Trip to Lobos

C

CBFinet

Guest
Well after a few failed attempts I finally made it to Puerto Lobos. I was trying to get there last Spring but it never happened. This time my wife and I went down for a quick overnight trip. We left Rocky Point mid-morning and made it down in just about 2 hours.

We drove around and scoped out the town first and settled on a spot just north of the lighthouse to set up camp. The beach here was too soft/shallow to launch my zodiac but we planned on driving over to the other side of the lighthouse to launch the boat ( I have a 2WD SUV).

After setting up camp and relaxing with a few beers we headed over to the other side of the point to go out for what we thought would be a quick trip. I recently picked up a '79 15hp Johnson as an upgrade to the 6 horse I was using before. I went through it and rebuilt the carb, replaced the fuel pump, water pump housing/impeller, and replaced some fuel lines and lower unit oil. We got out a ways and were just picking up mid-size sand bass and then decided to head in as the sun was about to go down- the motor wouldn't work... it would run and go into gear but we weren't going anywhere.

At this point I got on the oars and started rowing back. We were at least 2 miles from where we launched and it was getting dark fast- thankfully we had the lighthouse as a reference point. So with my wife leaning over the bow of the boat with a flashlight watching for rocks and our dog getting nervous we finally got back to the car and packed things up. At that point we were glad to have camp set up and went about making dinner and enjoying some cocktails. It turns out the prop spun the bushing/hub and that was why we weren't going anywhere. I know we lightly hit a shallow sand bar on the way out but it must have been ready to go when I bought the motor. My fault for not checking it out better.

The next day we had planned to get up early and get out before high tide so that we could find some points/shallow reefs by slack tide. With the motor not working we decided to sleep in a bit and make breakfast. Eventually we were visited by a really sweet beach dog (stray) that probably had the best meal of his life. We went out in the zodiac later near the light house just rowing a ways out from shore. We caught countless sand bass and trigger fish as well as a silver colored fish shaped similar to a trigger that I couldn't ID. We were visited by a seal and some dolphins but unfortunately didn't get any pics of them as I just had my phone with me.

THANK YOU to everyone to responded to my previous posts. It didn't turn out quite like I wanted (motor issues) but we had a great time and managed to catch a few fish. I just wish we had more time...

It looks like I may be headed down to Lobos again Jan. 6-8 spending two nights camping on the beach and definitely doing more fishing this time. I got a new prop for the zodiac and a bunch of new gear thanks to Cabela's gift cards as well as a Garmin GPS to mark whatever spots we find. I'll be with 1 or 2 other guys just tent camping on the beach but if anyone would like to meet up any of those days please let me know. I'm happy to take people out fishing.

Enjoy the pics!
 
C

CBFinet

Guest
Actually I'm having trouble posting pictures. It says you can embed links from facebook but for some reason it's not allowing it...
 
Hillbeartoe

Hillbeartoe

Guest
CBFinet said:
Actually I'm having trouble posting pictures. It says you can embed links from facebook but for some reason it's not allowing it...
Click to expand...
Glad to hear you made it back in and everything turned out ok. So jealous you caught fish.

As far as the pictures I just started putting them on Photo bucket and just started using the image link to post pics. Having the same issues resizing didn't help either.
 
C

CBFinet

Guest
I'll have to try that.

Overall I loved the area and look forward to going out again. Fishing wasn't what I hoped it would be- probably due to motor issues and not getting out far enough. I've found that 3-4" squid skirts with flash and tipped with fresh squid are deadly down there.

We caught tons of sand bass and trigger fish but I usually do the same out of Cholla Bay. Next time I'll have a GPS to mark decent spots/rocks and I hope to get into a yellow tail or smaller grouper.

I've been slowly putting together saltwater gear and just picked up a nice Penn lever drag reel and some 12 oz. weights so I think the plan is to catch bait on sabikis and then head deep and drop them as well as throw some large jigs for yellowtail. My heaviest rods are rated to 30 or 40 lbs. so I might go home with pieces if we get into anything big.
 
Mexico Joe

Mexico Joe

Cholla Bay 4 Life
Try trolling some Crankbaits and RattleTraps. I like the big jigs too because that's what the guys in San Diego catch YT on. Grouper rigs for bottom fishing too. You got it though. It went the same way for me last February, didn't catch anything. Water was so clear you could see 30 feet down. This is fact, I have FF on the kayak. If things start to go right I'm trying to get down February or March. Tight lines!
 
Hillbeartoe

Hillbeartoe

Guest
Very nice. Gonna try to get one of my boat projects done and get it down there. Tearing apart and old 14footer and replace benches with a couple small decks. Damn thats looks fun.
 
YumaJames

YumaJames

Guest
Looks like you had an awesome trip CBF, loved your pics and story. Am so jealous, what life's all about. Hope you make it again beginning of Jan as you stated.
 
C

CBFinet

Guest
Thanks All.

When you talk about grouper rigs I'm assuming you mean live bait. When I catch a small sand bass or other small fish sometimes I'll rig a heavy duty 3-way swivel tied to my braid mainline, then a stretch of 50lb mono to a heavy weight and a 3-4 ft. leader to the live bait hooked on a 7/0 circle hook behind the head/in front of the dorsal fin. Does this sound about right for inshore grouper?

I also have some 6-8oz diamond jigs that I thought about throwing for yellowtail or bouncing on the bottom for grouper. I also have a couple magnum Rapalas that I haven't used yet. They're supposed to dive 30+ ft. so would this be deep enough for 100+ ft. water or do I need to rig a trolling weight to get them down deeper?

