MEXICO REPORT

Say ‘bye-bye’ to the scare and ‘hello’ to the dodos BY ROBIN WADE/WON Staff WriterPublished: Jul 01, 2009

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MAZATLAN — Mazatlan is starting to once again, rebound from the recession caused by the latest round of unfortunate “stay out of Mexico” scares. This one, created by the flu saw the tourist industry crash but daily, the charter trip numbers have begun to rise. One great example would be that of 9-year-old Moet Hodson from Vista and her 60-pound sail (see photo) she caught all by herself! He proud dad, WON reader Capt. Glen Hodson said she caught the sailfish on a recent Carnival cruise. “We fish with the Escaualo Fleet when we are here. Her fighting time was 20 minutes, using a 50-pound line,” Hodson said. “The great dorado fishing continues and more tourists are arriving in Mazatlan by car (summer nationals), plane, and finally by cruise ships. They are still not back to where they should be but charter numbers are significantly better than they were a few weeks ago,” said Tadeo Hernández Kelly from the Flota Bibi Fleet. In addition to a good dorado bite, Kelly said blue marlin and sailfish numbers were on the rise too. “There hasn’t been a lot of inshore fishing going on as most people are going for dorado, but snapper, triggerfish, jack crevalle and the mojarra keep running,” he said. Reporting for the Aries Sportfishing Fleet, Larry Edwards said it was truly another sensational fishing week in Mazatlan for the early summer dorado bite that is offering easy limit fishing, excellent dinner fare and terrific non-stop light tackle action. “The shark buoys were again the area’s hot spot for dorado action that keeps anglers super busy on most anything that moves through the water. Overall counts for 20 outings in and around the buoys reflected limit fishing and many releases,” Edwards said. The offshore boats tallied 4 sailfish and 36 dorado for four offshore trips. The boats lost one day to weather in the early part of the week but mostly calm conditions prevailed as the week progressed, with a little swell from the south, remnants of the tropical depression, and sea temperatures held stable at 85 degrees. Charters headed southwest out of the Marina El Cid, 22 to 25 miles for the billfish and the shark buoys for the bulk of the dorado action. Rigged baits were used for the sailfish, while live bait, dead bait, cut bait, strip bait, artificials, pencil poppers, Rapalas, etc. worked for dorado. In other mainland Mexico fishing action: — IXTAPA-ZIHUATANEJO: Reporting for the Independent Sportfishing Fleet, Larry Edwards said the beginning of the week was bad as weather from the tropical storm approached and the port was closed for two days. It calmed down and became fishable again quickly though, with stable sea temperatures holding at 85 degrees throughout the area. The water also started to discolor from the rain and run-off so things could change rapidly. “It was another week of very slow going for the charter boats, with just a few people going fishing. Some of the boats are even starting to pull their boats for their annual maintenance programs, and trying to have a positive view towards the next season,” Edwards said. “Inshore though, the roosterfish bite remained hot at Pantla Beach and the sailfish were still within two miles of the beach, along with some big dorado,” he said. Live bait was best for the roosterfish but red/white pencil poppers were also working well. There was a good supply of bait in the Zihuatanejo Bay area, with mostly caballito and mullet on the menu. Smallish bonito were available at the fishing grounds. “Tropical storm Andres hurt the fly-fishing this past week. The aftermath caused from its high winds and a high tide caused by the storm surge, along with the rain, made it very difficult to fly-fish for the roosters, and the blue water bite slowed way down also,” said Ed Kunze reporting for Baja on the Fly. Kunze’s client, Kurt Ransohoff from Santa Barbara and Tom Lorish of Portland fished with fly-fishing guide Lance Peterson down at Puerto Vicente Guerrero on Wednesday and only raised one rooster. However, the day was salvaged by moving off the beach about a mile and fishing the weed lines caused by the storm runoff out of the rivers. “They took 13 nice dorado. Peterson was casting a hookless surface popper teaser and the dorado were readily eating the fly,” Kunze said. — SAN CARLOS (SONORA): Thanks to the storm, the area had an up and down week, meaning there were some bumpy days and then it smoothed out as the week went on. Reporting for JonJen Charters, Jon Hilderbrand said his boats fished in close but still caught small dorado right out front. “We had two boats out on Tuesday with Roberto on JonJen getting three nice bulls under a pallet. Seeing all the fish lying under was his client’s highlight along with his 34-pound bull,” Hilderbrand said. Abel on the JonJen 2 found 4 dorado for two clients that enjoyed a day that started with lumpy seas that then laid down as the day wore on. “Friends on the same dock saw what they said was the biggest great white shark they have seen bigger and said it was longer than their 21-foot Whaler. It was moving under a dead whale,” he said. The fishing has been good with some good-size dorado and Hilderbrand said they were seeing lots of billfish and some big boys. “I heard of two incidents where anglers has spooled reels,” he said. Readers: To have your reports included in the Mexico report, send photos and e-mails to baja@wonews.com.