Painless

Ahhhhh...the mantra of Team X, why make life complicated when sometimes its just this simple? It was a great week. MP hit a 500 peso score on a superbowl board, I caught many a toro and listened to some live music right here at our building that was incredibly good and we had a wonderful pescado feed at Slah's house and superbowl at Stans, the exclusive Tower 360 here on Cerritos beach. But, there was one little speed bump...I've had one of my gold crowned molars kind of loose for a couple years now so I thought I better get it looked at. I'm not real good with dentists, in fact next to elevators they might be my least favorite thing, I'd rather get my finger slammed in a car door than have a tooth extracted but that's exactly what had to happen this week. My friend and dentist Franciso Echeagaray said it had to go, in fact I'd been fighting an infection for who knows how long and the jig was up.......So, how long has it been, or have you ever, been in a professional health care office when they have time for small talk and you discuss fishing, the Beatles and the upcoming Carnaval events? Well thats Francisco's M.O., if theres a such thing as a pleasurable dental experience it has to be his.

So this morning he looked at the gaping hole where my tooth used to be and said alls good with the world. MP scheduled a cleaning and I'm going to get a filling replaced soon, a little preventative dentistry as I'm starting to run low on chompers.   Just as the doc ordered I iced the tooth and abstained from cerveza and of course the enemy of all tooth extractions, milk and milk products.  I have to say that even though I was a doubting Thomas the extraction was pain free....except for the part where he stuck the #2 pencil sized needle full of novacaine in me...3 times....and I left with this wisdom.

As we left Francisco's MP and I were talking about maintenance and keeping our good dental and all around health. Well, I'm kind of soft for VW Beetles ever since I drove to Alaska in one as a young man and this one told the whole story of how to view the ageing process, maintenance. Just like the guy who drives this VW I'm convinced a lot of it is state of mind, just perception and how to view the world and your part in it with a healthy and positive manner.

Lucky for us Franciscos office (and house) is close to the malecon. Me and MPeasy have a hand holder going, its 10 am and we've got a hankering for nice fresh coconut, one of Mexicos simple pleasures. We find this 'cococ, helados' spot on the beach and have not one but two. If you've never had one before you'd be astounded by how much juice is in each one.

Then you have the machete expert open the coco up and carve out the meat. We like ours authentic style with lots of chili sauce and limon drizzled over the top. Mmmmmm baby, and you know when I was a kid I thought coconut was dry and kind of disgusting, well it ain't....its moist, flavorful and I think pretty darn good for your health. and getting them here on the Malceon is certainly good for your mental health....Pure La Vida as we say in Mazatlan....

Timing is everything....but luck is good to.

The right place, at the right time, with hard work and the right gear... sometimes works, sometimes not. This morning found Team X a bit fractured, Ern and Jay went to 4th point and Slah and me and a new guy named Mike went far afield to Marmol. Slah is on injured reserve, his shoulder is as bad or worse as mine was when I first injured it several months back. I'm very concerned as he can't lift his arm over his head. My doc at home said go straight to the doctor if you have tingling, can see it deformed....or lose mobility, like Slah. So with Slah only coaching we're severely weakened as a team. Plus its low tide at Marmol and we know in this game distance is everything so theres only one thing to do to get out to where old slimey lives...its into the water.

Considering the situation I know I need to turn my game up a notch. Mike is new to the long cast and he's just not getting it there so wade and cast....2 full hours with just one bite and the loss of 3 metal lures. It becomes apparent that no matter how hard you try, you can't catch what isn't there. I'm wet up to my arm pits so I strip down a and get dried off with fresh clothes and we drive north towards Mazatlan. We get on the beach at Gringo point and our friend Ron is there without a bite. We continue on to 4th point and Ern has 3 Chata on the beach. He caught the last one 5 minutes ago. Mike and I rig as quick as possible and with about 3 casts in I catch a nice one...theres a school of corvina here. Within 15 minutes we have 4 on the beach and both Mike and I have missed a few, I lost  a really good one in the surf, a really good one. Mike is on fire and gets 3 of the 4, even with taking time to re tie.  And that fast its over....we're finally in the right place, the right time.

