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That's me and Chalio. I know it sounds over used and rhetorical but Chalio is a legend. Everyone in the fishing community knows him or knows of him. I met him in 2007 when I began my  Roosterfish  obsession. Me and Rich Uberaga hired Chalio and he ran out to the islands watching and watching...he finally cut the motor 150 feet or so from an isolated beach and jumped into the water and swam to shore holding a bucket with a cast net in it above the his head. We watched as he walked the beach and threw the net and eventually swam back with 15 to 20 nice mullet (  lisa in Mexico ). I was impressed, I told Rich that this guy is like Tarzan, he's not just a fisherman but he's like part of the ocean. We hooked 12 or 15 Roosters that day and landed 2. The next day I went up the beach to were the roosters were and where we had watched the surf guys have at it and I caught my first Rooster from shore and met Slah , Ramon , Tino and the guys. Lift off.

So I was excited to be going off shore with Chalio and Dan Stewart who is a  fishing expert himself. Even though I'm not really into the blue water and seldom go it was time hopping for me. The harbor and early morning smell with the harbor fog and the fainted whispering of the fisherman as we prepped took me back to the first time my dad took me offshore from Newport Beach Ca. in 1966. Once again I was mesmerized by the boat wake and the sunrise as we motored out of the harbor, in just one morning , Dec. 9th 2019 I lost 54 years of age, yup, fishing makes me young, feel young and act young. Just gorgeous,,,,fog and the sunrise skyline.

Finally after an hours run we went by several groups of anchored boats and found ourselves over a wreck all alone. We'd come set up heavy in hopes of pulling some big Robalo out of the wreck but within 15 minutes Chalio new they weren't there on this day...we all know the feeling. So we moved just a bit and dropped our live shrimp onto a new wreck and walla, I've got a powerful fish on. It turned out to be the only Colorado Snapper we caught out of the hundred or so Snappers we were soon to catch. 4 Kilo, and that's official.

As we fished and talked I came to understand that Chalio had paid some serious lettuce for 300 live shrimp and we weren't going anywhere until they were all gone so we got busy. We caught Flamenco's and Huacachanga's and couple Corvina and a few dozen Burro's. It's easy to do the math, it seems like I'd catch 2 out of three bites so we had to rack up triple digits. Here's a pic of an Amirilo Snapper that I declared the prettiest creature of the day.

Finally about 1:00 our bait wore out about the same time my left arm did. Mass production ain't easy and Chalio was happy to have two guys with no quit in them. Chalio fished himself all day with a hand line so we had the load that it takes to make this operation run. Now I know some of my readers will think that the next pic is an almost obscene amount of fish and I'll say it is an awful lot. But Chalio is Chalio and nobody in the fleet stacks them up like this and that's probably a good thing.  As for me and I know this sounds like a conservationist making excuses but I stand by this...there's not a hook and line sport fishery in the WORLD efficient enough to be responsible for the failure of a fishery. Can't happen in my opinion, but take a bottom trawl through Chalio's numbers and see what happens.

That is only the Snappers, the Burro's and a few other were left in the box to go to someone else. As fishing has been dead dog slow for us surf guys I took and meticulously cleaned and bagged enough for me and MP to have 15 meals. Dan took 25 of the small ones.

Pretty impressive that a 66 year old retired guy can still squat down like that eh ? So listen, if any of you found this blog just for the fishing in Mazatlan and are coming here to fish feel free to get hold of me and I'll put you in touch with Chalio. He's amazing and I think you know that  I know of what I speak. Just send me a message through the blog or find me on Facebook, Jeff King Soldotna Alaska.

I took this pic on our way in if any of you wonder how we live here at the Mile 14 Southern Bureau. We're in a Garden Suite to the left there....got  Pacifico in the fridge so stop by and we'll talk story.