so we head back. Took 30 minutes at 30 mph, so I figure it was about 15 miles. Math's my weakest link, I worked on that equation the whole way back.

Don radioed Raphael when we got near the ramp, but another boat was waiting, so we sat there and watched the locals fishing, picnicking, playing in the water. GORGEOUS day for it. After about 30 minutes, here comes Raphael with the trailer, backs down the ramp, and Don drives up onto the trailer. Don calls Rescue One and says we're back.  Raphael tows us to the gas pump at the marina to refuel, and we hand the fish bucket to the boys who clean the fish while we refuel and get pushed back into the cell. The whole boat gets hosed down by Ron and Don while Joyce and I go potty and TRY to go see the new puppies in the "guard dog" fenced corner, but the big dogs didn't want us to. The fish-cleaner-boys get tipped, Raphael gets paid, and we're off to lunch: fish tacos and cold beer.

I only had a mild queasiness part of the day, no actual nausea, and it ruined NOTHING. An absolutely perfect day. Here are some pictures:

This is LIKE their boat, I neglected to take a photo of theirs.

Map of Trip area: Click on the blue balloons.

Don at left, Joyce above

Dead Man's Rock (with Cormorants. They grunt.) Turner's Island in background.

Southern tip of Turner's Island. Those are pelicans.

Cactus Island, with Tiburon at far left rear.

Ron jigging for bottom fish. Turner Island in background.

Got one.

Reef Bass.

They have an air "bladder" that inflates when you pull them up from so deep, sometimes it's sticking out of their mouths like big thick tongues.

Left: Dunno what it's called. Pretty, though.

Center: Coral Hawkfish

Right: Sculpin, poison fin spikes

We said we'd be done when the bucket got full. That 3rd photo has a Triggerfish, good eatin'.

Southern end of Tiburon Island.

Southern end of Turner Island, facing west. The sun, colors, sky were amazing.

There was a porta-potty in the cabin, but I didn't want to use it because we'd have to dump it later. So I drank nothing. Maybe my stomach would have been fine if I'd eaten before, but maybe worse. It wasn't bad at all, though. And they made fun of me, of course, because apparently nobody's ever seen a calmer sea than yesterday.

So a gazillion Thank-Yous to Don and Joyce for sharing their beautiful boat with us yesterday. I'll never forget it!