Old is New

Yup, sometimes it is. I'm usually a pretty reliable blogger so I know I'm late but I was waiting for the fishing to get better and something exciting to happen. well both have.

It's time for the snook here I guess . I rang in the New Year with two Robalo landed and I lost a huge one the other day when it spit the hook the second it went dry on the beach...heart breaker.  Just this morning Ernie caught an unassisted ( I was resting from our trip ) 9 pounder so for all you Team Xers on the way...it might not be the peak of the run as us salmon guys say but it's a hell of a lot better than it's been. I think all these gorgeous sardines we're seeing in the last pic account for it.

AND THIS IS WHERE WE WENT

We met Marrisol at a Christmas sale and we didn't buy any painted rocks from her but we did buy a two day one night trip to a small town and archaeological site about five hours south of  here near Tepic. It is some of the most northerly evidence of the Meso America civilizations here between before the time Christ, long time ago that is. 

We left on the bus with about 30 people like us, well sort of like us if you know what I mean and we arrived in the town of Ixtlan Del Rio a little late, just time for a taco stand and a Bud Light. MP and I woke up from our Hotel smack dab in this way smaller than Mazatlan town and went to adventure the Sunday morning markets and energy of the best day in Mexico. This is the view up the street and down the street from the nicest place in town, the Plaza Hidalgo Hotel at 7:00 a.m.

Our room was #118 which was on the second floor, a Mexico deal. It was clean but spartan and for 30 bucks a night it was just right . We had a little Jeffroism occur when somebody told me that the water wasn't all cold you just had to let it run for ten minutes before you shower. So...that's what I did as I attended to other things when MP let out that yelp I've heard many a time. We had water all the way out in the bedroom from a blocked drain that has a deal on it that you remove before use ( obviously if you know about that ). The drain plug is engineered to keep cock roaches from climbing out of the pipe...mmmm... I think we'd of rather had a few cock roaches than a full blown flood. But we squeegeed it back from where it came and carried on.

Of course being Ixtlan Del Rio I had to find the Rio. A short walk and the help of Google Maps we come across the river....well...I guess it's like everywhere, in some places and with some people it was taken care of . And in other places , well it ain't habitat for ol slimey, let me put it that way.

Everyone was setting up for the Sunday Market as we walked through first . Friendly, friendly and friendly is all I can say. The locals here are way less used to seeing Americano's than in Mazatlan. The Juarez Sunday Market here is famous and huge, this one  was different. It was smaller but way more spread out, it was the entire downtown and the stuff that was crafted in Nayarit were things we'd not seen before.... we helped the economy. I got new Levi's, MP got a hat, some shoes, a blanket we/ never seen and some fresh blueberry's. The first booth we saw had the usual cool old stuff and he was selling money, what a great idea !

You can tell it's winter when the dog has to wear to coats...It was cold here, it's all relative to where you're at but I think it was relatively a lot colder at Mile 14 of the Kenai river....Sorry friends, the ice dams sound terrible, hope the cold streak ends for you all.

Some people think Mexico is dirty...I like to think it's just well used. We came across a laboratory like clean Tortilla factory. Spotless clean, you could tell the the guys liked their lives, and me.

As we like to do we sat at a counter and ate breakfast in this food court. It's new and modern. MP had eggs with Machaca and I had Pozole with Papa which means 'paw' but they were really pieces of hoof like I routinely see in my Sunday menudo. It was really good, red chili based broth with a lot of hominy and bone and marrow. The man in the first pic is selling the most meaty chicaroons we've ever seen.

By this point of the morning I've resigned myself to going off diet....it;s starting to get a little Anthony Bourdainesk and it got more so as the day went on. We had breakfast desert with the mother of all Churro's...pass the milk. 

MP took a shot of your now land locked guide. I was just a few bites away from weighing two extra pounds...

Noonish we arrive at what the locals call Las Toriles which is derived from the word Toro for bull. This 80 acre site was discovered by a cattle rancher who was excavating a unused plateau on his land and came across a crypt with artifacts and long dead people. The artifacts created an obvious urge to investigate as they were typical of 3 other mesoamerican civilizations with Los Toriles being the northern most. The crypt was lost but it was recreated for the site as close as could be done, everything else is as found accept a few places where repairs were made.

On Marrisol's promotion page there were just a couple pics of pretty modest structures so I wasn't expecting so much. The 80 acres are groomed for you to roam anywhere you want and only a few delicate structures are fenced off to walking and climbing. This is the first structure you come across,

The guy giving the info was so cool. On his left is Marrisol and you can see MP with keen interest in her face in the background. He explains the community is 2500 years old and went on about the use of the structures for ceremony and houses etc. Of course every crowd has that Jack Ass that knows everything and has to ask the 'smart ' questions....well we had that guy, oh they bore me, always have.

