A change from the hardwater!

[Meegs]

well it was a bit of a surprize and very short notice but i had the chance to come visit my folks at there winter condo in Ixtapa Mexico, Zihuatanejo Bay is one of the most prestine billfish waters in the world, and is an absolute World class fishery! So I arrived here on Saturday afternoon, packed with nothing more than a small suitcase full of fishing tackle, afew short and t shirts and afew fishing rods, had a cold Corrona in my hand before we left the airport. first day i took it easy, relaxing by the beach, trying to get over the temperature difference, sure is weird to have been ice fishing in the cold, wearing my floter suit, to sweating to death in shorts and a tank top! We have 3 days booked with one of the best saltwater guides here in Mexico! Ive never been south before, ive fished the queen charlottes for salmon before, but thats the extent of my ocean fishing. Sunday morning came around and of course what's the first thing i want to do... you got it, go fish! So I get my gear out and go for a walk along the beach over to the rocky pier a couple miles down the beach. I arrive at my destination and start pitching some Big topwater lures! Not actually fishing for anything specific just whatever wants to hit my bait! well i fished for a couple hours and even though i never actually got a strike, i could watch these 4-5' long needlefish come charging at my bait and turn away at the very last second, it was more than enough to get the blood flowing!

So first thing yesterday morning Dad and I were gone by 5 30am, met up with our guide for the day and proceeded to drive and hour down the coast to a very small fishing village where our 24' panga boat was waiting for us! (as im writing this im looking out the window watching a school of bonita's crashing the surface about 150yards further than i can cast, still pretty cool to see!) So the plan of attack for the day was to start off going afew miles down the beach and start casting for giant Jack crevele and Roosterfish! the guide was throwing a big teaser bait to try to get these 50-70lbs monsters to come to the surface and tease them in close enough for Dad to be able to throw the 12 weight fly rod and its offering at them! Within 15 min or so the guide starts screaming "Rooster, Rooster" as we see the finns out of the water charging the bait, he gets the fish within 25' of the boat and Dad makes the perfect cast and starts stripping the line in. The big Rooster then turned away from the teaser, and charged the fly. We're still not sure just how the fish missed the offering, but it did. we keep going on. Not alot of room on a panga boat with a guy on boat control at all times, the guide casting teasers to get a fish mad enough to get it with the fly, and myself at the front deck casting topwater. Another 15 min goes by and no more sign of roosters, the guide was sure that there were more around to be had but the trouble is that the fish are almost right in the surf so long casts and boat control are essential, if the boat gets too close to shore then the 15' swells start to crash, and by that time its too late, the boat would be in a thousand pieces amongst the rocks! So we were sure the fish were their, but we just wernt able to safely get close enough to get them.

After having watched as a Jack crevele int he 30-40lbs class explode and miss on my topwater offering no more than 10' from the boat well that was enough of the inshore fishing for the day, it was just too big of water to be where we needed to be, so the captian turned the little panga due south and set course 12 miles out into the deep! Ed, our guide knew the waters well, and we headed out to an underwater canyon formed by the 1000 fathom line. The Canyon has an incredible upwelling, as it goes from 6000 fow up to 2500 fow on each side. That is an almost 3500' near vertical rise and the nutrient laden upwelling attracts all species of blue water game fish!

