It's the People

 

Of course the big news around here is that Chapo Guzman was caught right here in our hometown. Here's a pic of me in front of the Miramar where they nabbed him. He was hiding in plane sight just a few blocks from Police Headquarters.  In fact he was on the Malecon just a few blocks away from our dentist's office where we're headed in few hours. He was the most wanted cartel guy in the world and I guess the big question is....what does this mean for us and Mazatlán? It could be good or it could create another turf struggle for the position he gave up. But I'm betting on the opposite, I think it'll settle things down around here and make the other bad guys be a little more invisible... I sure hope so, this wonderful city needs to catch a break.

 

I blogged the building we live in the other day but the real story is the people. We have a communal kind of society here, the people are by and large a lot like us....people that need just a little more immersion in life.  Most of our friends are our age or older and I suppose some of you young people that follow this blog sometimes wish you could stay in Mexico for an extended time or purchase a beachfront condo....my advice is simple....don't get in a hurry. As much as I appreciate this wonderful life I've carved out if they arranged for me to go back and pound nails and watch my two boys learn the ways of the world as I chased King Salmon I think I'd have to trade time frames....but we can't, we won't, we just watch one sunrise, one sunset at a time....that's the deal.

Tony Mercuro there is my best friend in the building. We're a lot different but see the world in the same way. Tony talks of things, idea's, projects, the human condition.....he's about as interesting a guy that you'll ever meet. I took this pic this morning as he was reading on his deck. He's reading a book about the history and creation of the cotton industry, it follows cotton from antiquity until now. Yesterday he found some wild cotton (that MP says is a type called Kapok) and he spun it by hand into twine, I wouldn't be surprised by the time he finishes the books he has a sweater woven. Tony was with the Marines at the siege of Khe Sahn, two purple hearts and one golden heart....it's a privilege to be your friend Tone...

The other night we did a little entertaining, I decided to for go the amplification equipment and just sing to the crowd one table at a time. I've been playing with the P.A. system so much I guess I'd forgotten a bit about the intimacy and rawness of just letting the old guitar go, it was a great night. In the next pic I'm singing to my friends Ken and Mary and her mom Lorraine who is a legend here at the building...I want to be just like you when I grow up Lorraine.

The next pic is my next door neighbors, Jerry and Georgiana....the love meisters.  If  I ever write the final word on love these guys are chapter one. They stand so strong for each other, the openness, the caring and sharing,,,this wonderful pride they have in each other. They have a lot to teach the world and I just want them to know, I'm watching, I get it, I'm trying....And oh, did I mention that these guys know there country western music like I know fishing ???

The guy below is also a neighbor. Mack Lutz is the sports guy around here...if you want to know anything about the Vikings, the Twins or the Uof M Badgers...he's your guy. Mack swims daily in both the pool and the ocean, I call him Aquaman because....well ...he is....Mack had an illustrious college athletic career making him my pick for the Minnesota Hall of Fame.

 Then we have MP and Tony's wife Connie listening to a new song with Marge Hall who is in the best shape of any seventy year old woman on the planet. These three are simpatico, kindred spirits.

Here's a great pic of Roger and Rod who are married to sisters and best friends for sure. These guys fish and get around just about as good as any Mazatlán gringo I've ever met. They're a joy to have around...thanks General for keeping up troop morale.

This is a pic of Zuelamah who works the front desk on most night shifts when we're playing the songs for the bar. She's in her last year of college and intends to go to Law School...so good luck with that deal Zuelamah, it's always nice to have a lawyer on your rolodex....and thanks for being an ardent fan of the songs I sing.

These four guys are our local experts...if you run low on information around here these guys got the answers. Bill Turner has a roadhouse on the Alcan highway and jeez Bill, why'd we wait so long to meet ? I can actually envision that Esso station on the right side of the road at mile 190...wish we'd known you back in the day Bill. Ollie Hanson is one of the coolest and funniest guys I've ever met, he's the kind of guy that I look forward to growing old with. He's a retired fireman from Cranbrook B.C. not far from our old stomping grounds in Mooooontana. Glenn there is a master Chef and just an interesting guy, he cares about people and that goes a long way on my team....and Brian there is musician, enough said...I love that guy,

Phil Horak flipping those burgers there is kinda the straw that stirs the drink around here....in charge of 'special' projects, 'black op's'.  He takes care of all things gambling related and around here that's a big job, thanks buddy for it all, besides friendship....and those two gals are Donla Marquis and daughter Miranda, good Alaskans and wife /daughter of Mr. LaMarina, Jake Marquis who I just don't have a pic of ...but everyone knows him and everyone loves him.

