so this was our second year with cedros sportfishing. i can't say enough great things about the operation, but believe me i'm gonna try! it's a dozen guys all total. mike comes in from georgia, lee from oregon, and todd from british columbia. the rest are san francisco bay area and southern california. mike and lee came down to my place a few days ahead, to i took the opportunity on friday to show off a little of our local fishing out of half moon bay! thanks to khanh for being our deckhand!
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https://youtu.be/pHkbp9zqxqo
we had a full day to prep for the trip on saturday. marc joined us that evening, and we headed out early sunday morning. traffic in southern california was miserable, as usual.
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everyone got situated at the vagabond hotel, then we were off to dinner at miguel's!
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most everyone was pretty tuckered out from all the travel, so we turned in early. monday we were all up early for breakfast at denny's!
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then it was off to the cbx, or cross border express.
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this is one of the organizational features of cedros sportfishing that really makes a difference. rosie meets us at the cbx with all of the needed paperwork. we gather up all of our gear into carts and she shepherds us through the gate. all of the paperwork is done ahead of time and we walk right through.
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we leave rosie at the gate , take the elevators up, walk across the border and into tijuana on an elevated bridge, then take elevators down to customs.
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once through customs (no photos allowed), we walk right out into the airport in tijuana. we are met by more cedros sportfishing staff that check our luggage and they escort us to the departure gate where we wait for a bit. when the plane is ready, we hop a bus for a short hundred yard ride to the plane. we were wheels up in 10 minutes.
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the flight to cedros is two hours. not alot to see until you get to the island!
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https://youtu.be/wcIJnkyzMvQ
our translator, richard, will be hobbling around all week with a bum leg. he still managed to greet us with an ice chest full of cold beer for the drive to the lodge.
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we dumped out gear into our rooms and started rigging up. we had arranged to get four hours of evening fishing in. i was barely able to get the guys together for a photo.
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the lodge still looks great! if you want to see some photos of the compound, check out last years post!
https://alantani.com/index.php?topic=26573.0
i fished with peter that first day and we stuck 7 fish on surface iron. lots of work, but lots of fun!
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dinner was great as usual. flor does a great job.
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the evening view is just as spectacular as ever!
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and mornings come just as early! it's mostly coffee for me.
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fishing over the next three days was slower than last year, but still just as fun.
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https://youtu.be/7h7dozwN0Ts
https://youtu.be/X8wXeL5O5oI
https://youtu.be/hs55-wOFW7A
we had made a special request to have yellowtail collars for dinner for the third evening. the ladies probably though we were crazy, but it was really tasty and it's actually my favorite part of the fish!
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todd's just jealous......
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for our final dinner, we had steaks!
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on the morning of our last day, we flew home.
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the heaviest guys got to ride in front!
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we said a quick goodbye to security.
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and a quick goodbye to richard.
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and we were on our way home. another great trip!
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ok, so a couple of things about the operation. it's really, really nice!!! think about what most small mexican fishing villages must have been like about 30 to 40 years ago. well, that's cedros. they are also working very hard to dial in the operation. there were a couple of things about last year that we commented to rosie about and made some special requests for this year.
we fished two guys per boat instead of three. we had to pay extra, but it worked out great!
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last year, we were sitting on hard fiberglass most of the time. we had requested seat cushions on the boats. we got them!
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we had requested rod holders on the pangas. got 'em!
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we had requested lots of ice. we got a half dozen bags instead of one.
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and we had requested that the fish be gutted and gilled at sea, immediately after being caught. the captains probably thought this was unnecessary, but it was pretty easy for them. and the quality of the fish we brought home was amazing!!!! i'm certain that it was so much easier for the guys that were cutting up and vacuum packing the fish as well. and it also made it quick and easy to take the collars. normally, i think they would just throw them away. now that they have seen how good the collars really are, i'm hoping that they will not waste these valuable pieces!
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not sure how many companies would be that responsive, but these guys definitely are!
as far as the fishing went, it was slow. we picked up fish with surface iron, fly lined mackerel, slow trolled mackerel, and rapalas. different things worked better for different guys on different days. the only concentration of fish and bait we saw was on the very first afternoon when we went out for a half day. even calicos were scarce. red weedless swimbaits are usually one cast, one fish. not this time! it just means that i'm going to have to plan better for next year!
all said, cedros island is an absolutely magical place! i'll just leave you with a few short videos for you to enjoy!
https://youtu.be/6ViLoD7ZRvM
https://youtu.be/UyhP671lZM0
https://youtu.be/_fDMpHH9_h0
we are already booked for next year! alan