Z Fish Report (3/22/13)

Chris, with the smaller of the two roosters hooked

Sorry for the delay for this week’s fish report. I kind of held off writing it until I had a chance to talk to Santiago about the long line situation and the delegation’s meeting last week in Mexico City. I talked to him this morning on the municipal pier, and his report is below. I also kind of held off because I knew I was fishing with clients today down at Puerto Vicente Guerrero, and being we did well, those results are also below.

The offshore fishing is a bit on the tough side, but the captains and clients willing to put in the work, and the days on the water are doing just fine.

Terry Medland with Francisco on the super panga Huntress

Early in the week, Terry Medland of Grand Forks North Dakota, fished two days with Cheva on the panga Dos Hermanos II. In two days of fishing they got 3 sailfish for each of the two days. Both days they found the fish at 22 miles. This gave Terry, and his son Christen, 9 sailfish caught for a total of 4 days of fishing (two days were on the Huntress in the previous week).

John Torre with a nice wahoo on the super panga Gitana

Long time visitor John Torre fished with Santiago on the super panga Gitana for two days this week. They released 2 sailfish and landed a 35 pound wahoo. Also, Kurt Angell and friends, fishing a day with Santiago, released 1 sailfish and caught about 25 school sized dorado (from 4-15#), releasing most of the females.

John and his sailfish prior to release
One pleasant surprise, at the end of this last week, was we got over an inch of rain in the afternoon. I can’t ever remember us getting rain here in March. It was fantastic, clearing the skies, the dust off the trees, etc.

 What was not a pleasant surprise were the high waves which greeted us yesterday all up and down the coast. Combined with the green water, it basically shut down the inshore fishing for decent game fish (jack crevalle, sierras, chulas, etc. And, of course everybody knows there are no roosters here in March / April). 

We saw some 12 to 14 foot waves

Dave Radosta called me and wanted to go to Puerto Vicente Guerrero. He has fished here for 16 years straight, but had yet to go there. I looked at the Terrafin Satellite photos, showing green inshore water all up and down the coast, with the exception of clean water south of the point at Puerto Vicente Guerrero. With Dave’s fishing partner Chris Selden, and Adolfo Jr we took the gamble and made the long run to my “sweet spot”. It is a rock sea mount which rises off the ocean floor to within 25 feet of the surface, and about a mile off the beach, so big waves were not a factor.

Lots of school sized dorado

It paid off. With porpoise and sea turtles all around us, there were schools of large (2 to 4 pound green jacks) and school sized dorado breaking the surface on small flying fish. The spot is a fish magnet, and the porpoise were feeding on the same flying fish, plus the sea turtles feed on the lush vegetation off the rocks. The larger jack crevalle were swimming under the boat, and not eating…But, the roosterfish were. We hooked a large rooster, who apparently did not realize it was hooked, and cut off the line under the panga. But, the rooster was following at least 12 others under the bow going after the green jacks. We all just stood there with our mouths open because we didn’t see a rooster of less than 40 pounds in the bunch. We ended up with two roosters released (who everybody knows are not here right now) 7 dorado, and a nice green jack. It was a lot of fun.

    

 Ed Kunze (IGFA Representative)

Long Line Update: Talking to Santiago (super panga Gitana) this morning, he felt the meeting in Mexico City was productive. The four captains from here, each representing a commercial or sport fishing co-op, met with a Senator from Guanajuato. This senator heads the committee for “fisheries”. He was aware of the situation here in Mexico and hopes to have an answer back to us by the end of April. The most obvious situation, according to the senator, is more observation and enforcement of the existing law. I will keep you posted.

  

For a better understanding of our seasons and species of fish here in Ixtapa /Zihuatanejo, please click on the link to my web site and scroll down on the left side bar for “Calendar”… http://www.sportfishing-ixtapa.com/index.html  

I have also made two new informative web pages for people coming here for their first time. The first is for when you go to the municipal pier in Zihuatanejo in the morning to find the boat you will be fishing on:   http://municipalpier.blogspot.mx/2013/02/the-municipal-pier.html

The second is for people who are looking for a place to stay: http://edkunze2.blogspot.mx/2013/02/places-to-stay.html