MORE Photos from my 2006 Vacation trip - Maui, HI and Rancho Leonero on the East Cape of Baja.

For now, I'll just put up links. Sooner or later, maybe, I'll design full pages. Time is of the essence, but it's also fleeting... I've got a lot of work to do to pay for this vacation.


Rancho Leonero - East Cape - Baja, California Del Sur, Mexico

This trip was my second visit to Rancho Leonero Resort, so I knew what I'd be getting into. This place was established and maintained expressly for the hard-core fisherman. There's no TV, no cute little college girls in bikinis (and associated drunken frat boys), no all-night dancing, and no fancy resort amenities. If you want that stuff, go to Cabo (about 2 hours south of the Rancho). If you come to the Rancho, you come to fish, drink, eat, and repeat. Maybe some diving, if you like. The water is warm and clear, the fish are generally plentiful, and the margaritas are some of the best I've ever tasted.

Our friends, Dave and Peggy, would be meeting us down there. They're repeat visitors here too, and I think they've been coming annually for four or five years. The plan for this trip was to fish for offshore species, dolphin (dorado or mahi-mahi), tuna, and maybe even a billfish. The tricky part is, we'd be fishing from kayaks! Last time down, the fishing was really slow. I think I ended up bringing home two dorado for a week's fishing. But, I enjoy the fishing as much as the catching, so I had a blast... hence, the return trip.

So, anyway, on to the pictures. My brand new digital camera is not waterproof, so there really aren't that many photos. I also took some on-the-water shots with a cheap 35mm camera, and as soon as they're developed and digitized, I'll add any of them that are worth viewing.

Scenery- The East Cape is a very picturesque place. You've got an awesome tropical desert that runs right down to the Sea of Cortez. In October, the hurricanes and tropical storms have dumped a bit of water on the desert, so there's actually a lot of green amidst the amber, ochre, and sand. I didn't get out from the ranch to take a lot of pictures, but here is some of the local scenery.

Boats landing at the Rancho

The View from el patio

The Rancho from the beach

A nice Baja sunset

One of my favorite perspectives

The Fishing- Having read the previous weeks' fishing reports for the Rancho, I was pretty excited about the prospects for the week. Yellowfin tuna were coming in right near the beach, and it sounded like the dorado were practically a nuisance. I should've known though, that this is never my kind of luck. When we arrived, the north winds had begun to blow, and the fish were moving out. A lot of tuna were still coming in on the cruisers, but they were running two or three hours south to catch them... way out of range of the kayaks. Still, in the warm waters of the Sea of Cortez, there's always something to catch. I managed to reel in a few dorado, with a great run on Tuesday afternoon (five fish hooked, three boated) and a couple more later in the week. Others in the kayak group did OK as well, with a real mixed bag including everything from grouper to skipjack tuna.

Another factor in the fishing was the wind. Wednesday morning the wind started rising pretty hard, making it practically impossible to fish. We came in early. Thursday was rough as well, and Kat and I bagged it shortly after paddling out. It was just too rough to be fun. We fished from shore for a while, and had some excitement with a roosterfish, a big jack (I think) and a snapper. Friday was exceptionally rough, and made for some pretty exciting launches and landings. That was the day many folks got into the skipjack, but it was tough going. Kat went in early, but I decided to make the most of it. By Saturday, things had settled down a bit, and Sunday was nice as well...but of course, on Sunday my focus was on the unhappy prospect of packing up and going home.

As mentioned previously, the digital camera is not waterproof, so I don't have a lot of photos of the fishing. Here's what I do have, though.

Anacapa Bob with grouper

Tuna flags on a cruiser - this guy was whacking them almost every day!

Dave, demonstrating his graceful landing technique - This wasn't even the really rough day!

A wider angle of the landing - note the cruiser rocking past 30 degrees! It's rougher than it looks out there.

Dave and Peggy with a mixed bag - Dorado, bonito, skipjack, and triggerfish!

More mixed bag at the cleaning table - same as above, but add a nice pargo

Other 'yakkers coming ashore

Dave demonstrates an interesting filet technique

Miscellaneous Images- Just some odds and ends from around the Rancho during the week. Sometimes it's fun just to have the camera along with no real goal in mind. And sometimes, it can be dangerous.

Some of the Kayak fishing gang - From left- Me, Dave, Anacapa Bob, William (hiding in the background), Peggy, Paul, and Kris(ten?).

Baja Swinger

More swinging

Too much margarita?

Rancho Kitties - the Rancho is seeing a break-out population boom of stray cats. Not a good thing, but they are cute. May soon have to change the name from Rancho Leonero (lion hunter) to Rancha Leonita (little lion).

More Kitties - when the cleaning table gets busy, there were probably a dozen of these guys, just chowing on the scraps.

Mexican lizard - well, we showed the Maui lizard, so why not?

A different kind of fisherman


That's it for now. Hopefully some of the 35mm photos will come out well, and I'll put them up too.

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