He explained how the structure pictured below is very rare and only one of four so far discovered in Central America. It is by far the most impressive structure in the place and it would be easy to think that all the cross shaped opening were christian and brought by the Spanish when they conquered Mexico but obviously that could not be as they predate the conquest my thousands of years. Instead it is supposed the crosses the elements of life, earth,wind, fire and water all abundant right here at Los Toriles. They are not called petrogyths but some of the rocks have been worked to create snakes and the other animals they lived with.

It was explained that 40 structures have been uncovered and they have identified 50 more that someday will be revealed. As the neighboring property is under use he said that even though they are certain it wasn't contained to just this place that everyday life has erassed the trail. The rocks were used for homes in the modern era and remains of walls were plowed over to make fields, But in it's day with the current evidence they community population was around 6 to 10 thousand. Here's picture of the grounds. We walked the entire perimeter and I wish everyone with us could have but it was hot and some of the folks just weren't able to see it all.

I watched across the circle as MP took it all in....I could tell she was thinking. Thinking about our place in the world and the flash that is our time here,

And as she was thinking I was thinking....how lucky we are to have this lifestyle and especially each other. Thinking how all the work and focus pays off when you can walk 21,000 steps in a day and still feel good....but I did sleep pretty deep. I was thinking that if this place arouses the curious in me we gotta go further south, venture farther and harder to see more anitquity and how and why we're here, that's what I was thinking.

So it was taking some of the folks a bit to get back off the plateau so we found a shaded spot for a picnic. We had good cheese and sausage, some olive / tuna pate with crackers and a ....Tecate, yup no Pacifico.

 

the bus driver suggested a stop at a lake for Mariscos.put us a bit behind schedule and the possibility of getting to Mazatlan for the end of the SeaHawk game was gone . ( I did manage to get it on my phone so I saw the season painfully end for us ). But Lake Santa Maria De Oro was fantastic. It's water filled volcanic crater that is rumored to be bottom less. C'mon I told our friends, if that were true that would mean there's hole in the earth. The place is undeveloped and wild. Continueing our food fest we had Shrimp Ceviche tostados again, so good.

Here's a pic of us four traveling friends, us and Ruben and Candace Dressler...thanks for the fun times you guys.

And if you ever get here take a hard look before you let your kids swing in this baby....things are bit different south of the border.

I'm gonna take a chance here and post one finale pic, me at 186 pounds, Ya know I'm comfortable in my own skin and it feels good to be closing in on that goal I've had for years....see you guys next week or so....

20 - 20

Mother earth has changed,
since I was a child.
The east is a beast, 
and the west is really wild,
and the headlines say,
the news is grim ,
and the future don't look so bright.
                                       
                         Toby Keith

mmmmm.... twenty twenty, you optometrists words for perfect vision. Lately I wonder if we even have vision at all . We live in time when if you see a duck it's really a chicken because if it were a duck you'd be wrong to point out it's really a chicken. Do I sound confused ? Well I am. So for my part in the year 2020 I'm going to work on my vision and I encourage the rest of you to kinda keep and eye out ( hows that for a double illiteration ) for the simpleness of believing what you see. If we're going to move this ol planet forward we've got to start seeing the obvious and then as unpleasant as the truth might be we gotta deal with it....O.K. , kapeesch ?

As I type this 20 years ago to the hour I was on Alaska Airlines headed home to Alaska to beat the disruption that the Y2K deal was certainly going to bring. I'm not really the paranoid type but I do know human nature and it was believable to me that the smartest guys in the world who built the Internet forgot to program a change of digits for the change of a century. I was by myself visiting my folks and I figured that seeings how I had to go back to Alaska anyway why not do it before the year 2000. It didn't help that a couple days before I left Alaska the conversation at the Elks lodge moved to  the Y2K deal and my friend Hobo Jim took me out in the parking lot and opened his trunk to show me how he was prepared for it....Yikes, Jim had gas masks, survival food, boxes of ammo...yup all that was on my mind while I jetted back to safety of Mile 14. Boy oh boy we should have problems like that now eh ?

Oh man, I could go on....but lets talk fishing, let me  share what I see, my vision. I see an elated kid, if he's caught fish before you wouldn't know it. I see a life's pursuit ahead for him and a lifestyle that helps you deal with all that life throws you and then you just go fishing.  I see a mom doing it all just right, she might be single she might be married in either case she puts him first, it's love, it's simple.

