W A N T E D A L I V E!

The best game in town is striped marlin fishing.  There has been a few dorado and wahoo in the counts but not like the last couple of weeks.  As the hot marlin action off Punta Pescadero died a huge body of fish popped up south of Los Frailes.  It is a bit of a run for us but once there the action has been non-stop.  In shore the roosterfish are cooperating one day and gone the next.  Live bait has been tough to come by making it hard to target the roosters.  Tuna?  We are just holding our breath.

The marlin action has been very entertaining but somewhat frustrating at the same time.  By far rigged ballyhoo has attracted the largest percentage of fish.  The problem has been they are grabbing the baits and just holding them in their beaks and not swallowing them down.  We found rigging the ballyhoo with circle hooks to be most effective.  The J hook swing was just yanking the bait away from the fish and tearing it up. With the circles we just point the rod at the fish and apply the brakes.  If the we don't get a hook set the bait is not getting as torn up and the marlin will come after it again.

This method was working well and we thought we had it figured out until yesterday when we went 2 for 10 and ran out of ballyhoo.  We released 2 fish and had action all day so it wasn't all bad.  It was just amazing how many fish were there and how much opportunity we had.

 I must say the smooth drag of an Accurate reel does make a difference.  The twin drag is the real deal.  It takes less inertia to start the spool turning with the brakes applied which results in less jerk.  With less jerk greater pressure can be applied with less risk of line breakage.  This week we had four guests catch their first marlin ever.  Smaller reels and smoother drags makes even a beginner look like a pro.

Snapped a few good shots this week

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Mark Rayor
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28/04/13 - Acorns - Paddock

Weight - 20lb 14oz
Catch - 11 Carp, 3 Skimmers, 1 Crucian, 1 Rudd, 1 Perch
Weather - Sunny start, cool & windy later
Match - Pole Only series - 4th round

The 4th round of this well run league meant I was on D section, pegs 23-38, with 36 & 38 being the favoured pegs since they came 2nd & 3rd in yesterdays match. The question for our section would Bob “bridge troll” Gullick draw another bridge peg? Well I drew 33 and Pete Bartlett had 34, so Bob had to do with 23.

I was quite happy with my draw, there was a few a fish moving around and the signs were for a good day, although the forecast for increasing winds proved to be correct and it was quite chilly - back on with the extra fleece.

To be honest my match was quite forgettable. Initially targeted the far side fishing shallow with 6 or 8mm pellet, catapulting 6s, the problem was the fish were quite small and I wasn’t catching them quickly enough. I think had the sun stayed out the fish would have been happier in the shallow water, but with the wind & increasing cloud cover the fish backed off. Fishing meat by the bridge, only produced silly bites from small fish, so I going nowhere fast.

By the half way mark Pete, Bob & Brian Slipper (p30) had caught a few better fish and I expected Chris Fox (p38) & Gordon Canning (p36) to have caught as well. So I decided to target some silvers, since I hadn't seen many being caught. I had been feeding caster to the p32 pallet which has done me well in recent matches but nothing, not even on maggot. I had also been feeding a small amount of groundbait and pellet down the track, which didn’t produce either.

Eventually I managed a few skimmers down the track on 4mm expander and a couple of carp turned up over my caster. Targeting the silvers was the right idea, because Chris won the sections silvers with only 4-8, mostly thanks to a big tench, but I just couldn’t get a run of bites together. By concentrating on the silvers, meant I slipped down the section.

In hindsight, I was trying to do too much in the first half the match and ended up confusing myself, when I should have just focused on doing one thing or the other. To be honest I will be glad to see the back of this league, because it just hasn’t gone my way at all. Lets hope for a decent last 2 matches.

1st 104- 8 - Joe Mcmahon - p40
2nd 102-10 - Mike Nicholls - p9
3rd 68- 8 - Tom Thick - p12
4th 60- 6 - Matt Tomes - p4 top lake
5th 57-14 - Lance Tucker - p4
6th 54-13 - Andy France - p13

Silvers
1st 34- 6 - Mark Broomsgrove - p3 top lake
2nd 24- 6 - Paul Casson - p5 top lake
3rd 22- 2 - Glenn Calvert - p8 top lake
4th 21- 7 - Dave Wride - p2 top lake
5th 16- 4 - John Bradford - p6
6th 14- 7 - Tony Rixon - p1 top lake

A Bit Of . . .

Snow, Rain, Drizzle, Sun,

Springtime In Yellowstone

waters still clear - won't last

Bison Graze At The Foot Of National Park Mountain.  Pinhole Image.

