Southern Pink Salmon

That's one of them right there. Around these parts they're a little maligned but let me tell you these toro are one noble fish. They flat pull hard and don't run out of gas. That one I'm holding is about a ten pounder and I thought it was going to smoke my brand spanking new Patriarch reel...The other day at Marmol we ran into a school of them even larger and with my light gear I decided to only catch one because I have two more months to fish and need all my gear working. They're a cousin of my favorite fish of all time, the Roosterfish and are best suited for your medium and heavy gear. For me that would be the 30 pound outfit rated 2 to 4 ounce. But, they just don't eat so well (although I've eaten plenty) and they're just so numerous that when they hit the beach chasing sardines it's almost too easy....sound like any fish you Alaskans know? Here's a pic that I've tried to capture for you a hundred times and finally made it happen. In the middle and top you can see the bait at the surface and at the very bottom you see the Toro's casing the bait onto the beach and surfing the wave in....unbelievable exciting. Click to enlarge, its sooooo cool.

So the other day I told my fellow Team X ers that I was going to organize a Toro tournament to see just who's the best in Mazatlán at catching these beauties....of course they know its gotta be me. I love to fish them with the topwater, to see the strike and react with the hook set is to me surf fishing what a brown trout raising to a nymph must be for the fly fisherman. But the problem is that the Corvina and the Robalo that we are  really after don't go for what the Toro does. So I'm like that 12 year old kid that just keeps chucking that pixie on even numbered years on the Kenai when the guys with the bait sitting still are catching silvers....I can't help it. And so I'm thinking with all the changes in our fishery that I just might get practiced up and become the best Humpy guide on the Kenai River in the year of 2014, you know me....ya gotta have goals. And look at this, MP even catches them really good...but then again she's a pretty darn good fisherma...ahhh....fisherperson....anyway she's been around this stuff and knows what the hell she's doing. Just like me,,, kinda.

I'm sitting under a palapa writing this as we have no internet in our casa, it's broken. At first I was getting a little hinky at not having my usual communications. But, right now this outdoor writing deal is flowing real well and I think I like it. It feels a little like not turning on the TV out of habit. Kinda wonderful really. But the bad side is (there's always one of those ya know) is that I just can't blog as often as I'd like and report when something really un-outstanding happens. So bare with me, please.

So here's a pic of the Toro King and Queen of Mazatlán, madly in love. Ya know I liked the setting for this pic and didn't even know why until now. It's a spiral staircase of course, it's us....and we're going up.