OHHHHhhhh, ohhhhhh Mexicooo ( try singing that )

Well, we're here. Got our first shrimp dinner, our first Pacifico...life is good. In fact just arriving at the house and having the air conditioner cycle on like it should was the perfect start that doesn't always go that way. The only speed bump is television and that's only important because of the World Series ending game tonight and the Seahawk games that I'll miss because the building supplied feed is kaput....mmmm... I don't know the reason but  I expect it will make  perfect sense if I asked why , wink wink. But the good news is that even though our Internet is slower than last years King Salmon bite it is good enough to run the Firestick I brought and we have lots of choices to watch....except live sports...I do kinda miss Katie Boulduin on CNN though.

And this morning in the dark on my third or fourth cast I caught this nice little Grouper. He was about a kilo, maybe a bit more and of course they bite and go right back into the rocks so landing him was a challenge and when I did I released him...gotta build my moe -joe and I sensed that was just the right thing at the right time. So this ain't much of a sport fishing triumph pic, lets just call it an anti B.S.er.

One of the reasons we came a little early is that we like it when it's quiet here at LaMarina and MP wanted to see and experience all of the Day of the Dead art and festivities. So here's a pic of the very first Alter we came across, these things are everywhere and sooo cool and we love the honoring of your passed on loved ones. So Friday afternoon we're going to check into the LaSiesta hotel that we love downtown in Olas Altas so we are closer to the events, I'll take many photos and maybe by then I'll learn to be able to publish them faster for you...that fish pic took one third of a Pacifico.

Yesterday we went downtown to buy a shirt and a couple Poppers from my friend Rafa at PescaMaz. I needed the Popper's because I was sooooo excited my first morning here to be fishing that I wound up and threw a powerful cast without opening the bail....yikes....I'll tell ya this, a 220 peso 2 ounce Jansen brand Popper with nothing attached to it flys a loooooong  ways. It was a thing of beauty really.

Right across the street from Rafa's store on Playa Norte we see this, man that's a lot of plastic. It's a floating water park that the coconut telegraph says was anchored there without any of those pesky permits you usually need around any H2o. I'm a little confused with the business model because I don't see enough Tarzan like young people around who could or would swim out and then be comfortable enough in the water all day to continually fall in and get out, maybe I'm missing something. Of course there's the old eye pollution argument that people don't like, but me, I think it's cool and if they get open for business I'm swimming out.

Well I wanted to get this blog out and field test my equipment. I should have some cool pics from Day of the Dead so I hope you come back....and maybe even a fish....or two😎🐟🎸

Big Fish

As I type we're seeing the first real snowfall of the year...time to leave 😎 I  thought for this edition of Mile 14 instead of moving along as I like to do we might look back a bit. Ya know this place has always been known for it's big King Salmon, they put us on the map...So I went through some of my old pics and quickly found a pretty good representation of what it was like back ' in the day '.  I hope some of you local guides who read Mile 14 might have a take away - we need this again - and get busy promoting good fisheries management as well as some plane old fairness in our fisheries management as well.

The million dollar boat circa 1995 or so. Those three guys have all their fish over 60 pounds.  It was an exceptional day and we released several smaller ones to get these. Right now there are those on the river advocating the release of all salmon like these and I kinda have mixed emotions about that but it sure can't hurt, there must be some sense to the gene pool theory and for those of you think that we are responsible for where the fishery is now all I can say is.... who would have guessed and nobody did anything illegal or immoral, times just changed and the big fish are harder to come by.

That fish there is the first legit 80 pounder I ever saw. I didn't guide it , my friend Carl Butcher did and we had it on a brochure that we shared in the mid 80's . This was certainly the ' golden era ' of the Kenai...many fish, many guides, many boats, pretty exciting. I think it's simple, more fish = more big fish and when we return the numbers to what they were we shouldn't be surprised to see these babies again.

That's my friend ' Latch' , Mark Egholm right here at Mile 14 in the mid 80's. We took that fish to The Maverick Club to show the guys and when a rough neck named Corky Moore asked my where we caught it and I pointed at his lip I damn near got my ass kicked for being a wise acre.

That's my dad, the Colonel with an absolutely gorgeous salmon. He was a pretty steady visitor to the world famous and I had this feeling that he felt like that every time he sat in my guide boat he was recovering another $150.00 of the lettuce he spent on the education I never used.

That fish of my dad's was so pretty I thought I'd follow up with this shiney model of Dale Einwalter's. If I remember correctly that fish was real close to 60 pounds, about as big a female as you'll ever see. Out of the thousands....yes I said thousands of King's I've seen up close the biggest female was 63 pounds...and oh baby did that salmon fight !

I'm kinda load testing my memory here....that fish was the 1st 70 pounder I ever guided. The big guy Kennedy caught it down at the pastures on one of the first trips I ever made that far down river. His buddy helping is ??????? darn it......yahooo on my proof read I just got it, Ed Walsh, he was a great guy.

