Baffin Bay-An Eventful Trip

[GillespieRob]

Fishing Baffin this weekend, at least by my experience, was sub par. Saturday I launched from Kratz, tethered to my kayak and waded the shoreline. At the end of the day I had caught only a hard head. After loading up the yak, I drove around to various other spots to see how others had done that morning, and it seemed that I was not alone in my troutlessness. On the seemingly long drive home I decided there was no way I was getting back in that water this weekend, but at about 2am the next morning a couple buddies of mine had different ideas, so about 4 hours later we loaded up our yaks and headed back. I picked up some live shrimp to possibly enhance our experience and we made our way to site 55. After launching our kayaks, the day started to feel as it had the previous day, we had hooked up with 2 undersized trout between 3 of us. We decided to paddle across to the opposite shoreline to see if we could hunt up some redfish. We ended up in a rather large salt lake in the Kennedy Ranch that was accessible only because of the abnormally high tide. After following a school of reds around for a while, we started to hear someone yelling from the distance. I figured my ears were playing tricks on me and continued to fish, but the yelling continued for another minute, so I scanned the shoreline and saw a man yelling about 400 yards away waving his arms towards us. I yelled back to confirm I had seen him. Next he yelled back something incomprehensible in Spanish. My first thought was, great, one of the ranch hands is pissed that we were messing around in the ranch. Then one of my buddies, Rosco (who I had forgotten was fluent in Spanish), told us that he was asking for help.

This next conversation took place in Spanish between Rosco and this guy on the shoreline about 400 yards yelled at the top of their lungs:
"Please help me!"
"What is wrong?!"
"Do you have any food or water?!"
"No, I'm sorry!"
"Please help me!"
"Where are you coming from?!"
"Mexico! Do you have any food?!"
"No we don't have any food! Would you like us to call border patrol!?"
"Yes please call border patrol,please!"

At this point, we could all tell this guy was scared for his life. We called border patrol, described his location, and they said they would come get him. We discussed as a group what to do next, but decided that we didn't really trust the guy and had no idea if ten of his buddies were hiding behind the bush next to him. We continued to explore the salt lake after telling him border patrol was on the way. After about an hour ( with no fish) we decided to head home and started paddling in the man's general direction. By this time we felt comfortable enough to approach him cautiously on our yaks. Once we got within 20 or 30 yards we began speaking to him again (in Spanish). We found out that his name was Mauricio. He was 22 years old and heading from Mexico to Houston to find work. He had been on his own in the wilderness for 4 days, without food for 3, and without water for 2. Since I had no water, but had a cooler full of ice, we asked if he had a bottle for water. He did and pulled out an empty gallon jug. I cautiously approached the shore, stepped up to him, took his jug, and filled it up with ice melt from my cooler. In front of him was several washed up 2x4s that had been pieced together to make some sort of a makeshift raft, which he was going to use to assist him in getting to the other side of the bay where he could see civilization. After talking a little more, it was clear that he thought his best option was to attempt to cross the bay. We begged him to just wait out in the open for border patrol, but in his mind, doing nothing was the worst thing he could do, and his mind was made up. I tried to explain that the soft mud could be dangerous if he sunk into it, but he did not care. Before leaving I "accidentally" left my pfd on the shoreline. As we got back to our trucks, we could see through my binoculars that he had put the pfd on and was beginning to make his way into the water.

I sure wish border patrol could have gotten out there sooner, it had been over 2 hours since we called and we didn't see any sign of them. The whole experience kind of gave me some perspective, this guy about he same age as myself, was just trying to survive to make a better life for himself and I was just looking for my next fish. One thing is for sure, I will never again go out on my kayak without food and plenty of water.

[texnomad]

You were very correct to be extra careful it was not an ambush. I call the Border Patrol first and then leave water and some food away from the person so they can get to it after I am safely away.

[Copperfish]

Wow, surprised he had made it that far without getting picked up. Definitely be careful in that situation, I honestly might have kept my distance even with a bilingual group. But hard to say without being there, at least you were not alone. If you had been alone imagine what you would have done, could have been a dangerous situation.

Sad situation to say the least, but our border needs help.

[yakkingintothewind]

Cool experience

[txspeck]

That happen to me while I was hunting the Kennedy Ranch down in South Texas. I saw 3 guys walking through the bush with empty jugs of water. I drove up to them on my 4 wheeler and they all just kneeled to the ground (must have been my 7 Mag Weatherby they caught their attention). I gave them my water and chocolate bars and told them I would call the border patrol to pick you guys up. I called the front gate to the ranch, they said they would handle it. Within 10 minutes a helicopter was circling the area. From what I understood at that time 20 years ago, the Border Patrol was not allowed on the Kennedy Ranch, not sure what happen to those guys.

[smtxom]

That's a really cool experience. Something you won't soon forget. It makes you wonder how bad it must be back home for them to risk their health/lives to come have a shot at the American dream.

A couple years back I was driving back from Big Bend National Park along 90. I drove passed what looked like 4 Mexican nationals(3 teen boys and a young pregnant girl). They looked like they had been walking for days because they were all tattered and looked exhausted. I figured since they were walking along the major highway in the area they no longer cared if they got picked up by ICE. My girlfriend at the time said we should pick them up and take them to the next town. I advised against it not knowing who they were or what kind of people they were. I said it would only take one with a weapon to take our vehicle and leave us stranded there. So we turned around and I pulled up along side the road a couple hundred yards from them. I left them our water and fruit/trail mix we had left over from our trip in the park. As I was driving off they were screaming at me to calm down and saying they were not a threat and to pick them up. I still think about them to this day. I can't imagine what they went through just to get that far. I hope they made out ok.

[Yaklash]

March of this year, the same thing happened to three friends of mine during our Baffin tournament. They saw a guy waving and yelling for help, except he was way east of there and would have had miles to swim to get across to the King Ranch. They approached without caution, because the boat owner had a handgun. He also speaks some Spanish. Same thing. Apparently, they have no idea there's a huge bay system there and no maps and they just try to hug the Lower and Upper Lagunas Madre to get to Corpus. They put him in the boat and brought him back to the boat ramp. They gave him a couple of bottles of water and a couple of sandwiches on the way back to the ramp, then after they loaded up the boat and unhooked it back at the cabins, the boat owner drove him out to 77 at Riviera. As he was standing there waiting to get the ride to the highway, he had a look of gratitude you rarely see in the eyes of any American.

[Trevore]

Ive had several encounters over the years with the wets. Even found one dead in our hunting cabin. Had to kick a group of about 15 out of our cabin about midnight one time, felt bad about that one. It was only about 15 degrees that night. Offered them a ride to an abandoned cabin down the way but they said they could find it. In my experience if they are waiving you over asking for help they most likely need it. If they won't talk to you, try to hide and don't make eye contact, you really have to keep your eyes on them if you happen to come across them. Ive come across 3 or 4 mules in the brush, and they were not happy to see me thats for sure