June 2008 Newsletter

It seems like about two hours ago we were all saying whoopee, or its Spanish equivalent, as we rung in the New Year.  Yes, it was 2008!  What happened?  January turned into June before our very eyes.  When we all so much younger, a year lasted, well, an entire year.  Now, a year is over before we get used to the new picture on the calendar.  When you’re 10 years old a year is a 10th of your life.  But now a year is a 40^th, 50^th, 60^th or less. 

And so January, 2008 morphed into June before the ink was dry.  The Super Bowl and the NCAA Basketball Tournament and the NBA playoffs are but a distant memory.  Who won those, anyway? 

In Baja, where things move a click slower than the rest of the world, our hotel-resort greeted guests old and new.  We hosted groups, reunions and people looking for a big fish.  The weather was a little cooler than normal – that was good.  Bait and chum was a little harder to find – that was bad.  Roosterfish slammed right into the beach, giving our pangas a great shot at pez gallo. 

All-in-all, June marked the middle of the year before we were quite ready for it.   But that’s the way things are these days.  It’s called life.  Enjoy it. 

Happenings & Things

From June 20-22 we host the Barefoot Studio’s international Hatha Yoga training event that featured everything from the history to elements, techniques, practice and meditation presented by the internationally acclaimed Matthew and Holly Krepps.  Participants included Josefina Alvarez, Sergio Sanchez, Jannice Kinne, Adriana Mondragon and Adaiza Mungia.  It was organized by Karena Ferragut, and from all reports it was one of the best. 

One of the more inspiring events at the hotel was the Elementary School Graduation from Instituto McGregor.  The 6^th graders, along their families, spent a weekend away from San Jose and Cabo San Lucas, celebrating their ending of elementary school and getting ready for their next step the Middle School.  A special and VIP guest was John Maffucci, Axel’s High School Senior Advisor from San Diego.

Groups

We have the ability to host big groups, small groups and everything in the middle, and we proved that once again in June.  Among our Guest Groups were –

Brian Bisk and 31 fishermen from Salt Lake City from Wall-2-Wall Flooring.  They fished for two days aboard the Dottie BII, Dusty BIII, Dusty BII, Alegria, Careleste, Eclipse, Liliana, Vagabundo, Yanet and Nueva Era. 

Dean Lane, San Jose California, was joined by 24 of his friends and colleagues for a weekend enjoying whatever interested them.  It was mostly fishing, but some of them went diving, golfing and partying in Cabo.  Group members included Steve Barizon, Frank Hannig, Tom Flanders, Kanwar Batra, John Carl, Mike Flowers, Bruce Decock, John Gardner, Brett Eller, Brian Lane, Tom Evans, David Evans, Rick Harrington, Josh Thomas, Elliot Mark, Anthony Hill, Walt Thinfin, Jamshid Lal, Supreet Machanda, Andrew Webb, Ron Sha, Tony Young, Charles Koh, Mike Pickett, Daniel Lim, and Jeff Richards and our friend Dean. All of them are part of the OOCIO organization. They are a lot of fun and it is a joy to see them back year after year. See you next year

More Groups

David Robles accompanied by 20 good fishing buddies from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, crossed the Sea of Cortez in their own boats for a weekend full of action, party and good time. In the group were Hector Hampl, Adan Zamora, Javier Cubedo, Justo Zaldo, Jaime Rosas, Efren Hernandez, Jaime Peregrina, Carlos Zavala, Paul Ruiz, Arturo Ruelas, Carlos Bloch, Santiago Sibrian, Alejandro Ruiz, Sergio Chomina, Jonas Lim, Sebastian Arana, Manuel Enrique Nielsen, Marco Julio Carlon and Rene Loaiza.

Paul Cannon rescheduled his April trip and came in June with his boss and some of their best clients, Mr. Takayama, Furner, Roldman, and Nicklos.  They fished aboard our 23-foot Super Panga and caught tuna, sierra, snapper and dorado.

We enjoyed hosting The Bryson Family from Bakersfield, California.  The group consisted of brothers Ron and Ty Bryson and their respective families who joined us for a mini family reunion, together with their wives and five of their siblings. They spent three days fishing on two boats.  There was no tournament or competition, it was just fun. 

The Jack Woody Group consisted of Mr. Woody and his wife, Kathy from New Mexico with. There were joined by three other couples and three more friends. Most of them came from New Mexico, but some as far as Hawaii. The guys fished for four days while the ladies enjoyed a nice walk early in the morning, a coffee and breakfast at the restaurant patio and the day went on. It was a joy to host them once again.

Returning Guests

Larry Montano and friends have come over to the East Cape for a weekend of relaxation and fishing since 2001. This year’s trip included Jeff Lahr, Mike Smith, Larry Montano, Dennis Mc Morris and Pat Deion from Montano Plumbing Group in Santa Cruz California . . . Toguito Hazard and Mike McGrath with his fiancée Sandy.  They will be fishing again for the Bisbee Tournament . . . Larry Quierolo was joined by his son and son-in-law . . . Returning again from Indio, California was our friend Don Woll, who had a pleasant fishing with Juan Garcia aboard the Alegria and on Mosca I with Victor Jr.