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.. As we await the coming high water induced by our warm days we pause to ponder the upcoming onslaught of fishers and the introduction of the latest and greatest flies to fish with.
.. The innovations of our species, and the creativity of our minds will not be stifled. New materials, new techniques, new visions, new flies; such a bounty. This sort of contemplation leads to a seminal question: "Why are there so many flies?"

.. And the fruitful answer: "Because they all work!" Since the fly fisher of today is trapped by the unwavering belief that newer is better there will always be new flies. And they all will work.
.. Read the blogs and verbiage of the feather merchants and their advocates. They capture us with an appeal to the inventive and adventurous side of our mind.
.. This year's new flies will also appeal to our aesthetic core. They are cute, killer, sophisticated, simple, awesome, outrageous, stupendous, and sometimes - even effective.
.. We look forward to reading about, hearing about, and seeing all the new flies. They are wonderful. We enjoy the virtues extolled in conversations and rants at the pub and at river's side. We don't participate much. We still fish a Scarlet Ibis, a Professor, a Dusty Miller, a Black Dose, a Lead Wing Coachman, a Royal Coachman, and a Feather Duster. We fish them because we like them. They are friends from our personal and collective past. They catch fish too.
.. Maybe we're not creative, adventurous, or innovative. We probably have no aesthetic sense. We certainly can't afford a new assortment of flies every Spring. Old Fartism is a comfortable joy, and does have some rewards.

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Confluence Meadow At Madison Junction On A Warm And Drizzly April Day

Some action...

The SW we were waiting for hit the copper coast today, as the wind was in the north for a couple of days beforehand the water clarity was spot on and coincided nicely with a rising tide for us this afternoon.

Fishing is tough at the moment but the bass are slowly starting to make there way back to the usual marks. For the next couple of weeks the water temperature will begin to rise quickly and the fish will follow.

Cian had this nice bass today on a weedless soft plastic fished slowly through some shallow boulder ground.

Nice to see some silver turning up on the coastline again, lets hope its a sign of good things to come...

Salute

WORLDWIDE

Pinhole Photography Day

Pinhole image of sign on the Madison River.  Sensor dust and all!

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.. For the moment, we have dispensed with the arcane accouterments of fly fishing for the even more tedious tools of pinhole photography.

Aluminum Pinhole on Digital Camera

.. The slow pace, deliberation and preparation is, on occasion, good for the soul.
.. Be it a digital sensor, film, or paper that is exposed, the image is soft and often ethereal. Certainly it is not in keeping with the contemporary aesthetic of super sharp, violently colorful, and post processed to the point of crisp sterility.
.. There is a small resurgent community of photographers that are exploring the limits of the "portable camera obscura." Cameras range from beautifully made precision instruments to such items as Altoid tins, Oatmeal boxes, Sardine cans, and other 'everyday items.'

4x5 pinhole film camera. Photographed with a pinhole camera.

.. The pinhole camera phenomena are parallel to but separate from the toy camera craze that is sweeping the world, (other than the U.S.A., Japan, and a few other gadget-oriented cultures.)
.. Recognizable images of social events are produced and cherished for their spontaneity, crooked framing, soft focus, and idiosyncratic nature of poor or shifted colors.
.. For many aficionados the images are far more engaging than the postcard sterility of most of contemporary photography.
.. There is even a growing body of artists and "serious" photographers that has taken the form to extremes. Large prints and original images on paper are making their way into art galleries and salons around the world, (including the U.S.A.)

Pinhole Soup Can

.. The Museum of Modern Art engaged German artist Michael Wesely to capture the new building with a 34-month-long pinhole image of their new building, (LINK.)
.. Perhaps it's not too surprising that some of the same things that attract some people to fly fishing also attract some of them to pinhole photography.
.. No matter how good the caster of the fly, there is a certain indeterminacy about it's landing and result; the same for pinhole photography. No matter what the speculation about the fish on the end of the line, the same indeterminacy exists until it is landed; the same for pinhole photography. Etc.
.. Pinhole photography is frequently dismissed as: faux photography, gimmicky, diffuse, ethereal, poorly focused, or aimless - so too fly fishing.
.. For now, we're continuing our exploration of the technique. We've dabbled in it, (and fly fishing,) for over half a century - no need to stop now.
===> Pinhole Resource
===> Pinhhole Gallery
===> Handmade Photographic Images

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Firehole in Midway Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park - Pinhole Image.

