A trip to Paradise: Rancho Leonero (August 2023) Part 2

[Latimeria]

We eventually set up our long rods and grabbed a few green jacks we kept for nighttime soaking.  We already found a spot that had reef to the sides of us, but plenty of sand to cast into.  The stars were out of this world and the beach was just what you hope for when you head out night fishing.





We kept getting hit, but assumed they were crabs, until we quickly found out we were swarmed by Yellow Moray Eels!  New species, but it got old real quick and we called it the night so we didn't have to deal with any more of them. 







The next morning, we hit another awesome prepared breakfast followed by renting the kayaks for the day.  The guy at the front desk brought us paddle board paddles and didn't understand me when I asked for kayak paddles.  Oh well, Steve and I used them like we were rowing a canoe instead.

















This was Squatch's birthday, so he picked the better of the canoes and I chose poorly.  Of the remaining three, I grabbed what should have been the nice Ocean Kayak but should have stuck with the little play one.  It didn't matter, as we both caught a bunch of fish and went through a tone of plastics on Triggers, Cabrilla, needlefish, grunts and other assorted oobly-gooblies including a new species of sculpin! (I need to find the names of)







After about 4-5 hours in the kayak, the wind started to HOWL!  Before you know it there was 5-6 wind waves and white caps on top of white caps!  We got off just at the right time!
We put the stuff away, and back to the bar for an awesome lunch once again!



About 4:30 I headed down for a surf session while Steve hung out for birthday drinks and was in the only little spot on the ranch that had WiFi so he could respond to all of the B-Day wishes from back home.























I had a stellar surf trip!  Bigger model everything from Flag Cabrilla to Leopard Grouper to Triggers (a lot of them) to Pacific Graysbys, to some other fish I still have to identify... and then it happened... I got my Lifer Lookdown!  I couldn't have been happier about this catch!  I was stoked on the Leopard Grouper but got 2x as stoked with this shiny silverside beauty!



Fossil Reef



I got back to the room satisfied and ready for dinner.  Steve and I had many drinks that night for his birthday as well as quite a bit of tequila shots.  What a great way to end the day!



Thursday Morning and it was our last boat day.  We decided we DIDN"T want any dodo or yellowfin, but wanted Pargo and I wanted another bucketlist fish for me, the African Pompano!  We got on our boat, and it was immediately disappointing.  Our captain didn't want to go for Pargo, but instead wanted to go for tuna and dorado.  He openly bitched about it and I was ready to just cancel the trip since he non-stop complained.  He reluctantly took us to catch live bait, but all he wanted was to get frozen squid and drift for ahi... this was not turning out well.
I pinned on my sabiki I brought with a much smaller weight than what Squatch was using.  He was great at getting the mackerel, while I was improving my species count!  Red Snapper, Golden Eye Tilefish, Other mystery fish (which might be a different species of tilefish), Sea of Cortez lizardfish, and some other usual suspects.











The captain who really didn't want to be here lazily grabbed a bunch of jacks on the line and a hook went right into his finger.  He was bitching up a storm and I said I'd pull it out for him.  He reluctantly agreed and I put some parachute cord around the hook to give a tug.  It didn't look nearly as deep as he was acting, and he was ready for the pull when I pulled out my pliers and put it up to his hand.  He got a little freaked on what the hell I was going to do with the pliers when I gave a little tug on the line and the hook popped right out.  His response was perfect...  "That was it?  I must have been acting like a real pu$$y"  LOL, disaster obverted.



We moved to the Barred Pargo shell beds and the captain was still talking crap about us on the radio to his friends.  At this point Steve heard enough and replied back to him in Spanish in which the usual happens when you get caught.  It became only banter after that as Steve always had a ear on what was being said.  LOL
Steve's first drop and he gets a MONSTER bite!  This thing is screaming out line and he puts up the battle to match it.  I heard the Captain say "This is not the usual sized Pargo we catch here" as he hand grabs a 20 pounder over the rail for a picture!  I couldn't believe how fat this thing was!





The next hour and a half and we both continue to catch Pargo.  Steve was using the cut bait and I was using live bait because I was targeting pompano (which I assume don't eat cut bait).  After catch and releasing 10+ Pargo, we moved north to the lighthouse to look for Roosters and possibly sails or tuna.  The problem is that the wind kicked up something fierce and we had to turn back.  We wound up going back to where we started to hopefully catch a Pompano.





More Pargo about 7-10 pounds came over the rail and were released.  I think we had to keep two since they wouldn't swim down at all. 



Steve also caught a big Yellowtail Snapper!  What a beautiful fish!


I then get a monster hit and it was screaming line in the 5' wind waves while the captain was back trolling.  I started to think I had someone's anchor and line when it went screaming out again.  Then my mind went to Broomtail Grouper since he said they occasionally get them here.  I finally started to get ground and we got him to color...  ONE BIG ASS STINGRAY with a LONG ASS TAIL!  Totally not a Diamond Stingray, bit think it's actually a Longtail Stingray.  In those nasty seas, it was hard to get a good shot of it, but I managed a few before we cut the line.  Man, I was exhausted after that fight!







