" Houston, we have lift off "

This is a pic of my friend Slah fishing the sun up on New Years eve. He picks me up at 5:30 and we drive north out of Nuevo Mazatlan that you can see in the distance. I figure its about 10 miles, the beach is entirely pristine, nothing for miles that I can see. We start out with our long surf rods and cast and cast and cast and .....nodda. All the locals say the water is to warm and we have huge tides with the full moon that I expect complicates things as well. I bear down and throw hard as I figure I need both the exercise and the practice at long casting for when the fish are in, and they will be.
So, about 9:00 my friend Antonio said nuts to the casting and soaked a shrimp bait on the bottom with lead. It wasn't long and he was hooked up with this baby. I was impressed with the way it pulled his huge surf rod and even more impressed when I jumped down and grabbed it from surf for him. This fish is like nothing I'd ever seen before and all of us had a pretty good case of the giggles while admiring it. They call it ' couchy' which translates to Cross Bow in english. It looks like something from your aquarium on steriods. Click on it and take a good luck. Its a gorgeous blue with a demonic green eye, weighs maybe 12 pounds and as he's a shrimp/crab crusher and has teeth that would literaly take your finger off. It has skin like a mule hide Tony Lama and the meat is gorgeous shiney white and firm. Antonio was pleased for such a ceviche treat at New Years.



So then we see some birds working up the Beach. Slah races over in the 4-wheeler and off we run farther north. He drops me off and in no time I have this nice toro or Jack Crevalle. These babies fight, its almost too much fish for 20 pound test on a Kenai Special. I caught another identical to this one and fished for an hour or so when I figured not bringing a shirt or sun screen was pretty stupid. The birds had gone so I looked around for shade. Being desperate to get out of the sun I found a fishing camp and introduced myself, got some vacant looks and sat down in a folding chair under there sun tarp. I think the mexican fisherman knew what I needed but it was kinda quiet there for a while. Finally Slah showed up and we went back to the truck with a total catch of 5 toro, 1 cross bow, 1 seirra and a snakey looking thing that nobody even wanted to talk about.

This a pic of Slah. Looks happy doesn't he? Well, he is. He's funny, intense about fishing and about as steady a guy I've ever met. You know, a guy you trust. Everyone says he's at least the best or second best surf fisherman in Mazatlan. All I know is I wouldn't bet against him in any contest. His creativity is amazing. All the tackle he uses he makes himself. All the gear he maintains himself. Let me put it in perspective....even a guy like me who is consumed with fishing and makes his living fishing has never fished enough, long enough, hard enough to wear things out like Slah. He is a Weapon...plain and simple and I'm proud to know him.

These are just a few of Slahs lures. The lead head jigs speak for themselves but for me the coolest is the silver Ranger Lure. He takes these topwater plugs and builds a mold using Bondo. Then he puts the wire thru and hook loop and cast more Bondo into the mold. A little trimming and some paint and its Rooooooster Fiiiiiiish ON.....