I've caught bigger roosterfish but I haven't caught any that I worked as hard for as this one. I see a gorgeous creature and see the kid above catching one just like it when he's retired and trying to replay his youth....fishing can do that too ya know. I see tenacity and the art of not quiting . Lockwood told me the other day to keep the faith and of course I always do . This little guy swam right off to the future,

Christmas morning we had a chance to give ol mother nature a boost. These guys aren't supposed to be seen as they migrate back to the water at night the same way their mother nested them. But for some reason a few were late and struggling to find the H2O so we gave em a hand. Alejandro and MP did the heavy lifting and dug around until we were sure we had them all...off to the future to these guys too. Is this sounding like I've planed a theme blog ?

So this morning as every morning I gave it all the faith I had and guess what ? It works . Only 5 casts after I landed my first Robalo of the season I have a heavy, and I mean heavy fish on and thinking it could be another Robalo I go real easy on him. Well I finally land and release about a 10 pound Toro and my cold spell is officially in the books. I really shouldn't make so much of it because ya know that doing the things you love is easy, I just worry that this planet is starting to run our of things, things I love, I think I can see that 20 -20.

So the other day me and MPeasy headed up the beach for a LaMarina get away. It's been difficult to do as we have a new rock jetty that you can't climb over all the time to access the beach to the north. But we've has a northerly current and the sand filled it up and we're free....free at last. We sit down at a real Mexican beach side Pescaderia and decide to go with shrimp ceviche and Pacifico's. The waiter asks if we want the camerons cooked or raw and MP surprised me and  replied 'raw'...oh boy we're finally all in on the risk taking deal and let me tell ya , it was wonderful authentic ceviche. So I guess to theme base that deal...I feel good about us, we gotta keep moving, keep trying things , be bold and move on. You know one of my Jeffro ism's is ' this ol life ain't a dress rehearsal '... SO, we wish you all health , happiness . Love and adventure in 2020. Let's all lookout for a healthy future for all of us and this big round rock that lets us stay here for a short time.

Numbers

With the darkest day of the year a few days ago I had to reflect on this lifestyle me and MPeasy have adopted. I ain't a real math guy but I do seem to have a way of putting observations to practice. So, right now at Mile 14 Northern Division it gets light at 10:12 a.m. and dark at 3:55 p.m. for a total of 5 hours and 43 minutes of daylight....Mile 14 Southern Division has sunrise at  6;43 a.m. and sunseta at 5:26 p.m. for 11 hours and 46 minutes of daylight. So here where I type we get 6 HOURS and THREE MINUTES more daylight than where I've spent my entire adult life.....now that's worth a plane ride and driving an old truck instead of a new one !

My other number is 84.3 , which when multiplied by 2.2 equals 185.46....Yup, I've made it. I've weighed 185 for 3 mornings now and it's kinda funny about goals....I finally made it after trying for at least 6 years and ya know what, I'm just setting new goals. I found out I wasn't giving myself enough time to get it done right as slowly is better so now I gotta keep going. I told MP that when I hit 185 I would post another pic of me in a Speedo like I did when I was trying to buff out weight lifting....well...she said she wouldn't take the pic and she didn't really like the idea of me recruiting somebody here at geriatric-ville so I had to settle for these....Not bad for a 66 year old . I don't think I look that great but I gotta tell ya, I FEEL great.

Jeff's formula : the 10,000 steps you hear about wasn't taking me where I wanted to go so now I try to get 15,000 everyday , that's about  7 and 1/2 miles.
Breakfast : Two eggs, protein from bacon or ham, beans and an avocado, bread, melon. It's a very hardy breakfast with 1/2 or more of my food calories for the day.
Lunch : pork rinds and dip
Supper : Protein from Chicken or Fish ( we're almost entirely done with red meat ) and a salad.
ABSOLUTELY NO SNACKING.
I also eat a protein bar and have a mandarin  orange every morning while fishing.
and , between 2 and 5 Pacifico's a day and red wine with supper.
I know this ain't a scientific keto or Mediterranean diet that you heat about but for me it's the deal and I feel like I'm about as healthy as a guy could ask for.

Almost 20 years ago while cutting our teeth in Mazatlan we walked out of the Mayan Palace to the bus stop to find fresh cement. I took out my leatherman tool and using the screwdriver I scratched this...JK + MP est; 1978 Alaska...Well it's still there at the bus stop and so's my love.

