The 3/8’s ounce Mr. Champ spoon with a small sardinero attached, abruptly stopped like I was hung up on a rock or something, then it, whatever it was, took off, stripping off maybe 30 yards of 15 pound line. Finally the rod, a 6-1/2 foot popping rod and the drag took its toll, the fish stopped, took off again on a shorter run, then grudgingly came in and I slid it up on to the beach. Lying on the sand, the “it” was now a 19 inch, bonefish, maybe 2 pounds! Imaging that, a bonefish caught in St. John’s Bay, 10 miles south of Puerto Penasco, Mexico. Going to the encyclopedia, it showed me that Albula vulpes is the Florida strain of these speedsters, while the Pacific variety is Albula esuncula, basically the same fish.

Tossing the bonefish back into the water, I rebaited and cast out. It wasn’t long before I had another strike this fish didn’t take off like the bonefish, but cleared the water, shaking its head like a tarpon, it looked like a snook to me, but I’d never caught one, but as I reeled it in and up on the beach, sure enough, it was a snook. Wow, on my first 2 casts into the cut between El Golfo and St. John’s Bay, I had caught a bonefish and a snook, both firsts for me!

The fishing was great I caught another snook, probably both were a black snook. However, we loaded up on 2 to 3 pound, corvina, great fighters, a fish that resembles our Gulf Coast white trout, but this trout grows to a size of up to 30 pounds!

It wasn’t hard to get to the place, just a long sandy drive I thought, but boy, was I wrong, because on one excursion to Rocky Point, several of the locals asked me to accompany them to “The Cut”, a 200 foot wide, cut and channel leading from El Golfo into a small bay, St John’s Bay. The trip was 10 miles down the beach, not hard packed sand like along the Texas coast, but fine volcanic sand, which refused to pack. It was a 10, mile trip from Hell, 4 WD all the way. Tires deflated to 8, yes 8 pounds each! Skeletons of disabled trucks littered the beach and if you broke down, chances were the truck just stayed, rusted out and sank into the sand. It was an exciting experience to make a suspense filled trip to a remote fishing spot, hammer the fish, then come back out in the dark, engines roaring, sand flying and finally making it back to civilization in one piece.

We made a total of 4 trips to “The Cut”, all great fun and good fishing! Great memories!