Something about this place.....

kinda makes you realize how to separate the important from the unimportant and I'm trying to do just that....although I've been a C student my whole life, I'm trying. The Telmex man came 10 days ago to speed up my internet and left with it and the phone disabled. Just today as I wait and wait there was a thread on Facebooks Find it Here Mazatlan asking people if they new how to get the Telmex man over faster.....nobody new but someone did offer that you could marry one. But we're doing fine with our phones and right now I'm using Connies house to write with. It was the weirdest thing, I tried to blog post using my Phone App like the short issue last week and using the voice recognition thing just wasn't working....mostly because I've typed my whole life and the mechanics of it are part of the creative process for me. I just wasn't formulating the sentences and thoughts right while talking to an I-phone...weird. It just wasn't helping my creative juices....

The marathon of the Pacific has come and gone. MP and I got up and walked into town for Menudo that morning and met the runners coming at us. The Kenyan front runners are so graceful they seem to float, you can't hardly hear their feet hit the ground.

That night we went onto the Gold Zone for Pho soup at a place we love and as we finished I looked at the clock and we wandered over to the seawall and the best fireworks display I've ever seen started. It lasted a good 1/2 hour and they had fountains and star shells set to go off in sequence for several miles up and down the malecon....pretty cool.

With people telling me the fishing is slow I had one of the best weeks ever. I caught 2 large Robalo which is heck of a trick, about 5 or 6 Pargo and even a nice 5 pound Corvin and of course 15 or 20 Toro scattered around in the mix. It's weird, there's been years and seasons at Mile 14 where we've just crushed the other guys abd the few of them that would have the moxie to ask what I was doing different I'd honestly tell them that I didn't know. That's how it works and that's how I feel now. Both of these Robalo were caught in two different places but by chance the same hand line fisherman that I now know witnessed both,,,,when I catch another I'm going to give it to him,...honest.

These Snook I think everyone agrees are the best sport fish on the beach. This guy hit 20 feet from shore and ran off 50 yards of line. He jumped several times once on the crest of a huge wave that was just perfect and his endurance is remarkable, 10 minutes to land....and they are the best to eat. The perfect sport fish.

Here's a pic of a morning with a snapper as well as a sea bass and one of the nicer snappers I've ever caught a day later....It's momentum, when things are going good they tend to keep going good and when things are going bad....ahhhh, forget about that part....

So if you're headed to Mexico to surf fish here's the magic,,,,he's a Mirro Lure C 5 and he's perfect to fish the rocks and the rocks are where the fish are of course. He dives to about only 2 feet so he's submerged just right so slimey can see him and come up to him but he's shallow enough to not get hung up....usually.

Any of you that have been with Mile 14 a while know that the Jack Crevalle are abundant here, kinda the pink salmon of Mexico. But just because these guys aren't the best table fair don' think we're not happy to catch them. They are a cousin of the Roosterfish which to me is the holy grail and they do pull....look at the size of this one.

I ran into a friend and he had a load of them. He bleeds them immediately and then cuts all the dark meet out and then they're seasoned for tacos, lot's of good protein.

Since the election the Peso has plummeted against the dollar. It's great for us gringo's but terrible for Mexico. People are a little scared for the jobs and their stateside relatives but these know what I'm trying to learn like the title to this blog post, relax, breath through your nose, tomorrow is a new day, there's a sunrise for every sunseta.....and I got the feeling that with people like this Marathoner around we're all going to be just fine....

I really enjoy that all of you enjoy Mile 14....so I'll be steadier and try to post more and at least every week.....we got things goin on ya know. Thanks for reading.

It's a Mexico thing

Right before Thanksgiving I put in a work order for my Telmex Internet. It was working but just painfully slow making things difficult for my writing. So I was happy to see the Telmex man working on the wiring in the office and as he drove off I went to my condo to see if it was fixed and lo and behold nothing not even the telephone line is working. 

I had a great week of fishing and we saw some fireworks for the Pacifico marathon that were astounding. I'll tell you what those Kenyan's can pick him up and put him down, very impressive athletes. So the point is I have a lot to report on but it will have to wait until I get my full-size keyboard and computer to manipulate my pictures.... I hope it's soon please stick with me here's a pic of a really nice robalo that was I am awful fun fish.

where reality and legends collide

In the States we all know that if you tell a story enough times people will start to believe it. Well here in Mazatlan there seems to be a happy middle area between fact and fiction, kinda like the Spainglish language and it seems to be embraced by all....when it serves a purpose. For example......last years storms did severe damage to some neighbor building's beach walls and a company was hired ( it turns out without permits ) to fix the walls and then reinforce with tons and tons of huge boulder rip-rap. And guess what they ran into ? Ancient Petroglyths like the ones up at Dimas 60 miles up the coast. So to show they were good stewards of history when the project was finished this sign appeared.