Once we were out to the spot, 2 teaser lines rigged with 8" poppers, and a live bait attached for more action we started to troll. Passing by Giant sea turtles every few hundred yards it was really something else to see! Now ive watched hundreds of hours and read hundreds of pages of fishing for Billfish but this was my first time actually on the ocean doing it! The plan of attack out here was that when a sailfish comes in to the teasers 40-50' behind the boat the captian and first mate grab the teaser lines and start brinning them in really pissing the sailfish off, with the fish thinking that its easy meal has just got away from him he charges closer to the boat. once 20 ' away Ed gives Dad the order to cast the fly into the water! Well it took no more than 45 min or so and we heard the teaser rod screaming drag, we look behind and there is not only 1 but 3 big sails attacking the baits! Well its game time now! We all spring into action and as the teasers get closer Ed tells Dad to trow in the fly. Almost instantly a giant Sail engulfs the 9" fly and dad strips the line to set the hook hard! Nothing!!! the 80lbs florocarbon leader snaped! Ed said it must have gotten wrapped around the bill. As im still in total Aww of whats happining and watching this 7' long giant of the deep taildance across the stern of the boat no more than 25 feet away I take my 7' musky rod and pitch out a 8" live bait and let it start to freespool. I watched as the line on my little salmon levelwind started to scream off the reel, gave it the 5 count, pointed the rod straight at the blue water and engaged the reel! Almost instantly it was although the ocean completly errupted as a 90lbs sail completely clears the water by 4 or 5 feet and for the next min or so it spent more time out of the water showing its rage and beauty trying to get rid of the 9/0 circle hook perfectly embedded in the corner of its mouth! I bring the fish closer to the boat and when it got no more than 5 ' off the back it decided to do another jump. Only thing was that we thought the fish was comming right into the boat! it litterally bounced off the side and started to sound! the 50lbs powerpro was being tested like it had never been tested before! Thats when the grunt work started! 10 min later we had successfully landed, taged and released my first billfish! What an experience! We get going again after a bunch of hooting and high fives the teasers get back into the water and we start our troll again! another 1/2 hour goes by and the scream of the reel starts off again! As Ed grabs the teaser rod Dad gets into position, this time loaded up with 100lbs floro for the fly, the fish starts getting closer and as the fish gets even more enraged the entire fish went florecent in color, MARLIN MARLIN Ed starts screaming! Dad trows the fly and we watch as the giant Blue Marlin turns and attacks the fly. Dad sets the hook home adn we watch as the fly reel starts screaming for joy! And as fast as it all happened, it was over. the big blue that Ed figured was approaching the 250lbs class was off. Just a run of bad luck! we ended up raising 7 sailfish and 2 marlin and called it a day! On the way back to port we saw schools of dolphins countless schools of skip jack tuna and even managed a close up view of a sperm whale!

It was really quite the experience and I know I'll never forget the images burned into my head or those sails skipping across the water! We have another 2 days booked, Wednesday and Friday and then i come home!

 

Edited January 19, 2010 by Meegs

[coolwaters]

right on meegs call me when you get back got get you back out in the cold...

 

sounds like a whole lotta fun man

 

cheers

 

Paul

[MooseMerch]

Very nice report, soundls like a lotta fun

[FUSION]

Awsome report! I am looking forward to that in a few weeks myself.

[splashhopper]

great adventure you took us on.... nice pics too!

[Sinker]

Great read dude!! Friggen exciting eh

 

I never did land one, but we had a lot of action too. Just reading your report got my heart racing again....what a rush!!!

 

S.

[icedude]

Terrific Report Meegs--nice pics--love the colour of that water-the turtle watchin is cool eh?

 

felt like i was there man..thanks for the vacarious adventure--had my adrenalin pumpin LOL--going to be tuff for you to come back to Lake Simcoe Ice Guiding--a memory makin Fishin Trip for sure Meegs

 

lucky dog--now get back to work--LOL

 

Thanks

 

ID1

[ckrb2007]

Tough life James!! Sheesh! (I'm cleaning up the drool off the keyboard)

[Rizzo]

awesome report. I was fortunate to catch a similar sized sailfish a few years back, and reading your report brought back some great memories. I hate to say it but even better than a muskie

[Meegs]

Thanks guys! We made it out again yesterday but im still waiting to download the pics. we have another day booked tomorrow so i'll try to do another report before i leave! Looking forward to getting back on the ice and COOL off assuming we still have ice when i get back!

[TJQ]

Man!!! I wanna do that!!

[anders]

Amazing!