We hosted Lou Duchene from San Diego, California and Art Kohl from Lawrenceville, Georgia, who fished aboard Vagabundo for a couple days, as always having great time with Captain Jose Cosio.  Lawrenceville is the County Seat, in case anybody ever asks.

Maria Jeffress and James Bobcock with their families had a good time aboard Dusty BII with Jesus Cota and Sadoc Agundez.  Zachary Babcock released two striped marlin and caught some dorado on his first visit to Baja . . . not a bad way to begin!

A returning guest from 2004 was James Cargal from Ardmore, Oklahoma.

Michael Jordan from Anderson, South Carolina spent weekend fishing . . . while The Mathews Family from Gardnerville, Nevada (that’s up in great Basque food country) caught three dorado and a dandy tuna . . .There was Mark Templeton and his family from Chula Vista California . . . while Berk Cone from Klamath Falls, Oregon was diving with Mark Raynor our partner in  Vista Sea Sport.

Other returning guests included Ron Chordigan from Moorpark, California, who used a gift certificate from BFA Group . . . Our friend Victor Gonella from Petaluma, California was here twice fishing in his own boat accompanied by Bruce Rifkin, our neighbor . . . while our friend Frank Murdock from Salt Lake City was here for a couple days in June fishing on the Dottie BII with Captain Vicente Cosio.  Susan Currie from Sausalito, California visited us South of the Border once again.

Making their second trip of the year was William Kramer from Steilacoom, Washington . . . John Ryan fromVista California was accompanied by Lisa and Mark Mehtlan from Oceaside, California and Julie and William Lefever from Escondido California, had a good time fishing and snorkeling in nearby Cabo Pulmo Marine Park . . . Our good friends Richard Dailey, Charlie Lewis and Donald Jackson from Pleasanton, California had a little unfortunate incident.  On their first night Richard fell and broke his arm, and was not allowed to fish.  Fortunately, he has done nicely and we wish him continued recovery . . . Steven Wiberg brought his family and some friends Joshua Evans and Don Barry from Waukesha, Wisconsin . . . From Sinaloa were Octavio Borboa and his friends from Los Mochis and Mazatlan. Also from Los Mochis were other guests lead by Raul Antillon including Jacobo Alvarez, Eduardo Pena, Armando Diaz de León, Roberto Robles and Francisco Salinas.

Honeymooners Eddie and Melissa Sunila from San Antonio, Texas fishing aboard

3 Hermanos with Captain Ramon Tamayo and Mate Teodoro Araiza caught two dorado, a jack crevalle, skipjack and two roosterfish released at an area called Las Barrancas a couple miles north of Cabo Pulmo.  From Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, cousins Terry and Richard Stern had their dream trip with seven dorado and released, two cabrilla, three red snapper, three yellowtail and fifteen roosterfish fishing on Mosca with Captain Juan Garcia.  Jordan Farrell, Ray Sell and Bob Farrell from Cerritos and Corona, California fishing on Liliana with Captain Marco Yepiz and Mate Marcos Agundez reported 21 tuna and five dorado caught and two jack crevalle and four roosterfish released.

Wyatt Briggs from the tiny town of Scio, Oregon caught his first blue marlin, a 300 pounder that he fought for almost two hours aboard the Careleste, one of our 29-foot Phoenix boats with Captain Carlos Agundez a very serious and technical fisherman.  Wyatt was accompanied by Vance Briggs, Dedee, and Sam. Welcome to David and Steve Tomlinson along their families from Bellevue, Washington . . . Ray Johnson from Los Osos, California up in San Luis Obispo County fishing with his friend “Micky” Juan Garcia on the Alegria . . . Dennis Noble from Edmond, Oklahoma accompanied with Lynn Marcoux from Orange California, fishing aboard Yanet with Captain Felipe Ruiz . . . Tony Deogracia from Pioneer, California . . . Ken Ribardo from Hidden Valley, California had a great time fishing with Captain Chayo in Nueva Era.  Ken saw some fly-fishers who were here from Los Angeles and Maryland and vowed to try it next time . . .  Mike and Patty Adams, John and Bunnie Terry from Biggs, California caught three dorado fishing aboard Victoria with Captain Victor Garciglia in front of the Los Frailes area. And, finally, “locals” from San Jose, San Lucas and La Paz were Suki and Walter Trevino, Sabrina Maucuzet and Aram Garces.

We hope we didn’t miss anyone . . . if we did, please accept our apologies and we hope you realize that it isn’t easy keeping track of that many people while trying to pour margaritas. 

Thanks to all of you from the Valdez Family