. . . But You Can't Hide

BIG WIND - BIG RAIN

Big Flood ?

all in a day's work

MUD OUT  -- WEATHER IN

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.. So, it's supposed to be wet when you're chasing steelhead. It's supposed to be dreary and damp and dank and miserable. It's supposed to be thankless, tedious, exhausting, and frustrating. But, is it supposed to be dangerous?
.. Slick roads, trees down, flooded roads, and Sasquatch are thrown into the current mix. Not high adventure but it keeps one alert.
..Well, so it's been. But, at least it's a warm deluge and the snow level is staying at about the point where the upstream fish should be. Roads will be on the dampish side. Small creeks will be "out-of-bank." The Chetco river will be full of whitecaps and mud. Glad we're here to see it.
.. We're constantly checking the NOAA river watch sites. Try THIS LINK for current conditions and predictions. There is also a high surf warning. The kids are loving it. Maybe we should try it.
.. A day or two away from the fish is standard this time of year. It looks to be a little more than that. we'll see. Rumors abound about sea-run cutts in the harbor. Maybe tonight.
.. The crabbing has been good and the neighbors are going to burn a few. This is a rare pleasure and you can bet that we'll need some cold one's to get it all down.

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THE STORM COMETH

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/

Fins to the Left, Fins to the Right...

No, we're not talking about Jimmy Buffet here, we're talking about yellowfin and blackfin tuna. The Mogan Man and Capt. Mike Ellis navigate through the early morning fog for some hot tuna action, some FINS of another sort, Mogan of the Week, and a little nice stocking stuffer just in time for Christmas.

This week Capt. Blair fishes with Capt. Mike Ellis offshore of Venice, Louisiana for yellowfin and blackfin tuna. If you thought D.O.A. Lures were only good for inshore and coastal fishing, wait until you see what Mr. Mogan and Capt. Mike use to whack some tuna while fishing the offshore oil rigs of Louisiana. It just goes to show what using the right bait in the right location can do. Here's Blair with the rest of the scoop on how to catch these drag burners . . .

                                                                             

Be sure to catch the fun with Capt. Blair on Thursday at 6 PM and again on Saturday at 7 PM on The Sportsman Channel.  Don't forget you can get your fix of Addictive Fishing anytime by joining our Addictive Fishing YouTube Channel where you'll have access to all your favorite episodes 24/7/365. Yes, it's FREE!

FINS, Braid in the USA . . . Since we're on the "fins" theme this week, it seems like the perfect opportunity to mention why FINS braided fishing line is the line of choice here at Addictive Fishing. FINS makes the only situational braided fishing line on the market, perfect for any type of fishing conditions you may encounter. Best of all, it's made right here in the USA! 

Mogan of the Week. . . Capt. Geoffrey Paige caught this Mogan snook on a D.O.A. shrimp. It's great to see that there are still some monsters lurking out there after that terrible 2010 winter. Awesome job!!!  

Mogan kit now available . . . Just in time for Christmas, Dick's Sporting Goods has the new Mogan Series lure kit, featuring a MirrOlure 17MR, 2 D.O.A. shrimp, 10 D.O.A. C.A.L. lures, 1 Trokar Mogan spoon, 2 D.O. A. jigheads, and 3 Lazersharp swimbait hooks. All for under $25!  Let's go rip some lips!!!

Remember to drop by the Mogan Lounge and tell us a few tall tales, post your Mogan pics and hang out with your fellow Mogan Maniacs. Be sure to include some info with your Mogan pics (who, where and what you caught it on) and you just may see yourself on here next time as our Mogan of the Week!!!

Smell you later,
C.W.

Let's Go To The Bar

YOU GOT IT !!

ALONG WITH EVERYONE ELSE !!

Speaking out

The Sea of Cortez is one of the most prolific and magnificent bodies of water on our planet.  The crew at Jen Wren Sportfishing does not take the resource for granted and we do what we can to protect it.

I can remember not all that many years ago when boats would kill almost every billfish caught just to hang for photos.  Nobody seemed concerned about the resource at that time and billfish were stacked up on the beach like cord wood.  Sport boat operators have come a long way from those days and most of us understand and respect the fact that billfish are not an endless resource.  Regardless of the loose laws, we understand our moral obligation to protect them.

Last year we implemented the policy of using only circle hooks.  We also tend to use heavier tackle to shorten battles with the intention of not stressing fish to their demise.  In spite of our efforts upon occasion a fish gets tail wrapped or hooked wrong and dies.  When the odd fish goes upside down I am not all that sad about it.  I know we did everything we could to keep it alive.  It is a casualty of the sport.  The positive side is the fish will not go to waste.  It will not only feed our boat crews but also our diesel mechanic, maid, gardner and others in our local community without opportunity to get fresh fish.  Most of the time even the carcass is wanted by someone to make soup.