When you hear people say that so and so never had a bad word to say about anybody it's usually not true. Well Barb and Jim Mullin are those people, the nicest most thoughtful folks I know. Here's a pic of them as they got back from a side trip to Mexico City. Jim has the most wonderful sense of humor and it's followed by a funny blink sometimes....hehehehe...

This is just a snapshot of the friends we've made here at LaMarina.....please don't be offended if I didn't mention you, just please know that we appreciate all of you. I'll still be taking pics and I'll sing about you, with you, too you, for you...with love anytime.



Our house

I guess when I tell people that we stay in a 'condo' in Mexico they imagine marble floors and granite counters....well, this is a great place but it's not that. What it is though is what the realtors always say....'location , location, location' and it's people, wonderful friends that we've met who I guess are a lot like us, people that need something else. So this blog is the concrete and mortar and the next will be the people, the most important part of course.

It's the oldest building on our part of the beach. Someone told me that it was designed so that the hurricane winds would blow through it and not into it. Unlike the new high rises here that are cylindrical or as Jimmy Buffet would say 'ugly and square, they don't belong there' our building has personality. Huge common areas with lush gardens and gorgeous flowers, we pick fresh banana's and papaya's right out the front door.

Below is the a pic of our casa and the view from it. We're an end unit on the ground floor ( I prefer to call it a 'garden suite') so we get an extra window and a few extra feet of space. Being on the ground level has it's advantages and disadvantages...no stairs or 40 year old elevator rides but we do have a few 'pets' that come with the unit...geckos, a few roaches, a few crickets and of course birds. Pretty cool.

On the far right of the picture above that walkway leads to a palapa that I'm typing this from. It's an absolute treat, sitting outside in shorts with some good Looney Bean coffee listening to the surf and communicating with you...all my friends. At night we hear the surf loudly, we eat breakfast every day on the patio, we had lobster by candlelight on Valentines day sitting outside, alone, just us.

 

 

We got our unit from our longtime landlords and friends Geri and Smitty Smith, good Alaskans. And like most Alaskans these guys are practical, this unit is furnished with the best stuff in the building. I told Smitty one time....'hell even our knives are sharp'.  It has everything and I mean everything you need in quality, it's plush but it's perfect....perfect for us. AND it has something that most our neighbors don't, an air conditioner that doubles as a heater for those rare mornings when you really need a few degrees. So mucho gracias  Geri and Smitty, the place is chingnon.  And how about our tree of life, handed paint by an artist I'm in love with.



Finally....finally the other morning I caught a roosterfish. I was blind casting the ranger lure just after sunrise when I saw the take and the fish was heavy...it ran, it resisted, it roled 100 yards out and I new...my first guyo in 3 years. I land him and there's nobody around to take my picture...and along with the fact that I forgot the camera put me in a predicament. I did the right thing and didn't kill it just so people could see...but I did hold him over my head and hollered at my friend Mario several hundred yards away and then gave him a big kiss and let him swim away. The next day a guy in the high rise on front of me said it was pretty cool to watch me handle ol slimey so reverently. Guess I've arrived in a comfortable place in my fishing life.....hows about a gorgeous sunset to end this blog? soon I'll blog our friends  neighbors, the hearts and soul of our Mexico lives....

 

   

A simple question

The other day a buddy asked me what I was up to. I said I wasn't really sure but then again there's 'not much' or just plain old 'nothin'....and that's when we got invited to tour the Pacifico Brewery, yahtzee, direction in my life AND I've had a nagging question about that place that I figured to get answered.  I always wondered how they get those chunks of key lime out of those recycled bottles that guys like me put there.

The first thing I noticed is that we finally found a place in Mexico that was germ/hair/dirt conscious. We had to wear shoes and pants, shirts with sleeves and hair nets with dust masks...it's the most clothes I've had on in 2 month. Here's MPeasy doing her cafeteria woman imitation.

Now I know a little about beer, I drank some once and I got a son who's a budding brewmeister. So I knew about the 'wort' and the hops and the rice and well, the best part was just seeing that some things are international. The apparatus was just like any sophisticated brewery and for once in my life I followed the rules and didn't take pictures. We finally ended up on the top floor of the brewery and overlooking the harbor the views were astounding. Here's MP and Miranda pointing out the highlights of our town.