With our area of Cerrittos having a growth spurt we have new buses and many new bus routes . The other day we got on one that we had no idea where it went just to find out, how else do you so it ? And lucky for us it wandered through the Colonia of Pradera before we got off at the Sendero Mall that we've always wanted to shop...that's how my life seems to work. Most of the buses are new so it was cool to get in one of the old ones that's customized to reflect the driver. I took these pics to give you an idea but I missed the best pic. As we stepped out I commented on the kids shoes he had hanging from the ceiling, He said gracias, I said cooooool. How about that tuck and roll eh ?

MP and I want to wish you ALL the best Christmas ever. I have to add one thing and if you wonder where in the world that came from, well I can't tell you.....but it's this...If any of you are prone to the Christmas blues we hear about or if you feel lonely, please, please please don't over think this old ride around the earth. You're loved , Period. Believe it or not I've suffered depression and panic attacks my entire life and now that I know what it is I know what to do, I get active, find the good, don't over indulge, play music... you're loved, I love you !

MERRY CHRISTMAS

😎🐟🐠🎼🎸🎸🎅🎅

Want results ? Hire a guide

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.

Tropical Storm Narda

It hit on Thanksgiving day and boy howdy was it a toad strangler. A new record dump here in Mazatlan was measured at 8.8 inches in about an 18 hour period. It didn't rain continuously but when it did it pelted down. Now retired guide #003 has seen a bit of rain on this quest around the sun. In fact I remember it rained every single day the summer of 73 when I was commercial fishing... or maybe that's just my memory being tricked by how I felt about the job,,,,mmmmm,,,,well that's another story, I'll just say I've never seen anything like this rain. It flooded all the estuaries turning the dredged harbor next door into a muddy mess that discolored the ocean for 3 days. The rain buried cars on the low lining streets in Centro and Slah posted pics on Facebook of his restaurant with water to the door. Here's a 15 second video taken next to our house, make sure your audio is up, very impressive.

It took 4 days for the swimming pool's cleaning and filters to make the water fit for humans again.

So I'm on  Toro patrol a mile or so up the beach when I here a notification on my phone. For some odd reason I actually looked and it was MP with a pic of this fish with the wording  ' Alejandro just now '. So I terminated my Toro binge and went home to find Alejandro giddy with excitement. This Robalo is 12 kilo's and it is not only the biggest Robalo that he has ever caught but it's the biggest fish he has ever caught, how cool is that ? He's caught who knows hundreds of Robalo so to get the champion at his age .....magic. To put it in perspective it would be like me catching the biggest King Salmon I've ever seen after handling literally thousands of them. What we all figure is that this guy is a more rare Black Snook that most likely came out of the harbor / estuary because of the flood and got caught. Unlike the Whites Snook these guys are anadromous like salmon so it makes perfect sense. Alejandro cleaned it up perfectly and froze it whole with the head on for a Christmas fiesta with his familia.

If you remember a couple issues of Mile 14 back I showed you how to NOT fish from an elevated spot and expect to land a fish if you're lucky enough to get bit. That one resulted in me needing help and breaking both the line and an eye on my 200 dollar Lamiglass. So the other day my friend Jesse showed me how it's done...what I picked up on first was ya gotta be coooool, I've always done that in my professional fishing but for some reason down here I'll admit....I get buck fever. Here's Jesse just hooked up.

He works the slimey into the jetty and doesn't really move until it's right below him. Then he asks the gallery for a little room and tightens up as he slowly leads the fish to shore stopping when it wants to run a bit more. This guy is huge and strong so patience is everything. Here's the fish when it's right below him and he's about half way to the shore,

He lets it play out and when he gets to a rock ledge at the water level he tests if he can pull it up and it goes dry without flopping. I ask him if he wants me to hold the rod as he climbs down and he gives me a look like ' why the hell would I do that '. He carefully steps over the rope fence and slackens his line, walla....supper on the way.

And the last pic here is the one where I always say " pictures  will be on sale  in the lobby tomorrow " and every grizzled Team Xer says....." shut the hell up, I've heard that a 100 times".

So the big news here at Mile 14 Southern Bureau is that this morning I committed to going offshore with the legendary Chalio on Monday. Yep, I'm going to slap leather and do what people did for me the last 37 years, it was either that or buy fish rather than buy fishing. In fact we were at the market and I was close to buying a whole Corvina when MP said I should be embarrassed. She also said that if I bought fish she would tell everybody and then she turned around and told everybody anyway...yikes. So I'll take plenty of pics of the offshore adventure and report back by this day next week,,,honest.....so how's a bout a sunrise pic from the Faro Mazatlan looking south to stone Island, It's why guys like me do what we do ya know ....