If an angler fishing with us wants to take a billfish, depending on their motive, most of the time it is OK with me.  If it is just for a photo and not for the table we will try to talk them into letting it go.  If it is because they like to eat marlin there is no law against taking them and I'm not the judge or jury.  Personally I enjoy smoked marlin very much and find it better eating then tuna or most other fish we catch.  This year I didn't get the opportunity to smoke any, feeling it was more important to let our employees and their families take the few fish that didn't survive.

Over the last couple of years I have gotten a lot of riff from several tree hugging readers whom have seen my photos of happy and excited anglers displaying a billfish on our boat.  I understand the possibility of damage and the risk of hurting the fish.  It is not something we often practice and we always try to get the fish back in the water as quickly as possible.  We watch them swim away and I believe they all have a much higher chance of survival than laying on our swim-step.  

Looking back at 2012 we fished over 200 days.  I have made 42 weekly reports with about 400 photos.  Fifteen of those photos are with billfish in our cockpit.  I estimate that to be about 6 or 7% of the billfish we hooked this year.  If we can compromise with an angler that wants to kill a fish for a photo and see how much it weighs by getting a good photo of the fish in our cockpit and then letting it swim away why the grief?  The angler has done their part and so have we.  It just seems to me that some of the "green" people are over the edge.

Maybe I'm just crankie because winter is setting in and we are not out fishing.

Our goal is memories of a life time for our guests.  Here are a few from 2012

The best source for the latest East Cape fishing conditions "like" 
www.facebook.com/JenWrenSportfishing


Mark Rayor
teamjenwren.com
markrayor.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/JenWrenSportfishing
US cell 310 308 5841

Wet, Wild, Windy

MOM ON RAMPAGE

Warm Rain, Melting Snow

damn the squals full fling ahead

A COMELY BRIDGE INDEED

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.. Well she's everywhere and kind of grumpy right now. MOM, that's who. She's kicking up a storm, as it were. The last of the color is about to be blown off of the trees. The muddy rivers will get more muddy. Higher too. It's only a certainty that the upper reaches of the drainages will clear at all.
.. There's some well hidden roads. There's some dripping ferns and giant trees. There's even fish if you can find them. We're off to try and figure it out. The neighbors are laughing, (some are also fising anyway!) It's not perfect but it's fishing.

130 TEARS OF GOSSIP - YUM

.. The Chetco River is about to be blown sky high. There are other rivers. Some even better if you don't mind gobs of hatchery fish amongst your rare wild steelhead. We don't. It's just a short drive up the road to the four forks of a lovely little stream with fish just dying to be caught. They don't get fished over very much. After all they are only 10 - 15 pounds each, (usually.)
.. There's good pizza, friendly folks, and a few fishers that we know that will be on the gravel trails. Heck, the river flows through the county seat - what more could a gypsy fisher ask. They haven't shot at us yet, and they have quit throwing axes too.
.. The big and famous waters around here have so many guide boats that it looks like an Interstate interchange in downtown Los Angeles. Expensive too.
.. The snow hasn't come down too low and despite the published wisdom there may even be some Coho scattered amongst the home running hatchery fish.
.. We're on the water as you read this. Dripping and giggling. Our trusty horse is being used as a pack mule for a couple of neighbors and their gear. It's up to it. Seen mud and rain and snow before. It's a courtesy exchanged for the local knowledge.
.. Pizza tonight - can't wait, it'll be dry.

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HOPEFULLY THEY'LL BE OPEN - ONE NEVER KNOWS

great smoky mountains national park

I realize that it has been just over two weeks since my last post, and while I find serious discomfort in letting my blog go dormant for any length of time over a week, I was on a much needed vacation. And this wasn't a fishing trip but more of a chance to get the family out and explore a landscape that is quite foreign to us flat-landers. For those who visit this blog just for fishing reports, sorry to disappoint, the next few posts are purely about hiking the Smoky Mountain National Park.