I have to tell you about my friend Jake Marquis and his bird abatement project at our building. MP says they' brewers blackbirds and we have hundreds...no thousands of them. Its interesting in that at dusk and dawn they perch in the wires to get that last and first bit of sun on them. In the evening they face the west and in the morning the east. Unfortunately they adopted our building, this is what the cars in the lot look like every morning...you can see those darn birds

So enter Jake, our buildings ambassador, poker expert and chief of special operations. I had my doubts with the success of the mission and knowing Jake I guess I shouldn't have. With several days of fireworks, camera flashes and the addition of this owl its problemo solved, I'm impressed.

Below is a pic of the problem so you'll know what Jake was up against. If you're squeamish around birds like my mother was this is not the place for you at sunset. But the guys who wash cars for a living have to be a little bummed, that industry moved down the street to new building.

So if you're in Alaska and need an excavator Jake Marquis at Knik Construction in Wasilla gets things done. I took this pic of him last July, as luck would have it he came down to fish and wouldn't ya know  it turned out to be the day after my emergency surgery, my good luck. I was rung out, way less than my usual energy charged fishing guide so with MP's prodding me to go to work and Jakes pitching in we had a great day....actually he did more than pitch in, he did everything, I was just kind of there. But, he caught a nice King, his friend Dubie's wife caught her biggest King so I'd say that catching 2 out of 3 and running on 7 cylinders was pretty darn impressive, that's Jake....thanks buddy.

Every Day Life

I would have posted pics of us catching these fish but as much as I like my Lumix camera....it doesn't do so well when its dark thirty at the 4th point. As we pulled up to the spot and hour before sunrise the guys ahead of us already had a few corvina laying in the sand, so expectations are high as we silently and quickly assemble the surf rods. These 'chata' like I'm holding below are real school fish, its a bit like salmon fishing in that you seem to either do real good....or real bad. Our friend Stan caught a corvina on his first cast and I followed up with this one only minutes later. I've caught many of them but this was the first on the rubber swimfish and jighead that my expert Mexican friends prefer. I always seem to do better with the iron, it just go to show that what I tell the young guys all the time....what works for one guy doesn't necessarily work for the next guy.

The pic below is our mornings effort, a few corvina, a couple ladyfish and one snapper as well as a monster sierra that Ernie caught. For distance the guys seem to be going to lighter and lighter line so for Ernesto to get this spainish mackeral on 15 pound test is a pretty good trick, lots of civiche in that deal.



I guess you kinda know you're settling into middle/old age when you're out shopping for binoculars that cost more than you college education for bird watching. Who'd a thunked it, Jeff King...bird watcher. Well, its partly a concession to love, MP's crazy about the birds, and its partially something I can learn because its fun. And Mazatlan is a birders paradise, I'll post more pics soon but trust me, we have huge Egrets, Herons, Flamingos and the wildest colored Orioles I've ever seen....but...When MP spotted this Vermillion Fly Catcher the other day it was her days big event. I guess the closest thing we have in Alaska with such vivid colors are the Stellars Jays that run the bird world at Mile 14.

My Lumix has 7 power zoom so its trade off. Its a nice sized pocket camera to always have with you but even having got as close as we can and using max zoom, this pic is the best we can do. The good news is that we have lots of pixtels so when I get home and have time to mess around I should be able to turn this into a prety cool close up.

Yesterday I had to go to the dentist. Francisco's office  and home are near the Aquarium and maybe a 4th of the way down the malecon. The Aquario is one of my favorite things, we watch the seals splash the school kids then to the big tank and watch my favorite fish, the toro, swim nose to tail, the fastest fish in the tank. What I need to do someday is be there at feeding time so I can see the bite....so we decide to walk a mile or two on the malecon.  Yesterday we set a new record for this year, 17,000 steps on MP's pedometer, about 8 miles or so. This next pic is the view north.

Its one oclock in the afternoon, the temp is 80 degrees and theres nobody on the beach or even walking the malecon. Tourist related businesses here report that they're 80% down, well this day it might as well be 100%. The vibrancy that we're used to seeing is just not here, theres low energy everywhere and people just seem resigned to it all.

I stood in the same place and took the shot north and this one to the south. In the right of the frame you notice a fruit salesman, one of every body's favorites on the beach. He has melon, strawberry's, mandarins and my favorite, coconut with lots of the red peppery chili sauce. I watched him go, maybe a mile between potential sales. If I'm ever in his shoes I hope I can show the same strength, the same resolve, He didn't cause it, he can't fix it...he just does what he does, keep moving, keep trying, keep the faith.... I hope he knows some how that we notice, a guy true to himself.

