Zihuatanejo Mexico Fishing Report 26th Feb - 06th March

**Lucky Dave** · 09-03-2007, 19:09

Zihuatanejo Mexico Fishing Report 26th February 2007 - 06th March 2007

Below is my fishing report for the boats fished by myself and fishing buddy Michael. I have included pictures we managed to get, unfortnatley not all fish were caught on camera.

No doubt Excel will follow with his boat reports and his superb fish! Well done Dave!

All fishing was from Pangas. On our arrival speaking to other anglers the fishing was slow! A lot of those we spoke to seemed to be finding it hard to find decent fish and was generally poor due to it being an El Nino year and the water currents affecting the fishing. Despite this we did see some nice Sails, a Dorado and a Blue Marlin brought to shore on our first day which was spent checking out the area and waiting for the boats to come in in the afternoon. We met a couple of guys from Tonbridge Kent that had a had 3 sails each, cant remember how many days they had done but got the impression from some guys from Denmark that it was gonna be poor fishing.

Day One 26th February 2007
Fishing aboard Dos Hermanos II with skipper Chevor (most probably spelled incorrectly!)
We had two Sails on but, to our disappointment, did not manage to land any. These were the only fish we saw that day other than the Bonito which we'd caught to use for Marlin live bait - they're great fun! If only our Mackerel grew to their size!

Day Two 27th February 2007
Fishing aboard 'Fish On' with skipper Leonardo and crewman
Decided to fish inshore due to the lack of fish seen offshore trolling for sailfish and blue marlin. We had to travel about 35 miles to a popular rooster fishing mark but rooster fish were not available in numbers.
Boat Dos Hermanos with skipper Adolfo with an American angler landed a rooster fish.
When they were fishing towards the beach and riding the breakers later that day, the angler fell overboard! He was fished out of the water but lost his rod and reel – he was a little shaken up!
We trolled with Rapala lures. The white and red seemed most productive with five Pacific Jack Crevalle to my rod and a green and orange returning one fish to Michael's rod. We also had a mixture of Bonito and Skipjack tuna.

Day Three 28th February 2007
Fishing aboard Leydi with skipper Candilero we went off shore fishing.
After catching Bonito for Blue Marlin live bait I finally hooked into my first Sailfish, which weighed 90Ib - the average size that we caught on our vacation. It's quite difficult explaining the feeling of hooking your first Sailfish and seeing it leave the water! About one hour later Michael hooked into his first Sailfish of about the same size and I was just as excited seeing him have his first fish on as I was seeing mine. Top sport!
After that flurry of action no more fish were seen on this day.
Mick & I with our first sailfish, unfortunatley mine did not survive a gut hooked J.

Day Four 1st March 2007
Fishing aboard Fish-On with Leonardo and crewman
Went offshore fishing after catching Bonito live bait. Despite Leonardo's efforts, and he tried everything, we did not see a single fish all day.

Day Five 2nd March 2007
Fishing aboard Dos Hermanos II with Chevor
Fished offshore for Sailfish and Marlin. I caught my second Sailfish, which was as much of a buzz as the first.
Despite all Chevor's efforts no more fish were seen that day.

Day Six 3rd March 2007
Fishing aboard Secuestro De Amor with Skipper Temo Verboonen
Offshore for those elusive Sailfish & Marlin. Temo tends to steam out to the fishing grounds rather than plod out like most trolling on the way. As soon as he got out the 3rd bait and there was a take, unfortunately a bird flew into the fishing line which was on the outrigger just as the fish took the bait so now there was a bird in the middle and a sailfish on the end and an alarmed Michael on the rod end. Tension between the fish was lost due to the bird and after a few spectacular jumps, the fish threw the hook, we reeled in the bird which was released unharmed.
I had my third Sailfish, which took a lot of line on its initial run and gave up a good fight all the way to the boat. We spent all day trolling and didn't get my fish until the end of the day.

Day Seven 4th March 2007
Today we took the day off. A day on the beach drinking and eating.

Day Eight 5th March 2007
Fishing aboard Leydi with skipper Candilero
Offshore for more Sailfish and we got some nice Bonito on the way out for Marlin. First fish raised was lost after it gave a huge leap from the water. Next fish up was landed by myself gave a superb account for itself on my Greys Excursion 7' 30lb-50lb with a TLD15 nearly spooling me with 20-30yd left on the reel. After a long time trolling Michael hooked into what would be the largest Sailfish we would catch on the trip and his second. After a long fight with lots of leaps and thrashing a 130lb'er was alongside the boat, what a fantastic sight!!! this was an awesome sailfish and sure was angry with beautiful deep blue tones. Candilero did a fantastic job of reviving this fish for release and swam off. We didn't have time to get this fish out the water for a photo and return as it needed attention in the water. We remained in the area to make sure it didn't surface.

