Castro Camp - El Erendira Baja

[suiterob]

Went south of the border to Castro Camp a few hours south of Ensenada this past Saturday and Sunday (Nov 8th & 9th). The trip included the Good, the bad and the ugly.

The four amigos my buddy Hsin (pronounced Sing), his friends Rick and Jason and me. Ready for our 1st day of fishing. We’re pumped and ready to go.



Picture of us standing in front of our 5 Star accommodations with the vicious attack guard dogs! Also picture of our ride and trailer platform on back for anticipation of what’s to hopefully come. I’m able to stick 2 100Qt coolers on the back.





As you will see launching a boat down here is pretty wild. Here you can see us at the launch ramp awaiting our ride. Where’s the boat???



Here comes our ride. Launch time 6:35 am



At 12 Noon we had ¾ of one of those large 100 qt. coolers full of fish. This is the “GOOD” The “BAD” is Jason from our group is just chumming all morning long. And not the type that brings fish to the boat. So his contribution to this point is ZERO. Captain Fernando also outfishes us and puts a lot of what you see here in the cooler. Red’s, various species of Rockfish, Johnny Bass, large whitefish, Bonito and Lingcod. We fished from 130 to 220 feet of water 10 miles from camp. The conditions were perfect warm and the water was glass! Don’t understand how Jason is yakking in these conditions.



I hear my boy Hsin yelling wildly as he’s bendo on something big!! Again this is the “GOOD”. I set my Calcutta 400 down, as I had just thrown some iron on some boils around us (We’ll get back to this) he is screaming with excitement. In the pic you can see the smaller fish on the left that was hooked. The 12 pound Ling had his jaws around this fish and WOULD NOT LET GO. Captain Fernando gaffs the Ling and it let’s go of the smaller fish. Just as I snap the picture. Back to the UGLY…. Clack, clack, chicka boom boom splash!!! I turn around reach for my Calcutta and Seeker rod and missed it by “INCHES” SPLASH down to the bottom of the pacific ocean…. I had a split second to decide whether to jump in but couldn’t pull the trigger…. Just could not get myself to jump in after it. I thought I had it in free spool but in all the commotion I obviously did not. All I can picture is my Tady Lure falling in the water column and most likely a big mackerel or big bonito hit it as I had my back to my pole Hsin said it did a major Bendo before it Flew at a high rate of speed into the ocean. We were having such a great day fishing I wasn’t going to let the loss of a $500 rod and reel get me down. Yeah but deep down it really hurt even tough the outfit was 13 years old it was one of my favorites. So I end up taking one for the “Team”



Flipper and friends cruising under our Panga







After the days battle Hsin sleeps on the ride back to camp.



Picture of our catch 100 Qt FULL as Jason comes around in the late afternoon and starts helping us fill this cooler…



Captain Fernando and Rick on our way back to camp after a heck of a day fishing!





Here comes our trailer for panga pickup. We get back at around 3 o’clock.



Our catch as the Filet crew gets busy on the task at hand.





Me, Hsin and Rick posing with our catch.



Waiting for scraps from the Filet crew.



A 13 pound bonito caught by captain Fernando.



This is the catch from the next boat back into camp as they equaled our cooler full of fish. However, they had 6 Lings on the day and we only had 1