One time I decided I could catch snook back in the harbor as I'd noticed all that mangrove forest when you fly in. I hired a panga boat to take me and my friend Vinny deep into the harbor at sun up and guess what.....the pollution was astounding. You can see the power plant in the next pic and with no air moving that morning as we navigated deeper and deeper into the harbor our eyes stung, the water got so thick it wouldn't make a wave. I don't have to worry about Vinny ever following my lead again, that's for sure....In fact that day after we left the harbor and anchored up in the cruise ship lane  he told me something I've heard a few times in my life..." there's something wrong with you". But it is a gorgeous harbor.

Finally we get a couple complimentary cerveza and boy howdy were they good and fresh. I had our host Evangalina pretty well warmed up by this time so she let me get a pic with her. I congratulated her on having the best job in Mazatlán.

And she gave me a gift and it just felt right so I added it to the wearable moe-joe I keep on my right arm. You guys that know me well know that I carry what I call my 'bones' in my pocket. They're a collection of things that feel right and connect me to certain people, events and feelings. The idea is that they protect me and it must be working. So now besides trinkets in my pocket I have these bracelets, sometimes it pays to have redundancy. A couple months back I was surf fishing and felt something float by my leg, so I fished the wood beads out and have had them on ever since. The hematite I bought from a friend 7 years ago and the black 'not even once' went on my arm at MP moms house in the early 2000's, it reminds me to work at being the guy I want to be. And now I'm a representative of Grupo Modelo, a walking talking billboard.

So with Evangalina and I getting along just right I ask the question....just how do you get those pieces of lime out of the bottles you recycle ?....Yikes ! I wasn't ready.  She said " you...are you the one who's been doing that ???" I got kinda contrite as she continued...." that's a huge problem for us, we have a man who works day and night removing those limes that thoughtless gringos put in the bottle"!!! " PLEASE don't do THAT again".....jeez, I won't Evangalina and thanks for the tour.

ON a side note... My friend Slah put the coolest video of our marlin trip on you tube. It shows the thousands of dolphins we encountered and even has audio of me, the fishin musician singing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGO95_Vjueo&feature=player_detailpage

The old man and the sea

That's what my niece Melonie said about the pics of the marlin we caught when I posted them on Facebook.  And just like that character in Ernest Hemingway's novel I was feeling a respect for those wonderful fish as well as the people who pursue them...It's major league stuff for sure. I'd been out on the Marlin boat maybe 6 times without catching one and Slah had been out 20 times without success so it was a special day when we both caught one. And how couldn't it be when you start the day with the first light like this as we motor out ?

My good friend Tony has a new motor on his boat so he was itching to go and of course Slah is always itching to fish whenever and however...but me... having skippered the big water a bit myself I might have waited for a day with less than 6 foot seas but hey...that's just me. So after and hour and half crawling through the seas we arrive 18 miles out from our place. It's a bit like road hunting in Montana, you get beer and gas and then drive around looking for things.  And it doesn't take long for us to spot the telltale birds that are feeding off in the distance. As we arrive on scene we have a few dolphins in our wake, then a few more and then it's amazing, literally thousands of Spinner Dolphins flying through the air showing why they're called 'Spinner'. It's absolutely incredible how many, how close we were to them. Here's a pic of them which really doesn't do it justice but when I get better Internet I'll post a video I took that's just astounding. I promise.



The theory is that in front of the dolphins are tuna as the mammals use the fish to do their dirty work, slice up the bait into nice eating size. But this day there didn't seem to be any tuna with the dolphins after we fished through and around them for 20 minutes. So Tony says we're out of here and on to look for the Marlin and again we see a few birds in the distance. As we get close we see that 4 or 5 other boats are on them (all bigger than us I might add) and an Aries Fleet boat 1/4 mile away hooks up and his Marlin runs and jumps only a 100 feet away....yikes, it's like Eagle Rock on July 16 1995. Now with all this going on Tony has us 'watching' and I guess I'm not a very good watcher because I'm looking off into the horizon although the fact that our lines are only 40 feet behind the boat should have clued me into how this drill works...Slah sees it first on the port bow, we circle and the fish disappears....mmm....oooops there he is again in our wake chasing the bait and then, disappears. I look off to the right and there he is, we've darn near run over him and he's crashing the bait again and just keeps coming until Miguel gives Tony the 'lure, lure, lure' order and the boat goes from a walloping 20 mph to full throttle. In all my days, out of all the thousands of fish I've caught I've NEVER seen a fish that wanted to be caught so badly. They are just unbelievably aggressive and that makes it sooooo exciting. 

