Mazatlan Fishing Report.....March 10-16

[DocEsox]

Finally got out fishing a few days while vacationing for spring break in Mazatlan with my wife and daughter. Mi espousa was about to check me into a detox center for extreme fishing withdrawl as I hadn't wetted a line since last October......was waiting to test my recently reconstructed shoulder (it did well) done in December. I was so looking forward to the trip then got the flu a few days before and it extended for the first 4 days of vacation....yeehaw....age doesn't let you heal faster.

El Salto Lake was on my itinerary for largemouth bass on Tuesday but Monday morning I realized my intestinal tract was not going to make it by then. So I visited the conceirge and asked if she could find the number for El Salto Adventures.....she walked across the hall to ask the travel person....and came back saying there was someone else interested in going on Wednesday. Small world stuff.....I walk next door and there sits another dentist I know from Anchorage, AK (where I am from)....what a weird experience. We agreed to go on Wednesday and had a great time fishing together. The day started at 0400 when the guide picked us up and drove the 2 hours to El Salto. We were on the water soon and bass fishing......here's the guide whose original house was under 20 feet of water when the lake was constructed....and my fishing partner for the day:

El Salto Lake is going up into the mountains from Mazatlan and the shoreline is very stark:

Many birds were around the shoreline, including ospreys and a whole lot of these friendly buzzards:

We were into bass about 4 casts into the day.....used Wacky Worms a good deal of the time.....caught a few on topwater.......and several during the heat of the day on rattletraps and crankbaits. These are a few of the nicer fish I caught during the day:

I also caught a couple of tilapia on the crankbaits....aren't those things supposed to be vegans?

All told I caught somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 bass on the day....had several in the 4-6 lbs class....but no toads. My partner lost one that jumped which was easily 10 lbs. We got back to shore and had the lovely 2 hour ride back to Mazatlan.

Like an one-who-thinks-I-am-silly the next morning was to go fishing in an esturary about 90 miles south of Mazatlan. My wife and daughter (11 yrs old) agreed to go but weren't happy about the 0430 wakeup call. Our driver was a madmen on the roads and my wife knew we were going to die at any moment. You have to give her credit for going as she is scared to death of the water....she knows if she gets on the water the boat will sink and/or Jaws would eat us, etc..... The trip was grossly overhyped as we "shared" the waters with 30-40 commercial fishing pangas which fished the "pristine" waters everyday. It was a very sedate trip with only about 10 fish caught by all three of us....although I nearly made my wife lose her lunch when I ate live, raw shrimp with the guide.....they were actually quite tasty. The guide, Victor, also runs bird watching tours back in the estuary....for me...bring on the fish.

Did catch some new species for me the first is a black snapper:

My wife then caught a couple of pacific snook....

I followed with this massive yellow snapper:

About this time my daughter woke up from a nap and we both caught what they called a "donkeyfish".....they are panama grunt and extremely tasty little devils:

My wife and I both then got cutoff by large snappers......then my last fish was this small spotted cabrilla:

At the end of the day the driver took us to a small outdoor restaurant in Teacapan where they filleted and cooked our fish.

Even though the trip was not nearly as advertised this meal made it worth the trip....it was the best Mexican meal I have ever eaten. While the fish were being prepared we were served fresh tomato/avacado salsa....then fabulous shrimp ceviche.....followed by shrimp empanadas.....finally we had garlic grilled and some deep fried fresh fish.....I could have died and gone wherever I'm going at that moment:

We then endured the wild ride back to Mazatlan. On our next to last day my wife agreed to let me go out on one of the pangas inshore fishing. This winter has been very chilly in Mazatlan and the cooler water has made the fishing very tough (at least that is the line I was given). We went out and did some reef fishing....catching some pacific red snapper, small cabrilla and what they called a "rabbitfish"....from my research this is really a Hubb's Tilefish....closely related to the ocean whitefish found off Southern Cal:

My guide receives credit for realizing how bored I was and asked if I wanted to try trolling inshore off the rocks....even though that hadn't been producing much....he then asked if we could use the big-lipped rapalas I had brought with me. We proceeded to have 3 hours of absolutely wide open fishing for sierra mackerel with the occasional pacific jack crevale (toro) thrown in.....we were double hooked up most of the time.

It was a great trip......didn't catch any huge or spectacular fish but had a great time with the family. Did manage to add 5 new species to my fish caught list. Now I'm back in the 30 degree weather missing this:

Only another 6-8 weeks and we should be back to trout fishing up here in Alaska. Good fishin.

Brian

[TonkaBass]

very cool pics! That looks like an awesome time! Sure beats this snow!

[Schloogs]

Looks like you had great, more than a little jealous.

[hanson]

Thats Awesome!

[Team Otter]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing.

[Shack]

Very Cool!

My boss just left for Mexico and he is going fishing. He will send me a report, as long as I send a report back on ice fishing this weekend .

Again, very cool! I should have went to Meaico this week, but I stayed back for last week of ice (sort of, the kids).

[harvey lee]

Looks like the fishing was good. I have went on a few panga trips for rooster fish and some other specie and had a blast. I have also done the deep sea for billfish many a time and one year looked at the bass trip but didnt go for it.

maybe the next trip their I will need to do the Salto gig.

[Deitz Dittrich]

ouch.posting pictures like that while we are stuck in a snow storm is just plain mean!!!!

Awesome story!, Great picts... thanks for sharing!

[frogtosser]

it looks warm

[smnduck]

Looks like you had fun. I'm going to Maz in 2 weeks. Hopefully it warms some and the fishing really turns on.

[traveler]

hey Doc; looks like it was pretty slow. I'm surprised both by the lack of sizeable bass at El Salto and the estuary trip. I guess I won't be doing either of those in future Maz trips, and I definatly wanted to do the estuary thing. Unfortunate they don't always come clean up front on what to really expect. I know the offshore bite was really slow, but I guess thats the direction I'll keep spending my $$. Sounds like it was good to get away anyhow:)