fishing the West Coast of Mexico

[Zummie]

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I will be fishing near Manzanillo this December and have heard from a local that between the non-regulated long liners and El Nino that the fishing is way down (worse) this year. Anyone know about this ??

[tom@marlinstar]

Zummie,

I haven't experienced Mex during El Nino but I did spend a month in Costa Rica during an El Nino year(s). We were surfing and fishing waters that were 90 degrees and the fishing was poor. From the local panga guys to the more sophisticated guys in Flamingo......they all spoke how the water was too warm and the fishing was down. Capt. Fred has a vast knowledge of Mexico and beyond....he would be a great source of information on this.

[Captain Fred Archer]

Tom's right, I fished thru a number of El Nino seasons down in The Baja. As I understand it, this is a mild one and I've been through those too. The strong ones can be murder everywhere, including Mexico, but the mild ones aren't usually a big deal and the fishing down there has remained good, at least so far.

We had to catch fish for our customers (and to keep me from going crazy ), no matter what the conditions and we experienced good fishing, even during the strong El Ninos, but we did it a very, very different way than the locals, who in general suffered mightily. We fished deep with downriggers and planers and found that there was a lot of bait and plenty of fish down in the deeper, cooler water that the others simply did not fish.

This is true in many venues and although El Ninos make it worse, a long series of calm, sunny days have much the same effect because fishermen are universally fooled by what their temp gauges are telling them. Temp gauges measure near-surface water temperature. Long, calm, sunny days raise those surface temps dramatically, especially in deep water. Next thing you know, the VHS is full of guys yammering about all of the warm water that they are finding, when the bottom line is that they are merely talking about the surface water temperature that the sun has heated up during the course of the day.

Concurrently, if you happen to be in an area where the baitfish or their prey prefer cooler temps, when the surface waters heat up, they do what comes naturally and they drop down into the cooler, deeper water. And, of course, the predator fishes go with them. It is a factor that affects pelagic fishing anywhere, yet very few fishermen are even remotely aware of it in the first place and then react by fishing deep in the second. Lot's of lousy days result.

Where the gamefish are located depends on the kind of bait prevalent in a given area and its preferred water temps. Again, probably controlled by the water temps preferred by THEIR prey...fish aren't into comfort, they are into staying in touch with their prey. If they aren't feeding on it, they are usually found shadowing it and waiting for another feeding cycle to begin. They don't attack a school of bait, fill up, then go to wandering about, goofing around until hunger returns, and then having to locate the bait all over again. Makes no sense and Nature is logical as hell and controls both the predators and prey's actions, no matter what we think or what anyone tries to lead us to believe.

The above leads me to a belief that I've had for a long time - the reason for the early bites that happen in certain areas for certain species. Morning surface water temps are often much cooler than later in the day due to the fact that there was no sun heating them up at night. At those times the bait species that prefer cooler water are often found up top and the gamefish are up and feeding in and on it. As the temps go up as the sun does its thing, the water temp goes up with it and often, sooner or later, that surface water gets too warm for the bait and it goes down and of course, the gamefish go with it.

A prime example of this happened and happens to this day down in Mexico. Fishermen there will tell you that "the grey, morning time is THE time to catch wahoo." Well I'll tell you this for a fact. Ourselves and other charterboats were almost never on the wahoo grounds that early, but it was often early enough to catch some. But the proof that the wahoo go down, but keep feeding, was that unlike most others, we often specialized in wahoo and we kept fishing for them and fished deep to do so (high speed trolling being the exception) and usually did a number on them as long as we were in the right areas on the tide changes. We debunked that "early bite" bull completely and that's all there is to it, at least from my experience.

I get the ultimate chuckle when I hear anglers complaining about "cold water" early in the day, then listen to them cheer up as the day goes on and they "discover" warmer water, with the warmest usually being "found" late in the day. Funny how few add up two and two and figure out what's really happening.

A wise old fisherman once told me, "The less you fish, the smarter you better be about it if you want to catch any."

"Knowledge is the key to succes"...read books...get that knowledge fast and complete...then put it to work for you."

And remember, them temp gauges will fool you if you let them!

[whalebreath]

Manzanillo is very much yesterday's destination it's been years since fishing was worth while.

For a clear picture have a look at the fishing reports for nearby Barra de Navidad, that is if you can find one less than 4 years old.

[Zummie]

Barra IS where I fish. Love the fishing and especially love the town and people. This will be my 5th year fishing there. Here are some pics from last year (08 we were early for the Marlin but the Dorado and Wahoo were good): Note: Please don't mention the little Mexican girl we found there to my wife.












07 we got 3 nice Blue Marlin along with everything else. We kept this one caught on 30 lb. test.

[Captain Fred Archer]

Ah, Zummer, good on ya for accurate information on what remains a very good fishing venue, Barra, and an "old Mexico" destination, albeit one that few Internet style fish reports come out of. Going there has taught you a lot about that lovely town and those warm Mexican people who live there, ones who catch a lot of great fish, but who don't spend a lot of time on the Internet...like I said, "Old Mexico" - a very good thing, as you know.

Once again, proof positive that "been there, done that" beats "heard about it, here's what I think" any day.

Nice panga fishies, too! Three blues in one visit ain't bad there, pal! In fact, it's damned good. And nice 'hoo's and dorados too. But hey, no offense, but you simply don't deserve a lovely wife like that, ya lucky dawg! And one that fishes with ya? Goodgoshamighty!

Best of luck to you two on this year's trip. My only advice vis-a-vis the El Nino would be to bring a planer or two. El Nino or no, they can be dynamite on daytime wahoo and other good stuff. And if the Nino has strengthened it can be a real trip saver.

Suerte, amigo!

[Zummie]

Originally Posted by Captain Fred Archer

But hey, no offense, but you simply don't deserve a lovely wife like that, ya lucky dawg! And one that fishes with ya? Goodgoshamighty!



Suerte, amigo!

Wasn't my wife, was a girl from Denmark doing a reality TV show that wanted to fish so we invited her to come along. My daughter's older.

BTW, will be trying some Archer superbars for the first time this year. Will report back.