That's My Story

BAJA IN THE FALL – Published September 2005 – Western Outdoor News

I was out on the water the today…alone. It’s rare that I get out on the water these days by myself. Just me and a skipper. I love what I do, but every now and then you have to step back. People often ask me what I do on my time off. Well, I guess I go fishing! But being by myself is a unique treat. No knots to tie for anyone else. No coaching. If I want to just look at the horizon that’s fine and not catching fish is OK too. I’m not going to ask myself for a refund if all I get is needlefish.

But, there’s something even more special about this. To me, it’s prime time in Baja. Fall fishing in the Baja is unlike any other time of the season. There’s something in the air. It’s like the “Friday” of the year. Fridays feel different… a little slacker…anticipation of a good weekend. Heck…there’s a reason they have Casual Friday” at the office and not “Kick-Back Monday” or “Laid-Back Wednesday.” People have a different attitude on Friday than on Monday. Everyone plays sick, on Monday. No one plays sick on Fridays! Friday is the day half the office never comes back from lunch. Am I right?

Well, fall in the Baja is like that. It might not be burning leaves…in fact, there’s precious few leaves in the desert let alone leaves turning color. There’s no frost on the windshield in the morning and I don’t see anyone wearing long pants and sweatshirts yet, but surely, for Baja all the accoutrements indicative of a changing season are here and that’s why this is one of my favorite times of the year.

Relatively speaking there’s a “nip” in the air. I can feel the sun coming at a different angle. The shadows running up the golden brown island cliffs are longer and there’s a little more breeze cooling down the mornings and evenings. There’s even a bit of dew in the desert and moisture on the few grass lawns that exist. However, although the air has dropped a few degrees off that stove top heater that can be the Baja summer, the waters are warm and flat. I think the late storms of summer and hurricanes to the south have done their thing and now the waters are so flat that it’s hard to tell some days where the sky ends and the waters begin. I can see the tell-tale ripple of a school of dorado half-a-football field away and much of the water can go the color of a good bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin…like teal-colored air and looking down I can see the reef and pargo hovering close to the rocks even though I know for a fact it’s 40 feet down. Man…a marlin fin out there on the surface sticks out like the Eiffel Tower on a glass dance floor.

After Labor Day, airfares generally go down. All the kids and families have largely gone back to school and the towns and pueblos have slowed their pace a notch or two.

The best part is that there’s less boat traffic on the fishing honey holes! It always puzzled me why so many folks seem to think that fishing stops after the last embers of the Labor Day barbecues flicker out. Ask the S. California sport boat operators. Fish can be foaming 20 yards off the beach yet like some internal clock, anglers put their gear in the garage. Baja is no different. Airplanes that literally burst with anglers during the summer are now half-full at best.

Today I worked one of my favorite spots in front of the old Hotel Las Arenas pulling on tuna. I kept expecting that any moment the whole fleet would come dogging my bite. In fact, not a single other panga. During the summer several dozen boats would’ve been jostling for position. Today, there was no one. Just me and my fishing in the September sun and life was good. And the fish bit. And it really didn’t matter if they did or not. It was just good to be there thinking to myself that there were people on the freeway at that very moment and I was grateful to be where I was. I stopped what I was doing at one point and you know what I heard? Absolutely nothing, but the sound of my big old Baja grin.

That’s my story…
Jonathan