 

I've been working through a shoulder injury that has me kind of worried and I'll tell you the truth...30 minutes into fighting this fish I was about done up but I knew if  I handed the rod off I'd here about it for the next 1/4 century. So with my shoulder aching and my fingers tingling we finally put this fish to the boat. Here's a pic of Slah pulling on his and the final result. Just magnificent fish is all I can say.

You know one of my sayings is 'you just gotta want to do it' and this Marlin trip was one of those. I know the pics don't look like the water was all that rough but let me tell you....I got a little sun burned and MP asked why I didn't put sunscreen on. I told her 'are you kidding, I would've had to quit holding on". Here's a pic that might give you a flavor for what it was like.

And the 'Jer sea Girl' . She's a 21 foot Invader that's been set up for Mexico. As we say in  Cook Inlet she's a "swimmer' for sure. It's strange to me that with all I've been through with the ocean that here where it's warm (right now the in shore temp is 80 degrees) I just feel more at ease here. Maybe it's my swimming background or maybe just that I've hardened with age and although it still deserves all the respect you can give it this ol ocean is a pretty cool place to be.

And what would a blog entry be without a pic of a pretty girl and an expert fisherman?

The other day we got off the bus on the malecon to go to the dentist. I looked up the beach and holy moly for just a second I thought this could be my sister in law Paula, I mean how many people do you see with that many dogs. Well of course it wasn't Paula....but I gotta tell ya Paula,  we sure wish it was.

Camoflage

I was standing in line to use the ATM at Banamex the other day and this attractive black woman behind me asked what part of  Canada I was from. I whispered to her "the hats just camouflage, I'm not really from Canada, I'm trying to fit in" , " why would you do that ?" , " well I'm really from Alaska and even though its been 6 years all people ask about is Sarah Palin" , " oh of course, well I won't blow your cover", "thanks, and I've noticed that people are really nice to Canadians"....she said " yup I've noticed that", " oh, you're from Canada ? " , " I can't tell you, it's a secret", " Oh, really....well it's my turn at the machine, I'll see you around", " I doubt it"....

And I guess as we were driving home from Dimas the other day  as I ruminated the importance of my place in the world I figured out my role with Team X...I'm like the team photographer/ biographer/ morale officer ....maybe just the Team scribe to steal a phrase from the days of yore. My friend Slah is an incredible surf fisherman, he can turn a slow day into a spectacular day with just one bite like he did the other day. And he'll cast until he gets that bite, he reminds me of the time Ari Lyendyk won the Indy 500 when the car in first place ran out of gas on the last lap. When asked if he got lucky Roger Penske replied " people that work hard get lucky".  So here's a pic of Slah and Adrienne with a couple of the prettiest yellowtail Corvina I've ever seen. Watching Slah and Ramon land that fish in the rocks was like watching Tiger Woods shoot out of the rough.  Slah takes his time, at one point lets it swim away with slack line because it was caught in some rocks, then 10 minutes in he steers it into a crevasse and hands the rod to Ramon as he climbs 5 feet down with the gaff hook and walla....fishing perfection.

 Around here we've got tons of sunset experts. It's a  Mexico ritual, everyone meets on the terrace 15 minutes before and then predicts the sunset quality, green flash ? sailboat assist ? rebound effect ?  But me...I like the sun ups best. It's simple they signify the start of something and not the end, that's where I wanna be in life. So I'm up every morning...and I mean every morning to celebrate the break of day. I guess it's part of the hardcore fisherman's DNA. The other morning I took this shot so all the people that listened to me play music the night before and were still in bed could enjoy it to. 

 

Here's the deal at the Shrimp ladies. No matter how hot it is, no matter how effected you are by smells and diesel exhaust...here's what you do. You walk the entire line-up judging size and freshness mostly, some ladies mediums are another ladies smalls and of course you notice who has ice and who doesn't. Then like all roadside stuff in Mexico the biggest thing is to notice who's moving product and who isn't, if it's being turned over whether it's a taco stand or a shrimp lady it'll be excellent.  Then after you have the price you say....those ones....right there...and walla, wonderfully fresh ocean shrimp for 160 peso's a kilo, about 7 bucks a pound.