The fish finder I have is an earlier version of this
http://www.cabelas.com/product/Humminbird-reg-Fishin-Buddies/735123.uts?productVariantId=1211481&srccode=cii_17588969&cpncode=36-31766314-2&WT.tsrc=CSE&WT.mc_id=GoogleProductAds&WT.z_mc_id1=02550553&rid=20

It's a transom mount that holds the shaft of the fish finder vertically sticking down in the water. The problem is that moving any faster than a moderate trolling speed it wobbles out of the mount. So if I'm cruising around looking for ridges or rocks to fish I have to bring up the fish finder at speed and then put it in place once we slow down. I have a feeling I'm missing a lot of spots that I might have seen if I was able to watch the bottom while cruising around. I'm not thrilled about the idea of drilling through the transom on my zodiac and space inside the "boat" is at a premium so I'm hesitant to rig up anything more permanent.

Next trip I want to try 2 directions; across the "bay" South toward Puerto Libertad looking for reefs or rockpiles and then SW of the lighthouse point trying to find any sort of ridge that may follow the point out into deeper water. If anyone has suggestions on which direction to head I'm all ears. I'm not asking for GPS waypoints (though I wouldn't argue if someone wanted to be generous) but just general direction to look for decent spots.

I usually keep a few fish for dinner but mostly c & r so I won't be cleaning out anyone's honey holes.

Thanks again!
 
C

CBFinet

Guest
So it looks like the trip next week is coming together. We'll be getting to Lobos sometime midday on Tuesday and leaving Thursday morning, camping on the beach and taking my 13 ft Zodiac to fish out of.

Is anyone going to be down there next week? Depending on conditions we may go out a ways and it would be nice to know if anyone is around to team up with. I've checked out some of the YouTube videos of people fishing Lobos and it seems like most of the people that are getting into grouper or yellowtail are south towards the points before you get to Libertad.

Thanks MexicoJoe for the map images. It looks like you're suggesting around the point and to the north? I've marked a few spots in Google Earth that look good both north and south of the lighthouse and transferred the waypoints to my GPS. It looks to be about 12 miles to get to the large points south of Lobos. I'm bringing some extra gas and the 15hp motor doesn't burn a ton of fuel so we should be able to get down there and back with plenty of gas to spare.

I'll try to take some better pictures this time.

Thanks,
Chris
 
YumaJames

YumaJames

Guest
Unfortunately won't be around that week, Chris, but in one of your above posts you mentioned grouper rigs. Am sure everyone has their own variant of grouper rig, this is how a fishing guide in RP showed me to tie one. Basically its a heavy duty hand made cod rig (in shallow waters catching smaller fish I usually use the store bought pre-fab cod rigs, in deeper waters I switch to the heavy duty hand made grouper rigs). Its about a 3 foot rig made out of very expensive fluorocarbon line (obviously the bigger the fish the bigger test you wanna use). At the bottom of the rig I use a "Surgeon's End Loop" to make about a two inch loop to attach/detach your weight to (around 1-2 lb torpedo weight that has an eyelet to attach/detach to your Surgeon's loop, the deeper and stronger the current the more weight you have to use to keep your line taut, I usually end up using a 2 lb weight, and buy em off eBay or at the Yamaha store in RP). Then about a foot higher make a "Dropper Loop" that hangs out about 2 inches, then about another foot above that make another Dropper Loop that hangs out about 2 inches. That should leave you with about a foot of line at the top, and at the very top use whatever knot you prefer to attach the end of the line to a swivel (I use a "Worlds Fair knot" or "Clinch knot") which you then attach to your main fishing line. Am sure you can google the knots. Then attach a "J" or "Circle" hook (size depends on the fish you're catching) to each of the two loops you made using Dropper loops. Hope I explained that good enough, so when you're done you'll have about a three foot rig, at the bottom will be your weight, about a foot higher will be a hook dangling off a Dropper loop, about a foot higher will be another hook dangling off a Dropper loop, and then about a foot higher will be your swivel which you attach to your main line. On the hooks I use pieces of squid, which can be bought at most fish vendors or grocery stores in RP. Once you make this rig you should be able to easily slide your bottom weight and hooks on/off the rig when you're not fishing. Use your GPS/fishfinder to locate reefs, drive a little "above" the reef, drop this rig to the reef, and when you feel it hit bottom taut the line then just drift back over the reef and fish it. If no luck circle around and try again. Best of luck to you, be safe, and would love to hear how you did!
 
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Kenny

Kenny

Guest
CBFinet said:
Thanks All.

When you talk about grouper rigs I'm assuming you mean live bait. When I catch a small sand bass or other small fish sometimes I'll rig a heavy duty 3-way swivel tied to my braid mainline, then a stretch of 50lb mono to a heavy weight and a 3-4 ft. leader to the live bait hooked on a 7/0 circle hook behind the head/in front of the dorsal fin. Does this sound about right for inshore grouper?
Click to expand...
That's the same basic's as some of the best and most productive Grouper fisherman that I've fished with use.. A 3 foot leader is a little short though, 4-5 with 5 being what I use.
Like James say's, you'll have to adjust the weight for the current and the hook size for the type of fish targeting. Ric use's that rig and showed it to me..Simple yet effective at any depth. Ric site, it's worth looking at..http://www.ricsrockypointfishing.com/BIGFISH.html..............http://www.ricsrockypointfishing.com/
 
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