Z Fish Report (11/29/12)

Photo by Mike Bulkley, on the super
panga Huntress

With the blue water on the beach, the surface temperatures have cooled down a couple of degrees to an average of 80° inshore and about 82° offshore. And, the fishing this week has been wild, crazy, and a lot of fun for a lot of anglers.

I - Starting with the offshore fishing the sailfish were coming on strong all week, with enough dorado for dinner to fill in the slack time. The average is 3 to 4 sailfish and a dorado a day for each boat.

Cheva, on the panga Dos Hermanos II fished 2 days with Dan Helterline of Montana. Dan emailed me this: “I went out with Cheva for two days after fishing with you. The first day we hooked 3 sailfish and landed two, one of which we teased up to the boat and it grabbed my fly twice but I couldn't get the hook to stick. The next day we teased a sailfish to the boat but same story, grabbed my fly twice and couldn't get a good hook set. We caught a medium sized Dorado that day also.”

Plus, Cheva fished with clients from France for 8 sailfish and 2 dorado for 2 days of fishing.

With Mike Bulkley looking on, Capt. Francisco is about to
realease Nancy and Danielle Olsen's sailfish on the Huntress

This past week, Jacky Monteil and his wife from France fished three days offshore with Capt Francisco on the Huntress and released a total of nine sailfish. Greg Littlefield and his friend Ronnie from Pennsylvania fished Sunday, releasing three sailfish and Clark, Nancy and Danielle Olsen fished Monday and Nancy and Danielle each had a Sailfish. All fish were caught at or inside the 15 mile line.

Adolfo, on the panga Dos Hermanos, fished with clients from Switzerland for 6 days, getting 20 sailfish and 6 dorado.

Don with his 1st beach caught jack crevalle

II - However, the beach fishing at Barra Potosi went off like a cannon several times this last week, and sometimes a couple of times a day. The Barra is about 20 minutes south of Zihuatanejo, and Don Wollcott of Atwater, CA is staying at Bungalows Solecito on the beach, with just a couple of minutes walk to the village. The jack Crevalle chased the sardines right up on the beach in front of the bungalow for three days straight! The first day he got a 25-30 pound jack with the surface popper on a spin rod. The second morning he got another with the spin rod and then actually had time to run back to the bungalow for his fly rod and got another.


He told me the jacks were crashing the beach for almost a thousand yards! Can you imagine...? Incredible! He said they were in the knee depth skinny water, and 25 pound jacks crashed into his legs, almost knocking him off balance. The cast with the fly rod was just a short roll cast, for an instant hookup.

Don sent me this photo and these comments: Caught 3 Jack's from 15-25 lbs in another wild 45 min of action when a massive ball of sardines were chased to the beach....sitting here on the patio when as I saw a wave break in front of me with what must have held several hundred big Jack's! Hooked up!!! Was my yell 3 times in 45 min, landing 3 all about this size.... And then they were gone...... 

On Sunday Don and I went to Puerto Vicente Guerrero and fly fished there on a panga. After I dropped him back off at the Bungalows Solecito about 3:30, the jacks started crashing the beach again in front his bungalow (about 40 yards to the water line). He hooked a nice one on the fly rod, but after several minutes it came unbuttoned (as the roosters had for him down at Vicente Guerrero earlier in the day). He was too tired to go for another.

III - This leads us to the inshore fishing for roosterfish. Adolfo made the long run to Puerto Vicente Guerrero with his French clients on Tuesday, and got 16 roosters on top water poppers with the spin rods. We discussed this and he had a very similar experience we had the day before down there with Don Wolcott. The roosters are not on the beaches, but rather about a half mile off shore, crashing on bait.

This unusual photo shows the rooser's mouth wide open
and gills flared as it tries to suck in the hookless popper

With Don, and Adolfo Jr to cast the hookless popper teaser, we went to Puerto Vicente Guerrero on Sunday. Adolfo Jr. and I had gone down there a few days before with Don, and had raised a lot of roosters from the back side of the waves. But, every day on the water is a different day. Adolfo flayed the water with the hookless popper relentlessly. We moved to different locations 4 times to get out of clear water to find water a bit off colored. We raised a few roosters, but really very few came to the boat for a legitimate shot with the fly rod, and they were all in the teens for size. I was really getting discouraged and scratching my head, because there were so many roosters on the beaches just a few days prior.

These were all large roosters. We found three
separate schools like this.

 About 12:00 we saw some birds working on a school of black skip jack tuna a half mile off the beach, and we went over to investigate. It turned out to be all Roosters! Now we knew were the roosters had gone to. Off the hookless teaser Don hooked one and lost it after a couple of minutes of fight.

The fly line, above the hookless teaser popper,
comes tight on a jack crevalle caught by Dan Helterline

 We then went to the next bunch of birds, and hundreds of roosters were crashing on bait. We no longer needed the surface popper because Don, on the bow of the panga, free cast into the school of roosters and was hooked up immediately. Adolfo Jr. was yelling for me to put a hook on the popper while Don was hooked up with the fly rod (Adolfo also likes to actually catch fish). The popper was hit instantly, and while we made the release of the 30 pound rooster on the popper, Don lost his 2nd fish.

We were able hit the school one more time, with Don free casting and getting hooked up, and losing his 3rd fish. And, they were big fish. Not small roosters in their teens, but 30 to 50 pound bruisers. Go figure on the lost fish. I guess it is Murphy’s Law for Roosters on the Fly Rod 1001….. Sometimes things happen which are inexplicable.

Ed Kunze (IGFA Representative)

For a better understanding of our seasons and species of fish here in Ixtapa /Zihuatanejo, please click on this link: http://calendarforfishing.blogspot.mx/