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“THE BIG UGLY”

Posted in Baja, Baja Fishing, Baja Life, Baja Mexico Fishing, Baja Rockfish, Cabo San Lucas, cabrilla, dorado, Fishing, fishing reports, Fishing Tackle and Techniques, Fishing techniques, flyfishing, giant squid, humboldt squid, inshore fishing, inshore fishing in Baja Mexico, jack crevalle, Jonathan Roldan, kids, kids fishing, La Paz, La Paz Fishing, Leisure, Living in Mexico, marlin, Mexican, Mexico, Panga Fishing, pargo, pompano, roosterfish, Salt Water Fishing, Sea of Cortez, sierra, squid fishing, Tailhunter International, Travel, Uncategorized, Western Outdoor News, Western Outdoor Publications, women fishing, yellowtail, tagged bahia de los suenos, baja, bay of dreams, calamari, Cerralvo Island, fish, Fishing, fishing blogs, fishing charters, fishing outfitters, Fishing Techniques, fishing tips, fishing vacations, humboldt squid, inshore fishing, Jonathan Roldan, La Paz, la ventana, las arenas, Light Tackle Fishing, mexican, mexico, muertos bay, Panga Fishing, salt water fishing, squid fishing, Tailhunter International, travel, western outdoor, western outdoor news on February 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Giant Humboldt squid surprise alot of anglers when they first encounter them and find them to be voracious feeders and tough fighters when hooked!

Squid can go upwards to…20, 30, 40 pounds or more…they don’t call them “giant” for nothing!

The beaks of the giant squid aren’t something to fool around with when still attached to their owners! They’re like big parrot beaks!

THE BIG UGLY

Originally Published the Week of Feb. 28, 2013 in Western Outdoor News

The Captain Victor tied on the heavy leaded lure and handed it back to the angler who looked at it curiously. He hefted it in his hand and like a weapon. And indeed, it looked like one.

“Pretty much looks like a medieval club or a torturing device,” he smiled. “a knight could do some damage with this sucker!”

He turned it around in his hand. The heavy leaded pipe was about a foot long and filled with cement. It was painted white. The line was tied to one end. At the other, it looked like a multi-pronged grappling hook with about a dozen 2-inch long up-turned sharpened spikes.

“Whatever bites this is gonna be interesting,” he said as he put his heavy 4/0 reel with 60 pound test into free-spool and dropped the lure over the side. Weighing about 2 pounds, it dropped quickly into the depths about 500 yards off the rugged Baja coastline.

“Mas linea..more line…more line,” said the captain with a mixture of hand gestures and broken Spang-lish. “Muy profundo aqui…very deep here, “ as he pointed down into the cobalt morning waters.

“Ok-dokie, amigo” said the angler with a shrug.

The heavy rod and reel continued to play out line.

The captain touched the rod as a sign to stop. The angler put the rod into gear and figured he was about 400 feet straight-up-and-down.

The Captain Victor motioned for the angler to reel slowly, but at the same time raising and lowering the rod in a sweeping motion stopping the retrieve and letting the heavy jig drop back and winding a few cranks more.

The angler took about half a dozen sweep-and-cranks and suddenly the heavy beefy rod went over double nearly pulling the angler to his feet!

“WHOA! WHAT THE…???”

Grunting he struggled to turn the handle of the straining reel. He looked up at the grinning captain now smiling smugly.

“Big squid! Calamar grande!” said Captain Victor with a big satisfied grin and arms folded across his chest.

Sometimes you really have to watch what you ask for. Often folks want to know if the squid are biting and this just happens to be about that time. They’re not always “on time” and the bite is cyclical, but at least for us in La Paz, we get a run of squid in the spring and summer.

Like other sea creatures, it’s not like they send out a memo or anything.

But, when they show up, they generate alot of excitement. Not only are they fun to catch and extremely feisty when hooked, but they are just plain fascinating. They’re the stuff of story, legend and sea-monster!

When folks come down, they normally, aren’t quite ready for what awaits. The “Humboldt” squid we normally get can be as small as 5 pounders, but 40-100 pound beasts are not uncommon.

When the squid “float” (come near the surface from the cold depths) to where they can be caught, often many boats and pangas will pack the area. If the big squid are there, it’s not long before heavy rods and double-bent anglers are pulling mightly as if small refrigerators are hanging on the ends…which isn’t too far from the truth!

The vessles are often quite close and once the bite starts, it can get pretty crazy as the wiggling-squirting cephalapods get close to the boats. A good tip is to let the struggling animals finish their squirting BEFORE bringing them aboard! Between the vessels, big firehose-sized geysers of water and ink are often seen raining down and spraying anyone within range. Yells and laughs as well as choice bits of profanity often permeate the scene.

