Cholla Bay Slay Ride

Mexico Joe

Cholla Bay 4 Life
Haven't posted in a while. Shame on me. Life got in the way and wasn't able to make it down for the Cholla Bay Derby this year. 3 trips in three weeks and the wind has been garbage and windfinder has been less than accurate. Got down again this weekend Saturday - Monday. Saturday too windy to fish off the jet ski so the GF, pooch and I went over to our "secret" spot on the beach near Competition now that Tucson Beach is closed to vehicles. It works but not as good. Sunday and Monday were supposed to be good days wind wise and this time windfinder was spot on. Didn't blow harder than 10mph all day Sunday out of the west. Loaded the SKI up with lawn chairs and other necessities for a relaxing day on Tucson Beach. Spent most of the day lounging with my GF and playing with the dog. Got permission to go out for a "little bit" and headed straight towards Pelican Point. Idea was to troll some lures through the rocks... JJ WOULD BE PROUD. Maybe 5 minutes in I got hooked up on something big but it took a run and then came off. I turned the SKI around and trolled right back over that same area and BOOM! My baitfeeder reel was BLAZING... I picked up the rod with it still in the baitfeeder mode and then engaged it and hung on as I reeled as quick as I could to ensure I set the hook on this one. It was seriously intense. This fish peeled off some much drag it was crazy lol... from a jet ski! I kept the motor running away from the fish to keep good tension. Once it stopped running I started horsing this fish in. I didn't want to take any chances "ENJOYING" the catch. I needed to boat this fish because let's be honest PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN! The fish finally came up to the surface and I could see that it was a CROAKER... A FRICKING GINORMOUS CROAKER!!!!!! The likes that are only rarely seen.... I mean I have to boat this fish!!! I get it up near the SKI and this thing is trying it's hardest to get off, flopping and thrashing something vicious. No gaff because I forgot it in Phoenix so I basically decided that I need to get this fish into the foot well of the SKI before this becomes a WHAT IF situation. I grab the 20lb braid and pick the 20lb +-2 LB CROAKER up by the line which slices me deep but I didn't care. No pain no gain. Bleeding from my fingers I get the fish in the foot well and immediately reach down and secure the catch by placing my right hand deep in the gill plate and squeezing tight. I immediately put the fish in my 52 qt cooler on the back of the SKI barely being able to latch the lid tight enough. I decided I needed to show my GF immediately and take pics on the beach as to not risk my outstanding accomplishment. After arriving back at Tucson Beach I took it out and had my GF help carry it to the beach where we took some pics. Initially I was afraid that it may have been a Totaoba but after fish confirmation from SHAWNO it is the grand daddy of all Corvina, an absolute BEAST, tripple OG gran daddy Orange Mouth Corvina. Something I will never forget, what an absolute rush. All in all we got two days on Tucson Beach via using the jet ski to get over there, no wind, beach time for the GF, dog was happy with running around and swimming for hours on end and getting all the attention that she does LOL, met cool people... what a great weekend!











