Inquiring
A few weeks before we went to Cabo San Lucas I talked Nancy into spearfishing. I lied to her and told her that they take all levels of beginners.
I had seen someone post about spearfishing in Cabo a few months before. So I looked it up online and sent them an email about booking a trip. To my delight Natalie emailed me back within minutes. I thought this was odd because it was late on a Sunday night. As it turned out, this customer service was just the tip of the iceberg.
I asked if I could just pay when I arrived in Cabo since it was about a week before our booked spearfishing date. Natalie replied with no problem, another clue to their customer service.
I also had a few other questions which she answered in short order, and as it turns out they do take all level of beginners. Whew.
I was stoked to go, we are very comfortable in the ocean and we shoot guns a lot. I am also an archer, which I reasoned should lend itself to shooting a speargun. I could already taste our freshly speared fish tacos.
Payment
I arrived a day late to the shop, the day after I told Natalie I would be there to pay. Again, no problem at all. Natalie promptly took payment and told us when to show up and what to bring. Her cute dog greeted us at the door and then stood sentinel outside as if guarding the perimeter.
The Spearfishing Baja shop is located in the Hotel Tesoro, which we have walked by many times. One of the locals pointed us in the right direction when we were within the hotel.
While we were there Natalie discussed the weather forecast with us and the impending storm that was to hit the Cabo area on Wednesday. Natalie suggested that we move our date from Friday to Sunday to have a better opportunity for the underwater visibility to improve from all of the particulate matter that would be in the water from the storm runoff.
The entire Southern portion of the Baja peninsula is essentially rock and sand. When a big storm comes virtually none of the water is absorbed into the soil. There is no soil. It all runs off into the ocean, and as a result the visibility in the ocean suffers after a storm.
Natalie could have easily kept us scheduled for Friday, but it is more important to Spearfishing Baja that we have the best experience possible. That says a lot about them as a company.
One of the nice things Natalie told us to bring was a light jacket if we had one with us to keep the chill off of us after spearfishing. We are avid scuba divers and try to spend as much time on the water as possible, so we know generally what to bring on the water, but it is these nice little touches someone less experienced than us might not have known that make the difference between a chilly ride home vs. being warm and happy.
I noticed that most of the gear they use is made by Riffe, I am familiar with Riffe because they are located in San Clemente, California where I used to live. I have friends that know the owner. Riffe is one of, if not the top quality spearfishing gear manufacturers in the industry. So right off the bat I knew if they were shelling out money on this type of quality gear that this probably boded well for us.
An hour or so later an email dropped in reiterating everything Natalie had just told us.
Oh, and we received five inches of rain from the storm that Natalie warned us about. Five inches of rain is a lot.
Instruction
We arrived promptly at 7:45am as instructed. Natalie set about determining what size freediving fins we would need. Then Jonathan came in and started gathering the necessary gear.
After that Jonathan started with the instructional portion of our day.
Jonathan stated that it was his goal by the end of the morning that we would feel comfortable enough and have enough knowledge to go out spearfishing on our own. Good, because that was my goal too.
He methodically taught us the components of the speargun, how it operated, how to load it, techniques for carrying the gun, aiming, and basically everything else we needed to know before jumping off the boat. I’m greatly simplifying the process, it took over an hour for this instruction.
Underwater Hunting
When we arrived at the boat about 100 yards away from the shop we met Captain Ruy. He welcomed us to the boat, helped us stow our gear and we were off.
Just riding out of the marina, which we have done on our previous trips to cabo fishing and scuba diving, is a treat. Lands end is breathtaking. Not only is it where the end of the Baja Peninsula, it’s where the mighty Pacific Ocean meets the Sea of Cortez. It’s a magical place.
It took about a half hour to get to our spot up the Pacific Coast. Captain Ruy and I discussed how deer hunting tactics differ from Mexico and Ohio. He also told me where in Baja I can get lobsters for a dollar.
The plan was to go up the coast, to our furthest spot then do stops on the way back getting closer to Cabo with each stop.
When we got in the visibility was less than ideal. It was anywhere from 10 – 15 feet depending on what spot we were at.
Good thing Natalie told us to push our date back a couple of days. Friday would have been much worse.
At first we had a tough time seeing anything. We are both very comfortable in the water, we both scuba dive and surf, but this was new to us. The limited visibility definitely made it harder. I struggled to pick out the bottom and I wasn’t seeing any fish worth shooting.
It was definitely me, because Jonathan shot a mackerel within minutes of being in the water.
After a while I did see a mackerel, pushed my gun forward, aimed and shot. Then there was nothing, I missed. Shooting spearguns is not like shooting rifles or shotguns, not even like archery. You are immersed in seawater, the waves and surge pushing you back and forth with limited visibility while the fish you are targeting is moving rapidly by. This was hard.
Jonathan was right next to me and saw the whole process. He said I did everything as I should have, I just missed. This was not the first time I was going to miss. I missed a lot. But at least I was seeing fish worth shooting.
Nancy on the other hand had two kills in her first two shots. Yes, I was jealous.
After our hunt at the first spot Jonathan was cutting up a bunch of veggies on the back of the boat. As I hauled myself over the gunwale he said “do you like ceviche?”
I’ve never made ceviche, but I’ve eaten my fair share. I’ve never had better ceviche than Jonathan prepared on the back of the Baja Spearfishing boat. I don’t know if it was the freshly killed mackerel or Jonathan’s recipe, but it is the best ceviche we’ve ever had.
I’ve never seen anyone fillet a fish on the back of a boat going 25 knots through six foot chop, but Jonathan did it like a pro. I would have chopped off a finger if I would have tried that.
Jonathan and Ruy methodically picked spots that were shallow enough for us and tried to put us on the fish. They did a great job managing the boat, us, and the ceviche. I wish I had some right now as I write this in Ohio.
At the end of the day Nancy proved to be a more proficient spearo than myself. She got a mackerel and a spotted something or other. I got a small pompano. Nancy decided the whole freediving thing wasn’t working for her, so she just shot her fish from the surface. I had to dive to get mine.
We would up back at the marina around 12:30pm. Jonathan sent us on our way with a good recipe and two of the fish we speared. We couldn’t have eaten the third, one of them was pretty big.
Spearfishing is a lot like archery hunting for deer. You are constantly watching and when it comes to putting the speargun or bow in the correct position you need to do it quickly and efficiently. You have a split second to make the decision to shoot. Your prey needs to be broadside to you to take a humane shot. They are very similar.
Dinner
We decided we didn’t have time that day to cook the fish so we took it over to Roberto at El Coral to have them store it and cook it later that evening. It turned out to be a great decision. We had met Roberto, the owner of El Coral earlier in the week on a lark. That’s an entirely different story.
His chef prepared our fish beautifully. I have to say, it’s the best fish I’ve ever had. I’m sure it had to do with being so fresh from the ocean, but it was delicous, both the pompano and the spotted something or other. We just had sides of rice, beans and veggies and tortillas of course.
It’s one of the best dinners we’ve ever had.
Conclusion
Our entire experience from start to finish with Spearfishing Baja could only be described as excellent. I would highly recommend anyone interested in spearfishing to start off with the good folks there. They do both reef hunting and bluewater hunting for pelagic fish. I think no matter what your experience level is they can accommodate you.
My only regret is they didn’t have one of their awesome t-shirts in an XL. Maybe they’ll have them in stock during my next visit.