I was fishing somewhere south of La Paz.
I began my day by paddling 30 minutes and anchoring, only to find out I did not have the top part of my wetsuit… So I jumped in without my suit and took the anchor out. The seas were rough enough for me to have to turn into some swell in order to stay upright. I got back to my car after 40 minutes of paddling in rough seas. I had not eaten since 8 pm the previous night, it was 2:30 by then. The old peanuts on the car floor, those stuck in the space between my seat brackets and the carpet sure looked good to me, but I passed. Walked back to my kayak, wobbly legged and all, and proceeded to paddle back to the same spot.
The rocky coast sends waves back and creates a bit of a confused seas type of mayhem. I finally don my suit, and start fishing the sandy bottom of the steep rocky coast. I look up, towards the rocks, for some snappers. I rub the bands, do all the usual. I manage to attract small groupers but nothing I want to shoot.
I was diving super well on my empty stomach. It always gives me an extra 20 seconds. Moreover, I generally feel better while diving and I need less recuperation time when I’ve fasted for more than 12 hours. I encourage divers to try intermittent fasting lol.
I was going up and down the coast, diving the deep parts first then looking between rocks, also tried long breatholds. On some of those longer dives I attracted everything in the proximity, it looked like an aquarium…. of small tropical fish.
The sand was at about 20 meters (66 feet). It’s only 75 meters from the shores. Some rocks are a little farther and deeper. The sand goes down to 60 meters about 500 meter away from the coast. I saw some small mackerels at 27 meters (90 feet). That’s deep for a 3 pound fish that you know will likely tare. That said, I was encouraged to look further out.
Sure enough, there were the long thin barracudas type fish we often see here (not the needle-nosed ones). I dove down to the bottom a few times. Fish came to check me out. I slapped the water and swam farther away until I could not reach the sand anymore… well I did not want to. There was no reason to go down at 30 meters or more, only to see sand. The action was on top.
As I swam against the current the get back in position, I finally saw it. A nice sized wahoo almost on the surface. I fumbled to point my gun and took a shot from the surface. I hate shooting from the surface since the movement often makes me miss my mark. I could have fired earlier. Instead I got as close as I could before taking my shot. It was a difference of one and half seconds perhaps lol. I knew where the spine was but I never expected to hit it like this!
12/01/2019