If any of my friends recognize that fish it's because it's the one I have on my wall. My friend Marty Holleran caught it in the mid 80's and gave it to me mounted. How cool. The fish was an Old Hunter Fisher Skin Mount and about 25 years ago I was sitting in my recliner below where the fish was hanging and I looked up and happened to notice movement...YIKES....it had bugs living in some of the oil that was coming out of it's head. SO, I was doing business with Mark Oslund of Alaska Real Life Taxidermy and he took it and put a fiberglass head on it and repainted it and to this day it is gorgeous. The first time I met Marty he and his brother had come to fish as we had mutual friends in Redwood City CA. Well, Marty got in a car wreck returning from a halibut trip in Homer and spent the rest of his trip in the hospital. Not to be detered he returned the next year and was rewarded with that Jumbo slimey.....love ya Marty !

Neil Devaney from Helena Montana with his first King ever. I know it ain't a jumbo but I wanted you to see the boat with that awesome Merc on it....they called them the ' Tower of Power' as they were an in-line 6 cylinder. That boat with that motor was the fastest it would ever be. In the day the boats were quick enough that if you bored of the lower river or if you thought you might catch better up river you'd just check your gas and go....many a time I ran from Mile 14 to Mile 35 or 40. The custom paint work had to go when I got the Honda sponsorship , it was done by another Montanan and a friend of Neil's named Gary Allison in Homer Alaska, great people I've known along the way. That pic was taken in the spring here at Mile 14 and you can see how low the river was and that I had the riser on the stern to accommodate the Jet Unit we used to run.

I can't tell ya those guys names but I love that pic and the way they're standing in the river. Those fish are easy 50 pound class and a matched set, one boy, one girl.

This final pic is a customer of mine holding that 70 pounder that he's going to catch next year...We're pretty darn good at it but not everybody gets the jerk they desire. He doesn't look to stressed about the situation does he ??? , I like that.

Most likely the next time you hear from the staff here at Mile 14 we'll be temporarily billeted at the Mile 14 Southern Bureau...I'll fish my first morning and post a fish pic that same day, maybe 😕. Hope you come back for a look - see .

Mexico Surf Fishing 404

I used to figure what I new about it made for an entry level course, ya know what we called the bonehead course that started with a a 0 or a 1.  But after chasing for close to 20 years now and being kinda intense as some of you know I figure I merit at least a 400 level course and soon to make graduate school, I've never lacked confidence.

So I'm finally done with all the fine tuning I need to do for the 2019-2020 season. And I know that there's at least one guy who's a biker that  would be real interested in my yearly MirroLure order that came yesterday.....that's a beautiful thing.

Normally I order 1/2 dozen Catch 5 which is a shallow running twitch bait for when the tide just barely  has the rocks covered and then 1/2 dozen 77M for when it's deep and you need to dive to get down to the rocks where ol slimey lives.  But last year I got the inside dope on MirroLures newest addition to the surf casting arsenal....This baby fishes just like the Catch 5 ( which has accounted for most of my nice Robalo like this one ) but is a full one ouncer and comes in the coolest colors...You guys are gonna want some of these, he's a MirroDine XXL .

Last year when I landed in Mazatlan in early November there were Roosterfish everywhere on the beach so this year I'm landing a full 2 weeks earlier and rumor control has it that the Guyo's are in abundance as I type, they like warm water. I brought home all the rusty lures to hit with Wink and everything else that I needed to fix. My long distance champ is a 2 ounce P'Line Lazor Minnow. They come with the shiniest chrome paint but it comes off easily, way to easily. So I give them all the same paint job as my favorite Ranger Lure for Roosterfish and nice new hooded hooks.

Below the Lazor Minnow is a what I call a stinger that I tie up on a Siwash hook.  What I've been doing lately is tieing a loop knot about 3 ft, ahead of my snap with the lure on it so that it looks like a big fish chasing a small fish. I stole the idea from a guy I followed down the sidewalk in Puerto Vallarta that was rigged that way....he was also carrying a stringer full of Toro. It works great and for the Roosterfish I was able to find some big ones, most of the world calls it a " Teaser'. I've even caught two fish at once rigged this way.

And finally all the ' veterans' that I cleaned with wink and put new hooks on. Some Rangers, some poppers, a few Catch 5 in the lower right and just a myriad of proven performers....do I sound excited to be ready ?

It's gorgeous here at Mile 14 right now. It seems like our hot summer lasted into the fall, we've only had a couple frosty mornings when we usually have all of September that way...so the tree's are finally getting a little ' vibrancy " to them like we're used to. All summer and fall the tree's have been in a shock mode due to the drought but that's done and gone...and me too real soon !

I'll most likely do at least one more Mile 14 edition before me and MPeasy jump the jet so please come on back. And Aaron if you're out there shoot us line and let us know when you land in MZT, we'll go fishing, talk story, go to Taco's Martin ....coooool ?