Music is every where here in Mazatlán and unlike our part of the world where they only dish up one course at a time around here you can get music from all directions as you walk the street. In the restaurant I'll give the Mariachi 100 peso for a nice love song for me and MPeasy and they'll play it to the accompaniment of a loud techno sound from kids partying on the beach right outside. I've often played for folks in a bar with the TV playing loud Mexican Soup Operas...it's just the way it is and I love it....all except that techno sound of course....and I really don't understand the romance of playing the ' Blues' in Mexico. I mean you're wearing shorts, sipping a dollar beer with a lovely woman...and you're listening to the blues??? hold it a second now....well that's another story. But behind it all is the Mexican culture of big and brassy and bold and ....well this boom box for sale at the local Coppel store illustrates the deal. Is that a beauty or what? And yup, that's all on system, I promise.

As we walked one morning we came across these messages, left on the beach stones and undisturbed. MP says they are some kind of Novena, a special prayer in special place for a special person or circumstance....mmm...Lately we lost my aunt Lee and I have an 8 year old nephew fighting Hodgkin's disease, one of our oldest and best girlfriends got pancreatic cancer and...well....sometimes I just wonder, what did I do, how did all this happen, why am I personally so lucky and always have been...just the fact that I'm alive is enough...a recipient of that Novena I'd say. So if I was scratching out a message on those stones I'd tell the world....I'm trying really hard to be a good guy, I know the frailty and shortness of life and I hope some how some where I've helped people learn it along the way, have fun and be healthy, create and keep love, respect and try to understand, be true...  maybe this could be my gift to the world.

 

 

 

 

It's been a Hard Days Night and....

I've been working like a ......well....that ain't exactly true. But I do work at life, in fact I train for it. I remember my friend Mike Dinkel asked me one day in the gym why'd I train so hard. I was working hard on my muscle tone, body fat and cardio endurance. I told him 'life Mike, I'm training for life".  In fact I try to lose 10 pounds every year before we hit Mazatlán so that I don't get to big when I indulge in the wonderful cuisine that is Mexico.

But back to the Beatles song, we seen em just the other day. Actually we saw the Mexican tribute band Help, and it was fantastic, way more than I thought it might be.  Mazatlán being an old working city it has a restored 150 year old opera house called the Angela Peralta Theatre. It's so cool, maybe a bit like the theatres were in the cities of the east coast in the 1800's. I'm a bit embarrassed to confess that I've only been to a couple plays in my life, like my kids plays in high school and my niece Molly when she was in Brigadoon. But Jeff knows concerts and let me tell you, this venue and this band were about as good as it gets. Here's a pic of me and my running partner in the front row of the 2nd balcony. Gorgeous is all I can say, and MP too eh ?

I have to tell you the truth about the music. When the curtain opened and four Mexican guys in costume broke into a perfect rendition of Hard Days Night I leaned over to MP and said "this is so weird it's stupid"....mmmmm....well I looked around, the power of the music astounded me. People were captivated, transported to another era. It was amazing and never mind the fact that this band was so polished, so perfect there was no way to find fault with any part of the performance. The era correct props were accurate right down to Rickenbacker guitars they played, the bass player left handed of course. In fact towards the end the bass player went to play the piano just as Paul McCartney would and handed the bass to the lead guitarist who played it left handed....THEN he handed the bass to the keyboard guy who played it...left handed. Crazy, I've never seen anything like it, a band full of ambidextrous multi instrument musicians.

So I guess these guys are the ultimate 'cover' band. I've heard people say derogatory stuff about music that's 'covered' by other musicians...well I know this. Every time its played its new and fresh, that's live music. It's the rawness, it's the subtle differences each time, it's the mood, it's the feel....it's the power of real live homemade music. And I got to thinking about the Beatles. Ya know the music was a gift to the world, which we all really paid for when you think about it. So thanks guys, but it's partially our music now and the music world oughta do what they want with it. And keeping it alive, fresh and vital like the other night with so many people having fun is the ultimate tribute I think. It's funny, the Beatles are as popular now in Mexico as they were when they hit America and I was in  Alaska , 1964. So the other night I did a tribute to the tribute and sang one of my favorite love songs, In My Life. ' ya know I'll always stop and think about them, but in My Life, I've loved you more'.

