Pescado fresca

Thats a nice Sierra I caught the other day, they're actually a spainish mackeral and for us surf guys they are kind of like a budget Wahoo. This fish is the favorite for civiche and Slah's neighbor makes some of the best in Mazatlan.

I just had to post a pic of Ernies surf set-up....the envy of the beach. I have a Saltiga reel but Ernie has the rod as well as the reel so I guess he wins. Most of us have seen or even own the best of the best when it comes to salmon fishing, maybe a Loomis IMX with a Calcutta reel, maybe 300 bucks a copy....well Erns setup is a cool grand and let me tell you it casts a mile, smooth, light and durable. So when we load up like this to move on down the beach everybody takes a bit of care to make sure all the equipment is set just right. You'll notice the jeep is set up for doing what we're all about, fat tires, rod holders and fishing stickers.

But with all the gear, experience, hard work and luck....we don't always catch them so its on to plan B, one of my favorite things, 9 am on Los Pino's beach where you can buy just about anything you might desire from the sea, nice and fresh. Some mornings MP and I show up and watch the fisherman come in and set up and then we just wander through old town and find a place for huevos rancheros, my favorite breakfeast. The first pic is a fish I'd never seen before, unbelieveable, its like a huge fresh water aquarium fish. Click on the pic to enlarge it and I think you'll agree, thats a gorgeous creature.

The next pic is a typical set up for the guys selling. A lot of times they don't fillet the fish as much as they 'break' the fish. I really don't know what or why the uses might be but a clever is used to whack the cleaned fish into pieces, most likely for soup I'd guess. The lobster were jumpin out of the tote fresh and for 200 pesos ( about 16 bucks) you could fanagle a purchase of at least 5 and maybe 7 depending on there size of course. The lobster are awful good here.....but us northerners all kind of agree that the dungies and king crab we get are pretty hard to beat.

The picture below was taken just a couple blocks away, the 'shrimp ladies' are a Mazatlan institution. Everyday they have it all , Camarones in large , small, grande, head on, head off, even dried shrimp that I really like, its kind of like a shrimp jerky. Even though we usually get our shrimp delivered to the house, the shrimp ladies have the best in fresh and prices, not to mention that the shopping experience is a fun social exercise, i love it.

So this morning we end up at Revolution park where Mazatlan always has their official Christmas tree. Well this year they went all out, a nativity scene with real live animals and people. You notice I didn't get to close to this mule, I seem to remember somewhere from back in my cowboy days that those things are kind of unpredictable, I kind of need all my fingers to play the musica tonight....