In the Flow

Well,that's where we're at,  going on 3 weeks in Maz we're finally in the flow....life has slowed right down. A little speed bump last night with MP being the first on injured-reserve with the tourista. The only thing she ate different than me was an unwashed apple so I'd guess that's the culprit. It hit her about 3 am. So I have her some Electrolit to rehydrate and shes on the mend. Mp has always had a strong constitution, she says she got it from picking up bubble gum from the sidewalk as a kid...well, the immunity wore off.

My friend Charlie McDonald says that at our age and with our level of activity that if you're ever completely pain free theres a good chance its because you're dead...well, I'm almost there and I attribute it to the Reumofan Plus regime that me and half of Mazatlan are on. Its only sold in Mexico and is an mix of all natural ingredients some of which we know to work in the USA.  It has Holm Oak form the Mexican Province of Durango (this is reputed to also be an anti carcinogen) , Shark Cartilage, glucosimine, Vitamins, Calluna Vulgaris from Mexico and a thing called Gausima from Cuba. So my shoulder is way better and I'm casting the 3 ounce lures like a young guy....the problem is, this week our bite kind of disappeared.

This morning found Team X with great tides, a nice surf break and a beautiful sunrise...no pescado. The first pic is the sun coming up over the 4th point 15 miles north or Mazatlan. The surf was washing up the bank real well so I got down to get the foamy white water into the show, I just love  that.

So below is Jay, Alberto and Bernardo. You can tell  by the looks on their faces that they're not stressed about our poor showing, been skunked before...gonna get skunked again. The highlight of the day was a new guy named Ron we met who showed up with a brand new type of Power Pro line that nobody had seen before, so ol Ron ramped things up in the cool 'gotta have gear' program.

So theres a lot of talk going on and more testosterone floating around than the last Kenai River Guide meeting I attended. But Ernies got to keep throwing, his persistence and stamina for guy his age is ultra impressive...And walla...he hits the payoff. Well Erns a little hot headed and this thing came close to what he calls a 'schamozle'. We're howling, it ain't much, I don't know what it is and it looks semi poisonous but by jiminy its more than anybody else caught, even the legendary Slah Sali who's directing as you can see.

Me and MP road tripped the other days to get my meds...even with insurance this stuff is way cheaper in Mexico, I wonder why? I take enalapril for my blood pressure and now I'm on omeprazole (prilosec) for my acid reflux which caused my throat to lock up last summer that caused half of Soldotna to laugh and recommend I chew my food better. So on the way I came up with a new advertising plan, always networking you know. So this summer if I get a guy who says he heard about me on the Sablo Centro Liguid Courage bus in Mazatlan Mexico I'm supplying the Pacifico's....for sure.

I consider myself a pretty creative guy with a healthy imagination.  Sometimes when I'm singing I imagine that I sound like Gary Allan and sometimes when fishing I imagine that 30 pound king is really 52 pounds. So it was kind of cool to come across this blue print on how it all really works....ya just gotta open up your mind baaaaaaaby.....just let it flow, get in the flow, be the flow, feel the flow, know the flow...

If it hadn't been for that darn.....

Bronco game, I'd of had about a perfect last 24 hours. Of course I also lost the Saints game but I'm used to have my hopes dashed in that deal. At half time time of the Saints game I couldn't stand it....I had to go fishing and schools of toro where everywhere on the beach, I must have caught 40 of them all around 2 to 3 pounds I'd guess. Well right at the end of one cast in the whitewater I hit a fish that feels different, walla, a gift of the best eating fish in Maz, a nice little robalo.

Now I've eaten fresh fish before, lots of it. But I don't think I've ever eaten a fish that I caught one hour and cooked the next. It was magnificent, white flaky fish done with the Minnesota shore lunch batter that my friend Keith Holtan taught me....muey bueno.

So this morning I tell MP I'll stay close to home and we'll have a hand holder when she's had her coffee. Its dark thirty and I throw a rubber swim fish next to the jetty with no results. My friend Alejandro usually fish this spot so I figure I'll cast the rocks in front of the next building with the top water and try to catch a snapper. Having been a salmon guy for so long I just love the top water, to see the fish take it adds so much excitement.....Well, I get to seeing some mullet jumping and theres some big fish after them . So with it being low tide and a pretty good surf break I carefully negotiate rock to rock until I'm 30 feet off shore amongst the boulders. The water splashing up around my waist and I know just to stand still so you don't lose your footing. I see a big boil and make the cast and the fish bites once....twice...and then after still following for 7 or 8 cranks of the reel he's hooked hard on the line. I only wish King salmon would bite a bait this aggressive, my life would be sooooo much easier.  Anyway, I have this hard pulling fish on and in this precarious position that if I can get him through all the rocks I still have no place to land him. So I stay put, 15 minutes in he's at my feet and I grab his tail and then wade him to shore. A dandy toro, soon to be on my wall.

