Z Fish Report (1/17/14)

Sunrise on the Bloody Hook. Photo by Dan Fish

We are experiencing incredible offshore fishing this week. I had amended the fish report for this last week this last Sunday, and it is still holding up.

Offshore – As I described in my amended report, the sailfish and dorado action is here and now, with the action taking place between the 12 to 15 mile marks. Can you imagine a 4 to 5 sailfish caught a day average per boat, with over 10 fish raised? Plus, there are still lots of dorado coming in on blind strikes.

Photo by Brian Hetland on the pang Llmarada with Tyson and Chico

Brenda's sailfish on the Esturion with  Captain Alfredo

Brenda

This is the time to fly fish for sailfish. I loaned my 14t rod (and a couple of flies) to Cheva on the panga Dos Hermanos II who took “Chili Willie”, long time conventional gear fishing client, from Dallas, Oregon and he released his first time ever sailfish on the fly rod.

Dan Fish's sail coming to the leader on the Bloody Hook

Zack Hass on the Bloody Hook with his sailfish

Other notable catches go on and on. On Tuesday, brothers Terry and Tom fished with their Dad Jim Krage of Illinois, raising 9 sailfish, catching and releasing 6, with Cheva on the panga Dos Hermanos II.

 

Greg Prokopetz from Canada with 1 of 11 tagged and released sailfish in two
days with Santiago on the super panga Gitana

Wednesday Dan and Olga Fish, with Zatch and Christine Haas of Illinois fished on the Bloody Hook with Captain Chiro for 7 sailfish tagged and released, and had 20 raised fish.   

 

The Sparks family of B.C. and Seattle fished 3 days with Santiago for 19
sailfish tagged and released and two nice dorado

Ken & Sharon Ristau, and their friends Diana & John from Kelowna BCfished 1 day with Santiago on the super panga Gitna for 10 sailfish tagged and released. 

My “secret source” (read free) professional quality photographer, Brian Hetland of North Dakota, fished on the panga Llamarada on Wednesday for 7 sailfish and a nice dorado. Six of the sailfish were taken on a spin rod.  He also got some good action for his daughter, Brenda, for her fifst sailfish ever.

 

One of John Fisher's fly caught roosters. 

Up until Thursday, the inshore action was great. We had caught huge sierras, black skipjacks, and medium sized jack crevalle. Plus we found a huge concentration of roosterfish on Monday. After the full moon it all seemed to just dry up.

John Fisher with fly caught rooter No. 1, with Abel on the tiller

On Monday, down at Puerto Vicente Guerrero, I experienced one of the best days of my fly fishing for roosterfish ever. It was not so much the number of fished caught by John Fisher of California on the fly (3), the incredible number of fish slashing on the hookless teaser (maybe 100 or more, if you count the 5 or 6 all competing for a grab at the surface popper), the number of legitimate shots John had (at least 20), nor the size (some of the fish were in the 50 pound plus range). At any one time we had 3 to 5 roosters busting on the hookless teaser on every cast, for about 10 casts, until John got a hook up. Then we did it all over again.

On the hookless teaser

If we had just been conventional gear fishing with surface poppers and pitching a live bait, we could have hooked at least 20 roosters, if fight time allowed.

John with teaser man Adolfo Jr.

This fantastic day, for me as a fly fishing guide, was a combination of all the things, and in the middle of January, when we are not supposed to have roosters here. But, we still have 80° water and schools of migrating roosters, pushed down by colder water to the north are providing the action. We ended the day with 4 roosters and three jack crevalle. One of the roosters was taken on a live bait with a circle hook we used to locate the school of roosters about 300 yards off shore. 

Adlofo Jr. on the fly leader

But mostly, for the Roosterfish Foundation, John Fisher (a Founding Roosterfish Foundation member) caught the very first tagged and released rooster on the fly, and all three of his roosters were tagged. This was a major milestone for me.

Ed Kunze (IGFA Representative) 

   

We now have PayPal for the Roosterfish Foundation!

Launching the Roosterfish Foundation (roosterfish.org)

Shown above is the logo for the wallet sized laminated card for membership in the Roosterfish Foundation. Please contact me at roosterfishfoundation@gmail.com if you are interested in becoming a member.