ChollaBay4Life
 

da_q-ban_one

Active Member
Haven't posted in a while. Shame on me. Life got in the way and wasn't able to make it down for the Cholla Bay Derby this year. 3 trips in three weeks and the wind has been garbage and windfinder has been less than accurate. Got down again this weekend Saturday - Monday. Saturday too windy to fish off the jet ski so the GF, pooch and I went over to our "secret" spot on the beach near Competition now that Tucson Beach is closed to vehicles. It works but not as good. Sunday and Monday were supposed to be good days wind wise and this time windfinder was spot on. Didn't blow harder than 10mph all day Sunday out of the west. Loaded the SKI up with lawn chairs and other necessities for a relaxing day on Tucson Beach. Spent most of the day lounging with my GF and playing with the dog. Got permission to go out for a "little bit" and headed straight towards Pelican Point. Idea was to troll some lures through the rocks... JJ WOULD BE PROUD. Maybe 5 minutes in I got hooked up on something big but it took a run and then came off. I turned the SKI around and trolled right back over that same area and BOOM! My baitfeeder reel was BLAZING... I picked up the rod with it still in the baitfeeder mode and then engaged it and hung on as I reeled as quick as I could to ensure I set the hook on this one. It was seriously intense. This fish peeled off some much drag it was crazy lol... from a jet ski! I kept the motor running away from the fish to keep good tension. Once it stopped running I started horsing this fish in. I didn't want to take any chances "ENJOYING" the catch. I needed to boat this fish because let's be honest PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN! The fish finally came up to the surface and I could see that it was a CROAKER... A FRICKING GINORMOUS CROAKER!!!!!! The likes that are only rarely seen.... I mean I have to boat this fish!!! I get it up near the SKI and this thing is trying it's hardest to get off, flopping and thrashing something vicious. No gaff because I forgot it in Phoenix so I basically decided that I need to get this fish into the foot well of the SKI before this becomes a WHAT IF situation. I grab the 20lb braid and pick the 20lb +-2 LB CROAKER up by the line which slices me deep but I didn't care. No pain no gain. Bleeding from my fingers I get the fish in the foot well and immediately reach down and secure the catch by placing my right hand deep in the gill plate and squeezing tight. I immediately put the fish in my 52 qt cooler on the back of the SKI barely being able to latch the lid tight enough. I decided I needed to show my GF immediately and take pics on the beach as to not risk my outstanding accomplishment. After arriving back at Tucson Beach I took it out and had my GF help carry it to the beach where we took some pics. Initially I was afraid that it may have been a Totaoba but after fish confirmation from SHAWNO it is the grand daddy of all Corvina, an absolute BEAST, tripple OG gran daddy Orange Mouth Corvina. Something I will never forget, what an absolute rush. All in all we got two days on Tucson Beach via using the jet ski to get over there, no wind, beach time for the GF, dog was happy with running around and swimming for hours on end and getting all the attention that she does LOL, met cool people... what a great weekend!











ChollaBay4Life
That's awesome bro!!
 

Encanto

Active Member
Haven't posted in a while. Shame on me. Life got in the way and wasn't able to make it down for the Cholla Bay Derby this year. 3 trips in three weeks and the wind has been garbage and windfinder has been less than accurate. Got down again this weekend Saturday - Monday. Saturday too windy to fish off the jet ski so the GF, pooch and I went over to our "secret" spot on the beach near Competition now that Tucson Beach is closed to vehicles. It works but not as good. Sunday and Monday were supposed to be good days wind wise and this time windfinder was spot on. Didn't blow harder than 10mph all day Sunday out of the west. Loaded the SKI up with lawn chairs and other necessities for a relaxing day on Tucson Beach. Spent most of the day lounging with my GF and playing with the dog. Got permission to go out for a "little bit" and headed straight towards Pelican Point. Idea was to troll some lures through the rocks... JJ WOULD BE PROUD. Maybe 5 minutes in I got hooked up on something big but it took a run and then came off. I turned the SKI around and trolled right back over that same area and BOOM! My baitfeeder reel was BLAZING... I picked up the rod with it still in the baitfeeder mode and then engaged it and hung on as I reeled as quick as I could to ensure I set the hook on this one. It was seriously intense. This fish peeled off some much drag it was crazy lol... from a jet ski! I kept the motor running away from the fish to keep good tension. Once it stopped running I started horsing this fish in. I didn't want to take any chances "ENJOYING" the catch. I needed to boat this fish because let's be honest PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN! The fish finally came up to the surface and I could see that it was a CROAKER... A FRICKING GINORMOUS CROAKER!!!!!! The likes that are only rarely seen.... I mean I have to boat this fish!!! I get it up near the SKI and this thing is trying it's hardest to get off, flopping and thrashing something vicious. No gaff because I forgot it in Phoenix so I basically decided that I need to get this fish into the foot well of the SKI before this becomes a WHAT IF situation. I grab the 20lb braid and pick the 20lb +-2 LB CROAKER up by the line which slices me deep but I didn't care. No pain no gain. Bleeding from my fingers I get the fish in the foot well and immediately reach down and secure the catch by placing my right hand deep in the gill plate and squeezing tight. I immediately put the fish in my 52 qt cooler on the back of the SKI barely being able to latch the lid tight enough. I decided I needed to show my GF immediately and take pics on the beach as to not risk my outstanding accomplishment. After arriving back at Tucson Beach I took it out and had my GF help carry it to the beach where we took some pics. Initially I was afraid that it may have been a Totaoba but after fish confirmation from SHAWNO it is the grand daddy of all Corvina, an absolute BEAST, tripple OG gran daddy Orange Mouth Corvina. Something I will never forget, what an absolute rush. All in all we got two days on Tucson Beach via using the jet ski to get over there, no wind, beach time for the GF, dog was happy with running around and swimming for hours on end and getting all the attention that she does LOL, met cool people... what a great weekend!











ChollaBay4Life
Ah, hell no !!!