This post is dedicated to just some of the sites we found while traveling 441 that runs through the heart of the park connecting Gatlinburg, Tennessee with Cherokee, North Carolina. From the very first mountain sunrise, I knew we were in for something special.

sunrise over the smoky mountains

On the Tennessee side, 441 hwy follows along the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River. In its upper elevations, it’s everything you could expect from a high gradient mountain stream.

west prong of the little pigeon river

As the river approaches Gatlinburg and beyond it flattens and widens dramatically. On our journey up the mountain, the Little Pigeon provided some excellent scenery.

a lower gradient section of the river

Driving through the park, there are so many countless pull-offs and hiking trails to explore. While this post won’t have enough room to go over every place we set foot, the view from Newfound Gap was one of my favorites.

newfound gap

And to give you just a small taste of the wildlife here, I will leave you with these few shots. Coming down from the mountains on the North Carolina side we had the pleasure to come up on a herd of grazing elk. While they weren't so much bothered by our presence we were able to capture a dozen or so excellent photos before the rangers felt it was best we moved on.

a herd of grazing elk in the national park

the largest bull in the bunch

Stay tuned for some of my favorite shots from Cades Cove and the Pisgah National Forest.

NEW LINK

A GENUINE TREASURE

It Needs It's Friends

friends save rivers

These Folks Released This Wild 20# Chetco Steelhead  -- Good On 'Em !!

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.. Some fishers think that keeping a stream or river secret will protect it. Such a fantasy. The more friends a river has the better protected it will be. If no one knows about it then mining, de-watering, polluting, etc. go unnoticed and despoiling takes place.
.. The Chetco River has friends. It has good friends. It has good friends that care - not just about the fish - but the river itself and it's wonderful scenic, recreational, and primative beauty.
.. As far from home as the river is, we consider ourselves a friend. We suggest that you investigate this lovely river. The place to start is the SAVE OUR CHETCO RIVER website. Personal or public complacency is an exploiters best friend. End of pitch.
.. This may be the last wild western river where it's legal to keep a wild native fish. We don't advocate it, but it can be, and is done. Gear, flies, etc. the fish are superlative specimens of the breed. They deserve respect and admiration. That's why we visit.
..There is sun between the clouds and mud in the water. Bottom bouncers and plunkers have taken a few fish. Drizzle and real rain should keep us dancing for the next few days. Generally, high water signals a good time for bank fishing - but not with the amount of color the river has right now.
.. The upper reaches will clear first and we'll head up to see how the "ghost run" fish are doing.

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IT MUST BE OREGON - RARE SUNSET FOR THE SEASON

Mighty Big Water

THERE'S A FUNNY TASTE

Salty Sort Of

perhaps fish defecate in it

There's this long pile of rocks . . .

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.. Had a nap. Saw the ocean. It's bigger than the whole Missouri River. Got to think about this. Fish actually leave it and change their water purification and elimination system just to swim in confined rivers. There's a lesson here somewhere.
.. Rumors abound. Fish are here. Not a seal to be seen. Chrome is following Royalty up the creek. Only a week or so early but not too unusual. We'll let you know.

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Just a little heavy for a 9 weight. Pretty though!

A Fine Soft Day

WHAT?  FOG?  DUH!

Touchdown

just like it should be

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.. Such quiet and gentility that one is gulled into thinking all will be just fine forever. The costal fog will both put you to sleep and awaken your soul with it's all pervasive chill. Some folks thrive on it.
.. Just a few more miles and then a short nap. Maybe a long nap. Maybe some pizza and a nap. The fish can wait - for now.

25/11/12 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 43lb 8oz (15lb 12oz - silvers)
Catch - 8 Carp, 15 Perch, 4 Bream, 2 Tench, 2 Roach, 1 F1
Weather - Bright start, clouding over, rain later
Match - Lands End Winter League - rd 1
Placing - 13th out of 35 overall, 9th out of 12 overall section, 2nd in section silvers

Being the first round of the league, I didn't mind which lake I drew, however p13 was fairly low on my wish list, since it hasn't showed much recent form. With all the rain during the week the somerset levels  had turned into one massive lake and Mike had to pump water out of the lakes so we could get on the platforms.

Because I had to do some gardening down the left hand edge, meant I was a little late starting, but I managed to feed micros & groundbait at 11.5m and caster down the left hand edge on time and started fishing about 10mins later.

I went straight out towards the aerator with corn and caught a carp and a tench, but with no more showing it was time to cup in some micros, really in response to Mark on p11, who after moaning like hell about his peg was catching carp on pellet over micros.

My 11.5m line only produced a pound skimmer all match, which was a real surprise, having done well recently over groundbait & pellet. Whether it was because the water was more coloured I don't know. I had also kept topping up with a small amount of pellet by the aerator, but again this failed to produce.

Fortunately the left hand margin, produced a number of perch, but nothing bigger than 8oz, along with a decent F1, a 3lb tench and a couple of small carp.