In fact, it’s often a good idea to dispatch the big uglies before bringing them aboard at all. Squid are voracious and aggressive. Just because they’re hooked doesn’t mean their beat.

A third of their body length is a mass of tentacles. An, unlike an octopus, the “suckers” on a squid’s tentacles aren’t little suction cups. They are concentric circles of teeth surrounding a little beak that can easily break skin when wrapped around the nearest leg, arm or finger.

Certainly, you don’t want to get an appendage near to it’s parrot-like beak which is capable of really doing damage and can take off a finger. Or they can quickly gouge out a chunk of an angler.

Make no mistake, while small squid in a bait tank can be fun to play with, the Humboldts are dangerous critters. They are opportunistic feeders and the large ones have been known to attack sharks, tuna and even the occasional diver…not to mention each other.

In fact, the heavy jig used to catch them is painted white to resemble a smaller squid enticing a larger squid to attack it. Indeed, the squid are cannibalistic and many times, as you’re bringing a squid to the boat, it will often feel like it’s no longer struggling and has turned to dead weight.

If the water is clear enough, you can often see other squid attacking and hacking the one squid impaled on the jig. There’s no fraternity below the surface. Eat and get eaten!

It took some grunting and no shortage of sweat and elbow grease to get the big 50-pound squid to the panga. As per the captains instructions, the angler let the big animal empty it’s jets of water and black ink before bringing it into the panga.

Wiping his brow, with the back of his fist, the angler laid down the rod in exhaustion.

“Muy bueno por carnada…good for bait,” smiled Captain Victor as he hacked off one tentacle and wrapped it around a larger bait hook ready to go look for some real fish.

“Like heck!” laughed the angler, cutting off a huge chunk himself and bagging it for the ice chest. “It’s going into some beer batter for fried squid dinner tonite!”

“But first, let’s catch a few more!” he added tossing the heavy jig back overboard.

That’s our story!

Jonathan

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Jonathan Roldan has been writing the Baja Column in Western Outdoor News since 2004. Along with his wife and fishing buddy, Jilly, they own and run the Tailhunter International Fishing Fleet in La Paz, Baja, Mexico www.tailhunter-international.com. They also run their Tailhunter Restaurant Bar on the famous La Paz malecon waterfront. If you’d like to contact him directly, his e-mail is riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com or drop by the restaurant to say hi!

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“Lupe and Lorenzo Don’t Work Here Anymore”

Posted in Baja, Baja Fishing, Baja Life, Baja Mexico Fishing, Fishing, Fishing Tackle and Techniques, Fishing techniques, holidays in mexico, inshore fishing in Baja Mexico, Jonathan Roldan, kids, La Paz Fishing, Living in Mexico, Mexican, Mexican business, Mexican culture, Mexico, Mexico economy, Mexico life, Mexico neighborhood, Panga Fishing, Salt Water Fishing, Sea of Cortez, Tailhunter International, Uncategorized, Western Outdoor News, Western Outdoor Publications, tagged baja, Fishing, holidays, Jonathan Roldan, La Paz, lifestyle, mercado, mexican culture, mexican history, mexican life, mexico, mini super, sea of cortez, Tailhunter International, vacations, western outdoor, western outdoor news on August 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »

For four decades there wasn’t too much you couldn’t find in Lupe and Lancho’s little store. If you couldn’t find it, you probably didn’t need it. But a part of the community changed because Lupe and Lancho don’t work here anymore.

“LUPE AND LORENZO DON’T WORK HERE ANYMORE”

Originally Published the Week of Sept. 28, 2012 in Western Outdoor News

The old ceiling fan slowly whirred awkwardly off-kilter and barely moved any of the humid air that had rusted the dusty mechanism and the tips of the blades once painted white. Wohp…wohp…wohp…wohp…

You could keep time by the pulse of the rhythmic blades…Like a beating heart. Slowing down with time.

The cracked-tile floor had seen decades of footsteps. Bare brown cement peeked out where tiles long ago crumbled and cracked.

For 42-years-Lorenzo carried boxes of onions and stocked limes. He arranged the stacks of fresh tortillas wrapped in wax paper for display in the little glass case. He made sure the one-lone stand-up cooler had a stock of cold Pacificos, Coke and Fanta Orange soda. Some cheese. Some cold cuts and a few bottles of cold water next to the margarine.

He dusted the bottled salsas and re-arranged the dish soap and assorted sugar cookies and toilet paper. Two jars of mayonnaise. Four cans of beans. Six of corn. Some cooking oil. Salt. Bread. Assorted soups. Toothpaste and bleach. A little of everything, but not much of any one thing.

