Originally Posted by
Franticpace
I have been spending the last month or so bemoaning the horrid conditions offshore of PV, cold, green, often lifeless water, at least behind this boat. Consequently I had spent a lot of time surfing Terrafin and hoping that somehow that warm, blue water off of Ixtapa would magically work its way this direction. Finally it dawned on me that it was actually possible for me to move to the more desirable conditions, a sure sign that I have been sedentary much too long. In olden times I would have simply cast off the lines and moved the Frantic Pace to better waters. But having suffered “sticker shock” the last time I took out the Frantic Pace, I was reluctant to go it alone on my own dime. I had taken Capt Josh and his small army of Canadians, almost equal in both size and debauchery to the actual Canadian army, on a 2 day fishing adventure with a fuel bill of nearly $2400. The Frantic Pace hadn’t sipped that much liquid gold in a long time.
Thus began a plan to encourage others to take part in my adventure, unfortunately, one devious scheme after another fell through, and when my last great hope informed me that his fishing dollars had to be spent on a new picnic table, I finally resolved to go south with only one wallet and my trusty companion Sue. Ruefully she sprained her back just before planned departure, and we postponed for another week. At last, the big day arrive and in spite of an oncoming cold, Sue, Nick and I headed south. Frugality had me planning a 9 knot trip, west coast style. We departed 3 hours behind the Red Neck who had also planned to chase blue water, our destination, Barra de Navidad. I know big friggin deal, 130 miles, a sad indicator of how port bound I had become.
Our original plan was to work our way towards Ixtapa, after sampling the waters off of Barra, which were definitely showing signs of improvement. By daybreak on Thursday, the water temperature had risen to 75 degrees and was a clean blue green, and we were only 75 miles south of Cabo Corrientes. We put out the lines and trolled our way towards the 1000 fathom curve. The first day we saw 3 stripes, had 2 bites and caught one. We also caught a 130 lb yellow fin amongst a school of dolphins; the Redneck had released a 300 lb blue. Not a red hot day, but it was pleasure to be trolling around in water that looked like it might hold life, especially marlin. By the time we were south of Barra on the 1000, the water was crystal blue and ranged for 77-79 degrees a far improvement from the 66 degree water off of Cabo Corrientes. Day two we saw 3 stripes got 2 bites and released one. The Red neck had 6 stripe bites, released one and caught a few Dorado. On Friday we waited for the arrival of the Tsunami wave that was predicted to pass through the area around 1:00, nothing noteworthy appeared not even a noticeable ground swell. It wasn’t until we returned to the Marina at Barra that the massive impact of that Tsunami wave was evident. The Red Neck had arrived at the inlet before us and had decided to drop anchor outside the jetty, as the inside water was ebbing and flowing on 5-8 minute intervals with a reported rise and fall of nearly 6 feet. This made for an incredible ever changing current inside the jetty all the way into the marina area. By luck, my arrival was near the end of a cycle, and although the current was nearly 4 knots, we managed to get inside the marina and tied up without incident. We took a lay day on Saturday, caught up on some sleep. Sunday we fished off shore and it was slow, we caught a small tuna, a nice Dorado, and missed a stripe. I decided to troll back towards PV rather than spend another night, and there was no reason to continue to Ixtapa as the water had rolled over in that area. On our troll towards home we released a 425 lb Blue. The water remained warm., 74-76 degrees and blue green to within 55 miles of Corrientes.
All in all, the fishing was god enough to be worth the travelling, the conditions were spectacular. The most notable thing was the ever present Marina police. I have been in Mexico for nearly 6 years and never been approached at sea, on this trip we were approached in the middle of the night on 5 occasions. They were courtiers and after gathering info on our origination and destination moved on.
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