 Thats my friend Alberto, through the years we've spent a lot of time together. Its a funny deal,theres only a hand full of passionate surf casters in Mazatlan so when the bite is on here or there we all converge, kinda like the tide bite in the lower river. The next pic is a close up of the toro so you can see what we're dealing with. They're fast and strong like the roosterfish, one of my friends characterizes them in a cool way....he says they're a 'noble' fish.

So I give the Toro to one of Alberto's friends and MP and I are off on the hike. Its 3 miles to the end of the road and Alberto tells me that theres a mexican outdoor comida where I can get my sunday morning menudo  about half way there. I'd been by this place lots of time and just didn't recognise it as an outdoor restaurant, its perfectly  clean, fresh blue corn tortillas that MP said are the best ever. she has eggs ranchero style and I have my menudo....Its a tripe stew that has a tasty broth and lots of hominy, you sprinkle onion,cilantro and this morning some mint on top. No juice, just this wonderfully sweet fanta pops that remind me the pop machines in the gas station when we traveled as a kid.

 The next pic is the avenue so you get an idea of what its like. After breakfast its approaching 80 degrees, shirts off and the sun on my back...man I like that feel.

Right across the street from the new fancy Riu hotel is a wetland full of ducks we've never seen, Mp says some kind of spoon bill....and these really cool turtles, which reminded me. Thats something I gotta do, track down for myself some turtle soup, you know me,I gotta try it all. I'll report back on the turtle soup....did I ever tell you about the frog legs I had at Pancho's last year?

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....

Hardcore

I'm up at 4:00 am, this time I'm smart and have all my gear ready. At 4:30 we're on the road to Marmol only 25 miles from town but we have a lot to do to be set up and in the water at first light. Just right here past emeradl bay we go through a check point to get on the maxi pista. Through the fog we see the flashing lights so being as savy as Slah is he turns on the dome lights so the police can planely see that we're the good guys. In the 25 miles north we see every bridge has flashing lights going, lots of security and we feel good about that.

We have it set up to get through a private gate and gain beach access with a bottle of tequila but the security guard is no where around.....mmmmm....Slah and I walk through the dark to his house but he's obviously not home but his 5 or 6 howling watch dogs were, that was a bit exciting, haven't wet a line yet and already I've got a good adrenaline rush. So its plan B, park as close as we can get and hoof it down the beach to the point we want to fish, about a mile and a half.  Its just light and we start out throwing the 'small' rods. Its the perfect morning with a high tide and we're on a point in the rocks. An hour goes  by and Slah is the first to switch to the big rod and it doesn't take  him long to have our 1st corvina. Ern gaffs it for him and we're on the board.

So I start throwing the big rod and an hour in I'm happyily surprised how well it feels, no shoulder pain at all...I can do this. Heres a pic of Slah and the beach we walked to. He's throwing a home made 2 or 3 ounce jig head and I promise you...thats a legitimate 150 yard cast. Pretty cool huh?

We ended up with Slah catching 2 corvina and I caught a nice snapper. We were semi disappointed with the catching but absolutely wild eyed about the fishing, not  a soul in sight. Heres a pic of our catch, I know it looks like we don't take care of it but its the beach and well, we've got lots of stuff to carry.

This is our bivouc spot. Mid morning we sat and had breakfeast, for me it was a bag of peel and eat shrimp and an avocado which I washed down with a Jumex sports drink. Thats pretty good living if you ask me.

On the walk back we came across our watchman. I guess I missed the hand carved stairs in the early morning dark. We stopped and threw the lures a bit here but the tides leaving, parties over.

Sometimes I get to wondering....what am I doing working this hard for fish in Mexico ? Its simple, these guys are the best of the best, drawn together by a driving passion... I got to thinking about when I was learning carpentry and having trouble with heights and walking the walls, it scared me. My foreman, a wise man named Mert Gertin told me...." Jeff, you just gotta want to do it ".