Inventory was not difficult.

The shelves were of whitewashed wood. Dry and blistering through several old layers of paint from the Baja aridness. Several were noticeably leaning. But who noticed?

He built them himself from wood that is hard to come by in a land that has few trees. So boards, screws and nails often did not match. If it worked and did what it was supposed to it was fine. He could smile.

Construction-wise…The worn wooden table along the wall was not much better. It held small boxes or bags of beans, rice, onions and dried chilis and assorted fruit. Nothing shiny and waxed. No “mood” lights to make the produce look better. Just a simple light bulb fixture globe on one wall. The dust and dead bugs of ages silhouetted in it.

Lorenzo tidied up the stacks of brooms and smiled at his Guadalupe…Lupita (Little Lupe) … as she quietly re-stocked some cigarettes, batteries and candy bars behind the counter. No cash register. Just a rusty scratched lock box in a drawer.

Married for 40 of the 42 years he had worked at the store. Her parents had owned it back in the day. He worked for them in the store doing whatever needed to be done as well as at their home which was attached to the back of the little store.

As he tells it, he was just a kid and having an afternoon job wasn’t as important as being close to the little girl with the big dark eyes; long dark hair and disarmingly shy smile. His Lupita.

He still sighs when he looks at her.

He once told me, “After so many years with her, I always have the final word in our home. It’s always, ‘Si, mi amor!’ (‘Yes, my sweetheart!’”) He laughs heartily every time he tells that story. And he hikes up his pants and continues sweeping and shaking his head with a smile beneath his bushy grey mustache. He has amused himself again.

Lupita hears the story and shakes her own head with a smile and rolls her eyes. She’s heard it a million times and it still makes her heart skip a bit. It’s been a good life.

They were never blessed with kids, but she thinks of all the school kids that have passed through. She watched them grow up. They were like their own. They called him “Don Lancho” and she was affectionately called, “Senora Lupita.”

Generation after generation. After-school ice cream bars and sodas. Pencils and salty snacks. Teasing and flirting. Little feet always underfoot with laughter. Lancho and Lupita watched the “ninos” grow up to have kids of their own who then had their own kids all stop in after-school to spend a few pesos and laugh.

Blessed with laughter. Nothing better.

The adults in the little barrio would come to hang out as well. The little mercado could often be the hub of the neighborhood social scene.

Buy a beer. Microwave some instant coffee or a cup of noodles eaten with a plastic fork. Lupita would often have little tasty chili verde burritos for sale at the counter wrapped in wax paper. Just a few pesos. Everyone loved them.

The wooden bench on the sidewalk and some plastic chairs worked well to share neighborhood gossip and sports stories. There was always a radio playing Mexican ranch music. Lupita’s favorite.

Evenings were the best after it got cooler. Under the lone street light. The occasional moth and bug flittering through the dusty glow. After work. After chores. No kids. The neighborhood dogs would loll around the bench as well. The dusty concrete was cooler than lying in the gravel road that was still radiating the Mexican heat and there was always the chance of a scrap or two!

42- years…there won’t be a 43^rd.

There’s a padlock on the door now. I wasn’t close enough to know them intimately but they were always kind and smiling and easy to chat with. They were always there.

And now they are gone. No note. Nothing on the metal door. I’m not even sure who I would ask. You just always assumed Lupe and Lancho would always be there. Now, it doesn’t feel right. A part of the neighborhood just isn’t there anymore.

I hope there wasn’t a tragedy or someone got sick. I will miss stopping by for a Coke.

Maybe they just succumbed finally to the big box stores like Sam’s Club and others popping up way on the other side of town. But those are way on the other side of town.

Folks are reluctant to travel far to shop and fiercely loyal to the little stores. To a point. Driving costs gas…and time. And there’s no one to chat and gossip at the big store. But like so many places around the world, at some point the big stores are convenient.

But I see more and more empty storefronts in town. Even here on this side. Away from the big shopping centers. No one is hanging out anymore. The neighborhoods are changing with time. Like the wohp…wohp…wohp of the old ceiling fan. Time ticking down.

Sadly, I look through the smeared dirty windows into the darkened shop and see only my own reflection. Lupe and Lancho don’t work here anymore. I think they are missed on so many levels.

That’s our story…

Jonathan

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Jonathan Roldan has been writing the Baja Column in Western Outdoor News since 2004. Along with his wife, Jill, they own and run the Tailhunter International Fishing Fleet in La Paz, Baja, Mexico www.tailhunter-international.com. They also run their Tailhunter Restaurant Bar on the famous La Paz malecon waterfront. If you’d like to contact him directly, his e-mail is riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com or drop by the restaurant to say hi!

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