Amazing Marlin Bite in Cabo

April 20th to 26th, 2013

Overall Catch Success Rate 91%
Numbers at a glance: Marlin 76%, Dorado 18%, Tuna 3.5%, Small Game 11%

According to Bob Sallis the "best marlin day ever"

BILLFISH: All we can say is “wow”, what a turnaround, this past week we had a growing moon, with full moon on Thursday the 25th, which is when we had the best catches of the week. It just goes to show that there are no set rules when it comes to fishing.  It is generally thought, big moon at night, fish feed at night, less hungry during the day. Try telling that to Captain Abel of the Pisces “C Rod” – he had a group of Canadians on board from Queen Charlotte, who must have thought they were dreaming as they hooked marlin after marlin, outside of Punta Gorda until they had reeled in fifteen fish in the 100 to 150 lb. class. One of the anglers got so excited, that he stripped off his shirt and dove into the water to hug his marlin before safely releasing it. Pisces Rebecca had an outstanding day too, releasing nine marlin at Destiladeras for Dave Burton and friends from Mount Vernon, Washington. The Tracy Ann always seems to do well and as is his custom, Julio worked hard to catch and release six striped marlin for Emilio Lopez and the Barrios brothers from Miami, Florida.  Other boats this day released between two and five marlin.  The following day, boats headed in the same direction on the Cortez side up to Destiladeras where they again encountered great fishing; top boat this day was Pisces La Brisa with seven marlin released for Steve & Cheryl Mazzuca fishing with Jamie & Carrie Jose, all from Washington State. The boat that had alerted the fleet to the bumper marlin catches though was Pisces Yahoo, who found them at Destiladeras on April 22nd and managed to release seven for Marshall Tate and friends from Salt Lake City. Of course we did have a couple of boats that got “skunked” which is horrible if you happen to be one of the few boats that did not catch, but even these crews did see fish and cast bait to them but were just unable to get any takers. Overall though the marlin bite was very good with seventy six percent of our charters catching and releasing marlin. If the weather stays good, we believe we will see even better numbers of marlin as we get into May. Remember there was a reason that the IGFA World Offshore Championship, picked May as a prime month in Cabo. In other words buy your plane tickets and give us a call. Pisces anglers caught a total of 90 striped marlin this week with all but one released.

60 lb wahoo on the Ruthless

OTHER SPECIES: Pretty much all the boats that we sent this week concentrated on marlin and there was not a great deal of smaller offshore fish to be had anyway. Two very nice fish though were a couple of wahoo, at 60 and 65 lbs., the first was aboard Pisces Ruthless who seems to have a knack for this species and the second was aboard Pisces C Rod. Dorado catches were on the slow side with eighteen percent catching the odd fish here and there whilst trolling for marlin. One exception was Pisces Tracy Ann, who caught four up to 20 lbs. at Destiladeras as well as releasing five striped marlin for Dave Burton and friends - what an ideal day. Tuna catches were very slow with just a few 10’lb’ers picked up. Inshore pangas could catch up to fifteen skipjack in a day and the odd yellow tail. Surf Fishing: Wesley had a total of four trips this week which led to a total of 11 sierras, 13 jack crevalle and 1 red snapper – resulting in happy anglers. With the wind dying down the casts have been easier to make and the hook up ratio much higher.

Wesley shows off a nice size jack crevalle, known locally as a "Toro".

WEATHER: Clear skies, still a couple of chilly mornings, whitecaps on Pacific earlier in the week now calm. Cortez side we did have some big swells, now calmer.
LOCATION: Destiladeras, Punta Gorda, 11.50 spot, 22- 25 miles out, Herradura.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: The satellite imagery makes it pretty clear why they are catching fish on the Cortez side at that particular point. The Pacific shows 67-68 F and the Cortez Destiladeras areas shows 73 F.
BEST LURES: Live caballito or frozen ballyhoo.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

Let There Be . . .

ANTS !!

Fine Crop of Formica obscuripes Forel, the Western Thatching Ant - Madison River

Where are we?

Despite a mildish winter the howling and relentless Easterlies throughout March and into April have set back the whole of nature so it’s not surprising for the fishing to follow that pattern and make for a slow start to the Bass fishing year. Being that, frustratingly, things only seem to really get going a few weeks before the close on the 15th of May it will be interesting to see if the pre close action really gets going at all. It is encouraging to see strong indicators of the onset of summer in all the new plant growth of leaves, buds, flowers etc along with arrival of summer migrants such as the wonderfully aerobatic Swallows but what I’m really wondering is what will be the true state of the Bass population in 2013 as accessible to shore anglers such as myself? It’s been pointed out many times to me now by those who have fished Bass all their lives that things are not what they were and also, are not what they should be. As we all know, after a collapse in stocks due to overfishing, in 1990 laws were put in place to protect the species from being commercially overfished in Irish waters and these laws became permanent in 2006 good news, job done, or maybe not.....?