With 2 hours to go I thought I was doing OK. Mark was still catching but those carp would not come my side of the rope. At one point I thought I would start catching at 15m towards the island where I had been feeding 4s by catapult. First put in resulted in a carp, then I had 3 decent skimmers all on 4mm expander, but after this initial run of fish it was back to having to wait a while of a bite.

I had also been feeding caster towards p14 platform, but when I tried there I didn't have a bite, so ended up dumping caster & corn in an effort to pull in a few fish without success. Dale was on p15 and if there are any carp about he usually catching a few, but today he really struggled, which suggest there wasn't too many in this part of the lake.

In hindsight, I think I would have had my 11.5m swim at 8m and fed a metre or 2 off the aerator. Also I could have struck with catching down the left hand edge, catching perch, but I couldn't go further than 13m due to sunken branches at 14m. Over recent years, its been noticeable that if you want a weight of silvers, that the perch and chub which you would catch on maggot/caster are becoming less dominate and the skimmers which are growing on are becoming more important and generally caught on pellet. So sticking with catching those perch would have meant not catching the skimmers.

In the end I was disappointed to be 9th in section, i thought I had down better, although my carp where on the small side, however the majority of weights came from the form pegs. The only good news was coming 2nd in section in the silvers, picking up by default. The next round for me will be on Johns (no3) Lake on 9th Dec.

1st 104-10 - Mark Poppleton - p11
2nd 82-11 - Mike Duckett - p22
3rd 75- 4 - Criag Edmunds - p26
4th 60- 8 - Tom Thick - p17
5th 60- 6 - Tom Mangoll - p3
6th 60- 1 - Bob Gulluck - p68

Silvers
1st 17- 8 - Tom Thick - p17
1st 17- 8 - Mark Brennan - p31
3rd 15-13 - Bob Gulluck - p68
4th 15-12 - Ken Rayner - p13

B-RAD

Last week I took my buddy Brad out on a walk wade trip...Typically I run most of my trips through the boat but since it was just one angler decided to take a little different approach. The walked in a couple of different places and proceeded to smack up on some quality brown trout. Brad has been fishing with me several times and the big was has shown his face to us on more than one occasion but has not made it to the net. I would say We accomplished our goal of getting Brad a few grip-n-grins!

First time on the Zander

When I was travelling back from my trip to Ireland I got to thinking about what was potentially the end of my season. Of course there were the sea lochs and the east coast for Cod but in truth I’m finding it hard to get motivated by these at the moment.

A plan was subsequently put into play to have a crack at Zander with the venue being Rutland Water which has a reasonable head of smallish Zander. Time was not on our side as the season only opens for around 2 months for predator fishing so on Friday night I made the journey south accompanied by Scott. The weather forecast looked favourably on Wednesday but by Friday the whole trip was on the verge of failure. Fog was forecast on Saturday and we could lose valuable daylight hours waiting for it to clear before being allowed to launch. The Sunday forecast was frankly diabolical with 50 mph winds in the script.

After defrosting the car we hit the road only to kick our heels on shore till around 9.30am till it lifted enough for us to launch. Scott had been prowling around with his gear loaded up and rod in hand for most of this time and equally I felt frustrated myself. We then got the nod so off we went.

It’s not small water! It would have been nice to get a handle on where we actually were. Even with a map guide we struggled till Scott fired Google maps up on the iPhone as the fog closed in again.

Having borrowed a fish finder from Callum at Angling Active we easily located some water around 90ft deep with some baitfish marking. At this point there was not much of a drift on so after a couple of moves I had my first Zander! It took a  pearl Illex Nitro Spring on a 30g head.



Confidence was starting to build as we both had a few knocks and as the wind started to build it was time for the drogue. Shortly after this the sounder showed some baitfish and this was soon followed by both Scott and myself hooking up.

The same lure but the stinger hooked this one

My fish was on the deck and Scott thinking his was well hooked went to lift his in. The Zed had different ideas and promptly shook itself from the hook.

An hour or so later the easterly wind was much stronger, the rain constant and both baitfish and Zander had done a bunk. It was tough going even with two drogues slowing us down to get the jigs as vertical as we could. It occurred to us both that the fish Scott has dropped might be a sore one to take. We covered a lot of ground both drifting and slowly covering ground with the sounder on.

Scott then had a change of lure and bingo!

It might be small but when you’ve travelled 300 miles to catch a new species they all count.

The remainder of the afternoon was cold, wet and pretty miserable so 4pm came just at the right time. When we hit the dock we were told that no boats would be allowed out on Sunday. We were both pretty disappointed but understood strong winds even if we had got out would have made it almost impossible to fish effectively. So, mission accomplished and a few ideas to target these fish in the future we headed back for a few pints and some hot food.