Outdoor Odyssey

The funniest thing I have ever seen fishing or around a fishing camp, occurred at Rocky Point. My first time to fish down there, early in the morning, Jim Buck and I, launched  my big tri hull off of the launch ramp just like anywhere else. The proprietor of the camp told us in broken English that in afternoon when we returned the tide would be out, but don’t worry, just be sure to call him on the ship to shore radio and let him know when we would be back.

We caught a mess of fish; pintos (small groupers), rock bass and queen triggers and returning to the camp, called the proprietor as he had instructed. In broken English, he replied, “Beeg, wide Texas boat? OK, we get jur trailer and be ready for ju.” Breaking the connection, I asked Jim, “Get our trailer. What’s going on.” “Quien Sabe?” he replied in broken Spanish.

Nearing shore, I thought I was seeing things!  In the water, there was a John Deere tractor coming our way. The closer we got to it, the more stranger it looked.  I quipped to Jim, “Looks Like a John Deere tractor to me!”  What I saw was a tractor body, diesel engine and all, built up on fifteen foot extensions, with wheels below the extensions rolling on the sandy bottom and the drive shaft pointing down to the rear wheels at a forty five degree angle.  Out came this contraption to tow us into the ramp area and since the tide was out the ramp area was all on dry land.
 
Our trailer was waiting for us two hundred yards out from the launch ramp, hooked up to another tractor/contraption, rear wheels into the water just below the bearing buddies and a Mexican boy standing on the rear of the trailer, dwarfed by the strange looking vehicles. We secured a rope to our John Deere and it chugged up to our trailer, we untied from it, threw the line to the boy on the back of the trailer, he pulled us up to our winch and hooked us to the winch and the second tractor/contraption, we never found out the brand, it didn’t have a body, just engine, chugged us back up to the launch ramp and on to our car. We hopped out of the boat, backed the car up to the trailer and hooked up.

Walking up to the proprietor, I asked him, “How much?” “Two dollar,” he replied. I would have paid ten for that show. Driving back to our campground I remarked to Jim, “I wonder how they figured those tractor contraptions out.” “Quien sabe,” he replied in broken Spanish.

There is more than one way to skin a Deere.
 

In the Gulf of California, a “Chubasco” is a severe thunderstorm, much like our “Purple Thunderers” along the Texas Gulf Coast. I have been caught on the water in three of these monsters and until safely reaching shore, was scared to death each time. During a trip to Rocky Point, Mexico, one caught me on land.

The funniest thing I have ever seen fishing, or around a fishing camp, occurred at Rocky Point. My first time to fish down there, early in the morning, we, Jim Buck and I, launched the Skip Jack off of the launch ramp like anywhere else. The proprietor of the camp told us in broken English that in afternoon when we returned the tide would be out, but don’t worry, just be sure to call him on the ship to shore radio and let him know when we would be back.

We fished hard and caught some nice fish, and while returning to the
camp, called the proprietor as instructed. In broken English, he
replied, “Beeg, wide Texas boat? OK, we get jur trailer and be ready
for ju.” Breaking the connection, I asked Jim, “Get our trailer. What’s
going on.” “Quien Sabe?” he replied in broken Spanish.

Nearing
shore, I thought I was seeing things, there was a John Deere tractor
coming our way. The closer we got to it, the more strange it looked. A
tractor body, diesel engine and all, built up on fifteen foot
extensions, with wheels below the extensions rolling on the sandy
bottom and the drive shaft pointing down to the rear wheels at a forty
five degree angle and out comes the contraption to tow us into the ramp
area which is all on dry land now since the tide is out. Our trailer is
waiting for us two hundred yards out from the launch ramp, hooked up to
another tractor/contraption, rear wheels into the water just below the
bearing buddies and a Mexican boy standing on the rear of the trailer,
dwarfed by the strange looking vehicle pulling our trailer.

We
secured a rope to our John Deere and it chugged up to our trailer, we
untied from it, threw the line to the boy on the back of the trailer,
he pulled us up to our winch and hooked us to the winch and the second
tractor/contraption, we never found out the brand, which didn’t have a
body on it, just engine, chugged us back up to the launch ramp and on
to our car. We hopped out of the boat, backed the car up to the trailer
and hooked up.

Walking up to the proprietor, I asked him, “How much?” “Two dollar,” he replied. I would have paid ten for that show.

Driving
back to our campground I remarked to Jim, “I wonder how they figured
those tractor contraptions out.” “Quien sabe,” he replied in broken
Spanish.

There is more than one way to skin a cat.

On one excursion to Rocky Point, several of the locals asked me to accompany them to “The Cut”, a two hundred foot wide, cut and channel leading from El Golfo into a small bay, St John’s Bay. The trip was ten miles down the beach, not hard packed sand like along the Texas coast, but fine volcanic sand, which refused to pack. It is a ten mile trip from Hell, four wheel drive all the way. Tires deflated to eight, yes eight pounds each! Skeletons of disabled trucks littered the beach. If you broke down, chances were the truck just stayed, rusted out and sank into the sand.

But once at the cut, when the tide started moving, casting a Mr. Champ spoon with a small sardinero, hooked through the mouth, and jigged slowly along the bottom, the action was terrific! There I caught my first and only Bonefish along with several nice Snook. We loaded up on two to three pound, Corvina, a fish resembling our Gulf Coast White Trout, but this Trout grows to a size of up to fifty pounds!

It is a very enjoyable, exciting experience to make a suspense filled trip to a remote fishing spot, hammer the fish and then come back out, in the dark, engines roaring, sand flying and finally making it back to civilization in one piece.

I made a total of 4 trips to the cut!

Wow!

By the spring of 1972, I had found a new salt water fishing paradise, “South of the Border, Down Mexico Way”. The upper end of El Golfo, the Gulf of California, is the final destination of the western Colorado River. The same river that roars through the Grand Canyon, meekly trickles into the top end of El Golfo at San Felipe, Mexico. Sixty miles southeast of San Felipe is Puerto Penasco (a tilde should be over the “N”), or Rocky Point as the local Arizonans call it.

Yes, local Arizonans. At the time, around 200 families had
established an American colony there centered around fishing and
relaxing. The beach houses were minimum standard, but sufficient for
occasional use by their lessors. At the time, Gringos couldn’t own
property in Mexico. The two best facilities at Rocky Point were the
boat storage area, patrolled by the local police and fenced with
concertina wire around the top, and the boat launching equipment.

My
boat, at the time, was an eighteen foot, Falcon Skip Jack, tri hull,
with two, sixty horsepower Johnson outboards and two internal, twenty
four gallon gas tanks. Loaded out it would cruise at twenty-five miles
per hour and had a range of fifty miles. We caught some very nice fish,
Sea Bass, Grouper, Corvina, Snook, Bonefish and Queen Trigger Fish. I
won a category of a tournament there in 1973 with a ten pound Trigger
Fish. We once saw and came within twenty feet of a fifty foot whale!

An
unusual feature of Rocky Point is the extreme tidal fluctuations caused
by its location at the top of El Golfo, which is several hundred miles
long and for a large body of water, very narrow, fifty to a hundred
miles wide. Tidal pressure going in and out causes wide fluctuations at
Rocky Point. I was told the Bay of Fundy, in Nova Scotia, is the only
spot in the world with greater tidal fluctuation.

More coming up on Rocky Point.