The picture that’s clearly emerging is that despite these legal protections the fishing is declining year on year, and why is that? If the majority of Anglers are C&R which I believe they are or at least abiding by the law either the law is still allowing too many fish to be removed, poaching and netting are rife or the fish are being hoovered up offshore. With the equipment and techniques now at our disposal catches should be far out weighing those of five or ten years ago but the evidence is they simply are not. Probably the truth of it, which I’m purely guessing, is that its all of the above and more to varying degrees.

A more recent negative influence has of course been the weather, successive bad summers has made Bass fishing unbelievably hard at times and for last year in particular. More times than I care to remember I fished long and hard in what seemed like perfect daytime conditions for very little return, with night fishing the only way of improving ones chances which is not everyone’s cup of tea and should be done with great care. The general trend of warming water temperatures should in theory have improved things for Bass and may do over time but as previously said it’s not evident in our catch rates as yet. I think everyone at this stage Bass fishers or not are hoping and praying for at least a reasonable summer with some stability in the weather patterns which will undoubtedly help the fishing, at least in the short term, we shall see. I’d welcome other views on this important topic.

The hunt for the skipper continues

I was back in Dundee as usual for a midweek stop off on the way back up to Aberdeen. The water level would be dropping after the rain of last week and my concerns were about this, water clarity and size of the tides which were building up. Initially it looked OK so I started to work my lure up and into the current and along the colour changes. I felt confident that there would be a fish or two around. Three hours later I took the walk of shame back to the car; all that was missing was a can for me to kick along the beach….

I won’t be fishing this weekend so not one to admit defeat too easily I decided that I would have another crack on the way home. I was prepared for more of the same but on my second cast hooking a fish actually caught me totally by surprise. The fish gave a great account of itself; it had me thinking how good it might have been on a fly rod. The speed and random changes in direction were hard to keep up with, superb!

47cm

A squall came through about an hour later. I had the thought that I never seem to catch anything when it’s raining, again, another surprise as a fish thumped the lure and threw itself about in the rain and was quickly netted. The shower was so heavy I couldn’t be bothered to unzip my jacket and get the camera off the lanyard around my neck, nice little chunky, fat maiden fish, I guess about a pound.

I was starting to think about driving home when I connected again. This fish was another acrobat and took the lure on a very short line which saw it quickly netted and slipped back. Time to go home.

Three different looking spring Sea Trout, the first I think, good condition but looks like it’s spent some time actually in fresh water last week after the rain. The second a hands down maiden fish and the third for me was hard to say. It has a split tail but is bright silver, firm, solid and in A1 condition and no sign of being in a river this past autumn. So, the hunt for the elusive“skipper”continues. To anybody fishing for Sea Trout in the salt this is probably the Holy Grail. Trying to catch one of these bigger fish in spring which unquestionably has missed out heading up the river for a season or maybe even two is where it’s at, but like all good things, never easy.

Could this be a turning point.....

Water temps are rising, spring tides and reports coming in of fish coming to lures along the coast. I know for sure its not a weekend to spend indoors.

Here's hoping...

Tight lines....

Z Fish Report (4/25/13)

One of two small sailfish caught by Scott and Trisha Lorezo  

The 82 degree offshore blue water has moved out to about 30 miles, with clean water at the 25 mile mark, and stained water from the beach to 25 miles. Scott and Trisha Lucero of Rialto, CA fished the 25 mile areas with Captain Elias on the cruiser Had E Nuff for one day. The released two small sailfish and had a couple of other strikes. But, once you get out to the blue water, the game fish are there. Adolfo, on the panga Dos Hermanos fished the same area at the 38 mile mark for two days, accounting for 8 sailfish on the first day and 6 on the second. Fourteen sailfish in two days is darned good fishing, but it is a long run to get to them.

     

John Lorenz, owner of the Turtle Bay Fishing Lodge in
Puerto Vicente Gurerrero,with client Bob Tabor. The rooster
was caught on a trolled chartreuse diving plug in off
colored water last week. 

The inshore water is averaging a cool 76 degrees, and on out to the 100 fathom line at 5 to 6 miles. The best action seems to be up north around Saladita and the Ranch. Will Anderson of Traverse City, MI fished with Ramon on his open panga from Majahua. They went up to Saladita and the Ranch, casting small 1 oz chrome spoons with light spin outfits. They encountered 4 schools of small dorado, a few jack crevalle, and several schools of black skipjack tuna. They couldn’t get the jacks to bite, but ended up with some nice 5 -10 pound dorado for dinner. (Majahua is just north of Troncones and only a 15 minute boat ride to Saladita and about ½ hour to the Ranch. When the action is up north, the option of using Ramon is more economical and a whole lot less boat ride from the standard conventional panga out of Zihuatanejo.)

Ed Kunze (IGFA Representative)

Photo by Trisha Lucero

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