Why was I in Phoenix this weekend ?

Sounds like an epic trip Joe !

F’ing Mexico Joe winning again.

Love the GSP on a Jet Ski !!
 

SunDevil

Well Known Member
excellent! have you tried Windy? There is an APP you can load to your phone. There forecasts seem to be a little more accurate than others I have tried
 

Mexico Joe

Cholla Bay 4 Life
Ah, hell no !!!

Why was I in Phoenix this weekend ?

Sounds like an epic trip Joe !

F’ing Mexico Joe winning again.

Love the GSP on a Jet Ski !!

She's a wild one but what GSP isn't? She swam in circles for 20 minutes without touching land Saturday while my GF and I were floating around on blow up tubes... The dog absolutely loves Cholla Bay. I'm not even joking but as soon as she sees the water as we're entering Cholla Bay by the police station she starts crying and whining... She turned one year old on Saturday so she had a good birthday.
 

Mexico Joe

Cholla Bay 4 Life
Great fish and great pics of your “team” on the jetski.

Thanks DS! Hey, just for you I have been keeping my speed down to 70mph now on the highway.... Almost saw a Sonora plated jeep meet Jesus on the way down Saturday morning right in front of me just South of Sonoyta. You could clearly see there wasn't enough room to pass and the guy went anyway! SMH...
 

Mexico Joe

Cholla Bay 4 Life
Awesome white! Cool that you caught it in so close. Great job!

Stuart, you think it's a WSB? I was happy just to get it in the cooler but when I pulled it out to show my GF I immediately looked at the tail to try and verify that it wasn't a Totoaba. I saw the forked tail and thought the worst but by then I was definitely not throwing this thing back. I was scared to take it over to JJ's to show everyone and get it weighed because I really thought it was a T. Guy on Tucson Beach agreed with me and said I should CUT IT UP immediately so that's what I did. Later, EL PADRINO del CHOLLA Lucky Chucky said WSB. Showed Villa, el dice ILLEGAL but keep it and congrats... Shawno from the forum sent me a PM on Instagram and says Orange Mouth Corvina 100% not Totoaba so I was a little relieved. Now you're the second to say WSB... so now I'm curious. Only reason is because out of anyone, I believe you and Shawno over most... I'd really like to know what you think.... I know we've talked about this on the forum before but can anyone re-explain the T tail vs. Corvina/WSB???? The coloring doesn't look WSB to me but again, you guys are the experts. Thanks!!!!!!!!
 

Mexico Joe

Cholla Bay 4 Life
excellent! have you tried Windy? There is an APP you can load to your phone. There forecasts seem to be a little more accurate than others I have tried

Recently I have been looking at WINDY just to compare it with what GOOGLE and WINDFINDER say. It does appear to be a little different so maybe I'll start using it as the base. Either way this weekend was what WINDFINDER said it would be. Never blew harder than 10mph...
 

Stuart

Aye carumba!!!
Staff member
Stuart, you think it's a WSB?
I do. As Kenny said - if it had fangs (not teeth) I'd go super huge corvina. But that looks WSB to me. DEFINITELY not a T-bass. It's not unheard of for the WSB to come in pretty close. Congrats!

Just for comparison, look how close the one on the right matches yours.

Rick1.jpg
 

Stuart

Aye carumba!!!
Staff member
re-explain the T tail vs. Corvina/WSB????
Because the look of all three (corvina, WSB, T-Bass) is very similar, there are a few clues that can help you distinguish the difference. The fangs, as mentioned above. Also in the pic above, you can tell both as WSB because the tail curves IN towards the fish. With T-bass, the tail is the opposite, it triangles OUT away from the fish. Color is also a strong indicator. WSB will generally be silver with a purplish/blue hue fresh out of the water. Same with corvina. T-bass will be copper colored fresh out of the water. This difference becomes less visible after they're in the icebox for a bit. You also notice the WSB seem to be more straight-backed across their back. Look at the one above and you can draw a straight line pretty much from it's top lip to it's dorsal fin.

Now look at the picture below. T-bass tend to be a bit more "hump-backed." They have thicker shoulders because they generally feed on the bottom (shrimp, crab, and such) while WSB feed more on baitfish in the water column. Strength versus speed thing. And as said above, you can tell the coloration difference well in this pic, even though you can't see the tail.

T-bass.jpg

So, while it's possible your fish is a T-bass, I still lean towards WSB, and that's exactly what I'd tell everyone it was regardless. And also tell them it was very yummy!
 
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