Our second morning (Sunday the Nov 9th) we awoke to a slight rain fall. Bummer… clouds looked ominous and we weren’t sure whether we were going to fish. As I looked out over the surrounding bay. It didn’t look too bad. Little did I know how deceiving looks could be.. Again the ugly appears! We launch around 6:45 and turn the corner from where we were and 6 – 8 foot swells and the boat going about 5 mph. Over one swell and BAM panga smacks the water and I’m thinking we’re going down. Those panga’s don’t look like much but after what we went through with them I’m a believer. I’m also thinking this just is not worth it. I guess if Captain Waldo, who by the way is the owner of this place, was not worried then I figured I will not worry. We weren’t going to make it to the fishing grounds where we were yesterday but we made it out about 5 miles and Captain Waldo said there was a good spot fairly close to shore in 80 feet of water. We get there and it’s rocking and rollin in a small panga the kind of weather that I don’t even think cattle boats would go out in. Wind blowin, swells as indicated and just plain nasty. We anchor which was the only way we got on the fish as two other boats from our camp couldn’t hook anchor and just drifted past us. We get back to camp and they have a big skunk on them as they got nothing.
Jason has a predisposition to yakking and after we anchor, sure enough within 5 minutes he’s hurlin. I join him shortly thereafter and I’m not one to have problems as long as I pop my Dramamine faithfully which I did and II still hurled! Hsin and Rick have no problems and are on the fish I get over it and proceed to land 2 good sized Sheepshead. We landed 12 in total for the day along with a Ling, and a nice calico and a few nice other bass. Not nearly the production as the day before but you can see these are good sized sheepshead. I didn’t weigh them but I’d say the 2 larger ones were about 10 - 12 pounds.



The retrieve at low tide. I still marvel at this exercise.



Captain Waldo stands on the trailer behind the tractor as his Panga is brought out.



Our catch for day 2. Me, Jason, Rick, Hsin and Captain Waldo. Although not as productive as Day 1 it was great all the same. Between the 12 ziploc freezer backs full of filets from day one and the 11 Sheepshead and 1 Ling that were gutted and cleaned (not filleted) we filled the 100 qt cooler full after adding a couple of bags of ice… Not bad for a 2 day trip south of the border. Other than loosing my Calcutta.. ouch it still hurts thinkin about that.






A view of the low tide boat retrieval. You can see the natural breakwater created by the rocks that allow for boat launches here. Not sure what they do when the swell comes from the south as they would be launching straight into the surf.



The turn off from the road south to Castro Camp. EJ Erendira which is about 1 ½ hours south of Ensenada and north of San Quintin.

[Walt]

Nice report Suiterob, AM itching to see the picx. Always wanted to fish Castro's camp. But with all this drug violence going on in the TJ area it takes the fun out of things. Glad you had no problems

Walt

[JAY'SAFISHHOLIC]

Boat load of fish

[mickeysindahous]

Truly a great report! Castro's is a "The Spot" I've been longing to go to for every. However, like Walt, I'd rather not risk it with all the chaos that's going on down there.

Thx for sharing your trip!

[fishtaco]

5 star accomodations? LOL more like boot camp,
military style, very rustic camping that's the idea
cool place to spend the night in front of the ocean
with friends , great botoom fishing with yellowtail and white sea bass,
that place never changes, is the same all the time,
and is EJ erendira , not El erendira
very cool report and pictures

[suiterob]

Originally Posted by fishtaco

5 star accomodations? LOL more like boot camp,
military style, very rustic camping that's the idea
cool place to spend the night in front of the ocean
with friends , great botoom fishing with yellowtail and white sea bass,
that place never changes, is the same all the time,
and is EJ erendira , not El erendira
very cool report and pictures

you're right! EJ not EL. Definitely bootcamp fishing but for the Hard Core fishing enthusiast it's not a bother! 2 days of fishing, accomodations, gas and incidentals worked out to $180 bucks a person so well worth the jaunt down south.

[suiterob]

Originally Posted by mickeysindahous

Truly a great report! Castro's is a "The Spot" I've been longing to go to for every. However, like Walt, I'd rather not risk it with all the chaos that's going on down there.

Thx for sharing your trip!

I was a little apprehensive about going down there but my friend Hsin goes there all the time without hesitation. If you stay on the main road don't pull over in TJ and gas up before you go over the border I tend to think the risk is somewhat mitigated. There's quite a few other Americans that were there fishing. I also saw quite a few boats being trailered down there by others. I know risking your life is not worth a day of fishing but after weighing all the risks it seems the remoteness of this place will for now tend to lessen the risk.

[fishtaco]

Walt, the banditoes story is a old one, and exagerated
they may be at tijuana's low nighborhoods, but there's no fishing there

Castro's camp is south, in the middle of nowhere
so no banditos, the place is a camping area
ready for a unforgetable fishing adventure