BUT....we got a neighbor who has more time and money than usual and was so taken by the Petroglyths at Dimas that he wanted some of his vdery own and put his crew to work with a Hilti tool....walla, just like real and almost as interesting. Here's one of his good ones and one that you can see is way to sharply cut, lines to straight and just well....no self respecting Mayan would carve something that ugly for people to view for the next 8,000 years. But hey, we got em and by jiminy we're protecting them.

Being on the perfect beach with the perfect companion in the perfect part of my life I found the perfect Cervesa for this quest I'm on . The company is pretty darn good at promotion in the USA but we've never seen this one....it just wouldn't be right hauling this stuff along on a Snowmobile ride in Petersville Alaska eh Crisco ???/

Boy howdy, it's been hot here and the craziest thing is that everyday is exactly and I mean exactly the same, high of 92 low of 70. The problem is that if you hike like we do you have to do it early as it'll crack 90 by 10:00 a.m.. So the other day at 7:00 we hoped the Sabalo Centro and rode to the end of the line and then did our favorite hike up and over the hill of Cerra Del Vigia. It's gorgeous. Here's a pic of the coast as we start up . Mazatlan off in the distance,

It got a little sweaty but me and MPeasy and Connie did just fine. Here's the 3 of us in a selfie and your's truly feeling like a pretty darn happy/lucky/contented guy.

I got it figured....if I ever write that ' miracle ' song I'm going to make a music video on this mountain that MP and Con are headed for. I think it's one of the coolest places on the planet and underlines what we love about Mexico. We're building walls, they're building memories.

And MP's telling Con....." wouldn't the band stand be cool right there ".....

Saturday night we have a routine. Jump the bus an hour and a half before sunset and go to Edgars Bar for music and a couple Tecates. Then it's off to the sea wall in Olas Altas to sunseta and people watch for an hour or so and then off to our favorite place Angelina's Latin Grill for Pizza and an Avocado / Portabello mushroom tower with goat cheese and balsamic vinegar, and a Pacifico or two of course. I was watching the kids loving the new Mazatlan Saltwater Pool when MP's artist eye caught this.....take a pic she said, thats' cooooooool.

1/2 hour before sunrise on Saturday I'm fishing down the beach a ways and see the lights of the fleet staging offshore for the Shot gun start of the Bisbee Billfish Tournament. I held the camera just as still as I could and holy moly , it worked. Finally the flare shoots off and the diesels belch and roar and.....I hope the fishing is better for them than it is for me right now.

Thanks for reading Mile 14.....

Let's talk ahhhh;;;;;maybe.....I know, fishing

There I am with my first consumable of the 2016 /17 season. These Cocanoco get really big and my goal this year is 15 or 20 pounder but I have to say my first nice fish of the year is the biggest snapper I've ever caught from shore. In past years you've seen the nice Corvina and Robalo that Team X has caught off the unique rocks at the Holiday Inn so I went there with the high tide last week and walla. It was really fun, I had 20 or 30 kids sitting on the sea wall and they all cheered when I landed it and then boo- ed when I dispatched it with a rock.  Before all was said and done this guy turned into the most photographed fish in Mazatlan as everybody wanted a pic...very cool.

So having caught this guy I suggested to my friend Bob that we be there the next morning as I really hadn't fished very hard to catch him and I figured we were onto it.....nope, nada..... But as Bob and I headed up to the beach to go home we come across my friend Jesus and what's he got on the line ???? you guessed it, about a 35 pound Rooster fish. Jesus had it real close to shore and I figured it was on it's way to the fillet table when we hear 'ker snap', busted line, the fish wins. Jesus just smiled and gave me a high five and then went for another lure. Here's a pic of him with it on and if you enlarge the 2nd photo you can see the Guyo in the lower left pretty darn good.