Day Nine Tuesday 6th March 2007
Fishing aboard Secuestro De Amor with Skipper Temo Verboonen
Sails & Marlin was what we tried for again, on the final fishing day of our trip.
Michael & I both managed a nice sailfish for the day but Michael's went off like a rocket. The fish must have hit the bait and then foul hooked itself in the back. It shot off and left Mick's TLD15 with about 10yds of line left by the time we got the other 5 rods and baits in and start reversing!! A fish such as a sail don't hang about especially when foul hooked. The fish was finally landed after a long battle and ended up being the last fish of the trip.
Mick with his 3rd Sailfish

**Cascars** · 09-03-2007, 19:40

Nice report dave, cant wait to get out there myself next month. I am also from Tonbridge, did the guys you met give their names?

**Lucky Dave** · 09-03-2007, 19:56

If they did Margarita's wiped them out of my memory :-)

Where abouts are you going Cascars and when?

**PanamaJack** · 10-03-2007, 10:09

Well done Dave! Certainly looks as if you enjoyed yourself even though the fishing was a tad slow.

Unfortunately that El Nino seems to be affecting large parts of the top end of South America right throughout Central America. Certainly reading other reports from Guatemala and Costa Rica Sailfish numbers are significantly down and boats are having to run longish distances to find Blue water. However, on the plus side, the fish are bigger and more Blue Marlin are showing earlier in the season.

Your observations about the inshore fishing though are a salutory lesson for us all - that American angler was very lucky. The Pacific can look quite benign with just big swells but ,every now and then, a rogue one forms a 'comber' and you've got to point the bows out fast and gun the engine.
Dave

**Kingfish81** · 13-03-2007, 09:53

Great trip report and some cracking photos!! Glad you got amoungst some sails and congrats on the biggie - great fish.

**Lucky Dave** · 14-03-2007, 19:26

Some pics uploaded for Excel

**excel** · 14-03-2007, 19:49

Thanks Mate, Oh the shame of it , getting the deckie to upload pics due to my imcompetance with the computer !

started off very slowly in Zihuat, for the first three days we didn`t have a fish on board apart from bonito. then gradually it all fell into place. only managed one sail each day, which was disapointing having been lead to believe that they just jumped into the boat !
The one fish that made the whole trip worthwhile for me was a 200lb+ Blue Marlin. it was great sport because i was only using 30 lb line and 100lb leader. about an hour into the fight the skippers shimano TLD20 that i was using decided to seize up ! Great, me first Marlin and the bloody reel locks solid !
We had to quickly back down on the fish to get some slack line, praying that the hook would hold, then i cut the line to the fish and rejoined it to another rod and reel. All the time the skipper was concerned about my abilty to tie knts, not speaking any spanish i could`nt say `Don`t panic old son i do your job at home!`

once the lines were joined i continued the battle royal, eventually touching the leader after another three quarters of an hour ! We had the fish to the side of the boat about five times but couldn`t lift it on the leader, then the inevitable happened on such a weak leader and off she swam !
I was very happy to see the fish swim off, hopefully to shed the hooks and go about its business for a long time to come. it was an amazing battle with the fish showing who was in charge as it shook it`s head at me, tailwalked and jumped from the ocean like a fat exocet missile !

going back next year? Oh let me think about that, YES !

www.kentcharterfishing.com

**Why Worry Angling Charters** · 14-03-2007, 22:11

Nice one Dave,I wouldnt mind some of that with you sometime...How big were the fillets?

Ron

**PanamaJack** · 19-03-2007, 10:16

Just to illustrate the varying effects of that current El Nino effect off the Pacific coast of Central America two of our Club members recently fished from Ixtapa in Guatemala. On consecutive days they released 19 Sailfish from 37 strikes and 28 from 47. Quite a few of those were multiple strikes. But then on the next day they released just the five.

From Guatemala they travelled further down to Pinas Bay, Panama where, at what should be the peak of the Black Marlin season, over four days they released just three smallish fish up to 350lbs.

**Kingfish81** · 19-03-2007, 13:09

In addition the billfish in the Sea of Cortez have turned up very early this year. They've already had a couple of marlin in the East Cape area - about 6 weeks earlier than would normally be expected! It does appear however that the El Nino is weakening and normal surface temperatures are predicted by the time we reach April/May time...