We then saw a sailfish storm the boat along with a bunch of mahi!  I was dropping down for my Pompano when I get slammed by a dorado!  Catching dodo next to the shore with sailfish circling the boat while looking for Pargo was a totally new experience for us.  LOL



The storms over the mountains made for great scenery!



I released the dorado and knew the time was running out.  All of a sudden, I get a different type of hit and it fought totally different than the Pargo.  I bounce it over the rail, and I lit up like a marlin in a skippy school!  My African Pompano!  Not a big one by any means, but the small ones have long threaded fins on them that they lose when they start to get really big.  I was so stoked to scratch this one off the list and he was a perfect size for dinner back at the grill!



We (or should I say Steve) caught a couple more Pargo and we bounced our way back to the beach to get drug out of the water.  While we were waiting for the front-end loader, they had another boat drop a few guys off on our boats and threw some tuna, dorado and some bottom critters in our boat so they could get ashore with us.  These little 8-15 pound yellowfin made us know we made the right call not to look for tuna!  They did have a couple of really nice bigger deep-water denizens, but I wouldn't have traded their trip for ours.

I told the guy at the beach how I wanted the pompano prepared for dinner (That's how they did it, all to order from the guy running the show).  Unfortunately, when dinner arrived, my Pompano apparently went missing, so I never got to eat any, but I did have some fresh ceviche made to compliment another fine dinner served up from the ladies at the grill.



That night we tried the surf again, this time with no weights and only throwing chunks of Jack.  Stars were stellar once again and I had fun trying to catch some of the ghost crabs until one of them bitches got a hold of my thumb and almost tore my thumbnail off!  My fault, I know... but I couldn't resist!





Then it happened the way it happened when we left off... Yellow Moray Eels, so we called it quits early and decided to get some shut eye before our last full day at the Ranch.  Unfortunately, we turned around to see a herd of beach cows guarding the way out.  Squatch was not happy about this....  Hahaha





Morning came and we spent a little more time after breakfast rocking on the rocking chairs watching sailfish, dorado, tuna, jacks, and needlefish dance all over the ocean.  Once we had enough, we had another great morning of surf fishing.  The only issue is we went through almost EVERY SINGLE plastic along the way.  I have no idea how many jigs and plastics we lost, but it was triple digits between the two of us.  Bent out hooks and diced up plastics were the aftermath of another great surf trip where I finally got my Coronetfish of the trip as well as trigger city!







We repeated our daily routine of Eat-Drink-Fish for the rest of the day before heading back to the room and start to pack for our trip back to San Diego.  The heat/Humidity was overwhelming, and I was looking forward to cooler temps, but this place was a little bit of heaven on earth.



The next morning, we had breakfast and a quick surf session before paying the bill and getting into the van for the trip home.  I'm so bummed Rancho Leonero won't be there and will only be replaced by boutique hotels, but super happy to have had the chance to experience this wonderful place before the world changes it into the wheels of progress.

I spent way too many hours writing this and had to split the post because I hit the 20,000 character limit.  I'll edit as need be, but post what I have in two sections.  I hope you enjoy!

Thanks for reading, and until next Tide!

[Latimeria]

I'll have to just edit.  I lost track of all of the pictures and had to split the post up because I apparently exceeded the limit.  Please forgive any mistakes I may have made.

[jrodda]

Awesome report! Thanks for posting it all with such detail. i will probably end up reading it several more times, and of course again whenever I start to plan a similar trip.

Nailed a ton of cool creatures and looked like a lot of fun for you two. Stoked you got the pompano against all odds. Some of that surf fishing looks epic. Too bad about the morays but nothing you two aren't already extremely familiar with.

If you end up struggling with IDs, maybe this book would help. It's been on my wishlist for a while and seems to be the best tropical pacific fishes book that I can find.

Fishes of the Pacific Coast: From Alaska to Peru https://a.co/d/dOfSuKw

[Tim524]

What a great trip, and Steve got to celebrate his Birthday doing what he loves to do You guys got some nice fish in a beautiful place that's for sure !! Always nice to have a Bilingual Squatch on your side Congrats on an epic getaway and much needed vacation

[sasquatch]

Great write up Tom. Brings it right back.

Huge shout out to Tom for putting this together. We were texting about it on Tuesday and by Thursday had plane tickets and hotel and boat reservations. Truly appreciate the effort.

Not much to add except that Tom's cavalier attitude towards the cows was unnerving.

Couldn't have had a better birthday experience. Kayak fishing in the morning and sitting in the shade drinking all day. Even got a birthday message that brought tears to my eyes it was so nice. Really made me miss being home for a bit. A short bit because the place was f@cking awesome.

Thanks again Tom

[jrodda]

And happy birthday Steve!

[skrilla]

Happy Belated Birthday Steve. Awesome way to spend it. Great read. Glad you guys got to visit before they close the doors.

[sasquatch]

Thanks guys. I had a great day

[Pinoyfisher]

What an awesome report and trip guys!!! Congrats on the lifer and adding to your list! I should probably start a life list as I've caught a few randoms myself. 

I envy your ability to just get up go on a trip, sans the family, and just fish. That's my goal next year.

[KogaHead]

Glad you two had a great time and caught Bucket List fish.