Only once before have I seen so many roosters crashing bait. The water would explode at my feet with hundreds of little fish trying to get away while the Roosters literally momentarily would get beached, Many times they had 1/2 there bodies out of the water.....the problem is that when they're in this attack mode they are almost impossible to catch because they know real from plastic. I had one on that hit a white topwater but he spit and that's as close as we came. When the dust settled I was wishing Id dropped the rod and taken a video for you, it was crazy....way worth the price of admission. Here's the bait they're on, it's not their usual meal of mullet so if any of you know what that is please holler, I'd like to know.

The Rooster fish are all over Mazatlan, the water's warm so I expect to catch a good one real soon. It's identical to this guy I caught yesterday but a little larger....aren't they just the most gorgeous creatures ?

Every boat fisherman knows that getting wet is a bad bad deal, But, if you fish the surf you better enjoy the elements. This morning it was good for surfers but kinda bad for fishermen, I took several ' over the bow' as we say. Sometimes the natural rhythm of the fishing keeps you away but other times you look up and ooooooooohhhhhh noooooo, just try to stay in one place so you don't get knocked down and smile through it.....that's what I do.

I gotta get done with this blog because it's headed towards sunset and we don't miss those babies. Most nights there's 3 of us now that fish Toro and celebrate the end of the day. Here's a pic of my buddy Bob with a typical Toro. It hasn't been red hot but each evening we catch 10 or so between us.

And here's my friend Dave the Bum , the 3rd member of our nightly ritual. He's got one on the beach and as you can see he's posed a fish or two in his life.

It's a little warmish

And that's no joke. The jet age is a wonderful thing, I took this going away pic at Mile 14 about 5:00 p,m. and it was 36 degrees . A short 24 hours later snapped this pic, it was 93 degrees and as you can see the humidity has us all fogged up and we've been kinds fogged up ever since we got here. This is the earliest we've ever been to Mazatlan and I guess ol guide #003 under estimated the weather....but it's a wonderful problem to have.

MP has a gorgeous new kitchen. Custom cedar cabinets and concrete counter tops with a really cool one handle faucet, we're waiting on one more counter top and then I'll post a pic. Prior to this project I would have called b.s. on you if you told me that termites could eat your particle board cabinets until they literally fell off the wall, but it's true and only one of the challenges of ownership in hot and humid Mazatlan. the first few days here you spend battling the gremlins that visit while you're gone, the corrosion of both the saltwater environment and the humidity is astounding....At mile 14 it would drive me nuts to have this all going on but here....well. it's just normal. Here's a short list of my projects.....
1. The air conditioner is broke again....but it did work for the first day thank goodness,
2. My internet router wouldn't power up....took a while but I realized the surge protector corroded out.
3.Our water cooler leaked a 4 gallon puddle overnight.
4. The slider wouldn't slide.
5.Our fridge is making a really weird sound....kinda a warning sound I think.
6. And the strangest is that after I cleaned all the co-ax connection of corrosion and got the TV working only half of it works...and you know me, it's the left side.

A buddy of mine told me to quit sniveling 1/2 broke is better than 3/4 broke.... I told him ya know when you're watching Fox News 1/2 is more than enough. And oh, it's election day so the busted TV is gonna put a weird twist on a weird election, I'm gonna need a few beers for that deal.

By now you've noticing that something really important is missing from this blog post . It's true, I ain't had a single tug on the line yet and I worked it pretty darn good this morning. The beach is so quiet that i anybody catches it'll be me. But I did get ya fish pic....how's about these dry sardine snacks that have different seasonings on them. They're real crunchy and really really fishy tasting so you go for a nice little dip in salsa picante and wash em down with a nice cold .....Pacifico , of course.

Stand by for fish a bit larger,

Fall-In-Hole

Legend has it the name came from one of my old neighbors who decided to take his boat fishing back in the 1960's while under the influence of alcohol. People had seen him fall out of his boat and scamper back aboard so you know in this little town of ours that was really  really small back then word got around pretty good. Somehow or another he had the feeling that the only people who knew something had happened were the people at our boat launch that saw he was soaked to the bone so for years he said he's been chased into the river by a Brown Bear...I like that part best, and as you can see they're still around. We walked down to Fall-in-hole on Sunday to say good bye.

This wonderful mini wilderness area is 1/2 mile below our house. When I first started fishing the river if you weren't at Fall-in-hole you weren't fishing. Here's a pic of me with some of the fishiest water on the Kenai River behind me. This stretch of river is protected from development by Mother Nature herself. On both sides the wetlands and swamps sweep and turn through hundreds of acres that make up our back yard.