My Robalo quest continues. And let me tell you it's not going like the vision I had for it. I catch a Corvina, Ernie catches a large Robalo. I catch a toro, Ernie catches a large Robalo. I catch a Raton and Ernie catches a large Robalo...In fact the only thing that didn't go Ern's way the other day was that Slah's Corvina was bigger than his Robalo. Bad deal Ern, I feel terrible for ya.  But I feel like I'm getting closer , I actually got to bare hand that Robalo onto the beach so I guess I can say I helped, and that's about it. But all in all for Team X this was a pretty good load the other day.

This morning I had not one but two good 'follows' by the Roosterfish...well, they could have been Toro's....But, the point is I'm going to catch one of those darn things real soon and when I do two things are happening. I'm going to announce it in the local paper along with the babies and then I'm going to post the pic right here....at Mile 14...and that picture will still be quivering.

The thing about doing nothing is you never get done....

I took this picture of my friend Ramon out at Oceanica the other morning.   It really captures the contrasts that is surf fishing...we're all together but really alone, we're out of town for a while and even though we see it like here and even when we don't we know it's there, you have to go back. Every morning we're the first to see the sun and the hope, the newness that each sunrise brings. And of course the fish, that's the trick....every day is going to be 'that' day when we start, sometimes it is, lots of time it isn't. I love it.

But don't get the idea that all I do is fish, I mean we have projects to ya know. The other day we had the opportunity to see one of the worlds finest sailing vessels and we took it, in fact we were the first gringos there. I'm not going to say anything about the politics of this deal but I will say this...the world needs a little conscious now and then...it's kinda like me and my music, we do our best work when somebody is watching.

 

And lucky for us that they moored the boat right next to my favorite hike back into town. We gain 500 feet of elevation with stunning surf and city views. I never get tired of this area that drops off into the Olas Altas area of Mazatlan, the area that started it all for North Americans back in the 1950's. I'm not sure of the connection, maybe there isn't any and it's just fun but along the way we found Van Cliburn for a duet. Behind me you can see the city, the vistas that have become our 2nd home.

 

I know, I know, cut it with the 'happy wife , happy life' stuff and give us a fishing report. Right? Well....mmm....It was unbelievable, no kidding ( always be wary of that story that starts with 'this is no b.s.' ) but this is not b.s......Me and Ern were fishing the rocks at Sabalo point across the harbor from here yesterday morning. I just love fishing the rocks because it's mother nature amplified. And it's a little dangerous as you watch your footing and only with fairly flat seas do venture out where you could get washed into the ol briney. Even though we're both there for each other if you ended up in it I kinda have the feeling there'd be no getting out, at least alive. Here's a couple pics. One is how it looks where I stood casting and the other is Ern and the hillside we traverse, in the background is the old Faro resort which is deserted now. The place is so picturesque that it's a shame, but its closed up and that makes it just easier for us to go fishing.

But what happens was this....after casting and casting we work our way back and on that outcropping you see right in front of Ern he yells at me...."Jeff, Jeff, roosterfish ! wow, I look over and a rooster has chased a mullet (lisa) right onto the rocks. I run out as fast as I dared and cast my Ranger lure but when this fish is so focused on the bait he doesn't see anything else but that. I look down and the Lisa is laying there on the rocks, he's jumped out of the water high and dry to avoid being a meal. I don't have a bare hook handy so it takes me a minute to get the siwash off my Ranger and I hook the Lisa by the lip and let him swim away....it's brilliant, it's real bait, it's the best way to catch them....and it doesn't work. This mullet is impressive, it's what we call a 'macho' and I actually should have taken it home for supper. My friend Billy Carter says they're good 'when you cook em just right'. Kinda like our hooligan I suppose. That would be a 3 ounce Ranger to give you perspective.

It's driving me nuts. The water is warm and theres roosterfish around. I see them daily and I can't catch one. I really don't know whats going on but I think we're mostly seeing singles and like I said when they chase bait they're so focused that they need more roosters around to create that competition for the bite that I need on the end of my line, soon.  But I did manage this nice perfect eating size Robalo the other day. We took it to our favorite restaurant where they fry it 'entero'. I have him perfectly cleaned and scaled and the skin ends up so deliciously crunchy. And because we brought the protein it's a pretty inexpensive supper...but of course we made up for that with a couple extra Pacifico's and Margarita's. I guess it's something I learned years ago...when you get a good deal, buy more !

This next week is a big one for team X. The flat tide cycle has run it's course and the water seems to be cooling a bit so things might be in our favor for a good Corvina day or two. And, I've casted the paint off one Ranger Lure already so I figure it's simple math....I'm due for a rooster any day now. I hope you come back to see....