Z Fish Report (7/14/11)

We are really enjoying a great month. Francisco, on the super panga Huntress fished 3 days in the nearby blue water with 7 sailfish, dorado, lots of ocianicos (skipjack), and even yellowfin tuna. Plus, his clients of Denmark, Niels Theirs and his daughter, also fished the inshore for several days, catching numerous roosters and jack crevalle.

Adolfo and Dave with his first rooster - day 1

The roosterfish action is still blazing hot for us here in Ixtapa /Zihuatanejo. Early in the week I had already been booked in advance by David Yoder of Seattle to fly fish for roosters, and then Henry Huskins of Houston, Texas called me the night before wanting to conventional gear fish for roosters. I called Adolfo and we put Henry with Cheva on the panga Dos Hermanos (Adolfo’s boat), and because Cheva’s boat, the Dos Hermanos II is more fly fishing friendly, David and I went with Adolfo on Cheva’s boat.

Henry - fighting one of his 8 roosters

The action was incredible. We fished the clean water south of Valentin and on down past the antennas. With Adolfo, we brought at least 12 roosters to the boat, with David catching and releasing one, and also a medium sized jack crevalle. This was David’s first experience for roosters on the fly and he soon learned 12 roosters teased to the boat with a hookless teaser, would probably have translated to 12 caught fish when you have hooks in the surface popper and a live bait to back it up. But that one fish on the fly is so much more rewarding when you do hook up, especially when using a fly you had tied yourself.

Day 2 for Dave

Meanwhile, Henry was with Cheva and had not handicapped himself with the fly rod. He released 8 nice roosters.


Henry's fish


Plus, when David went back with Adolfo the next day, with memories of those 50 pound and Fly Fishing World Record 70 pound class fish that had followed his fly, but did not eat it, he quickly got over his learning curve. On the 1st day the cast was sometimes a bit early, but usually a bit too late. By the 2nd day he was able to get the timing down of having the fly hit the water just in front of the hookless surface teaser popper, and about 50 feet out. Did he do well? He got SIX roosters on the fly! I would say he is a veteran now.

Is Adolfo good? He told me his clients have caught over 300 roosters this last 45 days. Plus, that tells you something about our area here. Even the best captains can’t catch fish if they aren’t there.

More day 2 results

Also, while fishing with David on the 1st day, Adolfo and I discussed the tagging and releasing of roosterfish and the “Roosterfish Foundation” I want to launch on January 1 of this next year. He told me; and this is not bragging…just facts: “The best destination in the world will be here in Zihuatanejo”. Plus it stands to reason he will be the best captain. He told me he would have tagged over 300 roosters during this last 45 day period alone. That my friends, is just an incredible number of fish! Plus, to back up his claim of the “best destination” these numbers do not include the roosters which could have been tagged by Cheva, or Temo, or Arturo, etc.

Day 2

Now this may be bragging a bit, and hopefully it will rile up a few other rooster destinations like La Paz, Costa Rica, the East Cape, and Los Cabos, but I am thinking I will need 1,000 tags on hand for the Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo area, and another 1,000 for all the other destinations combined. What I am really hoping for is a fantastic competition between the captains of the best destinations. The main object is to reward the captains for their release efforts of the roosterfish, the conservation of the species, and learn more about their lives and migration patterns.

Email me if you want to get on the list to be a charter member of the Roosterfish Foundation.

Ed Kunze
To order a copy of my fishing book about fishing here on the West Coast of Mexico: http://www.mexperience.com/store/vuitem.php?itemid=13&sc=KUNZE-13