Stewart's island used to have many huge cottonwood trees that the eagles just love. Me and MPeasy started to notice about 20 years ago that the Beaver were taking them down so protected several with chicken wire and now there's only about three big ones left....and the Eagles still love them.

As we're on final approach here for Mazatlan we just kinda horsed around this day. My favorite Ornithologist says that this guy here is one of the first migratory birds to arrive every spring....and it looks like this particular guy is the last to leave as well. He's an American Dipper.

Everybody's seen what the Mile 14 looks like either from the river or the road but here's a shot of it from downriver. I was standing right at the top of the island , our house is way up that bluff to the left. Where I'm standing there is 4 ft. of water in July.

So we had a couple beers and took a nice long sauna...it's something that is easy to miss while we're away and something our house sitters love to use. With the sauna down at the river it makes it an event....look at this mug getting out of the 180 degrees....Oh, I'm getting haircut when we hit town.

Here's me and my running buddy saying good bye to the Kenai River at Mile 14...So I hope ya'all come back to this blog, we'll be catching some fish real soon..... I hope.

And of course ya know....we'll be singing some new songs, I got several all worked .

Unbelieveing

That's a word my French speaking friend Jacque Lizin made up to describe the wonders of Alaska. So this morning that was about the best word I could find to describe how bright the Northern Lights were. It's by far the best I've seen on the Peninsula and rivaled the night Chrisco and I drove our Snow Machines home from the Petersville Roadhouse at 2 a.m. without our headlights on. Something strangely humbling about seeing the sky move....

I love this pocket camera I have. It's actually my second Lumix dmc-fh25, I dropped one in the sand a couple years back so I have a replacement as well as a new waterproof Lumix that I can't wait to use in Mexico. I always have the camera set at " Intelligent Automatic'...that kinda describes my life. But this morning with the Aurora just a burning up the sky I found the pre set features and settled into the 'Starry Night" mode . I set the camera on the tripod and hit the 1 minute choice and Walla....I think I not only hit homer but maybe a grand slam.

The Camera has a Leica lens and I think for a pocket camera that makes the deal. I'll put these two pics onto my picture program and do some manipulating and should be able to enhance them some.

It's been cold and crisp here at Mile 14, 11 degrees when we went to the gym yesterday morning. So it's perfect weather to frame the beauty of Alaska. My old friend Jimmy Taylor is a camera expert and these are the kind of sunsets he captures for all his friends.

Once again as hard as I try it looks like I won't make my goal of 185 pounds before Mazatlan. Right now I'm at exactly 190 with ten days to go....I know the way. I've been walking 2 hours everyday for a total of at least 5 miles. I'm keeping my calories down to about 2000, give or take a cocktail or two....But ya know the deal with goals is this, ya gotta have em, ya can't hit without swinging. Here's pic of me this morning at our new gym.

It's called  the River City Wellness Center and boy howdy did the owners spend some lettuce on equipment. It's as nice as any gym we find in our travels. It really illustrates how it's going in our town as it matures into a city...It's long ways from the dirt road's of  Soldotna I found 45 years ago.

I don't want to bore you with big long drawn out opinion piece about our recent Alaska Board of Fisheries meeting here in Soldotna, I'll let Craig Medred do that for me, here's a link to his on-line newspaper. He has two articles of interest for us sport fishing folks . One is 'Disorderly and Safe' and the other ' Counting Big Salmon'.....https://craigmedred.news/  I especially like the remarks, they say a lot. You see Craig Medred was fired from the Alaska Dispatch News for shining the light on a Board of  Fisheries appointee who was / is  a cheat claiming residency in two states so he could kill more stuff cheaper than a non-resident. The owner of the paper didn't want Craig to run the story and embarrass the new Governor by pointing how crooked the B,O,F. process looks sometimes....well guess who I sat next to at this meeting ? Yup, same guy, still peddling influence, still grappling to hold onto the past like all commercial fishermen.

In the Medred article you'll see that the board  entertained an agenda change request and then debated their own proposal to limit boat size in the dip net fishery, out of  'safety' concerns. But when you give it the old sniff test you see that it's just a left handed way to limit harvest by the people of Alaska so the the salmon can be harvested commercially, by a minority.  Good work Craig !

This came across the Internet and I got a hardy chuckle. I tell people that when I was in elementary school that I was actually educated by the janitors because they moved my desk out into the hall so often. So please come back to Mile 14....where I'm going soon there's gonna be plenty of interesting people to talk to and I  talk to em all, it's the way I am.